Disclaimer: I hereby declare that Roosterteeth studios RWBY production crew may freely use any ideas, characters, or events written in this story free of charge and without any threat of lawsuit for any production, though it would be preferable to inform me of the use of the idea if used.

Ch 35

"Hmmmm, magnets maybe?"

Lan was currently hunched over a desk looking down at his latest blueprints for what he hoped would be his weapon. What was there were twelve different drawings of different rod like structures that could change their shape in certain ways with the right buttons pressed. Lan was currently thinking on how to connect them all together.

"I think I would also need connecting points…and where should I make room for the bowstring?"

"Hard at work I see" came a feline voice from behind Lan.

Lan, yelped, jolted upwards, and whipped around to face his Uncle Nyataro who was standing right behind him.

"Uncle, don't sneak up on me like that!" said Lan, who was grasping his beating heart.

"Well, being silent is in a cat's nature" said Nyataro, chuckling "but I am sad to say that my quiet nature didn't work on your little friends. See?"

Nyataro brought his tail in front of him and hanging onto it by their teeth were Ignis and George.

"They noticed me the moment I came in. You however were so engrossed in your work that my presence failed to incite any response out of you until I made it known…now I do believe it's time for you two to let go." Nyataro looked down at Ignis and George with an unnerving smile, which scared the two little ones so much that they let go and then ran behind Lan's legs. "Well, anyway, I came here to give you this"

Nyataro pulled out a box and handed it to Lan. Lan accepted it and after opening it, found that it was full of lien.

"Congratulations on your first pirate raiding operation. That's your cut." Said Nyataro "Got a lot due to how successful the operations were."

"Hmmm" said Lan, staring down into the case. It was far more than he would need for his research and entertainment purposes. "…Guess I'll invest the rest." Mumbled Lan.

"Oh and Lan?" asked Nyataro.

"Yeah?" said Lan, as he was thinking about where to invest.

"Why are you in the rustic yet durable house that father carries around and not in the nice comfortable home that mother usually lives in?"

Lan was currently in Byakko' house, which was parked right next to Chiyo's.

"Oh, they told me to sleep here tonight" said Lan "I've kinda built up a resistance to that sleeping incense they had, but they apparently didn't want me to know what they were doing. Grandpa was wearing a doctor's outfit and grandpa was wearing a nurse's outfit when they showed me out of the house, so I'm guessing it's something weird."

"…I see" said Nyataro, a wry smile plastered on his feline features "Well; if there's anything I can do to help, please let me know."

"Mmmm" said Lan, who pulled out a paper and pen "Is there any mailing service in the cove?"

"We have our connections" said Nyataro "Are you sending a letter to a friend?"

"Yep" said Lan, who pulled out a small box of letter from under his bed. "Got two destinations, hold on one sec."

Lan quickly penned a letter, then placed it into an envelope along with a separate scrap of paper.

"The box of letters goes to the White Fang leader Momonga, he's my friend Sammy's dad" said Lan pushing the box towards Nyataro. Lan had been keeping in touch with Sammy via mail whenever he and Byakko settled down in a town for a short while, he hadn't been able to send any for a while due to Tiger Valley not having any postal service and the time he had spent raiding.

Lan then walked over to his closest and pulled out a small wooden chest about the size of a carryon suitcase. He then opened the box of lien Nyataro had given him, pulled out a sizeable stack of lien, and then placed the box containing the rest of the lien on top of the chest, along with the letter he just wrote.

"I'd like you to send these to a Mr. Kenichi, director of the operations at the Dust Hole Schnee mining operation." Said Lan, who got up and pocketed the stack of lien.

"What's in the chest?" asked Nyataro.

"Oh, Grandpa gave it to me back when I started taking an interest in investing, apparently it's to help give my investment a little kick."

"Okay then" said Nyataro, who easily picked up the chest with one hand "…Hmmm, it's heavy."

"Yep" said Lan, who stretched, he then looked at the clock and saw it was getting close to 11:00 P.M. "Hmmm, I think I'll turn in now, how soon can you get that delivered?"

"Quite soon." Said Nyataro "Our connections are known for speedy service after all." Nyataro then headed towards the door while saying "Well, good night nephew, pleasant dreams."

"Yep" said Lan who picked up Ignis and George before heading towards the stairs "and you try not to drink too much."

"Nyahaha, no promises there." Said Nyataro who walked into the night, a sake bottle mysteriously appearing in his free hand.

Dust Hole, 1 week later

"Excuse me sir" said a man who walked into the office "a package has arrived for you."

