It was weird, staring into a mirror and seeing someone that wasn't you, but was. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say that it wasn't who you were, but it was who you were now.

Confusing, right?

But not bad. Not bad at all. I wasn't exactly discontent with how I looked in my past life. In fact, I'd say I was just as handsome in my past life as I was now that I had been transformed into Kamina from Gurenn Lagann, sans his memories and personality. But it was in a very different way, and I felt that this new look suited me better. The tanned skin, dark tribal-like tattoos that adorned my upper body, and toned figure was more suited to the pirate slash outlaw I had decided to become.

Or at least it did when I wasn't wearing a button up shirt that was tucked into my pants.

"So, lemme get this straight," I heard Yoko say as she stepped out from the doorway that led to the connected bathroom. "Last night we robbed some gangsters and tonight… we're going to the club they own?"

"That's right," I confirmed as I turned to look at her. She was dressed up as well, a little bit at least. Her normal fiery bikini top had been replaced with a red tube top with a skull design on it, and she had ditched her socks and boots, replacing them with normal shoes. She'd also thrown on an open jacket with a popped collar and a necklace with a star shaped pendant.

I let out a low whistle as I greedily drank in the sight of her. "Looking good, Yoko."

She rolled her eyes, but her lips twitched upward in amused appreciation. "Isn't this kind of risky?" she continued, not addressing my praise.

"What's life without a bit of risk?" I replied with a wink. She continued staring at me, waiting for the real answer, so I shrugged and turned back to the mirror. I decided to try unbuttoning the top button of my shirt, to look a little more relaxed. "Well, first off, no one even saw you, so no worries there."

"I wasn't worried about that," Yoko replied immediately. "I figured out that much. I can go to this club alone if need be."

"And make me miss all the fun?" I quipped. "I don't think so. Besides, think about it a little more. We fucked those guys up pretty good, they're probably still in the hospital. At best, they gave Junior a vague secondhand description."

I turned back to face her and spread my arms. "No glasses, no cape, and I'm wearing a shirt that hides my tattoos. There's no way they recognize me."

Yoko paused. "Well… I suppose you have a point. We're still heading straight into enemy territory though."

I waved my hands, dismissing her concerns. "Nah, nah, we're just going to go enjoy a date night. Besides, today's enemies might be tomorrow's allies. Why do you think we didn't kill those guys last night? It's all part of the Master Plan."

She raised an eyebrow at me. "I wasn't aware you actually had a plan."

"Don't tell me you forgot already, my dear Yoko," I said, pointing at the whiteboard over in the corner. "We just went over that yesterday."

"Wait, that wasn't a joke?" she asked in surprise. "It's just a mess of circles with random words and lines connecting them. I thought you were just bored."

"Just because you lack the grand vision and genius that I have doesn't mean it's nonsense," I defended myself. "That is a map of everything we have to do in this world."

She looked over at the whiteboard where I laid out the diagram of my plans. "...that one at the bottom is just a bunch of question marks."

"Every good plan needs room for improvisation," I deflected. The truth was that I would need to progress a bit further into the plan to obtain the information I needed to fill that part out. But I wasn't going to admit that.

"Come on, let's get going," I said, satisfied with how I looked. "Tonight's the night we finally get the ball rolling."

I could hear the muted sound of electronic music more than a block away and there were more than a few people out on the streets, most of them congregating near the nightclub. Small huddles of people with cigarettes between their lips and individuals who kept checking their scrolls and looking around, waiting for a friend or date.

Thankfully, there wasn't a line, so the two of us were able to just stroll right into the club.

The music was much louder inside it of course, but not overwhelmingly so. In fact, as I pulled Yoko towards the bar, I realized that it was the perfect volume so that you could still speak to someone right next to you without yelling, but anyone further than a couple feet away from you wouldn't hear anything.

My estimation of Junior increased by just a bit. He was smarter than I would have thought. No wonder this was where he did his business.

