Coco rolled over in her bed, draping her arm over her eyes in a vain attempt to block out the light still seeping into the room. Velvet's soft snore and the sharp drumming of rain filled the room, though it had never kept her awake before at Beacon. She shifted her pillow again before sitting up, wide awake and giving up on just lying there. With a glance at her scroll she frowned at the time; it was almost two in the morning, and only four hours until everybody else would be getting up. She got out of bed and felt her way out of the room, using the moonlight to see and making sure not to disturb Velvet before she padded lightly down the hallway. She passed Fox's and Yatsuhashi's room, seeing their lights were out, before she stopped at the next room: Port's. With no small amount of surprise, she saw the warm glow of light bleeding out from beneath the door and knocked on it softly. If she was going to stay awake, she might as well have company.
Port opened the door and his curious expression turned into a welcoming one when he saw her. He quickly stepped aside to let her in and closed the door behind them.
"Thanks. I'm surprised you're up," Coco said, taking a seat on his bed.
"Ah, paperwork is a vile thing. It's the only cruelty of taking on these missions with students, and yet nobody told me that when I volunteered." Coco grinned at the comment and Port smiled back, glad that even a little lightheartedness could help. He pushed his ruggedized laptop aside and sat on the desk to face Coco. "So your first day on the mission was quite eventful."
"Yeah, that's a hell of a way to put it. I can't imagine there's a worse way to start it off"
"Frankly, neither can I. These missions are intended to push our students into the deep end, yes, but today was certainly more than expected for young students in training. It is still our reality as huntsmen and huntswomen though. How was the recovery, if I may ask?"
"Well, there wasn't much left to recover. We identified most of the remains with the villager's help, all but a couple limbs." Coco hung her head low and shuddered. A moment wasn't nearly long enough to collect herself after spending the day picking up what was left of the town's hunting party, and she doubted it would leave her mind any time soon. She pushed it out of her head for now, letting the images of the disembodied pieces lurk on the edges of her mind, surely to return in her sleep. Her only comfort, if it could be called that, was that she wasn't alone in this. The entire team had taken it to heart, going about their work in a somber silence for the rest of the day and continuing the recovery search long after they found everything still left intact. Coco let out another breath slowly, trying to calm herself just enough to keep her voice in check. "The town will hold the funeral tomorrow and we'll get back to recon after. From what Yatsuhashi and Velvet said, we might be dealing with a different—" She paused, not sure what to call whatever her teammates had described. "Something of ursa. A mutation? I don't know. I was hoping you'd have some thoughts about that."
"I read their report and I caught up with them before bed. Whatever grimm your teammates saw, there's no records of it. It may be a mutation. Tell me, do you remember your theories of grimm evolution and classification course?"
Coco shook her head. "Please not tonight, Professor. You know I barely scraped by that class and I'm not up for a lesson right now."
Port chuckled and smiled warmly at her. "By the skin of your teeth, and I suspect some tutoring from your team. The short story is our database will come back with something if it's a variant or known mutation. Those changes in grimm do spring up now and again—nature likes to keep us on our toes about that."
"That's good, at least we'll know." Coco paused after a moment and cocked her head at him. "But we're still in the dark. From what Yatsuhashi said, that ursa stopped and retreated. Carefully. I've never heard of a grimm that isn't charging around in blind rage. They're not supposed to think."
"Indeed. And worse off is that it used its environment to do so. That ursa is a lot more dangerous than any you've fought before. For all practical purposes, consider it a different grimm. I have my suspicions about it though. As a huntswoman in the field, do you?"
"I've been thinking about it all night. Could it be old? Named grimm are the only ones I've heard of using any restraint. But grimm aren't supposed to be able to learn."
"That's very good, I see some of Oobleck's lectures weren't lost on you. Grimm can't learn from others, but they can from their own experiences. In fact, I remember one of my own hard-won battles. A beringel fell back into a river and nearly drowned from its own weight, and from that singular instance it learned enough to try forcing me into the water so I'd do the same, and then holding me down when it didn't work. For that ursa, it's easy to imagine it knocked over a tree by accident during a past fight and saw its effect. It must have learned from that. They're dastardly creatures, sometimes in ways we don't give them credit for."
Coco frowned at Port's brief story, the concern that flashed across her face not lost on either of them. "That's a fast turn around for learning something and we don't know anything else about this ursa either."
