Chapter 9

[Cardin Winchester]

He'd show that little shit.

Cardin wasn't very sure why his father had decided that this was a good moment to take insults to the face, but he wasn't having any of that. He was a Winchester, and he deserved to be respected as one. Blackwood would get what was coming to him. One didn't just insult a Winchester in their own city and get away with it.

The worst part was that nobody seemed to find it odd or weird.

The restaurant that Cardin had seen bend over backwards for his family was suddenly under this random bastard's thumb. His father, who would have gone after anyone who dared spit on his or his family's face, was suddenly pulling back and letting things happen. Even the other Council members were doing the same, and Cardin couldn't understand.

Was that because of the supposed Schnee? Because he was fairly sure that was all nonsense. Someone from a family like that didn't just appear out of nowhere. If he was a bastard who had been thrown away or the son of some disowned member, then it didn't matter and he didn't care. Cardin was fairly sure that it wasn't even that. Anyone could dye their hair white and suddenly be a Schnee those days, apparently.

The world was going crazy, honestly.

None of that was important then and there though, because Cardin had found them. Before, he'd only known that they dropped by the Crystal Castle a lot but little else. Even some of his family's less lawful contacts had found nothing when he'd asked. However, he'd found them anyway, and he'd only had to ask a friend.

He'd have to do something nice for Sky.

Maybe he'd help him hook up in a party or two.

'What to do?' he wondered, looking at the shop that his friend had pointed him towards. A weapons shop, apparently, as if he needed more proof that the other man wasn't a Schnee. What member of that family would reduce themselves to something like that? Even an estranged one would have the sense to pick something more dignified for themselves than a common shop.

Back to the task at hand, Cardin could see a lot of wood around, so he couldn't really use the fire dust crystals he had available. He didn't want to burn the place down, after all. Shame that, an explosion or two would have been nice. He was trying to get revenge on these assholes for talking back to him, not become a wanted criminal.

A true shame indeed.

'Maybe a paint bomb would work?' he mused, bringing a hand up to grab his chin thoughtfully. A broken window too, and it would require less work. 'Yeah, that works,' he decided with a nod and a grin. There was a place nearby with some rocks on its front, he could just go, pick one up and do his thing. That'd make him feel better, at least. He could return with the paint at a later date.

So, with a plan in mind, Cardin started moving. Finding the place that he'd thought of wasn't too hard. Picking up a big enough rock that still wouldn't be troublesome to move around discreetly was a little harder, but he was done quickly too. Good thing too, since it'd be weird if he looked around too much. Someone might have noticed, after all.

He had his tool and his plan, so Cardin walked towards the shop, grin still in place. His family was too important to let things slide. They were from a noble family and they had war heroes too. If nobody was going to do anything when a random idiot spit on their face, then Cardin would do something about it himself.

Once he reached the shop again, he gripped the stone tightly and reared his arm back. He had to be quick and then get on his way. He was a Winchester. Even if someone saw him, as long as there weren't too many witnesses, it'd be fine. So, he went for it and-

His arm froze.

Cardin frowned, trying to move it again and barely managed a slight twitch. Looking to the side, he froze all over again for a different reason. There was a girl there, with bright orange hair and a black and white top and a pink skirt. Behind her, he saw a boy with green clothes standing and staring at him while the girl smiled friendly at him.

"Are you trying to hit something?" she asked, pulling the rock off his hand and then throwing it up and down on hers.

"There was a stray dog that was bothering me. Wanted to make it stop chasing me," Cardin lied through his teeth. He just had to be interrupted by huntsmen-in-training, didn't he? It was just his luck. 'Will have to come back some other time.'

"There wasn't a dog anywhere close by though," the boy behind the girl commented, his tone flat. "It looked an awful lot like you were trying to hit the shop over there," he added, looking between Cardin and the aforementioned building.

"I don't know what you are talking about, man," he replied because he had his story and he was sticking to it. "There was a dog there."

