Ghostly Visions and Living Partners

by Forest of Rubies

"A simple huntsman was all they wanted to be, all they planned to be. Life, unluckily, decided to play." Now hear me out about the OCs. There are only three, and only two of which that is considered important. Follows the main plot, with my own spin, but the main focus is on the main cast and the moments between them. POV is from an OC, but I needed it that way for story reasons.

32. Mountain Glenn

And so it begins, the first mission assigned to the first years finally underway. Anyways, I had a lot of fun with this chapter, and I think it went better than I thought it might go, which is good in my opinion. I wouldn't want to send out a chapter and later dislike what it was.

Well, I hope you like the chapter!

Chapter 32: Mountain Glenn

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.(Chapter Start)

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September 11th (Same day)

Wednesday

Clear

The bullhead pulled back up and flew off as the five Beacon students and their Huntsman stepped forward. Azura could see the sun start to dip further as the moon became a bit more prominent, but there were a few more hours in the day before it was truly nightfall.

The city with no name looked just as bad as Azura would have imagined. Grey, dark, desolate, and clearly empty of anything living at the moment. Ruined streets were filled with weeds and other plants, and the crumbling buildings around them were a testament to the disrepair of the entire place. And, to top it all off, there wasn't a single ghost in sight, and it only made the failed city seem that much more desolate and empty.

"Not even a ghost town." Oobleck said. "Quite the sad sight, really."

"It's...kinda creepy." Ruby commented.

"Yes, precisely, Ruby! I coul-" Oobleck paused mid sentence, staring at her. "Ruby Rose, what did I say about extra baggage?!"

"Not to carry more than what you gave us?" Ruby asked, laughing awkwardly.

"And you disobeyed that order?" He asked back.

Ruby scratched the back of her head. "Well...that was before you ordered us to listen to your every word." She chuckles. "So, I didn't."

Azura heard Yang try to not laugh, and a smile grew on his face. Something about what Ruby said was just so sarcastic, yet innocent, and it was rather amusing.

"What could possibly be in that bag that you consider bringing it along anyway?" Oobleck asked, his rapid voice coming into true effect.

"Uh...well.." Ruby began to explain, then Zwei's head popped out and he barked at Oobleck.

Azura fell silent as Oobleck's face went blank, seeming to be shocked. A glance at Yang, Weiss, and Blake showed that they weren't exactly sure what to do here, while Ruby seemed to be somewhat mortified.

"You brought an...Huntsman animal...to an investigation to track Grimm and other things while it was not registered to you..." Oobleck said, as if piecing the puzzle together. "I'd recognize your father's companion anywhere...Ruby, you're a genius!"

"I, uh, what? I am?" Ruby asked confused.

"Yes, you are!" Oobleck cried out. "Oh, this will make the investigation so much easier!"

Azura looked around, getting gazes of confusion, then asked Oobleck what was on everyone's mind. "What are we even investigating, Doctor?"

"Why, young Azura, we're looking to track after Grimm! Oh, and whatever else Ozpin might have said we could find…" A knowing gleam entered his eyes. "Such as whatever the five of you believe might be here."

Azura nodded slowly. "Er, right. And where are we going to find these Grimm?"

"Well, that's part of the investigation! Grimm tracks exist for a reason!" Oobleck responded.

"In any specific fashion?" Weiss asked. "Sir, with all due respect, I don't think any of us know more than the basics of investigating Grimm properly. We shouldn't just blindly do it."

"Nonsense! There is nothing quite like learning on the job!" Oobleck responded. "You'd be surprised by how many Huntsmen learned a new fighting style or aura technique while on the job, Miss Schnee."

"We would need something to learn from, then." Yang said. "Besides, who said an investigation has to be just tracks and boring leaf examining?"

"History, my dear girl, history." Oobleck said. "Or the very thing we are looking for will do it for us."

"What?" Blake asked.

"Turn around, the five of you! Weapons drawn!"

They all spun on a dime, weapons drawn and in hand. While surprised to see Grimm wandering around, they stood their ground and stayed there, watching the creatures walk out onto the street.

"Should we just wait and watch?" Weiss asked, posing defensively.

"No, you silly Huntress-in-training." Oobleck said, laughing. "You are supposed to do the very thing that I am to look at."

