"You want to know the names of Beacon's first year students?"

"Yes."

Junior looked at Leaden with confusion clearly visible on his face. "This isn't a secret, you know. If you had looked at the newspaper for example, you would have known," he said, crossing his arms. His mind wandered for a moment before he added, "Hmm, though I suppose there might be a student or two whose names were concealed. From the public, I mean." He smirked at the fact that it was nothing for them to find out.

Leaden could only blink as he heard Junior speak. He had searched almost everywhere in Vale, but he couldn't find Blake, so Beacon was his last possible option. If she wasn't there, then he would have to give up. He had sought Junior's help, only to find out that he could have looked up the news himself?

"I know that, that's why I asked for your help," he said, not wanting to appear as an idiot in front of Junior. He had enough humiliation from Roman already. "I want to compare what is shown to the public and the real thing."

Junior simply shrugged. "Sure, I don't care either way. It's more business for me anyway."

That was true, but Leaden wasn't going to pay for such business because Lil' Miss Malachite granted him the same privileges as any member of the Spider. There was an unspoken rule in the relationship between the Spider and the Xiong family: Any member of the Spider could do business with the Xiong family for free, and vice versa. It was a collaboration intended to save money between the two; The less money spent, the higher they would get by the end.

"How long would it take then?"

"A second." Junior took out his scroll. "I just need your number to send it to you."

Leaden nodded. He took his own scroll, passed it under Junior's and put it back. Junior didn't lie, he didn't need more than a second to send what Leaden needed.

"Thank you," he said with a smile. "I don't see the twins around. Where are they?"

Leaden took a seat as Junior spoke. "They're probably off enjoying their time in a who-knows-where," he said with a hint of annoyance in his voice.

Leaden chuckled. "Good for them," he said, looking around the place. He couldn't help but ask the question that he didn't have the chance to ask last time. "What happened to this place anyway?"

"Some crazy-ass girl came barging in, demanding information or else," he scowled. Leaden was taken aback by how Junior's usual calm expression turned to one of grimace.

"She seems absurd. What did she want?"

"She was looking for someone, a woman. Oh yeah, I believe she got accepted into Beacon," he scoffed. "They don't care much about decency these days." It was ironic coming from him, but he had a point. Being an outlaw or a criminal didn't mean you had to abandon logic. Beacon became more focused on capability more than anything else.

"Beacon?" He used his scroll to see what Junior had sent him earlier. "She passed, you say," he said, holding the scroll out for Junior to see. "Which one?" He had a gut feeling and hoped it was wrong.

There was a reason he did this and didn't just describe his sister or ask Junior what the girl looked like. If his sister was indeed the one who had wreaked havoc in this place, then it was better not to associate himself with her. Especially, when he wanted to be on good terms with Junior.

"That's her, alright," he said, pointing to the name on the list. Leaden looked, and he was not surprised in the slightest. "Blonde with a sexy body, you can't miss her."

Yang Xiao long.

Leaden didn't know it, but Yang would have been in big trouble if Professor Ozpin hadn't intervened. Both of his sisters had basically made it worse for Ozpin. The Chief of Police had accused him of playing favorites.

The Chief of Police had wanted both girls punished, but Ozpin had stood up for them both times. His sisters had caused unnecessary tension between the council members.

Leaden ignored his remark about his sister's body and instead read the list. He was surprised to see only three teams made it this year. The average was four teams.

Team CRDL. Cardin Winchester, Russel Thrush, Dove Bronzewing and Sky Lark.

No one caught his attention on this team so he moved to the next one.

Team JNPR. Jaune Arc, Nora Valkyrie, Pyrrha Nikos and Lie Ren.

Now this team caught his attention, two members to be specific. 'Arc?' The name was quite famous to anyone who knew history. Leaden being the bookworm that he was, recognized the name. The Arcs were known for their heroes; they had warriors who had achieved great things on the battlefield, the Great War being one of them, and the last thing their names were mentioned.

As for the second name, Pyrrha Nikos, it would be a great shame if he didn't know of it, being Mistrali and all. There was almost no one in Mistral who hadn't heard of Pyrrha Nikos at least once; the girl was a celebrity. Even outside of Mistral, she was famous.

The invincible girl won every tournament she participated in. No more needed to say of her. This team had to be the best first year team just because of those two, Leaden thought. And if the other two were any good, it would be more than enough.

He then looked at the last team remaining, his sisters' team, which brought him great joy.

And great worry.

This could only mean one thing, and he didn't want to think about it. He hoped that she simply hadn't pass.

Team RWBY. Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao long.

