Welcome to ch 33 of TPA.

The young man, lead them to small lake about thirty minutes walk from the village. From what he'd said, the corpse was found by morning patrol. He hadn't shared any details, but whether it was because he didn't know, or didn't want to was anyone's guess.

Once they reached their destination they were greeted by an older man in uniform. He shot one look at their group, scoffed and marched up to them.

"Hunter." He addressed Jaune with a scowl.

"Sir." Jaune nodded, apparently unfazed by the older man's behavior. "What are we dealing with here?"

The militia commander spat to the side and gestured behind him.

"With a dead body. Surprising, aint it?. "

Jaune just shrugged and marched forward, his friends close behind him.

"He didn't seem too happy to see us." Ren pointed out.

The blond Witcher shrugged.

"Happens. Some people just don't like when 'outsiders' stick their nose into their business."

"But… it's stupid! We're here to help!" Ruby whined.

"Yes. In perfect word, he wouldn't let his personal grudge, or pride, or whatever it is, stop him from helping us deal with this mess. But, unfortunately, our world is far from perfect."

"So, what now?" Asked Nora.

"We look around, see if we can find something interesting. "

"We looking for anything specific?"

"Anything that looks out of place. Ren, can you take care of it?" The black haired boy nodded,a dn jogged out. "Nora, go with him. I doubt that whatever killed this guy is still around, but better safe than sorry."

"Aye, aye Fearless Leader!" The ginger girl mock-saluted and ran after her friend.

"So, what about us?" Asked Ruby

Jaune sighed.

"We are going to take a look at the body. If they even let us."

After nearly ten minutes of arguing, Jaune sighed and gave up. The Militia commander was adamant that no one is to come close to body, until 'qualified personnel' examined it. So it was decided that it would be transported to morgue, and after an autopsy was performed, they would be given the results.

Maybe.

"We have rules here, ones everyone has to follow." The older man spat.

Jaune resisted the urge to perform a one finger salute.

Better not give him reason to make our lives even harder than they already are.

"So, what now?" Asked Ruby, shifting nervously.

"We're going back to village. No point in sticking around here. I'm pretty sure Regis will be the one doing the autopsy anyway, so we can ask him directly. If we are lucky, he might even let us help him out." He pulled out his scroll and sent a quick message to Ren.

Ruby winced. She wasn't sure she wanted to experience that part of a Witcher's job just yet.

"So… what kind of person he is? Are you good friends?" Asked Ruby after a few minutes of walking.

Jaune hummed.

"I wouldn't go that far. We are more of… acquaintances. Or maybe business partners? Hard to tell, really." The blond boy shrugged, and stared ahead for a few moments in silence.

"Me and Leon helped him out when some bandits wanted to rob him. As thanks, he let us ride on his wagon, and sold us some supplies for a lower price. He helped me a bit with my Elixirs, and since he grows his own herbs I sometime order more… specialized ingredients from him."

Ruby gave him a confused look.

"What do you mean by 'specialized'?"

"The kind you can't get in a normal shop."

"You mean illegal?"

For some reason Jaune avoided looking at her.

"No, why would you think that? They are just hard to come by… or store. You now how it is."

"Jaune…"

The blond sighed.

"Ok, I admit, some of stuff I use in my elixirs might be… questionable. The kind of questionable that makes a shop owner immediately inform nearest police station if I try to make a large order."

Ruby shook her head.

"Whatever you say. Back on topic - what kind of person is this Regis?"

"Well, he is… eccentric. Not in bad way.. most of the time. Usually has this little smile, as if there was some little secret only he knows. He gives this high class vibe. This and the fact he has a rather specific sense of humor makes it a bit hard to talk with him. But he is decent person." Jaune shook his head, and looked around.

They reached the village gate, and Jaune exchanged a few words with one of guards. This one was much friendlier than others, and easily answered the few questions the blond Witcher asked.

Following his direction, pair of Hunters soon reached their destination.

Dragon's Maw morgue was a small, square building sitting behind the clinic. In its open door stood a tall man dressed in long, black coat.

"Jaune." He greeted, bowing his head slightly.

"Regis." The blond Witcher returned getsure. "Any chance we might take a look at the corpse?"

Ruby took a moment to analyze the man. Emiel Regis was a tall man, with greying, black hair, cut to shoulder length. He wore a black coat with multiple pockets, and had a leather bag slung over one shoulder, that probably was source of the strong herbal scent Ruby smelled. Dark eyes, that looked almost black locked to her, and thin lips stretched in a small smile.

"Of course. But first, who is this lovely young lady?"

"Oh, right, I forgot to introduce her. This is Ruby Rose, my friend from Beacon. Ruby, meet Emiel Regis."

"Umm.. Hi." Ruby waved her hand shyly.

