Hello, I am not dead, I'm still alive. Don't worry! I don't remember if I mentioned this last chapter, but the reason why It took so long for me to update this story is because I was focused on finishing one of my other stories. Long story short, that story is now finished, and now this story has taken up the mantle as my main story. So that means that this story is about to get a whole lot better!

Masso 2010: Worry no further, I am back again. I am glad you enjoyed the moments where Kai gets a little more assertive if you know what I mean. The first massive arc of this story was him as a mostly innocent teenager, and he was just naturally polite, but now after everything that has happened Kai has lost that innocence, and he feels like he's got the weight of the world on his shoulders and isn't all that nice or trusting to strangers anymore. No, Kai has not killed anyone yet. For the third part of your review, I can't really say much because I don't want to spoil my plans.

Oblivious IJ: Lets just refer to this new Blake as the Genatools Blake. We'll go from there, but so far… kinda?

Bolticrontic: The kind of sorcery that is fanfiction. One of the beauties of it is that I can change whatever I want. In this case, something better.

Arctech: Ah, man, I gotta say. Thank you for that UH review, I enjoyed reading it. Now that Unlikely Hero is over Blind Huntsman will get much more attention. Let's see how far Kai goes.

Asoei: Yes, that is what I said in the first chapter in the beginning. Kai's abilities are based off of Toph from ATLA. Also, the reasoning behind Kai going to Beacon instead of Shade was revealed sometime by Malikai, if not, then it will be revealed soon.

Thank you all for the reviews!

Now let's get right back into the story!

The Blind Huntsman

Chapter 45- Volume 1, Episode 12

Needs

His body was drenched in sweat. Kai leaned against one of the lockers and ran a hand through his slick black-brown hair, feeling the droplets of sweat be flung all about. He was really worked out today, to the point where even his muscles were sore. Combat class was getting increasingly difficult as ever, it seemed that even if Kai wasn't getting direct training by the headmaster himself, he was still going to get his training somehow. Rick and Brick's aunt was good at making him gassed every class, it was reminiscent of the extreme training regime he put himself through once he learned of his true nature via a message from his late father. Although he was in much better shape than he was before back then, it was impressive that he was getting this tired and sore it what should have been an easy class for him to get through. The others didn't quite know, but he was getting special treatment, and it bothered him more than he cared to admit.

"Tired for once?" Brick asked him, he was so out of focus at the time Kai didn't even sense him until he was already sitting down on the floor next to him.

"Yeah, Miss Goodwitch is anything if not a grueling teacher." Kai said.

"Ha. How do you think Rick and I made it into Beacon a year early? Between our dad and our mom's sister we didn't have an excuse to not be good fighters." Brick said, laughing at some far back memory.

"I noticed that you two don't talk about your parents all that much." Kai pointed out. "Not that I'm prying or anything, you don't need to tell me anything if you don't want to."

Brick snorted. "Kai, chill, if you're curious you can just say so. We're not that sensitive about it, and since we all pretty much know all about your life, I might as well share mine as well."

"Are you sure?" Kai asked, turning his head to make it look like he was looking at him as he slid down to rest beside him. Brick was his friend, one of the few he had, although now that number seemed to have increased now that his friends were almost all split apart into different teams. But he knew almost as well as Ruby and Yang that speaking about family wasn't always an easy thing. Hell, their relationship is up in the air every time Raven or Vernal comes to not so secretly train him.

"Why not?" He sensed Brick shrugged his shoulders. "I'd rather Rick be here, but I'm sure he wouldn't mind either way. He's probably still whining about Pyrrha being taller than him."

"Heh, you do know that you two are the same height right? Being identical twins sorta comes with that."

"Yeah but I don't bitch about it at every opportunity." Brick groaned. "I mean, seriously. I get that he likes Pyrrha and everything-"

"He does?" Kai asked.

Brick groaned again. "I don't even know, you'd probably know better than I would, all that sensing and everything."

Kai snickered. "Only when I'm looking for something like that I can find it, forgive me if I don't pry into my friends potential or otherwise love life." He smirked secretly to himself as he thought about the crush that Brick very much had on Ruby. He thought about teasing him about it, but went against that thought, it wasn't like he could tease anyone about liking anyone else when he himself had a nonexistent love life as well. The last time he felt like he liked someone like that ever was when…

A flash of memories went through his mind, painful memories. Memories of fire, heat, death, and blood. Of Cinder...