"This is why we must remain vigilant as huntsmen. Any grimm can become exponentially more dangerous if he's seen a few fights of his own, so we place a high value on thinning their herds and keeping tabs on their activity. From your team's report, it may be a variant one as well, which a quite a dangerous combination. Unusual markings are often indicators of mutations, but that doesn't tell us much more right now. I didn't get to your and Fox's report yet, but anything to report on the northern valley?"
"Nothing as exciting, but there's a lot of activity. We went to visit the dust mine first, introduce ourselves, asked about the hunting party, and surveyed the valley from above using some of the trails on the hillside. From ours counts, that valley hasn't been culled in far too long. Makes sense why they're starting to spill over into the village and causing problems, and that mine isn't helping. It's a safe hideout, but it's helping retain a lot of the grimm that were just passing through. Hell, there were even tracks of a king taijitu in the northwestern valley. It's not close now, but we'll have to thin out the others before it starts getting territorial and pushes even more towards us."
"Indeed, I'm concerned about that mine as well, but I haven't visited yet. Mining and grimm never mixed well, but that has been a problem for centuries and will be for centuries more. If they're following the proper protocols and we can curb the grimm, it will stay secure. We need to make sure it doesn't become a tomb."
"The foreman, Callum, seemed to be pretty on top of things. But they don't know the extent of the grimm problem. They still think the north valley is empty and safe, and doubt any of them would go deep enough into it to realize. I don't blame them, for it to even still exist I'm sure they used to have it under control. There's a lot of things going on with this village, and not one of them is good."
"Complex and bad is often how our missions go, that's the life of a huntsman. But that's why I'm here for these while you're learning. And speaking of complexity, how are you all dealing with Velvet's situation? It's an additional problem."
Coco huffed. "It's not her situation, it's the town's situation." She leaned back against the wall and gnawed on her lower lip for a second as she thought. "But we aren't dealing with it, honestly. We're just keeping low right now. The beret hid it well enough today and we weren't in the town much, which helped. If I know Velvet, she'll want to try that trick the entire time though and I'm not sure about that. God, it hurt me just to help her tie her ears down, I don't know how she deals with it. She's usually so proud about who she is, and I love that." Coco's frown softened. "Getting out in the field today was a good distraction, though. I wouldn't mind if we could just camp out there and not even deal with the people. It's just so much simpler, you know?"
Port smiled, with a twinkle in his eye. "Trust me, I do know that feeling. Fieldwork can be a relief, with nothing but you, your wits, and the mighty terrors of nature staring you down. You only worry about your necessities and—" Port stopped himself mid-speech. "Sorry. Regardless, she mentioned to me she wanted to get to know the town a bit better first. That's not a bad idea, there's value in learning a place's history and roots and building their trust while you do. But for your entire mission, it's not feasible to cover up Velvet's heritage. It may be easier to deal with, but you're placing a distinct handicap on your team's abilities. You've come to rely on each other, and all the uniqueness that comes with your diversity."
"Yeah, I know that. Velvet does too but I want to support whatever she needs. Who am I to tell her otherwise? I wouldn't want to work within a hundred miles of some of the places she's told me about. I don't know how this town stacks up though, nobody's made any remarks and I think Harold's kept quiet for us. I don't like how much I appreciate that. It's just weird, this town has a grudge with faunus but the chief went to Beacon when they needed help? It sounds like they're quick to change their attitude when they need help, the hypocrites."
Port dropped his wiser and gentle tone, turning stern. "That's far too much judgement we can pass on anybody we haven't met, Coco. But frankly, I do not care who they are. And neither should you."
"Excuse me?" Coco shot him an incredulous look. She hadn't expected that response, and she didn't know Port to brush something like this under the rug.
"You're all still students, so I understand these missions are still very personal. It's a bit unrealistic to ask you not to care about this, but I do mean it. As huntsmen we enjoy a unique status of being accepted in every level of society. Faunus or not, rich and wealthy or born on the streets. Because we are guardians. Whether anybody likes us or not, they can trust our skill and actions. We had to earn that privilege, and we can't be biased on who we protect or why. The academies are founded on the trust that every soul is counted equally and fought for to our last. That every man, woman, and child knows that when they hear the word 'huntsman' and has never had a doubt about it. Because doubt breeds fear."
"Hey," Coco said with indignation. "I'm not saying I would leave them to die, even if they're horrible people. I never said that. I took the same oath as you when I started my training. We're both huntsmen here in that way."