Yoko and I found a relatively empty spot in the bar and I got the bartender's attention. "Rum and coke," I ordered.

"Strawberry daiquiri for me," Yoko added.

The bartender, who was dressed like every other one of Junior's men, a black suit, red tie, red sunglasses, and black hat, raised an eyebrow. "Got some ID?" he asked.

I slid over some Lien, a good bit more than what the drinks cost. He glanced at it, glanced back at us, then shrugged as he took the Lien. "Coming right up," he said.

"Didn't you say the drinking age was lower here?" Yoko asked as the bartender left. "Why the bribe?"

"We don't have ID," I reminded her.

A look of understanding passed over her face. "That would be a problem." Her brow furrowed. "Is that why we're here then? Fake IDs?"

"Nah," I replied. I fell quiet as the bartender came over and gave us our drinks. When I took a sip of my drink I was pleasantly surprised by the burn of alcohol. He hadn't stiffed me on the booze like most clubs like this would have. I supposed that was a side benefit of bribery.

"We're here to speak to a man, actually," I continued after the bartender walked over to another customer. "Junior Xiong, leader of the gang." I cast my gaze over the club, and quickly spotted the man in question standing a little away from it, flanked by his female bodyguards, the Malachite twins.

"Him," I said, subtly indicating the man to Yoko. I intended on talking to him, so being spotted watching him wasn't that big of a deal, but I didn't want to be rude.

"Hmm," she hummed as she sipped her own drink. "Why? And don't tell me it's to apologize, I won't buy it."

I laughed out loud. "Nah, if we were going to fess up, I wouldn't have dressed up," I agreed. "No, the reason we're here to talk to him is that he has something I want."

"The twins?" Yoko guessed.

"He has multiple things I want," I amended. Because yes, I definitely wanted Melanie and Miltia Malachite, not just because they were hot, but because they had unlocked auras, and a connection that I planned on making use of later. "But the main thing is his gang, which is the gang of the city. There might be some smaller groups, but Junior's got a pretty strong hold on the underworld."

"And if we capture him, we get control of all that," Yoko followed the train of thought with a grin of her own. Canon Yoko would never have approved of such things, but the Company had been more than happy to provide me with a version of her that was a bit more amoral.

Yoko took another sip of her drink as she glanced at Junior again. "So, who's the man he's talking to?"

I followed her gaze to the man with bright orange hair wearing a white suit and black bowler hat.

"Roman Torchwick, Vale's own master thief," I explained. "Technically, he's the one we robbed last night. That robbery was his job, he was just borrowing Junior's men."

"That explains why he looks so unhappy," Yoko said with a snort. And she was right, Roman looked annoyed. Junior looked apologetic, but in that way that was hiding the frustration he really felt.

"Roman doesn't have a gang, but he's not alone," I continued. "I dunno if she's here right now, but he's got a partner. Neopolitan, or just Neo for short. Short woman, mute, uses an umbrella as a weapon and it's more dangerous than you'd think. More importantly, she's an illusionist. She could be here right now, invisible. She could even be listening in on our conversation."

Yoko stiffened. "Should we be talking about our plan then?"

I shrugged. "Eh. Probably not. But also she's probably not listening in on us. And even if she is, I'm not planning on making any moves against Roman, so it's not a big deal if she hears us."

Yoko looked at me like I was an idiot. "You literally just admitted to knowing that it was his robbery that we interrupted."

"I don't plan on making more moves against him," I clarified. "Besides, that wasn't personal. We needed some Dust and that opportunity fell right into our lap." If 'fell into our lap' meant us noticing the robbery starting, running home to drop off our shopping, picking up our weapons, and making a plan of action before running back.

"I don't think that's going to work as a defense," Yoko said dryly.

"Tell you what, how about this?" I said. "Neo, if you're listening to us, do me a favor and don't tell Roman. It really wasn't anything personal, and I'll be reaching out to him after we take over Junior's gang to work with him. I'm sure I can get better results than Junior can, if I beat him. And if you don't tell him, I'll buy you all the ice cream or cake you want. Deal?"

