Chapter 17

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Raven and I popped into existence on the rooftop of Roman's hideout. I use some mage sight to find a safe place to blink into and find Roman in the bathroom washing his hands. Nobody else was there so we blinked in front of the bathroom.

"He's in there." I said with a wave of my hand. Roman was drying his hands at the moment. Raven looked to the door curiously.

"An odd way to meet the man I'll be supervising." She mumbled. I shrugged.

A moment later Roman walked outside and froze as he came face to chest with Raven. His eyes darted to her sword at her side next and finally to her mask. AS he was unarmed he did the smart thing.

He shut the door and locked it.

Raven openly laughed and I sighed and walked to the door and knocked. "Roman come out. She's with me."

Roman slowly opened the door but kept a close eye on Raven. "That's Raven Branwen." He said. "You know Raven Branwen." He shook his head and looked to me in some slight fear. "You are FRIENDS with Raven Branwen."

"Yes." Raven said. "Now you'll be seeing me a lot more often from now on." Roman looked warily to her.

"In my nightmares, afterlife, or person?" Raven chuckled.

"Person. Unless you misbehave, in which case it will be the afterlife."

"She's going to be the one working with you from now on. She will be doing what I've been doing from now on. I've moved on my interests to other matters. Don't piss her off. She has permission to deal with you as she sees fit. Except for killing you, which she has to ask me for."

Roman looked to Raven fearfully and collected himself. He held out his hand. "I hope we work well together." He said. Raven took the small gesture and shook his hand.

"We should. Don't disappoint." Roman nodded.

"Well that's all nice." I said after their moment of bonding. "Now, let's get down to business." And with that I walked towards Roman's office. It was something like a planning room and management room. Keeping a gang was hard work.

"Here we are." I said as I opened the door. I walked in followed by Roman and Raven. Roman went around his desk and sat down and Raven and I stayed standing. I gave her a look. "You're his boss, sure, but you work under me now." was what it said. I could tell that Raven frowned under her mask but she relented and sat down. She then reached behind her head and clicked a latch, taking the mask off. Roman glanced at her face but looked away when she glanced back.

I softened my gaze and turned to a wall with a map of Vale. A territory map, specifically. Roman's gang controlled roughly half of Vale's territory bar a few locations.

Junior's place, the club, was allowed to keep it's hideout for itself. The red axe gang, they were called. Since Junior was more of an information broker than anything else he was allowed to stay and keep his gang so long as any information he got was available at a low price for Roman. He agreed easily.

There were also a few more independant criminals. La Rouge, for example, a fancy pants robber of dust and jewelry (and women according to him) was allowed to operate so long as he got his manpower from Roman. He was fine with it so long as he got to keep his livelihood.

There was also another small time information broker, four smugglers, a drug dealer, and a little guild of renegade huntsmen. They were all useful in their own ways. I didn't like the drug dealer but people were going to get their product from somewhere and the guy kept people to the tamer stuff and didn't sell to kids. He also got Roman his cigars. That definitely played a role in why Roman spoke up when I moved to remove him.

To my surprise the police weren't a huge problem for us. In fact, a few privately supported us. Roman's gang wasn't brutal or vicious. They didn't rape, steal more than they needed as a whole, and any of the really bad criminals didn't last long with me around. There was a reason there was only one drug dealer in our half of Vale.

"So." I began. "With all the digging in Roman and his men have done we have a solid position in this half. Our half from the docks to the city center plazas. Our only problem right now is… these guys." I laid my finger on the part of the map colored a yellow in comparison to Roman's gang's darker red.

"The redguards, and yes we see the irony there." Raven clearly did too and she snickered at it. "They're called that because they play middleman to deals all over. Stopping blood from running. Now, they really hate us because we've dropped a lot of blood from their clients. In addition we've killed a fair few of their mercenaries."

"Getting rid of them isn't really a huge problem for me but that's not the point. This is an easy job with their size and reduced numbers. I sneak in, cut off the head of the snake and choke some people out as I do and Roman's gang drop in and take the territory. We've done this plenty of times and we'll do this plenty more."