"And that is?" Yang asked, shaking her hands out in excitement.

"Show me what you got, ladies." Oobleck said. "Oh, and Azura."

"Just what I was hoping for!" Yang yelled, excitement in her voice as she shot off, shotgun shells sounding off as she launched herself at the now large group of Beowolves that were in the street in front of them.

"Don't have all the fun!" Ruby called out, her semblance sending her off into the fray.

"They are definitely sisters all right." Weiss said, amused as she ran off after them, black glyphs sending her forward.

Blake moved off silently with a smirk, ribbon shooting out as she swung through the air with a standing light post.

Azura rolled his eyes. "Show you what we got, huh?" He felt the petals slowly gather around his feet before shooting off into the sky towards the group of Grimm, aiming towards the flying bird Grimm that fluttered around, squawking. "Summer does like the challenge!"

He spun through the air, slashing at the bird Grimm as they dissipated in large quantities, having no armor to defend themselves. He started falling to the ground, landing with a roll just in front of Yang and slashing both weapons in front of him horizontally and cutting down a semi-large Beowolf.

"Damn, Azura! Let's get going with this!" Yang called out, punching a charging Beowolf with the brute force of a truck.

Yang pushed up ahead of him with a yell of excitement, punching and kicking Beowolves left and right. Shotgun shell after shotgun shell, punch after punch, and Yang was like an unstoppable storm. Shattering the armor on one Beowolves head, cracking through the stomach of another, her yells seeming to add to the strength, and she was like an actual boxer who never fell down.

Azura kept behind her, slicing at any Beowolf that got past her, not that there were many. After several seconds, Azura slid under an Major Beowolf that was sent flying over him, slicing his sword through it as it went by. He got up, hearing Yang call out to him.

"Up and at 'em! See ya later, Azura!"

She ran off, and Azura turned and jumped off again, this time landing on top of a beowolf and crushing it under his weight, stabbing it to make sure it died.

From there, he sliced through several more Beowolves and shot dust at the farther targets, spinning and jumping through the air with Summer's semblance. It took him a moment to realize that the Beowolves were growing large in number, and he was starting to get grazed and hit by several of them. Increasing the speed of Summer's semblance, he danced around and jumped up and over them, taking on a more aerial fighting style as he did so, incorporating downward slashes and quick stabs into his attacks.

A moment later, Blake was also jumping around and kicking Grimm away as she jumped around like a graceful cat. There was no pistol out, but she was slashing with both katana and sheath, dual wielding. Kicking off Beowolves like they were nothing, she was clearly staying in the air much better than him.

Azura shot more dust around him, slowing and shocking the Beowolves directly around him long enough for him to land and spin with a speed only manageable with Summer's semblance, his dagger and sword ripping into Beowolves. Though, the number of Beowolves never seemed to go down at all while fighting, and he leaned back and away from the clawed paw swinging at him. Blake wasn't fairing much better, despite her jumping around on top of them.

"Azura, Ferocity!" Blake called out to him.

Azura jumped into the air, seeing Blake practically smash a Beowolves jaw into the ground forcefully, jumping high into the air. They met within the air, and two clones appeared next to them. They both took one and slammed them towards the ground, the clones exploding in fire dust and taking out a large chunk out of the group of Beowolves and blowing the others away.

The two of them landed, nodding, and moved off again. Azura ran through the street, killing one or two Beowolves as they went to attack him. Joining Weiss, he zipped past her and bounced around the two buildings on either side of the street, slicing limbs off of the Beowolves and hearing the familiar hum and buzz of Weiss's glyphs as she bounced on summoned ones up and in the sky and dealing killing blows to the wounded Grimm.

Weiss stopped next to where Azura did, taking a breath.

"Is there always this many Beowolves in a pack?" She asked aloud.

"Well, be glad that you got a fifth then." Azura responded, twisting the weapons in his hands as he felt Summer's movements try to break free beyond his own following. "We're all getting into it though!"

The roar of a Major Beowolf sounded among the chaos of fighting, and it's armored shell stiffened as it charged towards them.

"You jump and slam down, I'll send it towards you." Weiss said, speeding off without another word.

Not wanting to annoy the bossy girl, Azura sped forward and leapt into the sky. He put aura into both weapons, feeling the clash of both blades as aura swept into them and he put them together. As he reached the apex of his jump, he could see Weiss bouncing around her glyphs and weakening the shell.

