"So, let's start shall we" White Knight and CFVY were in the lecture hall, Kakashi and Coco were at the chalkboard while the rest of team were sat in the front row.

"We'll be discussing strategies, if you have anything to say, speak up."

A map of Riverwood had already been pasted on the chalkboard. It was the one that Kakashi used to plan the previous day.

Kakashi could tell that some of them were near asleep, Yang especially, who seemed pretty close to dozing off.

Kakashi used a long ruler and slammed it on the board, right on the 'x' part indicating the breach area, those who were falling asleep were immediately knocked out of their groggy state, anyone who was already fully awake, held no visible reaction.

"This here is the breach, grimm are pouring. So far forty-seven guards have died trying to contain the grimm. The grimm have also made it very difficult for supplies to come to the village. Vale has tried airlifting supplies but were at high risk of getting eaten by Nevermores and other aerial grimm. I propose having three people defend the grimm at the breach, and have the rest be spread out across each distri-"

"Whoa, Whoa, what?" Coco cut Kakashi off while speaking in a raised voice, her team seemed to be surprised at her sudden outburst.

"Wouldn't it be better just to have all of us be at the breach? That way less people get hurt from a bunch of grimm piling in"

Kakashi sighed and put a palm on his face, the action irritated Coco.

"Just because the breach has grimm pouring in it, doesn't mean that the other areas of the village aren't at risk. The gates of the village for example can be broken through at any time, then we will end up having two breaches, which is why we need someone to be on guard at each high risk district."

Coco stepped forward

"Wouldn't it just be easier to push the grimm at the breach and find the guy controlling them."

"It's not as simple as that. Let's say we do end up pushing the grimm out, and then we go into the forest looking for the man controlling them, then a second breach opens and we're not there to help? What happens then? And even if a second breach doesn't open we have no way of tracking down the person controlling them."

Kakashi was really surprised at how simple minded Coco was, she was a second year and a leader of a team, yet she couldn't even think these scenarios through.

"I agree with Kakashi, Coco. It's better to be safe" Yatsuhashi spoke up

"Tch, fine"

Kakashi nodded "Luckily the grimm pouring in, while high in number are weak, just simple beowolves and ursai, with the occasional alpha, and we depart in three hours so we still have time to plan. Let's discuss who will be stationed at each distri-"Coco and Kakashi's scrolls pinged

'Why do I always get cut off at 'District'?'

Kakashi read the message out loud. "A second breach has opened, on the opposite side of the breach that already was opened"

"Yeah and Ozpin's telling us that we should leave as soon as possible."

"This was probably done deliberately, the person controlling the grimm is trying to force the Riverwood guards to stretch their numbers." Velvet said with worry clearly on her face.

"I think we should leave now." Yang stood up, the rest of the team agreed.

"Hm." Kakashi nodded "We'll discuss strategies on the bullhead, let's go."

As they began running to the bullhead, a look of surprise dawned on everyone except Kakashi and Coco, they had fully expected Coco to take charge here with strategy and the such, but it looked Kakashi had more experience in the field despite being a first year.

Kakashi felt nothing but worry, if CFVY was the best Beacon had to offer for the second years, then he wouldn't be surprised if the people CFVY ended up having to protect when they go pro end up dying after seeing Coco's rather idiotic display in strategy, Kakashi assumed that the reason why Coco was the best among the second years especially on the field, was not because of their minds, but because of their strength.

They might be so strong that they never had to rely on proper strategy before, and instead just beat their way easily through problems. But something felt off with Coco, and all of CFVY in general.

'Knows to properly plan for all scenarios, good.' In reality though Coco was simply testing him, she got orders directly from Ozpin to observe Kakashi, and she was intending on following those order.

The rest of the walk to the bullhead was rather awkward but they made it and as the doors closed they felt the bullhead slowly lift up and take off.

"So… Now that there's a second breach, what will we do now?" Ruby asked Kakashi.

Kakashi stood quiet, still thinking.

But Coco, while looking at her scroll spoke up.