"This is today?" Raven asked.

"Villain likes to do this stuff quick. You get used to it." Roman said from his desk.

"It's happening now." I said simply. "It'll take a while to clear the whole territory so Roman gathers his men and sweeps up the mess. The police are bribed, of course."

"Efficient." Raven muttered. "And how is this all organized? It's a lot of territory to manage."

"I keep a cadre of underbosses from my ranks to keep things nice and tidy." Roman explained. "I get reports and do some surprise visits every once and a while to make sure they're not up to anything. I also get free information from the bars and such as to who's been naughty or nice. They're usually nice."

"You two can work out the details of what you're doing later. Right now is the fun part. Well, for me and Raven." I walked over to the door and looked to Raven. She got up with a grunt and put on her mask.

"Leaving so soon?" She asked.

"This is just a meet-up. I'm not going to sit here while you talk minutiae." I said bluntly. She nodded and walked outside with me. I took a sharp left into a portal and Raven shut the door and followed.

I crouched down and pointed to a large hardware store. Raven followed suit. "In the back there's a stairwell to the basement. They've obviously upped security a bit with our little gang crusade going on but it's obviously not enough. Cloak and muffle."

Raven engaged those parts of the runic matrix and I hopped down and strolled to the store. I slipped into the store while a customer entered and waited for Raven to do the same when another customer came by.

I walked towards the back and opened the door to the back rooms. Raven and I walked in and we continued down the steps. Everyone up here just worked the store and was unarmed.

I walked through the complex knocking out everyone I cared to as I walked. It was just extremely easy to do with some air magic. It was routine, really. Raven followed in silence watching as the gangsters fell unconscious around me. I didn't want Raven killing everyone in her purges so I didn't do so to set an example. Also, the red guards were typically the better part of the criminal underbelly. We'll turn them to cops anyways. Part of our bribery.

Finally we came to the boss, who was sitting in his chair drinking alcohol. I took my sword from my inventory and walked next to him. With a clean, strong stroke and some magic I cut straight through his aura and beheaded him. He died drunk and blissful. Good for him.

Raven looked with a slight hint of pity at the boss' head but squashed it. I cleaned the blood off my sword with a rag from my inventory.

"No need for killing. They all go to the cops or are assimilated into Roman's gang if possible. The boss, though, is a sort of symbol of power. A change in leadership. It's just how the game is played. No need to like it. Comfort yourself that these are criminals. Not good people by any means." Raven nodded.

"And now what?" I smiled grimly.

"We go to a few outposts we have marked and wipe them of gangsters and call Roman and the boys in to clean up."

We were done in a few hours. It wasn't hard really. Invisibility and complete and utter silence in an area make it so. It was just another job for me, really. I've done it a hundred times. Well more like fifty or seventy but it's the same point.

"That was… different than I was used to." Raven says consideringly. I nod.

"It's a long and nearly boring process coupled with watching Roman work. Not fun stuff but it's easy and more than worthwhile."

"Do we ever see gunfights? Crying people begging? Anything like that?"

"No. They're knocked out without knowing what happened." Raven frowned at that.

"So strange. I'm used to begging and people pleading to not ruin their lives. This is almost nicer." I nod again.

"Now for the boring part. I'll drop you in Roman's office and you can wait for him to get back. It shouldn't be more than a few hours. Then you can discuss getting your tribe jobs in the little empire and whatever reforms you want to make. I'll admit to being poor at management. I usually pretend I know what I'm doing and let Roman do what he wants unless I see him doing something obviously stupid, which is rare. Part of why you're here."

"I see. I'll be back around ten. Leave some leftovers for me. I'll be back by midnight and I'll work out the rest with him tomorrow."

I smiled and opened a portal to the roof. "Bye Raven." She nodded to me and walked off through the portal. I took a look over the city and stood up. Then I teleported to my room in the apartment. Time to make dinner now. It's… seven o'clock. Yeah, dinnertime should be around seven thirty. I'll get started now. What to make… don't we have some fish in the fridge? Halibut and salmon. I can work with that. I just need some spices. Thyme maybe.

