The Name of the Game

a RWBY/The Gamer crossover, SI.

Arc 3: Rogue and Thief

Chapter 9: Went Willingly Forth

"You've really fucked up, you know that?"

I hadn't even touched down properly before Kuro started in on me. "What did I do exactly?"

"You know what you did," she deadpanned. She gestured towards the building below. "Well, come on. Let's get this over with."

Following her down to street level, I knocked on the door at the pickup location as she took up a position on the wall to the side of the door, out of sight from anyone inside. The door opened and I caught a glimpse of a man standing in the mostly dark interior beyond the door, back-lit by a familiar glow I recognized as coming from computer screens, before a wrapped package found its way into my hands and the door quickly shut. "That was… odd," I muttered, looking over the wrapped box. It was roughly a foot long and a third of that wide and deep, and whatever was inside it was likely secured with foam or something since it didn't rattle or shift when I turned the package over in my hands.

"Stop trying to figure out what it is," Kuro chastised and I nodded, stuffing the package in my side pouch before realizing it wasn't going to fit. The older woman rolled her eyes and held out her hand. I handed off the package and she stuck it into the small, black backpack slung across her back. "I suggest getting one of these for bigger packages. That, or springing for a space-expanded pouch—but those things are expensive."

"Most bags of holding are," I mused aloud, firing my line launcher and following her into the air. Then again, the pattern for creating a section of folded space had been amongst the things I'd devoured out of Sanguine's collection of notes and patterns. I could just make one myself, if I took the time to do it.

We arrived at Cinder's current base of operations several minutes later and I found myself still marveling at how much time having extra mobility options shaved off of moving around the city. One day, I would have to sit down and work out how to fly under my own power—it had to be possible, somehow. "How do you want to handle this?" I asked as my so-called mentor passed the package back to me.

"Hand off the package and leave, politely," she answered shortly.

Shrugging, I dropped to street level, leaving Kuro above to watch. I had barely raised my hand to knock before I found the door opening and the red witch waiting on the other side, a smug little smile already tugging her lips upwards slightly. "Hello again," she purred.

Handing off the package, I gave a short wave before raising my hand to fire my line launcher and gain altitude. "And a good night to you, miss."

"Leaving so soon?" she asked, sounding disappointed and I blinked, fingers and thumb on the trigger and buttons that would pull me up and away from this mess before it became any more complicated or dangerous than it already was. This was not the way I wanted to approach Cinder's operations and I wasn't prepared for this, but opportunity was knocking here. "Won't you come in?"

'Don't say yes, don't say yes,' I thought to myself as my hand fell back to my side. "Well," I hedged, "there is someone waiting on me…" There, that was a polite enough way of saying I was expected somewhere else already and I had other obligations.

That smug smile became a smug smirk as her eyes tracked upwards, locking on the shadowed form of Kuro above. "I'm sure your partner won't mind. I'd just like a chance to… talk. Perhaps over something to drink?"

I could practically feel Kuro's eyes boring into the back of my skull with laser-like intensity and my own common sense was shouting at me to say 'no,' but… There was really no way I could say no to something that intriguing. The fact that she was ridiculously sexy had absolutely nothing to do with influencing my decision one way or another. It was purely for the mission of disrupting her operations, I told myself. I am a terrible liar, at times. "You know," I began, pulling up charisma as I did so, "in nature, the more beautiful a thing is, the more deadly it tends to be. Humans, though, tend to ignore that natural instinct in favor of curiosity…"

"Oh?" she asked, arching an eyebrow. "You know what they say about curiosity and cats…"

"Yes, but the end of that little tale everyone seems to leave off is that satisfaction brings the cat back. You seem like a dangerous kind of girl but I'm only human, and a naturally curious one at that. Lead on," I grinned under my mask, gesturing inside. As she pulled away from the door and went inside, I turned my head to regard Kuro. Tapping my wrist twice, I opened and closed my hand three times to signal her to wait fifteen minutes before doing anything, before moving inside myself and closing the door behind me.

Further inside, I found what looked like an old storefront of some sort converted into living space. Gesturing for me to sit, she moved into what passed for a kitchen where I lost sight of her for a few minutes. The room I'd found myself in seemed to be some sort of combined living room and study. There were a couple of old couches and chairs, tables, and books everywhere. On a wall at the back of the room was some sort of cork board with a map of Remnant, along with individual maps of each of the major cities, several pins of different colors stuck in them along with printed photographs of a lot of people I didn't recognize and a very few I did—Roman Torchwick and Adam Taurus among them. A large table stood a few feet from the cork board, this one with fewer books, but those that were there I could guess were more important than the rest.

None of it really fit any pattern though, at least not in a way that made sense to me at a glance. It was certainly research, and with people like Roman and Adam on that list, I could almost be guaranteed that it was a list of either potential contacts or targets—but the rest I couldn't even begin to guess at. I probably could with time to study it and apply what I knew of canon, but I had the sudden feeling I had been allowed to see this specifically because there were no real conclusions anyone looking at it could draw from anything.

"If we're drawing conclusions of each other, I would say you appreciate a direct approach as opposed to dancing around a subject. So, tell me," Cinder's voice drew my attention to where she was coming out of the kitchen with two steaming cups. Handing me one, she sat down in the chair across the table from mine and asked, "What do you fight for?"

"Excuse me?" I asked, slowly turning the cup in my hands but making no move to drink—in order to do so, I'd have to remove my mask, and that wasn't happening.

Glancing between the cup and my mask, she smirked in amusement, asking, "What do you get out of what you do?"

I hummed, thinking it over. She was looking for something specific, but I had no idea what. Still, I would have to be careful. I couldn't make any references to Beacon, and I would have to avoid bringing up my Semblance, not to mention anything that would give away my identity or intentions… "Money, mostly. Money, experience, contacts, and employment that doesn't require either putting myself in needless danger or slaving away for a pittance on a daily basis. Why do you ask?"

"With your Semblance, you could be so much more than a glorified delivery boy." Pausing to sip her own tea, she continued with, "Invisibility, the ability to suppress your Aura while still being able to use it, and your ability to charm others…"

I blinked, frowning under my mask. I had a feeling I knew what she was talking about, but just to confirm I asked, "What do you mean, 'charm others?'"

Cinder raised one perfect eyebrow. "You didn't think I didn't notice, did you? Your Aura has a certain effect on others nearby—you don't even have to be aware of their presence for it to work. Or did you not know?"

Yeah, she was talking about Dating Mode. However, that was off at the moment… Just to make sure, I reached for the mental switch to turn it on and off and found… nothing. No switch. I could sense the ability itself, in the same way I could sense all of my active and passive abilities, and while it seemed to be running there didn't seem to be a way to turn it off. That wasn't how it was supposed to work. Dating Mode was, effectively, an active ability—on or off—last time I checked. The fact that it wasn't now meant something had changed… 'Ah, shit. Of course, the one time I don't read the Change Log it comes back to bite me in the ass.'

Shrugging, I asked, "Are you sure you're not imagining things?"

The red-clad witch chuckled. "Emerald?"

A girl with grass green hair and skin a shade reminiscent of those native to areas of India or perhaps even Southeast Asia on my old world walked in from the direction of the kitchen and I realized I'd been set up—she had been there the entire time. A moment later, I felt a sort of twinge in my head and one of my passive skills go off, though I wasn't sure which. It seemed the greenette was affected worse than me, as she winced, a hand moving to her head. "Ow! What the hell?"

