[X] "Maybe you could pop by and visit all the kids? Some of them would love to see you, Yang."
Struggling to carry her bags through the halls, Yang rested against the wall for a moment to catch her breath.
"Are you sure you don't want me to help?" Two asked, following behind a step.
"No thanks." Yang replied, grunting in effort as she pushed off the wall to walk forward again. "It'd be rude if I asked you to take some of this."
"But I am super strong." Two pointed out. "Are you worried that I'll accidentally break something? I haven't gotten a growth spurt of strength in a while, so I totally have a handle on it now!"
"That's not it at all." Yang lied. "It's just something I want to do. Can't rely on people too much. Besides, I'm a guest."
"If you say so." Two decided, nodding. Yang felt a bit bad about lying about her reasons for wanting to carry everything, but Two did happen to break things a lot. She'd rather not have any of her belongings break, and Two would probably feel bad if she accidentally broke something so really both of them were happier this way.
Stumbling towards the door to the room that Two had informed Yang she would be staying in, Yang paused for a moment, and Two carefully opened the door for her.
"Thanks." Yang nodded, as she walked to the side a bit, and let some of the less important bits of luggage fall haphazardly. Making sure to keep the most important, Yang quickly adjusted her grip, bringing the steel case in front of her, before putting it on the bed in front of her.
"Whats that?" Two asked. "Weapon stuff?"
"Yeah." Yang replied, nodding. Quickly, she reached over to open up a few of the latches on the case, and opened it up.
She'd kept Ember Celica on her, because it was ingrained early on to trainee Hunters to never be unarmed unless there was a really good reason for it, especially when doing something as potentially risky as flying between Kingdoms where the Grimm might attack. But she'd still kept most of her weapon related possessions in this steel case for safety purposes. Spare ammo, spare parts, and...
Over at the side of the case was something she'd packed without really thinking about it, and hadn't given much thought to in months.
The black gauntlet which had belonged to the mercenary leader from that burning town, all that time ago.
It occurred to her how little she knew about that situation, looking back. She didn't remember the name of the village, only that it had been burnt to the ground. The mercenary leader, she never got the name to. The mercenary gang, if she had ever heard its name, was forgotten. In the general scheme of things, none of it had mattered.
The town, the people in it, the people attacking it, even the man who had tried so hard to kill her, had been the first person to try and kill her...
She'd never even learnt what any of them were, outside of her own experience. And after dealing with Five and living with the failure to contribute for so long, Yang had never really had time to consider it for long.
And she felt terrible that she hadn't. It had been her first major failure, but that was all she had thought of it as, for so long. That, and the lead in to meeting Nightingale and the Undine.
People had lived in that village. Died in it. She'd seen people die in it. There was one kid who'd died because she misread her opponent, and Yang didn't even know their name.
And after everything, she ended up forgetting all about that.
She'd have to put in more of an effort not to let that happen. Not the failure, she was trying enough to do that and too much of a focus on that had left Yang blind to how she was effecting Ruby. No, she had to think beyond herself more. She was going to be a Hunter, someone who saved others for a living. She could at least put in the effort of knowing about them.
For that matter, what had happened to the girl she had saved? The fox Faunus? Yang had seen her occasionally back in Vale, when talking with Two, but despite that, Yang didn't know anything about her other than 'That girl from the burning building.'
Well, she'd be able to start making a difference now, at least.
"Hey." Two noted, frowning. "Are you okay?"
"I'm alright." Yang replied. "Just thinking."
Two nodded. "I see. You know, everyone I know who spends a lot of time thinking also looks sad. Sometimes I think that and I'm happy for a bit that I'm not the brightest, 'cause if I need to be a little dumb to be as happy as I am, then it's worth it."
"You're not dumb." Yang immediately protested.
"Yes I am." Two replied. "You don't have to try to make me feel better about it, Yang. I don't mind. I've got my sisters to help me out when I need someone to tell me I'm being dumb. And Cent's around to lend a hand. And I've got you too. So many great people to lend me a hand. And yeah, there's a lot of sad things, but if I don't think about them and just focus on how many people are helping me be happy, it's a lot easier. You know what I mean?"
"...I guess." Yang replied, smiling a bit. She didn't agree with it, fully. She didn't want to have to rely on people any more than she had to. She wanted to be someone who was relied on. Someone who was strong enough for people to rely on her, so she could help Ruby as much as she could.
But maybe Two had a point. Maybe Yang wouldn't have made Ruby cry if she had thought more like Two.
Still, Two was wrong about one thing. She definitely wasn't as dumb as she claimed. She was smart enough to live life in a way that kept her happy. If finding the easiest path to happiness wasn't smart, Yang wasn't sure what was.
Locking the steel case again and leaving it on her bed, Yang turned back to Two.
"Let's go see those kids, then." She decided.
"Hellooooooooooooooooooooo!" Two hollered, as she stepped through the door. "I'm hoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooome! And I brought a gueeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeest!"
From behind a corner, Cent appeared to materialise, suddenly going from silent enough that there was no proof of him being there, to him suddenly bounding across with the speed of an excited dog, but with the grace of a proud cat.
"Two." Cent greeted. "And Yang, too. Nice of you to get here."
"Hey, Cent." Two nodded. "Where are the kids?"
