Hello !

Hey, this one didn't take too long. But it's also quite short ...

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-«Then one day, you arrived, I heard your angel cry … Helpless, small, and perfect, welcome to your life … »

From her perch on a tree branch, Yang watched with a certain tenderness a small nest of sparrows. They weren't her favorite birds, she still had a non-objective preference for ravens, but seeing the mom feeding her babies made her nostalgic. Sure, many would say the way birds fed their babies was disgusting, but for Yang it wasn't, it was just nature, as her mother had taught her early on, taking her to see raptors hunt and eggs hatch. She had always enjoyed those moments, when they were both in bird form, watching nature take its course, far from everyday problems.

-Falcon !

The mama sparrow, who hadn't even noticed Yang's presence until then, jumped at hearing Rook's voice, but didn't fly away and instead tried to intimidate the intruder who was watching them a little too close to her taste. Yang sighed and jumped down from the tree, and walked over to their small campsite. They had a mission in the area, the wife of a wealthy businessman had discovered that her husband had cheated on her and continued to send money to his former mistress. Why going so far as to ask for her assassination rather than taking out her anger on her husband, Yang had no idea, and Rook taught her that it was better not to look too much at the motives of their clients. Although they acted more as partners during missions, Rook was still her mentor, the one with more experience.

Their camp was cleared in a few minutes, and they both set out for the small village at the foot of the mountain. Rook had a picture of the young woman along with her name and address, she was a simple seamstress in a small village far from the capital, the kind of village the tribe used to attacked, probably the easiest mission they ever had.

-Okay, let's do this the easy way, I go to the village to find her, if she goes out, you take her down, if she stays in, we wait until nightfall and you set the house on fire. An accident will attract less than a murder.

-So basically, I do all the work …

-I won't insult you by helping you do something so easy.

Yang rolled her eyes and went back to sit in a tree a little out of the village, near the path that led to the entrance, and started playing with her dagger to pass the time. The day passed slowly, so that Yang fell asleep on her branch towards the end of the afternoon. It was summer, it was hot, and the sun had just set. It had been the quietest year she had spent since the attack on her tribe. The images were still very present in her memory, and yet she felt like it had been so long ago …

-Falcon? Falcon!

-Ah!

The voice in her earpiece woke her with a start, luckily no one had heard her, and her reflexes had kept her from falling from the tree.

-Yes ?

-There is a change of plan, I take care of the woman.

-What? Why ?

-Let's say we have a little unforeseen.

-What kind of unforeseen?

-One more inhabitant in the house.

Yang frowned. How did that require her to stay away? A Huntsman husband or boyfriend who was at high risk of spotting them? Or maybe the target had a Semblance that might alert the other person if she used it ? It wasn't that uncommon for civilians to possess Semblances, sometimes they could unlock by chance, even by birth. And that was without counting the potential Maidens, admittedly there were only four, three besides Yang, but the powers could go to any young lady on Remnant, whether she was an experienced Huntress of Vacuo, or a sick child in Menagerie.

But if it was just about the fight, Rook would have told her, Yang was way more powerful than her after all … Although if it took to be discrete enough to make it pass for an accident, Rook was indeed the one for the job …

-How do we do that then?

-Just stay where you are, I'll take care of it.

-Okay.

Not okay. She wasn't going to sit still in a tree and wait quietly while Rook was having all the fun, was she? But she also knew she mustn't be seen, so she decided to make the most of her free time by practicing magic, making small flaming shapes dance in the palm of her hand, as precisely as possible. She did it regularly when she trained with Rook, her control had become excellent, but for some reason still eluding her, she was still unable to do anything but fire. This wasn't normal, Yang knew she should be able to use several elements by now, even weakly. Raven had often explained to her how her powers worked, what she was or was not able to do, and how her control and power would increase with time.

Now that she thought about it, her mother probably expected her to be the next Spring Maiden, and prepared her accordingly, since she would no longer be around to help her. The only way Yang didn't become the Spring Maiden would have been for Raven to live long enough to see Yang pass her thirties. And Yang would willingly give up her powers to see that happen.

A noise above her brought her out of her thoughts. The mama sparrow she had observed earlier had just landed near her, completely panicked. Yang extinguished her flames and stretched out her hand towards the bird, which came to rest on it, waving her wings in all directions. Since when did birds come to see her for help?

-Hey, calm down little one, what's going on?

The bird answered her by chirping louder, then flew away in the opposite direction to the village. Yang didn't even have time to wonder what was going on when she heard several birds flying in panic in the distance. In a few movements, she climbed on the highest branch of her tree. It was far away, but she could see the trees moving, approaching the village.

