Just to clear something small up re last chapter. I'm not saying dust didn't exist before 100 years ago – the anomaly behind it would have escaped with the first containment breaches when the original ARC Corp fell apart. It's that Nicolas Schnee and the SDC were the ones to find the anomaly and mass-produce and monopolise it. Before, dust would have still existed but in pockets and mining and would have been one of many fuels utilised. It was when the SDC were suddenly able to supply it in unprecedented quantities thanks to their anomaly that dust became a force of industry.

I think this is in-keeping with canon since as I recall (and I may be wrong) Nicolas Schnee founded the SDC as Weiss' grandfather, but dust would have existed before as well, but he turned the SDC into a monopoly and made it more widely available or something.

Cover Art: Kirire

Chapter 11

"What is it you do again?"

"We're a franchised office of an investigative organisation."

"Hmmm. And this is safe?"

"Dad please…"

"Safer than being a huntress."

"Hmmm."

Blake watched with lidded eyes as the muscular and surprisingly tanned man that was Ruby's father grilled Jaune as to the nature of his daughter's new workplace. The bright hair and tan skin were opposites to Ruby in every way, leading her to believe her looks came from her mother's side. The capability to be annoying, however, must have come from this man, because much like Ruby he didn't let up on scanning the office.

"Dad…" Ruby tugged desperately at one of his arms with both hands. "You're embarrassing me."

"This is just unusual," he said. "You've always been so keen on becoming a huntress. Now this?" He eyed Jaune. "If I find out you did anything to my daugh-"

"Dad!"

"Okay. Okay." He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. Jaune hadn't looked particularly intimidated anyway. "It's a week, right? Monday to Friday, nine to five?"

"Yes." Jaune answered. "You can pick her up if you like or she can take public transport back to Patch. There are a few hotels around if you want her to stay in Vale-"

"No. You're coming back each night."

"Dad, I'm fifteen!"

"Which is still underage. You're not staying in Vale on your own. If your sister were here…"

"Then she'd ditch me to go clubbing. You know she would."

"Sounds about right. Ugh. I'll come pick you up," he promised. "Every day."

Ruby stuck her lower lip out. "I can manage on my own."

"My mind is made up." Taiyang placed a large hand on Ruby's head, making her look even smaller and twice as huffier. He ruffled her hair. "Besides, I've heard stories about this place."

"From whom?" Jaune asked with narrowed eyes.

"A man I trust and who taught me many things."

Jaune groaned. "Ozpin just can't leave well alone, can he?"

"Dad, I'm not going to Beacon just because the headmaster fills your and Yang's head with horror stories." All of which were true, Blake felt like saying. "Mom would want me to be happy whatever I do. Don't you?"

"Of course I do, sweetie."

"Then this is what I wanna do!" she said, stamping her foot. "So be happy. Now go. It's my first day of work experience and you're embarrassing me!"

The man let himself be forcibly pushed out the office, though not before gesturing to his eyes and then to Jaune. Ruby grunted and shoved him out, then slammed the door shut and leaned against it. After a full minute, she banged a fist on it and shouted, "I can hear you not walking away!"

Taiyang's guilty voice returned, "No, you can't."

"Dad! Go!"

Finally, his footsteps echoed away. Jaune still went so far as to check the little camera before giving the all-clear. Almost immediately, Ruby slumped onto her behind, clasped both hands to her face and groaned into them.

"So," Blake said. "He's protective."

"It's because of Uncle Qrow and Ozpin!" Ruby whined. "Uncle Qrow works for him and has been filling dad's head with ideas. And then Yang went and told him you were ghost hunters and that made things ten times worse. Dad thinks I'm throwing my education away."

"You kind of are…"

"No way. You gotta be tough to be in ARC Corp. Tough and smart." Hopping up, Ruby plastered a huge smile onto her face and zipped over to Jaune's desk so fast she almost made him spill his coffee. "What's my first job, boss? Identify a potentially mind-controlling anomaly? Single-handedly hunt down a monster terrorising the city?"

"Uh. You can feed Timothy and clean up his waste?"

Ruby's eyes sparkled. "AWESOME!"

Blake watched the girl practically fly into Jaune's bedroom, and then heard the "skreee" from within. It was a bad sign for her own sanity that she felt she could now determine the monster's feelings by the sounds of its sibilant screeches. This was an excited one, and the clatter of limbs, wooden furniture and giggling from Ruby suggested she was wrestling with it. Tough and smart? Try insane.

