AN: Just to let you know that I accidentally put the wrong name of a team member on the last chapter. It's been corrected now. Anyways, enjoy the show!


Fall break is finally here.

Awesome. I can finally do what the adult teenagers do in all those silly teen comedies. It's been a long time coming, honestly; this past month has been tougher than I could have anticipated, even with all the adapting to four classes at once from 8 to 5 (Well, mostly. One of the days is 9 to 5), and it really showed in those first few weeks. I still found time to hang out from time to time, sure, but studying the textbooks for every class, as it turned out, took longer than before because of the sheer amount of material.

And let's not get into the material that wasn't in the textbooks. Seriously, the first time finding that out the hard way on an early quiz was painful.

And the stuff with Paisley and Ash.

And Seraphina...

But whatever. Not the time to dwell on those things. Well then. I dressed into my usual clothes.

White corset. Tailcoat. Cargo dress pants. White gloves. White socks. Black high-heeled Oxford shoes. High silk hat with blue ribbon.

Modern blue gambeson. Khakis. Chestplate. Steel elbow pads and knee pads. Brown boots.

Pink Mistrali-style top. Black blazer with epaulettes and brass clasps. Pencil miniskirt. Thigh-high combat boots.

Purple sweater. White sweatpants. Knee-high, high-heeled pink-and-white sneakers.

Y'know, I hadn't really thought about what I wore since I came to Beacon, but now that I think about it... I still kind of like it. For one body, I dressed like a daring stage magician, and another I dressed like a mischievous punk (I think..?) who turns into a magical girl. The fact that I can assume four personas at once really helps because, well, I can experiment.

Just imagine: Emi the shining knight in armor, Paz the soccer star, Livio the gymnast, and Talan the runway star. In another universe where somehow I exist, those could all be me.

Alas, those weren't the personas I went with. Some of it came down to necessity; Paz's mother tried to push her into show business, Emi was plunged into a troubling... "childhood," and the less said about Talan, the better. I could try to push ahead with completely different identities, but I don't think anyone would understand why Paz would go from magician to, say, prison guard.

But enough of that.

Dr. Oobleck said something about visiting the city during detention, didn't he? Well, since I've already gone to the gym a few times, I might as well properly see what the City of Vale has to offer.

I walked out the door and made my way out of the dorms and towards the cliffside. Since I'm feeling for a more scenic route this time around, I started looking for the docks. I swear, I remember seeing a way down somewhere near the airship landing pads. Yup, there it is. And hey, there's lifts to take me down there! So I boarded one and let it take me down.

Okay, while I'm waiting, let's see how much progress I've made... Make new friends, check... Have fun, check. Get a team of me and just me, check..! (Kind of. Ash's also there.) I even played sports, for crying out loud! Wasn't that fun?

Yeah, fun. Just like people finding out is fun... Uh, maybe it's just me but I'm not sure if I'm on the right path here. Of course I'm glad I made friends. Of course I'm happy I branched out.

But part of me feels like I'm just misleading my new friends by not being myself.

I know, it's ironic that this is something Paisley contends with as well, but here's the thing: she's manipulating people for her own gain while I'm here wondering if I should ever be myself around people. There's literally nobody out there like me.

I'm one of a kind. Well, four of a kind that's one of a kind.

Sure, I can relate and empathize with people, but even then I still feel like the odd one out. If I tell people who I really am, how will they deal with the fallout? Just accept that those four people were just one person all along?

Anyway, let's get on that boat...

. . .

And I'm here: the city of Vale!

I stepped out of the ferry and onto the docks, taking a moment to take in the view of the city for myself.

Huh. I'd almost forgotten how nice it looked. Then again, I didn't spend a whole lot of time really exploring it other than that one time where I went shopping. That was, before those thugs tried to rob me and I fought back... yeah, that was fun. Is it weird to genuinely think that instead of being sarcastic? Well, considering they went down easily and I got to carry out my first team attacks, I don't think so! The police didn't entirely appreciate that, but then again, busting people like those guys was supposed to be their job.

Now, riddle me this: where do I go first? Shopping, arcade, sightseeing, dancing, maybe a community center or museum, too.

