Ch. 4 Hero? Not Particularly

"You know what?" Junior throws papers across the floor of his office. "Fuck it!!"

He stands up and walks out of his office. It's the day his club will finally open and he hasn't picked a name yet. So he goes to the club to announce it.

He gets out and everyone in the room stops what they are doing. They have their red ties and sunglasses on. Most also have black hats.

"Alright boys! I have a few announcements to make!" Junior shouts and jumps onto the bar counter wit Bazooka in hand. He points it at a man up at the dj booth. "You! You are gonna be wearing that!"

Junior points his bay to a black bear head with red highlights. "And you will be called Deadb3ar. The e in bear is replaced with a 3. Consider it a promotion with a salary to match"

Junior the leans on Bazooka and looks to the rest of the men. "I'm gonna be leaving for a few hours before we open up tonight. I want only the people I designated to guard this place to be here when I get back. This isn't a social gathering spot for the family, that's in the back" He points over his shoulder with his thumb. "And I've decided on a name for the club"

Everyone intently listens. It's been a suspenseful wait to finally hear the name of the club they all worked on to build and get ready. "I don't want to use the Xiong name for various reasons. And since I'm the boss, this will be called Junior's Club"

Junior internally cringes a small amount. A little over a year and he couldn't come up with a better name. A damn shame. But maybe it's okay to keep a few cannon things.

Junior hops off the bar and tosses Bazooka to the bartender who was getting things set up at the bar. "Keep her back there just to be safe"

As he walks out he turns around just before he exits the automatic doors. "An please, don't burn this place down while I'm gone"

Junior walks out of the building in his suit. The white undershirt, black vest, pants, and jacket. He also has a pair of black gloves with him as well, although he prefers to only wear the glove over his left hand so that the X ring is shown off. He doesn't have a hat but he has a unique pair of red sunglasses.

As he steps out into the sun he's glad he has the sunglasses. "Damn it's been a minute since I've been outside"

He walks down the street to exit. Vale's industrial district. He hasn't really left since he went and visited a few people. Namely the Vale police department.

"I should probably get a car. Walking is a bit of a time consumer" Junior comments as he walks down the various streets to get to the commercial district.

"HEEEELP!"

Junior hears a feminine scream. "I should 'probably' look into that"

And so Junior gets off the street and goes through some alleys at a decent pace. Not to fast, but also not too slow. He can hear a woman sobbing as he gets closer until he rounds the final corner.

He sees around 5 men standing above a young looking teenager who is laying on the ground in the cradle position.

"Shut up bitch!" One of the men shout and kicks the downed girl.

Junior strolls towards the men. "That's no way to talk to a lady… unless she deserves it"

The biggest guy there, around 6'5", turns around and sees Junior. "Get outta here beansprout. This ain't no ball"

Junior loosens his tie a little. "I would certainly hope not. This is no way to dance with a woman"

"Wise guy are yuh?" The big man steps forward along with two others who look like your generic thug who would stab you and then run away. The other two put their heel on the woman's side and grin with some weird sadistic glee.

"I don't know about wise, but I'd bet I'm certainly smarter than the 5 of you dumbasses" Junior swipes his hair back and out of his face, he couldn't get a haircut quicker today. "Do you bozos even know who I am?"

"Why in the fuck would we know some snob strolling down alleys? Just buzz off already pretty boy. Or we'll be forced to make you" The big guy folds his arms across his chest and the others follow his lead.

"Why do we have to fight? Just let the lady go and I'll get out of your hair, if you had any that is" Junior smirks as he looks over all of their bald heads.

The big guy sneers at Junior. "Alright, that's it. I'll remove you from this scene myself then"

Junior watches the guy walk up to him. "Cmon, I'd rather not get blood on my suit. It costs more than you'll make in a year"

The big and bald guy cracks his knuckles. "Then I'll make sure to destroy it!"

Junior shrugs. "If this is the way it's gonna be, so be it"

The woman can feel the heels digging into the back of her ribs. She looks through one squinted eye at her savior. It's a 1 v 5 so sh doesn't have much hope. But this is her only chance to get out of this. She doesn't want to find out what these men will do to her if they are given any more time.

