Two weeks later, at the bar, Junior asked, "So, how's your training progressed, Yang?"

Yang grouchily said, "It hasn't," clearly annoyed. "It's two weeks gone and I'm still stuck getting my arse kicked!" Yang sighed. "Who knows. Maybe, rather than trying to adapt on the fly, I should ask Mel to start with forms." Yang tossed back a shot.

A week later, Yang was back at the bar aTwo weeks later, at the bar, Junior asked, "So, how's your training progressed, Yang?"

Yang grouchily said, "It hasn't," clearly annoyed. "It's two weeks gone and I'm still stuck getting my arse kicked!" Yang sighed. "Who knows. Maybe, rather than trying to adapt on the fly, I should ask Mel to start with forms." Yang tossed back a shot.

A week later, Yang was back at the bar and Junior, again, asked her, "So, how's it gone this week? Any improvements?"

Yang said, "It's actually going a lot better now. Thanks Junior."

Junior smiled and said, "Never thought you'd say that without trying to threaten me first."

Yang smiled and said, "Yeah, well, as circumstances change, you need to change with them, right?"

"That's true enough."

"So, how's the search going?"

Junior sighed and said, "Unfortunately, the communications tower got taken out during 'that battle', so communications between the kingdoms can now only be done by mail. With the amount of Grimm that have been roaming around after that fiasco, couriers are going from one city to the next per day, so it'd be lucky if it's even reached Mistral yet."

"Damn."

"In the meantime though, there's something else that you're going to have to do."

Yang cocked her head as she asked, "What's that?"

"Find a place of your own. A few days is fine, but my office isn't a bedroom."

Yang sighed and said, "Yeah. You're right. I guess it is about time."

"I'll give you another week, but then I'll have no choice but to kick you to the curb."

"Sure. I'll take some time off from training to look for a place over the next couple of days." Yang tossed back a double shot.

Three days later, Yang was back at the bar, downing shots of whiskey rather than sipping the sunrises like she had been. Melanie, seeing the number of empty glasses surrounding the blonde, said, "I think that you've had enough for today, don't you, Yang?"

"Ah, shaddup! Whawud yooouu know aboudit, huh?" I can shtill keep goin-hic!" Yang started laughing.

Junior sighed and said, "Mel. You can take the rest of the night off. You too Miltia. Take blondie to your place and let her sleep it off."

Melanie said, "No. I'll stay." She turned to her twin. "Milti. That okay?" Miltia nodded as she moved over to yang. Seeing the questioning look junior gave her as Miltia lead Yang away, she raised an eyebrow as she asked, "What?"

"Why did you stay? You know that you're the more capable fighter of the two of you. If Blondie loses control…"

"Ah. It's fine. With the state she's in, there won't be any problems at home. Here though, that is yet to be seen."

Junior grunted and said, "Yeah. I guess that's fair."

"It's what you hired us for."

"Well, I couldn't exactly put you up for free, just like Blondie. Speaking of which, do you know why she was drinking and cursing up a storm like that?"

"All that I can think of, is that when we spar she's still not performing at the level that she thinks that she should be able to, even after form training, and her current housing problems."

Junior sighed and said, "If that's all, then she's in more of a state than even I'd thought she was."

When they reached the twins' place, Miltia set Yang down on the lounge and said, "Right. You just sit there and I'll be back with something for you to drink."

Yang said, "Godany be-ahhh?" and giggled.

Miltia said, "No. We don't. Even if we did, giving you any right now would just be a waste."

"Wazzat s'pos'tah mean?"

Miltia looked at Yang with a blank look on her face. She sighed before going into the kitchen and came back out with a plastic water bottle. She tossed it at Yang and said, "Here. Drink this."

Yang took a sip before hacking and exclaimed, "Bleh! Watah!"

Miltia said, "Drink it, or I'll force it down your throat."

"Whyzat?"

"Because you've drunk too much. Now, you need to hydrate, or you won't be able to train for a few days at the very least."

"Wazzapoint anyway?" It's not like I've gotten any stronger even with the form training. Maybe I should just quit and find something else to do with my life."

