[X] Leave this mansion to go to the one with the orphans, to see Two and talk with her.
Neo slowly, delicately, brought her finger down towards the keyboard, approaching a button on it. Then, she paused, frowned, and gave it another look over with her spyglass as she pulled out a pencil, jotting down combinations of letters and numbers on a piece of paper in the process.
Yang was almost annoyed at that. In fairness, it was mostly because she had gotten her hopes up that Neo was doing better than her, but the point remained that Yang was not doing well.
Nothing under Eyes. Worse, while there was a file on Five, it was all a bunch of information available to the public. Newspaper clippings, police transcripts, stuff like that. Nothing new. Which made Yang worry immediately that One had somewhere else, more secure, where she kept her notes on important things.
Maybe One had taken them with her when she went to fight Grimm. Which would have been frustrating.
"Ruby, please tell me you've found something." Yang asked, as she followed a whim and checked to see if One would have any information listed on her sisters, under S.
She didn't.
"I don't think so?" Ruby asked. "I mean... Maybe? Does One seem like the person who'd keep a book on old fairy tales on her bookshelf?"
Yang looked over towards her, as Ruby slowly pulled the book off the shelf, making sure to tilt the books around it so that it would be obvious where to put it back.
"I don't think One would have fairy tales..." Yang replied, frowning. "She just doesn't seem the type, you know? I mean, maybe she's hiding a childish side, but somehow, I don't see her acting like Neo."
The ice cream coloured girl tilted her face to look at Yang, and stuck out her tongue while keeping her eyes focused on the keyboard in front of her.
Ruby opened the book a bit, and took a look.
"Oh wow." Ruby noted. "There's a lot of ones here I haven't heard of. And ones I might of? These do sound kinda similar. The Child Who Stole Time sounds like it could be a title for The Little Hero, doesn't it?"
Neo looked over at Ruby, taking a moment to confirm that Ruby was looking at the book and not at Neo, before she returned to her work.
"Anything bookmarked in there?" Yang asked. "Or anything about silver eyes?"
Ruby flipped the page, a few times. "There's a lot of stories here... Oh!"
Her eyes widened, and she stepped away from the bookshelf to put the book down on the table, pointing at something.
"The World Through A Gaze Of Silver." Ruby noted.
Yang mimicked Ruby's reaction.
"Yeah, that sounds relevant." Yang nodded. Neo leaned over, looked at the page number, and quickly flipped through the pages to the one listed. The large, curvy and bolded letters with the name of the story took up a significant part of the page, but once it was past there, there was a lot of words listed...
Ruby quickly started skimming the pages. "Wandering clan... The trees, the waves, the sand..."
"I'm going to keep looking." Yang decided, after a moment. "Tell me if you find anything, okay?"
Ruby nodded, as she kept skimming through the page. She flipped it after a moment, a Yang looked back at the filing cabinet.
Some time passed, with Yang finding nothing. After a moment, though, she felt her scroll buzz.
Pulling it out, Yang noted that it was Two's number. Was she back already?
Answering it, Yang put the phone next to her face.
"Hello?" Yang asked.
"Yang!" Two chirped. "It's been ages! I'm back in Atlas now. One won!"
Two paused, for a moment.
"It occurs to me that those two words are pronounced the same." Two mused. "Uh, in case you're confused, I mean that One, my sister, was... Victorious, that's the word-"
"She did it?" Yang asked. "Killed all the Grimm in those mountains?"
"Yeah, that!" Two declared. "It was amazing! I won't spoil it 'cause One's sent footage of it back to leak on the internet so you can look later, but me and Three and all the other friends are coming back to the city soon. Got in range of everything a moment ago, and I gave Winter a call just before you. Hey, wanna meet up soon? Cent's going to buy victory cake!"
Yang took a moment to consider how long she had been looking without success.
"Sure." Yang replied. "I'll be there soon."
"See you then!" Two chirped, before the scroll cut out.
Closing the filing cabinets, Yang turned back to Ruby and Neo.
"Looks like we're out of time." Yang noted. "Find anything?"
Neo was crossing combinations off of her piece of paper, but otherwise had not touched One's computer. She gave Yang a frustrated look.
"Performance anxiety again." Yang noted, before realising she had forgotten where she had planned to take the joke.
Neo seemed to get the idea, though, as she threw the piece of paper at Yang.
"I don't think I got too much here." Ruby noted, as she closed the story book. "There were four maidens who were attacked by a monster with red eyes, and were saved by a wizard with silver eyes. He talks a bit about the nature of man, and gives the four girls the power to hide from the monster. The first three girls get themselves killed when they try to test the power, because apparently the monster can't see them but when things start happening it attacks wildly and hits them, but the last sister just runs away, or something. And the monster can't find her, but can see the wizard, so spends the rest of its life hunting his silver eyes. Or something?"
"It mostly just sounds like an old story about not being reckless." Yang noted.
"Yeah." Ruby replied. "Well, if One was looking at stories like that, maybe she just got everything she could find?"
"Maybe." Yang replied. "We'll try again another time, I guess."
Neo mimed a cough, and extended a hand. Sighing, Yang reached into her jacket, and gave Neo her ice cream.
"...Can I have one?" Ruby asked, curiously. Neo brought hers into a protective hug, and Yang smiled. Looks like Neo hadn't counted properly. She only had two of the three.
