You decided to go towards the source of the children’s laughter. It wasn’t very far away, and it was the only place where sound could be heard. The sound of water running down pipes echoed in the various hallways inside the establishment. It felt quite eerie, now that you thought about it. Children’s laughter, an ‘abandoned’ warehouse, and the musky smell of dust and old metal surrounding you. What was this place?

After noticing a slightly open door in the distance, you decided to approach. You felt the cold draft brush against your back. Not only that, but it sounded as if someone or something was shuffling nearby. Steps? As you turned around, you didn’t notice anything. The hallway was empty. But you were sure you heard something. And why did you remember a dog barking?

You stood there for a couple of seconds, tense and alert. But nothing seemed out of the ordinary anymore, though you were sure you heard something. Was your mind playing tricks on you?

You moved towards the open door again, showing your face inside. You saw a long and tall room. Many bunk beds made of metal were scattered through the room. Colorful pieces of clothes, toys and figurines were lying around in a chaotic manner. Children’s screams suddenly startled you as many of them turned around. They were sitting in the middle of the room, a small redhaired woman reading them a book.

“A stranger! A stranger! Miss Carmine, look,” the children said, pointing their hands at you. You heard again the sound of a dog barking.

“Everything is okay. No need to panic. She’s just another friend, right?” Carmine said. A few black spots and lines were covering the side of her face. She was forcing a smile as she addressed the children, but her eyes never looked away from you.

“Sorry, I didn’t want to disturb. I heard the children’s laughter and…” you started to explain, trying to diffuse the situation a little bit.

“Don’t worry. I’m sure you have a good reason to be here. Now Carol, please help me with your friends, it’s time to go to bed soon, and I don’t want the room to be disorganized when you all go to bed.”

One of the children, a dark-skinned mouse-faunus girl moved her head up and down, agreeing with Carmine. She started to give orders to the other children. The lady with the book set it aside, moving towards you with the same fake smile. Was that concealing anger?

(1/?)

“Let’s step outside. I’m sure you’re new, so I don’t blame you for not knowing everything, but this place has rules and I don’t want to get the children too excited. They like visits, you see?” Carmine said as she walked onto you, closing the door behind her. Her fake smile didn’t fade, and it was turning into a very creepy expression.

“Oh, yeah, I’m sure. It’s just that I still don’t know much about this place and…” you started talking, but the same lady quickly interrupted you. Her tone of voice got louder, more violent, more hostile. Her smile remained fixed in place.

“You just can’t go wherever you want without thinking something bad won’t happen to you. I’m sure you know whom this place belongs to, right? Unlike everyone else, don’t you dare think that I will treat you decently just because we are of the same race. Monsters are everywhere, two-faced bitches behind every corner, and traitors are always eager to stab you in the back. Don’t you agree, Susie? Or should I say Shelly—Does that name ring a bell?”

Damn. She knows your real name? How?!

She started moving closer to you. Her eyes finally opened, and trails of smoke started to appear at the palm of her hands. She had a sadistic expression. What was she doing? There were kids nearby. Why did she hate you so much? You didn’t know her.

A dog barked again nearby, though there was nothing around that could have made that sound. Where could it be coming from?

>Attempt to reason with her. Ask her why she hates you and how she knows you.
>You never liked backing down. Stand your ground, ready to defend yourself if necessary.
>Fuck it. Just go on the offensive. She hates you so much? Well, time to give her a good reason to do so. The metal door should be enough to protect the kids.
>Other (Write-in)

>>6083584
>>You never liked backing down. Stand your ground, ready to defend yourself if necessary.

>>6083584
>You never liked backing down. Stand your ground, ready to defend yourself if necessary.

>>6083584
>You never liked backing down. Stand your ground, ready to defend yourself if necessary.

>>6083584

Dark streaks of liquid darkness started to fall from the side of her hands onto the metal floor, with smoke rising alongside specks of burning ash. She wasn’t backing down. She was moving forward. You could easily see it in her eyes that this wasn’t a bluff.

You stepped forward, clenching your fist at your side and ready to subdue her. At least she didn’t have a weapon on her, so this fight would be somewhat fair.

“I don’t know who you are or why you hate me, but if you want to take a piece of me then be sure that I will not back down.” You answered confidently. How weird that you felt slightly calmer when in a fight.

“I don’t give a shit about what you think or say. You deserve what I’m going to do to you and more.” Carmine said, gritting her teeth in a cold rage. She continued walking forward, her hands by her sides dripping a burning liquid.

Just a few seconds after you lifted both of your hands in a combat stance, you saw how a knife was thrown between both of you, piercing the wall right where the Carmine’s head would have been if she had kept walking.

“Now, now, girls. This is not the time or the place to do such a thing.” A smooth male voice could be heard, accompanied by the barking dog. You noticed how Carmine turned around to look almost simultaneously with you.

Right in the middle of the hallway where you came from stood a tall man with wolf ears, long hair, a dark-green kimono and a small dog perched on top of his shoulder. He had an eyepatch covering his right eye, and his right hand held several knives similar to the one thrown.

“Don’t you fucking interfere, Hopper. You know as well as I that this bitch is going to stab us in our backs, so step aside before I melt your face and the one from your stupid pet.” Carmine retorted, pure evil intent dripping from her voice.

How in all the kingdoms did someone decide it was a good idea to let this unhinged maniac be put in charge of the children?

“Please, Carmine, let’s just talk this through,” the man said, sighing and walking forward as he hid his knives inside his kimono. Carmine turned around and started walking towards him, ignoring you completely.

(1/?)

File: Hopper.jpg (387 KB, 946x830)

387 KB JPG

“Oh, so now you have the balls to fight back?” the red-haired girl said, continuing her walk. You saw how the metal floor where the liquid dripping from her hands was slightly distorted in ripples, as if it were just cooling down from the extreme heat.

Hopper sighed. “Please don’t make me lift a hand against you, Carmine. You know the ones above don’t like interpersonal violence between members.” The dog on his shoulder jumped away. The man looked too at ease.

“You know what they really don’t like? They don’t like pussies like you being in charge. I don’t know what the fuck they were thinking when they decided not to put me in... hey, where the fuck did you go!” Carmine screamed, the body of Hopper disappearing from plain sight.

You couldn’t see him either. He was just standing there for a moment, and the next it was like he wasn’t really there anymore. It wasn’t like he vanished into a puff of smoke or something. He was just… no longer there.

Carmine gasped as she fell face first onto the floor. The dog was at her side, licking her face and barking playfully. Looks like she was knocked out cold. Hopper was standing just behind where she was, putting on a pair of gloves while looking down at her. “Just for the record, I really dislike doing this. And also, sorry for such a bad first impression, Miss Susie. We both were really unlucky today.”

You felt more at ease. This man didn’t really feel threatening, unlike the red-haired girl. However, you couldn’t just ignore the fact that he knocked her out. Maybe her Aura wasn’t active? But no, it activates on instinct, and this girl clearly had the intent to fight. Something unusual was clearly at play here.

(2/?)

Then it clicked. His voice was something you had heard before. Recognizing differences between sounds was natural to you. And it all made sense all of a sudden.

“I thought you were called Tay. I understand why knocking her out was necessary, but lying too? Not a good first impression in my book.” You crossed your arms in indignation.

“I can also point out how you didn’t give me your real name either, but I’m willing to turn a blind eye to that if you decide to grant me the same courtesy. Yes, my name is Hopper, but don’t call me by that name, if you will. I’ll explain more on the way. Care to come to my office so that we can chat?” He said as he knelt down to lift Carmine’s unconscious bod onto his left shoulder.

