Hey everyone, it's Storm VII here and I'll be telling you how this little extra section is going to work, so listen up and listen good.

For those you you that got here by accident and didn't read the title, this is an extension piece for my main 'Grimm Reaper's of Remnant' storyline. There were some minor events I only alluded to in story and promised to cover in more detail in its own section (based on the poll that I held).

Additionally, maybe I'll have an idea (like this chapter) or another suggestion given to me that while it won't fit into the larger narrative, I'll at least be able to write it down here and see the group's reaction to it. If it's good enough, maybe I'll find a way to incorporate it into the story as a whole, but for now they'll be here as short little telling of funny ideas.

While I'd recommend reading through all of the current updates in the base story first, I'll be putting a small message at the start of each chapter to tell you the selected reading that you should have covered for each of these extras just so the context makes sense. With that said, I hope you enjoy.

(Suggested Reading: Up to Crimson XV Black Reunion)

"So the weak spot should be… here?" Yang asked, pointing to a small spot on her diagram of a large Ursa Grimm.

"You asking or telling me?" Ragna asked, not bothering to look up from his own note taking. "Remember, they don't have normal weaknesses like we do. The don't got organs, they don't need to eat, and most of 'em barely need to breath. You don't aim for vital points in the same way, you just aim for places that have less resistance or a gap in the armor if you can find it."

"So you're telling me to send an exploding shot down it's mouth, is that-?" Yang began before taking notes on what she'd just thought of.

"Oif…" Weiss sighed as she thought over Yang's crude idea of Grimm elimination.

"Hey, you gotta work with what you have," the Reaper told her as he moved on with his notes. "Like with Blake, what's your approach for that Alpha Beowolf that you were asking about?"

"Use my semblance, get the monster to follow my fake, get it to the spearpoint I set up, tie it up with my weapon and cause it to fall onto the point," Blake told him, smirking as she thought over her plan. "Bigger they are-"

"Harder they fall," Ragna finished as he looked back to Weiss. "Besides, you have how many steps for taking care of your monster? Ten? Twelve?"

"...Eighteen… so far," she admitted. Ragna slowly face palmed as he shook his head. "My- my plans require a lot of forethought and setup to be truly effective! All of these steps are necessary!"

"Are they though? I think you could settle this a lot faster if you just trip the thing up with your glyphs and stab it in it's weak spot," her team lead, Ruby Rose, suggested.

"Yeah, go with that. You're supposed to be fighting in an icy terrain anyways so you don't need that much help to get it off balance," Ragna agreed. "If you go with a straightforward approach, it'll mean that monster won't get a chance to call for help or for trouble to find you. Why do you think I try to finish every fight I get into in less than a minute?"

"...I don't think I'd want to fight at your level brutality," Weiss told him with a groan, leaving Ragna to give a small smirk. "I'm serious, half the time you fight your strategy is just to keep slicing until there's nothing left standing!"

"Yeah, that's cause I have it in me to pull it off. Big weapon, wide ranged fighting style; doubt you could pull it off with that rapier of yours," the Reaper taunted. The Schnee heir had enough, threw her pen and left Ragna to snag it out of the air and offer it back to her with a chuckle. She eventually conceded as she shook her head and took her pen back, almost smirking at how unbearable Ragna's could be the few times he was this playful.

"Aw, don't worry about it Weiss, it's not like I haven't needed help before myself," Ruby said, trying to give her partner some confidence as she smiled brightly. "Back at Signal I was a total mess before I got help from my Uncle Qrow; all of his pointers really came in handy." She then looked to the tall piles of books on the material the group still had yet to work on. "...Could kinda use a tip or two from him right now."

"Hmph, don't bother…" Ragna said as his playful expression quickly faded. "It'd be better to study anyways, outright taking what Qrow thinks as helpful is a good way of getting you into trouble."

"You're saying that like you're speaking from experience," Yang said as she finished writing her notes before closing her book. "Now's as good a time for a break as any, let's hear it."

"Hear it?" the Reaper asked before he shook his head. "C'mon, you don't want to hear one of those stories."

"And why not?" came a familiar voice behind him, causing the Reaper to flinch before he turned around and saw his younger sibling, adjusting his glasses as he carried a large stack of books. "You've never told me any such story, and I'm your brother."

"And we're your team," came Tsubaki's voice as she stood with the other three members of Team RAIN standing right behind Jin, evidently having walked to the library together. "Knowing a little more about my partner's past couldn't hurt, could it?"

"..." Ragna turned to Noel.

"I mean… if you don't mind saying it," the blonde decided nervously.

"..." Then to Azrael.

"...What? It's for you to say, not me," the local Mad Dog muttered as he pulled up a chair from a nearby study table and seated his large frame in the rather small chair. "You seem heavily outnumbered though."

"This is supposed to be a library, not a damn gossip corner," the Reaper sighed as he thought back.

There was no way in hell he could tell them about the recent situation with the magazines, not without making his academy life a living hell if the rumors got out. Their first meeting might have been a good place to start for a story… but unless he had to tell them why he had to do what he did, it wouldn't make sense and he had to keep as much about Jubei a secret (save for Blake). In the end, he decided on a different story… but he didn't like this one at all.

"...Let me make this clear… not a damn word of this leaves this room," he told them crassly, a deep glare in his eyes aimed at everyone. Even after saying what he had, the Reaper couldn't help but notice that a couple of students in the nearby seat seemed to be glancing up from the books they were reading. Sighing, he decided word would get out sooner than later with his luck and he might as well bite the bullet now. "Right then… here's something from my past."