Cinder blinked, her gaze shifting between the two of us for a moment before she laughed. "Even better, he's immune to your charms," the witch mused.

"Yeah, well, it isn't exactly fun on my end," Emerald whined. "You try having an ice pick shoved between your eyes and see how you like it." The girl suddenly winced, looking up to find Cinder's gold eyes meeting her own red. "Uh… boss."

Cinder's gaze shifted to meet my own red contacts. "I'm certain I'm not imagining things."

Shooting her a deadpan look, I asked, "Assuming you're right, what's your point?"

The smirk returned as she got down to business. "How would you like to put those skills of yours to work as something other than a delivery boy?"

"Such as?" I asked, allowing a bit of hesitation to tint my voice for effect, wondering where she was going with this.

"I'd be willing to bet that Semblance of yours makes making friends and earning others' trust much easier, especially those of the opposite sex," she hummed, seemingly thoughtful. I wasn't buying it for a minute. She had clearly been thinking this over since our last meeting. "And with the ability to become undetectable by sight or Aura sense, that would make getting into and out of places you weren't supposed to be very easy indeed."

"But boss, what about me?" Emerald asked, suddenly seeming unsure and insecure about something—worried she was going to lose her job, likely.

Cinder shot the greenette a patient look as she answered, "I made you a promise, didn't I? Trust me, Emerald, if you were not useful to me you would not be here. What you have to understand is that it's always a good idea to have a contingency plan—and that sometimes, it's best to recruit outside help."

"So, you're looking for a thief?" I drawled, drawing her attention back to me, molten gold eyes once more locked onto mine.

With a nod, Cinder added, "Theft, infiltration, espionage… perhaps more, if you're not adverse to getting your hands dirty."

This would present me with a chance to get closer to the witch and figure out what she was planning… Still, I couldn't appear too eager, otherwise I might raise suspicion later. "Why me? You've only met me twice and you know nothing about me. What makes you think you can trust me? If it's like you say, I could be using my Semblance to make you trust me."

That's not what Dating Mode did, but it did give me a good idea for an entirely different branch of magic. The 'charm' spell was a thing in most Final Fantasy games, along with other fantasy games and in other media, which essentially made the subject of the spell believe the caster was their most loyal friend, bosom buddy, lover, or other things depending on the source. I had also been meaning to make some sort of memory-wipe spell as well, for emergencies. And if I was going down the road of mental spells, I may as well make one for fear effects, confusion, suggestion or mental domination, and perhaps mind reading while I was at it to complete the set. Sure, most of those things were amoral if used against people but… well, magic is neither nice nor fair by its nature.

Besides, I wasn't some monster who would just run around mind-raping people for fun. A tool is only as evil as the person using it. A gun won't just get up, walk off, and start killing people—its purpose was to kill, yes, but that killing could be done in defense of others just as well as it could be done out of malice. I didn't plan on abusing things like that to take advantage of people—at least, not on a personal level. Charm, for instance, could be useful for convincing someone to give up security codes… or it could be abused to convince pretty much any woman on the street to have sex with me. The problem with that second scenario was that I got the feeling that I wouldn't actually need it for unmarried or unattached women on Remnant, the situation being what it was. Either way, I wasn't that kind of person. Between the twins and Joan, I wasn't exactly looking for other women… though, if Cinder offered, I'd have a hard time saying no.

"On the first part, let's call it intuition," the woman in question answered, a small smile crossing those red lips, bringing me back to the present. "As for the second, I know my own mind well enough to pick out external influences. I know exactly what effect your Aura is having and 'trust' has nothing to do with it."

Seeing she wasn't going to elaborate, I went back to my 'reticent thief' routine and asked, "How much money are we talking?"

"Enough to never have to work another day, if you don't want to," Cinder offered. Her tone of voice told me she had made similar offers before and had gotten good at… collecting strays. Good money said Emerald was one such stray.

For the role I was playing, that would be awfully appealing… I smirked under my mask before asking, "So, what's the job?"

Cinder's answer was short and concise, and said in such a matter of fact way that I had to go back and parse it a second time before I fully registered what it was I had heard. As though she were asking me to go down to the corner store and pick up a loaf of bread, she answered, "Break into the Vale Repository and steal the plans for Beacon Academy."

Public buildings like that tended to have public plans. Which meant either they weren't public, or she was looking for something not on the public maps. Frowning, I asked, "They aren't publicly available?"

Cinder shook her head. "Not all of them—there are certain areas that don't show up on the plans available to the public. The original, however, would contain those details. It is, unfortunately, a hard copy—there have been no digital copies made, according to my sources."

"And those same sources can't just get it for you," I pointed out, and she nodded. I needed more information if I was going to agree to this. While going along with this may put me into Cinder's good graces, it wouldn't necessarily tell me anything about her plans, other than that they involved Beacon at some point—specifically, something not on the public plans. I could always just make a copy and compare the two to find out what areas weren't publicly available… "What sort of obstacles am I looking at, going in?"

"Laser trip wires, motion sensors, electronic locks, cameras, armed human guards, dogs, and security death bots waiting for an alarm to go off," Emerald answered, grinning. It seemed they had been planning this heist out for a while now.

Of course. Palming my face, I asked, "And do we have any floor plans for the target building?"

"Unfortunately, no. The plans for the Repository are kept within the Repository," Cinder answered with a short sigh, clearly annoyed by that fact herself.

I snorted. "So, breaking in pretty much requires breaking in in the first place."

"If it were easy, I would have done it already," the woman countered. "Unfortunately, it requires a delicate touch and a smash and grab operation, even if it succeeded, would draw too many questions."

Standing, I began to pace as I thought it over. "Do we know anything?"

"The vaults with records and stuff are kept underground, at least three levels down," Emerald supplied. "Unfortunately, we don't know which vault they're in."

"So. Underground, in an unknown vault… Past the electronic locks, motion sensors, laser trip wires, cameras, armed guards, dogs, and their security death bot backup, right?" I deadpanned, earning an embarrassed chuckle and nod from the greenette. Honestly, it wasn't as bad as it sounded—at least for me. With my map and minimap, finding my way wouldn't be an issue—this sort of thing was what RPG characters excelled at, after all. I really could just do reconnaissance as I went—they didn't need to know that, though.

Two sharp knocks at the back door drew everyone's attention that direction and for a moment, I wondered what it was—before I remembered I had signaled Kuro to come after me after fifteen minutes. Shifting to lock eyes with the red witch, I nodded. "Fine. I'll see what I can do. You have a scroll number I can contact you by?"

Taking up a piece of paper and a pen from the table, Cinder wrote down a number and passed it over. She hesitated for just a moment, but it was enough that I caught it, before she murmured, "Good luck. Try to come back in one piece." Pausing, the witch seemed to realize something, as she asked, "What's your name?"

"It's Shiro. And I make my own luck," I grinned, heading for the door. There were so many ways this could go bad, I had lost count. And to make matters worse, as soon as I got to the door, I received a quest notification.

A quest has been created!

Operation Infiltration: Steal the Blueprints

You have attracted the attention of Cinder Fall, a particularly dangerous woman who won't hesitate to kill you if you betray her. In order to infiltrate her group and foil whatever plans she has for Vale, you will need to first earn her trust by proving yourself capable and useful to her cause.

