Chapter 11 - Disturbance

An entire week passed.

Red spent most of this time in the library, concentrating on details and trying to find leads.

With no progress so far.

Even the book about the man who stared at the sun didn't give him that illusion again. He doubted whether he actually had a hallucination.

The lack of progress resulted in his bed tossing each night, so he got into the habit of journaling. Like magic, it helped to a certain extent.

That aside, Ruby wanted to hang out. Apparently, Yang had some kind of exams and couldn't pick her up.

They walked through a few unexplored areas, and Ruby showed him her favourite type of music. Compared to her sweet and outgoing personality.

She loved metal and hard rock.

Red's ears almost bled when he tried to listen to it. Too powerful and incomprehensible to understand.

After they hung out for a bit. Ruby had to leave, and they separated.

He resumed his usual routine, and Sunday gradually came. The lack of results quite vexed him and he decided to spend the day differently.

Red had two agendas for the day.

Explore the areas he hadn't been to and are not as popular as others. And one very important one.

His age.

At first, he thought that his body returned to right before he left home. Yet, he already had developed his vocal chords.

The old man somehow forged him an identity. Still, he'd like to know what's happening to his body.

Although he couldn't know for sure. Thankfully, the medicine sector exceeded the level of casual X-ray and people here didn't care too much for safety regulations on these things.

He found a good hospital and went in just to realize how packed it was.

In the end, he managed to snatch himself a reservation later in that day and decided to explore first.

A certain bar became his first target.

Listening to random people and gossip did come in handy for once. An information broker might be hiding there.

Of course, he wasn't dumb enough to try to find out.

At least before he got an aura. Goons and guns could end him in seconds if he pissed off an underground force.

The bar turns into a nightclub at night, barring young from entering. But they allowed them during the day.

It worked almost like a restaurant. People could order snacks and just hang out around each other as the dance floor played more calm music.

He snagged a place near the bar and ordered a casual drink.

Sure enough, people talked here way more than in normal places. He could already imagine what kind of information flowed here during the night.

If he had money. He'd hire someone to just sit here and listen.

One news he heard lately made him worry. Roman Torchwick managed to gain enough power to establish a powerful syndicate.

It grew from a small crime family on a level that even the councilmen do not wish to cross needlessly out of nowhere. Moreover, they had endless resources.

From the news, they even had the technology from Atlas.

And those were from surface level nows. Almost no one knew what kind of power it hid.

Although the members of the syndicate laid dormant most of the time, whenever someone challenged their dominance, they would turn into beasts.

Pure annihilation.

From the foundations and the streets they controlled, up to the families they had.

No one received mercy, not even the pets.

The bar especially flowed with rumors about their deeds. In fact, they encouraged others to talk about them to establish dominance.

Red continued to listen to the gossip.

Few hours later he got up, paid and went to get his checkup. The line didn't shrink whatsoever, but the doctor took him in right away.

While the examination took a lot of time.

He paid a bonus to the doctor. A practice that became common for the more wealthy.

The shrinking balance made him frown a bit, though. Maybe the old man had endless wealth, but he did not.

Just his salary got to the high end.

But compared to the truly wealthy, he wouldn't be able to even buy one of their watches. Passive source of income would be nice.

After an hour and a half, the checkup ended, and he'd have to wait two weeks before he got his results in the mail.

Free, he decided to hit up the library.

This time he picked up the books on economy. The overall model did resemble his old world, but some things differed.

Here, power laid in dust and pure technology. A lot of casual innovations didn't exist, and he wondered if he could replicate some.

Not to create and sell them.

That'd be not only insane but time consuming.

The amount of trouble that would come out of it he wouldn't be able to calculate at all. Especially with the syndicates gaining more power than the light side of the city.

Red already had a few ideas for patents.

But that would have to wait till he had some kind of power or reputation. He might be able to rely on the old man, but the background he possessed could be high or low.

He didn't know and didn't want to implicate him.

Not to mention that he'd have to share the profits with the old man. And while he was grateful to him.

Money meant power to move the world.

One of the powers he had to master in order to fight anything or anyone he wished.

In fact, he wondered if one of the side of the hidden masterminds of the world belonged to the Schnee family.

Wealthiest and most powerful family in the world.

Be it on the surface or in the dark. No one could compare to the family that basically ruled the entire world.

One rough decision and the society would crumble.

They must have had some kind of role in ruling the world, but the inconsistencies with Faunus didn't make sense to him.

Maybe they were the enemy side?

Either way, he had to watch out for them more. Although based in the city, Atlas, their power extended to basically every council member in the entire kingdom.

His grasp over the machinations and workings of the nations grew.

Maybe in a while he would have enough basic information to start doing things his way, but that would still have to wait.

He still had to solve his urgent problem.

Aura, he didn't awaken yet despite training by himself. But he could already feel it.

During the days he arrived. He didn't even feel or know how to approach the awakening for aura.

Pushing the body to its limits and breaking a certain barrier became a theory, however, whenever he pushed his body to the limit or resolved a certain wall.

He only felt the connection grow in strength.

Not even budging. The path to awakening would take some time.

His own process didn't ever get documented. The total lack of public records about aura also bothered him.

Maybe the detailed information existed in the academies, nevertheless the public one lacked details and ways to accomplish it, which he found ridiculous.

He wondered if everyone had an aura. Would the matter of attracting more Grimm even matter?

Huntsmen and huntresses attract Grimm because they are more succulent and attractive, but what if everyone just became as attractive?

Such a project would boost the power of humanity.

Maybe no one thought about it yet. But if one day he could control a large portion of human land, then such a project might not be too outlandish.

More so if he could attract the Grimm from all over the world.

As a side effect, other continents would lack Grimm, making it much safer to develop other industries.

Alas, all of this would remain inside his head.

At least until he gained enough power…

He put the books back in and got ready to leave. The librarian kept reading books as always, paying him almost no attention.

There was still some time before the Sun went down, so he decided to take a stroll.

'Yang?'

Group of people walked nearby. The long, cascading hair drew his attention. He shrugged it off and decided to hit up the bar again.

Maybe he would get even more information before they kicked him out.

Red walked up and ordered a drink.

A strawberry sunrise. He wondered how it tasted that both the sisters loved it so much.

Sweet.

Not too much, but to a point where he didn't enjoy it.

Drinking it in small portions made it better, and he wanted to spend a lot of time here, anyway.

"HOW DARE YOU?!"

BOOM

Time came to a halt, Red's body screamed at him to get away.

Moments later, his chair shattered to pieces, a body broke through straight next to the bartender, who looked unfazed.

"You'll get used to it. It happens a few times a month." He said to Red when he caught him staring.