Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY or any recognizable characters from other series.
Now that it has been brought to my attention I have noticed that some places have had some variation of a no faunus sign. It's not all of them, not even half but still a noticeable amount maybe a third or a quarter.
In the end, we just got some food from a food stand. I didn't even bother eating my portion and just tossed it into my inventory until we got back to the room.
"So what now, look for a weapon shop? I'm low on bolts." Nora asked after finishing her burrito like food, "I would have already been out if we hadn't picked up the ones I already shot."
"Clothes first the two of us only really have a single outfit and they are both filthy or falling apart," I answer, pulling my shirt further out from under my open coat revealing a large dark stain on the orange fabric.
Looking down at her own clothes that are covered in dirt with many rips and tears most of which had been patched or sewn shut by someone back in the previous village. She lifts her foot only to have part of the sole of her taped together shoe dangling from it.
After looking around for a while, we found a clothing store. I made sure to check the outside for anti-faunus signs. As long as my mouth is covered I could probably go into most places unnoticed, well not exactly unnoticed given I always seem to draw attention. But without seeing my teeth, you wouldn't know I wasn't human, but I still wouldn't give my money to any more bigots.
In entering the shop I found my caution unnecessary as the person behind the register was an obvious faunus woman with the two white mouse ears atop her head. At our entrance she looked up from the book she was reading.
"Welcome, may I be of assistance" she said, as she set the book down.
"Yeah, we need some new clothes" I say, standing near the doorway and looking around the shop.
She looks over the two of us.
I begin to reach into my pocket to show her we have money, but before I can, she abruptly stands up.
"Ok, I'll start with the little miss first" she says excitedly, quickly moving around the counter she was behind and taking Nora by the hand after she gives me her spear and the familiar egg and is led further into the store.
"Feel free to look around while I help her," she says back to me then turns her attention to Nora. "Do you have a favorite color dear?"
"Pink!" Nora replies as they proceed to the other side of the store.
Now alone, I move to the rack of shirts and look through them for anything in my size.
After a few minutes I heard the shop door open and someone else entered. There was a welcome from the shopkeeper who was near the back, who was still helping Nora.
While I was looking at the shirts, the person from before came over and started looking through the rack nearby.
"Hey," came from the person next to me.
I turn my head in the direction of the greeting.
There stood a slightly older-looking boy with dreadlocked moss green hair tied back into a wild ponytail. He wore a black tank top with matching fingerless gloves and a pair of long brown cargo pants. He wasn't looking at me as he continued to look through the clothes in front of him.
"Hey" was all I said, then went back to look through the shirts myself, assuming he was just being polite with the greeting.
"I saw what happened at the BBQ joint. That was messed up what they did to you, a paying customer, no less" he said as he rummaged through the racks of clothes. "You didn't even ask for a refund."
"Yeah, I highly doubt they would have given me one seeing they thought I was trying to sneak in or something".
"Well, with all that food you took or whatever you did you probably got some of your money's worth anyway" he said, causing me to halt what I was doing.
Fuck, this kid saw me use my inventory to take all that food now I have to deal with him, this is probably going to be annoying.
"H-hey ca-calm down, you don't have to give me such a scary look. I haven't told anyone," he says, arms up in a placating manner.
"Then what do you want?" I ask, not letting up on my glare.
"I just think it's unfair how they treated you is all, you were a paying customer and you should get what you paid for."
"And you're suggesting what? I go back and take more food, I highly doubt I'll be able to 'sneak in' a second time."
"Well not now obviously" he says, completely giving up on his charade of looking at clothes and turning to face me. "But later when they're closed, I got someone who could break us in, and with that semblance of yours, you could easily carry way more than what me and my boys could take out on our own."
"Ah, I see you're here cause you want me to help you rob the place with my ability.
"Yeah, we break you in, then you get all you can carry, then we split it between us. You get what you pay for, that place learns a lesson, and me and mine get a portion of that food for a commission for getting you in" he says, an air of self-satisfaction on his face.
"First off, what makes you think I won't just go to the..."
Does this world have police or do the hunters also serve as law enforcement? No, I'm pretty sure I've seen police before in RWBY. I don't know if there are any outside of the main kingdoms, but there are definitely hunters here.
"Hunters and tell them of your plan?" I finished.
A bigger smile crept across his face. "You really want to protect the place run by racists that kicked you out?"
True, even knowing his plan I'm not going to do anything to help that place.
"...fair point then why were you even playing to rob a buffet of all places?"
