11

It was dark.

Utterly without light.

But I wasn't sleeping, or closing my eyes.

CLANG

My shield rose up and deflected a strike I detected at the last moments, the intensity of the blows forcing me to rely on my senses and instincts more often than not.

I launched a series of slashes at my foe, hoping to overwhelm them only to curse as my blade was nearly wrenched from my arm in a near textbook perfect flourish, forcing me to disengage or risk losing my blade.

And then they were upon me, a series of expertly aimed strikes moving to attack any vital pint they could either through the point of a thrust of the slash of a strike.

But I held on, forcing myself to listen to each minute sound, of the step of their boots, of the faint song of the blade as it passed through the air, of the click of a gun directly behind me…

Blast.

I parried the next strike and as I did spun into a crouch, my attacker's strike striking nothing but empty air just as I heard the distinctive quite cough of the gun going off.

CRACK

My foe stumbled backwards, caught completely off guard by the projectile smashing into them, clearly cold-cocked by the blow.

By the sound alone I could tell that had hit something painful, and normally I'd be stopping to offer my assistance at this point. But if I did that now it would defeat the purpose of the whole exercise.

I rolled to my feet and flung myself back at my opponent, leading with my shield as I tackled them to the ground as they let out a startled cry, the sword in my right hand held flush against their throat.

"Time!" Tob roared out, causing the two of us to freeze in place.

I heard the distinctive cough of Peter filling the room. "Two minutes and twenty eight seconds." He announced, sounding apologetic as he did so.

I let out a groan at his announcement.

God damn it, not again.

"Alright you two, front and centre." The Old Bastard's voice called out, the sound of his wheelchair rolling to the front of the room reaching my ears. "And take your damn blinders off laddie."

I removed the bandana from over my eyes and blinked rapidly as the all too familiar blinding lights stuck my once covered eyes before reality reasserted itself once more.'

I was standing on the floor of Peter's Grimm Studies classroom, a scattering of obstacles placed seemingly at random on the floor that thankfully, this time at least, I hadn't tripped up on. Sitting in his wheelchair with his ever-present blanket over his legs Tob looked at me with a slight frown on his face, shaking his head as he did so. In his hands was his rifle, loaded with expanding bean bag rounds which he'd been firing at us at random intervals during the match.

Standing beside him was Peter, looking far more encouraging than Tob's scowl with a wide smile just poking out from under his bushy moustache. In his hands were a series of lengths of cord that had been fed through the rooms, which could be raised to ankle height if he chose to pull on them, a constant danger in the face of our footing.

Two of my other teammates had taken a seat on the desks on the staggered steps where the students for the day's class would usually take their notes, having already undergone today's gauntlet, with one already well adept in the art, while the other took to it like a fish to water with the proper instruction.

The only one who was really still struggling with this exercise was…

"Pyrrha! You're doing it again lassie!" Tob roared, shaking his rifle at my very repentant looking partner, who was now sporting what was looking to be a very healthy looking bruise on her left cheek. "You've got to stop drowning out your other senses!"

Peter nodded solemnly, sighing as he looked at Pyrrha. "You're reliance on your semblance is quite a crutch my dear, and it could be exploited quite handily if one was clever about it, as Tob has quite clearly demonstrated." He finished, chortling at the end.

You see, Pyrrha's semblance of polarity doesn't just let her control metal, it also acts as a kind of radar-sonar amalgam. Long story short if you're within a certain range and there's metal then Pyrrha can instinctively keep track of it.

We actually tested out just how precise her metal sense was with the help of one of the blackout bandanas.

It's damn near eerie watching her weave out of the way of blows and bullets she can't even see.

Unfortunately, as Tob and Peter were quick to point out, this has also become something of fatal flaw for Pyrrha.

Because while fighting enemies who have some form of metal on them may lead to a distinct advantage for three time champion, when she comes up against foes using more exotic weaponry per say, for example bean bag rounds well…

It ends rather badly for Pyrrha.

Pyrrha had been relying on her semblance so much that she hasn't used her other senses to the extent that the rest of us have. And while Pyrrha is certainly trying to stop doing it, you don't break habits like that overnight.

Or even longer apparently.

So Tob had set us a little challenge as an "incentive to progress laddie."

