Waking up was usually a good sign. Waking up with a roof and heating in your own bed was usually a great sign for Juane. Waking up mid puke was less great. All in all it rated maybe a four on his scale so far; four in hind-sight.

Currently he wished he hadn't woken at all. His body felt like it had been used as a speed bag, the usually dim light of his room now burned at his brain, and that was just the things he figured out after his mind allowed him to focus on more than the hellish feeling in his stomach. He would call it nausea, but only because he felt that no words existed to describe the feeling that had him hanging off the edge of his bed in unmoving misery.

Maybe it would have been a smart idea to flop back onto his mattress instead of staring at his dinner; displayed in a greenish hue and seeping deeper into his carpet. Sadly his smart ideas, or any thought beyond pathetic hungover misery, were beyond him at the moment.

Unfortunately, as his brain cells came back from the grave, his ability to trace the origin of each chunk in his vomit rapidly increased. The cheap Mistralian noodles he'd gotten for lunch mixed with his nutritional breakfast pop-tart in a disgusting soup before his stinging eyes.

"Uckk" He half hiccup, more half mimi puked in his mouth as the smell hit his nose. The stench of strong alcohol so pungent his mind stupidly wondered if it would start melting through the floor.

As the horrific curse of perception strengthened its grip on his mercifully numb mind he saw some things mired in his vomit worse than any gross half disgusted food."Gods I hope I just puked on that." he said, or at least attempted to say. He more so just added vomit to the increasing pile of it.

Hopefully he was just puking on the condom and pair of frilly womens underwear instead of puking them up he prayed, the implications beyond his lizard like brain. On the bright side he'd seemingly run out of food to eject.

Thankfully the universe was merciful enough to grant him the awe inspiring strength to roll his carcass over onto his bed properly. The hideous view of stomach goulash now replaced with his ceiling.

"Fuck me." he moaned. Painfully as existence was, cursing made life just a tad bit less miserable. Good enough that he attempted the heroic act of using his arm to pull himself up. Attempt being the key word, as he only managed to flop his arm onto his naked chest. Where his body failed him his brain didn't have the decency to do the same as he felt something wet on his arm.

"Please don't be more puke."

Enjoying ignorance a bit longer he finally mustered the same bravery that had led him to run away from his home and chase his dreams to look at his chest. Two things entered his brain as he saw what it was; which was a pretty big step up in his cognitive function. The first was that it was in fact stupidity that led to both decisions, not bravery. The second thing his brain worked out was his chest was a bloody patchwork of claw marks.

"The hell?" Had he been attacked last night?

Condom, panties, naked. Brain is loading. Loading. Loading.

Sex.

Ugh, his tummy hurt.

SEX

"Holy fuck I had sex!" He shouted as he rocketed upright. Almost as fast as his vomit rocketed up from his stomach. Thankfully the reflexes that had so far kept up with his terrible life choices allowed him to turn his head enough to add the puke to his floor instead of his bed.

"Ok, just gonna lay here till I die." He moaned as slumped back into his bed. Resurrecting brain cells started to slowly expose foggy memories of last night. Flashes of skin, not his own, danced through undead neurons, mixing with hazy memories of sex and violence. For all the pain he found himself in, nothing could stop the shit eating grin that formed on his face.

From his view of the ceiling he noticed one of his eyes refused to open right. Rolling over he grabbed his scroll on his night stand and opened the camera function before looking at his own face, an ugly swollen black eye greeting him. Just how crazy was that chick?

As he looked at his scroll he noticed a new message was waiting to be opened. Tapping on the app he was greeted by an image that had any memory of his pain instantly forgotten. A naked Raven was grinning with a dog leash of all things wrapped around her neck. Below a message, somewhat threateningly, said that she might pop in whenever she felt like it. Looking back to the image he saw that he had given as good as he had got last night; a broken nose somehow adding to the feral beauty of Raven and a human shaped bite mark, bloody and raw, on her trap showed that he was apparently willing to meet crazy with crazy. Shit, he hoped that wasn't how he liked it in bed. Remembering the threats that Raven had leveled at his body during their crazed sex he felt a bit better choking his own threats and actions to more of a survival reaction.

