A Man of Honor.

Chapter 5: Clothes make the man, and history made The Clan.

"I've graduated ten universities of hard knocks...a racketeer is a fellow who tries to get power at the expense of entrenched power." ~ Frank Costello

I spent most of the remaining night partying it up in Junior's club. I drank for free, shot some pool and retold the story of how I risked getting shot to save O-Ushi. I must have told that story a dozen different times that night, I got sick of it. But as the night got late I was finally able to get a ride back to my apartment to sleep.

I woke up hours later and retrieved the burner scroll from its hiding place and called Ozpin. He picked up and I went straight to telling him everything I could about that night. I told him about the hit I had survived, I told him about the conversation O-Ushi had with Junior risking war with the Atleasians and I finally explained to him the most important part, that O-Ushi was going to be making me an associate.

"That's excellent news Mr. Arc," he said to me, "this puts you in the perfect position to learn about the dust robberies," he explained to me, "I expect you to show initiative in your new job, learn what you can and make everyone see that you're ambitious to move up and earn for Junior."

"Will do," I assured him, pouring myself a cup of coffee, "associates are usually the ones handling the real work so I'm sure that I can push my way into the dust racket, if it's half as bad as the news is saying it must be a booming business at the moment."

"Business?" Ozpin said, "you almost sound like a criminal calling it as such."

"I've picked up a few habits trying to blend," I admitted grabbing a pack of cigarettes and shaking one out to go with my morning coffee. "I can't very well pretend to be one of these people if I don't talk like them."

"That's very good, that will aid you well in your mission," he told me.

"I hope so," I answered, taking my first sweet drag of the morning. "If you don't mind I have a few questions, I was hoping that you might be able to fill in a couple blanks."

"Certainly Mr. Arc," he said.

"Everyone seems to be tying the start of Junior's problems to a blonde girl coming in and wrecking his club," I explained to him, "it seems Junior lost a lot of face with that particular incident. I asked around last night after O-Ushi gave me the job and the twins explained that some huntress girl came in and smashed the place up after demanding some information from Junior. If it was a huntress I was thinking you might know a thing or two about this."

"Ah yes," Ozpin said, "that was the work of Miss Xaio Long."

Yang? She wasn't a huntress but a huntress in training. I had been wondering just how much damage one woman could do to Junior in his own club full of wiseguys but hearing her name it suddenly made a lot more sense. Yang was a powerhouse to say the least.

"Did you orchestrate that?" I asked him, voicing a suspicion that I had carried since hearing that a huntress had been involved.

"Miss Xiao Long was acting on her own I'm afraid," he told me, "though I will admit that I pulled a few strings to keep her from any legal repercussions, but men like Junior are always happy to keep the law at a distance so it was hardly difficult."

"I see. O-Ushi should be picking me up soon so I'll talk to you later," I hung up the phone and thought about everything.

The conversation had left me with a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth. I knew that I shouldn't have been opposed, Junior was a crime boss after all so a little trouble coming his way was to be expected, deserved even. But Ozpin pulling strings to keep Yang out of trouble didn't sit right with me, if legal action was going to be troublesome for Junior then I thought that would be exactly what Ozpin might want. It could help expose parts of his operation. Sure Yang might get burned a bit for it but she wasn't exactly an innocent party either.