I was to fight Pyrrha with my own black out bandana or 'blinder' as Nora had been calling them on and defeat Pyrrha within two minutes.

Pyrrha's task, in direct opposition to mine was to defeat me or at the very least survive for a grand total of five minutes.

Pyrrha has yet to break the three minute mark.

Tob bought a hand up and massaged his brow. "Lassie, I know you're trying you're best out there but it's clear it's not enough." He said bluntly scowling as he said it, although I knew his frustration was directed at himself rather than Pyrrha.

My partner looked rather crestfallen at this news, slumping her head slightly as she did so.

I patted her on the shoulder. "Hey cheer up Pyrrha!" I said with a smile raising an eyebrow as I did so, "We just jumped the gun a bit when it comes to you blind fighting. Looks like we'll have to do a different form of training."

Ren stood up from his seat on one of the desks, nodding his head. "Indeed. I know a few exercises that might help with that, they're rather…novice level in the grand scheme of things, but they'll help Pyrrha train her senses up."

Nora's face lit up at that and she started bouncing up and down on her feet as she did so. "Ooh, Ooh, are you going to do the pancake one?" The bubbly berserker asked. "I love the pancake one!"

Ren sighed and palmed his face with one hand. "Nora, there is no pancake one." Ren said wearily, shaking his head in exasperation in the way that only those that have experienced Nora over a long period of time can understand.

"Are you sure?" She asked innocently, eyes sparkling as she did so.

Welp.

Time to cut this off before it gets any more momentum behind it.

I went to open my mouth to say something, anything at all, before Pyrrha beat me to the punch.

"Thank you everyone," Our crimson haired teammates said in a heartfelt tone, absently rubbing her bruised cheek as she did so, "I'm sorry I've been such a burden."

Tob snorted at that. "Don't get so melodramatic lassie, you're not a lost cause by any means." He said gruffly, his tone on contrast with the kindness of his words.

I found myself hiding a grin at that.

The Old Bastard's not as heartless as he makes everyone believe, I know that better than anyone.

"I mean, laddie here, now he was a lost cause." He continued on without pausing, my expression locking as it was at this latest addition. "I mean I'd tell him to not do one thing, I'd turn around and he'd have bloody well done it."

I scowled.

I take back everything I previously thought, the man's an ass.

"Don't climb that laddie, you'll fall and hurt yourself. And first thing you did was fall out of the bloody tree and dislocate your arm."

"I was ten!" I said with an exclamation, throwing up my hands for emphasis. "Sue me."

Tob narrowed his eyes at me. "Are you giving me lip now laddie?" He said cheerfully, one hand pumping the lever action of his rifle with something that was most definitely not the sound of a bean bag round being loaded.

Uh-oh.

I threw up my hands, face going pale. "I take it back, I take it back!" I stammered backing away from the old man as I did so.

Tob smirked, laying the rifle back down across his legs as he did so. "That's what I thought."

Pyrrha let out a giggle at this and as I turned to face her, saw that her face was bright red and a hand in front of her mouth to stop any more from escaping. Nora on the other hand had no such troubles and was roaring with laughter, so much so that she rolled off the desk she was lying on.

Ren didn't make any sound but the sly grin on his face said everything he could have said with a thousand words anyway.

A deliberate cough interjected and I turned to see Peter making his way over to Tob. "I think I may have an idea of how to get around miss Nikos' semblance."

One of Tob's bushy white eyebrow raised at that. "Go on."

A wide grin appeared beneath Peter's moustache. "Remember the first time we ran into Lillith?" He asked innocently.

Tob paused for a moment before a smirk of his own made it on to his face. "Oh aye, that I do Peter." He said with a chuckle. "Of course we'll have to skip the alcohol, the nudity and the wild Deathstalker."

"Don't forget the sheriff chasing us afterwards either." Peter added, chortling as he did so.

The old Bastard gave off a bark of laughter at that. "Ha, as if I could! Still got the scar on me ass!"

At that the two old hunters broke into laughter as the rest of us tried to conjure a scenario that made use of all the elements provided.

I stopped with a shudder before the thought of the old Bastard naked was seared into my mind.

