Author's Notes

The title is even better because Don't Stand So Close To Me is sung by The Police, led by Sting.

Happy rats, and don't do crime!

Chapter 35 – Don't Sting So Close To Me

In which Jaune Arc must face the one that got away and save his friends from death.

"For now…"

Tyrian drew back a fist.

"…sleep tight."

Jaune didn't fall unconscious from the hit. It did daze him, though, to the point that he could barely keep his fingers in a fist.

Tyrian's long tail slithered like an asp around Jaune's waist. Jaune was just barely lucid enough to know that he didn't want to go wherever Tyrian would be taking him, but he had little choice in the matter. Unless he wanted to drag his feet against the pavement, the only thing he could do was awkwardly step along with the serial killer. Even still, his shoes would frequently skip against the street, causing them to grow number and number.

It could have been a few minutes, or it could have been several hours, but the two found themselves at the entrance to a small building. It was a conference hall, but a modest one – the kind that a local group that only met once a month would rent out. This wasn't the flashy uptown palace that was reserved by the SDC or the Hunter's Convention. No, this building had chipped paint in a low beige, one that screamed 'cheapest stuff available at the depot store.' The wood was splintering, and on top of that, the front door seemed to be leaking.

Jaune's punch-addled brain took far too long to understand that the blood flowing out from under the door was more than just a leak.

"We've all arrived. I've arrived. You've arrived."

Jaune needed to get out of here.

Tyrian's face was exposed, and Jaune's hands were free. It was a tactical mistake on the scorpion's part, one that would come back to bite him. Jaune pulled back and whacked his knuckles into the murderous arachnid's forehead.

"And they've arrived. What's inside, the secrets it hides?"

It…It had just bounced off him. Tyrian had let it happen, taking no steps to impede the poorly-planned attack.

He released Jaune, who immediately fell to his knees, and wrapped the tail that had been supporting him around the door handle.

One bad hit wasn't enough to dampen Jaune's spirits. Hazel had nearly killed him, and Jaune refused to have crawled his way out of the arid deserts just to die here.

"I'll kill you!"

There was no sound in the night to be heard save for the whooshing of air as Jaune's hands and feet missed the Faunus. He punched, he kicked, he chopped, he elbowed, he body-slammed, he raged, but it wasn't enough. Their skin hadn't even brushed together.

To make matters worse and even more disheartening for Jaune, Tyrian was still looking at the door. He'd yet to turn around and was avoiding the slow attacks solely based on instinct.

Jaune leaned too far into his last punch and threw himself through the now open doorway by accident, stumbling into the bloody scene inside. The bodies…

He didn't have time to feel that visceral disgust at the gory scene. Tyrian was slowly stepping in, having rubbed his feet on the mat at the front of the door only to dip them in blood immediately afterwards as he stepped. The door shut behind them.

Jaune screamed now, spreading his arms so widely as he charged that there was no way he wouldn't tackle the calm Faunus.

Tyrian slid his hands into his pockets, hooked the leg of a nearby chair with his foot, and flipped it into Jaune's path. He dropped like a fallen timber, coating himself in even more of the blood that every square inch of the surface was coated in.

"Do keep screaming," Tyrian calmly requested. "You've flown into a murderous rage, and you're slaughtering these innocent people."

Jaune did keep screaming.

In the end, Jaune decided to give up rather than exhaust himself. Tyrian was a demon, untouchable by a mere mortal. Despite his best attempts, fueled by unbreakable hatred and self-preservation, it was meaningless. Everything he'd done, everything he'd ever done, everything he'd ever do – meaningless.

"No more playtime?" cooed Tyrian.

The tail bonked Jaune on the head, eliciting a chuckle from its owner. Again, it didn't knock Jaune out, but he fell to the floor just the same. He could have picked himself up, but he didn't.

Tyrian spoke.

"I don't like to think of destiny as a path we take or a journey on which we embark. It's more like a final resting place. There are many routes by which we may reach it, but the way we go does not change what waits at the end of the road."

Destiny had brought him to where he was today.

It now made sense, why providence had randomly smiled so much on an undeserving fraud like Jaune. He'd lucked out so many times, frequently missing death by little more than a hair's breadth. The question of why had always lingered in his mind – why me? Why do I get to survive when I'm not a real huntsman? Why am I still here even though my soul's stuck on the inside?

The answer, the destiny – he now knew.

It was building up to this.

