𝕭𝖑𝖔𝖔𝖉𝖎𝖊𝖉 𝖇𝖚𝖙 𝖀𝖓𝖇𝖗𝖔𝖐𝖊𝖓

The Judge

After that small incident, Dante was serving Ruby a glass of milk and a platter of cookies as an apology for his sudden outburst. The fireplace was already in the room, though there was no active fire.

"So..." Ruby started, after finishing her cookies. "What was that all about...?"

Dante stopped in his tracks. "Whenever I hear a bell ring, he comes. The Beasthide hunter."

"Who is the Beasthide hunter?" Ruby asked, leaning in to listen.

"Brador, the Church assassin. I found him in a Nightmare, and he sought me out as his mark. The experience... well, it gave me a slight bit of paranoia. Every time I hear a bell ring, I always think that that old bastard has come back to get me... I am truly sorry for that outburst." Dante bowed, but Ruby, once more embarrassed that he was so formal, even with his apologies, waved her hand.

"It's fine. Atleast you gave me an explanation." Ruby shrugged. It suddenly became silent. Too silent. Dante was busy repairing and inspecting a few of the weapons, and Ruby coughed to get his attention. Dante stopped. "What is it that you need of me, miss Ruby?" Dante turned, placing down the weapons he was inspecting. 

"I think you should meet my team. Properly, I mean."

"Properly meaning not where Yang and Weiss want to emasculate and eviscerate me, and not where Blake looks like she wants to put my head on a pike. Sure." Dante shrugged. He snapped his fingers, the Testimony headpiece disappearing into mist, and replacing it with a top hat. He also replaced the confederate set, which also disappeared into mist, with the gentleman Hunter set he took from the dead body back near Cathedral Ward.

Cathedral Ward... it seemed so long ago, now... 

"Dante?" Ruby snapped him out of his reminiscing. "Ah. Sorry, miss Ruby. Let's get going."

—

At the cafeteria, Dante received weird looks for his choice of attire, but he was accompanying Ruby to their table. They still held the same looks they held for him yesterday.

Blake simply... looked at him. Dante had taken one apple.One apple. "Just one apple, Dante?"

"Yeah. This is fine."

Besides... what was going to kill him? Hunger? Dante laughed to himself over his own joke, as he bit into the apple.

He kept eating, but the table remained quiet.

"What are you laughing about?" Weiss asked.

"A joke." Dante spoke, biting into an apple.

"Why do you wear such... old rags?"

"'Old rags' huh? These 'old rags' have protected me for most of my hunts." Dante seemed a little self-conscious about his attire.

"You hunt?" Yang asked. "Pfft. Like you do. You're only a murderer."

"Yang..." Ruby spoke.

"No no no. Let her speak." Dante waved her off and stared straight into Yang's eyes. She stared back. "Anything else? I won't hold anything against you."

Ruby looked at Yang with the look of 'if-you-do-this-i-will-never-forgive-you'. Yang was silent. Dante nodded in appreciation. "Ask me any questions and I will answer them. I suppose... as a way of asking for your forgiveness?"

Weiss, Blake and Yang looked at each other. "Alright. I will ask first. Why did you kill those Faunus?" Blake asked. Dante stared at her, blank look, and said, "Wasn't it on obvious? They were beasts."

Blake's eyes widened. "But not in that sense. I did not hunt them because they looked it. They acted like it. Let me explain. In my time, I developed a sort of sixth sense, a sense of foreboding that allows me to tell whether something will go wrong. I don't know. My sixth sense told me, despite how bullshit-sounding that is."