"The pleasure is all mine, Miss Rose. And what fitting name, if I may say."

"Ok, old man, stop flirting with her, she's only fifteen. Let's get to work." Jaune said, ushering the older man inside.

"Why, Jaune, as gentlemen it is my duty to compliment a beautiful lady when I see one." He shook his head. "Young ones these days just can't enjoy their lives. Why, it reminds me when I was younger…"

"First: stop. Second : dead body? Autopsy? Ring any bells?"

Regis shook his head with a heavy sigh, but turned around and walked inside, motioning for them to follow. Ruby just stared, unblinkingly. This was… not what she expected.

"Oh, I forgot to mention one thing… he is apparently good friends with Port."

And suddenly everything made sense.

"So, what do we have here?" Jaune mused, looking over the body lying on metal table. Both him and Regs were dressed in white coats, with latex gloves on their hands.

"Male, 36 years old. His name…" The older man started reading off his scroll.

"No offense Regis, but let's skip formalites, ok? I want to be done with this as soon as possible."

"As you wish." The older man walked around table, checking the corpse.

"We have several bite marks all over body. Deep ones, and there are parts of the body that are missing." He said finally.

"But that's not what killed him." Jaune said.

"No, it's not." Regis hummed. "I would hazard a guess that our guest was dead for awhile, at least few hours before he was found.

"How can you tell?" Ruby asked. She still felt uncomfortable being in the same room as a naked man. Fact said man was dead made it even worse.

"Look here" Said Jaune, pointing at the dark spots on the man's back." When the body lies in a single position for a long time after death, the blood drips down and coagulates. It takes a few hours."

"And judging by the placement and size of the bite marks - he wasn't defending himself. Plus, there was very little blood at the scene. This means he got these wounds after his blood coagulated."

"So, what killed him?" She asked.

"Hmm, I think this." The older man said, pointing at a black spot on the man's chest.

"It looks like he received a powerful blow to the chest. The object was small and blunt, probably broke his ribs, that in turn damaged heart, or lungs."

"No point guessing. "Jaune said, examining the man's eyes, mouth,and neck. "Did you check for poison already?" The older man shook his head.

"No, I just took samples. Can you take care of it?"

"Sure. Will you be opening him up?" Asked the blond, picking up vials with some reddish… thing inside, and walking towards a large table with some strange aperture.

"Yes. " Regis said, pulling out a scalpel "All external wounds seem to be bite marks, made after he died. I don't see any indication he was strangled either."

Ruby, overcoming her unease, walked up to the table to take a closer look at the corpse. It really looked bad, but even she could tell that none of bite marks could be fatal. Most of them were located on the man's legs and arms, and judging by size, it was work of regular wolves, or maybe wild dogs. Maybe a small Beowolf, but Grimm tended to ignore corpses. Dead people didn't emitted negativity after all.

Regis made the first cut, and the first thing Ruby noticed was the smell. How the older man could stand so close to source and not even wince, she had no idea.

"So? See anything interesting?" Jaune called out, not even looking up from the aperture he was using.

"Hmm. Like I said, his ribs were crushed by a powerful blunt force." Regis made one more cut and put his hand inside the corpse's chest. Ruby swallowed the bile that rose in her throat. "Interesting… Heart is heavily damaged, but I don't see any bone splinters."

"If it was really strong hit, it could in theory destroy heart…" Jaune pointed out, but didn't sound too convinced.

"No, there would be much more damage around the impact area. Plus, with an object this small, hitting with that much force would have went straight through the rib cage. It had to be something else." Regis hummed, considering something for a few moments, then made a long cut on the side of the corpse's stomach.

"Liver seems intact… Overall, from what I can see, the internal organs seem to be in rather good condition. "

Ruby could feel her stomach revolt, her breakfast threatening to come out. She started to back away slowly.

Somehow, the casual conversation Jaune and Regis had made it all the worse.

How they can be so calm about this?!

Her back hit the wall and she winced. It would be embarrassing to just ran away. She briefly considered whether to throw her pride to the wind and run, or try hold on, but when Regis pulled out what looked like small mallet, and said he is going to take look inside the head, she decided it's time to capitulate, and then her scroll buzzed.

She mumbled a quick apology, and checked the message she just received.

"Um, Jaune?"

The blond looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Ren just sent message that they are back in the tavern. I'm going to met up with them and see what they found out, ok?" Not waiting for an answer she ran out.

Both men started at the door for a few moments, then chuckled.

"Well, she lasted longer than expected. What was that, twenty minutes after I started cutting?" Regis mused.

"Something like that." Jaune nodded, stretching.

"Well, still longer than a certain someone." Older man smirked. "And she didn't faint."