"Well," Jaune laughed awkwardly. "At least she's energetic."

"Is her father going to be a problem?"

"Hard to say. We'll make sure everything is cleaned up and finished before five so he doesn't see anything off. Other than that, it's not like he can stalk us when we leave the office for a mission. He works at Signal on Patch."

Yet more reason for him to be upset at Ruby's life choices, she supposed. It must have been frustrating enough when your daughter suddenly changed her mind at the eleventh hour, but when you were one of her teachers it must have been even worse. Not that she hadn't done just as bad with her own parents. And she still needed to muster up the courage to reach out to them. Not yet, though. Blake changed the subject quickly. "Anything on the SDC?"

"No news. And for once, that's not good news."

"The Fist Office are off to Atlas, right?"

"Yes. I dread to imagine what kind of chaos they'll cause out there. Either way, it's not like we have any angle to investigate the SDC here, so we'll have to wait on what they find."

"And if the SDC run an auction here?"

"Then we'll react to the anomaly and shut it down when it's used. I know it's not ideal but there isn't much more than that we can do."

They could go after the Schnee in Beacon, she wanted to say, but that would open a fresh can of worms, especially if she wasn't involved with her family currently. Ozpin might not like it either. He struck Blake as the kind of man – creature? – who would like having a Schnee under his employ. He'd accepted her into Beacon knowing full well who she was after all.

"What do we do until then? Keep looking for anomalies in the news?"

That wouldn't be easy since the news was still focused on the second sunrise and the sinking of the SDC freight container. Still no sign of suspicion toward them, though a fresh line of accusation at the White Fang had been levelled. Blake wasn't sure if she should be happy about that or not, though Adam ironically might enjoy the free kudos and claim responsibility. It would save ARC Corp having to smother the news.

Just as important to them was that the initial scans of the dust-polluted water weren't showing any signs of life rust-based or metallic in nature. Jaune was receiving updates from the Council on that, and it seemed as though whatever Slaved Anomaly Terra used, it had annihilated the Rusted Queen. Or that singular strain of it.

"Actually." Jaune leaned forward. "We already have a job lined up."

"We do? Since when?"

"Last night at an emergency council meeting." Outside hours, which must have been why she hadn't heard of it. She'd spent last night binging movies to avoid thinking about contacting her parents. "There's been an incident in one of the farming communities outside the city. You heard of the wheat valley?"

"It's a group of villages to the south of Vale that do, like, ninety per cent of the city's farming, right?"

"More than that. They export to Mistral and Atlas as well. Vale's literal breadbasket, and probably the most well-defended community that isn't a city. Huntsmen run rounds down there and there are always a few stationed. Vale can't afford for the wheat valley to fail. And luckily, it doesn't."

"What makes it so fertile? An anomaly?"

"If it was, we wouldn't be allowed near it. It's that important to the city's survival and trade. It's not, though. The secret is something to do with the dust and sediment from the walls of the valley. Former volcanic rock or something. Incredibly fertile, and a rich river runs down the valley carrying it to the farmland. All natural as far as we can tell."

Blake nodded. Maybe it had been a little paranoid to jump straight to anomalous abuse, but given everything she'd seen – well, it wasn't hard to imagine a community using an anomaly to make their soil fertile for greater profit. It wouldn't be a surprise at all. Then again, since the food grown from such would be anomalous, ARC Corp would have come down on it with the wrath of a meteorite years ago. In fact, they probably had, and the information about the volcanic rock likely came from their own studies.

"What's happening then?"

"Some sudden and unusual crop failures. Not in and of itself strange, but they told me they've sent their people to investigate and everything looks normal."

"Their people?"

"Agricultural people," he said with a shrug that said he didn't remember their titles or professions. "You know, specialists in farming. To check if it wasn't a perfectly reasonable reason for the crops to die out. Disease, rot and all that."

"Makes sense. And I take it there was none of those."

"Their results were inconclusive. As far as they can tell, there's no reason for certain fields to fail and others to be fine. Again, no proof of an anomaly yet, but given the importance of the wheat valley, the council are kind of desperate and want to rule it out before they take further action."

"We have nothing, then?"

"I'll admit it's a bit of a weird one but cases sometimes are. It might be nothing. Best we can do is head down there, ask around, check the place out and see if we find anything suspicious."

