Chapter 2
The wind that blew from the sea was cold and harsh, her blonde hair billowing against the breeze as she made her way to the station at the skyport, one of the airbuses was already coming down through the sky to pick up new passengers. She glanced around and took notice that it was fairly empty. It seemed like few people were wanting to go to Vale right now, likely they didn't want to be in the shadow of beacon which had become a hive of Grimm. She looked to a small booth outside the station, the ticket booth. Making her way towards it the man within glanced up at her, he knew Yang personally since she often went back and forth from Patch to Vale before her incident so it was no problem buying passage to the city from him. With ticket in hand she entered the station, there were maybe three people waiting to board the next flight and a few security guards at their posts.
The airbus docked at the platform and as the doors opened many people came walking out. Looked like a lot were leaving Vale for Patch, the protection of the sea between the two likely being an alluring barrier for those in worry of the Grimm. After all the passengers had departed the airbus, Yang and the three others began to board it. The three went first, but as Yang was going to step on the attendant at the door stopped her and gave her a narrowed glare. "You're that girl that broke that poor boys leg during the tournament, aren't you?" he asked in an almost disgusted fashion, Yang glanced away from him with almost a shamed expression and it was then he noticed her arm, or how one sleeve of her jacket was tied short. He paused for a moment as he looked to it before grudgingly stepping aside, "Looks like you got your due either way... Get on" he said in no polite manner. Yang never looked to him as she boarded the airbus. In fact she was now reminded that it was probably going to be common knowledge of who she was to the citizens of Vale, and what she was known for in the tournament.
Aboard the airbus she found herself a seat, it was one that was preferably away from the other passengers. The minutes began to tick by as they waited for more potential passengers, in the end only one additional person showed up. With that the doors on the vehicle gently shut and the engines began to hum to life again. She could feel the craft lifting back into the air as it moved out of the airport. With an accelerating speed it started making its way from Patch to Vale over the ocean. She could already see the city in the distance and from here it didn't look any different than it usually did. Beacon however was another story, the tip of the tower was simply destroyed and the frozen behemoth of a Grimm was still clinging to it. The very knowledge it was still there must terrify the locals, or perhaps they were simply hoping it would never wake up again. The fact it was still attracting Grimm was a real issue though. Through the news she had learnt that Atlas was still present and holding the borders down from any that might try and get into the city itself, for which she was thankful to hear they hadn't just up and left Vale to its own defences.
The airbus lowered further towards the water as it reached its destination airport on the docks of Vale. The first thing Yang noted as she looked out of the window towards their general direction was that there seemed to be a queue outside of the airport, it wasn't huge but it was certainly enough to be of concern. Just how many people were even left in the city by this point? She began to wonder if Blake did in fact take a flight out of Vale and to Patch, but simply didn't try to find her once reaching the island. Or she did, but failed. She shook her head to herself and her blonde hair swayed against the motion. If her search in Vale turned up empty handed with no leads then she would go back to Patch and start there. But while she was here she was going to do what she could to find her once partner. The announcer within the airbus sounded in a woman's voice, it clearly wasn't the voice of a human though. "Now approaching: West Vale, dock five. Please prepare to board and exit in an orderly fashion", a jingle sounded at the end of the announcement.
The sound of people talking in mass was muffled but heard outside of the vehicle as it docked into the airport. Yang and the other passengers stood to their feet as they began to depart the craft. After stepping off the airbus and onto solid ground again she started heading for the exit immediately, glancing back briefly to see the crowd piling into the airbus and the attendants doing their best to keep them organized. Looking forward again she reached the exit of the airport building and as she opened the door the sound of the city rushed to her ears. People talking and walking, the engine of cars and the sound of their horns, the wind blowing between the tall buildings. She could already smell smoke and food from one of the many nearby restaurants. Yang liked the atmosphere of a city, it was always so busy and active. But there was something a little off about Vale today, when she paid attention many of the people she saw looked worried, or were briskly walking in one direction. A lot more people were also carrying around suitcases and luggage, or getting into taxis. It was almost like an evacuation was still happening, only it was the choice of the people and not the demand of the military this time around.
