Yang received a quick reminder about the fact that Jaune Arc wasn't very good at making small talk. The flight into the city from Beacon stretched into the longest awkward silence both sisters ever experienced. Tepid attempts to include him into a conversation resulted in barely more than one-syllable answers and grunts of acknowledgement.
Ruby, not really a social butterfly herself, looked to her outgoing sister for help with big pleading eyes and earned a clueless expression in return. Jaune wasn't rude, neither ignoring them or being snippy, just uninterested in anything they approached him to comment on.
The most they got after a tirade of questions was he didn't particularly like anything and preferred mint bubblegum as his sweet of choice, which horrified Ruby into silence that prevailed until they reached their designation shortly after the landing.
Too short to get into the worse parts of town.
They came to a halt before an unassuming brick and mortar store. The tinted display window made it difficult to look inside, but the white lettering on the glass in big bold letters revealed the purpose of the establishment as a bookstore.
Yang's eyes narrowed. "Is it a front for an underground gambling den?"
Ruby perked up, eyes full of determination and all the awkwardness blown away. The aspiring huntress wouldn't pass on another opportunity to do good after getting snubbed two times.
Jaune's hand stilled on the doorknob. "What? No!"
Undeterred by the denial, Yang kept guessing. "Money laundering operation for the mob? An underground fighting ring? Backroom brothel full of illegal immigrants?"
Ruby blushed to the color of a tomato from the last guess, which also made Yang pause and second guess the decision of bringing her sister to that kind of action. Their father would have her head for exposing little Rubaby to the notion of having sex before the age of thirty.
"Tukson sells books," Jaune said and Yang simultaneously breathed a sigh of relief and deflated with disappointment. "He also recruits for the White Fang."
"Aha!" She exclaimed loud enough to turn the heads of passersby.
"But that's not why I'm here." Jaune entered the store and ignored the frustrated huff of his fellow blonde.
The already small space was filled to the brim with literature. Whatever couldn't fit in the large wood shelves was stacked to high towers of dubious stability on small tables. The slogan on the storefront bragged about having any book under the sun and seeing the excessive amount made this claim believable. Curtains behind the counter parted, revealing more books in storage and the owner of the shop, somebody who looked more at home stacking crates at the docks than literature.
The burly man with large sideburns went from polite and attentive to mildly annoyed after seeing his newest customer. "Oh please tell me you came to buy books. Adam made it abundantly clear not to let you into the White Fang."
"I need the first semester books for Beacon and easy material about being a huntsman."
Once again the Grimmhound had been recognized on sight. Yang still couldn't figure out what level of notoriety Jaune and his friends enjoyed. In stark contrast to any person with shadier ties, the civilian populace on the street didn't react in any way to him.
Like a concerted effort to stay out of the public eye.
It turned out despite the shop's claims, those types of specialized educational books had to be ordered per customer. The few copies available were already reserved for other students. Somebody like him, a last-minute applicant, would have to be content with the waiting list.
"I wouldn't want to send you away completely empty handed," the shopkeeper took out a small book from the nearest shelf. "I have one book that might interest you and is available for purchase."
Ruby beside her gasped after seeing the cover.
Qrow Branwen and the Grimm Bandit
written by Corvus Corax
The first book of a long-running series for children and teenagers about a brave huntsman and his daring adventures around the world. Yang had read every entry dozens of times to Ruby as a bedtime story and nobody could say for certain if the books were based on a real person or pure fiction. The author wrote under a pseudonym and couldn't be reached by the public for comments, despite the efforts of many devoted fans like Ruby.
Her sister loved the series so much, she based her weaponry on the main character. It had been quite the headache for their father to find an instructor proficient in scythe combat. Enough to give the large collection in Ruby's room a glare every time he saw it.
"It's a first edition book! Qrow Branwen challenges the fierce leader of a bandit tribe to free the local villages from her tyranny. It has cool fights, drama and lots of stakes because he originally came from the same tribe but since then turned his life around to help people."
"Wasn't the bandit queen also his sister?"
"Don't spoil it for him, Yang!"
