Leaning into the doorway of the mess hall with his arm up, Black eyed the three of his men inside eating. "If you want to see 'em off, those girls are about to leave."
"Good riddance." Smoke quickly replied.
He sighed. "Alright then." He took a step away.
Eyeing each other, Snape and Holland lowered their shoulders. With a heavy exhale, the former soldier leaned back. "Tell them I wish them luck on making it to the Kingdom."
"And good luck dealing with the she-devil in Vale." Holland added.
With a half smile, Black nodded. "Right." He placed a hand on his hat before walking away.
Out under the sun, Hori carefully examined Kagami's blade. He held it up and narrowed his eyes down the edge. The sunlight glinted off it. "This sword is old. No, ancient." He corrected himself. "How long has it been in your family?"
"I know my grandmother used it but I'm sure it's been passed through several dozen more generations." The jadette replied while running her fingers across the sharp edge of his katana. "I wonder if our families could have been friends if we met all those years ago."
"Perhaps in another life." He flipped her sword around and held it downward towards her. "And in another time." He added.
She smiled and held his weapon out the same way. They both grabbed their own blades and she took a moment to stare into his eyes. She focused on them for a moment. She did her best to remember them. She hoped she would remember them.
He gave her a questioning look.
"Um," Kagami awkwardly chuckled and moved a hand behind her head. "Nothing. Sorry. It's nothing. For another time."
He shook his head. "If you say so, little dragon." He gave her a nod before going to walk away.
"Wait, what?" She took a step towards him. "What did you call me?"
"Hm?" He glanced back at her and raised an eyebrow. "Little dragon? It is what my ancestors call you. Does it mean something to you?"
"No..." She trailed off and shook her head. "No, it's nothing."
Hori couldn't help but smile with a scoff. "You are a strange one." He gave her another nod before stepping away.
She stared at him for a moment and smiled. In another life and another time, perhaps they did know each other.
"Alright. Ya got some bat stew, fried worms and beetles, cactus, flatbread and beans." Hawkes patted his hands while standing up next to a large backpack. "And about as much water as we can spare. That should last long enough to make it to the Kingdom. As long as ya don't get lost."
"Well don't go and jinx us." Elise narrowed her eyes. She grunted as she hauled the heavy bag over her shoulders.
"No one say anything more about it!" Kris held out her arms. Her eyebrow twitched. She couldn't handle any more bad luck. She saw Elise about to speak. She quickly held up a finger. "No! Nothing! No one, nothing!!" She bared her teeth.
"Okay, okay. Calm down." Cheyenne pulled the green hood over Kris' head. "We get it. You hate it here." She chuckled.
With a grumbling pout, the redhead aggressively waved her off.
"And just in case ya get bored on your way there," McCree walked over and tossed a deck of cards towards Elise. "Keep 'em. I want to see you with a better poker face the next time I see you."
She eyed the deck of cards. It was Remnant themed with a suit for each of the four Kingdoms. They had played with this deck earlier and she knew the two jokers were the Brother of Light and the Brother of Darkness. "Maybe I'll beat you next time." She pointed at him with the deck.
He couldn't help but break out into laughter. "Yeah okay! That's funny!"
"You know," Asher stepped up beside her dad and leaned onto him, "if I'm being honest, after all that has happened with you guys," she deadpanned. "I'm not going to miss you."
"Yeah well, fuck you too, bitch!" Kris held up both her middle fingers. She then grunted as Cheyenne leaned onto her back and wrapped both her arms around her.
"Why do you insist on nagging her!?" The Faunus quietly shouted while pulling her back. "We're being given food and water! Be grateful!"
"Why would I be grateful towards the jerks that kidnapped us?!" She kicked her legs around.
"Okay then pretend to be grateful!" Cheyenne corrected herself.
"Naw, you don't gotta." Black said as he walked over with his hands behind his belt buckle.
