The moment had finally come. The bullhead carrying Yang and Ruby was here. Patch only had one port for bullheads, located near the coastline. Everyone who would become a Huntsman was there with their families to bid them goodbye.

Leaden observed a few people already inside the bullhead and figured it had already been to other destinations. That made sense—rather than having a single bullhead going to just one place, multiple stops were assigned for each.

"Take care of each other," Tai said to his daughters with hands on their shoulders. "And make sure to pay attention to your classes. It may sound boring and useless, but they are important. Trust a huntsman on this one." He gave their shoulders a final squeeze, and with a smile, he let go.

"Yes, Dad," Yang and Ruby both said. The former sighed while saying it, as for the latter, "I will do my best!" she couldn't be more excited and cheerful.

Leaden blamed himself for Yang's lack of enthusiasm. He figured she would have been more lively if he didn't come back, or didn't leave. But what happened happened. There was no benefit from thinking of what could have been. He knew that, and yet.

"Ruby," from beside Tai, Leaden called. Ruby, who was about to follow her sister, stopped and looked at him. "Can I ask you for a favor?"

She, for a split second, was taken back. "Of course," she nodded and came close. "What can I do?"

"Well." Leaden scratched his cheek, not sure how to say it. "Can you talk to Yang and ease the tension between us? It's absurdly hard for me. She doesn't even look at me." He sighed.

Ruby smiled, and extended her hand to him in a fist. "You can count on me."

He smiled, returning the gesture. "I know I can." They fist bumped. Tai was watching with a proud smile. Ruby then ran to catch up to her sister while waving goodbye to them.

"Keep in touch!" Tai said, hoping they heard him. They watched them get on the bullhead. When the girls left their sight, Leaden felt a hand on his shoulder. "Let's go shopping."

Leaden didn't process what his father said, "What?" and replied without thinking.

# # # #

Ruby got inside the bullhead, and looked in every direction. It was crowded with people around her age. She began to wonder if she could make friends. But no matter how many times she glanced at new people, her eyes would wander back naturally to her sister.

"Yang?" She approached her sister, who was leaning on the window, and gave a weak wave to get her attention. "Are you okay?"

Yang looked at her sister with confusion visible on her face. "Totally! My little sister and I are going to Beacon together, why wouldn't I be okay?!" With every word said to Ruby, she was getting more and more cheerful. "Best day in my life!"

Ruby didn't feel Yang lying or faking it, but she wasn't stupid to not see that her sister wasn't okay. "I hope we are on a team together! It's a shame Leaden didn't accept the invitation, we could have been team siblings!" She wanted to, not in a forcible way, bring up what she was mostly sure was the problem.

On that, Yang's eyes widened. "Wait, was he given an invitation? To Beacon? And he declined?"

"Uhh," Ruby hesitated to answer when she saw Yang's eyes twitch, which was a sign of her anger. "What?! I said he wished for an invitation!" She awkwardly laughed, realizing that she probably didn't fool her.

Yang crossed her arms. "Ruby, I'm not deaf. I know what I heard," she said with a frown. "Was he really given an offer, and he turned it down?" Yang couldn't help clenching her fist hard.

"Did it really matter?!" Ruby said, throwing her arms up. "And why do you hate Leaden so much anyway? She wanted to know so she could help.

Yang raised an eyebrow at the question. "He is self centered, selfish, arrogant, and doesn't care about anybody but himself. What is there to not hate?"

Ruby was dumbfounded. "He just came back! How could you judge him when you didn't even spend time with him?!" It was now Ruby's turn to cross her arms.

Yang seemed taken back. It's true that her conversation with him wasn't pleasant, but she might have been biased. She considered giving him a chance. "You don't understand. I'm not changing my mind." But she was stubborn. Ruby was about to respond when Yang spoke again. "Yet." She added the last part only just for her sister.

Ruby's stunned face soon turned to a smile. She looked out the window, and realized she didn't have time to enjoy the view from the sky. "You know, Dad said to keep in touch. We could make a chat group between us and-" her eyes suddenly widened upon a realization. "Oh my god, I forgot to take his scroll number!"

Yang chuckled. "A day without you being you is boring." She looked at the sight of Ruby lightly hitting her head to the window. "Why are you so…interested in him?"

Ruby stopped hitting her head, and looked at Yang with her head still glued to the window. "I just can't figure him out. He is a walking contradiction. He doesn't make sense, and I want to understand him. Also, he is my brother."

Yang couldn't help but laugh at how Ruby prioritized her reasons. Ruby pouted, waiting for her to stop laughing. "Umm, Ruby." She finally was serious again. "It's not that he doesn't make sense. On the contrary, he makes perfect sense."

Ruby slightly tilted her head in confusion. "Do you understand him?"

"Not at all," Yang scoffed. "He just operates on his own set of views and values. So, an action that doesn't make sense to you makes perfect sense for him."

