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Neo had confirmed the presence of an elderly woman that only Winter Schnee was allowed to see. She took her tea green so I did in fact get all the information I wanted. Fria was her name. And she was the winter maiden, at least if Tyrian could be taken at his word, which in this case, why not? Did it really matter if she was winter or summer? Not for my purposes.
Aside from Tyrian's location, Aurum had informed me of another of Merlot's laboratories in a place called Mt. Nibel. It was above a small dust mining town that Neo and I reached on a combination of train and foot.
He also promised to put me in contact with a group of ex-workers who could tell me about the General's secret project. A group called Avalanche. They had some little favors they needed from me first but they'd talk. At least according to Aurum. They just needed a little help with something first. No biggie for someone like me. I was a favor guy. I was a problem solver.
Nibelhiem had all the usual dust amenities and I took the time to resupply my dust where it was cheap. Cheapest in all the world. Especially with the embargo driving up supply and decreasing demand.
They were practically giving the stuff away and I had my pick of crystals from a vendor near the mountain.
"Burn and shock crystals. Uncut is fine." He nodded. The uncut ones were a little cheaper. Not that it mattered much to me. I still was swimming in cash even after the train rides and the private airship.
"You headed up the mountain?" He asked as he set crystals on his counter.
I nodded. "And a bit of weight, please." He nodded and he pulled out a purple crystal and set it next to the array of yellow and red crystals.
"Well you might need a guide if you're goin' up the mountain. You got a place in mind or are you just out hunting?"
I took them and put them in my crystal pouch. They clanked together in the pocket and I'd need to consider a new way of carrying them to make sure they didn't blow up on me and destroy my face in the process.
Nothing bad had happened yet but that was no reason to tempt fate where I was concerned. I had the worst luck. Like the absolute worst.
"What do you think Neo? Do we need a guide to take us up the mountain?"
She pursed her lips in thought at me. She raised a finger. I took that however I wanted.
"We're headed to an old laboratory up there. You ever hear of it?" I asked. "Run by this guy named Merlot at some point in the past?"
"I haven't but I'm willing to bet you could find a guide who has in a young girl. She's been training to be a huntress up here. Her name's Peach Locheart."
"And do you know where I might find this young girl?"
"She's usually in her teacher's dojo. Zangan's his name."
I nodded my head. It was entirely possible a guide would be necessary up in those mountains. The wind seemed to course over them fast enough to whip up a blizzard and even trained huntsmen like yours truly could get lost in that kind of weather.
It was unlike the last laboratory which we sort of knew the location of based on our conversation with Godo. I was coming in here a little blind.
"She's not like a kid, is she?" I asked. "My friend here isn't fond of kids." I gestured to Neo with both hands.
"She's a bit on the younger side. Mature for her age, though, if that helps." He pointed the way to Zangan's dojo down the street.
I thanked him for the advice and the dust and made my way there.
There was a young girl in a pink combat skirt firing off kicks against a dummy punching bag. She was maybe fifteen, old enough to kind of understand the world. Old enough to start to be a huntress. An older gentleman turned to look at me as I walked in.
"Howdy," he greeted unironically. He actually said howdy this far north. "What brings you in here?"
"I'm headed up the mountains, into Merlot's old laboratory. I need a guide to take me there. A dust vendor outside recommended someone named Peach."
"That's me," the young girl delivered a punch and a kick to the bag for emphasis.
"She can take you up the mountains. I've never heard of a laboratory being up there, though."
"He must mean that old white and gray bunker up there." Peach cut in. "I've seen it. Never been inside though."
"What do you say kid, want to take me up there?"
"What's in it for me?" She asked. I liked her style. She was more worldly than Yuma had been. Less of that naivety. It would make her harder to trick but that was at once a good and a bad thing.
"I have Lien. Set your price," I told her.
"I don't need Lien." She punched the bag in time with her words.
"Everybody needs something, kid. Everybody has a price."
"I'm not a kid either. You said you were buying dust?"
"That's right." I palmed a crystal from my pocket and showed it to her.
"You know magic, then? You're a hunter." She took in the massive weapon at my back. Her eyes flicked over my shoulder.
"Only a little. I'm better at using it to set explosives," I informed her.
"Teach me."
"Hmm." I hummed at that.
"I don't need your money but I'm going to be a huntress. I need to know about dust if I'm going to be any good. You teach me how to use it to make explosives and you've got a deal."
She held out a wrapped hand.
I reached out and shook it.
"You've got yourself a deal, little miss."
She flushed a little red. Maybe she was nervous.
"Peach…" Zangan warned. "Be careful. And you better go ask your father."
"Not to worry sir, I'll keep her safe," I told him. "She seems like quite the student."
She rushed off out the door behind me to do as her teacher bade.