A moment later, a large glyph appeared below the Major Beowolf and it was flung up as Azura fell. Just as Azura and the Grimm were about to meet, he slashed down and forced his momentum down as the ethereal cloak fluttered and petals scattered in the sky.

"Aether!" He called out, the signature name ringing out nicely to him.

He crashed down on the ground, the Major Beowolf vanishing into the black mist of a dead Grimm before landing on the ground. He got up, feeling Weiss zip past him and skewer a Beowolf.

Not a word was said as Azura sprinted past Weiss and back into the main part of the street. Ruby was there, slicing and spinning Crescent Rose around her body as it tore through Beowolves like warm butter. She jumped back as some Beowolves jumped at her prior position, slashing at air, and landed by Azura.

"Let's do this!" She yelled. "Petal Swap!"

What seemed to be the last group of the Beowolves charged at them with reckless abandon, and Azura stabbed forward with his sword and slashing to his left with the dagger, feeling Ruby's scythe head swing by horizontally to his right.

"Switch!"

Azura twisted and slashed down into another Beowolf with his sword. He dragged the blade out and cut in front of him with both weapons.

"Duck!"

Azura did so, seeing the Beowolf in front of him get sliced clean through. He turned as another Beowolf got sent flying overhead, and saw Ruby get pushed back, her long scythe not the best option as they got too close.

"Jump switch!" Azura called, and Ruby jumped into the sky.

He stepped forward hastily at the Beowolves to attack, cutting arms off as he did so, then jumped up and saw Ruby slice through them with ease, since they were crippled. One last Beowolf could be seen, and Azura landed as Ruby switched her scythe into more of a large spear, the scythe head straightening out, and simply impaled the last Grimm.

The sounds of fighting died off, and they were left in the silence again, looking around to find Grimm that might have been hiding as they breathed heavily, then relaxing once nothing else came up. Azura stretched his arms and put his weapons away, Ruby following suit. Weiss, Blake, and Yang jogged back up to join Azura and Ruby.

"Well, that was fun." Yang said, grinning as she cracked her neck.

"There were…" Blake said, being cut off by Weiss.

"A lot. A whole lot of Beowolves."

"That's positively true, Weiss." Oobleck said, approaching them. "Excellent job, all of you. If we were here just for combat analysis, you would all be passed and moving on."

"Thanks, Doc." Yang said, trying to fix her hair.

"Really, a great showcasing of your skills, all of you." Oobleck said. "Now that they are gone, I can continue with what I was going to have us do."

"And what's that?" Ruby asked, having caught her breath fully.

"Why, that would be splitting us up into two groups. We can cover more ground, and not to worry, we won't be far from each other. Two streets apart at most."

Azura nodded, looking up from his scroll for aura levels. He and Weiss had used a good amount, but they had pretty good aura regeneration. "I guess that makes sense. What are the groups going to be?"

Oobleck looked among them. "You, myself, and Miss Xiao Long will be group one, and we'll stay within this street and move from there. Your team leader, Belladonna, and Miss Schnee will be group two, staying on a street ahead of us."

As they moved into the groups they were assigned to, Oobleck spoke again. "Be careful. Remember your training, your mission, and to meet up as night starts to set in. We'll investigate until nightfall, then set up camp for the night."

They all nodded, and Oobleck nodded back. "Excellent. Now, let us begin."

Ruby's group moved off, jogging off and through an alleyway that led onto the street next to them. Oobleck continued down the street they were on, and Azura sheathed his weapons to follow after him with Yang to his side.

Azura looked around again, not seeing any more Grimm around from where the pack of Beowolves came from, and nodded. Better to know that the whole pack was gone than to be surprised, as Luna might tell him. The crunch of broken glass could be heard as they stepped past a small building that seemed to have been a store at one time. The windows had been broken, and the inside wasn't in any better shape, and Azura sighed as he thought of what could have been here.

"This was once a marketplace, if you two could not tell." Oobleck said. "Would have been lively if all went well."

"I can tell. This place isn't even a ghost town, either." Azura said in response. "No sign of anything other than us and the Grimm we saw."

Oobleck kept moving forward, stopping in place near a building and crouching down by the downtrodden plant in front of it. He spoke as he examined it.