"Ohh, I see."

Yang ruffled Ruby's hair. "We completely got off track of the original and most important topic," she said with a smirk.

"And what is that?" Ruby didn't have a good feeling about this.

Suddenly, her sister wrapped her arms around her, and tightly hugged her. "I still can't believe my baby sister is going to Beacon!"

Among Ruby's struggles for air, she smiled. Once.

# # # #

Tai led the way and Leaden followed closely. They were heading to the town which Leaden was interested to explore yesterday.

Leaden quickened his pace to walk beside his father. "So, why are we going shopping?"

Tai looked at him and was silent for a couple of seconds before, "What, you didn't before? Do you prefer doing something else?"

Leaden raised his hand and shook his head. "That's not it. I actually do, more than you may think. It's just, why now exactly?"

Tai smiled, his eyes now looking forward. "It's a great way to spend time with someone." He then proceeded to wrap his arm around Leaden's shoulders, taking him by surprise. "And! Today is going to be a father and son bonding kind of day!"

Leaden smiled. He was glad that his father also wanted them to get close to each other. "Where are we going then?"

"First, the town. It's better if you familiarize yourself with it, and know exactly what you can get from there. After this, we'll go to the shopping district in Vale. They have all kinds of stuff."

Leaden listened with interest. He planned to do this anyway at some point, but all the better if he can spend some quality time with his father.

Leaden surveyed the town before him, watching as the locals went about their daily routines. It was mostly as he had expected—the necessary items to sustain life were all present, be it food supplies, drinks, and clothes, even though the clothes were too cheap and low quality for Leaden's taste of fashion. Medicine too of course. But not everything was there, as one would expect. High quality stuff that was even a little bit on the expensive side weren't there.

But what got on his nerves was the lack of good literature. Old or not, he only found crappy books and outdated magazines. He hoped it was better in Vale.

# # # #

Leaden and his father had finally arrived at the shopping district in Vale. They stopped to take a break, and reclined on a nearby bench. "I said we should have taken a rest first," he groaned, feeling the strain in his legs. He was used to dealing with pain, but that didn't mean he enjoyed it.

"It's better to rest after arriving here. If we stopped for a rest in Patch, we would have been at home instead." He said that, but Tai was sweating like he was in a volcano. They both were.

Leaden glanced around, and noticed aasn ice cream shop. "How about some Ice cream?" Leaden said, pointing towards the shop.

"That would be cool," Tai said, smirking.

Leaden facepalmed. "Anyway, what flavor do you want?"

"Strawberry," Tai said. Leaden stood up and entered the ice cream shop. It was cool inside. An old woman sat behind a counter with a smile on her face.

"What flavor is the most popular here?" He asked.

'Please be vanilla.'

"Chocolate," the old woman said lazily. Leaden guessed she had been doing this job for a long time, and the smile was just a routine thing to her.

"Great. I will have one with chocolate and one with strawberry, please," he said with a smile.

Leaden paid for the ice cream and stepped out of the store. He noticed that his father was lost in thought, but when he saw him, his face lit up with a smile. He handed him the cone and took a seat next to him.

Tai had a quick taste of his ice cream before taking out his scroll to show Leaden. "Ruby sent me something earlier, and I only saw it now." He gestured at the device in his hand. "She wants me to give her your scroll number. I guess she didn't remember to ask you herself, huh?" Tai couldn't contain his laughter as he spoke.

Leaden shrugged, "It's not a big deal." As he said that, he passed his scroll under Tai's scroll. Both scrolls made a beeping sound, and now they both had each other's number. This was possible because of one reason. The CCTS, or CCT for short.

"All set," Tai announced as he stored his scroll in his pocket. "Let's go." They each grabbed their scoop of ice cream and arose from the bench to head deeper into the district.

"The councilman Vance Walker's son, Dan, is tying the knot tomorrow." Leaden couldn't help but overhear the announcement from one of the many televisions in a nearby store. "He and Flora Martin have decided to get married after considering it with their families, putting an end to all the speculation about them."

Leaden chuckled at what he had just heard, and kept on walking. He muttered to himself, "Somebody is living in a fairytale."

The district was packed with more people than they could count. One wrong turn and they risked losing sight of each other in the throng of people. It wasn't until they reached the cloth section that it seemed to be less crowded - there were still some people, but not nearly as many as before.

Tai examined a few of the shirts, and one in particular seemed to catch his eye. A yellow shirt. He handed it over to Leaden with a suggestion: "Why don't you put this on?"

Leaden's first action was to inspect the inside back of the shirt. He sought out what he was expecting to find, and he did.

Made in Vale.

Leaden returned the shirt to his father. "No, not for me," he stated softly. Tai lifted an eyebrow as if silently asking why. Before he could speak, Leaden continued, "I only wear what is made in Mistral." He ran a finger along the sleeve of his own shirt. "You can see the superior quality," he said with a grin.