Mr. Kenichi looked up from the documents in front of him, and smiled at the courier who was holding a large cardboard box.

"Who is it from?" said Mr. Kenichi

"Says here, that it's from a Lan Zhihui" said the courier.

Mr. Kenichi raised an eyebrow then got up from his desk.

"You can set the package down here; I'll take care of the rest."

The courier did so and then exited out of the office.

Mr. Kenichi pulled out a box opening knife, cut through the tape sealing the box, and then opened it. There, sitting on top of a large amount of Styrofoam packing peanuts was a letter. Mr. Kenichi then picked it up, used the same knife to open it, pulled out they letter, and began to read.

"Dear Mr. Kenichi

How's it been going? I heard that you became the director of Dust Hole a little while ago. That's great news, I know that the same problems won't be happening again as long as you're at the helm.

Anyways, I've recently got my hands on a lot of capital, so I thought I would invest it. From what I read, investing is pretty complicated and involves a lot of paper work, so I thought I'd leave it to you! After all, you're one of the most organized people I know. So anyways, I'd like you to take all this and invest it in the Schnee Dust company for me, and for your efforts you can receive a portion of the dividends! As for my cut of the dividends, just reinvest it for me, I won't need any of it immediately.

Oh! And try not to overwork yourself, we all know things will become terrible if you do, so I've also enclosed a recipe for some nice relaxing tea to help you after a long day.

I know you'll do great at this so, please do your best!

Sincerely,

Lan Zhihui

P.S. The stuff in the chest will need to be converted to lien first before it can be invested. I'll leave that process to you, and for extra incentive to do well you can have 10% of what you sell them for!"

Mr. Kenichi chuckled slightly as he read the final lines of the letter. After all the boy had gone through for the people of this town, he would have been more than happy to help him even without the incentive. He then reached into the box and pulled out a small black case, inside was a stack of lien.

"This should make for a pretty good starting investment sum." Said Mr. Kenichi, who set the box aside. His mind was already working on how to process the investment forms for Lan, thinking up a fake name to put the money under as he knew the boy wouldn't want all the attention. He then dug through the Styrofoam and found the chest that Lan had sent.

"Must be random things he found in his travels" thought Mr. Kenichi as he lifted the chest out of the box with great difficulty. "I'll probably have to just pitch in some of my own funds for this stuff."

He then placed it on the ground and opened it.

After giving the contents a blank stare, he shut the lid, rubbed his eyes, shook his head, and then opened the chest again. After confirming its contents he gave a brief nod, and then keeled over backwards as he fainted from shock.

Inside the chest were countless glittering treasure pieces made from a variety of precious metals and gemstones. The value of the materials alone would fetch a tremendous price, but if you also factored in the historical value that many of the pieces had the value shot up even more, Byakko had traveled the world for a long time and had collected a variety of valuable artifacts during that time. Mr. Kenichi would have no trouble selling these pieces later after he awakened from his coma, and the acquired lien would fetch a hefty number of stocks from the Schnee dust company. This also wouldn't be the only time Lan would send Mr. Kenichi valuables to invest, oh no, the boy would regularly send the man massive investment funds over the years starting from this day, and as a result Lan would unknowingly become one of the most powerful investors in the Schnee Company, known to his peers only as 'The Dark Wolf', with making votes on certain matters since Lan couldn't reveal his identity.

Back to Tiger Cove

Aside from his usual training, Lan had been spending a week exploring the general area of Tiger cove. The cove was constructed much like a small developed fishing village. He had learned the ways of the sea by following some local fisherman out to sea for hours at a time, had caught and ate a variety of seafood, learned a bit about airship maintenance and construction, and continued studying books both according to his own interest and following the detailed lesson plan that had been drafted by the citizens of Long Cinere all those years ago.

At present time, Lan was sitting under a palm tree reading an old book that Byakko had kept in his treasure hoard as Ignis slept at his side and George climbed the tree to reach the bananas growing at the top.

"Hmmmm," mumbled Lan "Looks like alche—"

At that moment a loud shrieking sounded from above. Lan looked up and saw Edel, who had been flying over to meet him, was being harassed by a Dust Eagle 10 times her size, apparently teasing her about getting too cushy with the humans.

"Hey!" shouted Lan, who shook his fist at the bird "Leave her alone."

The bird made a mocking squaking noise in Lan's direction, then continued to harass little Edel.

Angered, Lan threw a rock, a knife, and Ignis at the bird. The bird was able to dodge all three, which resulted in Ignis landing in the sea, and flying higher while pulling Edel with it.

"Come back here!" shouted Lan "I'll kick your tail-feathers if you don't let her go!"