Gah, so many things to choose from—uh, you know what? I haven't been to an arcade in long. The only ones who went to one were Paz and Livio, and even then, that was sporadic, so, might as well.

I pulled out one of my Scrolls and typed in the nearest arcade. Oh cool, a few miles away. Can't say I'm surprised; Vale City is big after all.

I sighed, then started walking there. Okay, reflection on life time.

Paz. Honestly, what did her mother expect when she tried to make her do something she was gonna move away from anyway? I mean, she should've known what to expect when her child went from dancing to singing to violin to ballet to show magic in six years. (On that note, talk about indecisiveness...) And when I decided she didn't want to do show magic anymore, all of a sudden she had to try and stop me.

Granted, she was a circus performer who's kind of famous, at least in Atlas. She's seen her child switch careers four times over, but that was at an age where that might've been normal. What isn't normal is trying to force that same child into a certain career path long after they've outgrown it.

At least I got to meet Weiss Schnee herself. (Seeing her on that airship completely caught me off guard, though.)

Emi. Born and raised as a "human" when one day, she grew horns. Her human father didn't like that, so he took it out on her Faunus mother (who by the way had been hiding her Faunus feature) by... disappearing her. The next couple years were... very difficult to say the least. The only reason she even came out alive was because of her Semblance.

And thank God I used that Semblance right then and there. Had to hide the body, though. I was and still am not proud of what I had to do. Even broke down in front of the Mistrali police. Thankfully, all they gave me was new parents and a probation period. Worst they could have given me in the worst place to be a Faunus is what, years in jail lumped in with all the criminals? Slavery?

Honestly, things could have been worse. Way worse.

Speaking of that...

Talan. Ohhhh God, Talan. Lost his entire family. Had like six siblings who all went away. Youngest brother captured by a cartel. Youngest sister killed in a firefight. Older brother decided he wanted power and went rogue. Older sister tried to chase after him. That was the last time I saw both of them. And then my two oldest brothers sacrificed their lives so Talan could run to Vale.

Yeah, I still don't like thinking about this one. Even if it's one of the reasons I chose to be Hunters, I'd much rather move on than linger on.

Livio. Lived a modest life, helped his uncle out with blacksmithing, went to Signal, made a couple friends, nothing else. Honestly, I'm amazed by his life story's normalcy. Everyone else ran some hard times, Paz being the second-least troubled one out, but Livio really got off lucky.

"...just yesterday after the murder of the infamous don's wife-in-crime, Ela Silvestri-Scarlett," a news reporter said from some TV's speakers.

Woah, woah, woah. I stopped to see where those words were coming from, and sure enough, it was coming from the TVs in the shop windows. The reporter was a familiar face, Lisa Lavender. Apparently, a violent shootout had occurred, taking the lives of many Silvestri-Scarlett members. Aurelio Silvestri, the don himself, was among one of the casualties.

"There were no survivors of the shootout except for a few reported runaways," she continued. "One of them had teal hair and was dressed in black, the rest to be accounted for..."

Wow. That puts into perspective what an action movie would be like in real life. And thinking about it, it'd be terrifying. Imagine, you're in a battlefield somewhere in the middle of a city, and guns are blazing everywhere. Doesn't matter if you're the hero, doesn't matter if you're with the villains, and doesn't matter if you're the bystanders.

Because a stray bullet could get you any moment.

Kind of insane that a single person could cause that much damage and casualties, even accounting for Semblances and Aura. Then again, it's Remnant. Anyone can kill dozens of mafia members and get away with it in this day and age.

Right, I should stop going off track now and focus on getting to the arcade. Speaking of, I pulled out one of my Scrolls and saw that... I'm almost there! Huh! I started walking towards the arcade, whistling four of my favorite tunes.

Eventually, I arrived. Playback Arcade stood before me.

I've actually been there before since Livio's parents felt like taking time off with their son. It doesn't look like how I remembered it, though; they took out the big yellow swirls that surrounded the building (oh, boooo!), but they replaced it with some admittedly nice flourishes. They also repainted the facade to a lighter purple and a comparatively light yellow. Eh.

