Hey, uh... Funny thing, I'm not actually late. This chapter was alway going to come out the 19th. I did say that the chapters would come out at a pace of 1 every two weeks.

...September 10th was a typo and I only noticed it yesterday. I'm sorry.

I'm also taking out the humor tags. Not that the fic is going to lack that in the future, but since there's not much of it in the first few chapter, it didn't feel appropriate, so I'm leaving it with only the adventure tag.

A-anyway: RWBY doesn't belong to me, but to RT. Sad, I know, but c'est la vie.

Uncle Perry and I had been living on Patch for three months now. Dad purchased a house on the outskirt of the city.

The main door opened directly to the living room, with the kitchen right next to it. On the opposite side were the two bedrooms, separated only by a small bathroom. I didn't need to sleep, though, so I used my bedroom more like a desk room, where I work on possible plans for the future (only three-quarter of which are to deal with Cinder) and on the contract I have with Illusion Industry.

The bed was only used when I distributed my stats points. It was better to lie down on the mattress than the cold, hard floor while I suffered from my semblance.

Of course, when I said dad bought it, I meant that it was bought with his money. But officially, the transaction was done under Perry's name. If a place was bought or rented to the Roman Torchwick, we would have the police knocking on that door in the following day.

It was a pretty small house, but there were only the two of us and real estate's value was driven up due to so many people being crammed like sardines, so it'd have to do. Patch wasn't as bad as Vale, but it was still a city of 13 million people.

The 'Gamer's Body' made me think that I wouldn't need to eat ever again but it turned out that while the Game was using my aura as energy to generate the materials my body needed for cells replacement and I didn't feel hunger anymore, there was still limits to what my semblance could do, and the longer I went without eating, the more it put a strain on my aura. This meant that if I didn't eat from time to time, my aura would regenerate slower and slower until I had a negative regeneration rate.

Since the negative regeneration of aura start around a week and a half without eating, I needed a full meal per week to maintain a reasonably quick aura regeneration. I ate once every five days to be sure, with a snack here and there.

In any case, it was time for me to go farm exp points again. I put the book I was reading back in my pocket dimension and walked out of my room.

"Good evening, Gem. You're going hunting again?'' Uncle Perry said from the kitchen.

Periwinkle, no surname on account of being a street orphan, was a young man, barely an adult, with an average build. With his dark brown hair and eyes and his glasses, he'd go unnoticed in a crowd if it wasn't for the pair of floppy dog ears on his head. He grew up in the streets, stealing food and stuff to stay alive and had a few jobs as a criminal. That was until... uh, five years, already? Dad hired him for a job. Since he accomplished his task without screwing up, dad hired him again and then another time. Dad found the dog faunus to be much more competent and trustworthy than the average street thug, so he eventually decided to include him amongst the Wicked Thieves. Because Perry had a knack for paperwork and knew how to keep sensitive information, with time he ended up becoming dad's right arm.

One would think that it would be sis, but while she was definitely the best fighter we had, she wasn't great at leading other people and making sure they did their job correctly. Because of this, she was more of a bodyguard/accomplice than a second in-command, thus she didn't really leave his side. Uncle Perry was the one left in charge of the hideout when dad needed to be somewhere else.

Since he was the only one apart from sis who dad trusted with my life, dad had him move with me to Patch so that an adult would still have an eye over me.

"Yep. What are you cooking?'' I asked. Probably something with meat, I thought I smelt beef and uncle Perry lovesd meat as much as sis loved ice cream.

Or how Blake loved tuna.

"Roasted beef," nailed it, "with roasted potatoes and carrots." He answered with a smile. "Want some? I can put leftovers in the fridge.''

"Sure, why not? I'm not eating yet, but I'll take the leftover tomorrow.'' I said.

"Got it, be careful while hunting Grimm."

I left the house and walked into the forest. Being on the outskirt, it only took me about five minutes to reach the forest. I was really glad dad brought a house on the edge of the city instead of deep inside it. If dad had brought a house in the center of it, it would have taken me a lot more than a few minutes to get out of the city. It wouldn't have been the end of the world, sure, but I was glad to not waste an hour or more every time I went outside to kill Grimm.