Tai laughed lightly. "No surprise there; Mistral is the top of the line when it comes to fabrics," he said, as if everyone was already aware of this fact. "You certainly have some high standards."

Leaden gave a proud laugh. "Well, anything I buy should be decent quality." Leaden shrugged. "For example, you want guns? Atlas. Want fine literature? Mistral. So on and so on."

Tai gave a low whistle. "No kidding! But, I'm sure you know that Mistral and Atlas's products cost more in Vale and Vacuo than they normally do."

"I'm aware," he sighed. He approached the young man that worked there. "Hey, do you know where to find the best bookstore in Vale?"

"Bookstore? Tukson's the most popular in Vale. He isn't in the district though. Ask anyone and they will guide you."

"Thank you." Leaden stepped up beside his father. "If it's outside the district, I can look into it another time. Shall we head back home now?"

Tai glanced at his watch and nodded. "You're right, it's definitely getting late." He grinned as he lightly patted Leaden's shoulder. "Let's take the next bullhead to Patch, shall we, Mr. Branwen?" Tai bowed his head in a playful gesture of respect.

"No proper servant would place their hands on the shoulders of their master," Leaden said with a smirk. "I guess you don't even have what it takes to be one."

"You pick things up quickly," his father chuckled wryly, "But it's too soon for you to confront the troll master."

The shop worker pretended he hadn't heard any of the conversation occurring in front of him.

# # # #

As the sun began to set, they arrived at their home. Zwei greeted them with a bark of joy. Tai patted him and said, "I hope our absence didn't make you too lonely, buddy!"

Leaden sat on the couch, and pulled his scroll, checking if there's anything new. He was surprised to see that he was added to a group chat with Ruby, Yang and their father. He smiled when he saw Ruby's message.

Ruby: I made a friend today! And maybe an enemy too hehe

Leaden laughed. "Hey, Father, check your scroll. Ruby is doing great," he said, smiling.

"What?" Tai asked, pulling his scroll out. It didn't take long before he was laughing too.

Leaden: Getting popular already? I'm jealous ( not really )

Father: That's my girl!

Unknown number: Dad did ya eat lunch?

At that Leaden widened his eyes. That was Yang. Both him and Tai looked at each other. "Uhhh." Tai couldn't muster a word, his eyes returning to his scroll.

Father: Of course! Don't worry about your dad and just focus on yourselves!

They both forgot to eat lunch. Leaden, given his background, was used to not eating much.

As for Tai, "I totally forgot," he sighed, looking down. "I can't make them worry about me, especially Yang. She needs to believe I'm doing fine."

Leaden stared at him for a couple of seconds before standing up, "How about some dinner then?" he said, smiling.

Taiyang seemed to brighten up a bit at that. "What do you want?"

"Anything you like. Let's see what you can do," Leaden said, taking a laugh out of his father.

He followed his father to the kitchen, he then looked at his scroll again.

Ruby: You guys are the worst!

Unknown number: Good

Leaden laughed a little. He then proceeded to save Yang's number on his scroll. While he was doing that, his eyes caught another name on the scroll that reminded him of something important.

Adam. Leaden only just remembered that he and Adam were going to meet up tomorrow. He slapped his forehead. 'That was close.'

His meeting with Adam was very important, and he didn't want to imagine what Adam would do if he didn't show up when he was the one who called him.

Leaden sighed a sigh of relief.

# # # #

Leaden felt mesmerized by the beauty surrounding him in the Forever Fall forest. Every direction was awash with deep shades of red. He walked among the cascading leaves, captivated by the sight that only this place could provide. His gaze continuously lingered on the scenery.

'How beautiful.'

He closed his eyes, stretched his arms out, and took a deep breath. Taking the fall scent, he allowed his mind to wonder, and pictured a scene he was familiar with.

No Grimm. No conflicts. No killings. Not even a single person.

Only this forest. Only nature. Only him.

No absurdities.

But this only existed in his mind. He was met with reality, every single time. He opened his eyes to find a dead Ursa beside him, and a glowing red blending to the redness of the forest.

This was also a familiar scene to him. Not one he liked, but one he accepted and appreciated. The glowing red saved him again. How many times did that happen? He had lost count. It all began when they first met. Leaden saved him once, and the other person felt obligated to repay him. Even if it was only one time that Leaden had saved him, he kept doing it.

"I see that you didn't change, Adam," he said, eyeing the glowing red figure with a smile.

Adam looked away and scoffed, "It's because you always leave yourself vulnerable, Human," he said, giving Leaden his back, and walked away.

"I sensed the Ursa, and you too," he replied, following Adam. "I was curious if you would do it again, and you did. If the White Fang knew of this, you saving a human, your reputation among them would be ruined," he smirked.

