(I updated the cover, hope y'all like it!)

I sat atop one of the buildings in my bird form, looking over the marketplace, watching all of the citizens and shopkeepers chat with one another.

Now, you may be wondering why I'm in my bird form instead of my human form, right? Well, ever since the little fiasco that happened at the castle a few days ago, an order was issued to find me as soon as possible and return me to the palace so that I could be "dealt with". Honestly, that arrogant bastard of a king has no authority over me. I'm not from this kingdom, much less this WORLD, so I don't have to follow the rules of either. Thankfully, I still retained the ability to use my semblance, as well as my aura. This came in handy because everywhere I went, some stupid little balloon monsters kept trying to bite me. Thankfully, all they ever gave me were minor scratches, which were easily healed by my aura. You also might be wondering where Lucifer and Uma are. They went into the marketplace to get supplies. I expressed some concern to Lucifer, because apparently the faunus, or demihumans as they're called in this world, are discriminated against profusely. Thankfully, he had the ability to fold his wings into his back, which effectively disguised him as an ordinary human. And as far as I was aware, Uma didn't need to worry about this. Although she did mention to me that one of her abilities enabled her to turn into a giant cecaelia (An octopus woman or man for those wondering, think like a mermaid/man but with octopus tentacles instead.). As I look over the marketplace, I noticed a strange man staring at me.

I made eye contact with him for a good thirty seconds, and we both nodded. He disappeared into the alley that he was peering from, so I took into the air and flew into the alleyway after the man. Once I knew for sure that nobody else was looking, I turned back to my human form, which definitely surprised the strange man, as he certainly wasn't expecting the seemingly normal falcon to transform into the infamous Switch Hero herself.

"Well now! Now that you've got my attention, what do you want from me?" I asked the man with my arms crossed.

"Getting right to the point, are we? Well alright then! Since you're so eager to know about my business, I'll give it to you straight. I run a slave market, with a wide variety of monsters and demihumans for you to pick from!" He says, and I stiffened up slightly. Here's the thing. This isn't my first encounter with a slave trader, because back home in Remnant, I was in charge of abolishing every slave market I could find and get the faunus trapped there to safety on Menagerie. I quickly grew famous among them, and I eventually became one of, if not the only, human to be trusted by faunus kind, and this allowed me to travel to Menagerie. I liked doing this, because it allowed me to check up on all the slaves that I freed over the years.

"Right this way, follow me, Miss Switch Hero." The man says, and I nodded, following him into another part of the alleyway. Eventually, we made it into a large area, filled to the brim with cages, along with a small, square shaped tent in the middle.

"So... What might you be in the market for, if anything at all?" The man asked as he looked at me.

'If I could free just one of these slaves from this place, then that would be an excellent start...' I thought as I then turned to the man.

"I want the one that's given you the absolute worst trouble since arriving here. I want the most aggressive, hostile, and violent one here." I said, and the man raised an eyebrow at these statements.

"Are you sure you want that one? I'll let you know now, I've had to take a few drastic measures just to keep this one's temper under a tight hold. Actually almost died a couple of times handling him. I had to use an especially large slave crest to force him into submission." The man says, and I nodded.

"Alright then, it's your funeral. Just don't go saying I didn't warn you." He says as he guides me to a set of stairs that were within the tent in the center of the whole thing. This led the two of us down to a dark room. However, this dark room was empty, not a single faun- demihuman to be seen. My confusion didn't go unnoticed, as the man quickly addressed me.

"Look down below, my dear patron. THAT is where you'll find what you're looking for." He says to me, and I did so. And what I saw surprised me more than anything. Instead of a demihuman, I saw a boy with green eyes and green tipped purple hair. His clothing was rather simple, and he had a glowing shackle and chain attached to his ankle. I also noticed that he was sitting on a very intricate magic circle, probably one of the things that the slave keeper used to keep him under control.

"Alright, boy. You've finally got someone who wants to buy you, so get up." The slave trader says, and the boy began to growl in an attempt to intimidate me, but I quickly sent a nasty death glare back at him.

He immediately went silent, and with a look of fear on his face to boot. This boy knew not to try anything lest he suffer for it. The slave trader went down into the boy's chamber, unlocked the shackle attached to his ankle, and quickly pulled him back above. The slave trader was definitely grateful for my assistance in keeping him quiet.

