The forest of Mistral was, for the most part, its usual quiet and still landscape bathed in the light of the noonday sun, but from one clearing could be heard the sounds of exertion and occasional impact of metal with the ground that came with the training rituals of huntsmen. Team SBNZ, all in a row, were each rhythmically swinging their designated weapons in the patterns set for them by Melantha Aulnoy, who observed the four and monitored their technique as she addressed them.
"Your aura will be strengthened by all the passions, but temperance and discipline will make it efficient. Put all you have into each blow, but don't waste any energy you don't have to."
The three with larger melee weapons continued to heave them through the drill, fatigue beginning to take its course as they continually struck along different lines with what power they could muster, while Beril continued to punch the air in a similar yet adjusted drill made for her. The four knew Laura and Conailte were also observing from behind until they all felt Conailte stand and walk in front of them.
"Let's give the four of you a quick test." The man announced. "My semblance means any impact either bounces off me or sends me bouncing off in the other direction. I'm not hurt either way, so let's see if you can all hit hard enough to send me away." He walked in front of Sophie first. "Start the drill from the top. It might be harder one-handed, but that's the price of dual-wield."
The leader was hesitant, but brought her dual swords to position and did as he instructed. The first hit flew right back from once it came as it made contact with the huntsman, delaying the second as she was forced to readjust to her ready position, only for the pattern to repeat with her second strike, this time sending her stumbling back.
"I don't think we can pass that test," Phoenix commented with labored breath. "Even if we were doing it right, you're fully trained and so much bigger that we'd have the same results no matter what."
"That might just be true," Conailte noted. "But that's no reason not to train against it. If you challenge yourself with the worst you can handle, the effort you learn to put in will be all the more effective against something closer to your own level." The ginger turned back to Sophie. "Keep trying with every hit in the drill. Then it's Beril's turn."
Melantha continued to observe the four until her scroll buzzed. As she brought it out of her pocket, she looked to Laura, who gave her a nod as she flew to her position.
"I'll keep watching them while you answer. They won't need a new drill until Conailte's done, anyhow."
Melantha nodded and walked into the trees to take the call as Laura turned back to the students. For a first drill, they were doing rather well, and Sophie completed her drill against Conailte, albeit with her weapons bouncing off him every time. Dual swords did complicate the matter somewhat, trading power for the defensive utility of the second blade, but that only meant that training to become a more powerful striker would benefit her all the more. Beril, though lacking a melee weapon, was coming along nicely in her punching, as Noll and Phoenix continued their own drills while Beril struck Conailte.
Laura knew, however, that no amount of training truly compared to taking a full mission, and hoped that Melantha's call would be one they could bring the kids along for: something that would do a lot of good and have some difficulty to it, while also being simple enough as to allow SBNZ to do some work of their own.
As if on cue, Melantha returned from the treeline and approached her. "I just got a case in the next town over. If you and Conailte can take over here, I'll get to work. I'll call if I need backup."
"Actually, I was thinking about bringing them along," Laura responded. "Watching a huntress at work could be good for them, and if you need help, letting them provide it is worth a lot more than drills."
Melantha turned to look at the four students, then back to Laura. "You and Conailte can make sure they don't touch anything they shouldn't."
Laura nodded, then turned to Team SBNZ. "All of you, take a rest. Melantha's on the case, and all of us are going with her to help."
"Is this our first mission?" An exasperated Beril asked. "Hopefully we get to catch a bad guy."
"It's a possibility," Melantha answered. "But remember: you four are working with the three of us, which means you follow all the rules we do. Which means you do. Not. Kill. If worse comes to worst, you let them get away, and one of us will take over."
"Don't huntsmen kill when necessary?" Noll asked.
"It's never necessary if you're good enough at the job," Conailte answered. "If you can't agree to her terms, I'll keep drilling you all here."
"We agree to them." Sophie stepped forward, turning to Laura. "Lead the way."
The call of duty didn't take Melantha or those who accompanied her very far at all- only to the nearest town, a town not quite bustling but not quite quaint either, the sort of settlement that would be out of place anywhere else but Mistral with its blend of modern conveniences and traditional architecture. The two teams ceased to wander its streets as they arrived before one of the larger residences of the area, convenient to many of the hottest local shops and essentials. Evidently, the family was well-off, and Melantha deduced that the head of the household might have owned one of the nearby businesses to be able to afford such a nice-looking house in such prime real estate.
As the huntsmen and the students approached the door, it opened before any could knock, revealing a middle-aged woman with worry strewn across her face.