Any more thoughts on the matter were cut short as someone knocked on his door. Moaning, he put a pillow over his ears and prayed that Cardin would get it. A few more loud knocks later, it appeared that he was on his own with this one. Groaning, he relented and slumped out of his bed, yes searching for any clothes to toss on. Throwing his outfit and shoes from yesterday on, he tripped over his room's door; which was ripped off its hinges and laying in the middle of the living room. Slumped on the floor in a good deal of pain, the god awful pounding on his door was just getting louder.

"Shut the fuck up! I'm coming!" he shouted. The pounding ceasing, he growled in frustration at his own stupidity. The only person that would be knocking on his door would be a client. Well probably not a client now. Finally he made it to the door and swung it open to see a young woman his age dressed like she was going to some gaudy cocktail party. "What?

From the other side of the doorway Melanie Malachite was surprised at the bloodied man that opened the door. Junior had sent her to call Jaune in for some job he had in mind. A cynical part of her thought it was because Hei was too scared to it himself, the way he never missed a opportunity to tell them how dangerous Juane was. They had been away seeing their mother when the mystery man had arrived, and supposedly he was some kind master-mind badass type. She wasn't dumb enough to take that as fact without seeing that herself, but looking at the beleaguered man in front of her she didn't buy it. His clothes were bloody and buttoned up in the wrong places, his face looked like it had been tenderized, and he smelled like a brewery. Not exactly the signs of someone who was put together. "Junior wants to see you." She finally said, unimpressed at this supposed badass.

For a moment it looked as if he was just going to slam the door in her face, but instead he stepped out into the hallway and shut the door behind himself. "Let's go."

"You look like shit." she stated plainly. If he was to see the Hei he should at least clean up, it would be disrespectful otherwise.

"Thanks." He snorted. If his landlord/local crime boss wanted to see him he figured it was best to do that immediately. Hei might have been an idiot in his mind but he knew that didn't mean he wasn't dangerous. Not that he was going to take crap from somebody that looked like an overpaid hooker. Watching the woman roll her eyes ,she led him over to the club without a word.

Pushing his aura to start healing him, he thanked Yang for making an off-hand comment about aura being great for hangovers. Didn't stop him from ordering a bloody mary as he passed the bar to Hei's office. It pissed his escort off, but if he was gonna once again talk to someone who could end him he was at least gonna do it a bit less hungover. Thankfully she left him as he entered the office.

Hei for his part was a lot less surprised at Jaunes state, it was part of the reason he called him in. His men had reported someone being tortured last night in Jaunes room. At least that had been the thought until he had ordered a man to listen through the door, only to hear the unmistakable noises of hard sex. Very impressive considering he had all the rooms soundproofed from each other. The apartment was owned by him and acted as a barracks for his men, and it wouldn't do for police to show up to a drunken noise complaint only to find all manner of criminals inside.

At first Junior had considered that perhaps the women Jaune was with could present a chink in his armor, but a look at the new camreas he'd installed outside the building had revealed more reason to be scared of this crimanal horror that sat before him. Raven Branwen; most wanted person in Mistral, Bandit Queen of tribal raiders, overall scary person, and somehow Jaune's romantic partner. Honestly, as bad as Jaune looked, the fact that he was alive was a miracle. Raven was the kind of big fish that required huntsmen teams to even think about handling, casually showing up and being shown in front of the cameras he knew Jaune was aware of was an obvious message of intimidation.

"What do you need, Hei?" Jaune asked politely enough. As if he didn't know the weight he was flashing in front of him.

"I have a job for you." The crime lord answered, using his best poker face to hide the nervousness he felt. In truth the job could be handled by his people, but he needed to get Jaune out of his apartment. Currently Milita was bugging his room as they spoke. Juane may have thought him defeated, but Hei would claw back control in the end. That wasn't to say that the job wasn't of extreme importance; anything less would tip Jaune off to the ruse.

"Do you need me to kill anyone?" Jaune asked dangerously. He would never be a part of something like that. His morals may have been for sale to some degree, as shamed as he was to find out in the previous weeks, but his soul sure as shit wasn't.

