Hello all and sorry for the late upload!
It's unfortunately pretty short thanks to stuff stopping me from writing IRL, but no worries about that now.
It's time to worry about something else lol
I'm going to be making Ira Lupus a bi-weekly upload, to give me more time to write and so it doesn't end up like EHL where I wait three years between uploading. I know this might not be something you would like but unfortunately it is something I need.
I'll leave a note on my profile as well to let anyone know.
But enough of the bad, on with the chapter!
Crue awoke to blaring music.
"DON'T WANNA BE AN ATLESIAN IDIOT!~" His hand snapped to where the music was coming from. "DON'T WANT A NATION ABOVE THE OLD MANTLE!~" His fingers blindly poked and prodded his Scroll, finally snoozing the alarm.
Just in time for the pillow to smack him in the face. "Hey!" Crue complained, sputtering as he pushed the fabric away. From his place on the sofa, he saw Winter sitting up in the bed, one hand laid out before her as her eyes squinted angrily at Crue.
"Yeesh. The Schnee aren't morning people, I'm guessing." For his comments, he received another fluffy artillery bombardment. He managed to bat that one away as he sat up on the sofa with a yawn. He was amazed he had actually managed to fall asleep, and not wake up in the middle of the night thanks to dreams about his failures.
Crue figured it was the combination of the exhaustion, the fact he actually had a shower, and somewhere soft to sleep. "Need to tell Tortuga she's out of a job." He craned his neck to each side, a series of cracks sounding out causing Crue to sigh in relief.
"Wonder if your Scroll's alright." He got up off the sofa, over to a dresser where a bowl of rice lay. The woman who delivered it did so without question, but she did give Crue a wink and say that she hopes it works out.
Whatever that meant.
Crue fished around in the bowl for a moment, before taking out the Scroll. He attempted to turn it on, and was pleasantly surprised to see the light briefly flicker. "I think it's working. It just needs a charge." He slipped the Scroll into his pocket, and turned around to find Winter already dressed, prim and proper as usual.
"How… did you do that?"
"You have very little time to get ready in the morning while training in the Army. As such, you are expected to be ready for action at the drop of a hat." She paused, frowning at a single lock of white hair that fell in front of her face.
She had yet to put it back up in a bun, and honestly Crue thought it looked better down. "Unfortunately, I'm missing the hat." She frowned, turning to face a mirror next to the bed as she tried to fix her hair. Crue grabbed the hair tie he had been using to keep his own together and tossed it over with a short whistle.
Winter glanced over at the noise and managed to catch it out of the air, bringing it up and tying her hair in a high ponytail. "You kinda look like an older Weiss." Crue commented, catching Winter off guard as she looked over.
"Only difference is your thing is centred." He pointed and made a small circle to the back of his head, referring to her ponytail. "Plus, you know… height."
Winter gave a scoff as she rolled her eyes. "I'm not sure if Weiss will catch up to me, when I was her age I was already taller." She turned back, expecting Crue to crack a joke. Instead, he wore a soft frown, staring at a point on the floor.
"Crue?" Winter's words snapped him out of his trance, as his single blue eye looked up to meet hers. She hesitated for the briefest moment, before speaking once more. "Is everything alright?"
The Faunus looked surprised that she cared, but his expression quickly shifted into a different one. "Yeah. Just, realising how long it's been since I've seen her. Since I've seen all of them…" He trailed off, bringing a hand up to fidget with his eye patch.
Winter's own brow furrowed slightly. For all the problems Crue had caused her and the Ace-Ops, all he wanted to do was find the people he cared about and tell them he was alive. "What happened to you after Beacon, Crue?"
And in all the time he had been around them, he had never given a clear answer. Crue's entire body seemed to stiffen, as he turned to look at Winter carefully. She could see the indecision in his eye, though he didn't seem to be against telling her.
It was like he was figuring out how to tell her. "I woke up and saw the face of God." He said, with the barest hint of a smirk. "Then, he threatened to kill everyone and everything on Remnant, so I killed him first."
Winter frowned. "You asked." Crue said, shrugging his shoulders. The Specialist did ask. And, much to her concern, she thought Crue was telling the truth. He was too open about it, and he must have known it sounded like a bold-faced lie.
Which is why she wasn't sure it was one. But… It had to be. Surely Crue hadn't actually seen what he did. Unless he did die. Winter had heard of people being legally dead for a few seconds, only to come back. Did that happen to Crue?