Miltia let out a breath and said, "You don't really mean that, do you?"

Yang's eyes turned red as she said, "Of course I do! Back then I…I…" Yang screamed, bringing her remaining arm up in a defensive motion as she said, "No! NO! Get away! Don'…don't…please!" and tears welled up as Adam drew his sword and raised it up.

That was when Yang heard a voice that wasn't Blake's and the image of Adam shattered and she started to hyper-ventilate as her surroundings shifted to resemble the train that she'd been on weeks before she'd lost her arm. She looked down at her missing…she blinked, seeing her arm still there. Then, she heard her name again and the scene faded away to reveal the apartment and that Milti had wrapped a paper bag around her mouth and she was breathing into it.

As Yang's breathing started to even out, Milti let out a relieved sigh. When she seemed to be calm again, she said, "So, mind telling me what just happened?"

"Yeah."

"Okay. Then how about if it's happened before?"

"Yeah. But not that bad. The hyper-ventilating was new."

"Would it be fair to say that it's gotten 'worse' since you got here, or was it escalating before you came to us?"

Yang sighed and said, "It's since I've come to Vale. Not you guys."

Miltia smiled and said, "Thanks, I guess." Yang smiled wanly at her. "Now. Drink." Yang nodded and took another sip from the dispensable cup.

XXXXX

Team Jaune were having dinner in a tavern. Ruby asked, "So, how long does your armour have to go now, Jaune?"

Jaune sighed and said, "I don't know Ruby. Apparently a lot of the carts in town have been destroyed recently, so they've had to call all of the blacksmiths in to get everything back up and running again."

"They were destroyed? Was it a Grimm?"

"They don't know. It's unlikely though."

"But it could be."

"Since it was done in town, it's unlikely to be the case."

"But it still could be, ri-iiighttt?"

Jaune sighed and said, "Look. If you want to investigate it, you're welcome to do it."

Ruby pumped her fist as she exclaimed, "Yeesssss!"

"But," Jaune interrupted, "Ren goes with you and does most of the talking. Alright?"

"Wha-!? No! It's not alright! Why should he ask the questions? I've actually conducted a…"

"That wasn't a question Ruby. Ren will take the lead and you will listen to what he tells you."

"But…"

"No buts Ruby. Your interactions with people with authority that we've seen, show that you're still far too childish to take the lead in something like this."

"But I was the leader of a team too!"

"Yes. And look what happened. Weiss is in Atlas. Blake is who knows where and your own sister was crippled. The success of a team is the responsibility of the leader. As is the failure."

"Yeah? Well at least they're still alive!"

Ren and Nora gasped, horrified by what Ruby had done. Nora said, "Ruby! That's…"

Jaune interrupted her, saying, "Nora. Don't."

"But Pyrrha…"

"She's right. Pyrrha lost her life because I wasn't capable enough to stop her. and that's my burden to bear." Jaune turned back to look at Ruby. He said, "Ruby. That you have failed to recognise that, means that Ozpin made a mistake in naming you leader of that team. Maybe even letting you into Beacon early. Now. That's enough of this." Jaune went back to eating.

XXXXX

The next day, Yang woke up on a strange couch in an even stranger room that she didn't recognise. Then, she registered a splitting headache and groaned as she held her head. That was when she heard a voice say, "If a headache is all that's plaguing you after everything you drank last night, you should be thankful."

Yang groaned and said, "It doesn't feel like I should be, Mel."

Melanie forced a drink into Yang's hand as she said, "Here. Drink this." She smiled as Yang's face contorted. "I know it doesn't taste very good."

"That's an understatement."

"Maybe. But, it will take care of that headache."

Even as Melanie talked, Yang's headache faded from her mind and let out a relieved sigh. She smiled and said, "Thanks. That would've been rough if it had lasted."

"Yeah. I bet."

"What was in that anyway?"

"Trust me. you don't want to know."

Yang shrugged. "Well, if you say so."

"That aside. Want to talk about it?"

"No."

Melanie sighed and said, "Well, you're going to have to talk about it with someone at some point. Even if it's not me."

