Chapter 18

"Boss… you might want to see this."

Adam looked out of the window of the truck with all the dust bombs… and saw a gigantic earthen beast, moving throughout the city. Above it all, one figure stood. With purple robes and orange hair, along with a katana that made his face ache…

"Sasaki Kojiro?" Adam shouted. "He's here? What have our operators been doing?"

"Well, he's here now. What should we do?"

"He's fighting that gigantic earth beast now. We can kill him."

"...Why is it never infiltration with you, boss? I'm a stealth specialist! We can just sneak past them." the driver complained.

"Shut up and do your job." Adam growled. "Besides, we might not get a better chance than this before we set off our bombs."

…

Kojiro gently drank some tea, seated in his old tea parlor. His katana was by his side, and on the other side of the table… sat…

"I'd appreciate it if we could move on." Ironwood said. "Why are we drinking tea here?"

"When training one's skill, one must also nourish their body." Kojiro said. "Simply put…"

"...So you dragged us all the way over here… just because you were thirsty?"

"My blade requires tempering, and this tea seems just the perfect temperature." Kojiro said.

Winter took an impatient sip, and immediately spat it out. "This tea is burnt!"

"I never said I knew how to make tea." Kojiro smiled gently.

…

Neo's face dripped with sweat. Her headache was building, but she still had to create the illusion of Kojiro, and coordinate her strikes with that of his illusion.

Underneath her, the earth boiled. A new platform rose above the city, with spikes shooting out of said platform and impaling the illusionary Kojiro. Neo struck weak point after weak point, but the earthen armor was much tougher than she thought.

She didn't have enough momentum. Regretfully, Neo realized what Kojiro wanted to say about her. She was too light to utilize his style. The long edge of her katana mocked her, as if saying that she couldn't muster the force to cut much of anything.

"It's useless! Your attacks will only shatter against my armor!"

Another spike shot through the illusionary Kojiro's torso, which distorted the illusion further. Neo had to abort her strike at her enemy's arm and make her illusion of Kojiro step outwards.

"You are weakening." Tisiphone said gleefully. "I haven't had a fight this long in ages. I commend you for lasting this long, but your strikes are growing more and more infrequent!"

Neo looked at the earthen spike that shot out of the ground, and her own sword.

It was hopeless.

But Kojiro would come save her, right? Kojiro was back in Vale by now, right? Where was he?

Just then, an arc of red pierced the sky, and Neo crept towards the edge of the platform to see… Adam Taurus. The person that Kojiro didn't even see as a threat.

"Your image is flickering! You must truly be nearing your limit!" Tisiphone cackled, redoubling the efforts of her attacks.

"Kojiro!" Adam roared, his sword raised at Neo's dying illusion. Neo hastily reapplied the illusion, her aura now dropping down to half.

"Oh, a new challenger?" Tisiphone said. "Do you wish to slay Sasaki Kojiro as well?"

"I'm here to get rid of him, in the name of the White Fang."

"Is that so?" Tisiphone said. "This is between me and Sasaki Kojiro"

"We can kill him. Together." Adam said.

"Stay out of this. I alone am sufficient."

And with a wave of her hand, a veritable wall of earth rose, spikes pointed outwards at the White Fang convoys. Several of the dust packages were pierced and exploded into colorful mists, rattling the buildings nearby.

Neo looked at Tisiphone, who looked at her illusion of Kojiro.

"No more playing around. It's time for you… to die!"

With another wave of her hand, another earthen wall was erected upon her platform. Neo was completely boxed in.

She could escape, but then…

The city would be destroyed. The walls would crumble before this kind of power. Thus, there was only one way that this was going to end.

"I… am not Kojiro. I'm not as skilled or as strong as him." she thought. "The only advantage I have are my tricks."

She was going to have to plan it perfectly.

Slowly, creeping along with the high heeled boots she had worn on a whim, she crept in front of the attack range, a hailstorm of spires rising from the earth and destabilizing her footing. The speed at which the spikes rose gave her an idea. She looked at the heels on her boots, and prayed that they would finally be useful.

