Author's Notes

I'm still scared of you guys. Job Security's passive income (the number of views on non-update days) is still higher than the active income (views on update days) for all of my other fics. Every update of Job Security breaks the record for views in one day that existed before it began. We're already at 1000% the total views of Villain, 800% the total views of Hero, and 60% of the total views of JSB-P. For reference, Job Security is around twice as long as the first two and 30% as long as the last one.

Happy rats, and don't do crime!


Chapter 9 – Bait

Even if you catch the fish, the worm on the hook rarely survives.


The worst part of being the one to hide under the blanket was that Blake knew for an absolute fact that Jaune was bitching and moaning to himself in the other boat. He got called bait once and saw Blake getting to be covered up in a tarp and immediately jumped to the conclusion that life was a cakewalk for her and a slog for him.

The truth was that Blake was the one who had to lie down, remain perfectly motionless, and not fall asleep in spite of the late hour. If she so much as twitched, whatever fish Grimm was in the lake might detect it, meaning that she had to keep every muscle in her entire body stationary for the entire night And it wasn't like hunting Grimm was some grand honor reserved only for the worthy – she still had no idea why Arc had gotten it into his head that this was a heroic venture and not just a job.

She was beginning to cramp up in her shoulder, but as the trap, she didn't have the right to adjust so as to alleviate her discomfort. No, she just had to bear through the pain and think happy thoughts, because if she got too uncomfortable, the Grimm would sense her and know the trick.

Jaune was probably over in the other boat, lamenting his own boredom but failing to consider how Blake was just as bored.

I swear, if he somehow fucks this up, he won't just be bored; he'll be over-bored.

Still, she doubted he would be making any mistakes on this first legitimate but actually second mission of theirs. Jaune might have had ambitions bigger than reality typically tended to allow the downtrodden, but he seemed to at least recognize that he wasn't there yet. Blake would gladly help him attain his goal of becoming a real huntsman (for her proper price, of course), but she doubted he would get to live out this wish fulfillment lifestyle he seemed to be expecting since coming to and leaving Beacon.

They'd known one another for barely even a full week, so it was hard to call him a friend, but he was certainly a good acquaintance, and she really couldn't complain about being partners with him professionally. Her last partner had been Adam, in every sense of the word, and Blake's one week with Jaune had been smoother than her last two years in Adam's company.

It took effort not to twitch angrily at the mere thought of Adam. Blake would curse his very name for as long as she lived for what he did to her.

It was never physical, and the emotional aspect of his abuse was negligible. Adam truly had loved her, and aside from what she now recognized as some pointed statements to keep her in line, he'd treated her with…not respect, but dignity. No, the reason Blake couldn't stand the thought of Adam was because he'd done his best to show Blake that even the brightest, happiest, most patient soul could eventually be ground away into a jaded beast. Adam's true betrayal was not of Blake but of himself, and having been forced to watch himself fall from the pedestal of an activist to a terrorist was torture.

He'd shown her that any Faunus had it in themselves to become a monster if the world beat it into them for long enough.

T̶h̶e̶y̶ ̶w̶e̶r̶e̶ ̶r̶o̶u̶g̶h̶l̶y̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶s̶a̶m̶e̶ ̶a̶g̶e̶.̶ ̶ ̶T̶h̶e̶y̶ ̶s̶h̶a̶r̶e̶d̶ ̶s̶o̶ ̶m̶a̶n̶y̶ ̶e̶x̶p̶e̶r̶i̶e̶n̶c̶e̶s̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶i̶r̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶t̶h̶.̶ ̶ ̶T̶h̶e̶i̶r̶ ̶l̶i̶v̶e̶s̶ ̶o̶v̶e̶r̶l̶a̶p̶p̶e̶d̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶n̶u̶m̶e̶r̶o̶u̶s̶ ̶w̶a̶y̶s̶.̶ ̶ ̶W̶a̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶r̶e̶ ̶a̶ ̶c̶h̶a̶n̶c̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶s̶h̶e̶ ̶c̶o̶u̶l̶d̶ ̶a̶l̶s̶o̶ ̶b̶e̶c̶o̶m̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶?̶

So…back to Arc, then. Y-Yeah.