Yang sighed. "You might be right."

"Just…give it some thought, hey?"

"Yeah. Alright."

"In any case, we won't be training today. Or for the next week either."

"Oh? Why's that?"

"I suppose that you were probably too drunk to remember, but Junior said that he, or we, would take you over to Grimm Realty to see about getting you something more permanent for your time here."

Yang sighed again and said, "I guess it is about time that I asked for help. Thanks."

"It's fine."

"Okay, this is a little weird for me."

"What is?"

"Why are you being so friendly all of a sudden?"

Melanie sighed and said, "It's going to seem lame, but you're like the only person that's actually kept up with me in close combat since…also, we're kind of in a similar situation right now. In my mind, that makes us kind of like sisters…but not."

"Family forged in fire? Yeah. I get that," Yang said, thinking of Weiss, Nora, Velvet & Coco Adel. Yang frowned and said, "Actually…there is one thing that I'd like an answer to…if you could."

"I'll try anyway."

"That necklace you're wearing?"

Melanie reached up to her necklace as she asked, "This?"

"Yeah."

"What about it?"

"Is there any significance to it?"

Melanie considered the question before asking, "Why do you ask?"

"No reason really. I've just seen Coco Adel and Raven wearing similar ones is all."

Melanie said, "Maybe some other time."

Yang shrugged and said, "Okay, sure," and got up. "Anything I can get you for breakfast?"

Melanie raised an eyebrow and sardonically asked, "You?"

"Yeah. I used to cook for my family all the time…or were you referring to this?" Yang asked, holding up her missing arm.

"Would it matter?"

"I'll admit that it was difficult at first, but I have at least gotten used to cooking with one hand."

"Oh? Then anything will do."

"Okay then," Yang said, getting up and seeing the kitchen. She went over to it and opened up the fridge. She looked through it all, taking out various ingredients and putting them on the bench before looking in the pantry. She took out some more. She called out, "Hey, Mel. Where are your mixing bowls?"

"Mixing bowl? What's that?"

"What is…" Yang sighed. "She muttered, "So many jokes." In a louder tone, she said, "I'll just look through all of your cupboards then," and slid the eggs back into the fridge. Yang looked through every cupboard until she found, right up the back, a small glass bowl. Yang blinked and said, "Well, it's the runt of them, but it'll do." She sneezed. "After I rinse it, that is."

Melanie said, "You know, some people back where Milti and I grew up believed that you sneeze when someone is thinking about you."

"That is…kinda creepy."

"Yeah. That's why we never took any real notice of it."

"Hmmnn…" Yang said as she turned the water on. She quickly rinsed the bowl and dried it enough so that what she put in wouldn't come out all watery.

Yang took one of the sharp knives from the block of knives on the bench and went back to where she'd set up the ingredients. Seeing what she was doing, Melanie said, "Uhhh…Yang…be careful now. Those knives are super sharp."

Yang smiled and said, "Then that's a good thing," as she set the knife down so that it was balanced with the handle hanging out over the edge. She threw a carrot up in the air and then quickly grabbed the knife and slashed up with it, cutting it in half before slashing it time and again, her hand moving so fast that Melanie could barely see it and the pieces of carrot fell down, slouched onto the cutting board in the shape of the carrot.

Melanie blinked alongside Milti as she stood next to her sister to watch what Yang was doing. Milti said, "How did you…"

"I had to help Dad raise Ruby as we were growing up after my stepmother died on a mission. Ruby was easily distracted and far too adventurous for her own good, so needed to be almost constantly entertained. Trick cooking seemed a good way to do both at the same time."

The twins looked at each other before looking back to Yang as they simultaneously demanded, "What else can you do?!"

Yang blinked, surprised at the reaction and said, "Well…it's limited by…you know…but…"

XXXXX

A few days later, Yang was walking along the street with Junior, saying, "Sorry about the other night, Junior, I was…"

Junior waved his hand dismissively and said, "Forget it Blondie. We all have our off days every now and then."

Yang smiled as she said, "Thanks," as they came to Grimm Realty.