Extra 001: Tales of the Grimm Reaper I

This happened about two years ago, maybe closer to a year and a half? Doesn't matter. The important part is that I'd been training with my teacher for a while now and I'd been learning to make a life for myself out in the wilderlands. Surviving out there is tough enough as is, but it can be even harder on someone my age. If you don't have a Hunter License, it's nearly impossible to find work in the outlying towns and what you do find is often going to be the jobs that no one else is going to take. It could be tough trying to earn enough to eat… which made Vacuo seem like a godsend at the time.

The lands were harsh, lethal, and had plenty of deadly monsters that would kill you in an instant. Some people say that it can be the most dangerous out of any kingdom and they'd probably be right. It's a land where either you live long enough to grow tough as nails, or you die young and you're forgotten in under a year. It was that value of strength was what helped me pull through. Down there they don't like governments much and can barely tolerate the Academy as it is. It's rare to go up to someone for a job and expect to be asked for your Hunter's License. You got enough balls to take a job and they'll give it to you. But you shouldn't expect to see a damn cent before the work is done. You either both take each other at your word, or the employer takes your demands as an insult and looks for someone else to hire.

I don't want to brag, but even though I'd only been in the kingdom for a couple of months I'd already started to make a name for myself. I'd gone against some pretty nasty Grimm and some even nastier bandits on the road and I'd managed to make it back without a scratch on me. Before I'd entered the kingdom I had changed my arsenal from the rusty swords that kept breaking on me and used a large chunk of my savings to buy a pretty decent scythe that I found a good deal on. I didn't have a long coat or anything like that at the time, but after some jobs with it a few places started spreading rumors and called me the Grimm Reaper of Vacuo. ...I figured that my Master would tell me not to get too big an ego from the new title, but he actually seemed to like it as did Ruby and Yang's uncle, Qrow Branwen. They started saying I was the Third Grimm Reaper. Even if I could guess that the old bird probably wanted to be seen as one of them, they never bothered telling me who the remaining Reaper was.

I was out in the woods with my master at the time, not far from the next city but we liked to stay out of town all the same. I hadn't even known Qrow was in Vacuo until he found us both at our campsite, but he said he'd been looking for us... that he had work for me.

"You want me to go to work for a Mob Boss?" Ragna asked as he added cooking oil to the pan, tossing its contents around as it quickly began to heat up. "What makes you think they can be trusted?"

"Come on; even some of the Mobs can be trusted in Vacuo and you've got to have both power and connections to hold onto a position like that," Qrow explained before taking a long swig of his prized flask. "This guy's supposed to have plenty of both."

"Maybe he does, but that doesn't mean I want Ragna getting in too deep with their kind," Jubei said, relaxing his back on a job as the campfire cackled in front of the three, providing them with warmth in cold night as well as cooking Ragna's dinner. "This Headstrong whippersnapper gets inta enough trouble on his own, doesn't need you to give 'em any help."

"Like that job back in Haven was my fault," the Reaper muttered as he gave the contents in the pan another toss. "What the hell's the job anyways? Is the reward even worth the pain in the ass?"

"There's not much to say much on the job; there's an especially dangerous Grimm out there that this guy needs taken out and it's been giving him too much trouble so he's been calling in Huntsmen around the area for more help. There's even less to say about the reward except…" Qrow gave Ragna a quick smirk. "He promises it's enough to have you set for life."

"That's not ominous," Ragna said harshly, already knowing how much his luck sucked to this point.

"Hey, at least you know to be skeptic… that aside, I sort of need this as a favor," Qrow admitted as he looked up at the broken moon of Remnant with a hint of remorse. "I've been hearing about a lot of people that have taken this job… only a few of them managed to make it back and all of them had pretty bad scars and bitter tales. I want this job off the market."

"And yer askin' him… because?" Jubei questioned the old bird.

"Hey, I doubt Ozpin would appreciate it if I went poking my nose in with the Mob; this kid doesn't have that problem," Qrow told them. "Besides, I kinda want to see if he can actually take this thing on; if nothing else it might make for a good test to see how far he's come… and there's still a chance he could get a hell of a payday."

"...Fine, but you owe me for this one dammit," Ragna muttered as he dished out two bowls of food and put two sets of recently carved chopsticks into both of them. Respectfully handing off one of the bowls to his master, he then forcefully shoved the other into Qrows hands. The older man didn't say anything at his treatment… though he did begin pouring the alcohol from his flask into the bowl Ragna had prepared. "Are you trying to spite me?"

"Come on, I'm not petty. This just adds to your cooking... for me at least," Qrow said as he began mixing it together with his chopsticks. Before taking his first bite, he looked at the empty pan. "You're not eating?"

"Like hell, I just have to get another half portion going for myself," Ragna said as he began chopping vegetables for his second pan.

"Make it a full one, you'll need if you've got a busy day tomorrow," Jubei instructed, munching on his food without a word of praise or criticism.

"Also I want seconds," Qrow said though his own mouthful of food.

"Tch, now you've got to be spiting me."

"Nope, not yet anyways."

The next morning I headed out for the next town, hoping that I'd get this job over with quickly. The town wasn't too far from our campsite, but I still ran into a couple of small fry Grimm on the way there. I had to take them down alone; Jubei said that this was my business and I couldn't wake Qrow out of his hangover. Chances were he wouldn't be moving until he tried to refill his booze supply, but I couldn't be bothered by that too much. The place I was going to already meant enough trouble without dealing with his morning antics.