Unlike Adam, Blake was fairly certain she would be able to resist the masculine wiles of this new partner of hers. For one thing, business and pleasure didn't mix, and for another, she was pretty sure that something like that with Jaune wouldn't be particularly pleasurable for any of them. Plus, she wasn't a racist, but it wasn't like Blake Belladonna was going to be dating a human anytime soon, because…because…

Shit. Maybe I am a bit racist. But I'm still not going to date Arc, so don't even ask.

But…maybe she would start calling him her friend soon.

Speaking her Arc, was he even still there? Blake was waiting for the sound of water splashing and Arc screaming to her for help (or perhaps gurgling and blowing bubbles to her for help in a worst-case scenario).

Wait, how long are we going to do this if the Grimm doesn't show up? We never really set an end date for waiting in the mists at night.

Gods, I feel so stupid – I was so sure the creature would show up during the day, but it didn't. So what's the first thing I do at night? Be sure that it's going to show up!

Well, there was nothing to do about it now. If she peeked at any point, then this while operation would be ruined, and they would lose out.

Except it's been two hours and there hasn't been a sign of Grimm activity. If anything, it's probably even less likely now than when we started because Jaune's fearful heart has had a chance to calm down and acclimate to the surroundings.

"Alright," Blake said, as she discarded the towel covering her. "I'm calling it here. We'll try casting a net or divi–"

Jaune was gone.

Blake's heart stopped beating, and she couldn't feel it restart.

"JAUNE!" she loudly called, looking around in all directions.

There hadn't been any noise, not even an audible splash. How could this have happened? Even if he'd tripped overboard because of clumsiness, there would at least have been a splash!

Did he go back ashore? No, the boat and oars are still there.

"Jaune, get your ass back here right now!" Blake screamed. "If you're trying to prank me, I'll deduct it from your salary and consider your stupid jokes my own hazard pay!"

Nothing. No noise, no sound, nothing around for miles except this accursed mist.

The Grimm…but how? There hadn't been any noise! A boat tipping would make a noise. A struggle with an aura user, even an inexperienced one, would make a noise. There should have been splashing and paddling around and gasping for breath and arms flailing in the water and…

Blake looked at the empty boat in front of her own and the water around it. There was no blood.

Okay. Okay, that's a decent sign. If he'd been torn apart, the Grimm would have just let the body parts float to the surface. Unless it swallowed him whole. Or they floated away. Do body parts even sink?

Oh, this was so bad. It was Lemuria all over again, except instead of Blake fucking Jaune over intentionally, she'd done it by her very own incompetence, and that meant she couldn't sweep in and save him when she chose to grow a spine.

Gods, if you're real, please don't let him die. Please, I swear, I'll pray every day if you just don't kill my poor, hapless, simpleton of a partner.

Blake knew from experience that prayers didn't tend to be answered unless she started taking action to solve them herself. She needed to stop wasting time and start doing something.

It wasn't wasting time. I'm…I'm assessing the situation.

Logic was the best defense against panic. Blake clamped her hands down on the side of the boat so hard her fingernails dug into the wood, giving herself the best grounding she could on this unsteady lake.

Jaune had vanished, but there was no evidence of foul play, so to speak. What could have possibly dragged him off?

I'm being too specific. I don't know what happened.

How could a person disappear from a boat without making a sound?

It couldn't have been the Grimm. If it was big enough and strong enough to drag him under, the sound of it breaching the surface would have alerted her.

A different Grimm? A winged Nevermore swooping down and snatching him out of the sky? That wouldn't be any different than a fish Grimm – she'd have heard it flapping, and Jaune would have screamed in his dying moments.

If Jaune had done his best to remain silent and quietly slipped himself into the water, he might have been able to do so without her noticing, but why would Jaune want that? He knew there was a Grimm in the water, and there was no apparent reason why he would want to keep Blake in the dark about whatever happened.

It wasn't him, it wasn't the Grimm…was it someone else?

They'd eaten food provided to them from the townsfolk. If they'd drugged it, then quietly rowed out and abducted him…

For what, human sacrifices to the lake god? This isn't one of my books.

In the end, it didn't matter, did it? She was going to have to find him.

Stay focused. Stay logical. Don't give in to that panic. Adam may have been a colossal letdown as a boyfriend and a Faunus, but he was a damn fine combat trainer.

Right now, whatever had mysteriously vanished Jaune could just as easily mysteriously vanish Blake. She had no idea what vague force was out there, targeting townsfolk and huntsmen, but this was advantageous terrain for it if it had ignored them during the day and only chosen to go after its prey at night.

