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Altair had a wry smile on his face. On his shoulder, he wore a katana-bukuro, and of course his robes from when he first arrived.
"Am I free to go, sirs?"
The officers looked at Altair in sync, under their scrutinizing gaze, he felt a silent pressure. Anxiety crept up, as the thought of being arrested came into mind.
'Am I gonna go to jail?'
Thankfully, the officers themselves were cool, to say the least. One last look at the I.D
"Well Mr. Abaddon looks like everything checks out."
The generic officer said, giving the I.D back to Altair. On the curb, three figures stood; the two cops who pulled Altair over, and Altair himself.
Altair felt uneasy, after all he just got into Vale, before being stopped just a few minutes after he got inside. Of course the officers themselves, did explain the reason for the stop, causing Altair to feel awkward.
A few minutes earlier.
"Sir where is your helmet?"
"My what now?"
"..."
"Pfft—"
"Shut it Morrison!" The senior let out a sigh, and focused his attention back on Altair with a serious expression on his face. "Can I see any type of I.D? A driver's license, proof of insurance, and registration too."
"...Yes?"
' I'm ducked.'
A little convinced he was going to jail, Altair opened [Panthera]'s glove box; inside was the same notebook he got from Ruby(GOD), and the omnipresent Swear Jar™.
Taking the notebook, he flipped through the pages, and took his I.D, giving it to the officer.
"My I.D sir."
"License, proof of insurance and registration."
"Of course."
The officer behind the S.O got suspicious, watching Altair with vigilance, while the S.O went back to his patrol car to confirm the I.D's authentication.
A bead of sweat rolled down Altair's cheek, as he pretended to dig through the glovebox.
'What do I do? Do I knock them out? Maybe kill them? No, killing them just puts a target on my back, but what do I do? I can't just pull out insurance and registration out of nowhere, it's not like they just magically appear—'
His hand felt the distinct texture of paper. Looking down, a neatly arranged folded papers appeared in his grip, with the labels insurance and registration. A small smiley face, and a R initial marked the paper.
'Thank you!'
Relief washed over him, as he handed the papers to the officer. The S.O returned, while the other officer reviewed the papers, after verifying them he handed them back to Altair.
"Now before I give you your I.D Mr. Abaddon, I would like to ask you some questions. Now I know Aura is better than what helmets can do, but it's no excuse for you to drive blindfolded. And can we see your faunus features to verify the I.D's details."
The S.O said with a stern voice. Altair tilted his head in confusion, which led the officers to look at each other in confusion as well.
"What blindfold?"
'I'm seeing them perfectly fine. Are they messing with me?'
"Uhh...The blindfold you're currently wearing over your eyes, it's the reason we pulled you over in the first place."
The junior officer said meekly. Altair grew even more confused. He didn't even feel anything weighing down his face, and with his current senses adopted from his template, it would be impossible for anything to escape his...
"..."
His hands felt a thin fabric covering his eyes.
"So any explanation, Mr. Abaddon?"
"Ahem...You see my eyes are sensitive to light and..."
Back to the present.
"I apologize for the trouble, officers."
"It's fine kid. Just make sure you buy a helmet before the end of the week."
The S.O waved him off, while the junior officer went back to the cruiser. Altair returned to his bike, but stopped, after remembering something.
' When you get to Vale, search for Jr's club. I already told him what needs to be done. Pick up the forged transcripts, lay low, and head to Beacon for the exam.'
Raven was very explicit with her instructions, but she didn't even provide a map, or directions to Jr.
'She definitely forgot.'
Though he was in the unexpected care of Raven for a few weeks, he was able to gain some level of understanding with her. Altair may not remember anything from Volume 5 and above, and with his memories of the other volumes mostly blurry, he was sure that Raven was definitely an important character; if she were a good guy or bad guy remains to be seen.
'She did give me a katana, and some lien to spend. So I guess she's in the good guy category for now.'
Her connection with the criminal side of things didn't really agree with that though. Especially since she's running a bandit tribe.
'I should ask now.'
"Sir, before you go, can you point me to Jr's club?"
Altair called out, making the S.O stop and turn back; suspicion was practically oozing off his face, as he made his way to Altair.
"What business do you have with Jr?"
"Uhh. He's a distant relative of my Aunt, she said I could crash in his place for a while before the entrance exams for Beacon sir."
'Mix truths with lies, truly a great mentor Raven is.'
Suspicion still stayed on the S.O's face, but with a sigh, he gave Altair a piece of paper, before hurrying back into the cruiser without looking back.
"...Thank you, I guess?"
With the cruiser gone, Altair got on his bike, and read the piece of paper. On the paper was a written address, with no directions whatsoever.
'...'
"At least it's something."
Feeling somewhat defeated, he rode off down the road, deeper into the city.
———
"Welp it took all afternoon, but I finally got here."
'But isn't this place a little bit shabby?'
The big neon sign seemed to agree with its low humming.
Outisde the dilapidated building, in the outskirts of downtown—where admittedly—crime was frequent. Stood [Panthera], ridden by Altair.
The sun already set a few hours ago, with the shattered moon shining down.
'Those fragments should've definitely fallen down to the planet. And the fact that it hasn't is a miracle and a half.'
With the critique of the shattered moon's impossible physics out of the way, he parked his bike in a nearby alley, and proceeded to enter Junior's, or the door leading inside the building at least.
As he entered, muffled electronic music echoed, which was confusing. From the outside there was no sound, but when he entered there was, which was impressive.
Especially since the few weeks he's been in Raven's care enabled him to adjust to his physical capabilities, more specifically, his senses; inherited from Sakamoto, and his semblance.
