Friday, the 12th of August, 79AGW.

Sage's Workshop, Mistral.

"There are two easy things I can see that would make it more effective," Sage said, flipping the gauntlet over. "The first is to give it a manual release—that gives you a bunch of options alone."

"Like what?" Lima frowned. "Tying it to something?"

"That's one benefit. The other is you can direct it at short range with your semblance without having to fire the damn thing first," Sage said, nodding. "Right now, you'd have to fire it off, counteract the force to slow it down, reel it back in, and then you could swing it around—too many steps to make it worth it."

"Fuck, I see it," Lima grunted, "I could use manual release and just whip it out at whatever I'm attacking. Once I've got a contact, that's pretty much it. I can't believe I didn't think of that already."

"Tunnel vision," Sage shrugged, "Sometimes you just need an outside perspective."

"Thanks," Lima said, taking it back and moving to unscrew the case. "What was the second thing?"

"Where did you put your quiver—there," Sage dragged the black box up onto the bench and slid one of the spikes out. "You're counting on the Gravity Dust to pull them back, which means you've got to pull back on your use of force, and you're forced to aim at angles that give you something to stop the arrow in flight."

"Yeah," Lima nodded. "Can't shoot directly up, at a high angle, at anything with a friend on the other side, or at places with a high chance of a miss. Otherwise, I risk it passing out of range. I lost a few spikes during that attack on the train—super fucking annoying."

"Right, so what you do is give these spikes a max range by putting a quick-catch-connect-and-release calliper on the end of each one," Sage said, tapping the end of the spike. "Put another one between the tip of the cable and the grappling mechanism so you can detach it. Then you've got the option to draw the cable with manual release, slip it into the back of the spike, and then fire it at full force—or at least at a force below what the cable is rated to withstand."

"You are a god damned genius," Lima said, staring at the arrow. "Damn—where is the nearest store that sells those?"

"There's a box full of the standard ones up at the school," Sage said, shaking his head. "I'll raid it in the morning, and you can use those. How many arrows have you got?"

"Thirty-six in the quiver," Lima said, "I've got three bandoliers with a dozen in each one as well, but I never really wear it—I'm kind of stingy with using the spikes at all."

"You bring them here, or are they back at Beacon?" Sage wondered.

"Beacon," Lima confirmed. "But I can do those ones on my own when I get back, so I need thirty-seven to cover the arrows and the cable itself—are you sure you can take that many?"

"Yeah, don't worry about it. I'll put in a requisition order for replacements while I'm there," Sage said, "Don't even think about trying to pay me, you little shit."

Lima closed his mouth with a clack.

"You sure?" Lima said.

"I've got a lifetime worth of Lien saved up, and now that Midori's pretty much set up, I've got nothing to spend it on, may as well use it on this," Sage said, flipping the spike around in his hand. "You ever thought about detachable tips so you can start adding dust to your arsenal?"

"That sounds expensive as fuck—the tips explode along with the dust," Lima said, shaking his head. "I had to negotiate a deal with Weiss Schnee to replace my gravity dust—I'm not shooting Lien at those fucking monsters, not when a simple spike does the same job."

"That's all they deserve, huh?" Sage said, twirling the spike in his fingers until it was a blurring mass of black lines. "You should keep a few on you for just in case moments. Never use them if you want, but at least they're on hand when you do—I'll pick some up for you as well."

"Sage," Lima said, scrunching his face up. "Stop throwing money at me. I'm not one of your escorts."

"Shut up, you little shit," Sage said, laughing out loud.

There was a minute of comfortable silence between them, and Lima was once again reminded that he'd be leaving the two of them behind in Mistral again soon. For probably the hundredth time since Lionheart had given him the orb, Lima found himself on the edge of giving Sage some kind of cryptic warning. The probably was, that kind of thing didn't fly with Sage, and he'd start making a racket about it until he got an answer, something which might ruin any chance of Lionheart getting his shit pushed in by the evidence he'd manage to collect for Ozpin.

"You know," Sage said into the silence. "I didn't bring your old man up at Haven for no reason, Lima."

The worries, concerns and anxiety vanished in an instant, the topic powerful enough to ruin even something as dire as that. Lima glanced up from the gauntlet he was working on, frowning.

"Had a few friends come back from Kuchinashi lately," Sage said, taking note of the expression, "There have been some rumours about a man called Danube running around again, pretty uncommon name, and he seems to be wrapped up in the Spiders business."