"Whatever, what was I talking about again?" Brick suddenly asked, snapping Kai out of a painful string of memories. Kai found himself silently thanking Brick for piping up again, even if he had no idea what he was just going through.

"Your family his-"

"Family history, right. Well, you know how Miss Goodwitch is my aunt right?" Brick asked.

"As it was stated many times."

"Yeah and-"

"And she is your mom's sister, I know that too."

"Yup, someone has a good memory." Brick quipped. "Anyway, our dad, Shade Violet, was apparently some crazy good Huntsman back in the day. He might have been in the same term as your Dad, I wouldn't know though, unless yours ever talked about him?"

"Never, sorry." Kai said.

"Eh, don't sweat it, ours never talked about yours anyway. Well, skipping all the love story parts, he met our mom, Eva Goodwitch, and a few years after that we were born." Brick explained simply.

"I appreciate you not going into detail about that." Kai muttered. He had enough of sexual innuendos between Yang, Orchid, and Vernal all being in his life. Some were funny, but after a while they just lost their comical touch. Not that something like him getting annoyed by them would stop them all from making them anyway, intentional or otherwise.

"Of course, anyway. Our Dad wasn't around all that much, he kept taking tons of missions, and sent only money, messages, and CCT calls as his way of helping raise us. So, after a while of that Auntie Goodwitch came into the fray, and boy did she get really give it to him. When Rick and I were four, that was when we met our dad in the flesh for the first time…" Brick sighed. Kai was sensing a deep but that was about to come. "Mum and Auntie told us one day that while they grew to be more family oriented people, Dad was more concerned about his work more than anything. Even when he was around, all he did was train us and talk about fighting, it was like that was all he knew... Until eventually, he went on a mission and never came back."

"I'm sorry." Kai said somberly, he could feel the sorrow within his friend. He knew the pain of losing a parent very well. Brick and Rick losing their father felt similar to how Ruby and Yang lost their mother, Summer. They didn't talk about her much, but he knew enough that she went on a mission that she never came back from. It pained him to think about that pain being the thing that brought them all closer together.

"It's fine," Brick said, even if he wasn't all that fine about it. "Rick and I came to terms with it, and thankfully around that time Cyan came into our lives. So we were never alone. We actually all stayed by him and his family while we were training at Signal."

"It's still a pain that hardly ever goes away." Kai pointed out. Brick looked over to him cautiously, but stayed silent to listen to what Kai was saying. "Losing a parent is difficult, whether you were close to them or not. I was close to my father when he died, and while I am sure Yang isn't exactly fond of her biological mother, she wouldn't be ecstatic about hearing of her death. Your father might not have been particularly a good one… but at least he tried, right?"

"He did…" Brick choked out, Kai sensed emotions flow through Bricks body, he shook lightly, and not wanting to be the reason the waterworks flowed freely from his eyes, he resigned to his silence. "He made Rick and I strong… and despite his flaws, he at least stayed around and trained us. The only way he knew how to bond with us was the way that he tried to. I… I just wish we had more time… maybe something could have come out of it." Brick sighed, and rubbed his eyes with the back of one of his forearms.

"I understand that to a point." Kai said, hanging his head. "Malikai… I barely had any time to reconnect with him. I was only fifteen at the time, so I was a bit bratty about… certain things that was revealed to me. I wish I had a more positive outlook with him, maybe things wouldn't have ended so painfully if I did…"

Brick clasped a hand on his shoulder for support, an action that nearly made Kai jump since he wasn't paying attention to it. But the gesture was appreciated nonetheless. It was a cruel world they lived in, with all of humanity populating in at just a couple millions of people, and less than a third of that being Huntsman. With an unquantifiable amount of Grimm creatures keeping them all in check all over the world. Pain was something everyone had to eventually live with, at least for all of the common folk of Remnant. It was that pain that drove them all to push forward while others gave up. It was what was keeping him going… and the desire to make sure no one else as to live through this painful world any longer.

"You know… this may sound weird, but from what I remember about my father, you two were pretty similar now that I think about it." Brick suddenly said.

"What do you mean?" Kai asked, surprised and as Brick expected a little creeped out as well.

"Well… you're both really strong, especially you for your age. You both suck with people,"

"Gee, thanks." Kai said, but didn't make any effort to correct him because honestly, if he didn't have the friends that he had already, he would have had trouble making new ones. He was good at making them before the incident, but now? Not so much.