"Just seeing what you could do it looks like a good opportunity, besides what would you expect us to go for? There isn't anything like a bank out here and if there was, it would be heavily guarded. A food joint would be much easier. We would get a load of free food, which would almost be as good as money, and it doesn't have much security."
"So you want in?" he asked, holding out his hand to shake.
[Quest: Revenge is a dish best served barbequed]
Objective - Steal and get away with more than half of the food from the barbeque buffet.
Reward - 1500 EXP
Reward - Half of all the food you steal
It's been a while since I've gotten a new quest, and I don't really want to turn down EXP. If things look dicy I can always just cut my losses and just back out.
Giving a shrug "Sure, I'm down," I reply as I go back to looking for new clothes leaving his hand unshaken.
I don't trust this kid at all, but seeing as I got a quest he should at least be able to get me in so I can attempt it.
"Great, we'll meet here at midnight tonight" he says, unfazed by my refusal to shake his hand. He started to walk off seemingly talking to me was the only reason he came to the store, but after a few steps,he turned back. "Oh and a piece of advice, when you're trying to steal something, try to look less suspicious, obviously looking around for cameras and such like you did in the buffet is a dead giveaway when you are planning to do something."
"Ah... Thanks for the tip" so I guess he noticed me before I even started using my inventory. I better be careful with that from now on.
As I watched the boy leave I realized he didn't give me his name. A quick [Observe] fixes that.
Ains
Race: Human
Level 3
HP – 140
VIT – 14
STR – 11
DEX – 13
INT – 12
WIS – 14
CHA – 12
LUK – 14
Only level 3 and no aura, so I guess he's a common theft and human. I could be wrong, but I doubt that he cared about my treatment in the least, and only wishes to gain advantage of my 'Semblance' whatever the case, I need to keep my guard up while working with him.
"Rain look", Nora says as she runs towards me in her new attire.
Her new outfit consisted of short pink overalls, a black tank top, and an unzipped light gray hoodie. Her shoes were mostly pink and matched her new overalls.
"How do I look?" she asks, stopping in front of me and turning herself completely around to show me the entirety of her outfit.
"You look adorable," I replied.
Her face lights up at the praise. "I know right", she says giggling then she turns to the shopkeeper who had followed her. "I'll take this one."
"You should probably get more than one outfit" I say to her.
"Do we have the lien for that?"
Due to the interruption from Ains, I haven't even looked at the prices of anything yet.
"How much would this all cost?" I ask the shop owner while gesturing towards Nora's new outfit.
"About one hundred and twenty lien for all of it with the shoes," she answered.
"Yeah that's fine, get another two and I'll get a couple for myself and we should be good for a while."
We actually have quite a bit of lien, over four thousand it says on my hud most of which we took from Kuroyuri, and I get a decent amount for free near every time we kill a grimm thanks to my scarf. So long as we can keep killing grimm money won't be an issue for us anytime soon.
"Do you like the outfits we already picked out?" asked the shopkeeper to Nora as she laid some of the other clothes she was carrying on a nearby table for her to look at.
With Nora now looking at the various outfits, the now free shopkeeper moved onto me.
"Is there a color you prefer?" she asked.
"No, not really, it doesn't really matter does it?"
"Most hunters tend to have a color scheme they like to follow" she says pointing in the direction of Nora and the array of pink outfits she was picking through.
"Ah, I see."
Before I came here, I wore a lot of dark colors, but that doesn't really work well with my light magic, but I'm not going with a bright color like yellow. I look down at my coat which is a dark gray and my scarf that's black and white.
"I guess I'll go with gray."
I probably should have picked a brighter theme given my name, but I wouldn't be able to take myself seriously if it was some sort of rainbow mishmash of colors.
A few minutes later I was in the changing room trying on one of the outfits I was given. Dark gray jeans with a simple light gray shirt and black boots along with my same coat and scarf rounded out my current look.
After picking out a couple more shirts and jeans of differing shades of gray and paying for them alongside Nora's outfits, we left the shop.
"Now to find somewhere to get this dent in my shield fixed and you some more bolts," I say to Nora who is strapping back on her egg carrier.
We ended up having to ask for directions to the weapon shop.
"Sorry, I just sell weapons and ammo here, I don't make or fix them," says the guy running the store as he sits out some crossbow bolts for Nora to look at. I have some basic shields for sale, but they are a bit on the larger side.
He points toward the tower shields that were equal in height to myself.
"I'll pass."
After Nora purchased some more bolts, some ordinary and a few various ones infused with different kinds of elemental dust.
