[X] Miltia bumps into Freckles just before she jumps into the pit, and Yang keeps an eye on who jumps in at around the same time.
Miltia, bump into whatsherface. Yang advised. If she's one of the White Fang, then we might be able to figure out who's scheming with her.
On it. Miltia replied, and Yang looked back down into the fight as the two combatants reached a conclusion. The combatant jumping around the walls pulled a pole out of his sleeve, one that didn't really look like it would fit. The pole rocketed out into the man on the ground, who was knocked off balance, before the pole started melting from the heat he was giving off.
Make sure you're ready to go. Decadus advised. Guns loaded? Aura concentrated? Muscles stretched?
Four immediately deleted Decadus' comment. I thought I banned you how are you still talking.
Yang rolled her eyes, but after a moment of thought, decided Decadus had a few good points. She took a moment to stretch her arm a bit, and took off her jacket to make sure she'd have unrestricted movement in the fight.
Inside the ring, one of the combatants ended up with molten steel covering them, which quickly burnt through their remaining Aura. The alarm blared a moment later, and both fighters left the ring.
Go time.
Yang looked across the pit, and saw the freckled girl moving to step in, before Miltia walked into her side and knocked her off balance. Freckles nearly fell, until Miltia caught her wrist and started apologising.
By the time she saw this, Yang had already taken a step forward, and started falling into the pit. She hit the rapidly cooling floor a moment later, and looked around for her opponent as she hit the ground.
Standing to her left, looking at Yang with a surprised expression, was the bland boy who couldn't be any older than Yang.
...Well, that was a surprise. He wasn't the one Yang would have expected to fall down.
Not because he was bland. It was alright to be bland. Boring, yes, but whatever. The main point of surprise is that his clothing didn't really conceal much, but despite that, he looked, well, human.
His red was cut short enough to not hide anything, his arms were exposed and even as he pulled his weapon out of his belt, Yang could see a lack of visible claws. His clothes were too form fitting to easily hide a tail or anything, so if he was was a Faunus, he was hiding his trait really well.
...But then, nobody ever said the White Fang didn't have human sympathisers, did they? It was entirely possible that this kid ended up joining if they had friends who joined, or even if they just happened to get caught up in the rhetoric.
Still not what Yang was expecting. Or anyone, really. The idea that one of the people Four could be looking for might be a human hadn't even come up in the discussion of the plan.
...Assuming this kid really was a White Fang member, and this wasn't just all everyone getting everything wrong.
"Next round!" The announcer declared. "Yang Xiao Long! Red Venetia! Fight!"
"Well, this is a bit of a disappointment." Red sighed, as his weapon expanded into a large greatshield. "I was hoping to get a fight with an old friend, you know. Show her how much I've improved."
His words seemed hesitant, somehow, as if he wasn't entirely sure in them. Which did reinforce the idea that he was a White Fang member and was lying to cover up his original plan and disappointment, but then, it was possible he was just really nervous and his hesitation was because he was bracing from an attack.
"Well then." Yang said, cocking Ember Celia. "No offence, but I'm afraid you're not gonna get another shot at that."
Red sighed softly, as he raised his shield in front of him. "I don't suppose you'd be willing to make the first move?"
Yang ran at him.
It was obvious he was baiting her. Maybe the shield had some sort of reflection ability, or absorption and release ability. Or maybe it was the boy's Semblance. Didn't matter. She had plans.
She struck the shield, firing Ember Celica. The boy took a step back, as Yang pushed on, punching and firing and punching as she fired, forcing the boy back more and more. Before long, as she started pushing Red into the wall, Yang fell back a bit, faking a moment of exhaustion.
Red didn't take her bait, and after a moment, Yang was back on the offensive. She struck again, forcing him back, but then circled a bit. A sweeping kick hit Red in the back, and he stumbled forward before he redirected the shield towards Yang and it was business as usual. It did mean that he had to back up further to get to a wall, though.
Before long, Yang tried to circular kick motion again, only for the move to be predicted and blocked. She continued spinning and punched the shield once more, firing another shot of Ember Celica to force Red to stumble backwards. Then, she pulled away for a moment, and panted in exhaustion.
She heard a click as Red pressed a button on his shield, and Yang dashed. She fired Ember Celica backwards and downwards, throwing herself over his shoulder, then fired it again to force herself back down towards him. With that done, she grabbed his wrist, and pulled away at it by kicking Red away.
He doubled over in pain as Yang pulled at the strap at his wrist, moving to pull it and the shield attached off of him. Red rapped his knuckle against the shield, and the edge of the huge hunk of steel grew sharper, more jagged, and then started revolving round the edge.
Huh. A chainsaw shield.
Yang ducked out of the way, firing at Red again to knock him off balance again, then jumped at him again. Getting behind Red before he could get balanced, Yang wrapped one arm around him to hold him in place, and used the other to grab his hand and pull the chainsaw shield closer to him.
As the edge of the shield started revving and nearly cutting at him, the boy tapped the shield again and stopped the rotation.
With that done, Yang pried at the strap connecting the shield to Red's wrist, and pulled it over his hand. Then, Yang threw the shield into the distance, and started punching into the boy's stomach.
Punch, fire. Punch, fire. Punch, and then mix things up a bit so he can't adapt. Throw Red at the wall, and fire Ember Celica at him again.
