Chapter 2:
With studying done, the gang had decided to spend the rest of the day with some shop browsing. Weiss had been interested in replacing her now diminishing supply of pens. Ruby needed extra books to make up for the extra notes and Blake and Yang merely wanted some R & R.
"Doesn't this look absolutely cute?" Ruby said with glee, holding up a book that had an adorable wolf face on the cover.
"I suppose..." Weiss said, unsure of what to say. Ruby's personality always hit the soft spot in anyone.
"So Blake, I was wondering if I should get a new armband." Yang said to her partner.
"Why?" She replied. "Want to intimidate the students at Vacuo or impress them?"
"A bit of both?" Yang said sneakily.
No one paid much attention to them. Four girls just hanging out in a shop and browsing through the myriad items on sale was not enough to stir up a commotion.
And then again, other things did.
"I'm telling ya it ain't pirates!" Came a cantankerous voice. The girls looked up and saw a man yelling off at a bunch of people seated at a nearby bar. He looked like a sailor if anything. The weather beaten face and naval cap attested to that. He also appeared disheveled, as if the word hygiene never existed in his vocabulary.
"So what is it then ol' Damien?" Came one man, sneering at him.
"It's the Devil!" The old man-Damien- replied, throwing his arms up into the air. At this, the whole table laughed.
"I ain't bluffin' none!" Damien continued, obviously frustrated by the absence of faith. "The missing ships are all the proof there is! Dragged down to the bottom of the ocean, never to be seen again!"
"Wake up Damien!" One of them said, controlling his laughter just enough to reply. "There ain't no such things as the Devil."
"Sure there is!" Damien adamantly said. "I seen it before, comin' from the murky depths like some nightmarish abomination. It grabbed my ship and 'fore I knew it, its arms were already snaking up the hull!"
The laughter came again, this time with more force and with more volume. "Look everyone!" Said the sneering man. "Ol' Damien is going on about his mythical water devil! Hey Damien, how long are its arms?"
"Longer than a whole ship!" He said over the roaring laughter. "Curlin' around like evil snakes! Dragging it down. I was lucky to have survived!"
"You survived a freaking shipwreck Damien." The man replied. "And since that concussion, no one has ever heard you not speak a word about nothin' but that Devil."
Damien gritted his teeth as the group laughed once again. He stormed out, leaving the four girls confused in the wake of the commotion.
Blake walked over to the store owner. "Who was that?"
"Damien Jonas." He replied. "Fool comes in here almost every week. Could've barred him, but I figure he means well, even if he's a little crazy."
"How is he crazy?" Ruby asked as the rest came over.
"Well, he survived a shipwreck almost thirty years ago." The owner said as he wiped a glass. "Of course, he took one heck of a blow to the head and since then, he keeps ranting off about this 'Devil' which he claims to have sunk that ship in the first place. Bunch of nonsense if you ask me. Still, it keeps the customers happy."
"Yeah, at his expense..." Blake whispered, steel layered in her voice.
"Pardon?"
"Nothing sir." Yang smiled while pulling Blake away. "Thanks for clearing that up!"
The girls walked away their thoughts absorbed in the commotion.
"You really think a Devil really exists?" Yang arched an eyebrow.
"Superstitious nonsense!" Weiss snapped. "There is no proof of such things! No form of record even states the existence of such a being!"
"Still, what he said baffles me..." Ruby frowned. "Dragging ships down into the ocean? Maybe it is something related to what has been happening so far."
"You cannot be serious about that Ruby." Weiss argued. "What exactly is capable of dragging a whole ship down? I still think pirates are the main cause of the problem."
"Well, right now we know nothing." Blake said, acting as mediator. "So let's just let this thing go for now. And hopefully, we'll get more clear on all these strange disappearances."
"I guess you're right." Yang shrugged. "But man, would I be excited to see a Devil!"
"Stop it Yang." Weiss frowned as they made their way back to Beacon.