As they approached the people in the store saw them coming and recognised Yang walking next to one of their bigger clients. And huddled together amongst themselves, trying to decide what to do and one of the lead agents got fed up. He said, "For goodness' sake!" and stood up and walked over to the door and swapped the 'open' sign to 'closed'.

Yang blinked as she saw what the guy was doing, and was astounded as he reached down and locked the door as she reached for the handle. She frowned and asked, "Hey! What's the big deal? Let us in!" futilely pulling and pushing against the handle.

The agent pointedly said, "We don't serve the likes of you here."

"Yang's eyes flashed red and her lips tightened as she said, "The likes of…"

Junior put his hand on Yang's shoulder, saying, "Cool your head Blondie. There's nothing that will be achieved by destroying their door and I've got a relationship with these guys that we need to think about too."

Yang sighed and said, "Alright," her eyes returning to their normal lilac.

Junior said, "There are plenty of other estate agents that we can use to get you settled."

Yang sighed and said, "Alright then," and followed Junior as he started to walk further down the street.

Each and every estate agent that they went to was shut by the time they got there. When they were outside the last one that he knew of, Junior sighed and said, "Alright blondie. Activate your semblance."

Yang eagerly said, "Then I finally get to knock one of these blasted estate agency's doors in?"

Junior turned to her and waved his hand silently. He called out, "Hey! We know you're in there!" seeing a few of the agents failing to hide successfully under their desks.

One of the senior agents that hadn't hidden properly saw Yang's hair start to glow and his eyes widened as he exclaimed, "Okay! Please don't destroy the door!" and stood up.

Junior mumbled, 'Keep it going.' Before, in a clearer tone, said, "Alright, you. Could you please tell me what exactly is going on here?"

The agent sighed and said, "If you get her to deactivate her semblance, then I will." Junior turned to Yang and nodded silently. Yang deactivated her semblance and the senior agent approached the door. He said, "Alright, now, what seems to be your problem?"

"We need to get Blondie a place to live, since my office isn't cutting it, so I took her to Grimm Realty, who already manage all of my accounts, but they slammed the door in our faces and, since then, every estate agency that we've visited, have either already closed, or are in the process of closing, right after they should have opened up for the day."

"I see. Well, Bill from Grimm Realty pulled all of us into a conference call about half an hour ago and told us that the…" He turned to Yang as he said, "…I apologise here, but these are his words, not mine…" Yang frowned, but nodded. "…violent blonde menace from The Vytal Massacre, had come to his business and started threatening bloody murder against him and his employees. Given the way that you acted in the Vytal Festival, attacking that poor boy after he'd surrendered…I'm sure you can see why it's easy to believe him, especially given your activation of your semblance to intimidate us just now."

Yang said, "That 'poor boy', was on the same team as the one responsible for…The Vytal Massacre…you called it?"

"That's what we Valens have been calling it, yes."

Yang said, "I see...also, my sister saw Mercury walking around clear as day soon after that, so he probably has prosthetic legs," the spite clear in her voice when saying his name.

The agent said, "I see. Hmmm…I see…"

"You said that already."

"Oh…I see…" Yang looked at him in a deadpan stare. "Oh! Sorry. Would you be willing to come back in a few days so we can verify that information? If everything is as you say, then we will have no problems taking you on as our client." Yang smiled politely and said, "Sure thing. Thanks. I really appreciate it."

Junior said, "So do I. Do right by her and I'll transfer my accounts over to you guys too."

"Oh! Of course! I'll need to take on your accounts myself as the senior agent, but I'm going to have to give her account to one of the junior agents. They need to earn their chops."

"That's fine."

xxxxx

At the same time, Team JRNR, were eating breakfast and Ruby was whining, "C'mon Jaune…how long are we going to sit around here doing nothing?"

Jaune sighed and said, "As long as it takes Alvin to finish my armour, you know this," starting to get irritated by Ruby's constant buzzing.

Ruby sighed and said, "Well then, how long is it going to take to finish it?"