I wonder if it still does those Lien-to-token conversions because to me, that's one of the best parts of the arcade next to actually playing the games and winning big prizes. If it still does, I will be a very happy people.

Just then, a group of friends walked out, carrying a few of their ticket counter prizes with them as they laughed and high-fived.

Well good for them, but let's see how they like it when I walk out with something bigger.

Something even better.

I rushed inside to the bright, illuminating sight of people at arcade machines, sounds of exciting digital sounds, the smell of pizza..! Ooh, I can't wait..! Wait, where's the converters?!

I started looking—c'mon, where are they—oh, right there! Sweet... Oh crap, they still use tokens?! Holy shit, this is the best! I immediately rushed to exchange my Lien into those tokens and stuff them in my pockets when I saw plastic "ticket" cards dispensed before me...

Huh?

Oh, right. This arcade's in the midst of a digital revolution. They've just replaced the physical paper tickets, so naturally, the tokens are going next. Phew, glad I'll still get to insert those coins while I still can.

Thus, I grabbed those cards and stuffed them in my pockets before I went to the first game that caught my attention: Chrono Catastrophe, a tale of two cat Faunus girls (and their two helping hands) up against a threat to the space-time continuum.

Okay, four bodies, four controllers, a motion-tracking platform, VR headsets, and the hardest difficulty. This should be easy.

"Hoo-rah!" I shouted in unison with the characters as the game started.

From here on out, I started blasting like Randy ReVito. The enemies went down as quickly as they appeared, bullet casing sounds dominated the speakers, the score went up, and up, and up, and Team PLET were treated to the beautiful sights of a low-poly helicopter going down, crashing into a low-poly building that collapsed onto it.

"Woah."

And to think I nearly got my collective asses kicked in by the first enemies with, somehow, only two deaths. Even then, I only had to spend four tokens to continue on the sides that went down.

Once I got through the level, I went to the next one, and it was all smooth sailing with only one death. Then the third one came and damn, I went down three times over?! Well, six tokens down the cabinet drain they go. At the very least, one survived all the way, but even then, barely so. In fact, I survived by mere lines of health!

Okay, next level. This one's a bonus one. Somehow, I had hit a very hard to hit enemy in the midst of level three's chaos. But wait! It's a shooting gallery with flying targets moving in all sorts of weird, unpredictable paths! I mean, I'm on the hardest difficulty, so I'm pretty sure the targets would have moved slower in more predictable paths on the easier ones.

Anyways, I shot them down, best as I could.

Woah, what the?! All targets shot? Full bonus?! Well this keeps getting better and better.

And at last, the final level. A rather trippy, to boot. For starters, the environment bended and distorted in all sorts of ways that I never would have imagined for an arcade title from decades ago. Heck, even the UI distorted. At this point, I'm ready for anything.

Anything.

The first enemies came, so I shot at them like usual, but they took far longer to come down than I expected. (Man, how much can they take?) Then they started retaliating, but of course, I dodged in the nick of time. So I continued shooting, starting to use up my explosives for once, and finally, they came down. I moved on to the next set of enemies, and they also went down after some time.

And at last, the final boss; an evil-looking man with his army of subordinates, ready to take me alive or dead. Right away, I opened fire, continuing to dodge their bullets, laser blasts, and grenades as, eventually, I reached the boss himself, Dr. Aros.

Right away, the final boss took down three of the players, leaving only one standing. I put in my six tokens, but as I continued fighting, Paz's character went down for the first time in this playthrough. Man, Paz must've had a hell of a run if she survived those first three levels. Oh well, I put in two tokens, allowing her to continue fighting as she always has.

I continued shooting, lobbing grenades at him when, suddenly, he transformed into a robot dragon! I repeat, a freaking robot dragon! Suddenly, my explosives no longer reached it.

From here on out, it's all pure lead, baby.

So, I shot the robot dragon. Over, and over, and over. Even as it swooped towards me, breathing fire. Even as it sent debris flying towards me. Even as Emi—WOAH—slipped onto the motion-tracking platform, nearly knocking Paz over..! God, I almost forgot how slippery that thing can be!