"Who are you people?" The woman questioned.
Melantha raised a hand to reassure her. "I'm Melantha. You're Mrs. Picto?"
The woman's expression softened before answering. "Yes, I am. Who are these people with you?"
"They're my huntsman team and some students we're training. Just some extra sets of eyes, ma'am."
With a nod, the woman opened the door wider. "Here, let's talk inside."
The party entered the abode, and as Melantha started glancing about the place, she asked the woman a question. "Is the father here, too?"
"No, he's at work." Came the swift response. "He runs a business selling custom weapons, but he'll be back this evening if you'd like to speak with him."
"We'll see if that's necessary." The detective mused. "Can I search her bedroom?"
"Of course." The mother answered. "I don't know what you'll find that helps, but do please try not to make a mess."
Melantha nodded as the mother led the party to the daughter's bedroom. As they entered and the mother left, Noll looked to Melantha. "So we're looking for her missing daughter?"
"Her daughter isn't missing." Melantha corrected. "Bae Picto's out with friends right now. The mother has a suspicion that her friends aren't the right crowd, and we're looking for anything that can help confirm or deny that suspicion. The rest of you look around, but don't touch anything. I'll handle any evidence myself."
The bedroom had all the trappings of the living space any teenage girl would have, with pink walls and white furniture adorned with posters, string lights, and printed photographs. It was also quite a mess, and as Melantha got to work checking some of the more common hiding places like the pillowcases and the underside of the mattress, the rest of the party scanned through the mess while obeying Melantha's instructions not to touch anything. Quickly, Phoenix spotted a matchbook on the back-left corner of the white desk.
"I don't know many people who keep matchbooks in their room." Phoenix pointed out. Melantha stopped what she was doing to investigate what Phoenix had found, opening the matchbook to find the logo of a bar called The Grey on the reverse side.
"The Grey," Melantha read aloud. "Do any of you know where that is?"
"From what I've heard, it's on the shady side of town." Noll responded before pulling out his scroll. "I can look up the directions while you keep looking around."
"I don't know how much more we'll find here. If we don't find anything else, that's the only lead we can follow." Melantha got back to searching, and finding nothing, left the room. As the party followed her to the door, Melantha spoke to the woman of the house. "We're going to go looking someplace. We'll be back if we have anything to report."
The woman nodded and opened the door for them, and the group left together for The Grey.
If every stereotype of a bar as a hive of scum and villainy coalesced into one singular real-world analog, Noll was sure that The Grey would be the result. Even from the outside, the building- made exclusively of concrete with corkboard windows- had all the charm of a leper, and the people within certainly weren't the sort to be up to any good. If Bae and her friends hung out here, that should have been all the evidence Mrs. Picto needed, but of course Melantha's investigation would be more thorough than that.
As the group entered, he noticed that Melantha and Beril were surprisingly undisturbed by what they saw around them. Then again, with Melantha being a detective and Beril being a former bandit, perhaps they'd both seen too much for this to be anything jarring to them. Noll grabbed Phoenix's hand, and she grabbed his even tighter in response as they walked through a crowd of the sort of unseemly gentlemen one would only expect to see in a cartoon, drinks in hand and cards close to the chest at a variety of tables.
Melantha didn't stop to look around, however, as she marched straight to the bartender, flanked by Conailte posturing as her muscle. Melantha was the stronger of the two, of course, but Conailte was the more physically imposing and intimidating figure that would ideally keep the ensuing interrogation more civilized.
"Melantha Aulnoy, huntress and contract investigator." The black-clad girl introduced herself as the bartender looked up from his work. "You get a customer here that looks like an upper-class girl with some friends?"
"Doesn't sound like the type that comes by here." The man answered flatly while rinsing a used glass. "I think someone was just assuming the worst, pretty easy to pawn things off on this place sometimes."
"So the book of matches on her bedroom desk came from the sky, is that it?" The woman narrowed her eyes, and the bartender sighed.
"Alright, yeah, she comes by here. She ain't a bad customer, but if I could kick her friends to the curb I would."
"We're looking into those friends of hers. If you know anything about them, we might be able to solve your problem."
"Most of them are nobodies, it's Melone that's the big problem. Tough guy, sticks out like a sore thumb with all that neon green all over him. Bae's got her eye on him, and the others follow him because he's got their attention. Got quite the tab going too, next round's on me if you can shake him down for it while you're lookin' into whatever this is. Lives down in the southeast, right next to the last fuel station before you leave town."
