Nocturnal Adventures & hostile encounters

For most the thought that there would be anyone walking around the streets of Vale at night, especially after 2 am when most places had already closed, would have been ridiculous. The thought that two child-like being would by battling it out in an empty construction site would have been an even more ridiculous idea. However, even now as the rest of the city slept the sounds of clashing steel could be heard from within a partly constructed nightclub. The sound of fighting intensified as the two combatants continued their sparring match neither managing to get a one up on the other. They matched each other move for move blocking and parrying each other attacks while moving around the floor and stage trying to gain an advantage over the other. This continued for several more minutes until one of the combatants left a gap in their guard and with a confident smirk there opponent slashed out to take advantage of this Monterrey flaw in their defenses.

"I've got you now!" Rin shouted triumphantly swinging her halberd around to hook her opponents weapon only for them to disappear in a blur of movement.

With her opponent out of sight, Rin immediately started to search the room only to hear his voice directly behind her. "too slow," Lupin said teasingly bringing his katana down in a two handed strike which Rin managed to roll out of the way of.

Quickly getting back to her feet Rin shot Lupin an angry look "no fair! You used your agility that's cheating" she shouted with a pout.

"Said the girl currently covering herself in armor," Lupin said crossing his arms as Rin finished growing her bone armor.

"uh... W-well, you started it. Shut up" shouted a flustered Rin.

"Well, if we're going to using ability" Lupin started before using his agility to close the distance between them delivering a downward swing. "You better step up your game."

Unable to move out of the way of the blow she brought her arm up parrying the attack to the left with her armor. Then she quickly grad hold of the katanas blade with an armored hand holding it in place so Lupin couldn't attack then swung the halbert around in a low arc to sweep his feet out from under him. He jumped back forced to let go of his sword to dodge the sweep leaving him unarmed and exposed to Rin's attacks. Taking advantage of this Rin unleashed a barrage of attacks all the while making sure to keep Lupins katana, which she had dropped, out of his reach.

Now on the defensive all Lupin could do was dodge as Rin continued to attack with sweeps and Speer thrust. After narrowly avoiding another swing aimed at his body he leaped back a couple of times to get out of Rin's attack range and bate her into leaving the sword unguarded. However instead of chasing after him to close the distance, like he had hope, she remained where she was. For a full minute all ether sibling did was stare at the other neither willing to go on the attack or make a move towards the other. Then Lupin suddenly dashed foreword, at a blinding speed, grabbed the ax head shoving the weapon out of his way and delivered a powerful open palmed strike to Rin's chest knocking her back several feet away.

Know with Rin off balance and no longer in the way Lupin took the chance to retrieve his weapon from were it lay on the ground. But just before he could grab hold of it an armored tail lashed out hitting the katana and sending it sliding across the room coming to rest in front of the clubs bar. Running after his sword Lupin only spared a brief glance over his shoulder to see Rin, now fully transformed, lash out with her tail this time successfully sweeping his legs out from under him sending him falling to the ground. And before he could try to get up Rin attacked again with her tail this time using the blunt part of her stinger but Lupin was able to roll out of the way the tail impacting against the floor cracking some of the tiles. Both siblings flinched at the sound of shattering tile both having promised that they wouldn't cause any property damage if they were aloud to go out on there own.

"Uh... I-i don't think we should tell the others about this" Rin said nervously.

"I won't if you don't," said Lupin getting off the ground.

"Deal"

And with an agreement reached the battle began again with Lupin taking off using his agility to retrieve Wolfs Bane from the bar then dashing over too much slower Rin raining a number of blows on her. However, he strikes only landed on Rin's armor that was more then capable of taking any hit that he could deliver. But one part of her was just as fast as him, her tail and once again Rin strikes out with an overhead tail jab. Witch Lupin had to duck to avoid leaving him open for a spear thrust from "Armor Bane". Unable to get his sword in a position to block the attack Lupin reached out with his left hand transforming it and parrying it with his claws opening a hole in Rin's defense. And in one swift movement he let go of his sword fully transforming and slashing out with his right hand stopping just short of brushing the tips of his claws against her exposed neck. With a triumphant smirk, he was ready to claim victory when he felt something poke the back of his head and he didn't even need to look to know that Rin's stinger was pressed against the back of his head.