The best course of action was to retreat for the night, wait until the mist cleared off and not a moment later, and start diving. If this was a nocturnal Grimm, the daytime might give her an advantage.

It's not like Lemuria, Blake reason as she climbed over into Jaune's boats and began to lift up the oars. This time, I really am tactically retreating. If I die, there's no one to rescue Jaune. In fact, when the mist is gone, I might be able to see deep enough into the water to find him.

She made it three full rotations of the oars before letting go of them. Instead, she stood up and gazed over the edge of the boat. The surface of the water was a perfect crystal clear, reflecting the black of the night sky faded through a pale mist. Gambol at her side, Blake sucked in a deep breath.

Damn it. I really hate getting wet.


The Grimm, assuming that it somehow had done this, was aquatic, not amphibious. That much was obvious from mere deduction. After all, if it could sprout legs and walk onto land, it would have ravaged the village at its first chance. Whatever was in there was stuck in the lake, meaning Blake's one and only priority was finding Jaune's corpse, dragging it to safety ashore, and resuscitating him if needed.

He's already been underwater for two hours, and he's probably dead, but if there's a slim chance he's somehow still breathing, he needs me now, not tomorrow morning. There's no telling if Jaune can make it until then.

It was impossible to see in the waters of the Lake of Lost Voles, but that was more due to the inadequate light than any true murkiness. Blake had an advantage over most humans on Remnant due to her night vision, but even she was having trouble making out anything beyond the swaying of the seaweed and the shadows it cast.

Looking for colors wasn't going to be enough, not when Jaune's blond hair was the only bright spot that wouldn't blend into the background. His pants were blue and his jacket was black, meaning that it would be all but impossible to find them out here. Motion would be the key. Assuming either Jaune was still alive or the Grimm that killed him was, she would need to find their outline when it swam.

I don't like this at all. I can sort of see horizontally, but there are too many plants beneath the surface. If the Grimm submerges, it has more hiding spots than a corn cob has kernels.

This was such a bad idea. Blake needed air, and the water would make it slower to swing Gambol. Curse her stupid self-sacrificing desire to save Jaune.

J̶a̶u̶n̶e̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶ ̶o̶n̶l̶y̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶s̶i̶t̶u̶a̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶b̶e̶c̶a̶u̶s̶e̶ ̶s̶h̶e̶ ̶c̶h̶o̶s̶e̶ ̶h̶i̶m̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶b̶a̶i̶t̶.̶ ̶ ̶E̶v̶e̶n̶ ̶i̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶f̶i̶s̶h̶ ̶g̶o̶t̶ ̶r̶e̶e̶l̶e̶d̶ ̶i̶n̶,̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶w̶o̶r̶m̶ ̶p̶o̶k̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶h̶r̶o̶u̶g̶h̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶e̶n̶d̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶h̶o̶o̶k̶ ̶d̶i̶d̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶s̶u̶r̶v̶i̶v̶e̶.̶

Later. Focus on saving him and berate yourself later.

Surfacing for air, Blake kicked her way to the top of the lake and took in a big gulp. Having grown up in Menagerie, the sea was no stranger to her. Even though it may have left her with an unpleasant feeling in her gut, the sting of saltwater on her lips was as familiar as the kiss of an old friend.

Great. Now even water reminds me of Adam.

Letting herself sink down once more, Blake waved her arms to rotate herself in a circular pattern, keeping her eyes peeled wide for any Grimm that could be coming her way in any direction. Her aura was raised, so there wasn't a great risk if something snuck up on her from behind, but the mere thought of an enemy being able to approach from the back, left, right, top, or bottom left her uneasy. Five was too many blind spots.

Avian or burrowing Grimm can only come at me from four, and terrestrial Grimm get three. But in the water, it's a full spherical realm of vulnerability that I need to watch out for.

Blake kicked her legs and started paddling closer to the center of the lake, hoping it might give her the best vantage point. It would be the most dangerous spot to be in if she were attacked, but Blake had already decided that she wasn't going to be throwing Arc to the Beowolves, so self-preservation would have to wait.

It was just large enough lake to genuinely appeal to her instinctual thalassophobia that all Faunus and humans possessed. Blake rose up for air once more.

I…I could splash. It would make noise and draw attention to me, calling out any Grimm circling these waters towards me.