Leaden couldn't help but widen his eyes. If the previous team had peaked his interest, this one shocked him, and not in a good way. His hands trembled, and his eyes twitched.

He thanked Junior and took his leave hurriedly. The problem wasn't with his sisters' names obviously, but with their teammates. He looked again but this time at the official list that was released to the public.

Team RWBY. Ruby Rose, W. S, B. B and Yang Xiao long.

Those were the students that had their names concealed that Junior was talking about.

Weiss Schnee. Leaden knew the name, not the Schnee part only, but the name Weiss too. She was a famous singer who had performed in all over the kingdoms, except for Vacuo, obviously.

He saw her posters back in Mistral, but he had never been able to attend one of her concerts because the tickets cost a fortune. It was obvious which social class it was meant for.

For her to want to be a Huntress.

For her to go to Beacon instead of Atlas academy.

For her to be on his sisters' team of all teams.

And he didn't even want to think about the Blake situation. It was like everything was against him. Should he tell Adam? If he did, Leaden was sure that he would kill both of them, and that would hurt his sisters.

During the White Fang war for equality, a large part of it was against the Schnee family. The White Fang managed to kill a couple of them before the family was completely isolated and secured. Leaden didn't know if Adam would use Weiss as a hostage to get what they want or he would simply kill her.

But if he didn't tell Adam, he would risk the cooperative relationship he had with him.

He felt his heart ache and put his hand on his chest, clutching his shirt in the process. His breath quickened. It reminded him of what happened during that wedding.

What truly mattered at the moment? He couldn't answer that now. He needed to do something else to clear his head.

It was time to play the hero.

# # # #

It had been an hour, and Leaden hadn't moved from the roof he changed on. He sat on the edge, dangling his legs, and thinking deeply about what to do. The shattered moon didn't help, no matter how many times he looked at it. He still enjoyed it, though.

He texted Ruby to be sure of something. A hope might still be there to lessen the weight.

Leaden: Right, you didn't tell me. Is Yang your partner?

Ruby: No she is not! Weiss is my partner! She is nice.

Leaden: I see. Good luck!

He put away his scroll, not waiting for her reply. His eyes darkened as he looked down to nothing in particular.

It was his worst nightmare. It would have been better if his sisters were partners, but now it was inevitable that his sisters would grow a bond with their teammates.

He felt like not doing anything tonight. He was already in costume, but his body felt heavy.

'It's natural.' It was natural that all of Remnant seemed to be against him. That all the odds weren't in his favor. It was natural.

After all, he was absurd.

It was natural for the world to oppose absurdity. The Grimm, for example, were now the hunted. The number of Grimm attack victims had decreased significantly, so much so that it had become a rare occurrence. People had learned and adapted. That was how it worked.

Absurdity was called that for a reason. It was something unnatural, to say the least. So either the absurdity was normalized, or it vanished like it was never there to begin with.

And he was no different.

Of course, his thought process was nonsense, as he tended to make excuses as an explanation for what he didn't understand.

He did the same when he was a kid and he did the same now, even though he liked to think he changed. But some things never changed.

He continued to lay down on his back, staring at the shattered moon. His mind kept wandering to whether he should tell Adam or not.

A gunshot rang through the streets of Vale, cutting his thoughts off. Leaden got up instantly and focused for a moment to determine where the sound came from.

He guessed it came from the east, a couple of meters away. He ran as fast as he could on the rooftops. A gunshot meant that someone's life was in danger.

He arrived to see five men. Three of them seemed to be the aggressors as they held guns. The other two seemed to want to stop them.

There was no one around at all. They might have ran away as soon as they heard the gunshot.

The two were beaten down and threatened by the guns. Leaden knew he had to intervene.

One of them looked to be ready to pull the trigger. Leaden jumped down in front of him the second the bullet was shot. He protected the man by taking the bullet; his aura was on, so it just repelled off his body.

"What the fuck?!" the one who shot the bullet exclaimed, his eyes widening in recognition. "You're that terrorist! I'm not surprised to see you helping your fellow animals," he said, laughing.

'Fellow animals?' Leaden thought. He must have meant the two behind him. They were faunus, apparently.

"Let's just calm down, lower your guns, and talk this out," Leaden said. He couldn't brute force his way here. He was outnumbered and had people to protect. If he was alone or there was only one with a gun, things would have been different. Way different.

"And why should we do that? We were minding our own business when those fucking animals attacked us!" another one of the trio said.

"Liar! We saw you steal money from the old lady back there!" one of the two behind Leaden said.