The smirk disappearing from his face as he let out a heavy sigh and lowered his hand "Looks like another draw."

"It was still a good fight thou, plus, were still growing," Rin said lowering her tail to rest on the ground.

Standing up Lupin couldn't help but look over his "younger" sibling knowing full well that she wasn't talking about physical growth as both of them still look the same as the day they ware born. But they had been training with each other as well as Avian and the others growing in both experience and strength. And furthermore their weapons had also changed like Avian had said with both Wolfs Bane and Armor Bane having increased sharpness, now able to harm of ghouls, witch Lupin had learned the hard way one day having cut his hand on accident. But other then that there didn't seem to by any physical changes to either weapon other then the hook on Rin Halberd making it easier for her to grab onto others weapons or armor.

However, it wouldn't be fair to say that they hadn't changed over the year although it wasn't anything one could see outside of their ghoul forms. For Rin, the forearms and hand plates of her armor had grown harder as a response to her fighting style using both her hands and forearms to block are deflect blows that get past her halberd. And the faint trace of new red marks had started to appear on her chest plate and tail armor along with the design on her mask spreading out and taking on a vine pattern. As for Lupin the red marks on his mask had also changed turning a darker shade of crimson and spread out to cover more of his mask along with the pattern changing to slightly resemble cracks. Finally ending with his teeth becoming more sharp and serrated and his hair would turn black instead of remaining silver when he transformed.

"Yeah, I guess your right," Lupin said changing back to human form and picking up Wolfs Bane.

"And don't forget next week is going to be special," Rin said excitable changing the subject transforming back as well.

Tilting his head, Lupin could only look at his sister in confusion"Whats so special about next week."

At her "older" brothers question, Rin's expressions instantly changed from excitement to shock. "I can't believe you don't know. We turn eight next week."

"Wait, that's next week!" Lupin shouted to which Rin nodded.

"Yep!" Rin said her excitement back in spades.

"Man I can't believe it," Lupin said with a mischievous smile formed on his face. "Well, technically only I'm turning eight your still going to be six."

"Aw, way to rain on my paraded" Rin said crossing her arms with a pout.

"Sorry," Lupin said with a small chuckle. "But do you know what else this means."

"We'll start to get older."

"well yes. But what I mean is now we're going to have to start going to school" said Lupin.

"Aaahhhh! Why do you keep ruining this for me!" Rin shouts in frustration throwing her arms up in the air. However after stewing for a few seconds a huge smile grew on her face as she started to giggle excitably "this is my chance to finally make some friends."

"But you already have friends."

"Yin and Yang don't count" answered Rin.

"Fair enough but what about me" ask Lupin.

"You don't count either."

"Ouch, now that hurt," Lupin said clutching his stomach in faux pain as if he'd been punched to which Rin rolled her eyes. "Anyway we still have five hours before sunup what else do you want to do."

"Can we get some coffee?" ask Rin having recently discovered she could taste coffee and was practically addicted to the stuff.

"First of all no one is going to be selling coffee at 2 AM, especially to children. Plus, I can't even taste the stuff it's just hot brown water to me."

"Well, it's not my fault you can't taste coffee. Plus, there isn't anything else we can do" Rin said in a huff.

"Well we could head a little further downtown and meet up with the twins and hang out with them for a while" Lupin suggested. "Maybe tag along for that urban exploration stuff that they do."

"You mean that thing where you walk around in old abandon building," Rin said tilting her head in thought before giving a small nod. "Sure, that sounds fun. Let go."

"Alright then."

And with weapons in hand the two siblings left the unfinished nightclub exiting through the back and into an alleyway where they hid Rin's weapon case. Walking over to kneeling down Rin flipping open the latches opening the case and pulling out the scabbard to Lupins sword and handing it over to him before placing her own weapon in and closing it. Sheathing his sword Lupin watch as his little sister fumbled around with the case trying to pick it up and carry it with little success. With her short stature no matter how she held the case part of it would drag across the ground.

