The music had settled into a nice steady rhythm again by the time Jaune, Ren, and Oscar peeled away from the chaos of the dance floor. The earlier bob of motion, laughter, and dangerously synchronized flirting had finally begun to ebb, leaving behind a more manageable pulse of sound and light.
Jaune rolled his shoulders once as they walked, exhaling quietly.
The buzz from earlier was fading. Like the warmth had been turned down a few degrees, leaving his thoughts clearer and his senses sharper again.
"Timing's good," he muttered.
Oscar glanced at him. "You mean the... uh what was it called, the buzz?"
"Yeah." Jaune nodded. "Another ten minutes and we'd be completely sober again."
Ren hummed softly in agreement as they reached the bar.
The counter stretched long and polished, reflecting the shifting neon lights like a liquid mirror. Bottles lined the shelves behind it in neat, almost artistic arrangements, their colors catching the glow in ways that made them look more like decorations than actual drinks.
And seated there, exactly where he had been before, was the man Yang had pointed out earlier.
The Rank 2 owner.
Jaune didn't ignore him. His sense brushed against the man like a cautious hand hovering near a flame.
They took their seats and for a few minutes they chatted about fragments of earlier events. Oscar still seemed mildly overwhelmed by the entire club experience.
Jaune found himself half-listening and half-watching the room.
Then, the man stood up from his seat and stepped behind the bar. Jaune's eyes flicked toward him briefly.
The man glanced at the three of them, then spoke.
"You boys want some extra juice?"
The question landed strangely and Jaune exchanged a quick look with Ren and Oscar.
"…extra juice?" Oscar echoed, confused.
Ren tilted his head slightly, studying the man.
"We're alright," he said with a smile. "Thanks for the offer."
Jaune nodded, leaning one arm against the counter. Regular alcohol wouldn't particularly affect them, so drinking it was a waste of time. Qrow... well, he just liked the taste.
The man's lips curved faintly.
"Is that so?"
He reached beneath the counter and pulled out a bottle.
The glass itself had a faint tint, but it was the liquid inside that drew attention. A deep, luminous blue that seemed almost too vivid under the dim lighting.
"This isn't regular juice, you know?" the man said, holding it up slightly. "It's strong enough to affect awakened."
That made all three of them pause.
Now that was interesting.
His gaze flicked briefly across the room—there were regular people around. Some were even very close to them and were ordering drinks from the other bartenders.
That… was a problem.
"…should you be saying that out loud?" Jaune asked, lowering his voice slightly.
"They're not listening," he said simply, without even a glance around.
His tone wasn't dismissive but certain.
Jaune hesitated for a second.
"Fair enough."
Ren leaned forward slightly, resting his arms on the counter.
"How much?" he asked.
The man raised both hands and spread his fingers.
"Hundred."
There was a beat of silence.
Oscar blinked.
"…a hundred dollars?" he repeated.
Jaune let out a short breath, somewhere between disbelief and amusement.
"For one drink?" he asked.
"That's generous, actually," the man replied.
Jaune raised a brow.
"Generous?"
The man set the bottle down gently, the faint blue liquid catching the light again.
"This stuff isn't for regular people," he said. "One glass would kill them. Doesn't matter how high their tolerance is."
Oscar shifted slightly in his seat at that.
"…seriously?"
"Dead serious." The man's gaze moved between them. "You're awakened. That's the only reason you can even consider drinking it."
Jaune leaned back slightly, crossing his arms.
When you put it like that… the price made more sense. Still outrageous but... understandable.
Ren seemed to reach the same conclusion.
He gave a small nod. "Alright," he said.
Jaune glanced at him.
"You're actually going for it?"
Ren's expression didn't change. "It's… interesting isn't it?"
Jaune huffed quietly. "…sure, that's one way to put it."
Oscar shrugged. "I mean… the night's still kind of young and... well, if its as any good as Qrow's stash..." he said.
"That's not really a high bar," Jaune muttered.
The man didn't wait for further confirmation. Three glasses appeared on the counter and the blue liquid was poured into each smoothly, filling each one with that same strange glow.