> Follow him to his office, ask him more on the way. Benefit of the doubt and all that.
> You just didn’t like liars, like, at all. Tell him to be more honest to you before accepting his request.
> This was a shitshow from the start. Thank him for his ‘hospitality’ and head out.
> Other (Write-in)

>>6087255
> Follow him to his office, ask him more on the way. Benefit of the doubt and all that.
>Captcha:GAYPNX

>>6087255
>Follow him to his office, ask him more on the way. Benefit of the doubt and all that.

>>6087255
>Follow him to his office, ask him more on the way. Benefit of the doubt and all that.

>>6087255
>You just didn’t like liars, like, at all. Tell him to be more honest to you before accepting his request.

>>6087255
>You just didn’t like liars, like, at all. Tell him to be more honest to you before accepting his request.

>>6087255

You sighed loudly. Your patience was running thin. Part of it was due to the lack of sleep, and the other part due to high stress overall. “Fine. One last chance. Anything weird happens again or if I even sense the tiniest lie, and I’m gone. I don’t like you guys, I just wanted us to help each other and then go back to the usual ordeal.”

“In that case, let me try to win you over under your terms. I understand where you’re coming from and whatever you choose, I’ll respect it. And for the record, please keep calling me Tay from now on.” the man said in his usual smooth and well-mannered voice, bowing slightly towards you.

As he started walking through the building (with you following close behind), you saw him take a Scroll from his clothes with his free hand. The dog walked close to you. It seemed friendly enough. “Tay here. Please send a new caretaker to the children room. Yes. Yes, she is indisposed at the moment.. No, everything’s fine. Thank you.” And with that he ended the call.

You both kept quiet while moving towards his office. This place was massive, with numerous underground tunnels turning in an almost labyrinthine manner. You were sure you needed a map to fully remember where each turn led.

“I thought you had questions?” Tay said, still carrying the unconscious body of Carmine on his shoulder.

“Plenty. Who is she and why did she attack me?” You asked him while pointing a finger at the knocked-out girl. You didn’t really recognize her from anywhere.

“She’s our main information broker from HQ north of Menagerie. In a sense she outranks me, and she’s very passionate about our cause. Too enthusiastic, in fact.”

“I still don’t know what that has to do with me.” You answered plainly. Too many dots, they were hard to connect.

“When Sora told us about you, Carmine decided to investigate your background. She’s very good at it, just so you’re aware. And, well, a few records here and there appeared. They mentioned that you worked as an assistant to other Hunters when dealing with us in the past. She took that too personally, if I had to guess.” He continued explaining, calm as ever.

“Well… that was years ago. I don’t know why she got so angry at that. I was a recently graduated Huntress back in those days, no wonder I had to do some missions to deal with you guys. It's not like I attacked you directly or something similar.” You said, clearly remembering those missions. You worked mostly as a scout and support, using your hearing to find key buildings where White Fang members resided.

“As I said, she’s… very passionate about our cause. She discovered how you acted against us, even indirectly, and from that point on, she branded you as our enemy deep within her mind.” He sighed slightly.

(1/?)

After endlessly moving through corridors and halls, you found yourself in front of a slightly rusted metal door. Tay grabbed a keycard, swiping it across a panel at the side of the door. It became unlocked, and it easily slid to the side.

“Carmine isn’t wrong. I helped bring some of your agents to jail. So why are you being so... casual about all of this?? If I were in your shoes, I’d be much less open about all of this to an outsider, especially one with my background.” You walked behind him, entering the room.

It was spacious. Plenty of bookcases filled the walls from all sides. A few leather sofas were scattered around, along with a multitude of heavy metal drawers, folders, and papers ready to burst from within. A desk stood in the middle of the room. There were even some paintings of famous people hanging from the right wall. The place felt welcoming. Clean. A little bit disorderly, but it was easily tolerable.

“Do you want the short answer or the long answer?” Tay asked, gently putting the body of Carmine on top of a sofa. He began examining her, probably watching for more serious injuries.

“Neither. I want the truth.”

“Don’t we all…” Tay moved closer to the desk, opening a drawer and fiddling with something inside it. “Do you want something to drink? Maybe food? A smoke? I’d offer alcohol, but I’m very against it while on the clock.”

He kept avoiding your questions. You knew it was on purpose. He was most likely hiding something. A hint of anger rose from within you.

“Stop stalling. I know you’re trying to make me more comfortable, and I thank you for that, but I’d appreciate it more if you just stopped moving in circles and told me things in a more direct manner.” You said to him, almost giving an order.

Tay grabbed a nearby bag filled with sweets. Without a word, he threw it at you. You managed to catch it in the air, a little bit taken aback..

“Sugar-covered seeds. Ease up. I promised some answers and I’m ready to give them. I’m just… mentally preparing myself. This is a delicate matter and I don’t want to mess it up. There, a tiny bit more honesty from myself. I hope you appreciate it.”

You glanced down at the bag, opening it. Indeed, there were plenty of seeds inside. It had been years since you had eaten them, sugar never being your strong suit, but the gesture was nice.

Not nice enough for you to eat them in front of him, however.

> Ask him more about the ‘Black Sheep’, the criminal syndicate or family or whatever that you’re trying to enter undercover. Maybe mention that you have a mission to do for them.
> Ask him what he knows about you, how much research did he do, and why he’s so interested in having you aboard.
> Screw the ‘Black Sheep’. You came to this city to investigate more about your current medical condition and the weird machine that you saw days ago in the desert, the one that fucked up with your head.
>Other (Write in, somewhat encouraged)

>>6090558
>Ask him what he knows about you, how much research did he do, and why he’s so interested in having you aboard.

>>6090558
>Ask him more about the ‘Black Sheep’, the criminal syndicate or family or whatever that you’re trying to enter undercover. Maybe mention that you have a mission to do for them.

>>6090558
>Ask him what he knows about you, how much research did he do, and why he’s so interested in having you aboard.

>>6090558
>> Ask him what he knows about you, how much research did he do, and why he’s so interested in having you aboard.

>>6090558
> Ask him what he knows about you, how much research did he do, and why he’s so interested in having you aboard.

>>6090558
>> Ask him more about the ‘Black Sheep’, the criminal syndicate or family or whatever that you’re trying to enter undercover. Maybe mention that you have a mission to do for them

>>6090558

So he was mentally preparing himself for this conversation? Weird. Now that you had the initiative, you felt how important that was. Battling Grimm, bandits, looters, criminals, and all the like was one thing. You just had to wait for the right moment to attack, to fish for the opportunity, and tilt the fight in your favor.

But this? A social fight? An entirely different skill set was needed.

“Let’s start with something simple. Something that has been bothering me significantly ever since coming to this city. As much as I’ve tried to act incognito, I can’t help but think that it has been somehow been in vain. How did your people find who I was? Did you look into my past?” Your stern tone of voice made it clear that your patience was running out. You decided to focus on those feelings, with the instinct that it may help you.

“Yes.” Tay answered plainly. He just kept looking at you. Even when you remained quiet, waiting for him to continue, he chose not to speak, making you feel uncomfortable. The quiet and rhythmic sound of a ticking clock made the silence even more ominous.

“Just that? A single ‘Yes’? Care to elaborate?”

Tay sighed. “Look, I’m not exactly proud of digging into your past. If it makes you feel better, it was a request both from Carmine and from the higher-ups. They are very secretive of their operations, and when they heard a Huntress had come into Kuchinashi I guess that alerted them.”

“But why? I know the city has a problem with Hunters and Huntresses overall. They always disappear or go somewhere else, but it’s not like I am world famous or anything. Quite the opposite, in fact. I was out of commission for a few years. So why this much attention?”

Tay sighed again, spinning his chair so that his back was turned to you. Quite dramatic. “You got one thing wrong in your deduction. And you’re also missing quite a lot of information. For starters, Hunters and Huntresses are quite the rare sight here in this city because they all have been killed.”