"Want some help?" ask Lupin already knowing the answer.

"N-no," she said still struggling with the case.

With a sigh, Lupin walked over to her grading ahold of the case handle taking it from her and carrying it himself while walking away.

"H-hay I can carry it myself," Rin said running after him.

"Yes you can but you've already warned out two other case so far and Avian isn't going to pay for another replacement," he said. "So until you can carry it without dragging it across the ground I'll do it for you."

"Fine."

Traveling through the city using alleyways and staying to the shadows the silver-haired sibling made their way to an abandon subway station the twins had said they would by checking out that night.

"Okay, how about this, you get one million Lien but you have to either get one of Kodiak's super strength hugs are let the twins bite you" Rin Asked.

"Which one Yin or Yang?" Lupin asked.

"Both."

"Neither then."

"Really, why?" Rin said a little disappointed.

"well, to be perfectly honest I don't think I would survive either" answered Lupin. "If I go through with the hug I might get every bone in my body crushed but if I let both Yin and Yang bite me the combination of their venom would probably go into a coma."

"Fair enough," Rin said with a shrug. "Alright, your turn."

"Let's see one million Lien but..." Lupin started before spotting the subway. "Oh, look we're here."

Spotting the subway herself Rin took off while shouting back at Lupin. "Last one there is a mangy Beowulf."

"I take offense to that" Lupin shout with a smile.

Following after his sister as she ran to the entrance of the subway Lupin saw that the security grate in front of the entrance had already been opened.

"Looks like Yin and Yang got here already," Lupin said.

Nodding in agreement Rin started climbing down the stairs into the subway. However, Lupin held back as on uneasy feeling washed over him. He couldn't tell what was causing him to hesitate, but there was a familiar scent in the air that he couldn't quite recall that made him both uneasy and alert. Furthermore, a closer look at the entrance showed that the lock that had previously held the security grate shut had been turned off with deep grooves carved into the ground along with subtle drag marks. Whoever had done this has defiantly not been the twins they would never resort to this much force to remove a lock. Part of the fun for them was to get into places that were off limits while leaving as little evidence as possible and being this sloppy went against that. But the thing that worried him the most was while he'd been standing there the sound of Rin's footsteps had suddenly stopped.

Panic started to build up as he called out to Rin only for silence to meet him. Growing even more uneasy he headed into the subway dropping both Rin's weapon case and his sword as he bounded down the stairs two at a time. Reaching the bottom, he picking up his pace running through the dimly lit underground complex passing by boarded up store fronts and weaving through turnstiles. All the while he scanned his dark surroundings for his fellow silver-maned sibling heading deeper into the subway as the familiar scent growing stronger. Finally, after stumbling through the dark, he reached the entrance to the subways platform where he found Rin standing completely petrified with a look of shock on her face. Stepping out onto the platform Lupin reached out to his sister trying to get her attention but stopped short as he saw what had Rin so frightened.

Although, most ghouls as nocturnal hunters had some degree a night vision both Silverman sibling had done very little to develop this ability, but nether had any problems seeing the horror that laid before them. Further down on the platform they could see a tall figure, unmistakeably a ghoul, and the unmoving body of a dead faunus laying in a pool of dark liquid. The ghoul was kneeling in the pool with his back to the young siblings with the sound of scraping teeth echoing off the walls as it noisily gnawed on some a bone. And the scent that had been subtly getting stronger sense entering the subway had become almost overpowering since reaching the platform.

Furthermore, the identity of that scent along with the source had become over overwhelmingly obvious to Lupin as old memoirs started to run through his mind. Memoirs of the night he was born and even older memoirs of his own death were he smelled that foul order the firsts times, it was the scent of blood. Even while the realization was hitting him, he could feel his mind starting to grow Feral, as he starting to go into a frenzy, his entire body preparing for a fight. His eye sight increased allowing him to pick up more details about his surroundings including the lifeless unseeing eye of the faunus. He also could pick up on even the smallest sounds like the continued gnawing of the man even the sound of Rin's rapid heart beat and panicked breathing. Even his sense of smell increased in strength allowing the scent of blood to flood his system even more nearly caused sensory overload. However, an almost imperceptible distressed cry from his sister snapped him from his near frenzy allowing him focus again.