But her goal was no longer the Grimm. It was rescuing a̶ ̶d̶e̶a̶d̶ ̶m̶a̶n̶ her partner.

Sucking in as large of a gulp as she could, Blake braced herself for the cold and dove back down.


This time, she didn't stop just a few feet below the surface to get a look. Instead, Blake dove further and further, letting her own fear intensity as the light of the moon through the mists grew faint. Swimming with one hand full was slightly trickier, but she wasn't going to sheath her weapon for the world.

Blake stopped swimming when she got within reach of the dangling seaweed and aquatic ferns that dotted the lake's floor. Brave as she was, even she knew that having constant tactile disruptions and sensations of tickling would just be a distraction.

Come on, Jaune. I know you're a survivor. Don't leave me hanging here.

All she could do was continue to slowly spin around underwater and keep on the lookout for –

A BUBBLE!

It was no guarantee that it was her partner. It would have been a fish or crab exhaling some air trapped in its gills, or a trapped pocket of gas in the sand that got dislodged by random chance, or even the Grimm itself. But it was the only hope Blake had, and she needed something to believe in right now.

It had come from a rather significant distance away, but the bubble had been large – easily large enough to be a human's exhale. Blake swam to the area of the lake where she'd seen the bubble and stopped, looking closer around here.

The plants were far fewer, likely due to the ground being made of some sort of boulder-like rock rather than the sandy silt that most of the rest of the lake's floor was. Blake looked around frantically for signs of a blond corpse leaking air, but nothing was there.

I'm running out of air…but maybe just a little longer…

No. If it was a Grimm, she would need to be fit to fight it off to rescue Jaune. She'd decided to save him, not kill them both.

Blake surfaced once more, this time taking a moment to catch her breath and steady herself. Whatever she was looking for was in this spot, meaning that this would be where the fight for Team Job's lives took place. Keeping an eye on the water to avoid being ambushed, Blake prepared mentally and physically, then plunged down into the water.

No plants meant there were no visual or tactile distractions, so Blake dove all the way down to the lake floor this time. It was sedimentary rock, dark in color and extremely uneven. Reaching her open hand down, she touched it against the rock and tried to feel for gaps or openings.

If he's somehow trapped beneath the rocks, a bubble might slip through…but how would he not be dead by this point?

well…h-he might actually be dead.

But if he was, then there was nothing lost by continuing her search. On the other hand, if Jaune was still alive, giving up now would cost Blake everything.

At one point, she placed a hand down onto a particularly dark rock, only to discover that it was actually just a void space in the water. The lack of a solid surface where she'd been expecting it sent a jolt of panic through her, the same kind where one took a step while asleep and found no ground beneath their feet.

Another bubble slowly came out of the hole she'd discovered, brushing past Blake's cheeks as it sought the sky above.

Oh my gods.

He'd down there.

And so it the Grimm. It can't be coincidence that bubbles show up whenever I feel a flash of fear. It's sensing my emotions and reacting. It's trying to lure the second hunter into its hidey hole after it captured the first.

Fuck. Whatever was lurking down there was smart enough to use Jaune as bait.

That means it's exactly the same intelligence level as me.


Blake had to continuously reach her arms out and very carefully swim through the tunnel in order to move. It wasn't twisting and turning in random directions or something, but it was slowly curving, and there was absolutely no light to see down here. Faunus night vision wasn't magical sight in the dark; her eyes enhanced the effect of ambient light, but there was none down here.

How am I going to get back out? Blake wondered. And carrying Jaune with me?

The magazine in Gambol's gun had a tiny pocket of air, meaning that she could still use the bullets for light by combusting the Dust, but that would be tricky. Guns weren't meant to be flashlights, and she would only get split seconds of illumination before going back into darkness.

I'm still running on a single breath of air.

Blake really didn't want to die here. She didn't want to die anywhere, but if it had to be somewhere, the water was probably her least favorite option.

Her hands, still flopping about in front of her to feel out the path, collided with something soft, and Blake immediately bashed the fuck out of it with Gambol Shroud as hard as she could. It was tempting to scream at the sudden interruption, but she'd already bitten down on her teeth to prevent losing her precious breaths of air, knowing that a jumpscare was possible.

Unfortunately, her weapon didn't slash whatever it was in half, for this unseen object or creature was stronger than it looked. Something wrapped itself around Blake from both sides, and she found herself moving rapidly.