"Reports are comin' up that the grimm at the second breach are stronger and there's a lot more of them. They're already overwhelming all the guards on district 3."

"How are they stronger?" Kakashi asked

"They're heavily armored, and there's some more… high level grimm thrown in the mix.

Kakashi came out of his silent thinking. "We need to split up, Coco, Yatsuhashi and Ruby, three of you with me, we're going to the second breach. Yang, Blake, Weiss, you're on the first breach. Velvet, Fox, the two of you will evacuate people from the two districts at immediate risk, once you're done split up and meet one of the two groups."

Everyone nodded at Kakashi's command. He had split the teams based on their ability to take down grim, Coco and Yatsuhashi were better against tougher and slower grimm, while Ruby was perfect at taking down large numbers of grimm. Yang, Blake, and Weiss's styles catered more to less heavily armored, more mobile grimm.

But yet still, he had to accept the fact that they might not get there in time, and that hundreds if not thousands will die.


30 minutes earlier.

Apricot Ramil, a young woman. Her family arrived at Riverwood when she was six. Her mother and father were both wall guards who died fighting grimm, leaving only her and her younger sister, who she swore to protect, she was only eight years old.

After her parents died, she had to resorted to dubious acts such as pickpocketing, her ten year old sister didn't liked the fact that Apricot stole, but she had to, in order to provide for the family.

"See this, Carmine?" she pulled at the wooden plank of the building she was standing next to, and let the light shine within the small hole, revealing multiple wallets that she had pickpocketed.

Carmine peaked and saw what was inside, her bright eyes saw the dozens of wallets stored within.

"Once we save up enough money, we might even be able to move into Vale!"

The two lived in the streets of District 6, otherwise known as the slums of Riverwood.

Carmine nervously backed away "But Apricot, if the guards find out, we'll be in big trouble!"

Apricot pushed the plank back and looked solemnly at her little sister. "I have to take the risk Carmine, I'm done living here! The guard treat us like crap, our district is most at risk of being attacked by grimm and we have to steal to even have a chance at surviving!"

Carmine's eyes began to water and tears began to fall.

Apricot bent down and hugged her sister. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell."

They were cut off by a commotion in the streets. The people were talking amongst themselves, all of them were looking at something. The sisters approached.

"What's going on?" Carmine asked.

"I don't know" she rubbed the top of her head to comfort her. Once they got to the front they saw the hologram screen. There were but 4 words.

'BREACH IN DISTRICT 3' Panic set in

"There's been a breach?!" She paused, Carmine hugged her sister tight "Since when."

One of the adults looked at the two girls, his eyes were wide and his face was glistening in swear. The man was fearing for his life.

"Since yesterday! But they've been hiding it from everyone in this district!"

"Must be to avoid the negative emotions" One of the other men in the crowd spoke up.

The man grasped at his face and grit his teeth.

The man next to him. "Relax, the guards probably are handling it and they've most likely called some huntsmen already."

"Don't you get it?!" He grabbed him by the collar "This is just like what happened with Flanders! The guards are gonna get overwhelmed and by the time the huntsmen arrive, we'll all already be dead!"

Everyone looked at the man like he was insane. "Come on, it's probably just a normal grimm breach, nothing we haven't seen before."

"Yeah!" Some people in crowd started to agree.

"See? It's all gonna be okay." Apricot crouched down and hugged her sister.

"Are you sure?" Carmine asked Apricot.

"Yeah, so don't worry, alright?" She smiled, Carmine returned the smile.

That was when the earth began to shake.

One of the guards close to them started shouting "The grimm are here!"

"What do you mean?!" another guard answered.

"They just came out of nowhere and are just outside the walls in this district!"

Carmine went into panic, as tears began to fall from her eyes. "But I thought we're gonna be okay."

The townspeople began to run, carrying their children if they had any, and running deep the opposite direction.

Apricot knew better than to panic, she needed to stay strong for her little sister. "We just have to run okay? Don't cry."

Apricot grabbed Carmine by the hand began running the other direction, along with the rest of the townspeople.