"Don't just stand there screaming!" came a gravelly voice from behind Lan. Lan turned and saw his grandfather approaching him in what appeared to be slow motion while wearing nothing but his fundoshi.

"If you really want to take it down then fly up and strike it down!" Byakko arrived at Lan's side "Don't worry I'll shall assist you!"

Without warning, Byakko seized Lan's leg's and began spinning the boy around and around in a circle. The boy spun faster and faster, his facial features flapping from the force of the maelstrom.

"Now soar!" shouted Byakko, who threw Lan heavensward. Lan blasted through the air towards the large Dust Eagle. Closer, closer, closer! Until finally…. He missed. Passing the Dust eagle by mere inches, Lan flew right passed it. The Dust eagle let out a mocking squawk at Lan's passing form.

"Psyche!" shouted Lan.

Lan whipped out a long pair of Bolas which tied around the Eagles Body and pulled it along with him as he continued his ascent heavensward, the sudden jolt forced it to let go of Edel. With a tug, Lan pulled the bird towards him and wrapped his arms around it. A few seconds later, they finally stopped ascending…hundreds of meters above the ground.

"And now! We shall fall together!" shouted Lan, who then let out a maniacal laugh. The bird began squawking in fear as gravity slowly began to pull them downwards. The two then fell faster and faster, laughing and squawking all the while until: 'Crash'. The two impacted the beach with immense force, sending up a huge column of sand. When the dust finally cleared a pairs of legs, both avian and humanoid, were sticking up into the air, with the owners of the appendages were buried from the waist up/down into the sand. Lan's legs twitched soon after, and the boy quickly pulled himself out of the ground.

"Well that was fun" said Lan who quickly brushed him off, he then turned to look up into the sky and waived at Edel "You alright there my little friend?"

Edel flew down, kukked happily, and nuzzled up against Lan.

"He he he fun" said Byakko, who was poking the twitching form of the Dust Eagle that had just been piledrived into the ground with a stick "But I think you know what's going to be even funner in a few days, am I right boy?"

Lan though for a moment and then smiled.

"Please don't get me anything weird" said Lan.

"I know I know" said Byakko "But know that it will be one of the best birthday parties of your life!"

Inside Tiger Cove Mountain Crevice, Ishiku mining operations

Ishiku flicked his hand upwards and a large slab of stone was peeled off from where his fingers touched. Ishiku then placed his hand on the side of the wall and glowed with a gray light. He then removed his hand and smiled as he gave a nod. He had just used his semblance to sense the integrity of the stone cavern and was satisfied to find that everything stayed in balance after the cut he just made. He then took an offensive stance and launched a quick punch into the side of the wall. As the punch struck the wall, he closed his eyes and began to track the vibrations he had produced in the stone. As they returned to him, he wrinkled his brow. He sensed the beginning of a large cavern a few hundred meters ahead of him in the stone.

"Interesting" said Ishiku, cracking his knuckles, "Wonder how fast I can get to it."

Ishiku's mountain hollowing usually proceeded at a slow pace because he had to widen a large piece of area at a time to make room for home building. But if he wanted to just go straight forwards, digging through while keeping the surrounding rock stable wouldn't be hard for him at all, especially with his curiosity piqued. And so, Tiger Cover was filled with the sound of scraping stone for the next few days. Many in the cove were also interested in what was in the cavern that Ishiku was digging towards, however this would remain unknown until the final stones were removed a few days later.

A few days later

"No grandpa no!" shouted Lan, who was hugging his grandfather's leg with tears in his eyes.

"Come on, why can't I add these cow brains into the mix?" said Byakko, who was holding the wet bloody mass in his large hand.

"We don't even know what that would taste like!" shouted Lan "At least experiment a little first! Don't just randomly chuck stuff into the pudding!"

"Alright alright" said Byakko, who thrust his hand into a nearby flame to cook the brains before popping them into his mouth.

Lan and Byakko were currently in the kitchen of their house, where Lan was helping to prepare many of the desserts for his birthday tomorrow.

"Why the heck are you making the food for your own birthday party anyway?" asked Byakko "On your birthday you're supposed to just leave the cooking to everyone else, and just tuck into the food like a slob."

"I just don't feel comfortable doing nothing." Said Lan, who added some chopped nuts into the bowl "Already finished my daily training, my brain hurts from reading too much academic stuff, I've already finished all my manga and video games, and everyone else is busy preparing for my party tomorrow. I don't really have anything else to do."

"Then just kick back and relax on the beach!" said Byakko, whose face turned mischievous "Maybe get some looks at the perty young girls in their bathing suits?"

