Behind the scenes

|Jaune's P.O.V.|

[Cypher: I want the full report.]

I was still inside the boat heading towards the coast of Sanus, It was currently the second week of the trip and we had still two more weeks before landing in Prospero, at the northern coast of Vacuo.

At this time, I received a message from Ozpin informing me of what had transpired at Kuroyuri, which was more then enough to warrant my full attention.

Ever since I gave the task to Ozpin, I've been quite curious as to how he decided to handle the situation. I knew that they couldn't all be save even with knowledge from the attack being given in advance, evacuating an entire village without any solid evidence was just wishful thinking. But I still hoped that this time around, the tragedy wouldn't be as big.

[Ozpin: From where should I start?]

[Cypher: The beginning will suffice.]

[...] So I waited as Ozpin started typing, it took quite a while so the report must have been quite long.

[Ozpin: First, I'd like to make it clear that this task wasn't easy and although being a member of the Vale council and headmaster of a huntsman academy grants me some power, it isn't nearly enough to take such a huge request.]

[Cypher: Oh, I already understand where you're trying to get at, there's no need to keep telling me how difficult the task I gave you is.]

[Ozpin: I just hope that the information you're providing was worth all the effort it took.]

[Cypher: So you're only doing this for the information? Not your duty or the desire to help those that can't help themselves? Too bad, you've just lost an opportunity to get some favor from me.]

[Ozpin: That's not what I meant, living so long may have got me used with losses but it didn't make me indifferent to them, I haven't lost my humanity just yet]

[Cypher: Don't worry, I'm just joking. But I can guarantee that the information I can provide is authentic.]

[Ozpin: Good, now moving on to the report.]

[Ozpin: After agreeing to your deal, I spent a long time thinking about how to best aproach this problem, using my influence I was able to relocate an incomplete team to Kuroyuri for 'recovery' but I couldn't muster much more manpower like Summer without raising a few eyebrows at the council, so I had to enter in contact with Lionheart and make an excuse about 'unusual Grimm moments' in order to get one more team assigned to that place, but in regards to evacuating the villagers there was a substantial problem, since he couldn't move an airship fleet to pick them up on a complete whim, not to mention that even if I managed to do it, entering another Kingdom with a large fleet would cause major diplomatic issues.]

[Ozpin: So the solution that I've found was to enter in contact with Ironwood and after asking for a personal favour, managed to get lent a few airships, just enough to not cause too many issues, resulting in Ironwood no doubt having to deal with many complaints back in Atlas because of it, so I had them positioned near the border, ready for when the attack came.]

[Ozpin: In regards to the attack itself, the village had been prepared as best it could with limited resources before the attack, a large shelter was built to hold off until the reinforcements could arrive and the Mistral team was running constant surveillance, the villagers recieve emergency drills and the only point that was lacking is that the villagers were kept unaware of the imminent attack, since the panic created could have unforseen consequences before the attack such as making it happen sooner or make it bigger.]

[Ozpin: The first signs came 48 hours ago when the patrolling team reported some unusual Grimm activities, but the team then became completely silent after relaying this message, which prompted the second team to start evacuating the civilians to the shelter while they try and hold on for as long as possible, they stated on their report that they held the Grimm at bay at the edges of the village until they eventually ran out of ammo and had to seek shelter in a building to avoid being overrun.]

[Cypher: Did they survive?] I interrupt him, concerned with the people that were put in danger because of my request. Though trying my best to not show any flaw while sending the message.

[Ozpin: Fortunately, they did. Though the team from Mistral wasn't so lucky, only one huntsman managed to survive from that team. It was a great tragedy and the loss of some good people. But there's no doubt in my mind that their sacrifice wasn't in vain.]

[Cypher: And the village? How much was lost in the attack?]

[Ozpin: Many were killed by the rampaging Nucklelavee and the ensuing horde of Grimm, but the preparations combined with the effort from the huntsman and a brave villager that took it upon himself to rescue as many of his fellow villagers as possible at the cost of his life allowed many to reach the shelter and await for reinforcements. Though thanks to an encounter with several flying Grimm along the way, the airships almost arrived too late. The shelter came very close to being breached as a result.]

[Cypher: This brave villager, can you tell me its identity?] I questioned having a bad premonition.

