With Kisame and Qrow
On the way to the Town of Ardent
The ride in the bullhead wasn't very long, but to the men riding it was taking forever. Kisame and Qrow had come up with a bet to see who could kill the most Grimm on the mission, but after the bet was made, they didn't really have anything else to say to each other, so they sat there in silence. Both of them were familiar with the isolation of silence. Qrow because he often worked and traveled alone, and Kisame because his partner was usually quiet and the whole ninja thing. That being said neither of them liked the silence.
Qrow saw the man across from him as amiable enough, but he still didn't know anything about the blue man, and his general presence gave a feeling of pressure to the very air around him. A sense of danger. Most people wouldn't notice it because if they were looking at him, they would probably already feel intimidated by the large man with an equally large sword. Qrow wasn't intimidated by the man's size because he knew that the size of a person doesn't give a good description of power, just look at his niece and her mother. Even so he couldn't help but feel the pressure the man across from him was exerting without doing anything. He was just sitting on the bench with his eyes closed, yet the pressure was still there, and through his many years of service as a huntsman he could safely say he had only felt this feeling from one individual, old Oz.
A maiden? Maybe if they were actively trying to intimidate someone. The queen's forces? The one's he had come across not even close. Even the headmasters of the other schools didn't give off this feeling. That's what worried Qrow the most. Not the fact that he exuded this pressure similar to Oz's no. What worried him is that there were two of them. His partner wasn't a flashy fighter per say and seemed to be the cloak and dagger type, but where Kisame gave off this pressure to the surrounding area, his partner did the opposite. He gave no feeling at all. On missions he would disappear and reappear as if it was just like breathing. That's what worried Qrow. The young Uchiha was definitely strong, but he didn't give off any indication of it. He was a complete mystery in terms of strength and power, and he seemed content to keep it that way. His youngest niece hanging around the two every now and again didn't help, but they seemed to be friends, and they hadn't given him any reason to think that would change, so despite his cautiousness of the two he would trust Ruby's judgement.
Kisame on the other hand wasn't really thinking about the man sitting in the cabin with him. No, he was thinking about this upcoming mission. He had learned over the years to trust his gut instinct, and he had a bad feeling about this particular mission. He wasn't worried for himself or even the man across from him. The feeling he was experiencing felt like the calm before the storm. This mission wouldn't turn out how either of them thought it would. That much he could say for certain.
"Can you feel it?" Kisame asked opening his eyes breaking the other man out of his thoughts.
"Feel what exactly?" Qrow asked wondering if they were talking about the same thing.
"The sense of foreboding in the air. Something bad is about to happen, and I'm not sure we will make it in time to stop it." Kisame said looking outside one of the windows.
Before Qrow could respond the pilot's voice came over the intercom system. "We are almost within sight of the town of Ardent and should reach our landing point shortly."
Before the intercom was turned off the muffled sound of the co-pilot was heard by the men in the cabin. Suddenly the pilot's voice came back. "There appears to be smoke coming from the direction of the town. Since this is a possible emergency situation what are your orders?" As soon as the pilot finished that Qrow and Kisame got up and ran into the pilot's area.
Qrow looked out and saw the large plumes of smoke. "You said that was in the direction of the town?" He asked the pilot who looked at the digital map nervously then towards the smoke.
"According to the map that is where the town is."
Qrow looked to Kisame whose face was unreadable.
"Alright slight change of plans we're going in hot literally. Get us as close as you can, and we'll figure out what's going on down there." Qrow said to the pilot.
Kisame looked around at the people in the front cabin then directly to the pilots. "Has there been any contact from this town? Distress signals? Anything?" He asked.
"No, the communication lines have been completely silent, but this area isn't known for having the best signal in the first place, so it isn't that uncommon." He answered.
'Wonderful.' Kisame thought sarcastically. 'Back home I'd think it was a raid on the town be it by enemy shinobi or bandits, but here I'm not sure. There are many possible causes of why a town would be burning, but I don't know a damn thing about this place in particular.' He thought with a frown.
