Work continues to be pain, lol. Nothing quite like having people scream at you during exit interviews when they're the ones committing gross misconduct. One had the gall to say that it wasn't THEIR job to catch their team lowering prices against company policy.

They're a team manager, btw.

Apparently, it was my responsibility as the one making sure the company stays open to catch them failing to catch someone else, despite it being their job to manage the team. The mind boggles.

Cover Art: Kirire

Chapter 106

"So, you're the man I've been hearing so much about."

"Am I?" Jaune asked, oblivious or merely pretending to be oblivious, as to what the man was implying. Ruby squirmed. "I wasn't aware. Jaune Arc, Director of the Valean branch of ARC Corp. It's a pleasure to meet you, sir. Taiyang, is it?"

The large and muscular man really didn't look like he was Ruby's father. Honestly, Blake wouldn't have been surprised if he'd come out and said he was Sun's. Ruby had obviously taken more from her mother's side, and in practically every single way. Hair, skin, face, eyes, nose, mouth. Looking at her, it was hard to see a single bit of Taiyang in her, unlike with Yang.

Blake wasn't as blind to the byplay going on as Jaune either was or was pretending to be. She could tell Ruby hadn't realised that what she was doing was essentially bringing her crush home to meet her dad, and now she was hoping for a hole to open beneath her feet and swallow her. Taiyang sized Jaune up, trying to decide how the well-dressed, well-behaved, well-connected and well-paid young man might be portrayed as a bad match for his daughter.

It must have been hard. Even Blake had to admit Jaune didn't show a lot of flaws. He was handsome enough – not drop-dead sexy, but quietly handsome – but combine that with the suit and behaviour and how professional he could act, and it was hard for a prospective parent-in-law to find anything to fault. Little wonder Kali fawned over him, back before she found out the truth of anomalies.

Because Jaune's lack of flaws was very much on the outside. Inside, there were a whole mountain of issues. Luckily for Ruby, Taiyang wasn't aware of them – and hopefully wouldn't have to be made aware.

Ruby was too convenient as a stand-in pet-sitter for Timothy.

The spider was currently having the run of their office and Jaune's apartment, with enough food out to last him several days. He'd be lonely, but he'd be safe, and the same couldn't be said for being brought here where he might be mistaken for a Grimm and killed by one of the many, many aspiring huntsmen and huntresses populating the island. Patch was practically a daycare centre for up and coming huntsmen.

"Taiyang Xiao-Long." The man took Jaune's gloved hand and squeezed. Jaune didn't react, but only because the destruction of his nerve endings meant he couldn't feel it. "Ruby tells me you're... what... emergency responders?"

"Investigators, responders, governmental response. Our work depends on what crisis there is to deal with, sir." Jaune's half-truths flowed easily, and in a manner that was easy to believe. "I imagine Ruby explained a little of the work she did for us before in the farmland."

"Something about a family of nutcases trying to kill their neighbours to take over land, right?"

"Yes – except it was worse than that in their methods. They intended to poison food supplies meant for Vale to implicate and ruin their rivals. It could have led to the deaths of many in the kingdom due to contaminated food." He let that sink in. "Our work is like that, sir. We keep an eye out for unusual goings-on and investigate to ensure the stability of the kingdom. You can think of us as very specialised police."

Taiyang grunted and gave up on squeezing Jaune's hand. "And you?" he asked her.

"Blake Belladonna, sir. I'm Jaune's assistant and full-time employee." Blake bowed her head to him. "Thank you for allowing us to stay here, sir. It's very kind of you."

"Ah. Well. Don't worry about that." Taiyang looked away and scratched his cheek. It looked like he wasn't quite as willing to get aggressive toward a woman. That or spoiling two daughters his whole life made him too soft around girls their age. Blake imagined it was the latter. "You're welcome to bunk in Ruby's room with her. You will take Yang's room," he told Jaune. "Since she's at Beacon."

"Yang will freak," Ruby pointed out.

"Yes, well, she isn't here to complain and the couch isn't comfortable. Qrow tells me as much every time he collapses on it. I'll clean the sheets before she comes home for the summer." He smirked Ruby's way. "And Yang won't get angry if she doesn't find out." Ruby mimed zipping her lips shut. "Good girl. So, I take it you want to know more about these sightings. Would you like to take your coats off? There's a coat stand by the door."

Blake did so with hers, and Jaune with his, but he kept his suit jacket on, casually informing Taiyang that he had extensive scarring over his hands and arms, and as such it wasn't hygienic or safe for him to expose them to the air. The man winced, likely at the thought of having hurt a disabled person more and nodded his head.

