Chapter 9

Swish~!

Swoosh~!

It's been a quiet two days so far since he met Summer. There wasn't really much to do at the time other than fix up the damage on the walls and cleaning up the place. And while the damage was too much for an easy fix, it was easy enough to hide before they left.

Sorry, Kitamura-san.

And as annoying as Summer was before, he felt the air between them has somewhat gotten better. At least they weren't at each other's throats all the time anymore.

That girl really didn't hold any grudges.

Well maybe except that one time he swung at her head with his cane. Pretty sure she still held a small grudge about that.

Swish~!

Swoosh~!

Roman watched Summer's body in wonder as she trained. Her small and lithe body moving quicker then he possibly could in the open rooftop of the apartment as she swung a three foot metal pipe. From her movement's he could tell she was trying to use it like a sword. It wouldn't be a match to a real sword at all, but it was all that she could find at the time. Even then, she swung it with more grace and power than any person he's seen in this world so far.

She swung the pipe around in the air, almost as if she was fighting an invisible enemy, parrying, and even making feints while fighting against nothing. Her grip changing from two hands to one with ease as if she's done this her whole life. She then advanced onto her invisible foe, stabbing with her 'sword,' before pulling back and jumping into the air, almost as if she was dodging something.

Honestly, he was a bit jealous of how good she was, not that he'd ever say it aloud. Her footwork was impeccable, much better than anything he possibly could have learned. If they fought on even ground with both their weapons, she'd probably win.

No.

Roman's eyes narrowed.

She would win.

He didn't have any doubts in his mind about that. She was a true Huntress. She was high above compared to the Hunters-in-training he'd been fighting back on Remnant. He's killed a few Hunters before, but he had a feeling Summer was much stronger than the one's he's ever fought, and even then, he mostly won due to dirty tricks and Neo coming in from behind.

He might have been able to react and fight evenly for a moment with Summer if they locked 'blades,' but that'll only last a moment when she realized she could easily out manoeuvre him.

Roman blinked as he realized that Summer stopped training. Her eyes now locked with his.

His eyes then wondered onto her body; she had decided to drop her cloak and train in only an undershirt and shorts, with sweat now covering her body. Much more comfortable with the current temperature right now as the sun lightly beat on them.

"Didn't notice you came up here. How long have you been watching?" Summer asked as she broke their gaze, instead going for a water bottle on the ground nearby before taking a drink from it.

"Only for a few minutes. Came up to see what our dear Huntress was doing up here," Roman shrugged. He wasn't lying. He really was curious on what she was up to today, especially when they were leaving in around an hour.

"Well, as you can see. I've been training. I want to get used to this new body," She said as she looked at her hand before clenching it.

Looks like I'm not the only one who needs to get used to it, eh?

"And how's your sword treating you? Is it suitable for someone like yourself?" Roman lightly mocked with a grin.

"Oh, why do you ask? Do you wanna come over and test it out?" Summer called back, a testing smile on her own face.

"Sorry, but I don't plan to get all sticky and dirty from sweat at any moment right now."

"What, you scared? And I thought you were quite strong," Summer laughed, though he didn't sense any malice in it.

"Not at all, but I'm not stupid enough to go toe-to-toe with a Huntress," Roman drawled.

He didn't want to explain to Eri why he had a black eye when they returned. Honestly, he still wished he kept that revolver from the hospital long ago. While it might not have helped in fighting against Summer, it would at least allow him to keep up with her somewhat ability wise.

"You test out your semblance yet?" Roman asked. He was curious if she was able to use her semblance at all in this new world and younger body. It wasn't something he could actually test himself.

Summer remained silent for a moment, probably contemplating whether to say before shaking her head.

"No. Not at all, and it's kind of redundant," Summer winced.

Redundant? He wondered how any semblance could be redundant. Even if it wasn't that strong of a semblance, it was better than nothing like he had.