"Of course we'll need to make the necessary tools." Tob continued on as the laughter died down, giving Peter a knowing look.

Peter rolled his eyes, "Fine, fine, I'll do the carving you old grouch."

Before anything else could be said a high pitched beeping filled the air and I looked across the room to where I'd left my scroll on one of the desks.

The alarm I'd set earlier was going off.

Time to get moving then.

"Okay guys, time to head off for our mission, so we'll have to end training at this time." I said, nodding my head apologetically to Peter and Tob.

Peter waved us off. "Oh it's quite alright Jaune, my boy. We need to make a few things before you can start anyway."

Tob grunted. "Well then get going laddie." Then he stopped seeming to realise something before a sly smirk made it onto his face. "That airship is not going to wait for you."

I felt my stomach gurgle in protest at the mere thought of it.

Oh blast.

Me on an airship for an extended period of time.

I survived our trip into the city, due to not only the shortness of our trip but also the adrenaline that was surging through me as I readied myself for battle.

This was not going to be a five minute flight.

This was going to be considerably more than a five minute flight.

Pyrrha patted me on the shoulder comfortingly. "Cheer up Jaune." She said, mimicking my earlier words. "Surely it can't be that bad."

I retched as I threw up again, little more than bile and stomach acid remaining within me at this point, burning the whole way up and out into the latest sick bag I was filling, soon to join a collection of its brothers by my side.

"You okay there Jauney?" Nora asked hesitantly, poking her head out from behind Ren who she had been using as an impromptu shield between me and her since I'd started…being sick.

Don't worry Nora, I'm fine, I'll be right as rain in a few moments.

That was what I meant to say.

What came out of my mouth was something more along the lines of this.

"Uurgh." I groaned before my cheeks bulged and I started retching into the sick bag, filling it even further than before.

I hate airships.

No hate isn't strong enough.

Loath?

Detest?

Despise with a passion that is near incalculable?

"Okay maybe it is that bad." Pyrrha admitted with a pitying look on her face as I cleaned my face with one of the napkins I'd taken for this very purpose.

I looked up at my teammates, the airship seeming to shake as my head moved. "How much further?" I asked, admittedly more of a groan than a series of words at this point.

Thankfully Ren seemed to have deciphered my speech rather rapidly. "Looks like we're just heading in for the landing now."

Salvation!

It approaches.

Sure enough as Ren had said it the airship tilted minutely and began rapidly making its descent towards the ground, the dense bushland starting to break up as we went lower.

I've no doubt that it would have been very beautiful to watch.

However my stomach had chosen that point to object rather strenuously to this latest supposed indignity imposed upon it in the only way it knew how.

"Blergh!"

I rolled out of the airship and landed with a thump on the ground, the gloriously solid non-moving ground.

One of the workmen who had been on the landing pad recoiled away from me. "Jeez, is he okay? He looks half-dead!"

What a coincidence I feel like it too.

Pyrrha laughed awkwardly and took a place next to me, her knapsack by her side. "He doesn't handle air travel very well." She explained succinctly, as I was far too busy recovering to do something as unimportant as answer questions at this point.

But I'll be happy to stand up and answer your questions as soon as I've recovered.

Just give me a few minutes…

Thirty at most…

I deftly reached down into my tonic pouch and fished out my emergency motion sickness tonic. I popped the cap and swallowed the quite frankly foul smelling contents with a grimace.

That was never pleasant.

"Well, what do we do now?" Nora asked loudly, her bag being dropped with a loud thump.

Ren stepped off the dust plane, stretching his arms as he did so, a few loud cracks ringing out as he loosened up. "We're supposed to be meeting the Sheriff here at the landing pad, so I'm sure they'll be here soon, if they're not already here that is."

As if the universe was responding to Ren's words at that moment a new figure walked up onto the landing pad, the metal steps giving off a loud clang each time their boots connected with them.

The figure was tall, with dark skin and similarly dark eyes. To be honest for a second there I thought I was looking at Sage, albeit in a far more militarized attire than I had ever seen Sun's teammate in. That and he didn't have any hair. Sage is more than a tad protective of his own, something more than one of us could attest to after an incident involving a razor, Sage's Semblance and more than a fair bit of property damage.