"I know we are. And I know you didn't say that. But Coco, there can never be a doubt about it. We are outsiders and huntsmen here. Everything we say will be scrutinized. So if we're seen judging or dismissing these people, no matter how deserved you think it is, then we are no longer guardians in their eyes."
Coco deflated and sighed after being dressed down. She still shot back, but frustration had replaced the defiance that Port was used to seeing from her. "Then what? I can't do nothing about this. I just can't. Watching Velvet twist up her ears in pain just to go outside is hard enough, and I'll be damned if I'm supposed to just accept that and be okay with it. She's been burned by these types too many times before and I'm sure this place is no different. There's not a single faunus in this village. An old SDC village where they were carted in for labor by the truckload. How is that? And how can we still protect them if they hate us being here? Or trust them to back us up? This place isn't right."
"I'm afraid that trust goes both ways. One thing more dangerous for us huntsmen than being alone with a grimm, is being with a grimm and people who don't trust you. They are living on the edge of survival every day out here, so you can be sure they know what their odds are with and without us, and there's an implicit trust and cooperation that comes with that. That's what we've proven to them by being huntsmen, but it's hardly enough. Show them you're more than just the baseline amount of cooperation required for survival out here. Earn their respect, if not as friends then as professionals. And I'd say you've all made some progress in that today, insisting on handling both the grimm counts and recovery operation. You brought their friends home and put them to rest, that counts for a lot."
"We had to do that, it wasn't for their respect or trust. Those were our brothers out there too, they went up against that grimm and it could've been us just as easily. The chief was so resigned to them not coming home though, it felt so heartless. Not a great sign for 'implicit cooperation' if you ask me."
"It was a hard decision, not heartless. Those are made out here constantly, and ones you'll have to face just as often in your career. I am proud of your team for finding a balance between those priorities today," Port said, taking a short rest to have another sip of coffee and offer Coco some too. "Demanding to find that balance is what sets you and your team apart from—"
Port stopped talking. He got up and opened the window to look out, hushing Coco when she tried to ask why. He listened. The light rain was loud on the thin metal roof and drowned out most other sounds, and only moonlight lit up the village in the night. Coco stood and mimicked him, unable to notice anything out of the normal through the hazy night. Port kept listening for a minute longer, waiting until he satisfied his uneasiness before turning his back to the open window and waving Coco back to her seat.
"Never ignore your gut. It may not always be right, but when it is, it will save your skin when nothing else can. Now, Coco, I want to step back a bit. I know this situation with Velvet is wearing on you already. And I may have been stern, but I am certainly not asking you to idly accept whatever views this town holds and do nothing about it. As a person, take issue with it. I'd be disappointed if you didn't. But as huntsmen in the field, it simply isn't our war. It cannot be our war. In the field we must protect everybody, on both sides of every problem, so these issues can be fought over and compromised and fought for again, safely. Now Velvet may have better insight on coping with these different roles, she certainly has more experience with it. But I implore you, we must be impartial. We are not police or protestors or even civilians. You are a huntress." Port paused until he felt his point had sunk in, and then cracked a sly grin and adopted a jovial tone to break the tension. "But then again, the ethics of our profession is an entire field of study on its own. One you'll be introduced to next semester with Doctor Ooblek, and I'll be letting him know to expect high marks from you."
"It's just such a—" Coco stopped too and listened. Something had caught her subconscious attention, but it was hard to discern anything over the patter of the rain on the inn's tin roof. A primal scream ripped through the night, breaking off a split second later. A chill ran down Coco's spine. The scream stopped mid-cry. It was silenced. She looked over to Port with wide eyes and saw him rigid, tense, and ready to jump out of his seat and fight for his life. The same reaction any of them had when coming face to face with a grimm.
Port's reaction only lasted a half a second before his experience kicked in. He jumped to his feet, boots on and blunderbuss in hand.
"Get your team, Coco. We're needed out there."
.
.
Coco winced as the corner of her weapon jammed into her hip as she ran, the heavy box bouncing along awkwardly and trying to slow her down. The light rain had already soaked through her sleepwear and the rest of her team wasn't fairing much better. Fox and Yatsuhashi led a few paces in front of her while Port and Velvet trailed behind, each running at a full sprint through the layers of mud that threatened to trip them up in their mad scramble across the town.