Normally he'd think a random burning town wasn't his business, but his mission was to help protect the town, so protect the town he would do, or at least try to.
Within another few minutes they were close enough to see many of the buildings on fire.
"With the smoke we can't get much closer, so this is as far as we can take you. We'll find a place to land and then wait on your call. If we don't hear anything after 24 hours, we will assume the town has been lost, and return to Vale and let the HA know what's happened." The pilot said looking at the two huntsmen behind him.
"Don't worry we'll call you back in a bit." Qrow said before opening the side of the bullhead. Kisame looked at the pilots once more before jumping out the side and making his way to the burning town. For some reason he didn't completely trust what the pilot said. 'Why would they wait a full day before contacting the Hunter's Association instead of contacting them now to possibly get backup and transport ships for evacuation?' He asked himself as he landed in a tree. A few seconds later Qrow landed near him.
"Come on the sooner we get to the town the better." Qrow said running in the direction of Ardent.
Matching the older man's pace Kisame decided to voice one of his concerns. "Don't you think it's strange?" Kisame asked as he ran alongside the other man.
"What's that?"
"We arrive to find a town burning, but we received no reports, notices, distress signals, or anything." Kisame answered causing Qrow to frown.
"You're right it is strange." Qrow admitted. The town was out of the way, but the signal tower was usually able to connect to the CCT, so what had happened?
'I suppose I'll just have to be ready for anything just like back then.' Kisame thought to himself. This felt all too familiar to him, and in this situation that was probably a bad thing.
When they reached the outskirts of the town, they started looking around for anything to help paint this picture. People, Grimm, anything.
The first thing they came across were some houses. Most of them on fire, but the ones that weren't they quickly checked only to find corpses.
'This doesn't look like Grimm.' Qrow thought noticing that the corpses weren't completely mangled and partially eaten. Grimm usually ate their kill unless something else caught their attention.
"How sharp can Grimm claws get exactly?" Kisame asked inspecting one of the bodies.
"They can easily cut you apart if that's what you're asking." Qrow said looking towards the other man. What he saw didn't help his sometimes-paranoid mind. Most people would be affected by scenes like this. People slaughtered so mercilessly, hell even he didn't like to see these kinds of things, but this guy was still unfazed. Almost as if he was used to seeing things like this, and then something in his mind clicked. One of the few things that he had learned about the two. They lived outside the kingdoms. They probably have come across scenes like this, be it done by Grimm or people, before.
"I don't think a Grimm was responsible for these wounds. At least no Grimm I've ever heard of." Kisame said getting up. Qrow had been thinking that the people were too whole to have been killed by the Grimm, and Kisame had been thinking that the wounds didn't quite fit any Grimm he had learned about. The wounds were too clean, too precise, to be a mindless Grimm. Lacerations in the necks of most of the corpses with other cuts decorating the bodies. There were also some puncture wounds caused by low caliber bullets. They weren't really a thing in his world since they didn't exist, but both he and Itachi had done their research on this world's technology including firearms.
"Grimm don't shoot guns." Qrow said with a nod. "Whoever did this went through a lot of trouble to make sure everyone was dead."
"Dead men tell no tales." Kisame said before walking out. "Let's see if there's anyone left in the town. We might be able to find survivors or the killer themselves."
"It could be bandits. Towns like this one are a pretty easy score in their eyes. No huntsmen, limited defenses, etc." Qrow said as they walked through the streets.
The most unsettling part of all of this was the silence. They heard the fires burning, but nothing else. There wasn't anything to go off of to help their search. No cries of help, screams, voices, howls of Grimm, or anything.
Once they reached what Kisame assumed was once the town square he stopped and looked around. 'Any minute now.' He thought to himself before looking at Qrow. "This one might be out of our control. I don't know if we'll find anyone alive here. Perhaps we should head back." He suggested getting a weird look from Qrow.