Success: 40000 EXP, 25000L, quest progression, increased closeness to Cinder Fall, quest unlock. Failure: imprisonment or death.

Hitting 'Accept,' I opened the door and met Kuro outside. As the door closed behind me and I made it one step into the alley, she grabbed the front of my armor in one fist and fired her line launcher with the other, dragging us up and away at a speed that I thought might break the thing and send us plummeting to the ground. Instead, we catapulted up and over the side of a building, where she released me to fall to the roof in a heap while she landed nearby on her feet. Picking myself up, I dusted myself off before I began. "Okay, I understand if you're a little annoyed…"

I dodged a cheap shot to the balls and pushed aside the follow up slap. There was something in her movements that struck a chord with me—in the way she moved, the way she attacked. It was almost… familiar. "Annoyed?" she began, balling her fists up and visibly considering taking another shot at me. "What part of 'don't get involved' was hard to understand? That right there, that was getting involved! You were supposed to leave quickly and thereby quietly discourage her from pulling shit in the future! Now? Now you're in the shit!"

"I think you may be overreacting," I countered gently, though in reality I knew she wasn't really. "All we did was sit and have tea."

"Bullshit," the woman growled. "You haven't taken off your mask for me and I highly doubt you would for some stupid tea. What did she offer you?"

Well, she had me there. I wasn't going to concede the point, however. Besides which, considering it wasn't Underworld related, it was none of her business to begin with, so I decided to tell her as much. "Look, even if she did offer me something—which I'm neither confirming nor denying—it wouldn't really be any of your business if it's not related to this thing we have with the Underworld jobs."

"Not my… not my business?! It's my job to make sure you don't fuck up and get yourself, or someone else, killed while you're doing this! This seems like a pretty big fuck up to me." By now, she was breathing a bit hard and her face—what I could see of it below the mask—had flushed, either from anger, frustration, or both.

I was getting pretty hot under the collar being preached at like some damn teenager myself, but I understood that it really was her job to do exactly that. The problem was, her job was interfering with my own self-appointed task of putting a monkey wrench in Cinder's plans before they came to fruition, whatever those plans may be. Taking a calming breath, I released my own fists from where they had unconsciously clenched at my sides. "Okay. Fine. I'm going to take a few days off. I'll let you know when I'm back on the clock."

"So you can do whatever it is she wants?" Kuro sniped and my patience went right back to the point of snapping.

"Yes," I ground out. "I'm leaving now."

"Fine, damnit!" the black-clad woman shouted. "Don't call me for help when it goes sideways on you!"

My patience snapped. "I won't!"

It seemed Kuro's had as well, however, as she closed the distance between us. "Pigheaded, stubborn little bastard!"

"Fuck you, bitch," I growled, picking a building off to my left and throwing on Invisibility as I fired my line launcher and set the winch to maximum pull, yanking me off the roof and away before I did something foolish like start a fight—or before she could try another shot to the balls. "What the hell is her problem?" I wondered aloud as I drew close enough to the building to get my feet on it, detached the line, and made a Powered Leap away to change course in case she decided to try following.

I returned to my new hunting grounds around the hospital to blow off steam by killing monsters and to create new spells—though, by the time I got there, I'd found my sudden anger had mostly evaporated, leaving me vaguely frustrated but otherwise clear-headed. While I had a moment, I checked my Skills page and found what I had suspected—Dating Mode had been changed from an active to a passive skill, meaning it was now always on, and not only did it do what it had before it now also passively increased my charisma by 100%, going up 10% per level. That… was ridiculously over powered, especially if it leveled with no level cap.

Finding the Change Log, I read over it to see what else had been tampered with. Other than UI settings and a note that BGM now triggered correctly in all areas as opposed to just situationally, nothing much had changed. Though, that note about the BGM made sense. I'd set it with the intent of using it for a meter for how screwed I was at any given time, but aside from changes in location or character image songs, it hadn't really triggered as it should. For instance, that first run in with an Illusion Barrier should have set off all sorts of warnings well ahead of time.

Setting up on a rooftop, I looked down on a milling mob of zombies. A few grimm roamed the streets and I hummed in thought as a plan formed. Picking one of the higher level beowolves out of the group, I focused on what I wanted and felt Skill Creation kick in. "Confuse."

A skill has been created through a special action!

Confuse: Level 1. Active. To sew chaos and confusion amongst the enemy and turn them against each other, you created the skill Confuse. Effect: target must make a Will save or be afflicted with Confused status for several minutes, time dependent on INT modifier vs the enemy's WIS modifier. Confused enemies will overlook you or other targets and can even be made to attack targets they otherwise would not. Humans or Faunus under the effect of Confusion are more open to suggestion and take penalties to Will saves.

That was good, but only half of what I wanted. I had already seen it used once before here, so I knew it was possible. Focusing again, I chanted, "Berserk."

A skill has been created through a special action!

Berserk: Level 1. Active. Berserk drives enemies mad with rage, forcing them to seek out enemies and fight unthinkingly, relentlessly until either the enemy or all nearby targets are dead. Effect: target must make a Will save or be afflicted with Berserk status for several minutes, time dependent on INT modifier vs the enemy's WIS modifier. Berserk enemies will heedlessly attack any enemy that catches their attention, regardless of how injured they become. Berserk enemies are immune to Sleep but more vulnerable to Confuse.

Below, the beowolf I had targeted began tearing through everything around it and I grinned under my mask as my EXP began ticking up with each kill. I wanted to try creating the other mind magic spells, but I had a feeling they wouldn't work on grimm, zombies, goblins, or other non-humans for the most part—after all, what does a grimm have to fear? No, I was going to have to create and test those against human targets, which meant actively seeking out unfriendly targets. There was no shortage of them in the various gangs in town, but I hadn't run across a need for them yet either, so I could put those further down the priority tree for other skills. Cheap, easy spells to disrupt the enemy were more useful at the moment. Debuffs were especially useful, and since I had a few minutes, I went ahead and filled out my list of favorites, adding Blind, Silence, and Slow. Throwing in some elemental manipulation for a mostly solid element like earth, water, or ice netted me a nice AOE root spell in Bind, to hold enemies in place using whatever was handy or creating something to hold them if nothing could be pulled from a nearby source by conjuring ice.

There were a few new additions I wanted to make to my list of attack spells, however. With Bind, I could hold down a pretty large crowd so long as I wanted to dump mana into it. Once I had them, I needed something big to finish them off. For that, elemental spells always tended to be best. Big, wide-area spells that did a lot of damage to a lot of enemies, especially if they couldn't fight back—and I had just the thing in mind, too. Swinging down to ground level, I ran past a large group of zombies and goblins, mixed in with various grimm, and ran towards a second group I had spotted on the next block over. As the second group spotted me and turned to engage, the two groups merging into one large group of upwards of 70 monsters averaging level 20 to my level 19, I fired my line launcher and pulled myself up the side of a building, stopping when I felt I was far enough to be safe but still close enough to hold their interest. Sticking to the side of the building with Surface Walking, I chanted, "Bind!" and dumped mana—over 700 points worth and about a tenth of my total available MP—into holding them in place. Focusing on what I needed, I held out a hand and channeled fire elemental magic. "This one's for you, Lina. Fireball!"

A skill has been created through a special action!