-Shit …

Rook didn't know what to think of this mission. She wasn't going to refuse it, she knew someone else would not be as merciful as she was, but still …

When the lights finally turned off, she entered through an open window, and arrived in the room of her "unforeseen". In the bed slept a little boy who couldn't more than three or four years old, with the same straight hair as his mother, but the same color as that of the man with whom the woman had an affair … It wasn't hard to make the connection, and Rook was already glad to know that the jealous wife did not know the existence of this child, or she would surely have paid for him to be killed too … The problem was, it was making things harder, the original plan to set the house on fire to make it pass for an accident was now out of the question, the kid would be in danger too, and even if he survived, hello trauma. Well, she was here to kill his mother so he would loose her anyway.

That was why she didn't tell Falcon about it, she too had lost her mother and was left alone afterwards, and even though she was used to killing it might be too hard for her. She could act strong as much as she wanted, Rook had seen her cry on her doll enough times to know it was just a facade. Even that asshole of Qrow had told her to be careful about that.

Besides, there was always a risk for the father to pick him up afterwards, and his wife would then find out and complain because they didn't kill him too and then try to get rid of the boy by herself … Really, sometimes, kids had more power over the world than the most influential politicians.

Rook left the room and walked quietly down the hall to the target's room. It was a very small village, even if she left some traces, no one would go to investigate what looked like a simple accident. It wasn't the first time she did this and she knew several techniques she was teaching Falcon, she could shock her with Lightning Dust and put her near a damaged electrical outlet, break her neck and then throw her down the stairs, or drown her in a bath … She hated having to "choose" a method of murder, but over time she got used to this feeling of being a heartless monster and she just dealt with it, because she knew why she did it. She would do with the fall on the stairs, so that the woman would not suffer.

She entered the room very silently. Her target turned the lights off only a few minutes ago, hard to tell if she was sleeping for good. As long as she didn't make too much noise while struggling …

-Eh Rook?

Rook stopped dead. It was absolutely not the right moment! She took a deep breath and answered, her voice as low as possible.

-What?

-There is a fairly massive Grimm heading for the village, it will be there in a few minutes.

Oh no …

-Think you can do it alone?

-Yes, of course. But don't expect something low-key.

-With you, never.

Rook removed her hand from her headset and refocused on her mission. She knew she could trust Falcon to kill a simple Grimm.

-The fuck is that thing ?!

Yang jumped off the tree she was on just before it was uprooted by the gigantic brick arm of the monster trying to kill her. Despite spending her childhood in the forests of Anima, this was the first time she saw a Geist, and she had to admit, it was the most disturbing Grimm she had ever seen. A Grimm was usually all black, with patches of white bone and red eyes, a few yellow touch sometimes, but Geist were a big bunch of all kinds of material that seemed to suddenly come to life trying to kill you. This one was made of pieces of a dilapidated house, mostly bricks and beams, a few red tiles on the top of its head like a wig, who knew Grimm could have style?

While she continued to dodge the repeated attacks, Yang was thinking. The only "Grimm" part of the monster was the mask that it used as its face, that had to be a good start. Yang stopped on a branch at the height of the monster's face, and waited for the creature to turn towards her. The gaze she received, brimming with a longing for death and destruction, didn't affect her in the slightest bit as her hair flared up, Semblance activated.

The Geist swung its left arm towards her, smashing the branch into shavings, and sending the teenager crashing into the tree behind. Without wasting time, it ran to her and crushed her while she was still on the ground. It thought it had killed the human, but a light under its foot told it the fight was not over yet. But before it could react, the stone foot exploded, sending bricks in all directions. The Grimm stepped back, leaping on its remaining foot. In front of it, the little human was standing without a scratch, her arm, hair and eyes emitting intense flames, a mixture of red, orange and yellow, like a sun.

The Geist tried to hit her again, it had done well the first time after all. Sadly for the Grimm, it was big and slow, while Yang was small and fast, which is why she had no trouble jumping before being hit, to land on the large beam that served as an arm. The giant didn't even have time to move again before she climbed up to its elbow and jumped towards its face, a flaming fist violently connecting its mask.

Yang jumped out of range again before the house debris all fell at the same time, causing a thud. Once she was sure that not a single brick was moving, she dropped to her knees moaning, her hand shaking.

-Fuck-…!

If she still had her other hand, it would currently be around her left wrist. She had punched Grimm's bone plates before, she knew some could be really hard … but never so hard that she broke her wrist while her Semblance was loaded to the max!

-Fucking Geist…!

Self-pity wasn't Yang's kind, so after a few insults to ease the pain, she stood up and examined the condition of her injury. She wasn't bleeding, the adrenaline still kept it bearable, and with her Aura, it would be completely healed within a day or two, but in the meantime, the slightest movement of the wrist hurt like hell. Perfect …

-Falcon, I finished on my side, where are you?

