Chapter 1

Draco stood in front of the job board, examining each of the jobs posted. There were several that appealed to him, but they weren't what he was here for. Rebecca had told him to find a particular job and that was what he was going to do. After looking over the jobs once more, passing Slaying and Guarding jobs, he finally found the Investigation job that he was searching for.

Zombies. That's what they were going to investigate. Draco personally found it ridiculous. The dead stayed dead, they didn't rise and start eating people. If they did, then Draco would hate hunting the Grimm because he wouldn't be able to finish his jobs. But he didn't hate hunting them. They were a means to get money for his family, and he would never hate a job so long as it paid.

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Draco grabbed the job poster and headed towards the counter to verify that his team was taking it. He hands over both the poster and his Scroll and the woman at the counter scans both to see if he is able to take the job. Once he gets them and a verification slip back, Draco heads for the door, stopping only for a moment to grab and put on his gear, the Red Dragon's Scales. Rebecca and Nadeshiko were both waiting outside for him to appear.

"Well, did you get it?" Nadeshiko asks impatiently.

"Yeah. You're lucky nobody wants to deal with zombies or anything of the sort, Rebecca." Draco says, handing her the poster and verification slip.

Satisfied, Rebecca places them in one of her pockets and says, "Let's go get Gerard. Hopefully he's gotten the supplies we need."

"How hard could it be for one person to get a couple tents, food, and water?" Nadeshiko questions, crossing her arms.

Draco laughed, "Knowing him, he would have gotten into a fight and forgotten to buy them."

Realizing that this was true, they quickly headed towards the general store where Gerard was supposed to be buying the supplies. They find Gerard toting a large bag over his shoulder, talking to a pretty Faunus girl on the corner of a street. Gerard laughs at something the girl said and then notices his teammates smiling at him. He quickly swaps contact information with the girl and then walks towards his team, blushing.

"Why did you stop talking to her?" Draco questions, patting his enormous comrade on the back. "I really think you had a shot."

Gerard brushes his hand away and mumbles something about where he can stick his armor. Draco laughs and winks at him. Both Rebecca and Nadeshiko whisper to each other and start having fits of laughter.

"If you liked the innocent Faunus type, why not our Nadeshiko?" Rebecca asks pointing at their Faunus cohort. At this, Nadeshiko gives her best innocent girl face and winks at him, her cat ears twitching.

After everyone has another laugh at Gerard, they head to the airship docks and board an airship to the town nearest their final destination. They go to a small compartment and prepare for the long trip ahead of them. They all sit down and once the ship starts moving, Nadeshiko curls up next to Rebecca and falls asleep. Following her lead, the others quickly close their eyes and go to sleep. After several hours, the airship arrives at its destination and the group has to wake up and get off. Once off, Rebecca checks the poster for the meeting place with the client and leads them there.

The client is a terrified looking man with short gray hair and a stooped stature. Rebecca greets him and asks his name.

"M-M-Melvin Wasser's the name. What about y-y-you?" The man stammers.

Rebecca indicates each team member, "This is Draco Rufus, Gerard Nacht, and Nadeshiko Daicho. As you can guess, we are Team RDGN, Red Dragon, who are here to investigate the 'zombies.'"

Melvin visibly shakes in fear, "They're not zombies exactly, but that's the closest thing I could think of. "

Draco puts a comforting hand on the man's shoulder, "There's no reason for you to be afraid anymore. We'll kill everything." After getting skeptical looks from his teammates he adds, "I highly doubt this will stay an Investigation job for long." Gerard nodded at this, getting a stern look from Rebecca.

"Whatever these things are, you two are not to attack them the moment we see them. Our job is to investigate them and find a way to stop them. And killing them is the last option of any that we will have," Rebecca said, making sure to get her point across. Draco and Gerard looked at each other, knowing that they could not argue. Rebecca turned back to Melvin, "Now, Mr. Wasser. If you would kindly lead us to the location of these 'zombies,' I would be very grateful."

Melvin nodded and slowly spun around. He looked in all directions as if to make sure they weren't being followed and started walking towards a densely packed forest. They entered the forest and walked along a well-worn path towards what seemed like endless darkness. Melvin produced a Scroll and turned on the lighting device and led the way into the Center of the forest. After an hour of walking, they emerge from the forest into a large meadow with a small castle in the center. The castle had nothing around it except dead grass and weeds. Melvin pointed at the castle, "That's where you'll find the monsters."

As he said this, the entrance to the castle opened and four people emerged form within. They looked directly at the small group and then started sprinting at them. Melvin yelped and ran back into the forest, terrified. Rebecca tried to stop him, but was unable to do so. When she looked back at the incoming people, she noticed that they had gotten a lot closer than they should have been able to in such a short time. She noticed that they were moving faster than average humans or even Faunus.