Adam didn't give any reaction to that, "I don't care about reputation. Sure, it's nice to be respected, and be able to lead people. But as long as I am given the chance to keep fighting, I won't care about my circumstances," he said, clenching his fist. "Also, I don't consider you a human," he finished with a smirk of his own.

"Really?" Leaden raised his eyebrow. "What am I to you then, Adam?" Leaden asked, teasing him on purpose.

Adam ignored the implied romantic way of Leaden's question and sighed. "You are way too much to be a simple human. You aren't just normal."

"But you always call me human."

"I'm aware." And it ended at that. Leaden knew that too. Adam wouldn't tell him of his reason.

Adam calling Leaden a human was a reminder for Adam himself, a reminder that he should hate him. If Leaden knew that, Adam wouldn't hear the end of it.

They fought once, they both were low on Aura, but in the middle of the fight, because of them going all out, it was too late when they noticed a falling boulder that was going to crush them. Leaden kicked him out of harm, Adam thought Leaden was crushed until he found him beside him, breathing hard. Turned out he used his semblance at the last moment. He asked him why he saved him, and he received the weirdest answer he ever heard.

An answer that still stuck to his mind every time he saw him, he was reminded of that day. He couldn't not save Leaden because of that. A single save wouldn't suffice, he would keep doing it until he was satisfied. His pride wouldn't accept anything else.

He hated it.

But he didn't regret it

Leaden stopped, and looked to see that Adam sat on a rock, waiting for him to do the same. Leaden's eyes wandered around, searching for a similar rock, and he found it.

He dragged the rock near Adam, and sat as well. "So?" he said, with a smile.

From what Leaden could see from his mask, Adam wasn't pleased. "So? You are the one that called me here. I expect you to have a very good reason. Right?"

"Don't worry," he nodded. "It's true that I have some concerns, I assure-"

"Ah, yes," Adam interrupted him. "Almost forgot," he said, pulling a mask out of his blazer, and threw it to him. Leaden caught the mask, and with a quick look, it was the White Fang mask he asked for. "I'm waiting for an explanation for this too," Adam finished.

Leaden looked between the mask and Adam, and with a sigh, "I hoped you would give me one similar to yours. This is the basic design," he said.

"I don't know what you want to do with it." The frown on Adam's face was visible. "Besides, this one is exclusive," he said, pointing to his mask.

"Oh really?" he said, putting the mask inside his jacket. "Should I join the White Fang, and climb the ranks to acquire one?"

"We don't accept humans." he said with a smirk. "And I'm grateful you aren't one."

Leaden picked a leaf out of his hair, "What do you mean by that?" and said, playing with the red leaf. "Wouldn't the White Fang benefit from someone with my skill?" Leaden raised his eyebrow.

Adam clenched both of his fists. "The White Fang isn't a bunch of mercenaries. We don't expect to get something in return, we devote everything, and I mean everything, for this cause," he said, almost growling.

"I didn't mean to imply that," Leaden raised his hands in defense, "Geez, you don't have a sense of humor."

Adam stared at Leaden for a moment. "Our sense of humor is just different." he dropped the stare, and looked down. "So, what did you want?"

Leaden was silent for a bit. He threw away the leaf that was in his hand, and sat on the ground while resting his back against the rock instead. "Your employer. What's your plan? How will you get rid of her?"

Adam sighed. For the first time for Leaden, he sensed that Adam was tired. "I'm still thinking." he clenched his teeth, and began shaking a little. He seemed to want to explode. "Dammit! Not only they consider us worthless, but use us for whatever shitty schemes those shitty humans think of!"

Adam felt pressured. The responsibility on him was too great. Not only must he think of fighting for their cause, but he also had problems with Sienna Khan, the leader of the White Fang. She suddenly moved him from Mistral, the battlefield, to the Vale branch, the kingdom that bullying was the maximum humans could do there. Sure, the system was flawed with how biased they were against Faunus, but it was like participating in war itself to then break off a kids fight. That was how huge a difference it was for both kingdoms.

On top of that, he now had to deal with a so-called employer who wanted to use the White Fang for their benefits. The financial support the employer offered wasn't enough. it would never be enough. It was wasted anyway for pointless operations. So, even if he wasn't against the idea, it was still not beneficial at all.

He stood up, and walked around deep in thought. "I began training the troops under my command myself. I unlocked their Aura even! But then what, that's the problem." Adam sighed.

Leaden hummed, deep in thought too. "I actually wanted to suggest that, but you already came up with it. The reason I wanted this mask is totally unrelated though," he chuckled while scratching his head. "I planned to investigate the employer herself in Vale since Roman also seemed to be in her clutches. So I thought, while investigating, I should help people while wearing the mask to improve the public opinion on the White Fang," Leaden shrugged. "As you know, the media exaggerates the image of your organization as ones who will attack every human they come across, when the White Fang only fight everything related to the Schnee dust company and the slave trades."