Once I arrived at the forest, I immediately scouted the ground to find Grimm footprints. I needed to find the trail of either a Ursa or a Boarbatusk. Those ones might be the strongest on Patch, but they were also solitary, which made them the best targets I could kill furtively. Ironically, Beowolves were the ones I had to avoid despite them being the weakest of Grimm.

They might be weak, but they moved in packs of several dozen of them. Trying to kill one would inevitably result in the rest of its pack attacking me and I would find myself submerged by their numbers.

There were also small Nevermores I had to worry about, unlike the Beowolves, they don't leave footprint behind them, being airborne. Because of this, I couldn't know where they were before being in their line of sight and the last thing I needed is one of those jerks noticing me from up in the sky and screaming while throwing their tiny feathers at me. The noise would attract all the Grimm in earshot, who would in turn scream and notify other Grimm.

Fortunately, I did found a little trick to counter my birdie problem.

Usually, I would wear green clothes to sneak in a forest and would avoid black, as black clothes actually cut your figure from your surrounding during the night. The opposite of what you want when sneaking. Don't believe the myth that black clothes help you remain unnoticed in the dark. It doesn't.

For training on Patch, however, I choose to make an exception. I wore a long sleeved, black vest with a white hood along with black pants and black sneakers.

It didn't help me to sneak on Grimm, but it did make the Nevermores in the sky see a black spot on the ground with a bit of white when they look down. To them, I looked just the same as any Grimm on the island.

This trick was a godsend, because trying to sneak past enemies who have flying lookouts was a terrible experience. I had to run away from Beowolves several time during my first week of training and go back to the city and let the automatic turrets decimate the pack every time that happened. The militia's guards weren't happy about the disturbance.

That was also how I acquired a perfectly reasonable hatred of birds.

Moving between the forest's bushes, with only the moon to light the woods, I spotted a trail of hooves. A Boarbatusk, alone.

Perfect.

I followed the tracks, staying hidden by moving between the trees and bushes, always behind cover.

I quickly found the Boarbatusk, who was walking at a slow pace and was looking in the opposite direction. He was a big one, I think it might be the biggest I had seen so far.

The problem with Boarbatusks was that while they had a soft belly, their armor protecting the rest of their body was harder than any of the others young Grimm, to say nothing of their hard and dense muscles. With my sword, I couldn't guarantee an instant kill and a drawn-out battle would attract more Grimm.

But I had a little tactic to deal with Boarbatusks with haste.

A key difference between prey and predator were the eyes. Predators had their eyes on the front of their face, looking in the same direction. This allowed them to keep track of the prey they were chasing, a must have for any hunter, be they animal, human... or Grimm. Prey, on the other hand, had their eyes on the side of their head. It gave them a wider range of vision, making it harder to be sneaked on. at the cost of depth perception.

Thankfully for me, while boars were a prey species, Boarbatusk were Grimm.

And all Grimm were predators, even those based on prey animal.

But for them, it was actually a detriment, because of the Boarbatusks' signature attack.

When they spinned so fast to charge their target, they lost all sense of sight and continued to charge forward even if their opponent had already moved away. This wouldn't happen if they had eyes on the side of their body, allowing them to keep some of their sight when spinning. Bonus point if said eyes were rotables and compensated for the spinning so they would see normally even during their spinning charge.

Hmm, that would have made them a pain to deal with. Thanks the God of Darkness for badly designing his creations.

In any case, I followed the Boarbatusk in silence for almost half an hour until I spotted a big rock.

Good, that was all I needed. A tree might suffice for the smaller Boarbatusk, but I doubted it would be enough for this one. I needed something much more solid.

I let the Grimm walk a little more away and slipped next to the rock, then I drew my sword. The sound of the blade sliding out of the cane alerted the Boarbatusk, who turned its head toward me.

As soon as it saw me, I stuck my tongue out to mock it.

When close to a human, Boarbatusks attack by trying to hit with their defense. It was when they were at a certain distance from their enemy that they did their rolling charge, which was why I let it walk farther away from the rock before making my presence know.

The Boarbatusk spun and came at me with the speed and strength of a truck.

I sidestepped it and let it crash on the rock, cracking the stone and knocking itself out.

