The lights shut off, and the projector whirred to life, casting an image onto the large theater screen.
"Here we go!" Ruby whispered excitedly, bouncing in her seat.
For a couple of seconds, all that could be seen was inky blackness. Then, out of the darkness, a familiar voice spoke up.
"Mallet Island," Jaune Arc said with a sigh. "I'll never forget it. It was there that I faced off against legions of the Creatures of Grimm, and battled against their sinister king, Mundus." A black and white flashback appeared on the screen, showcasing Jaune and Trish watching as a giant hand stretched out to them in vain, as it was pulled through a wormhole.
"So, the Grimm have a king in this reality, eh?" Roman said thoughtfully, stroking his chin. "Well, That doesn't sound too implausible."
It would explain how such mindless beasts seem capable of strategy, Neo added via her Scroll.
"Despite my best efforts, I only managed to seal the vile Grimm King away, and escape Mallet Island before it was destroyed by the collapse of its portal to the Grimm World." This piece of dialogue was accompanied by another monochrome scene of an old-fashioned Bullhead soaring in the skies above the ocean, as the island in question tore itself apart in a giant explosion.
"Heh, now that was a memorable climax," Qrow chuckled, taking a sip from his flask.
"I wish we had been able to get here in time to see that," Whitley sighed wistfully.
"Indeed," Ironwood said with a nod. "I imagine it had been quite the spectacle."
"Believe me, it was," Ozpin assured him.
"In the aftermath of Mundus's defeat, I had expected there to be an increase in Grimm attacks of apocalyptic proportions," Jaune's voice confessed. "After all, there could be no possible way that the Grimm King would stand for being so utterly humiliated by a mere human." A moment of silence followed these ominous words. "Instead, things just went back to normal. Or as normal as things can be, in my line of work."
A new black and white image appeared, showcasing Jaune and Trish laughing as they exited the Huntsman's shop, Grimm Never Cry, on their way to another job.
"Sure, the Creatures of Grimm stirred up some trouble here and there, but it was nothing I couldn't handle. Especially with my new business partner fighting by my side."
"So Trish and our Fearless Leader are working together now?" Nora asked, before smiling brightly. "That's awesome!"
"Yes, it will be good for Jaune to have someone watching his back," Ren announced.
"And so, my life fell into a routine," Jaune declared, contentment evident in his voice. "Wake up, sit at my desk, answer calls, head out on jobs if need be, and then come back home. It was a simple pattern, but I certainly wasn't complaining. After all, that left more time to be with my family."
One final monochrome image appeared on the screen, this one a still photo. Jaune was there, smiling happily. One of his arms was wrapped around a beaming Ruby Rose, who had allowed her hair to grow down to shoulder level.
"She's beautiful," Tai whispered, beginning to tear up. "Almost the spitting image of her mother." Then he noticed something else in the photograph. "Wait, is that-"
"I believe it is!" Ms. Goodwitch gasped, looking at the screen in shock.
Standing in front of Jaune and Ruby, holding up a pair of peace signs with a cheeky grin on her face, was a small girl with long, light hair and wearing a hoodie with the Pumpkin Pete mascot.
The audience suddenly got very quiet. Ruby blinked, staring at the screen in shock.
"O-Oh my..." Pyrrha stuttered.
"AWW!" Yang squealed. "She's so cute!" Then she thought of something else. "And I'm an auntie now! I'm an auntie!" The Blonde Brawler burst into a fit of uncontrollable giggling.
"Wow, somebody's got issues," Adam murmured, a little unnerved.
"There is nothing I wouldn't do for my wife and daughter," Jaune's voice concluded determinedly. "For their sake, I would descend into the depths of the Grimm World, and fight Mundus all over again."
The image of the happy family faded to black, before white letters appeared on the screen, one after another, as though they were being typed.
THREE YEARS LATER...
"Well, that's not ominous at all," Blake said drily.
The scene changed to show a car driving along a dirt road in the middle of a forest. The occupants in the front seat consisted of two police officers in full uniform. The policeman driving the car was thin, and wore a pair of spectacles. The other officer was more bulky, and sported a large amount of stubble of his chin and cheeks. Sitting in the backseat, staring out the window with a grave expression on his face, was Jaune.
