A Wandering Soul - Reaper 3.9 (Patreon)

Mercury exploded off the exam table a lot faster than someone would expect for someone that had just lost a fight by Aura depletion.

Unfortunately for him, both Leona and I knew that Cinder had been manipulating the stadium’s display and had been expecting him to be better off than he presented.

Neither one of us were surprised at his increased speed or skill.

We were only mildly surprised that Mercury immediately tried to attack one of the walls instead of one of us, though it made sense. Even if he wasn’t actually low on Aura, he was still down some, had a ‘damaged’ leg, and was facing two prepared opponents. Running away was the smart move.

Which is why the first thing I did was make sure he couldn't.

Mercury’s shotgun boots slammed into what should have been a thin interior wall and fired, but failed to make much more than a dent. If he was shocked by it, Mercury certainly didn’t waste time showing it.

Using the wall as a springboard, the silver-haired assassin launched himself at Leona only for me to intercept him halfway and use Bakuya to slam him into the ground. His Aura flared at both hits but held firm. The hits definitely hurt him though.

And that was before Leona shot him with a magical bullet from the tip of her spear device and sent him crashing into a shelving unit and buried him under a bunch of random medical supplies.

“Alright, turns out all of us were holding back some tricks.” Mercury grunted, shoving away some of the junk covering him. “How about it, Teach, wanna explain how you did that? Because I can tell that wasn’t caused by something like a Semblance.”

“Class isn’t in session right now.” I said back, Kanshou and Bakuya fading into blue motes of light and being quickly replaced by a short wakizashi-like Zanpakutou. “Figure it out yourself or hope whatever info you might have is worth a trade if you’re that curious.”

“Getting a little ahead of yourself. You didn’t catch me yet.”

I didn’t say anything, instead choosing to aim the blade in my hand at his legs.

“Shoot to kill: Shinsō”

-o-

From the time we revealed we knew he was working for Salem, it took maybe five minutes to capture and knock out Mercury.

And most of that was because it turned out to be really freaking annoying to fight 2v1 in a small room when jumping off the walls and ceilings was a viable strategy.

He and Emerald might have hidden exactly how skilled they were in combat class, but that skill didn’t really do much against the variety of magic Leona could throw around now to say nothing of my own skills.

With him caught and Cinder–

My train of thought was violently interrupted when someone grabbed me by the shoulder and shoved me into the nearby wall.

I might have reacted just as violently if it wasn’t for the fact that I quickly recognized the man and his unfortunate decision to smell like a brewery all the time.

“Hi, Qrow. Can I help you with something?”

“You know, you gotta lot of nerve acting like you didn’t just hang Yang out there to dry.” Qrow practically snarled in my face. “I thought you said you weren’t using them as bait. Well that’s not what I saw.”

“They could have picked any one of the other competitors, not just Yang.” I pointed out. “That they didn’t was deliberate on their part.”

“The hell are you talking about?”

“Salem’s agents have been sabotaging the tournament from the beginning. Misjudged hits, avoidable injuries, stupid stuff that stacked up all day. They’ve been messing with people’s perception to wind everyone up. And then they need a trigger. Someone who’s first response to someone pulling shit is to hit first and maybe ask questions later. Sound like anyone we know?”

That was an unfair description of Yang on my part, but I wasn’t trying to be fair.

I was trying to beat the fact that the agents sabotaging us knew Yang well enough to account for how she specifically would react to further their plans. Which meant getting to know her personally instead of just reading off some reports. Someone close enough to get inside the school. Something that would hopefully break through the bias they had for anyone sent by Lionheart simply because they thought he was still their friend.

Qrow latched on to something different though.

“Wait, what was that about messing with people’s perception?”

I raised an eyebrow at him. “One of Salem’s agents has a Semblance that can make the target see illusions. They’ve been using it for small things – causing those injuries and things I mentioned earlier – and it’s what they used on Yang to make her attack Mercury. She really saw him attack first. Or she thought so, anyway.”

Qrow finally let go of me, staggering back and running a hand through his hair. “Illusions. Dammit, it all makes sense now.” He muttered more to himself than me. “When those three attacked Amber I thought they used some of her power to hide their faces, but if it was a Semblance instead…” His head suddenly snapped up and over to me. “You know who those three are.”

“I do.” I didn’t bother hiding it. There was no benefit to it. We were in the endgame now.

“Tell me.”

“Emerald Sustrai, Mercury Black, Cinder Fall.” I listed off immediately.

I could tell that he recognized those names and even opened his mouth to reflexively deny that they could be involved. But the fact his niece just fought one of them and had clearly been set up somehow was enough to make him hesitate.

“Can you prove it?”

