"What about some oolong tea?" Kagami asked, standing in a small tea shop in Mistral. Her hands trailing across several different colored boxes on multiple shelves. "I haven't had it in a while either." She muttered quietly.
"Too bland." Baren waved her off while narrowing her eyes slightly at a box. Her fingers scratching at her chin. "We could try this panda tea..." She grabbed a box, pulling it off the shelf as she examined it. She then blinked, slowly sliding it back as she saw the price tag. "Or... maybe..." She trailed off.
"Chamomile?" She raised and eyebrow and glanced back. "Lemon ginger is also really good. Elise likes that one a lot." She tapped at a box before grabbing it and pulling it down closer.
"Boring." Her mentor brushed her aside. "There's..." She moved her hand over several boxes before grabbing another. "This one is tieguanyin?" She raised and eyebrow before letting out a quiet groan at the lien price tag. She quickly put it back up.
Tilting her head at her, the jadette slowly looked away. "There's also some organic white tea and rooibos tea." She grabbed another box to look at. "And something called purple tea? I never heard of it." She blinked before reading the back of the box. "It's from a plant grown only in this one mountain region in Mistral too."
"Still doesn't sound exciting." Brushing her off, the old warrior stepped over towards a box on its own shelf and by itself. "Ooh." She half smiled. "Da-Hong Pao..." She She reached out to grab it only to pause. She blinked, her brow twitching slightly as she saw the price tag written in gold. She inhaled slowly, softly hissing as she pulled her hand away.
"What's the problem?" She asked, setting a box of black tea back on the shelf.
Baren quietly groaned, the two soon standing in front of the shopkeeper's desk. "Is that all for you two?" He asked, putting a box of green tea into a small plastic bag.
"Yep." Kagami answered, her arms crossed as the pinkette handed him a few lien cards.
Looking at several different oak wood and hand made paint brushed, Cheyenne chewed on her lip a bit. Her fingers gently going over the soft brushes. "These... are so nice. The strokes I could make with these..." She trailed off.
"Hey!" Kris called out. "What about this weird dentist tools? What are they for?" She asked, holding up several different silver objects. "What are they for?"
"Those aren't dentist tools." The Faunus rolled her eyes while setting the brushes down. "Those are tools for carving and sculpting clay."
"Whoa." She blinked before setting them aside. "Art stores are weird."
She quietly scoffed, half smiling while stepping over to a bin full of small stones of all sorts of colors with small holes drilled into them. "These are really pretty. I could make bracelets or necklaces. Maybe some friendship bracelets." She rubbed her chin a bit as her other hand ran through the small and smooth stones.
"What about this metal bo staff thing?" The small redhead popped up beside her.
Raising an eyebrow, she softly sighed while shaking her head. "That's a blowing pipe. For glass blowing. I've always wanted to try it. It's both beautiful to watch be done and also to see the finished product."
"Cool." She muttered before disappearing in a blur.
Exhaling, she reached up to scratch at her antlers before turning around. "Hey, Kris. How about we go somewhere more... you like?"
"Like a music store?" The redhead looked over, a paint brush under her nose to appear as a mustache."Do you think they have headphones? I need a new pair of headphones."
"Sure." Cheyenne nodded, taking the paint brush from her and setting it back with the others. "I'll help you find a pair that really suits you. Maybe put some extra details on them myself." She smiled.
"Aw yeah!" Kris bounced a bit. "Everything you make is always so pretty! Let's go!"
As the Faunus and short redhead were out and about in the eastern Kingdom, the two other members of team MACE were out on their own and walking down the street with a few bags of groceries in each hand.
The sleeves of the green Monomane hoodie, which Elise still had on, were slightly rolled up on her arms. She took a small breath, glancing at her friend before looking away. Chewing on her cheek, her grip shifted around the bags she held. Exhaling, she rolled her shoulders back. "Hey, Kagami, can we talk about something?" She quietly asked.
"Hm?" The jadette glanced back at her. The fabric she normally has wrapped around her arms now off and revealing her pale skin underneath. Though, she still had her fingerless gloves on. "Sure. Is something wrong? Something bothering you?" Her head tilted as she raised an eyebrow. "Is everything alright?"
"No, no." She quickly shook her head. "Everything is fine." She let out a quiet chuckle before taking a deep breath. "I just wanted to talk to you about something." She eyed her again, inhaling sharply. She seemed to hesitate which she received a confused look from doing such. She exhaled, shaking her head before looking over with a smile. "How exactly did you save Nihilus when Prac buried him in the sand?"
Blinking, Kagami very slowly exhaled while looking ahead. "I..." She trailed off, shaking her head as it tilted downward. "I honestly don't know. I couldn't tell you anything at all. I need to talk to Baren about it later." She gave a small shrug. "It was weird."
"Can you try to explain?" Her head tilted as her brow furrowed.