Lima gave an aborted shake of his head, the memory of him hiding in the ceiling while people ransacked their home still clear in his mind.

"So nothing changed," Lima said, voice flat. "Why are you telling me this?"

"Figured that it was better for you to know that he's still around and kicking," Sage said, flipping the spike up into the air and then snatching it out of the spin without effort. "You can use that information, or you can ignore it, but at least you've got the option now, you know?"

Sage had always been big on giving him options, at least for the important things. The man had never forced him to do anything he hadn't agreed to do, even if Lima got his own kicks out of complaining the entire time—still, this was perhaps the one time Lima could reject the goodwill right out of hand.

"I doubt he's spent a single moment of his life thinking about mum or me after he ran off, Sage. So I'm not going to waste my time thinking about him," Lima said with complete certainty. "I've got a dad already, and it's not some loser in Kuchinashi."

Sage paused for a moment before reaching over and dropping his hand on the top of Lima's head—messing it up completely in the process.

"Spending all that time in Vale has turned you into a bit of a sap, huh?" Sage said, "You're a good kid, Lima."

"Whatever," Lima muttered.

#

Wednesday, the 18th of August, 79AGW.

Midori's Bar, Mistral.

Lima twisted on his palm, catching his foot with his hand, and extended his leg into an awkward pose. Having never attempted to hold himself in such a bizarre position, he ended up overbalancing and crashed down onto his back with a yelp. There were some titters from the few patrons who'd come in this early, but he ignored them all as he climbed back to his feet.

"I don't think that's the kind of dancing they'll be doing, Lima," Midori giggled, waving her hand at him in an attempt to get him to stop. "It's far more likely to be the kind where your feet stay on the floor."

"Lame," Lima complained. "I have no idea how to dance, but at least I could probably fake the acrobatic stuff."

"Lima, it's really not that complicated," Midori said, "Here, I'll show you some basics."

Midori slipped out from behind the bar and directed him to come toward her. Lima found himself being bullied into turning to face the rest of the bar and scrunched his face up as one of the older Huntsman tilted a drink toward him.

"Relax—you were throwing yourself around a second ago," Midori said, squeezing his shoulders, "Don't tell me you're embarrassed now?"

"I'm not," Lima complained. "Just—tell me what I'm supposed to do."

Midori laughed again and moved to stand beside him, taking facing the same way. Lima glanced down as she patted the front of her jeans, taking note of how she was standing.

"This is about as basic as it gets; it's called the box step," Midori said, gesturing to her leading foot. "Think of it as literally drawing a box with your feet—watch."

Midori stepped backwards with her right leg and then followed it with her left before sweeping it out to the side and pausing. Lima copied the movement, a simple 'L' shape that left him standing with his weight on his left foot before he caught his balance.

"Perfect," Midori said, smiling, "Now keep your weight on your right foot, step forward with your left, and then sweep back into your original position."

Lima tracked the movement of her body like he was breaking down a fighting style, burning the simple movement into his mind. He stepped forward with her, planted his foot, and then drew his right foot forward and to the right, sliding it across the ground. Midori brought both of her feet back together again before settling her weight down onto her left foot.

"Do you need me to do it again?" Midori asked. "Follow."

Lima followed in step with her as she did it again, but the movement was simple enough that he had no trouble with keeping it up. Midori stopped after the third repetition and then turned to watch him. Lima continued, doing it three more times before he came to a stop.

"Alright, I've got it," Lima said, nodding.

"Perfect—that was actually the partner's step, but you'll most likely be leading," Midori said, demonstrating. "So your job is to follow that exact pattern but mirrored."

Lima watched her go through it once before jumping in to follow, moving forward, dropping his weight onto his leading foot, before sweeping to the side. Midori had been right; it was bizarrely simply, just a simple series of weight changes and some basic footwork in a repeating pattern.

"Huh," Lima said, "Do you think this is the one they'll use in Vale?"

"I'm not certain exactly what kind of dance is most common in Vale, but the principles of this should be enough to carry you through it," Midori said, holding out her right hand to him. "Come here. We can practice doing it now so you can step on my feet instead of your girlfriends."

"Sage is a filthy liar," Lima said, blowing a breath out of his nose. "I don't have a girlfriend."

"Dad didn't say anything to me about a girlfriend," Midori said, smiling. "Your left hand, please, not the right."