For his part Hei mistook the question as eagerness, and he could feel a lone bead of sweat rolling down from his forehead at the remark. Even hardened criminals felt some squeamishness to murder, and to hear Jaune so eager was a continuation of the ever growing reasons to fear the man. "No, but I can assure I wouldn't waste your time with anything less than critical. A courier with a briefcase failed to show up recently and the contents are of great importance to me."

"What's in the case?"

"I can't say." Seeing Jaune's brow crease further had Hei scrambling to get more words out. "It's nothing illegal. The contents are deeply personal and I would appreciate you not opening the case." He spoke no lies in this, it was a gamble to ensure this task to Juane. However he was sure that Jaune could get the contents if he set his mind to it. The case was equipped with an electronic seal that would tell Hei if someone opened it. No one had opened it yet so if Jaune did open it at the very least he could disrean if Juane was actively looking to harm him instead of just using him as a facilitator for some unknown task.

He slid a folder across his desk. "This will have all the details enclosed."

Leaning forward Juane picked up the folder and looked through its contents. Hei could use his statues as his landlord to force him into this if it really was so important, but he was asking as politely as a crime lord could. That didn't mean he enjoyed being here as he was eager to leave and go get some pain killer and a sports drink. "What's the pay?"

Acknowledging Jaune's stoic professionalism Hei didn't mince words. "Ten grand and I'll consider this a personal favor."

Holy crap that's a lot of money. For a simple recovery job that could really set him and Cardin up. A small part of him was annoyed that he was agreeing with almost no complaint to work for a crime lord; too bad it was being gagged by the part of him that heard ten grand. Besides,this was well within the bounds of his work as a PI, Hei could have just used a middleman to have him take this job if it was something sinister. That all would have had him taking the gig alone, but he hadn't missed the part about it being considered a personal favor. A few weeks ago Juane wouldn't have seen the message in that. A few weeks ago he would have absolutely pissed himself if someone like Junior offered a favor. Now though? Now the predatory grin he flashed at the prospect wasn't something Hei was misreading for once.

"I'll get it done." He spoke as he stood, his words an acceptance of the assignment.

Hei nodded in response and watched as Jaune left his office. When the door to his office finally shut, Hei let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. "That, Melanie, Is a stone cold pro."

"Whatever." She said dismissively, continuing to file her nails as she had the entire time. "Milita planted the bug and left already."

"Damn kids." he mumbled. Ignoring his younger bodyguard he pulled his scroll up and opened the app connecting him to the bug. As it loaded up he couldn't help but smile at his own cunning. These new kids were something else; no respect for how things were supposed to be. Chuckling, Hei knew there was something to be said for experience.

A heavy breathing greeted his ears. The hair on his neck stood up and he had to take a moment to grab his soul as it attempted to leave his mortal coil. Someone was holding the bug. His lungs refused to work. Air only entered as the ominous breathing cut off with the scroll displaying the words no connection.

Less than three minutes. That's how long the bug was active. Frantically he pulled up his security cameras in the club. Gods above, Jaune was at the bar, and he knew where his partner was. Who the fuck took out the bug? Was that even Jaune? Was it a clone army of killer blonde blue eyed bastards? No, that was crazy. Obviously, Jaune could read his mind. Oh, god please spare me, Jaune. Wait, he was acting crazy. He was the best information broker in town, dammit. He needed to handle this with the same poise and cunning that put this city in his hands.

Melanie watched as her boss seemed to have a heart attack, panic attack, and a stroke all at the same time. Thankfully before she finished very casually dialing 911 Junior seemed to come to his senses. Letting out a sigh of relief she watched as her boss put his scroll to his ear. No doubt calling anyone of the extremely dangerous and competent contacts the man had favors with.

"Yes, is he in?" Hei spoke into his scroll. Melanie smiled, she wondered who it would be to handle the dunkard."Yes, I would like to update my will."

"WHAT THE F-"

She looked at the crushed bug in her hand. Neo wouldn't call herself a good person, but only a soulless demon wouldn't have done what she had just done. A silent chuckle came from her mouth. A soulless demon was one of the many insults she had been accused of being. Obviously false, as she was adorable and always right, but if she was, then she had met the Devil himself.