I didn't have the convenience of Weiss' glyphs, but a little ingenuity was a powerful tool nonetheless. The environnment surrounding us was just as important as our weapons or semblances.

I didn't wait for it to regain its senses before I stabbed it.

The Grimm's hit on the rock made lots of noise though, so I picked up a small rock and then climbed a nearby tree to wait.

Before long, a Beowolf came sniffing around. I stayed in the tree, unwilling to test if its alpha was smart enough to realise that the scout it sent not coming back meant it was killed.

By experience, it was a 50/50 chance. Not a risk I was willing to take if being wrong meant having the whole pack come here.

After a few minutes of waiting, the Beowolf went away without noticing me.

People don't look up, seemed like that was true even for the Grimm, eh.

Beowolves, as do all Grimm, also had a surprisingly bad sense of smell. Despite looking like werewolves and imitating wolf hunting behavior, they only pretended to sniff around, but they actually used their emotion sensing ability to track humans. My best guess for why they bothered looking like they tried to track by smell was that exhibiting predator behavior made hidden people who saw them do it anxious or scared that they were going to be found because of their scent, resulting in the Beowolf finding them. Of course, knowing about their terrible nose made watching them do that almost humorous. Knowledge really was power.

Soon after the Beowolf was gone, another Grimm came to investigate the sound.

It was an Ursa this time. It looked around, noticed the cracked rock and followed the track left by the Boarbatusk's charge.

When it looked away from my direction, I threw the stone I picked up earlier at the ground, right under me.

The Ursa went straight to the source of the sound, directly under me.

A human, or an older Grimm, wouldn't have been fooled.

I watched, amused, as the dumb Grimm sniffed at the stone, despite it clearly being an inanimate object.

It touched the stone with its paw and then growled at it because the stone moved.

You were the one who moved it, idiot.

I rolled my eyes and leaped down the tree with my sword pointing at the Ursa's neck. It died before being able to react.

Which was weird, because Grimm didn't need to breathe as much as they didn't need to eat and the neck is an universal weak point because it brought the nutrients and oxygen to the brain, which I was not even sure the Grimm had to begin with.

Why they died by neck injuries was a mystery to me.

Strictly talking, I didn't even need to know, they died all the same and most huntsmen were content with knowing that. But it still bugged me, I hated not understanding something.

Especially when it was an apparent contradiction of logic.

In any case, it was better if I didn't linger here for nothing. My little trick of using a Boarbatusk to attract a lone Grimm and ambush it worked again but I'd be in trouble if more started to show up.

So I resumed my hunt, crouching to take advantage of the forest's natural cover again.

After an hour, and sneaking past four packs of Beowolves, I spotted another viable target. One I had yet to see on Patch.

A Prince Taijitu around five meters long, the size of a green anaconda.

Taijitus were pretty strange Grimm. Unlike most Grimm, who simply grew bigger, Taijitus will grow until they reached their 'adult' size. Then, instead of becoming bigger, the Taijitu will grow a second head and become a King Taijitu, like the one Ren fought in the emerald forest. Eventually, it will grow a third head and become an Emperor Taijitu, though they were really rare.

Any sighting of four-headed Taijitus was an unproven myth and urban legend, or so was the kingdoms' official claim, because all governments took its citizens for idiots. Some things never changed.

Five-headed taijitu have so far only appeared in campfires horror stories. Said stories coincidentally attracted Grimm to the campers, which was why only huntsmen went camping. Well, the most daring of them do it, in group. And so close to civilization that most earthlings wouldn't even consider it camping. Grimm were such party poopers.

Anyway, I couldn't take on a fully grow Taijitu, but I can kill this prince one and take the exp.

Especially since it was sleeping. Yes, I knoew the Grimm didn't need to sleep. No, I didn't know why they did anyway. Kill first, investigate later.

I just hoped it wouldn't wake up, because the snake Grimm was still the size of a constrictor snake and that didn't do anything but remind of how those wrapped around their prey and broke their bones instantly, immobilising them as the anaconda suffocated them to death. Slowly, in the span of several minutes, before swallowing their prey whole.

So, it looked like I had just remembered that I feared snakes in my past life, along with why.

I walked slowly toward the baby Taijitu, careful to not make a sound that would alert the beast. As I got closer to the limbless abomination, my heart beat faster and, it seemed, louder.