Yoko and I were quiet for a moment, waiting for a response. Yoko was tense, but I just took another slow sip of my drink. I glanced at Roman a couple times, but there was no sign that Neo had gone up to him and told him anything. Granted, she was an illusionist, so that wasn't really a reassurance.

After a minute had passed, I shrugged. "Guess she's not here."

"Or she simply hasn't made a move yet," Yoko pointed out, still on edge.

I shrugged. "Eh, it's fine. We're probably in the clear."

"And what makes you so confident about that?" she asked.

"Instinct," I replied casually.

Yoko sighed and her shoulders slumped. "Fine, whatever. But I reserve the right to say I told you so if this blows up."

"Noted," I said, unconcerned. Worst case scenario, Neo tattled on us and I had to deal with Roman sooner rather than later. I could live with that.

"What even is Dust anyway?" Yoko asked. "Why do we need it?"

"It's magic gunpowder," I replied simply. She raised an eyebrow and I shrugged. "No really it is. It's elemental fuel. They use it here to power the cities, they use it in their weapon, they use it in pretty much everything. Each type of dust has a different element associated with it, and if you use it in the right way, you can get all kinds of magical effects."

"Right, I can see how that might be valuable, if you know what you're doing," she replied, brows furrowed. Then she glanced at me. "Do you? Know what you're doing?"

"With Dust?" I asked. "Not a clue." She gave me an unamused look, so I laughed. "But there are plenty of people who do know, and we'll be picking them up sooner or later. Besides, it can be used as a currency for trading if we really need to."

She sighed. "Sure, sure. So we just wait for them to finish talking and then go up to him ourselves?"

"Yep," I said as I took another sip of my drink. Truth be told, the Kamina part of me wanted to hop into the conversation and tell them that they both worked for me now. But I wasn't just Kamina. Hell, I was barely him. I had a copy of his body, which came with all of his abilities, and I was even using his name. But that was all. Neither his personality nor his memories were included.

At least, it shouldn't have. There were some muscle memories and I occasionally got impulses that matched what I knew of the original Kamina. The muscle memory I could chalk up as being related to my new skills. The impulses were less clear. Was it some residual personality? Was it also related to his abilities? Was it related to the Spiral Power? I still hadn't figured that out properly. I was pretty sure I'd have to actually push myself to tap into it, and it just hadn't come up yet.

Which did make the idea of trying to conquer Junior by force tempting, if only to experiment, but that didn't appeal to me at all. Creating a safe-ish situation to tap into a power like that… if it even worked, it would've been unsatisfying. And satisfying my own desires was my number one priority.

There was also the chance that these impulses weren't from Kamina at all. They could just be a combination of me finally letting loose like I've always wanted, or it was all just in my head and I was tricking myself into acting more like Kamina since I was actually trying to emulate him, to a degree at least.

Or they could even just be from the Pirate Heritage. The root Perk gave me a benefit when putting on a show and acting like a proper pirate, rewarding boldness by tipping the scales in my favor. The urges I was feeling could easily be the mantle of the Pirate that I had taken on, urging me to act the part.

Whatever the reason, I was glad for it. I could feel the way leaning into it was helpful, the way it drove me forward. It was like steering a ship onto a current. It gave me a force and weight behind my actions that was almost tangible.

Or maybe I was imagining that too. Time would tell.

"So… Junior," Yoko said, pulling me from my thoughts. "Do you just want him for his gang, or should we look into getting a larger bed? He's a pretty big guy."

It was my turn to roll my eyes. "I'm not interested in having sex with him, don't worry about that. Just the female members of the crew. But I'll capture capable men as well, especially when they already lead criminal organizations that I can just absorb wholesale. Besides, every man needs some bros to hang out with."

"And they don't get any of the girls, I assume," Yoko said, tone slightly amused.

"If they get horny, they can go purchase a night with a prostitute," I replied firmly. "All women in the crew are mine."

