RWBY Sharingan Chapter 66: Ifs (Patreon)

“Is there anything else we can help you with today, sir?”

“That’ll be all. You have a good day.” Waving, the ring of the shop’s bell filled my ears as I stepped out and back onto the streets of Argus, moving on to the next place.

Despite what he said, Qrow was keeping me in the loop, but only loosely, texts and calls all kept relatively vague.

An attack over at the Atlas Base. A handful of people killed. Their systems without a doubt accessed by Arthur Watts, or at the very least someone with his know how, if their cameras and other surveillance equipment were tampered with. Nothing confirmed stolen or sabotaged.

There just wasn’t enough information to put together any conclusive reasoning behind all of it. Was something implanted in the base’s systems? Information on that giant mech they were either building or already built taken? Maybe data on something else entirely? That base was heavily involved with all of Argus’ security measures and trade. If I intended on destroying the city, it’s where I would start. Plenty of places depended on Argus for certain goods so its destruction would have a few far reaching consequences too.

While I wouldn’t discount that possibility, the future still uncertain no matter how much knowledge I had to work with, it didn’t make sense.

Why get caught in the act? It’d just bring more attention to any possible data breach or unsecure access. Was Tyrian’s attack there just a distraction for something else he’d been doing in the city?

Then again, logic didn’t always apply to someone like him. Tyrian was demented enough that he could both decide to and revel in murdering a bunch of people on a whim so long as it didn’t interfere with Salem’s plan. He could’ve just been bored while passing through, remedying that by causing a little pointless chaos.

Nothing was off the table with him, which only made theorizing about the whys and intentions behind the attack a never ending thought exercise. Best to focus on the mere fact that he had been in the city while Qrow investigated that side of things.

“Welcome.” As I stepped into yet another store I’d marked as a place of interest while walking around with the others, through a minor use of Emerald’s semblance I had the employees within believing that I was a licensed huntsman investigating someone.

Across Remnant as a whole there weren’t many private businesses that specialized in trade and transportation beyond the city they were based in. Grimm alone made the risk outweigh the reward for most. Within Argus, one of the few places with that sort of thing as a central focus, there were more than most so it’d be a pain in the ass but paying each one a visit wouldn’t be impossible.

If Tyrian arrived and left on foot or took the risk using the more official government funded ways of travel? Qrow would have far better luck than me coming across information that could shed light on his whereabouts, both the Atlas Military and local law enforcement resources for him to make use of.

If Tyrian made use of any private group, legal or criminal, I might be able to dig something up with some good old fashioned legwork on my own time with some help and direction from local members of Spider.

Hopefully.

Ever since I started this whole search, the phrasing chasing shadows had started making more and more sense. Running into Cinder and Emerald had been pure luck. Mercury had been more of consequence of my own decisions. But actively trying to chase down a lone person who knew how to keep a low profile when he wasn’t indulging in whatever impulses ran through his head was frustrating.

With her immortality and Ozpin’s far reaching influence, Salem’s approach of only keeping a handful of agents slowly carrying out her plots was annoying smart on her end.

Sometimes it felt like I was chasing someone that didn’t exist.

XOXO

A yawn left me as I turned up the stairs of the place Miss Malachite’s people were providing.

I’d split off from the others after our time at the beach and getting something to eat early enough that many of the places I wanted to investigate were open and staff around for me to question about anyone that might’ve stood out to them recently.  Even after night fell, I stayed out, checking out the places. Admittedly breaking into them was the easy part but getting into any company’s digital database was a whole other thing. I just had to hope they were lax on their security and left passwords written down for the staff somewhere.

That wasn’t always the case but its not like there was much of a chance Tyrian was running around using his actual name or jumping in front of every camera around. I doubted I’d be finding anything on him but not even trying would be half assed.

I couldn’t afford to pass over a lead because the method of getting it was a little dull or inconvenient.

I reached the top of the stairs and headed over to mine and Mercury’s shared room. After all the time I spent out there and morning technically already here, I could probably get an hour or two of some sweet, sweet sleep.

The door behind me opened as I grasped the handle to the room and I turned.

“Talon.” Just waking up herself, Cinder stepped out from her shared room with Emerald, still blinking away some of her grogginess. “Can teach me?” Was she talking about swimming?

“Right now?” I asked. She nodded.

I held back a sigh. Ah, sleep, so close, yet suddenly so far. Not like I would’ve gotten much anyways.

“Let me grab some things.”

XOXO

“Be careful out there, it’s still dark.” One of the guards lingering at the top of the wooden ramp that led out to the beach warned us as we passed.

Despite being the arguably the safest beach across Remnant, barring indoor recreations that could be found in cities, it was still a beach on Remnant. Just to be on the safe side the place was actually completely closed and guarded throughout the night and only tentatively open to adults in the earliest hours of the day.

A natural consequence of Grimm.

The creaking wood turned to crunching sand, Cinder, back in the same swimsuit from yesterday minus the jacket, silently walking beside me. With the sun still a bit off from rising over the horizon, other than a single man jogging across the sands a good distance away, there was no one around. That left her more relaxed.

