RWBY and APRJ: volume 4

Chapter 6: tipping point

"Another day! Another adventure!" Nora smiled, stretching as she did. It was quite cloudy today, but still, the birds chirped as RNJR and Amity walked.

"What's on the agenda today?" Ruby asked.

"Walking" Jaune simply answered, looking at the map.

"With a side of...?" Nora asked, hoping that there was more than just walking.

"Walking" Ren bluntly repeated, making Nora pout and Ruby sigh. Amity took note of this and held her hand in concern.

"Are you okay, Red?" He asked.

"I'm fine, it's just..." Ruby trailed off. "Haven's a lot further than we thought"

"Journeys aren't always easy" Amity said. "It's like when we were at Mountain Glenn, we found a White Fang base and Roman was there. I'm glad I was there, otherwise, you would've been captured for sure"

"Amity's right" Ren agreed. "How long did you think this journey was going to take anyway?"

"I don't know!" Ruby flailed her arms around. "I grew up in a small area; I've never been this far away from home"

"Yeah, but...how long?" Jaune specified.

"Two weeks" Ruby answered.

"Two weeks?!" Jaune immediately turned to Ruby with a angered look on his face.

"Hey, Jaune, come on" Amity frowned.

"Okay, three or something!" Ruby argued. "Look, whatever"

Ruby then looked up for a brief second, finding something very peculiar.

"What's that?" She asked. Nora ran ahead and tried to scope the place out from a distance. It appeared to be another village, which surprised the heroes.

"That's...strange" Jaune raised an eyebrow in confusion. "I didn't think we'd be hitting another village for a few days"

"Are those buildings...damaged?" Nora's expression soon turned to extreme concern, worrying the others as a result.

"We should search for survivors!" Jaune ordered, running off into the village with everyone behind him.

"Dropping the map again" Amity huffed, picking the map back up and soon catching up with everyone. The village was deserted...buildings mostly crumbled into nothing, debris scattered the floor like chess pieces on a chessboard.

"Anything?" Ruby asked.

"Nothing over here!" Nora answered.

"No one over here either!" Jaune added.

"It's almost as if this town as abandoned" Ren concluded.

"It's just like Shion" Amity's face was full of worry as he saw the destruction. It was not as bad as Shion, but it was still pretty collateral. Ruby was looking all over the town too.

"Hey, I think I found something!" Nora shouted. Everyone came over to Nora's location as she pulled back a vine, revealing the words 'Oniyuri'.

"'Ouyuri'?" Nora asked. "Never heard of it"

"Me neither" Jaune shook his head.

"I have" Ren said, making everyone turn their attention to him. "You might think of it as Anima's Mountain Glenn, had it never been completed"

"How convenient" Amity shrugged as Ren started to explain...

"Years ago, the richest members of Mistral were unhappy with how the kingdom was being run. Frustrated with the council, they pooled their resources together to build their own city...with their own laws. They hoped that one day, that maybe it could become its own kingdom. Many thought that it would be the future. I know my parents did"