"Sorry, but we both know it's true. But hey, you're getting better." Brick continued. "Not only that, but I heard enough stories about my Dad going alone against impossible odds and coming out on top. Sound familiar?"

"Not really…" Kai said slowly, too slowly. Too hesitantly.

"Dude, you went up against the supreme leader of the White Fang, someone as strong as she was, two others who were able to stall Qrow, some crazy fire bitch that nearly killed us all, and I don't even know how to describe everything that was up against you. You, and your out of aura mother who was hardly trained at the time. By all rights, you should have been killed. How did you even manage that?"

"..." Kai couldn't answer that, he couldn't lie to a friend like that. He already told Ruby, and Yang about it, and that was already too many people who knew besides the ones that needed to know.

"I can still hardly believe it." Brick went, then sighed. "It's crazy just thinking about that day, but that's not the point. The point is that I wouldn't doubt it if I was told that you ran into danger to protect your friends, even against impossible odds. I probably wouldn't be surprised even if you managed to survive it, but there's one more thing that I wouldn't be surprised by…"

"If I didn't overcome said odds." Kai finished for him, nodding his head.

"Yeah… listen Kai, you're my friend, one of my best friends, I love you man, but we can all tell that something has been up with you ever since what happened at Mistral." Brick felt him tense up with the hand that he had on his shoulder, but that didn't stop him from continuing. "It hit you harder than anyone else-"

"You're wrong." Kai cut him off, his voice dark and disturbingly calm. "I didn't get the worst of it, Shae did, my father did, Cyan and your brother nearly did." His fists clenched so tightly that his aura flared to protect his skin from being cut open by his nails. Kai stood back up and lightly shoved Brick's hand off of his shoulder, and flicked away the rest of the sweat that was on his body with his semblance. "If anything, I got the light of it… I only wish that I finished that bitch off when I had the chance."

"That's the problem," Brick persisted. "I'm not talking about being physically hurt, I mean mentally and emotionally, and I've never seen it affect anyone more than it did you."

"I'm fine." Kai claimed, and then started walking forward. "This conversation is over, I am going to go visit my family tonight."

"Kai c'mon man." Brick called after him, but it was too late. When Kai wanted to be alone, he got himself alone. It didn't matter if he had to shove people out of his way or not, that was the thing with teenage Huntsman in training, when they wanted something, they could take it without much issue. Which was one of the reasons why vigilantism was something that was not taken lightly, or any rouge Huntsman for that matter.

"Uh…" A voice from the side echoed throughout the locker room, Brick looked to his side and saw the thin body of Jaune, the leader of his brothers team, staring at him half naked with only a towel to hide his modesty. "Should I have not listened to all that?" He asked stupidly.

Brick sighed. Yet another defeat on this day for him to suffer.

Kai gritted his teeth as he walked the halls of Beacon, back to his dorm building and during the climb of stairs he needed to do in order to get back to the room that he shared with three girls. Some might say that he had it good, but would feel the opposite once they realized that he was blind.

Does he know? Kai asked himself mentally. No, he couldn't have. If Brick knew he felt like he would have just said it straight up. Or if he did know, he did a real piss poor job and trying to convince him not to go through with it.

"I need to do this." He kept telling himself. He was having a good bonding session with his friend, only to have it ruined because of his own mission that he felt like he needed to take on by his lonesome. He wouldn't be alone the first few times due to the agreement he made with Blake, and they still had to tell them. It has been a few days since they had their talk, and something like that needed to be addressed with the team soon, Kai just didn't know how to go about it.

Orchid might be okay with it, or the majority of her personalities would. She would support him on nearly anything, and if she knew what this was really about, she would definitely go for it. He trusted her strength to keep herself safe, and Blake was strong as well and probably had as much training as he did, if only not as intense for as many years. Ruby was a different case, he was worried about her, she was strong and fast, but she was also inexperienced. He made it sound like he was okay with her knowing before, and he even made himself feel like he believed it, but now he was not so sure. Ruby would jump at the chance at stopping a bad guy, but she was smart enough now to not go in there alone. She would want to get Yang involved, and by extension Brick, Weiss, and Ren would also get involved. Then a four man mission would become an eight man mission, and that's not even including the possibility that Brick would tell his brother Rick, and then all of Team JNPR would get involved as well. Making it three whole teams from Beacon going out at once for some mission to stop the White Fang.