'It's either really good soundproofing, or I'm overestimating myself... definitely the latter.'
Shaking his head, he continued to walk forward towards the other door, where the music was coming from.
Soon two guards saw him, though Altair wasn't a regular, who in the right mind turns away customers? With that thinking in mind, the two opened the door, earning a nod of appreciation from Altair, as electronic music quickly assaulted his ears.
'It's too loud.'
Painful was the word, as the bass and high pitched rhythmic synths smashed his sensitive ears.
'I would've brought ear plugs if I knew it was going to be this loud.'
Still he needed those transcripts, so he pressed on forward, stepping to the dancefloor and heading for the bar with determined steps.
Around him were patrons dancing to the lively music, some henchmen posted all over the place, and even two twins lounging on a VIP booth.
His appearance caught quite a few eyes, hooked by his looks, and the ability to navigate the crowd on the dancefloor with a blindfold over his eyes. Especially the twins, who rarely paid attention to things, or people.
After some interactions, mainly coming from girls intrigued by his blindfold, Altair reached the bar. He sat down on the stool, and signalled the bartender for a drink.
The bartender approached him, as he did, the guards nearby turned to the bar, ready for any altercation that may happen.
Junior stood in front of Altair, and under his scrutinizing gaze, Altair just smiled, looking at Junior's eyes, clearly not intimidated by him in the slightest; something that offended, and surprised Junior at the same time.
"Can I have a glass of milk, and oolong tea, basically vodka and whiskey mixed together, on the rocks."
The strange choice of drink left Junior somewhat speechless, alongside the other patrons sitting in the bar. Altair though remained smiling, practically unbothered by the looks he was getting from people, he was amused though.
Not knowing how to respond, Junior ordered someone to get some milk, before giving Altair his oolong tea in a tall glass.
"We don't have the milk readily available sorry about that."
"It's fine, I don't really wanna get drowsy after all."
Junior didn't know how to respond to that.
"..."
"Ahem, anyways. I'm gonna assume you're Junior, right?"
Junior cleared his throat a little, before straightening himself up.
"Yeah you're right, I'm Junior." Junior signalled his men to relax with a wave, before focusing back on Altair. "So what do you need kid?"
Altair sat there silently, taking a small sip of his "Oolong Tea", feeling the mix of whiskey and vodka burn his throat as it went down the hatch, the ice clinking against the glass as he set it down gently on a coaster that appeared who knows where.
"You nailed the ratio, nice."
"Thank you...I guess?"
Altair smiled, inside he was happy, because currently he was controlling how the conversation proceeded.
"You made "Oolong Tea" before?"
"Not really, to be honest it's the first I've heard of it."
"Really? A lot of my seniors like to drink, I guess they've never visited this bar before."
"I guess I have to ready my stock when they do arrive here."
"Hahaha. I'll be sure to tell them to drink you guys empty."
"I'm looking forward to that."
An hour later
Laughter echoed in the bar area, though it was deafened by the club's music, the laughter was prominent. Especially for the people near or in the bar area.
"HAHAHAHA. Good one kid, okay then what about this. How do celebrities keep cool?"
"Wait...wait...hahaha..Okay how?"
"They have a lot of fans!"
"Oh oum...HAHAHaaa...Stop man...that was so corny."
Altair struggled to breathe, as he laughed more and more, the same was true for Junior, as the two of them exchanged corny jokes with each other.
As they say, the eyes are the windows to the soul, they reveal a lot of things about person. A lot of people can infer many details about someone just from looking at someone's eyes.
So the fact that he couldn't see this interesting customer's eyes, bothered Junior a lot more than it should. Especially since this particular customer was... unsettling.
'First impressions aside, this kid wasn't that bad to talk with.' That was what he thought about this kid, he even completely forgot about the commission Raven threath—convinced him to do. 'I wonder when that kid's gonna come here?'
"Anyways, I haven't caught your name yet kid. What is it?"
"Oh, right I forgot what I came here to do."
Altair, distracted by the fun conversation he had with Junior, forgot what he came here for.
With a quick cough, he straightened up, and downed his "Oolong Tea", followed by his milk in one go, astonishing Junior, and the others watching him.
"Ahhh, that's the stuff." Altair says, as he wiped his mouth with a napkin. "The name's Altair, Altair Weiss Abaddon, and I believe you have something for Junior."
"..."
Junior's eyes widened, immediately taking something from under the bar table, startling Altair a little, but he held himself back. After all there was no need to antagonize someone he liked.
"Sorry for the delay!"
Junior bowed his head, as he put a folder labeled "Transcripts" on the counter. The tone in his voice laced with fear.
'Wow. Raven really put the fear of god in this guy, which was very on brand for her.'
Taken aback, Altair slowly took the folder, a little concerned about what Raven did to this poor guy.
"It's fine, it's fine. If it really bothers you just count my drinks on the house."
"Yeah of course the drinks are on the house!"
"...She beat you guys badly?"
"... I'd rather not comment on that."
"Noted."
"..."
"..."
"Now it's just awkward."
"...Sorry about that kid."
"Nah, it's fine. In fact if I didn't pester Raven then maybe you guys wouldn't have suffered."
A smooth voice suddenly echoed behind Altair.
"Which Raven?"
"Huh? Raven Branwen."
Turning around, Altair came face to face with a little sun dragon. Yang Xiao Long.
"...Well I think I fuck—"
Thwack!
———
The Swear Jar™ returns.
Will the blonde and the white fight?
How much of a slip up is this on Raven's part?
Find out in the next chapter!