The earth behind her illusion rumbled, and Neo could predict the rise fo yet another spike. Taking a deep breath and reinforcing her boot with Aura, she prepared to jump.

Despite the aura coating her boot, her heel spike was pierced. At the same time, Neo jumped into the air.

The spike shot up from behind her, completely ruining her heels. The momentum that it granted, however, was more than enough. She made her illusion of Kojiro jump as well, at a position slightly behind her. The image was blurry, but at the speed that she was moving, it would probably be fine.

"Trying to escape?" Tisiphone said, waving her arms once more. The roof was covered completely, and darkness enveloped the arena. Neo could then hear the shifting of earth right above her, and panicked.

Her semblance created the most rainbow, sparkly and bright glass shards, lighting up the area, before being crushed by the descending walls and spikes. In that split second of lumination, Neo's other heel spike was placed upon another developing spike.

She was shot forward once more, straight towards Tisiphone, who, in the dark, was not aware of where Neo was. Her arm was finally hit by an earth spire that Tisiphone had sent at her general direction, and the glancing blow sent her off course. Still, she drew her katana and sliced.

The sound of pain and Tisiphone's aura finally flaring was a beautiful sight to Neo's eyes. As Tisiphone's concentration slipped and some light peeked through the walls, Neo struck again at the spot that she had just pierced.

Kojiro's illusion was once again created, and Neo stepped into said illusion. However, she struck at different places where Kojiro's illusions did. Tisiphone tried using her spear to block and attack back, but the illusion was effective. Neo wasn't hurt at all.

"Damn you! I'll crush that vapid expression!" Tisiphone raised a hand, and with a pulse of aura, sent all of the earth behind her… straight at Neo's face.

Or rather, Kojiro's illusionary face. The huge attack passed straight over Neo's head, who was finally thankful for her short stature. Then, Neo raised her sword…

And stabbed it straight into Tisiphone's gut. The stab was halted by a thin layer of earthen armor and an even thinner bit of aura, but Tisiphone's last, all out attack had been a mistake.

Neo's sword struck her mark.

Slowly, Tisiphone looked at the little girl that looked back at her, heterochromic eyes not wavering. Blood soaked the earthen armor that surrounded Tisiphone, before the armor dissolved as well.

"I see… So I wasn't even fighting Sasaki Kojiro?"

Neo nodded, before taking out her sword. Tisiphone was a worthy opponent, if not a little unobservant. Still, Neo could somewhat respect that.

"Sorry… brother… I failed…"

The whole platform began to deconstruct itself. The earth turned back into its component parts and rained dust down on the ground. The pile of earth holding Adam loosened as well, allowing him to swing his katana and free himself from the rubble holding him down.

Neo descended in front of the dust cloud, bloody sword still in her hand. Her feet readjusted to the now heel-less high heels that had actually been useful in a fight for once.

Sadly, her parasol was nowhere to be found.

As Neo's irritation grew larger, Adam felt a chill run down his spine, and gripped his katana tighter.

…

"A gigantic dust storm has just been spotted in downtown Vale, with several citizens reporting that there was a gigantic dirt spider crawling-" the radio crackled, before Winter slammed her fist on the table. The radio fell from its perch ona drawer and broke on the floor mats.

"Sir! We need to intervene!" Winter shouted. The rather dusty table collapsed. Ironwood looked slightly apologetic. Meanwhile, Kojiro continued to drink his burnt tea.

"Are the walls gone? Has the dragon woken up?" Ironwood said. "The atlesian knights have it handled, Winter. Trust in our scientists."

"Of course I trust them. Still, with a catastrophe of this scale, I don't think that-"

"We will compensate you. I swear." Ironwood whispered to Kojiro.

"-the efficacy of Atlesian Knights is limited by their Artificial Intelligence Capability-"

Kojiro continued to drink his tea. Honestly, he was getting pretty bored…

…

"Social media drama? Why would we need that?" Emerald asked.

"The Grimm can be lured in by only one thing: negative emotions. If we create enough social media drama, then the dragon can be activated." Cinder said.

