Here's chapter 95, everyone.
"Wait, how can you even smell anything? You're not using your semblance, Ice Wolf." Yang stated the obvious while keeping an eye out for any Grimm that might be in the destroyed town.
"I know that, you oaf, but for some reason I can smell something, so don't drop your guard." Weiss said while tightening her grip on Myrtenaster.
Ruby looked around as well, but saw nothing, so she tried calling out to whoever was there. "Hey! If you're a person, yell back! We're here to make sure no Grimm are here!"
Ren didn't like the silence that followed, as he kept his Stormflower at the ready. "Are you sure you smelled something living?"
Weiss sighed. "Look, it's not something I can exactly pinpoint, but I know I can smell something around here. It's not a Grimm I've fought though… So… I don't know what it is."
Nora looked annoyed, hating that something around them could be hiding in the their old home. "If you're not gonna come out, I'll just make sure every spot you can hide in will crush you!"
Ren turned to Nora, not wanting to let her get angrier than she was already, so he placed his hand on her shoulder, using his semblance to calm her down. "Nora…"
The orange haired girl took a few breaths, as her body lost its color for a moment, but after a few seconds, she gained her color back and shook her head a few times. "R-Ren? I got angry again… Didn't I?"
"It's okay, just remember that the others are still here with us. Whatever's out here can't hide forever." Ren assured, and Nora felt terrible for suggesting she would break down even more of Kuroyuri just to crush whatever was around them.
"And they call us monsters, sheesh." A voice said as a woman with red hair walked out of one of the wrecked houses, with a smirk on her face as the group aimed their weapons at her. "Whoa, you kids need to relax."
They didn't lower their weapons, since they had no idea who the woman was. She had long red hair, and her eyes were light brown as she had on simple traveler's clothes, ones that you'd find in Mistral.
"Who are you, and why were you hiding in this place?" Ruby questioned, not lowering her sniper.
"Names don't really matter much, kid, but hey, I'll let you in on a secret. Hiding isn't what I'm doing." She smirked, taking a moment to examine the six students, who didn't look to be part of the group she was trying to ambush. "Oh, and thanks for possibly ruining my plans."
Ren spoke up. "What are you talking about? What plans?"
"Ugh, y'know, I was honestly hoping on running into the people I was planning on ambushing, but it really does look like you're just a bunch of kids." The red haired woman shrugged and walked over to a partially destroyed bench and sat down as a bird flew down and landed on her shoulder. "Hey, I didn't call for you."
Everyone was confused by the woman ignoring them, and the bird looked to them, eyeing Weiss specifically. The bird leaned close to the woman's ear and she raised an eyebrow. After a moment, she looked to Weiss as well, who had noticed at that point.
"What?" Weiss questioned.
"Nothing. Look, you kids should seriously just leave… There's nothing here but danger. I mean, just look at this place." The scarlet haired woman said while motioning her arm around to show the village's destroyed state.
Nora clenched her weapon harder and glared at the woman. "This place was our old home. We're not leaving just because you tell us to."
"I don't really give a crap if any of you leave or not," The woman said, but then looked to Weiss. "Except for you," Weiss was taken aback, and the woman gave her a serious look. "Get out of here while you can, cub."
Weiss' eyes widened, seeing as the woman may somehow know about her wolf 'semblance'. "Excuse me? What did you just call me?"
"You heard me once. I know exactly what you are, so if you know what's good for you, you'll take off before your life ends up ruined." She warned, and Ruby took a step forward.
"If you're threatening her, you better be prepared to get past me first." Ruby said, her silver eyes glaring into the unnamed woman, who simply rolled her eyes.
"I'm not threatening her. I'm helping her." The bird on her shoulder flew up to a dead tree, as the woman got up from the bench and pointed at Weiss, but Ruby got in the way. "Let me guess, you can change into a wolf, right?"
Everyone was shocked by how she could've known that, Weiss especially. "How did you know that?" The white haired teen questioned as she stepped forward, aiming her blade at the woman. "Were you spying on us the entire time?"
"Yes, and while we were, it's not that we had to see you changing to know what you are." She said, not dropping her serious expression from her face. "Your scent, it tells us."
"Us? What I am? What in the world are you talking about?" Weiss growled, but Blake spoke up.
"Don't let this woman get to you, Weiss. She just admitted that there are others with her." When Blake said that, the others started looking around, not wanting to be hit by a sneak attack, and the woman shrugged.
"Clearly you don't know anything about yourself, so in the end, I stick by what I said. Leave this place before you end up ruining your life." The woman suggested as she turned around and started walking away.
"Hey! You can't just walk away!" Weiss yelled as she walked faster to reach her. "I'm speaking to you!"
Not a moment later, the woman spun around and kicked her stomach, making Weiss fumble back and gasp out, as Ruby used her semblance and shot forward, getting behind the woman as she swung her scythe at her after transforming it.
She didn't like the idea of anyone laying a finger on Weiss, so the moment she saw her fall back, she was angry, and went in to break the woman's aura. The red haired woman smirked and jumped over the attack, landing back down as she stretched. "You're pretty fast, kid."