Yang tried to press down on her headset, but her wrist protested sharply, making her hiss. With a deep breath, she continued her movement. She could take a little pain like that!

-Not far from the village, near the path that goes there …

There was a silence before Rook answered with concern.

-Are you hurt?

Yang sighed.

-My broke my wrist …

-Ouch… What was Grimm it?

-Geist. Made of house pieces. I punched it in the face to kill it.

Another silence, and this time Yang even heard Rook's footsteps stop.

-You… killed a Geist by breaking its mask… while it was possessing something ?

-Yeah.

Another silence.

-Rook?

-Falcon, we need to have a serious discussion later.

-Hmm okay.

What could she possibly want to talk about?

The girls were seated at tables in the restaurant of the inn in their target's village. Yang's wrist had been bandaged, but she was already able to move it properly and hold her cup of tea, even though she was shaking a bit. A trained Aura would fix this sort of thing pretty quickly if there weren't other big wounds at the same time.

-So, what did you want to talk about?

-The Geist. You killed it by breaking its mask.

-Yes. Considering its was the only "Grimm" part, that made sense to me.

-It does. But that's supposed to be a trap.

Yang tilted her head to the side to ask for more explanation. She had to admit, she didn't know a lot about Geist. Rook sighed.

-Listen, when a Huntsman is fighting a Geist, he usually has two options.

Rook raised her index finger.

-Option # 1: Break all of the elements that build it, which forces it to come out in its true form, and kill it by shooting it in the head.

Rook added her middle finger.

-Option # 2: Grab the mask and throw the Grimm out of the items it's possessing, and kill it by shooting it in the head.

Rook lowered her fingers and put her hand on the table.

-The "Kill the Geist by breaking his mask without taking it out before" option is only used by atlesian battleships, because they are the only ones with sufficient firepower. A Geist's mask is incredibly stronger when it's possessing something. And you smashed it with a punch?

Yang swallowed. She fucked up. Again.

Even though Rook knew she was stronger than average, she didn't know that her strength was theoretically unlimited since it depended on the hits she took. If she had known in advance that what she had done was supposed to be impossible, she would have told her something else. Or would have done something else, instead of breaking her wrist.

-So ? Will I have an explanation?

Yang looked away. She really didn't like lying to Rook, but if she told her about her Semblance, she couldn't explain her flames.

A hand rested on hers.

-Hey. You have your secrets, I get it, and you can. I have mine too. But as your mentor, there are some things I need to know, especially when it comes to missions and combat. If you don't want to explain to me why you have that crazy strength, okay, but warn me before, let me know that I don't have to worry if you run into some supposedly indestructible enemy.

Rook removed her hand and picked up her cup of tea with a smirk.

-Or if you get run over by a building. Or if you come across another Geist. Or if we have an armored door to go through. Or-…

-When will you stop?

Rook shrugged.

-When my tea is cool enough.

Yang blinked and Rook laughed, making her blush and look away with a growl. She was laughing at her!

-But seriously firecracker, I care about you, and I don't want you to get in trouble because I didn't know about something important. You've known me for years now. You can trust me.

…

-When I get damages, I can send it back twice harder …

Far from being surprised, Rook smiled at her.

-See ? It wasn't that hard.

Yang blushed and took a sip of her own tea to hide her small smile. Rook was right, she often made a big deal out of things that didn't need to, like being a bandit. But could she really be blamed for being a little paranoid after everything she has been through?

-By the way, is there anything else I should know?

Yang put down her cup and closed her eyes to think. She still didn't want to tell her about her ability to change into a bird, on the one hand because while Rook wasn't too indiscreet with her, hinting that she had three "Semblances" would be really weird, and on the other hand because she still didn't know if she was still able to fly, telling her was pointless if she never used it. For how long had she been grounded? About three years … Three?

Yang took out her Scroll and looked at the date. She then looked up at her mentor with a flat look.

-Today's my birthday.

There was a silence. Then Rook burst out laughing.

-Hello kiddo.

-Hi Qrow.

Again, Yang had been sitting in front of Raven's grave since dawn, while Qrow arrived shortly after sunrise. Like the other times, he came to sit next to her, and the two of them were silent for a while, enjoying the calm and the presence of each other.

-So ? No monumental disaster to fix this year?

-No. It was calm.

Silence returned. Qrow took out his gourd and took a few sips of alcohol.

-Need me to untangle your hair?

Yang nodded and took the comb out of her bag. Even not seeing each other a lot, they began to have their little habits.

There wasn't any long, serious discussion this time, no panic attack, no crying echoing in the clearing. Everything was calm, soothing.

The calm before the storm.

Voilà !

So, today is another short chapter, but don't worry, more action and drama is coming soon ! ... ~suspense~