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"So how was school, Ruby?"

"It was great! Or, well, the same as before. But that's way better than I was expecting!"

"What were you expecting?"

"That I would terribly mess something up without Abyss to stop me and I would fail horribly and everybody would laugh at me."

"As if. He told me that he barely helps you at all in school."

"Well he staves off boredom like a pro."

"Spoiled."

"And loving it! But I'm working hard at least. If I do that it's being rewarded for hard work."

"That's… true I suppose."

"Oh! And I'm loving my elective, weapon studies, but everyone else is really far behind me. The teacher and I pretty much have a conversation the whole period and the rest of the class reads a book or something."

"Eh. That's fine. If they want to fall behind let 'em. Have you come up with an idea for a weapon yet?"

"Yeah! A sniper scythe with a shortsword form to store it in a sheath. I figure I can use my semblance and the recoil to move super quickly. I'll need advice from Abyss though. He can do things like a diamond edge or some fancy metalworking or rune stuff that I never think of. But I don't understand runes so that's pretty understandable. I also need to design a backup weapon. I'm pretty sure I can use the sheath as a scythe handle and actual sniper rifle and the blade as the scythe blade and sword. I just have some kinks to work out. Like where the sword goes when I want to use it as a rifle."

"You'll get it. If you want another opinion I'm all ears. Raven would help out a little too if you asked."

"Thanks Vernal!"

"Of course. Now, it's ass kicking time. Come at me."

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The days passed quickly. I learned a lot in subI and everything else was just kind of background. I learned the material but math and history were already known by me, huntsman studies was easy for everybody, and the only person to fight in combat class worth my time was Qrow, who had to help the other students rather than fight me. Qrow just let me do whatever most days so long as I kicked a few behinds. People learned quickly that they had no chance against me. Kind of depressing for them but they got over it.

It was friday of next week that something interesting happened.

I stared at a plastic card in the subI classroom through mage sight. On top of them was a note saying "Done and done. By the way, Melody is a contact of mine now. She's willing to do some dirty stuff for a few favors. Spreading rumors this time. And now she's yours too."

I smiled deviously as I sent an avatar to collect the steel. He's more competent than I thought, and I had high standards. His bonus objective was to get a contact in weapons making that he can acquire more from if there's a next time.

Without hesitation I went off the path to signal and took out my scroll. I sent a message to Roman that one Magna Mirrow, Cesium's dad, was to receive a sizable promotion in his job at the library where he worked. I got an affirmative almost immediately.

I waited out the first two classes and walked my way to subI. My history class was all the way on the other side of the building sadly. As soon as I walked in I saw Cesium already there with Ocean and Kerrigan. He had a huge grin on his face.

"What are you smiling about?" Ocean asked curiously. Kerrigan had the same look as she did on his face.

"My dad messaged me that he received a huge promotion at his job." He casted me a grateful look and Ocean and Kerrigan caught it but said nothing. They knew what it meant, after all.

"Now that you're all here-" Bella dropped from the rafters, as is the norm. "-we have something more interesting to do today. See, there's been a robbery yesterday. An access card to the weapons shop was stolen yesterday. We get to play policeman and see who did it."

Cesium held his smile perfectly and I began writing a note to him in the adjacent room. I hope he kept the part of his job where I said 'leave no trails'. Otherwise I'll have to bail him out. I began scanning the weapons shop with mage sight through a parallel while I wrote the note."Why would anybody want a card like that? Anybody can get into the forgery during lunch." Kerrigan asked.

"That's what we're going to find out!" Bella said excitedly. "And when I say we I mean you! I'm going to find out but I'm not going to tell anybody. I'll keep it for blackmail."

"Alright. So this is a free period or are we splitting up?" I asked.

"Splitting up in groups of two. Cesium, you're with Abyss. Kerrigan, you're obviously with Ocean. Go figure it out before the trail gets cold. You have the whole day. Oh, and of course you're allowed into the other rooms and take a moment of other people's time. You can even take a person out of a class if you need to. Just don't abuse it. Now shoo. I need to figure this out myself."