Killed? No way. You were sure that’s a lie. Even in the unlikely outcome that this was partially true, you checked the public database. There were still a few Hunters out there on plenty of missions.

“Stop with the lies. I saw the database back there with help from the butterfly robot girl. Some of the Huntsmen are out there doing missions.”

“Far, far fewer than you think. By now you must know that trusting those lists is a naïve move. After all, if they were as accurate as the people think they are, then how can you be talking with me here, right now, when you died a few years ago?”

So he knew; he indeed did his research.

(1/?)

“I’ll give you a freebie piece of the puzzle,” Tay continued, “We all got particularly interested in you because of many small things that just don’t make enough sense. You are alive when you should be dead. You came from quite a focal point, and by that, I mean Haven Academy. Plenty of info from your background was either manipulated or erased…”

“Stop right there,” you interrupted him. “What do you mean my background was fiddled with? What do you mean by that?” You felt nervous again, just as before.

“I’m not a tech expert. That girl right there is the one who knows the details,” Tay said while pointing slightly at Carmine, still resting on the sofa, “but I’ll tell you what I know based on her explanation. Some of your records were… I don’t know the correct term. Surgically altered, perhaps? Dates, connections, locations you’ve been in, missions, etc. And it was done by a professional, mind you. Carmine right there is top of her class in all of this, and it was by a stroke of luck that she saw a small inaccuracy in your Huntress profile. She started to dig deeper, and the more she looked at it, the worse things got.”

You hugged yourself unconsciously. You didn’t want Tay to see you shaking, even though his back was still turned towards you. Again, you felt that weight at the back of your throat was making it far more difficult to talk. “For… how long? And who? Why? What was the point?”

“We still don’t know. The way the changes were made suggests that the modifications were made quite a while ago. Months, maybe even a year. The reason, the suspect, and the motivation? That’s something that intrigues me quite a lot, so that’s part of why I wanted to have a talk with you. I was quite relieved that you made the call first, honestly. I was ready to send Sora to talk to you, seeing as you two are… friends, I assume?” His voice was shoerf doubt at the end, inviting you to elaborate.

“We are not friends, I think. I don’t know. I’m grateful to her for helping me out, even though I don’t yet know the exact reason why. Does she… know about all of this?” Your voice almost broke at the end, but you managed to salvage it by clearing your throat.

“No, she doesn’t. The only people that know about your situation are Carmine right there, myself and probably my bosses. If you ask me why she decided to help you? Well, maybe she feels some empathy somehow with you. A kindred spirit in her eyes. I don’t know. Sora is a weird individual. Not as much as Carmine, sure, but she’s definitely not your usual agent. You should ask her that yourself.”

(2/?)

You kept quiet, thinking about this infodump that was laid out. You were seeking answers, and now that you got them you didn’t feel better at all. Where to begin? This was a tangled mess, from head to toe.

“If it makes you feel better,” Tay said, breaking the silence and your concentration. “The other reason as for why I want you helping us is because, well, you need it. I like helping those in need and I see potential in you. You’ve been dealt a bad hand, and I sympathize with that. And just so you don’t think I’m a mastermind or something, I also need of competent agents out there helping our cause. So no, I’m not doing this entirely out of my good heart.”

You started feeling in a daze. Low pressure induced by the stress? You weren’t a doctor; you could only guess. You ate some of the sugar-covered seeds to ease your nerves.

>Ask him more about what he really wants to do with you. As much as you hated becoming a member of the White Fang you couldn’t help but sense that all other options were closing little by little.
>He’s been honest so far. Ask him what he knows about your current medical condition, the one where your face changes almost on its own, violent tendencies, jaded personality, etc.
>This is too much to deal with right now. You wanted some time alone to reflect. Tell him that you need a few minutes to think on your own.
>Other (Write-in)

>>6093669
>He’s been honest so far. Ask him what he knows about your current medical condition, the one where your face changes almost on its own, violent tendencies, jaded personality, etc.

>>6093669
>He’s been honest so far. Ask him what he knows about your current medical condition, the one where your face changes almost on its own, violent tendencies, jaded personality, etc.

>>6093669
>Ask him more about what he really wants to do with you. As much as you hated becoming a member of the White Fang you couldn’t help but sense that all other options were closing little by little.

>>6093669
>He’s been honest so far. Ask him what he knows about your current medical condition, the one where your face changes almost on its own, violent tendencies, jaded personality, etc.

>>6093669
>Ask him more about what he really wants to do with you. As much as you hated becoming a member of the White Fang you couldn’t help but sense that all other options were closing little by little.

>>6093669

“I’m afraid there was a mistake in your judgement of me.” You began to explain, considering how to approach this sensitive topic.

“That’s possible. No one is perfect.” Tay commented, nearly finishing your sentence for you.

“That’s not what I meant. I was referring to the part where you said that you were in need of competent agents. I’m afraid I no longer deserve to be called that.” You closed your eyes, feeling the warmth of your own hug. You fought the urge to appear too vulnerable.

“Don’t sell yourself short, Shelly. We’ve seen what you’ve done, both recently and in the past. You’re more than qualified to…”

“That’s not what I’m trying to say.” You interrupted him, disrupting the rhythm of the conversation. Tay fell silent, turning his chair slightly to look at you with a confused expression.

There was some brief quiet between you two. The silence pausing thanks to the clicks of the nearby clock and the very low humming of the ventilation system.

“You’ve seen my medical records?” This was a good way to approach this topic, you thought.

“Yes, we have. There’s nothing out of the ordinary with them. We got them directly from the Haven Academy database. Why?” His confusion was far more noticeable now.

“There’s no way that’s true. You probably missed something Are you absolutely sure?” There had to be something. Anything that may lead to a clue.

“I can double-check right now if you don’t mind.” He moved his hands towards a nearby drawer, looking and fiddling through the many files inside. “Or perhaps you could… enlighten me? Anything important I must be aware of?” He said while turning his back towards you. That was so careless, trusting you so much when you weren’t exactly allies.

How to approach this? What could you even explain? You didn’t even know where to start.

Might as well just say what you do know.

“In the last two years at the academy before my graduation, I noticed a strange condition. People were afraid of me. They said that I sometimes had outbursts of… well, anger isn’t the right word. Frustration? Malice? Not only that, but they also said that my face displayed these… expressions. Hard to describe.” You tried to remember most of those events. Friends giving you weird looks, teachers being bothered, maybe one or two children crying when looking at you. But you always felt fine, as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

“The report here says that… you were under stress.” Tay said, reading some papers from a folder in his hands. “A significant amount of stress, but that’s not unusual for someone in your position. Being a Huntress, especially a team leader, can be quite heavy on the responsibilities.”

“Can I please take a look at the papers? I want to see them with my own eyes.” You said, standing up from your chair and approaching him.

(1/?)

He slowly extended his hand, handing you the folder while never taking his eyes off you.

You tried to read them. There majority of your medical checkups were inside. They were divided by months, giving a total of nearly twenty pages. They should have covered three years, but some information might not have been available. No matter, this would have to do.

You tried to recall one of the first moments when something weird happened to you. You had a quick and easy mission; a group of Grimm was stalking one of the nearby villages. Nothing bad happened there, just a few Beowulfs eager to hunt the people close to the border. Child’s play for you and your team.

After dispatching them, your teammates commented that you had to ‘calm down’. You asked why, and they said that you were being too disruptive, too violent. In hindsight they were right, you destroyed nearly two houses when dealing with one of the Grimm. Not only that, but they asked you about what was so funny. Apparently, you were laughing, though you don’t remember that.

The medical record you got from that day seems… normal. The report noted that you were under a slightly above average amount of “stress”.