Life had been training him to master his own self without aura, so that when his rematch with Tyrian came and no one else could stand, Jaune could rise.

The difference in skill between Pyrrha and Tyrian was immediately apparent. The Faunus was throwing him around like a ragdoll. Pyrrha's punches had been meant to deplete Jaune's aura or sometimes push him closer to the edge for a ring out. Tyrian was hurting him, plain and simple.

Except it wasn't hurting – not as much. Even Tyrian didn't know that Jaune had only just discovered his aura. The added defense it brought combined synergistically with his metal shell to provide him near perfect defense.

The stinger frequently tapped against said defense, but it wasn't able to pick its way through. Tyrian rapidly realized that Jaune wasn't going to give him any chances to get past the metal and poison Jaune, so he'd switched to using his other weapons – arms, legs, fists, and gun-circle-knife things. Jaune wasn't exactly sure how to classify the blades Tyrian wore.

Jaune himself wasn't able to fight back very much, but he hadn't taken any damage, so it was a wash. Unless Tyrian got through his armor, he could pretty much sit back and relax for the most part.

Bullets flickered against Jaune's breastplate, unable to pierce it. There was no one to watch this unexpected round of the tournament, save for a few hunters who'd stuck around. Most of them were the Atlesian peacekeeping forces, but Jaune saw that Perry and Pyrrha were also among the crowd.

I'll only get one shot at this.

He needed to not rush it – let Tyrian get in plenty of hits, lull him into a false sense of security, and then strike. The tough thing to remember was that for now, even as Tyrian rained blow after blow down without receiving any, Jaune had the advantage. Until his armor was breached, he would be safe against Tyrian's aura piercing stinger. He was gambling the entire fight on this one trick working.

That said, there really weren't many other options. No one else could fight Tyrian – the mad Faunus would just poison them. Maybe some would be able to survive for a few moments, but he was fast, and his reflexes were unparalleled. It would only be a matter of time before he got in a single lucky strike. Tyrian had his own aura, but to him, pretty much everyone else didn't.

Jaune couldn't hope to overpower him, even with his recently self-unlocked aura. Tricks like the one he was planning had been his bread and butter. Roman, Cinder, Hazel, Hogwash – all of them would have stepped on Jaune like a cockroach if he hadn't outsmarted them.

The tough part will be playing Tyrian. He doesn't think like a normal person, so I can't count on him responding like I would. I need to get into the madman's head.

Tyrian's foreleg slammed into his helmet, and Jaune flew across the arena.

Unless he gets something into my head first.

"Oh, this is most fun indeed! I feel like a mouse, toying with the cat about to slay it! Poor Tyrian feels sad, though. His semblance cannot be used, and he is a sad boy without his favorite toy."

Jaune picked himself up and twirled his sword. "In that case, how about I show you my semblance?"

Tyrian cartwheeled right into Jaune's personal space. He placed a single finger on Jaune's visor and tilted it up to open it.

"Please, go right ahead."

Before Jaune could even defend himself, Tyrian was somersault-rolling backwards to where he'd been standing before. He jumped into the air before he made it, limbs stretching out like a star, then landed in a sitting position, his legs crossed.

Jaune focused on pooling up his aura in just his sword hand, hoping that that might allow him to do the whole amplification-thing Amber had talked about without bleeding him dry like before. Raising Crocea Mors, he smashed it down into the floor.

There was a veritable explosion of rubble when he did, but the shockwave didn't carry over to Tyrian like he'd been hoping, nor did a wide crack appear in the floor and swallow him whole.

Tyrian politely clapped. "Ooh, good one."

"Down to 35%, Jaune," warned Amber. "Better speed this up before you're in the red."

"Not quite yet. Tell Pyrrha to make the move on my signal. I'm gonna get ready…"

Red aura wouldn't mean anything, though. That was one thing that made this easier than his fight with Pyrrha, at least. It didn't matter if Tyrian threw him out of the ring or dropped his aura to some arbitrary dropout point – as long as he still drew breath, he had a chance of victory.

The scorpion tail shot towards Jaune, but it didn't try and prick him this time. Instead, it wrapped around his waist. Tyrian used it to pull himself forward until his boots landed on Jaune's chest. The Faunus pulled back on his tail and kicked Jaune in the gorget. It wasn't enough to hurt Jaune, but the sudden rotational force toppled Jaune over with Tyrian still standing atop him when he fell.

