Esdeath leaned on Jacques desk listening to him and James argue, James was defending Esdeaths' claim to Weiss and Jacques was arguing against it
"THIS IS COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE! YOU CANT JUST WALTZ IN HERE AND LAY CLAIM TO MY DAUGHTER!" Jacques screeched slamming his fist on to the table letting out a quite thump
"Actually I can, given her previous actions of assaulting me and Winter, I gave her the choice between imprisonment and servitude. She chose service." Esdeath added earning a growl from Jacques
"Cant I just pay for her release! It cant be that much." Jacques reasoned finally seeing an out
"Of course you can, 320 million for her bail." Esdeath answered causing Jacques to pale at her statement
"You cant be serious, that's outrageous." Jacques said after recovering from shock
"Weiss said that she will only accept bail if her whole teams is paid. You can still pay just hers which is 64 million, but it wont free her." Esdeath explained earning a growl from the man
"I have to side with Jacques on this one, if he does pay then she is free to go." James said earning a chuckle from Esdeath
"Oh I know. But I discussed it with Weiss earlier, she chose to sign on with my army. You can pay for her freedom, but it wont free her." Esdeath explained earning a nod from James, and a growl from Jacques
"Well Jacques, it looks like you got outplayed." James commented as he scratched his chin, Esdeath hummed in agreement as she began towards the door
(o)
"How can you live in a place like this?" Yang asked as they walked down the almost pure white hallway
"You get used to it after a while, plus its where I grew up so... you know, not that bad. I heard that Esdeath has an assignment for you lined up, any idea what it is?" Weiss answered as they reached the doorway to Weiss' room
"No clue, but I feel like its gonna be a rough one." Yang shrugged as she spoke, entering the room the two began to collect Weiss' equipment
"So, how much of this stuff did you buy after Beacon fell?"
"Just a bit of it, I found that the more tools I have at my disposal the easier our work is."
"Isn't it a bit expensive?" Yang asked but quickly realized what her words meant and face palmed
"Yeah, it is kinda expensive, but given my allowance has six zeros, 'expensive' is relative; to you probably, to me... probably soon, because I imagine father is going to abandon me once Esdeath tells him that I signed up with her."
"I barely held a conversation with that man, and I already think he's an asshole, I've been thinking of asking Akame to 'talk' with him." Yang commented earning a hum from Weiss
"Its strange to think about... almost a year ago now we were completely different people." Weiss commented earning a raised eyebrow from Yang
"What do you mean? I don't feel any different... well apart from my arm, I don't feel it at all." Yang voiced as they finished boxing up Weiss' gear
"Well, I remember back during our second semester you were strongly against killing, and you just joked about patricide." Weiss answered causing Yang to freeze briefly
"I... think I've spent too much time here." Yang finally said she looked a lot paler now
"Here as in this house or here as in Atlas?" Weiss asked as they carried the boxes out of the room
"Atlas... or maybe just Esdeath... she's... she's too much... it has to be her..." Yang explained as they handed the box off to a few soldiers nearby, they quickly carried it off to be loaded onto an airship
"I guess you just needed a quick smack in the face to figure things out." Weiss reasoned earning a nod from Yang who seemed to still be processing her newly broken morals
(o)
Akame had closed her eyes a few seconds ago, she was spending this time trying to see if she could sense her own aura supply, Ruby described it like feeling hungry, the fuller she felt the better condition her aura was in, but this was just a difficult task, she couldn't differentiate the difference between her actual hunger and the feeling in her gut
"Hello there killer." A voice came from in front of her, reopening her eyes she was greeted with Roman Torchwick, his attire had changed quite a bit save for his hat, he had a long black coat with gold accents, a white under vest with a red scarf, he had a pair of red gloves on his hands, and black pants with brown boots, all but the coat giving off the idea that he was going through a rough patch
"Business not going well?" Akame asked as he sat down across from her
"No, business is going great, the rules in Mistral are a bit different, and this place isn't my turf, so I cant flaunt my cash. I assume you got my letter."