[Ozpin: We're currently unclear, we couldn't identify him due to the state of the body or what was left of it at least, so aside from being an adult male we don't know anything else, it will take some time for the body to be moved and its identity uncovered by the specialists.]

Hearing this, I'm happy that the person wasn't Ren or Nora since although I haven't met them yet, I still have some impression of them from the show and even if my interference makes them not become huntsman at all in the future. I still wish for them to be raised under better circumstances.

[Ozpin: Once in the area, the airships started cleaning up all the Grimm from the skies. The Nucklelavee was forced to retreat and the horde was quickly scattered and cleaned up.]

[Ozpin: The report says that about 60% of the population of the village and the surroundings were considered either dead or missing. A tragedy without a doubt, but one that could have been much greater if not for your intervention.]

After reading the last of what Ozpin had sent, I didn't ask any further and decided to be content with the information I've received. Even if I would have liked to know more about Ren, Nora and his parents, showing too much concern over them wouldn't do anything to help the situation.

But in the end, getting this report left a bitter taste in my mouth instead of making me feel good. I just couldn't help but feel responsible for the three huntsman that died due to my actions and regretful over all the villagers that couldn't be saved.

'Snap out of it Jaune! Why are you beating yourself up about it? You managed to increase the number of survivors from just two to many dozen. Isn't it too pathetic to be mulling over your actions now?'

Honestly, I knew that my thoughts are contradictory and not at all productive, if I hadn't ignored them I would have felt very guilty and now I'm feeling guilty about what I was incapable of changing, it was just a matter of choosing the easier pill to swallow.

And besides, I've already made the resolve to make changes whenever I felt necessary, I'd not cower or hesitate just because the future ahead has become a bit more uncertain, I just need to shoulder the consequences of my actions.

The loss of life due to my request hadn't changed that, just redoubled my desire to attain more strength.

'If I were stronger then I could have gone there and tried to warn them and even help in the defense to reduce losses, this shows that staying behind the scenes and manipulating things as I am currently doing will result in many sacrifices. This is how Ozpin operates but this is where we will diverge. I swear that from now on, things will be different.'

So currently, I'm feeling that the decision to leave in order to attain more training was definitely the right choice, but I'm not going to stop just there.

Economic power, political power, military power. All of those must also be obtained, no matter how strong a person is, they cannot win a war with just their personal power since they cannot be everywhere at once and can't learn all the skills necessary to do so. So those are next in his list to obtain.

"..?" But his attention is suddenly diverted from his Scroll as he hears some shuffling by his side.

It was Neo, she has been sleeping on his shoulder for some time. She was sporting a frown as she shuffled around in place. It was quite late into the night when I received the message, probably due to the difference in time.

'Her face reminds me of the one she makes when people treat her as being younger than she actually is, maybe she's dreaming about her time in the dojo.'

Maybe it's her presence, but I feel my complicated mood easing up a bit, with a clearer mind, I decided to move on to fulfill my end of the deal.

Ozpin must be quite anxious, afterall this is something that he has failed to uncover even in the original despite having Qrow as his intelligence agent.

So it's not surprising that he's been fulfilling my requests with so little resistance. Though I know that he's not doing it with his full capabilities, he's still trying to keep some of his means a secret from me, I simply do not believe that for all his wisdom, he's incapable of moving a few pieces while fooling the rest of the council.

And honestly, I don't mind. If this is what's necessary for our cooperation to continue then so be it.

And in regards to the information about one of Salem's agents, he isn't just using his knowledge from show but actually investigating to be sure that their circumstances are the same as in canon, so he's very confident of it. It would do him no good to give false information.

...

|Ozpin P.O.V|

[Cypher: Well, I guess it's my turn now.]

As I heard the message, I felt as an enormous weight was lifted. Though I'm aware that I shouldn't just blindly believe whatever he sends me, after all the work I've had to do in in this time, I thought that this was a just reward.

Honestly, I think that I might have failed to convey just how inconvenient fulfilling this request has been.

The problems weren't even doing all the preparations and arrangements, this was the easy part. No, the hard part was dealing with all the fallout from the incident.

After the 'successful' operation in Kuroyuri, what was left was a lot of paperwork and complaints, not even a single thank you.