Slowly reaching over Lupin tried to grab Rin's shoulder to get her attention only for her to let out a frighten squeak when he did which he had tried to hide by covering her mouth. But it was already too late the gnawing noised stop as the ghouls head perked up followed by the ghoul slowly stood and turned to face the two siblings. The ghoul stood unnaturally tall his head nearly touching the roof of the platform with arms and legs that seemed far too long for him. On both hands instead of index and middle fingers he had to long hooked claws but in his right hand he held an oversized butcher knife. He also had long greasy hair that partly hid his face but still left his unnaturally wide blood covered smile visible along with his heavily cracked bone mask.

"So, little youngling" he began speaking to himself in a gravelly voice. "you've interrupted my meal maybe I should add you to it."

"B-but you can't," Rin said. "We're also ghouls."

The smile he had disappeared as a look of surprise formed on the man's face but not at Rin statement but more of the fact she'd heard what the ghoul thought was an unspoken thought. "Ghouls," he said slowly before slowly sniff at the air for a while the smile returned to his face once he'd picked up their scent. "Yeessss, that even better." He nearly hisses before lunging at the two siblings. "Ghouls taste even better!"

In a split second, Lupin reacted stepping out in front of Rin shielding her from the attacking ghoul while bringing up his arms in a defensive manner. But instead of slashing out with his claws or the knife the ghoul instead grabbed both of Lupins arms lifting him off the ground before repeatably slamming him into the ground with enough force to crack the floor. And with several loud cracking noises searing pain enveloped Lupins chest as one or more of his ribs broke a choked scream leaving his mouth.

Snapped out of her petrified state by her brothers scream Rin immediately transformed into her ghoul form drawing her tail back for an attack. And with a determined expression on her face she launched a powerful strike with her tail intending to pierce through there attackers chess. Only to have her attack blocked by the ghoul who still holding onto Lupin swung him around the tip of her stinger embedding itself into his back, forcing another scream of pain rose from his mouth.

With a look of horror Rin quickly withdrew her tail trembling as she stared at the new wound that she'd inflicted on her brother tears started to well up in her eyes. Her trembling increasing in intensity, as thoughts of how she might have just killed her brother, Rin was about to collapse when she saw Lupin slowly turn his head to look at her.

Struggling to maintain eye contact with his sister as pain washed over him as Lupin painful filled his lung with air as he struggled to say one final word.

"R-ru...un" he choked out between pained gasps.

Unable to do anything else Rin honored her brothers last words and fled back into the underground complex transforming back to her human form as she ran. But not being one to let a particularly rare treat escape the ghoul dropped the critically injured Beowulf to chase after Rin.

However, before he could get too far a struggling Lupin had managed to get to his feet and with great effort leaped at the ghoul transforming mid-leap and digging his claws into it's back. The ghoul letting out a strange mix of scream and hiss as it reached around to grab ahold of the Beowulf clinging to it's back only for Lupin to cling on even harder. After failing to shake off his assailant, the ghoul opted to simply let himself fall onto his back letting all his weight fall onto Lupin injured chess.

Letting out another pained yell as his chest exploded in pain Lupin's vision started to blur as an unmistakable coppery taste filled his mouth. As the ghoul climbed off him with its weight no longer impeding him, he tried to take a breath only for a violent coughing fit to wash over his body with small amounts of blood escaping his mouth with every cough.

As the Beowulf laid on the ground consumed by his coughing, fit the ghoul had gotten to his feet and in one simple move delivered a powerful kick to his midsection sending him tumbling across the platform. Eventually coming to rest next to the poor faunus lying in the pool of blood around her now close enough to make out details. She appeared to be in her early to mid teens wearing a uniform of some kind with a ripped bag barely hanging onto her shoulder, it's contents scattered around the platform. She had long brown hair with a pair of rabbit ears on her head along with brown eyes staring blankly into his.