"Oh, and do you mind telling me what it is then?" Roman grinned.

Summer frowned at him. "It's... I'm stronger and faster when I'm alone."

Roman blinked.

"Are you pulling my leg here, or is that really what it is?" Roman frowned. That's... that really was redundant in the city...

"Yeah. 'Lonesome Rose.' I'm much stronger and faster when no one is around me. It makes taking out Grimm and scouting easy, but it's completely useless elsewhere," Summer blushed. "How about you?"

It was Roman's time to blush before he forced it down. He really didn't like talking about semblances when he got asked about his own. He was still a bit bitter that he never unlocked his.

"Never unlocked mine," Roman shook his head.

"Ah... sorry," Summer apologized.

"It's nothing. I got far in my life even without it. And I take some pride in that," Roman half lied. He didn't care all too much about it, but there was still bitterness in knowing he never unlocked his semblance.

Summer swung her pipe awkwardly for a moment as he finished.

"I'm kind of happy we trashed up the place you know? At least it allowed me to get used to this body against an actual person," Summer said, changing the subject much to his pleasure.

"Wish I could share the same sentiment. But unlike someone, I had to clean up the place by myself," Roman grumbled.

Summer didn't help with fixing up the walls and room as she wanted to explore the city block for a bit. And while he would have loved the extra help. He felt she needed some first hand experience exploring the city a bit. It was also a good time for her to buy some clothes herself as hers weren't in the best condition.

He was not going out alone to buy woman's underwear and clothes by himself.

"Haha... um, well it kinda was, your fault," Summer awkwardly scratched her head.

"It takes two to tango, Summer. Two to tango," Roman said with a straight face to her which she could only awkwardly laugh back at.

"Alright, alright. I admit it. It was my fault as well," Summer drooped.

"Ah, well good to hear you're taking responsibility for everything that happened then," Roman smiled, twisted her words somewhat before pulling out his new scroll, or rather, phone.

It was basically a scroll, but worse.

The technology of these primitives left a lot left to desire.

While he would have rather kept using his scroll, there wasn't any way to charge it back up again after it ran out of energy, becoming completely useless.

"Anyways, you might want to get washed up soon. We're leaving in around an hour to get on the train," Roman said before stuffing the phone back into his pocket and got ready to head back down to their room.

"Oi, wait a minute! You said it was both our faults, not just mine!" He heard Summer yell a moment later as she finally realized what he said.

"Did I? I don't recall," he yelled back while hiding a smirk on his face.

"Get back here you orange-head!"

Orange-head... not exactly what he thought he'd ever be called.

"Right, right, try not to get any of your sweat on me though. Just cleaned these clothes!" He laughed.

"Huh!?"

o – o – o – o – o

Roman listened to the almost rhythmic rattling of the train as it ran across the tracks. An almost soothing feeling as the light vibrations rang throughout the train. The occupants, whilst not crammed within the train, kept to themselves, only a whisper or word coming out every now and then. While he would have preferred getting to Hosu by bullhead, the technology here didn't seem to be advanced enough to be able to fly around that easily.

Roman looked to the side with an almost amused glance at what he saw.

Eri sat on one of the seats, her back towards the inside of the train as she looked out from the window, watching as the city scenery passed by. Beside her, Summer was doing the exact same thing.

Hell, even he was admiring the view.

Hosu looked like nothing he'd seen before. Even seeing Musutafu didn't prepare him for the experience of watching the almost beautiful and intricate cityscape as it all passed by. Giant towers and buildings of concrete and glass, and signs that populated the city everywhere promoting whatever. The city felt alive.

It almost had the grandeur of Atlas city, yet kept the almost humble feeling of Vale. It really was a wonder to the eyes.

He had to admit, whilst these people felt primitive in some of their technology, they certainly made up for it in their architecture.

"It's a nice view isn't it?" Summer said, her eyes still glued outside the window.

"Yeah... it's so pretty," Eri muttered.

