The sound of raindrops falling on the ground echoed as Leaden followed Roman Torchwick. He looked around, recognizing the back alleys they were walking in. It was surprisingly near a populated area in Vale, not the shopping district or anything, but still had a large amount of people living in it.
"Your base is around here?" Leaden asked, raising his eyebrows. He thought Roman's secret base would be in some place far from the public eye.
Roman didn't bother to turn around or even speak. Instead, he raised his arms a little and shrugged.
"But there are cameras everywhere here. How?" It didn't make any sense to Leaden. He failed to realize that Roman, or anyone for that matter, didn't necessarily have to abide by the same rules.
"What cameras?" Roman glanced his way before a smirk found its way to his face. "Oh, you mean this camera? or maybe you mean this? Or maybe this?" He pointed with his cane every camera he found.
Leaden didn't know how to respond. He found Roman to be too much. At least, he knew when to joke and when to take matters seriously, but Roman, to Leaden, wasn't like that at all. He was carefree.
When Leaden remained silent, Roman sighed. "Come on now, take the hint," he said, stopping in his tracks and giving Leaden his attention. "Duh, I wouldn't be acting like this if I knew I was being watched."
Leaden's eyes widened as the realization hit him. "You mean-"
"Yes, these cameras don't work. They never did."
Leaden understood immediately what Roman meant. Of course, he was only talking about the cameras in certain areas like the alley they were in. But it was Roman's line "They never did" that caught Leaden's attention.
Roman was hinting that, from the very beginning, some areas basically didn't exist as Vale was concerned. The cameras were set up for the first time a couple months after the war ended. It was a gesture of friendship between kingdoms as it was obviously Atlas technology.
And the underworld was as old as Vale. So, the areas where the cameras didn't function were all crime lords' bases, and Roman now owned all of it as he did Vale a favor and got rid of all of them making himself the only crime lord.
But Leaden had doubts. "Why should I believe you?"
Roman chuckled. "You don't have to," he said, turning to one of the cameras, "But as a gesture of cooperation, I will give you this." and shot it with his cane. The camera fell to the ground. "Satisfied?"
What Roman was trying to prove was that if it actually worked, then what he just did would be a free invitation to the police.
But Leaden was yet to be convinced.
"Not enough," he shook his head. "It could still be a ploy to make me trust you. You and the police may be working together for all I know. Vale benefited from the underworld, after all."
If Leaden stopped and thought for a moment, he would know that was silly. Roman already knew his identity, so what would be the point?
Roman raised his eyebrows, clearly taken by surprise. "God, come on! It doesn't even work like that!" He facepalmed. "Let's get this over with! What the hell did you want from me?"
Leaden crossed his arms, "Well, obviously I won't talk about it here."
"You are wasting my time here, you know!" Roman said, using his cane to give Leaden a nudge. "I'm trying to be nice. I met you and even brought you to one of my hideouts, Branwen!"
Leaden raised his hands, "Sorry, how about going to Junior's?" He laughed slowly. He was still in costume, but that can be solved. "Wait, did you just call-"
He was cut off, no, it was more appropriate to say he couldn't continue speaking as an umbrella stabbed Roman from behind, penetrating his shoulder.
Leaden backed away to a safe distance. On the other hand, Roman clutched his shoulder as he clenched his teeth in pain, and collapsed on his knees.
A figure jumped and landed in front of him. It was a woman wearing the blue uniform of the police. The gears in Leaden's head started to work, and work fast, because he was in a worst-case scenario situation.
His mind wandered back to when he didn't sense both of the police officers which indicated that both of them were Aura users, which also meant that they weren't necessarily the only ones.
No doubt that the woman heard Roman call him Branwen. If he let her get away, his cover would be blown, and he would be forced to leave Vale if he didn't want to be on trial.
But there was one problem. He couldn't kill her. Even if he defeated her, what would he do? He couldn't risk the woman getting away. His mind raced over and over thinking about a solution. And he found it at last.
He glanced over Roman, finding him still alive, but groaning in pain. 'Good.' If he couldn't kill her, he would simply make Roman kill her instead. He made use of his own absurdity, it was useful for once.
He stared at the smirking woman before him. She didn't make a move. She was obviously waiting for him to make the first one. He pulled his sword from his sheath. This week, he figured if he wouldn't use his semblance when he was the hero, then it was better to keep his sword close.
But now, he couldn't afford to not go all out. He would use his semblance. She knew his identity anyway, so it wouldn't matter, but first, he would observe her fighting style. His semblance was good for catching opponents off guard, after all.
He slowly approached with his sword in hand. He ignored Roman's groans of pain, but he was truly thankful to the gods that he was alive.
The woman couldn't be more carefree. He felt something was wrong but couldn't detect what it was. Nevertheless, he started by boosting his speed, and shorter than a blink of an eye, his sword was heading for her head.