"I did, you didn't specify the reason for this meeting." Akame pried earning a sigh from the man
"Yeah... look I have nothing against you but... okay, I have a favor to ask... I want you to leave." Roman said carefully
"I can't do that." Akame denied earning a sigh from Roman
"I don't know why you're here but I need you to do this, not just for me but for Neo. She has come to terms with the fact that she many never see you again, but if she finds you... she'll never let you go! I hate huntsman because their work is so dangerous, I cant imagine Neo being apart of that life-" Roman quickly cracked but stopped when Akame started to speak
"I understand, but I'm not here for either of you. I'm here because we suspect the people who attacked Beacon will attack Haven." Akame explained vaguely
"You think Cinder and her people are coming here?... well shit..." Roman muttered to himself "Cinder hired me and Neo to conduct robberies and cause chaos, but I didn't expect it to go this far."
"Any information you can give would be helpful." Akame added earning a sigh from Roman
"Yeah... I don't got much, but what I do have is yours." Roman reassured "Cinder and her little pets, got some legit huntsman-in-training license like you and lil red got. I don't know how they got them, but that means that someone on the Mistral council works for her, and that would only cause problems." Roman added earning a hum from Akame
"I have at least one suspect now then, if what father told me about Lionheart is correct than he might be..." Akame trailed off with a sigh
"You think Cinders' got the headmaster in her back pocket?"
"No... someone much worse does." Akame vaguely answered "I need you to help me with keeping an eye on him, I need you to tell me about anything he does that is suspicious." Akame asked earning a sigh from Roman
"I'm all for keeping things somewhat average so me and Neo can live in, relative, peace, but I'm not gonna take any work that involves those schools without knowing what I'm getting myself into." Roman denied earning a nod from Akame
"I understand." Akame said as she stood "If you wont help than I'll be forced to watch him myself. Thank you for this enlightening experience, I'll get to work." Akame added as she began to walk away
"I can keep an eye on the other council members if you do me one favor, if you do see her can you... not mention this to Neo?" Roman asked quickly earning a nod from Akame who barely slowed down to listen to him
(o)
Qrow leapt into the air slamming harbinger into the ground sending rocks flying everywhere, Tyrian jumped back barely dodging the projectiles after dodging he turned his attention to Qrow who had closed the distance far quicker than expected stumbling back Tyrian used his tail to spring away barely dodging a massive strike from the man, quickly running at Qrow, Tyrian began to claw at him, Qrow blocked and redirected the strikes and kicked the man in the chest sending him flying back
"Shouldn't we help him?" Nora asked looking to Ruby
"He seems to have it handled." Jaune reassured earning a sigh from Ruby
"They are evenly matched, Qrow cant land any hits on Tyrian but the same is true for Tyrian, its become a test of stamina, who can outlast the other." Ruby explained
Qrow jumped back deflecting bullets as he moved, jumping around Qrow dodged and deflected as much as he could while getting closer to Tyrian who seemed to be struggling just as much as him, sliding under a swipe from Tyrians' tail Qrow slashed at his legs but the strike was avoided as he jumped into the air, quickly standing Qrow kicked his leg out sending Tyrian flying back into a building, dropping to his knees, he quickly stood and glared at Qrow
"But who do you think will win?" Jaune asked after watching the two jump into action again
"I don't know, Tyrian was toying with us... but he cant do the same with Qrow or he'll die." Ruby reasoned, watching as Tyrian slid along Harbingers blade as he dropped off Qrow flipped his blade and stabbed at Tyrian who barely dodged the attack but suffered the follow up kick from Qrow "It looks like Tyrian is leaving too many openings that Qrow can capitalize on... so I'm giving this one to him."