"I don't know. Likely around four weeks. I asked Alvin yesterday and he told me that there had been some problems with the carts breaking when the traders were trying to go to export goods from this village to the next."

"Hmm…It could be a grimm."

"I doubt it. According to Alvin, the cops think that it's just some kids playing pranks. Regardless, they've had to get in blacksmiths from neighbouring villages to fix everything to start up the local economy, so my armour does, unfortunately, need to be put on the backburner for a bit."

Ruby ignored a lot of what he'd said, jumping back to her grimm theory, conspiratorially saying, "But it could be."

Jaune, tired of dealing with Ruby's antics, sighed and said, "Alright, what do you want to do?"

"There's no permanent huntsman posted here, so if it's a grimm, the village will need us to take care of it anyway, so, for now, we should launch our own investigate into it."

Jaune thought, 'Well, at least it will stop her constant pestering.' He said, "Alright then Ruby. You can investigate it."

Ruby pumped her fist in the air, exclaiming, "YESS!" causing the entire tavern to look directly at them.

Jaune sighed and said, "But, Ren goes with you and does most of the talking."

"Huh?! Why should he?! I've conducted investigations before!"

"Oh really? And how'd that go?"

"Well, Yang talked to some gangster that she knew, trying to get some information about Torchwick that she'd seen him talking to. Weiss went to the Vale branch of the Schnee Dust Company to check their records and Blake and Sun went to a White Fang meeting."

"Oh? And what were you doing while they were doing all of that?"

"Well…I was…walking the streets near the dust shop that I'd seen him at before, looking for him. Then I saw Penny and…" tears welled up in Ruby's eyes. Jaune passed her a serviette to wipe her eyes with. When the tears stopped, Ruby said, "And then we talked about how Ironwood was keeping her under surveillance constantly, then we had to hide from her handler. Then we got a call from Blake that Torchwick had discovered them and we had to rush to their aid."

Nora said, "It sounds to me like Yang and Blake did the investigation and you and Weiss sat around doing next to nothing towards it."

Ruby exclaimed, "What?! I told them to do all that!"

Ren asked, "Did you tell them, or did they offer to do it?"

"Well…" Ruby thought back to how their 'investigation launch' meeting went and she said, "There…might be some truth to that."

Jaune said, "Right. Now, how about rather than fighting me at every turn, you just listen to other people more experienced than you, and do what you're told and you might learn something?"

Ruby ground her teeth. She vehemently said, "You think you are more experienced than me?! Hah! I know what Pyrrha did for you during the landing strategy test. I went through the huntsman training program. You might be older, but I'm still more experienced than you!"

Jaune sighed and said, "That's enough Ruby. You might have had more training than me, that's true. But, our experiences as actual huntsman in the field, are near identical. And, from what you've said, all of your 'feats' have come about through luck and happenstance rather than any skill you have or action you've taken. I've given you permission to 'investigate', under Ren's supervision. Now, go."

Ren sighed and stood up, saying, "Come on Ruby. I've finished," and stood up and headed towards the door.

When they were gone, Nora reached across the table and said, "Sorry about that Jaune. Ren said that he'd talked to Ruby on the way here, but apparently it didn't quite take."

Jaune said, "No. I knew that it was going to happen at some point. She was fed with a silver spoon all throughout our time in Beacon and the one time that Team RWBY did have something bad happen to them, it was Yang, the only one on that team that didn't have an attitude problem. We saw their fight during that landing strategy. The Nevermore that they were up against could only be defeated by decapitation or de-winging, both of which could only have been achieved by someone with a sharp, heavy weapon that could gather enough momentum, meaning that Crescent Rose was the only weapon capable of doing the job. Just like you with Magnhild against the Death Stalker that we fought. Speaking of which, you said that something about having upgraded it?"

"Yeah. Before we left, I…"

xxxxx

As they made their way to the trade guild headquarters, Ruby was complaining about what Jaune had said and how their 'discussion' had gone. Eventually, Ren got fed up and sighed. He said, "Ruby. Remember when I told you that Jaune is our leader?"

"Yeah. Wha about it?"