It's got me! It's pulling me!

Whatever it was that had encompassed Blake had gripped her tight, though, and it was impossibly difficult to move her arms more than budging an inch outward. This thing was strong, whatever it was, possibly even stronger than her when it came to raw power.

But it's not smarter. I'm a huntress, and I'm not out of tricks yet!

Blake knew instinctively how to mech-shift her weapon even without light to shine on the buttons, and she did so. Aiming was impossible, but the light might give her a better idea of what she was dealing with.

It only took one bullet fired to give Blake a snapshot of the scene in front of her (no need to waste ammo). She was being dragged through whatever narrow tunnel she'd entered at breakneck speeds, and the thing grabbing her wasn't a Grimm.

"Jjjjjjggbbhghghbhg!"

This time, the shock was great to not let out some of her precious air by mistake, because why was Jaune Arc pulling her deeper into the water?!


Amazingly, through some unknown manner, Blake found herself breathing air. It was still pitch dark, but she found herself bobbing up and down in the water with her head above it, breathing easily.

"Blake!" shouted Jaune's disembodied voice. "Blake, it's the Grimm!"

He'd seen her, just as she'd seen him, and he was trying to warn her about whatever it was that was going on. Blake didn't let it go to waste.

"AURA UP, ARC!"

She trusted him to follow her commands and fired three successive shots in different directions to give herself three pictures of her surroundings.

They were in some sort of cave with a pocket of air. Blake had known that the tunnel had been curving, but she hadn't realized that Jaune had pulled her along a completely U-shaped pathway. It must have been in the shape of an umbrella or a walking cane, leaving them both at the end where the handle would be.

There was no solid ground, just the pool in which Jaune and Blake were currently wading. Above them was the air, and above that was a mixture of rocky ceiling and a swarming, slithering mass of Grimm something. Blake couldn't quite tell whether it was a squid or an octopus or a million eels all converging together; all she could tell was that it had its tentacles around Jaune, and it was reaching for her.

There was no doubt that Blake was a good shot, but the combination of complete darkness before each and every shot as well as massive, moving target didn't mix well when it came to accuracy. It may have also had something to do with Blake's body succumbing to the numerous stresses it was experiencing and giving her shaky hands, but her shots peppered both the Grimm and the rocky ceiling.

"WHIIIIEEE!"

Blake discovered two things by shooting as she had. First, the high pitched whistling noise sounded like it was coming from only one voice, lending credence to the octopus theory over this being some sort of hive of eels. Second, the U-bend through which they'd swum must have taken them very close to the underside of the lake, for when Blake shot into the roof of this cave, her bullets tore right through and poked holes.

Holes that were causing water to pour in as air flowed out!

…but also letting light pour in to illuminate the room.

Blake now had a much better view of her surroundings, and over the Grimm attacker. It was like the thing had tons of black tentacles that were weaving in between one another, but the all connected to a tube-mouth of some sort at the center. Around the perimeter of these tentacles was some bony white plating that Grimm usually had, but this plating fed into the walls. This Grimm, whatever it was (Blake was now guessing octopus), had literally built itself into this cave, using the rock like a hermit crab's shell.

"WHIIEE! HUUWWWHIIIEEE!"

Now that she had enough light to see with her Faunus eyes, Blake switched back to sword-mode for Gambol to avoid poking any more holes in the ceiling and drenching them with more water. The tentacles reached down for her as the tube mouth widened and contracted.

This Grimm might have been smart, and it might have had an extensive reach (those tentacles had been long enough to dangle Jaune past the bend of the cave to let his air bubbles surface), but the arms themselves were flimsy individually. Blake carved them off one by one like a pirate with a cutlass.

In a straight fight, it's probably physically weaker than a Beowolf or Creep. It must be an ambush predator. It reaches out onto the surface of the water and drags you in before you even know what's hit you, as it did to the villagers and to Jaune.

The fact that it was smart enough to try and turn a huntsman prize into two was alarming, but the Grimm had gotten greedy and stepped too far. The tentacles didn't last long as she hacked them to pieces.

The water level was rising, but not fast enough to truly worry. Now that the Grimm had been disarmed, Blake had time to check on her imperiled partner.

"Jaune!" she called into the semi-darkness. "Are you okay?"