"What are you- look out!" He yelled drawing Harbinger in its sword form and knocking away something that was flying towards Kisame.
Kisame looked more amused than anything to see Qrow trying to protect him. It made his plan to incapacitate the intruder just as they were about to strike meaningless though. With an inaudible sigh he looks to the person who was knocked away. Standing there across from them with a large smile on his face was a man wearing a dark brown jacket that was opened in the front. Beneath the jacket Kisame could see scars crossing his chest, and trims of white clothing underneath. The man had gold eyes and brown hair that appeared to be brought back in a ponytail.
Qrow was standing with Harbinger in front of him staring at the man. "Who are you?" He called.
Seemingly just noticing his presence the man looked over towards Qrow. "My my as I live and breathe… Qrow Branwen." He said before bowing slightly. "Unfortunately, who I am matters not to you. Who I am only matters to you." He finished pointing at Kisame.
"Then would you be so kind as to introduce yourself?" Kisame asked with a grin. This might be fun.
"Ah he has manners how polite! Yes, my name dear friend is Tyrian, and if I'm not mistaking you would be called Kisame." He said bowing once again.
"You would be correct. What exactly do you want with me?"
"Me personally I don't want anything from you, but my queen has ordered me to hunt you down after you attacked her little pet." Tyrian said with his own grin.
'Little pet? Queen?' Qrow thought slowly piecing everything together.
"And who would that be? I don't remember harming any animals during my daily routine." Kisame said matching his grin to Tyrians.
"You don't know do you? That little wench you and your little friend put into a coma a while back." He said laughing as if it was the funniest thing in the world.
Qrow looked towards Kisame concerned.
Kisame just chuckled. "She's still not awake I take it?" He asked.
"No, we have no idea when she'll wake up! Isn't that hilarious!?" He asked still laughing.
'You really did overdue it Itachi.' He thought to himself. 'But I suppose it worked out in the end except they found me first rather than you.' "How is your dear queen taking that? What was her name again? Saleem?"
Tyrian's laughter stopped. "If you wish to refer to Mistress Salem then say her name correctly and with the reverence she deserves!" He shouted.
'That was easier than I thought it'd be.' Kisame thought to himself. He then remembered Qrow was standing next to him. 'Guess I can see a bit of what he knows as well.'
Qrow had a frown on his face. He didn't know who exactly Kisame and Itachi put into a coma, but if it was one of Salem's "pets" then that'd explain what this nutjob is doing here, but how'd those two find out about someone like her?
"Well Tyrian now that we've introduced ourselves indulge me for a moment. Did you attack this town?" Kisame asked.
Looking around Tyrian frowned. "It isn't my style really, but I suppose I was the one who attacked it."
"Why?"
"In hopes to ambush you like I had attempted to of course. It's hard to set up an ambush with more people around wouldn't you say?" Tyrian answered.
"And how did you know I'd be here?"
"That I'm afraid I can't really say, but I will give you a hint if you manage to survive." He said grinning and activating his wrist blades.
"I suppose I could beat the answers out of you." Kisame grinned taking Samehada off his back.
"I think I'm starting to like You!" He screamed as he rushed forwards swinging at Kisame.
'Fast… but he's not Itachi. Frankly, he's not even close to that stupid blue beast Might Guy.' He thought swinging Samehada to match the other man's swing. 'Oh well haven't fought a human enemy in a while might as well have fun with it.'
When the blades met, they stopped and were locked against each other. Qrow took this as a chance to attack from Tyrian's blind spot. Unfortunately for him he easily saw it coming, so he jumped up and pushed off of Kisame's blade back at the huntsman kicking him in the stomach then proceeded to jump back at Kisame.
This time Kisame added a bit more force behind his swing and swung down forcing Tyrian to catch Samehada with his own blades and do his best to not be crushed.
'He's stronger than I thought he'd be.' Tyrian admitted to himself with a grin.