"Good! Wasn't gonna." Kris huffed.
He rolled his eyes before pointing towards Cheyenne. "Come on. I'll show you the way to the Kingdom. You too." He gestured for Elise to follow.
As they started walking by, Asher held out a hand to keep Kagami behind. She narrowed her eyes at her before letting out a quiet sigh and letting her shoulders relax. "Here." She huffed while reaching up to take off her red bandana. "Don't say I never gave you idiots anything."
Kagami raised an eyebrow as she took it. Red wasn't really her color but she supposed she could make an exception. "Well..." She untied the green bandana around her neck and tossed it to her. "Don't say no one besides your fathers was ever nice to you." She started to walk away while tying the red bandana around her neck.
"Heh. You better keep that Pony Girl of yours safe, ya hear?" She closed her eyes with a half smile. "Goodbye, Kagami."
"Not bye." The jadette turned to face her while walking backwards. "It's going to be 'see you later'. My dad gave me that bandana." She pointed towards her. "I'm going to come back for it some day. I'm expecting you to still be here." She gave a two finger salute before turning back around. "I'll see you later, Asher!"
Staring, the fiery redhead blinked. She clenched her jaw and gripped the green bandana tight. "Later, Kagami."
After pointing the four girls in the right direction, Black made his way back to the main area of their camp. Seeing his daughter sitting on a barrel fidgeting with a green bandana, he sighed. "You know," he started walking over, "you could have asked if you could go with them."
"Huh?" She quickly looked up at him and narrowed her eyes. "What are you going on about?"
He rolled his eyes and sat down next to her. "I wouldn't have been mad if you did." He held out his hand. "Matty and I chose this life along with everyone else here. You didn't. There's still a whole lot more out in Remnant for you to see."
She thought silently for a moment and stared down at the bandana in her hands. "Yeah, I know. But..." She trailed off and looked over her shoulder towards the Kingdom of Vacuo. "They live a different life. One I could never." She sighed and jumped down onto her feet. "Plus, there's only enough room for one redhead on that team." She chuckled while tying the green bandana around her neck. "So I guess I'll just have to pass."
Black cocked his head to the side and smiled. "If ya say so." His smile turned into a grin as he pulled the brim of his hat over his eyes.
Kris was on the verge of crying when her scroll connected to Vacuo's CCT tower. She actually started crying when she saw the top of Shade peeking over the horizon. It had been weeks since they left Vytal. Weeks since she had been in an actual civilization. Days of agonizingly walking under the burning sun. And so much sand. She had been losing it. Now she could reclaim some sense of normality.
Nearing the Kingdom's walls, the group of girls passed by a tall stone wall. Kagami stopped for a moment and raised an eyebrow. There were countless pictures on it. Some of the edges were even crinkled from the blistering sun.
Her gaze fell onto one of the pictures. It was of a girl with pink hair. On it, she saw a name: Rosa Schwein. She apparently lived in a place called Gust Downs. Not that she knew where that was.
She knitted her brow and went to look more closely at another picture. "Are these all missing people...?" She went to grab a faded photo only to be snatched away by her wrist.
"Come on! Stop staring at things!" Elise dragged her along as they entered the Kingdom. "I'm starving! What should we eat first? What kind of street food do you think they have here?" Her stomach loudly growled.
"You're always hungry." Kris softly laughed while holding up her scroll and downloading new music. "But for once I agree. Where should we eat?" She spun around and slid her scroll away. From her pocket, she pulled out her mother's credit card. "Everything's on that old hag again." She waved the flimsy piece of plastic around.
"I forget your mom is filthy rich a lot." Cheyenne shook her head. "Though I'm definitely grateful. There's no way we could have made it across Remnant this far without lien."
"Enough talking!" Elise jumped between the two of them. "Let's go find some food!"
Standing in front of a small stand, all of team MACE's stomachs growled at the smell of takoyaki with mole crab meat. Even Kris' insides couldn't resist the smell. A vegetable one would do though.