With Vacuo's history, they had a deep hatred for mining towns especially after it had wrecked them so badly. For anyone to stay in power with a mining operation after that series of disasters, they'd need to send a clear message that they weren't to be screwed with. I saw that in spades when I got close to the city; pikes outside the city streets were topped with severed heads in a gruesome display. The top of the cities large walls had high powered weaponry and the guards patrolling about looked like they'd seen some shit… I didn't get scared, but I wanted to get this job done and get out of there as soon as I could.

"And what do you want?" one of the guards demanded as Ragna got closer. He was dressed in ragged leather clothing and held onto a powerful looking submachine gun. His partner had even broader shoulders and carried a broad ax on his back.

"I'm here to talk to your boss," Ragna told them. As expected they both had sort of odd looks to them as they looked down at Ragna. By this point he hadn't hit my major growth spurt and so these guys both had some height on him. Ragna half-expected them to start laughing, but the one with an axe shook his head.

"Is this about the job?" His tone almost seemed bitter about the whole prospect, something Ragna couldn't quite piece together why. Maybe because he'd seen too many people going in for the job and he'd noticed all of the ones that hadn't come back? "Fine then, our boss will want to talk to you first thing."

"In person?" Ragna questioned.

"That going to be a problem?" the second guard asked. If Ragna didn't know any better it seemed like they wanted to pressure him out of taking the job. Of course, he wasn't one for turning down a challenge so it wouldn't work that easily.

"Not a problem, just seems kind of excessive if he's been meeting everyone that's been going out on the job. Couldn't he leave that to you guys? ...No offense."

"Boss man has his own way of doing things, just follow me then and stay close," the guard with an axe said as he looked up at the tower and pumped his fist into the air. On the high end of the wall one of the guard got the signal that they were heading in. A thrice tap on the wall was a return response as the two headed inside.

I figured taking a look at the city would be a good way to see what kind of trouble I was going to be getting into just meeting this guy. Those severed heads at the entrance had put me on guard enough as it was, but it was judging the people who were still alive in this place that would tell me the full story. The people were a mix of Humans and Fanus were scattered around; men, woman, a few children. You don't find too many elderly out in this part of Vacuo with it's live fast and die hard mentality, but I still saw a few old men and women in the city. Many of them looked like they were sizing me up as I passed them by… but in Vacuo that might as well be waving hello. While their housing was on the cruder side with a rubble built houses and tent flaps to serve as their doors, that might've just been a regional preference instead of poverty since none of them really looked like they'd been starving.

The main fortress wasn't really what you'd call posh either, at least not at first. It took me a second to realize it, but this thing had a strange sort of hierarchy going to it; the closer you got to the Mob Boss's chambers, the better the place and the people in it would look. As the entrance there were a lot of iron bars and other barricades in place for if this place ever got attacked and the people guarding it were no different from the thugs escorting me. While the floors inside the main lobby were cleaned, there was obvious signs that there had been a couple of brawls with cracks in the walls and the occasional bullet hole. Further in, the halls were spotless with a few antiques put on pedestals to show off and a long rug covering the floors. The thugs here were wearing business suits and their weapons looked to be well kept and had more advanced designs to them. At the end of the hallways laid the door to the Mob Leader's office.

"..." Ragna's guide stayed paused before the door for a long moment, seeming to steel himself with an encounter with his boss. Nodding, he then gave a few strong taps on the door. "It's me. We've got another hopeful."

"Good. Bring them in."

The Boss's voice sounded both gruff and deep, just hearing it made me realize that I was dealing with someone especially powerful. As the giant doors opened, I got a look at the boss's level of the hierarchy. His office alone was about the size of our Academy's mess hall and it was decorated with expensive paintings, statutes, and even a fancy fountain off to the side. The office was well furnished too with expensive chairs, couches, and large glass door cabinets with a few rare artifacts inside. The boss of this Mob sat behind a large oak desk, moving a few pieces of paper off to the side as he stared me down.

Even while he was sitting down I could tell that this guy was someone who had fought tooth and nail to earn his that seat he was in. He stood at well over two meters tall and had giant muscles to make his body seem even broader. Part of that might've had to do with his heritage, the guy looked like he had some sort of bull blood in him with the large horns coming out of his head… specifically Bison if you needed to split hairs. He had dark long hair that formed a messy mane and a long beard to complete the look. Even though he was wearing a formal business suit his forearms were covered in a strange weaponized gauntlet set. Each half looked like they had a strange engine set atop them, complete with long exhaust pipes to complete the look. I was already pretty confident in my fight abilities up to that point, but I wasn't stupid enough to pick a fight with this monster on his own turf.

Off to the side on one of the couches lounged his daughter. I think she was playing on her scroll or something at the time. Anyways, the guy who'd brought me here-

"Hold up, you're not going to describe the daughter?" Yang questioned, interrupting Ragna's story and bring the Grimm Reaper back to the present. Turning to the spunky blonde, he gave her a small glare. "I'm just saying you described her dad with a ton of detail, why not her?"

"Is it really that important?" he argued back. "Just let me tell the story and-"

"I'd say this is important," came a new voice that made Ragna groan. Of course Kagura would care about this. He'd been so focused on telling his story that he hadn't even noticed the Black Gale enter the library. "What? Shouldn't you describe this story as best you can?"