Junior watches as a fist comes flying at his face, so he simply moves his head to the left. "I'm sorry, but was that really your best punch? And I must ask, what were you planning on doing to that girl?"

"You just got a lucky dodge Boyscout. And it's nunna yer business" The bald guy goes to uppercut Juniors stomach but it's blocked by juniors palm as he catches the fist.

"Well I think you are making it my business. And I ask so that I know how badly I should discipline you, but since you are attacking me I guess I know" Junior squeezes the fist extremely tightly.

The big guy winces as he feels the bones in his hand creaking and crying in pain under the pressure. "What the fuck are you guys doing?! Attack him!"

The two men flinch for a second before taking knives out of their pockets and run towards Junior.

"Cmon, I said no blood" Junior complains before kicking the big guy in the stomach.

The big guy pukes out saliva as he falls to his knees and holds his stomach. The two idiots running with knives reach Junior and both slash towards him.

As the knives get towards Juniors body, one at his neck and the other at his stomach, he simply leans back and let the knives go past him.

But the idiots don't stop there. They go for a backhanded swing. And this time Junior grabs the knives in their hands and forces them down into their own thighs.

The two men screams. One falls to the side and leans against a brick wall while the other falls back and lands next to the big boy.

Junior looks down and checks his suit. "Good, no blood on me yet" He then looks at the two with their heels on the lady. He doesn't say a word but he brings his left foot up and drives it down atop the big boys skull and forces it into the pavement that cracks like a spiders web. "Do you two also have knives?"

The two still standing baboons look at each other before pulling out their own knives. But they don't aim the blades at Junior, but at the lady below them.

"Really? Trying to hold her hostage? It's a shame I don't even really care about her, you idiots disrespected Hei Xiong and are gonna pay no matter what. If you hurt her I'll just make sure you suffer 10 times worse" Junior cracks his neck.

"H-Hei Xiong? B-But that old fool is dead!"

"That old fool certainly is. But I'm his son, Hei "Junior" Xiong" Junior reaches into his jacket.

"D-don't move!" One of the two shouts. "We will certainly slit this bitch!"

Junior rolls his eyes. "With what hand?"

The men get confused. "The hand that's holding the knives, duh~"

Junior doesn't respond but quickly throws something towards the two men.

*Boom* *Boom*

Two small explosions go off.

Junior had thrown 2 fire dust crystals at their hands. And boy did the two idiots sing as their hands were either burnt to uselessness or just completely blown off.

He made sure the explosions would hurt the girl, it's mainly due to his training and understanding of how dust works.

"Now, how far should I go… hey girly!" Junior calls out to the still silently crying girl. "Have they suffered enough for what they were going to do to you?"

Junior watches as the red haired girl shakes her head slowly.

"Darn, guess I'll just have to stop at the dry cleaners then" Junior grabs the back of the collar of the big guy and chucks him at the two idiots holding their hands and crying loudly.

The big guy crashes into the two and lays ontop of them as the two idiots flail about.

"Now I'll start with you" He looks at the guy leaning on the wall who shakes his head and holds his hand out.

Junior smirks and nods as he walks up to him. Junior doesn't even bother using aura to make his punches heavier. He makes sure this guy looses a few teeth and will struggle breathing for the next possibly few months.

The man lays on the ground slumped over, with the knife still stuck in his thigh. Junior doesn't care if they die, it's just be a hassle to deal with when he literally just became the official boss.

He goes over to the guy laying on the ground who is rocking side to side as he holds his leg.

"Oh? Did I not sheath the knife properly? My bad" Junior crouches down and pushes the knife all the way in down to the handle. The knif was only about 2/3rds of the way in before.

Junior then proceeds to grab the man's face and drive it down into the pavement. He wasn't satisfied with the first so he picked the guys head up and drove it down about 3 more times.

Junior takes his hand off the guy's face and looks at his palm. "You just had to cough up some blood" He wipes the blood on the man's gray shirt.

With these two idiots taken care of he walks over towards the lady who still hasn't gotten up. "You can leave now, this is only going to get messier"

The short haired woman looks up at Junior with tears running down her cheeks. She tries to get up but isn't able to, or she doesn't want to. Junior doesn't really care.