Lim feeling a bit flustered now, pulled his right hand back as she stepped properly in front of him. Midori directed him to put his right hand on her back, just under her shoulder, and then she rested her left arm on top of his own, hand on his shoulder.

"Like this?" Lima wondered. "I'm going forward, right?"

"Exactly, the same pattern as before. We can start at half speed," Midori said, squeezing his hand. "Ready."

Lima stepped towards her as she stepped backwards, a wash of reflex flicking at the edge of his mind as he found himself thinking about all the ways he could disrupt her footing. He swept his foot to the side, sliding it across the ground before drawing his feet together again. A few rotations in, a couple of the patrons started clapping and carrying on, and Midori laughed again.

"You really haven't done this before?" Midori said, smiling.

"I'm a kinaesthetic genius, the likes of which this world has never seen," Lima bragged, mind fully concentrated on the task. "I'll have this whole dancing thing mastered before lunchtime."

#

Monday, the 23rd of August, 79AGW.

Central, Mistral.

"You should have seen him, Midori," Sage said, shaking his head. "Mouthing off in the Headmaster's office like he was kicking it with his buddies—the little shit doesn't have a filter."

Lima grunted at the comment, too busy chewing to respond.

"Is that right?" Midori giggled. "What did the Headmaster have to say—he wasn't upset, was he?"

"Nah, Lionheart seemed to find the whole thing funny," Sage said with a grin. "The man's probably happy he's Ozpin's problem rather than his own."

Lima glared at him before swallowing the piece of chicken in his mouth, valiantly keeping himself from rising to the bait. The mention of Lionheart only worked to send another pang of unease through him and remind him once again of the secret he'd been holding onto.

"I don't think I asked, but Beacon is much like Haven, isn't it?" Midori said, picking at her meal with the tip of her fork. "Who fills the Combat Instructor role there?"

"Glynda Goodwitch," Lima said, sipping at his drink. "She's usually super strict, but I totally caught her smiling at one of my dumb jokes once—she's also a total bombshell."

Midori swatted him on the arm at the comment, looking amused.

"That is a name I've definitely heard," Sage said, nodding. "She's about as famous a Huntress as they get. How is she as a teacher?"

"She's super good at picking out mistakes and giving us practical advice on fixing them or what we should do to round our skills out," Lima said, thinking about it. "I haven't seen her fight anyone yet, but apparently, that's one of the things the third-years can do during the workshops she runs."

"Workshops, huh?" Sage said, scratching his chin. "What does she cover?"

"Semblance Use, Advanced Aura techniques, Urban Fighting, Restraint and Arrest," Lima said, ticking off the ones he could remember hearing about. "One of my classmates, Lie Ren, used an Aura Strike during a little sparring tournament we were doing, and she said we might get an early start on Aura stuff."

"I might have to crib some of her ideas. You were able to pick up Aura techniques; some of these first years should be able to manage as well," Sage said. "Restraint and Arrest—that would cover interacting with criminals and bringing them in without messing up the immediate environment?"

"Yeah," Lima nodded. "We got a lecture in the first week about the different classes we'd eventually take, and apparently, a lot of Huntsmans and Huntresses have lost their licenses for destroying property through reckless fighting."

"Does that happens in Mistral, too?" Midori asked, frowning.

"Very rarely. Vale's a lot stricter on that kind of thing," Sage nodded. "The criminals here are a different breed entirely. If the Council of Mistral started firing every Hunter over a bit of broken property, the baddies would start breaking things in every interaction and blaming it on us, simply to whittle us down."

"That reminds me," Lima said, tapping his fork against his plate. "Some kid almost knocked me over the other day in Mistral Below. He mentioned that the house we were walking past got burned down by some gang in April—you hear anything about that?"

A complete remix of the actual situation and the events that the kid had reported, but it wasn't like anyone would be finding the kid to make sure the story held up. Sage gave a kind of half-shrug at the topic, but Midori made a noise of affirmation as she sipped at her drink.

"I've heard two different stories about that, actually," Midori said, leaning forward. "Some people were saying that it was an accident, where a stove was left on all night; the second one was that the Spiders had come to settle an old debt and burned it down with the occupant inside."

"Any idea which of those is real?" Lima wondered. "Was there an investigation?"

"I've heard nothing since the week after it happened, and I'm not really sure," Midori admitted, "If there was an investigation, it wasn't made public."