Qrow ducked under a stab from Tyrians' tail and blocked his follow up kick but failed to maintain his hold on Harbinger, the blade crashed into the ground a few feet away from them, Tyrian quickly dived between Qrow and his weapon with a laugh, Qrow looked unimpressed Tyrian dived to attack Qrow tilted his head out of the way of the strike and ducked under the second then rolled over Tyrians' tail grabbing hold of it and throwing the man into another building, walking over to Harbinger Qrow picked it up and looked it over, after reaching the satisfying conclusion that the blade was fine he turned back to Tyrian who recovered from the strike and ran at Qrow, slashing at him Tyrian dived over the attack onto the building behind Qrow, without missing a beat Qrow followed him onto the unfinished roof, as they traded blows Qrow began to retreat, closer and closer to the edge of the roof, as Tyrian used his tail to fly around the scaffolding until they hear a snap and Tyrian flew into the air then plummeted into the now collapsing building, quickly jumping off the roof Qrow froze in midair as the tail of the scorpion rapped around his ankle and yanked him into the collapsing building too
"Should we help now?" Nora asked as Ruby bolted off to help Qrow
"I think that's a yes." Jaune commented as the three others ran off after her
(o)
flying through the buildings wall Qrow threw harbinger and landed on the blade, Tyrian dealt a lot of damage with that last assault, especially with the whole dropping a building on them strategy he went for, but now they were both out of aura and he had the advantage with his semblance, jumping off the blade Qrow pulled Harbinger from the ground and waited, Ruby and her friends ran up next to him and before they could speak
"All of you get back, we're not done." Qrow ordered earning surprise from Ruby, she'd never heard him so serious before "Didn't you hear me? Move. Now!" Qrow ordered again this time they all listened and moved away, Qrow rushed forward to greet Tyrian, only for a large shard of ice to cut the two off from advancing, Qrow looked over to Ruby who was already rushing Tyrian, quickly joining her charge Qrow slashed at Tyrian but it was redirected by Tyrian and he was kicked away, Ruby slashed at him then jumped back deflecting a few bullets as he spun and stabbed at her, deflecting the attack she heard a grunt behind her, and looked back, Qrow had barely dodged out of the way of the tail a shallow cut going across his abdomen, everything then went red as she moved slashing a large portion of Tyrians' tail off
With a scream of pain he dived away and fell over holding his tail as blood began to gush from the appendage "YOU BITCH!" he shouted as he stood to attack, Ruby turned to him and summoned a dozen blades of ice, causing him to take a small step back debating what he should do, he quickly settled on retreat, after he vanished Ruby quickly moved over to Qrows' side and looked at the wound
"I- I'm fine kid." Qrow quickly said as he moved his bloodied hand away from the wound, it was bleeding quite a bit so he went back to applying pressure on the wound
"I'm so sorry! I- we- I should have left the fight to you I just couldn't bare to los-" Ruby quickly began trying to explain but was cut off by Qrow
"Don't sweat it, this could have ended up a lot worse." Qrow waved off as he grabbed harbinger and placed it back on his belt
"So... you two wanna tell us who that was?" Nora asked as Ruby helped Qrow stand
"I have no idea what you're talking about." Ruby easily lied earning a scoff from Jaune
"Firstly, who is Salem? You seem familiar with them, and apparently they know Cinder, and that Tyrian guy knew her too. So what aren't you telling us?" Jaune questioned clearly not wanting to deal with any lies, Ruby and Qrow shared a looked seemingly to have a mental debate, after a few seconds Qrow sighed
"Whats your favorite fairy tail?" Qrow questioned vaguely as Ruby guided him somewhere where they could tend to his wound properly
(o)
Akame watched the elderly man walk around his office straightening papers and other things, it was nothing out of the ordinary, he walked over to a book shelf and pulled one of the books off it, after opening the book he sat down at his desk and began to read, Akame stayed there for hours until the man got tired closed his book and walked away, climbing over to the window Akame entered the office
Entering the building, Akame looked around, there were bookshelves on the walls near the doors and a large wooden desk near her current location, shutting the window Akame looked at the book he was reading, it was quite a thick book but he didn't mark the page he was on, reading the title it wasn't anything special 'The history of Vacuo: Volume 1' it was strange that he would be reading a book like that. Stepping back she knelt down and pulled out one of the drawers it had grades and similar papers, pulling out his chair Akame pulled out the drawer that was covered by his desk she found it to be mainly empty with the exception of a bracer and a notebook, making a mental note about the bracer she grabbed the notebook and opened it, it was coded, taking out her scroll She took a few pictures of some of the pages, so she could decode them later, the sound of footsteps drew her attention, closing the drawer and putting the chair back into place Akame dived on top of one of the bookshelves. The elderly man entered the room and shut the door behind him, walking over to his desk he sat down, Akame had followed behind him making sure to stay out of sight, after sitting down Akame slowly and quietly opened the window and climbed out shutting it behind her, using her semblance Akame stuck Murasame through the window and re-locked the window, her proficiency with her semblance has grown to have many new applications now that she has broadened her horizons.