Throwing Ruby the last ice cream and chuckling at the scandalised look on Neo's face, Yang walked away. "See you lot later, then. I'm going to meet with Two."
"Yang!" Two declared, jumping forward and pulling the younger girl into a hug. Yang braced for impact, but noted quickly enough that Two seemed to be getting delicate. "It's been ages! I've even had time to work out my new strength level!"
"Good to see you, Two." Yang replied. "...Did you ever explain the strength thing, though? I don't remember if you ever did."
"I think I did." Two replied, as she took a step away. "But it's simple. Me and my sisters all have something about them that's always growing. One's senses keep getting sharper so she can hear better and see further, Three's hair grows so fast that she has to carry scissors with her all the time, Four's nails always grow and you're too young to talk about Five's thing. Mine are my muscles. They get stronger over time, which means they occasionally burst up and I need to take a minute to get used to them."
"...You just keep getting stronger over time?" Yang asked. "Man, I can think of a dozen Hunters who'd kill for that ability."
"It's not really that useful." Two replied. "I can't punch away anything I wasn't able to punch away before. It just makes it hard to hold back 'cause I don't know how much I need to and it takes a while to adjust."
"I guess." Yang replied. "So, how long have you been back? I came right here after you called, but you're already here."
"Like, a minute." Two noted. "Cent went off to fetch the cake, and I told Winter I was here. I wanted to surprise the kids with the news I was back, so I asked Winter to wait a bit. Cent'll have the cake soon and it can be a two bit surprise! Three, even, since you're here. And it can be a party. Though, I hope Cent can put me back together again..."
Yang paused. "...Explain that one to me, please."
"Oh, Cent was just talking about why a party is called a party." Two explained. "It's because of the magician trick, you know? When a magic man cuts a woman in half, shows everyone the halves in their boxes, then puts the two boxes together again and reattaches the woman. You part the woman, and if it works and she lives, you have a party."
"...That's not where that word comes from." Yang corrected.
"It's not?" Two asked. "But Cent said it was."
"Cent says a lot of things." Yang pointed out.
Two took a moment to consider that.
"I suppose that's true..." She mused.
Yang took a moment to yawn. It was still early in the morning, even if it'd been a while since breakfast. She should really start going to bed sooner, so she was awake quicker. Turning back to Two, Yang opened her mouth to talk, but stopped when she saw a concerned look on the blue haired womans face.
"...What is it?" Yang asked, as Two looked towards the manor.
"Do you smell smoke?" Two asked.
Yang froze at the question, and quickly sniffed at the air.
There was something, Yang noted. Faintly, there was an odd scent that Yang didn't really smell around Atlas. The air in Atlas did seem mostly odourless most of the time, or at least bland enough to be the same. But it was there. Faint, but undeniably, a smell of smoke.
"...Maybe one of the kids tried to cook and burnt something?" Yang asked.
"There's professional chefs for that." Two replied, a hint of dread in her voice. "And it's a big mansion, with all sort of air conditioning stuff. If we can smell it from here-"
She didn't get any further, before the left wing of the mansion erupted.
Flames surged upwards like a wildfire, and windows shattered from the sudden expansion of heat. The flames spun in a firestorm for a moment, spreading with shocking speed as the sound echoed out like an explosion.
Yang wasn't sure when she started moving. One second, she was watching in muted horror at the sudden sight. A Schnee manor was the kind of place that was built to look like a paradise, expensive, maintained, fresh of the lines and never going away. It wasn't the sort of place you associated with the idea of going up in flames, like this.
Especially not when you consider that there were children inside this building.
There was a burst of blue light as Two gave out a melodic screech, and the wall of the building shook as a Two-sized hole was put inside it. Yang was slow, much slower than Two, but she wasn't that far behind. She was close enough to see through the hole Two had left, and see the smoke wafting through the house.
Why was there so much smoke? The building was made of steel and even if the fires had spread a lot, it wasn't that bad. Yang could barely see inside the building. The heat was pricking at her skin, enough that Yang had to focus her Aura a bit to keep her skin cool, even if it wasn't so extreme as to drain her Aura.
What had even happened? How had the fires even spread so fast? You'd have thought that someone would have noticed earlier. Yang didn't know exactly when the fire alarm had gone off, the shrill ringing sound echoing through the building, but it certainly hadn't been going when the fire had exploded outwards like that.
What the hell was even going on?
This couldn't have just been a natural occurrence. The Schnee would never let something like this happen on one of their properties, the reputation loss would be a nightmare. More importantly, this was where Two was living with orphans who had seen their homes burnt down, it was a miracle that Two allowed there to be any fire in the building at all-
In the corner of her eye, as the smoke drifted upwards, Yang saw a flicker of movement on the roof. Something moving from left to right. But as she looked up to get a better look, all she could see was the smoke.
...Was there somebody up there? The smoke was drifting towards the right, and the flames were spreading. Someone suspicious moving around at a time like that...
Looking at the burning building, then up at the roof again, Yang realised she didn't have time to think. On instinct, she-
[X] Ran into the burning building. There were children in there, people who needed help. She needed to find them.
[X] Propelled herself to the rooftops. Two could handle the people here, and Winter was in the building. Yang was the only one who saw someone on the roof.