Ch4: It was a miss! Use small chapter as intermission.

"A month and no raid." The old man mumbled. "Not their style. You sure you saw the kid right?" The 67 year old man asked, now far fitter and cleaned up.

"Yeah," The boy, sitting on a stump in the woods affirmed. Both of them had weapons, one a saber-crossbow hybrid, and the other a pair of long stiletto blades. "They don't operate in Saunas though. They're Mistral's problem." The boy stated.

The old man grunted at that. "Your right, just my old paranoia flaring up." The man grunted. "Still nice to get in shape again." He mumbled, feeling strength he hadn't had since his youth.

The boy hummed as well, the fights were fun. "Can't be soft in this world gramps. Who knows when some powerful Grimm comes over and sits on our face forcing us to eat its ugly ass." The boy explained with unnecessary detail, causing the older man to grimace.

"Should have taken those books away from you." The elder male said softly.

"And I should have taken those bottles away from you." The younger one countered. "Why couldn't you have a cool vice, like seducing nubile young women." The boy chuckled perversely, causing the older man to cringe.

"Kid, I'm really worrying about my future great-grand children here." The man begged the boy to stop.

The boy stopped chuckling, and spat to the side. He sighed, "I just do shit like that cause it makes people uncomfortable to see a kid do it."

"You are a kid, brat." The older man said softly. Suddenly his eyes widened as a blade narrowly gouged out his eye, only to graze his orbital bone and temple.

"Sometimes... I don't feel like a kid." The boy said softly, playing with another throwing knife. A wry smile grew on his face. "I feel old and tired of it all, the glares and fear. Then I feel the glee and pride of submissive sheep that bow and edge out of my path." His expression turned slightly deranged. "Oh, and the prideful predators that look at me like an interloper and defiant prey." He hissed in laughter, "How I love to watch them realize they'd just met a greater predator, hiding and lurking under the guise of a sheep." The boy licked his fangs in a perverse expression. His gaze narrowed on his grandfather.

"Then I remember that despite my nature, I am still a person and not a beast." He slurped up his dripping saliva with a childish expression. "Just a boy with dreams to be something great."

The old man chuckled, walked over and dropped a hand on the boy's grey and black hair. Ruffling it, he knelled down and spoke a simple sentence that sent shivers down the boy's spine. "Great, yes. But oh, oh so terrible."