The Schnee dust company and the slave trades were closely connected. One existed in Atlas, and the other originated in Mistral. Yes, the slave trade was a large network that existed in all the kingdoms, except for Vacuo, and it was mostly intense in Mistral and Atlas. The SDC got their mining workers from there, and made them forcibly sign inhumane contracts to make it legal in front of the law and the public.

But the harsh reality was even harsher. Those who got shipped to work were one of the few lucky ones. Not all people bought slaves to make them work. The people were capable of doing things that would make the God of Darkness seem like a saint.

Adam stared at Leaden for a couple of seconds. "You wanted to play hero?" Adam was about to get more furious, "Wait. Improve the public opinion?" but then he stopped, and seemed to realize something. He was deep in thoughts for a couple of minutes, when he finally spoke again, "Yes, that's it! This is our way out of this situation." Suddenly, his mood began to slightly improve.

"Ahh what do you mean?"

Adam looked at Leaden, and for a moment, it seemed as though he had forgotten that Leaden was there, then, Adam smiled. "The bitch is planning something big, and I plan to use that for our advantage."

"And how does that relate to what I just said?"

Adam sat on the rock again. "Because you playing the hero is an essential part for the plan to work." he said, relaxing more the more he spoke. He seemed to truly find a chance out of the dark tunnel he was in. "You must portray the White Fang in a good light, even if it means faking the truth." Leaden was about to respond, but Adam cut him off, "No, they don't have to necessarily believe you. You just plant the seeds."

Leaden nodded. That was indeed what he was going to ask. "Fair enough. And what is it that the employer plans you want to take advantage of?"

"You will see in the near future. I don't even have a full picture of what she's planning." Adam's face, or what was visible from it, suddenly turned to a scowl. "Also, by playing hero, you will most likely get the traitor's attention."

That seemed to get Leaden's attention as he glanced at Adam. "You mean the cat girl, Blake?" He took Adam's silence as a confirmation. "What did she do to earn your wrath so much?" he said, smirking.

Adam scoffed, "Being a massive hypocrite and liar," he said, gritting his teeth. "She willingly supported the White Fang's new approach of violence, she used my respect for her father to be my partner. The problem is, I actually thought of her as my partner," Adam clenched his fists. "but the sheltered bitch didn't like that her vision of violence didn't match with the White Fang's vision. Seriously! What did she expect?!" Adam was infuriated just by thinking of Blake. "And then she betrayed us, after saying she would fight with me till the end."

Leaden was speechless. He could only describe the girl, based on what Adam said, by one word. "She sounds like an absurd person."

"Forget her. If you find her, just inform me," Adam sighed. He seemed to calm down again.

And that drew Leaden's attention, "You seem to have changed, Adam. Before, you would have taken longer to calm down again. You even insult humans less now. Did something happen lately?"

Adam was caught off guard by that. He took a while to try and evade the question, but at the end, he sighed, and decided to tell him. "I just realized that humans and faunus weren't that much different." He looked at the ground, away from Leaden's gaze. He didn't want to admit it, but Adam owed Leaden that much at least.

"I knew that already. But coming from you, I'm curious to know what changed your view," he said.

Adam rubbed his nose, taking his time. "The last attack we did on a slave market ended in an unexpected way. Everything was going normally, killed most of whoever participated, freed the faunus captured and took them to shelter." It was then that the look on Adam's face grew more intense. "But then, my men called me, said there's something important for me to see. I followed them, and what I saw was the last thing I expected to see at that moment."

Adam gritted his teeth hard, not knowing how to let out his anger. "There was a faunus among the ones we killed." Leaden's eyes widened. "That's not all, we also found a little human girl with the faunus who were captured." Adam said like he was choking on poison.

Leaden's mouth hung open with his already widened eyes, he was basically in extreme shock. "Absurd," he muttered under his breath. This was the only word Leaden found suitable for the situation. 'And here I thought I knew the extent of the world's absurdity. Every single time.'

"It made me realize that those people didn't care whether it was a faunus or a human. They simply made use of the oppression against Faunus. My battle was against the system, not the humans," he sighed. "That was also the reason why Sienna decided to bring me here to Vale. She wanted me to cool off, me and every White Fang member that day."

Adam's body began to shake because of how much anger he suppressed. He already seemed like a volcano right now, so you can only imagine how mad he was.

But suddenly, a sound made them both alerted as they stood up. It was wolves' howls. Which only meant one thing.

A pack of Beowolves.

"Finally," Adam said, putting his hand on his sword's hilt. "Took your damn time," he said coolly.

Leaden was next to Adam, his sword in his right hand. The sword wasn't there before, but Adam already knew how Leaden's semblance mostly worked.

There were eight Beowolves surrounding them. Adam and Leaden stood back to back, counting the Grimm, but also looking for a certain one.