"You fought a God?" Winter raised an unimpressed eyebrow.
"Well, a dickhead pretending to be one." Crue gave another shrug, his eye never leaving Winters, and it looked as though he was almost pleading for her to believe him.
"Well, I'll be sure to add 'Deicide' onto the list of crimes you've committed." She didn't outright say she believed him, and she wasn't a hundred percent sure she did. It was essentially a game of chicken, with Winter waiting to see if Crue could prove this was completely true, and him waiting for Winter to say she believed him.
In the end, neither got the chance to win the game, as they were interrupted by a chirping noise from Crue's Scroll. The Faunus blinked in surprise, having never heard that particular notification before. He turned, forgetting the staredown and checking his device.
"Oh shit!" His tone was one of pleasant surprise, as he turned back to Winter with a wide smile. "Clover is nearby!"
…
"We're getting closer." "I can see that." Winter grumbled. She was pressed up against Crue's side, refusing to be carried in the daylight, but it meant she required assistance walking on her leg. So, she had one arm around Crue's shoulders and he had one under hers.
It made her feel like a drunk being walked home after an eventful night out. Before them both, Crue held out his Scroll, a sonar showing on the screen. Winter had several questions about how Crue had an application that let him know the whereabouts of Top Atlesian Specialists, but they could be saved until they actually found them.
The chirping grew more frequent, and now there were three dots on the screen. They were getting closer to the outskirts of the city, and seemed to be back in the warehouse district that they had first arrived in.
Luckily there wasn't much foot traffic, as the people of Kuchinashi seemed to enjoy the nightlife more than the early morning. Crue could relate, but right now it was working to his benefit. "They're close. They must be in one of these…"
Winter and Crue looked around at the various warehouses. They all looked vaguely similar, and unfortunately none of them had glowing neon signs saying 'Special Atlas Operatives On Discount', so Crue had to rely on the sonar.
After rotating himself, and Winter awkwardly doing the same, he had a pretty good idea of which warehouse they were in. The question of why they were in a random warehouse in the middle of a city so corrupt it could give Gotham a run for its money.
"Hey, do you guys have Batman here?" Crue asked Winter. The Schnee turned to look at Crue with an expression that he interpreted as: "Do you have any idea how incomprehensible the words you strung together just were?"
"Yeah, fair enough." Crue nodded, stopping outside of the building that the sonar said they were in. There was a large set of shutter doors in front of them, but Crue could see no way to open it from the outside.
"Can you stand by yourself?" Crue looked at Winter, who gave a nod. She pushed herself off of Crue, limping over to lean against the wall of the warehouse. She was still wearing the long cloak, as better safe than sorry in a situation like this.
With Winter freeing up his arms, he gave a nod as he cracked his neck from side to side. "Right." He stepped towards the shutters. He knocked his fists together in a movement reminiscent of a certain blonde brawler, before crouching down before and trying to work his fingers under the small lip.
It wasn't completely flush, which gave Crue something easy to grab hold of. Unfortunately, he was still trying to lift something not designed to be lifted by hand. "Fuckin…" He grit his teeth together as he scowled, some spit frothing at the corners of his lips.
With a mighty heave, and a slight shimmer of a golden eye, Crue let out a victorious yell. "Got ya!" Whatever mechanism that had been keeping in place faltered against Crue's strength, as the shutter was thrown open.
In the following seconds, Crue turned to Winter with a grin, and the Specialist had a brief image of Crue's face being warped and hurled backward by a mechanical fist.
"FUCK!" Crue let out a curse as he was sent flying, skidding along the ground and sliding in the muck. He used the momentum to spin round and get to his feet. Standing in the open doorway, was a shocked looking Harriet, her pink eyes wide as she stared at Crue.
Crue realised she probably, or at least hopefully, hadn't known it was him. He had thrown open the door to where the Aseop's were hiding and yelled "GOT YA!". He supposed he could forgive her this time. "Nice to see you too, Wabbit." Well, maybe not entirely forgiven.
"Crue?!" Harriet's eyes were solely on him, and she hadn't even noticed Winter to the side. "We thought you were dead!"
"Rumours of my demise have been-" Crue dodged to the side, his own blue eye widening as Harriet suddenly rocketed forward and tried to clobber him. "EVERY TIME!" He complained. "WHY CAN I NEVER SAY IT!?"