"Become a bunch of googly-eyed idiots have we?" Roman interjected.

"Don't try to act like you're not staring as well," Summer commented without even looking at him.

"My, caught red-handed am I? It truly is an amazing view though," Roman said sarcastically, before saying his true thoughts.

"Really? To be honest, I'd thought you'd be more accustomed to it. With how you've been here much longer than I have," Summer turned to him.

"Always new things to see," Roman shrugged. "How about you, kid?" Surprised that you're surprised at all of this."

The kid should have lived in the city for a much longer time, so he'd expected her to be the most accustomed to the view out of the three of them. Then again, she was still a kid.

"I've... just never seen it like this. On a train," Eri blushed.

"Ah, so lived in Musutafu for your whole life then?" Roman asked to which Eri shook her head.

"No, I lived somewhere else before. I... don't remember the name," Eri scratched her cheek, once again blushing.

Moved when she was young then.

He wondered why she was in Musutafu then, much less in such a horrible state he found her in. And while he was curious, she didn't seem keen to say, so he kept it to himself.

The carriage once drifted back in silence, with Roman focusing on the view outside once again, entrancing him.

"... Hey hey man, did you hear about Ingenium?"

"Yeah... it's a shame what happened to him..."

"I can't believe the Hero Killer would so something like this... I just don't feel safe with that monster in Hosu anymore..."

Roman had been ignoring the words near him for most of the time. It was only until did he hear 'Hero Killer' and 'Hosu' together did he finally pay attention.

From what he could put together from the little information he had, it seemed there was a killer loose in Hosu.

Roman turned around to find the strangers who were speaking, eventually pinpointing them to two adults, both who looked in their mid-thirties.

"Hey, if you don't mind," Roman spoke to them. "What's this I hear about a Hero Killer?"

One of the men blinked in surprise as he stared at him, obviously not expecting some stranger to walk up to him and ask about the killer.

"Um, ah... You don't know?" The man asked, his face laced with confusion.

"Sorry, I'm from out of country and came to visit recently. I've just curious as to what this 'Hero Killer' is," Roman spoke in a half truth.

"Ah! A foreigner?" The man asked with wide eyes as Roman nodded.

From what Roman could tell, most of the people here did have a certain distinct look to them. Much different compared to Vale and his own, but close enough to resemblance some Mistralians. So much that it felt uncanny to him.

"Well, there's this new villain in Hosu recently. Popped out of nowhere and well..." The man hesitated.

"Killed heroes?"

Roman blinked as it wasn't him or the two men he faced who responded. Turning his head, he saw Summer just behind him, listening in. Eri was still busy watching the scenery, though she did sneak a glance at them.

"Sorry, I'm a friend of this guy here," Summer smiled as he patted his shoulder.

Friend. Really?

He honestly would have preferred business partner, but friend did work better for this situation.

"Yeah, we both came out of country," Roman laughed. His laugh sounding completely fake to summer, but fooling the two men.

"Ah. Well, yeah. You're right. That... murderer came out of nowhere and began to slaughter heroes," the man gritted out.

"Yeah! That bastard's been scaring off several heroes already. It's... it's just scary living in Hosu right now," the other man beside him spoke up.

"And this, 'Ingenium' was it, is?" Roman asked.

"Ah, here. It's not surprising you wouldn't know. He's not that well known in the hero rankings to be really well known outside of Japan," the first man smiled lightly, but felt strained. He brought up an image on his phone; a news article.

Roman couldn't read anything of the article, but he recognized one thing.

Well, I'll be...

Roman frowned as he stared at a familiar hero. The same white armoured hero that had chased him and Eri before in that alleyway nearly a month back.

But why the hell were you in Musutafu then? Roman asked internally to the image. What was the man doing in Hosu?

"Thanks for the information and notice," Roman wiped his frown and replaced it with a smile.