This was where his observation stopped as the ghoul once again lifting him up by the shoulder this time digging his claws into him as he did. Once fully off the ground Lupin looked up to see the ghoul pulling back the hand holding the butcher knife getting ready to deliver a powerful blow. But before it could finish him off Lupin slashed out with one of his clawed hands cutting through a good part of the ghouls forearm forcing it to drop him while letting out another screaming hiss. Falling back onto his back he didn't have much time to recover before another kick was sent into his midsection this time sending him into a wall.

Curled up into a ball another coughing fit washed over him as he watched the Ghoul, now clutching it's injured arm, slowly walked over to him stopping well out of Lupins attack range but not it's own. And once again the ghoul prepared to deliver a finishing blow it's arm fully drawn back while all Lupin could do was wait unable to take his eyes off the butcher knife.

Rin ran. She ran as fast as her short legs would allow tears falling freely from her eye at having abandoned her big brother, even if he had told her to. She ran to afraid to even look back as the sounds of struggle became distant. Even as the entrance laid in front of her light flooding down from the stairs above she felt like she couldn't run any faster. But before she could reach the steps she tripped over something that she had failed to notice in her panicked state. Even though every part of her told her to keep running, she couldn't help but look back at what had tripped her and was surprised at what she saw. She had tripped over her own weapons case with her brothers katana laying nearby.

In a panic Rin practically lunged at the case fumbling with the latches to the case fear making the processes harder than it should. After finally managing to open the case she quickly removed "Armor Bane" from it also scooping up "Wolfs Bane" before running back to the platform now hampered by the weapons. She didn't know how having the weapons would help, but having found them she couldn't just leave as her brother continued to fight.

She'd had almost made it back to the platform when an unpleasant scream echoed down the hall momentarily shaking her resolve, but she quickly shook off her doubt and step back onto the platform. Her eyes immediately fell on her brother as he laid curled up against the back wall violently coughing blood covering his mouth. Next she saw the ghoul as he slowly approached the injured Beowulf drawing back his arm to attack with the butcher knife.

With no time to lose Rin charged at the ghoul her "Armor Bane" held in front of her aimed squarely at the center of it's back. This time without anything in her way and the ghoul to preoccupied to defend its self her attack hit home the spearhead piercing all the way to the ax head. Caught off guard by this the unexpected attack the ghoul didn't even scream, at first, just froze in mid swing as Rin took advantage of the pause and threw "Wolf Bane" to her brother. However just as she had taken her eyes off the ghoul it had swung its arm around making contact with the side of Rin's head sending her flying the halberd going with her.

Lupin couldn't really say why but he refused to close his eyes or look away from his attacker instead choosing to meet his death eyes open like he had as a Grimm. However, the lost thing he had expected to see was the tip of a spear stab through the ghoul causing it to freeze up. Looking down he saw Rin toss him "Wolfs Bane" just as the ghoul swung around hitting Rin and throwing her across the platform.

In an instant, Lupin forgot his pain as his protective instincts went into overdrive finding himself on his feat sword drawn in a few seconds. With a surprisingly intimidating growl, he didn't even know he could do he ran at the ghoul using his agility to increasing the power of his attack. In one swift swing, he sliced off the arm the ghoul used to hit Rin then following it up with a quick cut across both legs bringing the ghoul to it's knees. And finally with one final shout Lupin swung "Wolfs Bane" in a wide arc cleanly cutting through the ghouls neck sending its head rolling away as its body collapsed.

Standing over the dead ghoul, Lupin watched as the it's body started to change its clawed fingers changing back to regular along with it's arms and legs shrinking down as well. Even the bone mask on its head dissolved with the hair changing from black to a surprisingly intense red. Overall, if you didn't know any better, you would think the body had belonged to any ordinary human.

However, all of this was unimportant to the Beowulf as the adrenaline from the fight started to wear off and all the started to return. Taking several painful breaths, he started to sway slightly the combination of exhaustion and blood loss started to take it toll.

