Chapter 9

Bazett was moving silently around the roads of Mountain Glenn, a defunct city dwelling comprised of destroyed and dilapidated buildings. Grimm and sand have begun to retake the landscape.

This place was Vale's first attempt at expansion, and it worked for a little while. Unfortunately, perhaps due to bad luck, the city was overrun by Grimms and Vale was forced to abandon it.

Artoria ordered Bazett to investigate the place as she suspected it to be a place for one of White Fang's hideout.

The White Fang was initially a peaceful activist organization created to improve relations between Humans and Faunus and improve the civil rights of the latter.

However, in the face of continued discrimination a new leader succeeded the old one and the White Fang began to adopt more and more radical methods.

Right now, the once peaceful activist became nothing more than a group of terrorist while yelling they wanted peace and equality.

Jumping at the top of the building, Bazett scanned the entire section of the city, using reinforcement on her eyes to enhance her eyesight.

There are a lot of Grimms, but nothing she couldn't handle. Just one punch and they'd disappear from sight, however there is still no signs of White Fangs.

How long has she been searching? Probably four or five hours. Really, why was it her who was assigned for search mission?

Right. Because Artoria asked her too. She couldn't refuse, Artoria's glare was too much for her poor heart to handle.

Artoria has set her eyes to eliminating the White Fang, their presence in Vale has caused an unrest that Grimm activity dramatically increased, Hunters and Huntresses were spread thin to cull the Grimms that gets too close to the city.

And with most Hunters and Huntresses gone, a lot of Vale's criminal has been running rampant - one such criminal is Roman Torchwick.

The guy has been a thorn to the Vale's government and underworld. He's been hogging a lot of Dust, and that doesn't sit well with them. They're fine with it if it's just stolen, but no matter what, the Dust must flow.

Torchwick has been keeping those Dusts for himself and it's pissing off a lot of people.

She sighed as she pressed the earpiece on her ears, "This is Bazett, Sector 4 is clear. No signs of any anomaly."

"I see." A voice, belonging to Artoria replied through the earpiece, "Keep looking."

"...Is it really necessary to spend time on searching for a group of scums? They might be terrifying for common people, but they aren't exactly a threat."

"It is precisely because they terrified the common people that we must get rid of them now. Just do what I say...I still have to attend the council meeting so don't call me for awhile."

Bazett sighed. Artoria can be really strict and authorative at times. She doesn't really want to spend most of her time here in a ruined city, but you don't disobey the words of the King...and Rin.

Those two are the brains of their group...and Luvia, well, Luvia was more of a research kind of girl. She's intelligent, but her specialty is not strategy.

Scratching her chest, Bazett decided to continue her investigation.

She wasn't even that good in investigation, she's more of a punch and kill kind of girl...woman, a punch and kill kind of woman.

If she's a Heroic Spirit, she'd be a Berserker.

Spending a few hours, Bazett ended her search in another area. There was absolutely nothing there but Grimms which she killed with just one punch.

"Sector 5 is clear t—hmm?" Bazett paused, using a spell similar to an Assassin's presence concealment as she noticed two men with white mask walking out of a subway station.

'White Fang...' Bazett couldn't help but smack her forehead. How could she forget?

Mountain Glenn was Vale's first serious attempt at expansion. It worked for a short period of time, thanks to an aggressive perimeter defense, and unique transportation; the city developed an elaborate subway system to carry citizens safely from the new territory into the main Kingdom.

Sadly, without the many natural barriers that Vale had to protect its borders, Mountain Glenn was doomed from the start.

As the end drew near, the citizens of the territory made one last attempt at survival: They took up shelter beneath the city. In massive caves that they had cleared out for the subway. And they had cut themselves off from the surface!

An underground village so to speak. A safe haven. Until an explosion opened the mouth of another cavern, filled with subterranean Grimm. After that, the Kingdom officially sealed off the tunnels, creating the world's largest tomb.

If White Fang were to make a base, that place would be the perfect place for it.

'Why did I overlook something so obvious... I must've been so stressed lately... Damn Medea, I knew I shouldn't have agreed to have a game decide who gets to have Shirou alone.'

Still using presence concealment, Bazett slowly walked towards the White Fang guards.

"Hm?" A White Fang grunt with bat-ears flinched as Bazett passed by him.

"What's wrong?" Asked the other grunt.

The bat-grunt looked around for a moment before shaking his head, "Nothing. Must've been my imagination."

The other grunt just nodded, "Alright, well, let's just finish our patrol and get back to base. This place is giving me the creeps."

"The base should be giving you the creeps. We live on the place that was called the World's Largest Tomb. According to the news, more than hundred thousand people died there."

Bazett listened to their conversation for awhile before deciding to just head down to the underground city.

She kept her presence concealment on as she searched the place for the apparent base of the White Fang.

After that...well, it's either she destroy it or report back to Artoria for the military to take action. It depends really.

If White Fang proved to be far more dangerous than suspected, she has permission to go wild. If not, well, let Artoria handle it.

As Bazett is getting further and further, she started to see more White Fang grunts. She moved carefully, since if someone or something touched her, the spell would immediately be broken.

She wasn't an assassin after all.

After awhile, she arrived at what she can only think as White Fang base. There are tents, campfires, and the infamous flag of White Fang with a head of a wolf with three scratch marks.

'Those are...' Her eyes widened when she noticed a bulky robot that was displayed on the center of the camp, with six grunts standing on guard. 'Atlas Paladin? How did they get their hands on it?'

Just then, two grunts carrying a large wooden box walked inside a ruined building.

Curious, Bazett decided to check it out.

"Damn this is heavy," said a grunt carrying the box.

"Of course it is, this box has 70kg worth of crystal-type Dusts." said the other, "Now place it carefully, I don't want to die due to an explosion because we aren't careful at handling this."

"Yeah, yeah."

Bazett's eyes widened at what she heard. She stared at the piles of wooden boxes next to the two grunts and wondered if all of them are Dusts too.

What are they even going to do with these much Dust? Make a bomb....? That sounds possible, White Fang has a record bombing public places to send a message - as they put it.

"Why does Roman need this much Dust anyway?" Asked the grunt.

"I don't know. Just listen to the boss." Said another.

"I still don't like this. We're working with a Human. That goes against our code."

"I don't like it too, but what are we supposed to do? We're just grunts. Let's just do our jobs."

Bazett was surprised. 'Roman? Roman Torchwick? Well, he's the only one stealing Dusts and this place is full of Dusts...but why is he working with them? Or rather, why are they working with him?'

White Fang hates humans, everyone knows that. They surely won't work with one, especially someone like Torchwick.

'I need to know some information first, I'll report to Artoria later...damn, now I feel like a super secret agent like those movies. I can't wait to say; Fraga...Bazett Fraga. Kya~! I feel so cool already!'

With a newfound motivation, Bazett continued her work with much more passion.