Walking along the upper level streets Akame found that even up here criminals were still opportunists, hearing a shattering Akame made her way towards the sound it was inside a building, a man was stumbling around the room pulling at drawers and other storage containers, moving around to the front door Akame found it to be forced open. Entering the building cautiously, after reaching the room the man was in she cleared her throat causing him to jump and turn to her
"Who are you?" he asked as he turned to her
"A huntsman." Akame answered neutrally "Why did you break through the door?"
"I-I live here, I couldn't get the key to get into the lock." the man explained with a slur, Akame didn't react to anything he said. Reaching into her coat Akame set off her beacon which informed the nearest police precinct or military base that back up might be required, it can also be set to record
"If you live here than the key should have fit the lock." Akame reasoned as she focused her Aura into her hearing, she found that enhancing her senses was something she was great at, she could hear his heartbeat from here, there were three people upstairs and from what she could tell, they were all asleep
"Is there anyone else in the house but us?" Akame asked causing the man to think for a few moments
"N-... Yes... two others, my wife and our child." he answered earning a hum from Akame, who casually stepped in front of the doorway, preventing him from running for it
"No one but them?" Akame asked causing him to nod a bit, after a few seconds of staring the sounds of sirens could be heard out front, and the man started to look a little antsy
"Anything else?" Akame asked as she watched him carefully
"Whats' going on?" a voice came from behind her, Akame moved to the left and looked over her shoulders at the tired looking pregnant woman standing at the top of the stairs
"I assume you're the home owner?" Akame asked as she walked down the stairs
"Yes, Maria Aki, huntress for the local police force, and you are?" the newly named Maria answered clearly irritated by being woken up
"Akame Branwen, huntress, I found this man had broken into your house, I didn't know if he was the homeowner or not so I set off my beacon."
"Yeah, I heard." Maria commented as she held up her scroll "Now if you could shine a light on that man." Maria added causing Akame to activate the flashlight on her scroll, the man was disheveled he looked dirty and tired, he had a long beard and long hair, all of which looked like it hadn't been washed in days, his clothes were wrinkled and stained, he had a bottle in his right hand and a knife in his left, Akame had seen the weapon earlier and was already acting cautiously
"John?..." Maria commented then sighed "What the hell is wrong with you?"
"I want you back Maria-" he began, and continued, Akame was still trying to process this...
"You cheated on me." Marias' voice broke through her thoughts, and Akame decided to continued to listen
"Because you had that fuckin' twink upstairs-"
"I have that man upstairs because you couldn't keep your hands off your students."
