Chapter 8

-[Rowan]-

"You know when you said you wanted to be a huntsman, I thought you'd actually wait till you got the license." Julius said with a small frown on his face as he looked around. "Got anything to say?"

Rowan stayed silent as he stared at the man that was his father. A quick use of [The Author] told him that it was indeed Julius and not an imposter. There was also nothing about him being involved in this 'Operation', not that he believed the man was capable of such.

"What do you want me to say?" Rowan asked, his voice unfeeling, something that Julius seemed to notice quickly.

"You can start by explaining this mess. You realize that what you've done today, you can't ever take it back." Julius said, no hint of condemnation or rebuke in his tone. He was simply stating the obvious.

"I know." Rowan replied quietly. "Even then, I'd do it again if I had to." He admitted, causing Julius' eyes to narrow.

"And why is that?"

"Because people don't care. They don't care as long as it doesn't personally affect them. Hell some of them would even happily join them. How could so many kids disappear and nobody gives a shit?" Rowan asked…no…demanded.

Julius was reasonably surprised but for different reasons. Rowan always spoke so politely, it was truly a sight to witness him do otherwise but the boy wasn't done.

"Just because they're faunus, people think it fair to treat them like animals. Equality? What a joke?" He muttered quietly but was still heard by his father. "With people like this, it's no wonder the white fang exists."

"And you think they're right? That it's okay to be terrorists?" Julius asked as he stood straight, walking to Rowan.

"I never said I agreed with them. I only pointed out the reason for their existence." Rowan said as the man stopped in front of him. "Human or Faunus, they're both the same and I treat them with the same value."

"And what about these men?" Julius gestured to the corpses on the floor. "What about their value?"

"Someone who can't sacrifice anything, can never change anything. If it's to stop them from doing this to anyone else, my 'morals' are an acceptable sacrifice." Rowan said, not budging from his stance.

The two Arcs stared at each other, neither making a move at the moment. Julius' serious expression fell apart as he released a sigh, his hand rising to ruffle Rowan's hair.

"You know, I thought you'd have more time to enjoy the fantasies of becoming a huntsman and taking down Grimm." The man said as he let his hand fall, a look of concern appearing on his face. "Being a huntsman is a lot more than it seems to the public eye. Sometimes, your enemy isn't a Grimm. It's the harsh reality of being a huntsman that many who wish to be don't realize."

"I'm surprised you're not puking your guts out right now. You're tougher than I was when I started out." Julius joked to lighten the mood, succeeding in eliciting a small smile from Rowan. "I can't say it gets easier but you learn to deal with it. Like you said, someone has to do it."

"How did you know I was here?" Rowan asked after a moment of thought.

"I didn't." The man answered, surprising the boy. "A friend of mine who happens to have eyes and ears everywhere. He heard that Parker Mitchell was involved in something…nasty, he just didn't know what exactly it was. The man covered his tracks very well. It took some time but I finally found this place, which begs the question…"

Julius turned to Rowan with a look of curiosity on his face. "How did you know something was off about him?"

"It's…complicated." He didn't have an explanation for it. His ability to uncover hidden truths stemmed from his semblance, a semblance that nobody knew of.

He was aware that Julius had a hard time trying to figure out what his semblance was. With the variety of skills he displayed to the man during their training period, the man was reasonably confused.

In the end, he refrained from telling him about his semblance, simply telling him about the two kids and his visit to the orphanage along with Parker Mitchell attempting to 'adopt' them.

Whether or not the man noticed his omission, he didn't say anything about it. "Healing huh? Not really a common semblance. Very useful for support I'll say." Julius commented with a pondering expression.

That was the one thing he couldn't hide. He planned on healing the rest of the kids and he needed to be able to freely use it. His actual semblance wasn't noticeable so it was fine.

"Well if you'll excuse me, I have to finish with the kids." Rowan said as he turned back to the stairs leading down the basement.

"I think I'll come along, I want to see your semblance in action. Besides, where exactly do you plan on keeping them?" Julius asked with a raised brow.

Rowan had to admit that the man had a point. He couldn't take them to Skye, the woman could barely take care of the ones she already had. Julius could only shake his head in slight amusement.

"I'll contact a friend of mine, he'll be able to take them in. Now let's go see these kids." The man said, eliciting a sigh from Rowan.

-[Julius]-

What was he going to do with this kid? Every time he thought he couldn't surprise him anymore, he finds new ways to do it.

Watching him regrow the wings of a young bird faunus, Julius' eyes couldn't be any wider. He wasn't exaggerating when he said that the ability to heal wasn't common, if anything, he understated it. It was extremely rare if not unheard of, at least not to this extent.

It would severely reduce huntsman casualties. There were even a few huntsmen who had retired due to injuries that wouldn't allow them to continue fighting.

He couldn't believe what he was about to do. In a way he was proud but a large part of him was worried. Knowing Rowan, he'd probably get himself into something more worrisome sooner or later.

-[Rowan]-

"When you said you'd contact a friend, I didn't think you meant the former leader of the White Fang." Rowan complained as they stood just outside the building.

"Hey it's not like we have much of a choice. Like it or not, we can't exactly trust the vale police to do anything about it. They'd end up on the streets by next week." Julius said to the frowning boy. "Besides, Ghira is a good man. I trust him."

The boy could only shake his head in exasperation. He'd given up on trying to make sense of the man. "So what happens now?"

"What happens is that we get you back to Beacon. I heard you and Jaune passed. How is he?" Julius asked seriously.

"He's…not the best but he'll get there…eventually." He answered unsurely. A lot of Jaune's choices didn't strike him as smart and this was one of them.

