((A/N (7/26/18): We're very sorry about the delay of this chapter but the one in charge of writing this portion got serious writers block and struggled with finishing several scenes. We thought it was best to delay our usual schedule rather than posting something with a severe quality dip. Thank you for your patience, and enjoy the chapter))

Xanthic stirred awake, quickly becoming startled and confused by the machinery around him, "Wh-where- How di-did I…"

"You're awake," Riliane spoke excitedly. "How are you feeling?"

"I um…" He looked around to see his classmates. Xanthic moved to sit up and winced, upon glancing down at his arm he saw a long thick scar stretching from just before his wrist to halfway through his bicep. "Olive di-did you..?"

"Orelon's still alive, he's in a holding cell until they finish processing," Olive explained to him.

"Man," D'art heaved, "I'm glad you're alright, having an old man like that, though, life must of been rough. I mean really, giving you an injury like that, he didn't hold back on you at all."

"Oh, well, a-actually um…" Xanthic looked briefly at Olive before staring back down at his hand that was connected to a heart rate monitor.

"That was Olive's work actually," Celeste informed him.

"Wait what?" D'art looked wildly between them.

"I had the opportunity to finish off Orelon, but Xanthic got in the way," Olive explained. "My blade scraped off of his gauntlet and slid up his arm."

"Oh, so it was just an accident," He sighed.

"Why did you get in the way?" She continued blatantly.

"He… I-I couldn't just- He's st-still…" Xanthic quivered.

His shaking stopped as Nivens took over, "We lost a family once already. Sociopathic douche or not, he wouldn't be able to take the stress of losing another so suddenly."

"Just don't do anything like that again," Riliane said, "Either of you."

"How about I just promise to let you know the next time we have a personal connection to a terrorist," He chuckled. Nivens looked at his hand again before taking the small device off of his finger, causing the rhythmic beeping to turn into a single tone. "That'll get somebody's attention I hope. And maybe they'll bring some food before the police."


An older male reporter adjusted his papers, "The police have finally announced the cause for the commotion at the Picto Corp building three days ago; a group of first year students identifying as teams CODE and ROXA of Beacon Academy had a violent confrontation with leading members of the organization known as The Guardians of Humanity's Crystal. These members include the famous musician, Mic Jay, and the Vice President of Picto Corporation, Orelon Picto, both of which were arrested along with a still unidentified girl. The two previously mentioned men have been so far uncooperative in investigations. At the same time, it has been revealed that certain members of the police force were being bribed or blackmailed by the anti-faunus group. For more on this topic we have our newest reporter, Lisa Lavender with Xanthic Picto in the studio." He nodded at the camera and glanced off to his side.

As he finished the cameras switched from the simple counter-like table to a set with two chairs half facing each other from opposite sides of a coffee table. On the right side was a young woman wearing a purple suit and pencil skirt with long hair that matched her name, "Thank you for the introduction." She plastered a polite smile on her face before turning to face the young man across from her. "Is there anything you'd like to say to start off about these allegations concerning your father?"

It would have been almost impossible for his classmates to recognise Xanthic. He was wearing a white dress shirt along with a golden yellow vest and a small red feather was tucked into the ribbon of his hat, but more importantly than his clothing was his demeanor. Xanthic was sitting with perfect posture and seemed, only to them as, very strangely charismatic. "Yes, though first of all I would very much like to thank you for giving me the opportunity to be here today. Now regarding my father I would like to make it very clear that these are not allegations and I am doing everything I can to assist the police's investigation."

"Do you know to what extent your father was involved with the organization?"

"He confided in me a great deal, which was rather uncharacteristic of him, but Orelon Picto was the founder of Humanity. As he explained it to me, his motivation was an attempt to draw humans and faunus away from each other believing it would allow Remnant to be at a more stable peace."

"Why would he confide in you so much if you weren't a part of his group? It was you and your friends that were responsible for his arrest afterall."

"Yes, well, my father never thought very highly of me in terms of, well anything outside of what he and my mother had taught me. You see, I'm rather good at acting, but I'm mostly a coward and he was aware of that. So it took him a bit by surprise, I think, that I actually stood up to him."

"I see, did he confide in his wife as well?"
"No. As far as I'm aware my mother was the last person he wanted to find out. He idolized her in a way and he knew what he was doing would have pushed her away, to say the least, but he believed the end result would be worth it."

"Alright, now onto the big question." Lisa leaned in slightly, "With the history from your grandfather and now your father as well, can you give us any reason for the people of Remnant to have faith in Picto Corp?"
"Right, about that…" His normal attitude slipped out a bit. "I have a bit of a confession to make. You see, I have no blood relation to Orelon, Lucient, or Claire Picto, in truth I had never seen Keshiki till I was seven years old. My birth records were falsified to help hide my identity, I was actually born to two rabbit faunus in a small village in Anima known as Tenjiku Botan." At this point Xanthic took his hat off and carefully removed the bobbi pins that held his lop ears in place, allowing them to drop just in front of his shoulders. The reporter was stunned as this had apparently not been mentioned previously. "I do apologise to everyone I've deceived, but as I mentioned before I'm kind of a coward and couldn't bring myself to face the world as a faunus after I had seen how they were treated when I was little. I was desperate to survive and, if I may be frank, the best way for me to do that was to be human. My mother was against the idea from the beginning, but I was insistent on hiding."

Xanthic's continuation gave Lisa time to recover her composure, "Despite your lack of blood relation and difference of species you still consider yourself to be the son of Claire and Orelon Picto?"

"I do," His smile shifted into an honest one, though there was still a note a sadness. "I will be the first person to admit that Orelon is… He is a very difficult man to please and is quick to let somebody know their position, but he was the man that helped raise me and he made Claire happy. To me, and I know he feels similarly, the only thing I could really wish for is for my mother to be happy. She is such a kind-hearted person and she truly cares about the well being of everyone she meets. I really do consider myself lucky that I get to call her my mother."

"Do you know how we can expect her to react to this recent discovery about her husband?"

"Similarly to how she was about her father would be my best guess, but I really have no idea. I'd be lying if I said there wasn't a part of me that hopes she moves on from him."

"I see, well unfortunately I believe that is all of the time we have, so is there anything else you'd like to add?"

"Yes, it is entirely because of my teammates and classmates that we were able to abolish Humanity. All I did was let them be at the right place at the right time."

"Well, thank you again Mr. Picto."

"It was a pleasure Ms. Lavender."


Xanthic was sitting on the edge of his bed, "Is there a reason you didn't want to join the others for training? You seemed really excited that we were reconsidered for the Vital Festival."

"I was, till I realised it wasn't because of our actual merit. The only reason we're going is because we're famous heroes now."

"Yeah, but I thought you liked attention like that?"

"But I don't like having things I haven't earned."

"Oh, yeah that makes sense I suppose." As their conversation continued with various topics a knocking at the door caught his interest. He got up and opened it. Tigre's large figure loomed over Xanthic. "Oh, uh, i-is there somethi-thing I can help you with Ti-Tigre?"

"I… Thank you for beating Humanity and congratulations."

"Oh, y-you really didn't have to c-come all the way here ju-just for that."

"And I wondered if you owe me a favor or not."

"A fa-favor? Why would I- Oh, for th-that. Um yeah, di-did you have something i-in mind?"

"Forgive me."

"Forgi-give you? For wh-" Xanthic's question was cut off as Tigre had leaned down and kissed him.

His rough lips pressed against soft ones for a moment before he pulled himself away. "Sorry. I wanted to do that for awhile." Tigre continued looking at the smaller boy's stunned face for a few seconds more before leaving.