"That's fair. You run into your fair share of injuries in my line of work. Or what I used to do," he added, with a snort. "Can't exactly say I do now I'm a full-time teacher, but that was the whole point. Couldn't afford to die and leave Yang and Ruby alone."

They retreated to the living room, Jaune and Blake sitting side by side on one couch while Taiyang took the other. Ruby was sent to the kitchen to make tea, much to her frustration.

"Be a good host," Taiyang chided. "They're your guests."

"Uh. Yes, dad..."

"That girl." He smiled and shook his head. "Yang was a bad influence on her, and Qrow was a bad influence on Yang, and I was a bad influence on all of them for not putting my foot down and chiding them more. I hope she hasn't been too much of a bother."

"Not at all, sir."

"Hmm. Funny, since I heard you fired her in quite the spectacular fashion."

Jaune stilled.

"DAD!" Ruby howled from the kitchen, embarrassed. "Don't bring that up!"

"But you were sobbing—"

"DAD, NO! SHUT UP!"

Jaune managed to keep a placid expression, acting for all the world like the reminder didn't bother him at all. Maybe it didn't, or maybe he felt he'd been doing it to protect Ruby. As ever, it was difficult to pierce his thoughts. He smiled instead, saying, "I'd like to ask some questions about the unusual sightings. Have you seen them or has it only been students at Signal thus far?"

"Students at first, with no injuries or deaths thankfully. Those that roam that far are in their last few years and capable of defending themselves. The first few were dismissed as tall tales, but we decided to send out faculty to scout the problem when they continued past a week, with even more sightings. I, myself, haven't seen any, but one of the other teachers did." Taiyang brought out a scroll and summoned up an image on it, then held it out for them to take. "Here. This is what they saw."

Jaune took it and Blake leaned in.

"This is a picture of Ruby stuck in a dog flap..."

"DAD!"

"Oops, sorry." Taiyang took it back. "Ah, yeah. I remember that. Ruby used to forget the house keys all the time and crawl through Zwei's dog flap when she did, but then she started growing out and one day she got stuck. I came home to find her trapped in it."

"DAD, THEY DON'T NEED TO HEAR THAT! AND I WAS YOUNG!"

"Ruby, this was two years ago—"

"DAD!"

"Sorry. Sorry." Taiyang's chuckle suggested it might not have been an accident. He flipped over a few images and handed it back. "Here."

The new photo was one taken in a forest at what appeared to be sunset. The sky was bathed orange and red, but there was just enough light to see what was going on. Ahead of the person wielding the camera was a creature that, at first glance, might have been mistaken for a Grimm. It was tall and covered with black fur, with little patches of white. But looking deeper, Blake could tell the white wasn't bone plates, and the creature's eyes weren't the familiar shade of red. In fact, it didn't have eyes as far as she could tell.

But it did carry a sword.

Not a bone protrusion shaped like a sword, or a limb that might be mistaken for one, but an actual, rudimentary sword. It didn't look to be mecha-shift or even particularly expensive, nor well-maintained, but the creature's fingers were wrapped about the hilt in a way Grimm did not do. The closest she could think of was the Nucklelavee, but although that looked like a horse and rider, it was one Grimm fused together. Grimm didn't use tools as far as she knew. They could accidentally knock things over, and some might smack a rock and send it your way, but it was always by accident rather than design. Sadly, it was too dark to make out much more detail than that, but it was enough for her. It might have been a huntsman, but she doubted it.

"Was it aggressive?" asked Jaune.

"Territorial would be a better descriptor, and that's further evidence it isn't Grimm," Taiyang said. "It threatened the teacher whenever she drew near, didn't respond to any questions, but didn't attack until she tried to approach. She was able to dispatch it quickly – quite easily, in fact – but she decided to come back and report her findings rather than push on."

"Wise. It wouldn't do to get herself in trouble and draw more people to mount a rescue."

"Hmm. Yeah. When I mentioned this to Ruby, more to keep her out of trouble since she likes to roam the forest, she said you'd be the ones to call about it. Whatever this thing is, it isn't Grimm. Our current theories are that it's either Semblance-controlled or artificial, like Atlas' robotic soldiers."

"Either could be possible," Jaune lied. "We'll find out which it is. Would you be able to show us the rough location on a map? What instructions are in place to students? We're not going to run into any out there, are we?"

"You better not," Taiyang growled. "We've been damn well clear it's off limits. And I can get you a map, yeah, but going out this late is a bad idea. I know faunus can see just fine in the dark." He nodded to Blake. "But you'll have difficulty following the map if you can't see any landmarks or figure out your location via the sun. You should wait until morning."