"You just want to find out what she was like so you guess her measurements," Weiss accused, cutting deep like she usually did. Kagura gave a shrug, not exactly turning her point down. "Just give us an apt description of her and move on. I feel like she doesn't say much here."

"No, she doesn't…" Ragna agreed darkly as he got back into telling his story.

She looked like maybe she was a year or two older than me, either that or she'd gotten an early growth spurt. She probably had a couple of centimeters in height on me and her build was a little on the stocky side like her father. She was a wearing dark brown battle leather with some plating and had a tomahawk that rested closeby. Her hair was an impossible and almost painful crimson, like it was twice as red as Pyrrha's at least. Like I said earlier she was just lounging off to the side without a care in the world, playing on her scroll as she laid sprawled out on the couch and not even so much as glancing my way.

"...You're a lot smaller than the last guy that came for a job," the Mob boss said staring Ragna down. "A lot scrawnier too…" Even if his muscles weren't as ripped as they were now, he still had some volume to them and that was much easier to show off in the sleeveless vest he was wearing.

"...I'm still big enough to throw you across the room," Ragna challenged back with a bit of a challenging snarl. His guide took a cautious step away, waiting for his boss to retaliate.

...I said I wasn't an idiot earlier, but that doesn't mean I wasn't cocky as all hell.

"You've got bigger balls on you at least," the boss said, not taking the threat to him at face value. It was clear he was cocky in his own home, enough to where he didn't even need to disarm Ragna before he'd come in. "Down to business then, the name's Seifer Minohearth. On the couch there you'll find my daughter Ravia Minohearth." Ravia only raised her hand in a small wave to her father, not even taking her eyes off of her scroll for a second. "Don't mind her, she's gotten bored with how many people I've had come in for this job."

'People are dying on this job and they're bored? Figures coming from a mob boss… or from anyone in Vacuo really,' Ragna thought to himself. "So what's the hunt that's causing you all so much trouble then?"

"A Deathstalker Grimm that's taken residency in one of the northern caves that's very important to my business," Seifer explained. "I won't go into what we were doing there as that's a trade secret, but the materials that have been kept there have been affecting it and causing odd mutations. This won't be your standard monster fight… for your sake I hope you realize that."

"I realize it plenty, what's the reward?" Ragna might've been overstepping himself with his cocky behavior, but being in Vacuo had done wonders for his confidence up to that point.

"To have you set for life, am I wrong?" the Boss said to Ragna. "Kill that thing and you'll be well taken care, you have my word."

"Your word, huh?" Ragna said, sounding just the slightest bit doubtful at the Boss's secret keeping. "So what's the stories with those heads on the outside, they get your word too?"

"They did… but they made the mistake of breaking their end of the promise," Seifer said with a snarl so harsh that Ragna swore he saw steam coming out of his nostrils. "Several of them came back and insisted that they'd killed the creature, but when I sent my men out to confirm their claims that thing was still alive. When I started sending my own warriors to confirm their word as they were doing the job, a few had the gall to try and rob them on the road. An insult like that deserves a response in kind… and making light of my trust means there's only one price to pay."

"And what about the guys that were honest with you, but couldn't take that thing down?" Ragna demanded irately, a harsh scowl on his own face. Ravia's rhythmic tapping on her scroll almost seemed to lose a beat for a brief second, but she only shrugged as she went back to her scroll. Seifer seemed… amused.

"...Most of them were smart enough to know not to show their faces around here again, the few that decided to come back though…" he chuckled as he glanced over at the man that had guided Ragna this far. "Some of them just decided to stick around. It's not failure that concerns me here, it's a lack honesty… Bear that in mind."

"If you say so," Ragna muttered. "You said north earlier, how far?"

"About eight miles, follow the road and you won't have to worry about getting lost. That damn thing will be waiting for you, it loves that cave too much leave. Just be sure that you don't get killed on the way there."

"Tch, we're in Vacuo. There isn't a damn road here that isn't crawling with danger. I can take it."

"I'd be careful about that attitude of yours." This was Ragna's first time hearing the daughter speak. She sounded like she was his age and had a bit of smugness to it as well. Ravia didn't so much as glance up from her scroll as she continued to play. "All of the last ten guys had attitudes like that and eight of them died fighting the monster while all of the others tried to play it off like they'd beaten the thing Grimm… Their heads are rotting at the front gates now."

"Well you're not giving that satisfaction from me," Ragna promised as he leff out of the Boss's room without being excused. The guy that had lead him through the Manor only gave a small sigh at his behavior before following shortly behind. They didn't speak at all until he brought Ragna to the Northern exit, just sending him off with what felt like a standard 'don't die out there' and that was it.

My trek to the cave wasn't an eventful one. Sure there were plenty of Grimm that came out for me, but I managed to take 'em down without much struggle. The terrain that I was on was pretty bad even for a road, so that slowed a little. I could've rushed on ahead and avoid a long trek, but the way I saw it that would just mean that I'd have to get back to my master sooner after having to deal with that fortress a second time. This was one job I felt like spending my time on and taking it slow.

At the entrance to the cave it was clear that this was a mining facility for whatever ore was lying inside of it. This must've been an old mining place because some of the equipment I saw laying around looked like it was ancient while others looked much more recent. Some of the larger machines even looked like they'd been clawed in half, stabbed completely through, or crushed beneath a massive bulk; all telltale signs of a Deathstalker.