"Do you catch many of their conversations here?" Melantha asked as she jotted down his last piece of information in a notebook.
"Honestly, they've been pretty hush-hush. Like they don't want me to hear, and it worked. They're probably talking more in private, maybe passing notes on the streets."
"We'll keep that in mind." Melantha tipped her hat to the man. "Thank you for your time, sir."
"Eh, most pleasant talk I've had all day." The bartender got back to his work as the group vacated the bar, and Noll hoped they wouldn't have to return.
Melantha stepped up to the door and looked around, making sure no one outside the group saw her, before gripping the doorknob. She activated her semblance, dissolving it into smoke to clear the deadbolt before opening the door, closing it and reforming the knob on the other side. Melantha glanced around the room, immediately noticing the litter in every corner. Her eyes fell on a notepad, with a piece of paper obviously ripped from the top and a pencil nearby. Some criminals had caught on to the transmission monitoring that various police had been using for a while, and had tried to use pencil and paper as a substitute to deliver messages discreetly. As long as you got rid of the evidence afterward, it was a lot better, but Melantha knew this wasn't good enough. She took the pencil and lightly traced along the surface of the paper, the indent of the previous letters' writings remaining unmarked and fully legible.
Got the Picto girl in, she'll do the heavy lifting. Her parents shouldn't suspect a thing. She pulls out the gun at 18:00 on Monday, the parents give her the money, you're there at 18:15 with the getaway. We're rich men if you don't screw this up, Sinn. -Melone
Melantha quickly glanced at her watch. If they were fast enough, Mrs. Picto would be thanking her lucky stars that she'd called them today of all days, but only if they hurried.
Melantha rushed to the front door, sliding under it once more with her semblance, and reformed in front of the group at the sidewalk.
"We need to go to the Pictos'." Melantha ordered.
"What's going on?" Laura asked worriedly.
"Melone's using Bei to get to the family fortune, he's making her rob her own parents."
"Hey, what are friends for?" Conailte shrugged before chuckling slightly.
"The heist goes down in twenty minutes." Melantha added. She turned towards an oncoming figure a few yards down the road, one who just so happened to match a particular description of green hair with a green jacket and black pants. She yelled out to him, "Excuse me, sir, are you Melone Amaranth?"
"Yeah, who's askin'?" The man scowled. Melantha narrowed her eyes.
"Melantha Aulnoy, huntress and contract investigator. Put your hands where I can see them, Amaranth."
Melone's scowl turned into a look of panic as he quickly got into the nearest car, which was being actively being refueled at the station as Melone pulled the owner and the nozzle away from the vehicle, taking the wheel and driving off down the road.
"Conailte, you take Sophie and Beril and follow him." Laura quickly ordered. "Melantha and I will go to the Picto's to stop the robbery, Noll and Phoenix will come with."
"On it." Conailte answered, quickly bouncing after Melone's car while Sophie and Beril got running behind him. Melantha ran over to the next car she saw, stopping the woman who was about to enter it by flashing her police badge.
"Police business, ma'am, I'll bring it back as soon as I can." The woman stepped away with her hands up, and the four quickly entered the vehicle before driving off towards the Picto residence.
Conailte led the pack, rapidly catching up to Melone's stolen car as Sophie and Beril trailed behind, both lacking the speed the huntsman's semblance afforded him but still nonetheless able to utilize their aura to greatly enhance their pace. As Conailte caught up to the vehicle, he grabbed onto the driver side's rear-view mirror and knocked, running along the ground at roughly the vehicle's own speed as he addressed the lowlife.
"You know, I caught up to a taxi like this once, of course then I realized I didn't need the taxi if I could catch it that easily."
The driver had no response, instead trying to swerve and get him off, until desperation drove him to the only method that worked: skimming an incoming truck that scraped the huntsman off the vehicle, tearing off the mirror and much of the car's left side as the ginger went with the flow of the accident before bouncing back off the ground and towards the runaway car, Sophie and Beril much closer now but still lagging behind.
The car drove straight into a garage as Melone jumped out before it collided with the far wall. Conailte entered the building the next moment, looking down at Melone as he staggered to his feet and Sophie and Beril entered as well. The three soon noticed Melone wasn't alone, however, as several more punks emerged from whatever tasks they'd been up to and came armed to Melone's aid.
"Remember what we told you," Conailte spoke behind him to the girls. "I can catch any runners, you let them get away if you can't take them down cleanly. And keep yourselves safe."