Jaune stared at it for a second before picking up the glass.
"This better be worth it," he said dryly, "Or I'm going to ask for a refund."
The man smirked faintly. "Nobody whos tried it has asked for one yet."
Jaune wasn't really sure what to make of that, but he took a sip anyway and paused. His brows lifted slightly at the taste.
It went down smooth. Almost deceptively so. No violent burn or aggressive bite like Qrow's industrial-grade pure ethanol nonsense.
Instead, it was warm and controlled.
There was a burn, but it was… refined. Like it knew exactly how far to go without crossing into unpleasant territory.
And the taste was quite delicious as well.
Berries.
Although, not any berry he could immediately name. There was a deeper taste that was simply just richer, and it lingered just long enough to make him want another sip.
"…okay," he admitted. "That's pretty damn good."
Ren took his own drink, then nodded once.
"Impressive."
Oscar looked almost relieved. "Way better than earlier,"
Jaune snorted lightly. "That's not even a comparison."
The man watched them, a faint satisfaction in his expression.
"Told ya."
Jaune tilted his head slightly.
"…yeah," he said. "You did."
A few minutes passed as they enjoyed the juice.
Oscar eventually stood up.
"I'm gonna grab the others," he said. "They should try this."
Oscar disappeared back into the crowd which left Jaune and Ren at the bar. Jaune took another sip, slower this time and his thoughts drifted slightly to what Yang had said to him earlier.
He glanced at the man before asking.
"You're the owner of this club, right? What's your name?"
"Just call me Junior. Any other name, and I won't respond." The man—Junior replied.
Jaune nodded. "I see. It's good to meet you, Junior. Although, I'll admit, I'm a little curious about something. I heard that this place used to be called something else?"
Junior didn't respond immediately and simply stared at Jaune with a curious look in his eyes.
"Dragon's Bar." Jaune continued.
Ren remained quiet beside him, but Jaune could feel his attention sharpen at Jaune's next words.
"I've had some… experiences with the Dragon Gang before," Jaune added.
That was putting it lightly.
Belmont.
The memory lingered like a shadow at the edge of his thoughts. Jaune set his glass down gently.
"So I'll ask directly," he said.
"…does this place have any connection to them?"
There was a brief silence, one that stretched just enough to matter.
Then the man spoke.
"Not a bad guess. You're pretty sharp. I suppose your experience with Dragon gang wasn't a pleasant one, huh?"
Jaune didn't respond to the question.
The man studied him for a moment longer and leaned forward slightly.
And said—
"You're speaking to the leader of that gang."
Jaune just… sighed.
A quiet exhale as he lifted the glass again and finished the rest of the blue liquid in one smooth motion. The taste lingered on his tongue, rich and warm, but his mind had already moved elsewhere.
Belmont.
The word alone carried weight.
What happened in there was an absolute fracture point. Something that had shifted the balance of more than one organization at once.
Arias, the displacement rune user.
He was gone.
Vanished without a trace alongside a portion of Dragon Gang's forces.
Evergreen as well.
Another name tied to that disaster.
Dead, most likely. That was the logical conclusion. But logic had taken a backseat the moment the terrorist group, Sleepless became involved. They didn't follow clean endings or tidy conclusions. Everything they touched seemed to turn to rot and despair.
Even now, Jaune couldn't say with confidence what the true goal of the Belmont incident was. After all, he had also learnt that it had been somehow engineered by his father.
The greatest mastermind in the world...
He was certain that there was more to the story. Anything involving his old man was never that simple. There were layers to things. And his father was perhaps the one being who had the most layers of all.
Jaune only knew what he had seen and what he had felt.
The memory rose uninvited.
Flesh peeling and dissolving.
Slipping away from form and identity, melting into something that had no right to exist. Bones and skin unraveling like they were never meant to stay solid in the first place.
And then merging, into that rune.
Coalesce.
Jaune's fingers tightened slightly around the empty glass before he set it down.
He could still see it if he let himself.
That beast of an awakened.