This has gone very horizontal, hearing footsteps behind her Akame stepped out of the way and a few officers ran into the room and looked to Akame
"I... I don't know whats going on anymore." is all Akame could say as she gestured at the two arguing
"We're going to need a statement from you ma'am." one of the officers said as she guided Akame out of the building, sitting down out front the woman pulled her helmet off and set it down on the hood of the car
"Okay, lets get down to brass tacks, What... was that?" The woman asked as she turned back to Akame, she had amber eyes and auburn hair tied back into a ponytail, pulling her scroll from her pocket she began to record the conversation
"Well... I heard the sound of something breaking, I assume glass, then I saw that man inside the building, so I checked the doors and found the front door forced open, I decided to make sure he wants doing anything illegal."
"Wow, you walked right into a clusterfuck then." The officer commented with a chuckle, Akame sighed at her laughter
"I don't know what a 'clusterfuck' is."
"It's basically a fun way to say screwed beyond all recognition." the officer answered earning a nod from Akame, the lingo of this place was weird, Akame had begun to keep a notebook and marked down words and phrases that people would say that she needed to learn, admittedly she was doing it a lot more frequently then when she was at Beacon
"I think that would be a good description." Akame commented as they heard more shouting from inside
"I need a name to attach to the report, if you wouldn't mind." The officer added as she lowered he scroll
"I doubt my name would add any validity to the report." Akame waved off
"Alright, I'll just put it down as... anonymous tip." she said
"But you're still recording." Akame countered as she pointed at the scroll in the officers' hands
"My semblance is called 'mimicry' it allows me to mimic peoples voices." she explained earning a hum from Akame "Yeah... its not that useful. But hey if I need to fake something it works pretty well. But I still need your name."
"Akame Branwen." Akame introduced earning a happy sound from the woman in front of her
"Seryu Ubiquitous, good to meet a fellow less than reputable individual making it good." Seryu followed suit, the name sounded familiar but she couldn't tell from where.
"What do you mean?"
"I assume you ain't from around here then, my mom and dad were a couple of serial killers that would kill people and fuck in their beds. I thought it was disgusting, so I killed them and was found by the police, I was given a huge sum of cash for their deaths, and then sent to an adoption center. It was all over the news 'bout seven-ish years ago."
"Why would you choose police over huntsman?" Akame asked earning a warm smile from Seryu
"Huntsman slaughter Grimm, police protect civilians and deliver justice on evildoers." Seryu answered with a smile "But police active huntsman are what I truly aspire to be, but you need to have at least 3 years on active duty, I currently have 2." Seryu answered with a smile that seemed to be a little sadistic "Right, well I'll go remake this report, you can go about your day ma'am, and remember to report any evil bastards you find to the police. Have fun, killer." Seryu added as she walked away back to the crime scene, Akame stood and walked off towards the house trying to place the name to a face
(o)
Ruby finished tying off the bandage around Qrows' gut
"You're pretty good at that kid." Qrow commented as he massaged the spot over the wound
"Yeah... I'm so sorry for getting you hurt." Ruby apologized as Qrow rolled his eyes at her tone
"Don't worry 'bout it, it's just a scratch ill be fine, now lets get a bit of a move on."
"Jaune, Nora, and Ren are asking questions that I can't wave off anymore." Ruby informed as she helped him stand, despite his arguing against
"Right, well, I can't really think of any excuses so, what do you think we should do?" Qrow asked as they began to walk towards camp
"Tell them the truth, they've been in this for a while we can't really keep this quiet." Ruby answered again ignoring the shouts in the back of her mind telling her to kill them
"Funny, I thought you'd wanna kill them." Qrow commented causing Ruby to look shocked "Looks like I was right, that little voice of Esdeath in the back of your head still screaming at you?" Qrow added, Ruby slowly nodded the voice falling silent for the first time in a while
"Yeah... I don't think that's gonna go away." Qrow added earning a sigh from Ruby
"Do you know where Akame is? She might know more on this subject then us." Ruby asked as they walked
"Mistral... probably... I lost contact with her two weeks ago, so she is probably there."