Julius could only sigh in exasperation. "It wouldn't kill him to call home once in a while. Just take care of him, will you?"

"You realize that I'm the younger sibling, right?" Roman asked with a raised brow, eliciting a laugh from the man.

They stood in silence for a while before Julius spoke again. "So, you're really serious about this, aren't you?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know, when you first said you wanted to be a huntsman, I thought you'd give up after the first day…yet here you are. What took others years of training, you did in under two months." Julius said with a proud smile before adding. "I'm not saying this to feed your ego. It just makes me wonder how you'd turn out if you started even a year earlier."

He turned to Rowan who watched the man carefully as he let out a laugh. "It's barely been two days but I can feel you've already grown just a bit. Your grandfather would have loved to meet you. Hell, he'd kidnap you just to train you himself." He said, both of them sharing a laugh.

"Alright I think we've wasted enough time as it is, you've got school in the morning. Take a ship back to Beacon, I'll take care of this." Julius said, shooing the boy away.

"Fine." Rowan could only sigh at the thought of 'school'. "I'll see you later dad." He said as he walked away towards the port.

-[The Next Day]-

With most of his important things in his inventory, he wasn't bothered about Cardin or anyone else messing with his luggage he left in his room, not that the boy would be foolish enough to do so after the 'greeting' he gave him earlier.

At least that was what he hoped. It was clear to any who took a glance at their team to tell that there was no sense of closeness or camaraderie between them.

The first day in Beacom had been mostly uneventful. The one thing that stood out was the notification he got after he woke up.

••••

[You have gained Title 'Huntsman in Training']

[Huntsman in Training]

[Effect: Increases EXP gain by 50%]

••••

To say he was in a good mood was an understatement but that also brought up the question.

Why didn't it show up after he passed the initiation? Was there another requirement that he needed to pass to become a student or was it just because classes hadn't started yet?

He would never be able to get the answer so he could only put it out of his mind for the moment. As he watched Professor Port ramble on about his 'great deeds' of valor against the Grimm, he could only sigh in exasperation.

He could practically feel someone boring a hole into his head with their gaze. Turning in that direction, he found himself looking across the long seats at team RWBY, more specifically, the nervous looking faunus on their team who kept cautiously staring at him.

He ignored it as he watched as Weiss angrily volunteered to fight the Boarbatusk Grimm. He didn't know if it was just him but it was fairly obvious that the girl wasn't the most experienced fighter.

Her 'skill' came from practicing stances in controlled environments which led to more than a few poor decisions in what should have been a quick fight. Though she eventually managed to beat it, it wasn't anything impressive.

"I'm afraid that's all the time we have for today. Be sure to cover the assigned readings. Class dismissed." Professor Port announced as the white haired girl stomped out of the room.

Rowan fought the urge to roll his eyes at the situation but at the same time, he couldn't be bothered about it.

'I still need to find Glynda or Ozpin to ask for permission to go into the Emerald forest…or I could just go anyway.' He pondered as he closed the book that he had brought to class but ended up writing nothing in.

As he got up to leave, he found Blake standing in front of him, looking fairly agitated. "Can I help you?"

"Can we talk…in private?" She added at his raised brow.

He could already guess what this was going to be about. As the students left the classroom, only the two were left, even the professor was gone. 'If I remember correctly, he should be out there 'talking' with Weiss.'

"So, what did you want to talk about?" He asked, seeing that they were now alone.

"Did you tell anyone?" She asked through gritted teeth.

"You'll have to be a little more specific." Rowan said dryly, not helping her mood.

"You know what I mean!" She said, her frustration finally leaking.

"Will you calm down? I didn't tell anyone your big secret." He answered the girl who didn't calm down at all.

"You can't ever tell anyone. Anyone. Not even Jaune." She said…no..demanded, causing him to frown a bit.

"If it's that big of a deal, I don't plan to. At least not if you answer my question." He shot back, causing the girl to pause.

"And what's that?"

"What's the point of hiding it? Sure I get that faunus aren't exactly liked but what's your reason?" He asked.

"You wouldn't understand. You don't get what it's like." She said, not answering the question.

"I never said I did nor did I ever pretend to. You may not realize it but not everyone hates the faunus." He said, already seeing that this was getting nowhere. The girl was too stubborn for her own good. "I'm sure your teammates would feel the same way." He added, trying to throw the work of this overcoming girl's baggage back to her team.

"It's not that simple!" She yelled, slamming her hands on the table, prompting a dry look from the boy.

"Maybe you're making it more complicated than it is. You can't hide forever, people are going to find out sooner or later." Rowan said as he packed his things, heading for the door. "Besides, why care what other people think? If you do that, you'll end up being someone else. Aren't you tired of letting your fears make decisions for you?" He said as he exited the classroom, leaving behind the stunned girl.

Part of what he said wasn't just to throw the work to someone else. He was serious. What was the point of letting other people's perception of you mold you into something you don't want to be?

There was no satisfaction in that kind of living.

It was one of his reasons for helping the kids at the orphanage. Other than the fact that he couldn't just leave them to suffer, he wanted to eventually be able to look back without regrets.

It was why he was training so hard. Salem was coming and there was currently no way to stop her. He knew himself more than anyone. Had he simply hid back in Patch and allowed things to go along like they were supposed to, when Salem eventually came, he would be filled with regret.

If he was going to die eventually, he was going to make sure to do immense if not irreplaceable damage to Salem's plans. 'I just have to get stronger first.' He thought determinedly as he headed to his next class.