Another Kind of Beacon [Public]

[Kyo Morinaga]

The forest to the northeast of Vale was an ideal training ground for the prospective Huntress: teeming with the Creatures of Grimm, yet so frequently picked over by those who made it their business to fight Grimm that it was rare indeed to find the truly threatening monsters. "Threatening" by Huntress standards, that is; the likes of Nevermores or Deathstalkers could still be found, "large" and "in charge" monsters as far as ordinary Grimm or wildlife were concerned. But such creatures could be bested even by those who had only attended the basic combat academies, with just a dedicated application of effort and solid tactics.

In that sense, such creatures were ideal training fodder for Beacon Academy's initiation: just dangerous enough to separate the Girls from the Slightly Older Girls.

Kyo Morinaga crouched just below the forest canopy, peeking out at the winged creature as it soared across the night sky, partially obscuring the shattered moon.

She had slain such a creature, once, though the effort had been near-suicidal. Then, unlike now, it had homed in on her location as though it could see through all the solid matter of Remnant itself; it had tracked her grief and rage and self-directed hatred. That was what the Grimm did, after all... they hunted Man- and Faunus-kind by tracking their negative emotions like sharks scenting blood in the water.

So, it followed that as a Huntress-in-training, one talent that Kyo should hone was the technique of laying out bait to draw her prey in. Yes? Yes.

Her eyes followed the Nevermore and she sighed, deciding to test her theory on something smaller and more easily-managed first. An Ursa, or a small pack of Beowolves, or some such. Her victory over the Nevermore in Atlas had been a result of very nearly as much luck as skill, and besides. Kyo hadn't forged Ultraviolet Ultimatum yet at that point—she had simply pumped the stupid bird's eye-sockets full of Earth Dust Rounds at point-blank range until its head had popped like an overstuffed blackberry.

Getting that close to a Nevermore's face was... difficult. So. Something smaller, that she wouldn't have to waste the expensive Dust Rounds on, and which she could afford to practice her chain-whip fighting skills on.

Once she was sure the Nevermore had put enough distance between itself and her position, Kyo closed her eyes and ran through the mental exercises she'd been working on. Negative emotions attracted the Grimm, which meant that if such emotion could be brought to the fore of one's mind at will—without losing one's self-control in the process—then one could potentially lure Grimm into an arena of one's choosing.

The ravine from which this tree grew, the jagged rocky walls, were the kind of terrain Kyo could use but which would be nothing but poor footing for Beowolves and Ursa. They would be at a disadvantage, while Kyo's natural climbing agility as a skink-lizard faunus would enable her to control the flow of the encounter.

In other words, it would be one, big Grimm kill-zone. She grinned humorlessly, and focused. Focused on the memories, and the feelings attached to them.

That was easy at the moment. The Nevermore had been an effective trigger-image; she'd have to remember to pay it a visit later, and thank it for flying by when it had.

Kyo's teeth showed in a shark-like, snarling grin at the thought, and she fueled her guilt and despair with it.

---

Not far away, three dark shapes sniffed and snuffled in the underbrush. In the shadows of the deep woods, the bone-plating that served as a Grimm's natural armor stuck out in stark contrast; what moonlight peeked down through the leaves glinted eerily off it. What it was the Grimm did when there was no prey within reach, it was difficult to say, since they could hardly be observed without giving them at least a whiff of what they hungered for.

They caught such a whiff now, distant but potent, and their aimless shambling through the bushes abruptly ceased. Heads jumped upward, sniffing the wind.

After a few moments, they began to meander, as one, in a particular direction.

Some distance away, the hulking, spike-backed form of an Ursa likewise shifted, low growls emanating from its gaping maw...

Elsewhere nearby, the snorting breath of a creature with two large, curved tusks broke the silence. Yet another "hunter" caught the sent, unaware that it was in fact the prey this night.

---

This was not the first time that Kyo had attempted such a "meditation." She had spent several days holed up at the hotel, safely nestled deep within Vale's walls where no Grimm was likely to pick up on her "scent." And she had subjected herself to hours of this, of trying to dwell on her darkest thoughts without letting them tie her up and run away with her.

It was not easy. "Think unhappy thoughts" as an intentional meditation technique was like tap-dancing across a steep, rain-drenched series of rooftiles, beneath which one could slide into the blackest pit of pure depression at the first mis-step. Even now she wasn't sure she could cut off the thoughts when they got going, though she was at least reasonably confident she could fight effectively either way.

The trees rustled from multiple directions, on both sides of the ravine. The Grimm that infested the Emerald Forest were not of particularly intelligent species, with the exception of the Nevermore. Kyo didn't expect them to exercise much stealth beyond animalistic predator instinct, which meant they would probably get quieter as they neared her position.

Sure enough, they did. Or at the very least, some of them did. One of them just kept lumbering forward like a rolling boulder, and loudly. Ursa, probably.