The Grimm started to stir out of its slumber.

Panicking a little, I tried to pierce the head before it could react to my presence. But in my haste, I instead landed a non-fatal hit on its coiled body.

'Crap!' Was the only thing I had the time to think.

The Prince Taijitu reacted on the spot, wrapping around my legs and my right arm which dropped my sword.

I felt the pressure around my limbs as my aura was the only thing stopping my bones from snapping. With my only free arm, I took one of my knives hidden in my clothes.

Tears rose up out of fear and pain as the serpentine monster coiled around my neck, cutting off my air. That was bad, even with aura, if I couldn't breath I would lose consciousness. A death sentence in this current situation.

As the snake opened its mouth and was about to bite me in the face, I stabbed the flesh that was compressing my constricted arm with the bowie knife. The Taijitu screamed in pain and relaxed its grip on my arm.

Adrenaline and survival instinct took over as I grabbed the monster right at the base of its head with my freed arm.

I stabbed the snake several times in the... neck? There was no finenesse in the stabbings I landed on it, only primal instincts and a desire to stay alive, still, they were pretty effective and the Grimm disappeared in smoke.

Thanks God I survived.

I hated snakes, almost as much as I hated birds.

And did that even count as a neck? All of its body was a neck.

I took a hand mirror out of my pocket and used it to open the game.

You killed a Boarbatusk. 13 exp.

You killed an Ursa. 6 exp.

You killed a Prince Taijitu. 5 exp.

A total of 24 exp. I usually made an average of 60 a night but I think I will stop here tonight. The Taijitu gave me enough emotions for now.

Beowolves packs howled in the surroundings.

Yep, time to run away, I shouldn't stick here when my fear alerted the vicinity.

I just almost died and I didn't want to repeat the experience. At least I was calm now that the Taijitu was dead, so I was not broadcasting my position to the Grimm anymore. They were still coming here but I should be able to sneak past them. Wouldn't be the first time I messed up my farming night.

I reclimbed up a tree.

It was a small blessing that Patch's trees had thick enough branches to support the weight of a child. Oh, in a few years, I would be too heavy for that but for now I had no problem moving from tree to tree by jumping on the branches.

As I made my way back to the east of the island, where the city was, Beowolves passed under me when they ran to the site of my fight against the mini Taijitu.

One day. One day I will be strong enough to be able to not let all of that exp slip between my fingers.

When I was past the packs, I returned on the ground and started running through the woods.

I wasn't that far from the city after all, and I just wanted to finish the night and relax a little. Playing Kung Fu Ninja Ultimate Slayer Death Battle sounded really nice right now.

Once I passed the walls of the city, however, I finally noticed that my cane sword was missing it's sword part...

Oops?

/-/

Tomorrow morning, the sun shone brightly in the sky as red petals flew between the trees.

"Come on, Yang. We're gonna be late to school." A red hooded girl said. "Well, you're going to be late, not meeeee!" The girl blurred away from the other's view.

Behind her, Yang stopped running, unable to match her little sister's semblance and needing to catch her breath.

"...Huff... huff... that is... huff... so unfair..." Yang took a deep and much needed breath.

"Did you say something? I can't hear you with how far behind you are, slow poke!" The speeding girl taunted from far away.

"Ruby! You know dad said not to use your semblance yet. Not until you-"

Thump!

She didn't get to finish her sentence before Ruby ran head first into a tree.

"...learn to control it."

Yang walked to her little sister's side, who was lying on her back after her collision.

"... Ouch, the front of my face... It hurts."

"Yeah, that's pretty much what you get for being careless." Yang said, smirking at her poor little sister. "That's what, the ninth time you've knocked yourself on something? You'd think you wood have understood by now."

Ruby groaned and picked herself up. "No. Please don't do this." She said, hoping against the odds that her sister would pass up the occasion to make her puns.

"Aww, don't be like this. You're the one who decided to show off with your semblance before practicing with it. You maple this off after a few months of treening, but you should be careful until then. No pine, no gain. That's just how leaf is." Yang said, showing no mercy in her barrage of puns.

"You're horrible."