By now Qrow had gotten back up and saw Kisame attempting to crush Tyrian beneath his blade, and he was slowly succeeding. Deciding to help again he quickly appeared behind the man knowing he couldn't move away from this attack.
When Harbinger was about to meet the other man's back both Qrow and Kisame were shocked to see a tail come out from the jacket to stop the sword.
'Interesting a faunus?' Kisame thought to himself.
Suddenly Tyrian broke both holds against the two and jumped away throwing his jacket to the side. "Now that we're all warmed up let's truly begin." He said with a grin.
"It looks like a scorpion tail… possibly venomous." Kisame said more to himself than anything. "I'm going to enjoy this."
Qrow jumped at Tyrian again paying attention to any possible problems or blessings his semblance may make to the surrounding terrain. It wasn't something he really liked, but one must work with what they're given.
As the two dueled each other Kisame was watching them. 'They're kind of similar.' He thought before blurring behind Tyrian.
While he was fighting the intruding huntsman Tyrian noticed that Kisame wasn't where he had been a moment ago then relying purely on instinct, he raised his tail before feeling a weight crushing down on it making the faunus in question wince. His pain was magnified when he felt something stabbing into his tail.
Then for a moment everything stopped. That moment was when Kisame pulled.
"AAAAAAARRGHHHH!" Tyrian screamed as he weakly jumped away then looked at his tail, or what was left of it.
At Kisame's feet were pieces of the man's tail cruelly ripped off courtesy of Samehada that had a few spikes sticking out from its bandage wrap.
"That's one how many more until you start talking?" Kisame asked showing off his teeth.
Tyrian wasn't sure he could beat this guy anymore, so he went with the backup plan despite not liking it at all. He hated running from a fight. "Well Kisame you've surprised me today… I'll give you that hint I promised. Friends in high places." Was all he said before taking a small ball and throwing it on the ground. An explosion of smoke came from the ball blocking both their views from the injured man. Qrow was about to go through but he noticed the same thing Kisame had. Poison. A poisonous smoke bomb.
'I guess working with Sasori had its perks.' Kisame thought. They had all grown used to seeing poison in some of the many forms Sasori employed in his fighting style including poison smoke.
Jumping up to the roof of one of the nearby buildings he saw a bullhead taking off in the distance. "Damn I'd have to use a jutsu to catch it now, but the huntsman is here." He grumbled as he watched the ship fly off. 'Wait… ship.'
A second later he was back on the ground with Qrow searching through a few more buildings.
"No one's still alive this mission was a bust." Qrow said before looking at the blue-skinned man. "Why was that guy after you exactly?"
Kisame looked at him. "Like he said it would seem we pissed off the wrong person."
Qrow just looked at him before shaking his head. He couldn't ask much more without giving up some info himself, and it didn't look like either of them wanted to share.
"Let's get back to the ship I'll call the pilot and let him know we're on our way." Qrow said picking his scroll from his pocket.
"Wait a second don't call yet." He said getting a strange look from Qrow.
"Why not?"
"What did he just say. Friends in high places, and that reminded me of something from earlier." At Qrow's questioning gaze he elaborated. "Something about that pilot has been bothering me. Why would he just wait somewhere without informing the HA about the change in situation for a full day? Why wasn't he worried about this 'unexpected' destruction of a town? How did Tyrian, who was specifically looking for me, know exactly what mission I was on when I signed up for the mission yesterday?" He asked.
"… I'm not sure. Do you think they'd really have any control in the HA?" Qrow asked.
"Depends how many people knew about my taking this mission aside from you?" Kisame asked.
"I would imagine some of the more senior members had access to the information, but aside from that no one comes to mind." Qrow admitted hesitantly.
"So, we can't trust the Association either." Kisame concluded more for himself than Qrow. "What do you say we have a little chat with those pilots of ours?"
"Alright let's test this little theory of yours." Qrow said.
Without another word the duo made their way to where the bullhead would probably be. When they saw it, they approached from one of the blind spots and Qrow opened up the door startling the pilots.