Tyrian crouched down on top of Jaune. "I must admit, I was expecting more…flare. Are you going to give me the death you deserve to give me, or shall I have to roam the ends of Remnant eternally?"

Jaune gripped Tyrian's wrist and used an aura-amped throw to hurl him away. "You could just shoot yourself."

Tyrian landed on his hands and bounced backwards onto his feet. "Self-pleasuring is a sin, Jaune. Have you not read the holy scriptures?"

The curved blades collided with Crocea Mors in a flash of sparks, and Jaune decided it was time to start getting ready. With his free hand, he reached around his back and loosened his tassets' straps.

"So what exactly did you do after our last encounter?" asked Jaune casually, as though he were having a conversation and not trying to skewer Tyrian like an arachnid shish-kabob. "Did I actually see you in Vale during the riot, or was that just my overactive imagination?"

"I'm afraid to admit that I didn't stick around. The goddess recalled me, and I returned."

"Your goddess…Salem…" Jaune leaned down in a duck to avoid a blow to the head and simultaneously undid the latch on his greaves and sabatons. "…why do you serve her?"

Tyrian seemed offended at the question. "I serve her because the control of Remnant is her divine right. Her, Goddess Salem, lady of the Grimm – this world is meant to belong to her, to be reshaped in her image!"

"You talk of burning Vale down – is that her image? Destruction?"

This, surprisingly, elicited a pleased sigh. "Her visage is beautiful, is it not? Tyrian was plagued by it ever since he was born. In every fire burning down a spoiled home with the screaming family still inside, in every gory stabbing with specks of bone sticking out, in every lacerated tendon as I threw you to the Grimm for feeding, I saw her. I just didn't realize that the many images were one and the same until we met in person."

Salem is a person – a real, corporeal person. Ozpin and the others told me so. Tyrian has to know this, but he still thinks of her as a goddess? An actual deity with control over the world?

Tyrian licked his lips. "Have you seen her?

Tyrian fell back and turned away as he spoke, and the armored huntsman hastily began to detach as much of his armor as he could while the Faunus' back was turned. He still kept it on, hanging limply from his body, so that it would cover him from stingers, but it could fly right off the second he made his move.

Rather, the second Pyrrha makes her move.

Jaune needed to keep Tyrian talking – the longer this took, the better it was for him. "Can't say that I have."

"I don't believe you," crooned the older man. "You killed Hazel, did you not? Spattered his blood onto the warm sands? And Cinder – the fires of your duel were so glamorous that I could feel the goddess' loving warmth emanating within them all the way from Mistral."

"Salem…is she even real to you? Or do you just see her as the idea of violence?"

Tyrian turned back around, and Jaune immediately stopped doffing his armor.

"She is real. More than violence, my dear boy – she is chaos, swarming and swirling on every corner of the globe. I'm no man of science, but any old fool can tell you how the universe itself eventually ends: entropy. When order and disorder fight, disorder inevitably triumphs. This is the natural truth that defines it all. There is a reason it is easier to destroy than it is to create – she favors the former. And now Goddess Salem wishes for Tyrian to take his place among the indistinction, to reduce himself to meaningless atoms as he goes down in a blaze of glorious chaos. So he does."

"You're insane." Tyrian tripped Jaune as he tried to charge him, but Jaune managed to dive into a somersault and come out on his feet. "You really are insane."

Tyrian turned around and bent backwards in what Jaune assumed was some sort of inverse bow. "Why thank you, sir knight. You are most kind."

The man, still leaning backwards, fell to the ground but caught himself with his hands. Spinning around as he cartwheeled towards Jaune, the grin on his face was brighter than the sun.

Jaune didn't wait for him to get any closer. Enhancing his aura and focusing it on his skull, he raced ahead and headbutted Tyrian in the stomach, knocking the wind out of his lungs. It might have been the first solid blow he'd gotten on the Faunus in their entire fight.

Unfortunately, it might also be the last. Tyrian seemed to have been expecting the attack, for when Jaune pulled back, his entire helm was off, visor and all. Tyrian had grabbed it and detached it during the headbutt.

With his head exposed, it would only be a matter of time before Tyrian pricked him with his paralyzing tail and ended this once and for all.

The helmet spun on Tyrian's fingertip like a basketball. "I think I like the look of your face better than this tin soldier hat. So handsome…so arousing…"

"Still seventeen!"