"Well, that's quite the long face for the man who has it all," Coco commented. "I wonder what's gotten into him?"
"Maybe he and Ruby got into an argument, or something?" Sun suggested.
"No way!" Velvet shook her head. "I know Ruby and Jaune. They're not the kind of people who would stay angry with each other over a disagreement."
As Jaune watched the trees outside his window rush past him, he began to talk to himself.
"It's been almost a decade since I last set foot in Mistral," he said quietly. "I haven't needed to return ever since graduating from the classes that I took in Haven Academy..."
"So, he attended Haven Academy after the Fall of Beacon, did he?" Winter hummed. "I wonder what classes he took while he was there..." She shook her head. "But that is a question for another time. Right now, what could be so important to require Mr. Arc's prescience in Mistral when he has not needed to go back in ten years?"
The policeman driving the car let out a sigh, and slumped his shoulders.
"Gad, why am I the one who always gets the short end of the stick?" he groaned. The other officer turned to look back at Jaune.
"Yo. Who are you, really? Come on and tell us." The Huntsman didn't respond. Snorting, the policeman returned to staring out the windshield at the road. "You're a long way from home, Huntsman. You have my sympathies." Finally, Jaune spoke.
"I take it that's the Mistralian way of breaking the ice?" he asked sarcastically, before shaking his head. "Anyway, you know what this is about. You're supposed to be helping me search for my missing daughter."
Several horrified seconds of silence followed these words.
"MISSING?!" Ruby shrieked finally.
"My niece has been kidnapped?!" Yang bellowed, her eyes turning red. "I'll KILL them!"
"Who would want to steal Jaune and Ruby's daughter?" Weiss could scarcely believing her ears.
"Seeing as how Jaune is currently journeying through the Kingdom of Mistral, I can think of a couple of organized crime syndicates that would have an interest in a little girl," Blake said darkly. "Neither of them are very pleasant, though."
The stubbled policeman did not appear to be taking this revelation very well.
"You're joking, right?" he said with a chuckle. "Do you really think that just the three of us are going to be able to search every nook and cranny across the entire continent of Anima?"
"I'm sure you boys didn't just tag along so that we could sing 'Kumbayah' together at some Boy Scout bonfire," Jaune stated plainly, trying to alleviate the tension, as well as some of his own unease, with some humor. Seeing the two officers' unimpressed stares, he tilted his head back to stare disparagingly up at the ceiling. "Then again, maybe you did."
"You'd think these cops would be taking a missing person's case more seriously," Kali seethed, a little miffed at how unsympathetic the officers were being towards Jaune's plight.
"Let's not forget that this is in Mistral, honey," Ghira sighed, rubbing his wife's shoulders to calm her down. "Half the law enforcement in the Kingdom is on the payroll of one crime family or another."
The bespectacled policeman let out a short laugh.
"You crazy Valean," he said with a scoff. "When people disappear in Anima, they're gone for good. But since our orders to escort you across the Kingdom came straight from the Council, we're in this for the long run. I'll warn you, though, this little mystery of yours will be no picnic, I guarantee you that."
"I'm counting on you guys," Jaune told the officers, attempting to lift their spirits. That got a sympathetic wave of the hand from the stubbled policeman, but nothing more.
"I swear, if the creeps who took my granddaughter harmed one hair on her head, I'll tear them limb from limb!" Tai growled.
"Get in line." Qrow glowered at the screen. "I picked up a number of ways to make people hurt during my time in the Branwen tribe."
A little farther down the road, the car rolled to a stop. The front seat passenger door flew open, allowing the stubbled policeman to dash out towards some bushes unzipping his pants while did so.
"Seriously?" One of Emerald's eyes twitched. "He has to pee now of all places?"
"Hey, when you gotta go, you gotta go," Mercury said with a shrug.
Back inside the car, the bespectacled policeman pulled out a pack of cigarettes, and held them out towards Jaune, offering one to him. The Huntsman held up a hand in refusal, so the officer shrugged and simply lit one for himself. Jaune looked back out the window, and starting to muse.