"She is. She's very dedicated. You know how it is with the young'uns. They want to be hunters so bad they'll miss the forest for the trees. They don't know what it'll cost."
That most hunters died young. I understood.
"We don't all get to live to be as old as you are." He was only forty or so. Middle aged.
He grunted at that. "How old are you kid?"
"Twenty."
"And the Miss with you?"
Neo held up a warning hand.
"Neo? I'm not sure. She doesn't talk. Plus it's rude to ask a lady her age. We've been traveling together for a while now, though."
"Well don't be shocked if her father wants to meet with you before he sends you off with his daughter. He's not a huntsman himself but he understands a little."
"But not the whole picture."
"They rarely do. Rarely can." He leaned against the counter in front of the dojo. "He's paying me a pretty penny to teach his daughter. She's hungry for it. You met the type?"
I thought of Yuma Kisaragi and I thought of little Ruby Rose. Plus there was me, myself, before I knew my memories were fake and my dreams were dead.
"Once or twice."
"You ever seen it work out well?" He seemed to be genuinely asking me. Like he wasn't sure himself.
"They're alive." I managed. "So it's sort of too early to tell."
"They your age?"
"Yes sir, one. And another is your Peach's age. A little huntress to be out of a place called Wutai. You heard of it?"
He shook his head.
"It's a small town. Down near Mistral," I went on.
"That where you're from?" He asked.
"Near Mistral? I suppose. But I was trained and raised in Vale, though." And that was the truth, near as I could tell.
"Been all over, have you?"
"A bit."
"The traveling mysterious huntsman type. I ought to hate your guts."
"Sir?"
"You ought t' know. Be careful with my apprentice. You should know how young hearts are. You were one more recently than me, as you pointed out."
I ran a hand through my spiky hair and sighed. That seemed to be good enough for him because he nodded.
"I'll look after her. Nobody will get hurt on my watch," I swore.
"And if someone is?" He leaned over at me.
"I'll bring her right back here."
"There ain't a hospital in town."
"She's a huntress. She has aura."
"Huntress in training. You know they're not the same thing."
"I'll be as safe as I can be. I'm promising to train her in explosives for gods' sake. There's only so safe you can be. Besides, if you think she'll be good enough by being trained in a dojo, you've got another thing coming. Does she want to make it into one of the Academies?"
Zangan nodded.
"Then she needs to fight Grimm. A lot of them. The sooner the better. I trained at Beacon. Initiation started with launching us into a Grimm infested forest."
"Lords above. So young..."
"Seventeen isn't that young. There was even this prodigy that was her age there and she was better than me. Still is. Well maybe." I wasn't sure how I still might stand up against Ruby. I was fucking dangerous. If she plateaued, then I might have the edge on her.
Peach came back with an older man in tow.
"Father this is...um…" Her pink eyes flickered to mine. Oh to be young. Ever.
"Cloud Strife, sir." I shook his hand firmly and saved her. He was a touch shorter than me with brown hair unlike his daughter's blonde. And his eyes were a dark red. But eye colors could be weird in Remnant. Ask Yang.
"I hear that my daughter wants to take you up the mountain in exchange for some training."
"That's right. I was going to show her some of what I know about dust."
"You mean… like magic?"
"Maybe a little. I know some but my real experience is in using it to make explosives."
"Peach…" he trailed off looking down at her.
"Dad, I need to learn this kind of thing. He can show me. Sifu-Zangan doesn't use dust."
"Never needed it," Zangan grunted.
"You've never killed any big fish, then," I said. "Big. Game. Goliaths and the like."
"Tha's a dangerous sport."
"Hunting can be. There are sharks in these rivers."
He looked away and I thought of Tyrian and Raven. There were also big Grimm which would be difficult to kill without dust. The Nuckelavee was like that, too.
"Well what do you think, Zangan?"
"The kid seems trustworthy." He shrugged. "He can teach her things I don't know. It might save her life one day. He also attended Beacon. He can let her know the sort of life she'll be in for at the Academies."
"Beacon… were you there when it went down?" Peach's father asked.
"I was," I answered easily.
Peach looked up at me with her bright pink eyes. "You were at Beacon? What was it like?"
I laughed at her curiosity.
"Peach." Her father warned. I waved him off.
"It's alright. My time at Beacon was the best. It was a lot of hard work though."
"Did you fight big Grimm?" She asked.
"I did."
"I knew it." She pumped a fist. "He fought real Grimm."
"I can show her some of what I know. I can teach her how to fight them."
"You had to fight Grimm while you attended?" Her father asked. "Or just when the academy went down?"
"Both," I waved a hand and answered. "Initiation was us fighting Grimm."
"I see…" He looked deep in thought. "I don't want you fighting a lot of Grimm. The idea makes me uncomfortable."
"I'm going to be a huntress. That's the whole point."
"You're right. Of course you're right."