Inside the cave it looked like light was on my side as the ore found scattered around seemed to be glowing. My eyesight's actually pretty damn good when it comes to finding things in the dark, so even if this stuff wasn't as good as sunlight or a lamp it'd be all I need. I didn't get very far in before I started hearing a feral hissing from the creature, warning me to stay back and that I was getting in its territory… but something about that sound wasn't right. When I got close to that thing though, I knew what that damn Mob Boss had been saying when he'd said this thing had mutated.

When I'd first hear it, I thought maybe they'd meant that the thing had a second head, a unique design, or something basic like that. This was a lot harder to explain. It was about three times the length and twice as tall as a normal Deathstalker which are already pretty damn big. Its claws were four pointed instead of normal pincers and it had two sets of them on each side of its body. It had five different stingers on its back, and these were looking much more flexible than usual, almost like they more tendrils. The carapace on its back looked twice as hard and was covered in smaller spikes. It wasn't that this thing had mutated… more like it had evolved.

That thing might've been one of my hardest fights yet, but I managed to get-

"Wait just a minute!" came Ruby's scream, interrupting Ragna's story with her outburst. Had anyone in the library not been paying attention as the Grimm Reaper had been telling his story, hearing the youngest member of the Academy cry out like that certainly got their attention. "You're not even going to tell us how you fought that thing!? After all of that build up!?"

"Ruby, we're still in a library," Weiss tried to remind, feeling cautions at all of the glancing towards their table.

"But what about describing the action!? What about playing up your strength with collateral damage!? What about getting everyone engaged with an intense battle theme!?"

(Author's Note: Damn Ruby, way to break the fourth wall)

"…Are you saying I need to be my own hype man?" Ragna asked. "That's just another level of pathetic."

"Where someone says pathetic, I say potential!" Everyone cringed as they saw Amane who was practically standing right behind Ragna, no one having noticed his presence despite his flashy garb. "You've entranced a few of us in the story thus far, now imagine taking that a large leap further! Grab their every sense with imagination of your battle as you illustrate it, letting each of your actions unfold like a dance between man and beast, nay between the sworn elements of this world!"

"...So basically I hit this thing, checked if it had gone down yet, hit it again when it got up, and repeated until I had won," Ragna told them all, raising his fist to block a short jab from Azrael, creating one of the strangest 'bro fists' seen at the academy. Amane sighed that he hadn't taken his advice, but conceded that this was Ragna's decision. 'Besides, that was one monster I had to go all out on… talking about it here is only going to paint a picture on my back.'

"If you're not going to talk about the fight, then at least finish the story," Jin instructed, having paid attention to his older sibling thus far. "What of your reward that you were left in the dark about?"

"Right… that," he sighed as he continued the story.

After the monster was dead, the ore around the mine seemed to start glowing a bit brighter, like the Deathstalker had been eating off of their energy like some sort of massive parasite. I was exhausted, scratched across by the creature's claws, and nearly stabbed to death by its venom baring stingers, but I'd be fine. Hefting my scythe over my shoulders I started to head back to the Mob Boss's town.

It was mid-evening by the time I made it back, and the same guy at the front was there to see me. He asked what I'd done and I told him that I'd taken the monster down as promised. He was hesitating for a long moment, almost like he didn't believe me. He must've seen plenty of Huntsmen claiming the same thing because he asked if I was sure, like he wanted me to be ready with what I was getting into if I was trying to pull a fast one. I didn't repeat myself, so it was back into the Manor. I was put in a waiting room for some time, somewhere in the middle grounds of the hierarchy where it was nice but didn't feel overly stuffy.

Soon enough the boss came into the room, asking me questions about what had happened and what I'd gone through. I didn't have much to hide so I told him what I could. He didn't speak much other than to ask for the occasional detail, but it seemed that he wasn't in much of a believing spirit. Eventually, he got up and told me that he would send out a few of his men to make sure I was telling the truth. In the meanwhile I was invited to join him for dinner… but it was clear I'd have to go if I wanted any chance of getting that damn reward. I had some time to kill, so I took used the place to take my first proper bath in almost a week and patched up my clothing with a sewing kit so I'd look decent enough.

I was expecting dinner to be just me and the Boss, maybe his daughter if it came to that, but it looked like this was going to be a group event. In the banquet hall (which was only a single step down from the Boss's office on the design hierarchy) there was a long table which seated more than twenty people. At one end of the table sat the Boss with a massive stained glass window behind him depicting ancient Faunus battling Grimm beasts. I sat to his right while his daughter sat to his left, likely not having taken her eyes off of her game scroll in the time since I'd been gone. The rest of the seats were filled with members of the organization, most of them were wearing suits and were from the higher ranks, but there was an odd one in armor here or there making chatter. Everyone at the table was armed, myself included.

I looked like everyone would be ready should I try to make a break for it if I'd been lying. I'd thought that Seifer Minohearth had torn all of those heads off with his own two hands, but all things considered these people just might be an audience as his boss proves again that he's not to be treated lightly… But something was bugging me about that. As he was now, the Boss might've been able to give that Deathcrawler a strong fight and could have possibly ended it himself, hell if he'd brought his top lieutenants along it might've been a surefire win. After all of his show of power, he definitely didn't strike me as the guy to leave anyone outside of his group to do his dirty work… so why the hell was I being brought in today? And all of those other Huntsmen? Something stank… and I was about to find out how foul it really was.