"This doesn't make any sense," he mumbled. "My job doesn't make enough of a salary for a hefty ransom, so money can't possibly the abductor's endgame. Roman is doing me a favor by reaching out to some contacts in the Mistralian Underworld, but nobody matching Summer's description has been seen in any of the human trafficking cartels. The only lead I have is from Winter, when some of her operatives from A.I.D. reported seeing a young girl matching my daughter's description out in countryside of Anima. But there's no major syndicate that I know that would be this far from the major cities. So who else could she possibly be of interest to?"
"I don't know, but when you find out, send them flying clear to the moon, Fearless Leader!" Nora demanded, pointing at the screen.
"Nora, calm down," Ren sighed. "It's only a TV show." He turned to Pyrrha for support, but to his dismay, the Invicible Girl was taking it as seriously as his partner was.
"You said it, Nora! Those creeps deserve as much and more!" Meanwhile, Cinder raised an eyebrow.
"Curious," she muttered. "Since Jaune is friends with Weiss, it makes sense that he's have a connection to Winter, but from the sound of it, he and Torchwick have a history as well. I wonder how that is..."
As the stubbled policeman finished peeing, a light mist began to descend upon the area of the woods, causing him to shiver.
"Brr, it's freezing," he said with a shudder, his teeth beginning to chatter. "S-So c-cold all of a s-sudden." The officer zipped his pants back up, and began to make his way back to the car. Out of the corner of his eyes, though, he detected movement; something slipping out from behind one of the trees. The policeman turned to look into the forest, but there was nothing out of the ordinary from what he could see. "Bah, must be my imagination." Nevertheless, he made his way back to the car rather quickly As he pulled open the passenger door, he nodded towards the driver and Jaune. "Sorry that took so long."
"Boy, that must be some imagination, to conjure up a thin layer of fog out of the blue like that," Roman snarked.
"Oh, can it, Torchwick," Ms. Goodwitch grumbled. "We all know that the cop probably saw a Grimm stalking them in the forest. As for what Grimm has the ability to significantly lower the temperature of its surrounding environment, though, that would be a question for Professor Port."
The scene changed to show the car slowly roll over a rickety wooden rope bridge, which was suspended over a small crevasse with a shallow stream at the bottom. Once safely on the other side, the car pulled over and parked. The rear driver's side door opened, as Jaune prepared to step out this time.
"Just up ahead is the village," the bespectacled policeman told the Huntsman.
"I'll go have a look around," Jaune told the officers.
"We'll stay and watch the car," the stubbled police officer replied. "Don't want to get any parking tickets." The Huntsman stared at him for a second.
"Could those two possibly be any less helpful?" Coco shook her head in disbelief.
"I guess they're not expecting Jaune to find any leads here," Velvet determined. "Still, though. They could at least help look and save him some time."
"...Right. Parking tickets," Jaune grunted, rolling his eyes.
"Good luck," the bespectacled policeman told him. With a sigh, the Huntsman slipped out of the car, shutting his door behind him.
"Geez, how did I get stuck with these two boneheads?" Noticing Jaune's lips moving, the officer rolled his window down.
"Did you say something?" he asked.
"Nothing you'd want to hear," Adam snickered.
Before Jaune could answer, his Scroll began to ring. Grateful for the interruption, the Huntsman pulled out his device, and opened it.
"Arc, can you hear me?" a feminine voice asked. Jaune grinned.
"Loud and clear, Winter," he stated. "And thank you for doing this for me."
"Think nothing of it," Winter told him plainly. "I want to see your daughter return home safe and sound, just as you do. The least I can do is give you some support."
"Jaune's in good hands, now" Ironwood said with a smile. "Winter is one of my best Specialists. Even if she isn't physically involved, she'll make his search a little easier."
"Of course I will, sir," Winter states proudly. "It is my duty to aid as much as I can, in everything I do."
"I'm glad to hear that," Jaune said earnestly, before allowing a smirk to stretch across his face. "Whoever these bums are, they picked the wrong girl to kidnap!"
"You said it," Winter said with a chuckle. "I will try to find out as much as I can about this alleged organization from the sources I can find."
"I'll leave you to it, then," the Huntsman decided. "Talk to you soon, Winter. Over and out." Jaune pocketed his Scroll, then prepared to set off.
"Hey! What's the holdup?" The stubbled policeman called from behind. "Did you forget to put on your makeup or something?" Hanging his head in disappointment, the Huntsman set off down the dusty, beaten path towards the village.