Lan's body jolted, almost spilling the mixing bowl in his hands, and his face turned bright red.

"Y-you know I'm not that kinda person, and besides some of those girls might be my cousins or something" said Lan, "Besides, you know I have problems with…that kind of thing."

"Oh…right" said Byakko, remembering Lan's love trauma.

The two of them then stood there in awkward silence until:

"Hey guys!" shouted Tora, who kicked the door open right behind Lan.

Lan let out a shrill girlish scream and threw his mixing spoon into the air while Byakko let out a fart that expanded the fire behind him to 5 times its previous size. Ignis, who had been lying in the corner, then jumped upwards and caught the spoon in midair, before landing on the ground and sharing the pudding on the spoon with George and Edel.

"Cool" said Tora, clapping his hands "and nice scream Lan."

Lan's face grew red from embarrassment.

"Well I just came to tell you guys that Ishiku's just about finished digging the tunnel he's been working on for the past few days. I thought you guys might want to come and see what's there with some of us when he finally breaks through."

"Sounds fun" said Lan, taking off his apron and grabbing his backpack.

"I'm game" said Byakko.

"Great, let's go" said Tora.

The three then walked towards the back of the cove where a small crowd had gathered in front of a hole in the stone.

"Oh hello you two~~." Said Chiyo who was handing out riceballs to the people who were waiting "I hope my big kitty didn't bother you while you were cooking Lan."

"You know I did my little flower" said Byakko, who stuffed a riceball into his mouth and then hoisted Chiyo onto his shoulder.

"Come on little guys" said Lan, as he walked forward with his little friends, leaving his grandparents to their flirting ways.

Flitting through the crowd, Lan soon made it to the front and stared into the dark tunnel. From deep within he could hear the slow tap tap of a fist striking stone. A moment later it stopped and was replaced by the sound of tapping feet that grew louder and louder. Finally Ishiku, who looked incredibly grimy and was covered in powdered rock, walked out of the tunnel. He squinted his eyes in the bright sunlight, and then whipped on a pair of sunglasses.

"Tunnel to the caver is clear" said Tora, "Those who want to explore with me, bring a light source and something to murder any hostiles that pop out."

"Good thing I'm always prepared" said Lan, who proceeded to set down his bag, pull out a lantern, and light it. The boy also removed a small wooden staff with some beads wrapped around it, which he handed to George, a belt covered with weird handles, which he wrapped around Ignis, and a small belt with a Dust cylinder on it, which he hung on Edel's neck. "Made you guys somethings" said Lan "Was brainstorming a lot on how to build my weapon…But then I got bored and made some for you guys, here's how they work."

While Lan explained to the little ones how to use their new weapons, all the other people present pulled their weapons out from their holsters, with a few people here and there pulling out some source of light.

"All right, we don't know what's going to be in there, so be careful" said Ishiku "And dad"

Ishiku pointed his finger at Byakko and gave him the evil eye. "No attacking unless I say so, I don't want to risk a cave in."

"Got it" said Byakko.

The group quickly formed a line behind Ishiku as the man walked into the cave. Lan had quickly ran behind him the moment he started to move, so Lan was the 2nd person in line and was holding his lantern and an iron stick. The group then filed into the opening leading into the side of the mountain. They passed through a variety of stone layers on their way through the winding tunnel. Lan asked Ishiku why he didn't dig straight through, and Ishiku responded by telling Lan that there were fossils and precious stone deposits surrounding them, and he didn't want to damage them by boring straight through. Before long, the group exited the winding tunnel, and exited into a large cavern.

"Wow" said Lan as his lantern lit up the scene in front of him "They're—"

"Ancient ruins" said Ishiku.

Scattered all around them were buildings of different sizes in different stages of collapse. Some structures looked strangely similar to those built by the modern hands of mankind, yet at the same time different and distinct, while others looked like they could be from another world.

Ishiku walked forward, knelt down, and placed his hand on the ground. After a few moments he wrinkled his eyebrows, got up, and said :

"This place is somewhere between thousands and millions of years old. But for some reason I can't get a proper dating from these stones. There seems to be some weird energy flowing around here…Also"

Ishiku pointed to the ground.

"This ground appears to be covered in some kind of fused mixture of purified metal and something like concrete, never seen anything like it before."