I opened a portal to the rooftop and beckoned Cesium through. We walked in as Ocean and Kerrigan began quietly conversing.

"You covered your tracks?" I asked. Cesium nodded.

"I wore a mask, concealing clothes, all plain black, changed how I acted and spoke, and even got some fake contacts. I made my eyes blue. Melody doesn't even know my name. All she has is that she'll be contacted if you or I need something."

I nodded with a smile. "And is she safe from any trails?" Cesium made the wobbly 'sort of' sign with his hands.

"Eh, sort of. For one thing she was missing from her combat class but she has a reputation as a good girl so nobody will be paying attention to it. They'll dismiss it as her having some sort of situation. There's also the rumors about a girl named Tracy Hawk that she hates circling around dating a guy named Cash Silver, who spends a lot of time with her and really likes her but she doesn't know it. The rumor's gotten widespread but it leads back to me. Not her. I'm only guilty of not liking Tracy or Cash."

I grinned. "You're good at this." From my soul space I took out two sodas. A sort of sprite equivalent of Remnant. Then I chilled them with my heat affinity and handed one to him.

He scoffed as he took his soda and had a sip. "Compared to you? My dad's been working his ass off for a year and a half and gotten nothing because his boss doesn't like him. He was on the verge of being fired. Now he's been promoted and taken that ass' job. You did in a few hours what he couldn't do in a year and a half. Not to mention all that other stuff you've done. Even Bella clearly doesn't know how you do some of the stuff you do."

I waved off his praise. "Don't worry about it. I'm just hoping that Kerrigan and Ocean can get to work on their jobs. Your mentioning of that reward might light a fire under them. Rewards incite work after all."

Cesium grinned and nodded. "I love this class." he took a deep sip of his soda.

I hummed. "I do too. Say, you're pretty good at this whole making contacts thing. How'd you get good at it?" He shrugged.

"Natural talent. Some practiced social skills. Common sense. That all plus my good looks and confidence sort of just make people fall into place. A hint dropped here and there can put the idea in a person's head or have them show you they're not interested in a little subterfuge. It's not easy but it's something I'm good at."

"Hmmm." I sipped from the soda again. "A good skill to have. Friends in places get you far."

He nodded. "It depends on having the right friends and being able to reach those places though."

"I'm glad I have a long reach." I said with a grin. He looked to me and something must have clicked as his eyes widened.

"And friends in some high places." I looked amusedly towards him as pieces fell into place. Yes I do have a few very well placed friends. I like to think I'm a good friend to have because of that. It seems Cesium realized this too. I think I just found a second in command. One that knows not to ask about what I use my access cards for.

"Want to see what Ocean and Kerrigan are doing?" Cesium grinned and laid back. I did the same. I then opened a portal that was shrouded by an illusion on their side. It's good to be a wizard.

Kerrigan and Ocean never did figure it out. Kerrigan had a few friends that pointed him around and he made a few new friends but nothing was really found but dead ends and the fact that some poor girl named Tracy cheated on her boyfriend with a guy named Chad. that was pretty much the only piece of gossip around.

Ocean did some wetwork and stole the camera recordings. Melody had worn a face mask though and was too far away to be heard. Ocean connected that the guy getting the card had access to the subI room but he could have just bribed a janitor or something. It was a dead end for her but it farther than what Kerrigan got.

Cesium and I walked into the room looking similarly. Well, Cesium had an irritated look on his face. I looked just slightly less serene than usual.

Bella looked neutral. I couldn't tell if she found something or not. "Nothing?" she asked. All of us shook our heads.

"No leads at all? A cold trail?" Nods this time.

"Well then… Great job Cesium!" Bella pulled out a party popper and brought a kazoo to her mouth. She got confetti over Cesium, who looked nervous.

"I've got to say, that was some good work! Melody was absolutely convinced that you were a third party bringing the card to somebody else. The contacts threw me off too! I had to pull out some old software from my operator days and match your height in the recording to the one in your records. That wasn't enough though. So I had to practically interrogate the poor girl. I put the pieces together from some stuff you did."