This…Jaune Arc, might have been a crafty son of a bitch, but she was the scourge of the city; a legend whispered about in hushed terror in the darkest corners of the city. Just because he made her feel… weird, didn't mean he could stand up to her. At least that had been the stupid logic that had seduced her into attempting to kill Jaune again. So, in her infinite wisdom, she had decided to kill him in one fell swoop, no way any semblance related shenanigans would save him that way.

So she hid under his bed.

He was not human. Hell, it would have been better if he was the king of the Grimm. No, Jaune was a fucking plague. The… THINGS he had infected into her brain as she was forced to lay beneath him as he tortured that poor woman. She had fought, oh gods how the woman fought, punching, screaming, and cursing. In the end she was wrapped around his fingers. Neo had personally blowtorched a man for hours once, and the things she had heard made it look like she was a school yard bully. Never had she heard a human scream like Jaune had made his captive scream. He didn't even bind her, the woman had acted if she was in control of herself. She knew better; it was the same power that burned in her own brain.

Once Jaune entered your head he would never leave, it was pure madness. It twisted inside you and made you hot like you were on fire, it made your brain work against you, whispering insane things. Insane things like strangle the poor woman atop him and take her place. Who could ever want the insane things he did?

She had tried to be strong, but it had been to no avail. Her hands hadn't the strength to stab through the bedding. In fact they had turned against her, and it took all her strength to keep her traitorous hand away from herself. No doubt trying to strangle her, she concluded. Finally she had had enough and bolted for the window. Freedom inches away, she truly learned how far the sickness had progressed within her. Neo had looked back.

People were not supposed to be in people. In that moment the only thing that had kept her from surrendering and joining them was seeing the disgusting eldritch horror life bite into his prey. Right back under the bed she went. A long night of horrors so intense she feared she'd go insane followed. Only the sweet memory of ice-cream kept her going until Jaune had mercifully finished with his prey.

As she looked at the crushed bug she knew what she was to do. She could not allow others to experience this mind was too far gone, even now his taint ate at her mind, her soul would not survive long. Taking a long breath she looked out the window to the city skyline. She was Neo, once the most amazing thing ever, now a warrior dedicated to the elimination of humanity's greatest evil. Still the most amazing thing ever thought.

Her first task on this holy crusade; interrogate Roman until he told her what this sex thing was.

"The hell you at, Cardin?" Jaune mumbled to himself as he looked at his unanswered scroll call. He was currently working through a cig as he leaned up on Cardin's van. The apartment was certainly devoid of his partner and his last three calls hadn't revealed anything about his whereabouts so far. Groaning, he knew his partner definitely was pissed at the state he'd left the apartment in and was probably ignoring him. Jaune certainly felt bad. Hot sex aside, that wasn't an excuse to mess up their shared living space. Rubbing his sore temples, he never thought he'd ever have to think up an apology for Cardin.

A muffled groan was the only warning he got before the sliding door he was propped up on suddenly disappeared. "Ahhh." he groan as he found himself in the van staring up at the ceiling and Cardin's annoyed face.

"The fuck, Jaune?" Cardin grumbled. "What do you need?" He asked as he rubbed sleep from eyes ringed with the telltale dark bags of bad sleep.

"We got a job." Jaune answered as he sat up.

"Can it wait? I haven't caught a wink." Cardin's glare telling Jaune who he was holding that against.

"Ten grand."

"Where to?" Cardin asked as he seemingly teleported in the driver seat.

"Tukson's book shop on 3rd."

A quick shop at a gas station for coffee and pain killer later, nothing but the details of the job had been discussed between the two. Caridin just drove with the angry scowl that he'd started the day with. For his part, Jaune wore a similar scowl. He knew he needed to apologize, but even as partners it still felt like saying sorry to Cardin would cause him to explode. It made him even angrier that he'd given Cardin a million half assed apologies while his partner had bullied him in Beacon. Why the hell was this so hard all of a sudden?

Looking over to his partner he let out a sigh. Even with a world that reiterated to never apologize and show weakness, he knew he was being an asshole. "Hey."

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry."

Cardin shot him a confused "For what?"

"Trashing the apartment." He responded, floored by Cardin's question. Did he really not know, or was he trying to make this more painful for him? "Being a drunken ass. Being so loud I made you sleep in the Van."