Jaune started flipping through the pages and stopped at random parts about the daily life of Qrow the brave huntsman. "Sure, it looks interesting enough and not too hard to understand. I'm bad at reading."
"What, the big badass was too cool for school and dropped out?" Yang snorted and felt the heavy boot of Ruby on her toes a moment later.
Jaune didn't seem to care about the snide remark, too engrossed in the book. "You had to be there to drop out in the first place. Never seen a school from the inside."
"Your parents were ok with that?" Yang asked, dodging another stomp on her feet and realizing at the same time that they didn't know if he even had a family.
"I haven't seen them in ages, so their approval isn't really relevant." The book snapped shut in his hand. "When did this turn into a cross examination?"
"We will be together for the next four years. It's only natural to get to know each other."
A noncommittal grunt from Jaune showed he understood her reasoning, just wasn't very enthusiastic about the prospect of sharing life stories. "Tukson was only the first stop. Anything after this could get unpleasant. Last chance to end this trip on a high note."
Naturally, the sisters didn't take him up on that suggestion and left with him a few minutes later. The sun had set when they reached the entertainment district. Yang restarted guessing their final destination out of boredom, but their guide had a perfect poker face on their slow walk through the bustling crowd looking for a good time.
Until he stopped at an unassuming alleyway between a dive bar and arcade hall. "Please, stop your babbling just long enough to get through here."
Awful smells hitting Yang's nostrils prevented a snarky remark to his request. She had been in this part of town, going to clubs and visiting shops dozens of times, but a simple turn in a small alley going off the intended path made her see a side that's barely concealed.
Three steps in and they encountered the first homeless people in makeshift hovels between dumpsters. Neon light from the main street still reached their lethargic forms among the filth and Yang wondered how anybody with a working set of eyes could miss them. A week of searching in the city for clues about her mother and she never took notice of a single person?
Ruby approached a twitching body covered in dirty rags on the ground. Up close the human man looked old enough to be somebody's grandfather, including white beard and thinning hair on top.
"Are you alright, sir?"
Milky and bloodshot eyes struggled to focus on the small girl and the lethargic senior flew into a fit of rage with a shard of glass. The improvised weapon bounced off from Ruby's aura, the perpetrator having barely enough strength to put any force behind the stab. Two other homeless, a bulky walrus faunus with tusks and a much smaller woman with black teeth grabbed their thrashing companion and dragged him further into the shadows behind a pile of trash. Everybody along the alley sprang into action and scattered like flushed cockroaches under a flashlight.
One second later, it was like nobody had ever been here.
"People around here stretch their drugs with cheap dust for more effect." Jaune sighed and pushed the shocked Ruby past the abandoned living spaces. "You scared the locals. They won't come out until we are gone."
"Why would they be scared of me?" Ruby asked with a tremor in her voice.
"People taking an interest in the less fortunate rarely do it to help. Homeless people around your establishment are bad for business and hazing them into leaving is a popular pastime among bored thugs."
Yang's fists tightened like a vice. Picking on the weak disgusted her more than anything else in the world. She understood not caring about strangers on the simple principle of a realistic worldview. Unlike Ruby, she believed no one person could help everybody. She shared the burning conviction that actively seeking out to harm others for personal gain or sadistic fun was pure evil though.
Jaune looked unaffected by the subject matter. "It's the new type of protection money. For a few lien, the business owners don't have to think about how to get rid of the undesirables. It's how I met Cardin when he set my sleeping bag on fire with me still in it."
The more she heard about Cardin Winchester, the less Yang liked him. "Why do you tolerate that prick?"
"Because he keeps my life interesting. There's also our mutual agreement to intervene should the other go crazy."
"I'm sorry, what?"
"Save it for later. We are here."
The final destination turned out to be the largest warehouse in the industrial area, a concrete block the size of a small stadium. Every window and door was covered up with boards, making the steel hangar doors at the front the only viable point of entry.
"You saw the results of inferior drugs and most of the really dangerous stuff is coming from here. They have become a problem for everybody on the street who is dependent on a clean source for their addiction."