"Are you calling him a liar?" the girl asked, the rock in her hand cracking even as her expression remained with the same friendly smile. "Because that's not very nice," she said, the stone crumbling in her grip. "And neither is trying to throw stones at buildings of people I like. So…" The boy interrupted her with a weary sigh then.

"Make it quick. I don't want to get in trouble," he suggested with a shake of his head.

"What do you mea-?" Cardin started, only to be interrupted by a punch. And it was far from the last one.

[}-o-{]

[Blake Belladona]

"Thank you, Tukson," she said with a small smile as she looked at the older man. Her collection of books was already tightly wrapped and inside a black box so people couldn't peek at her… reading material.

"It was nothing, miss," the faunus responded with a shaky smile. "I know I am not one of your parents or anything. But perhaps you shouldn't be reading such things at your-"

"Thank. You. Tukson," she repeated, more pointedly.

It wasn't her fault people didn't understand the social and cultural intricacies of an old Mistralian-based novel. Kunoichis and Shinobis used their bodies and their target's carnal desires against them to achieve their objectives all the time. The plot moved along in a tangled web of psychological warfare fueled by such a common sin, for humans and faunus alike, that was lust.

It wasn't an excuse to read smut. Honest.

It didn't matter what Adam and half the camp might think.

'It's good literature, dammit!' Blake thought to herself as she hugged the bag protectively against her chest.

Nobody would get in her way of reading the latest volume of it that night. She would have preferred it if it were inside a hot bath, but living in a camp didn't have those luxuries. Her tent and candlelights would have to do for now.

"... Right," responded the man as he shook his head with an exasperated sigh. "Just… make sure to have some privacy, I know teenage years are a confusing time in a growing lady's life, but-"

"Oh. God, please. Don't," Blake couldn't just take it anymore, her face burned red in mortification as she caught on to what the man was implying. "Just… don't."

For his part, the man looked even more uncomfortable than her with this conversation. Which was saying something, really. His hand rubbed about the back of his head as he looked at everything in his shop but her.

Besides, this was all part of a cover, yes. Just hope and wait for the Schnee to show up at the known locations and collect information. Buying the book is just part of the cover too. She needs to act the part.

"...Listen, you never know what kind of sick person will take advantage of a confused girl, so make sure to lock your door before and-"

Blake didn't know if her next actions should be to use her semblance to bolt out of the bookstore, or just pierce her heart with Gambol Shroud and end it all right here and now. Maybe it was a bit dramatic, some would say. She'd call it a necessary evil.

Luckily she was saved from either of those options by the ring of the bell attached to the front door.

'Oh, hey! Look! Literally anything else, let's focus on that now!' she thought to herself ready to idolize whoever it was that came into the store and just spared her of this hell.

"Welcome to Tukson's bookstore, home to every book under the sun," Tukson rapidly changed his attention to his potential new customers, also glad for this conversation to be over. "Oh, it's good to see you again, Mr. Astra."

"Glad to see you too, Tukson," a deep male voice responded from the entrance. Blake turned to meet the man before she froze in her tracks at the sight of white hair and blue eyes. "I came here to see if you had any other recommendations for what we talked about the other day."

'No way he is actually here,' she thought to herself. Granted, it was a possibility all along. It was the reason she had been visiting the bookstore so frequently for the past month. Just like many other White Fang members had been visiting places the supposed Schnee had been sighted. But, she didn't expect to run into Vale's latest hot topic so soon into her mission.

"Ahem!" she heard Tukson fake cough from behind her. Turning around yet again, she noticed that he was giving him a wry look. Right. She should probably stop staring. Even if she relaxed her posture, she supposed that continuously staring at the man would give the game away. "Certainly, Mr. Astra. I recently ordered some new books just for you. I had a hunch you would be interested," the panther faunus continued his polite conversation with the man.