"Well," She let out a quiet and soft breath as her shoulders dropped. After a moment, she straightened her posture while stretching her neck. "You see," Her pointer finger flicked against her thumb as she glanced around at the people they past by. "I had this... this overwhelming feeling. I don't know what it was. I just knew I had to do something. I had to make a choice... I just couldn't decide." Her eyebrows furrowed. "I... with everything that's happen, I got overwhelmed. I couldn't think straight." She shook her head. "I somehow managed to to mimic both Nihilus' time stop and Prac's rock semblance at the same time. When I did, suddenly my nerves were all calm. Then this rush of adrenaline shot through me along with this burst of power and strength. After I pulled him free, all that suddenly dropped. Pure exhaustion hit me and this... this throbbing and sharp pain shot through my head liking someone was pushing a needle into my temples." She looked back at her friend with a shrug. "And then nothing. The pain was enough my body seemed to just shut down because of it. It was really weird."
The brunet blinked a few times, staring at her as she quietly processed what was just said. "That... that's..." She shook her head before suddenly grinning. "That's so cool! Talk about one bad ass trump card! You can literally use two semblances at once! Oh maybe three if we count your semblance too... Oh, you could be unstoppable."
"Wh-What? No... no! That was not the point of what I said!" She turned to her while holding out her arms. The groceries she held swaying. "I think doing that nearly killed me!"
"But it didn't!" Her grin grew while holding up a hand. "Which means we can try it again! Maybe perfect it! Whatever it is."
Blinking, Kagami stared back at her for a few seconds before looking away with a heavy sigh. "Oh Oum..." She trailed off while shaking her head with closed eyes.
Stretching out her arms, Kris stared at an assortment of polishers and oils for weapons and sharpeners for blades. "You know, it's so not fair Kagami doesn't have to tend to and keep up with her sword. Stupid mythical metal..." She pouted.
"Yeah, I'd have to agree with you there. "I have to oil my rifle so much." She mumbled while looking at different types of darts for her weapon. She then exhaled, placing her hand on her hip. She then blinked, remembering how her baton used to be there. Remembering how Prac broke her baton. Sighing, her shoulders dropped as she stepped away from the darts.
"I think I'm going to need more bullets." The redhead reached over to grab a large box of small rounds. "If not now then really soon. I've been burning through a lot more than usual." She then jumped, hearing her name being called.
"Kris!" Elise shouted. "I need you to buy me something! Well you mother technically... but please please please!" She pleaded from the other side of the shop.
Rolling her eyes, Kris began to walk over while brushing her hair back. "This better be good." She mumbled before blinking as she saw the brunet holding a very short brown staff. Both ends covered in a bright and shiny silver as well as a silver band in the middle. She raised an eyebrow before shaking her head with a shrug.
"I can't believe the owners of this inn just... let you come into the kitchen and use it." Cheyenne quietly mumbled while carefully slicing thin pieces of meat.
"I can do whatever I want." Baren replied while putting handfuls of noodles in five different bowls. One of the five set slightly to the side. "I was going to come in here and cook something whether they said yes or no. I'm no going to eat whatever they serve."
"You know... sometimes you scare me." She exhaled softly, pushing the meat aside before going and tearing apart some cilantro, basil and mint leaves. She then grabbed a handful of green onions as she began to slice them.
"I'll take that as a compliment." She chuckled with a smirk back. Grabbing a lime, she examined it for a moment before tossing it upward into the air. Quickly grabbing a chef's knife in her left hand, she brought the blade through the air in multiple slashes. As she set it aside, the lime fell to the counter in five equal pieces.
"Yeaaah..." She trailed off, scooting away slightly before pushing the green onions aside and grabbing a jalapeno that she began to slice up. "I... don't think that's a very good thing. Or something to be proud of."
The pinkette shrugged, grabbing a small handful of bean sprouts and set them atop the noodles. The one bowl that was offset from the others getting a larger handful. "Seems fine to me."
"Okay." She sighed again, grabbing the tray of thinly sliced meat and stepping over in front of the stove. On one of the burners was a boiling pot filled with a broth. "It just seems, you know, counterproductive. If everyone is afraid to talk to you, you won't make any friends." Grabbing a piece of meat, she dropped it into the broth. Followed by the rest one at a time.
"If someone wants to be my friend, they shouldn't be worried about how intimidating I am." She eyed her while stepping over in front of the pot. After a minute, she took it off the heat and began to pull each piece of meat out with a pair of chopsticks. Evenly distributing them amongst the four bowls while leaving the fifth with extra bean sprouts untouched.
"But what if people are too afraid to talk to you to get to know you because every time you look at them it feels like you're about to cut their head off..." The Faunus trailed off, placing the green onions, cilantro, mint, basil and jalapenos on top of the noodles and bean sprouts.