"Are you going to be okay?" ask a concerned Rin.

Turning to look at Rin he gave her a weak smile. "Sure I'll be fi..." he began before suddenly collapsing once again finding himself laying in the pool of blood.

"Big brother" shouted Rin running over and kneeling next to Lupin with a worried look on her face. "W-whats wrong. How can I help?"

"Find Yin or Yang," Lupin said only for Rin to give him a confused look. "They were heading here remember, they'll be able to call Avian."

With a quick nod, Rin ran off to search for the twins leaving Lupin alone on the platform as the sound of Rins steps echoed off the walls eventually disappearing into the distance. After a while, the only sound on the platform was the sound of one painful breath after the other as Lupin waited for Rin to return with help.

At some point, Lupin had transformed back into his human form, although this had gone unnoticed by him, his thoughts have drifted over to the dead faunus. Turning over to look at the faunus he once again found himself looking into her dead empty eyes. Reaching over and shut her eye a number of questions ran through his head. Did she have any family? Did they know she was missing? Who had she been before all this? And for some reason, probably blood loss, it felt important for him to answer that last question.

He'd seen her uniform before recognizing it from one of the local combat schools which meant there was a chance that she had a school ID on her. With his vision starting to fade in and out, Lupin scanned his dark surroundings and after a minute spotted what looked an ID card a little off to his left. With a shaky hand, he grabbed ahold of the card carefully bringing it up to his eyes squinting at the name written on it. On top of the ID just above a picture of the smiling faunus was the name Lilly scarlatina.

"I'm so sorry this happened to you Lilly Scarlatina," Lupin said carefully placing the ID into one of her hands. "But I swear I'll do everything I can to keep the people of this city safe from the ghouls that would do this."

And with the last of his strength starting to fade Lupin slipped into unconsciousness occasionally regaining consciousness for brief periods. Eventually, the sounds of rushed foot step started to echo in the subway as several people made their way to the platform. The footsteps were quickly followed by the concerned voices that Lupin had trouble hearing as he continued to go in and out of consciousness.

"Big brother... som...ne …. elp …...im," said a worried Rin.

"Stay …...alm let me see ...ats wrong," said Avian.

"...ossman ….an you ...o any...ing," said Yang a surprising amount of worry in her normally monotoned voice.

"No he's suf...ed to ….uch blood ..oss," said Avian. "We need to ..et him to a hospital."

"How," ask Rin.

"Yang ..all the police and ...ell them…..." began Avian.

However, the rest of the conversation was lost to Lupin as he finally and truly past out.

The first thing Lupin could recall as he started to regain consciousness was the smell of anesthetics along with the slow beeping of monitoring equipment. Slowly open his eyes hash light flooded into his eye from a nearby window cause him to moan in discomfort and turn away from the offending light. Now fully awake the Beowulf saw that he wasn't alone that a woman in a nurse outfit was also in the room check on the monitoring equipment. The nurse noticing that Lupin had woken up walked over to his bed giving him a quick examination before leaving to retrieve a doctor. Barely ten seconds had past before the door opened again but Lupin was surprised to see it was Avian who walked threw the door.

"Avian what's going on" Lupin began before Avian interrupted bringing a finger to his lips signaling for him to be quiet.

"I don't have much time the nurse will be back any minute now," Avian said glancing over his shoulder at the door to the room. "You were brought to Vale Emergency after suffering severe blood loss along with five broken ribs you've been out for a day."

Avian paused briefly to make sure he was following along Lupin giving a nod to indicate that he understood.

"You were found by the police after Yang left a unanimous call telling them that she had seen two people being carried into the abandoned subway."

"What about..." Lupin tried to say before Avian cut him off again.

"We made sure to take "Wolfs Bane" with us before leaving" Avian reassured him. "They'll think you were another victim and will be by to ask you some questions once the hospital thinks you're healthy enough. When they do I want you to tell them that you don't remember anything, do you understand."

"Yes" answered Lupin.

"Good" Avian said with a nod. "I have to go now, Rin will be by in a few hours." and with that Avian left the room.

