*Story Start*
In the fading hours of twilight, a shadow slipped out of the Xiao-Long household carrying a large reinforced bag.
Carefully avoiding the street lights, they slipped on the Bulkhead heading towards Vale.
Standing in the back area, Ruby let out a sigh. Removing her cloak and dress to reveal a black body suit covering everything from her feet and hands to her neck.
Stuffing her clothes in the bag, she removed several small armour plates, a white hannya mask with an orange spiral around the left eye and a black balaclava to hide identifying features like her hair. After adjusting them, she attached the small armour plates to her chest, forearms, shins and between her shoulders. The last item she pulled out was a pair of reinforced gloves with metal plates stretching from the wrists to the knuckles.
Making sure everything was secured, the second the doors opened, she disappeared from the ship.
Were anyone looking or able to see her, they'd know that she had taken the most direct path to the seedy district known as The Shaded Area.
"It looks like the Throngler has defeated his seventh consecutive challenger. Could this newcomer ... the Red Habanero defeat him?"
In what appeared to be an abandoned warehouse, a massive cage ring was set up, with cameras set up to film the fight while crowds of people cheered from the stands.
In the centre of the ring was a massive gorilla Faunus with a chain-wrapped bat.
Beyond the bone-white mask and tattered black shorts, he wore nothing. Allowing the scars and stab wounds that littered his body to be proudly displayed. Silver hair covered most of his body, bar his chest.
The ring opened up to allow the previous person to be dragged out, notably leaving a few bloody teeth behind.
In walked the Habanero. No weapons, light armour, a hannya mask and a good three heads shorter than her opponent. Something that he quickly took notice of.
"Is this a joke? This child is my next victim? Well don't blame me when this end in a seco-GAH"
he was cut off by one of the bloody teeth embedding itself into his cheek.
Two more teeth flew at him, but he managed to mostly avoid them. Though one left a shallow, bloody cut along his cheek.
"Damn it! I'm going to paint the arena with your brain!"
Not bothering with a response, she charged him. He swung his weapon at her current location, meaning that he missed by a decent margin as she leapt out of the way.
Each strike or swing of his was a hair behind her movements. Showing that he chose to rely more on his strength or impact of his weapon, over some form of training. Simply put, he was strong but not fast.
This allowed her to easily get behind him and deliver a few quick strikes to his kidneys.
This only seemed to enrage him more as his strikes became more erratic and sloppy. Every time he'd try to hit her, she'd already have moved and unleashed a string of rapid attacks ranging from kicks to the back and the side of the knees, punches to the elbows to kneeing the hips.
Like a hornet with a vendetta, each strike was rapid but painful. From what was visible, bruises were rapidly forming at the areas hit.
"SCREW THIS!" Having reached his breaking point, the Throngler smashed his fists into the ring floor, launching Ruby into the air.
Quickly grabbing onto the walls, she positioned her foot against the railing and threw herself towards him.
Whipping her leg out, she struck his mask with her armoured shin at full force. Delivering the maximum amount possible without using aura.
A loud crack was heard as the mask shattered to reveal his crumpled nose. He managed to lurch forward a bit, but ultimately fell like a tree. Smashing into the already broken ring, sending bits of fabric flying.
Walking over to him Ruby rolled him on his side before grabbing his weapon and holding it against his neck.
A bell rang out, followed by an uproar from the audience and likely the many other people watching the fight online.
The ring opened up and a half-dozen people ran in to drag the unconscious giant man out.
"I said that the odds were 100:1 not that it was 100%. There was always a chance that he'd lose... No, you listen here, I was upfront about everything! You pay the whole amount or I'll find someone to make you pay. H-hello? Gods damn them!"
Overlooking the ring, a short man in an expensive suit split the bills on the table into several groups. He seemed particularly angry about one being smaller than the rest.
He was Eddie Silvers, founder of Silvers Mining Co. Silvers Processing ltd. and Silvers Shipping Co. Formerly Vale Coastal Shipping Co.
The sound of the door swinging open drew his focus away from the bills to see the Red Habanero striding in, backpack strung over her shoulder. Two generic men in suits stood on either side of the door.
"Get out runt, I ain't paying. You had him take a dive. Now amscray or I'll have you tossed out." Making a dismissive wave of his hand, the two men stood in front of her.
Letting out an inaudible sigh, she closed the door behind her before her fist smashed into the light switch.
From the light streaming in through the window, Eddie could see something rapidly darting around the room. The sound of flesh getting hit before something large smashed into the table caused him to immediately tense up.
Slowly turning his head to face the window, the pitch-black eyes of the Hannya mask stared down at him. Something grabbed his one hand and started bending it.