"Come on, don't be a stick in the mud. It's never too late to turn over a new leaf, so let's stop beating around the bush and let's get out of this neck of the woods." Yang said, before continuing her way toward Signal academy.

Left behind, the little red hooded girl was about to run after her sister when she noticed something in the grass that was reflecting the sun's light.

'Is this a sword?' Ruby wondered. 'What is it doing here?'

She picked up the weapon to better examine it. Looking at the thin blade, the weapon nut noted that it was made of L6 steel, which was a type of steel that was heated and worked until it formed bainite. She searched in the corner of her brain what else she knew about the material, her specialty being more in mecha-shift weapons and their assemblage than the brut materials.

And guns in general over close quarter weapons.

If she remembered this right, bainite was a plate-like microstructure that allows the steel to remain harder and hold its edge for longer? She hoped she didn't mix up the definition with something else.

Ruby frowned. The money was the one part of weapons she hadn't familiarized herself with, but didn't that kind of steel used to be super duper hard to make and really pricy? Sure, technology advanced and it became both easier and cheaper to make, but this sword would have still cost a lot more than needed for a temporary weapon.

Because she didn't doubt that this sword is a temporary weapon. The blade's length wasn't adapted to the size of an adult. It's the weapon of someone around her age, who still had milk to drink.

Since most civilian wouldn't waste that much Lien on a temporary weapon for their huntsman aspiring kids, the kid who used this sword must have either huntsmen or wealthy parents, or both.

Especially since it was a cane sword, given the handle. Those tended to be favored by rich people as an innocuous looking self-defense tool. It wasn't exactly the weapon most people would bring to fight Grimm either. He must also be pretty incompetent if he left his weapon in the middle of the forest. At least he was probably safe, since she didn't see traces of blood anywhere.

Safe from the Grimm at least, because she had a few words of choice in reserve for someone who abandoned such a beautiful weapon.

"Rubes?" Yang called from a distance. "You coming? Or are you trying to... take root."

Ruby turned her eyes away from the sword and tried to see her sister, but Yang was far enough to be hidden by the vegetation.

"I found a sword!" Ruby said, hoping her voice would reach Yang.

"What?" Apparently, it didn't. "Sorry! I can't hear you with how far behind you are, slow poke!" Or maybe it did and she was just messing with her?

Ruby followed her sister's voice to find her, which didn't take long. It's a good thing Yang has enough sense to not leave her 12 years old sister alone in a Grimm infested forest.

The blonde brawler might be able to handle Patch's Grimm, but Ruby wasn't. Not yet. She was still training with the wooden scythe uncle Qrow gave her.

Yang blinked when she saw her sister's find.

"Where did you find that?"

When the weapon nerd gasped, the older girl knew she made a mistake in the way she referred to the sword.

"That? That? This isn't a 'that', Yang Xiao-Long." Yang winced, using her full name? Yeah, she really should have chosen her words more carefully. "She is an elegant and beautiful cane sword with a L6 steel blade and a fibreglass handle." Ruby said.

Taken by her own enthusiasm, she didn't pay attention to how much she was leaning toward her older sister. Her wide eyes and steady eye contact, combined with how she hugged the sword close to her heart, was just a little too much.

"That's... great?" Yang said, leaning her head way from Ruby. "Wait, why is it a girl?"

Ruby rolled her eyes. "Do you even need to ask?"

Yes! Yes, she did. But it was probably better for her if the conversation didn't continue in that direction. "Right, sorry. That was silly of me. Of course it's a girl. Do you have any idea how to find the owner?"

"Yep! We're searching for someone around my age. Probably a first year student at Signal, but he come from either a huntsman or wealthy family. Might be from Vale's upper class district or the richer neighborhoods of Patch. He's around my age and fought Grimm alone, so he's probably better than most of Signal's first year. Like, top of the class, or close."

"Wait! How do you know all that?" Yang, confused, interrupted her.

"How? I told you many times that seeing new weapons is just like meeting new people. Do you listen when I talk?"

"...I thought you were just finding excuses to not get over your social awkwardness."

Ruby glared at her, looking as threatening as a tiny kitten. "Anyway, I was thinking we could just bring it to Signal and ask if anyone lost his sword."

At these words, Yang panicked.

"Signal! We're going to be late!" She said, before the two girls ran at their school.