Melantha drove with the speed and finesse of a racecar driver, a set of skills she had learned in training as a police detective as she weaved through the roads and cars of the town at breakneck speeds that shook the vehicle itself. She only slowed down soon enough to come to a clean stop at their destination, the Picto's house, where Melantha parked the car.
"Phoenix, you come inside with me so we can stop the robbery." Laura ordered as she swiftly exited the vehicle, shaking her wings after the jostling ride and rushing to the front door. The younger girl followed, and Noll watched them go as he spoke to Melantha.
"So what are you and I doing?"
"We're waiting here and trying to find the getaway driver." Melantha answered. "Act natural, these tinted windows don't mean he won't see us looking for something."
Noll sat back in his seat, shoulders lowered as he scanned the surroundings. "You know, my family are all peaceful. They won't just not kill, they won't even fight."
"And you're not like them?"
"They need me not to be. If something or someone comes after them, or anybody else, somebody needs to be the one to do something." Anticipating a possible response, he added, "I appreciate them having that kind of conviction. But I need to get my hands dirty so they and people like them don't have to."
"That's very noble of you." The detective responded. "Personally, I never thought being harmless made you a good person."
"But you never kill?"
"Not anymore."
The response shook Noll for a moment. As he gathered himself, he saw another girl go into the Picto's house, and hoped Phoenix would be okay with Laura, before turning back to the conversation to try and look more natural. "What do you mean, 'not anymore?' Did you get the wrong guy or something?"
The woman shook her head. "I wasn't always on this side of the law, Noll. Little orphan Melantha got into trouble in Mantle- self-defense, gang wars, one time just because they caught me stealing. When I was twelve, it all caught up to me, and I got cornered by some gangsters that had gotten tired of me. I should have died that night."
"But what happened instead?"
"A detective got into a shootout with the gangsters, and got me to the hospital. After that, he raised me to be better, gave me a second chance." The girl turned to Noll, a fire in her eyes. "That's why I never kill and trained to be strong enough to never have to. Because any one of them can make the same change I did." After some silence in the car, Melantha looked back towards the Picto's house. "I'm not hearing anything. Laura must be doing well."
"Doing well fighting Bae? She didn't look like much."
"Fighting isn't Laura's modus operandi," Melantha noted. "She's talking her out of this."
Bae Picto tried to swallow the lump in her throat and take a deep breath as she forcefully opened the kitchen door, expecting only to see the parents she was about to hold at gunpoint for the modest fortune she'd been born into. She was surprised, however, to see them at the table with two other girls, one that looked about her age and the other a bird faunus who she presumed to be much younger. She wasn't anticipating that others would be in her home, and it took her a moment to gather herself enough to sputter her question.
"M-mom, dad? Who- who are these girls?"
It wasn't her parents that answered the question, but instead the smaller girl. "My name is Laura Thrush. This is Phoenix Zampella, a student of mine." Laura gestured to her companion before turning back towards Bae. "I've been a huntress for about two years now. I've seen a lot, and met a lot of people- good and bad." Laura lifted her hands to her ears. "These earrings are how I control my weapons." She explained as she removed them and placed them into a small bag, sealing it before tossing it onto the counter near Bae. "But I don't need them right now. We found the note Melone wrote to Sinn, and we told your parents what was going to happen. They stayed right here to wait for you, Bae, because they know what sort of a person you are, and I trust you just as much as they do. But I need you to trust yourself, too."
Bae stood bewildered for a moment, before drawing her weapon. "Y-you don't have any idea who I am! None of you do!"
"Would you do it, then?" Laura asked, rising from her seat and walking towards Bae. "Could you look me in the eyes and squeeze that trigger?"
Bae stepped back, despite Laura's considerably shorter stature. She brought the gun up again, trembling as she spoke. "Don't think I won't!"
"But I know you won't, Bae. And I need you to know that too. You're a good person, you can do what's right, and your parents will meet you with open arms when you stop this."
Bae kept the gun trained on Laura, but her legs turned to jelly and gave way under her, collapsing her to the ground as the gun dropped, followed swiftly by Bae's tears. The Pictos rushed from the table to wrap their arms around their daughter, as Laura stepped away and turned to Phoenix. The taller girl stood in awe, mesmerized by how Laura had singlehandedly and entirely nonviolently defused the situation, and turned an armed robbery into a family hug. The huntress smiled, turning back towards the Picto family as they sat and wept.