"It's no problem really-"

"Yeah! Not at all. Just be careful out there you two kids," the second guy cut the first man as he looked at them with worry.

Roman's brow twitched ever so slightly.

Call me a kid again and I will bury my cane up your-

"No, no. Thank you both for sharing this with us. We'll be extra careful when we reach Hosu," Summer gave a small laugh as she thanked the two before looking at him.

He gave her a look back, a message almost passing between them as they met eyes.

It looks like they'll have much more than just heroes to look out for.

o – o – o – o – o

Roman dropped the bags he was carrying unceremoniously on the floor as they entered the small apartment. It was larger than their previous apartment, but that really wasn't saying much. They now at least had the main room being a different room then where the sink was.

Eri entered just behind him, empty-handed as her small body wasn't strong enough to carry any of the bags they brought. And just behind her was Summer, dropping her own load of bags onto the floor as he went to check the sink for clean water, which thankfully, there was.

"So, finally have a new place to stay," Summer stretched as she made her way into the main room. Her white cloak dragging behind her as he and Eri followed her in.

"You really should change up your cloak y'know?" Roman said as he stared at the thing on Summer's back. Apparently what happened before she died messed up her cloak a bit. Not to the same degree as his own apparel had been, but enough that were scratches and several frays at the end of her cloak.

At least on the bright-side, it didn't smell.

Well at least he hoped it didn't.

Summer turned toward him with a frown.

"It's sentimental. Like your cane," she retorted as she sat down near the wall.

"Fine, fine. Keep your torn cloak you hill-billy," Roman gave up. Arguing with someone to change something sentimental to them was not going to work out in his way. It was the same with him. Even if Melodic Cudgel was as useful as a regular cane, he was still going to use it.

"This... room is still small..." Eri whispered. She had said it so lightly that he nearly missed it.

"Well, we don't exactly have the cash to get anything better," Roman flicked Eri's head, admonishing her. "We're literally dirt poor now. I spent almost all of our cash into this room. Just accept what have for now until we start making more cash."

"Hey Roman, by how 'dirt poor' do you mean?" Summer winced.

"Enough to buy food for 3 days," Roman responded dryly.

"Is that some dark joke of yours? Cause I would very much love it to be," Summer grimaced at the thought of their living situation right now.

"It's as real as your apparently natural black to red hair," Roman said as leaned on one of the wall opposite of her. Not believing her hair colour to be natural at all.

"I told that to Eri in confidence," Summer groaned.

"Told it to the brat who has a looser mouth than an escort's-"

"SWEAR!" Summer suddenly shouted. Glaring at him from across the room.

"Really? still on that about swearing?" Roman grinned mockingly. "And I don't think escort even is a swear," Roman pointed out.

"When there's a six year old child and you're the one speaking, it is. Very much so," she said as she scowled at him, but it only made the grin on his face larger.

"And what's your thoughts, kid?" He asked Eri.

She stared at him.

"What's an escort?" Eri asked as Summer's eyes widened in horror.

Roman's grin turned to shit-eating proportions. "Well y'see, kid. An escort is a- gck?!"

Roman fell onto the ground as a metal pipe hit his throat. He laid on the ground, feeling like coughing his adam's apple out.

"Eri, an escort is bad word used by bad people like Roman over there. You don't need to know what it means," Summer answered Eri with a smooth smile.

"U-um... okay..." Eri said, a bit mortified at what just happened.

"Where the fuck did you even get the pipe from!?" Roman scowled as rubbed his throat as he glared at the woman.

His aura may have prevented any actual damage, but that didn't mean it didn't hurt.

"Behind my cloak. And I'll do it again if you swear in front of her," Summer smiled with a smug grin, though her eyes carried a veiled threat.

"Ah, and you think I'm the bad influence? Miss I-will-throw-a-pipe-at-someone's-throat?" Roman grumbled.

"Eh, you'll be fine. A child's innocence is harder to protect," she replied. Not appearing sorry at all.