"O-Oh you're back already. We thought you'd call… Where's the blue one?" The first pilot said shaking slightly but starting to calm down.
"He's not here at the moment, but I'd like to talk to you two." Qrow said noticing the co-pilot seemed to be sweating.
"What did you need?" The pilot asked having recovered the most.
"I wanted to ask you gentlemen why you were picked for this assignment." Qrow said.
"It was just the assignment we were assigned no other reason." The pilot said.
"I see, but why wasn't it my usual pilot? She's cuter than you two." He said making them glance at each other.
"We were merely assigned to this mission she must've been busy with something else." The pilot offered.
"Really? That's not what she told me when we had a drink together last night. She said that you two volunteered to take her place on this mission, and the senior board approved." He said narrowing his eyes. "So, if you two wouldn't mind telling me why that'd be great, and I would hurry if I were you my friend will be back soon, and he didn't seem to be in a good mood."
"We don't know okay! Some of the senior board members just ordered us to take you on this mission and gave us the 24-hour timeframe thing!" Shouted the co-pilot getting a glare from the pilot.
"So, you were right." Qrow said looking to his right much to the pilots' fears.
"Yes, it would seem so." Kisame said coming into view holding Samehada. Without another word he grabbed the pilot and threw him out of the ship and skidding across the ground.
Qrow decided to watch the co-pilot who was shaking by this point. Leaning against the doorframe he looked towards the co-pilot. "Anything else you think might be important to tell us?" He asked casually as Kisame slowly approached the downed pilot.
"No, I don't think so." The co-pilot said nervously.
"That's too bad because I think my friend over there wants a few more answers like who on the board specifically asked you two to fly us."
"I don't remember who all was there." He said hesitantly.
"Well I guess we will see if your friend remembers because I don't think he'll take no for an answer. Earlier I saw him rip a faunus' tail to pieces with that sword of his. It sounded extremely painful. I wonder if he'll do the same to this man." He wondered aloud.
"Do you think he'd kill him?" He asked before hearing the pilot screaming.
"I think he'll be lucky if that's all he does. I already told him I can fly the bullhead solo, so if he were to kill you both it would just make some more paperwork for me. No big deal really." Qrow answered as the pilot's screaming was getting louder.
Kisame had decided it would be easier to get answers from one of the pilots if the other was broken in front of them, so he was taking his time. First, he drained most of the man's already weak aura. Then Samehada extended some of its spikes and Kisame was now raking them across the man's back shredding the man's clothes and some of his skin. He could have just cut limbs off, but the probability of him bleeding out was much higher.
The co-pilot upon realizing his own mortality and that they didn't need him or his partner to fly them back had him as pale as a ghost.
"You alright buddy you look a little pale." Qrow said to the frozen co-pilot.
"W-what did you want again?" He asked shakily.
"Just to know who on the senior council wanted you nice men to fly us today." Qrow said with a charming smile.
"If I tell you will you spare us?" He asked seriously.
"There's a larger chance than if you don't tell us at all." Qrow offered. "I don't know if you can hear it over the screaming, but I don't think Kisame has asked a single question yet."
"Alright fine the council member who approached us was Vice-chairman Watts." He said causing Qrow's eyes to widen. 'The vice-chairman…'
"Kisame hold up on the torture thing and get over here I have a question for that one." 'Might as well compare answers.' Qrow thought.
With a smirk Kisame put Samehada back on his back and picked up the sprawled-out bleeding man by the back of his neck. When they got to the bullhead Kisame held the man in front of Qrow.
"Who was it that instructed you to take this mission?" Qrow asked.
"Fuck you…" He spat out before being thrown onto the ground back first causing him to scream out again.
"Well my friend I'm running out of patience here. Attempts on your life tend to do that as I'm sure you can imagine." Kisame said stepping on the man's chest. "Answer the question and it all stops."
"Fine… it was the vice-chairman…" He muttered.