Ruby put on her game face, going into Qrow Branwen mode as Yang had named the state of mind. In the books, the character of Qrow Branwen was a loveable and sometimes goofy person with lots of dry humor, until he faced Grimm or the villains of the story. At that point, he transformed into a fighting machine ready to bring evildoers to justice and the red-headed superfan emulated this to perfection.
"What's the plan?"
Two feets planted on the ground, Jaune took hold on the two parts of the massive sliding gate. Hellish screeching filled the air as Jaune pulled outward instead of sideways, peeling the door open like tin foil to make a hole big enough to comfortably walk through.
"The direct approach seems… oh, they are already expecting us."
Instead of surprised shouts from people getting caught off guard, the first salvo of a concentrated firing squad greeted them. A multitude of calibers in various firing rates hit the young man standing in the entrance. Yang and Ruby dived to the side, fumbling with their scrolls to summon their weapon lockers from Beacon. At first too horrified to look up at the results of the continuous bullet hell, they missed Jaune walking inside as he shrugged off the gunfire like spitballs.
Tipped over metal tables and shipping crates served the criminals as makeshift barricades. You wouldn't be able to tell this place produced drugs by the equipment. For the inexperienced eye, the machines and instruments wouldn't have been out of place in any modern factory. Serious money had been spent here to reach the next level in productivity by automating almost everything with minimal manpower required for maintenance.
"So why is your stuff so lackluster?" Jaune asked into the room. "One look at your setup tells me your output doesn't increase from lowering quality and should be actively more expensive to make in a haphazard way."
Nobody answered his question, rather focusing on unloading their guns into the curious blonde. "Unless money isn't the motivator and the bad quality is intentional…"
Two rocket-propelled weapon lockers landed outside and gave the girls an opportunity to gear up. Lacking the absolute imperviousness to bullets like Jaune, Yang and Ruby had to settle for taking potshots from the entrance and the former had no qualms making her frustration known while doing so.
"What is wrong with you?! Warn us next time before jumping the gun!" Buckshot from her gauntlets forced the opposition to duck behind the tables. "And stop daydreaming in the middle of a firefight!"
The breach of an established firing line was a nuisance, but against four dozen people without aura the odds weren't as overwhelming that the sisters couldn't have reached a satisfying end result with a lot of dodging and strategy.
The casualness of Jaune's action was what made the whole fight so bizarre. He just walked to the nearest cluster of people, still getting fired at and hit with every bullet, until the blonde could grab the guns from their hands. Some had the brains to flee at this point. Others received a single punch to the head to drop them like a sack of potatoes.
One enemy remained standing after ten minutes, a rotund man with a bald head and fancy red suit that struggled to open a metal crate with a numpad. It took him three tries to enter the right code and the hydraulic locking mechanism released. The panicking crook almost dived inside the container and reappeared to raise a white pistol with shaky hands, barely keeping the strangely blocky weapon straight enough to hit anything remotely in Jaune's direction. In this condition, he was much more in danger to accidentally drop the thing and shoot himself.
"Come on, this is over." Jaune sauntered across the warehouse, one hand reached out for the gun and the frayed nerves of the man gave out in a single finger twitch around the trigger.
The gun was astonishingly silent in comparison to anything else prior in the shootout, akin to a small firecracker going off amidst a massive firework show. It hit Jaune right under his belly button and the unassuming weapon did what nothing had managed so far; the Grimmhound stopped in his tracks with a sudden look of confusion on his face.
Two more shots rang through the warehouse, the gun aimed slightly higher to hit Jaune in short succession in the right chest. Spurred by the success of stopping the unstoppable, the man found his courage again and aimed right between two baby blue eyes.
Ruby screamed in horror, helplessly watching Jaune tumble backwards from getting shot in the face, falling slow enough for both sisters to reach him when he hit the ground. Copious amounts of blood stained the floor and their shoes, pouring out of four wounds and Jaune's mouth. Yang kept blasting past downed Jaune in a blur, barely managing to reign her rage in enough to prevent popping a head like a water balloon.
The warehouse went silent, the goon laid on the floor with a broken nose and unconscious among the others.
