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Chapter 38: Underworld

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The Kingdom of Vale was not necessarily split into different sections, but there were some distinctions between the different areas. In the west, there were many Dust factories that processed mined Dust into usable forms. Many faunus lived in that area because their jobs were to work the assembly line. Dust is mined outside the Kingdom, and brought inside by ships or train.

The northern side of Vale took up the most space. It was filled with the residential areas as well as all the schools and various shops that people went to enjoy everyday life. The land to the east was reserved entirely for Beacon Academy. As one of the four best Hunter Academies in the world, Beacon was separated from the other areas by a giant lake. The school grounds was near the edge of the cliff of a waterfall. Its highest tower was the headmaster's office which overlooked the entire Kingdom.

The southern part of the Kingdom was home to the night clubs, love hotels, and various other activities one would look to enjoy in order to get away from the rest of their everyday lives. The south was also home to the criminals. The big names of the underworld gathered there. They gambled at casinos, or seek to establish control over their respective turfs.

All four areas circled the center of Vale which held the Coliseum. The Coliseum was built as a joint project between the four kingdoms to represent unity. As one of the largest landmarks in history, it could hold a huge number of people as Hunters and Huntresses of the academies gathered to show their skill to the world.

Driving along the highway, a bright black and yellow motorcycle roared as it zoomed past vehicles. The driver turned into an exit and entering the southern district. After a couple of turns, the driver pulled to a stop outside of a night club. She took off her helmet to reveal her long, blonde hair. After securing the vehicle, she strutted inside the building.

After making way down the hallway, the automatic doors opened and revealed a large dance floor. The lights were dim but the room was illuminated by the disco ball in the center. The girl began walking to the bar counter while noticing the numerous bodyguards in black suits and red sunglasses. They seemed pretty buff, but none were over level 40. As she reached the bar counter, there was a tall, white male talking to two beautiful twins.

Upon noticing the girl's approached, he signaled to the girls with his head before turning away. She took her time to gradually approach him. Sitting in one of the seats at the bar, she spoke to the bartender.

“Strawberry Sunrise. No ice. Ooh and give me one of those little umbrellas.”

“Aren't you a little young to be in this club, blondie?” The man turned to ask while using his skill.

Identify

Yang Xiao Long (Lvl 60)HP:1550/1550Aura:1750/1750

“Aren't you a little old to have a name like Junior?” she retorted while looking at him.

Identify

Junior Dillen (Lvl 52)HP:1220/1220Aura:1480/1480

Suppressing his surprise, Junior continued to speak with her. Criminals knew a special skill to hide their names from Identify. Unless someone had matched a name with a face, there should be no way others could tell who exactly he was.

“So you know who I am. You got a name, sweetheart?”

“Yes, I have several.” Yang smiled sweetly. “But instead of sweetheart, you can call me sir.”

Enhance

With quick movement, she reached and grabbed the lower region of the man. With a high-pitched squeal, he bent over in pain.

“People say you know everything that happens around here.” Yang began. “What do you know about her?”

Yang took out a Mini-Scroll. With a press of a button, an image appeared on the screen. Junior's eyes widen with recognition, but instead of answering truthfully, he denied it.

“I never seen her before. I swear.” he said in a high-pitched voice.

“Excuse me?” Yang squeezed harder.

“I swear, sir!”

At this point, all the bodyguards had started to surround them. Armed with guns and swords, the clump of men looked like gang members than bodyguards.

“Woops. I guessed this must be embarrassing for you huh.” she whispered mockingly. “Awkward.”

“Listen, blondie – sir!” Junior began.

“If you wanna make it out of this club alive, I suggest you let go of me. Now!”

Yang smiled and released her death grip on his testicles. With the pain gone, Junior's voice returned to its deep tone.

“Uuugh..You'll pay for that.” He commented while walking away.

“Oh Junior, I was just messing around. No need to be so upset.” She walked to his side and blinked in a coquettish manner.

“Lets just kiss and makeup ok?”

“Huh?”

Junior stopped in his tracks. Yang giggled and leaned forward while closing her eyes. Junior just stared, but Yang showed no indication of moving.

“Uh..ok?”

He leaned forward slowly and cautiously. Yang just pouted her lips waiting for the connection. As they got closer, Junior threw caution to the wind and quickly leaned to get the kiss from the blonde beauty. In return for his stupidity, he was rewarded with Yang's fist that she hid behind her back. The blow sent Junior's body flying across the night club and into the bar on the other side of the room.

-312

The crowd screamed and began to run out of the night club, fearing the fight that was about to break out. The men turned to face the smiling blonde in the center of their encirclement. Yang pressed two buttons on the golden bracelets she wore on her wrists. They immediately transformed into her favorite shotgun gauntlets, Ember Celica.

As the lights turned completely on, the men charged her. However, Yang had already jumped in the air. As she landed, Yang punched the ground. At the same time, Ember Celica fired explosive shotgun bullets.

Earthquake

The tremble on the ground made the men lose balance. Fully entering battle mode, Yang dashed into the crowd of grunts.