/-/

Blake had to admit the wheat valley was beautiful. Their Bullhead hovered above the steep dip in the surrounding land, at the bottom of which lay the most twisty, curly river she had ever seen. It was as if someone had tried to draw a straight line while being caught in a hurricane, going back on itself over and over. The strange way it snaked across the valley probably led to the heightened fertility, as its waters touched every crook and cranny of the valley, while small community villages dotted the edges, and large manor-like farmhouses were more independently spread out among vast fields of farmland separated by dark green hedges to differentiate fields from one another. The sun beat down on the valley this early in the morning, but she could imagine it being rather shaded in the afternoon hours, which might have also helped the crops.

As they came down to land in a grassy field where brown, shaggy cows congregated to watch their aircraft with immense boredom, Ruby darted to the exit of the aircraft, bouncing on her heels in her black suit, blue coat and – garishly – her red cloak. Jaune apparently hadn't cared enough to argue about her breaking the uniform in such a way, not when she was only work experience. She was the first out when the door slipped open, and immediately went to coo and croon at the herd of cows, who were surprisingly docile and surrounded her, mooing and butting at her hands inquisitively.

"Why are we landing in a field?" Blake asked Jaune.

"Grain is heavy and sent by truck and the roads here are some of the safest in the kingdom."

That couldn't be said for most villages and towns, and only went to show just how much the city picked and chose its favourites. Not that she could blame them here if this place attributed for most of the city's food. If wheat valley fell, the city would starve. Or, more likely, they'd have to import from Atlas, pushing inflation higher and maybe even triggering a recession if it got bad enough.

"Come on, Ruby!" Jaune called, moving away from the Bullhead and toward a wooden gate. A farmer stood leaning against it, presumably having given permission for his field to become an impromptu airfield. He didn't look angry enough to make her think otherwise. When they were halfway there, the aircraft took off again, rising up before gently coasting back towards the city.

"Are we sleeping here?"

"Not unless we think it's a good idea. Ruby's dad will kill me otherwise. We'll call for a ride back when we're done for the day."

"You think this will take a couple of days?"

"I've a feeling it won't be easy. I mean, we have no evidence, no clues and no direction other than they the council thinks it might be an anomaly. Honestly, it'll be quicker if it is one, because if there isn't one then we have to prove that." He sighed. "And proving a negative is harder than proving a positive."

The farmer by the gate had sunkissed skin and wore a short-sleeved tartan shirt over ragged jeans and boots. He was youngish, around his mid-twenties, with wild and slightly sweaty hair likely from a morning of hard labour. "Mornin'," he called, raising a hand in greeting. "My pa' asked me to meet y'all. Welcome to wheat valley." He grinned lopsidedly. "We do more than jus' wheat."

"I can tell from the cows." Jaune shook the man's hand and then let Blake and Ruby do the same. "We're from the council sent to investigate the sudden failure of several fields. Have any of yours been affected?"

"None of ours." He tapped the gate. "Touch wood. Most of it is happenin' on the other side o' the river. Course, it's not all of 'em. Five, maybe six, fields so far."

"Is it all that unusual?" Blake had to ask. "Crops fail, right? What's weird about this?"

"Aye, crops do fail sometimes. We take a lotta care around here though, and them that failed, well, they're good, hard-workin' folk that know the land well. It'd be different if it was younger, less experienced folk or if the fields were close together and disease spread. No disease, though. No blight. And the fields are spread out." He shrugged. "Feels weird to see one field fail, those next to it do fine, then all the crops in one a few fields over drop dead overnight as well."

"Is it only crops? Are animals affected?"

"Only crops so far." He pushed off the gate and opened it slightly for them to slip through. The cows behind tried to follow Ruby, but the farmer shooed them back (not that they listened) and then locked it shut. "Come on, I'll show ya to the village. Is plenty of folks you can talk to around there."

Rather than walk, the farmer had brought a green tractor with an empty wooden trailer on six wheels. They climbed into that and sat on the raised edges while he revved it up and started them bouncing and bumping down a worn dirt path. They were just high enough to see over the hedges that acted as natural barriers, above which several fields of animals lay and beyond them fields of crops. Blake didn't know enough about farming to differentiate one crop from another but wheat stood out more than well enough. The others had crops that were much smaller, green leaves poking up out fields of brown, tilled soil. Potatoes, cabbages or something else.

What was clear was that every bit of land had been utilised, with long rows of crops carrying on in big square pastures and quite a few tractors trundling here and there. Every time they passed by one, the driver would raise a hand and call out a greeting that their driver would return. It looked like everyone knew everyone, and despite all these farmers technically being in competition, they really weren't in reality. If Vale bought every crop at the same price then they might as well be colleagues, albeit with their own profits and farms. A more rural soul might have called it idyllic. She could see the appeal. Warm weather, safety, a simple life. She was far too much a city girl to be interested, but it was the kind of place she could imagine being a hot destination for `back to nature` types.