"They were enjoying some lunch." Cent replied. "They'll be down here any moment now-"
There was a stampede of feet, and suddenly, the kids were running into the room. They looked over, then stopped.
"Is that Yang?" One of the small children asked.
"It is!" Another hissed back, excited. "That's her! I remember her! She still has those pretty gauntlets, see?"
"She does!" A third kid whispered loudly. "That's her! She saved my life!"
"Mine too!"
"She's so cool..."
Yang rubbed the back of her head, a bit embarrassed at the sudden rise in praise. Only a little bit of embarrassment, of course. For the most part, she was loving it.
She was allowed an ego boost every once in a while, right? She needed something like that from time to time. Heck, an ego boost a few weeks ago might have solved a few problems.
"Hello, everyone!" Yang declared, striking a little pose. They seemed to like Ember Celica, so Yang adjusted her arms to hold them in front of her, subtly reflecting some light off them to make them shine, and flicked her head back to make her hair waver for a moment.
"Woah." Said a few different voices in the crowd.
"Sorry it's been so long since I've seen any of you." Yang replied. "I've been busy, with a lot of things. How are you lot?"
"W-We're good!" A few different voices squeaked out.
"You've got a lot of fans here, Yang." Cent spoke up. "Why, I think it was Carmine, who was trying to convince me the other day to get her a few books on Aura so she could work towards getting into a Hunter Academy herself?"
Heads immediately started turning towards the back, and Yang briefly saw a figure she couldn't identify hiding behind a corner.
"Cent!" Two exclaimed, whacking the top of his head slightly. He winced, but managed to hide the pain well enough that Two didn't realise she'd hit him harder than he intended. "You can't just call someone out like that! She must be so embarrassed!"
"Ah, sorry." Cent winced. "I'm still bad with kids, aren't I? Though, to be fair, considering how well you treat them, I've never had to be-"
"No sweet talking me now!" Two claimed defensively. "You're going to go apologise to Carmine and then you're going to make sure she's okay and you're going to be nice or I'm... I'm..."
Two considered her threat for a moment, before deciding to just leave it hanging in the air.
"I get it." Cent replied, sighing. "I don't want to come off as a jerk now, do I? I'll ruin my great reputation if people think I made a small fox girl cry on purpose."
Two nodded. "Yes. Do that. And don't call her a fox girl to her face, there's more to her than just being a fox Faunus! It's rude to just go up to someone and identify them by their animal traits unless you're calling them a Faunus with those traits."
The small swarm of kids spoke up. "Yeah, Uncle Cent. Stop being mean or Auntie Two will be angry with you."
"And now I'm being bullied by schoolchildren." Cent sighed. "Perhaps I should leave the act of handling children to you, my darling Two?"
Two turned away to hide how she was turning bright red, and muttered something inaudible in the process.
"But I'll go talk with Carmine now." Cent nodded. "I'd have to be a right bully to just leave things as they are."
And with that, he walked backwards, out of a side corridor, and disappeared.
"Uncle Cent is weird." One of the kids in the crowd mentioned.
"Who cares about Cent?" Another kid whispered. "Miss Yang's here!"
The crowd all gathered, taking another step forward near Yang.
"Can I see your gauntlets?" One girl with purple hair asked.
"Hey, Auntie Two said you could make yourself on fire!" A boy dressed in teal asked. "Can we see? Can we? Can we?"
"But wouldn't being on fire hurt? Two said it'd hurt if I did it."
"That's because you're not as cool!"
"Too loud."
The last comment made everyone freeze, and the kids turned around as Yang looked past them, to see the Undine standing behind everyone. There was silence, as the Undine stared at Yang.
"Hey." Two said, stepping forward. The kids scattered around her, and regrouped to stand behind her instead of in front of her. "You shouldn't be here."
"Wanted to." The Undine replied. "She overheard you talking. Too loud. Be quiet."
"Are we bothering Nightingale?" Two asked. "Is she feeling ill or something?"
"Bad mood." The Undine replied. "Annoyed. Sad. Wants day to be over. Be quiet."
"Sorry, sorry." Two replied. "We'll be more quiet. We'll move the conversion elsewhere so we're not near her room."
"Is her room near the front of the manor?" Yang asked.
"Right above us, actually." Two explained. "She's not used to big places where she can't go outside and there wasn't many rooms with balconies so we gave her that one."
"Not moving." The Undine noted. Two bowed her head, and started leading the kids down a side path.
"This way, everyone." Two asked. "Undine, go back to your water pipes and stop scaring the kids. You know that there were conditions on One not making you go away."
The Undine responded by looking towards a hole in the wall, then back towards Yang.
"Perhaps." The Undine noted. "Perhaps not."
It stood there, staring at Yang for a moment, as if awaiting her next move.
"...Are you asking to talk?" Yang asked. "Because just say so if that's the case."
"If you wish, we can talk." The Undine replied. "Do you?"
Gah, this thing was annoying. And a bit creepy.
Yang looked over towards Two and the children, and then back at the Undine.
[X] Forget the Undine, she came here to interact with the kids and that was what she was going to do. Maybe talk to the girl she saved all that time ago.
[X] She may as well just talk with it now, get it over with. Maybe it'll lead to a talk with Nightingale or something. And it'll make the Undine leave everyone else alone.