At least three days had passed since the battle of Arroyo and team RNJR had found out what the failsafe Razael had activated. There was nothing left of his forces, not even shards of armor or weapons. Somehow, Razael had disintegrated every last piece of tech except for that Lich he used to escape and the rifle Ren had taken. The crystal that once powered the rifle however was nothing but dust now. Malcolm had commented that it was a smart move. "Even a single shard of tech could be reverse-engineered given enough time," Malcolm said when they discovered it.
The repairs to Arroyo had been going relatively well but team RNJR had stayed long enough sadly. They still had a mission to complete, a conspiracy to unravel, demons to kill, and kingdoms to save. The four young huntsmen had been helping out in the repairs of course, but they couldn't stay forever. Mistral was so close. Ren had been looking at the map one night and decided that if they left in the afternoon, then they would arrive by early morning the next day. The village they were headed to next was named Kam'ino, a port town that received a majority of its supplies from over-seas but at times a ship from the town would go back to the mainland. The four of them talked to Morgan about their departure.
"I understand," the elderly boar faunus said.
"If things were different, we would've stayed until everything was finished," Nora beamed.
"But you're mission takes you somewhere else. No doubt you plan on going to Mistral."
"Wait...how did you…" Ruby questioned.
"It's simple. If you continue on your current path you'd reach Kam'ino by the early hours of tomorrow. I can give you some transportation to make it less tiring. We have a convoy heading to Kam'ino in order to get some more supplies for the repairs. Malcolm will be in charge of the convoy as well."
"Thank you" Ren bowed to the elder in respect.
Half an hour later, team RNJR was on its way to Kam'ino, Arroyo behind them and Mistral in front of them. Malcolm was still clad in his combat armor but fortunately, it seemed that after Razael's Grimm horde stunt, the local Grimm had become more tame. Well as tame as a Grimm could be. There were still a few brave beasts, mainly an Ursa Major that Jaune quickly dispatched. Jaune actually pictured the Ursa as Razael when he bisected it. He still heard Razael's words echo in his mind about how Pyrrha was just a pathetic failure. If the blonde knight ever saw the demon warmaster again anytime soon, that missing horn would be the least of his worries. No one disrespects Pyrrha Nikos like that.
Several hours had passed since Jaune killed the one Ursa Major that had tried to attack them. The caravan had set up camp in a clearing close to a cliff that overlooked Kam'ino. Despite the fact that Malcolm was on watch for the first few hours of the night, Jaune didn't sleep. Somewhere out there...Cinder was no doubt watching them.
"Jaune? You're not sleeping?" Ruby said, rolling over in her sleeping roll to face him.
"No...not tonight," the blonde knight replied.
"Why?"
"Because...she's out there. She was HERE, probably long gone now but she is mocking us!"
"It...it could've been someone else with explosive Dust arrows."
"No...it was her."
"But...then...why would she help us? And why would"
"The enemy of my enemy is my friend…"
"Eh?"
"That's why. She's doing this out of necessity. Razael wants her dead...so she's guessing we'll help her just because we share a common enemy. If she ever tries to talk to us about 'an alliance'...I'm going to avenge Pyrrha."
"WE are going to avenge her. You're not doing it alone...remember?"
"Yeah...I know...I just…"
"It...it's ok Jaune. I get it. If...you want to talk about it…"
"You, Ren, and Nora will be the first to know."
The rest of the night was rather uneventful.
When morning came, Jaune was the last to wake whereas normally Nora was the one to sleep in. It took some prodding but after at least fifteen minutes of shaking him by his shoulders, Ruby managed to wake him.
"Morning Ruby…" Jaune said, still half-asleep.
"Morning? Jaune it's almost noon!" Ruby exclaimed.
"Wait what?!" Jaune bolted up in his sleeping roll.
"I knew that would wake you up."
"Oh ha ha. Very funny Rubes."
"Come on, Ren and Nora are helping pack up the caravan. Once we get down into Kam'ino, Malcolm says he can give us one last bit of help. He knows a guy who can take us over to Mistral!"
"So close. We can finally get some answers."
Meanwhile, outside, Ren and Nora were helping Malcolm pack everything up.
"Ok Nora," Ren said, standing on top of one of the wagons to secure the rods to the top of it, "toss the tent rods up here."
"Okey-dokey Ren!" Nora beamed as she threw a set of tent rods up to Ren, only for them to hit him in the face.
"Oh my Dust! Ren! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to hit you!"
"I-it's fine...Nora...oh Dust...I forgot how hard you throw…"
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"
"Nora I said it was fine."
"A-are you sure? I-I think I see blood!"
'No...no you're just over-reacting Nora."
"You sure?"
"Yes."
Nora was still making sure Ren was fine, which her partner merely smirked at. That was Nora for you, after all. Once everything was packed up and everyone was ready, the caravan headed down to Kam'ino. The village itself was probably the largest on Patch with several different oak buildings including a few inns, houses, small store houses and shops. There were a few ships coming into port as well. Apparently today was one of the calmer days for the village. Malcolm walked up to Ruby and handed her a note.
"Alright. Head to the address on that and you should find an old friend of mine. He owns a ship that takes supplies to and from Mistral City. He can take you straight there. Just tell him Malcolm sent you."
"Thanks Malcolm," Ruby beamed.
"If you guys ever come back to Patch-"
"I live here you know."
"Oh. Huh...didn't know that."
"Trust me, we'll come back and see everyone in Arroyo again!"
"Good. Hope you guys find what you're looking for out there."
"Good luck in Arroyo!" Nora waved to the ex-soldier as he turned to rejoin his group. Team RNJR turned to find the captain of the ship to Mistral.
'Ok...let...me...see…," Ruby said looking at both the note and a conveniently placed map of the town for newcomers. "Ok...so...we need to head...that way!" Ruby pointed to her right. "Come on guys!" Ruby sped off leaving rose petals behind but then came back in a flash when she remembered that they wouldn't have been able to keep up with her if she used her semblance.
Once the group had found the captain and worked out a deal (and a few less than appropriate comments by the captain's drunk first mate, comments that made Nora want to break his legs) team RNJR finally had a way to Mistral. The captain showed them to his ship which was by no means a cruise liner but the team already knew that they were forgoing the luxuries on this mission. Since they already had everything packed up, team RNJR boarded the vessel.
Next stop, Mistral.
(And now, team RNJR is finally going to arrive in Mistral! But then again, even their enemies have forces in the sea. Next chapter we'll focus on the villains, introduce some new ones, re-introduce some old ones, and one of them just being so care free in the presence of killer robots, faunus extremists, demons from Hell itself that she just gets ice cream. Also in one of the next coming chapters...some people might wanna kill the mastermind if they're attached to team FNKI. Anyway, enough foreshadowing. As always, read, review and enjoy)