Another piercing scream, just to be cut off a moment later. Coco's heart sank as the silence reigned, only to be broken again with another cry starting up. A distinctly different voice this time. A new victim. She clenched her eyes shut as she ran, turning the stranger's anguish into more fuel to push herself faster. Every moment they weren't at the scene was another life lost, broadcasted to everybody by the terrified cries piercing the night air.
They passed the town hall just a few minutes after the first alarm, but they were fighting for every second. Yatsuhashi was tightening down his armor over his bare chest as he ran and Fox had foregone his shoes just to spare a few moments when they bolted out the door.
She skidded across the ground as she turned a corner and spotted a group of people ahead, blurred by the darkness and light drizzle. A ring of men and women, dozens, wielding an assortment of pickaxes, sledge hammers, and shovels as they surrounded an ursa major and a gaping hole in the town's wall.
Her heart rate quickened and the rest of her world fell away. All of her attention focused on the grimm. The ursa major, with the red streaks crisscrossing down its torso and alongs its arms. The variant, the same as Velvet had described to her just hours before and that she had just speculated about with Port. Her mind raced as she watched the ursa, weighing their options and focusing out the couple of bodies already littering the ground. Nothing else existed but the fight, not even the deceased. A deep part of her relished in the focus, too; being able to push away all her anger and frustrations until nothing else existed but their opponent. Port was right, it was a relief in its own way.
She spared a glance at her surroundings. The ring of civilians swayed back, trying to give the ursa a wide berth as it lashed out at them. The ursa's claw stopped short of the civilians, meeting the hardened blue frame of a familiar shield instead. Velvet. Her teammates had already spread out, surrounding the grimm and urging the civilians back.
Coco cursed under her breath. With this many people in a circle, her minigun was damned-near useless unless she was practically under the thing. Not that she would dare be left out of the fight—she gripped the box's handle and tore the sling off. She was just as capable using it as a club instead.
The ursa swung its body around, facing each of them for a moment before turning to the next and clawing the air each time until the rest of the crowd had backed away. The four of them surrounded it and closed in, each tensed and priming their aura while the crowd's weapons brushed across their backs.
The fight started in a flash and Velvet dived forward, rolling through the mud as a claw slashed the ground. She popped back up, the wire frame of a rapier forming in her hand before it was shattered from a strike.
Velvet fell back as her box let out a pulse of energy in retaliation, angry from having the energy of the frame forced back into it from the ursa's backhanded paw.
The team didn't waste the chance. Fox struck first, aiming for its leg but catching the bone plating instead. He pushed off the ursa while Yatsuhashi rushed forward in his place, liberating the ursa of a few claws and landing in front of Velvet to shield her. She immediately righted herself, shrugging off the fall as she drew a long spear and round shield and let it solidify.
The familiar flash and crack of Coco's gun filled their vision. The grimm was bent on a knee, bellowing in pain and anger while lashing blindly. Coco grinned from behind the beast as she released the trigger and pulled the still-closed box out from behind the ursa's crumpled knee. A surge of giddiness passed over her as she retreated back before the ursa could turn on her. She was rarely able to use her weapon in its closed form, but the point blank range had made up for the single shot limitation. Her pride was grounded as soon as it came. The ursa had swatted away Fox's arm and he let out a yelp as he landed hard. His own shot flew wide, the dust round hitting a house behind them and knocking a hole in its roof.
Coco bolted forward, covering him from the ursa's paw as it rushed him and overshot its target.
She glanced at Fox and they shared a sigh of relief, cut short by a terrified screech. A civilian.
It wasn't aiming for Fox.
The ursa let out a furious roar, standing upright on its shattered leg and staring down at Coco and Fox with a wicked grin. Coco didn't dare take her eyes off the ursa, watching in near-awe as it bore through the pain to continue the fight.
"Leg injury, we have time," Fox said with a grunt, referring to the civilian behind Coco. She gave a curt nod in acknowledgement—she wasn't able to turn to see without giving the ursa a free shot, but Fox wasn't so restricted.
Coco saw a flash of green in her peripherals. Yatsuhashi, pushed the civilians further back and checked on the casualty, while Velvet's weapon shimmered next to Coco as they both slid in place over Fox to cover him.
The ursa stumbled back towards the wall, with its gaping hole left open by the ring of militia. It fell back on all fours and roared, quivering the spikes on its back in warning, but the attempt at intimidation was lost as its spikes sagged to the ground and held on by only a few remaining strips of skin.