It seemed for a moment that Jaune would protest, but a small bump of Blake's knee against his had him pausing. He drew in a breath. "You're right, sir. We'll head out bright and early."

Taiyang smiled. "Good. Ruby, you should give them a tour of the house."

"But I've just made their tea!" she complained, coming back with a tray balanced in her hands. Ruby would have never cut it as a waitress from how she was struggling to keep the tea in the mugs. "And I can show them—"

"You're not going with them."

"Dad, they'll need a guide who knows the area!"

"They'll have a map. That's good enough."

"But—"

"It's also a school night. You're at Signal tomorrow."

Ruby whimpered. "But daddy..."

"Don't you `daddy` me, young girl. I know when you're trying to manipulate me." The tears dried up and Ruby scowled. "Show them around the house, where the amenities are and where they'll be sleeping. And you have to walk Zwei tonight."

"Arf!"

"Gnh. Fine." Ruby set the tray down and handed them a cup each. "Come on," she grumbled. "I'll give you the tour while my old man sits around like the couch potato he is."

The tour wasn't a very long one. The home Ruby and Yang grew up in was lovely and well-decorated, but it wasn't big. Ruby explained it was because Team STRQ had built it from scratch, and without knowing a whole lot about construction. It had been shored up over the years and improved, but it had only ever been meant to be a home for a small family, so it had the bare essentials. Three bedrooms, a living room, kitchen, one bathroom with a toilet and another room downstairs with a shower, and then a small shack out back for stocking wood and other supplies.

There were pictures everywhere, so many of Ruby and Yang growing up but also of Summer Rose – who looked identical to Ruby in almost every way. While Yang obviously took some of Taiyang's genetics, Ruby might as well have been spawned via mitosis.

The only thing she hadn't taken from Summer was her height.

Nor from Taiyang, either.

Poor Ruby.

Before long, it was time for bed and – to not upset Taiyang – Jaune agreed and went to Yang's room without a fuss, leaving Blake and Ruby to have a short sleepover.

"Dad is the worst!" Ruby complained from her bed, dressed in her pyjamas. A sleeping bag had been laid out for Blake on the floor, and she also had a huge amount of pillows to cuddle up with. "He showed that picture to Jaune on purpose!"

"Probably. Is he always that defensive over you?"

"I mean, maybe? I don't know. This is the first time I've ever brought a boy home but dad has lost his first wife and then mom." It wasn't much of a surprise, therefore, that he'd be protective over them. "And Yang has never brought someone home that she was interested in either."

"Yang never dated?"

"Oh, she dated – she was just smart enough to never introduce them to dad. Especially when he was their teacher as well." Ruby rolled over onto her front and peeked over the edge of the bed. "So, what do you think of the picture? Do you think the creature is anomalous or the sword or—?"

"We won't know until we get there but our fear is multiple anomalies."

"Whoah. Like, working together?"

"More likely multiple anomalies being used by a single human. We don't have any reason to assume sentient anomalies yet."

That could change, of course, but it felt unlikely a sentient anomaly would stay here and follow the orders of a person. They'd surely have wandered off by now and been seen. The only explanation for why they wouldn't have was if they'd been somehow convinced to stay loyal to the Schnee family and this person, but that was a lot of assumptions to make. The simplest explanation was anomalous objects being used by one person.

"You won't be missing much, Ruby. It'll be a slog through the forest and then us scouting out what this is. We might not even make a move on them depending on how big a danger they are. The rest of Jaune's family might have to be called over. And trust me, you don't want to be anywhere near those psychos."

"Hmmm." Ruby sulked anyway. "Will you at least tell me about it after? I'll keep it a secret. Promise."

"I'm sure Jaune would be fine with that. You're already in the know."

"Sweet. G'night, Blake."

"Good night, Ruby."

A few minutes passed by.

"Do you think Jaune has realised I like him?"

"Good night, Ruby."

"But—"

"Good night, Ruby."

"Gah." Ruby rolled under her blankets. "You suck."

/-/

"Yes. We've been granted lodging by a local huntsman. Taiyang Xiao-Long. No, he isn't aware of what this is – the locals believe it to be a criminal with a Semblance for creating or controlling minions. I suggest a puppetry-based Semblance for our clean-up."

Jaune paused, listening to whatever the response down the line was. Blake leaned back on a tree, too far to hear and not really wanting to know anyway. The sun was high, Ruby and Taiyang were at Signal, and the two of them were in the forest. Blake hadn't thought to ask the name of it, but it took up a good quarter of the landmass of Patch, so it was a sizable thing.