"Found it," Adam said. "I will take the Alpha, you take care of the rest."

"Alright. Let's make it quick," Leaden nodded, scanning the Beowolves' every movement.

Adam made the first move, heading straight to the Alpha. The Grimm acknowledged this, and three of them attacked Adam.

Adam didn't bother with the three, focusing solely on the Alpha. Two were in front of Adam, and one was behind, but suddenly, Leaden appeared between the two beowolves, and with a quick motion, he stretched his left leg, tripping the running Grimm, and in this position, using his stretched leg, he was given more range to slice the other Grimm's head off.

Leaden didn't waste time killing the tripped Grimm to focus on the one behind Adam. The beowolf striked with its right claw, but Leaden moved to the left, avoiding the strike, and cut its arm off. A stab in the beowolf's neck ended it.

Now giving a clear way to Adam, he focused on the other four remaining Grimm surrounding him. They attacked at the same time, but instead of Leaden being the one struck, they ended up wounding each other as Leaden vanished from the middle of them.

Leaden quickly kicked one in the back, using an Aura strengthened kick, and it took two with it down. The only Grimm who was still standing didn't have the chance as its head flew off.

Now three remaining beowolves were on the ground, trying to stand again, but Leaden didn't give them the chance as he stepped on one, bringing it down again, and throwing his sword at the second, barely piercing the skull on its head, but that was enough to kill it.

The third one quickly attacked the unarmed Leaden, but he was prepared as he rolled out of the way, and in the direction of his sword. He gripped it again, the beowolf was right behind him, and with a quick motion, he turned around, tearing the beowolf's body in half.

Only one remained. Leaden counted ten seconds from the last time he used his semblance. He waited for the beowolf to attack, and when it was an inch close between Leaden's head and its claws, he stabbed the Grimm from behind.

Leaden checked on Adam, only to see him just finishing off the Alpha.

He raised his eyebrow, "What took you so long, Faunus?"

Adam glanced at him from the side and shrugged. "I kept blocking its attacks to absorb as much energy as I could." They began walking, having enough of the forest. "The stored energy will definitely come in handy later."

"Makes sense," Leaden nodded. He looked around at the Grimm evaporating bodies. "Beowolves aren't much of a challenge. Wish an Ursa Major would show up."

Leaden noticed the White Fang mask that Adam gave him on the ground. He slapped his forehead for forgetting that the mask would fall off if he used his semblance. He picked it up again.

Adam sighed. "Unlike you, I'm busy," he said, shaking his head, and ignoring Leaden's stupidity.

"It's not like I can magically bring it here, but if you burst out again, it might happen," Leaden said, elbowing Adam.

"Keep dreaming."

"Whatever," Leaden sighed. "By the way, what type of Grimm do you hate fighting the most?" He asked a random question.

"Nevermore."

"Definitely."

# # # #

The sun had set. Leaden walked among the streets of Vale. He planned to head home, but decided to take a walk first. Maybe stumbling on a certain cat girl as he did. He touched the mask inside his jacket, making sure it was there. He sighed, he had to keep possession of the mask for twenty four hours.

Wherever he looked, he saw shops, buildings, and lights. Lots of lights.

He had enough, and decided to go home, but some noises stopped him from doing so. He approached the source of said noise, and found out that it was coming out of a big building.

The city hall. The noise was music. Leaden was curious, so he entered the city hall. The loud music was coming from one hall. 'Is this a concert hall?'

Two guards stood in front of the entrance. When Leaden tried to pass, they stopped him.

"Do you have an invitation, sir?"

Leaden stood there dumbfounded. "I wasn't aware these sort of events needed an invitation to be able to attend."

The two guards looked at each other, clearly confused. "Ahh aren't weddings normally like that?"

'A wedding?' Then he realized it was the councilman's son who was getting married. Leaden looked inside, "A friend of mine invited me."

An obvious lie, he was only checking the basic layout. But to his surprise, he actually recognized someone there.

"Thank you. I will call her." Leaden smiled, pretending to leave. He only walked away far enough, so they couldn't notice him. But before he could rush and use his semblance, he realized that the White Fang mask is still with him, and if he used his semblance, the mask would just fall to the ground.

Leaden started to wonder if it was really worth it to get inside. But he was curious, so he hid the mask in the building's rooftop next to city hall, and came back again.

'An empty space should be around two meters from here.' And in a blink of an eye, he was inside.

A young man flinched when he appeared out of nowhere next to him. Leaden waved with a smile. The young man moved away slowly from him. What caught Leaden's eyes first was the open buffet. It had all kinds of fancy food. He grabbed some snacks, and while doing so, he heard some people talking, a man and a woman.

"All council members came except for Professor Ozpin."

"Professor Ozpin stated earlier that he couldn't come because of the new semester."