From the part of the Vale council, I've been receiving a lot of complaints and reprimand due to having made arrangements behind their backs, but aside from annoying him, they can't really target me due to my position so there's that.

From the part of Atlas, Ironwood has also received a lot of reprimand but in his case there was some serious risk of him being demoted, lending airships to a foreign Kingdom without authorization is a serious offense for a nation like Atlas. And in turn Ironwood would direct his complaints to me.

In the part of Mistral they would blame me for having sent airships onto their territory without proper authorization, and they may not directly say it, but they're not happy about the situation in Kuroyuri.

Though the rescue operation was considered a success, for them it was a big loss. With the Nucklelavee escaping, the threat wasn't really eliminated and it could always return. Meaning that the village couldn't be rebuilt and had to be abandoned, which is a loss of territory for them and now they have a lot of refugees that they need to deal with. Not to mention that having an external power rescue their citizens instead of themselves has damaged their image and made them look incompetent.

In this situation, they were probably cursing at me for having succeeded at the rescue.

So aside from getting some reassurance and gratitude from the rescued villagers, all else were nothing but complaints and paperwork.

'Sometimes, I wonder how humanity, managed to hold on for so long.'

But finally, his due reward has arrived.

[Cypher: Honestly, I could just give you an extensive report on that person, but considering that it is someone you used to know, I think just giving the name would be enough.]

Hearing this, Ozpin is quite perplexed and disappointed. Not only because apparently someone he knew has allied with his enemy but also for himself having allowed it to happen under his nose.

[Ozpin: I'm all ears.]

[Cypher: His name is Hazel Rainart, does the name ring any bells?]

'Gretchen's brother...' He was someone I once knew, though the last time we saw each other was in very bad terms, Gretchen Rainart was his sister and a huntress that met an unfortunate end, after that he has held an enormous grudge against me since he blamed me for 'seducing' her into becoming an huntress and risking her life.

He saw the man that used to be calm and polite be twisted by anger and desire for vengeance as he swore to kill me and every incarnation of me. After he vanished, I thought that he just needed some time to grieve and that he would get over it.

Never would I have imagined that he would go such lengths just to accomplish his vengeance.

[Cypher: Salem is manipulating him, using his hatred to make him do her bidding while deceiving him. Though he isn't completely unredeemable, I suspect that he's one of the people behind the current lack of huntsman that Mistral is going through.]

[Cypher: In regards to his semblance you should know, 'Numbing agent' allows him to completely ignore pain and inject dust into his body without immediate consequences, though it doesn't make him invincible his large aura reserves make him very hard to deal with.]

[Ozpin: Yes I know, thank you for informing me. I will look closer into the many Mistral huntsman going M.I.A.]

[Cypher: And if you're wondering, he's also one of the people that was involved in the ambush that was planned out for Summer.]

[Cypher: I will send you the complete information later, but for now, this concludes our transaction.]

[Cypher: I will enter in contact when the next one is decided.]

...

Turning off his computer and disabling all the cameras, a habit he developed as a precaution. He finally takes some to reflect on what just happened.

'It seems that I'll need to cut Qrow's vacation in Patch short, this lead needs to be followed before it grows cold.'

But more than the information he received, what mostly occupied his mind were thoughts about his mysterious informant.

"He's able to predict a Grimm attack several years before it happens, something that should be impossible unless that was a planned attack, but what did the queen hope to achieve by attacking an unremarkable village? Does he perhaps have some form of foresight or divination? But there shouldn't be any magic left aside from mine and Salem's due to the curse from the brother gods. But there's no other way to explain this."

But he got to learn a few things and confirm a few thoughts he had from their last exchange.

First is that this hacker is definitely not a schemer like Salem and himself. He shows a clear abundance of empathy and sadness over the loss of others, but most importantly, it was clear to him that he felt guilty about those that died because of his actions.

Second is that he's not particularly ruthless as he mentioned that Hazel could be redeemed, so he seems to not be very comfortable with using violent methods.

Those things combined has led him to believe that this mysterious informant might not be as old as he previously though, old and mature enough to discuss such topics but still inexperienced in this aspect.

He couldn't help but wonder how frightening of an adversary he would be once he had some more time to mature.

'I'm glad we're on the same side.'