Kisame looked to Qrow. "Co-pilot here said the same thing." Qrow said.
"Well that's a start." Kisame said picking up the pilot then looking towards the co-pilot. "Why don't you join us in the back." He ordered with a grin showing his teeth.
Nodding slowly the co-pilot joined the two in the back while Qrow got ready to fly. 'That went better than I expected, but that means we have a few problems I need to talk to Oz about.'
In the back of the cabin Kisame had tied both pilots up and tossed them on the floor while he waited for them to reach Vale. He could ask more questions, but it was pretty clear these two weren't the brightest of pawns, so he'd just investigate it personally with Itachi later.
By the time they got back the sun had set. When they arrived, they found the hangar area empty, so the two decided to split up.
"Unfortunately, I don't think we'll be getting paid for this job, so sorry about that." Qrow said before looking to the pilots. "I'll take these two to the VPD then let Ozpin know what's going on. You and your friend might not trust him, but I trust him more than the HA."
"Do what you wish I need to let Itachi know as well." 'It looks like it's our move then.' He added as he left.
With Itachi
Itachi hadn't been having the best of days, but at least it was amusing. When he asked Ruby about the weapon thing, she was excited. Too excited. She decided to call him after her classes asking about materials, specific measurements, dust chambering, and a bunch of other things. After that she proceeded to let him know of all the different ideas she had come up with including something called the Lightning Zweihander or something like that. He really just wanted a new sword, but oh well he let her have her fun. Admittedly he didn't have much to do that day aside from wait for Kisame to return, so he spent a mind-numbing amount of time listening to her talk about the different things he could do. Eventually he did get her to calm down enough to let her know that as nice as all of those ideas sounded, he already had something a bit simpler in mind. Despite her questioning he refused to tell her what it was, and he ended up enjoying her attempt to use 'puppy eyes' over a telepathic connection. Anyways by the time Kisame returned he was practicing with his shuriken. He did it now more out of boredom and necessity to keep himself sharp rather than trying to further perfect it.
"Itachi do you have a minute?" Kisame asked walking towards the Uchiha.
"Yes, what is it? You look happy about something." He said.
"That mission earlier today was a setup." He said simply causing Itachi to raise an eyebrow.
After explaining what happened on the mission Itachi went over everything he had learned again. "Whoever this Salem person is we've angered her, and she has people in high places like the Hunter's Association?" He asked. At Kisame's nod he continued. "And she was mad that I put that woman in a coma?" He clarified.
"That's what the loon said." Kisame said with a grin.
"You mentioned Qrow was reporting this to Ozpin?"
"Yes, that's what he said he'd do after taking the pilots to the police station."
"That's a waste of time either they'll be released or killed by tomorrow." Itachi said before sighing. "She made her move, but unfortunately it doesn't look like this is a game with only two players. Ozpin will fit into all of this too. In fact, he might know more about Salem than we do. Cinder had useful information, but there wasn't much about her other than promising the girl power." He thought aloud.
Kisame nodded. "At least now we have some leads to look into. Vice-Chairman Watts will probably disappear when they find out what happened, but we can still go pick Ozpin's brain about things if need be."
"Don't forget about Roman's group and the White Fang. Everyone has their own sets of eyes and ears, so we might be able to figure something out while we wait." Itachi said.
"Right. How is everything looking on that side?"
"It's going pretty well. Roman has many more contacts than I had originally thought, and like a certain greedy immortal we once knew those contacts all answer to him. It appears before Cinder appeared, he was running the underground around Vale, and was working on expanding." Itachi said.
"Well that's good to hear." Kisame said before asking about the weapon. "Did you talk to red yet?" He asked.
"Just yes would be an understatement, but yes I asked her about it, and she proceeded to tell me about every idea she had for about two hours." Itachi said with a sigh.
Kisame couldn't help but laugh at his partner's expense. "That's too good."
"Right." Itachi waved dismissively. At least for the foreseeable future he had a few things to do.