"First, I don't faint, I slipped and hit my head. Second, you threw a human brain at me, and I was fourteen then. I think I might be excused for freaking out a bit."

"Eh, don't be such drama queen. It was a fake one anyway…"

"Shut up and get back to work."

Three hours later, four Hunters gathered in Regis' house. It was a small building with an open bedroom, bathroom, and big living room connected to a small kitchen. They sat around a small table, while the older man pulled out several photographs.

"This here is first victim." He said, tapping on the photo. All that was visible was some older man, probably in his late forties, with a hole in his chest.

"It was by far the most brutal kill out of all those we know of. His heart was literally ripped out. But from what I can tell, every victim received a powerful blow to the chest. Why only this one had his heart removed, I have no idea."

"This one was second." He said, setting down a photograph of a young girl. "Similar damage to the others, but this one also had a cracked skull, and a damaged spinal cord. I assume she received a powerful blow to the side of head, that snapped her neck."

"And the third one. Nothing much to say here, similar case to others."

Jaune looked over the photos, lost in thought.

"Well, I think we can scrap Grimm and Ghouls from our list of suspects. I don't think it's a Wraith either, too much physical damage, and people killed by them usually look withered. So its either a Aberration, or human." The blond groaned, shaking his head. "I honestly can't say which one I prefer. "Ok, anything unusual there? Something that stands out?"

Regis hummed, leaning back in his chair.

"Honestly, I can't think of anything. None of them had any real enemies, none that I was aware of. They weren't poisoned, unless someone developed a new, undetectable, poison and decided to test it on a few random people from some backwater village." The older man paused for few a moments, pondering something.

"If I would have to point something out… it would be that all those kills were very clean. There is no traces of struggle on the victims' bodies, the damage is minimal. It's usually just this one blow to the chest."

"So, they were taken by surprise. Couldn't see their attacker, or didn't realize they were in danger until it was too late." Jaune sighed. "Ren, Nora, you two find anything?"

"We found footprints. Left by a human, judging by the size, it was a child."

"I see. Well, no one said it would be easy." The blond let out tired sigh. "I guess we are doing it the hard way."

"That means?" Asked Ren.

"I'll use my Aura vision to look for traces of corrupted Aura. Should be easy, since this forest will give me a nice background. But damn, I can already feel the migrene."

"Then what should we do?" Asked Nora once they left Regis' house, the old man promising to keep them updated on any new developments.

Jaune hummed.

"Ren, you can help me with mixing Elixirs, if you want?" The black haired boy nodded with a small smile.

"It would be my pleasure."

"Great. So me and Nora will take a walk around the town. Maybe we will learn something from the people."

"Good idea, but don't be too pushy. People in villages like this tend to not trust outsiders too much."

"So, how are we doing it?" Asked Nora, watching as both boys walked towards the tavern, discussing something. She smiled a little.

She hadn't seen Ren being so passionate about something for what felt like forever. Ever since Jaune mentioned his Elixirs, and asked her childhood friend to help him out, Ren was doing a lot of research himself. He would read books, browse the internet, and ask teachers for advice and tips.

It was totally different than his normal stoic, almost uncaring attitude.

"I guess we just wander around and keep our ears and eyes open." Ruby answered with a shrug.

"Should we go together, or split?"

"Split." The dark haired girl decided after a second of thought. "I doubt we run into anything dangerous inside the walls, and we will be able to cover more ground that way."

"So, meet here in, let's say, two hours?"

"Sure." Ruby nodded and ran off. Nora chuckled, and walked away in opposite direction. She wandered through the narrow streets, visiting any shop she noticed, and just listening to what people she passed by were saying. IF she heard someone talking about murders, she would slow down, or pretend she was checking her scroll, lean on a wall close by, and listen for a few moments.

What? She could be sneaky when she wanted to.

After almost an hour, she plopped down on a bench near a small river going through the village and groaned. She hadn't learned anything, and in hindsight, it wasn't surprising. Afterall, it couldn't be that easy.

"Hey, did you hear? The sheriff and his boys found out what killed all those people." An unfamiliar, male voice sounded somewhere behind her.

Huh? Nora focused her hearing.

"Yeah, I heard. Some wild dog, yeah?"

"I think a wolf… not sure about that one. Anyway, it sure as hell wasn't any monster."

"Heh, I guess our resident Hunters proved as effective as expected." Both men laughed, their voices growing quiet as they walked away.

Well, wasn't that interesting information? She wasn't an expert, but she was almost certain that a person killed by a wild animal would be in much worse state than the corpse she saw in those photos.

She got up, and sprinted towards the tavern. Jaune needed to hear about this.

Ruby groaned. This was pointless! She was wandering around for over an hour, and hadn't learned anything. In her games, her main always stumbled at some clue if he or she wandered town for long enough.