None of Melone's friends had very much aura at all, and their weapons ranged from wooden bats to modest firearms. Beril, however, had to lean on her hand-to-hand combat in order to not risk burning any of these mooks with her fireball launcher, while Sophie could use her twin swords to defend but had to fall back on blunt pommel strikes to safely attack the assailants- an irony which irritated both girls, who ordinarily wouldn't have wished to go easy on any of these low-lives but were ultimately beholden to the rules laid out by Conailte as he bounced throughout the building, knocking out many of the ne'er-do-wells with a single punch and reflecting any bullets, bludgeons, or blades which came at him with his semblance.
As the vandals tried to leave the building in a retreat, Conailte accelerated past all of them to block their path, continuing to punch his way through them all and incapacitate them one by one until one remained, who fell to the floor and raised his hands in surrender.
Conailte smirked at the man as he looked around to his beaten compatriots. "Surrendering suits punks like you. You all should do more of it!" He then grabbed a pair of gravity dust handcuffs and put them on the man's wrists, and gathered the other beaten criminals to tie them together as Beril made sure nobody got away and Sophie grabbed her scroll to call for a police van to pick up the thugs. Once the huntsman had all the perpetrators tied, he approached the two girls.
"The police van is on the way," Sophie told him. "How do you think the others are doing?"
"If I know my team, they're doing just fine. And you two did well too. I'm glad you both leaned on going too easy on them all instead of too hard, but hopefully with more training you can do what Melantha does and straddle that line perfectly."
"You seem to have it down to a science yourself," Beril responded. "I don't know what you even needed our help for."
"It helps when none of them can hurt me," Conailte smirked. "And it's not just about how much of the work you did, it's about the fact you worked at all. I get the feeling we're going to really enjoy bringing you along on future missions."
"You really think so?" Sophie smiled.
Conailte nodded as the three of them heard the police vans arrive, and as the police started hauling away the scum, he turned to the pair. "Let's head back to the Pictos', whether they need us or not."
Melantha noticed a car pull up on the opposite side of the road, about a minute later than the note had told Sinn to arrive. It was a relentlessly average-looking vehicle, likely a deliberate decision to avoid unwanted attention.
"Let's see if that's our man. Keep your weapon holstered- we don't want to scare him off." The two got out of the car and crossed the road, Melantha walking with slightly less dignity than usual. Noll wondered what was wrong, but thought it best not to question her methods. The girl arrived at the car's window and knocked, and the man inside opened it as Melantha greeted him in a surprisingly friendly- perhaps even a bit ditzy- tone of voice. "Hey, I'm here for a delivery, is your name David?"
"Uh, no, sorry, I'm Sinn." The man responded.
Melantha's demeanor returned to normal as she responded. "The man from Melone's note, huh?"
The man looked puzzled, but quickly put the pieces together in his mind. Before Sinn could drive off, Melantha's giant sword appeared between himself and the windshield, threatening to guillotine him if he put the pedal to the metal. He felt the huntress grab him with strength that belied her size and drag him straight through the car door, ripping it off the hinges as it slid along the ground with him on top of it. Before he could get up, Melantha pinned him to the door and placed a set of handcuffs on his wrists.
"You're under arrest as an accessory to attempted robbery," the huntress declared before lifting him to his feet and pushing him in Noll's direction, as Noll brought out his flag and placed it through the handcuffs to restrain the man. Melantha pulled out her scroll and quickly made a call. "This is Detective Aulnoy, badge eight-two-seven-two-four. We need a car at the Picto residence for pickup."
At the same time as the police car arrived, Conailte, Sophie, and Beril returned from their own fight, and Laura and Phoenix left the house to meet the rest of the party.
"Now," Laura began. "How did you all feel about this first mission?"
"I've never wanted to be a huntress more than I did today," Sophie answered quickly. The statement was met with agreement from the rest of SBNZ, and it was Phoenix who spoke next.
"I want to learn how to do what you did, talking Bae out of doing it. I've never seen diplomacy work that well."
"I can certainly teach you." Laura smiled, before turning to Melantha. "She'll give you your finders' fee, but I rejected any further reward. The husband was insistent, though, and he gave us all a lifetime promotion at his store. If we see something we like, it's ours."
"I think I'm fine with Two-Step Goodbye," Conailte answered. "You two looking to trade in Birdsong or Reticent Tempest?"
"Not a chance," Melantha smirked.
"Team SBNZ is entitled to the same," Laura noted, turning to the students. "If any of you ever want adjustments to your weapons or new weapons altogether, we can come back here."
"Sounds good to me!" Beril cheered. "By the way, this counted for the rest of today's training, right?"
Conailte smirked at the girl as he crossed his arms. "What do you think?"