"Oh, yeah." Cardin commented, as if he'd just remembered it. "Don't sweat it."

"What? I totally was a shitty roommate." There was no way Cardin was just waving that away if the dirty face he'd had on was any indication.

"Eh, it happens. Honestly good for you pulling a bad MILF, man. You're cleaning all the puke and fixing the apartment, obviously. Also next time put a sock on the door next time; bro code. I did not need to see you naked." Cardin shuddered before continuing. "Oh, and you owe me a new coffee machine."

"Ok." Jaune replied hesitantly. The hell was he so mad earlier for? "We cool?"

"Yeah man. Besides, a monkey could write an award winning novel if you chained it to a typewriter. You totally made a billion in one pull down." He joked.

Jaune felt a smile form on his face. "Jokes on you Cardin, I'm well on my way to full on shitty isekai protagonist status. My plainness is all I need to get a harem of hot women."

"Ugghh, Jaune, do not ruin the one cool thing I've ever seen you with some weeb ass shit." Cardin groaned.

The awkwardness Jaune felt was well and dead at this point, but he still wondered why Cardin was in a shitty mood. "So what's got you so pissed?"

The look, that Jaune knew as Cardin experiencing turmoil, came to his partner's face. For a second it looked as if Cardin wouldn't answer or at least dismiss the matter, but he instead let out a heavy sigh and shot Jaune a serious look. "My family contacted me."

"That bad?"

"Real bad. I joined Beacon to get away from them."

"You block them?"

"Trying to."

"You need any help?" Jaune offered.

"I've got it handled." Cardin said, shutting down any further conversation on the matter with that. "So, this Tukson guy is a courier for Junior?" He asked, changing the subject.

"Yeah, he owns the bookshop as a front to move packages for Junior and his type." Jaune explained. "As I said, he was supposed to show four hours ago at the club with a leather suitcase. We are gonna start at his place to find out what happened to the package."

"You think he got got?" Cardin inquired.

"Hopefully it's not that." Jaune nervously tapped his finger on the van door. "But we'll see."

They pulled up a block away from the bookstore and started on foot. It may have taken them a few extra minutes to get there, but it gave them a chance to see what kind of neighborhood they were rolling up into. Seeing it to be a nice secluded area, Jaune didn't know if that should have made him more or less on edge about this. Turning the corner to the street the shop was on, a deep pit started to form in his over his shoulder and all around he didn't see anything to warrant his unease. Unhappily, he pushed the feeling down, it was a bit too late to wonder about the high payout on this job.

Any more thoughts on the matter disappeared as he saw a woman struggling with an absurdly large stack of books at the entrance of the bookstore. She had managed to kick the shop's door fully open with both her hands full, and with the temporary opening she went to slide inside. Too bad her foot caught the pavement awkwardly and caused her to stop halfway to catch her balance. She would have been fine too, if it wasn't for the door smacking her square on the back in retaliation for her kick. Without a thought he ran forwards as the tower of books started to fall. Aura enhanced speed and coordination improved from combat had him wrapping his arm around her midsection before her face impacted the pavement. Shame about her books, but he supposed she'd appreciate her face more.

Speaking of, he found his blue eyes locked onto golden orbs in a mutual look of shock.

"Jaune?" Blake asked in disbelief.

"Oh, hey Blake." He responded stupidly. Suddenly, he was very aware how close he was to her.

She was too, if how quickly she shot off him was any indication. Her face shifted from surprise to a flash of annoyance before quickly righting itself to the neutral expression that he usually saw her wear in Beacon. "Thanks." She quickly spoke. Honestly, it seemed like she would have preferred the pavement.

"The Prince Has Tentacles And Is Going Defile Me and I'm Worried I'll Like It." Cardin nonchalantly read from the title of a book that he had picked from the ground. If Jaune thought he had been quick before then Blake snatched the book from Cardin at the speed of light.

"See this is what full blown weebism turns into, Jaune." Cardin snickered. "I'm just looking out for ya bud."

"Cardin." Blake seethed as she picked up her books, not meeting their gazes. Didn't mean they couldn't see her red as Ruby's cloak.