"Got a name? And what we're you doing in a place like this?" Junior asks while he walks past her and goes towards the pile up of bodies.

The girl opens her mouth and a quiet voice reaches Junior's ears. "T-thank you. M-my name is L-Lavi"

Junior smacks the big guy awake. "What hand is dominant" He demands.

"W-what?" The guy is clearly in a daze.

Junior looks back at the girl. "It's nice to meet you L-Lavi"

He then turns back towards the man. "If you are even able to write, what hand do you use?"

"M-my right hand" The big guy says with his eyes barely open.

"Good" Junior puts his foot on the guys stomach and presses down. All three men groan beneath his heel. He turns back towards Lavi. "Now why is a girl walking down these parts alone? Don't girls usually use the rule of two or something?"

The girl sits up and wipes her eyes.

Junior tosses his handkerchief from his suit to her. She catches it and wipes her tears. "Thank y-you. And I was here because I-"

"Aggghhhhhh!!!!!" The big guy screams as Junior breaks his thumb.

"Shit up bitch! The lady is speaking! And you still have 4 more fingers to go" Junior shouts down at the big idiot. He turns looks over his shoulder. "Sorry about him, he's just being a baby. Please go on"

The woman looks at Junior in fear but doesn't try to get away. She tightly holds the handkerchief to her hoodie just under her small bust. "I was here because m-my father was last seen near here… Mr. Xiong Sir"

Junior rolls his eyes. "Just call me Junior, how old are you? I shouldn't be that much older than you"

The woman moves back towards the rock wall and leans against it. "I-I'm 18"

"No shit!" Junior exclaims. "You look 16 at most!"

Junior looks down at the guy. "Did you know you were assaulting a legal aged woman? Or were you hoping she was underage you pedophile fuck!!" He snaps the guy's index finger, and the guy shouts again.

"Ahem. Sorry about that. You just don't look your age. What is your fathers name? I happen to know a lot about what goes around here" Junior says to the lady.

"H-his name is Earl Bole" The woman says with some unease. Clearly affected by the way the big guy's fingers are bent and dangling.

"Hmmmm…" Junior wiggles the guys middle finger as he thinks. "Have you heard of an Earl Bole?" He asks the crying man who may or may not have pissed himself.

"N-no" The man cries out.

"Tis a shame, I would have left you you're middle finger" Junior says just before breaking it.

He looks at the lady. "You're name is Lavi Bole?"

"Yes sir- I… I mean Junior" She wraps her arms around her legs that are covered by ripped jeans.

Junior scrunches his nose when he looks down at the big guy who actually did piss himself and the idiot below him. "I'm sorry to inform you that your father is dead. And has been dead for quite some time. Why are you looking for him now girly?"

The woman's eyes mist over as tears flood down her face. "W-what? B…. but you… you asked the man if he k-knew my f-father! How do you know he died?!" She asks in a crackly and shaky quiet voice.

"I was gonna break his finger either way. And I know Earl is dead because he died along with my father. I don't know your father died, I just know he is dead. My father died due to him mishandling some dust shipments. It seems like you didn't know, I'm sorry" Junior bows his head, and as he does so he breaks the guy's ring finger.

"Gahhh hahahhhhh~!!!! Fuck!!!!" The man shouts.

"Watch your gods damned fucking whore mouth you fucking cock sucker! There is a lady present!" Junior moves his heel to the guys mouth. Now the man's screams are stifled a bit.

Lavi drops her head against her knees and cries loudly. "H-he really is dead then~!" She cries.

Junior snaps the last finger of the guy and pushes the man's teeth into his mouth before kicking him off the other two. "Now you can enjoy wanking off with your non-dominant hand. That'll teach you"

He then looks at the two idiots below him. One is soaked in piss, some might be his own and some might not be, while the other looks like he's about to piss himself.

"P-please! You've already destroyed my hand! I've learned my lesson! Ple-hehehease~! No more!" The non piss guy pleads.

Junior leans down and looks at his hand that looks like an over cooked brisket. "Whenever people say they learned their lesson it means they really didn't"

After saying that Junior stands up and drives his right foot down on the man's left kneecap. There is a sickening *pop* and *crack* sound. Junior turns towards the piss boy and also breaks his kneecap.