Tyrian cleared his throat. "Arousing in a platonic sense, of course."

Well, it was now or never. He hadn't been expecting to play his trap card this soon, but Tyrian had forced his hand.

"Do it!"

The armor that Jaune had been methodically loosening one piece at a time flew off of Jaune and onto the surprised scorpion Faunus. Wrapping around his arms and legs, Tyrian was immediately immobilized. The breastplate slammed him into the ground, and Jaune's helmet wrapped around the tip of Tyrian's tail and pinned it down.

"Good job, Cereal Box Girl!"

Pyrrha, still nauseous from the venom, weakly wobbled out a nod from the outskirts of the seating area, guarded by Perry and Yang.

Jaune took full advantage of the opportunity she'd given him. Every inch of Tyrian was now protected, but it was also unable to move as long as she kept her semblance on it. Given that her aura was in the high thirties last Amber had checked, that should be more than enough time for Jaune to finish this.

Only Tyrian's head and neck were exposed.

"Foul!" he yelled furiously. "Audience interference! Offsides! Ref, give this man a red card!"

"Safe," declared Port, through the speakers. "Play ball."

In one swift motion, Jaune brought Crocea Mors over his head. Forcing his aura to empower his swing, he brought down the blade right into the madman's neck.

It hit, but it didn't behead him. Tyrian's purple aura flickered instead, and the sword bounced right off.

Jaune chopped once more in another quick executioner's swing. The purple washed over Tyrian's neck again.

Jaune raised the sword once more.

This is it.

But this was not it.

The tip of Tyrian's tail had been restrained, but the rest of it wasn't. The slack length of it slid itself behind Jaune's now defenseless legs and pulled his feet out from under him. Jaune fell to the ground next to Tyrian, and his sword slipped out of his fingers. The tail coiled itself around Jaune's neck and began to choke him. Jaune gasped for air as Tyrian struggled against the armor holding him down.

He wasn't out of tricks yet, though. Digging his taser out of the pocket on the opposite side as Amber, Jaune clicked it on and drove it down right onto the breastplate that now adorned Tyrian. The Faunus wailed in pain as the conductive metal armor transferred the sting of the Lighting Dust across his body.

His tail unwrapped from around Jaune's throat, and Jaune quickly threw himself away from the Faunus. Tyrian managed to pull a hand free from Jaune's armor.

"Perry says she can't keep it up much more, Jaune," said Amber.

Tyrian managed to knock the helmet off of his tail and flung it towards the stands. "Hmmmm…it sounds like you've been getting a helping hand from the ladies, eh, Jaune?"

Massaging his throat, Jaune could only watch as Tyrian shook off the armor. "Well, you did want me to kill you, right?"

"I do believe that I do." Tyrian glanced the way of the few remaining spectators. "That said, if we're making this a battle royale –"

"NO!"

Jaune charged at Tyrian, batting the tail away with his sword and slamming them both over the edge of the arena. The two landed with a violent crunch, Jaune on top.

Tyrian brought out his blades and drove one towards Jaune's chest, now undefended by any armor, but Jaune kicked himself forward and somersaulted right over Tyrian's head. Both men stood up.

"No exoskeleton to defend you…heeeeeee, I think this spells out death, and the letters are J, A, U– U – U – auugh, stay still!"

It was true that Jaune was now down one suit of armor, but that also meant he was twice as fast without having to carry that heavy weight. Actually, he felt like was probably moving thrice as fast now, giving the enhancements his aura had made to his dexterity. He could no longer freely tank the hits Tyrian had been doling out, but he could employ all of the tricks and dodges Amber had taught him to avoid them.

Tyrian had Jaune falling backwards, pushing him towards one of the exit tunnels of the arena, but that was to Jaune's benefit. As long as Jaune stayed on the backfoot and continued to retreat, Tyrian would have to move forward to get him, decreasing the odds of a sneak attack from that pesky tail of his. Jaune was devoting most of his energy to sidestepping and ducking when Tyrian's blades came, but he didn't for a second take his eyes off of that tail.

I can survive a cut on almost any body part if he slashes me through my aura, but paralysis would be the end.

"You have to fight me at some point, Citron Champion!" Tyrian cackled. "Only by ending the tale of Tyrian can you obtain the tail of Tyrian. Tick tock goes the clock! My venom flows like liquid gold through the collaterally damaged…"

Jaune wasn't going to fall for that. His mastery was in the art of avoiding being hit. If he tried for a second to land a blow, it would be over. Tyrian was still at partial aura, but with that semblance of his, Jaune may as well have been at 0% aura from a defensive standpoint.