Without night vision, he was probably reduced to seeing only what was directly in line with the thin holes Blake had shot out of the cave, and it showed. Treading around and soaked to the bone, his head was turning in every direction as he tried to find her.

"I'm here, Jaune, I'm here," she called, more to reassure him than to help him locate her position. "Are you hurt? Were you harmed?"

Jaune splashed forward in the tight space and landed right in the path of the water that was feeding down from the main lake. It poured like a faucet's flow onto his head, but being closer to the light probably aided him in making sense of his surroundings.

He's been here, trapped in absolute darkness and nighttime cold for who knows how long. It could have been anywhere from a minute before I noticed he was gone to the full two hours.

"Blake!" he cried out. "I'm…I-I…I'm okay, but…w-where are we?"

"In a cave, I think. The Grimm is neutralized, and we're okay. We need to get out of here."

"How? I can't see a thing!"

"I'll lead," Blake explained. "I'm gonna reach out and take your hand, okay?"

In the time they'd spoken, the water had risen probably a good three feet, and the Grimm's whistling had intensified to a fever pitch.

Blake missed Jaune's arm the first two times she tried to grab it. At this point, she was starting to feel a little water-logged from this whole experience, and treading water with just her feet, as one hand was on her sword and the other was flailing about to grasp Jaune's, was trickier than it sounded.

Once she'd gotten ahold of him, Blake explained their next course of action. "Alright, listen close, Jaune. I'm going to shoot the Grimm. When it dies, the cave will probably collapse around us. Its shell is built into the rocks; that'll make it unsteady when it vanishes, and my bullets will be enough to bring it all down. Keep your aura up so the rocks don't injure you. Y-Your aura is okay, right?"

"Y-Yeah," he breathed, coughing out some water as he struggled to stay afloat. "You whacked me pretty good with Gambol, but I'm okay."

We probably only have four feet of air left before we're fully submerged. Actually, we'll be washed right into the Grimm's gaping maw first. I need to do this, now.

"I'll shoot it, the cave will collapse, and we'll swim up. Get in a good breath when I tell you, 'kay?"

"K-Kay," Jaune said, shivering. "Breath in, aura up, swim straight up. W-Which was is up?"

"I'll lead. I won't let go of you, Jaune."

Blake took aim at the whistling tube that was all that remained of this dangerously clever mollusk creature.

"Suck in that breath, Jaune."

Jaune inhaled and nodded. Blake watched to make sure his lips closed all the way.

One foot of air left – no more time to waste. The Grimm's tube was now beginning to stretch towards them in a desperate attempt to eat them using its last remaining mobile body part before they slew it.

Bracing herself, Blake pulled the trigger and held it down.

PTAPTAPTAPTAPTAPTAPTAT!

"WHHHHRRRRRIEEEEEYYY!"

THWOOOOOOOSH!


"Next mission," Blake wheezed as she laid down with her belly on the sand. "Next mission, we do on dry land."

Jaune had no response. All he could do at the moment was cough until he vomited up the significant volumes of saltwater he'd ingested. The swim back up to the surface had been taxing on him, and he'd lost his strength on the paddle back to shore. Blake had had to carry him with one arm and swim them both back with the other.

Both of them were soaked to the bone and just as tired. Blake knew that she would need to get them to the village at some point to avoid them succumbing to hypothermia in the chilly forest night air, but that could wait for at least a minute or two or sixty.

Jaune took that time to continue to expel water from his lungs, hunched over on his knees. He was fully conscious, meaning that there was no need to resuscitate him, so Blake just allowed him to let his own body work out the offensive liquid.

"W-Wha…"

"Don't speak," she advised him. "Not until you've coughed up all the liquid. Drinking algae-filled saltwater is nasty, and your stomach is going to regurgitate what it doesn't want to digest."

Arc, stubborn idiot that he was, ignored her sound advice and just powered through it. "Whaddaheck wuzzat?"

"I don't know," Blake honestly admitted. She rolled over onto her back. "Squidy Grimm of some sort?"

"I'd…ohhh, ugh, my tummy. Man, that…ugh." He made a gagging motion, but nothing came up. Blake figured that meant he'd emptied the contents of his stomach. "Did it have tentacles? I really couldn't see what was moving me."

"Yeah, but they weren't really prehensile. They could stretch out and move, but mostly in straight lines or long curves – perfect for the shape of the cave."