Well, at the very least, the robot dragon is almost down. Just gotta shoot it some... more..!

"YES!" I shouted.

Finally, the robot dragon went down, exploding mid-air. From here on out, I get treated to a rather beautiful cutscene of the two girls being awarded the highest honors for being the saviors of humanity. And of course, I get the final results screen that included, you guessed it, a ticket count of...

1,000 tickets.

...

Wow.

. . .

And wow.

I... I didn't think I'd make it that far.

Sure, I played several more classic arcade hits and new ones. Clockwork Illusion was one of my favorites. Basically, it was about a mint-colored mute and her illusion friend who fought their way through the land of Never Before. One of the hardest 250 ticket payouts I ever went for, and Chrono Catastrophe was also freaking hard! Luckily, I had a spending limit of 10,000 Lien with breathing room for a thousand more so I could learn (and totally not brute-force) my way through those games just for those payouts. I also played those redemption games solely focused on earning ticket jackpots. Of course, given my increasing tiredness, that was a necessity.

After all, I can't keep playing arcade classics forever.

But whatever. With the energy I had left, I'd meticulously studied those ticket games as I played them and figured out how to get the most tickets out of them. Second-highest point slot for Skee-ball. Five balls max per bucket. Spin the wheel at the most precise speed you want it to spin (I think. The wheel spin game might genuinely be random.) And a couple more I'm forgetting.

With all my tokens burned through, even with the additional fistful of Lien I couldn't help but give up, I ended up with a grand total of 71,026 tickets. And with that, it was the best 11,000 Lien I've ever spent.

Is this what it means to be an arcade God? No wait, have I been blessed with luck?

Oh, right. I still gotta redeem my tickets. I swiped my ticket cards against the Skee-ball machines and went up to the cashier with the stupidest smiles on my faces. Alright, which ones to pick... Water guns. Fun novelty, but eventually, they'd blow their load and sit collecting dust. Candy. Ehh, I guess I'll take a few pieces. Train sets. Ooh, maybe.

A whole Tennokoun system. The newest one they've put out from my understanding... oh crap, you can get game consoles at an arcade?! I know I don't have much of a history with any console—growing up in four different Kingdoms will do that to you—but goddamnit, I want one!

"What's that on that shelf?" I, Emi, asked the ticket cashier, pointing at the Tennokoun system.

"Oh, that's the Tennokoun Revolve," she began. "Four screens, two on the outside and two on the inside. You flip through those screens as you play."

I tilted my head. How am I supposed to play a game on something with four screens? "How... How do I play games on that?"

"It's simple! Tap the screens, or point with your controllers and click. Or play it how you would with a normal controller."

Okay, that's taken care of, at least... wait, do the controllers mechashift?!

"And don't worry about the controllers," the cashier continued. "They can turn into two full-size controllers."

Well hot damn, they do. Well, looks like Tennokoun is about to have four happy customers tonight, eh?

"I'll take one. How much?"

"70,000 tickets."

Wow... I got just barely enough for one, and you know the best part? I just realized it even came with a game in its packaging! Well, say no more, Ms. Cashier. I showed her my ticket cards and watched as she scanned them before presenting me with the system from the counter. Oh yeah, since I had 1,026 tickets left over, I spent them all on candy. Oooh yeah, never gets tiring.

And thus, I walked out of the arcade a very happy customer with a game console in my bag. Apparently, I had spent enough time in the arcade that it is now late in the afternoon. That's an hour and then some before the sun sets.

Oh well, at least I have plenty of time before things get a little dangerous out here.

Hmmm, so winter is a couple weeks away, and it's already starting to get a little cold out here... brrr. I know Paz already has a few winter outfits that she packed. The rest don't.

Alright, time to do a little shopping.

. . .

First off, I know Paz is practically strapped with Lien, so I'll just blow some on some nice designer winter clothes... So, navy blue peacoat, neon blue scarf, navy blue turtleneck, black gloves, black cargo pants, and a pair of nice riding boots. Also gotta make sure they adapt dynamically to different temperatures and humidities since Paz is smart enough to at least want designer clothes that actually have more utility than the usual, and... yup! Looking good.