Then the wall burst, a massive grim with a giant bony tusks and a long trunk, a goliath, it came out from the massive breach in the wall, followed by dozens upon dozens of other grimm.

The screams of the already panicked villagers intensified

"Run!"

"Run towards the center, the grimm haven't gone there yet!"

"Grimm?! Why?"

"What's going on?!"

A mix of questions and exclamations came amongst the screaming and panic, the world seemed to continue to rumble.

They all continued to run and run, as the sounds of the grimm stampeding only seemed to get closer and closer. But they ran nonetheless, there was no other way they could survive. Some of the weaker townspeople such as the elderly and those who were unable to walk or run any longer began to falter and slow down. Carmine and Apricot looked at them with pity in their eyes, but they couldn't stop to help.

Doing that would only put their own lives at risk

Apricot and Carmine were panting, the both of them were malnourished and barely had any stamina left, they were slowing down, but they had to keep going.

The city center was close, and there would be most protection there.

Then they reached it.

And it was full of grimm.

Ursai, beowolves, deathstalkers and more.

"The grimm are even in the center!" A lady yelled

"It's over for us." A man collapsed to the ground began to cry.

"There's nowhere to run." Another similarly began to tear up and pull at his hair

Another villager kicked at the man on the ground "Get up! Are you saying that we just have to die?!"

"The grimm are too fast! There's no hope for us."

Carmine looked up to her sister "Apricot." She looked down at carmine as tears began to form. "Are we going to die?"

Apricot grabbed carmine by the arm "OF COURSE NOT! We can't give up!"

Apricot looked around and found an empty alleyway

She ran into it, going as fast as she could, it seemed as though the grimm were no longer there. It made no sense, why were the grimm at the center? Were the guards at District 3 overrun that quickly? Especially right after the news was told to everyone at district 6?

She kept on running and running, with Carmine holding her by the arm, she could feel her slowing down.

Her panting growing louder and louder. She kept on slowing down until she came to a complete stop

"We can't stop running!" Carmine knew that she was right, but her legs wouldn't let her run.

A low growl then reverberated throughout the alleyway, in front of them, a beowolf stepped in. Its black fur and white armor dripping with the blood of the citizens of Riverwood. Carmine's cries grew louder as her sister hugged her tight. She looked back, hoping that maybe they could turn back, but no.

Grimm that were originally at the town center were now coming from behind, having freshly slaughtered dozens of citizens. Apricot knew that there was no hope in running, so all she could do, was fight. Apricot pulled out a small dagger from her hip, and held it with both her hands. They were both trembling.

"Carmine…"

Carmine could tell exactly what her sister was about to do "Apricot! No!"

"I have to. There's no other way."

"Carmine, when I go." Tears began falling from her eyes as well "I want you to run, run as fast as you can." Carmine sniffled and nodded weakly. She was tired, but she wasn't going to let her sister's sacrifice go to waste. They hugged each other tightly, knowing that this might be the last time they would hug each

Apricot cut a piece of cloth from her shirt and gave it to the crying Carmine.

"Carmine, I love you so much." She steeled herself for what was to come, and put her right foot back in a readied battle stance.

Carmine watched her sister for the last time

Apricot with a yell charged at the grimm in front of her, knowing full well what was about to happen.

Carmine didn't want to look she simply ran as her sister did her best to hold of the grimm for her, she closed her eyes and ran forward, not wanting to look back. She heard the sounds of metal screeching, with yells of pain on the grimm's end. Then she heard more growls as if more grimm had come, The sounds grew quieter and quieter but the last thing she heard as she exited the alleyway,

Was the sound of her sister screaming.


The bullhead slowed down, it had been nearly half an hour since they departed.

Kakashi watched the ground intently, the land under them was heavily forested, but the closer they got to Riverwood, the thinner and thinner the forest became. They could all now see numerous black figures in the forest approaching something.

"We're getting close" The pilot said. Kakashi nodded.

The sheer amount of grimm worried him, there must have been hundreds thousands of them, all walking the same direction. They had lost contact with the leader of the village just twenty minutes earlier, making Kakashi think that the worst had already come.