"You're not eating…" Seifer noted as he glanced to Ragna's plate. As if to make this any more of a Mobster cliche, they were serving spaghetti with heavy meat sauce on the top. It was paired with a well aged glass of red wine and there were breadsticks offered off to the side.

"I'm not hungry," Ragna told him hollowly, his gaze currently pointed anywhere else at the moment. 'At least they're making sure I'm well fed before they gut me, that's reassuring.'

"Then try to find your appetite; I'd hate for our chef's to be offended." His tone made it clear that if Ragna's food remained untouched, it wasn't the chefs that would be offended. Choking back a sigh, Ragna began eating. The food wasn't drugged (not that there was much that could knock him out), but it was clear that Vacuo's cooks weren't on par with what he'd learned traveling with Jubei. "And the wine too, it's a good year and I don't want it wasted."

"...'Fraid I can't, I'm under the drinking age," Ragna protested.

"What drinking age?" Ravia said, taking her wine glass and drinking from it, not even lifting her eyes from her scroll. Rolling his eyes, Ragna tried the wine. With all of the times that Qrow had tried sneaking him whatever was in his flask when he wasn't looking, Ragna had already been thrown headfirst into the strong end of alcohol strength. This wine was pretty weak by comparison, but the burning Ragna felt on his throat still left wishing he could've asked for plain water.

"So do I need to eat the breadsticks next?" Ragna asked Seifer dryly. From across the table he heard Ravia giggling at his joke… that or her scroll… that or she was already intoxicated; Ragna didn't know.

"Just eat, I hope for your sake this isn't your last meal," he answered back, tapping the top of the table with his metal gauntlet a few times and calling over one of the chefs to top of the Reaper's wine glass.

"Like hell I'm letting this be my last meal, the only final meal I'll be happy with is Tempura and Udon." He got a few odd looks from around the table. "...I don't tell you all what to eat."

"Hmph, I can't remember the last time I met anyone as brazen as you. I'm almost hoping that my messenger comes back with good results, just to keep you around a little longer."

"Too bad I'm not planning on-" With perfect timing, the doors into the hall slammed open and halted Ragna words. As an odd twist of fate, the same person who'd met him at the gate appeared to be the same one that would bring news of his fate. The man had an almost fearful look in his eyes as he strood across the room to his leader who had casually begun rolling up a few noodles of spaghetti onto his fork. As the man began whispering in his ear, the movements of his fork ceased as this wasn't the news he'd been expecting. "So then…" Ragna started as he took a large bite out of one of the breadsticks. "What's the good word?"

"Good word…" Seifer repeated with a heavy groan as he facepalmed in his metal gauntlet. All around the room, Ragna heard sounds of the Mod members reaching for their weapons. As did Ravia… whilst still looking at her scroll of course. "I just can't believe it…" Everyone tensed their muscles, waiting for what would be the final word. "Finally… THE SEARCH IS OVER!"

"I'm sorry, search?" Ragna asked as he glanced around the room. He wasn't the only one who was confused, it looked most of everyone else in the room was glancing around in awe and surprise of the news they were hearing. Even Ravia seemed to be taken aback as she just looked at her scroll in a long and cold stare, not even giving any inputs. A few of the people around the room started to holster their weapons, meaning it didn't look like Ragna was going to have to fight his way out of here… so that was something.

"I THINK A TOAST IS IN ORDER!" Seifer shouted with a bellowing voice as he raised his wine glass. "TO THE NEW MEMBER OF OUR FAMILY!"

"New member!?" Ragna demanded.

"TO THE NEW MEMBER!" the rest of the members shouted with a hearty shout as they two dropped their wine glasses.

I remember being confused as all hell at that moment, racking my brain to make sense of this whole thing. Was this just some sort of entrance exam to get into the group? No, then why would he have let in a few of the guys that had failed and come back? Was it just for a better position to work in? He'd promised to set me for life, so how high was it?

"Congratulations," Ragna heard a feminine voice say. Trying to shift his attention back to the present, he saw the Boss's leader approaching him with a smile on face. This was the first time he was able to look at her where she wasn't using her scroll, the device left in sleep mode on her seat. Oddly enough though, she still had her-

CLANG!

"WHAT THE HELL LADY!?"

Had Ragna been any slower in grabbing his scythe, he would've been cut in two across his chest. As things stood he was barely managing to hold back Ravia's tomahawk, a harsh shaking between the two as both sides tried to force their way through the clash. The floor beneath them both was horridly cracked at the force, but all her father did was chuckle.

"Easy on the goods! You know how long we've both had to wait for this one! And it was exactly like you wanted to find him!"

"Yeah seriously!" Ragna shouted. "I… wait for me?"

"I know that dad," Ravia said as he brought her tomahawk back, finally ending the conflict. "I just wanted to be sure that he was the real thing that I wanted."

"That you… wanted?" the Reaper asked. His only response was a bright smile from the daughter as she grabbed his left arm and started wrapping hers around it. "Don't tell me…"

"I promised to have you set for life boy! And by proving yourself a taking my only daughter, you'll become my organization's heir within the week!" Seifer said with a hearty laugh. Ragna couldn't speak as Ravia smiled right in front of him, holding his arm into her cleavage. He felt his face start to heat up as she drew closer to him, practically rubbing her nose on his. "Hah! Shy one aren't we? And what happened to that cocky attitude from before!?" The hall was filled with laughter from everyone… except from the groom to be.