Mostly wild, too. Full of wolve and bears and Grimm.

"No, we're not yet sure if it is the cache or an unrelated anomaly," Jaune said. "But instructions were to report any such." He paused. "Yes, understood. Shall I report again if we find more accurate details? Understood."

He hung up.

"Well?" asked Blake.

"He appreciates the report and we've been given the go-ahead to cautiously investigate. That includes if this is the Schnee cache."

Blake snorted. "I thought they wanted to attack en masse if it was the cache?" Jaune shrugged, stuffing his scroll away. "Us being disposable again," she complained. "Good lord, this is getting old. Is there a point where we're tempted to tell them to shove it up their ass?"

Jaune chuckled quietly. "Not unless we want to be hunted down. Better to just do our jobs and be paid for it. Besides, we don't want to dump my family on Ruby and Taiyang's heads. That'd be a poor way to thank them for their hospitality."

"Hn. True. We could always fake our deaths."

Jaune laughed her comment off.

Blake wasn't sure how much of a joke she meant it to be.

They travelled for an hour and a half along the route Taiyang had marked out, pausing every fifteen minutes or so to double check the map and look for landmarks. There was no special location where the creature had been found, no large rockface or giant tree or conspicuous clearing, it was just another patch of forest, and that made locating it difficult. Taiyang's map had a shaded area where it might be, but not even the teacher who went there could have pinpointed the exact spot.

It was just "somewhere around this area" on a map of a Grimm-infested forest.

Except that something was off already.

"Ninety minutes and no Grimm." Blake frowned and looked around, just to make sure she hadn't jinxed it and called them down. "Something is off."

Jaune agreed with a hum. "Something must be killing them."

This forest was an abandoned place close to human habitation, and that meant it would contain Grimm. Quite a lot of Grimm, in fact. Enough that students from Signal could come to train in it if they wanted to. That wouldn't be much good if there were no Grimm to be found like this. Blake had been expecting to have to cover Jaune due to his lack of aura, but they hadn't seen so much as a small Nevermore.

"Not many animals either," he noted. "It's understandable they'd want to avoid us but we should have run into some by now."

Blake's nose twitched. "I smell blood."

"Joy..."

It was a faint scent she wasn't pleased to be able to pick up, let alone recognise, but she was able to follow it through the trees – and it wasn't hard to find the cause. A doe had been slain, the deer laid out in a tumble of limbs with its head cut off at the base of the neck. There was nothing eating it, which meant the poor thing hadn't been hunted for food.

Jaune looked around and up into the trees before approaching it, giving the area a healthy dose of caution. If this thing had been killed here, its killer might still be around and it'd be reckless to go and kneel by a carcass with your eyes down to the floor. It'd be a good way to invite a blade to the back of your neck as well. Blake stood behind as he knelt, covering him with her body and serving as a lookout as well.

"There's a wound on its back, looks like a blunt force impact that shattered its spine. The head was ripped off by force rather than cut. Small mercy, but I'd hazard the animal died from the first hit, and the head was torn off afterwards."

"Whatever it was must have been quick to catch it," Blake said. "Or it laid in ambush."

"Or it was unmoving," Jaune ventured. "Animals react to movement and scent, and anomalies don't necessarily have that. You've already met a possessed statue at Alistair's bar. He could stand perfectly still and birds would land on him."

Blake would grant him that. People made tiny movements animals would pick up on, and, of course, they had scents. An anomalous item would go ignored if it was just resting on the floor.

"Whatever attacked this must have had arms of some kind," Jaune said. "The vertebrae in the neck are twisted. The head was twisted until it snapped and was torn off. You'd need arms to do that, I think. And probably hands or hooks or some grabbing implement to pull on the neck."

Gruesome commentary, but it was important information and Jaune gathered it from a dead body. It was a reminder of his experience.

"No footsteps or torn up ground suggests there wasn't much of a struggle bar the doe falling in the first place. No wounds elsewhere on the body. Hm." Jaune brushed his gloved hand over the floor. "There's a hole here."

"Tunnel?"

"No. It's narrow, maybe an inch across. More like something was stabbed down here. Strange, if you had something sharp like that then you'd think it would have been used on the doe. There's another here, actually." He stood and moved a few paces over, and Blake followed. "Almost the same as the last." Jaune snapped a branch off a nearby bush and poked it down the hole. It didn't go that far. "Maybe five or six inches deep, so it's not a tunnel or burrowing creature. The way the ground is disturbed makes it obvious this wasn't something coming out, either. The anomaly stabbed something into the ground here – maybe when it first hit the doe and broke its back. Then it stabbed it into the ground back at where the corpse fell, when it twisted the animal's head off." Jaune clicked his tongue. "But what, though? A spear?"