"Jaune, can you hear me?" Ruby asked, covered in blood and administering first aid. Yang immediately saw the pointlessness of the task from a simple glance at the wounds. The last criminal had been lucky, hitting four vital organs when the one in his heart was already enough.
Jaune had maybe a few moments left, although he hadn't realized it yet. "I'm fine, Stay clear of me for a moment."
Ruby kept applying pressure to two wounds and ran out of hands for the others. "You have a hole in your head! What are you talking about?!"
Yang had never felt so numb. Death was a constant companion for any huntress and huntsman. They drilled this truth into their heads from the first day of combat school to the graduation ceremony, and yet, no amount of reminders could have prepared her for experiencing the real thing.
"Yang, stop zoning out and call an ambulance!"
"Ok, enough drama." Jaune shoved Ruby away just in time before the light show started.
The bullet holes had started to glow with the intensity of hot coals and Yang watched in silent awe as the liquified bullets were pushed out in small trickles that looked like molten silver. With the last remnants of foreign material expelled from his body, Jaune's wounds closed in a matter of seconds into a state you wouldn't be able to recognize they had been there in the first place.
"There, good as new." Jaune said, wiping residue blood from his forehead and getting off the ground.
Straight into an approaching open palm at mach speed. Ruby shrieked when the hand of her sister connected with Jaune's cheek. The slap did nothing, Jaune looking at Yang like she should know better by now. Two more slaps for good measure bounced off his face before she got right into it with her own.
Nose to nose, she glared at him. "You couldn't mention you had healing powers?"
Up this close, the red eyes swam with unshed tears, which Yang refused to acknowledge by wiping them away. If ever asked about this moment, she would blame it on dust or allergies, denying to her grave that it was the feeling of relief trying to worm its way out of her guts.
"How was I supposed to know a small gun could penetrate my defense? You saw that firearms do jackshit against me."
"Shut up, I thought you were dead!" Her finger poked him in the chest.
Jaune lazily pushed the appendage away and laughed. "Don't be ridiculous. I can't die."
"Our mother said the same thing every time she left the house. Then she did anyway." Ruby muttered, putting a sudden damper on Jaune's mood. The concern about his well being induced visible annoyance, as if the mere notion of him getting harmed was crazy talk.
The three teenagers stiffened from a new voice coming from above them. "That's the professional risk of being a huntress. You better get used to it."
Whoever had spoken dropped from the ceiling in complete silence. If this person hadn't announced himself in a deep gruff voice, Yang doubted they would have noticed him at all. Even now it was hard to make him out in the darker parts of the warehouse, nothing more than a tall and lanky shadow among all the others with two red orbs as eyes.
"Silly me, ruining the emotional moment."
The outlines of the stranger became sharper as he approached the illuminated part of the room, although the weapon on his hip needed the most immediate attention before everything else about him; a mechashift weapon in sword configuration, capable of turning into something you couldn't assess by just a short look.
"But I think that's only fair. After all, your little stunt ruined something as well. Something considerably more valuable than some teenage drama. Months of surveillance down the drain because a tough guy needs to play vigilante."
Jaune shrugged. "I busted this joint because nobody did anything. You don't need months to find out this is a drug lab."
The eerily red eyes became lidded in the shadows. "A lab like dozens of others in the city and easily replaced in a week. Only the merchandise used to protect this place raised some eyebrows."
Three pairs of eyes focused on the singular weapons crate. The stranger looked at something in his hand which turned out to be the weird gun from earlier. Yang figured it must have flown into the shadows when she had bull rushed the criminal.
"A weapon capable of bypassing aura entirely is serious business. It should be handled carefully by a professional."
"And that's you? I'm still waiting for a name."
The stranger stepped out into the light. "Boy, don't test my patience."
Definetly not a random mook from the way he dressed himself. Everything about him screamed professional, from the black and gray combat fatigues in camo pattern to the heavy boots which really begged the question how he could move so silent.
Contradictory features made it hard to pinpoint the age of the man. Graying spiky hair and stubbles clashed with immaculate physique and blazing red eyes full of life. Easily discernible was how his height surpassed all of them, Jaune the least by a few inches and Ruby the most with at least three heads.