Harriet didn't have an answer for him, instead she had two fists that she probably named something cringe inducing like 'Dan' and 'Ger'. "HEY!" Crue exclaimed. "WINTER'S ALIVE TOO WHAT'RE YOU PISSED AT ME FOR!"
He tried to gesture to the woman in question, but Harriet wasn't having any of it. Her fists were a flurry of yellow lightning, and Crue didn't think he had ever seen her fight this fiercely. He could hear Winter shouting for Harriet to stand down over the blood pumping in his ears, and behind her, Clover, Vine and Elm had exited the warehouse to see the commotion.
They looked ready to jump in and help Harriet, before Winter caught their attention. They shared some conversation that Crue was not part of, as he was too busy trying not to get his head caved in. "Come on Harriet! I thought we were cool?! Or at least frosty!"
Harriet didn't respond, instead her attacks became wilder, she seemed intent to cause Crue as much pain as physically possible. Harriet gave a cry of rage as she threw a haymaker straight to her opponent's face. A gauntleted hand caught it, Crue's arm straining as he slowly forced it away from his face to meet Harriet's eyes.
They seemed pinker than usual. Before he could wonder what the cause was, Harriet brought her other arm back to attack. Crue raised his own to catch it again, but it was unnecessary. A thin line had coiled around Harriet's wrist and pulled back, dragging her away from Crue.
The Faunus released his grip on her fist, allowing her to go flying back into the arms of Elm. The much larger woman wrapped arms thick as her namesake around Harriet, and quickly whispered something into her ear.
Whatever it was caused Harriet to freeze up, before a fierce grimace came over her and she began kicking her feet out. "No! It's his fault! He has to pay!" She struggled futilely within Elm's grasp, her head jerking from side to side.
"What was my fault?!" Crue threw his hands out wide. "Winter's ok! I saved- wait." He stopped talking when he noticed something was amiss. He looked to the struggling Harriet being held by Elm, with Vine and Clover on either side.
He stared at Clover, who was scowling at him. He had never seen the expression on the man's face before, and to Crue, it seemed directed more inwardly. "Clover…" His teal eyes hardened as he took a breath.
"Tortuga is M.I.A."
All ambient noise seemed to come to a grinding halt, as Crue felt his entire body go rigid. "How did this happen?" Winter took control, limping over to stand next Clover, placing a hand on his shoulder. The man looked like he hadn't slept for a few days as he turned to face his commander.
"After you and Crue fell…" He trailed off, briefly glancing between the two as if he still couldn't believe they were alive. "Myself and Harriet found the others and explained what happened. We had no idea if you were alive or dead, but given the sight of the river, and the fact you were hit by a train, we assumed the worst."
Winter's leg flared with pain at the mention of the train, but she carried on without so much as wince. "Tortuga… Tortuga blamed herself for what happened."
"But she was nowhere near the incident?" Winter blinked in confusion.
"Yes. We're aware." Winter looked surprised at Clover's snark, but did not comment on it, letting him get it out. "But it doesn't matter. She blamed herself for Crue being there, but she wouldn't tell us why. She left during the night, when we were all asleep."
Harriet, who had still been writhing in Elm's grasp, suddenly went limp. "It was my turn to watch. She used her Semblance on me. How could she…" Harriet screwed her eyes shut as Elm gently lowered her to the ground, keeping her arms around her as a show of comfort.
"We managed to track her here, but the trail ran cold." Clover continued, after a sorrowful glance to Harriet. "But, we found this inside." He held out a broken, filthy looking Scroll. "And that's not all." He gave a nod to Vine, who stretched an arm in and returned with an open crate.
It was filled with weapons. "The Hana guild." Winter let out a breath. "Tortuga is trying to finish our mission by herself." She realised. "And that led her here…" To a warehouse belonging to a dangerous criminal organisation.
It didn't paint a hopeful picture. And the expressions of each of the Ace-Ops showed that they already knew that. "I can find her." Each head snapped to the one who spoke. Crue stood before them, looking at the ground, his hands curled into fists.
"How." Clover did not ask, he demanded.
"My Semblance." Crue answered. This wasn't a time to mess around, and Crue needed to amend this immediately.
"Your Semblance lets you walk on walls." Vine countered, but fell silent as Crue shook his head.