Kerrigan looked towards Cesium with a twitching eye. Ocean looked towards him with pursed lips and a hard look in her eye.

"Calm down kids!" Bella said with a laugh. She turned towards me. "Was Cesium's monthly assignment to get an access card to the forgery?" I nodded.

"Smart cookie! You guys did that all well! And I mean well! Normally there's a paper trail or something and everyone learns paranoia is a spy's greatest trait but you already seemed to separate yourselves from the crime so much that all the leads were cold."

Cesium had a nervous smile on his face. "So… are we going to get punished?" Bella shook her head harshly, slapping herself with her pony tail in the process.

"Not at all!" She blew some hairs from her pony tail out of her mouth. "You made me go big leagues with that software. If I have to do that I pretty much give up all rights to put anyone in trouble." She leveled a look towards Kerrigan and Ocean. "That means you guys too. Don't hold it against Cesium or Abyss. Cesium was just doing his job well and Abyss just wanted his paws on an access card. But I wonder…" She turned to me.

"Why do you want an access card when you can teleport? Or is it a semblance thing?" I grinned.

"My sister is working on a hard project for her weapons designing class. I'm not going to wait hand and foot on her so I got this-" I reached into my pants pocket and pulled out the card from my inventory for everyone to see. "-for her to use. However, it's crowded at lunchtime and my sister might get knocked over or lost in the bustle. So she'll work after school when it's quiet."

Bella nodded cheerily. "Cool! I don't mind if you use the assignments for your own need as long as they aren't stupid but I think you already kind of got that." I nodded. Nobody's going to have to go to extremes for me.

"Good job you all! Oh, wait, did you two try hard?" Bella looked to Kerrigan and Ocean. I spoke up first though.

"Ocean did some well executed wetwork getting the tapes. Kerrigan has a surprisingly large web of contacts that he reached out to. Sadly, though, he didn't find any solid traces of Cesium's involvement."

"Solid leads? What do you mean?" Kerrigan asked. He didn't even question how I knew this all. Ocean didn't look phased.

"Those rumors about Tracy cheating with Cash were spread by me. They were the payment to Melody in the first place. It only looked like I had a grudge against Tracy if you followed that back to me though." Kerrigan nodded and I could see some newfound respect for Cesium in his eyes.

"I think we all had a great day today!" Bella said cheerily. "Really! That was some good work all around. Now go to lunch. We've got about ten minutes still but there's really nothing left to do. I'm going to take a nap until I have to meet with the junior class. Now shoo."

Two days later I looked through mage sight and saw two folders in two different parks. I sent avatars to both of them and flipped through them.

Ocean was a rich sort of girl but had some social issues growing up. Isolation, some bullying, and the like. There was a list of her schools and even a grade report a few times from her mother's social media included. A list of her friends and people she frequented was included but pretty small.

It was noted gravely that at nine years old she was found with a dead child molester. She apparently tore his throat out with her teeth and unlocked her aura through the trauma. She got therapy for it but that leaves a mark. Kerrigan specifically cited that in her therapist's reports that Ocean successfully moved on and recommended that we not bring it up. He also pointed it out that Ocean was actually fourteen despite her smaller frame since she held back a year for therapy.

There was a list of skills too from her skill with the sling and flail as a huntress to her passion for chemistry and a noted talent and curiosity at making poisons. It was all very professionally done and crisp. Nothing much that I didn't already know though.

Kerrigan was far more interesting. He was from the Granite crime family. In fact he was the second to the head of the family. Second oldest child of five after an older brother. The family traded information and sometimes goods on a largish scale. On rare occasions drugs. I didn't know that actually. I'm glad I do now though. That just avoided a lot of potential problems. Observe just said his family was involved in crime and based a little bit north of the city center. Territory right by where Roman's empire would be taking next.

Kerrigan's social contact were extensive. He knew just about everybody in our grade one way or another. He also ran a side business in middle school for test answers for a short time before ducking out when a few people went poking around for more than dishonorable intentions.