Jaune ducked to avoid a kick and just narrowly managed to catch Tyrian's tail in his free hand. A bullet bounced off his temple.

I do need to think up an endgame for this fight, Jaune thought. He'll wear me down eventually if I never try something, be it from lucky shots like that or simply exhaustion. I can't go forever.

Jaune crushed the tail against a wall as it shot towards him and continued to fall back.

Fall back…

Fall…

But Amber! I can't…

There was no way he could ask her without revealing what he was thinking to his enemy.

Ren, Nora, Ruby, Blake, and Pyrrha are all in danger. Plus, if I can't kill him, he could go on a rampage and take out who knows how many innocent people. I…I have to kill Tyrian, by any means necessary. Amber is a huntress – she would understand. I hope.

Jaune started retreating even faster, taking rapid steps backwards as he wove around the attacks Tyrian was launching at him from all angles. It would be easier if he could run, but that would mean turning around and losing sight of Tyrian's tail, which was a risk he wasn't willing to take.

The light at the end of the tunnel heralded the exit to the narrow passageway they'd come into. Jaune could see the bullhead loading areas, the ticketing booths, even the concession stands with popcorn buckets that had no doubt gone cold by now. They'd found themselves in the entrance to Amity Colosseum.

"Going for a ring out from the ultimate ring?" asked Tyrian, almost managing to kick Jaune in the neck.

Jaune peered out towards the edge of the floating stadium. From their height they were easily higher than three, no, all four CCT towers stacked atop one another. If he could push Tyrian over the edge, the battle would be over.

"I don't trip easily, Jaune. You'll have to be craftier than a macaroni painting."

No, I won't.

Jaune kept falling back towards the drop off, losing ground as he did so. The two of them had gone through this little dance for so long without either taking a hit that their auras had to have regenerated at least partially.

It wouldn't matter. No matter their aura levels, no matter their landing strategies, the fall would kill someone instantly.

"Careful, dear boy. If you lose your footing, it might be you who flaps like a flightless bird, not me."

The point of no return had some railings along it to prevent unwitting passersby from accidentally falling, so Jaune quickly turned his back to Tyrian to tear them apart with Crocea Mors. Now, there was nothing preventing anyone who lost their balance from the oblivion that awaited them nearly a mile below.

I can see our dorms from here.

Huh.

They were floating above Beacon, so close that Jaune could probably throw a rock and have it hit the tip of the CCT.

Tyrian hadn't attacked him when he was cutting the railings, and that raised alarms in Jaune's head.

It must've shown on his face, for the Faunus acknowledge it. "Oh, don't worry, friendliest friend. I won't strike you down while you set the scene. It would be an end most fitting for you to batter me to pieces and hurl me from great heights. Any end would be an end most fitting, for it would be the end the Goddess decreed for Tyrian, at the hands of her greatest foe in this era! Imagine the splat! Imagine the sploot! Imagine the–"

Jaune wildly slashed at Tyrian with Crocea Mors before he could finish speaking. The Faunus backflipped right over him and actually placed himself closer to the edge than Jaune. The backs of his boots were now flush with the ledge.

"Try it, try it, and you may! But do you truly believe you can push me down?"

Tyrian hopped backwards, twirling around as he did. Jaune watched him go over the edge of his own volition. He was tempted to peer over and see if Tyrian had actually just killed himself, but the sound of metal cutting into concrete convinced him to back up instead.

Sure enough, Tyrian climbed his way back up, cutting his knife-hands into the ledge, using them like rock-climbing pickaxes.

"Oh, one more, pretty please with entrails on top?"

He flipped backwards again, but Jaune saw that his tail wrapped around the destroyed remnants of a railing. His feet caught on the edge of the drop-off, and for a second, Tyrian was standing horizontally, completely in line with the floor Jaune stood on. Jaune could have stepped out and walked onto Tyrian's chest.

Tyrian effortlessly pulled himself back up to Jaune's height and placed his hands on his hips. "Think you can do better?"

Jaune nodded. "I do."

"Then have at it!"

Tyrian's tail instantly shot for Jaune's heart.

