Blake stood on the sidewalk, looking nervously at the store in front of her. "Tukson's Book Trade…" she said to herself, reading the sign above the door. She carefully adjusted the black beret atop her head, still not yet adjusted to wearing it over her ears. "Hrm… come on! Stupid hat…" she muttered, finally getting the beret into a comfortable place on her head before slowly walking into the store. Inside was a small store with a small supply of books on the shelves, they were somewhat out of order from people constantly picking up books and putting them back down on the wrong shelves, or in the used book pile in the center of the room. She moved quietly as people read and chatted at the windowside tables, peering at titles and pulling books to see if they piqued her interest, checking the description on the back.
The smell in the store was the best part for Blake by far. There was always something inviting about the aroma of the ink and book adhesive of a new shipment of books coming in. Adding to that was a wafting smell of cinnamon and apples from scented candles on the counter, Blake letting out a relaxed sigh and smile. "Oh, this place is perfect…" she said, looking and seeing a book on the shelf that caught her eye, pulling the black book off the shelf. On the cover was an illustration of a brunette girl clad in white armor, hands tightened on the hilt of her sword and giving a determined look to the reader. The book was Kings & Pawns: The Recoking by V.O. Renard. Blake looked at the back, reading the description.
The much-awaited sequel to writer V.O. Renard's Kings & Pawns sees Samantha Freiheit, the stunning and beautiful yet completely average leader of an entire resistance of young teenagers, planning to enter stage two of their plan to destroy the corrupt government's latest attempt to train super soldiers by forcing them to fight medieval knights riding Grimm. Samantha faces great trials in choosing between Resistance member she wishes to join in an arranged marriage and the mysterious Black Knight who works as an agent for the Kingdom but saved her life in the Raid of Colosseo. Action, Drama, Romance, all await returning readers and recent converts to the literary craze sweeping Remnant in: Kings & Pawns: Reckoning.
"...This sounds like utter trash." Blake said, reading the description over before shrugging and heading for the counter. She rang the bell, getting the call of "Coming!" from a gruff male voice in the back, a middle-aged man with short black hair, hazel eyes and black, scraggly beard stepped up to the counter. "Welcome to Tukson's Book Trade, home to every book under the sun. How can I help you?" the man asked, Blake setting down the book. "Kings & Pawns, huh?" he said, Blake nodding. "It'll probably be a fun read and I've got to mind my budget. This stipend needs to last me a few months so I can't splurge on books." Blake admitted as Tukson rung up the book. "That'll come to 25 , how are you liking it here?" he asked.
"It's great. The place is so cozy. The scented candles are a nice touch" she said, Tukson nodding and smiling. "Heh. Good thing I thought to get them so I didn't have to run the lights for a while. Bit strong on the nose, though. Could barely tell you were a Faunus with all the cinnamon in the air." he said, Blake's eyes widening and her hand going for her beret. "Shhh! Don't say that!" Blake said in a whisper, leaning toward the counter. "Whoa, touched a nerve there! Sorry about that, just not used to Faunus around here. At least not the ones living out in the Zoo Quarter fighting in gang wars." Tukson said quietly, Blake looking around the room to make sure no one was staring at them before backing away from the counter.
"Y-yeah, just… I'm a bit of a unique case and I'd like it if people didn't go blabbing about that. Cool to see another Faunus around Vale. I'll be sure to stop by when I can. I'm Blake," the future Huntress-in-training said, offering her hand. Tukson shook it. "Tukson. Nice to meet you, Blake…" he said, the bookstore around her slowly fading away into darkness. "Blake…" Tukson's voice echoed out, his fingers slipping through hers. "No… no! Don't let go! I don't-" she said, tightening her grip, not wanting to lose her friend. The voice echoing through the darkness began to distort,going from Tukson's baritone to the higher pitches of her teammates. "Blake… Blake, is something wrong? ...BLAKE!"
Blake unburied her face from her knees, eyes still stinging and blurred slightly as she looked at her teammates, arms still wrapped tightly around her knees. Her eyes refocused to her team staring at her with looks of concern on her faces, Weiss' hand on her knee and face closest to her. "Blake… it's been a day. You can't spend the whole year locked away in the dorm," Weiss said before sitting on the bed next to her friend, putting an arm around her. "I know… I just… I want to know why." Blake began, wiping her eyes on her arm and looking at the others. Ruby put her hand on her chin and looked up to the ceiling fan in thought. "Hm… it is weird that anyone would want to attack Tukson. He seemed like such a nice guy." she said, Yang sitting down on the windowside desk.