"The buildings are dusty too" said Lan who walked up to a wall and wiped it with his sleeve. Underneath the layer of dust were some strange characters. Likely the language of the civilization the buildings belonged to. "Cool I wonder what it—"

'B-bump'

Lan felt something suddenly pulse within him. Within the depth of his soul, the last spark of the essence of the spirit stirred with energy and nostalgia. It knew those words, what they meant, their significance, and the civilization they belonged to. But then, suddenly realizing its error, it quickly hid its presence once again. However, that brief pulse of energy left Lan feeling extremely woozy. Lan swayed back and forth as he struggled to get control of his stomach.

"…You okay Lan?" asked Ishiku who noticed the boy's unsteady movements.

"Y-yeah" said Lan with a strained voice as he grabbed his head and attempting to steady himself. "Just gotta—"

'gurgle'

"BLALAARGHH!"

Unable to stop the puke after he started talking, Lan fell onto all fours vomited directly onto the floor.

"…right, can we get a mop or something over here?" Asked Ishiku.

"Noooo." Moaned Lan as he looked at Ignis and George who had gathered at his puke "Don't eat it, Please don't eat it my little friends."

A few minutes later, after the mess had been mopped up and Lan had restored his vigor with a liter of ginger ale, the party began moving again.

Ishiku, walking forward with his bare feet on the ground, used the vibrations of the earth to sense the area around them.

"It's empty here" said Ishiku as he continued to move forward "A hollow shell of whatever civilization built this place…except for maybe over there."

Ishiku pointed towards the center of the ruined city where a giant dome stood.

"I can't sense anything on the inside" he said "Something must be protecting it."

Lan, who had read and played his fair share of adventure novels and video games, tightened his hands around his lantern as he began to fill with excitement.

A few minutes later they arrived in front of the dome where an enormous door made of some kind of metal blocked their advance.

"Hmmm." Said Ishiku, who knocked on the door with his knuckles "Pretty strong."

He then pulled on a pair of gloves, his hands then began glowing with a gray light. The surrounding rocks then levitated off the ground and flew towards his hands where they combined into a pair of stone gauntlets. Ishiku then began to strike the doors, with increasing strength and frequency. The sound rang out across the cavern for a few minutes before it was replaced with the sound of Ishiku breathing heavily.

"Hmmm." He said as he examined the door "Not a scratch, we'll have to bring in the heavy artillery to get through this thing."

"Great!" shouted Byakko "I'll—"

"""NO!""" shouted everyone in the party.

"You'll overdo it like you always do!" shouted a man from the crowd

"You'll destroy the artifacts inside!" shouted another.

"I don't want to die from a cave in!" cried one more.

"Alright, alright! Geeze" grumbled Byakko who scratched his head.

"Well, from my earlier vibrational senses, there doesn't seem to be any traps in this place, so I guess we can start excavating for valuables anytime" said Ishiku, "But for now, I think we'd better stay focused on tomorrow. It's Lan's first birthday in the cove after all."

"Yes! I'll bring the booze!" shouted Byakko.

"None for me thanks." Said Lan.

"We'll be bringing our kids along so expect a fun time!" said Tora.

"Oh right, I haven't met them yet" said Lan.

"That's cause you spend all your time training, and in the off times you do have you read, work on some of your weird plans, or try to get other people to teach you stuff, you don't do things kids normally do" said Tora "All of our kids spend their free time playing out in the sun!"

"I train and fight in the sun" said Lan "That's reminds me, when are we going to go on another pirate raid?"

"After your birthday chico" said a man with a large mustache who was wearing a large sombrero, who spoke with what we would identify as a thick Mexican accent "You'll be spending your time with los burros this time."

"Huh?" asked Lan.

"The Diamond Donkeys." Said Byakko "but we'll save discussing them for later. For now, let's go back to making them pastries!"

"Yeah we'll loot the ruins later" said Ishiku with a chuckle.

Everyone then began to head back towards the tunnel leading back to the cove.

But soon after everyone had left the ruins, something strange began to happen. Patches of the ground began to glow with a faint blue glow, and each of those spots was a place where Lan had stepped or touched earlier. Small particles of light than began to float into the air, flowing into buildings. Lines of blue light, similar to the circuitry of a microchips began to appear around the ruins, with all of the lines of light leading to the central dome, which began to give off a soft hum.

Yeesh, things are taking much longer to write than I originally thought, especially when I started adding in some of my other weird/cool ideas in. Well anyways, in the next few chapters, we start seeing the beginning of the end of this ark. And in two to three chapters we'll also be seeing some familiar people, R and Y. And just a little heads up for you all, Lan's semblance isn't what you think it is, in fact his semblance would be useless if he was on his own. And as for the spirit within Lan? It's origins won't be revealed until the next arc, during which Lan will get his biggest power up (through training of course).