Next, Livio. I know that he wouldn't care as much about looking fashionable as he is about being ready for the winter. Might as well give him fleece khakis and a navy-green puffer jacket. Heavy brown boots, too.

Emi. She'd be wanting to go out, throw snowballs at people as a joke, sled across the open field, and maybe turn people into snowmen while they're distracted—and considering how she is, she absolutely would. So, I'll give her a black mink hat, a black bandana, two layers of coats (one red, one black), a pink t-shirt underneath those, a black hand-length glove and a white forearm-length glove, fanny packs to wear over and under her coats, a micro-mini skirt, leggings, and the same thigh–high boots as before.

Yeah, quite the mouthful. Necessary, too, because I just remembered that Emi should be dressing like a damn mess.

And Talan. By this point, his fashion would have changed quite a bit thanks to him having Lien for once, and damn right he deserves it. That, coupled with Paz taking him in, would mean he'd dress in a light-pink trench coat, black gloves, black pants, and a pair of knee-high designer stiletto boots. Oh, and a fancy watch and a nice pair of sunglasses because Paz is still swimming in rich Atlesian money.

Okay, pretty happy with what I got, especially after trying it out and checking myself out. I know this because man, I should be dressing nicely like this more. I don't even have to worry about overspending; I can buy and wear whatever I want! I'm rich!

By the way, it didn't even take long to find exactly what I've been looking for. Sweet. Lien well spent. As I walked out of the last store for the day, I saw the sun setting. I checked the time and sure enough, it's 6:01 PM. Alright, I've had my fun. I started heading where the airships are parked...

Wait, is that Zaffree and Fion?

Rubbing her grubby hands together, Emi snuck behind Zaffree, covering his eyes. "Yoooo!" she exclai–

"What the?!" He shoved Emi's hand off his face as he turned around, fists tightened, and whined, pouting. "That's not funny, you know that!"

Unfortunately–ahaha–for hm, Paz, Talan, and Fion laughed—oh God, this never gets old! Ahhhh!

"Fiiine, sorry," Emi said with a coy smile (of course), "I won't do that again."

"So what are you two doing out here?" asked Livio.

"Oh, we're just... looking for our friends." As he spoke, clear signs of worry shone through in his face.

"Okay?"

"We don't know where Seraphina and Melati are," replied Fion. "Not picking up, not texting back, nada."

Oooooh. This... might be a problem. I thought Seraphina was off on her own adventures, but Melati? Isn't she supposed to be the brains of the bunch? Kind of mysterious that she would go missing as well...

Unless Paisley was involved, somehow. Like, think about it. The one time she tried to use her Semblance on Zaffree, it didn't work. And now that he's possibly digging deeper into who she really is alongside his team? If that's her, she must not like what he's doing at all.

"Do you know why?"

"No..." Zaffree gulped. "but... I'm starting to worry for my friends."

"We'll find them in the coming days," Fion said. "If the worst comes to worst, we can always get licensed Huntsmen on board."

Talan cleared his throat. "Oobleck said he'll look into Alsius Acad's records, but it's been weeks. Is he fooling around or is something else going on?"

"Investigations take time, Talan," Paz interjected, "but if all else fails, we can always pick up the slack."

He looked at her for a bit and sighed, shaking his head. "If you say so."

I swear, if Dr. Oobleck finds nothing...

"Well," Paz began, looking at a clearly dejected Zaffree, "keep us posted for anything. And we're always happy to help if we can."

"Thanks." He sighed, then started walking away with his other teammate before stopping to turn towards her. "I just miss seeing them around, y'know?"

She nodded, frowning. "We know. And again, we're willing to help. Just let us know when we start. Okay?"

"...Okay."

"Good."

I watched as Zaffree and Fion walked away, the former waving back. Of course, I went my own way, heading towards the airship station. Man, I knew he may not be the brightest mind, but... he cares very much about his teammates. I know this should be customary, but this just puts into perspective how he and Paisley are as people. I see him and his team once in a while, but every time, Zaffrey shows why he's a good team leader.

But Paisley would rather have things how she wants them and nothing else.