The danger was too much, if they ran into one of the stronger White Fang members, someone like Adam Taurus or Sienna Kahn or God forbid Cinder of all people, that would be a fight that would most certainly lead to the death of some of his friends.

"Having second thoughts?"

Kai stopped himself right before he was about to swipe his scroll across his door to let himself in. He tilted his head toward the voices direction, and stepped back from the door, pocketing his scroll and turning to face her.

"I was wondering when you were going to speak up, Yang." Kai said, smiling. "Is there a reason you followed me all the way back to my room? I'm sure you are aware of the implications." He added sarcastically.

"Oh so now you're okay with those jokes." Yang rolled her eyes and smirked at him, amused. But quickly Kai sensed that there was a negative emotion within his blonde friend. She was stressed out to a point, and that made him stressed as well.

"She told you then?" Kai asked. At Yang's silence, he took that as his cue to keep speaking. "I thought we talked about this, Raven is training me for what is coming for all of us-"

"That's not what I am here for." Yang cut him off, eyes flaring red for a moment.

Kai tilted his head in confusion. "It isn't?" He asked, genuinely surprised. "Then what are you here for?"

Yang sighed, and calmed herself down. She refrained from getting violent or angry. Kai had that special ability to piss her be it by accident or purposeful. Anytime Raven was brought up both of them would tense up. She has mentioned this before, but she was still admittedly jealous of Kai for the fact that Raven apparently cared for him more than she did her own daughter. But that was a problem long buried between the two. Hostility between each other weren't needed, especially when it was so soon after the attack on Mistral.

"You're sure you want to make me say it?" Yang asked, a warning tone added to her voice. Kai tensed up, his shoulders were more flat and suddenly the sword still strapped to his hip felt heavier. His hand inched towards it for a moment, but he stomped down such a thought the instant he got it in his mind. Instead, he kept his hands visible by his sides, and kept a straight face. The smile he once had fading away slowly. He instantly thought about what he and Blake talked about before. Had Yang been able to eavesdrop on the two of them? If that was the case, he mistook that weight he sensed behind a door for someone just using the bathroom or something unimportant like that.

Even upon realizing the very real possibility of Yang eavesdropping on him and Blake, he refused to say anything. If that really was what Yang was here to talk to him about, then he'd have her say it instead. He'd rather her just be blunt about it and not beat around the bush.

Yang sighed, after about half a minute of waiting for him to admit it himself she realized that just wasn't going to happen. She crossed her arms and leaned on one of her hips, content with the decision he has made, if a little irritated. "I heard what you and Blake were talking about. About you going after the White Fang." She said slowly, making sure that each and every word she spoke was clear and comprehensible. "Tell me, what has compelled you to make such a stupid decision."

It was Kai's turn to sigh, this time through his nose. His fears were confirmed now, Yang found it, and that meant that if he tried anything the rest of her team would find out, or worse. Ozpin. "Who else is going to do something about her?" He asked, agitation clear. "If I don't do anything, no one will. The police are weak and useless and Vale doesn't even have its own central military branch, and the White Fang are strong, organized, and has someone stronger leading them."

"And you think you can fight them off all by yourself!?" Yang asked so loud it could be considered a shout. Kai would have been worried that they would have been overheard by a passing student or someone still in their room, but everyone else was either still in class, or in their free period like he was. Rarely did anyone really go back to their dorm room after class, not alone anyway. "You're going to get yourself killed, and whoever you bring with you."

"That's the problem?" Kai asked, amused. "If you're so worried about Ruby, I won't bring her along. I was worried about her too believe it or not."

"That's not the freaking point!" Yang whisper screamed, realizing her own volume and took a few steps closer to her blind friend. Kai stood there idly, waiting for her to continue. In serious conversations like this, he was difficult to speak to if you didn't continue bringing up points. He'd just stay silent until you're finished before either refusing to acknowledge any of those points, or just remaining silent and letting you fester in your own anger.

That wasn't a problem for Yang however, she was willing and able to talk to him for hours if needs be in order to drill into his head whatever she wanted to get into it. She was important to him, so he wasn't going to say anything hurtful even if he wanted to. It wasn't a fair tactic, but it was one she would use to win if it meant the safety of those she cared for.