The village they came to was tightly packed and rather small – with the buildings themselves being small as well. Cute little shopfronts included butchers, bakers and some trinkets, but there weren't any dedicated supermarkets like she was used to, and a lot of goods probably had to be ordered online and shipped in. Even so, the people looked remarkably happy. Given the absolute lack of traffic that was not tractor-based, the thin cobbled streets were busy with pedestrians, cyclists and children playing games. Animals too. Ruby cooed at several dogs that barked and wagged their tails at them, further proving she had no taste in pets. Some far more elegant felines stretched atop low brick walls and wooden fences, yawning as they bathed in the warm sun.

The tractor came to a slow stop outside a pub-like building with two floors, an outside area with wooden tables at which sat more than a few men and women, and planters filled with bright flowers along with ivy growing all up one side of it. There was so much greenery that even she admitted the city could use, and the people drinking spared them raised eyebrows for their suits, before going back to their conversations.

"My pa' runs the pub here," their driver said. "You can ask around inside of grab a drink. I need to get back to work. The sheep need shearing or they'll get in all kinds o' trouble. And then I'll get in trouble for that." He barked a laugh as they clambered off. "Good luck with the investigatin' and all."

"Nice place." Jaune said. "Let's have a talk with this person before we decide on a plan of action."

The interior of the pub was well-lit by windows and dust-powered lanterns, with a long bar that was, against all odds, packed even though it was barely midday. Maybe farmers just kept different hours. An older woman worked behind the bar with a girl who was so much a spitting image she had to be her daughter, and they harshly shouted at the impatient farmers calling for drink, who hollered and laughed back without any spite. One of them saw the three of them and shouted, "Heads up, Martha, you been paying your taxes on time?"

"They're not tax collectors, you dense pillock," the woman shouted back. "Oi! Roger! Your council folk are here!"

A large, burly man came trundling out from behind a turn in the pub, beyond which looked to be a seating area not in use – probably for colder or rainy days where sitting outside wasn't an option. He was big, the kind of big where a person was overweight but still worked out heavily, so their body just sort of processed it by getting wider across the whole body. It reminded Blake of her father. Like his son, he wore trousers and a short-sleeved shirt for the weather, through he had two straps coming up from his pants over his shoulders to keep it all in place. He was balding but with a huge smile.

"Welcome! Welcome!" He waved them along and brought them away from the noisy bar and nosey patrons. "You're the ones the council sent to investigate the failing fields, right? Excellent. Always so quick to help, you city folk are. I never did understand why people complain about taxes."

Probably because nowhere else gets help as fast as you…

"Roger, is it?" Jaune shook the man's hand. "I'm Jaune and this is Blake and Ruby." He pointed to them one at a time. "As you said, we're here to investigate the fields for anything the last party might have missed." Things of an anomalous nature, though the farmer didn't need to know. "Can you give us the basics of what has been happening, how and since when?"

"Aye. I can do that. Hm. Well." He puffed a breath out and looked upward. "Started about a month back, I say. That was when the first field failed. Now I didn't see it at the time, business as usual, but I heard around midday the rumours coming here that a field run by the Tawney's – that's one of the families round here – had up and died overnight. Damn shame, I thought to myself. They are good folk. It happens, though," he said with a shrug. "Perils o' workin' the land. You know? Anyway, thought nothing of it for another week until a second field of theirs failed. Now, we have a saying here. Once might be chance but twice is a pattern. First thing we all did was fret that the Tawney used bad pesticide, so we all checked ours in a panic, but there weren't nothing wrong and no one else's crops were dying."

"Is it just the fields of this Tawney family?" Jaune asked.

"It was at first but not anymore. Now, another has been hit – the Rigsby family. Happened one week ago, and they lost two fields in as many days. That's what spooked us into calling the city to see if they could send someone out to check the soil."

"I see."

Those people found nothing off in the soil but that made sense because otherwise the problem should have spread to adjacent fields, or maybe the whole valley. The fact it was isolated was a huge relief because it implied the anomaly wasn't in the mountains. If it was, its effects should have spread down the river and impacted a lot more farms, mostly those closest to it. "Can we get a map of the farms?" Blake asked suddenly. Jaune nodded to her question.