"If those cops are going to stick around for the rest of the season, that's going to get old really quick," Whitley grumbled.
"I couldn't agree more," Willow said, a sour look upon her face.
As Jaune made his way down the trail, he came across a wooden sign. It was shaped like an arrow, and pointed off to his right. The words "Jigoku Village ahead" were neatly written on the sign with black paint. The Huntsman looked down at the trail, which he could see curved to the right and headed in the direction the sign was pointing. A smaller side path continued forwards in front of him, though, which led up to a two-story house with boarded up windows on its first floor. Jaune considered his options, then started towards the house
"Why not?" he said to himself. "I've gotta start somewhere."
The scene briefly changed to show Jaune approaching the house from inside the abode, through one of its boarded up windows. A shadow of a man hovered over the window for a moment, watching the Huntsman, before walking away.
"Well, that seemed foreboding," Weiss said, a confused expression on her face.
"Yeah, but why?" Blake asked. "It's just a humble villager. What's the worst that he can do, not offer Jaune any help?"
The scene cut back to Jaune as he clambered up the front steps of the house, to find the door hanging wide open. Shrugging, the Huntsman stepped into the building, then followed the hallway, which led off to his left. As he walked past a cupboard filled with small cups and plates, he heard someone coughing from up ahead. He rounded the corner, and found himself in the main room of the house.
A bookshelf was off to his left, filled with books from famous Mistralian authors, a few of whom Jaune recognized. A table stood in the middle of the room, which had a dirty plate resting atop it, as well as silverware and a cup. What was of most interest to the Huntsman, though, was the fireplace at the far end of the room, where a man was knelt, busily stoking the flames.
"Hopefully this guy is more helpful than those two cops are," Tai muttered.
"Uh, excuse me, sir?" Jaune called to the man. There was no response. Undeterred, the Huntsman simply made his way forward until he was right next to the villager. The man turned his head to the left, finally noticing Jaune, then stood up. Instead of simply turning to his left, though, the man turned to his right, completing a full circle before he faced the Huntsman.
"Um, why exactly did he do that?" Sun asked, a little creeped out. "That looked really unnatural."
"There are actually several medical reasons for why he had to do that," Penny piped up. "He could have a weak knee, or a form of balance disorder."
"It still looked pretty weird," the monkey Faunus whispered under his breath.
As the man stared at Jaune, the Huntsman pulled out a photo, and showed it to the villager. It was a colorized photo of his daughter, who was smiling cutely, posing with her hands clasped behind her back.
"I was wondering if you might recognize the girl in this photograph?" Jaune asked hopefully. The man's eyes flicked down towards the picture for a second, before snapping back up to glare at the Huntsman.
"What the hell are you doing in my house?" the villager demanded. "Get out, you bastard!"
"Jeez, what a piece of work!" Kali said distastefully.
"To be fair, Jaune did go into that man's house uninvited," Ozpin pointed out. "Still, there is no need to be so hostile."
Jaune raised his eyebrows at the man's outburst, before sighing and pocketing the picture.
"Sorry to have bothered you," he said sincerely, though there was a frustrated edge to his voice. The Huntsman turned away, and started to leave. A footstep behind him caused to him to turn his head to see why the villager was following him, just in time to see an axe careening towards his face.
"Whoa! What the hell?!" Yang shouted.
"What does that villager think he's doing?" Pyrrha demanded.
With a gasp, Jaune dove forwards, narrowly avoiding the axe as its blade brushed across his hair. The Huntsman rolled up onto his feet, reaching behind his right shoulder to unsheathe his signature weapon: Crocea Mors. Jaune held the sword in front of him, as the villager began to advance towards him.
"Freeze!" the Huntsman shouted. The man did not listen, instead continuing to approach Jaune, axe raised, ready to strike. "I said FREEZE!"
"Better listen to the kid, pal," Qrow growled. "Ain't no way you're taking down a Huntsman, all by yourself."
"Jaune isn't going to... hurt that guy, is he?" Ruby asked, not liking the idea of her friend having to beat up a civilian, even if said civilian was trying to attack him.
"Don't worry, Ruby," Nora said reassuringly. "Jaune won't use any more force than he needs to."