By the time we were done it was getting dark, so we grabbed some food to go from a burger place that we passed on our way back to the inn.
As midnight approached, I climbed from my bed as quietly as I could got dressed and grabbed my weapons. I headed for the door but as soon as I grasped the handle.
"Rain where are you going?" asked Nora, now sitting up in her bed adjusting the familiar egg she was sleeping with so it rested in her lap.
I turned my head toward her, "Ah, I'm just going out for a bit I'll be back."
"I'm coming then too," she states, removing her blanket and moving to the edge of her bed.
"No, it's fine, you can just go back to sleep. I'm just going out for some air."
Pointing at my shield on my back, "So why are you taking your weapons?"
"I told you before it's always better to have a weapon within arms reach."
At my answer, she got out of her bed and placed the egg under the covers, then moved to right in front of me, her face looked serious as she stood there for a few moments.
"You don't have to tell me what you're doing, but don't pointlessly lie."
"Sorry, look, some people are going to break into that buffet we went to and steal their food."
"And because of what they did to us, you're going to help them."
"I know I shouldn't be trying to get revenge, but-"
"No, I'm ok with it," she says, cutting my excuse off.
"You are?" I asked, puzzled at her approval of my participation in the burglary.
"I'm not going to take the side of people who hate others based on something they can't control, especially if the person they hate is my friend."
I don't really know what reaction I was expecting from a girl who would be okay with breaking a bullies bones.
"So I'm going to help", she says as she starts to go for her weapons.
Of course she would.
"Nora, it's not that I don't appreciate your willingness to help, but from what I would guess we will be sneaking in and out, and you somewhat lack... subtlety."
"I can be subtle."
I raise an eyebrow at her statement.
"...I can try to be subtle, and if something happens we can use my semblance as an escape" she tries to reason with me.
"Have you trained with it at all. Because unless you can now control where it takes you and you no longer pass out after its use, it would be more of a gamble and a possible hindrance if things go wrong."
She sits her spear back down and begins to look dejected.
"Look, I'll be gone only for an hour or two at most", I say trying to cheer her up.
She sits back down on her bed, pulling the familiar egg from under the blankets and hugging it "Even so that's the longest we've been apart."
Is it really? Now that I think back to the past five weeks since we've met. We haven't been away from one another for more than maybe half an hour at the most.
"What if something happens to you while I'm waiting here, I wouldn't even know if you're alright?" she asked, keeping her head down.
"I highly doubt anything will happen and I'll just be on the other side of the Higanbana, and if anything goes wrong, I'll just leave.
My reply did not seem to lift her spirits at all. Thinking of something that may help the situation, I walk over to her.
"Nora, give me your hand."
At my request, she holds out her left hand palm up. I turn it over so the back is facing up and reach into my coat and pull the [Ring of Oath] from my inventory and place it on her ring finger.
"Wha I uh I it's" she stammered out as her face began to redden.
"It's a ring of oath, it's a… special kind of ring", I start to explain.
I took my own and showed it to her, then put it on my finger. For a moment the pink gem on hers and the gray gem on my own glowed briefly. I could feel the increase in stats once it was on.
"While you're wearing it, you should be able to feel when others are wearing ones that are bound to each other."
Removing my ring then placing it back on caused the gems to briefly glow again.
"Yeah, I do feel differently... better while you have yours on" she says, gazing at her ring in amazement.
"They work no matter how far we are apart, so no matter what, we are always connected."
+5 Affection with Nora Brynhildr for giving her the [Ring of Oath]. [65/100]
She quickly schools the large smile on her face and looks up at me.
"Don't think I'm not going to still be upset with you having me stay here just because you gave me this. I wont be bribed so easily."
"Ah, well in that case, you can give it back", I say to her teasingly.
Cradling the hand with the ring close to her, she leans back "You already gave it to me so no take backs and as long as I have this, I will always feel that you're ok, so you have to keep yours on always too."
"No worries, I have no plans to take it off and I'll be back as soon as I can."
After a quick hug, I headed for the door.
"And get some of those small sausages," she says as I go out the door.
Author's notes: This chapter is a day late due to me deciding to spend the week rewatching the first season of Rezero then what was available of season 2 then reading a fic of the characters watching the first season so yeah.
Also with last week's chapter, I was given my own channel for this story on TheDarkWolfShiro's Discord server where I hang out a lot. If you have questions or just want to discuss the fic feel free check it out. The channel name is dreadrot-light-rain under the Pleb Author Studios category.
Discord Link: discord. gg/wd3tUYWVCd