"That whole…" Ren formed air quotes. "…'conversation' was what I was trying to avoid. Over our time in Beacon, I noticed something about how you treated the lecturers and what they told us to do…and, more importantly, what not to do."

"What about it?"

"You ignored every single order that we were given and got extremely lucky with what you ended up achieving. That's beyond the cavalier way that you were treating the lives of your team members."

"The what!? You take that back!"

"Why should I when it's the truth. From what you told us, Torchwick was clowning around when he was fighting you, and you needed Sun to rescue you during that battle at the docks. Then, when you were fighting on the airship…remind me again how you defeated him?"

"That was…That doesn't matter! I beat Cinder, who was even stronger than Pyrrha!"

"Stronger than her at the time, yes. However, she knew what would happen and fought her anyway. You rushed in blind, without thinking about what could happen to you, and the consequences if it did, didn't you?"

"Well how else were we supposed to save her?"

Ren ignored her, saying, "The silver eyes that you told us about…how long have you been able to use them?"

"That was the first time. I told you that."

"Do you think that, had they not, you would have had any chance of defeating Cinder by yourself? The person that killed Ozpin and Pyrrha, who you acknowledge were stronger than you?"

"Well that was…"

"So, you got lucky again. Tell me. Do you think Ozpin was aware of them when he let you into Beacon two years early?"

"Well, he did comment on them the first time we met."

"You also said that your parents both went to Beacon too, didn't you? Given what their ages must be, they probably went to Beacon at around the same time as Professor Ozpin did. So it's not out of the question that nepotism could have been involved in both letting you in early, and naming you leader of that team."

"Nepo-what now?"

Ren sighed and said, "And this is why Jaune is leader, and you aren't. Now…we're here!"

They go into the multi-story building and Ren looks around, amazed by the amount of gold that had been used in the decorations. He then sees a lady with grey hair sitting behind a desk and makes his way over to it. As he did, he saw the worker's eyes lower and thought, 'Oh? That's odd. She seems distrustful without us even saying a word. I wonder why?' when he got to the desk, he said, "Hello. I am Lie Ren. This, is Ruby Rose. How are you today, Miss…?"

The lady said, "Miss…" and choked back laughter. "I haven't heard anyone call me 'Miss' for nigh on 30 years, young boy. In any case, my name is Tabitha. What are you here for?"

"Well then, Tabitha. We heard that there have been some issues going on with imports and exports within this town and, as the premiere trading organisation, we thought that you, or your boss, Obediah Finneghan, would have some relevant information that you could share with us about it?"

The frown lowered back down over her visage and she said, "Why would two young whippersnappers like you be asking about that? The police have already been informed. I've never seen you before, so you must not be from around here. Now, I don't know what it's like wherever you two are from, but here, the police need more than wild accusations to arrest people. And they have the authority to compel information from people. So unless you've been in contact with them, which I highly doubt, since they've already talked to us about it a week ago. So you can have a good day."

Ren said, "Well, to be frank, if there is any Grimm involvement, I'm afraid without any huntsman present in this village, they're going to be unable to deal with it themselves, at which point they would need to contact us to deal with it anyway. This way we can hopefully do something to help and, honestly, just waiting around while my teammates armour sits on a shelf waiting to be fixed until you've dealt with this problem, is getting a little inconvenient for some of our other teammates."

In an accusatorial voice, Ruby said, "Ahah! You did it, didn't you!"

The clerk frowned and said, "Excuse me!? Who do you think you are to be accusing me, you little hussy!"

"I am Ruby Rose, Leader of Te-!" she was cut off by Ren covering her mouth and saying, "I'm sorry. Please excuse my sister, she's uhhh…very special."

"Ah. I see. I'm so sorry. She reached for something under her desk and said, "Then here, have a cookie and go over there while I talk to your brother."

Hearts appeared in Ruby's eyes and her mouth started to water. She declared, "Ahah! I knew you were involved, trying to bribe me with a delicious looking…assuredly scrumptious…cookie! It even almost looks as good as Yang's!" as Ren looked on aghast.