"Whew!" Junior dusts his hands off only to realize he has some blood splattered along the left jacket sleeve and his glove. "Damn" he mutters.

He walks over towards the girl and crouches down. There are a few moans and groans from the beatup men but he elects to ignore them like the piss ants they are. "So, I saved you. Now I didn't exactly do it for free. I even got blood on my jacket"

The girl looks up with tears in her eyes. "W-what?"

"I know you aren't exactly from around here because Earl was in the upper district with Jimmy in the past. So what can you offer me as payment?" Junior asks politely.

The girl sniffles and tries her best to disappear but knows she isn't able to get away. "I d-don't have any money"

Junior shakes his head. "Look, this isn't some porno lady. And I don't want money. I've already got plenty of that. I guess I should have started this bit a little differently" He stands up and offers his right hand to help Lavi up. "What is important to me is information. As long as you can tell me something I don't know I don't mind the effort I put into saving you"

Lavi wearily looks up at Junior's gray eyes with her fiery orange eyes. "In… formation?"

"A little slow I see" Junior leaves his hand outstretched. "Yes. Information. I know you aren't from Vale so you must know something I don't. Especially if you are the daughter of Earl"

Lavi shakily takes Juniors hand and he helps her up. She still has to lean against the brick wall but at least she isn't on the ground.

"Wh-what do you want to know?" She asks with uncertainty as she wipes her eyes as tears continue to fall.

"Fuck it, whatever" Junior rolls his eyes. "Do you have a place to stay?"

"N-no. And I've just arrived in Vale today…" She holds the handkerchief in both hands to her face.

"And you don't have any money?" Junior wants to make sure he understands her situation completely.

Lavi doesn't respond but continues to cry.

"I'll just assume that's the case then" Junior rubs his forehead with his right palm. "Alright, here's the deal. How about you stay with me? At least until you are able to get on your own feet. Can you tell me where you are from?"

Lavi just shakes her head.

"Fine, be that way. Can you walk or do you need me to carry you? I still need to go and get some things done" Junior rests his right hand on his hip.

Lavi moves away from the wall and lowers her hands so she can look at Junior. "Why? Why are you being so kind to me?"

"Because I'm in a good mood today. My club is opening up tonight" Junior smiles.

Lavi looks up and can practically see Junior's teeth sparkle. She has to look pretty far up since she is only 5'1" tall. "You… own a club?"

"I own a lot more than a club. But we can have plenty of time to get to know eachother if you take my offer. I can even offer you a job" Junior can already imagine the uses of having someone like Lavi working under him.

"I-I'm sorry. I… think I need some time to… find myself. I just found out my father is dead…" Lavi looks down at the ground.

"Take your time. But don't fall into the darkness. It's hard to get out of it once you fall in" Junior advises. In his last life he went through many rough patches. And a few stuck with him until this life.

Lavi nods. "I suppose I don't have very many options…"

"Sure you do" Junior holds up his index finger. "You can take my offer" He holds up his middle finger next. "You can deny my offer" Then comes his ring finger. "You can find some other job here in Vale" Next is his pinky. "You might even be able to smuggle yourself onto a boat and go back to where you came from" and lastly he waves his hand in the air lazily. "Or you could just do whatever the hell you want"

Lavi's tears begin to slow but don't stop. "C-can I follow you into Vale"

"Darling, we're already in Vale. Just not the part everyone thinks of. I'll show you around the more populated area though. Just follow me" Junior motions for her to follow.

When Lavi takes a step forward he notices that she is slightly pudgy around the stomach. He doesn't particularly care, but from his knowledge her body seems a bit off. In the end though, it's not for him to point out.

Junior leads the way out of the industrial part and towards the commercial district. He slowly his walking pace down to Levi's to not leave her behind.

As they walk they encounter more and more people that give them some weird looks.

"Ah, right" Junior takes his jacket off and puts his glove inside its pocket. "People don't normally walk around with blood on their sleeves.

Lavi just gives a weird look to Junior.