Fireball: Level 1. Active. Fireball is a spell designed to affect the maximum amount of targets over a wide area and burn them to ash. Effect: Fireball deals 500% + 10%/level INT damage to targets within a 30m radius. Targets hit by fireball will be inflicted with burning status for an additional 500% + 10%/level damage over 10 seconds. Burning targets must make a Will save or will become Panicked and scatter, spreading flames to other targets and potentially structures. Level Fireball to increase its damage, area of effect, burn duration, range, speed, and the number of fireballs per attack in addition to lowering its cost. Cost: 200MP. Range: 100m. Speed: 100m/s.

A flaming ball of mana streaked from my hand and impacted in the center of the group, exploding outwards and setting everything it touched on fire as it streaked up into the sky in a miniature mushroom cloud that reached so high I had to throw up a hasty Mana Barrier to keep from getting cooked myself. Everything caught in the circle of magical fire simply ceased to be as the area went up in flames and cooked off over the next ten seconds. The enemies on the outskirts that had simply caught fire as opposed to being outright cooked panicked and I allowed Bind to drop, letting them spread further into the crowd and set alight more of the gathered enemies. Over the course of a minute, the entire area was suffused in smoke, ash, and the scent of burning tar, hair, flesh, and grimm hung thick and cloying in the air. Below me, the building I had been clinging to caught fire and I beat a hasty retreat to another building, taking me out of the stinging, stinking smoke and ash. Coughing quietly and wiping at my watering eyes, I looked down to observe my handiwork, dismissing a notification about having gained a level and Fireball having leveled, along with a point each in INT and WIS.

Nothing had survived below and the street bubbled and burned as the tar in the asphalt cooked off. Something glittered, catching my eye and I realized that there were drops down there. Sighing as my greed got the better of me, I channeled mana to create an ice spell of the same magnitude to hopefully put out the fire I'd started. Fireball, while not my most powerful attack yet, was damn close to it. A single fireball was stronger than an individual AP Round, but not as powerful as a Rasengan—except that Fireball was an AOE and did that damage to everything in its range, which made it far more effective at crowd control than either of those. Ridiculously expensive, too—but then, I had the mana to burn at this point.

A skill has been created through a special action!

Flash Freeze: Level 1. Active. Flash Freeze is a spell designed to incapacitate and damage the maximum number of targets over a wide area, leaving them frozen in place and vulnerable to attack. Effect: Flash Freeze deals 400% +10%/level INT damage to targets within a 30m radius. Targets within the area of effect of Flash Freeze are frozen in place and take freezing damage over time for an additional 400% +10%/level damage over 15 seconds. Frozen targets are fragile and physical damage or intense shifts in temperature will Shatter them. Level Flash Freeze to increase its damage, area of effect, freeze duration, range, and speed in addition to lowering its cost. Cost: 200MP. Range: 100m. Speed: 100m/s.

Rereading the description, I grinned. ''Intense changes in temperature,' huh? That pretty much screams 'this combos with Fireball' to me.'

At the moment, however, all I was worried about was my loot sitting in the middle of a newly-created winter wonderland. Dropping down to the ground, I whistled happily as I set about collecting money, soul gems, and potions. There was one more spell I wanted to create, as soon as I found another group of monsters—well, two really, now that I thought about it but only one of those was a battle technique. The first was a simple illusory clone—something which had been put to good effect in various media from games, to anime, to movies and television in one form or another. Coupled with Invisibility, I could create one or more clones to distract enemies while disappearing myself and putting Iaido to good use once the enemy lost track of me. The other was an illusory disguise, to further change my appearance and add another layer of obfuscation between me and anyone looking to identify me. Both I was shamelessly pulling from Naruto, however, as the last place where I'd seen both used at the same time. And why the hell not? It was technically magic, there were no rules against it and even if for whatever reason there were, I wouldn't care to follow them.

I was still in the middle of picking up drops when my scroll rang. I answered it with one hand and kept picking up drops with the other, idly wishing I had a gather spell or something to do this for me. Maybe a minion, or a summon? "Hello?"

"Jaune, where are you?" one of the twins asked, and I had to look at the caller I.D. to figure out which—Miltia, in this instance.

"Right now? Currently in an Instant Dungeon… Hang on." Turning around, I sighted down an approaching stalker. "AP Round. Sorry about that. What did you need?"

I could hear the smile in the girl's voice as she asked, "Are you terribly busy, or would you like to know what we heard?"

More grimm had apparently caught my scent, so I grabbed the last of the drops and went invisible, then gained altitude and settled on the roof of a building that wasn't on fire. "What did you hear?"

"There's a job going down, tonight, out on Patch. I didn't get the details, but I heard a couple of Junior's men talking about it. Roman Torchwick hired them to break in and steal something," she sighed, adding quickly, "No idea what, though. I don't have a clue what a school could possibly hold that's worth sending half a dozen men for."

Well, if Roman was pulling this job, that meant Cinder had likely given him the order to have it done—especially since this wasn't Roman's normal M.O. of knocking off Dust stores, in canon. Assuming they weren't taking their cues from Albus Dumbledore and had the common sense not to hide immensely valuable artifacts in a school full of children, then there were only a few possibilities, really. Either way, it was weird enough to warrant investigation. "When are they leaving?"

Miltia had apparently been expecting me to ask, as she already had an answer. "Soon. They have a Bullhead on a private runway out in the Agricultural District. I'll send the details to your scroll."

"Thanks, Miltia," I grinned. "I'll let you know what I find."

Destroying the Instant Dungeon with Escape ID, subsequently causing the burning building across from me to appear to revert to one that was whole and intact, I waited a moment before my scroll buzzed with a text message from the red-clad twin. Inputting the details to my map, I set out across the city. Across two bridges and three districts, the trip down to the southwest corner of the Agricultural District took half an hour in between using the line launcher and a combination of running and leaping when there were no buildings around to pull myself skyward. A check of my HUD showed it to be after 10P.M. by the time I arrived and crossed the fence designating the property line for the old airfield. It was less an airfield and more of an old, beat up tarmac and a couple of equally old hangars off to the side, along with what looked like a fueling station of some sort.

Hopping the fence, I scanned the area, and finding it to be abandoned I made my way to the first hangar. A quick walk around allowed me to find a set of windows set up high, which let me look inside. Inside the building, I found what Observe told me was a Duster—a single engine craft used as a crop duster, created before hover technology became popular and cheap enough to replace them. The Duster wasn't large enough to hold more than two people if they were very intimate, so I moved on to the next hangar, where I found a much newer model Bullhead, which Observe told me was stolen. Climbing to the top of the hangar, I flattened myself out on the roof and watched the road.

Headlights caught my attention over an hour later and I successfully resisted the urge to blast the car coming through the main gate with a fireball for making me waste valuable time. The sedan pulled up outside the hangar, off to one side, and the driver killed the engine and headlights as six men in black suits, white under shirts, and red ties got out. Two proceed to open up the hangar and move inside while three of the others either stood around or leaned against the car and proceeded to light up cigarettes and have a smoke. The last mook pulled out his scroll and placed a call. Activating Listen, I focused my attention below.