"That goes double for what you say. Ozpin has informed me of your semblance prior to the mission, so for you to say that there's nothing other than us and some Grimm is...either good or very unfortunate."

"I'll stick with good, if you don't mind." Yang said, looking around. "Grimm I can fight. Plus, I'd rather not have Azura get kidnapped by the dead or something."

"I've...never thought of that." Azura said, voicing his thoughts. "And I intend to not think about it, unless you want me to become paranoid." He finished, laughing for a moment.

"Well, just use that thingy you do to make Luna visible and we'll see whoever is trying to ghostnap you. We'll beat 'em up for ya." Yang replied.

Azura shrugged. "If anyone other than me could stop them, that is."

"Don't see why they wouldn't be able to be stopped by a good ol' punch from me." Yang said, raising an eyebrow at him in a questioning manner.

As they turned down onto another street, a glimpse of Ruby's red cloak visible on the nearby street on their right catching Azura's eyes, he responded. "Well, I've never really seen any actual damage on Luna from combat other than training with me. As far as I know, I'm the only one who can injure a ghost with my semblance fully active."

"That might require some actual testing, you know." Yang said, rolling her eyes.

"True. We'll have to find out when we get back to Beacon, though."

"Enough chatter." Oobleck said, waving them over. "Grimm tracks are here and prime to be studied."

They walked over and looked at the area that Oobleck was looking at. He pointed around at the sets of tracks among the path, and the indents on the grass were slightly easier to see the more Azura looked at them.

"Well, go on. Tell me what it looks like to you." Oobleck said, waving a hand to Azura and Yang.

"Uh, well, they're more hoove-like. That kinda throws the idea of Beowolves and Ursas out the window." Yang spoke, looking down. "And we haven't seen anything that might suggest a larger Grimm beyond that."

"Boarbatusks, then." Oobleck stated, nodding his head. "What else?"

"There's no Major among them. There's actually not that many of them there in the first place, but all of the hooves there have no extended protrusions on them." Summer said, analyzing the tracks.

Luna looked up from looking at the tracks, holding a hand up with four fingers.

"There's not many even in the group, at least this one. Four of them, and no Major Boarbatusk either. Which is odd, since most Grimm that roam areas like this together have at least one to follow."

"Correct. It's certainly an odd thing to have, though it's possible that the Major was simply not here with them. The tracks are also rather recent...they could be nearby." Oobleck said, looking around.

"We could try to follow after them, right?" Yang asked.

"We could, yes." Oobleck said, moving while looking at the tracks. "Actually...they follow up this road anyway. Let us see just how close they are."

Oobleck kept his eyes on the tracks as he continued forward, and Azura and Yang followed after him again. The tracks continued, broken up slightly by the roads that intersected the one they were on, and Azura turned to see Ruby, Wiess, and Blake watching Zwei sniff at the ground around them.

Moving past that, the three of them ended up in front of the entrance to a broken down parking garage, and the tracks tapered off after that, suggesting that the Boarbatusks were within. Azura looked at Yang, who shrugged, while Oobleck was frowning as he looked from the tracks to the parking garage.

"This close...this could be a problem if not dealt with." The green-haired man said, sighing. He stood up, turning to Azura and Yang. "You two will go in and look for them, try to not get spotted by them. We might have only seen four sets of tracks, but it's very possible that there are more than we suspect."

They nodded, but Yang quickly spoke up. "What about you?"

"I must inform your teammates that we've come across an active Grimm nest. And to have them report if they have seen anything." Oobleck answered, adjusting his brown trench coat.

Without another word, the man walked off, and the two students looked at each other, both confused, yet unsurprised.

"Well, okay then. Shall we enter?" Azura asked.

"Eh, we were told to. Let's go." Yang responded, walking inside.

Azura followed her, two steps behind. The inside of the parking garage was mostly empty, besides the broken down and rusted cars that were still in parking spots. The paint for the spots and the signs on the pillars were mostly faded and almost unrecognizable at this point, and Azura frowned at the dry bloodstains in the tarmac, though no bodies remained.

"This is the creepiest parking garage I've ever seen." Yang commented aloud, as if trying to fill the silence.

"Can't say I disagree." Azura responded. "You see any sign of the Grimm here?"