"And you believed that? It's obviously because Vance sided with the Chief of Police."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Apparently, the Chief of Police got into an argument with Professor Ozpin. A teenage girl interfered with the police work when even Huntsmen can't do that. It became worse when Professor Ozpin insisted on her not being punished, and made her one of his students too. The Chief of Police wasn't pleased, he wanted to warn the girl, and hold her back a year in the academy."

Leaden was eavesdropping while stuffing his face. 'Interesting.' It made sense for him to have some kind of consequence, but Ruby luckily avoided it, for now.

There wasn't a good relationship between the Police and the Huntsmen. Beside Vacuo, Mistral was the same. That's why General Ironwood was a legendary man for uniting Atlas' forces.

Leaden noticed the person that he recognized before. A girl in a red dress. She was Miltia Malachite. Leaden approached her, "Miss Malachite," he was aware that she was older than him, "What a young girl like you doing in a boring place like this?" but he said it anyway.

She glanced at him, and walked away, ignoring him, but was immediately surprised when Leaden grabbed her arm, pulled her towards him, and placed his other hand on her waist.

She could free herself easily if she used her Aura, but she didn't want to cause a scene. "Let me go, creep,"

she said in a low voice Leaden only could hear, the loud music prevented people from accidentally catching a word or two.

"Now, now, why don't we enjoy this little dance while we have a little talk." They attracted a couple of eyes, but they thought it was just a lovers quarrel, and continued to mind their business. "You don't want to make your mother upset, right?"

She was frozen, she looked up to his eyes slowly. "Mother sent you?"

"I'm just doing her a favor, she said if I'm going to Vale anyway, I should keep an eye on you and your sister." They danced to the tone of the music like some of the couples did.

The Spider was a gang in Mistral, but had connections everywhere. The rumors said that they knew everything. They are led by a woman named Lil' Miss Malachite.

Leaden had business with her, he would do some things for her, and she would give him information in return or anything she could do.

The girl smirked, "So, you are one of her little spiders."

Leaden narrowed his eyes, "I'm not. It's just mutual business."

"Yes, the illusion of being on equal terms," Miltia laughed a little at that. "She is using you as she pleases. So, what did you want?"

Leaden didn't mind if that was true, as long as he was getting what he wanted, he would be satisfied. "I want to talk to Junior."

Miltia raised her eyebrows at that. "Why ask me? You could just walk in."

He shrugged. "It's better if he expects me. Not wasting time for both of us."

"Whatever. I'll do it."

"You still didn't answer my question though. What a girl like you is doing in a place like this?" he asked, smiling.

"Me, and a couple of Junior's men are assisting with guarding the place, dressing up as guests," she said lazily. She was obviously not enjoying herself.

Her sister thought she was above doing some bodyguard job. So, it fell on Miltia to do it. She didn't mind either way.

"The councilman, who sided with the Chief of Police, didn't actually trust the police to manage his son's wedding security," Leaden chuckled, finding it amusing to not laugh.

The underworld in Vale was an important part of its economy. They got a certain percentage of the illegal business in return for letting them off the hook sometimes. Drugs, Dust robberies, the black market, and even the slave trade were all things Vale benefited from as well as was harmed from it.

"Is that all?" she asked. Leaden nodded. Unfortunately, he didn't expect her to hit his foot with her long heels. It was strengthened by Aura too.

Leaden, not seeing it coming, flinched, letting her go. The pain struck him like crazy. She walked away, for real this time. He wanted to let it out, but he knew better. Not even capable of crying, and he wished to, he sat on an empty chair, and began massaging his foot.

Leaden imagined if his Aura wasn't on, she would have definitely pierced his foot. That was how much pain he was feeling at the moment.

Suddenly, the music stopped. "Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the groom and his bride," someone said with the mic.

Leaden was dumbfounded that they weren't there all this time. He saw them at the entrance, a red carpet on the ground for them to walk on. All sat down at the tables in front of them, and were clapping for them.

The couple began walking amid the clapping. Leaden watched with interest, he didn't attend a wedding before. He thought that it was a nice experience and was worth it.

But he was greatly mistaken.

His eyes caught a sight that sent a shiver to him, shaking his whole body. His breath quickened, and his heart was suddenly in pain. But his eyes were still glued to the scene.

The scene of a woman crying.

His mind went blank, losing all sense of himself. He began taking steps towards the woman. Every step he took, he almost stumbled.

With every step, his mind was making excuses.

'What made this woman sad?'

'There's no way.'

'Who made this woman cry?'

'There's no way.'

'Why would she cry at a happy event?'

'There's no way.'

The woman found Leaden in front of her, drenched in sweat, taking ragged breath, shaking his body, and eyes bloodshot. Given his already red eyes, the sight of Leaden wasn't pleasant, to say the least.