Yoko smiled and pressed herself closer to me. "You're quite the greedy one, aren't you?" she asked, her voice just a little husky.

I reached down and grabbed her ass. "The greediest," I agreed.

She looked up at me for a moment, hunger and desire in her eyes, but she blinked and shook her head, stepping back away. I let her do so, taking my hand off of her plump backside. "You're a dangerous man, Kamina. I almost forgot we were in a public place."

"And you're a tease," I replied, taking a sip of my drink. "But I'm patient, I can wait until we get back home."

She smiled at me, and she was so damn cute while doing so. "I look forward to it," she promised.

I almost changed my entire plan right then and there so I could throw her over my shoulder, take her back home, and spend the next day or two fucking her brains out. But logic won over horny, this time at least, so I refrained.

From the smug look on her face, I could tell that she knew exactly what effect her words had on me. But she pretended like she didn't as she shifted back to our earlier conversation. "Alright, so we're escalating from stealing from a gang, to stealing the gang out right. Why? They don't exactly seem all that useful."

"In a fight? No, most of his men aren't useful for us," I agreed. "But a gang is a gang. It means having mooks of our own to do the busy work and simple labor, and it means connections to other criminal elements. And money, lots of money."

Yoko considered that for a moment before nodding, accepting my point. "Fair. So, not a fighting force."

"Not entirely," I said. "The twins are decent fighters." I paused. "Well, they're better than the mooks. Mostly because of one simple thing: Aura." She tilted her head and looked at me, question clear. "I told you about Grimm and Hunters, right?"

"Shadowy monsters that feed on negative emotions and the warriors that fight them, yeah," she replies. "What about them?"

"Well, in this world, there's a shared power called Aura," I explain. "It's not complicated, but it basically acts as a shield and a strength enhancer. And eventually, you unlock what is called a Semblance, a personal and unique super power. These can be as simple as making you stronger the more damage you take, or get as complicated as an entire glyph based magic system."

Yoko sighed. "Sounds fantastical, but sure, I get it. So they've got Aura."

"That's right. Aura is mostly used by Hunters, and between that and Dust they can get an edge over the Grimm. But there are a number of less savory individuals who have access to it. Individuals such as those four, and Neo too. And better yet, a person with Aura can unlock the Aura of someone else. Which would give both of us a significant power boost."

"So by taking over Junior's gang we get a superpower, minions, and money?" Yoko summarized. She took another sip of her drink. "Hmm. Pretty good deal. So what's the plan?"

"It's pretty basic," I said. "I've got a few armlets in my pocket. We introduce ourselves as new criminal independents, moved here from Mistral. Mistral has a pretty intense and competitive criminal scene, so it's not hard to believe that we came here fleeing that. We play nice with him, promise to play by his rules and not step on any toes, and we give him a gift."

"An armlet," Yoko realized, her eyes widening. "But what are the chances that he actually puts it on? It's a weird gift."

"Normally it would be little to none," I admitted. "But that's why I got the Jewels of Discord upgrade for them." The upgrade let me make any single armlet 'desirable'. Anyone who I was going after who saw it would want to wear it. It also upgraded all of my armlets so that once they were on, the target wouldn't question it or notice it. If they did try to take it off they would fail to do so and not even realize it.

Then it was just a matter of waiting seven days, less if I did something to help it along, until they were considered mine completely. It wasn't exactly the most exciting way to gather a crew, but I had to make allowances for the early growing stages. I could have more fun once I had more power.

"Smart plan, I'm impressed," Yoko admitted. "Sounds like tonight will be easy then."

Just then, the front doors to the club slid open, and in stepped a familiar figure, head topped with long locks of golden yellow hair.

I sighed. "You just had to jinx us," I said.

"Huh?" Yoko asked, confused as she looked around. "What do you mean?"

I watched as Roman left, leaving Junior free to walk over to the bar. Yang spotted him as well, and headed straight for him. "Blondie over there is about to make things… messy."