An alarm blared, and Yang stopped herself before she fired again.
...Ha. She won.
Too easy.
Turning away from Red, Yang jumped out of the pit, back where she came from, and pulled her scroll out again, to check over what had been discussed in her distraction.
...Not much. Discussion regarding who was suspicious and why. Miltia noted partway through the message chain that somebody wanted to take her aside to talk with her, and she was going with it just in case she could find some information.
Fox hadn't really said much, but had noted he was prepared to go in to fight if someone else looked suspicious.
A more recent message popped up, noting that Otoko had left the building after Yang's victory looked assured, and as she looked up, Yang noticed a bunch of other people in the crowd flaking away from the pit at that moment. A few people even turned to leave, while the others started wandering in the general direction of the exit.
A lot of people interested in Otoko's dust, apparently.
Yang looked over to see Red on the other side of the battle pit, as he looked at his scroll and then immediately looked down with an extremely frustrated expression, before marching towards the exit.
Rolling her shoulders, Yang took a moment to just enjoy her victory.
She'd won. Not only that, she did it casually. No fire, no Semblance boosted strength, no Aura damage. Not really much of a challenge, but damn if it didn't feel good to be on the winning side for once.
Cracking her knuckles, Yang made her own way towards the exit of the fight club. She didn't see Haseltii or Freckles, so she needed to go out and find one of them again. Or at least find a point where she could track down people.
Which one, she wasn't sure. None of her suspects had ended up winning a fight, but Freckles hadn't lost a fight, so she seemed like the one most likely to have any money. Plus, she was going into the fight with the boy, so she was likely to be the one originally planned to do the deal, if she was bad.
...Which was weird, because Four had said a lieutenant would be doing the deal, and even if the boy looked younger and less White Fang-y, Freckles wasn't exactly the image of an old experienced terrorist herself.
It was weird. Though it's possible this was nepotism at work, if Freckles turned out to be a relative or friend of someone important. Still, it'd be weird if the person in charge of the operation was a young girl, considering the much older Haseltii was right there.
On the other hand, Yang also knew nothing about Freckles, while she did know a bit about the other two, who were low on Aura and had known qualities about their fighting style. Though that seemed to just be 'Lose' in Red's case, but she knew about his weapon, and knew about Haseltii's Semblance.
Plus Hasetii was the oldest, and most likely to actually be in charge of an operation like that...
...But that didn't mean she was going to end up going for the trade. After all, who's to say she wouldn't just oversee things while an underling did the trade?
Ugh, she wasn't sure what to do...
Four gave a text a moment later.
Just got a message from our dear Dust dealer! She's been informed that Fuyu, Decadus and Yang all work for me, and is currently entertaining the idea of coming for me first. So things are going rather well!
Nice. Fox mused. I suppose it's time to start looking for people, then.
I'll return to Lady Four's side at once. Decadus noted.
Four's own message somehow came within a fraction of a second later. No, no, Decadus, it's fine, just hang around and follow people okay? Okay. Okay? Not near me okay?
...Yang got the feeling there was something going on between Four and Decadus, but she also knew that the last time she had a feeling about something regarding Decadus she decided not to think about it, so she decided not to ponder that train of thought any further. Maybe she'd ask Four about it later.
We should ensure everyone's ready to move. Fuyu noted. I exited immediately and took the elevator to the ground floor. I'm ready to go. Everyone else?
Decadus was the first to comment. Still in the Fight Club.
Me too. Fox chimed in.
Just at the exit. Yang noted, as she walked down the stairs. I'll be down in a moment.
Still waiting for Otoko. Four noted. If anyone sees her, tell me if she's being followed.
There was a pause, for a long moment.
Miltia? Yang asked, when the girl in the red dress didn't comment. Still, there was no reply.
When was the last time someone saw Miltia? Yang asked the rest of the group, starting to get worried.
I saw her walking out the Fight Club room with someone. Decadus noted. Anyone know where she went?
I didn't see her leave. Fuyu noted. So either she left before I got down here, or she's still in the building.
There was something off about the situation here. Yang paused for a moment, trying to keep track of everything relevant to the current situation.
...Where are our three important people? Yang asked. Haseltii, my opponent, Freckles?
I see Red. Fuyu noted. And I deployed a drone with a camera but its video feed isn't showing me where the rest are.
I just saw that Freckles girl Yang mentioned leave the room. Decadus noted.
Yang paused, looking back towards the stairs.
Fuyu, where's the elevator?
The display next to the entrance marks it as doing some travel around the middle floors currently. Fuyu replied.
So there was only one way down, Yang mused. Meaning that if she just slowed down and waited by the bottom of the stairs, she could wait for Freckles and follow her from there.
Or go and find Miltia, or Haseltii. Or just go to Four's side and make sure nobody interrupted that deal.
As she approached the next floor down of the stairs, Yang rested against the wall, and took a moment, just a moment, to decide.
[X] Freckles was the most important target. Yang needed to wait a moment so she could tail her.
[X] Four's deal with Otoko would sabotage the White Fang more than anything. Making sure it went through would be the most important thing here.
[X] Miltia had fallen out of contact after going off to talk to someone. Yang should make sure to find her.
-[X] She's probably in the building. Since someone wanted to talk, Yang should think of where someone might have taken her for a private conversation.
-[X] She might be out of the building by now. If that was the case, then all the back alleys was probably the best bet.