He knew how to use an axe well enough to challenge Yang Xiao-Long and probably win, had a suit of armor that he didn't use in spars since didn't need to repair it, and enjoyed working out, keeping ties with his friends and contacts, and being around his family.

Finally was Cesium. He was a diamond in the rough type. His family is dirt poor. His father's a librarian and his mother is an unemployed housewife. He worked his way to signal through blood, sweat, and tears. His mother was a drunkard but apparently moved past that for some reason. It coincided with Cesium rising in education and finding god tidings for his family. His family was homeless before Cesium managed to secure a library job for his father through some way.

He worked his way as all A's through the terrible schools in his ghetto of Patch. He rose and decided to become a huntsman for non-descript reasons. In his application it was left blank but he was accepted anyways on the recommendation of Qrow Branwen. How interesting!

It was gleefully found by Ocean that Cesium has actually been in the information business for a while. Blackmailing, bribing, and persuading his way to the peak of what he can do.

Sadly enough, though, Cesium never really got any lifelong friends. He moved beyond his place for his family, earning him some enemies and a varied reputation in his neighborhood. Some admired him and some were jealous or angry at him. A mixed bag.

You know.. It would be a shame if a financial screw up accidentally gave Cesium an apartment… Not a nice one but I know there's an apartment next to mine that Roman pretty much owns.

If he were to later find himself in ownership of an apartment in my very own apartment building, on the same floor even, it would be like a strike of fate.

We might even be friends for life… Just saying. It could happen. Just like it just happened to be that Ocean found a professional lockpicking set AND a chemistry set.

I also found the Granite family to be not worth taking under Roman's empire. I had Roman make a somewhat generous set of terms for them to operate in his territory and said to thank their son Kerrigan for his generosity. Then their territory was taken by Roman's criminal empire very neatly.

Kerrigan managed to connect me to Roman and that I had favors to pull from him. I think he respected me a lot now.

[|||| == ||||]

"Kerrigan!"

"Yes?"

"What did you do?!"

"What do you mean?"

"Check your dust net mailbox!"

"... what the… Roman said… wait…"

"What the hell did you do to get this?! This makes the new regime actually a good thing! How did you do this?!"

"... I think I have friends in higher places than I thought."

"... Son. I think you have some good friends."

[|||| == ||||]

For the second month of assignments I assigned a few. To Cesium I wanted him to get a bit ambitious. I wanted him to check up on the status of the criminal underworld in Vale.

I also wanted him to make a contact in it. I straight up told him I'd connect him to two others after he finds one on his own.

I did offer to teleport him there whenever he needed it with a drop point and a pickup point. He seemed eager and took advantage of my offer of transport.

For Kerrigan I had him collect a bio on Qrow Branwen's connection to Cesium. I could just ask Qrow but that's boring and makes me look a little odd. I don't want him asking how I know about that. And with Cesium it's a little personal.

For Ocean I didn't have anything so I asked Raven. She told me to prank Qrow. So that's what I told Ocean to do. She was quite happy with that.

What's that? Other classes than subI? I don't know what you're talking about. You mean my morning soul space sessions? Or were you talking about my afternoon free period?

With all of that done my days settled down for another few weeks. Raven got a little more chummy with Roman. Enough to occasionally joke a little. Roman managed to pick up his signature bowler hat too. He's calling it his calling 'card of fame'.

Ruby found a nice groove of her own too. During her school days she was a bit bored but so was I so deal with it.

She kept working on learning weapons crafting too (I called it weapons drafting as a jab as her never making anything. She kicked me in the shin).

After school she sparred with Qrow when he was around and not too drunk or some bandits when he wasn't. I joined in when I could.

The bandits fell into their variety of new jobs in the Roman empire. Along the way they adapted to Vale little by little and got more kept beards and cleaner clothes.

Around the compound they all wore their tattoos out as a sort of mark of pride. I don't really get it but it's their thing I suppose.

With everything going so well I half expected something to go wrong for a while but then three weeks passed.

Oh, and Qrow got a manicure. His nails are pink for now. He refuses to talk about how and Ocean won't talk but we all know it was her. I got her some stuff for her chemistry sets.

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