Another time, a gas explosion destroyed the lower part of a building. A similar incident occurred. You grabbed a nearby bystander and moved him to safety, yet some witnesses claimed that you “threw him” towards a tree without regard for his safety. Apparently, his arm broke, but you did remember carrying him in your arms, asking him if he felt safe, reassuring him, etc. He just kept screaming in a panic.

Again, the medical records said that you were mostly fine. Healthy. Just a little bit on edge.

“What was my performance rating on the missions I participated in? Are there records for that?” You asked out loud, trying to find anything unusual on the medical notes on your hands.

“Yes, there are. They are quite extraordinary, I must add. If it wasn’t for your retirement, I’d say that you had the potential to be even more famous than that Pyrrha girl. Why do you ask?”

On one hand, you had what the papers said. What your memories said. That you were always fine, that nothing bad was happening, that these events were just minor inconveniences.

On the other hand, you still remember the looks of nervousness of your friends, of your peers, the way you were avoided at school, the insults and fear of the public eye.

These papers were obviously lies. No point in denying it. You no longer trusted your own memory, either.

(2/?)

“All of these are fake. There’s something wrong with me. The Academy surely tried to cover it up, feeding me, us, everyone, lies. What I have is bad. I think. I feel fine, normal, but eventually, something will happen…” dread crept up on you.

Mumbling was heard behind you. It was Carmine, slowly waking up. What an awful timing.

Tay got up from his seat. He approached the red-haired faunus and lifted her onto his shoulder.

“I’ll take her to her room. Please don’t leave yet. We have much to discuss, and… I have things to think about. Make yourself comfortable, but please don’t do anything too impulsive. I’m taking a big risk by letting you be in here with no supervision.”

He left the room, leaving you alone. You weren’t alone, however, as Tay’s dog quickly jumped on the sofa Carmine was just sleeping on, lying there and watching you warily. He didn’t trust you yet.

You had that thing in common with the cute puppy.

>Reread the medical records. No one knows better than you what happened back then. Maybe you could find an error here that the White Fang missed.
>This was the perfect opportunity to look for infoormation inside the room. There were plenty of documents. A quick peek couldn’t hurt.
>Getting answers directly from the source was risky. A little bit. Send a message to your ex-teammates, some teachers, etc. Maybe they could help you refresh your memory?
>Other (Write in)

>>6097298
>Reread the medical records. No one knows better than you what happened back then. Maybe you could find an error here that the White Fang missed.

>>6097298
>>Reread the medical records. No one knows better than you what happened back then. Maybe you could find an error here that the White Fang missed.

>>6097298
>Getting answers directly from the source was risky. A little bit. Send a message to your ex-teammates, some teachers, etc. Maybe they could help you refresh your memory?

>>6097298
>>Reread the medical records. No one knows better than you what happened back then. Maybe you could find an error here that the White Fang missed.

Gonna need a dice check fellas

3d10, best of 3, DC 21, Crit 25

Rolled 8, 6, 1 = 15 (3d10)

>>6099564

Rolled 5, 3, 3 = 11 (3d10)

>>6099564

Rolled 7, 10, 9 = 26 (3d10)

>>6099564

Damn, this gonna take a while, well timed crit

>Writing

>>6097298

You sighed. What was about to happen would overload your mind. At least, it had back at Haven Academy. Good thing you almost never skipped classes.

You got up from the sofa, approaching the desk and multiple drawers, opening them and inspecting the contents. There were files of many cities, organizations, plenty of names you didn’t know from all around Remnant, like Haven, Beacon, Vacuo, etc. You grabbed a bunch of papers, clearing space on the desk. You also took out both of your scrolls. Some long-distance investigation and cross-referencing could seriously help.
This was going to take a while.

---

---

…no, but this was… hmm… a few days back. Yes. I also remember her skin tone, yet the papers claim otherwise… this information is incorrect as well...” you couldn’t help but talk out loud to yourself (not that the dog understood you). It may seem pointless, but you felt that this was helping your mental health. After all, inspecting such a vast amount of information with only silence and a clock as the background was too ‘monotonous’ for your tastes.
Suddenly, a man coughed somewhere in the room. After lifting your gaze, you saw Tay watching you with a surprised expression. The same was true for Sora, standing just behind him, looking at you with a mix of fascination and fear. “How long have you been here?” you muttered.You didn’t hear them enter the room. Weird.

“A few minutes. And just to clarify, this is the second time I entered my office. You’ve been so absorbed in your… investigatio that you never noticed me, or for that matter, any of us. I even brought along some coffee for you.

You turned to the side, noticing for the first time a cup filled with dark brown liquid. You took a sip, and indeed it was coffee. Cold and slightly stale. “I don’t think it’s normal to give someone cold coffee when offering help.”

“It wasn’t cold when it arrived here. It was piping hot. You’ve been doing your thing for at least three hours. I didn’t want to interrupt, but I must add, I don’t like that you decided to pry into my files without asking first.” His tone of voice was stern. Oops.

“Oh… erm… my bad. Sorry. I can stop if you want.” You said almost absent-mindedly, breaking your focus. Was it really three hours? There was no way that was true... was it?

Tay sighed. He walked towards the sofa and sat on it. Sora, on the other hand, stood there, continuing to watch you in horror. You felt uneasy because of it.

“What’s the matter Sora? Do I have something on my face?” You tried to say it as a joke, but it came out too hostile for your liking. Too late to take the words back. You felt tired.

“Neeeeeeerd.” she said, laughing slightly and moving towards your side, grabbing some of the papers and reading them. What was she looking for? You tried to take them back, preventing her from disrupting your carefully crafted hypothesis.

(1/?)

“Did you find something interesting at least?” Tay said, now with the dog on his lap. He sounded slightly annoyed. You guessed it was because of his lack of sleep or because you took his documents without prior approval. Or both.

“Look. Yes. Yes, I did. Well, no. Its complicated. Let’s say I found out something, not because of what you had, but because of what was missing.” You tried to unravel the many different conclusions on your mind. Your words were a jumbled mess. You were so absorbed in constantly inspecting files, dates, comparing written notes, surnames, places, etc. This was kind of like a puzzle where pieces constantly changed when others fell into place. It was too abstract a concept to properly explain in words. But you were sure of one thing—you felt you could solve it. Maybe.

“And I thought I was the crazy one here,” Sora commented, whistling and looking at the papers on top of the desk. She turned them upside down. Could she even read them?

“Just—just give me the most important stuff.” Tay’s voice was tired.

“It all boils down to the following,” you began. Your voice was somewhat rough. Your voice was somewhat rough. Nothing a sip of the cold coffee couldn’t help alleviate. “There’s this one individual. A female. She worked at Haven as a health administrator. I’m very sure the name listed in the files, ‘Kiwi’, is a false name. She was present a good sizable number of times when dealing with checkups with some other students, me included. However, I couldn’t find her name anywhere else. She was enrolled for a few years, half a decade at most, yet she had no background. Neither here, nor in Atlas, or any other place in existence, apparently.” This was going to be an information dump. You hated boring others.

“I’m listening,” Tay said, inviting you to continue. Sora was dazing off, the mere number of words boring her obviously.

“However, I found a lead. I have a great suspicion this individual had a background as an engineer. Real name is Cerise Watts. There was a scandal a few years back in Atlas, something about corruption and unethical experiments. She and other scientists were fired and disgraced. Most of them disappeared from public view, Cerise included. However, someone with a remarkably similar background was hired at Haven Academy as the head manager of health. Starting to see where I’m going?” Your mouth was dry again. Your eyes felt tired, but the adrenaline was keeping you still awake.

“I think so. But please keep going.” Tay crossed his arms and closed his eyes, apparently still listening.

“She was fired due to the creation of a machine that could meddled with the Aura of people. Something to do with Dust; an accident happened, two people died, and five were hospitalized. That sounds awfully similar to something, don’t you think Sora?” You turned around to look at her.