"And do you have proof, you bloody animal? Maybe you did it and wanted to pin it on us," another one said. This one seemed calm, which worried Leaden. "The last thing I want to hear is some terrorist trying to lecture me. Yeah, right." He didn't hesitate to shoot the Faunus. Leaden acted quickly and grabbed the gun along with a part of his hand, making the bullet miss its target.

The man stared intensely at Leaden. It was like he was saying, "How dare you!" with his eyes. But soon, the intense look turned to a playful one that shivers down Leaden's spine. It made Leaden realize how young the man was; he was probably the same age as Adam. He had blond hair, blue eyes, and a normal face you could find anywhere. The smile he gave Leaden was almost psychotic.

"Run!" Leaden shouted to the ones behind him. "I will hold them off." There was no time now to talk it out. The police might be here anytime now. The two didn't waste any time and started to run away.

"Where do you think you are going?!" another one said, aiming the gun at them. Leaden quickly kicked the gun out of his hand with his left leg. "The fuck?!" Leaden was still holding the hand of the creepy guy who was smiling through all of it and didn't try to do anything at all.

The blond stared at his hand. "If you wanted to take me out, you should have just asked, you know," he said, laughing quietly and taking short breaths between. Leaden didn't need to say it.

This guy was absurd.

Suddenly, the police's car sirens were heard. Luckily, the two faunus were far enough to not be caught. Leaden looked at the other two panicked faces, and then he turned to look at the third, only to find no one.

Leaden's eyes widened. There was no trace of him, only the gun that he was still holding. 'Shit. Where did this absurd guy go?!'

"Freeze!"

It was too late, for the remaining two and him. He quickly threw away the gun he was holding, but it didn't matter. The police had already seen him with it.

The two made a pathetic attempt to run away, but Leaden made use of the distracted police officers to quickly jump to the roof and run.

He thought he was safe for a couple of moments before a bullet stung his right shoulder. He turned his head in shock and saw a police officer running after him.

'He must be an Aura user,' Leaden clicked his tongue. "This is going to be absurdly annoying." Since the officer was an Aura user, Leaden had to use his semblance at some point, or he wouldn't be able to lose him without a fight, and he didn't want that, obviously. Fighting the police would make matters worse.

He would need to up his speed, and wait for the opportunity to use his semblance without the pursuer noticing.

When he noticed an alley, he used his full speed and went down, making the officer's eyes open wide. The officer went down after him, but he found nothing. "Damn it!" he cursed.

Leaden already used his semblance to teleport him up again to the rooftop. He chose a small building to do it, so he could be within his semblance's range.

He kept at it for another ten minutes, and when he was sure he was safe, he changed his clothes and walked the streets of Vale again.

He decided to call it a day.

He walked home not knowing what to think about. The situation with his sisters or the absurd guy he met today. But one thing he was sure of, that one matter helped him greatly to decide on the other.

His encounter with the guy made him realize what he should do. Remnant was a dangerous place where even a random person could kill an experienced huntsman. Leaden could feel that the guy was truly dangerous and not to be underestimated.

And he was a nameless person, Leaden still had to worry about the Grimm queen and her followers. That's why he decided telling Adam about Blake and Weiss was the correct choice.

It didn't matter if his sisters were hurt, sad or hated him because of it, that was if they found out anyway. But the important thing was that they keep living.

His dream was to live a happy normal life with his family and die of old age at the end. That was only going to happen if they were alive. That's why, his sisters being alive was the important thing here, he wasn't going to care about anyone else. Only him and his family.

It would be horrible if Blake and Weiss or anyone died, yes. But that was Adam's business, he had no right to interfere, he thought.

To avoid the upcoming storm, he was willing to do almost anything to keep himself and his family away from it. He would make sure all six of them survived no matter what.

"I wonder how the two faunus are? I hope they got away," he said with a sigh. They got him worried for a second. He thought they might die for a moment, but he was able to save them, hopefully.

"Breaking!" Leaden passed beside a large screen, but the news got his attention. "An act of terrorism was witnessed in the streets of Vale, three armed men pulled their guns in public for unknown reasons and started frightening the citizens. According to the police, they were able to recognize one of the men, and to our surprise, it was the White Fang member aiding the two humans for reasons still unknown to us."

Leaden ignored the rest, and kept walking home. He sighed. "Well, I should have seen that coming."

He pulled out his scroll and made the call he was hesitant to make until now. The wait for Adam to pick up felt like an eternity.

Until finally, "Yes?"

He answered.

"Oh hello, Adam. How is your day so far? I have very interesting news for you to hear!"

Adam didn't know what happened, but he felt that Leaden was off somehow.

He didn't feel like himself.

Adam didn't care about what could have been the reason, but he was bothered how quickly he picked up on Leaden's odd behavior.