He was well muscled, wearing protective body armour over his chest, and camo pants with a variety of pouches throughout. He had a single pauldron that looked to have been welded together from separate pieces of metal on one arm, with a forearm guard on the opposing arm.

The stock of a gun poked out from over his shoulder, while the hilt of another weapon was visible near his lower back.

"Now then you must be team JNPR from Beacon right? Welcome to Dragon's Passing. I'm Cobalt, the sheriff's deputy." Cobalt stopped for a second looking over at us before frowning. "But I was given the impression there were four of you."

What's he talking about? There's Ren, Pyrrha and Nora all standing right there.

Oh wait, now I realise what he's having trouble with.

"Down here." I force out, waving a hand from my position still splayed out on the cool metal of the landing pad. "Jaune Arc, leader of team JNPR at your service."

The deputy looked down and flinched as he caught sight of me. "Uh…you need a doctor there Jaune?" he asked hesitantly, drawing conclusions from the state of my condition.

I shook my head slowly in the negative, forcing myself up with a grunt. "No, I just really don't handle airships too well."

Deputy Cobalt cocked an eyebrow at that. "You know, something might have given me that impression as well." He said dryly before shaking his head, looking over the four of us. "Well than, let's get moving to the sheriff's office, shall we?"

Cobalt started walking, making his way off the landing pad with the rest of us quickly following suit behind him, picking up our bags as we did so.

As I slowly started to feel something somewhat resembling alive I started looking around at our surroundings, taking note of the town we were currently in.

It was most certainly a town, nowhere near the sheer size of Vale proper, but at the same time this place was much larger than Freshwater. I mean it had a landing pad damn it, nothing like that back home. And that wasn't the only difference between the two either.

Freshwater was surrounded by dense forest, while Dragon's passing had bush on one half and jagged mountains on the other. Now I know some people say that the forest and the bush are the same thing.

These people happen to be what Tob's refers to as "completely and utterly daft idiots."

It's like saying a river and an ocean are the same thing.

Are they similar? Certainly.

Are they the same? No they are not.

Much like Freshwater, the surrounding environment served as much of the primary building material of the buildings within the town itself. The harsh stone of the mountains provided much of the materials for the walls of the building, where as the wood form the trees within the bush while nowhere need as strong or thick as the trees outside of Freshwater were still sufficient to be used as resources for building.

Most of the buildings were one story affairs, barring a few two story exceptions. But something else that was clearly different from that of Freshwater was the stalls. They filled the streets, with vendors hocking all sorts of goods to any one walking by from food to trinkets to exotic silks.

"I didn't realise that there'd be so many stores here." Pyrrha commented, examining one of the silks within a stall as she walked by.

"Dragon's Crossing sits in the middle of at least three major trade routes, as well as sitting essentially near the border of Vale with Mistral, as well as being along Mistral's primary route to Atlas we get all kinds coming through here." Deputy Cobalt explained, talking over his shoulder as he continued forward, moving through the crowd which seemed to be getting more and more crowded as we kept going forward.

Hmm.

I'll have to keep an eye out if we get some free time. Might find something that would be difficult to come by otherwise.

Suddenly there was a commotion up ahead, people being knocked aside as something made its way towards us.

"STOP THIEF!" A man cried out as a woman sprinted away from him, wallet held tightly in her hand as she clambered up onto the one of the stalls and started leaping from roof to roof.

I tensed, readying to sprint after her.

An arm was thrust before me, Cobalt shaking his head with a wry smile.

"Don't worry yourself kid, this is already taken care of."

Suddenly something whipped into the air, wrapping around the thief's ankle and yanked her towards the ground mid-leap. The woman had the chance to let out a startled shriek just before she slammed painfully into the ground, the stolen wallet skidding out of her hands.

The wallet came to a stop as an armoured boot stepped lightly onto it, preventing it from travelling any further. A similarly armoured gauntlet picked up the wallet before the person walked forward, the length of cable pulling the captured thief up to dangle into the air.

"You know it takes a real special kind of stupid to try and pull a stunt like that in front of my office." An authoritive voice commented dryly, addressing the criminal.