Up until we reached the waters. Even colder without the sun to heat it up, we were just fine walking our way through the dark waters before Cinder’s aura shield came to life once she was thigh deep.

I couldn’t blame her. I’d probably take the same precaution if I couldn't see much of anything out in this darkness.

“We’re going to start with floating.” I said, a hand held out for her.

Slowly, she dropped the cross of her arms and grabbed hold of it, letting me lead her a little further out. “How am I supposed to do that?”

“You don’t do anything.” I said. Once the calm waves were passing by her waist I finally stopped and turned around. She was glaring at me. “I was being serious. You’ve just got to relax, nothing else.”

Reaching over, I stopped early, letting my other hand hover over her shoulder while I raised a brow. Glare dropped, she looked away. Grasping her shoulder, I carefully shifted her weight only to be met with resistance.

“You can’t float and stand at the same, you know.” I pointed out. Reluctantly, she stopped her resistance, letting me take her off her feet and balance her on the water. Of course, that didn’t mean she relaxed at all. Nothing less than a blind man would’ve been able to miss her poorly concealed panic, every part of her, from the shoulder I was holding and the hand tightly clenching my other hand, giving it away.

Finding some indoor pool would’ve been a better place to start but Cinder had been determined to learn out on the actual beach.

“You’ve got to relax.” I said again. Waves splashing around her face, Cinder glared up at me.

“What do you think I’m doing?” She bit back snidely. Paradoxically I’m pretty sure she started trying harder to relax, her body only tensing up further as more water passed over her. As long as she was so focused on the water itself, we weren’t going to be making much progress.

Distraction was the way to go.

“Try thinking about something else. What you’re planning to do today, the tournament, going to sleep; think about literally anything other than the water.” I said. She stayed stiff as a board, liable to sink the moment I let go of her despite the advice. But her glare did drop.

“Your scars.” She said as her eyes ran over my arm and chest. “How did you get them?”

“I guess talking works too.” Tilting my head, I closed my eyes for a moment. “I tried to help someone important to me. Fucked it up and got these. Not much else to it.” I decided to just be vague about them, but that short of a conversation wasn’t going to be enough to get her distracted. “What about yours?”

Somehow, she tensed up further, eyes relocking with mine. “What are you talking about?” And that defensive reaction came too quickly for anyone to think it was natural.

“Your neck.” I bluntly pointed out rather than dancing around it. “I doubt anyone else has noticed it.” I added for her benefit. She was going out of her way to hide the faded thing after all.

“I…” She started slowly only to quickly fall quiet. Bit by bit her tension slowly eased up, eyes dropping from mine. “I was weak and pathetic.” She finally muttered. Quite an admission coming from her of all people. Not being seen that way was her whole thing and was probably the whole reason she was asking me to teach her so early when no one was around.

“I guess we all were at some point.” I said, carefully removing my hand from her shoulder in time with a passing wave. She was far from relaxed, but she wasn’t sinking at least. “Some people I know say scars are tattoos for the strong. They just mean you survived something others might not have.”

“If I were stronger, I wouldn’t have ended up with it at all.”

“Yeah.” I agreed.

Shifting my weight, I let myself fall back, dipping beneath the salty water for a moment before settling into a float beside her. Cinder was managing to float but refused to let go of my hand.

If I had been stronger, I wouldn’t have ended up with these burns. If I had been stronger Summer wouldn’t have had to endure worse.

“No point thinking about the ifs though.” I muttered, staring up at the dark sky. “Just got to make sure you’re strong enough to never let it happen again.”

XOXO

She hated all of it.

The cold water splashing at her face and its salty taste. Barely being able to see in any direction yet knowing Grimm laid somewhere in these waters even if separated by gates. Her body pushed and pulled around.

It all felt wrong.

Cinder carefully turned her head, grimacing as more water splashed across her face, stopping once she had a clearer view of Talon. Long dark hair floating just beneath the water, his eyes were closed beneath his glasses and perfectly relaxed as if he didn’t have a care in the world. Even the hold he had on her hand was loose.

A stronger wave forced her to tightened her grip on him as the water passed.

“You didn’t want the others to see you struggling like a baby, huh?”

“Shut up.” She said, the snicker that followed not nearly as condescending as she always thought them to be when he said things like that.

Or maybe they’d never been in the first place.

It was hard to imagine but at some point he must’ve been forced into a situation he didn’t ask for. Forced to face cruelty that others could just pretend didn’t exist, downplay, or position themselves above using things like lien.

He understood what it was like.

Cinder took a deep breath and let her aura shield fade away but tightened the hold she had on his hand, looking up towards the dark sky too.

XOXO

(A/N: You know I never thought about it before but those private investigator types that track down one particular person, especially one that might not want to be found, deserve plenty of credit if they're good at their job. Obviously our world isn't the same as Remnant of all places but finding one person in a big ass world, sometimes with so little information they might as well have none, is a crazy concept.

Anyways, hard to say if Talon is offering the right words of advice to Cinder. But he most definitely said the right things for her to feel closer to him. They're out floating on the water too. Like a ship. No? That was bad? Yeah that was horrible joke.

See you in the next one. I have been on a strange row when it comes to writing in general recently. Let's hope I didn't jinx myself by bringing that up.)