Kyo gave it a fifteen-count after the first rustlings on one side had gone quiet, then... drew in a breath and forced her thoughts to go as blank as she could make them. It probably wouldn't completely kill the negativity drawing the Grimm, but she could hope it would muffle it enough to obscure her hiding spot.

From the highest pocket on her right leg, she drew a humble clay disc, of the kind used in shooting practice. With her other hand, she drew the mechashift pistol belted at her off-hand hip, one half of Ultraviolet Ultimatum. A dust round was already loaded.

A snuffling, snorting form emerged across the ravine, sniffing and searching restlessly. Boarbatusk.

Soft, snarling breaths crowded the underbrush beneath her tree. Beowolves. Two or more.

Legs bent, ready to spring, she tensed.

Then came the Ursa, stomping to a stop at the edge of the ravine. It reared back and roared at the heavens, proclaiming itself King of the Jungle.

"Adorable," Kyo snarked aloud, and the Grimm below heard. Amidst the howls of the Beowolves and the snarling of the Ursa, the hidden Huntress pounced: out into the air, twisting with her forked lizard-tail's aid for balance. The wolves, caught by surprise, sprang from hiding and skidded to the ravine's edge.

Out in an arc above the ravine, she tumbled, spun, and snapped out an arm, throwing the clay pidgeon straight down at the gap between cliffs. The other hand leveled the pistol, and fired.

Gravity Dust exploded on impact with the clay, directly in the ravine between bear, boar, and wolves. Howling, snarling, snorting, all were dragged toward the deadly drop by the miniature singularity that spawned at the core of the explosion. It lasted only seconds, then faded. Only the Ursa, clawing desperately at the ground to hold itself back and significantly heavier than the other Grimm, escaped the trap.

The Gravity Dust effect gone, four Beowolves and a Boarbatusk went tumbling down the cliff side, bouncing and rolling as they went.

Kyo was not idle as her momentum carried her. The hand once occupied with skeet snatched the firearm from her main-hand holster; when the Ursa looked up, it found not the green eyes of a lizard Faunus but the sawed-off barrel of a shotgun.

BLAM!

The Grimm's head snapped to the side with the force of a small, fiery explosion. It stumbled, staggered, thrust a forepaw toward the ground to steady itself. Then it felt an impact on the bone-plate of its face, as Kyo kicked off into a backflip and fired again.

Time enough was bought by this maneuver for Kyo to stick the landing, skidding to a stop on her feet some yards away from the Ursa. It was large, doubtless an alpha within its territory, a bone-spiked monstrosity that even some fully-trained Hunters would boast of defeating in combat, though the truth was that even the largest Ursa was no great threat to a Hunter or Huntress when confronted alone.

Kyo snapped her pistol and shotgun together at the barrels and gave them a sharp twist; with a snap the two halves of Ultraviolet Ultimatum were joined, clicking and twisting through the mechashift into their melee-weapon state. She smirked at the Ursa, which was only dazed by the two Fire Dust rounds she'd hit it with.

"I wonder if I can kill ya before the Beowolves climb back up?" she asked whimsically, in an exaggerated country accent she'd affected long ago to irritate her high-society mother.

The Ursa roared. A sound like a rolling stone could be heard behind her, beneath the cliff's edge.

Kyo's adrenaline spiked, driving the last vestiges of her self-imposed negative mindset from her. The Boarbatusk shot up from the ravine in its rolled-up form, spinning through the air—and Kyo twisted around with a snap of the wrist.

Multiple connected segments of violet metal shot out, the rapid clinking of the chains connecting them a punctuation mark to fill the space between its target's noisy roll up the cliff-face and its silent flight overhead. The chain whip caught the hooked tusk and as soon as Kyo felt the tug that told her she had a bite, she flicked her arm, spun, and pulled the Dust Round trigger in the grip.

Lightning Dust sent a buzzing, crackling shock of electricity along the entire whip; a sharp squal sounded above, the Boarbatusk uncurled from its armored roll in its spasms... and Kyo swung it down by the tusk onto the charging Ursa.

The boar's squeaking shriek abruptly ceased, and the Ursa was driven to the dirt by the impact. The unfortunate Boarbatusk had been impaled through the belly and throat upon the Ursa's back-spines, and was beginning to dissolve even as Kyo looked on.

Another snap of the whip withdrew the violent segments of the whip, and Kyo allowed herself a moment of satisfaction with her handiwork. But the snarling of multiple Grimm beasts from the bottom of the ravine reminded her that she was on the clock, sort of, so she shifted her stance and refocused on the Ursa. It wasn't down for long; already up and ready to descend on her again, what a feisty sparring partner it was!

But this'll be a bit of a hassle if I don't manage to kill this thing before the Beowolves get up here, so best not play with my food...