"Could've been a robbery. Maybe the Red Lantern Family was shaking him down for protection." the older sister suggested, the others nodding in agreement. "Or the Black Fang." Weiss said, Blake shaking her head. At that. "No, Tukson didn't involve himself with the Black Fang or White Claw. He told me that he had too much to lose if he sided with radical Faunus movements after getting his citizenship in Vale," Blake replied. "But I wouldn't put it past them to attack him for being a 'traitor to his kind' so maybe."
Team RWBY continued to brainstorm the possible culprit. Ruby continued to look up at the ceiling, Weiss pacing the room between both beds. Blake stared down at the floor while Yang put her hands behind her head and began to lean back against the window when she suddenly felt no resistance behind and began to fall back. "Wh-what?! WAAAUUUGHHH!" Yang exclaimed, flailing her arms wildly as she began to fall out the window. As quickly as she fell, she was caught just as fast when a hand reached out and grabbed the collar of her jacket. "Wha? Huh?" she said confusedly before looking to see Sun, his hand on the window's ledge and tail inside the room. "And here I thought I was gonna be the one dropping in." Sun said, hearing a collective of groans from in the room.
Yang grabbed onto the lapels of Sun's shirt as he climbed into the dorm room, the two letting go once they touched floor. "Thanks Sun, so what brings you round here?" Yang asked, Weiss blinking in confusion and muttering "Why was he trying to climb through the window?" while Sun sat himself on the desk. "Well, since me and Neptune did a bit more sightseeing, we figured we'd come back and hang out with you guys. Ain't that right, Neptune?" he said, turning his head to the window. Team RWBY looked over to see Neptune hanging onto a tree branch, letting out a hushed call of "Help me." Blake quickly ran to her bag, pulling out her clawed glove and rushed back to the window, loaded and firing it to catch Neptune's jacket. Team RWBY and Sun worked to pull Neptune in as the hook retracted slowly, bringing him into the room. "Why are we going through the window? We could've just used the door!" Neptune said as his feet touched floor, Weiss throwing up her hands and exclaiming "Thank you!" before she began grumbling to herself.
Sun gave a shrug of both shoulders, putting his hands in his short pockets. "The price I pay for a bit of excitement. So, what's happening, Team RWBY?" Sun asked, Blake speaking up first. "We were… thinking about what happened to Tukson and were wondering why it happened. We haven't got a lot of leads on it, though." Blake said, Sun scratching his stubble. "Oh yeah! Almost forgot, we grabbed some stuff from the rubble when you left. Neptune, you still got the bag?" Sun asked his friend, who nodded and set down a backpack onto Weiss' bunk and opening it to pull out books that were in some readable condition, Blake looking horrorstruck at this. "SUN! These- these are from a crime scene! That's- do you want to go to jail?!" she said, struggling to find words in her incredulity. "Whoa, whoa! Calm down, Blake! We didn't take anything the police would want! Just a couple of books and some shipping orders! Nothing they'd miss, really!" Sun said, scrambling through the backpack and pulling out a stack of slightly singed papers, pages falling out of his hand.
"Give me those!" Blake snapped, swiping the papers from Sun and glaring at him. "Can't believe you! Of all the- this kind of stuff is… is… these orders. They're not books." Blake said, separating the orders and reading out the shipments. "Dust coming in from Mistral, Atlesian weaponry, ammunition… what is all this?" Blake said, reading over the papers with the rest of her team. "Sturdy documents, since they survived a fire and all." Weiss commented, Sun shrugging his shoulders. "They were just the ones that didn't get burnt. So, anything interesting about it?" he asked. "Hrm… I think I recognize a few of these company names. They're sub companies to SDC, distribution companies that ship Dust for us," Weiss said, pulling out the papers. "Yeah, and some of these were sent through Poseidon ships," Neptune pointed out. "What were these doing going to a bookstore?"
"Looks like Tukson was delivering stuff to other groups. You guys think this is what… got him in trouble?" Yang suggested, Blake looking over the orders again and again. "Much as I'd hate to think he would do something illegal, I can't ignore it when it's looking me in the face. Someone was using Tukson's shop as a drop-off point, we just need to find out who…" Blake said, Ruby immediately jumping off the bed to do an over-dramatic swirl of her cape. "Then it looks like Team RWBY is on the Case of the Burnt Bookstore!" she exclaimed, pointing to the ceiling while the rest of the assemble Hunters looked at her in silence.