The woman was older than Cobalt, her hair not quite black and not quite grey, rather somewhere comfortably in the middle of the two, extending as far down as the base of her neck but no further, as well as utterly lacking a fringe of any kind. She was wearing similar gear to Cobalt's albeit with two reels from which the cable extended. Her eyes were green as emeralds and intense for lack of a better word. On her right cheek were two scars, not fresh by any means but still prominent additions to her features. The look in her eyes reminded me of the Old Bastard which was more than enough reason to treat her as if she was just as good as he is.

She seemed to notice Cobalt standing by us and turned to address him, the groaning thief still restrained in mid-air. "Deputy, I thought you had gone to go retrieve the students from the landing pad." She stated bluntly, her tone demanding an explanation for his appearance before her.

Cobalt coughed into his hand, gesturing to where I and the rest of my team stood.

She blinked. "Ah." Then she centred herself, clasping her hands behind her back. "A pleasure to meet you all. I'm Sheriff Jinshu Lin, and I'll be in charge of you for the next few days."

I nodded in thanks. "Thank you for having us." I said simply, the rest of the team each giving their own unique form of appreciation.

The sheriff's face didn't move a muscle. "Right then, follow me."

Cobalt leaned over towards us. "Oh she likes you guys." He said quietly, a small smile on his face.

Nora looked curiously at him after that remark. "How can you tell?" she stage whispered back.

I fought the urge to facepalm.

Dang it Nora.

Cobalt just tapped the side of his nose. "Years of experience." He confided conspiratorially, before his smile widened and he started making his way after his superior.

"I can hear you, you know." Lin called out, Cobalt's face paling in realization. "And just for that, you're taking the markets patrol today."

Cobalt's face fell and his shoulders slumped slightly, letting out a sigh of resignation as he did so before he started following after her, Nora and Pyrrha quickly falling in step behind them.

I leant over to talk to Ren as we walked after them. "Any ideas of where we can find your…familial acquaintance?" I ventured, gesturing towards the many different buildings around us.

Ren shook his head. "Not exactly." He admitted, his eyes scanning the surroundings as he did so. "He could be anywhere in the city, but I'll let you know when I see where he is."

I gave Ren a disbelieving look. "You don't have any idea where it is?" I asked, utterly shocked.

Ren shrugged his shoulders. "They're not exactly in the habit of making it readily known where they stay. Kind of defeats the purpose of hiding in the first place."

I blinked.

Huh.

Suppose that makes sense.

We stepped through the door emblazoned with the distinctive sheriff's star and into the sheriff's office. There was a few cots set up behind some reinforced bars, all unoccupied at the moment, bar the one that Lin had just thrown the failed thief into. There were two desks with a number of files and books on them as well as a tablet or three.

"Welcome to the office." Cobalt said warmly, gesturing around as he did so. "I know it's not exactly the most vibrant of places but hey, it gets the job done."

Lin walked over to one of the desks, I'm presuming her own and pulled out four armbands with the sheriff's star on them, throwing them towards us. "Put these on, they'll let the people know you're working with us."

Well that answers one question.

Pyrrha raised her bag. "Are we to leave our bags here or drop them off where we'll be staying?"

Cobalt snapped his fingers. "Gah, knew I forgot something." He picked up his scroll and tapped away on it for a few moments.

I heard the distinctive beep of my own scroll and pulled it out of my pocket, the other members of my team doing the same.

"I've just sent you the unlock codes for one of the rooms at the hotel next door, so just head over there and drop off your bags and meet us back here and we'll head off on our patrol.

Alright then, let's get going.

After having placed all our bags in the 4 bed room we'd been assigned by the Sheriff we returned to her office to receive our tasks for the day.

"You made good time. Excellent, you know what is expected of you." Lin observed, leaving no room for us to make a reply. "Now then your assignments for today." She moved her arm and a cable shot out from the reel she had by her side, pulling down a screen from the ceiling and revealing a oversized map of Dragon's Crossing.

"To start with, I'd intended to take you all on a patrol of the town's outer walls, give you an idea of where you'll be dealing with out here." She began, gesturing at the red outline that served as the representation of the town's borders. "However an increase in theft around the market area over the past few days means that I need to increase patrols around there as well, hence we'll be splitting into two teams. Team one will accompany me on the aforementioned patrol of the town's perimeter. Team two will accompany deputy Cobalt into the market so to act as a deterrent for any other attempted theft." Lin finished, outlining the suggested patrol route of the town's interior as she did so.