Unfortunately, it seemed the owner wasn't a student, after all. Since they didn't find him, Ruby decided to keep the weapon in her room and maintain it, rather than throwing it away. You didn't treat such a beautiful weapon like that.

And yes, they were late that day.

/-/

"Where. Is. My. Sword."

After commissioning another sword from a swordsmith, I went back into the forest to try and find my lost weapon. It wasn't hard to find where I had fought the baby taijitu, I only had to retrace my steps until I found the rock destroyed by the Boarbatusk and search from there until I see the sun reflect on the blade. But even after 3 days of search, I still couldn't find it.

The sun was high in the sky, so I should be able to easily spot the light reflected on the blade, but it was nowhere to be seen.

I didn't understand, how was it gone? Grimm attacked people, not inanimate pieces of minerals. Otherwise they'd just attack rocks as well.

And me tricking Boarbatusk into knocking themselves out on rocks didn't count as them attacking it.

So what, did it just grew legs or something?

...

...

Did it?

...Nah, I was being an idiot.

Swords couldn't walk.

But since normal people didn't go into Grimm infested forest, who could have took it?

A professional huntsman wouldn't care about a child's weapon, would he? Although I supposed they might have taken it back to the city and posted an ad for it. No ads appeared, however, so they might have just kept or sold it.

I sighed in frustration, if someone took it and didn't seek to return it, then my chances of finding it were close to nonexistent. I guess that meant I had to give up. Even if it was a gift from dad.

A deep growl came from my left. I turned my head to see a black mass emerge from the bushes.

The Ursa, a small one, charged without restrain and I sidestepped it, allowing it to run past me. I hid behind a tree so when the dumb beast finally noticed it didn't crash into anything and stopped to search where I was, it didn't see me.

It looked around in confusion, until I threw a rock to distract it. It turned toward where the rock landed and growled and by doing so, let its neck completely exposed.

I approached silently and stabbed it in the neck with my new celtic short sword, ending this poor excuse of a fight. I then looked at my weapon, satisfied, as sunlight reflected on its blade.

The weapon had a thick, double-edge steel blade ending in a fine point capable of great thrusting attacks, making it just as capable of stabbing than cutting. The larger blade could actually damage the tough hide and muscles of the Grimm better than my previous weapon. Sure, it was also heavier, but 'heavier than a featherweight weapon' wasn't a high bar to pass in the first place. It was a short sword after all, and even zweihanders would rarely weight above 4 kg.

Historically, these swords were used by the early knights of the kingdom of Vale, although they were made of iron instead of steel. They were the elites warriors serving under the first and second kings of Vale. Although the reason they were equipped with these rather than longer blades was mostly because they didn't have enough iron to equip everyone with longswords. Establishing the kingdom allowed the finding of more mines during the reign of the second king.

The levied peasants were equipped by axes instead, which were incorporated in the military and became so common that they ended up the symbol of the kingdom instead of swords.

As for me? I was just using a short sword because a longer one would be too big for my current size. I'll buy another one in a few years, probably right before the canon events starts. And yeah, mine was made of steel instead of iron.

For now, I guessed I could only continue to train. After all, I was already in the forest and I did cut short my training last night.

At least the finances were growing faster than my level. Enough so that I could already hire a teacher for Jaune

...I wonder if hiring mercenaries to throw at Cinder would be a viable way of getting rid of her?

Eh, probably not. Even if I managed to hire enough bodies to throw at her, she'd probably just make a break for it and come back better prepared.

/-/

Apart from its capital of the same name, the kingdom of Vale only had a handful of settlements. There was Patch, the largest city in the world outside the capitals of the four kingdoms, and there was Marino, a city south of Vale which used to only be a small fishermen's town but grew in size and population since the great war. Although it was so close to the kingdom's capital that most considered it to be part of it.

And... that was it. These were the only three settlements the kingdom had under its jurisdiction.

Oh, the council did pretend that the other towns, such as Sumire, were part of the kingdom. But in pratice, these towns who managed to survive outside of Vale were surrounded by Grimm and the kingdom had no means to enforce its rules and collect taxes.