"No, my Semblance lets me alter my centre of gravity. As in, I can pick a point and decide that's my centre." He didn't stop to wonder whether or not telling them the intricacies of his Semblance was a good idea, he just kept talking. "That works on people too."
Clover stared at him with a mixture of distrust and hope. "How can we trust you?" It was Harriet who spoke up. "Tortuga left because of you. And she didn't tell us why." Crue could tell Harriet wanted to know the reason she left, and unfortunately, Crue knew the answer.
"She was kind to me." Tortuga let him off on his birthday. She let him mourn. And because of that, Tortuga must have figured that the sequence of events that followed wouldn't have happened if she had just done her job and captured him.
"She can tell you the reasons after I find her." He closed his eye and concentrated, picturing Tortuga's person. Her hair, her weapon, her shell. Before the eyes of the Ace-Ops, Crue began to lean in one direction.
His eye snapped open as he turned in the direction he was pulled in. "That way."
…
"How was your detention?" Scarlet looked from a comic book, relaxing in Team SSNN's dorm. Neptune pulled a face at the reminder, as Scarlet set down the latest issue of 'X-Ray and Vav' to tease his teammate some more.
"It didn't happen." Neptune sounded almost disappointed. "I waited outside the room for like, an hour, and no teachers showed up."
"Maybe they decided playing music through the school PA system wasn't worth a detention after all." Scarlet suggested.
"Or maybe they just have good taste." Came Sage's voice. The other team member appeared from their shared shower with a towel wrapped around his waist. "You used my tunes after all." His words gave Neptune and Scarlet a reason to roll their eyes, however Scarlet stopped as he suddenly sniffed the air.
"Did, did you use Pyrrha's shampoo?" A wide grin appeared on the redhead's face. Sage froze, his face turning a shade darker as he realised he had been caught.
"Come on man, she gets all that good stuff from her sponsors. She won't notice a little bit missing." He made a squeezing gesture with his fingers as he made his way over to their cupboard. "Besides she's still in- Hold on."
Sage concentrated for a moment, using his Semblance. "Yeah, she's still in Atlas." With his piece said, he turned his attention to making a cup of coffee.
"Yeah, I miss my twinsie." Scarlet sighed dramatically.
"Hey, she's my cousin." Neptune looked personally offended at the idea someone could miss his family member more than him. "I hope she managed to talk to Weiss. And General Ironwood."
Scarlet made a hum of agreement. "Yeah, if that Cinder bitch is as strong as she says, and wielding magic, the General would probably be the best bet. He was at Beacon after all. Hopefully whatever he does with the info will keep us from losing anyone else."
Neptune's expression fell, along with Scarlet's as they remembered their lost ally. A sudden CRASH brought them both out of their slump, whirling around to see Sage standing in the middle of the room, a growing pool of coffee at his feet.
His face was contorted into one of disbelief, like he couldn't believe what he was seeing. Following his gaze, neither Huntsmen saw anything of note in their room that could warrant such an expression from their normally stone-faced teammate.
"Sage? What happened? You look like you've seen a ghost." Neptune stood slowly from his place on the sofa, as Sage's head turned to him at a glacial pace.
"How often has my Semblance been wrong?" Sage's words caused his teammates to glance at each other in confusion.
"What do you me-" "How often has my Semblance been wrong?!" Sage repeated, cutting across Scarlet with a sense of urgency in his voice that had never been heard before.
"Never!" Scarlet answered, hoping it was what he wanted to hear. "Your Semblance has never been wrong about where something is lost. Why?"
Sage was breathing rapidly, as he turned to stare at his team.
"Because it's telling me Crue is in Mistral."
I've been waiting for that to happen since I explained what Sage's Semblance was. Knowing the location of something or someone you've lost, when the story revolves around someone who is dead/lost to the world. It also fits with Sage's allusion.
And, uh, yeah not good times for the Ace-Ops. Tortuga blames herself for what happened to Crue and Winter, moreso Winter, because she thinks that if she had just captured Crue when she was meant to none of this would have happened. And maybe it would have. But, that's not how the story went so we'll never know.
So, now Crue has a reason to stay in Kuchinashi. Criminals, gangs and a missing tortoise oh my. Can't wait to see how he deals with all this.
Anyway, hope you liked the chapter, let me know if you did, and as always...
-Friday