A tick mark appeared on the worker's forehead and she looked to Ren and said, "Not very polite, is she?"

Ren said, "No. No she's not."

"Who's Yang?"

"She's our half-sister, though she takes more after our father in looks."

"I see."

"Now, Ruby, I would like you to take that cookie and go over to examine those armour sets. You like armour and weapons, don't you?"

Ruby pointed to her eyes, then pointed to the workers as she said, "Hmmmm…" Ruby nodded and said, "Okay…but I'll be watching you!"

Ren and the worker both sighed. Ren said, "I apologise for all of that."

The worker said, "Well I don't accept. You have nothing to apologise for. Unless that harridan does it herself, there's no point in one."

Ren sighed and said, "That's fair. Even if it does mean nothing though, you have it."

"I see. Well then, I suppose that I don't mind answering some of your questions myself then…if I can."

"Thank you. Now…" Ren got his scroll out. "…if you don't mind, I would like to record this, so I don't have to remember everything. Is that alright?"

"Sure."

"Thank you. My first question is how long has this been going on?"

"About 2 weeks or so now."

"Would you know any likely culprits?"

"Not for certain, no. But the police think that it's some hooligan brats that started playing around near the warehouses about a month or so ago. It usually happens around this time of year, right before apprenticeships start up."

"Do they normally mess with the carts?"

"No. That's new this year."

"I see. So it's never happened before?"

"Not in the time that I've been working here."

"How long is that?"

"Hmmmm…" the desk worker looked away as she tried to figure it out. After about 30 seconds, she said, "It's around 20 years now…though that's not an exact number."

Ren nodded. "When was the last time that there was a Grimm attack in this village?"

"That would have been about 13-15 years or so ago. It's really a shame how the Branwen Tribe has fallen. We were lucky that they were passing through at that time, though their leader died fighting against a centaur-looking grimm."

"Against a…" Ren's eyes widened as he saw the image of his father rushing off to face down the Nuckelavee grimm that had assaulted their village as the walls were being raised. He closed his eyes and shook his head as he said, "No…it can't have been…"

The worker blinked and asked, "What's wrong?"

Ren sighed and said, "No. It's nothing."

"It's clearly not 'nothing'. What's the matter. Talking about your issues with someone unrelated to them is one of the most common ways to get over them."

"Hmmm…well, it's nothing to do with the matter that you're dealing with now, but, when I was a child, a grimm similar to the one that you described actually attacked the village that my parents and I had moved to before it was finished building."

The woman gasped and covered her mouth and it slid down her chin as she said, "You're from Kuroyuri!"

"I was. But that was a long time ago, and I hope to avoid it on our trip to Mistral City."

"I'm sure you do. You might want to take the ferry from Nishimatsu rather than continuing on through Higanbana."

Ren frowned and asked, "Why is that?"

"Keep in mind that it's been a while since we got regular news updates from Mistral City, but around 4 months ago there were some reports of a large scale grimm being active in and around that area."

"Hmm…It's been a while since I've been here, so you'll have to remind me, Windpath is in front of Mistral City if we go that way, isn't it?"

"That's certainly true too."

"Thank you for the information. I'll have to talk to my leader about it."

"No worries. Now, do you need anything else?"

"Yes. Just three questions."

"Alright. Go ahead."

"Why is it that the police think that it's yet-to-be apprentices that are responsible for the damage? Wouldn't their imminent employment be more motivation for them to not be involved in this?"

"You'd think so, wouldn't you? But, according to them, there were kids loitering about and playing near the warehouses, just before it happened. I'm guessing that they just put two and two together. What's the other questions?"

"Where did were the carts when the damage occurred?"

"A few places. Some were in the warehouse, getting loaded. Others were on the way out of the city. Though the first case of something similar that I heard of was from a friend who works at check-in, where a pile of luggage suddenly started moving by itself."

Ren frowned and said, "Is that so. Then I've got some more questions."

The woman blinked, surprised at the sudden attitude change. She said, "Alright. Go ahead."

"My formerly final question was 'can we please have access to the locations that it happened in?"