"We'll take five orders." Elise held up all her fingers on her right hand. "And then if you could make a custom order without crab." She held up a single finger.
"Sure thing." The chef gave them a nod while calling back to a few of his workers. He then leaned back out towards the four girls. "That'll be thirty lien."
"Here you go." Kris licked her lips while handing him her mother's credit card.
He nodded and stepped back to pay.
"Gods, I'm so hungry." Elise leaned up against the stand and held her stomach tight. "All this walking is burning so much energy."
"Yeah. It is." Kagami chuckled a bit while sliding her hands into her pockets. "Since we're inside the kingdom now, I guess we could start doing things at night. Should be a whole lot cooler."
"Not sweating through all my layers and not walking around with a soaked bra?" Cheyenne laughed. "Sign me up please."
"Hey, girls." The chef held the credit card back out towards Kris. "You got another way to pay? That thing keeps giving me declined."
"Huh?" The color fell from Kris' face.
"Eh?" Kagami's eyes widened.
"What... do you..." Cheyenne trailed off.
Elise let out a small squeak while slumping forward.
"Listen, this ain't a charity." He glanced around before lowering his voice. "I don't care if it's yours or not. Just want the lien." He straightened. "Do you have another way to pay or not?"
"Please! I'm starving!" Elise suddenly latched onto him with teary eyes. "I'll eat whatever you threw away in the garbage!"
"Uh...?" He raised both his eyebrows.
"Um, sorry about her." Kagami quickly snatched the brunet and pulled her away. "She's been out in the sun too much. You know how it is. We'll be back in a bit." She awkwardly laughed while pulling her teammate around a corner of a building.
"You just had to jinx us! Didn't you!" Kris flashed her teeth while trying to grab Cheyenne's neck. "You had to say something!"
"How was I supposed to know something would happen?!" The Faunus kept her shoved back. "We've been living off that card for months!"
"And then you said something!" The redhead hissed.
"Enough, enough." Kagami stepped between them. "Okay?" She lowered her voice and took a deep breath. They were in the middle of a kingdom where they didn't know anyone and had no lien and had to travel across the continent. "Deep breaths. We can just make money the old fashion way. I'm sure there's a mission board around here somewhere."
"Right, right." Cheyenne nodded. "Huntsman missions. We could do some small ones. Like Grimm slaying and whatnot."
"Good. Okay." The jadette glanced over her shoulder and eyed Elise. The farm girl was laying on the ground with clouds of gloom above her. "Let's get going."
Standing in front of a Huntsman and Huntress mission board, Kris' brow twitched. They had found a few easy missions and she went to accept them until it asked for her Huntress license number.
That she didn't have.
That none of them had.
They still never went back to school.
The redhead slowly breathed in before letting out a frustrated scream.
Watching Kris collapse onto the ground next to Elise, Cheyenne let out a very uneasy breath. "Okay. So, now what?" She turned to look towards her leader.
"Um, well, uh, we could..." Kagami gulped. This was bad. This was really bad. "I mean, hey, we're in Vacuo." She held out her hands. "I'm sure we could find some under the table missions easily." She weakly smiled. "Right?" She didn't sound very confident.
"We're broke... no lien..." Kris whimpered. "No makeup..."
"No food..." Elise whined.
Biting her lip, Cheyenne lowered her head. She knew no one was going to trust them enough to do a private mission. Maybe they could go to Shade and ask the headmaster there for help? Though he was probably too busy to help some dropouts. They might be able to meet some former classmates though.
"If you need lien, I might be able to help." A fifth voice spoke up and all of the girls jumped.
Kagami whipped her head around while reaching for her sword. She kept a hand on it while staring down a tanned woman in a blue leotard.
With her smile hidden behind a blue mask, the woman spun a bladed fan around before going to fan her face with her weapon. Things were about to get interesting.