Ruby growled and watched as Blake and Yang were helping Weiss up, while Ren and Nora were running in from behind the woman, trying to get an attack in, but she simply jumped to the right, with her enhanced senses letting her hear them coming.
Weiss coughed a bit, as she sat up and rubbed her stomach. She looked annoyed with the woman, but suddenly the bird that was on her shoulder before flew back down to the woman.
"Hmm?" As the bird leaned in to speak to the unknown woman, she sighed a bit. "Ugh, fine." She looked to the group. "Sorry for what I did, but I'm seriously not here to fight you kids."
"Then why did you kick Weiss like that?!" Ruby yelled out, holding back from charging at the woman.
"Because she won't listen. I'll say it slow this time." That comment annoyed the group. "If you leave. You will be fine. If you stay. I can't protect her."
"Protect her? Protect her from what?" Ruby questioned, and Weiss was able to stand up after that, hearing what she had said.
"Explaining everything to you would be a waste of time, and besides, it's not like she'll have to worry about it. Just as long as you listen to me… And if it helps, my name is Nel, so look, let's just calm down already." Nel said, trying to defuse the situation.
Weiss waked over, holding her stomach as she refused to let that be the end of it. "Not until you tell me what I'm in danger of, and why it's me who is in danger."
"I hate this, but I guess you won't leave it be. Okay, kid. Question, you can change into a wolf, that much I know, but do you know why you can?" Nel asked.
The question was concerning, and the others kept their weapons still aimed at her. "It's my semblance. And just because it's rare doesn't mean it should be looked at differently from other semblances."
"Your semblance? Huh, okay, well that's good. Can you do anything else?" Nel inquired, leading her question to where she believed Weiss would take it.
"Nel, that's enough. This girl doesn't know what she is, so just let them do what they came here for, and then they can go. None of The Relentless are around. We've made sure."
The voice in her head had told her, so Nel sighed and shook her head. "Never mind. You kids can do… Whatever it is you wanted to do. I won't get in the way, but try to hurry it up."
As she said that, everyone was taken aback, since she was so intent on making Weiss leave not moments ago. "W-Wait, you can't just-." Before Weiss could continue, Nel raised her hand up to stop her.
"Look, kid. I made a mix up and now I get that what you do is just your semblance. Nothing more, so like I said, please just do what you wanna do. I'm gonna go nap." Nel stretched and walked into one of the destroyed homes.
Yang blinked a few times. "What the hell just happened?"
"I have no idea, but don't forget that woman talked about others being around." Blake reminded, while Weiss stared at where Nel went off to.
Ruby was looking as well, but with a glare since she hated how Nel had kicked her girlfriend, and a moment later she walked over to Weiss. "Are you okay?"
Weiss rubbed her stomach a bit and nodded, while not looking away from where Nel went. "I'm fine… I think we should just start fixing up the town as much as we can…" She turned away and walked back to Blake and Yang.
Ren and Nora looked to each other for a moment and sighed.
Nel was sighing while looking up at the destroyed roof of the house she was in, and not a moment later she heard the voice in her head speaking again.
"Don't you want to keep an eye on the girl?" The man in her head was using his semblance to speak to her, as she looked up and rolled her eyes.
"Not my kid, not my problem. Besides, you said it yourself. The Relentless aren't around. She'll be fine." Nel kept her hands behind her head.
"You say that, but you clearly tried your hardest to get her to leave, and you know that not many of us are out in the world." The voice countered.
"Torn, I don't really feel like discussing this right now. I'm gonna let her leave without worry." Nel closed her eyes, sighing a bit.
"I understand, Nel. I'll still keep an eye out on her though. The cub may not know what she is, but she was the one able to tell you were around." Torn reminded.
Nel let out a light chuckle. "Just shows that she's learning how to use her heightened sense without having to transform. That's all."
"As I said before, letting her leave is the best scenario for the girl, but maybe guidance is also another path to take for the cub." Torn suggested.
"No. Any of us would bring a danger to her, and you know that. I'll stick with what you first suggested. Letting her leave this place before they show up." Nel responded.
"I won't try to change your mind, Nel. Hopefully the cub will be able to avoid them." Torn said, as Nel nodded, hoping she would be able to.
"Can you get out of my head now? I'm trying to take a nap." After a few moments, she was met with silence, so she sniffled a bit and tried to sleep, but Nel continued thinking of the girl she met a bit ago.
Meeting another of her kind, but also finding out that the girl doesn't even know what she was. It bothered Nel a bit. "You got it lucky, kid… I guess I should continue letting you live that lucky life."
The hawk that was on Nel's shoulder before was on top of the house she was staying in, and it started to fly up as it watched Weiss specifically. It noted her use of glyphs, since Weiss was helping move debris, figuring it was her actual semblance.
"No doubt about it."
Finally getting into more of Weiss' kind. Been really wanting to get to this point, so I hope people enjoyed the introduction to the others out in the world that live in secret.
To JJ- Yang definitely needed that moment, as she has helped others a lot, but she herself has her own demons to face. Luckily the bond she's built with Blake gives her another person to help her deal with her personal issues. Sorry about the cliffhanger last chapter, but I did at least not make it that much of a wait to get to it.
I hoped you all enjoyed chapter 95. Remember, reviews are welcomed, but not required. See you all in chapter 96.