This meant that these independant settlement were, in a way, small kingdoms of their own, even if they weren't recognized as such. But while they didn't pay taxes to Vale, it also meant that they depended their own military and militia to defend against the hordes of Grimm outside their walls.

Except for the one Onyx had just entered.

Unlike the others settlement, the village of Ansel only had a modest wooden palisade and no formal army. There was no need for anything more because the fourty years old community was mostly formed of huntsmen's families, making this the safest place on Sanus. Apart from Vale and Vacuo, of course.

The Grimm did try to destroy this sweet little rural village, up to three times a year actually, but if a single huntress in training could easily slaughter an entire pack of Beowolves, then a few hundreds actual huntsmen could deal with these triannual swarms with ease, turning what most would consider to be a catastrophically large swarm of various horrors into mincemeat. Outside of such disturbance, however, the village offered a charming scenery.

The huntsman wasn't here to admire the place and what it had to offer, though. No, he was here for a job.

The first, and only one, he managed to get since he graduated beacon. Had he know that he would cover himself in ridicule in front of the whole world and that it would hamper his credibility to the point of people refusing to hire him, he would have taken the Vytal tournament more seriously.

He would have been wary of a child hiring him to train an older kid. But he was just too hungry to care about how weird this situation his. So long as he got paid, he was fine. It helped that this Gemini kid gave him his first pay in advance.

His empty stomach groaned in pain.

Maybe it was time to spend a bit of his first pay?

Onyx approached the baker, a middle-aged man sellling his bread and other pastries, and handed him 200 Lien. "I'd take a slice of pecan pie, please. And could you give me directions? I'm searching for the Arc's household."

The baker took a good look at him, Most huntsmen in today's age wore colorful and distinctive outfits. He, however, wore something more on the... older style. A black fencing cape over his left shoulder, a traditionnal white swordman's shirt, a pair of black velvet pants and knee length leather boots, he looked like he came right out of the end of Vale's monarchic era.

This made him, in a way, more memorable than the other, more coloured, huntsmen. His pencil mustache didn't help.

So the baker looked at the oddly familiar black haired man for a moment, and remembered where he had seen him before.

"Aren't you the guy who tried to flirt with his opponents during the Vytal tournament?" He said, his shoulders shaking as he chuckled.

Onyx looked down, his face contrite. That was all people recognize him for, even after a few years.

At least the baker answered him, and told him that he could find the Arc's household in the south-east part of the village, on the edge of the village.

Thankfully, it was a small settlement and so it didn't take long before he found himself in front of a large house, the largest in Ansel. In fact, it was more of a mansion. Onyx had been told the Arcs were a large family, of course, but he had assumed the siblings shared their bedrooms. He stood corrected, as he now realised that their home was big enough for everyone to have their own room. Maybe even one or two left for possible guests. These kind of houses tended to be way too costly back in Vale, only found in the Upper Class District, and only the richest families could afford them.

'Uh, the Arcs did used to be nobility.' Onyx reminded himself. Figures they'd be able to buy themselve a house of this size. Then again, real estate wasn't anywhere near as bad in a frontier town than it was in Vale, so maybe Nicholas Arc paid for this with the money he gained as a huntsman.

The property had its own gated wall surrounding it, so instead of knocking at the door, he rang the bell placed at the side of the gate.

And the bell wasn't a modern, electric one, but an old small bell made of copper, which he rang with the clapper

A woman, in her thirties, opened the door. Thankfully the distance between the entrance of the Arc's home and the gate was small enough that they could talk from where they were, so he was about to introduce himself.

"Hello ma-"

"We aren't buying anything." She cut him off.

She was about to close the door when he started again.

"W-wait, ma'am please! I'm no peddler, I'm a huntsman."

Upon hearing him, Mrs Arc gave him a curious look.

"A huntsman... and not from here." She muttered, to low for him to hear, before raising her voice. "And why are you here? Is there a problem?"

"No, no, not at all. I'm simply searching for Jaune Arc. I've been hired to train him."

At his words, Mrs Arc tensed. She eyed him with suspicion, giving him a look bordering on hostility and making him wonder what he said that was so wrong.

"We haven't hired anyone for that." She said, her voice just a little bit harsher than it was before.

Onyx held up his hands.

"Oh no, I'm not saying you did. I was hired by a kid named Gemini." He said.

