Chapter 3- The town of Bosu
The whirring of the engines from the airship kicked up some dust as it slowly descended to drop off the team and their new professor.
The team jumped down with their weapons stowed away on their sides and Claus with his weapons on his back, even Sky managed to finish her weapon just before they got to the destination and now it was equipped to her hip by her hip pouch in the form of a tool box.
Gort finished up his conversation with the pilot before stepping down from the airship, planting his cane down first and then hopping down and now with everyone off, the airship slowly rose up and flew away to go pick up the next team.
"Now then, let's begin by securing our lodgings and exploring the town and get a familiar feel to it before we begin our work." Gort announced, glancing behind them at the town.
It wasn't a large town, the town of Bosu is a small town far from Vale with multiple rivers and streams on high land surrounding it including one that flows through the centre of the town, giving it some defence against small land based Grimm, there were several houses and taller buildings reaching four stories high with a main dirt road with some side roads being made apparent as the occasional vehicle pulls into them and an airship landing pad and they had some of the Vale security there positioned on towers and patrolling around the town to protect them due to a deal made between the town and Vale for exchanging shares and resources, it was the closest thing to the expansion of Vale.
"Hey professor I don't know if you've noticed but…" Claus pointed his finger to the right of him to show a large circus tent of a variety of colours to dazzle anyone looking at it.
"We are not here for fun, though it may be worth investigating later on." Gort said, his low practically able to rip through everyone body's it was that low and projecting.
"Professor I've got a question." Sky raised her hand with a serious face, she's still angry with him from the earlier confrontation.
"Speak… Sky isn't it? I apologise I am not the best with names."
"May we go hunting for Grimm? I need to do a test to make sure my weapon is functioning properly, you know since I literally just finished it on the way here." She said, taking out her weapon and unfolding it out to into the spear form with the blade almost poking Ray in which she stumbled back in surprise.
"Sky careful with that thing! You nearly poked me."
"Oh sorry, sorry." The engineer scratched her head but looked back at Gort for his answer.
"You sure are an eager one, here's a proposal-"
"P-proposal?!" Sky interrupted him, going red thinking his was going to propose to her until Ray slapped her on the head to get that thought out of her head, when to comes to anything romance or love related, Sky was always the one to react the most abruptly and with major misunderstandings since she barely experienced it in her life and was extremely weak to it was quick to react in misunderstandings due to the attention he got from O'Brian back at her home, well in Jet's eyes he saw it more as harassment to the point where Sky is just scared of any kind of romance since the guy never left her alone back then.
"Ahem, what I was saying, instead of going off to hunt Grimm and put yourself in danger, how about I test your weapon, this open space will be ideal for a duel plus it let's me know how capable you are in combat." As Gort said his piece, he took a few spaces away from the group and planted his cane into the ground, reached in his pocket and brought out some gentlemen leather gloves and put them on before lifting the cane again but this time holding it by the base as though to look like he intends to use it like a mace.
"You're fine with that?! Fine let's do this!" Sky took a step forward with a smile for this was a great opportunity to test her new weapon out for this is better and safer than going head first into a horde of Grimm.
"Wave was it? keep an eye on our aura, it should be on your scroll on the Beacon application." Gort said to him and Wave nodded then checked his scroll to find the aura levels of them both, he instantly knew that this wasn't going to go well.
"Just remember, you're representing your team as leader, after this we will continue with the tasks today, got it?" Gort stated.
"Of course, this will be a short fight anyway." Sky swung her spear in a few rotations before pointing it towards Gort, her arms spread along the weapon, leaning forward, ready for a quick thrust as she is waiting upon the professor to make the first move.
But Gort didn't move, instead he made a taunting gesture with his hand for Sky to rush at him, he also knew that whoever makes the first move can decide the fate of the match, it was a stalemate.