"We're here boss. Shouldn't take but an hour to fuel the bird and get out to Patch. You sure that gizmo your guy got can do what he said?" The mook nodded along to something said, bringing up one hand and opening and closing it repeatedly in a 'yap, yap, yap' gesture, setting his buddies to laughing—apparently, Roman liked to get long-winded at times. "Gotcha boss. We'll get back to you once we're back on the ground here." Hanging up and closing the scroll, he shook his head. "Fuckin' clown thinks he owns us, cause he throws around a little money."

Engines whirring to life inside the hangar cut off any further conversation as the Bullhead slowly pulled out onto the tarmac before stopping, the side door sliding open and one of the mooks climbing out to start the fueling process. Making sure Invisibility was running, I dropped down to the tarmac and slipped inside the aircraft. I couldn't risk being sat on, so I hopped up and stuck to the ceiling—once we were in the air and the mooks had settled down, I could take a seat. I wondered idly if Spider-man ever complained about uncomfortable things digging into his back or ass any time he had to do this. Thankfully, fueling the Bullhead didn't take long, and soon the rest of the mooks had filed in and taken seats on the uncomfortable looking jump seats, which looked more akin to what I'd expect to find in a C-130 than a passenger craft.

The side door slid closed and the whine of the engines audibly increased as the Bullhead began moving forward and gaining altitude. Carefully, I dropped down and took the seat furthest back, pulling up my map and watching as we accelerated out over the water towards the northwest. My map updated, shifting to track our position, and bringing the island of Patch into view several miles off the coast. Thankfully, the flight over the water was short—to the point that it took longer for our pilot to find somewhere out of the way to land. Once we were down, I waited for an opportunity to escape unnoticed and took it in a gap between a couple of the mooks. Slipping off to the side, I waited for them to exit the Bullhead and lead me to their destination, dismissing a notification about Sneak and Aura Suppression both having leveled.

The Bullhead's engines shut down and the pilot joined the other mooks, pocketing the keys as they all took out flashlights and began moving out of the clearing the pilot had chosen and into the woods separating us from the school. Signal itself was on the southeast section of the island, south of a small town the island was likely named for, which contained the ferry and airport that connected Patch to Vale. Our pilot had chosen a clearing about half a mile inland from the cliffs on the southwest corner of the island, as far across the island from the town as it was possible to get, but only a mile or two through the woods.

I say woods and not forest because these were close, thick, and full of brambles and briars that seemed to reach out and snag passers by when they least expected it. The group of mooks had a hell of a time moving through the dense underbrush while I, on the other hand, simply leapt up onto a tree branch and followed overhead. In the day time, I could have moved circles around a group of this size in this terrain in absolute silence—I had grown up hunting animals that spooked a lot easier than people in woods exactly like this and knew how to move silently and quickly in them. It wasn't day, however, and I had other options available.

A mile hike that should have taken twenty minutes at most took over twice that and the mooks eventually broke out their weapons, swords and axes, to cut through the brush. I followed along from above at a sedate pace, keeping a lookout for grimm, which were strangely absent at the moment. My map said the entire area should have been infested with them, but they were either busy elsewhere or not interested—I wasn't sure which.

Eventually, however, the school came into sight. Signal was a large campus—larger than the fact that it was out on an island away from the mainland would tend to suggest. I could spot on-campus housing off to the side, administration buildings, and other buildings that I supposed housed the classrooms themselves. The entire thing was surrounded by green lawns and training grounds, and registered to my Semblance as a Safe Zone. Given the time of year, I suspected Signal had already graduated their newest group of prospective Hunters and was on break—meaning that Cinder or Roman hadn't timed this little break-in too badly, since the place would likely be mostly empty for a few weeks at the very least.

As we approached the main administration building, the one I'd identified as the head mook spoke up. "Let's get these doors open, then two of you stay out here and keep watch."

I stood back and watched as the men used their axes to quickly cut the area around the door locks out and pull open one of the doors—it couldn't have taken them thirty seconds to get the door open, which told me they had probably done some breaking and entering before. The fact that they were ignoring potential security, such as motion sensors, cameras, and the like told me that something else was up—either Signal had poor security, or the cops wouldn't be showing up any time soon. I waited until the three going in had moved inside and out of hearing range before I chanted "Confuse. Confuse," and waited. When the two mooks assigned to guard duty looked at each other stupidly and no one made any sign they had heard, I focused on creating the skill I needed, pulling up charisma as I did. "Charm."

A skill has been created through a special action!

Charm: Level 1. Active. Charm is a spell meant to temporarily convince a target that you are on their side. Effect: target must make a Will save against your CHA modifier or be afflicted with Charmed status. Charmed humans and Faunus will treat you as a lifelong friend, confidante, comrade, or lover depending on the individual. Charmed monsters and grimm will fight as your ally, even against their own kind. Level Charm to increase its duration and effectiveness. Cost: 15MP. Range: 10m.

I resisted the urge to laugh, instead casting Charm again on the second mook before dropping Invisibility out of their sight and walking up. "Sorry I'm late, guys."

The pair traded looks before one rolled his eyes. "You nearly missed it, man. The others are already inside."

"Yeah," I agreed. "This is what happens when you're in the shitter when the boss calls. So, the boss wasn't clear on the details… what the fuck are we doing here at a school of all things, taking orders from that assclown Roman for? Aside from the money, I mean."

The mook on the left sighed, shaking his head. "We're supposed to be using some doodad to hack the school's servers and get information, since the computers with the data aren't networked. Can't just hack in from outside, see? Got to be on site to get it."

I frowned. "What data could a school have that a thief like Roman would be interested in."

"The roster for the graduating class, duh," the mook on the right answered, as though it were obvious. "He wants a list of all the little brats going off to Beacon or one of the other Hunter schools. Fuck if I know why, though—that's above my pay grade."

"I can think of a few reasons," I mused aloud. "I'd better go make sure those jokers inside get the right information and don't try to do something stupid, like set up a web-cam in the girls' locker room or something. Could you two do me one more favor?"

"Sure, buddy. Whatcha need?"

I almost felt bad for what I was going to do next. Almost. "Sleep."

Immediately, the pair dropped to the ground, unconscious. While I had the opportunity, and a couple of targets who couldn't make Will saves to resist, I focused on creating another spell. "Forget."

A skill has been created through a special action!

Forget: Level 1. Active. In order to erase yourself from the memories of those who might look to track you down later, the skill Forget was created. Effect: target must make a Will save against your INT modifier. If the target fails, he, she, or it will be forced to forget details of the caster's choosing—such as forgetting ever seeing the caster, forgetting what they were doing, or forgetting the last few minutes. Forget will wipe 10 minutes worth of time from the target's memory by default, unless otherwise specified. Level Forget to increase its effectiveness and reduce its mana cost. Cost: 15MP. Range: 10m.

I hit the second mook with the spell and set about dragging them several feet away from the entrance. Moving quickly, I entered the school and followed the dots on my map that would lead me to the rest. I found them in the main office, one of them seated at a holographic computer interface with some kind of small piece of equipment on the table that I assumed was some sort of hardware interface. The screen displayed what looked like a chess piece, a queen I believed, and a progress bar—likely indicating file transfer. Muttering three quick chants of, "Confuse," I gave the spell a moment to take effect before hitting them all with Charm, then dropping Invisibility and walking in.

"Sorry I'm late. What'd I miss?" I asked, walking right past the two mooks standing around to the head mook seated at the desk.