With an almost animalistic growl, the villager swung his axe at Jaune again, only to have his attack parried by the Huntsman's sword. Jaune retaliated with a kick to the chest, causing his attacker to stumble backwards.
"This is your last warning!" the Huntsman stated severely. "Drop the axe!" The villager wasn't listening, though. Instead, he brought his axe up over his head, and swung it downward. Jaune raised Crocea Mors and blocked the attack, but to his surprise, the force of the blow caused one of his legs to buckle.
That caused a few eyes to widen in the audience.
"Um, did anyone else see that?" Mercury asked.
"Has Jaune been out of practice or something?" Emerald wondered aloud. "There's no way an untrained civilian should be able to hit with that much force!"
Jaune struggled to force the villager's axe away, but it was proving difficult, especially after the man started to push the axe downward, attempting to force the Huntsman down on one knee.
"You're strong!" Jaune grunted through grit teeth. "I need to end this before someone really gets hurt!" Thinking quickly, the Huntsman tilted Crocea Mors at an angle, causing the axe to slide off his blade. Before the villager could attack again, Jaune swung his sword down onto the man's left shoulder. The blade dug in, severing both flesh and bone. The villager shrieked in pain, his axe clattering to the ground as his left arm fell to hang limply at his side, blood running down the length of his arm.
"Oh my!" Kali brought a hand up to her mouth.
"Whoa, Jaune!" Coco cried, surprised at the Huntsman's brutality. "That was a bit overkill, don't you think?"
Jaune looked remorseful, as he watched the villager cradle his useless arm.
"I'm sorry," the Huntsman told him. "You let me no-" Jaune was abruptly cut off as a fist smashed into his nose, sending him flying backwards, Crocea Mors falling from his hand.
Yang felt her jaw drop open. A random civilian had just sent Jaune sailing?
"I... w-what? How?!"
"What in Remnant's name is happening?" Winter demanded, equally surprised.
Jaune smashed against a wall, and slid to the ground as his Aura flashed, dazed. He wasn't given much time to recover, though, as a hand clamped around his throat, and yanked him onto his feet, before smashing him against the wall a second time. If he wasn't currently choking, the Huntsman would have commented upon the absurdity of the situation: somehow, despite being down an arm, a villager was managing to strangle him.
"This villager, there has to be something else going on here," Ironwood surmised. "Even if you made the claim that adrenaline has kicked in, he should not be able to manhandle a Huntsman this easily."
"But what could possibly give a non-Aura user that much strength?" Velvet asked, her voice small and afraid.
Jaune tried to pry the man's hand off of his throat, but it was as tight as a vice. Growing desperate, the Huntsman stretched out an arm to push the villager's face away with one hand, while the other slipped down to his chest, and unholstered Ebony, one of his handguns. He pressed the pistol against the man's lower chest, and fired two shots. However, even though the red stains slowly spreading across the villager's shirt confirmed he had been hit, the man failed to register this fact, as though he simply hadn't felt them.
"Ironwood, I think you're right," Ms. Goodwitch stated, hating the amount of fear she could hear in her voice. "That man should have shown at least some form of reaction to getting shot, but it's as though it never happened at all."
As his vision grew blurry, Jaune raised Ebony to point at the man's left pectoral, and fired off a third shot. Hissing in pain, the villager let go of the Huntsman to clutch at his heart. Jaune coughed, and rubbed his throat. He quickly recovered, and leapt onto his feet, in time to see the villager coming at him a third time, this time wielding Crocea Mors.
"Oh, give me a BREAK!" the Huntsman whined, before ducking under a slash from his own sword. He quickly rolled to the side as the villager swung the sword downwards. Standing up tall again, Jaune tensed, and then as his attacker thrusted his arm forward for a stab, caught the villager's arm in his hand. Steeling himself, the Huntsman bent the man's arm backwards, watching as Crocea Mors slid into the villager's chest, blood beginning to slither down his sword's blade.
"EWW!!!" Ruby shrieked, before burying her face in her hands.
"Oh, that is nasty!" Ghira gagged. Neo began to turn green. Seeing this, Roman grimaced, and quickly shielded her eyes.
Jaune continued to push his sword in deeper, until the hilt was resting against the man's sternum. The villager looked down at his chest, assessing the damage, before thrusting his hand outward, pushing the Huntsman away. Jaune staggered backwards, watching in disbelief as the villager started towards him again, hand outstretched.