So there I was… about to join a Mob family, to be heir to the boss's fortunes, and to marry his only daughter within a week. I'd be a top dog in Vacuo, leader of my own force. Have a wife. Be filthy rich. This is what people would call a Fairy Tale ending. Some people would give an arm to be in my shoes...

CRASH!

...not me.

"WHAT IN THE HELL!?"

Shards fell from the great stained glass from behind the leader, an art piece which many would consider a priceless wonder. That wasn't the only thing falling as Ravia fell to the ground on her rear, now no longer holding her new fiance's arm. On the great stained window, one of the boss's greatest treasures, was comical outline of Ragna's body after having dived through it at full force. In the streets below, the Boss, his shortly engaged daughter, and the rest of the dinner crowd could hear the Reaper's screams while he ran as fast his legs could carry him.

All things considered, I think I handled that pretty well.

There was an awkward silence in the library as Ragna delivered the news on that last part. Everyone was reacting in their own way, with Jin's normally stoic face being filled with an odd sense of concern, Kagura's normally cocky demeanor filled with doubt, and even Azrael raised a surprised eyebrow at the news. Tsubaki and Weiss were coving the tips of her mouths in a more dignified shock, Blake and Amane seemed… oddly considerate, while Noel, Ruby, and Yang stood with their mouths gaping.

"You… YOU'RE ENGAGED!?" Yang screamed at the top of her lungs at Ragna's claim, causing the Reaper to flinch and wonder why Goodwitch hadn't come over yet for the disturbance he was causing.

"No… I was about to get roped in an engagement against my will, but I performed a strategic retreat, weren't you paying attention?" Ragna calmly defended himself, knowing that the shit was about to start hitting the fan.

"You mean, you just left that poor girl there?" Tsubaki demanded. "After it seemed like she was ready to spend the rest of her life with you... you just left without a word."

"How is it my fault? I didn't know what I was signing up for!" Ragna shouted.

"Yeah, but I'm not sure that she knew how clueless you were," Blake said, oddly taking Tsubaki's side in the issue. "Why didn't you at least clear that up with her?"

"With her Mob Boss father right there? Oh sorry, I didn't know that I'm supposed to marry your daughter here and I'm not interested. Please don't be insulted and rip my damn head off. I told you what he was like at dinner when I wouldn't eat, you think talking things through would have saved my skin?"

"I know… but still…" Noel tried to say. Now she couldn't even bring herself to look at Ragna she stared at her feet with an ashamed blush.

"That's a terrible thing to do, I can't imagine what that poor girl is going through." Easy to tell if Ragna's really screwed up? Even Celica thinks that he's done something wrong.

"Oh, so everyone thinks I'm the villain here, is that it!?" Ragna shouted as everyone around the library continued to send him judgemental looks. "Alright then, let's see if you're still thinking that after I finish telling this damn story."

In the morning it had taken me close to few hours to get from my camp to the Fort Town, in the rush I was currently in I almost made it back in half the time. Even though it was already dark out, I had to keep glancing over my shoulders to make sure that I wasn't getting followed and I needed to watch how I traveled to cover my tracks. Since it was night the Grimm were more active too meaning I still had to fight my way though on my way back, all in all it was a total mess getting back to Qrow and my master.

"Tch, if you've been out all day on one job I hope you've got somethin' ta show for it," Jubei said to his apprentice as he heard him coming through the thicket. "Don't think that since you've been doin' a favor that you're gettin' out of… training." His last word was paused as he saw the state his apprentice was in; red faced, heavily breathing, and a face full of terror. "Dammit it Ragna, what the hell did you do?"

"You can yell at me all you want later! We have to get out of here NOW!" Ragna shouted as he took the campsite's water tankard he carried and threw it on the fire to douse the flames, much to Jubei annoyance. From where he lay near the fireplace, Qrow gave a drunken groan as he went for another swig of his flask as Ragna began to furiously pack their supplies. "Qrow you asshole, if you don't want to get caught up in the shitstorm that's about to follow me you need to get as far away from us as you can!"

"Yeah, yeah… Maybe I'll do that," Qrow said as he forced himself to sit upright, carrying a heavy scent of alcohol on him as he stretched. Ragna was annoyed at him for getting dragged into this mess sure, but right now he had more to worry about than just trying to get even. "Just lemme ask one thing…"

"Make it quick, I-!"

Ragna went silent as he turned to the Huntsman. Qrow a goofy smile on his face that wasn't like most of the expressions he wore when he was plastered, this was different somehow. Giving a drunken laugh, he made his way to his feet and put his arm around Ragna in comradery. The younger Reaper couldn't protest as he stared at the old drunk.

"Come on buddy… when's the wedding?"

The asshole knew what he was getting me into. I don't know HOW he knew, maybe it was on a notice for the job that I never got, maybe he heard it from one of the survivors. All that mattered was that he knew what this job meant… and he sent me in anyways.

"Wedding? The hell is he-?" Jubei began to ask before he saw the his apprentice's stillness, a good indicator that was getting truly enraged. "Uh oh."

"YOU-!" Ragna shouted as he turned around and blasted Qrow's arm off of him. In his drunken stupor, the old bird couldn't take a hit or maybe he could and was just continuing to mock him. Qrow then held his arms wide like he was expecting a hug. "YOU SON OF A BITCH!"

Even after it thought I'd punched his lights out, Qrow decided to stick with the both of us. If there was something else he needed from me he knew not to ask me upfront, not with that shiner I'd given him. Just looking at his black eye gave me the smallest form of comfort for what he'd gotten me into… until we stopped in the next town and he used a made up sob story of it to get some personal time with one of the barmaids. Then he just pissed me right off again.