"I mean, we have a powder keg already." Mercury said. "The White Fang have been stealing dust, right? We could just… piss off the faunus population enough that the dragon can be attracted."

There was silence in the warehouse for a couple of seconds.,

"Mercury…" Cinder said, her expression strangely blank.

"What?"

"Did you actually just make a sensible suggestion?"

"...Hey, I'm always sensible!"

"Let's go find that nutjob Adam Taurus then." Emerald said. "Where is he now?"

"I don't think we have to do anything about finding Adam." Mercury said, his scroll buzzing with news feed notifications. "He's fighting with Kojiro's underling right now."

…

"Terrorist leader Adam Taurus has been spotted!" Winter said, scrolling down her own news feed. "General, we must act now!"

"Go, Specialist Schnee." Ironwood ordered. Winter saluted curtly before rushing out of the parlor, almost kicking down the door. Kojiro looked at the property damage and sighed. A certain bird back in Chaldea would probably murder the specialist for defiling a parlor like this.

"You need to reassure the civilians now." Ironwood said. "Like it or not, you are one of the more famous huntsmen in Vale. I'll contact some atlesian reporters to get you a good intervi-"

Kojiro, however, dashed out after Winter Schnee. This here was the challenge he was waiting for! The fight that would push him to develop the Tsubame Gaeshi.

Adam Taurus was a ferocious terrorist, capable of killing rather large grimm, causing incredible amounts of property damage, and was rumored to also wield a katana.

Kojiro was looking forward to this.

Meanwhile, asphalt cracked under Winter's heels as she sprinted through the streets of Vale. Kojiro followed, his strides light, yet faster than Winter. His sandals slapped against the pavement softly, causing Winter to look back at the source of the noise.

Kojiro gave her a competitive smile and turned a street corner, leaving Winter very confused.

"Wasn't he going to go fight Adam Taurus?"

Then, a truck swerved from out of the street corner, Kojiro in the driver's seat. Despite being a bulky truck, it was driven masterfully down the narrow streetway, making slight swerves and turns to avoid potholes.

The truck and the specialist raced towards the scene of battle.

…

Neo looked at Adam Taurus, and finally realized why he wasn't as big of a joke as she had thought.

The man was fast. Strong. And had a powerful semblance. The only thing he was lacking was in the precision department, though he had plenty of experience.

Neo's sword was chipped and scratched, though that was only because she could actually parry the strikes that Adam flung out, instead of dodging the literal earthen walls that Tisiphone had been tossing about.

Another red arc lanced through the air, cutting through the air right by Neo's side. She crouched alertly, not wanting to be hit by another one of those beams, before lunging forward and going in for a strike, only for a superbly fast cut to reach right for her eye, forcing her to send an illusion forward and jump back herself.

This was a different battle. There were no more tricks like pretending to be Kojiro. Adam Taurus had already seen her true height, and if she tried to pull a trick like trying to bait Tisiphone into striking Kojiro's illusionary head, Adam's blade would probably behead her.

Thus, she stalled. As skilled as she thought she was, she realized her painful limitations. She, too, fell into the same trap as Adam Taurus. To be perfectly honest, her semblance was just too convenient. A shortcut for assasination, or, in Adam's case, mass destruction.

Then, a white blur shot past the two. A woman in a ponytail and an over-the-top uniform flashed into the battle. A sword was swung and Adam Taurus leapt back, slightly surprised-

Only for a truck to slam into his body and send him flying into the dumpster.

"…Now… where's Adam Taurus?" Kojiro shouted from

…

Adam, once again, opened his eyes in the dumpster. This time, however, it wasn't because he was unconscious. Lights flashed before his eyes, and his eyes slowly focused back into reality.

The smell of trash was horrible. What did he remember…

There was a flash of white. He dodged subconsciously. And then?

Pain. Insufferable, unfamiliar pain. the sensation of his aura's warmth. And him flying away into the blue sky, before flying into the dumpster.

Adam sliced the dumpster in two, roaring and using his aura to eliminate his dizziness.

And in the distance? Was Sasaki Kojiro. There was also Winter Schnee, which made Adam's blood boil.