Granted, it usually happened when they reached the 'bad' parts of town - but Dragon's Maw didn't seem to really have any. The village - or was it a small city already? Was too small to develop slums, even though several hundreds - maybe over a thousand people lived here.

She hummed, recalling what she learned about this place during their short investigation. There was no data about how many people lived here, the city was described as having a 'fluid population'. Ruby wasn't sure what this meant, but one nice older man explained that a good portion of Dragon's Maw population were wandering hunters - regular ones, hunting animals for food and skins.

They would often move in, and out, depending on how much prey there was around. Their families, if the had any, staying in the safety of the the walls. The older man she talked with mentioned there were months when 'arrivers', he called them, actually outnumbered the village's core population.

Ruby sighed and looked around. She was in a less populated part of the town. In fact, for the past twenty minutes she had seen only two people.

This must be where the traveling hunters live when they come back. She mused.

Houses here were… simpler. Not really shoddy, but smaller. Despite the fact that most of them looked to be abandoned, all of them seemed in good condition. A loud thud broke her out of her musings. She looked around, trying to locate the source of the noise. It was repeating in regular intervals.

After a moment of hesitation, Ruby followed it to the source. She didn't have to walk too far. Here, in front of one of houses, stood a small girl in a familiar green dress. She was holding an axe - that looked to be too big and heavy for her, but she apparently didn't have much problems with cutting planks of wood from the pile next to her.

Ruby walked over, waited for girl to swing the axe down, and coughed.

Rias yelped and spun round. Unfortunately, her feet tangled in her dress, tripping her.

"I'm sorry!" Ruby cried out, catching girl before she could fall.

"No, no, it's ok." Rias laughed nervously. "It happens all the time to me. I'm really clumsy, and always fall, and my grandpa always worried about me hurting myself, and now I'm blabbering." She sighed, took a deep breath and laughed nervously, rubbing the back of her head.

Ruby gigled. It looked like she found another person as dorky as herself.

"So.. what are you doing here?" She asked.

Rias shrugged.

"Just cutting some wood. There are a lot of older people around here that can't move as well anymore."

Ruby eyed pile of wood next to smaller girl. It was almost as big as her.

"That's a lot of wood." She pointed out.

Rias smiled.

"Yeah, I'm a lot stronger than I look." She said, flexing her arms.

"I see." Ruby smiled. She looked over her new friend - because dorks had to stick together -and noticed she didn't looked as pale as she was yesterday.

"So, what brings you here? It's not the most… interesting part of the town." Rias paused, hummed, then shrugged. "Well, for someone from big city, you this whole town must seem rather bland and boring." She said, looking away.

"No, I like it here! It's very nice. And I'm form small town too!"

"Really?!" somehow this got Rias very excited. She was now staring directly into Ruby's eyes, a wide smile on her face. Then she pouted. "You're not making fun of me, are you?!"

"No, of course not! Why would you say that?"

"I mean.." Rias sighed. "You're all Hunters! You're so cool! A small city like this…" she trailed off.

"No, I'm serious, I really like it here." Ruby called out, maybe just a little desperate. She really didn't want her new friend to sulk like that. "In fact, we are all came from small towns. I'm from a little island not far for Vale, called Patch. Jaune is form Silver Lake… I'm not sure where it is, but he always said it was a small town. Same with Ren and Nora."

"Ohhh." Rias stared at Ruby, her mouth forming "O".

"So… what it is like? Patch I mean?"

"Well…" Ruby wasn't sure what to say. Patch seems so… normal to her.

But I guess everyone thinks that way about the place where they spent most of their life in.

They spend next half an hour just chatting, and laughing. It came to a stop when her scroll rang.

"Jaune? What…"

Her eyes widened.

"Really? That…" She listened for a few moments. "I see. Will be there in a moment."

"Something wrong?" Rias asked, cleary startled.

"Apparently, the sheriff claims he found the beast that killed all those people."

"What? But how…" Rivas called out, clearly surprised.

"Jaune thinks he is wrong, and that there might be trouble." She shot the other girl apologetic smile. "Sorry, I gotta go."

"Ah, sure. See you later." Ruby waved, and dashed off.

Rias looked after her for a few moments, face confused.

"They found it? Then why…?" She shook her head, and after a moment of hesitation, followed after Ruby.

She had to see for herself. Maybe she was wrong after all.

She really hoped that was the case.

And that wraps chapter 33 up. Looks like the local militia did solved problem themselves. Now our heroes can back their bags ,and go back to Beacon. Everything is alright in Dragon's Maw again.

Definitely.

In other news, life is still busy for me, and will probably get even busier. I doubt it will be to the point I would have to delay chapters, but if things start looking bad, I'll let you guys know.

See ya next week.

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