(2/?)

“Wha? Sorry, didn’t hear anything you said, birdie. When you say machine, you mean like that thing that was in the desert? Like with the Black Sheep family?” she sounded bored, a little bit annoyed.

“Exactly. I believe this individual was still doing experiments back then at Haven. The timeline of events supports my claim. This weird machine I destroyed with Sora made us act in this way. Violently, not really caring either for our safety or the safety of others. Maybe she did something similar to me and other students while at Haven? Maybe she has a link with the Black Sheep family? She no longer works at Haven, it seems. I couldn’t find any other records of her. It was almost like she vanished.”

“Makes sense. Look, can we talk more about this in the morning? This sounds important enough for us to be at our best, mentally speaking. You don’t mind sharing a room with Sora, right?” The long-haired man opened his eyes again.

“Huh? Yeah, I don’t mind sharing with her. As long as little birdie here doesn’t touch my stuff.” Sora said while looking at a wall, yawning.

>Agree to his proposal. You already had an amazing lead, might as well dwell on it with a fresh mind. Maybe they were willing to help you out even more?
>Offer to help clean and order up. Use this time to also talk in private with Tay, ask him what he thinks.
>You got what you wanted. Refuse, and try to find an excuse to get out. You’d better do this alone, without the help of the White fang.
>Other (Write-in)

>>6103389
>>Offer to help clean and order up. Use this time to also talk in private with Tay, ask him what he thinks.

>>6103389
>Offer to help clean and order up. Use this time to also talk in private with Tay, ask him what he thinks.

>>6103389
>Offer to help clean and order up. Use this time to also talk in private with Tay, ask him what he thinks.

>>6103389
>>Agree to his proposal. You already had an amazing lead, might as well dwell on it with a fresh mind. Maybe they were willing to help you out even more?

>>6103389

“Before I go,” you started to explain, “I’d like to help you with all this… mess. Sorry, I just got too carried away and I don’t want you to think I’m into not cleaning up after myself.”

“You heard her, boss. She has to clean up. After you’re done with this you think you can give me a hand with my chores for tomorrow? Maybe also make me breakfast?” Sora replied to your statement with a smirk. There was an obvious hint of sarcasm in her voice.

“Just go, Sora. I appreciate when people offer to help, so I’m not going to turn down. Unless you’re interested in helping us as well?” Tay replied, still sitting on the sofa with his eyes half closed.

“Oh, sorry. I don’t like doing grunt work. That’s boring and dumb. Bye bye, mister. Bye bye birdie. I’ll try to spare you a blanket if I find one. No promises.” Sora exited the room, laughing to herself.

Tay sighed. He stood up from the sofa, heading straight towards his desk, grabbed some papers and began stacking them, trying to rearrange the order you carefully undone. He was silent while doing so. Maybe he was angry.

You did the same, trying to make sense of the scattered mess. You felt inclined to use your semblance to make your work easier by having the papers float around, but you decided against it. It was better to keep that surprise factor hidden for now.

“So, go on. Speak your mind.” Tay interrupted your thoughts, still rearranging the papers and putting them on the drawers.

“…huh?” You felt startled. You indeed wanted to ask him some things, his train of thought, anything that could help you out. But he took the initiative of the conversation. Were your intentions that obvious to him?

“Look, either you’re a saint and wanted to help me in silence, or you’re someone who wanted to speak with me alone. Both options are fine by me. And before you ask, no, I don’t read people’s minds. I’m just good at reading people.” The dog went around his legs, going towards the corner of the room and lying on the floor again.

“Am I that easy to read?” You asked, slightly… offended? Perplexed?

“Particularly? No. In comparison? Yes, definitely. When you have responsibilities like mine, underlings like Sora and Carmine, psychopathic bosses and criminals all around you, dealing with a relatively ordinary ‘Huntress’ becomes too menial. Maybe if you stick around long enough, you’ll learn a thing or two from me.”

(1/?)

“Hard to agree to your terms knowing that you’re working with ‘psychopathic bosses’ and criminals. I thought you said this place wasn’t all that bad?” A moment of weakness. Time to drive the nail in.

Tay sighed. “Look. I’m against the wall here. There are seriously people in need in this city. Faunus included. Especially them. I genuinely want to help them. However, the cards I was dealt aren’t the best. I’m in a predicament, same as you. A part of me wishes you would just agree and join us, but I also don’t want you to be, let’s say, ‘stained’ by all the awful things that surround us. Besides, I don’t think you’re in much of a position to go and do things on your own.”

Offended was the right word.

“I’ve been doing fine so far. I don’t think you understand me that well, or my situation, or what I’m capable of.” There was no point in hiding the anger in your voice. Fixing some papers on the desk and cleaning up his office while feeling angry felt ironic.

“You’ve been lucky so far. Keep going alone and you’ll end up dead in an alleyway or something. There are some truly awful monsters hidden in this city, and no, I’m not talking about Grimm. I want to help you because you’re still young and… ‘clean’, so to speak, but I also don’t want you taking advantage of me. That’s why I can’t just simply hand you everything on a plate. You get me?” His voice was becoming sterner.

You felt a strong similarity to him. You did want to help the people in this city, find out more about your situation and uncover the truth. But you also didn’t want to be taken advantage of.

“Let’s make a deal. You help me keep my community safe, you do some jobs for me here and there, and in the meantime, I’ll try to find out more about this scientist you found out about. It will take some time, since I’d need to convince Carmine to help me, but trust me, I’ll do my best to keep your hands clean. No criminal or, ‘unethical’ jobs for you. How does that sound?” Tay turned towards you, closing a drawer. He waited for your answer.

>We both want the best for ourselves, and his promise sounds sincere enough. Agree to his offer.
>As enticing as it sounded, you’d like to know more details. What did he mean by ‘monsters hidden’ in the city?
>There was still that small flick inside your head that told you this was a bad idea. Working for the White Fang surely would be bad karma. Refuse.
>Other (Write-in)

>>6106446
>We both want the best for ourselves, and his promise sounds sincere enough. Agree to his offer.
>But could we still talk about the 'monsters in the city' tomorrow?
He's been pretty forthcoming with us thus far, and not wanting to be taken advantage of is a fair point. He's got a better lay of the land than we do, more connections, more resources-- and to be honest, he's probably a better fit than doing out-and-out criminal activity with Sora.

>>6106446
>>We both want the best for ourselves, and his promise sounds sincere enough. Agree to his offer.

>>6106871
+1

>>6106871
Support

>>6106446

“Fine. I’ll help you out.” You felt a knot grow in your throat as you talked. “Just know that the moment something dubious happens I’m gone. I’m only doing this because there are people that seriously need our help. And, well, we can also help each other, I suppose...” You felt some shame, but this was something that had to be done.

“I promise I’ll try my best as long as you do the same for me too.” And with that, he finished closing the last drawer. “Now, let’s go and rest. There’s much to be done.”

“One last thing,” you said at the last second. He lifted his gaze once again. “What did you mean by ‘monsters hidden’ in the city? That sounds ominous.”

“I meant it as a figure of speech. However, the more I dwell on it, I think the meaning gets closer and closer to the literal sense. There are a few important players trying to get a bigger piece of the cake. The lawlessness of the place has made it so that those that worked in the shadows are getting more brazen. Might makes right, and so on.” He yawned.

“And the law? I heard there was a Sheriff in town or something like that. Surely they must be doing something to keep crime in check?”

He chuckled. “They hardly have a presence here. The external support they had has dwindled significantly over the last couple of months. Atlas is caught up with other matters, and Mistral has been unusually passive, too. I almost feel bad for them. They got dealt a bad hand. Same as us. I sympathize with them to some extent.”