Cobalt stepped forward drawing my attention away from the sheriff and towards him, "Any volunteers to come with me? Fair warning, don't expect anything fun on my patrol, it'll be boring as anything."

Nora let out a sound of disgust at that "Blergh! No way I'm doing the boring one." She said resolutely before grabbing hold of Pyrrha's hand who let out a shocked gasp. "C'mon Pyrrha! You and me are going to team up with the sheriff and go hunt down trouble!" Nora then snatched Lin's Hand from where it had been resting by her side. "Team LPN go!" She squealed, pulling Nora's Fabulous Pose number 3™, dragging Pyrrha forward as she did so.

The sheriff in comparison didn't move an inch and fixed Nora with a look that had me think that my most spontaneous teammate would burn to cinders from the sheer intensity of it.

Nora froze immediately releasing Lin's hand with a hesitant chuckle before slowly shrinking away, doing her best to hide behind my partner.

I fought the urge to whistle in appreciation.

Now that right there was one of the best glares I had ever seen. Way better than Goodwitch, hell she could even give the Old Bastard a run for his money.

Top three, easy.

"Let's go." Lin said shortly, opening the door and walking out with a pace that was closer to storming out if not for the sheer pressure that seemed to extrude from every pore of her being.

Ren and I watched as Pyrrha and a still shivering Nora walked out after the sheriff the door swinging shut with loud 'clang'.

We all stood there silence, Ren holding the bridge of his nose and silently mouthing something, probably despairing over his partner's latest showing of social inadequacy, sadly something of a regular occurrence for the two of us.

Cobalt seemed to shake himself out of the shock of the last event and looked at Ren and I, letting out a chuckle as he did so. "Well that was certainly entertaining." He commented, shaking his head in bemusement. "Alright, let's get moving, we're burning daylight.

The hot sun blazed above me as I walked through the many stalls of Dragon's crossing, a cacophony of sound coming from every direction as the stall owners tried attract customers and other passers-by talked loudly over the booming music.

"What's with the music?" I asked Cobalt having to speak rather loudly to be heard over the pop song.

Cobalt grinned. "The town speaker's play a songlist chosen by all the people in town, played in a completely random order." He started, gesturing at one of the large speakers hanging from the corner of one of the buildings. "It was implemented as a way to keep spirits up around the town, you know how you listen to a nice song and you feel happy?"

Ren looked at the speaker, intrigued. "A safe guard to prevent the Grimm from congregating." Ren said, sounding impressed.

I was pretty intrigued myself.

Grimm were an ever present threat to any large group of people staying together, particularly when one put into perspective the Grimm's uncanny ability to track down large outburst of negative emotion.

Which as you can probably guess is something rather hard to constantly avoid throughout life. Even without the risks the Grimm provided any normal life had its own share of tragedies; injury, loss, betrayal, death.

And any one of these things could lead to the Grimm appearing and in turn causing more negative emotions with their very presence, thus causing even more to appear.

An exponential dilemma.

You wouldn't think music would be something too useful in this regard but from the look of the people of Dragon's crossing it seemed to be doing something good.

"It's amazing how much it works." Cobalt commented, palming one inebriated citizen out of the way. "However it has also lead to somewhat of a constant party culture taking place as well."

The drunk the deputy had pushed out of the way preceded to fall to all fours and threw up. I deftly moved my shoe out of the way before it splashed onto me. "I can see that." I noted dryly, finally taking note of the many bars and club entrances appearing intermittently between the stalls. I can see the music could contribute to the 'party culture' that Cobalt wast talking about.

"Deputy!" A loud voice cried out. "Hey deputy Cobalt, I've gotta talk to you!"

The smile on Cobalt's face fell and he sighed shaking his head as he did so. "Dang it. Every damn time." He muttered, the words nearly lost under the steady beat of the speakers before he turned back towards Ren and I. "This will only take a moment."

With that Cobalt walked away, leaving Ren and I alone.

Hey wait, is that a rare book stall?

Oh I am so checking that out.

Hey that looks promising!