"...You guys didn't have the enthusiasm for this that I was expecting." Ruby said, lowering her hand. "Well, if we're going to be investigating a murder, we'll need to come up with a plan, right?" Weiss said, Ruby nodding quickly. "Right! Plan! Well… hm… okay! We need two of us looking into the shipments to see if there's anything else about them! Since Weiss and Neptune are connected to the companies shipping them, they can cover that!" Ruby said, Weiss and Neptune nodding in unison. "Blake and Sun can head into the Zoo Quarter to check on Black Fang activity while Yang and I look around for any Red Lantern thugs!" she finished, Yang and Blake standing up.
"No way! You're not going to be tagging along to hunt for criminals!" Yang objected. "And we're not putting our friends at risk for this. I'm going into the Zoo Quarter alone." Blake said. "Gah! Insubordination! I am the leader of this team, Yang! And Blake, you can't go around in the Zoo Quarter alone! You should know how dangerous that is!" Ruby said, her right hand tightening. "And that means I know that Sun could die in there and I'm not gonna have our friends die so-" Blake shouted back only for Sun to put a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, chill out Blake. It's gonna take more than a couple of punks to put me out. I'm harder than a diamond and just as shining!" Sun said, throwing back his shirt to flash his abs. He lifted his arms above his head, bending his elbows and crossing the arms over each other. Everyone stared stunned at the monkey Faunus as he posed for several minutes before Yang finally forced her eyes away and back to her sister.
"A-anyway! Leader or not, it's too dangerous for you to go around looking for criminals!" Yang said. "You're one too talk! You'd go into bars come out covered in blood!" Ruby shot back. "That was the one time and I burned that bar to the ground!" Yang barked out, Neptune's eyes widening. "You burned down a bar?! Who are you people!?" he said, Weiss sighing in exasperation. "Welcome to my world, Neptune. Now then," Weiss said, getting between the two sister. "If the two of you are done with your squabbling, I think we have more important things to discuss-" she began when the sudden sound of rotor wash burst through the air. "What was- wait is that?" Weiss said, running to the window to see large, white airship touching down onto Beacon's landing field, surrounded by a fleet of smaller, but still impressive, airships. All ships had the mark of the Atlesian military. "It's the Avalon!" Weiss exclaimed, waving the rest of the Hunters to the window.
The six cluttered around the window, looking as the Avalon's doors opened and a set of airstairs were placed, General Ironwood stepping out flanked by a small detachment of robotic guards. Unlike the Atlesian Knights they had seen before, these new knights were more slender and now in a sparkling white armor and moved much more smoothly than the clunky, plodding motions of the previous robots. "Looks like they've got some new bots." Yang said, though Weiss and Ruby were more interested in Ironwood's entourage. The general was followed by two more, a tall woman with a tight bun of light blonde hair and ice blue eyes in a white overcoat, gray undercoat and red tie matching Ironwood's attire and a young girl with short, curly orange hair and bright green eyes wearing a green blouse, black overalls, black leather boots with neon green lining, black bow and a white overcoat that still looked too big for her.
"It's Winter!" Weiss said excitedly, smiling as she turned to Ruby, who had a large grin across her face. "Penny!" the red-caped Huntress shouted, rushing out the room, knocking overs over to make her way into the hall. "Ack! Ruby, wait up!" Weiss called after her partner, chasing after Ruby, the rest of the room running off after them. As Weiss ran through the halls, she turned sharp around a corner and collided into Jaune who was running out from the library, sending them crashing to the floor, sending the contents of bag all around. "Whoa! Ow… oh, hey Weiss." Jaune said, slowly getting up, Weiss pushing herself off of the fallen Hunter. "Hello Jaune, sorry about that. I was trying to catch up to Ruby. See, my sister just came up to the school and I wanted to see her before she got too busy with General Ironwood's work." she said, offering Jaune a hand up, which he took to pick himself up. "Oh, that's cool. I could come with you. I'm on the way to the airfield too." he said, reloading his backpack with Weiss' help. "Sure, come on. We're not gonna have a lot time if we're just standing around." the heiress said, running off with Jaune in tow.
Neptune looked at the two running by, talking out of earshot to him. "You don't think they're together, do you?" he asked Sun, who shrugged, hands behind his back. "Nah, man. They're just hanging out. Just because two people are friendly with each other doesn't mean they're gonna be making out in the hallways the second you turn their back to them." Sun replied. "I guess so. Besides, Jaune's kind of a dork." Neptune said, Sun chuckling and shaking his head. "This is gonna take a while…"