Draco took a step forward, the Red Dragon's Scaled expanding from his boots over his legs. Using the power of the armor, he launched at the runners, preparing to intercept them. As he did so, Gerard drew Ragnarok, his giant great-sword, from the mechanism on his back. Nadeshiko took her dual sub-machine guns, Pain and Suffering, and started running after Draco.

Rebecca started telling everyone to stop when Draco collided with the leading attacker. Draco launched a knee straight into the man's stomach, sending him flying 10 feet away. Draco then had the RDS extent over both his arms and grabbed the second person. Once he had a firm grip, he spun and threw him into the other two attackers. The first attacker stood up and ran at Draco. When he got close enough, he started punching and kicking at him. Draco easily dodged the sloppy attacks and kicked the man in the chest, pushing him away and breaking several of his ribs. By this point, Nadeshiko caught up and starts shooting at the other three attackers, hitting them with stunning rounds. Draco pins the first attacker to the ground, stopping all his major movements. The man squirms underneath and manages to lift Draco several inches off the ground. Draco, not using his Advanced Blindsight to watch the other enemies, and Nadeshiko, facing away from them thinking they were subdued, don't notice the other three stand up. Two launch themselves at Draco and the other runs at Nadeshiko. Of the two after Draco, one launches a kick and the other a punch, both hitting Draco in the chest and head respectively. He flies through the air, landing several feet away, stunned. Nadeshiko, on the other hand, hears he attacker coming and spins around, transforming her guns into katanas, and stabs him. The man is unfazed by the two swords sticking out of his chest and continues to attack her.

Rebecca realizes that her teammates are in trouble and brings out her rifle, Gungnir. She aims at one of the attackers about to pounce on Draco and fires, hitting the person in the arm. The man is launched backwards, his arm going in one direction and the rest of his body in another. Rebecca is then surprised to see the man stand up as if nothing happened, though he is missing an arm. She aims and fires again, hitting and destroying his head. With this, the man falls over and doesn't move. Draco, no longer stunned, notices this and quickly jumps onto the second attacker. They wrestle on the ground until Draco is behind him and puts an arm around his neck. He uses all his strength and squeezed until he hears a loud snap, breaking the man's neck. He drops the limp and lifeless body to the ground, preparing to fight the last man. He notices the man run away and into the woods. Draco activates his advanced Blindsight and tracks him through the forest. He notices that he is heading in the direction that Melvin went and sprints after him.

Nadeshiko quickly decapitates her opponent with the help of Rebecca's supporting fire. She runs back to Rebecca and Gerard, exhausted.

"Thanks for the help," she says sarcastically to Gerard.

"My job is to protect Rebecca, remember?" he replies. "We need to head after Draco, though. He might need our help."

Rebecca and Nadeshiko agree and the three of them set off after Draco's locating device using Rebecca's Scroll. They quickly find him in full armor holding the last man up against a tree by the throat. He turns his head towards them and nods, unable to communicate through the soundproof helmet. Rebecca has Draco hold the man down as they tie his hands and feet together and gags him. Afterward, they find the path that they had come on and head back to town, Gerard carrying the struggling man along the way. They emerge from the forest and find Melvin standing there, facing away from them and talking to some of the townsfolk.

"They're dead, okay? There was nothing I could do for them!" he cries at them. The townsfolk look past him and at the group as the come out of the forest.

Gerard tossed the man onto the ground at their feet and says, "This is one of the attackers. We can see why you called them zombies, as they were extremely hard to kill. The only conscience thought they seem to have is attacking anything near them."

At this, the man on the ground stops struggling, looks at Gerard, and tries to say something. Rebecca quickly ungags him.

He spits out the cloth residue and snarls, "We were only protecting our land from you filthy people. That man there tried to kill us and take our land before. Now, my brothers are dead and I have nothing left." He spits at Melvin, who quickly backs away.

Draco and Gerard pick the man up and hand him to the police officers. They get paid and go to the airship docks, boarding the last airship home. They are silent on the way back, shaken up by having to kill actual humans with their minds intact.

"Draco is the first one to talk. "I killed a man. Not a beast. An actual person. And all because someone wanted their land." He puts his head in his hands and contemplates his actions.

Rebecca reached over and rubbed his back. "You had no choice. If you didn't kill them, they would have killed you. Even I killed someone today. I don't think I'll ever get over that."

"I know you killed someone as well, but you didn't feel their neck break under your arm. You didn't hear the awful snapping noise it made as I crushed it. There is no sound that I can describe to compare it to." He got up and left the room, needing to be alone.

"Nadeshiko, what was it like for you?" Gerard asks her.

"You know when you cut a piece of meat with a knife? It felt like that, only worse. Killing a Grimm doesn't feel anything like that." Nadeshiko uttered.

"How do you think they survived all those attacks and were so strong?" Gerard asked.

Rebecca shook her head, "I don't think we'll ever know."

The rest of the trip was in complete silence. Draco didn't come back until they had reached their destination, and even then nobody said a word. As they walked back towards Beacon, they thought on how it would feel to live with the deaths of those people on their consciences.

End of Chapter 1