"If you go alone, and you get hurt, what is everyone going to think? If you go with your team and you all get hurt, what is everyone going to think? You think you know what's out there, and you think you can take it all on by yourself, but you're wrong. Cinder and those she is leading are strong, and you will be overwhelmed." Yang ranted. "I don't want to wake up one morning, only to hear about you getting yourself killed in some suicide mission."

"I'm not going to get killed." Kai argued. "If you really thought I was going to go in there without a plan, then you haven't been paying attention."

"It doesn't matter, because you're not going anywhere." Yang said, stepping so close to him their feet almost touched. She was making her position clear, taking the moral high ground.

"You'd try to stop me if I did anyway?" Kai challenged, voice quiet but very understandable with how close Yang was.

"If I have to, yes." Yang said, nodding her head. "I don't want you to lose yourself Kai… why don't you just talk to us? We know what Cinder did was evil-"

"Don't." Kai interrupted, and Yang took a step back out of surprise when she saw the suddenly very angry and uncharacteristic look he had on his face. She didn't back down, she was just shocked. "You don't understand, this isn't just revenge, this is for the people of the world. You know as well as I do that everyone I am associated with is a target, I just intend to become the biggest one, so that the others are ignored. To take care of a problem before it becomes an issue." He recited.

Yang raised a suspicious eyebrow. "And who told you that?" His silence was telling. Thankfully, she already sent Qrow a message about Raven, hopefully he'll be able to do something about that. "Of course she did… She's not your mother Kai, and she's definitely not someone you should take advice from."

"It seems to be that is a pretty suggestive opinion." Kai fired back, Yang reeled back with more shock, and then anger. He really wasn't being himself at the moment. He seemed to realize his own harmful words, for his expression shifted slightly, and he hung his head a little deeper. Yang wished she could see into his eyes, or the upper half of his face for that matter, just so she would be able to see if he meant what he was saying. But alas, that black blindfold of his blocked everything, even if she could see a faint glow from underneath them from time to time.

"It is," She relented, refraining herself even further in order to not lash out with any harmful words of her own. "But can you blame me? Raven ditched me when I was a baby and left my dad, then suddenly comes back and I find out that she is training some different kid who happens to be the son of her ex back when she was in Beacon." She sighed, realizing that she is going off track. "Look Kai… I don't mean to be an asshole, or to guilt trip you into not doing anything. I know I won't be able to stop you even if I manage to break your arms and legs. But I can't in good conscience just let you go out there alone or even with your team. I won't lie and say that Ruby isn't a big part of it, you'd be able to tell anyway, but please Kai." Yang took a step forward, and placed a hand on his forearm. She could feel how tense he was, and felt bad for him. No one her age should feel this way all the time, much less go through the same things Kai was or feeling like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders.

"You're going to end up killing yourself… can't you see that? I know you're a smart kid." She said with a small smile. She knew that Kai couldn't see it, but now that she is touching his arm he'd be able to sense it. She felt him relax for a moment, but not as much as she would have liked to. He sighed again through his nose, and leaned into her touch as she pulled him in for a quick soft hug.

"How about we — or you — go talk to the headmaster about this?" Yang suggested when she pulled away. "I'm sure he'd listen to you, especially since he kinda needs you for whatever plans he has. If you bring it up to him and shove it down his throat that you're serious about this, he'd send some seasoned Huntsmen after Cinder and the White Fang. Sound like a plan?"

"..." Kai didn't verbally reply, but he did nod his head lightly. He didn't want to be mad, and neither did she. Everything was so convoluted and confusing and Cinder being in Vale made everything worse.

"Can you promise me that you'll at least talk to Ozpin first?" Yang asked next, she knew it was a lot, but she was going all in at the moment. She just got him to listen to her after all. "Who knows, maybe he'll send you on a mission to find them anyway, but with a good team with good equipment."

"I… think."

Yang frowned. "Say the words, please. I want to hear it."

Kai sighed lightly, and nodded his head again.

"I promise, I'll talk to Blake tonight and I'll call the whole thing off, I'll think about talking to Ozpin too, let you know what happens." He said softly, his voice was strained, but Yang took that for him still really wanting to go after Cinder anyway. If the roles were reversed and Cinder killed her dad, she'd want to do the same thing, and she'd know that Kai would have been there to stop her as well. It was the least she could do for him, and even though she was still mad at him for the whole Raven situation, it was hardly his fault that Raven chose to train him in the first place.