"We need to get moving." Ren's voice said quietly, drawing my thoughts away from the books before me.

I sighed internally.

Every time.

Ren nudged me subtly when Deputy Cobalt was distracted with the complaining citizen. "We can't go and see them with him still following us." Ren murmured his eyes flicking back towards Cobalt.

I sighed pushing my hair out of my face before turning to face him. "Well what would you suggest?" I asked out of the side of my mouth open to suggestions.

Ren's brow furrowed for a moment before his eyes lit up with an idea. He walked up to me and grabbed me by the shoulder, ensuring my back was facing Cobalt and was blocking Ren from his line of sight. "Sorry about this."

I frowned at him. "Sorry about wha.." I felt the air whoosh out of me as Ren's fist slammed into my stomach without warning, my body curling around the blow. I nearly dropped to my knees but Ren's hand on my shoulder kept me upright.

"Deputy Cobalt!" Ren called out, drawing his attention over to us as he continued to support me. "Jaune's not feeling to well, probably an after effect of the motion sickness." Ren lied smoothly, not batting so much as an eyelash at the story he was concocting.

Cobalt walked up to us, a concerned look on his face. "Yeesh, he doesn't look good at all. How're you feeling Jaune?" he asked me, patting me on the shoulder.

My reply involved Ren and several rather unflattering descriptive terms regarding him and his hobbies but as I was having trouble breathing at this point what came out was more of a high pitched wheeze than words.

The deputy nodded at that, clearly having made up his mind before turning towards Ren. "Are you all right to take him back to your accommodation? I'd go with you but I've got to finish the patrol first."

Ren nodded simply. "Don't worry sir, I remember the way back. Thanks again." With that he half walked, half dragged me away, pulling me around the corner, walking down the street for a bit before he ducked away into a side alley, taking me with him. Ren stopped and looked at me as I had bent over, trying to suck in as much oxygen as I could with deep steady breaths. "You alright?" He asked dryly, standing close by.

I stood upright and my fist slammed into his jaw, the uppercut hitting him with such force that his feet left the ground before he crashed into the ground. "Asshole!" I gasped as Ren lay stunned on the cold pavement. "What the hell was that for?"

My teammate groaned and sat up massaging his chin with a grimace as he did so. "Okay I deserved that." He admitted, flinching as he touched a particularly sensitive part of his jaw. "I needed to ditch him and it was the first plan that came to mind."

One of my eyebrow's twitched dangerously at that. "For future reference Ren," I said tightly, glaring at my teammate, "that plan? Sucked." I finished before extending a hand to help pull him up.

"Duly noted." He replied with a small smile, taking my offered hand and pulled himself upright. "Come on, it's not far now."

"I thought you said you didn't know where it was."

"I said I had to look for it, and I knew which half it was in. I spotted it earlier on."

Okay that's something.

Ren made his way forward as I followed behind him, weaving between the crowded streets of the marketplace, not so much as touching any of the other people around him, moving like a leaf carried by a swirling wind.

We finally stopped at a rather nondescript door to what appeared to be a rather run down building, a faded emblem on the door but difficult to make out due to its degradation. Ren pushed open the door without hesitation and moved in, stepping into the dimly lit room.

The first thing that struck me was the smoke, it permeated the room, wafting from more than a dozen smoking pipes as a variety of figures sat on floor cushions and focused on their own games of…I stopped and focused for a moment on the nearest circular board. "Is that…Pai Sho?" I asked, utterly bewildered by the fact that there was a den apparently dedicated to the remarkably uncommon game.

Ren nodded, scanning the room as he did so before his eyes focused on a figure sitting near the back, eating a bowl of some kind of steaming soup.

Ren walked over casually, taking a seat on the floor cushion at the opposite side of the table, facing the…I stopped for a moment and looked at the person on the other side of the table. Was it a woman or an exceptionally effeminate man? I went to check for an Adam's apple only to find the person's neck concealed by a stiff collar. The figure was wearing the same kind of clothing as that of any of the other people in the smoky room, similar to Ren's long sleeved suit albeit in darker tones, and stretching all the way to the floor instead of the knees.