"Ignore him Blake. He doesn't mean anything." Jaune quickly added, taking a knee to help pick up the spilled books. He half assumed she'd tell him off, but it seemed Blake didn't want to go back to being the leaning tower of books again. "So, ummm…" he tried in an attempt to break the awkwardness, but no words came to him.

"I'm dropping some books off." Blake spoke without meeting his gaze as they both stood, with the books split evenly between them. "Someone sent them to me as a prank." She hastily added.

Jaune did not need to be a PI to know that was a lie. Jaune also did not need a childhood surrounded by angsty and hormonal sisters to know that questioning was a bad idea. "I get it. I've been the recipient of enough shitty pranks to know what's up." He supplied.

"Yep." Blake confirmed as she finally met his gaze. "So.. you getting some books?" She asked half out of politeness and half to distance herself from the embarrassing elephant in the room.

"We are at a bookstore." Cardin snarked.

A devastating, manhood shattering, comeback loaded up in Blake's brain before it chambered on on the tip of her razor sharp tongue, but before she could pull the trigger on it though, she watched as Jaune shot a scowl Cardin's way. She kept them locked in her sights as she had no faith in Vomit Boy shutting down Cardin. Surprisingly though, Cardin threw his hands up in surrender. It was enough to have her put her eviscerating wit in the low ready at least. "Not letting Cardin push you around anymore Jaune?" She flatly asked, her disregard for tack meeting a genuine curiosity.

Instead of an embarrassed cop out or a really pathetic explanation, Blake was pleasantly surprised to hear Jaune laugh in good humor. "Not anymore. Cardin is my employee."

Unlike most at Beacon, she didn't take the positive answer at face value and looked to Cardin for his response. Cynical, most would say, but if someone had told her that Jaune was Cardin's boss she would have stared them down till they told the truth.

"You're lucky you had twenty bucks when we registered our business." Cardin pouted as he folded his arms across his chest.

"Running your own business now. Good for you Jaune." She remarked, no dishonesty in her words. It was good that Jaune hadn't spiraled after being expelled. He definitely wasn't cut out to be a huntsman, but that didn't mean she wished him any ill. Not that she ever talked to him more than "pass the salt" at lunch, but he seemed a decent enough guy. Clumsy, incompetent, a bit lazy, and a massive dork, but nice enough.

As much as she was content to leave this interaction at the bare minimum of pleasantries, the black eye Jaune was sporting piqued her curiosity. While she would love to believe Jaune had, against all odds, gotten his shit together and had some feel good story with his bully her cynical mind supplied some more likely scenarios. "You're not doing anything dangerous trying to be a huntsman again are you?" she pressed.

"Hahah, the black eye right. I just slipped." He explained warmly.

"That's good." Her mind must have been playing tricks on her, the way his smile ticked up just a bit too wide. A smile just like Adam, when he wanted to hide his terrible rage. Pushing it from her head she reminded herself that she could get a bit too paranoid sometimes. This was Jaune after all.

"That what you call railing a MILF through a door, Jaune?" Cardin asked nonchalantly.

Any chance of her initial plan of ignoring the false comment died as Juane turned a shade of red that matched hers mere moments ago. Immediately his eyes shot to anything that wasn't hers. Unfortunately for her he looked down to lock his gaze onto the cover of the most hardcore smut book she had. A book that had an illustration on the front that tragically was very similar to what Cardin had just described. Blake prayed he ignored it. Just look anywhere except her face, she pleaded internally.

Jaune realized what he was looking at and his eyes shot up. His face redder than ever, he almost choked as he realized he was now looking at Blake again. Faces reddening it seemed the two were now locked in a terrible staring contest that had both spiraling into deeper embarrassment.

Cardin, being the great guy he was, decided to save them when the two started to make sputtering noises. Also his ability to not double-over and die laughing was rapidly disappearing. "Books?" he offered.

"Books." Jaune confirmed.

"Books." Blake echoed, quickly scurrying into the bookstore.

Collecting himself outside, Jaune shot the dirtiest look he could manage. "Fuck you."

Cardin laughed. "Now we're even for last night."