The man looked up at my approach before turning back to the holographic interface. "Not much. I kind of expected more security out of a place like Signal, you know? I mean, sure, Roman paid the cops to ignore the alarms, but this is kind of disappointing."

I snorted. "What, like security death bots? Come on, now. This is a school, not a bank." Pointing at the device standing on the interface table, I asked, "What's that?"

The mook shrugged. "Some prototype hacking tool. The guy we picked it up from bragged about how it exploited some vulnerability present in pretty much everything more complicated than a toaster oven—said that's what happens when you use the same buggy OS for everything."

"He sounds like he was pretty proud of that thing," I pointed out, fishing for information.

"Yeah," the mook agreed, sitting back in his chair and kicking his feet up on the desk. "He kept on running his mouth, you know? Told us all about how he'd just made a small fortune selling a few of this puppy's bigger, meaner sisters on the black market. I know where I'm heading next—right boys?"

"Damn right!" one of the other two mooks cheered as the trio of stooges broke out laughing.

The other confirmed my suspicions by adding, "Easy score on top of the pay for this job. Even split six ways, that's more than ten thousand lien each."

I whistled. Whoever had made these things was in for a bad night, unless he got out of Vale soon. A chirp from the computer drew our attention and I looked over to see the file transfer was complete. Reaching out, I took the device before any of the mooks had a chance to object, pocketing it in my side pouch. "Well, fellas, how about we get the hell out of here, head back to Vale for our payday, then hit the nearest bar?"

"Fucking seconded," the head mook agreed, standing and following the other two as they made their way outside. Focusing on their turned backs, I pulled up mana and concentrated on what I wanted.

A skill has been created through a special action!

Dominate: Level 1. Active. The skill Dominate was created in order to control individual enemies or groups of enemies, forcing them to bend to your will. Effect: targets within a 3 meter radius must make a Will save against your combined INT and CHA scores, or have their will Dominated and obey your commands for a period of time dependent on your CHA modifier. Level Dominate to increase its radius, effect, and decrease its mana cost. Cost: 50MP/target. Range: 10m.

The trio of mooks stopped suddenly, freezing in place. The spell was both verbal and mental, so I could issue orders either by speaking or thinking them—in essence, it was an AOE version of the Imperius curse. Lord Voldemort would be proud. "Go outside and wait." A devious smile crossed my mouth as I added, "And give me the keys to the Bullhead."

As the group moved off after handing me the keys, I looked around the office—the computers here were all on their own isolated network, as the mook had said. Moving to the door, I turned back and raised my hand. "Fireball."

Most of the equipment was incinerated by the initial blast. Smoke and heat quickly set off the fire alarms and sprinkler system, but the fires created by Fireball were magical in nature and wouldn't go out with just a little water. I ran outside, finding the three Dominated mooks milling around waiting. Looking them over, I hummed a moment before grinning. Pulling back a fist, I laid into first one, then the rest with punches and kicks—enough to leave some highly visible bruising and cracked ribs. I dragged out the two I'd put to sleep earlier and delivered a similar set of beatings, to round out the set.

"Forget," I chanted, then repeated it twice more, wiping their memories of everything from the time they got to the school, before slapping them all with another Confuse just to be sure they would take the next part at face value and pass off any inconsistencies when they recounted the tale later. A Powered Leap put me on the building above them. Pulling up mana, I once more focused on Skill Creation, an idea in mind.

A skill has been created through a special action!

Illusion Disguise: Level 1. Active. Illusion Disguise was created to disguise the caster, rendering the caster unrecognizable by sight. Effect: Illusion Disguise alters the caster's appearance and clothing using a mana-based semi-solid hologram. Items created using the skill will be solid to the touch but Illusion Disguise cannot physically change the caster, only apply a shell of mana around the caster in the desired shape. Despite its name, Illusion Disguise is not an actual illusion and incurs no Will saves to defeat it, though it may be defeated by Aura disrupting techniques and individuals with a high Perception may spot inconsistencies in the disguise. Cost: 10MP + 1MP/minute upkeep.

Where before I had stood on the rooftop in my Shiro disguise, there now stood a man of my height wearing a similar set of armor in all white. I had added a ragged, white hooded cape to further divorce the image I wanted to present from that of 'Shiro,' along with changing my hair color to bright red and adding a good bit of length, which was visible poking out from under the hood in places. Finally, I added a mask to top it off—styled after the creatures of grimm, the mask resembled a fox, as it was something I had yet to see a grimm analog for. Like the rest of my outfit, however, the mask was color inverted. Where grimm masks were normally white with red markings, mine was black with blue markings.

If these guys just went back to Roman empty-handed, Roman and likely Cinder would be quick to figure out something was up—namely, that there was someone running around with the ability to manipulate memories, at least. If I gave them something to chase, however—some third party to pin the blame on—then that would raise far fewer questions. It would be especially effective since the identity I was making now was effectively a ghost—it hadn't existed before I created it a moment ago and had absolutely no ties to Jaune Arc or Shiro the 'delivery boy.' Focusing my attention on the three men below, I ordered, 'Turn around. Look up.' As soon as they had, I dropped Dominate. They blinked a moment, looking around and taking in the building that was quickly catching fire, and me standing there atop it back-lit by flames. The head mook checked his pockets and came up empty both for the keys and the hacking device. "You! You bastard! What the fuck did you do?!"

"Oh, not much—just knocked you out, stole what you came here for right out from under your noses, and then set fire to the only other copy of the data. Tell that Clockwork Orange reject who hired you I said 'hi,' will you?" I called down, grinning under my mask—masks, plural now, I suppose. "Oh, by the way, you'd better get moving if you don't want the cops to find you, since there's no way they're going to ignore a fire in one of the Hunter training academies. You aren't flying and Vale's a long swim from here!"

Charging a Powered Leap, I jumped off the top of the building in the direction of the woods. Behind me, the mooks opened fire with pistols but only managed to hit the ground or trees around me as I landed, Leaping again and hitting the tree line before quickly leaving their field of view—pistols being a poor choice for distance shooting, they would be lucky to hit the broad side of a barn at this range, in the dark. Once I was sure I was out of sight, I threw on Invisibility and made my way quickly back to the field where I knew the Bullhead would be. Approaching the vehicle, a thought occurred—if my Semblance treated the real world like a video game, I had an Inventory and skills, then would it also have a mount or vehicle system? There was only one way to find out, so I moved up to the Bullhead and pressed my hand against its hull. Pulling up mana, I focused on creating the skill I wanted…

A skill has been unlocked!

Claim Vehicle: Level MAX. Active. Claim Vehicle allows the caster to add nearly any vehicle as a summonable mount and unlocks the Vehicles tab under Inventory. Note: vehicles need fuel to operate and will be claimed at their current fuel level. Damaged vehicles will remain damaged until repaired. Effect: adds vehicles to the Inventory to summon and use later. Cost: variable based on the mass of the vehicle claimed. Casting time: 5 seconds.

A skill has been unlocked!

Summon Vehicle: Level MAX. Active. Summon Vehicle allows the caster to summon claimed vehicles from Inventory. Note: vehicles need fuel to operate and will be summoned at their last fuel level. Any damage taken by a vehicle once summoned will not affect the same vehicle if summoned again. Effect: summons a previously collected vehicle from Inventory. Cost: 100MP. Casting time: 3 seconds.

A quest has been created!