The team fell into formation and advanced, and the ring of civilians took their cue and tightened in.
"It's going to run again," Velvet said as she watched the ursa back itself towards the opening in the wall.
"No, it's eyeing the crowd," Yatsuhashi said. "No time." He broke off and ran at it, solely to draw its attention and attack onto himself.
The ursa took the bait and followed through, its claw pounding the mud as Yatsuhashi dodged to the side. The rest of the team didn't hesitate, each choosing a limb and putting everything they had into one of their well rehearsed attack patterns.
Fox rushed at the uninjured leg, stabbing his gauntlet blades through the paw to pin it down.
Velvet leapt into the air, taking aim from above and jamming the spear through its already brutalized paw and into the ground. The ursa wailed and tried to rear up as the spear broke open its wound from the day before, spotting Coco as she made a show of sauntering up to it.
Coco leaned back an inch to avoid its last rage-filled swing, letting its claw pass by and ramming her handbag down on the back of its paw with a resounding crunch instead.
The claw went limp and Coco grinned as she unlatched her minigun. She didn't think it would've been an option at first, but now, as it folded out and the six barrels pressed against the ursa's soft underside, she couldn't help but smile.
The spear of high velocity lead made short work of the ursa, disintegrating half its body by force before the rest started to naturally dissolve into a black mist.
Only the death and destruction from its war path remained. The cloud of black lingered in the air, blending in with the night as it slowly drifted away. The team's whoops of joy that would've normally followed were dampened by the crimson stains on the ground, reminding them of the civilian losses no matter how quickly they had brought down the ursa. They helped each other up instead, sharing a more muted celebration between themselves for a short moment before they turned to the crowd.
Silence.
Not the mourning silence that often followed such a fatal grimm encounter, nor was it the silence that typically came after a collective sigh of relief.
It was a stunned silence. Complemented by the awkward shuffling of feet as people murmured and leaned in closer but didn't dare approach.
"Velvet," Yatsuhashi said softly, not loud enough to be overheard. "The beret."
Velvet's expression fell in realization and she cocked her head slightly to the side, feeling her ears sway in the breeze and spotting the beret in the mud a few yards away. She had nearly forgotten to grab it on the way out, but that wasn't enough. She took a long look at the crowd, which was still in a large circle around them and standing two or three people deep. There were the looks of shock and surprise, of course. A few more leers and looks of confusion, resentment, and anger. But mostly there was just an unsettling sense of fear that filled the air.
Fear that could quickly turn against them. If Velvet hadn't been sure earlier, she could see the disdain for her clearly on half of the crowd's faces, but nobody broke their ranks or spoke up. She guessed that the massive carcass slumped behind her had helped with that.
That, or it was the oversized machine gun casually resting on Coco's hip and pointing at the feet of the crowd while Coco met their glares with her own. An unspoken challenge following the incredible display of violence the crowd had just witnessed.
It was definitely one of those two. On a better day, Velvet would've hoped it was a sense of gratitude that helped soften their opinions, but that small voice was crushed by the dirty looks thrown at her, her team, and the chief, too. He was in the front line and was stone faced. So he had known, Velvet mused.
A larger voice in her head, the one still high off the adrenaline and aura pumping through her, drowned out her typically meeker side. There was no time for that here. She was used to being more patient, more passive, more timid, but right now? After fighting off a mutated ursa that would've wiped out every one of these people if she wasn't there for them?
No. She refused to bend this time.
Velvet stepped forward, away from the comfort of her team, and squared herself to face the mob of strangers. Her hard and judging stare meeting each and every one of theirs.
"I heard I might not be welcomed here," she said, addressing the crowd with a bolder voice than she was used to. "And I'm sorry to hear that. I don't know why not. I don't even know you yet. But I did choose to come here because we heard you needed help, and I promised we aren't leaving until we do. We're huntsmen, and I'm only here to fight them." She glanced back at the carcass to make her point, but her eye caught one of the bodies laying on the ground instead. She choked. It was a boy their age. "And I am so, so sorry that we weren't here in time to save everybody. I wish that were me instead. We'll do better next time."
Velvet turned to rejoin her team, her face a few shades paler now that her thirty seconds of courage had worn off. She stopped at Coco and rested her hand on the hot steel of the minigun, giving her leader a silent but pleading look to put away the weapon. Velvet gave her a thankful smile as it collapsed back into a considerably less threatening—albeit just as dangerous—handbag.