"Not on the first floor. We'll have to go up."

They kept going in silence, up onto the second floor of the parking garage. They saw most of the same things as they did on the first floor, but it wasn't the sights that made them stop their movement.

"Noise, movement." Azura whispered.

Yang nodded, pointing up. Azura listened more closely, hearing the movement he had just called. The sounds of hooves on a hard surface, and the snort of the Boarbatusks they were looking for. There was no way to tell how many there were for sure, a fact that Azura did not like.

They crouched down, moving forward again, this time at a slower pace than before. They creeped around, hearing the sounds of the Boarbatusks shuffle and move around above them. Azura, near enough to Yang to continue whispering, spoke to her.

"They're staying in the back of the third floor. Likely a small group still, but more than four. Should we find Oobleck?"

Yang shook her head, pointing behind her. Azura turned to look, seeing Oobleck watching them. The man nodded silently, and Azura turned back.

"I guess it'll be just us, then." Summer commented quietly.

They started to creep up to the third floor, and they stopped and stood against the wall at the top of the ramp leading up, looking at each other again.

"I'll look." Azura whispered, receiving another nod.

He stepped forward slowly and with caution, turning his head and peeking past the wall to see what he would find. The boarbatusks were shuffling around, and if Azura could guess, like they were restless. An odd thought to apply to a Grimm, but that's how he saw it.

A headcount showed that there were six Boarbatusks in total, and Azura waved at Luna to have her look around as well. She floated off, turning a corner and vanishing for a few moments, then came back to him.

"I saw six normal Boarbatusks. You?" Azura whispered.

The white fox Faunus nodded her head, holding up her hands and playing a small game of charades to try and explain herself. It took a few moments, but Azura was able to see what she was trying to tell him, and turned to Yang.

"Six Boarbatusks, one Major Boarbatusk. Are you ready for a fight?"

Yang smirked, whispering. "Always."

"No chance of a surprise attack, either. Floor's pretty empty." He whispered back.

Yang nodded. "I'll go out there with you."

Azura turned to look again, then turned away and breathed in and out, taking out his weapons and nodding. Dashing out, he and Yang quickly caught the attention of the Boarbatusks there. The nearest of the three shook their heads and started dashing towards them, and Azura smirked at the simple nature of Boarbatusks.

Luna came flourishing into visibility, grabbing one of the tusks on the Boarbatusk to his left and stepping through the air with a flip and letting it fall and slide onto the ground to attack it. Yang, at that same moment, stamped down as the Boarbatusk to his right hit her, and she grunted with effort as she stopped its charge by grabbing its tusks and flipping it over behind her.

Azura leapt forward, feet first, above the Boarbatusk in the center, grabbing onto the tusks and letting Summer's semblance do the rest of the work to flip his own Boarbatusk over on its back. He stabbed the dagger into its exposed stomach, dragging it towards him before ripping it out and letting the Boarbatusk evaporate.

Three down, four to go.

Luna stayed in the air while Yang dashed forward, and Azura sprinted by and centered in on the Boarbatusk that Luna just flipped over to stab it in the stomach. Yang growled to his side, breaking off a tusk each from the other two Boarbatusks, smashing their protective shells on their heads with a well-timed and brutal punch and jabbing the tusks into their heads. They all grouped up again, watching the Major Boarbatusk staring at them and growling as it stamped its hooves.

"That's one way to kill them. You got a plan for the big guy?" Azura asked, glancing at Yang.

"Cut the back of its legs until it falls over and I'll get a good punch in." Yang replied, shaking her hands with a smile on her face.

"Just a good punch?"

"It's all I'll need."

The Major Boarbatusk charged them with surprising speed for it's huge bulking size, the bone structures covering most of its body, minus the legs. Luna made her way to its left side, dashing past it while Azura did the same on the right side. They skidded to a stop next to each other, behind it, and dashed forward to slash at its hind legs. While hurt, the Boarbatusk was still standing and seemed to grow angry, thrashing with its body and forcing them away from it.

It attempted to charge again, and Azura and Luna once again tried to knock it down mid-charge. They cut it again, and it stumbled for a moment before swinging around and smashing into Azura and sending him flying away. He yelled out in surprise and grunted in pain as he hit a pillar, hearing it crack behind him.