I knew this event. It wasn't part of the show, technically, but I remembered watching the final trailer for the show, the Yellow trailer that introduced Yang. And in a few seconds, my chance to talk to Junior tonight was going to disappear.

I knew this was a risk when I decided to come to the club, but I had no way of knowing when this happened, and I figured the chances of it happening while I was here was pretty low.

I probably should have known better.

But I could improvise, and I could still achieve my objectives tonight. I reached into my pocket , pulled out two armbands, and pushed them into Yoko's hands. "She's about to start a fight. Once she does, go find a hiding spot near the walls, close to the dance floor. Once she knocks out the twins, sneak close to them and slap an armlet on them."

"Understood," Yoko replied, taking the armlets and putting them in her jacket pockets. Her face was serious, in full combat mode, and I appreciated that she could switch so quickly like that. "What are you going to be doing?"

"Running distraction," I replied. "And seeing if I can't get a bonus from this mess."

Things quickly unfolded just as they had in the Yellow trailer. Yang talked to Junior for a bit before she crushed his balls as she demanded he tell her everything he knew about the woman in the picture she showed him.

It was direct, ruthless, and violent.

Truly she was a girl after my own heart.

As expected, she punched Junior into a wall and things devolved into a fight. Most of the other patrons fled as Yang started blasting through Junior's mooks while he himself got to his feet and presumably went to get his weapon.

No one noticed as Yoko and I calmly remained at the bar, unconcerned about the sudden violence.

When the mooks fell and Melanie and Miltia made their appearance, I nudged Yoko. "Go. Don't be seen, and don't worry about anything other than getting the arm bands around them. I'll settle for just one of them too. But more than any of that, stay safe."

She gave me a wink. "Don't worry, I'll get it done."

I watched as she slipped away, sticking to the outskirts of the dance floor as Yang took on the twins. Despite not being in Beacon yet, Yang was more than a match for the two, even outnumbered. Miltia fell quickly, punched clear through one of the massive glass pillars that surrounded the dance floors.

I spotted a flash of red as Yoko approached the girl, who wasn't getting up, and slipped the armlet onto her unconscious body. Neither Yang nor Melanie noticed, too focused on their fight.

I grabbed an abandoned drink on the bar and started sipping from it as I watched how the rest of the fight played out. Seeing the fight in person was much different from seeing it animated. They moved a lot faster, for one, and there wasn't a camera giving me the perfect angle on every moment. But it felt more impressive, seeing it 'raw', and it really sunk in just how strong Huntsmen were.

My body and skills were rated at T5, the same as Yang and Melanie. But, as I watched Yang deliver the final blow to Melanie, a brutal kick that knocked her out cold, I figured I would stand just as much of a chance against Yang in a fight as Melanie did. There was plenty of space within 'T5' for stronger and weaker foes, and aura provided a durability I didn't have. Yet.

Junior finally showed back up after Melanie was knocked out, having retrieved his mecha-shift weapon, a combination rocket launcher and baseball bat. It was neat in the same way that most mecha-shift weapons were, and I wanted one for myself, but not that one. I had my eyes on a much more suitable prize.

Yang and Junior brawled it out, but unfortunately their fight remained on the dance floor, too close to Melanie's unconscious form for Yoko to grab. I spotted her behind one of the pillars, watching the fight and waiting for her chance. I made eye contact with her and shook my head, advising her to wait. She nodded and turned her attention back to the fight, ready to move if she needed to.

She got her chance soon. Yang's rage spiked as Junior accidentally pulled a few strands of her hair out when she knocked him away. She used that rage to literally catch fire and deliver a devastating punch to Junior.

Things diverged slightly from what I knew though. Normally, her punch would send him out the window and onto the street. But instead, Junior's body flew straight into the bar, destroying a large chunk of it as he was embedded into the solid metal just six feet from me.