“Uh-huh. Tell me a little bit about these ‘monsters’. We changed the subject without talking too much about them.” The conversation had a tired tone to it. It’s no surprise you both rambled from time to time.

“Sorry, I misspoke. First of all, there’s the ‘Black Sheep’ family, by far the most influential. They are the only ones who can reliably and safely enter and exit Kuchinashi. They focus on stolen technology and other, more… unsavory activities. Human trafficking. Sora is our inside agent, as you are well aware off. She can probably tell you more about it if you ask her directly. There’s also the ‘Spider’ syndicate, much trickier to infiltrate. They operate mostly on information broking. There’s also the ‘Hana Guild’. Very powerful back in the day, but they’ve been silent as of late.”

You couldn’t help but yawn again. You covered your mouth. You didn’t want Tay to feel as if he was boring you.

(1/?)

“There’s also this fighting academy that disbanded some months ago, or so we thought. I still believe they are active somewhere out there, but I doubt they should be much of a problem for us. There’s that… android that likes to put on a show, entertain the people, become famous, etc. I believe she works mostly as a solo. And last but not least, we’ve heard rumours that there’s a hunting group of people that focus entirely on killing Hunters and Huntresses not just within the city but likely across the continent.”

The hair at the back of your neck slightly stood up. “Care to elaborate about that last group?”

“I’m afraid I’d say more if I knew. The records show that nearly half a dozen of professional Hunters have been killed in the past year. All inside this city. In a very gruesome manner, mind you. We still don’t know if they are working under someone or if they are doing for sadistic pleasure. We think they are working as a group, due to the fact that there have been some reports on their attacks all across the kingdom. They are probably the reason Atlas and Mistral are so busy that they have forgotten all about this city.”

Now you didn’t feel tired at all. Adrenaline was a hell of a thing.

“Another thing. They tend to focus only on hunting independent Hunters and Huntresses. That’s why plenty of them have joined with a faction one way or another. Looks like they don’t want to pick a fight with a larger group, those vultures. Cowards. Scum.”

“Does that mean that the only ‘independent’ Huntresses nearby are Vespera and me? Seriously, is there nobody else?” You felt concerned.

“In a sense. The last one who came to the city was two or three weeks ago. His body was found nailed to a wall near the center square. Well, at least the top half of him was. That’s why I advise you to work mainly for us. I don’t want something similar to happen to you. Vespera, however, is an exception. She has been ‘killed’ plenty of times. However, her androids always come back. We believe they are just puppets, with the mastermind hiding somewhere in the city. So, in a sense, she’s safe. I must add that when it comes to tech stuff she is the only one that comes close to Carmine. She might even be better, but keep that a secret between us. Otherwise, Carmie is going to have a field day with me.”

“I just hope I can remember all this after waking up. In a way, it seems too important to just forget.” You touched your head. A migraine started to appear.

“I can send you all the info about this to your Scroll. You’ll probably need a new one. Bug-ridden, and free of charge. I might throw in a free mask as a welcoming gift? It might look good on you and keep your identity concealed.” He started to laugh, mostly to himself.

You didn’t.

(2/?)

“Fine, fine. Bad joke. Just… take care of yourself. I’ll send you more details about some tasks you could help me with later on. Let’s get some sleep, okay?” He moved closer towards the sofa. He was probably going to use it as a bed.

“Yeah. Thanks for everything, I suppose, and… sorry about the mess I made earlier.” You said apologetically.

“No hard feelings. Here, take these.” He threw both of your weapons at you, still inside their scabbards. “I don’t want you ‘fangless’ while inside here. I trust that you will help improve the lives of these refugees and children. Take care.”

“Thanks. Good night.”

And with that you exited his office. Finding Sora’s room wasn’t too hard; a rough layout of the place sent to your Scroll a few seconds later helped.

As you entered her room, you found her sound asleep, snoring, lying on the bottom part of a bunk bed. The top bunk was neatly made just for you. This created quite a contrast with her chaotic mess of a room. Clothes were laying around, posters with scribbled figures on them, empty plastic bags on one corner, a few dead plants here and there. Were those slashes on the wall?

It was a nice gesture from her to at least tidy up your modest ‘living space’. It provided a small fragment of peace that could ease your mind from all the horrors. Now it was just a matter of time before you received news from Tay’s investigation. Might as well honor your promise to help him out a little.

---

---

> Cunning up from 4 to 5! (Nice crit)
> Affiliation changed from Independent to White Fang (Unofficially speaking?)
> ‘Slightly Rusty’ trait gone. Now you’re fully in the game. Tutorial done, so to speak.

And also, choose two:
> Use these few weeks living with the White Fang to train with the recruits. Most of them didn’t know how to defend themselves. Better late than never. Might as well pick up some info about how to use Dust to enhance your fighting style.
> Focus more on yourself, your equipment, your semblance, your identity. It was important to balance your weaknesses and focus on your strengths. Dealing with ‘monsters’ sounded far more unnerving than you would like to admit.
> Sora was the only one here that who willing to fight with you daily. She also wanted to do so, the battle junkie. Engage with her, strengthen your relationship, and also get better at combat while doing so. Win-win, right?
> Networking was important. Try to engage more with Tay. Get on his good side, learn from him, become friends with him. Learn more about the city. Embrace it. Making the city a part of you would grant you the advantages you seriously needed.
>Other (Write-in)

>>6108811
> Focus more on yourself, your equipment, your semblance, your identity. It was important to balance your weaknesses and focus on your strengths. Dealing with ‘monsters’ sounded far more unnerving than you would like to admit.
> Networking was important. Try to engage more with Tay. Get on his good side, learn from him, become friends with him. Learn more about the city. Embrace it. Making the city a part of you would grant you the advantages you seriously needed.

>>6108811
> Use these few weeks living with the White Fang to train with the recruits. Most of them didn’t know how to defend themselves. Better late than never. Might as well pick up some info about how to use Dust to enhance your fighting style.
We have low-ish dust affinity, and that's our most glaring weakness at the moment. It can really change the flow of battle if we use it well, and our opponents will most likely be doing it as well.
> Networking was important. Try to engage more with Tay. Get on his good side, learn from him, become friends with him. Learn more about the city. Embrace it. Making the city a part of you would grant you the advantages you seriously needed.
I kind of want more combat practice, but I feel like he'd appreciate the help.

>>6108811
Actually, amending my vote >>6108975 to
>Write in:
Try to convince Sora to help train the new recruits. As long as she doesn't mind, we can still fight her every day, as a combat demonstration for the students.
and
>Networking was important. Try to engage more with Tay. Get on his good side, learn from him, become friends with him. Learn more about the city. Embrace it. Making the city a part of you would grant you the advantages you seriously needed.

>>6108811
>> Sora was the only one here that who willing to fight with you daily. She also wanted to do so, the battle junkie. Engage with her, strengthen your relationship, and also get better at combat while doing so. Win-win, right?
>> Networking was important. Try to engage more with Tay. Get on his good side, learn from him, become friends with him. Learn more about the city. Embrace it. Making the city a part of you would grant you the advantages you seriously needed.

>>6108811
>Write in:
Try to convince Sora to help train the new recruits. As long as she doesn't mind, we can still fight her every day, as a combat demonstration for the students.
and
>Networking was important. Try to engage more with Tay. Get on his good side, learn from him, become friends with him. Learn more about the city. Embrace it. Making the city a part of you would grant you the advantages you seriously needed.

>>6108811

>Melee up from 4 to 5! (Most pro Huntsmen out there are at this level).
>Trait change, ‘Unwilling Celebrity’ changes to ‘Anonymous Heroine’ (People will not recognize you as easily as before. Your kind actions have granted you a small reputation of respect between the downtrodden. Specially Faunus.)
>Trait change: ???? ?????????
>New reputation system! All in the Character Sheet: https://pastebin.com/edit/xA4G6LMk

As time passed, Tay indeed kept true to his words. The tasks he gave you were fairly easy and straightforward. Delivering supplies to some Faunus inside the city that didn’t want to join the main ‘headquarters’, dealing with some lowlifes that were causing trouble in certain streets and residences, ensuring the main building was well maintained and supplied, etc.