"I'd wager nautilus or cuttlefish," Jaune said. He was still on his knees, but his arms up to the elbow were on the ground supporting his upper body from falling. "Tentacles are used like rudders for propulsion, cuz that's all they have the dexterity for."

Blake forced out a laugh, even if it hurt her lungs, which were sore from all the breath holding. "Is there any random bullshit you don't know?"

"Hey, s'not every day you discover a new Grimm."

"Great," Blake said, limply throwing an arm up in the air and letting it fall back down. "We found the thing 'n' killed it. Whoo team."

"We should name it," Jaune suggested. "We found a new species, 'n' that means we got the right to name it. A tentacled, cephalopodic Grimm…hmmmmm. How about Hentacle?"

Blake let her head fall to the side to look at Arc.

"Whaddaya think?"

Blake's only response was to reach down, weakly grasp Gambol Shroud, and fire a bullet at Jaune's leg.

Which went through.

"AAAAARRRGGHHH!"

Blake was immediately sitting up. "Oh my gods! Jaune! Your leg!"

"GRRRAAAH!"

"Y-Your aura!" she tried to protest. "It was…"

It wasn't broken, but this was Arc they were talking about. Though he currently lived the huntsman life, a true huntsman he was not (yet), and that learned aura control that she and her people had was still a lesson he was internalizing.

"I'm so sorry! Oh, by the Grimm, I didn't mean to, Jaune!"

"GGGggghhuuuhhh…"

The wound was healing up, and rather quickly at that. Blake had seen Arc do this before in Lemuria – some sort of innate talent at using aura to heal that Arc possessed – but it still looked painful as all hell.

The blood stopped pouring out, but Jaune's aura broke from the stress he was putting on it before the flesh could flatten out. Blake winced – he would probably be limping on that leg for a few days while his body's naturally healing finished the job his soul had started.

"I'm sorry…"

"S'okay," Jaune replied, his face now a little less pained. "I'm still learning, so…t-try not to…in the future."

Blake swallowed uncomfortably and nodded a few times. It felt rude to lay back down after she'd nearly just maimed her partner, so Blake just stayed seated upright.

"It should heal soon," she said, looking at the wound through the hole in Jaune's jeans. "Your aura will passively go towards healing it rather than regenerating."

Through his pain, Jaune let out a little smirk. "Prolly a good thing…don't chicks dig scars?

"Not this one," Blake said with a roll of her eyes. Then, a grin broke out across her face. "But that does give me an idea…"


Mission Complete: Lake of Lost Voles

Client Review: Can we rate higher than five stars? One of these brave warriors nearly laid down their own life in the defense of our village and sustained a severe leg injury at the hands of a dangerous Grimm but KEPT ON FIGHTING. Heroic! And to top this amazing service off, they went on to slay the monster plaguing our town without even requesting a bonus for their above and beyond level of service (other than some surplus food we were more than happy to give). [5/5 stars]

Current Holdings (lien): Ⱡ 14,000

Current Holdings (assets): Benson Airship Rental punchcard (two punches), numerous coolers of freshly caught fish

Current Holdings (realty): none

Employees: 2


Coming Soon: And they were Roommates

Oh my god, they were roommates…


Author's Notes

I don't know how much 1 lien is, so I based all of my prices based on randomness, but it's consistent at least!

Proof:

RAW PRICES

Food/room: 3000 = 1 month according to Ozpin, so 100/day per person

Started with 6000, but went down to 2000 by end of Lemuria Mission

Airship 1 mission's Dust 2 days Food/Room for 2 people = 6000 – 2000 = 4000

Airship 1 mission Dust 400 = 4000

Airship 1 mission Dust = 3600

Rate: 10,000 lien per job

Licenses (once): 1000

FIRST MISSION

Received 8000 for Lemuria Mission (underpaid for a simple job of clearing Beowolves and Ursai)

8000 2000 = 10000 (bank account at end of Lemuria Mission)

THIS MISSION

Starting Money Reward – Licenses – (Dust Airship) – 1 week Food/room for 2 people =

10000 10000 – 1000 – 3600 – 7*100*2 =

20000 – 4600 – 1400 = 14000 lien (bank account at end of Lake of Lost Voles)

I highly doubt anyone is going to doublecheck my figures in the future, but I want you to know that I fully intend to keep these numbers consistent as best I can.

Happy rats, and don't do crime!