I took a sip of my drink and looked at him with a grin, not even having flinched. I had plenty of time to see him coming after all, and this was convenient for me, because Yang couldn't help but notice me now that her attention had been drawn over here.

And with Yoko behind her, needing to get close to Melanie, my role became clear, so I made eye contact with Yang and smiled at her.

Yang's eyes, her irises red from the use of her berserker Semblance, narrowed and she strode towards me. "You up next, punk?" she asked, a feral grin on her face. "I'll take on any of Junior's goons."

"I don't work for Junior," I corrected her. "I'm just an innocent civilian who wanted a drink." I took another sip of my pilfered drink, draining it.

She snorted, seemingly not believing me, but her eyes had gone back to their normal purple color, so she was probably calming down. "If you're so innocent, then why didn't you run like the others?" she asked.

"What can I say, I guess I just like playing with fire," I reply with a grin. "And you are quite the firecracker, aren't you?"

Behind her, I saw Yoko dart onto the dance floor and head for Melanie. But I avoided looking at her directly, or else risk making Yang think there was something going on behind her.

Yang raised an eyebrow at me. "Are you seriously flirting with me after seeing what I did to those guys?" she asked, indicating Junior's prone form.

I shrugged. "I'm into badass women." Yoko was next to Melanie now, putting the armband on her, so I kept talking to keep her distracted. "What did he do to deserve that anyway?" I asked.

Yang was completely relaxed now, willing to buy that I wasn't a threat. "Eh, he didn't have the information I wanted. Besides, he's a criminal, even if the police don't have the evidence to prove it. He got what he deserved."

"What information is that then?" I ask, a vague plan forming in my mind. "If it's something you were coming to Junior for, I might know it."

Yang raised an eyebrow. "And if you don't and I decide to take my frustration out on you as well?" she asked.

"Then I'll have to give you a good spanking and put you in your place," I bluffed with a cocky grin. Behind her, Yoko darted off the dance floor and out of sight, but I had already moved on to a new objective.

"Don't threaten me with a good time," Yang retorted with a grin as she sauntered towards me. Her shotgun gauntlets clicked as they shifted out of combat mode and she pulled her scroll out from between her boobs. My eyes were, of course, drawn to her cleavage, which Yang noticed. But she just winked at me before opening the scroll and showing me a picture.

"I want to know where this woman is," she said, and suddenly there was an edge to her tone that hadn't been present before. A hint of seriousness in her otherwise carefree demeanor.

I looked at the photo, and looking back at me was the unmistakable face of Raven Branwen, Yang's mother. It was an older photo, and Raven did not look happy to be photographed, considering the glare she was giving the camera. But it was her in a white dress. A wedding dress? No, not fancy enough, and I was pretty sure she never married Yang's father. And she was too young in the picture for that. Some kind of school ball then, from when she attended Beacon.

"You recognize her," Yang said, tone now much more serious.

"Sure do," I admit.

Yang's gaze intensified and she put away her scroll. "Then you know where she is?"

I shrugged. "Only vaguely. Her little tribe is nomadic, so pinning down an exact location isn't easy, but I know the rough area she operates from."

Yang's eyebrows crease in confusion. "What do you mean tribe?"

I grinned. "Oh? Do you not even know who the woman you're looking for is?" I asked. "That's Raven Branwen, leader of a bandit tribe that operates on Anima, west of Mistral, pillaging towns and waylaying travelers."

Yang's eyes widened and I saw a few different emotions flicker over her face before she masked her expression. "Of course I knew that," she lied. "Why else would I be looking for her?"

I raised an eyebrow but decided not to push it. "Well, I don't have an exact location right now but I can put out some feelers, try to track her down. It's gonna cost you though."

Yang's eyes narrowed. "Oh, I'm sure it will. You know how many people like you have given me bogus information for a ridiculous price?"

"Which is why I'm not asking for a price up front," I pointed out. "Even though it'll cost me money to hire people to go looking for her. But business is business, and I'm not gonna do something for nothing. And as much as I don't want to get my balls crushed, it'd cost me less to buy new cyber balls than to track her down."