From the corner of her eye she watched the crowd slowly disperse and gather around their fallen brothers, hoisting up the bodies or attending to the lucky ones who scraped by with just an injury.
"That was fine work, students, now come along," Port said, clasping their shoulders in pride before stepping past them to examine the ursa. "Is this the same beast that you two fought earlier? I believe I saw the markings earlier but it's too faded now to tell."
"It is," Yatsuhashi said as the team circled around the grimm. They looked down on the body, with over half of it already turned to mist. "We injured its paw, here, and its dorsal plates in our fight." He rolled over the still-bloody paw with his boot to show where Velvet had pierced through it, and pointed to where it's bone plates were missing on its back just before they dissolved away. "This is the fastest I've ever seen a grimm decay before."
"It is for myself as well. Some huntsmen believe that the older the grimm, the faster it decays, but that's never been proven. However, most grimm are known to decay faster as they become more wounded, and given it's previous fight, that may be the case." Port paused and squatted down to look at the paw Yatsuhashi had turned over, which was still dripping blood. "This, however, is strange."
"What about it?"
Port glanced at Coco, who had asked, and then at the team. "Fox, I remember you doing quite well in our grimm anatomy classes. What about this is abnormal? Look at its paw."
Fox stepped closer and took a moment before answering, reaching out with his aura and fingertips to examine the ursa. "It never slowed down from that wound. It happened less than a day ago and is still open, so it should've favored its other side. But I didn't notice that at all during the fight."
"Hmm, perhaps, although that could also be attributed to its own pain tolerance. And when they're in a frenzy, there's theories that grimm have their own form of adrenaline that would block out pain. But you're right, that wound is still open from when it fought with Yatsuhashi and Velvet."
Fox scrunched his eyebrows, frowning as he thought. "That was twelve hours ago at least, it should've healed by now."
"Precisely. Most grimm have extraordinary healing rates, variant ones included. At the very least it should have stopped bleeding, but I'm surprised it's not fully scarred over by now."
"Well this thing never was normal," Yatsuhashi said, pondering their fight the day before. "I knew that when it started eyeing us up this afternoon, like it was studying us. Grimm aren't intelligent like that. It's impossible."
Port nodded along and was about to speak when he spotted the town chief approaching them. "To be honest," the chief said, adding into their conversation. "We've found it's easy to mistake experience for a little intelligence with these grimm. The mountains are practically sanctuaries for them, so they tend to see a few more scuffles that teach them a couple party tricks before we can hunt them down. But this one was an exception, even for us. It must have seen quite a few fights to take our hunting party by surprise. It's a relief the damn thing is dead."
The chief frowned and crouched down until he was level with the ursa's mask, taking a moment of silence as it, too, disintegrated and erased the source of all his people's grief. It was almost an insult, as if nature was stealing anything they had to show for their pain and valor that night.
He stood up again, his expression softening as he came back to present. "Kids, that was quite the fight. We don't see huntsmen out in these parts very often, so seeing some teenagers running towards a grimm, and I'm sure not for the first time, is no small feat. You saved lives tonight, no doubt." The chief stopped for a moment and turned towards Port. His expression hardened. "Despite that, my people were still hurt, even after your students arrived. Why didn't you step in? We don't have room for anybody who won't help in a fight."
"Because it was not my fight. It was theirs, as is this mission." Port brushed aside the accusation, sensing the frustration behind it and forgiving it instead. "That is part of the deal with Beacon, but I assure you team CFVY handled this excellently. Not even I thought that ursa would aim for civilians during a very defined fight. A grimm's attention is typically very, very focused when it's fighting a huntsman. There's no reason it would have gone differently if I were in the ring instead of my students."
The chief frowned even further. "I don't know if there's room for teaching out here. We're all family out here, and we don't have room for bystanders during a fight."
"There won't be any bystanders," Port responded, keeping his tone calm and level. "I am here in case the mission goes beyond my students' abilities, but until then it is entirely theirs. I am a huntsman before I am a professor, do trust that."
The chief gazed at a group of the villagers tending to the injured or covering up the deceased while he mulled over Port's promise. "That won't be an easy one to explain to them. But I'll try." He turned back to the team, taking a moment to look over them until he spotted who he was looking for. "Now, Miss Velvet—"
"I'm sorry!" Velvet blurted out, stopping herself almost as fast. She had been on edge since he walked up, a ball of nerves waiting for when he'd address the elephant in the room. "I mean, I'm sorry I tried to hide it when we met you. I had heard some, um, rumors and wanted to get to know the place first."