The mechashift was indeed a sword with at least some type of ranged combat capabilities, maybe shotgun or small caliber grenades which wasn't really relevant at this short distance when nerves and muscles coiled like metal springs to unleash at the smallest provocation.
"OH MY GOSH!"
Both males flinched and Yang accidentally fired a shot with her gauntlet. "Damnit Ruby! What was that?!"
"Single-edged Greatsword with clockwork mechanism above the hilt. Shotgun barrels situated on each side. Segmented transformation into a scythe by elongating the hilt through telescope method and segmenting the blade with gradual folding."
Questioning looks all around directed at the rambling redhead, especially from the man carrying the weapon she just described. The lack of understanding disgruntled Ruby enough to put a little damper on her excitement. "That's literally the book description of Harbinger, the signature weapon of Qrow Branwen."
Jaune blinked. "The guy from the book you want me to read? The shining hero?"
The word hero made the man make a face like he had bitten into a lemon, then startled slightly from Ruby standing an inch away from him in a blink of an eye.
"Am I right?" the towering man stepped back from Ruby's sudden invasion of his personal space "It transforms into a scythe. You are Qrow Branwen, aren't you?"
"Yes…" Qrow Branwen grit his teeth from the high pitched squeal of adoration Ruby produced. "Kid, don't can't take everything you read at face value."
The smile on Ruby's face lessened a smidge. "You didn't do all those awesome things from the books? The adventures? The fights? The saved people?"
"No, I did all that but…"
Ruby had already grasped his hand with both or her own. "I'm your biggest fan! I want to be just like you!"
"And you hang around known criminals like the notorious Grimmhound to achieve that?" Qrow put a healthy dose of mockery on his title.
"Jaune's a good guy! We will go to Beacon together!"
The huntsman gave Jaune a calculating look before the special gun vanished in a holster on the man's hip. "I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt. Don't make me regret this or I will be taking responsibility for not stopping you today."
"Sounds fair." Jaune replied nonplussed.
"And drop the silly title. Grimmhound sounds like a cartoon villain." Qrow relaxed his posture and all the tension dropped from the air, making Yang release a breath she didn't realize holding while Ruby remained blissfully unaware.
"Can I have your autograph?" He was handed a dust cartridge for Crescent Rose and a black marker. Ruby interpreted the long silence as a prompt to tell him what to write. "I'm Ruby Rose."
The low light in the warehouse made it hard to see, but Yang swore he saw the man swallow and almost snap the writing utensil in his hand. "You said your mother is no longer with us?"
"No sir, she died years ago during a mission nobody else dared to try."
He was looking at Ruby, really looking for something and turning to sign the ammo with a quiet sigh. "Yeah, that fits Summer. She never backed down from anything."
"Yang, did you hear that?! Qrow Branwen knew our mom!"
The older sister wasn't as enthusiastic as her younger sibling. The appearance of Qrow Branwen presented a source of anxiety that grew the more she thought about the implications. She wasn't as big a fan as Ruby, but knew the book material about him by heart. After finding out a fictional character from her childhood was real, other parts inside those books had to be put into question.
Things she wrote off as mere coincidence. "Mister Branwen, how accurate are your books?"
"Almost identical to real events. Never managed to locate the author or found out how they get the information."
Yang took a deep breath. "My biological mother shares the name of the bandit queen in book one. The same queen later revealed to be your sister as plot twist. How close to the truth is that part?"
Qrow stared at Yang with new intensity as if scrutinizing every pore on her skin. His hand slid down a pants pocket and took out his scroll. Fingers swiped through pictures, the translucent nature of the screen making them clearly visible from their side as well. He stopped on a group photo of four people, zooming in on one person and holding it in front of him for easy comparison with the nervous blonde.
Besides hair and eye color, choice of clothes and slightly different jawline, the grumpy teenager in the photo was the splitting image of Yang.
"What's going on?" Ruby asked, eyes focused on the blackhaired lookalike of her sister in awe.
"Yang found an uncle." Jaune said, glancing between the gobsmacked man and his niece.