Grand Theft Remnant

Now that you've unlocked the ability to Claim and Summon vehicles, see if you can collect at least one of each type of vehicle scattered across Remnant!

Success: EXP to be determined and awarded as you collect vehicles, a veritable fleet of vehicles at your disposal. Failure: no awesome vehicles.

Well, I'd have done that anyway even if my Semblance hadn't given me a quest for it. The 5000 EXP I got for claiming the Bullhead was a little under a quarter of my current TNL count, but I wasn't going to complain about what amounted to free experience. No, the biggest drawback to this was going to be the mana cost. The Bullhead had cost over 1100 mana to eat. It stood to reason that trying to eat a warship or large passenger aircraft would be nearly impossible at the moment. And, unfortunately, being that the skills were maxed out, there was no bringing that cost down—which meant the only way to devour something that large would be to increase my mana by an amount so great that I could probably create one from scratch anyway. Well, it was something to work towards at any rate.

Pulling up my map, I checked to see if any police, Hunters, or the mooks had caught onto my trail and followed me. I found no little red dots in the vicinity, meaning there were no enemies around—I did, however, find something new. To the southwest, on the edge of the island's cliffs, was a new icon—a very recognizable stylized rose, in red. 'Why the hell not?' I chuckled, deciding to go have a look. Taking off at a run, I leapt into the trees, following the new waypoint on my minimap. The trees began to thin out and the sound of waves hitting the cliffs below became audible as I reached a cleared area several yards back from the cliff face and caught my first sight of the girl destined to become the center of events very shortly.

BGM Image song – Red Like Roses – unlocked!

System Alert!

Strong negative emotions have created a powerful Illusion Barrier! Creatures of Grimm have been attracted by the sorrow of an innocent soul and you will not be able to leave the Illusion Barrier until they have been killed!

The temperature dropped and it began to snow. 'Oh, of bloody course.' Focusing on the girl, I hit her with Observe.

Rose in Bloom

Apprentice Reaper

Ruby Rose

Level: 31

I blinked upon reading her level then shook my head and skipped down further, past her biography to the emotional state information: lonely, confused, anxious, sorrowful. Considering she was visiting a grave—that of her mother, no less—I wasn't surprised. No, I was surprised that it was bad enough to summon an Illusion Barrier full of Beowolves. She turned and walked away from the grave, seemingly lost in her own world. She passed by under me, not ten feet away and I watched her pass, knowing what was coming. Sense Danger and Detect Bloodlust began going off and I opened my map, watching red dots form and move through the trees. With a quiet sigh, I followed. I knew this was her fight, and I knew she would win—still, I couldn't help feeling a bit worried for her anyway, despite the fact that Ruby was technically stronger than me.

Beowolves are inherently stupid creatures until they get older and craftier. Those surrounding us were between level 30 and 35 and all newly formed, so of course they took the frontal assault option. Taking up a position just on the outside of the clearing she had walked into—the same one we had landed in, in fact—I sat in a crook between two branches and watched as she began to dance. A little girl should not be able to move like that wielding a sniper rifle scythe that had to mass more than she did, Aura or not. It was possibly the most impressive display of combat prowess I'd seen to date—her secondary title had even changed to 'Grimm Reaper.' Once more, I was reminded that I really, really needed to get cracking on creating a Flash Step skill.

A notification popped up and I frowned, closing it and looking around, extending Perception and focusing on my Aura.

A skill has been created through a special action!

Aura Sense: Level 1. Active. Aura has helped humanity in more subtle ways since it was first discovered. Aura Sense is the ability to sense the world around the user through one's Aura and that of the surrounding environment. Effect: allows the caster to detect and recognize Auras, detect monsters and grim, and detect things otherwise hidden by their Aura or malice. Level Aura Sense to increase its range and ability to detect individuals suppressing their Aura.

Of course I picked out Ruby, her Aura shining bright as she worked her way through a horde of beowolves like a human buzz saw. I also picked out the swiftly dying grimm around her. And there, slipping out of the tree line and slinking low to the ground was the grudge my Semblance had warned me about—another Beowolf Prowler. It was smart, slowly creeping up on the caped girl's position while she was distracted by its dying brethren, I would give it that. It just had no way of knowing it had been spotted. There were a few ways this could play out from here.

I could watch and wait, refusing to break stealth and let Ruby deal with it. There was a good chance she could… but then, there was a slim chance that it would only need one clean shot to put her down, too. These things fought with stealth and hit and run tactics, and this one was much higher level than the one I'd taken on—level 40. And if I recalled correctly, there was some sort of bonus they got for the number of grimm the person they were fighting had killed recently.

Sitting things out didn't sit well with me, however, which meant I'd be doing something about it—the question was, what? AP Round could kill it—it could also punch straight through and hit Ruby, and that would be bad. Besides, years of training had me cringing at the thought of firing off live rounds near a human target I wasn't intending to kill. Likewise, the rest of my ranged options were out, and it was well outside range of Sleep now, even if it would have worked—which it wouldn't. I didn't have much time left to decide, so whatever I chose had to be now.

Channeling mana, I made a flying Leap up into a ballistic arc over the clearing. Twisting slightly put enough of a tumble on my leap to bring me upside down and give me eyes on the Prowler. Ranged attacks were out, which meant I'd have to close to melee range. A smirk stretched its way across my lips as a thought occurred. 'Sneak attacks work both ways, fucker.' Drawing on more mana—wind elemental, this time—I focused on going down.

A skill has been created through a special action!

Air Walk: Level 1. Active. Martial Artists and Hunters alike have, on occasion, seemed to walk on the air itself—the skill Air Walk was created to mimic that feat. Effect: allows the caster to create flat surfaces to walk or run on, or rebound off of, in midair. The caster and up to two others in contact with the caster may walk or run up to a 45 degree incline in empty air as though walking on stairs or a platform. Level Air Walk to decrease its mana cost. Cost: 10MP/minute.

'Close enough,' I grunted, kicking off in a Leap downwards and accelerating rapidly past normal terminal velocity as I used wind natured mana to reduce drag—effectively turning myself into a human arrow. The problem here was, I was unarmed—and while I could dish out one hell of a beating with my bare hands now, a fist was no replacement for a sword. Then again, I was a caster—I was never unarmed so long as I had mana. Quickly channeling mana into my hand as an orb, I sped through the now familiar process of modifying a spell I already had into something new and deadly. Mana elongated and I ignored the message for new skill creation telling me I had created a Mana Sword. Pouring more mana into the technique, I set it to spinning, creating a Spinning Mana Sword. Blinding light and the sound of a thousand chirping birds filled the air an instant before I drew.

Snow and earth and bits of grimm exploded around me as my Spinning Lightning Sword swung through the space where the Prowler's neck and head joined in a perfect Iaido draw, long enough to dig a trench into the ground below it. I hit the ground hard enough to drive me to my knees, deadly dangerous energy sword held out to the side and well away from where I might accidentally fall on it—which would be both embarrassing and painful.

The red-clad reaper turned, silver eyes going wide and locking with mine beneath my illusory mask as Invisibility faded. I must have struck an intimidating figure, because she immediately leveled Crescent Rose at my face and chambered another round. Opening my hand and dismissing the sword, I stood slowly, still looking down the business end of an anti-material rifle. I needed to defuse the situation and convince her I wasn't a threat. Well, there was the Red Riding Hood comparison begging to be made… "My, what big eyes you have," I drawled, a grin creeping up on me, "The kind of eyes that drive wolves mad."

