Night had settled as the two hunters came into the city.

"You alright?" Qrow had asked as they walked through the streets of Vale. Eileen's movement had become noticeably more cautious as they walked through the city to the huntsman's home.

"Let's just say I come from somewhere less lively." She offered. "Actually, 'lively' isn't the proper word to use. Let's say...friendly. Definitely less friendly."

"It couldn't have been that bad." She shook her head, expression hidden under her mask.

"The locals despised outsiders." The cloaked hunter, as she preferred to be called, said. "Although part of that may have been because they all went mad."

"How mad?"

"They seemed to like swinging axes and many other sharp things at me." Qrow's eyes widened considerably. "Oh, but don't worry about me, lad. I can handle a angry mob." And then his eyes narrowed.

"What exactly do you mean by 'handle'?" His tone made no attempt to hide his wariness. The hunter looked at him.

"Tell me, do you know what separates us from beasts?" She asked him. The huntsman raised an eyebrow. After all, she had just asked one of the simplest questions a hunter could ask.

"Well, unlike them, we actually have a soul."

"That may be part of it. But in many cases that's not exactly true." He was about to object, until he remembered that not all of the kingdom's enemies were grimm. "No, what really separates us is fear."

"Go on." He felt somewhat intrigued by the cloaked hunter's claim.

"Do you think anything you sliced in half back there actually felt fear?" He shook his head. Why should they, after all? They're creature who only exist in order to wipe out all of human and faunus kind. "It's important to have fear in our hearts. Without it, we are little more than beasts ourselves." She raised her right arm. "And that's a dangerous thing. Especially when it comes to you or me." Her armed dropped back into place. "If we are without fear, and if we go mad, we're a bigger danger to these people than any of those things back there."

"You...make a good point." Qrow admitted, shoulders slumping.

"I ended up taking it up as my duty." She continued. "To stop mad hunters before they could harm anyone, including themselves."

"..." Qrow now had a rough idea of what the woman did. There was no insistence that he was actually correct, however if he was then he was in the company of someone very dangerous.

After all, it took something 'special' to be able to kill hunters.


Qrow was good at his job. It seemed only fair that he'd live in a decent house. Even if being a huntsman meant he was rarely in it.

"Well, this is where I live." It wasn't especially fancy. Two floors, a kitchen, a large living room, two bathrooms for each floor and four bedrooms that never saw use. A relatively large house, sure. But the interior, while clean, was incredibly bland. His nieces used to whine about 'how it needed some color' when they were younger. It's a good thing they got used to it, he never liked disappointing them.

"It's nice." Eileen stated, walking through the door. "A welcome change of scenery at the least."

"I get the feeling you live an especially grim life." Qrow wondered aloud. The cloaked hunter shrugged.

"Yharnam, as I mentioned, was and probably remains a very unwelcoming place." The scythe wielder's brow furrowed.

"Never heard of Yharnam."

"Not surprising. The locals weren't interested in exploring or visiting neighbouring towns. And I do believe I already mentioned they're not partial to outsiders."

"Fair enough." Qrow kicked of his black shoes and hung his coat on a nearby coat rack. "I will research into it though."

"Suit yourself." Eileen removed her own feather cloak, placing it on the rack. She took a moment to remove her boots and follow the huntsman into the living room.

He turned his attention back to her, raising his eyebrows at the display. "You're still wearing the hat and mask?" The removal of her cloak drew attention to her mask, her hat and her short, unkempt and slightly graying black hair. Then there were the rest of her clothes, which did a remarkable job of hiding her gender. Had it not been for the fact that she spoke, Qrow wouldn't have been able to tell if

"I don't see why not." The masked hunter said with a shrug. "Unless you have a personal problem with it..." Qrow waved her off dismissively.

"Do whatever you want, I'm making dinner." He strode into the kitchen, opening the fridge to find not much more than a couple tins of pork and beans, a couple cans of beer and some leftover pizza. Maybe he should accept that full time job at signal.

But then he would end up with even less to eat.

Sighing he opened up the tins and poured the contents into a pan and left it to heat up. Coming back into the living room he found Eileen staring at some of his family pictures. Specifically, one of the few good pictures he had of him and Raven. "Someone you know?" He asked her. The old hunter shook her head.

"I assume you have some from of relationship, though." She commented.

"She's my sister." Qrow told. "Went missing over a decade ago." Eileen stared at the picture, and most likely his sister for a few moments.

"I can see the resemblance." The old hunter commented. "You think she's still around?"

"Oh yes." He knew his sister well enough to know that she was very much alive. "She is a huntress after all. And a damn good one at that too." He turned back to the kitchen. "I'm assuming you're not hungry?"

"Not really, no."

"I'll leave you something in there for the morning, then." The huntsman quickly took out a bowl and fork, and helped himself to half of the pan's hot contents. "I'll be in my room, which is on the second floor and the one closest to the stairs." It was also the one he had claimed at that very moment. "You can use any of the others up there." He saw her nod in the corner of his eye as he went upstairs.

After finishing his 'dinner' Qrow started searching for information on Yharnam. Finding absolutely nothing. It wasn't really surprising considering how silly the name sounded, what does 'Yharnam' even mean?

He wanted to confront Eileen about it. However, since he hadn't slept for the past couple days, that could wait until morning.

It would have surprised him, how he fell asleep almost instantly.


A/N: Yes, this is another short chapter. And it doesn't have any action. But good news! You'll have lots of fighting next chapter as we introduce our third main character. He's more of a plot point when I think about it, but still.

This chapter's actually a day late. But the real reason it didn't come out was due to internet problems and I prefer doing this stuff from home. So sorry about that. Most chapters will be on thursdays.

Thank you for stopping by. Until next time.