Coming to his senses, he started to get up and looked to the fight. Luna had stabbed the Major Boarbatusk in the leg, forcing it to try and break free, but it was already too late. Yang's eyes flashed red and her hair was set ablaze for him to see. She yelled out, pulling back and punching the Major Boarbatusk. The bone plate on its face shattered and it was set flying and through the wall itself, falling as it already started to dissipate.

Azura got up while Yang shook her head and spoke. "I guess taking those hits were useful for something. Trusty semblance."

"Trusty indeed. Excellent fighting and coordination, I must say." Oobleck said, coming out to join them.

"You were watching?" Azura asked, cracking his back as he did so.

"Yes, I was."

"And you didn't join to help us?" Yang asked. "I mean, I don't know, I was kind of expecting to see a trained Huntsman in action or something."

"My job right now is to oversee the progress of the five students here and make sure they are safe while completing their mission." Oobleck replied. "There is no need to step in when you had things handled easily enough."

"I guess. Would be kind of cool to see you fight, though." Yang said.

"Tell me, Miss Xiao Long. Why did you want to become a Huntress?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I...well, I'm a thrillseeker. I like to fight and see what kind of adventures I can get into. And well, if I get to save people while doing so, that's also pretty great." Yang responded, tilting her head. "Why do you want to know?"

"Call it a curiosity." Oobleck said. "Is that all you have to say?"

"Er, well...yeah."

"I see." He said as he turned around, and started to walk off. "Camp is being set up as we speak, night is falling upon us. Make sure to join us for whoever gets the first watch of the night." He paused, turning to look back once more. "And Yang, if that truly is all you see in this line of work...I would think hard about whether or not you want it."

He left then, and Yang looked down as she frowned. "Is that...all? Is it?"

Azura frowned, not liking the doubt in her words. It was rather unlike her. He approached her slowly, nudging her with a shoulder. She looked at him, and he finally spoke.

"If you're asking me, I think you're in the right place as you are. Not just because of your strength or how your semblance works or whatever, but your heart." He smiled. "You've got the heart of a Huntsman, that's for sure. Maybe you just have to figure out what you truly want from it."

Azura nodded, patting Yang on the arm with a hand. "Don't doubt yourself. You'll find out what you want."

He walked off, and after a few seconds, he heard Yang start to walk and catch up to him. "Thanks."

Azura smiled, feeling Summer smile as well. He just hoped that Oobleck's words didn't bother her too much. He also hoped he didn't get the first watch. He had a city to look around for what Ozpin asked of him.

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.(Line Break)

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Sneaking off from the group had been easy enough. Yang had accepted to take the first watch of the night, and once she was away and the others were fully asleep, he had simply snuck up to the top of the parking garage, hood up and zipped, and, using Summer's semblance, jumped from the roof of the parking garage onto a nearby building that was just about the same height, if a little smaller.

The only thing he didn't like about this right now was being away from the fire that had been burning. It might have been put out by now, but the area they were sleeping in was much warmer than out in the open. The chilly wind swept by him as he jumped from one building from the other, Luna helping to catch him for a smoother landing, trying to find the northern district of the city.

"The parking garage is just about in the southwest corner of the city, and we haven't deviated from the scenery and walls on our left, so we should eventually find it." Summer said. "It's just a matter of time."

A matter of time, however small, didn't matter too much to him. The cold and dead ruins of the city around Mountain Glenn did not sit right with him, for several reasons. As Azura landed on another roof, he paused to step on the edge and look around him.

The dull grey and black colors of the buildings made the place feel like all sense of emotion that might have been here was gone, washed away with the paint. Very little color was visible, despite his good Faunus vision and the moonlight, and as he looked down to the streets, watching some Beowolves slowly walk through, he frowned.

"This place is too dead, Summer. Not a sign of life or even a ghost in sight, just dry plants and Grimm. I don't like it one bit." Azura said, shaking his head.

"Not wrong there. Do you think…" Summer started to ask, trailing off.

"That they don't want to even be here anymore? Enough to vanish?" Azura finished for her.

"Yeah."

Azura sighed, turning and jumping with Summer's semblance again, getting back into the routine of jumping across the roofs. "Doubt it. They have to be here somewhere…"

He wasn't too sure of those words, but he decided it was better to let the idea at least be there. He supposed that, if there were no ghosts, that they had moved on beyond their desires and regrets. But was it possible to have that be the case when your life just suddenly ends one disastrous day?