"A pole," said Blake.

"From what?"

"A scarecrow."

Jaune glanced up. "What makes you say that?"

"Because I'm currently maintaining direct eye contact with a scarecrow," she hissed, refusing to look down even to gauge Jaune's reaction. The thing was stuck into the ground about ten metres away from them, stood at a lopsided angle with its wooden pole in the mud and its straw-filled arms poking out to the side in what she would generously call a T-pose.

It was dressed in tartan clothes, torn in places, and had a stitched-up face with a cartoonish smile drawn on it in red paint. Instead of eyes, it had tiny holes cut in the cloth, from which straw and dry twigs poked out of.

"Well," said Jaune, standing and slowly bringing Crocea Mors off his back. He didn't draw it and blind them, but he held the scabbard in one hand and the hilt in the other. "That's more than a little concerning."

He also didn't bother questioning whether the thing was an anomaly.

Because who the hell would build a scarecrow in a forest?

"The holes were quite spaced apart," he said, licking his lips. "I would expect teleportation."

"You're the bearer of exceptional news today," she hissed back. "Anything else?"

"It was quick enough to run down a fleeing deer and strong enough to rip its head off. You may want to keep your aura up."

"I'mma shoot it."

"And draw every other anomaly in the area?"

Blake scowled and lowered Gambol Shroud. "Set it on fire, then."

"It hasn't attacked us."

"Yet!"

"Taiyang said they were territorial."

"And one of them died to a huntress for it. I'm not willing to risk their first contact policy remaining the same – and what's to say we haven't already trespassed in its territory? We might already be in too deep."

"Aiyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

A scream from deeper in the forest pierced the moment.

A human scream – a woman's. It was enough to make Blake's neck twist and – before he could think better – Jaune's as well. They both looked in the direction of the scream before tearing their attention back to the scarecrow.

Or to where it had been.

"Shit," Jaune summarised.

"Please tell me that wasn't Ruby."

"Doubtful. Taiyang works at the school she goes to, so he'll have walked with her the whole way to make sure she didn't join us. Also, Ruby would know better than to run on ahead with anomalies out here. This must be one of those reckless students he mentioned." Jaune sighed. "Hopefully, they still are a reckless student as opposed to being an ex-student."

"And the scarecrow?"

"Watching us, no doubt. Waiting for its moment. I'll walk ahead, you behind me with aura ready. If it attacks, we stand back-to-back immediately. This thing broke the deer's spine before it tore its head off, so expect it to come from behind."

"We're going deeper, then? Shouldn't we report this?"

"The presence of one anomaly doesn't make this the cache, and it's possible the sword-wielding one in the photo was just another inanimate object possessed by the same anomaly that's controlling this one. We need proof of multiple before we act."

And, left unsaid, was that someone out there was in danger. Blake swore and pushed Jaune ahead, walking so close behind him that there was physically no room for a scarecrow to appear between them and behind him. Her chest was practically touching his back, while her own aura roiled uncomfortably.

"We're going to have to assume every anomaly is dangerous," he whispered. "I know our normal method is containment but this is an exception. Someone is in danger and the scarecrow has shown the ability to kill. Don't hesitate to cut it down if you see it—"

Trees nearby splintered as a gigantic creature barrelled toward them. Grey fur, huge teeth, red eyes – but it wasn't a Grimm. Not even close. Before her and Jaune's shocked expressions, a rat – a literal, basic rat – lurched forward. A rat that was easily eighteen feet tall. It saw them, its eyes lighting and its mouth opening. Drool dripped from it, the super-sized creature now having a super-sized lack of calories in its stomach.

No rat would try and eat a person, but this one was driven mad by hunger at what Blake could only assume was a very sudden growth spurt. One that was tearing its own body apart due to the lack of fuel to keep it running.

The rat shrieked and lunged for them.

Only to grunt and skid on the ground as a sickening CRACK sounded from behind it. The rat's spine shattered, but neither of them got to see the scarecrow because by the time the creature's bulk had come to a stop – and then began to rapidly shrink back to normal size – the thing had relocated itself.

"W—What the hell is going on here?" Blake stammered, her heart racing.

"We assumed the anomalies would be working together," Jaune whispered. "But that was a bold assumption on our parts." A distance away, out of sight but not sound, they heard something groan, followed by an explosion that shook the leaves from the trees.

Then silence.

"They're killing one another," Jaune realised, eyes wide. "It's a battle royale."

Next Chapter: 1st July

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