Overall, it was a nice experience. It was relaxing and felt good in the heart. Of course, it wasn’t all sweet and roses. You knew some other agents were dealing in slightly more unsavory things. Drug dealing, mainly. You wanted to say something against it, but when it came to choosing one evil or the other, well, this one was by far the lesser. It wasn’t like you could complain. Tay was busy trying to find out more info about this so-called ‘Cerise’ (Well, trying to butter up Carmine to help us. Wasn’t he the boss?).

Still, it didn’t feel that bad. You had a place where you could sleep and eat in relative peace. You were doing well. You knew it. There were some genuinely good people here. Refugees, vagrants, orphans, just to name a few. People whose lives gave them a harsh dose of bad luck. Might as well help them by teaching them how to defend themselves, right?

It took some time and effort from your part, but you convinced Sora to help you train with some of the guards and residents. In exchange, she could try and ‘bash your head into the floor’ in order to get revenge, as she put it. Her first loss to you back then by the train left her with an unhealthy grudge. Not that you could complain; fighting somehow made you feel slightly more at peace. And some of the recruits learned the basics of how “not to suck”, as Sora put it (Her words).

You also focused most of your free time on helping Tay with things. He gladly accepted your help, as boring and dull as it was to write, read and classify documents, look out for new and promising deals, fix problems—you name it. You thought Carmine was his second-in-command or something, but apparently that wasn’t true. She was just the resident ‘techy’. You discovered that she far outranked him in the past, however due to some event you’re not aware of she was demoted below Tay. It was obvious she held some grudge against both of you (Especially against you. You always caught her giving you the stink-eye). She followed orders, at least. Whatever Tay said or did to her back there in his office really seemed to calm her down.

(1/?)

Reading most of his documents, together with the missions you carried out around the city, really gave you a good sense of how the city worked. The situation was appalling. The ‘Sheriff’, if you could call him that, was relegated to a small part of the city. And even there his influence was waning day by day. The rest of the districts? They were up for grabs by virtually anyone. The situation was delicate. Plenty of other factions were trying to get a piece of the pie, the White Fang included.

The ‘Black Sheep’ family held the most power. They were the ‘nobles’ of the city. Most likely all of them. They held most of the money, territory, technology, ground force, etc. The only reason they didn’t have the city inside their pockets entirely was because most of the other factions had an ‘unspoken’ and ‘unofficial’ alliance against them. Not only that, but the rumors about the ‘Black Sheep’ dealing with kidnapping, extortion, human trafficking, and who knows what else really didn’t seem to give them a good reputation to the population.

The members from the ‘Hana Guild’ were the big guns back in the day. They dealt in narcotics and weapon smuggling mostly. However, an operation that happened a few years ago, conducted by some Hunters and Huntresses really seemed to put them out of the game. They are most likely irrelevant by now, if they were still active, that is.

The ‘Spider’ syndicate was relatively harmless, or at least that’s how they painted themselves. They dealt mostly with information brokering, led by the somewhat well-known Miss Malachite. She was mostly ‘amicable’ with the White Fang; however it was obvious she did so only out of politeness. You advised Tay against the idea of dealing with her, but he insisted that he had a plan.

Thankfully, Vespera soon lost interest in you. All the propaganda she spread to paint you as the ‘heroine’ of the city wasn’t working well. After all, you operated mostly in the shadows. With your newfound information about a group of ‘monsters’ that killed Hunters and Huntresses for sport you knew that she did all that in order to lure them towards you. An underhanded move, an attempt to take you out of the game. You had some rough words to say to her, but that would be when the time was right.

The underground fighting ring remained silent. There was no news at all, nor any new pamphlets. Even Rufus seemed to have relocated. You wondered if he was okay. He was a good man. Weird, but good nonetheless.

And now comes present day. You indeed had a new White Fang mask that concealed your identity. It still felt wrong to use it, so you decided to hide your face with cloth and a hood. Tay really insisted, but you weren’t ready yet. Maybe one day.

(2/?)

“Ugh… please, no more…” a grunt groaned, moving on the ground away from Sora. The training grounds were big, spacious and uncomfortable. Rusted walls, faulty pipes, an unpleasant smell, etc. But at least here you had privacy. You took a sip of your glass of water, still reading the details on a document you promised Tay to investigate.

“No. There’s still four minutes left on the clock, pal. Now get up or I’m gonna make you get up, kay?” Sora cracked her knuckles. She was smiling and laughing. There were nearly… seven or eight guards on the ground, groaning with pain. Was it necessary to be so hard on them?

“I can barely move! Please, just forget about it. You win. Just leave me alone!” the guard said again, his face filled with purple spots. One of his hands looked fractured, and his lip was busted. Ugh. You told Sora time and time again to go easy on them. You sighed.

“Stop it, Sora. It’s obvious they can no longer fight. Besides, they won’t get stronger if you don’t give them a chance to fight back. What you’re doing right now is just cruelty.” You turned the page, not talking to her directly.

(3/?)

File: SoraWindcrestVec.jpg (114 KB, 1024x1024)

114 KB JPG

“Oh, stop being such a sanctimonious bitch! How will they get stronger if they don’t know how it feels to lose? A few broken fingers here and there is a small price to pay to maybe teach them that being useless ain’t no good, aye?” Sora’s sadistic spite could be felt just by her tone of voice.

The guards started to move away from her slightly faster, scared. You couldn’t blame them; the poor lads.

You put the papers down on the table beside you. “It’s just too much for them. That’s why I told you to go easy on them. Are you that weak that you can’t teach them how to fight without hurting them?” You said, laying out the obvious bait wide in the open.

“Huh?! The fuck you mean by that?! Come here and say it to my face!” Her attention was now fully on you. You smirked.

“Fine, fine. Everyone else, if your wounds are that serious, then please go to the infirmary. For the rest of you, you’re free to stay to watch us spar. Take notes, if you can.” You got up from your seat, stretching. It was all too easy to provoke her anger. Not only would this help you clear your mind from the constant stress of reading, but this would also mean the soldiers could rest and be relatively safe. Killing two birds with one stone. Ironic.

As you moved closer towards the fighting area, you saw how Sora’s smirk matched your own. “Ready to even out the score? Do you want me to go easy on you like last time?” You taunted her once more. You saw how her hands shook. Bingo.

“Oh, now it’s on, bitch. I’m gonna beat you so bad, you have no fucking idea.” Her eyes were wide open, her teeth baring. Half a smile, half pure ire; eerie.

What a weird fucking friendship you had with her.

> Let’s go all out, using your weapons and semblance with no limit. Let’s give a nice show to the underlings.
> If you limited yourself on purpose, you would probably improve in the future. Fight without using your weapons. A little cocky, but Sora needed to be humbled.
> Focus only on defense, not even bothering to attack back. This would rattle her and look very good on you with the grunts, should it succeed.
> Other (Write-in)

>>6111449
>Focus only on defense, not even bothering to attack back. This would rattle her and look very good on you with the grunts, should it succeed.
Your brain is just as great a weapon as your fists or Dust. Losing your cool and letting your opponent get in your head makes you worse at fighting. We can still use our weapon to block-- and if we keep Sora off-balance using our wits and semblance, we can probably tire her out without landing a single blow. We don't need to humiliate her, but since we're [Stoic], we should act like it.

>>6111449
>> Focus only on defense, not even bothering to attack back. This would rattle her and look very good on you with the grunts, should it succeed.