"I am really seeing this?" Nora whispered, now terrified. "Is that guy still going?!"
"This is impossible!" Penny shouted, green eyes wide. "The amount of injury this villager sustained should have killed him several times over!"
Jaune watched in growing horror as the villager shuffled towards him, taking a nervous step backwards. When his heel bumped into something behind him, the Huntsman spared a glance at the ground, to find it was the axe. For a moment, he hesitated, and then, as the villager drew near, he kicked the axe up into his hands. Letting out a shout, Jaune swung the axe with all his might, watching as it's blade sunk into the man's face, just to the left of his nose. For a moment, the villager stood still, as though trying to comprehend what had just happened. Then, the man fell backwards, landing spread eagle on the floor, unmoving.
"Is... is it over?" Blake asked, hands clasped together in front of her anxiously.
"I think so," Ren responded, using his Semblance to stay calm. "But it should not have taken that much effort to subdue that man in the first place, much less kill him. Something is very wrong, here."
Jaune studied the mutilated corpse, making sure the villager was really dead. After a few seconds, the Huntsman knelt, and pried Crocea Mors out of the man's chest, trying not to lurch at the amount of blood and tissue covering the blade. Just then, his Scroll rang again, giving Jaune a jolt. Recovering, he pulled out the device, and held it up to his ear.
"Jaune! Are you okay?!" Winter's voice asked urgently. "What was all that noise?"
"There..." the Huntsman swallowed, staring at the bloodied body laying before him. "There was a hostile local," Jaune said shakily. "I didn't want to- I tried to handle it peacefully, but... I had to kill him."
"I am sorry, Jaune," Winter said softly. "Taking a life is always hard. There is nothing you can do about it now, though."
"I know," the Huntsman mumbled, hanging his head. "I need to keep going, Winter. Call you later." Pocketing his Scroll, Jaune spared one last look at the body, before turning away in remorse.
"Poor Jaune," Velvet sniffed. "Even though that man was attacking him, he still didn't want to kill him."
"But did he have a choice?" Sun asked quietly. "That villager was trying to kill him, and if he didn't fight back, he probably would've succeeded..."
As Jaune stood there, attempting to clean off his sword, he noticed something strange in the fireplace. Curiosity getting the better of him, the Huntsman approached, looking into the flames. Amongst the burning logs was a strange shape, looking almost like a skeletal human hand.
"What is that?" Jaune murmured, before a foul scent reached his nose. Recoiling in disgust, he followed the smell to a room nearby, where a stairway led up to the second floor. A small alcove beneath the stairway caught the Huntsman's attention, causing him to peak inside. What he saw made him turn pale.
Several skulls of different sizes rested on a shelf in the alcove, grinning at the Huntsman as they stared back at him with empty sockets. Maggots could be seem squirming around inside a couple of the larger skulls, and the buzzing of flies, hidden in the darkness of the alcove, gave the entire scene a dreadful ambience.
The audience stared at the screen in horror. Who's house had Jaune stumbled into, a cannibalistic serial killer's?!
Before Jaune could even begin to comment upon the horrific scene in front of him, the sound of an engine revving caught his attention. Fearing the worst, the Huntsman ran for the boarded-up window, just managing to catch a glimpse of a truck rushing past the house, back towards the area he came from. Shouts and the sound of gunfire filled the quiet forest for a couple seconds, followed by a terrible crash, and two loud splashes seconds later. Then, to his utmost horror, he saw another three men coming out of the clearing. One was armed with a tire iron, another held a mallet, and the third carried a fence post. They were making their way towards the house, and as they drew closer, the man in the lead met Jaune's eyes through the space between the boards, before baring his teeth at him. The Huntsman swallowed, as the reality of the situation finally set in.
"...Shit," Jaune swore. The screen faded to black, as the episode ended.
"That's it?!" Ruby whined. "But I have so many questions!"
"Yeah, like what the hell was with that villager?!" Yang demanded. "Was he a Grimm in disguise?! But then that wouldn't explain why those other three guys are coming to get him!"
"Oh boy," Adam muttered. "You'd better make peace with killing real quick, Jaune, because those guys sure won't hesitate."