"Right," Lima said.

Lima listened as Midori recounted a story about another fire that had happened earlier in the year, but it didn't really have anything to do with the other one. He was starting to feel anxious again, knowing that this was his last day in Mistral. He'd found himself growing increasingly restless as the days passed by, both from the situation with Lionheart and the fact that he was missing his team.

It had been over a week since he'd last gotten the chance to speak with them, and there wouldn't be time to head up to Haven before he had to leave. Nor would they be waiting by the CCTS tower, and as soon as the Mistral Limited left the city, he'd find himself in an information blackout, unable to instantly receive and send messages to anyone.

Eight days spent on trains without anyone—not even Pyrrha and Jaune, because their schedules weren't going to line up so well—was going to be a nightmare.

"More of the first years are going than I expected, too." Sage grumbled, "My class is going to be a ghost town until the Vytal Festival is done."

"I'm sure you'll find something to do with all that free time," Midori said, smiling.

"I guess so," Sage admitted before barking a laugh. "Lima, I don't know what you said to that Wukong kid, but you're a bad influence—from what I've heard, he's already on his way to Vale."

Lima just grinned.

"The plan was to airbus them all to Vale on the 28th and arrive on the 30th," Sage said, voice dry, "According to Vasilias, he stowed away on some cargo ship half a week ago—must be halfway there by now, the little shit."

"What did you tell him?" Midori said, looking curious.

"We got into an argument about which school had the cuter uniforms—Beacon and Haven," Lima laughed, "So I lied and told him the skirts at Beacon are three inches shorter."

Midori snorted, almost spilling her drink down the front of her dress in the process.

"Yeah?" Sage said, barking out a laugh. "What are you going to do when he gets to Beacon before you do and steals your girlfriend out from under you?"

"God damn it, Sage," Lima cried in anguish. "I don't have a—"

#

Tuesday, the 24th of August, 79AGW.

Mistral Station, Mistral.

The doors slid shut, a foot in front of his face, and he stepped to the side to look through the window. Sage and Midori stood on the platform, still waving at him and swallowed as he caught sight of the tears in Midori's eyes. That same pain in his chest that he'd felt when his team had walked out of the cafeteria without him arced through his chest, and he took a deep breath to steady himself against it.

Lima reached up and placed his hand against the glass, fingers splayed in a wave as the train began to crawl forward out of the station. Sage's grinning face passed behind a pillar, and then they were gone, leaving him staring out at Mistral as the city slipped past the window. He stayed there for a long time, standing by the door with his hand on the glass, and when Mistral fell away, and all that was left was forests, grasslands and mountains, he finally turned away.

There were quite a few people heading to Port Line, apparently, and he knew before he'd even gotten to his cabin that he'd be sharing this time. He pushed past the people in the main hallway and slipped into his room, giving a muttered greeting to the two other occupants—a middle age man and his young son—before dumping his bag on the bottom bed opposite them.

Lima dropped down next to it, laying face up, and slipped his hand into his pocket, fingers finding the clockwork orb. He traced the edges of the gears, and the smooth planes of glass with his fingertip, wondering what he'd say to Ozpin and what the man might say in return.

Mistral and its surrounding cities had lost fifteen percent of its Huntsman and Huntresses over the last year to what was apparently mislabelled missions. Now Leonardo Lionheart was working with the Council of Mistral and running around talking to leaders of other cities as well. All in an attempt to get everyone to work together to solve the declining manpower issue and to better prepare Anime to deal with the increased Grimm presence.

But all of that felt wrong when you factored in the things Lionheart had done to break the flow of information—killing at least one of Ozpin's contacts, if not all of them. There was no reason to send false reports to someone like Ozpin, not when you were already sharing that information with the Council and other city leaders.

If the rumour Midori had mentioned about the Spiders being involved in burning down one of the contact's houses was correct, then it was possible the Headmaster of Haven Academy was working alongside the criminal element of Mistral to accomplish his task as well—it was a total mess, and Lima simply didn't have the perspective to figure out how all of it fit together.

Ozpin would have answers for him, he knew, but that was eight days away. Eight days stuck on a train with nobody he knew. Eight days without Sage or Midori. Eight days with Teak, Lux or Claire. Just him and his Scroll with a technologically enforced delay—Sage was right. Lima was going to buy his own personal Airship because being miserable sucked.

End Volume 1.