Sky nodded as she leaped from her position, sprinting at her professor, swinging her weapon behind her back as she halted right before him and brought the spear around for the first heavy strike,
Gort just stepped back and proceeded to block the next few consecutive strikes from the student, he narrowly dodged past the thrust to get in close while Sky still had the spear extended and proceeded to kick her in the stomach region, swinging his cane up, ready to swing down on her but Sky had other plans as she quickly recovered from the kick and rolled back and took a defensive stance with her lance across her body and holding it firmly, catching her breath from the confrontation.
Gort seemed to use his limbs to fight more than his actual weapon and doesn't seem to always go for the first strike, he was calculating and defensive like he knew every move Sky was going to make so during her thought process, she thought the only way to land a hit on him was a surprise strike but something was off, it was like he knew what she was going to do before Sky even acted so if she was going to do a surprise attack it would be too swift for him to even react, it was a perfect change to test the other feature of her weapon.
By taking a block out of the spear and replacing it with a black painted one, Sky rushed to Gort once again with her plan.
"Fruitless." The professor muttered under his breath as he took up arms to intercept.
The engineer did the same as last time by halting just before him but out of range of his weapon, but this time grabbed the circular handle of the spear and jerked it back, causing the whole thing to fold in half and forming a one-sided blade with a gun barrel at the centre in quick succession.
The professor's eyes widened and kicked back almost like he knew what she was doing as Sky pulled the trigger and a cloud of black smoke exploded from around Gort's face to where she was aiming although the cloud was only big enough to cover his whole head, Sky took this opportunity to get a few slashes in with the now sword but just as she was go into one more strike, the cane made its way to strike her in the stomach and from that, a fiery blast erupted from it, throwing Sky quite a distance from it as she yelped from the sudden impact and crashed on the floor.
"A very interesting weapon design, I'll admit there's something I want to ask." Gort wiped the smoke away from his face, leaving some smudges on his face, his cane had fire circling it from the dust crystal that was in the handle but soon went out as the professor planted it back into the ground and put his hand on top of the handle.
Before Sky answered she immediately rushed in with her sword for one last rush.
The two's weapons clashed for a few times, Sky dodging a few strikes, displaying her intuition to quick attacks and went for a low sweep with her leg, only to miss by Gort jumping up and kicking her in the face, delivering another heavy blow to Sky one again and sent her flying back into the dirt.
"Enough! Now will you listen to my question?" Gort planted his cane down to signal he was done.
Sky stood up and folded her weapon away, looking disappointed with herself.
"What is it?"
"The way you fight, it's for humans correct?"
The way he phrased it sent Sky into surprise as no one ever said that to her nor did she even think about it.
"Hold on, a fighting style just against humans? What do you mean?" Wave stood forward, putting his scroll away.
"What I mean is, she is more suited for fighting humans than Grimm, while it may not be a bad thing if you frequently encounter bandits but as a huntress you will encounter much more Grimm than bandits along with having too much strength can sometimes lead to hardships on both you and those around you, that's what I'm saying." Gort drew closer to Sky and held out his hand, while he seemed relieved, a part of him still looked sad.
"It was a good match."
"Heh… thanks." Sky took his hand and shook it.
"So, are you saying I'm unsuited for fighting Grimm?" She asked worriedly, looking down slightly like a guilty puppy.
"Not exactly, there have been a few examples of students like yourself and they have left to do fine or learned from experience, this was just something I had noticed." Gort drew back his hand and took off the gloves, slipping them into his pockets and focused back onto the girl.
"So why did you bring it up?" Sky looked up, feeling relived that she was not going to be scolded.
"I merely just wanted to state that, if it offended you then I apologise, I'm not used to teaching so I apologise if I come out as rude or harsh."
"It's okay, you were just curious that's all but when did you start teaching?" Sky smiled again, bringing her spirits back up knowing that her professor didn't mean anything bad by what he had said.
"I was at Haven academy for a year before transferring here."
"You're a bit insensitive, aren't you?" Ray smirked, crossing her arms.
"I would prefer it if you kept your comments to yourself." The professor said in a more threatening manner as he took some steps forward.
"Come on, we've got to check ourselves in."