The figure looked up from their bowl of steaming…from the smell I want to say curry? Let's stick with curry, and smiled slightly at Ren before silently gesturing for me to take a seat as well. After some slight hesitation I did so, sitting on the floor cushion between the two of them.

The androgynous figure used their chopsticks to pull some noodles out of the bowl and ate them with a sigh of satisfaction before setting the bowl to the side. Then they reached forward and placed a single tile onto the board. Ren immediately placed his own tile.

Just like that the game was underway, tile after tile being placed with Ren being forced to give ground, his opponent's lotus tile steadily making its way towards the center, all attempts to waylay it being swallowed up by the opposing elemental pieces or on one occasion the avatar piece taking out a series of Ren's own tiles, even sending his own avatar piece back to the Ren's side of the field once more.

"So," The person said, the words shocking in the wake of such a long silence. "I take it this must be Jaune."

Ren's eyes flicked up from the board for a moment before returning, placing a piece as he did so silently, not responding at all.

I coughed, clearing my throat before responding. "Uh, yes, that's me. It's nice to meet you."

They smiled in response to that, placing another tile on the board as they did so. "Charmed. Li Shang at your service. Thank you for taking care of my favourite nephew."

"Not your nephew." Ren interjected idly, capturing one of Shang's pieces as he did so, causing his relative to return their attention to the game.

"Your parents were as good as family to me, Ren." Shang said reproachingly, shaking his head lightly. "And when they passed I swore I would look out for you in their place."

Woah.

Okay, so Ren is an orphan.

Of a sort.

He still has his sort of family.

I guess Shang could be viewed as a godparent maybe?

Because in all honesty I still can't tell if Shang is a man or a woman.

How on Remnant can someone even look that androgynous?

Wait, not important, focus Jaune.

Okay then, Li Shang.

The Li doesn't really do me much good, it's one of the most common family names out there. You'd be hard pressed to find a town that didn't have a Li. Even Freshwater had a Li., and we weren't exactly a tourist hotspot.

"I'm going to have to go off the grid for a while." Li Shang continued on, moving his avatar tile forward and cutting off Ren's advance. "You got sloppy in Vale. I had to intervene."

Ren tensed up at that, a grimace spreading across his face. "How many?" he asked quietly, waiting for a reply.

"Enough." Li Shang replied shortly before sighing and palming their face. "You've got to be more careful nephew. Keep making waves like this and they will take notice. There's only so much I can do if you keep drawing attention to yourself."

Ren looked away, seemingly ashamed. "I'm sorry."

Li Shang waved him off. "Bah, that's what family's for after all." Then they slid their Lotus tile forward, reaching the center of the board. "And that's game, dear nephew."

Ren sighed before standing, bowing deeply as he did so. "My thanks." He said quietly before he turned and walked out of the room.

I stood and went to follow him when I heard Li Shang cough, drawing my attention. Shang flicked their wrist and tossed something towards me. I snatched it out of the air and looked at it. A Pai Sho tile.

"Hold onto that for me." Li Shang said simply, picking up the curry that had been set down beside the table earlier. "In case the worst should come to pass, you will have need of it."

I blinked. "I don't understand." I confessed, flicking the Pai Sho tile between my fingers.

Li Shang snorted. "I would be far more worried if you did." Li Shang said with small smile before gesturing for the door. "Go on then, don't want to be late or you'll have some awkward questions from deputy Cobalt awaiting you."

I nodded and made my way towards the exit, taking a deep breath of fresh air as I stepped outside before I realised something.

How on Remnant did Shang know about deputy Cobalt waiting on us?

I turned around, wanting to confront Li Shang and ask only to be halted by a rather unexpected obstacle.

The door was gone.

In its place a simple brick wall stood, covered in years of graffiti.

"What the?" I breathed trying to make sense of what had just happened.

"It's a long story." Ren's voice interjected drawing my attention away from the wall and back to my teammate. "I'll explain it later, but for now we've got to get back to the hotel." Ren promised me.

I stood there for a moment longer before shrugging my shoulders. "I'll hold you to that." I replied before I started striding forward towards the hotel, making our way out of the side street we'd appeared in, which was not the street we'd been on when we'd entered the Pai Sho den by the way, and rejoined the hustle and bustle of the market place.

We need to get back to the hotel before Cobalt does.