A moment later the pair entered the store, both making a beeline for the employee behind the front counter. Jaune certainly wasn't brave enough to look at anything else, less he get stuck in an embarrassment death spiral via Blake again. Instead he eyed the bald male employee that most certainly wasn't Tukson. Hei's file had provided an image of their absent courier, and while it was worrisome that someone else was here at least he had a uniform with the shop's name on it.

"Can I help you?" The employee asked as he continued to type away on his scroll in the same bored manner he had ever since they had entered.

"We are looking for Tokson. We had an appointment with him today." Jaune answered professionally. He was sure to omit anything regarding the questionable legal nature of Tukson's work as he didn't know what the courier told his employees.

"Oh, yeah. He's down stairs. I'll text him to come up." The man said, still typing away.

"Tukson is here?" Cardin questioned.

"Yeah," The employee confirmed, finally looking up at them. "He'll just be a sec."

"Ok." Cardin hesitantly spoke, shooting a suspicious look Jaune's way.

The empty feeling in his stomach reared up again. He looked around to notice nothing obviously threatening, but Tukson hadn't shown for a reason. There was no way he should have been just doing book work so casually here. His gaze locked onto the employees hands. One was tapping on the counter nervously while the other was furiously sending messages. It could have been some personal issue on the employees end, but he wasn't gonna take that. Looking closer he saw the uniform looked way too big on the guy. Like it wasn't sized for him.

Maybe he was acting calm for the sake of professionalism as he had an emergency on his end. Maybe he was new and given a spare uniform. Maybe Tukson had a good excuse. All things could be explained. All things except the gut feeling he had. Jaune blinked his eyes three times in quick succession as he faced Cardin. It was a code they worked out. Something to say it was time to rock if they couldn't say it.

No hesitation came from Cardin as cuffed the employee in the face, sending him to the floor before Cardin jumped over and swiftly beat him into unconsciousness. Jaune knew his partner had the man well in hand and grabbed his scroll. Looking down at the screen his blood turned to ice.

"WE NEED TO GET OUT!" He screamed. On the screen was a picture of him and Cardin with a message simply stating the word go.

"What?" Blake shouted in confusion as she popped her head out from being a shelf.

He never got the chance to say anything else as the front door swung open and a seemingly endless number of men armed with all manner of blackjacks, knuckle dusters, and stun batons flooded in. Jaune didn't need to look past shitty camo, leather, and racist tats to know this was the same gang he'd tangled with in the past. Somewhere in his mind he wondered what was going on, but all was drowned out as his brain screamed to fight or die.

Jaune rocketed like a battering ram into the sea of foes, aiming for the doors. He couldn't break through, he certainly couldn't win, but he prayed he could take the moment from them just long enough that Blake and Cardin could back him up. If they could push outside, maybe they could escape. Not a great plan, but the only one he had left.

Connecting with their line, Jaune knocked two down and slowed some at the door. He took the split second he had to look for his allies. His view was bleaker than he could have imagined. It seemed just as many men had been hiding in the basement. They were pouring in from their rear now; Cardin trying to buy time engaging them. It was time that delayed the inevitable. No one was getting out.

He threw himself at his line with fatalism and adrenaline. Blood splashed across his face as he broke a nose. It was hopeless; a scorpion against a wave of ants. He crushed a wrist as electricity coursed through his body and every muscle in his body tensed in excruciating pain. If every neuron in his skull wasn't consumed in pain and survival instincts at the moment he may have wondered why he didn't surrender and just take the easy way out.

A body crashed into him, bringing him to the floor. Kicks and blows rained onto his exposed sides. All he could manage was a scream of pain, unable to do anything else while pinned. His aura dipped red as the beating continued. Through the primal thoughts and hot pain, despair closed around him as he found he couldn't fight back.

For some reason the words he'd said to Raven popped into his head. I'm gonna make you pay for it.

The taste of iron and hot liquid filled his mouth. He spit out a human ear. More blood filled his mouth. The man holding him down shot off him, his hands clasped around a gaping wound on his shoulder. It mattered not, too many were kicking down on him for Jaune to regain his footing. The brutal stomping continued. He guessed he maybe had ten seconds of aura left to defend himself with.