"And I've been that high up in the mountains before. I've fought Grimm like that. It's just Beowulfs and Creepers. I'll be safe. It's all a learning opportunity."
"Very well. Mr. Huntsman, Strife, was it? You'll look after my daughter?"
"No harm will come to her. You have my word."
She pumped a wrapped fist in the air. "Dust explosions here I come."
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We made our way into the mountains, out of Nibelheim, and needed to set up our tent for the night. It was not as long into the journey as I would have liked. In typical Neo fashion she sat and watched me set up everything and cook dinner.
"So how do you set up explosions?" Peach was shaking with excitement. "And will you show me some of your magic, too?"
"It's not real magic," I explained. "You'll occasionally run into a real dust sorcerer. Someone who can do all kinds of things with dust. I just know how to use it in its raw form. Primal. I don't even know how to eat it"
"Eating it?" She laughed.
"It's not actually eating it. It's putting it in your body so that you can use the power. You can actually eat it I suppose or you can just stick it in your flesh and it sort of slides into you. Into your aura."
"But it's still magic, right?"
"A little. But it's like comparing a first aid kit to a hospital staffed with doctors. I'm a bit of a neanderthal."
"Oh I don't believe that. You seem smart."
"You've only just met me. Give it a minute."
She laughed again, her eyes were bright. "Show me how to use dust to make explosives."
It was easy enough. I showed her how to set it up with a circuit, a battery, and a switch.
"The switch is the complicated part. You might want to learn about how radio signals work if you want to be able to blow them up remotely."
"But that's it. Just a circuit and a crystal and that's it."
"It's not rocket science. It's really simple. You can pretty easily make a landmine like this. Just bury it with a trigger on a plate underground and bing-bang-boom. You've got yourself a trap. I cornered a pretty big Grimm like that once."
"What else can you do?"
"You can throw it really hard."
She gave me a questioning look.
"Look, you just throw a dust crystal hard enough and fast enough and it works. It explodes and unleashes the effects."
"That sounds too easy. It's supposed to be all hard and complicated."
"Well it shouldn't surprise you. They have to move it around all safely in containers for control. Too much disturbance and the stuff just goes off. Even in powder form."
"But you don't use it in powder. Because you can use it raw."
"That's right. Let me show you."
I handled a yellow crystal and crushed it. Lightning ran up my arm and I cast an arm forward. Lightning struck the tree from my open palm and burnt a hole in it and part of the tree to ash.
"Wow…" she breathed. "That's what you meant."
"Yeah. It's not quite what a real dust sorcerer can do but it's closer. I just unleash the power a little more controlled."
"And that's not the same as eating it."
"No. And I can't show you because I'm not a dust eater, either. But as I understand it you can just shove the crystal through your skin or into your mouth and the crystal becomes a part of you. It changes your aura."
"I see. Can I try?"
"Which one?"
"That blast that you just did, not eating it."
"Sure. Why don't you try fire? It's very dangerous so after you crush the crystal you'll be able to feel the power. Then you've got to let it go or it'll explode in your face. It's still risky."
I handed her a red uncut crystal and she held it up to the light. She was looking at how it shone unlike any other substance in the world. The light always came through it red. It always seemed to bounce around impossibly inside the meta-material.
"Are you ready?"
She nodded.
"I just crush it then I let it go?" She asked.
"Pretty much. You'll be able to feel the power. It'll feel hot, like your arm is on fire."
She nodded.
She crushed it and murmured, "I can feel it. I feel the power."
"You need to let it go!" I told her urgently. She was just standing there with the power coursing through her.
She tried but the flames blew up in her face and knocked her on her ass. Her jacket was singed slightly, revealing her tank-top underneath.
"I told you to let go."
She wiped her ash cover hands off on her pants. "Thanks. I wasn't sure how though. Can I try it again?"
"I messed up my first few times too." I handed her another red uncut crystal.
She inhaled deeply. Then she crushed the crystal and I watched the flames run up her arm. Then she cast her arm forward and a fireball shot free. It struck the same tree I did and the pine roasted for a pleasant smell.
The snow was coming down hard enough that the fire wouldn't spread. It was too damp and too cold.
I pumped a fist. I wasn't an incompetent teacher. And she hooted.
"That's how it's done," she called out into the night.
"Well done."
"Can I try it again? With the lightning ones maybe?"
"Not tonight, no. You might like to change now. I hope you brought a spare coat."
She looked down at her arm. "Oh shit, I didn't even notice. The heat of it all. Yeah I have a spare one."
She walked over to her bag and changed her coat.
"Thanks Cloud, you really helped me."
"It was no problem." I smiled. This felt like a real good. It had been a long time since I felt that. What with all the murder and chaos and all. It made me feel like I was a good person again. Even if it was just for a moment.
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-WG