Leaden didn't know how it happened, he didn't even see it clearly, but the woman ducked under the sword, used her umbrella's handle to cling to Leaden's blade, and then used the momentum and his own strength to jump and kick him in the face.
Leaden didn't process what happened, but he took a step back, and boosted all his senses to the maximum. He was using more Aura now, but he knew he wouldn't win otherwise.
He charged again. This time, he swung his sword vertically to force her to dodge to the side. She stepped to his right side, the side he was holding the sword with. He expected it and tried to elbow her but she easily caught his elbow.
She was surprised however to find the sword coming at her. The moment she caught his elbow, Leaden quickly switched the sword to his left hand and he successfully, to his surprise, managed to cut her in half. But that didn't last as her figure shattered like glass.
Leaden was confused. 'What the hell is happening?' He looked everywhere but there was no sign of her. He wondered if he actually somehow killed her, but he knew better.
And he was right. He moved his head just in time as the umbrella slightly passed him. He noticed that there was a blade at the top of the umbrella. He was unlucky, however, that she kicked his leg almost the exact same time. He kneeled down, but the woman didn't plan to give him any chance as she went to kick him again to the ground, but to her surprise, she kicked the air.
She didn't have time to recover as Leaden put all the strength he could at the one strike he gave her with the sword. She flew some distance away, which made him smile as this was the real her this time.
The woman stood up again, if the glare she had was any indication of her fury, then Leaden knew she was done playing around. She was pissed off. He figured he could take her again by surprise a second time, but that was it. There was no third time.
Suddenly, her image was being distorted, and her figure was glitching, making it seem as if there were three of her as she approached him. 'What kind of absurd semblance is that?' Leaden didn't know which one he should block as dodging wasn't a solution, so he settled for blocking all three of them.
He used his whole left arm, and strengthened it with Aura to be able to take all three of them. The moment the umbrellas hit his arm, he attacked with his sword at the glitching figure only for it to shatter.
His eyes widened, he couldn't believe it. The woman didn't have any time to fake herself, he would have seen it otherwise. It was at this moment, Leaden knew that her semblance wasn't as simple as it appeared. Much like his own.
He felt the presence behind him, but instead of turning around, he used his semblance to be right behind her. To his surprise, he didn't find anyone, but another kick to his jaw. This woman surely loved to kick.
He failed to take her by surprise a second time, that wasn't what he expected. He underestimated her. It sounded so absurd to him, that he underestimated someone. Leaden's way of life was to always overestimate his opponent, not underestimating them. So, for this to happen, it meant that he made a great error in his judgment.
Not everyone abided by the same rules.
He had to wait another ten seconds before he had the chance to use his semblance again. He needed to wait for the right opportunity.
He didn't give her a chance to think as he kept attacking and keeping pressure on her, but she kept dodging whatever he tried, she also managed to steal a few hits. She seemed to read his mind, or she gave the impression to it with how she was smirking and acting carefree. Leaden didn't know it, but it was a sign of her taking back control of the fight, and also a sign of her confidence.
Leaden was getting desperate at this point as he attempted to fake attack the woman, and when she went to block it, Leaden teleported to the left side of her back, and went for the blow, but he was shocked to see her back kick his hand, making his sword fall from his hand.
The woman didn't give him any chance to recover as she opened the umbrella at his face, covering herself, and made it explode with great light, blinding him. Leaden couldn't see anything, but he felt one thing, the sharp blade of the umbrella hitting his body hard, causing his Aura to flicker and him to be fully on the ground.
"Neo, that's enough."
Leaden was on the ground, breathing hard, and his Aura on the verge of breaking. He glanced at the source of the voice, and he couldn't believe it. He thought it was another trick. He had enough of those after how the woman wiped the floor with him.
Roman Torchwick was standing tall, the smirk on his face was unrivaled. The wound he suffered didn't even look like it existed to begin with. The woman stood behind Roman smirking as usual, but her appearance melted away, and another whole person was there instead. Her hair was half pink and half brown, with white streaks on the pink side.
"Wha- what the hell?" Leaden hardly said. "How?"
Roman approached and kneeled to his level. "I made a gamble and it paid off. That's all."
Roman saw the confusion Leaden was in and decided to give an explanation. "You see, why did you think I only showed up today?" He didn't wait for Leaden to answer and continued anyway. "When Junior informed me of you having a relation to the spider and wanting to reach out to me, I immediately knew it can't be good if it involved blackmail. So I waited, until an opportunity introduced itself to me. You, being the terrorist everyone is talking about."
Roman laughed, "The funny thing is, I wasn't sure of it until today. I approached the terrorist with the assumption that it was you. And it was. Everything went as I wanted, I totally accidently dropped your name, so Neo here can come and play police."