"I can 'ave one drawn up for ya. Won't be exact but it ought to be enough. You want the ones that failed marked on it, right?" She nodded and Roger grunted. "Aight. I'll get on that once you're done here. I'll mark who the land belongs too as well. Anything else?"

"I think we should check the fields first and see it ourselves." Jaune said. "We'll almost certainly be back to ask a few more questions, though."

"Fair enough. I'll have that map ready for you when you do. You can work out of here if you fancy it. Weather's too hot for this part of the pub to see any use anyway, just grab a table, pull up some chairs and ask Martha if you want anything to eat or drink."

"Thank you."

As the man moved away for pen and paper, Jaune indicated the furthest table and they quickly retreated there. Blake drew out a seat and sat, while Ruby did so opposite with far too much excitement. Investigating farmland wasn't exactly what she would call interesting, but after the last few jobs she wasn't going to complain. Ruby just looked thrilled to be out here and doing something.

"Alright." Jaune said. "Initial thoughts?"

"No humans or animals have died!" Ruby said quickly, hardly able to keep her voice to a whisper. "That means it's not a dangerous or aggressive anomaly! Also, it's only impacting one field at a time so it either doesn't spread, doesn't want to spread or can't spread on its own."

"Good points." Jaune complimented, and Ruby practically squirmed. Despite her thoughts on the matter, Blake felt a little irritated by it. Not at Ruby, but at the idea that she could be better at this than her.

"It started recently," Blake said, eager to not be outdone, "Which supports the idea of this being an anomaly because there haven't been any recent weather or unusual changes in the environment that could explain it. And no outbreaks of disease. The fact it also focuses on just two families is majorly suspicious."

"Clever thinking, Blake." he said, and it was Ruby's turn to pout. Blake tried not to rise to it, which was to say she smirked back challengingly. Hey, she said she tried not to rise – not that she succeeded. "I'm not fully convince this is anomalous yet but the odds are leaning that way. Like Ruby, I don't know that this is a creature. Unless it's a very clever one trying to mislead us, it's probably a non-sapient anomaly."

"A clever anomaly wouldn't do all this in a short time." Ruby pointed out.

"You're right. I'm ninety per cent certain that if this is anomalous, it's not a living, thinking anomaly. Or it's a very basic intelligence if it is."

"Then it's probably an item." Blake said. "Triple A case?"

"Hard to say that without a sign or motive that someone is intentionally doing this. It might be something they don't realise is affecting things. We're going to have to dig deeper. Ruby, I want you to take some samples from the river at both ends of the valley. Just bottle some water and we'll have it be tested overnight. If you can take some soil from both sides as well, that'd be good."

Ruby leapt to her feet and saluted wildly. "Yes sir!"

She was out in a blur of red, the farmers at the bar reacting first in fright and then in laughter once they realised what had happened. Blake shook her head, amused by Ruby's clear desire to be seen as useful. "Do you really think it's the river?"

"It'd be the easiest way for a problem to spread among the fields. I think we'd be negligent for not checking it out."

"Fair enough." And with wheat valley being so safe they didn't need to worry about Ruby, not that she'd be troubled by Grimm anyway. "I take it you and I are paying a visit to the two families whose fields died?"

"Got it in one. Photograph the fields, see if anything seems odd, then have a chat with the families if they're willing. Since I don't know what exactly we're looking for, I'll leave you to decide what to ask." He smiled apologetically. "Just if there's anything unusual they noticed, I guess."

It wasn't much to work with.

/-/

It was so hot that she had to do without her coat and jacket by the time she reached the farmhouse – or manor, really – of the Tawney family. When you owned land in the Wheat Valley, it turned out money wasn't really a problem. The Tawney home was bigger than any home in the city, with two floors, huge gardens, its own little pond full of fish and what she imagined would be some ten bedrooms. It was a mansion in all but name, and as she waited at the gate, a dog barking aggressively from the front porch, she saw a faunus step out and pet the beast's head, then make his way toward her with a worn smile. Coming closer, she noticed that his eyebrows rose up further than his hair, not quite feathers, but carrying on like them to poke out up over his head.

An owl faunus? Rare to see a faunus so well off in Vale.

"Can I help you?" he asked.

"I'm Blake. I'm with the council sent to get to the bottom of the issue with the fields."

"You are-? Oh, thank goodness." The man deflated visibly, sinking in on himself. He unlatched the gate and stepped out, shooing the evil mutt back. It slobbered and wagged its tail with malice. "Sorry about Parker there, he's too friendly for his own good. Wants to make friends with everyone. I'm Simon. Simon Tawney."