Leaden struggled to form a word, "Are you okay?" So, the woman said instead. The stuttering made the woman speak first to see if there was anything wrong.

"W-wh-y are y-you c-cry-ing?" The words that barely came out of his mouth, made him look like on the verge of crying himself.

The woman looked at the man beside her at the table, then looked at him again. Both the woman, and the man were giving him confused and concerned looks, especially the woman. He even got the attention of some of the tables beside them.

"This is…tears of happiness. My son is the one getting married."

It was as he feared. His eyes widened, to the point that it threatened to come out of their sockets. He turned his back to them, and with heavy steps, he wanted to get out of this place.

The sound of loud clapping made him flinch, he looked to see the couple sharing a kiss, and the happy noises increased, it made him sick to the stomach.

He gritted his teeth looking at the couple. He never hated someone in his life, but he wanted nothing more than to beat the shit out of them, and ruin the day for all the people gathered.

He tried to ignore them, and went to the exit as fast as he could. Upon seeing his figure, the two guards were shocked, but before they could stop him for questioning, he vanished from in front of their eyes.

He was on the rooftop of the building next to the City Hall. He didn't know how he got there, his semblance shouldn't teleport him that far. The only reason possible was that he wasn't in his right mind to not feel himself get on the roof.

The loud music was causing him unbearable headaches. In his normal state, it would have been nothing. He was trained and prepared to endure pain, but right now, he wasn't.

Suddenly, the loud music vanished, and all of Leaden's stuff surrounded him. There was no change to the scenery, but only for those two things.

He picked up a photo, and stared at it. It was a photo of five. A man, a woman, and three kids. He touched the photo, running his thumb on each of the happy faces. His Father, Summer, Yang, Ruby, and him.

Nine seconds.

Tears streamed down his eyes. He collapsed on his knees, and hugged the photo. He let it all out.

When Leaden saw the woman crying, he was devastated. He didn't know that this level of happiness could exist. He was envious, he saw something that he would never experience in his wildest dreams.

His family, him included, were broken, and he was one of the reasons why. He always dreamed of a life he didn't leave his family in. He imagined in that life that they would be a lot more happy, a life where his father had light in his eyes, and didn't blame himself for everything that befell the family, a life where Yang and he were close, and shared a true twins bond, a life where Ruby didn't have to hope that their family would one day be happy again.

Eight seconds.

But he was the reason that didn't happen. He shattered what could have been reality. He threw away the very thing he wished for.

Seven seconds.

His mother didn't train or prepare him for this kind of situation. He was beaten, made fun of, insulted, and tortured on a daily basis to control his emotions. He didn't resent the tribe or his mother. He still loved his mother, she was his mother, after all.

But he cursed from the bottom of his heart their inability to also take away what he was currently feeling. He was ready to sacrifice another seven years in the tribe if it made this feeling vanish.

Six seconds.

And here where his conflicted desires resided. He wished more than anything, more than anyone, for his family and him to be truly happy to the point when witnessing a level of happiness he didn't know existed, he broke down from the envy. He knew he couldn't achieve that level of bond. He couldn't achieve this level of happiness.

Five seconds.

But he also wished to get rid of it. This feeling of regret, envy, and hopeless desire. It was impossible to grant his wish. Even the relics couldn't help him. Why not then abandon it all? He abandoned his family once, so surely he could abandon the attachment, and be freed from these feelings.

Four seconds.

It was like a broken vase, even if you glued the pieces together, it would never be the same again. His wish was more like changing what he did in the past than trying to put together the broken pieces. Because the happiness he wished for couldn't be achieved.

Three seconds.

But it wasn't that easy. It wasn't easy to abandon the attachment. It wasn't easy to abandon these feelings. He would continue to have this absurdity within him. He would continue to investigate because he was doing it for his family as well as himself.

Two seconds.

And he would continue to envy the woman. He would continue to wish for that impossible happiness. He would continue to wish to get rid of it.

One second.

And he would continue to cry, on his knees, and hugging the photo.

He would continue to bear this Absurdity. He didn't hate it, after all.

The loud music came back to Leaden's ears as he was on his knees, hugging the photo.

All of Leaden's stuff vanished as it appeared once. Only the photo remained. His Aura began to glow, he knew what this meant, and he wasn't surprised when his own Aura shocked him with what felt like electricity, making him fall on his back. He didn't let go of the photo.

His Aura now dropped to half, he slowly got up on his feet. He wanted to go home. He took a few steps on the roof, only to find himself before his home's door. It happened again. He lost his sense of self.

He wasn't even aware of the Raven that followed him from Vale.

He opened the door, and entered his home. "Welcome back! I'm making coffee, do you want me to make one for you?!" his father called from the kitchen.

He hated coffee a lot, and after what he just went through, it would be too much.

"Yes, please," he said with a smile. "I'd like that."

Some things couldn't be changed, and he would continue to do it.