Again, Azura wasn't sure of the answer to that question, and Summer definitely had no proper answer either. Perhaps no one ever would. Azura shook his head, banishing the thoughts for now, and focused on the task at hand.

"At least I can actually see the northern wall from here. That means that, while big, this place isn't nearly on the scale of the actual city of Vale." Azura said, thinking about it. "It realistically takes only twenty minutes or so to get close via your semblance."

"So it would seem. Which means that we're just about to enter the Northern district of the city. Let's stop near the north wall and look around a bit more slowly from there." Summer advised.

Azura nodded and kept going until he got near the north wall, stopping to stand on a decently tall building to look around and try to spot anything worthwhile. This part of the city looked a bit more advanced, though any powersource to light the buildings here were clearly dead and not usable in any capacity.

It almost reminded Azura of the richer district of the city of Vale, or even of Beacon itself. There was a regal look and design to the entire place, and it seemed like most of the technological stuff here, while gone, destroyed, or useless now, were used the most. Medical buildings such as hospitals could be seen, while some other unknown facilities could be seen.

"Not exactly a place for people to live. Guess that's why the southern areas have more houses and apartments than anything else. Maybe the city was built like a grid or something." Azura said, trying to lay out his thoughts.

"I can see that being the case. Better to stay organized in a place like this, really. But, I can see why Ozpin thinks that this doctor's lab or whatever is in this part of the city, secret or not. I'm sure he had a lot of influence in these kinds of places, so it would be easier if he worked just in this area and not across and all over the city itself." Summer stated, giving her own thoughts on it.

Azura nodded, still looking around. "We'll need to mark down certain buildings, then. Try and narrow things down from there, make it easier for the days to come."

"Works with me. We should try to get a mental map of this area and mark buildings down from there. I'd say medical buildings and clearly technology oriented buildings would be the best bets we have, but we should also mark down any other suspicious area."

And that was exactly how Azura spent his time for the night. Jumping between buildings, avoiding the streets below in case of Grimm. Luna was down there for him, to get a closer look at the buildings they were looking for in the first place. Some places were medical facilities, others were museums that were technology focused, and hospitals and science related buildings were also marked down.

When Azura checked his scroll after having gotten just about half of the way through the northern district of the ruined city, not seeing too many buildings beyond that caught his eye or drew suspicion to itself, and frowned at the time.

"It's getting late, I should start to head back soon." He said quietly to himself.

"Well, let's rest a bit, get some aura back, and then we can head back." Summer said.

Azura nodded, sitting down on the edge of the building he was on, looking around the place. It didn't take long for Luna to return and sit down with him. He leaned to the side, placing himself on Luna's shoulder and looking up at the sky. Luna returned the gesture and laid her head on his shoulder.

The night sky was clear and the stars bright. The broken moon shined down upon them, and silence enveloped the three of them as they took time to just appreciate the beauty of the night, despite the dark nature of the city ruins they were in. It was nice, again, to have that silence. No one but the ghosts he trusted his life with and the nature around them.

No Grimm. No bad omens. No pressure from those around him, though he felt he was blessed by some higher being for what he had. Wonderful friends he would fight alongside, and beginning to understand the woman in his head. A semblance that, while made in times of hardship and grief, allowed him to see more than just one side of life.

"Not all things must be doom and gloom, you know." Summer said, warmth in her tone. "You've reminded me of that fact."

Azura smiled, looking up at the moon, shattered and broken. "Very true, Summer. I'm just thinking about stuff that probably looks a lot darker than it really is."

Summer laughs then, the sound slightly echoing to him. "When we get back, I'm having you bake cookies. You don't happen to bake at all, do you?"

"No, never. At least, not often enough to be good at it."

"Well, perhaps you'll be better with someone who can bake inside of your head." Summer said. "Anyways, we should really get heading back. Yang's watch is over soon."

Azura nodded, getting up and having Luna follow him up. Taking one last look at the area he would be spending quite a few nighttime hours in, he turned away and started to make his way back to the parking garage he was supposed to be sleeping in with everyone else.

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.(Chapter End)

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All I have to say here is that I'm excited to get into these next few chapters!

Have a nice day/evening!