He pulled a small stack of books from behind the counter, most of them being on the thick side, and passed them over to the fake Schnee. Something that pretty much everyone knew at this point. Not that it stopped people from making a million and one theories to feed the fire that had taken over social media for the last week.

She had even seen some news that started to cover the case as of late. They were really eager to climb a few rating points for the latest gossip. It was sad, impressive, and very disturbing, all at once.

Blake let curiosity get the best of her at that moment, sparing a look towards the newcomer's reading material as he was occupied himself talking with Tukson. From the corner of her eye, she skimmed over the multiple titles of the books before blinking and turning her head to look at them directly. She recognized most of them. How could she not? They were mostly historical books related to the Faunus rights revolution. Hell, one of them was written by her father. She was, then, slightly startled however when the man in question grabbed one of the books from the table.

Hurriedly lifting her face, she made eye contact with the white haired man. He only offered a small nod in her direction before opening the book in his grasp at a random page and starting to skim through it. She noticed that Tukson had gone over to the other side of the counter towards the cashier, counting a small stack of Lien notes with a happy smile.

"Huh… this part is different from what the other book said," she heard the target of her little espionage mission mumble to himself. He clearly didn't mean to be heard, but her cat ears hidden behind her bow could catch sound better than most.

Employing all her scout skills, she angled herself slightly so she had easy access to the lines he was reading. She could have sworn the man rolled his eyes and separated the book from him slightly to let her read. That must have been her paranoia talking, surely.

Blake quickly speed read through the lines of dry text. While she usually preferred a more flourished prose found in novels, years of work for the White Fang allowed her to adapt to more scientific types of text as well. Not something she enjoyed, but at least she could put up with it and still get the information.

"Ah," she said with a frown as she finished the page. Then she cringed slightly at giving the game away with that sound when the man turned to her with a raised eyebrow. At least he was more amused than anything else, if the shine in his eyes was anything to go by.

"Yes?"

"Uhh… It's nothing?" she asked rather than stated, her faunus ears making her bow twitch. Something the man caught on to, given that he directed a glance at it the moment it happened.

It brought a small chuckle out of the Not-Schnee.

"I have read about this incident before. The Fort Castle. But it was told slightly differently there," the man continued as if he didn't care about her trying to peek over his shoulder.

She was glad he didn't make some racist comment like 'Curiosity killed the cat' or something along those lines. She had started wearing the bow mostly because of the amount of comments she kept getting over it when she tried to stop a racist act on the streets. Or whenever she so much as was in a semi-public setting. People just couldn't keep their comments to themselves.

"Different in what sense? It was one of the turning points of the war, the victory over the fort allowed the Faunus to establish a supply chain of resources in the south coasts of Sanus. It was basically what allowed them to set foot in the continent during most of the war," she stated with a confused frown. She is well acquainted with the subject after all. In but a moment, the order to stay away from the target flew out of her head. This was a topic that she was very interested in, after all. It wasn't her fault that the conversation started.

"Well, in "Biography of the Lagunes", it says that General Lagune tried to open diplomatic relations with the naval forces of Menagerie. The way it's told, it was an effort to open a sea route closer to the continent for coastal villages and towns," the man responded as he changed the page and continued reading distractedly.

In the background, she could see Tukson recline over the counter, attentively listening to their conversation.

"I don't think I've read that one…" she heard him mumble in a quiet voice unwilling to interrupt the man.

"Apparently, both sides set up a date for the talks in neutral grounds on the hills between the beach and the fort, it was held at night so both parties could use the daytime to clean the hills from the accumulating grimm hordes and discuss in peace-" Blake felt herself bristle in anger at the blatant lie, she already had an idea where this was going. "-then when the general left the fort with a small entourage, he found himself ambushed by a Faunus force. He was then taken captive and ransomed in exchange for the fort."

"That is only filth-filled propaganda. There are plenty of testimonies given by both sides that General Lagune was the one who tried to ambush the Faunus force at night. Forgetting that most of us have perfect night vision," she said with some spite in her voice. She hated this kind of poisoned knowledge, it only made people see things from a biased perspective and made the amount of racism even greater.