His hand grasped an ankle that didn't pull away quick enough and it turned to pulp. Any reason to defend was long gone; all his aura went into his blows. Fingers with the pressure of industrial presses mangled and gouged, blows with the force of a speeding truck cracked legs and shattered knees, every kick that connected with him bruising and cutting raw unprotected flesh in kind. He could only see red now; his nose long broken and pooling blood into his eyes.

Jaune never stopped screaming in rage.

Bodies fell back, men pulled their wounded comrades back. Hesitancy formed in men as limbs were mangled and broken; fewer went in to kick. No one dared get close enough to stab or taze him. It gave Jaune a moment. Not much, but just enough to see Blakes gun near. He didn't have time to question how it was so close to him as his fingers grasped it.

Jaune had the gun pointed up at his attackers now. In the face of death all backed up. It was as if the slightest light poked through. He was the only one with a gun, by lethal fire Jaune could make a push to his feat. From there it would just be another few miracles onto the street. As impossible as it was, he had stayed in this much longer than he should have. His finger was on the trigger, thumb pushing up the safety. The man he had the handgun pointed at looked back at him in horror.

Maybe the boot that kicked the gun away had been quicker than his pull. Perhaps the gun had been empty or he had engaged the safety accidentally. It was also possible that he just couldn't pull the damn trigger. Regardless, Jaune watched his last delusion for survival fly away as another boot finally hit him in the head hard enough to make everything go black.

Cardin groaned as his blood pooled onto the ground. He was held firm by two large men holding him up by his arms. Without them he would have slumped to the ground, his body too weak to support him. The edges of his vision swam, whether he was falling into unconsciousness or surfacing from it, he had no idea.

His vision focused, he was still in the store. He could tell that much from the carpet on the floor. Anything else was beyond him, he was too beaten and bloodied to even move or lift his head. Blake was thrown in front of him followed by Jaune, the two unmoving. Blake was roughed up, but Jaune looked like he had been thoroughly tenderized. Cardin had seen people beaten to death before. If Jaune wasn't dead he was pretty close.

"Traitor."

It took all his power to raise his head. He failed twice. On the third try he finally met the speaker's gaze.

A bald male teenager, two years his junior, topless save a leather jacket met Cardin's gaze. His exposed chest was a patchwork of mussels and hate-filled tattoos, most prominently a scalped and severed faunus head on display with the words THE ONLY GOOD ANIMAL proudly worn above it.

"Brother." Cardin managed.

His name was Alex, and he was the biggest regret Cardin held in his life.

Without a word Alex took a large hunting knife from his belt. Stalking towards Cardin he pressed the knife to his bloodied chest. With a quick slice and rough tug Cardin's Hawaiian shirt fell to the ground.

His body was a mess, but it didn't hide old scars and burns. It didn't hide the ink either. The same scalped and severed faunus head was affixed to Cardin's own chest, the only difference was its words.

IS A DEAD ANIMAL

"Brother." Alex uttered.

Boy this was a long one, and when I sat down to wright it it was supposed to cover a lot more. On the bright side at least I'll be able to crank out the next chapter soon. Sorry it's been like 3 months sense I updated on this but it took me a minute to figure out how I wanted this case to go. (Also a crippling new HOI4 addiction) I'm really enjoying making this story as I can have shorter narratives though cases that allow for any tools, connections, or characters important to the main plot introduced and explored at their own pace while also being able to explore different flavors of detective/crime narratives. That said this is going to definitely be a pretty meaty case for Jaune and Cardin. And I got a legit RWBY cast member worked in finally, Blake feeling like a great noir style character. I was wondering though, do you feel like the intro paragraph accurately shows off this story. I've changed it a bit in the past but it feels a bit... off. Can't seem to put my finger on it. Also thanks a ton for all the reviews and support. I always love hearing what you thing about this story and my wrighting in general, and it defiantly informs how the story goes. In fact when I first went to wright this the mistaken for badass trope was completely absent, but I think it evolved nicely. Not gonna lie the reviews that came this week really made me get off my but on updating this. I'm really glad people enjoy this story and all its weirdness. Here's hoping this chapter is a good one for yall.

PS: Broke 50k words, FUCK YEAH! 100k here we come.