"No worries…" Blake glared at the evil beast. It may have fooled these people but it wouldn't fool her. "A-Anyway, do you mind answering a few questions about the fields? Can you show them to me as well?"

"Absolutely. Please follow me. What do you want to know?"

Good question. What did she want to know? Blake licked her lips. "I heard yours were the first fields hit. Is that right?"

"Yes. We've lost more now, and we're not the only ones either."

"Has anything odd been happening of late? In or before this started?"

"Nothing of note." Simon turned left at the next intersection between the hedges, with the field to their left being dotted with what she thought were cauliflowers, and the one to her right being sunflowers. "The weather hasn't been all that different to normal, Grimm are about non-existent and all our orders have been on time. We feared the pesticides at first but the tests came back clear. Soil tests are good, too. Nothing out the ordinary."

"What about in the community? Anything unusual there?"

He smacked his lips in thought. "Not much I can think of to be honest. We're a little far off the beaten path and my children don't interact as much." He eyed her ears and said, "You know how it is."

"I do. Is it bad here?"

"Not with most of the folks."

"Just some…?"

"Just some. As usual." He sighed. "Still better for my kids than living in the city, but you can't ever truly escape it."

"There's always Menagerie."

"And trade racism against faunus for racism against humans? Same name, different brand. No thank you. We're happy here. It's why I don't want to move. Anyway, here we are. This is the latest field to fail."

Blake followed his finger past an ajar gate to a field filled with drooping, rotten-looking crops. She didn't have to be a farmer to tell something was wrong. The ears of grain hung low, the stalks unable to handle their weight, and flies buzzed distressingly around them. The soil looked the same as always, brown and well tilled, but the crops themselves were blackened and quite clearly dying or dead.

"Not a pretty sight, is it? I'll burn 'em all down tomorrow but wanted to leave it here for when you arrived."

"How sudden was this?"

"Overnight. Healthy crops one day, blackened and dying the next."

"You've checked for diseases?"

"Sure did. Even asked some of my neighbours to take a look to quell some of the rumours."

Blake glanced his way. "Rumours?"

Simon let loose an angry snarl. "People questioning if we're good enough to do what we do or if the land shouldn't be under the care of someone better. Questioning my fitness and pride as a farmer as if I'm some rank amateur. My father was working these fields for decades before me and I tell you now, nothing has changed. I've not had any serious issues for fifteen years. This all happening now. It ain't normal."

"They're blaming you?"

"Starting to," he admitted unhappily. "Not at first, mind. A field failing is bad but shit happens sometimes. When it was two or three, the whispers started. Eased off a bit when one of the Rigsby's fields died out, but it's still more of ours than theirs and not anyone else's. I guess it's easier to point the finger my way than figure out what the hell is going on. My neighbours agreed though!" he said quickly, perhaps afraid of influencing her. "They came and looked at this, and they told me themselves it wasn't anything I did wrong. You can ask 'em yourself. I'm a good farmer. I don't make mistakes like this."

It was hard for her to side one way or the other, though she found herself wanting to side with her fellow faunus. He did say the other farmers agreed with him, and it's not like he had these problems before. "How long have you been in charge of these fields?"

"My father died ten years back. I was running them for five before then, so fifteen years – ten without any oversight."

"And no problems?"

"None that were mine alone. There was a blight a few years back but it hit near every farm. We destroyed the crops, planted anew and just about managed to scrape in before harvest. Close call. Hard work all around."

"Nothing since then?"

"Nothing serious. I don't do livestock so I don't have the same problems they do. Crops are easier, especially down here in wheat valley. Soil is so fertile you'd have to try really hard to have problems like this. Roger called you in, right? Ask him. He'll vouch for me."

"I'll take your word for it. And nothing unusual that you can think of? Nothing at all? No new… things in the village?" Blake struggled to find a way, or even an avenue, to broach the idea of an anomalous item. "Nothing new in your farmhouse that stands out?"

He looked rightly confused. "New like what?"

"I don't know. Furniture, objects…" Cursed item brought up from a burial ground. Blake winced. "That kind of thing."

"Uh… Not that I can think of." He shrugged. "Aside from clothes for the boys, I've been too busy trying to sort this out to do any redecorating."

"Any new farming equipment or machinery?"

"Nah. My tractor is only five years old. Got plenty of life in her yet."

"Okay." Blake brought out her scroll. "I'm going to take some photographs if that's okay. We're going to test some more soil and river water, then we'll probably be back tomorrow to investigate a little more. Are there any other fields struggling that I should look at?"