"Thank you," Yang said, feeling relieved and satisfied with herself as she prepared to leave. "I'll leave you be then, I heard that Orchid got a Flamingo and that she has been carrying it around with her, you might want to get to her before Miss Goodwitch does." She said as she walked past him, keeping her back toward him and strutting away victoriously. "Might want to get on that before it's too late."

"Yeah…" Kai muttered quietly as he started walking in the opposite direction. Once he sensed that Yang was far enough away that she couldn't hear him, he quickened his pace slightly.

There was one thing that Kai didn't do. Lie. He despised it, and hated when other people lied to him. But despite his hatred for the term and everything it stood for, it was still something he wasn't a hundred percent against using.

I'm sorry, Yang, but it's just not that simple. He thought to himself as he kept moving forward. He would do what he needed to do, and while Yang did spit out some nonsense, there was still some sense to it. What he planned to do was dangerous, and bringing his team along would make things more difficult. Raven was right, but perhaps he misunderstood her words. The implication was there, but maybe it wasn't to talk to the ex-White Fang member.

Or at least, not Blake.

Finding Orchid was easier than he thought it would be, all he had to do was follow the sounds of running and of a Flamingo croaking. He still didn't know how to describe the sound an actual Flamingo made, it was just so strange, at times it sounded like a chicken and at other times it sounded like a goose or a toad. Nonetheless, he found her hiding with Ruby and a reluctant Blake as she protected her bird companion in her bosom. He couldn't see any of this of course, but a smile dawned upon his face as Miss Goodwitch ran passed him muttering something about a certain student violating certain school rules. He pretended not to notice her and went about his business, which was pointedly not ratting out his friends.

"Thanks Kaizy~" Orchid said in a grateful voice, and leaned her shoulder against his for a few moments to show her approval of his actions.

"Of course, though I have to ask," He flicked his chin toward the bright pink bird in her arms. He could sense that his friend had her arms around its body and wings, trapping it there so it couldn't fly away. They didn't even know if it could fly, and none of them were really willing to give it a go and check for themselves by throwing it out the window lest it take off and leave them all behind or just die from the fall. "Why are all three of you hiding?"

"I want it on record that I refused to be a part of this at first." Blake complained as he stood up out of the bush once Miss Goodwitch was out of sight.

"Psh, what kind of teammates would we be if we didn't include you in our fun times?" Ruby asked ever so innocently. Blake groaned, she was being taken advantage of and it wasn't fair. She only had so much patience, and she really wanted to finish that book that she was reading. If only she had an extra few minutes, she would have been able to finish the last chapter…

"Shenanigans, you mean?" Blake asked. Ruby giggled at her apparent joke, and Blake sighed to herself for what felt like the hundredth time that day. Her entire team, bar her leader, were complete foolish idiots. Yet they were her friends anyway.

"Psh," Ruby waved her hand in dismissal. "Yeah, as if. This is a serious issue!"

"No one shall steal away my precious Karrot!" Orchid exclaimed as she hugged the bird even tighter to her chest, in which the bird responded by thrashing about for a few moments. But sadly, it was in the arms of a Huntress to be. It wasn't escaping anytime soon.

"Karrot?" Kai asked, confused. "Like the vegetable?"

"Fruit." Orchid corrected. "And no, Karrot with a K."

"Carrot with a K-?" Kai couldn't help but snicker at the realization. "Is that your attempt of naming him after me?"

"Of course!" Excited Orchid cheered, bouncing up to him in an instant. "I mean, don't you remember the time my mom force fed you carrots in the hopes of giving you back your eyesight?" She asked in a far too happy tone for the horrifying string of memories that went through his mind.

Come on Kai! Just a few more to go! The voice of Orchids mom haunted him on that fateful day, just a few weeks before he went on to Vale for his first term at Beacon.

Kai physically shuddered at the memory, and forcibly repressed it to save himself from a night terror. "Y-yeah… I remember." He eventually replied.

"A little too much, I presume." Blake quipped.

"Anyway, we got one more class to get through today, don't we?" Kai quickly changed the subject, and pointedly aimed his face toward Blake for a moment.

He sensed tense up for a moment as she without a doubt remembered their talk from a few nights before. "Tonight?" She whispered very quietly so that Orchid and Ruby couldn't hear her, thankfully they were locked in another conversation with each other.

"No," Kai whispered back, knowing that Blake could hear him as well because of her sensitive cat faunus ears. "I changed my mind. Don't worry about it." He whispered, and smiled softly after he spoke that last word.