Several minutes later the nurse returned followed by a doctor who informed me about my injury repeating everything Avian had already told me along with the treatment that they would be using. After another quick examination, they applied something called a dust cast on his chest then left Lupin alone to get some rest. A couple of hours past with the nurse showing up around noon to bring him lunch which proved to be just as tasteless as everything else, except for that one liver, he'd had eaten. At around one o, clock a knock at the door could be heard before slowly opening one golden eye peering into the room before the door burst open to reveal Rin.

"Big brother" Rin shouts practically leaping onto his bed.

"Hi, Rin," Lupin said patting his sister on the head.

"I'm so happy your alive" Rin said.

"Ya, me too."

"I was so worried," Rin said tears starting to form in her eyes. "You lose so much blood."

Slowly sitting up Lupin put his arms around her pulling her into a reassuring hug. "It's alright I'm safe now and getting fixed up."

"B-but I couldn't help you," she said tears starting to fall as she berried her face into Lupins chest. "I ran away and I wasn't any help to you fighting the ghoul."

"What do you mean you weren't any help," Lupin said. "If you hadn't shown up when you did and attacked the ghoul, I would have died and I told you to run. Plus, if I hadn't dropped the weapons in the first place the fight might have gone better."

"I also stabbed you in the back," Rin said.

This caught Lupin off guard not sure how to respond eventually saying the only thing he could think of. "I don't blame you for that."

"But-" Rin began.

"No," Lupin said pulling away from Rin to look her in the eyes. "It wasn't your fault."

Rin looked like she was about to say something when the nurse walked back into the room instantly noticing Lupins guest. And after a quick conversation explaining that Rin was his sister the nurse left the two silver-haired siblings alone. For the rest of the day, the two talked about regular kid things like what they would do for their birthday next week are what their first day of school would be like. After a while, the nurse came back to inform us that visiting hours were over and that Rin would have to come back tomorrow. With some quick goodbyes, Rin followed the nurse as she slowly closed the door leaving Lupin to get more rest. The rest of the day passing uneventfully with the doctor passing by one last time before lights out to reapply the dust cast.

The next few days passed uneventfully with Rin visiting every day along with Avian, who claimed to be their uncle. Eventually, the police were given permission from the hospital to talk to Lupin about what had happened the other night. And Lupin had told them that he couldn't remember anything saying that he had been on his way home when something had grabbed him and knocked him out. Satisfied with his answer, the police ask a few more minor questions before leaving.

Finally, a day before his and Rin's birthday Lupin was released from the hospital getting a ride home from Avian.

"I'm surprised Rin wasn't there to pick my up as well," Lupin said.

"That because she's at school right now," Avian answered.

"Already I thought it would take longer to find a school that would enroll us in the middle of the school term," Lupin said surprise.

"It normally would have, but luckily we found a school that would accept her right away she's in the first grade," Avian said. "Hopefully, we'll be able to get you into the some school if so you'll be in the third grade."

"when are we going to try?" asked Lupin.

"Maybe in another week to allow you to recover fully" answered Avian. "I would suggest spending this time getting used to staying awake during the day."

Lupin nodded in agreement although his stay at the hospital had already gotten him use to being awake derring the day.

By then they had arrived back at the brownstone and getting out of the car Lupin walked into the house and head to his and Rin's room. Opening the door he had almost expected to see her there with everything where they had left them. But not only was she not there, but there also ware a few noticeable new things laying around the room. Rin's dresser had clothes haphazardly placed on top of it with what looked like a spare uniform laid across her bed. And a large assortment of school supplies had been stacked on the reading desk that they shared.

Overall, it was a minor change to a room that hadn't changed much in the past eight years as neither sibling had added much to the room. The only real decorations to adorn the room was a new shade of paint and a small gray rug placed between the two beds. Although almost everywhere you looked you could see stacks of books along with several board games and even a couple card decks.

Over the years, both siblings had grown fawn of reading and several board games they even had an ongoing game of both chess and checkers on top of Lupins dresser. And more recently they had started learning a hand full of card games like solitaire, speed, blackjack and had even been thinking of learning poker.