Ember Celica was a gauntlet that was designed to fire rounds as she punched to further increase the force of her hits. If she so pleases, she could instead use the recoil of the shot to propel her body in the direction she wants. In addition, she could switch to projectile shotgun rounds. When fired, they traveled in a straight line and exploded on impact. This was her solution to dealing with Robin's pesky way of avoiding her in the Junior Hunter tournament.

The strength of the grunts was nothing compared to hers. Thus, she could easily block the bullets using the strong gauntlets while approaching to finish them off. One grunt tried to swing his sword onto her shoulder. Yang blew away his weapon with a punch and pummeled him with close range bullets.

When another tried to get her from behind, she stuck out her foot and jumped lightly up into the air with her other one. As she was airborne, she fired another round in front to propel her backwards. This suddenly sent her kick into the man's stomach and caused him to gasp for air. She retracted her foot and held her fist perpendicular to her body.

Firing Ember Celica once more, she spun in place and used the momentum to swing her leg at the grunt's face. The force knocked him sideways and unconscious. With the last of the grunts finished, Yang looked up to find the two twins from before walking up to her. This time, they had their weapons.

“Melanie, who is this girl?” the girl with the red dress asked. On her hands were metal claw gauntlets.

“I don't know, Militia, but we should teach her a lesson.” the girl in the white dress responded. Melanie clicked her feet together and transformed the heels into sharp blades that glittered in the light.

Yang flicked her wrist and ejected the empty shells in her weapon. She reached into the empty space in front of her and pulled out two holsters that held extra bullets. Tossing them into the air, the holsters wrapped around her gauntlets. With a click, the bullets fell into place; Ember Celica snapped close and ejected the holster onto the ground.

The three ladies rushed forward and clashed. The twins dodged and deflected Yang's bullets, forcing her to engage into close-combat. They were stronger than the grunts, and they coordinated well. This resulted in Yang suffering multiple kicks to the stomach and scratches on her arm. Thankfully, she aura protected her body enough to prevent severe damage. With a double kick, Melanie pushed Yang back.

Yang did a back-flip and thrusted her fists behind her. The force pushed her forward and rammed her shoulder into the airborne woman. With her semblance, Berserker, activating, her hair had begun to glow, and her eyes turned red. Along with her increase in strength, Yang pumped up her speed with Enhance and began to brawl Militia by herself.

Together, they could potentially overwhelm her, but alone it was a piece of cake. In a series of uppercuts, Militia's body was lifted into the air. Yang followed up with a final punch to sent her crashing into one of the glass displays. With one down for the count, Yang turned to the remaining twin.

Melanie used a fighting style oriented on kicks. Since her legs were longer than Yang's arms, it was a bit tricky. However, Yang's prowess allowed her to eventually grab one of Melanie's legs mid-strike. Yang kicked the other leg that held her up and spun Melanie in a circle.

Eventually, she let go and the woman flew towards Junior who had finally woken up from being banged too hard on the head. He avoided the collision by ducking. Melanie's body flew into the shelf with the alcohol. Junior raised his hands into the air as he examined the damage.

“M-m-my club! The damage repairs are going to be so high. Do you even understand how much insurance I pay for this shit?!” Junior exclaimed.

“God damn it, this is the second time already.” He slumped against a chair while shaking his head.

Yang walked towards him while drinking an elixir. Her wounds healed and her hair stopped glowing as she approached. Yang's purple eyes held an accusing look while she spoke.

“That's for lying to me.”

Junior flinched.

“Now tell me the truth. What do you know about her?”

Yang once again pulled out the image of a woman in a black and red getup. She had long, black hair and beautiful curves. She would be mistaken for a beauty if not for that Grimm mask on her face. It completely covered any facial features. The only skin that was shown was on her neck which revealed pale white skin. The mask had two slits that showed glowing red eyes underneath.

“Alright. Alright. I'll tell you. Just don't break anything else.” Junior sighed in resignation.

“But there's isn't much to say.”

“Who is she?” Yang questioned.

“Nobody knows. Just like everyone else, she knows how to conceal her identity, and with that mask covering her face, nobody knows what she looks like. She suddenly appeared out of nowhere in my club. My men didn't know how she entered or when. The video tape never caught her. At that time one of the big shots was in town.

He came up to me and asked for a drink. While we were chatting, she came out of nowhere and sat next to him. When we noticed, she started to attack him. Their fight left my club devastated. After killing him, she left the corpse here and vanished into thin air.”

“What's her goal?”

“Hell if I know. All I know is after listening to the grapevine, lots of criminals have been disappearing. Some of them murdered right in their home-turf. It doesn't matter when or where. If anyone tries to make a name for themselves, do some big operation, or hurt anyone, she shows up. And when she shows up, EVERYONE she's after dies. No exceptions.”

“If that's true, then how do you people know about it?”

“One of their cameras caught it. That's how a picture like that is in your hands, right? Cameras don't catch her entering, but they sure do capture her in the act. Listen. That person is dangerous. Many people in the underworld are going out of their way to lay low until they figure out who she really is. Right now, there's absolutely nothing on her. All they have is the nickname people gave her.”

“And what is it?” she asked.

He leaned forward and whispered.

“They call her the Grimm Reaper.”

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