He could sense the disbelief within Blake, and an iota of relief as well to go along with that, but also some suspicion. She was relieved that they didn't have to take the chance of running into Adam or any of them anymore, and he didn't blame her for that, but she didn't believe him at first. That much was obvious with the way she kept pace next or behind him keeping the whispered conversation going, and the suspicion followed as he continued to deny the possibility of him lying and going out there in secret. He was known to be truthful however, which helped him in convincing Blake to drop it when they got to class with Mister Port.

It was convenient that they got stuck in that class for their last one of the day, since it left them all tired and sleepy from forcing themselves away throughout the entire duration of the class. When combined with Miss Goodwitch's combat class earlier that morning, their sore muscles begged them to all go to bed straight after dinner. School classes started earlier most of the time after all, most of the time at eight in the morning, but sometimes there would be a random early morning just to keep you on your toes. It snuck up on everyone the first time it happened and everyone was tired and groggy the entire day as a result. So no one wanted to risk going through something like that a second time.

Kai himself felt tired as he landed softly on his bed. He didn't even bother taking any of his clothes off to be more comfortable. All he did was lay there trying and failing to go to sleep, but keeping himself awake with mental practice. He heard as Orchid wrestled with the Flamingo in order to get the leash hooked onto its collar, which it constantly tried to pry off, and then Ruby talking on the scroll to Yang who was in the room just across from them. Amusing, those two were. He stopped paying attention to the conversation once Yang started teasing Ruby about her choosing to sit next to Brick and his partner instead of her.

Soon enough, the hours passed, and his teammates finally started to fall asleep. He wasn't so idealistic that Blake would fall asleep along with them so quickly. Being in the next bed next to him, and able to see in the dark. She would be able to see if he gets up or not. Unfortunately for her, however, he is able to sense that she was still awake, and was more than willing to lie there and wait for her to fall asleep.

It took half an hour for Blake to sigh and give up, calling herself stupid for thinking something like that. Then another ten minutes or so for her to actually fall asleep. Kai waited another twenty just in case she was in a light sleep, and a few more just in case. Keeping track of her heart rate, and the heart rate of his teammates as well. Ruby was out like a light, and Orchid might as well be dead she was so deep in sleep.

Kai took that as his cue, and slowly stood from his bed. He learned how to make his footsteps silent long ago, and used that skill to sneak himself to his own crate of belongings across from his bed near the door. In the crate were a variety of clothes, dark, light, thick, thin, and about every color his mother thought might have looked good on him. He only wore what he was most comfortable with, which was the dark long sleeved thick shirt lined with leather pads that he hasn't worn in over a year, and a pair of pants of the same color and material. He has never been one to care for fashion, and didn't care if it looked ugly. He only knew that this was the one he was looking for when he ran his hands over the sides of it, feeling the light leather armour that would protect from a blade, and might deflect a few bullets, but not much else. Not that he would need to rely on it anyway, he had aura and plenty of it to use to protect his body.

Normally he would prefer to wear his short sleeved or no sleeve hoodie, since it gave him more showing skin in order to better sense what was around him, and the same with his shorts. But they were too recognizable, just like Silver Ebony. If he wore them while he set out to do what he has planned to do, he would get spotted and recognized, and word would get to Cinder, Ozpin, his team, the whole nine yards. He carefully and quietly took off his clothing and folded them to place them in the crate, and slowly crept into the new outfit.

His mother knew him well, and threw a hood to go along with the shirt. He thanked her mentally as he pulled it up over his head, and now all that remained were the mechanical socks that he received as a gift two years ago. Slipping his feet into those next. A stranger with bare feet would be noted, and at least those socks were a little more common. Now with his body completely covered, there was just one more issue to address.

His face, he still wore his black blindfold, but that would be able to get recognized as well in the case that he got caught with his hood down, and he couldn't exactly go without it, since his face would get recognized, if not that than the fact that he has silver eyes with white pupils would be a dead giveaway. He needed a mask, he decided. That would be the only way he could be completely safe from straying eyes.

There was an idea he had in his head, but in order to do it he needed to get to Vale. Getting to Vale was easier than he thought it would be. He didn't take a Bullhead for obvious reasons, the pilots needed to log in to whoever took trips from Beacon to Vale and vise versa. But for someone like him, and much to his dismay, he was able to just jump straight off the Beacon cliff and use the air part of his semblance to cushion his fall. He was essentially flying blind because of the fact that he was well, blind. But all he needed to do was follow the sounds of a city, which never fell to sleep.