After having taken it all in Yang breathed in a sharp breath before her legs started moving, she marched in a direction she knew very well and it was no doubt going to be her first stop. As she was about to cross her first road she came to a sudden stop. The realization hit her that she might be in Vale a while and had given no thought to accommodation. That's right, she needed to find a place to stay first, a base of operations almost. She couldn't let the search control her and force her into every other direction she wanted to go in just because she was eager. She had to take her time if she was going to do this right, if she was going to find Blake. Otherwise she'd be tired and sleeping on the streets before she knew it. She frowned to herself as she had to heed her own advice and took a turn away from the previous direction she was heading in. She knew a few places she could stay and she did have some money on her. She had no desire for anything expensive though, a simple low-cost hotel or a flat for rent would do her well enough.
She continued on down the streets and it came quickly to her that she was an object of curiosity and even sometimes ridicule. Not only did some of these people remember her in the tournament, but those who didn't simply gave a glance to her missing arm instead of her face which was something she was quickly growing to hate. She hadn't had to experience interaction with many strangers since she'd lost her arm so it was a new experience to her, even if a negative one. But with everything else she would find a way around it, or simply learn to ignore it altogether. She made sure to stay well away from those that seemed to recognize her however. With Grimm being attracted to negative emotions she was no doubt among the many theories of what brought them here. Indeed it could be that some would blame her for the attack in its entirety, for making so many people feel those negative emotions when she had snapped the leg of her opponent in brutal fashion.
Yang opened the door to a small cramped room. There was a bed big enough for one person with clean sheets and comfy looking pillows, the window was small with some fabric draped over half of it at an angle, a TV atop a table at the opposite end of the bed and a door that no doubt led to the bathroom. It was cheap, but it'd do the job for a place to crash. She climbed over the bed and towards the window (there wasn't really enough room to walk around the bed). She tugged the curtain up slightly to look outside, the view of her window showed her only an alleyway framed by two taller buildings that led to a busier road. Not the best view, but she didn't mind the quiet of it. Letting the curtain fall back down she took a step back to sit on her bed. She looked up to the window thinking about her first destination. She'd known where she was going to go the moment she left her house, but she'd need to be careful on how she approached it. One sign of weakness and it was likely she'd get into a fight. She needed to maintain confidence, to act as she always had been and as if nothing was wrong. Only then might she have a chance of learning what she needs to know.
A part of her knew there would be more to the search though, it'd be too easy if her first destination was somehow the last. No, she was sure she was going to need to visit many places depending on the leads she'd receive. Now that she thought about it, it seemed quite the large task. Had she perhaps bitten off more than she could chew? Despite that she was at least going to have to try. And maybe it was better for her to ignore how long it might take before getting some ways through it first. Who knows, maybe luck would indeed shine on her and her first destination would have her eye to eye with Blake. Maybe it would be smarter to think about what the first thing she should say ought to be. Sorry maybe? But sorry for what? Yang hadn't done anything to apologise for. Maybe she should tell Blake she forgives her for running away? No, she was getting ahead of herself. She still didn't know her motivations for doing so, and until then she couldn't be sure on what she'd say to her.
She looked over to the TV and leaned towards it in order to turn it on and grab the remote. Flicking through a few channels it didn't take long to find out that the quality was terrible. The screen was always flickering and there was an underlying sound of static that just annoyed her to no end. After flicking through a few more channels she sighed to herself and turned the TV back off. She lay back onto her bed and stared up at the ceiling for a few more minutes, simply relaxing. But did she have time for that? She'd had plenty of rest on the journey here, there was no time to hesitate. Though the thought struck her that perhaps she was hesitating on purpose. She'd be lying if she said she wasn't nervous about the whole thing, who wouldn't be? With a groan she pushed herself back up off the bed and shuffled over to the side nearer the door. After getting to her feet she stretched her back before opening and locking the door behind her. A base of operations had been established, it was time to get to work.