Much like I'd expected, the Mob Boss didn't take that what I'd done sitting down. He must've a pretty decently sized bounty on my head because afterwards we were absolutely hounded by Bounty Hunters. Things began to get so out of hand that my master told me that we'd have to head off to another kingdom until things finally blew over. Honestly I was kinda sad to see Vacuo go after it made me start to feel like there was a place where that I meant something, but I knew that he was right and I we'd need to find somewhere we could actually train instead of being constantly on the run. Even after we'd left, there was usually an odd Bounty Hunter or two that came after me at least twice a week.

"And that's why it's a little hard for me to take what Qrow says as helpful at face value sometimes," Ragna told the group as he finished telling his story. "I went through a lot of hell thanks to that stunt of his, through any stunt of his really, and I usually won't get the chance to pay him back." Ragna gave a reluctant sigh. "It's not all bad though, there is something he's helping me out on now… something I've only been able to trust with him."

"Huh? So that your story with Uncle Qrow," Ruby decided. "Did the two of you ever fight? Like in an actual match?"

"We haven't, my master wouldn't let me. Always say I wasn't ready to face off against him," Ragna told her while he thought back. 'Truth of the matter, he might've been scared what would have happened if I used my semblance on him in the heat of things.'

"And you're still a wanted man back in Vacuo?" Weiss asked. "If you'd like, I… might be able to ask my family for some of their connections, maybe to take your bounty down at least."

"You'd seriously do that for me?" Ragna asked, giving the Schnee heir a rare warm smile. "Thanks, but… that's actually the one part of the story that I eventually got a happy ending to. 'Bout a month before I left my master and started heading off for Beacon, I got word from Qrow that my bounty had finally been dropped."

"See? Our uncle's not all that bad, he might come off as a little… unorthodox at the best of times, but he's the type of guy that'll look out for you through thick and thin," Yang told him, talking up her uncle.

"Yeah, well you're actually giving him a little too much credit; Qrow told me he didn't get the bounty removed though he had tried a couple of times without any results. The only one that could've dropped that thing would have been either the Mob Boss or his daughter." Ragna shrugged. "Eh, guess that means they finally realized I was a lost cause and said to hell with it. Or that chick finally found someone else that could take the damn role. I'm not complaining at least."

"...Are you sure that's what happened?" Blake asked him, thinking over everything that Ragna had decided. "I mean it seems odd that they'd just dump all that effort they put in and you told us what Ravia was like. She made it clear that she'd only go for someone that she thought would be worthy, and you were the only one that actually beat that monster."

"So they came up with a different challenge and started that whole mess over again," Ragna counted as he opened his book to begin his exam preparations. "For all I know he could've put that Deathstalker in the cave himself. With his connections it wouldn't be too unbelievable to put another one in and have it mutate thanks to the ore."

"You think he'd go for the same challenge twice? You know how big of an insult it was just to leave you alive; that's something his pride would never take," the Cat Faunus explained. "In fact come to think of it with those Bounty Posters…"

"I was supposed to be the next challenge?" Ragna said, following the train of thought. He then shook his head and let out a breath of relief. "But I mean… he dropped the bounty on me. No matter how you look at it, that means it should be over."

"Yeah, after at least a year of no results," Ruby agreed brightly to comfort her best friend… before even she started to turn sceptical. "Wait… but could that mean… since no one else was able to catch you… that even if they dropped the bounty…"

"...Please don't say it," Ragna begged. He already knew where she was going, but he couldn't stand if someone put it into words.

"...She still might be carrying a torch for you," Jin brought up casually, likely giving the dagger in Ragna a strong twist. Observing the results with his own two eyes, he watched as his older sibling grab his grabbed his book, brought it right up to his face, and let out a loud yet muffled scream of agony. "Volume, brother. We're in a library."

"Go to hell…" Ragna swore darkly as he dropped the book and slumped his head onto the table. His self pity didn't last long as he heard an authoritative cough from right next to him. Glancing, he saw that Professor Goodwitch had arrived at the table, using her telekeneisis carry a rather familiar mop.

"I've been getting complaints of screaming and outbursts coming for the library for the past hour. I should have known that you were the cause of it." Before Ragna or the girls could protest, she used her semblance and thrust the tool into his hands. "Start at the West Wing, I hope you didn't have dinner plans for this evening because that little project's going to take you a while."

"Effing Amazing," the Grimm Reaper said with a scowl as he rose. "Take some good notes for me in Artifact Studies, you guys owe that much."

"Sure thing…" Yang promised, feeling just the slightest bit guilty since she'd been the one that had brought this idea up to him.

After the Reaper left, their instructor only shook her head. "It's always something with that one… Whether it's putting students through walls, his crass attitude, or causing a general disturbance at the Academy. What is his problem?"

"You mean besides just realizing he might still be engaged to a Mob Boss's daughter?" Ruby answered.

"Just realizing…" Goodwitch began before scowling and looking at Team RWBY. "What?"

"N-Nothing! Heh heh!" the meek huntress-in-training told her, realizing that this could only cause more trouble for Ragna.

Author's Note:

That's the first of the short stories I'm going to be telling. Send me a PM if you've got a chapter idea for this little short series and drop a review to tell me if something linked to this should come up in the main plot. I can't promise to answer everything I get, but I can at least try to come back here once in a while. Ciao!