"Hm. I imagined that was the case, most of the book seemed to be made to make the Lagune look like saints," Her target- Astra said with a small nod to himself, like a theory of his had been confirmed.

"Mr. Astra, may I know where you got that book you are talking about? I've never heard of it before," Tukson said from the side. Already closing in on them as Blake tried to calm down the bubbling feeling of anger and frustration. Not only did they hunt them down and treat them like animals, but also tried to take away their biggest step forward toward equality and make them look like monsters.

"Of course. It hasn't actually been published yet though. It's one of the reasons I asked for all this last time I came here." He waved his hands to the small pile of books over the counter. "A friend of mine got a copy of it from an editorial. He heard that some of the members of the council were pushing for it to become elementary-grade reading material at schools. I naturally grew curious and when I read it, well…"

Blake could feel one of her veins in her forehead about to pop, but it was not even a drop in the ocean of rage that was Tukson. He was just short of frothing at the mouth. His face was red and his grip on the counter made it creak and snap slightly.

"To poison knowledge like this… to children no less…" She could hear the man seethe through gritted teeth before stopping and taking a deep breath in. "I… am sorry Mr. Astra. It is just that the idea of someone using knowledge to create more bigotry and ignorance is just something that I can't stand."

Astra shook his head, giving the older Faunus a sympathetic smile.

"Think nothing of it, I just found it odd and wanted to know more about the subject. Hm, I might need to call my friend. Maybe we should contact this Lilac person who was in charge and solve this misunderstanding," Astra commented, looking thoughtful. "He did say they'd have a meeting about it soon."

Blake didn't say anything as the Schnee lookalike continued mumbling to himself while Tukson and her were quickly forgotten about. This was key information, after all. Not about their original target, but key information all the same.

She shared a look with her old friend and she knew they were in agreement.

Adam needed to hear about this.

Distracted as they were, neither saw the pleased smirk on Astra's face.

[}-o-{]

[Lie Ren]

"Their first beat up to someone is something to celebrate," Mr. Blackwood exclaimed, hugging Nora to his chest like a proud mother. "I can't believe it. They grow up so fast."

"I mean, the first time we beat some up was like three-"

"Nora."

"Right, that didn't happen."

"And they are keeping secrets too!" the man cried out as if overcome with emotion. "Soon they'll be causing chaos and mayhem wherever they go, Silver. Aren't you proud of the kids! The gods know I am!"

"Mhm," Mr. Astra replied eloquently from where he was, checking on the newspaper with a mug of coffee by his side. "Very proud."

"Aren't you going to tell us that we were excessive in resorting to violence and not calling the authorities?" Ren asked with a tilt of his head, genuinely confused at the responsible adult not berating them for starting a fight in the middle of the street. He had already prepared himself to take his and Nora's part of the punishment.

"He was trying to smash my window, Ren," Mr. Astra said with a shake of his head. "If you had called the police, he would have been long gone by the time they came around. Besides-" he continued, the gigantic hammer with a bull's head materializing in hand, making Nora squee. "-I have this for a reason, you know? I am not a pacifist or a stranger to violence myself."

Ren supposed the man was right. They were huntsmen, fighting and violence were part of their lives at the end of the day. Still…

"I am happy you didn't escalate too much though, it shows you had restraint."

"Although, black eye, that's for amateurs," Mr. Blackwood commented then, switching back to "normal" if the word could ever be used to describe him. "No, you have to hit them where it hurts. You should know this stuff by now. One hit and they go down, easy."

"You mean…?" Nora asked, wide-eyed in innocence that was completely unbefitting of the area she gestured towards. Ren felt himself flinch a little. The worst part though, was that Mr. Blackwood grinned wider at that.