"...A kid?" blinked. "Wait, how young is this 'kid' exactly?"

"13."

"...13?" She repeated, a little dumbfounded. This conversation wasn't going in the direction she thought it would.

"Yes... I understand how weird it sounds, but I swear I'm not lying."

"... You know what? You stay here, my husband is the one who will deal with this." She quit being a huntress precisely because she was sick of dealing with crazy situations like this after all.

After a few minutes, a blond man, a good head taller than him, exited the house and Onyx gulped when he saw his bearded face. He didn't look happy. At all.

Nicholas Arc stared at him, his hand resting on the pommel of his sword, which Onyx really hoped would stay sheated.

"Tell me if I misunderstood anything," He said with a gruffed voice. "you were hired by a 13 years old child to teach my son how to use a sword so he can become a huntsman, is that right?"

"Prtty much, yes. Please sir, don't hurt me."

Nicholas rolled his eyes. "Oh, don't worry, you're not the one I'm pissed against." He had a good idea of who was behind this. "But that could change depending on how long you take to go away."

"Right... Are you sure? It wouldn't even cost you anything since someone else is paying." Onyx asked, hoping for his wallet that the veteran huntsman would change his mind. He doubted he coul manage to find another job.

"No." Nicholas said, "Putting aside how stupid and suspicious the context of your 'employment' is, your services aren't required anyway, because none of my children are going to become huntsmen. Jaune doesn't and will never need to know how to fight."

He then turned back towards his home, having decided that there was nothing more to say. But as he on his way to go back inside, Onyx panicked, grabbed the bars of the gates and abandoned all pretenses of dignity.

"Wait, please! I barely ate anything this past week and nobody wants to hire me. I need this job. Please, let me train your son." He begged on his knees.

"That's not my problem! Go away!" Nicholas yelled back. "And tell Ozpin that he can fuck off, hiding behind a kid is the most pathetic scheme he's ever had." If there was one thing he had learned in his years at Beacon and of hunting after graduation, it was that the headmaster of that academy what a manipulative bastard.

He wasn't letting him put his hands on his kids, no matter how much Ozpin insisted that the Arc's potential couldn't be ignored.

'Ozpin!? What does he have to do with this?' Thought Onyx, confused, before Nicholas slammed the door.

...Maybe if he begged, he could convince Maroon to introduce him to her boss and he'd accept to hire him? Althrough he had no idea why she refused to tell him who she work for and that did worry him a little, but it couldn't be worse than starving.

"Pst, pssst!" Someone whispered to get his attention.

Onyx raised his head toward the sounds. A blond teen's head was poking out of a window on the second floor. That would be Jaune, if he had to guess.

"Psst!"

Onyx blinked when the boy continued to make sound toward him.

"Kid, I'm looking at you. I think you can start talking now." He told him.

Jaune wasn't even embarassed, and carried on with a happy and hopeful look on his face. "You said you were here to train me?"

"Yeah." Not that it led to anything, what with the hard no he'd gotten from the boy's father.

"Go to the park tomorrow, around four o'clock in the afternoon."

So the kid wanted him to train him behind his parents's back? In normal circumstances, Onyx would never have agreed to this since the parents were bound to find out at some point. That and an adult stranger going behind the parents' authority to pass time with their child just sounded all kinds of wrong.

That being said, he was really deseperate to keep that job.

So Onyx gave the kid a thumb up and a nod.

Jaune Arc's training started tomorrow.

No much during this chapter. Showing a little how Gemini 'farm' experience points. I threw a scene with Ruby and Yang and the one for Jaune becasue an entire chapter of Gemini sneak attacking Grimm would get old really fast. For that same logic, most of the exp gathering will be offscreen.

And if that wasn't already obvious, there's going to be lots of timeskip. I've seen a few fics that started before the show's starting point and take over 50 chapter before getting to Beacon. I'm not doing that.

Gemini's gonna meet Ruby (I think the setup for that was obvious enough to not be a spoiler), have 1 mini-arc before Beacon, and then the show'll start rolling. Shouldn't take more than 12 or 13 chapters.

Next chapter is still in two weeks, October 3th.

I totally didn't re-read this last line a few times to make sure there was no typo this time...