Yang had spent a while familiarizing herself with the city of Vale once more, partly because some street knowledge would be handy and also because her first destination required the clock to be set to a certain time. The sun had set an hour or so ago and night was rolling in. Unlike the usual night-life of Vale however, the streets were almost empty. Occasionally Yang would spot a small patrol of Atlas soldiers, at first she ignored them but soon began to notice that almost systematically they would raise a finger to their ear and turn their face away every time they spotted her. It put her on edge, maybe they were just saying something as casual as "One person on this street with this description" in case anything bad went down. There were so few people on the streets that it would be easy to link a crime to someone like that, being one of the few within the vicinity of whatever crime had occurred.
Still, even with how strange they were acting she felt safer knowing they were patrolling the streets at night. She wandered just how many Grimm had managed to sneak into Vale since the attack, and if it was a serious concern. With the way Atlas was parading its ships in the sky around, you'd think it was a common occurrence and big enough to warrant air support. Her eyes looked forward to the street she was walking down, as with the others it was almost empty save for maybe one other person walking along the other side of the pavement. There weren't even any cars driving down the roads. In a way it was peaceful, but then she'd look up to Beacon and the reminder of why it was as such came to her. She looked forward once more and saw the road split, she knew where she was going and turned right. At the end of the street she could see a familiar building, she could even hear the music already.
At the entrance two of Junior's lackeys were guarding, one of them looked up to her side of the street as she was approaching and immediately ran back inside. Not a few minutes later did he come back out and stood as he had before he had seen her. Yang smirked to herself, she had remembered the last time she paid a visit to Junior and the way his men reacted to her like she was some kind of unstoppable force to be reckoned with. And well, they weren't wrong. This time however it seemed they were aiming to take a different approach, they had yet to barricade the front door after all.
Finally she came to stand on the red carpet that led into the entrance of the club, she stopped in front of both guards and they stood polite before bowing low and gesturing at the entrance with their arms. "Miss Xiao Long, so glad to see you tonight" one of the guards spoke, keeping his gaze lowered. Yang raised a brow at the guard before her head spun to the other that also spoke. "Please Miss Xiao Long, go right in" he said, like the other, avoiding her eyes.
It seemed Junior had wizened up and realised that attempting to stop Yang with force simply wasn't going to work. She smiled at this before responding, "Thanks boys, I'll make sure to tell Junior how nice you both were" she spoke with a wink. She almost felt like her old self as she made for the door, one of the guards quickly ran to open it for her but it seemed to be more out of polite gesture than anything, he didn't notice her arm after all from avoiding looking at her so much.
The sound of music grew louder and louder as she stepped into the light-filled room. The theme tonight seemed to be white, yellow and orange, how very convenient she had thought to herself. Though the music sounded a lot more different and to her tastes than she had heard from outside. She looked down to the dance floor and her expression changed to that of confusion. It was just filled with more of Junior's henchmen and when she focused she noticed they were all terrible at dancing, in fact it looked like they were just acting it all out, pretending to be having a good time. A spotlight clicked on and shined at Yang, causing her to recoil from the light briefly. It was then she heard the cringe-worthy cheers of the henchman on the dance floor as they all looked to her. "It's Miss Xiao Long!" One screamed, "She's so beautiful!" another cried out, "Marry me!" someone yelled as they dropped to their knees in the middle of the floor with their hands clutching at their heart.
At this point Yang was more than sure it was an act. She awkwardly waved her one hand at the crowd with a crooked smile, to which they only cheered more. She could already see Junior with his back turned at the bar, another stool just so happened to have been placed near him on his right. With a short sigh she started making her way down the set of steps, walking past the dance floor on her left as all the lackeys kept their focus on her, she looked to one of them and he raised a hand to his head and fell backwards with a breathy sigh, two of his buddies caught him and started dragging him back through the crowd. She wanted to laugh but she had to play along and assume everything was as is, she didn't want to give away that she knew it was an act. Junior might actually think they were fooling her.
She arrived at the bar and called out from behind Junior, "This seat taken?" she asked with a smirk and was glad that she would be sitting with her left side facing him. The longer she could avoid him knowing she had one arm the better.
Junior barely looked back and nudged his head at the chair, "Yeah, by you Blondie" he answered in a rather smooth voice as he slid a glass in front of the chair on the bar. A glass of Strawberry Sunrise, it even had a little umbrella in it.