After that, the team checked into a small lodge on the side of the main road of the town where they stored their luggage and came back out to tour the town to get a feeling for its surroundings, in the town, despite the news of people going missing in the area, it was quite busy people going around the different shops and stalls, kids running around and the occasional dog sniffing for it's perfect peeing spot.
It was different from Vale, it was busy but not as busy as what Vale would be on the busiest days, so it was a nice and different atmosphere which reminded Sky of the village back at home a little, Ray looked curiously at the shop windows, looking for any potential buys while Claus kept looking up at the buildings, seeming impressed by the architecture although it could be considered bland and plain to the common eye.
"Professor, don't mind me asking but doesn't this town seem a bit… defenceless?" Wave raised the question, looking around noticing there being little guards, not to mention no walls surrounding the while town which is quite uncommon for a settlement outside the kingdoms.
"This place is protected by the natural barriers, the rivers, hills and the wind, there isn't much need for walls since the Grimm tend to be in low numbers and not usually that large, so the guards here look from outpost's such as that one." Gort pointed up with his cane at a large tower with an observation shack.
"Although, security still feels quite thin around here."
"That's what I'm thinking, there should be more guards, good work I'll keep that in mind." Gort said, stopping the group in front of a bizarre sculpture about the professor's height as he turned to them.
"We will start the investigation from here, you all remember the mission brief right?"
"We must investigate the disappearance of people and if possible find them, right?" Ray answered, taking her scroll out to check the description.
"That's only part of it, that damn Oz…" Gort cursed under his breath, giving a cough before continuing.
"This place isn't the only place that's seen a series of people going missing in this area, as far as we know, every report that we had received is all the destinations that circus tent has been so we've been following it but every time we dispatched a team, the tent has moved apart from here, it seems to have a particular interest here in which we must investigate." Gort knew that the tent would ideally be the place to be investigate first but as to why it is staying in this particular position is what interested him so it's important to know the intent before confronting the culprit or culprits.
"So why are we investigating this? Isn't this normally a job for the Vale security." Ray asked, raising an eyebrow at the professor.
"As Huntsman and Huntresses, you won't only be fighting Grimm, sometimes you'll be on search and rescue missions or helping as investigators or escorts, a situation like this is ideal for getting students such as yourselves to learn, was that to your satisfaction?" Gort said, his stare looking like a glare from a thousand crows looking at their prey that intimidated Ray, but she didn't let it show.
"N-no." She squeaked.
"Either way we will break into teams for here, the reason for that is when we talk to individuals, if we go as part of a large team, it can be intimidating to them or if we find the suspect, they will be more likely to catch on that we are onto them." Gort picked up his cane and pointed at the students to split them in half.
"Ray with Wave and Sky with Claus, I'll go on my own, meet back here for 6pm, no later got it?" He said, placing the cane back on the floor.
"Sure, but what are we supposed to ask?" Wave asked, Gort was caught off guard slightly, realising he hadn't told them.
"Good question, I have a list of the missing persons from this area and the people they knew, I will assign a couple of them to you, show them your Beacon ID's when you talk to them so the people know they can trust you and be conservative when talking to them, listen and try to avoid questions that will hurt them, we will share the information we gathered later." Gort nodded and turned to take his leave up the street, like he was leaving the stage of a performance.
"Bossy and uptight but caring and kind, why is this guy so confusing?!" Ray let out her frustration, frantically scratching her head then stopping as soon as she calmed down but still looked frustrated.
"I don't blame you, I find him very hard to read like a book on soil." Claus put hand to chin and shook his head.
"But you can't read a human right?" Wave stated, not understanding the indirect metaphor.
"Oh silly, it's a saying, just meaning it's hard to understand what he was thinking." Sky teased the wolf Faunus, smiling up to him and giggling before turning away but stopped for a moment to think.
Although speaking of reading, Sky was wondering the whole time on how Gort predicted her moves in that earlier battle, even when she changed weapon forms for the small smoke-screen, the professor seemed to have noticed what was already going to happen but couldn't react in time, this made finding out his semblance an important matter.
Before Sky could think about it anymore, her scroll buzzed in her hip pouch with a message from the professor with a photo attached, it was time to get to work.