“I don’t have all day to just stand here and explain things, Qrow.” I said testily. “Short version is Emerald used her Semblance on Yang, Mercury’s legs are prosthetics below the knees, and there’s a focused media campaign to make sure everyone in the city knows what just happened tonight. I’m sure you can connect the dots from there, but if you can’t – check with Ozpin. He should be willing to tell you the rest of the plan now.”

Qrow started following after me even as I tried to leave. “Hold on! If that’s true you can’t just walk off! We need to find them and–”

“If you want to go after them, fine.” I interrupted. “Two of them probably already left the stadium and are laying low, though. No point going after the third either. Leona and I beat him up and she’s taking him somewhere more secure until we can grill him for information.”

“WHAT?!”

“Better keep up, Qrow. Things are going to move a bit faster now.” I shot him a smirk before vanishing with a Flash Step.

Was it a little mean of me? Yes.

Was it deserved? Also yes.

If Qrow wanted to be a sarcastic alcoholic, he was free to do so. Just as long as he stayed out of smelling distance from me.

But as fun as it was to mess with him… he wasn’t worth getting too worked up over. We were both technically on the same side after all.

-o-

I took it back. I was going to kill Qrow the next time I saw him.

I figured I’d taken too much time getting here when I saw Ironwood leaving the dorms, but what really drove the point home was when I knocked on Team RWBY’s door and was confronted with three sullen girls and a silently crying Yang.

“Hey, girls. Mind if we talk real quick?”

Ruby looked between me and her sister. “Uh, do you think we can do that later? Yang is…”

“It’s fine, sis.” Yang interrupted, doing her best to wipe the tears from her eyes and put on a brave face. “Might as well get all the yelling over with all at once. Right, teach?”

“Absolutely not!” Weiss objected. “Headmaster Ironwood is an exception, but just because someone is a teacher or part of Beacon’s staff does not mean they can just come in and lecture our teammate!”

Blake nodded alongside her. “We may not know what’s going on, but we won’t let her be abused like that.”

“Well it’s a good thing I didn’t come here to lecture here then, isn't it?” I said, holding back a smile. They were a good team.

“”””What?””””

I huffed in amusement as all four of them seemed surprised by my words.

“What are you here for then?” Blake asked suspiciously.

“An explanation.”

“I already told Ironwood everything. I swear Mercury was the one attacking me, so I attacked back.” Yang said. “It wasn’t stress, or adrenaline, or anything like that. I don’t know why everyone else didn’t see it, but–”

I interrupted her by holding up a hand. “I’m sorry Yang. I should have been more clear. I’m here to explain things to you.”

“What do you mean?”

“Are you saying you know what actually happened in the arena?” Weiss narrowed her eyes at me.

I nodded. “I am. Yang saw Mercury attacking her after the match. Everyone else saw her attack him unprovoked. Both of these things are true.”

“But how could that be?”

“Someone used their Semblance on her to make her see an illusion of Mercury attacking.” I explained simply.

I didn’t plan on getting Team RWBY too involved with my plan to take down Cinder and the rest of Salem’s minions. Not only because catching them up on everything would take more time than I could really afford to spend right now, but also because while all four of them were excellent fighters – none of them were ready to face another person trying to kill them just yet. And selfishly, I didn't want to push them past that point.

I might have more of a teacher-student relationship with them, but I did consider them all friend-adjacent after working with them for a full semester.

Yang took a few seconds to fully absorb what I said, but when she did I saw a fair amount of anger in her eyes.

“Who.” She demanded.

“I can’t answer that.”

“It’s the Grimm Cult, isn’t it?” Blake said to my surprise. “The one you were warning the White Fang about.”

“You know about that?” Really, I shouldn’t have been surprised. Originally, Blake had been obsessed with finding out why the White Fang were working with Roman Torchwick. It wasn’t much of a stretch to think that she would have heard news about me telling the faunus community Torchwick’s boss was a cultist. Not when I actively encouraged them to spread that rumor to make anyone thinking of working with them think twice.

“Cultists, seriously?” Weiss sounded almost personally offended at the idea. “What kind of reprobates are we dealing with?”

“And what can we do to help stop them?” Ruby volunteered.

“Right now? Nothing.” I said, and immediately had to raise my hand to stop the four of them from exploding at me. “I’m not discounting your skills. There just isn’t much any of you can do right now beyond keeping alert.” I paused as I thought of something else. “And maybe keeping close to your friends. I hate to say it, but Yang’s issue isn’t going to just go away because someone set her up. There’s going to be a lot of media attention coming from people who have no idea what happened but certainly have opinions anyway. Be there for each other until we can find a way to clear everything up, okay?”

“Yeah, we can do that.” Ruby said, silver eyes hard and determined. “Nobody gets left behind on Team RWBY!”

I smiled at her before saying a few final things and turning to leave.

The score was 1-1, Cinder.

Your move.