It took all of Jaune's restraint to not dodge the blow, but to catch it. The stinger flopped around in his grasp wildly, like a snake with a mind of its own. Jaune was fairly certain that it had poked through his clothes and even through the aura above his heart, but he'd just barely managed to stop it before it penetrated his skin.

He didn't let go.

"Do you intend to throw me? Have you learned nothing about the aerial expertise of Tyrian from his two demonstrations?"

The Faunus fell upon him with both blades, slashing his arms and legs through his aura. Jaune cried out in pain, but his focus was exclusively on Tyrian's tail. Getting a better grip on it, one that wouldn't slip out no matter what, he held down on it with all his strength.

"Red blood? Was I expecting lemonade? I was!"

The blood loss from all the scratches would easily kill Jaune if left untreated, but it wouldn't matter. The fall would kill him first.

Jaune jumped.

Tyrian's hands caught the ledge, but Jaune still had him by the tail. Boosting his strength with his aura, he kicked the vertical face of the cliff from which he'd jumped and pulled the tail. One of Tyrian's hands slipped.

"This is not – you were supposed to nobly best me in combat, sir knight! To win, not to kill yourself and drag me with you!"

"I don't care! They'll find your venomous tail next to my corpse in a crater in the Beacon courtyard when we fall!"

Jaune kicked again, yanking on Tyrian's tail as he did. The Faunus' other hand slipped, and he tumbled into Jaune. Both of his blades slashed Jaune across the chest, then turned to dig themselves into the sheer face of the stadium's ledge.

"GRH!" Tyrian tried to climb back up. "No!"

Jaune was doing this to save his friends. That was the only reason. That said, it was the most amazing feeling to see the smug wiped right off Tyrian's face as true horror replaced his insane smirk, horror at the prospect of such cheating being used to kill him.

Painstakingly, Jaune slid one of his hands forward without letting go, putting them closer to the base of Tyrian's tail. The stinger was still in the grip of his left hand, but his right hand allowed him to pull his body closer to the Faunus'.

When Tyrian turned around to look back at Jaune, the last thing he saw was Jaune's forehead slamming into his. His hold on the edge of the arena was lost, and both men fell.

tl;dr Jaune put all his experience points into the defense and evasiveness stats

Next Chapter: Join Me For A Bite

In which Jaune Arc still doesn't have a functional landing strategy and somehow manages to fall from great heights twice in the same chapter.

Author's Notes - PROBABLY WORTH READING THIS TIME; CONTAINS DESCRIPTION OF SEQUEL

Oh no, Jaune's dying! He's falling to his death, you guys! How's he gonna get out of it this time? He's not gonna make it! I swear it's real this time, he's dying!

Before anyone say 'Yo no way Jaune could solo Tyrian,' let me point out that you're right. He didn't inflict any damage and just relied on his armor to defend him, which Tyrian was in the process of screwing with before Pyrrha did the hard stuff. Then, Jaune just turned around and ran, leading Tyrian to the edge of the colosseum where he yeeted them both from upper atmosphere. Tyrian's probably untouched except for the part where Pyrrha held him down and Jaune played whackbat on his face.

Tyrian is fun to write. I've said it before, but his tirade about Salem was probably my favorite passage in all of LTD Volume 3.

Jeez, Volume 3 – we're almost done! This fic was my second longest running one of all time, at 37 chapter with 1 per week, just behind the The Empty Doorknob. But the fun isn't over yet. When 'Living The Dream' ends, we'll start getting chapters of 'You, Me, and the Tuna,' a sequel (~1/3 of the size) that fills in the gaps – Crocea Mors' return, Cardin's rocket locker adventure, Branwen lore, and a lot more. Cardin's story will involve most of the characters who couldn't show up here because they weren't in Beacon when this story took place.

If I'm going to be honest, 'You, Me, and the Tuna' is easily my favorite work. It's much better than Living The Dream in my opinion. If you wanna know something crazy, I actually thought of YMATT first and originally just wrote LTD as an explanation for why Cardin was in a rocket locker traveling the world. But LTD took on a life of its own and ended up being three and a half times bigger! Still, YMATT might be smaller, but its far more streamlined – every chapter is there for a specific purpose towards the plot and contained no excess. Word for word, YMATT is better, but LTD is probably a more enjoyable story overall since it last longer and has more content.

Also, it's 13 chapters long, so with LTD's 37, we get an even 50! That's right, I always make my stories end in multiples of 25! The rat is back, folks!

Happy rats, and don't do crime!