Staring down at the man, Ruby found a burning rage emerge from somewhere deep inside. His demeanour, appearance and attitude reminded her far too much of Gatō. The disgusting man before her was far too similar to him to ignore.
His ruthless nature and seeming disregard for lives was clear. No one gets investigated that many times by the Police for trafficking and was found to not be guilty.
The sound of a snap drew her focus back to him and the deformed arm she was holding. Releasing it, the limb hung limply by his side as a mixture of rage and terror was visible on his face.
Grabbing his shoulders, the thought of catharsis by proxy was tempting. Gatō was dead and rotting, but the feeling of being a helpless child as Haku and Zabuza died because of him lingered.
But as the thought appeared, it passed. Nothing she does to this monster would bring them back or avenge them. But she could stop him in his tracks.
Scanning the room, she focused on an obvious safe hidden behind a portrait of himself. The fact that it had its own light to illuminate it didn't help the subtlety.
"H-hey, look you can have the money but leave that alone. I-it was a gift from my gran." Ignoring him, she ripped the painting off the wall to reveal the safe. Layering aura to her arms she grabbed the handles of the safe and twisted until the locks broke.
Prying it open, several dossiers, black books and piles of lien were stacked up inside.
Grabbing everything, she stuffed it into her bag. Eddie made some pathetic pleas to stop before she delivered a solid punch to his other arm, causing it to also go limp by his side.
Securing everything, she disappeared through the door. A few seconds pass and the sound of a fire alarm blared, causing the spectators to scatter and everyone else to grab what they could before fleeing.
Having got a good few blocks away from the area by the rooftop, Ruby carefully pulled out the documents and skimmed them over. Each detailed a variety of contraband shipments being delivered by Silver Shipping Co.
Confident in the validity of the material, she decided to head to the largest Information broker in Vale. Carefully storing each book, document or cash in hidden pockets on the bottom of the pack, she hopped along the rooftops to Juniors Bar.
Remembering her Ninja skills, each step was light and each movement avoided illuminated areas. The less people saw the better.
Touching down on the roof of the bar, the sound of her steps were drowned out by the loud noises of the partying people and the music. Seeing the roof access door propped open with a brick, Ruby knew it was go time.
Moving her dress out of the way she pulled out a dark red suit with specific wrist guards that had a small tube extending towards the palm.
Tucking the armour plates in the hidden pockets while hiding a bundle of lien and a small document package in her inner breast pocket, she fixed the suit and the black tie as she slipped through the open doorway.
Hei 'Junior' Xiong was many things; An Information Broker, a regional crime lord, and a bar owner. But he was not an idiot. He knew how to keep a low enough profile to avoid attracting attention while also staying big enough to avoid other groups overtaking him.
Yet he had no idea how to react when someone in a suit and a performance mask sat at his bar with a fairly big bag.
Immediately he thought it might be a rival gang trying something so he tapped a small device in his inner suit three times, playing it off as adjusting his tie, to get the twins on support.
Grabbing an average-year whiskey from the wall and some glasses, he sat them in front of them, seeming to draw their attention. The lack of facial details made it difficult to tell, but the shifting of their posture made it clear they were staring him down.
"Can't say I've seen you before. So what it be?" Doing his best to mask each movement's intention, he went for the pistol beside the ice box.
The Hannya immediately raised a finger and waved it back in forth like a scolding teacher. Whether intentional or not, their sleeve fell back enough so the barrel running along their wrist could peak out.
"Alright, what do you want?" Deciding to cut to the point, Junior briefly tensed as they reached into their suit, but relaxed when they pulled out a small document sleeve. Extracting a handful of pictures and small papers with text on them, they laid them out on the bar.
The first showed the Headmaster Leo Lionheart, the second was Headmaster Ozpin, the third was the bandit/huntress Raven Branwen, the fourth was the huntress Summer Rose and the last was a shipping container filled with weapons and dust. The destination was an abandoned warehouse in The Shaded Area with no return address, but the bare metal patches and heavy scraping made it apparent that it was Mistral.
Next to them was a small stack of papers with the top one saying Tell me everything about them
This caused Junior to slightly relax, so they were just here for information.
"Well you know that information is not cheap, especially when it involves two headmasters. So I was thinking-" the sound of a wad of cash on wood stopped him mid-speech.
Ignoring his shocked expression, the Hannya tapped the paper, focusing him on its words, Tell me everything about them
"*Ahem, well I guess that's enough for a bit of info. The two guys are easy. The Faunus is Leonardo Lionheart, Headmaster of Haven Academy in Mistral. Never met the man but from what I know, he's a tad studious and seems to mostly stay at Haven academy. Despite him seeming pretty bookish and not one for extravagance, he does have a golden statue of a lady in chains in the school. Maybe it was the last headmaster but I'm not too sure."