>>6111449
>If you limited yourself on purpose, you would probably improve in the future. Fight without using your weapons. A little cocky, but Sora needed to be humbled

>>6111449
>Focus only on defense, not even bothering to attack back. This would rattle her and look very good on you with the grunts, should it succeed.

Gonna need a dice throw, DC 19, Crit in 24 or up

Rolled 2, 8, 6 = 16 (3d10)

>>6112790

Rolled 1, 5, 3 = 9 (3d10)

>>6112790

Rolled 7, 9, 5 = 21 (3d10)

>>6112790

>>6112881
Thank merciful Brothers. Hopefully we'll get some good practice out of this.

>>6111449

You walked into the middle of the fighting arena. Plenty of White Fang grunts and soldiers were watching you both from the sides, most of them patching themselves up with bandages and bags of ice. Time to deliver some justice for all the abuse they endured at the hands of Sora.

As you stood there you saw how Sora took a fighting stance, her arms hung at her sides in a low posture. Almost as if she was ready to tackle you, yet she waited for your next move. Good choice on her part, as a few times you managed to feint her in the past. She’s learning. That’s good. Really promising.

However, in a slight twist, you decided to stay there without adopting a fighting posture. You smirked at sora, waiting for her to make the first move. You knew she hated staying still, patient. Well then, if she wanted for you to take the offensive then she could wait for as long as you liked.

“What are you waiting for then?! Are you playing with me?!” she screamed after a few tense seconds. Over the last few weeks, you had discovered more about her as a person. You knew she was impulsive and lacking in patience. She was easy to manipulate. Not that you liked doing so, but knowing that could maybe help you in the future. It made fighting her noticeably easier.

She lunged at you while unarmed. Not taking her weapons out? What an unexpected sense of honor. Or maybe it was just her pride kicking in? Most likely. She threw punches aimed at your head and stomach, a few kicks here and there aimed towards your legs. Nothing a few well-timed steps while walking backwards couldn’t handle. However, this wasn’t enough. You had to get in her head somehow.

While walking backwards and feeling her attacks nearly miss, you decided to up the ante, crossing your arms in front of your chest and smiling while still not fighting back. The whiff of the kicks and punches barely grazed your skin, and you felt their speed get faster and faster with each attack being thrown. Not enough to put you in danger, however.

“You think this is a fucking game?!” Sora said, baring her teeth in full anger. Her speed increased even more. The attacks were thrown with even more ferocity by this point, dodge after dodge. You even saw a hint of red tint in her eyes. Not uncommon. The same thing happened to you once you really got into the rhythm of a fight. Sure, it was unusual, but nothing bad ever happened afterwards. Quite the opposite, actually. You felt good, ecstatic. Alive.

Sora bent her knees slightly while putting her hands at her side. This was a fairly easy tell that she was going to use her Semblance. She could drastically increase her speed on short dashes almost on a whim. Quite dangerous if you don’t know how it works. Good thing you already had some preemptive measures for when it happened.

(1/?)

A quick acrobatic jump to your side should do the trick. The movement was easy, but the timing was the tricky part. If only Sora knew when to delay her movement, then her Semblance would make her far more dangerous. She appeared somewhat far away from where you were. A trail of wind was the only thing that you felt after her dash. Even following her with your eyes was extremely hard.

Sora turned around. Even some Grimm were less intimidating than her when she was this agitated. She even growled slightly, her hair was wild, and her pupils where fully a crimson color. It was… slightly amusing. Sure, you were dancing on the edge of a knife by fighting like this, and it wasn’t like your evasive maneuvers didn’t take effort, but you didn’t feel that much in danger. Not yet, at least.

“And now you’re laughing? I’m gonna rip your throat out, bitch.” Her voice turned slightly raspy at the end, and she bent her knees again. Time to do another quick jump. To your left now, instead of your right. You sensed a fast movement at your side. Is she chaining her dashes together now? She was fighting more seriously now, at least a little. It was just too funny. Focusing entirely on defense while knowing her from past sparring sessions made it almost impossible for her to touch you if you really focused on it. Saying you could read her like a book was almost an understatement.

Another quick dash. A tall jump would surely prevent your pattern from becoming recognizable. “I got you now.” You heard her say. As you turned your head in the air to watch her, you saw she was already in position to dash again. Trying to catch you on your way down? Sora was now using strategy? You felt proud. You had told her many times to use her head more in fights. It felt nice that she was taking that into account. Not that it was enough to beat you, though.

Luckily, you still knew a few tricks here and there. You saw how she prepared to dash towards your landing point, but what if you decided not to land? With a quick motion of your hands, you took out one of your sabers, using your Semblance both on it and on yourself to lower the weight of both targets. A nice trick you had developed recently.

(2/?)

Your descent was softly halted as you stood on top of your floating saber. Together, you and your weapon probably weighed less than a feather. A gush of wind came under you as Sora attacked, helping you move as it gently pushed you away. It felt amusing, flying and spinning through the air. You couldn’t stop laughing.

You heard the rattling of chains as something approached you from the ground at an unnerving speed. It was Sora, using her weapon to attack you from a distance. With your other saber, you managed to unsheathe it and barely block the slash. The force pushed you towards the roof in a wild manner. Using your Semblance, you ‘changed’ both your weight and that of your weapons to help you maneuver more easily while in the air. While landing on the roof, you stabbed one of your sabers into it, helping you remain there upside-down as you lifted your head to see what happened ‘above’ you. Below you? Confusing.

“Ohhh, looks like someone was forced to use her weapon first! I think that counts as a win for me, right?” Sora said while spinning both her daggers with chains at her sides, slashing the ground with each rotation. She looked so smug. You knew she was taunting you. You knew you could ignore her words, but…

A win for her? What was she talking about? She hadn’t touched you yet. If anything, you managed to block her attack. You blocked it on reflex, sure, but this wasn’t getting her closer to victory in the least. How delusional that she thought she was winning. You wanted to teach her a lesson. She beating you? Yeah, no. You wouldn’t let that happen. It was time to humble her.

> Stay on the roof, taunting her while deliberately choosing not to attack. Try to use your weapons as little as possible to show her that she isn’t a threat.
> The hats were off. Time to attack her at range. What could she do? You had a bow. Her chains weren’t that long to touch you from her vantage point. It was time to show her a tiny fraction of your potential if you decided to fight seriously.
> You felt a strong urge to just go and beat her to death. Probably just your adrenaline fueling the feeling. Nevertheless, going on the offensive and defeating her in melee range would clearly demonstrate your superiority in combat.
> Other (Write in)

And also, feel free to add any extra-flavor to the chosen option

>>6113408
>The hats were off. Time to attack her at range. What could she do? You had a bow. Her chains weren’t that long to touch you from her vantage point. It was time to show her a tiny fraction of your potential if you decided to fight seriously.
Allow her one touch on our chest before releasing our skills

>>6113408
> Stay on the roof, taunting her while deliberately choosing not to attack. Try to use your weapons as little as possible to show her that she isn’t a threat.
She's either coping, or trying to reverse-psychology us is into slipping up. Taking the bait is a bad plan, as is showing her more of our tricks than we need to. Not sure what else to do for flavor, though.

>>6113408
>Stay on the roof, taunting her while deliberately choosing not to attack. Try to use your weapons as little as possible to show her that she isn’t a threat.
Maybe we can throw away our armor/protection /outer clothing to show off?

>>6113785
Supporting

Gonna need another dice check. Best of 3, DC 17, Crit for 20.

And also, next update we're moving to a new thread, I'll update y'all

Rolled 4, 7, 7 = 18 (3d10)

>>6114633

Rolled 5, 10, 1 = 16 (3d10)

>>6114633

Rolled 10, 10, 6 = 26 (3d10)

>>6114633

Nice crit!

Updated thread here: >>6115274