But the two were together. Adam was confident, but he wasn't confident enough to take two of them at once. Thus, he ran.

Next time I fight you, it'll be when Vale is falling.

With this thought, Adam leapt out of the dumpster, onto a rooftop, and then ran away into the half-destroyed neighborhood.

…

Kojiro opened the door of his truck gently and hopped down onto the sidewalk. He drew his sword, took a deep breath, and looked around.

"He couldn't have just disappeared." Kojiro said, looking around.

In the distance, a bird that looked oddly crimson Flew up from a dumpster and onto a rooftop. Kojiro shrugged. It was probably Raven spying on them.

"Sasaki Kojiro… That was Adam Taurus." Winter looked at Kojiro like he was crazy, even if she already thought that he should, in fact, be in an insane asylum. "The person that you hit with your truck was Adam Taurus."

Neo dropped her sword, fell to her knees in exhaustion, and began to laugh silently.

"No, it wasn't." Kojiro said confidently. "Adam Taurus is a renowned terrorist. He hasn't been captured by your military in many years. I, however, have encountered that copycat several times. He boasts all of the temperament that Adam should have, but none of the skill. If anything, his semblance is mildly impressive, though that isn't because of effort on his part."

Winter took out her own scroll, typed a couple of phrases into it, and held it out to Kojiro, who took the device and looked at the image.

The image of Adam Taurus.

"No…" Kojiro's heart fell. The grip he had on his sword quivered.

Adam Taurus was the person that he had just hit with a truck.

"I thought that he would be skilled enough to avoid my truck…" Kojiro said. "I thought he could be skilled enough to be a real challenge."

He stabbed his katana into the street. The blade quivered within its prison, making the air hum with its vibration. Then, the usually quiet man stood up, balled up his fists, and yelled.

"Damn it!"

His roar echoed throughout the city.

…

The mountain quivered, and the scientists shook.

"Get that tube over here!" somebody holding a clipboard said. "And get that pillar up! We need the hard light barrier built as soon as possible!"

A boulder trembled on top of the mountain, before it slowly tipped over an edge.

"Mist, destroy the rock!"

"Roger that!"

An on-site huntsman leapt up and kicked the rock, before using his gun-turned sledgehammer to hit the rock, turning it into a collection of small pebbles.

"What are the readings on the grimm?" the clipboard-holding manager said.

"It's almost out of its dormant state! Some amount of negative energy has been detected by it."

"Everybody!" the manager said, shouting into a megaphone. "Trust in our technology! We can contain the dragon!"

A small, reluctant cheer broke out around the work site.

They were only twenty percent done.

…

Emerald looked at the gif of Adam Taurus being hit by a truck. Below the scene recorded from a news helicopter, a little blurb praised Kojiro's driving prowess.

"I guess you are useless after all, Mercury." Emerald smirked. Mercury gritted his teeth and glared back.

"Now that Adam Taurus is gone, how are we going to create negative emotions? Go out murdering ourselves?" Mercury snarled. "It wasn't my plan that was wrong, it was just Kojiro being in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"They reported on Adam Taurus's defeat as a victory…" Cinder said, standing up from a plastic chair. "But they forgot to omit the rubble behind them."

"How does that help us?"

"A rather large residential neighborhood was destroyed, and all civilians are being kept away from that area because of a supposed gas leak." Cinder said. "If you look in the background of this report, you can see the destroyed neighborhood."

"And… if we go there…"

"We can live stream them evacuating civilians." Cinder grinned. "Our plan is still operational."

The three stood up, following Cinder out of the warehouse.

"Mercury, go in and cause some panic." Cinder said. "Make sure to take this virus and put it in an Atlesian Knight while you're at it."

"The one that Watts made for us to hack an airship? We're using it now?"

"All we need to pretend to show is that Atlas is destroying Vale."

"But Atlas can just get the information out that one of their bots got hacked." Mercury sighed. "Even if I do follow your orders, nothing will be done. And-"

"Emerald."

"Yes ma'am."

"Go to the CCT and destroy the towers. The rest of the world won't get any data after I upload that scene."