"What? It's not like I killed anyone" Junior looks down at his short and thin faced companion.

"Are you sure about that" She sarcastically says. Her tears ending had stopped falling but she still clutched onto the handkerchief and held it to her chest. Her hoodie looking to be about 3 sizes too big.

"Oh? Is this the real Lavi? I was wondering if you had a more burning personality" Junior grins.

Lavi looks away and pouts as she moves her hood up over her head. Her eyes are red from how much she cried and rubbed them.

The rest of their walk is silent and they do get some looks but it's mostly from how they are dressed.

Junior carrying his suit jacket over his left arm. His unique sunglasses, and the many rings on his fingers. And Lavi wearing an oversized black hoodie with ripped blue jeans and tennis shoes.

They were walking close enough to each other for others to assume that they were walking together. But they looked more like father and daughter to most.

"Well this is our first stop. And hopefully it'll be the stop we make at the end as well" Junior says outside of a dry cleaners.

Lavi looks around and at the shop with great interest and curiosity.

"Have you not seen a dry cleaners before? I don't think they're that interesting" Junior shrugs. Besides, this one is where he runs a bit of gambling in the back.

Lavi shakes her head. "I'm just…" She moves the hood further down her face. "… I don't get out much"

Junior sighs. "Same" He takes his sunglasses off and hands them to Lavi.

She looks at him like he's doing something weird and unnatural.

"Put these on. It's you're eyes. It looks like you're as high as a kite" Junior points at his own.

Lavi carefully takes the sunglasses. "You have cool eyes…" She murmurs as she puts the sunglasses on.

Junior remembers his full gray eyes. They are close to silver, but not quite. He wouldn't exactly call them cool. What he wouldn't mind being called cool is himself in general, but he will take the compliment.

He opens the door and walks in with Lavi entering close behind him.

In his last life he would have held the door open for a woman to enter first. But now he is the boss of a crime family so he has to do certain things differently. And he also made sure to give Lavi his glasses so people know not to mess with her.

"Graz! How you doing? Business doing good?" Junior greets the middle aged man behind the counter.

The man raises an eyebrow at Lavi. "It's been excellent. And business surprisingly picks up at night. Who's the little miss"

Junior sets his jacket on the counter. "I met her a little bit ago, she's a bit lost and I offered to show her around Vale. I need this cleaned, I'll be back in a few hours to pick it up, express order"

Graz nods. "You got it" He takes the jacket and sees the blood and raises an eyebrow. "Lost eh?"

"Yeah. And I had to swish some piss ants along the way. I really didn't want to dirty my suit but hey. What could I do?" Junior shrugs before walking back towards the door.

Lavi looks around the inside of the dry cleaners. There isn't much room between the door and the counter where the man, Graz, is standing behind. It's air conditioned and behind the counter and Daz are a bunch of clothes wrapped in plastic bags. The clothes are hanging from the ceiling but are on some sort of contraption, it's basically a conveyer belt.

"Cmon Lavi. There are more interesting places to go" Junior says as he opens the door.

Lavi turns towards the door and walks up to him. "It's cool in here"

"You don't know what air conditioning is?" Junior asks as he steps outside and puts his hands in his pockets.

Lavi narrows her eyes. "No. What is it?"

Junior looks down at the red head. "You've gotta be….. Air conditioning basically makes the inside of a building colder than outside the building. Speaking of, aren't you hot wearing that hoodie?"

Lavi looks down and to the side. "I am used to much hotter conditions than this"

Junior begins walking away. "Whatever, suit yourself. We're going to the next place"

Lavi walks next to him on his left side. She looks up and down the streets at the various buildings and cars going down the street, as well as the people. "Where are we going next?"

Junior wonders how she can have such a soft and quiet voice. "We are going to the barbers. I need a haircut before tonight and I want to get it done and out of the way"

"You don't have your mom cut your hair?" Lavi asks as she looks up at Junior's decently long and wavy black hair.

Junior shrugs. "My mother died a long time ago. And there was no way in hell I would let my father or one of his mistresses touch my hair"

"Mistresses?!" Lavi says back in shock.