Raising an eyebrow, Baren quietly chuckled as she placed a lime wedge in each bowl. "Do you find me terrifying?" She calmly asked, grabbing a second pot of boiling vegetable broth. She poured that one over the bowl by itself before pouring the broth the meat was cooked in over the other four.
"...maybe..." She muttered, shaking a bottle of sriracha before putting a little in each bowl.
"You don't have to be." She smiled with a nod towards her while shaking a bottle of hoisin sauce. Opening it while holding it in the same hand, she shook a little out into each bowl. "There's no reason to be afraid of me. Not unless you do something stupid."
"Noted." Cheyenne nodded, grabbing a bowl in each hand. She shakily exhaled, watching as Baren picked up the remaining three with her sole arm. "Heavily noted..."
"That was... the best thing I have ever eaten." Kris mumbled, laying across the bed in their room with her empty bowl resting on her stomach.
"Well it better be." Baren glanced over at her while taking a small sip of her broth. "I made it."
"This soup is just as good as mama's cooking." Elise added, setting her empty bowl in her lap while snatching a piece of meat from Kagami's bowl.
The jadette raised an eyebrow at her, shaking her head before swallowing a spoonful of noodles.
"So..." Cheyenne glanced around at her friends. "What should we do next?"
Blinking, Elise leaned back in her chair slightly while looking around. "What... should we do?"
"She just asked that, dumb ass." The young redhead sat up with a small grunt.
"Hey, hey, don't fight." Kagami motioned her hands slightly. She then took a deep breath, exhaling heavily. "We've been sight seeing for a while. We might want to get back to Vale. It's still in shambles after the attack."
"Yeah..." The deer Faunus glanced down. "We've been having a lot of fun but it's time to get back to work protecting Vale."
"Oh come on," Kris pouted. "Can't we have a little more fun? We have our whole lives to save and protect people?"
"But they might not have the time to wait for us." The jadette added.
As the three of them began to talk, Elise had gone silent. With her brow furrowing, she stared at her feet while wiggling them around. Deep in thought, she slowly looked up. Baren locking eyes with her while raising an eyebrow. She took a deep breath, sitting up straight while rolling her shoulders back. "I know what we have to do next." She finally spoke up while looking around.
"Huh?" Kris blinked, glancing at her.
Taking another deep breath, she bit her lip. "Since we became friends, there's one thing we've always somehow found ourselves doing despite all the chaos surrounding us." She closed her eyes for a moment then exhaled. "First we helped Maya and Chey go home to visit their family. Then Kris' dad showed up and made up with her sorta. Plus her sister was around for a bit. And then my family showed up..." She trailed off slightly before shaking her head. "And we just helped Nihilus and Thanaton reunite with their mother. So..."
"So what?" Cheyenne tilted her head.
The brunet slowly looked over, staring at Kagami.
Blinking, the jadette went stiff for a moment. "No, no we don't..."
"Yes. We do." She narrowed her eyes slightly back at her. "You need to return to Vytal. You need to go home, Kagami."
Cheyenne and Kris both glanced at each other before the Faunus softly spoke up. "It seems only fair."
Exhaling, the leader of team MACE slowly looked away. "Even if I said yes, how would we get there? Do you know how far north that is from Vale? We'd have to walk there."
"Well what if we went o Mantle first then had someone give us a ride there? On a boat?" Cheyenne glanced around.
"Boarders are closed off due to the general's orders." Kris added.
"If you have enough money, you can pay anyone to do anything." Baren spoke up after sitting quiet.
"Aren't you the adult here?" Elise tilted her head.
The pinkette blinked, shrugging back.
Sighing, the brunet looked around. "So... how are we suppose to get the lien for this?"
"What are we even doing?" Kagami glanced over, keeping her eyes adverted.
"We're going to have ourselves smuggled into Mantle. And then we're going to Vytal." She stood up with narrowed eyes. "And you are going to see how your family is doing. Understand? Because there's no arguing here." She crossed her arms.
Blinking, she softly exhaled back while looking away. "Fine." She spoke up after a minute. "But only if the others agree."
"Don't even have to ask." Cheyenne softly smiled.
"Agreed." Kris nodded back. "But if we're being smuggled into Mantle... how are we going to find the lien? Not even to mention the lien needed to get to Vytal after?"
"We'll figure out the lien for Vytal later. For now we need to think of a way to get the lien to get to Mantle." Elise blinked slowly as her brows furrowed."We'll need a lot of it too."
Slowly starting to grin, Baren sat up straight. "I know a place here in Mistral the four of you could make a lot of money really quick. Specifically one of you." Her gaze slowly shifted towards Kagami.
The jadette blinked, looking around slowly. "Huh?" She quietly let out. Her stomach uneasy from the idea Elise had proposed as confusion rushed over her from her mentor's look. "What do you mean by one of you? And what... is this idea?"
The pinkette only grinned more. "I'll take you four in the morning. For now, rest."