"I can't make that decision myself. I can however talk to my boss about the possibility if you would like to come back in two days? Maybe with someone else?"

"Yes. I will. Thank you. Now, my further question would be if I could be introduced to your friend that saw that happening."

"I'll talk to her after work and tell you that tomorrow as well."

Ren bowed and said, "Thank you for your time."

"It's my pleasure. It's good to see at least some of the youngsters, like you, these days can still be polite to their elders."

Ren smiled and said, "Thank you. I will see you tomorrow." He then turned on his heel and marched over to Ruby and grabbed her by her shoulder and said, "Alright, Sis', we're done here," and firmly, but not forcefully, escorted her out of the building.

When they were outside, Ruby rounded on Ren and demanded, "What the heck was that in there?! Why did you act like I was some kind of moronic child?!"

"Because, Ruby, you falsely accused that poor woman of being a part of a conspiracy against the place that she'd worked at for a significant part of her life. Over that amount of time, people can develop a sense of pride about their workplace. She clearly has and your actions almost ruined this investigation! You need to be more polite to people that you want the help of."

"But we are trying to help!"

"But not from their position. To them, you especially, but probably me too, look like a couple of kids that are trying to get in the way of the professional investigators that they probably know personally, and could even be part of the group of kids that they think are responsible for the damages."

"But…"

"No more buts, Ruby. We need to take what we've found to Jaune now." Ren didn't stay around to continue talking about what she'd done in there and headed directly to the inn that they were staying at.

xxxxx

When they got there, Jaune wasn't there. Nora was. She stood up and called out to Ren and Ruby and they headed over to her. She asked, "So, how'd you go?"

Ren replied, "About as good as we could have hoped."

"Is that so?" Nora sighed and said, "Well, I suppose it's better than nothing, right?"

Ruby looked between them as she sat down and asked, "Wait? That's it? You're not going to tell her what we found out?"

Nora said, "Well, it was always obvious that they weren't going to be completely forthcoming to a bunch of strangers. So the most we were hoping for would be maybe a location that it happened, if not just being told to go away and let the police do their jobs."

Ruby looked at her disbelievingly and said, "You were…why would they do that? We're trying to help them."

"From their perspective, we could just get in the way. That would just delay the resumption of their work."

"From their…"

"Perspective, yes," Ren said.

Nora looked at Ruby questioningly and asked, "You…are aware that people can have different views to you…and that's not a bad thing…right?"

Ruby laughed as she said, "Of…uhh…course I do! Why wouldn't I?" as three drinks were set down in front of them.

Xxxxx

That night, Jaune came back to the tavern and made his way to the table that Ren, Nora and Ruby were sitting at as the waitress brought over their meals. As he did, he asked if the waitress would bring him a chicken schnitzel with pepper sauce. The waitress asked, "Of course. Will you be paying separately or together?"

"I'll pay for mine separately, thanks."

The waitress nodded, writing down the order. "I'll leave the table number here then."

"Thank you." When the waitress was gone, Jaune turned to Ren and Ruby and asked, "How'd it go?"

Ruby said, "As good as could be expected, apparently." Jaune raised his eyebrow at Ren, who didn't react as Ruby continued talking. "Tabitha told us that it started at some kind of luggage check-in, though we don't know what that is, then it happened again at some warehouse, but we don't know where it is. The police think it's some kind of pre-apprenticeship gang, though we don't know who they are."

Jaune said, "So, what's with the attitude then?"

Ruby grumpily asked, "What attitude?"

Ren said, "Irrespective of that, there is something that I would like to suggest we think about before moving on from here."

Jaune asked, "What's that?"

"Apparently there are rumours about the grimm from Kuroyuri being active in the area, so it might be a safer idea to go through Nishimatsu rather than continuing on the way we have been."

Jaune frowned and looked at Nora as he asked, "Nora. What do you think?"

Nora replied, "If we did that, then we'd need to go through Windpath. It's a city that is basically owned by criminal gangs. If you think dealing with Torchwick was difficult…this is worse. It's an entire city manned by murderers and thieves."

Jaune said, "I see. I will…have to think on this."