The one who had floated in the air there like a monstrous calamity wearing human skin. The one who had taken on both Qrow and Raven and walked away from it.
The memory didn't come with fear. Not anymore, at least.
Just… clarity.
A quiet understanding that the world he had stepped into was far deeper and far more dangerous than anything a teenager like himself should experience.
"…yeah," Jaune muttered under his breath.
Truly a wonderful time.
He leaned back slightly, his gaze returning to the present. To the man in front of him.
Junior who was now the leader of the Dragon Gang.
Or rather, the current one.
Qrow had mentioned that too. The previous leader's death was a bit of a mystery. Just… gone. And in the aftermath, the position had fallen to his son.
Not by choice but by necessity.
Ozpin had stepped in after Belmont. That alone said enough. When a rank 3 moved directly, it meant something had gone very wrong behind the scenes. Dragon Gang hadn't been dismantled, but it had been… redirected.
Watched and restricted.
The kind of leash that didn't look like a leash unless you knew what to look for.
A lot of their old operations had been shut down. The ones LUCID used to ignore were no longer being tolerated. Lines had been drawn where there hadn't been any before.
Jaune didn't know the full extent of it and didn't really need to.
The result was sitting right in front of him.
A club that also catered to awakened. Operating, but under eyes that never blinked.
Jaune studied Junior for a moment, then spoke.
"…sorry for your loss."
Junior didn't react much. His expression didn't shift, but there was a subtle pause in his movements. A flicker of something quieter beneath the surface.
Then he gave a small nod.
"…thanks."
That was it. No elaboration or dramatics.
Just two people acknowledging something that didn't need to be dissected in the middle of a crowded bar.
Jaune didn't press further.
Because honestly? What was there to press?
Arias had made his own choices and so did Evergreen. So had everyone else involved in Belmont. Whatever chain of decisions had led to that disaster, it wasn't something that could be pinned neatly on one person and called a day.
Blame wasn't that simple.
Jaune's thoughts circled back to the same conclusion they always did.
Though, perhaps, if there was anyone in that entire mess that truly deserved blame… it was Nicholas Arc.
Jaune exhaled slowly, letting the tension bleed out of his shoulders.
And right on cue—
"Guys!"
Oscar's voice cut through the noise again as he reappeared, weaving through the crowd with the rest of the group in tow.
Yang was at the front, eyes already locked onto the bar like she had just spotted buried treasure.
"That's the drink?" she asked, pointing directly at the bottle.
Oscar nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah. It's actually really good."
Ruby leaned forward slightly, peering at it with open curiosity.
"It's blue?" she said, as if that alone made it inherently more interesting.
Weiss crossed her arms, though her gaze lingered on the bottle as well.
"It had better be worth it at that price."
Blake said nothing, but she stepped closer, her eyes briefly flicking toward Junior before settling on the glasses.
Nora, of course, was already halfway onto a stool.
"I want one."
Ren sighed quietly beside Jaune, though there was no real resistance behind it.
Junior looked at the group, then at Jaune with a faint smirk tugging at his lips.
"Friends of yours?"
Jaune shrugged lightly. "Something like that."
"Lively bunch."
"That's one way to put it."
The next few minutes passed quickly.
More glasses and more of that luminous blue liquid poured out like some kind of forbidden cocktail from a fantasy novel that had taken a wrong turn into reality.
Each of the girls took a sip.
And the reactions came almost instantly.
"Okay," Yang exclaimed. "That's actually amazing."
Ruby's eyes lit up. "It's sweet!"
Nora slammed her glass down with enthusiasm.
"I like this one! Another!"
Jaune couldn't help the small chuckle that escaped him.
Yeah, that tracked.
Yang clapped her hands once, energy snapping back into place like a switch being flipped.
"Alright!" she declared. "That was great."
She turned, already grabbing Jaune by the wrist again.
"But we are not wasting the rest of the night sitting around."
Jaune barely had time to react.
"Wait—"
Too late.
He was already being pulled off the stool.
The others followed just as quickly, laughter and chatter spilling back into motion as they were dragged toward the dance floor once more.
The music swallowed them whole again.