Junior looks down at the girl. "Yeah, and I'd rather not talk about them. They long gone as well" He just doesn't want to remember the way his body acted before he was able to take over at 18. It wasn't exactly very good.

Lavi lowers her head. "Oh… sorry… I didn't mean to-"

"It's not like I'm upset or wanna hide anything, so relax" Junior takes a left with Lavi following him.

Lavi rubs the handkerchief with her thumbs. "Uhm… my mother. She also passed away…. But it was about a little over a week ago…"

Junior winces. "That's rough. You couldn't stay at home? What made you come and try to find your old man?"

Lavi lowers her head more, she's practically admiring the pavement and the slight teeth marks on Juniors heel. "My mother was very sick. And on one of the rare occasions she could talk she told me where my father was. So I figured I'd try to find him. But by the time I was ready to leave…. my mother had already passed away. And it's not like I had anywhere else to go so I decided to search for my father…"

"Ah" Junior looks down the street. "That's… sad to say the least" He doesn't really care. People die all the time in this world, it's just unfortunate when you hear about it from someone that had it happen to those close to them.

"And now? I…. I'm not sure what to do…." Lavi looks up at the bright blue sky. "I don't want to go back"

"You can always work for me" Junior reminds her. "I'm sure I can find a spot for you somewhere"

"But… I'm not sure I can stay…" Lavi says.

Junior wonders what is going on inside her head. "Why the hell not? If you work with me I'll make sure you can stay"

Lavi looks at Junior with hopeful eyes. "R-really?"

"Yeah. Why the hell wouldn't you be able to stay anyway? Do you plan on doing illegal shit?" Junior can't even see this girl hurting a fly.

"Illegal? No no no" She adamantly shakes her head. "At least… I don't think I'm illegal"

"You?" Junior raises an eyebrow. "I think you have some explaining to do"

Lavi quickly looks side to side and spots an empty alley. She grabs Juniors arm and tugs on it.

Junior doesn't even budge an inch as the girl tries to pull him. "What? You want to go down there for some privacy? Yeah, there's ears everywhere out here" Junior says, and he knows that most of the ears are his own men.

He allows Lavi to pull him along and they get a decent way into the alley. Junior leans his back against the wall and looks down at the girl. "So what did you want to tell me that is so secret?"

"It's. Uhm. It's easier to show" Lavi quietly says as she moves her hands to the bottom of her hoodie and moves it slightly away from her body.

A long and fluffy fox tail is freed from the hoody and Lavi grabs it and brings it to her chest. She doesn't look up at Junior in fear that he would be mad at her for basically lying to him or that he hates Faunus.

"Hahahahaha!"

Lavi looks up with a stunned expression and sees Junior laughing with his right hand over his face.

"Sorry, sorry" Junior shakes his head as his laughter dies down. "I'm not laughing at you. I'm just laughing at the fact you thought it was illegal to be a Faunus"

Lavi hides her face in her tail with only her eyes poking through the fur. "It's not?"

"Hell no it's not" Junior practically shouts. "Sure they don't get treated right here, but it's better than Atlas!"

"Are you sure?" Lavi carefully asks.

"Yes, I'm sure" Junior drops his hand but a smile still is stuck on his face. "Is that why you have looked pudgy this entire time?"

"Exc-use me?" Lavi glares at him.

"Don't blame me! I wasn't the one trying to his a tail" Junior holds his hands up in the air. "Now if you are done making me laugh I'd like to get to my appointments today"

"Appointments?" Lavi still isn't over the fact Junior called her pudgy.

"Yeah, and the first one is getting my hair cut. You can leave your tail out, not many people really care about Faunus when they're in public. It's only when us Humans outnumber you and get the whole mob mentality thing that we actively try and hurt you. Although there are special cases. But don't worry about that" Junior begins to exit the alley.

Lavi is filled with many different emotions. Anger, surprise, shyness, and fear being a few. But she shakes her thoughts away and runs to catch up to Junior. She holds out the handkerchief. "H-here. Thank you for letting me use this"

Junior takes it and stuffs it in his front pocket. "Don't mention it" He also spots her tail moving arrhythmically behind her, the tail matches her hair color and the tip is orange like her eyes.

They both enter back onto the street and make their way to the barber.