The chief only nodded once. "I saw your team's profile before you got here, but I was hoping you'd keep it covered up like you had. No difference now, I can't afford to be choosing how we get help. I called for Beacon because they could get a team out here the fastest and that's all, so just keep your head down and stick to your job. If anybody gets in the way of that, you let me know."
"Thank you, Mr—"
"Don't thank me for that. We were cornered into going to Beacon. Your kind has only brought this town on hard times before, so don't think this was by popular vote. The faster this is over, the better for all of us." The chief shook his head as he saw the disgust written across the students' faces. He didn't care. "Is there anything else your team needs tonight? Dust stores are in the town hall's shed to restock, and we have a few smiths that can help if any equipment needs fixing. Harold can show you the way to those."
"That's all," Coco responded, gruff and dismissive. He shrugged it off and walked away. He had more pressing problems tonight than holding some city kids' hands, after all, as the hoarse cries of another new widow reminded him.
Yatsuhashi placed his hand on Velvet's shoulder, a gentle reminder that she wasn't alone and her friends were by her side. It was a habit they had all picked up from when they first became teammates.
"That was just strange. And awful," Coco said once the chief was out of earshot.
Velvet nodded, letting her ears finally fall flat against her head now that she was only with her team and Port. "It was. But not the worst it could've gone."
"Seriously?" Fox spoke up.
"Yeah. Not good, y'know. But it's workable. We all want the same thing."
"You're something else, Vel," Coco shook her head, both in disbelief and wonder. She never had figured out how Velvet could always twist a situation around into a positive, or at least a not-so-negative, but it helped Coco carry on leading their team on more than one occasion. "Alright, let's get cleaned up and set up watch rotations until the wall can get fixed up. I'm sick and tired of today."
.
.
.
Coco sat on the ground and leaned back against one of the massive fallen logs of the breached wall. Her head hung back as she gazed up at the stars, her jaw slightly dropped in awe. Velvet sat next to her, scanning the field surrounding the village for any signs of grimm as they stood watch for the night. It was just the two of them guarding the gap in the village's wall, having caught a few hours of sleep earlier while Fox and Yatsuhashi covered the first shift.
"See anything?" Coco asked. She turned her head to look at Velvet, but couldn't make out much of her features in the darkness. She had always wondered what it was like to see in the dark through Velvet's eyes.
"Nah, only a few raccoons along the treeline. Looks like you're enjoying the stars?"
"So much. You just can't get this in the city. And I didn't really get out much as a kid to see these."
"You're sure you don't want to get more sleep? I'll wake you up for the morning half."
Coco shook her head as she spoke. "Nah, I don't think I could sleep any more tonight if I wanted to. I'm liking this. Feels like the only calm the entire day."
Velvet smiled, even though she knew it'd be lost on Coco. "Because it has been. You were with Port earlier, right? I heard you sneaking out."
"Yeah, we were talking." Coco stayed vague. She felt Velvet's gaze on her, even though she couldn't return it.
"And?"
"Just leadership stuff, debriefing, you know. Pretty sure he threatened me with one of Doctor Oobleck's classes next semester." Coco leaned back more heavily on the log, feeling it shift under her weight as Velvet mimicked her and got closer. A stiff breeze came through the gap in the wall, but it was a pleasant distraction for Coco. "Are the stars like this in Menagerie? I just can't get enough of it."
"Yep," Velvet said and glanced at her, unhappy with the change of subject but not willing to press it. "I used to like sleeping on the porch just to see them. I'd drag my pillow out there all the time."
Coco chuckled. "That sounds like you. Tell me about it?"
"Well, You know I'm from the west coast, but my town is pretty small. A little bigger than this one, actually, but not as many grimm. And not as alone, Menagerie doesn't really have many cities, but tons of villages. And they're all pretty close to each other, the one next to mine was only a couple hours by bike, so we'd visit often…"
Coco settled in and spread their raincoats across their laps as Velvet settled into a story, continuing at Coco's insistence. The darkness wrapped around them as clouds rolled in, creating a sense of solitude that Coco savored. As if the rest of the world didn't exist beyond the two of them and the stress and awfulness of the day didn't exist in that moment.