She didn't look pleased at my logic, but it was enough to get her to back down some. She clicked her tongue. "Fine. How much do you need?"

"For you?" I said. "I'll only ask for the actual costs of finding her. Shouldn't be too hard. A few hundred thousand Lien, maybe?"

"A few hundred-" she said, eyes widening. Lien was closer to Yen in value than it was USD, but that was still not the kind of money a Huntress in training would have. A Huntress, maybe, but she wasn't one of those yet, and couldn't take on Hunting jobs.

It was also a bullshit number I pulled out of my ass. I had no idea how much it would cost to track down a bandit tribe on another continent. It certainly wasn't going to cost me that much, but I had methods and knowledge that no one else could have.

But my desire to find her was genuine. She was a key part of my Master Plan after all.

Before Yang could gather her wits again, I started placating her. "Look, look, I realize that that's a lot of money, so I'm willing to haggle. Maybe we could trade favors. But we can figure out the details later. It's not a good idea to stick around here too long."

As if on cue, the faint sound of sirens pierced through the club's walls, signaling the approach of the police.

Yang clicked her tongue. As much as she didn't seem to have any moral compunctions about busting up the place, she wasn't an idiot and knew that it was something she'd get in trouble for. "Fine. What's your scroll number?"

Thankfully Yoko and I had gotten ourselves scrolls when we went shopping the other day, so I recited the number of that scroll and she punched it into her own scroll.

The sirens were getting louder, which meant they were closer. "You'll hear from me soon," Yang said with a wink, her serious expression once again hidden behind a mask of carefreeness. Then she took off, heading for a back door so she could escape without being spotted.

Yoko walked up to me a moment later. "We good?" she asked.

I grinned. "Oh yes, that went perfectly. Let's slap an armlet on Junior as well and then leave. I don't want to spend my night talking to the cops."

I put my third armlet around the arm of the unconscious Junior, and then Yoko and I left the same way Yang did.

We made our way through some back alleys before getting back on the main street a few blocks away from the club, which was now surrounded by flashing sirens and concerned citizens.

As we walked back home, Yoko spoke up. "You didn't get a chance to capture Blondie?" she asked.

"Hmm, I might have been able to, but decided not to," I said.

Yoko raised an eyebrow. "What, was she not to your tastes after all? Did the ball crushing put you off?"

I laughed, the sound of it echoing along the relatively empty street. "No, she's definitely to my tastes" I said. "Just tricking her into wearing the armlet… it felt so boring." I shook my head. "There's no rush on capturing her for the plan, so I decided I want to have a bit of fun with it. Really enjoy the hunt, you know? See if I can get a love confession out of her, or at least fuck her before I capture her."

Yoko snorted. "I should have guessed that."

My grin grew wider. "You really should have. And speaking of fucking…" I pulled her close to me as we walked, my hand on her ass as I leaned down to whisper in her ear. "You did a good job Yoko, and good work deserves a good reward. So tonight, I'm going to get Sticky Fingers, and I'm not going to let you sleep until the sun comes back up."

Yoko shivered and blushed, but she looked pleased. "Well then… we better hurry home."

I let go of her so we could rush home, just a few blocks away. I didn't have the Credits for Sticky Fingers, which would bring my bedroom skills to an almost supernatural level, but with three T5's lined up to be captured in a week, I could afford a small loan without worry.

Rewarding Yoko for a job well done was worth it.

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AN: Fun fact, I actually made the Master Plan diagram/map/flowchart shortly before writing this chapter. Kamina has big plans for RWBY, but the path there won't be easy. But no heist worth its salt is. And no I won't be sharing it. It has spoilers, obviously.

I wasn't entirely sure how much Yang knew about her mother, but considering how later reveals went, I decided to go with the interpretation that she knew Qrow was her mother's brother, probably knew her name, knew they were all teammates, and that she left after giving birth to Yang. Nothing of her actual history or personality.