Velvet looked at the grimm as fear spread throughout her face "Oh no."

"We can't make assumptions yet." Weiss made an attempt to stay rational, but they all knew exactly what the situation looked like."

Yang agreed "Yeah, let's stay positive, I'm sure the guards were able to hold them off." Ruby nodded

"Sure doesn't look like it" Coco put her sunglasses on and watched as thousands of grimm approached the now visible walls of the village.

Considering the fact that the guard were already little in number and that they weren't trained to handle this many grimm, it was in fact, more rational to think that the village had already been overrun. Kakashi stepped forward and tapped the pilot on the back

"Stop here, he looked to his team and CFVY, let's get out here, should only minute or two to get to the village on-foot, Kill any grimm you can on the way.

Kakashi affixed his porcelain mask and jumped down and everyone else soon followed, he scanned the area, picking the perfect landing spot, on top of a deathstalker, plunging his katana through its head, and killing it immediately.

His team landed behind him, CFVY landed right next to them. Kakashi ran forward, slashing his way through any grimm he saw in his path.

Ruby sprinted forward, using her semblance to boost her as she cut her path through an ursa major, and keeping up with Kakashi as best she could. She continued slashing her way through all the grimm in her way.

The others were not very different with the way they were handling the grimm.

Coco slammed her suitcase like weapon at grimm as she ran, Yatsuhashi pulled out his massive blade to carve a path through the grimm, Fox used the blades on his arms in coordinated strikes against all the grimm he came across. Velvet strangely didn't have any weapons, simply using a combination of kicks and jumps to take down grimm.

Kakashi spun around and slashed at a grimm that came at him, sliding between of a beowolf's, while using the momentum to relieve it of one of its legs. He jumped up, aiming his next attack at a group of beowolves and ursai in front of him.

"Katon: Goukakyu no Jutsu"

He expelled the massive fireball, it ten crashed into the grimm, incinerating them. He landed and made his way to the town wall which was coming closer and closer. He could see a massive hole that the grim were funneling into, this was one of the breaches, whether or not it was district 3, 6 or maybe a completely new breach was unclear, but Kakashi knew that he had to get to it quick. He ran faster, scanning the entire area as he did, he knew that he had to close up the breach as soon as possible.

He had gotten very close to it, first he needed to deal with the grimm funneling into it. He doubted that he could simply cut through the massive amount of grimm due to how condensed they were, so his only option was jutsu. Fire release might widen the breach, water release might push the grimm further inside, there were not many earth release techniques in his arsenal that could do a significant amount of damage to the grimm, and he wasn't skilled enough in wind release to be able to use a technique that could do a significant amount of damage to the grimm.

So lightning release it was.

He mustered up chakra into his right hand, purple electricity began to gather and burst out, he shot his arm forward, and the lightning shot out into the horde of grimm, enveloping them in purple lightning. He reached the breach. He crossed his fingers and summoned two shadow clones to his sides.

They wordlessly prepared to kill all the grimm already coming at them, defending the real Kakashi while he attempted to fill up the breach

"Doton: Doryuheki!" Rather than bringing his palms onto the ground, he shot liquid earth through his mouth as it began to fill the hole up. The grimm came, but the clones made quick work of them. The earth solidified, closing up the breach. The clones disappeared, and Kakashi looked behind him to see both his team and CFVY arriving.

He jumped up on top of the wall, the others did the same

Coco looked at the recently filled breach with an amused face.

"Well you should've mentioned that you could just close up the hole"

Everyone else seemed to agree.

"Well that certainly makes our job a lot easier" she put her arms on her waist and looked quizzically at the brown piece of earth covering up the hole.

He shook his head. "It's only marginally stronger than the wall itself, so the grimm will likely be still able to break through it, and even if they don't, they absolutely will just open up another breach somewhere else."

"So we still have to split up and try to defend each district?" Weiss asked

Yang groaned and pointed toward the horizon. "Why are we even talking? Right now there are hundreds who are probably injured and thousands who are probably about to be injured or worse."

