27 Further And Foward

"Phew…" Landing onto the edge of a roof, Shen took the White Fang mask off his face. 'Damnn… Definitely knows what I'm putting my stats into now.' Right now, he had twenty points to put into whatever he wanted and was close to reaching level thirteen. 'Well, whatever, I got what I needed to do done. Although Pyrrha showing up was an unexpected surprise, it was a welcome one.'

Taking a deep breath, Shen heard a voice in his head. "Looks like you managed to have fun while you were out." Turning his head to the right, he saw another him. "Oh, Neo didn't notice you. Guess I'm more exhausted than I thought." Neo had her face cupped in her hands overlooking Argus from the rooftop.

Her eyes reflected the still-burning fires created from the explosion of the oil tanks and aircraft. Transforming back into herself, Shen sat down on the ground. "So, any issues occur while I was gone?" Neo shook her head as she walked over to Shen. "No, not really. Although dealing with that Blake girl was weird… She was really clingy but not that bad, I guess."

Shen let out a dry laugh. "Ya, I'll have to sort that out eventually, although I'm not sure if I'm looking forward to it or not." Looking at his hands and clothes, they had gotten drenched in blood and messy. "Well, I'm going to go take a shower." Standing up, Shen lazily began walking towards the staircase on top of the roof.

"You not worried about the chaos you just created? If you did all of this under the guise of the White Fang, a lot of issues are going to pop up." Shen smiled when she said that. "Oh, I made sure issues are going to occur. That's the whole point after all." Leaving the rooftop, Neo was left there on her own.

Glancing back over Argus, she narrowed her eyes before leaving as well. An hour later, Shen walked into his room in a robe. "I might not need to sleep or eat, but showers are always nice." Drying off his hair, he sat down onto the bed and opened up the System. 'Now let's see here how's everything looking.'

{Personal Information}

Name: Shen

Level: 12 [507000/512000]

Race(s): Life Fiber-Hybrid (20%)|Human Demon-Hybrid|

Skills: Tangle (Life Fiber Manipulation)|Appearance Manipulation (Life Fiber Manipulation)|Mental Refitting (Life Fiber Manipulation)|Volt Vari (Goro Goro no Mi)

Linked Skills: Demonic Blast(Devil Trigger)

…

'So I capped out on my hybrid percentage again. Speaking of which, I wonder if I'm able to create Goku Uniforms? I mean, it is at Level 4 surely Ide be able to make something. Even if it's useless to me, I could definitely give it to Blake or Neo. Those two are going to be too weak to help in the future If I don't put in some effort to refine them.' Thinking about it for a moment, Shen got back on track as he switched to his stats menu.

{Personal Stats}

Points: 20

Physical Strength: 16 (+40)

Endurance: 5 (+51)

Dexterity: 24 (+35)

Power: 17 (+24)

…

Although having a Devil Fruit sadly didn't affect his stats, he could never get over how great the enhancements his different races gave him. 'I've been ignoring Endurance since it's technically one of my highest stats. But using the Goro Goro, no Mi is taking up a lot of my stamina. If I plan on using it on a large scale, Endurance is a must. Alongside that, I need more power to back it up.'

After a few seconds of thinking it over, Shen decided to allocate his points fourteen and six. Fourteen going into Endurance while the rest went straight into Power. 'It's so hard to remain a balanced character. No one will know of the tough calls I've had to make.' Feeling satisfied with his choices laid back.

'Now I just need Salemn to hurry up and act.'Closing his eyes, Shen fell asleep as the night passed and the next day came. Shen was forced awake by the sound of frantic knocking as he sat up, "What?" Answering groggily, he sat up and rubbed his head as the door opened. It was Blake, and she had a rather flustered look on her face.

"Sh- Oh…" She stopped speaking for a second, seeing Shen. He was still wearing the robe from last night and nothing else. Sighing, Shen snapped his fingers a few times, getting her attention. "Blake, what is it?" Shaking her head, she got back on topic. "Oh right! Shen, something bad has happened. Did you see what happened last night?"

Raising a brow, Shen nodded. "Of course, pretty hard to miss. I was on the roof watching everything." Hearing that, Blake nodded. "Well, the apparent a lot of Atlas Soldiers were killed, and the damage was pretty bad." Standing up off the bed, Shen cracked his neck. "That's strange, no doubt, but why did you wake me up for it?"

Blake reached into her back pocket, pulled out her scroll, turning it on. "Because of this." It displayed a holographic projection above it with a man standing in front of a microphone. He was talking to a sea of press and cameras with people jumping to ask questions. "The Mayor?" Quitting down all the reporters, the Mayor of Argus began to speak.

By his side was someone Shen instantly recognized. Caroline Cordovin is the person who was in charge of the Atlas Military Base here. [The attack on the Atlas Military base last night had been confirmed to be done by Faunus. To be more precise, the White Fang which have infiltrated our city without our knowledge.]

Blake clenched her fist as she continued to let it play, and Shen watched meticulously. [Their goal was unknown; however, this was clearly an act that went far beyond simple Terrorism. That Military Base acts as protection for our City against the Grimm. Not only have they destroyed it, but they have also taken down our communications to the outside world, stranding us.]

Caroline standing beside the Mayor, nodded. [Indeed, what the Mayor has said is true. The White Fang did attack us and, in turn, put the lives of all Argus citizens in danger! Although we are not sure how they infiltrated the city, we can only guess they had help from Faunus compatriots. Until we can commence a full investigation, ALL Faunus seen within Argus shall be taken in custody and interrogated.]