Next pointing to Ozpins photo.
"Pretty unlikely that you don't know about him but 'The Great and Powerful Oz'," sarcasm dripped from each word of the title, "Headmaster of Beacon, office full of gears and generally an unpleasant person to be around. Wouldn't be surprised if he was some kind of robot or zombie. But that's not the point. Oz is a hazard to everyone around him, given the number of Huntsman he's thrown to the Beowolves." Moving over to the two huntresses, he tapped on Summers.
"Like her, word was that she'd be the Second coming of the Grim Reaper. Though she was last seen in northern Mistral. Oz sent a task force of huntsman to join Mistrals at a village up there Kuro-something." Missing the Hannyas expression behind the mask, he moved to the last image.
"Then there's the Bandit Bitch, Branwen. Another of Oz's great blunders. You can take bitch out of the woods but they'll still be a bitch-"
Snap* *Snap* *Snap*
"Right, so since she quit being a huntress, no one knows where she is. The only reason people know she's still kicking is that her bandit gang still terrorizes the kingdoms furthest territories."
The sound of shuffling papers drew him back to the two small notes sliding towards him.
Where are they, and Is that all you know
scratching his beard, he coughed into his fist before looking at the masked figure.
"Well the headmasters are most likely still at their schools but I'm not sure about the other two. If I had a bit more lien to jog-"
Again the sound of bill's on wood stopped him as an equally large stack of unmarked lien was slid over to him with a note on it.
Find out everything you can about them by the next time I'm here
Grabbing the notes, the Hannya marched directly past the twins who were hidden behind nearby walls and pillars.
"How will you know when I have the information you want?"
Slowly turning towards him, a mechanical, distorted voice leaked out from the mask
I'LL...FinD..YoU
With that, they disappeared into the crowd. Leaving Junior to both move the hefty amount of money to a safe and try to answer the question that the twins also were asking themselves.
'Who was that and why did they have so much lien on hand'
Choosing to follow him, the Malachite twins decided to pull the trigger and ask the million lien question.
"Junior, who was that? Why did they pay so much and should we try to get them drunk? Two beautiful ladies could squeeze a lot of bills out of such a high-spending customer."
"Don't worry about that right now. We have a potential opportunity to get some aristocrats kids on a permanent plan. So next time they're here, you two are going to welcome them and keep them drinking as I get their information. A few expensive bottles here, a handful of information there to keep them coming back and we're swimming in lien."
Standing on the roof of a shop near the outer edge of the shopping district, Ruby peeled off the mask.
Sweat dripped down her face as she removed the balaclava and suit.
Stuffing them into the bag, she grabbed a small set of tools and started prodding at the inside of the Hannya mask.
"Guess the voice box is still not ready to go. Gods that sounded so lame ILL FinD YoU. Should've just left a note but no you just had to test it out."
"It's fine I said, It definitely doesn't sound like a cliché supervillain."
Adjusting the tension on certain areas while sliding the wires in others, she slid it on and pressed the side in a series of short and long taps. With it, the horns telescoped down, while the mask folded in on itself. Once it was done transforming, the mask resembled a set of nondescript headphones.
Placing the bracelets in the bag, she slid on her regular dress and bag, before descending into the alleyway.
Reaching up to adjust her hair, she let out a sigh as she changed direction from the Bulkhead depot to the centre of the shopping district.
Carefully tucking the blonde streaks under her headphones, she made a list inside her head.
Grab a bottle of red, and black hair dye. Pick up some parts for Crescent Rose and *sniff* *sniff* pick up some hygienic products.
Avoiding the scant cameras that Vale installed to try to curb violence as well as the flickering street lights, Ruby seamlessly blended into the scarce few people walking around at the time.
"Oh, great job dealing with Eddie. What happened to keeping it on the down low?"
"Maybe I overreacted a bit, but you saw that slime ball. Same scum as Gatō, except this time we can do something."
Muttering to herself, Ruby mindlessly wandered into a 24/7 Drugstore. Grabbing an armful of hygienic products, dyes and a few bottles of conditioner, she dropped it on the counter and handed the teenage clerk a handful of appropriate denomination lien.
Tossing most of it directly into her bag, she blasted herself with a few good spritzes of Schnee Active Body Spray as she moved down the empty street.
"Maybe that was too much, meh. Should probably stock up on more Dust while I can."
Tucking the blonde streaks back in place, she decided to head to From Dust Till Dawn. After getting a new barrel and bolt for her weapon
Thank you so much for reading, please let me know what you think and anything else you might want to add.
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*End*