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Chapter 4: Royal (2)

AN: I wasn't kidding when I mentioned continuing the one-shots. If you read "An Arc's Mad World" by CoffeyJoe, you see that some chapters are continuations of previous ones. This is basically the same idea. Every now and then, I'll go back to an older chapter which may or may not be decided by the readers. Enjoy.

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Jaune watched the entrance of the Suits with bored interest, shaking his head before he walked up to the one guard stationed there, wearing the club's standard uniform of a black suit, red tie and sunglasses, with a black hat placed on top of his head. Noticing Jaune approach, the man straightened his posture. 

"Buzz off kid, we're closed."

'Kid...?' Jaune's eye twitched, but he continued walking towards the entrance. The bouncer, sighing under his breath, slowly unholstered a standard machine pistol he kept at his side, showing Jaune his every move as if trying to warn him against going any further. Jaune mentally rolled his eyes. Really, choreographing your every movement to a potential threat was practically begging to get yourself killed. Dealing with him would be doing the King of Diamonds a favor.

"I said-!"

Jaune struck quickly. Slipping under the bouncer's guard, he grabbed the pistol's barrel, holding the man's arm tightly as he tore the weapon out of the man's hands before sharply kneeing his gut and throwing him off to the side. Taking a moment to observe the man's groaning form, Jaune rolled his eyes before adjusting his suit and walking to the groaning bouncer while taking out a black playing card from his breast pocket. Lowering himself to a kneel, he showed the bouncer the card's face, enjoying the small satisfied feeling seeing the bouncer's rapidly paling face.

"Don't get in the Royals' way again." With that said, Jaune tucked the card back into his breast pocket, careful to leave the golden ace facing outwards, and entered the club only to pause at the door.

Saying the place was a mess would be an understatement. Glass littered the floor and bullet holes practically covered the walls. The lights hanging over the dance floor flickered, one of them creaking threateningly as it tilted closer to breaking. A few men wearing similar outfits to the bouncer outside gave him a few suspicious stares, some looking bold enough to start a fight before noticing the playing card in his pocket and turning away.

Jaune suppressed another twitch seeing a small streak of red staining the floor. Briskly walking over to the stain, he knelt and smeared it against his fingers, snarling as he saw it cracking, a few red flakes sticking to his fingers. 

'Old blood. Damn blonde...'

"Why am I not surprised they sent you?" Hearing the question, Jaune rose and turned to meet the speaker, flicking the dry flakes off his fingers. "King of Diamonds. I thought this incident happened a week ago. Don't tell me that brat actually did that much damage."

Hei "Junior" Xiong, uncommonly known as the Valean King of Diamonds, tsked under his breath as he slowly walked down from a side door onto the dance floor, Jaune noticing with slight annoyance that Junior was favoring his left side.

"Please. The best that little bitch did was bruise our ego."

Jaune quirked an eye, glancing at the destroyed club. "The damages says otherwise. I thought you'd clean this up by now."

Junior grunted, glaring a hole into the dried blood. "Paying for half a dozen funerals takes time, you know. Doesn't help that we got a bunch of idiots with a ski mask thinking they take over just because we dropped our guard trying to recover, or that the Council's got other things to worry about than giving us some extra manpower. Speaking of which..." He turned thoughtfully to Jaune. "Think the Council will mind us borrowing you for a bit, Ace? Vale's got more than a few rats it needs exterminated."