Roman enjoyed explaining it to Leaden, his ego was through the roof.
He shouldn't have trusted Roman as he expected, but Roman's trap left no room for doubt. He played right into Roman's hand. "But why?" With all of this, it was still unclear what his motivation was for doing all of this.
Roman's smirk dropped. "Are you an idiot? I opened the conversation with you wanting to blackmail me and me looking for a solution. How many times did Neo hit your head again?" He said, pushing his finger against Leaden's head. "Anyway, if you couldn't beat the second strongest after me, then I have no need to worry! And with the threat of me exposing your identity, I'm not obligated to do anything you want, Branwen."
'He is stronger than her?' Leaden's mind froze. Could he have underestimated his opponent for the second time? It was no good, he needed to up his game or he wouldn't last in Vale. He must know about the Grimm queen and Roman's employer.
Roman gave him his back and started to leave but, "Wait," Leaden called. Roman only looked back with the side of his eyes. "You want to get rid of her too, don't you?" Leaden said, his voice shaken.
Roman's visible eye slightly widened before looking forward again. He remained silent for a couple seconds. "If I feel like it, I will contact you," he said, taking his leave. The Neapolitan girl followed closely behind him as if she couldn't be happier as she kept jumping in her steps.
Leaden was left alone on the ground, reflecting on what happened today. It was a long day, and nothing went as it should have been. He sighed and tried to stand up, but to stumble and hit his head on the ground, making his Aura break. Leaden couldn't help but laugh.
His Aura breaking made his body feel a lot heavy, and took more effort to lift his body off the ground.
# # # #
He wished he could black out again like he did last week and not feel every step on his way home. He opened the door and entered the house. Of course, he changed his clothes already.
"Welcome back!" His father said, but once he saw Leaden's state, he kept his eyes on him, more confused than concerned. "What happened? Your Aura broke? Who did you fight?" Nothing was wrong with him physically, but his clothes were a mess and the way he carried himself was a giveaway to Tai.
Leaden sat at the kitchen table, his father sitting with him too. Leaden took a second to collect his thoughts.
"I fought an interesting criminal today. She had semblance associated with absurdities and mind games, and I suffered a complete defeat," he sighed. His father gave him a look that understood immediately. "I meant illusions and mind games."
Tai nodded. In his experience, he encountered people with similar semblance to what Leaden described. "There will always be those with unique semblances and talents. You shouldn't let them control the pace of the fight. Know what you do that they utilize or take advantage of and do the opposite. You should always be the one in control. Outsmart them."
Leaden was amazed how his father seemed to have an answer to everything. He had experience, was a legendary Huntsman, and a teacher. Combining those three resulted in Taiyang Xiao long.
Leaden considered what his father said and nodded. "I see. Thank you, father," he smiled.
"Will you ever say dad? This seems way too formal!"
"Sorry, not my style," Leaden laughed.
# # # #
It was morning. Leaden walked down the stairs. He needed to have breakfast quickly and head out. He had a lot of hotels to check all over Vale, and if he planned to find the cat girl then he needed to not waste time.
He entered the kitchen expecting to find his father almost finished preparing breakfast, but what he found instead was his father waiting at the table with a creepy smile on his face.
Leaden froze. 'What is with father?' He looked around and didn't find anything prepared, so he glanced at his father again. "Umm, are we having breakfast today?"
His father's eye twitched, "You tell me. Aren't you the one who said he is going to make breakfast today? Guess what? You're late!"
Leaden tilted his head, the smile never leaving his face. 'Dammit, I totally forgot.' He silently went to prepare breakfast under the glare of his father.
Half an hour later…
"This is disgusting! You are fired!"
"Thank you very much."
# # # #
He sat on the same bench he used to sit in Vale. At this rate, he will claim ownership of it. It was near six pm, and he had found nothing. He searched every one of the remaining seventeen hotels in Vale, and he got nothing. Leaden was starting to give up at this point.
She mustn't be in Vale, he thought. He couldn't think of anything else. How else was she supposed to be in Vale? The only remaining logical option was that she wasn't here to begin with.
Leaden didn't like it at all. Yesterday and now this. He accomplished nothing since he came to Vale. Of course, his time with his family was the only positive thing in all of this.
He sighed, and kept thinking. However he thought about it, there was no way she was here.
He kept thinking, but there was no way.
He kept thinking, but there was no way.
He kept thinking, and there was a way. His eyes widened at the realization. How he didn't think of that possibility before?
"No way."
She was a former White Fang member. A terrorist. 'There was no way Professor Ozpin would-'
Then he remembered Ruby and how she got in. He remembered the boy he heard about in Junior's and how he got in. Professor Ozpin was an absurd person. His eyes kept widening further, and then he looked further up at the distance where a certain place existed.
Beacon academy.
A/N: Roman makes his move