After that, the Mayor began going into further detail about all the restrictions they planned on putting in place. Most of them affect Faunus within Argus, and the punishments they will be dealy if their alibis aren't seen as sufficient. Normally, something like this wouldn't be tolerated by citizens, but it was another story in this case.

The fact the White Fang was behind the attack already made them angry. But Mistral was known for having the highest levels of discrimination against Faunus. With those two things together included in the fact, Faunus are already rare to see in the city? No one needed to even talk about how much worse things would get for Faunus living here.

"It's all a bunch of lies!" Blake crushed the scroll in her hands as she trembled with anger. "I questioned everyone and even logged everyone's positions during the incident. No one from the White Fang could have done this! They're setting us up for a crime we didn't commit, and now the innocent will pay for it!"

Shen put his hand on his chin before speaking. "Your right; this is bad. At this rate, who knows how things will escalate. But at the same time, there isn't much we can do." Blake was surprised to hear Shen say that as she spoke. "What do you mean?" Shen explained bluntly with a downtrodden expression.

"If we try taking the Faunus in the city under our protection, we risk exposing ourselves completely. At the same time, if we try to deny or directly oppose their claims, no one will believe us. Right now, we're in a position where we can't do anything. Unless we resort to using force and potentially even violence, it's best if we just stick to the shadows."

Blake felt stunned listening to Shen as she kept opening and closing her mouth. She had always been again the methods the White Fang used. But at this moment, that method seemed to be the only real answer. Other than that, they would be forced to suffer in silence. "But-" Shen interjected as he shook his head.

"Of course, we can't do that, though. Resorting to such methods would make us as bad as people like Adam. For now, we can only wait and try and quell the idea. In the end, humans just want someone to blame for their problems. We were the minority, so why not push the issue onto us? Anyway, it's best you relay everything to the rest of the White Fang here. Hopefully, they'll understand."

Shen closed to door to his room, leaving Blake in the hallway to marinate on his words. She had hated that the White Fang was willing to resort to violence. After all, they had never done so before, and she had rathered them take the peaceful approach. But this was just infuriating. Why did they have to stop themselves from fighting back when the people who suppressed them treated them like animals.

"It's not fair..." Her knuckles turned white and cracked as she walked away. There was a murderous intent in her eyes hidden, but they're all the same. Inside his room, Shen stared at the closed door as a smile formed on his face. "Leaving Caroline was definitely the right call. Kuchinashi city is already taken care of. Now all I need to do is hit the White Fang with something big."

Around an hour later, Shen began getting dressed in his Sanctum Academy uniform. While thinking to himself, he got a message through his scroll. Pulling it out, he saw it was from Torchwick, and the message itself made his eyes light up. 'Finally, about time. I was begging to think I needed to incentive Salemn more.'

[That woman Cinder is apparently on her way from Vale to Mistral and will arrive shortly. She says she wants to meet up somewhere that's not too far from Argus tomorrow night. What do you want to do?] Shen didn't need to think about it when he replied. [Of course, we're going to meet her. It would be rude not to. Set the location to some village not too far from Argus but desolate enough we don't need to worry about causing any noise.]

Sending that message to Torchwick, Shen took a relaxing breath, made his way to the first floor, and went outside. Blake was waiting for him and still had a slightly grim look on her face. "Let's go. I want to see how the recent news has affected the Academy." Blake looked up and nodded, following Shen to the Academy.

There was an obvious slight tension in the air, and the security around the academy had been buffed immensely. Just entering the campus area required them to scan both their student ids and answer a list of questions. "Best make sure that ribbon stays on your head. Having your ears revealed now would be even worse than before."

Shen whispered to Blake as he glanced ahead and saw none other than Pyrrha. There was no crowd around her, but people were still greeting her as normal. "Hey, no fans surrounding you this time around?" He tapped her on the shoulder while speaking, causing her to jump from her daze. "Ah Shen, Blake, sorry I didn't notice you two."

Shen shook his head. "It's fine." Blake thought to herself for a second before speaking up. "Pyrrha, I heard you made your way to the Atlas Base when it was being attacked. Was it really a member of the White Fang who attacked?" Hearing the question, Pyrrha sighed. "Ya though I wasn't in time to help anyone. But there is no doubt they were a part of the White Fang."

Blake lowered her head, hearing that. "I see…" Pyrrha noticed Blake's shift in tone and tried to speak more cheerfully. "In any case, I'm sure things will go back to normal soon! Something like this must have taken a lot of effort to set up. Now that we're on guard and cautious, it shouldn't happen again."

Shen looked a bit interested, and he inquired. "Oh, you sound pretty confident in that." Pyrrha laughed to herself, listening to Shen. "Well… I'm not really supposed to say anything just yet, but I'll tell you two. Some things are taking priority when it comes to repairs. For example, the CCTS tower. Apparently, the Police Chief is going to be asking our Headmaster for help when it comes to security."

Shen turned his head a bit hearing that. 'Oh, really, now that's interesting.' Looking around for a moment, Pyrrha whispered something to them. "I planned on talking to the Headmaster about it after class, but I want to apply on joining the Huntsman who is going to be helping out. After all, I had a close encounter, so I may be able to help."

Blake thought about it for a second before brightening up. "That actually sounds nice. With you, hopefully, they'll be able to catch the culprit faster." Pyrrha nodded as Shen spoke excitedly. "I really do hope the Headmaster accepts your request. I'm sure the people of Argus will feel a lot safer with you helping out."

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