However with nothing else to do Lupin was about to pick up one of his unfinished books when he remembered that he still needed to check up on "Wolfs Bane." Walking over the rug, he rolled it out of the way to reveal loose floorboards that covered a hole in the floor that siblings used to hide their weapons. Lifting up the board and peering inside he saw both his katana and Rin's halberd safely hidden away. Removing "Wolfs Bane" from the hidden chamber Lupin checked it for any damage before unsheathing the sword to inspect the blade only to be surprised at what he saw. The entire bottom half of the blade was now a bright crimson instead of the regular polished gray steel of the rest.

Almost dropping the sword at the sight, Lupin continued to stare at the strangely colored blade in disbelief. After a while, Lupin carefully ran his hand across the blade expecting to feel that dry blood had coated the blade to explaining the new crimson shading but all he felt was the cold touch of steel.

"It's called a blood edge," said Avian startling Lupin.

Turning around to face him Lupin saw Avian standing just outside the room. "A what."

"A blood edge" Avian answered. "It only appears on a ghouls weapons when there used to kill for the first time and only if it was used to kill another ghoul; it's a rare sight.

"Am I in danger then?" Lupin asked worried that about how other ghouls might react.

"No" Avian answered. "Some ghouls might distrust even be afraid of you but most won't care one way are another."

"Really?" Lupin asks confused.

"Yep," Avian said. "Some ghouls can be very territorial and can get rather violent when defending their territory, so it's not uncommon for one ghoul to kill another. It's just not that common for a ghoul to use their weapon for the first time against another ghoul."

"So I'm not in trouble?"

"Technically no" Avian said walking away from the room. "It was in self-defiance after all."

Looking at the sword once more Lupin then sheathed the sword and placed it back into the hidden compartment before covering it up. Standing back up and walking over to his bed while picking an unfinished book off one of the piles flipping it open to a bookmarked page. Going over to his bed and laying down he started to reading waiting for Rin, to get back from school. However, for the most part, his eyes were mindlessly scanning the page not taking in anything and after "reading" the page for the fifth time he gave up and closed the book.

For the first time in nearly a week without the distractions of the hospital staff and Rin's visits, he started to recall what had happened on that night. All the sound, smell, and sight but there was one thing that had stuck with him, the dead faunus girl. The image of her would keep coming back to him every time he'd closed his eye's even the smell of her blood would flood his mind. Although it had nearly caused him to go into a frenzy at the time now, it only caused a sense of nauseousness to wash over him. Even attempting to erase the image from his head by trying to avoid thinking about it had failed as the news had been reporting on the investigation all week, thankfully omitting anything about him. Her parent had even visited him once at the hospital they hadn't stayed long and only stopping by to invited him to the girl funeral, which he had attended, despite him not knowing the family. He'd even learned that she'd had a younger sister who had been devastated by the news of her sister passing but he'd never learned her name.

But on top of it all one other memory top them all, it was fuzzy but still wouldn't fade from his mind nor did he want it too. It was the promise he'd made to the dead girl to stop other ghouls like the one in the subway, and he intended to keep it... but how.

The first thing to come to mind was to become a huntsman, but after a little thought he dismissed it with a shake of his head. It was a huntsmen's job to fight the Grimm not ghouls that they probably didn't even know existed. But one thing was certain he needed to to become a better fighter which meant attending a combat school. And with a determined look in his eyes Lupin left his room to find Avian to help him determine what the next courses of action should be.

A/n: look! A main character in a RWBY fanfiction that doesn't want to become a huntsmen. (gasp) but in all fairness I think this chapter got away from me at one point are another.

However I would like to take this time to ask my reader to help me out with a problem i'm having with the next chapter/ the rest of the story. (minor spoilers ahead) yang, as in Yang Xiao Long, will show up and i'm having trouble thinking of a way to distinguish her from my character Yang Xangfan other then using there full name.

And on an unrelated note is any one confused when a furore to characters as whatever Grimm they used to be.

And finally any feedback is appreciated so leave a review if you feel so inclined.