Landing was a little tougher however. He landed on a roof and tumbled when his feet touched down. He caught himself before his head could smash into the concrete roof, and then stayed there catching his breath for a few moments. Getting back to Beacon was going to be a mission in itself, but he would figure something out. He was already too far into this to go back anyway.

Feeling around the concrete that layered the roof of the building he was kneeling on with his hands, he gripped his fingers and pushed them into the rock. Concrete was very easy to mold and manipulate with his hands, and now his previous idea could be tested out now. Carving out a slab of concrete with his fingers, he bent and molded the stone to fit his needs, and threw away the pieces he didn't use to the side to be forgotten. Slowly, the stone in his hands started to take shape, the shape of a mask.

It would be a simple mask, it didn't need to be anything special, not for what he was about to do. He molded the shape of the mask and kept grinding his hands against the front of it until it felt smooth and round to the touch. Next, he shaped it against his face and fixed what he needed until he had enough space for his nose, mouth, and eyes. Figuring that a mask with no eye holes would raise some eyebrows in his direction, he pushed his thumbs through the stone where the eyes would be, and shaped them vaguely into what might have looked like eyes, and when he was done he pushed the mask on his face.

It was a heavy mask, not so heavy that he couldn't get used to it, however. He stood up, and pulled his hood back over his head. In all black clothing, and now a mask to go along with it, all he needed now was a weapon, and he had weapons all around him. He would use the stone manipulation part of his semblance only, he decided, anything else would raise too many red flags, and if it was too high key he wouldn't use his semblance at all.

He felt his custom made scroll vibrate in his pocket, he brought it with him just in case of a real emergency. He feared that one of his teammates had woken up, and thumbed one of the buttons to hear the message that was just sent to him. Swallowing nervously as he did so.

"Hey kid, it's Qrow. I know its late, but call me whenever you can. We have something we need to talk about-"

Sighing out of relief, Kai ended the voice message early and noted that he would need to call Qrow later on the next day. Whatever he wanted, it could wait. He couldn't afford to be caught as he is now. He shut off his scroll just in case, he didn't want it going off during any of this.

Now, it was time to wait. Kai jumped down from whatever building he was standing on, and into an alley. Empty, thankfully. It wouldn't do for some random passerby to see an inconspicuous individual such as himself jumping into an alley. Next, he got down on his knees and pressed his hands against the ground, focusing on his sensing on a massive scale. He heard voices, felt moving vehicles, and everything a city had to give. But he was only listening in for one thing, and one thing only.

The sound of a weapon cocking, and an alarm sounding off for a few seconds until it was deactivated.

"Deal with the problem before it becomes an issue." Kai recited to himself as he opened his eyes from underneath his mask and blindfold, standing up and pulling a small dagger made of stone from where his hand once laid, and stretched over more pavement to make it look like nothing was taken from there at all.

"Make yourself the biggest target..."

He took a deep breath, and sprinted off into the moonlit streets of the city of Vale.

Ooo, ominous. I wonder what Kai has planned right now? Psh, as if I didn't make it clear enough. I am so sorry this took so long to come out, as I said before I was focusing on finishing another one of my stories. Long story short, I finished that story and took a bit of a break. I was going to start writing earlier than this, but I had a bit of a sudden addiction to Destiny 2, I don't know how, but that game got good all of a sudden and a few of my friends and I have been grinding at it for a while now.

But hey, good news! Now that An Unlikely Hero is finished, this story is now my number one main focus. That is something to rejoice about. It means that even more planning, plot points, development, all that good shit is on the way. If you liked the story before, you're going to really love it in the near future.

Since Volume 1 has been dragging for a bit, I have decided to get a little more fast paced. I don't want another prologue issue where Volume 0 is over thirty chapters long before I realize that "Huh, maybe I should actually get to the good shit now." So yeah, there's that.

Also, it is hot as balls where I live, so that sucks. It sucks more that my fan has three modes: Useless 1, Useless 2, and then Wind Tunnel. Gah, I just can't focus completely with that blaring wind noise in my ear all the time.

Please review and let me know what you think of the story. If you want to keep up with me and the progress of my stories, you can follow me on my Twitter!

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