"Alright, kid. Expose your mark so we can perform the ritual." The slave trader says, and the boy does so begrudgingly, undoing the buttons on the back of his clothing and pulling it away so that his back was exposed, revealing a large crest that took up nearly his entire back.

The slave trader brought out a tray of various items, like a small plate of a strange black liquid.

"If you would, please drip some of your blood into this liquid here." He says, gesturing to the aforementioned plate of black liquid. I did so, biting my finger in order to draw blood, and I held it over the plate, letting a few drops fall into the liquid. The man then got out a paint brush and dipped it into the mixture, before using it to paint a circle over the crest on the boy's back. A few seconds later, and the crest begins to glow brightly, and the boy started struggling, trying to suppress the pain that this ritual was clearly causing him.

"No need to worry about that, it'll be over in a few moments." The slave trader says to me, and I nodded. True to his word, the crest stopped glowing, and the boy collapsed in exhaustion.

"Congratulations, he's all yours!" The slave trader says, and I nodded.

"Don't I have to pay you in some way for this?" I asked him, and he shook his head at this.

"Oh heavens no! You've actually done me a huge favor by taking him off my hands. The boy is too stubborn for his own good, so this one's on the house, but only just this once." The man says, and I nodded before turning to the boy.

"Alright, kid. You have a name, don't you? Go on, tell me." I said, and he spoke.

"Ursus (er-sis)." He says bluntly.

"Yeesh. Good luck improving that foul attitude of his." The man says as he helped me find my way out of the tent.

"Alright, you're not getting very far with that getup, so follow me." I say, putting a hood on so that my face was covered with a shadow, and I took Ursus over to a fabric stall. Thankfully, the owner had some rolls of fabric that she was planning on getting rid of, so I offered to take them off her hands, which she gladly accepted. She even gave me a sewing kit, which I thanked her for, and we made our way through the market. Eventually, Lucifer and Uma caught up with us.

"Finally, it's about time we found you!" Lucifer says, panting slightly.

"Dude, I wasn't gone for long." I said casually, and he facepalmed.

"Like hell you weren't! We've been looking for you for five hours, Falcon!" Uma says, and both Ursus and I sweatdropped at this.

"Regardless, we've got all the stuff we came here to get. But more importantly, who's the kid?" Lucifer asked.

"It's a long story. I'll explain once we get out of here." I said, and the two nodded, and we left the town. After travelling for a while, we eventually stopped to take a break. I took this opportunity to use the fabric I got from the market to fashion some new clothes for Ursus. I was no seamstress, but I knew my way around a needle and thread. Eventually, I came up with a simple pair of black pants and a dim green hoodie. A few hours later, and a pair of ears popped up on his head, shocking the three of us. Strangely enough, whatever happened to him also caused him to age slightly, so now he looked like a boy in his late teen/early adult years.

"So let me get this straight. You were stuck in some slave market, Falcon came in and got you, did some freaky ritual, and now you're bound to her by that crest on you've got on your back?" Uma asked, and Ursus nodded.

"Yeah, that's pretty much it." He says.

"Right. You've got a decent outfit now, but you still need a weapon to defend yourself with, so take these." I say, tossing him a pair of daggers I always kept on me in case Foretoken was somehow taken from me.

He caught them easily, and gave a few practice swings with the blades before smirking.

"Hah. You're gonna do just fine, kid." I said with a smug look, and he only laughed.

"So where's our next destination?" Uma asked.

"Why not the Forest of the Elves? I heard from one of the people in the city that that forest of full of valuable herbs and other things that are close to impossible to find anywhere else." I said, surprising my team mates.

"Seriously, Falcon? I figured you would have done a little bit of research on this world's geography." Lucifer says, sighing.

"Why? All I did was suggest a place to travel to." I said, and Uma facepalmed.

"Girl, you seriously need a history lesson. Let me give you the short version. That forest is guarded by the prince of the elves himself. Anyone who tries to take from that forest would be lucky to escape within an inch of their life, lest they somehow avoid becoming a pincushion for the prince's arrows." She said.

"Hah! Well a few arrows aren't going to hurt me. I've gone through way worse stuff than a bunch of arrows!" I said, fixing Foretoken and making sure it was secured to my waist in its inactive form.

Lucifer only sighed in annoyance as the rest of the party also stood up.

"If I die a second time because of you, I'm coming back to haunt you." He says as we start walking.

"Hah! I could use the extra company!" I laughed as we started our journey to the Forest of the Elves.