"Those that were are all cleared now. Too late in the year to reseed so I've left them fallow."

"And none that are struggling?"

"Not a one. Roger came down to look 'em over just in case, and all my fields are looking healthy as ever. There shouldn't be any problems." His face fell. "Then again, shouldn't have been any here either."

It was getting on in the afternoon by the time they reconvened at the pub for some late lunch. Like her, Jaune had decided he couldn't handle the heat of his jacket and slung it over the back of the chair. Ruby, on the other hand, continued to sweat under all hers, too determined or perhaps too proud of it to take it off. The cold drink served from the bar helped, though Ruby sulked at not being allowed the locally brewed barley beer like them. She was fifteen and Blake didn't fancy their chances pissing off the qualified huntsman that was her father.

"The Rigsby were co-operative but ultimately unhelpful," Jaune said. "One thing I did notice was that their farms border the Tawney ones." He tapped the crudely drawn map provided by Roger. Several fields on it had been scribbled in black pen to show dead crops. They were all over the place, not at all clustered as one would have expected from natural causes. "It could be that whatever is causing this hit them by accident. Or whoever is causing this."

"You think it's a person because it's targeted at the Tawney family, don't you?" Blake had suspected the same ever since her meeting with the man. "They're faunus. One of the only faunus in the valley. Do you think it's a targeted attack?"

"I don't want to jump to conclusion just yet. It still could be normal problems. We'll have the water and soil samples Ruby collected looked over, then double back tomorrow to ask some more questions."

"Ooh. Ooh." Ruby waved her hand in the air. "I noticed something."

"This isn't a classroom, Ruby. You can just say it."

"When I was taking water from the river some people came up to try and talk to me. I only told them we were here to investigate the crop failures, but they instantly knew who it was and said how the Tawney should just up and sell if they can't look after their land properly."

"Really?" Jaune leaned in. "Do you know who they were?"

"It was a bunch of older men. I don't think they were related to one another. I asked what they meant, and they just said that if you can't farm, you should make way for someone who could. Then they started going on about in their day…" Ruby trailed off with a groan, indicating she'd been forced to sit and play polite through an old rant. Blake had heard that before, often with older faunus complaining abut how the humans feared them in their day, or how faunus stood up for themselves more.

"It's an interesting angle." Jaune said. "It might give a motive for someone to want them to fail, especially if the dying crops makes the Tawney's land drop in value. Could be bought up cheap and then sold for a profit."

"That'd make, what, everyone a suspect?" Blake asked.

"Pretty much. There isn't a farmer here who wouldn't benefit from more farmland. It doesn't narrow things down any, but it does explain why someone might want to use an anomalous item. If they're using it at all. This could still be a case of someone not realising something is anomalous."

"But it moves around to different fields." Ruby pointed out. "So, it'd be a tractor…?"

"Or a trailer or a piece of farm equipment." Jaune said. "Good thinking, Ruby." The girl's eyes sparkled. "We'll have to check out that angle tomorrow, maybe ask Mr Tawney if we can figure out what equipment was used where and narrow down if any vehicles only went to those fields and in what order."

They wrapped things up soon after, explaining that they would be back tomorrow to Roger and some of the other farmers at the bar. They seemed alright with it, content that the job was being seen to and mostly comfortable that the city wouldn't leave them to struggle. Vale couldn't afford to. Taking a walk back to the field with the cows, they boarded the Bullhead when it landed again and rode it back to Vale.

/-/

"So," Taiyang tried to not sound too nosey as he made conversation with his youngest. Ruby looked remarkably smart in her black suit and skirt, though a little flushed and burned around the face, like she'd spent the day outside. He tried not to fuss over her but it was hard. She looked so adorably smart. "How was your first day?"

He expected a non-answer like school, the dreaded "fine" every parent complained of getting, or maybe a bored answer filled with disappointment. He was pretty sure everyone who went on work experience came back disillusioned. He got to see that first hand after the week. School really was the easiest thing in your life, and you never really realised it until after it was too late. The nine to five grind sucked.

Ruby, however, surprised him. "It was so cool!"

"Yeah?"

"Yeah! We went out to the farmlands – Wheat Valley – and there's a mystery afoot!"

"Oh?"

"Some of the farms are dying under mysterious circumstances," Ruby said enthusiastically, waving her hands around wildly as she spoke. "And since it's so important to Vale's food supply, the Council wants us to get to the bottom of it."