"And to think, we were getting along together so swell," Roman mocked, but lacked any real energy.

"Guessing how you're talking your throat's fine I see," Summer chuckled.

"It is," Roman creaked his head slightly. "I'm still wondering how you kept this pipe hidden though."

Roman picked up the pipe on the ground. The same one Summer was using earlier to train with on the rooftop. It was three feet long. Where the hell did she hide it.

"Lady's secret," Summer winked, knowing she would never tell him.

Roman kept a straight face before turning to Eri.

"Hey, brat. I'll give you cotton candy if you find out how she did it."

"O-okay!" Eri seemed stunned for a moment before nodding her head enthusiastically.

"Hey!" Roman ignored Summer's indignant yell, a small smug grin on his face after getting one back on her. Eri as well was smiling lightly, apparently finding the situation funny after letting her horrified look pass when he got hit.

Silence rained into the room for a moment before Summer broke it.

"Back in the train," she started. Her face slightly serious now.

Eri seemed to notice the change in mood and went to go take a seat near him.

"Where do you wanna start? Hero Killer or Ingenium?" Roman asked as he read her face.

Summer blinked for a moment. "How'd... how'd you know I was gonna ask about the knight guy?"

"I wasn't exactly hiding my recognition of the hero earlier on the train," Roman stated, though, if he was honest. It was a complete guess on his side if she'd ask about the hero. He wasn't sure she would.

"Who was it?" Summer asked.

"Some random hero. Met him a month ago back in Musutafu when me and the kid tried to rob some pests. Quite the fast hero as well, but we escaped him," Roman shrugged. There really wasn't much to say about them.

"Then how about the Hero Killer?" Summer said. Her tone much more serious and grim.

"About the same as you," Roman frowned. He didn't like having so little information about such a high-risk danger roaming around.

"But, as you can probably guess. Dangerous. Very dangerous," Roman stated. A villain who was able to kill several heroes and escape several times without arrest? Someone like that was obviously a dangerous adversary.

"You'll... be able to stop them, right?" Eri voiced beside him.

Roman gave her a smile as he patter her head. "Yeah, if we meet them they won't stand a chance with me and Summer over there," Roman met Summer's eyes. The woman agreeing with him.

Even if they were de-aged to their younger bodies, much less have their weapons in proper condition. Both of them felt confident enough to deal with a serial killer.

There was still a problem though.

"I need a weapon," Summer said. Her face resolute. It looks like she didn't want to go in with just a pipe.

Roman nodded in understanding. Time to make some cash.

"You up for it tonight, kid?" Roman asked, only to be surprised as Eri nodded. She looked nervous, but it seemed she grew more of a backbone at least.

"I still don't like taking a little girl out hunting," Summer said.

"Relax, we're not hunting 'monsters,'" Roman said with a grin, ignoring the weird look that Eri gave him.

"You're right, but I'm still worried," Summer said with a wary smile.

"If you weren't, then I'd be more worried about your sanity in letting this go," Roman joked, to which surprising himself, Summer laughed.

"If you weren't such an ass, you'd be a better ally," Summer sighed.

"Is that a swear I hear?" Roman said as he tossed her pipe back at her, the woman catching it with ease.

Summer shook her head. "So, when are we gonna start?"

"Tonight," Roman answered, to which both Summer and Eri nodded.

"Let's hope for a good hunt," Summer gripped her pipe tightly.

A/N: I didn't really have anything to go by when choosing what type of weapon or semblance Summer might have had, so I chose what I personally thought fit.

I based her semblance off of the 'The Last Rose of Summer' by Thomas Moore as I thought it'd fit with how she died alone without her allies or friends, as well as the type of cloak she had to really emphasize on the "lone hunter" type of feel I imagined. As for her weapon, I just chose a sword as duels were the closest thing I could come up with for that "alone" feeling.

It's feel's good coming back to writing, and I hope everyone enjoys this new chapter.