Silver eyes tracked between me and the swiftly disintegrating Prowler before she blinked, head tilting sideways as a curious look crossed her face. "But are you a wolf?"

"Maybe," I admitted, drawing the word out. "Though, pretty sure my mask makes me a fox." Turning around, I picked up the potions and money the Prowler had dropped, along with a skill book—ignoring the rifle and the girl wielding it. Ruby wasn't the kind of person who would shoot someone in the back—at least, not yet. Hopefully not ever.

You've obtained the skill book Physical Conjuration and You: A Beginner's Guide to Conjuring. Would you like to learn this skill?

You bet your shiny blue interface I would… just not in front of Ruby Rose. Pocketing the book and the mana potion, I tossed the girl the health potion. "Here."

"What's this?" she asked, catching it one-handed before popping the cork and sniffing as she lowered the rifle/scythe to a resting position. "Smells like… cherry?" She took a sip and I raised a hand to stop her, but it was too late—she tipped it back and drank the whole damn thing. "Mmm delicious. I feel awesome—kind of like a double shot of espresso and an energy drink, but without the buzzy feeling. I didn't know grimm dropped stuff like this."

Sighing, I shook my head at her antics. "They don't tend to," I admitted. Holding out a hand, I murmured, "Escape ID," and the sky shattered like a million mirrors. Where there had been snow falling and ankle deep, there was now tall grass. "It should be safe now, but I don't think little girls should go walking in these spooky old woods alone."

The 'little girl' in question glared and puffed out her cheeks, further illustrating my point, before shattering it to dust by hefting that damned oversized sniper scythe again and folding it down into its compact form before stowing it at the small of her back. After a moment, a sly look crossed her features and I was suddenly reminded that this was the half sister of Yang Xiao Long—who had been an unrepentant tease and flirt in canon. It made sense that some of that would have rubbed off on Ruby. "I dunno, my sister told me I shouldn't walk home with big bad wolves."

"I'll keep my sheep suit on," I deadpanned.

The redhead shrugged, turning on her heel and marching off. I followed, several paces back. "So, I'm curious. That thing about my eyes… was that a pickup line? It's kind of hard to tell, what with the mask and everything. Also… Sorry for not saying it sooner, but uh… thanks for saving my butt back there. That thing totally snuck up on me. What was that awesome sword thingie? Was it like some kind of a saber made of light or something?"

Right. I forgot. Ruby was a bit of a chatterbox when she got nervous. "Well, to answer your questions in order: only if you want it to be, but I think you're a little young for that. You're welcome. An advanced elemental Aura technique. And yeah, it's pretty much a lightsaber." Or a Raikiri, either way.

"Pfft, please. Young? Did you see that back there? I was totally awesome. I mean, you were pretty cool too, but… yeah. I'm going to be a Hunter, real soon. Technically I'm already my uncle's apprentice, so I'm kind of already an adult by Hunter standards," she argued as we walked.

I rolled my eyes. "Not even close. You're still jailbait, red. Totally not dating material yet."

"I am not jailbait! I'm totally dateable!" she returned, turning and shooting me a glare that lacked any real menace.

Drawing even with her, I looked down to meet her eyes and countered, "You do realize you're arguing the merits and legality of dating a masked stranger, right?"

Ruby blinked, then rolled her eyes. "I didn't mean you, specifically. But a boy…" A quiet sigh passed her lips as she added, "Any boy, really."

I hummed in thought before suggesting, "I'm sure, if you're patient, you'll find one eventually." Beside me, the redhead looked away with a blush as she muttered something I didn't quite pick up. "Come again?"

Ruby sighed. "I said, 'it's not like anyone notices me when my sister's around, anyway,'" she repeated. So, there was a smidgen of jealousy there—I couldn't really blame her, though. Yang was a couple of years older and more developed, physically. "Sorry, I promise I don't normally just go around talking the ears off of strangers about my problems. It's just…"

"Just?" I asked, curious as to why she was doing exactly that. Sure, in canon Ruby had been open with pretty much anyone willing to talk to her… she had also been a textbook upbeat genki-girl most of the time, with only a few glances at anything beyond that. She still appeared to be fairly upbeat, but in a more realistic way from what I was seeing. She was a person, she had problems, doubts, fears, worries… she wasn't a caricature cut-out for a children's story. I had a feeling the rest of the members of teams RWBY and JNPR were similar.

The shorter girl skipped ahead a few steps and turned to walk backwards, meeting my eyes as she brought a finger to her lips. "Well, there's something about you that seems… approachable I guess? Friendly? Like you're exactly the sort of person who doesn't mind listening to a silly girl's problems."

"Is that so?" I asked, wondering if it was part of the effects of Dating Mode having been changed from an active skill to a passive. That was a mildly disturbing thought, if I was unconsciously manipulating the people around me just by being there… but no, I hadn't chosen to use it like that and I wasn't taking advantage of it. My Semblance couldn't seem to decide if my life was an RPG, H-game, or VN at times and that was likely a consequence of it.

Or maybe I was just blaming things on 'my Semblance' when, if Joan was right, it was my subconscious mind driving the damn thing—and maybe I just didn't want to be alone any more and was tired of wasting time looking for a unicorn. That is, a woman who beat the odds and managed to be smart, decent looking, a given value of sane, loyal, and could put up with my bullshit. My… inability to connect to people had left me without human companionship for a very long time, occasionally broken up by failures of relationships with women who were more akin to adult children than actual adults. I'd wanted a partner—I had not wanted to be 'daddy' to some girl who refused to grow up and face reality. Maybe my Semblance wasn't broken—maybe it was working as intended and answering that unspoken desire the only way it could. Then again, this could all be one big campaign setting for some asshole DM who had decided to play around with the lives of everyone involved. There was no way to know and no point worrying about it.

"Well," Ruby began hesitantly as we broke through the forest and came upon a log cabin style house. "This is it." She sounded hopeful as she turned to regard me again. "Will I see you again, Mister Fox?"

I wasn't the only one caught in my own funk, I realized. With a quiet chuckle, I stepped closer and reached out, ruffling her hair before grabbing her hood and pulling it over her eyes. "Hey, that's not nice!" she protested, fixing her hood in time to catch me leaning forward, under mask down and new mask up to expose the bottom part of my face. She froze as I planted a chaste kiss on her forehead. "W-what was that for?" And I swear I felt the heat off her blush from where I stood.

"You are not alone, Ruby Rose—that I promise. Soon, you'll have more friends than you'll know what to do with," I smiled, quickly fixing my masks and turning away. "Just give it time."

Invisibility came as second nature at this point as I slipped back into the forest, heading for the clearing. "I need a drink," I muttered, wondering if the twins were busy. Still, my night wasn't quite over yet. I had one more stop after this. The thing I had come here for couldn't simply be destroyed—it needed to be handed off to someone who could reverse engineer it and patch the hole it exploited. Unfortunately, I could only really think of one person who would be responsible with both the device and the data on it—aside from myself. And while I would be making a copy of it for study later, I'd feel better if it weren't just me looking it over. I was only one man and I was bound to miss something important eventually. I wasn't alone in this fight to protect Vale from forces mostly unknown—it was time to stop acting like it.

"Ozpin had better appreciate this."