"The Council?" he asked. "You're taking jobs from the Council?"

That was a lot more official sounding than he'd been led to believe this ARC Corp dealt with. Yang called them ghost hunters, Ozpin called them busy-bodies and Qrow had been evasive about them but said they were "no good" and that Ruby "shouldn't get involved with them". What was a worried father supposed to think when everyone he knew and trusted acted like that? Of course he'd heard from Yang how they stopped a Semblance-abusing pervert, and he truly was grateful for that, but it hadn't made him any more comfortable with the idea of Ruby working there. This, on the other hand, sounded just mundane and normal enough to calm him down. Government-sponsored work investigating farmland in one of the safest places in Vale. You didn't get much less worrying than that.

"Yeah. They sent farming people to check it out but couldn't find any problems. That's why it's a mystery, dad." Ruby huffed as if he was stupid for not picking that up. He chuckled back at her.

"Sorry. Sorry. So, how is the mystery going?"

"It's only the first day. I took soil and river samples to be checked tonight, and Blake and Jaune interviewed the farmers effected. We don't think it's bad farming. The main person hit is a faunus and he's been farming without problems for fifteen years. This started happening one month ago."

"That is suspicious," Taiyang acknowledged. The fact it was a faunus involved made it tragic as well. He'd raised his daughters better than half the people on Patch, and he always did his best to correct misconceptions in class. Parents criticised him for being `political` with their students. Sometimes it was hard not to want to reach across the table at parent-teacher conferences and wring their necks, especially when he had to comfort faunus students sobbing in bathrooms after being bullied. "What's the plan for tomorrow?"

"Jaune wants to go and look at all the fields and equipment looked. Then we're going to talk to more people and see who stands to gain if Mr Tawney – that's the farmer – is driven out and is forced to sell his land."

"Sounds like police detective work. What do you think is behind it?"

"Can't say!" Ruby said quickly and proudly. "Office confidentiality."

"Is that so…" Taiyang laughed and let it go. He knew well enough how dangerous it was to talk on the details of an investigation early on. Well, this wasn't the kind of work experience he'd expected his girl to pick up, but at least it sounded interesting. And if she was happy and safe, what right did he have to complain? "You know, your sister worked at a solicitor's office for her work experience. Whined the whole time about how boring it was."

"Serves her right for not looking for something more interesting."

"You're not wrong there, Ruby. You're not wrong."

/-/

They were out again the next day, and this time Blake had chosen to leave her jacket behind, as had Jaune, the two of them riding the Bullhead in suit trousers and white shirts, while Ruby proudly maintained her full uniform. It was just as warm today as it had been the day before, but now they came armed with new information. The samples Ruby collected had been tested by some contacts the council had, and the results came in clear that very morning. While there were living organisms in the river water, they weren't particularly harmful to crops or people, and the high mineral count would have only improved the chances of the crops growing. The same for the soil, which was unusually rich by Vale's standards, but nothing out the ordinary for the valley.

When they came down to land, however, Blake knew something was off. There were more people in the field waiting for them, a veritable crowd of people. Jaune saw it too and muttered, "This isn't good."

The aircraft landed in a space left open for them, but when the ramp came down and they stepped off, they were quickly swarmed by people, Roger wrestling his way to the front and shouting over the raised voices.

"It's awful! Terrible! You need to do something!"

"Calm down." Jaune called out and waved his hands. "What's happened?"

"More farmland!" someone shouted. "There's more dying!"

"Not just Tawney's now!" another called out. "Mine!"

"And mine!"

"Calm!" Jaune had to shout to be heard over them all. The agitated farmers slowly began to quieten down, though they certainly couldn't be called calm. It looked like they'd been out here all morning. "Roger. How many fields?"

The large man wrung his hands together in clear agitation. "Twelve."

"Twelve!?" Jaune asked. Blake was shocked. That eclipsed all the fields the Tawney family had lost and some more. "And it's spread out this time? Which families were hit?"

"All of them. All of us. There's not a family that hasn't lost a field! Crops, livestock, animals, it doesn't matter which. Everything is dying! You have to help us," he sobbed. "Or there won't be a harvest this year!"

Uh-oh.

And yes, the exciting and thrilling adventures of Blake, Jaune and Ruby investigating farmland! Ah, the agricultural industry. Can you even name a more dramatic and thrilling setting for an action-packed story? I'll wait.

"There's something strange in this farming valley. Who you gonna call? Call ARC Corp!"

Next Chapter: 4th July

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