"Exactly! Yes. I'll teach you all about the not at all noble art of brawling. Soon, people will walk the other way when they see you, Queen of the Castle," the man told her, making Nora go bright eyed in excitement. Ren chanced a glance towards Mr. Astra, but he seemed more focused on whatever it was that he was reading. It was either very interesting or he didn't feel up to dealing with Mr. Blackwood's antics just yet.

It could go either way, really, and Ren would have understood.

It was still concerning though.

"The White Fang attacked an editorial," the white-haired man commented then, making Mr. Blackwood pause and turn towards him to deliver a half-smile.

"Don't they hit a place every so often? That's not very surprising," he replied then with a shake of his head. Ren felt like it should have been more important than that. Everyone was talking about Mr. Astra like he was a Schnee. What if the Fang decided to attack him? Or them, by proximity?

"Just thought I'd comment on it. Apparently, the whole thing is going to close soon. They had a lot of shady deals under the table. The White Fang spread the information online for everyone to see. The Council is scrambling to remove it, but they are not having an easy time," Mr. Astra took another sip of his coffee, but he could see his lips twitching up slightly.

"I guess an editorial is a little different from the usual," Mr. Blackwood agreed with a nod before shrugging. "But eh, sounds like they had their reasons… Now, back to Nora and her Queeness of the Castleness-"

"Those aren't words, Vince."

"-You and I are going to have a training montage. By the end of it, you'll know all the tricks. From punching, to kicking, to kneeing, to gouging-"

"Please tell me you are talking about different targets for each of those," Ren said, receiving only a wide and not at all reassuring smile in response. The nutcracker he passed on to Nora who reverently took it like it was the most precious thing in the world made the situation even more worrying.

Where had he even taken a nutcracker from?

Oh, right, his shadow space.

"I'm gonna ring up Hei. Maybe he can bring the twins and all. We bring our kids, he brings his and everyone has fun," he commented, pulling out his scroll. Somehow, Ren didn't see where the connection between "training" and "fun" was supposed to be. Well, for anyone other than Mr. Blackwood himself and maybe Mr. Astra.

"You just wanna brag about Nora and Ren to Hei, don't you?"

"And rub it in his face that my pair of gremlins is better than his, of course," Mr. Blackwood said with a completely straight face.

"Fair enough," Mr. Astra replied with a nod. Ren wasn't very sure if he should be flattered about Nora and him being called 'the better gremlins' if he was being honest. "Fairly sure he got the picture when we visited his club though."

"There's never too much bragging, Silver. You know that."

"Let's just keep the training moderate, won't do to go too hard on the kids." Now it was everyone's turn to gape at him, even Mr. Blackwood. For his part, Mr. Astra just sipped from his coffee while reading the newspaper. It wasn't until a few seconds later that he realized they were still staring and gave them all a frown. "What?"

"And they say I'm the sadist."

"Sadist?" Mr. Astra mumbled to himself, confused.

Ren had to remind himself that these two were veteran huntsmen and that their training was doing wonders for them… Even if it was a grueling experience. On top of that, they were very kind to Nora and him, which was the biggest plus. Things had gone great from the two orphans since they met Mr. Blackwood and Mr. Astra.

That had to make up for how the training… was.

… Right?

[} Chapter End {]

Adrian: And thus, the true villain of the fic is revealed, Silver!

Arc: He keeps torturing teenagers and getting away with it! This can't stand! He even was happy when a clearly unbiased and not greedy racist publisher got destroyed. What a monster.

Adrian: The true plot has been revealed, Vincent will have to face the ultimate enemy, his own friend. They'll face each other at the Valley of the End and unlock power up after power up trying to one up each other until… What do you mean that's already been written? Shut up.

Arc: With that said, I hope you guys liked the chapter. Given the current situation of FFN and notification emails not being sent, I would like to remind people who are interested in this and Fable stories to follow the stories to know when we are updating.

Adrian: That way you can check on the FFN story alerts page… or better yet, you can come to the Discord server and get a role to be pinged whenever there's an update.

Discord Link: discord .gg/UTDransjJZ