All of them agreed. "she has a point" Ruby sheathed Crescent Rose.

Kakashi sighed "I agree. Come on." He jumped down the wall, into Riverwood. He finally got a good look at the village, debris, bodies everywhere, a sight he had seen many times in his years as a shinobi, but one that didn't get any less morbid when he saw it. The fact that the grimm didn't completely eat their victims made it more clear that these were no ordinary grimm.

A familiar stench began to fill his sense of smell, it was of course the stench of death.

"This is bad…" He whispered to himself.

He heard the others land behind him, and as soon as they landed and caught sight of what had befallen the village, all their faces morphed into one of terror.

Fox could smell the stench stronger compared to the others, so he immediately knew of what that stench entailed

Ruby was close to tears, her innocent mind being unable to comprehend the sight before her, she had known of the death and destruction that grimm could cause, but to see hit here for herself, shocked her.

"Wh- what happened?"

"It looks like the guard were overwhelmed before we could arrive."

"We were too late" Velvet looked at all the destruction, completely petrified.

Kakashi knew that these kids were not used to seeing such a sight, but standing still and not doing anything was not helping. "We have to move. Right now there could be many more villagers who will turn out like this if we don't act now" He gestured towards the dead bodies. They knew he was right, but it was hard to just snap out of it.

"We're all future huntsmen our job is to prevent more things like this from happening, so if you're just going to stand still, then you're not doing anybody a favor." This got everyone's attention.

They looked to Kakashi waiting for what he was about to say next

"We split into four groups of two. Two stay here, the other three move towards the second breach from different directions. Since I have the ability to quickly close up the breach, I have to be in a group going to the breach."

Yang raised an eyebrow "Why do the groups going to the next breach have to split up, and go there through different routes? Wouldn't it be easier to just be in 1 group and go there together?"

Weiss turned to Yang "Going there from different directions means we'll be able to cover more ground and find more survivors as we go, correct?" Weiss then turned to Kakashi

"Correct."

Alright, Coco I trust you know your team best, so I'll let you decide-"

"Vel and Fox stay here." The two nodded

"I guess that it's settled. Coco and Yatsuhashi, go from the right, Ruby, Weiss and I from the middle, and Yang and Blake from the left. If any of you find survivors take them back here. Velvet, Fox if another breach opens up, relay the message via your scrolls. Never stay more than thirty meters away from each other. Move out. I'll give a signal when it's time to move forward"

The groups moved to their needed directions. The first group ran to the right, the second stood still and the third went to the left. Once Kakashi saw they were both out of sight, he fired a fireball at the sky, it was time to move forward.


It had been around five minutes since Kakashi gave the signal, both Yang and Blake have been moving forward for all that time now, killing all grimm they encountered, but there was still no sign of survivors, and they hated that, the only humans they could see were dead. They were jumping building to building scanning the area as they went.

"Do you think we'll find any?" Yang asked Blake. She knew what Yang was referring to of course.

"I… don't know."

"Is this what it's gonna be like to be a huntress?" Yang had a pessimistic tone. "Every day, going to villages like this, hoping to find just one survivor."

"Yang, it's our job"

"I know it is!" Yang's voice was strained. "But that's not what I mean."

Blake looked down then focused her sight back in front of her. "As huntresses, it's our job to stop things like this from happening, and when things like this do happen, it's our job to do what we're doing now. Because if we don't we're only going to allow more things like this to happen."

Yang was quiet, simply continuing to move forward.

But then the faint sound of footsteps came,

The pace was slightly unsteady, and it was quick, someone was frantically running. They turned to each other and nodded, they run to the left, where the sound came from. The sound got louder. They arrived to at a roof looking down into an alleyway.

They looked down to see a little girl in tears running from something.

The thing she was running from, was a hooded figure. The same one from the video Kakashi had shown them.


Happy new year? I guess. I actually wanted to get this out around new years but I got really fuckin' busy, sorry for the long wait.

Anyway, leave your thoughts in the reviews, see you all soon.