Dead Men's Tales
Here's the next chapter for this installment! I hope you're enjoying the story so far!
I do not own RWBY, and honestly wouldn't want to. If that was the case, it'd be like knowing what you're getting for your birthday every year. It'd take away part of the magic. Keep up the good work Rooster Teeth, and thank you Monty for bringing us this exciting world.
"Dialogue"
Thoughts
'Quotes'
Flashbacks
Unfortunately, it turned out that Uncle Qrow wasn't around. Likely off performing his duties as Ozpin's replacement...something? Ruby had no idea what to call Qrow's current position, and she doubted it was school-related, but that's probably why he was gone.
In the end, Ruby decided to go on her own. Dad will be waaay too overprotective, and Yang isn't really in the mood to do much of anything. So she had left a note telling her dad that she'd be gone for about a week, maybe less. At least I told him, right? That's pretty responsible of me!
At the moment, Ruby was walking down a path in the woods, headed towards Alaala. Although there were still no online features on the scrolls, they were still capable of offline features like a simple map and compass feature.
As long as she was able to find the main road, there would be no problem getting to Alaala. At that point, it was pretty much a straight shot to the village, and Ruby could use her Semblance to start getting there a bit faster. Even when only using it in short bursts, she could cover a lot of distance very quickly.
A rustle in some nearby bushes snapped Ruby out of her thoughts. "Is someone there?" she called out, placing one hand on her weapon.
Although nothing was visible, Ruby began to feel a familiar presence with her aura. There was no mistaking this dark feeling. There was a Grimm nearby.
Stepping into a ready stance, Ruby drew Crescent Rose and unfolded it into its scythe form. Whatever creature it was, it would be in for a surprise if it thought she was easy prey.
There were a few more sounds of movement in the bushes, and Ruby prepared to spring into action. Moments passed, and it soon became apparent that whatever Grimm was hiding in the bushes was...moving farther away?
"Huh?" There was no mistaking it. Even the presence of the creature was fading. Ruby groaned. "Man! It's been forever since I've been able to fight a Grimm! And the first one I find runs away?!"
Folding Crescent Rose and placing it back in its holster, Ruby continued to follow her scroll. It wasn't much longer before the trees began to open up to reveal a much wider path. The main road!
Alright, now getting there will be a breeze! Ruby briefly crouched down, before seemly disappearing, leaving some of her signature rose petals behind.
From deep in the woods, just out of Ruby's sensory range, a pair of red eyes watched her go.
By using her Semblance several times, while only stopping to take short breaks in between, it only took Ruby a few hours to reach her destination, making it early afternoon on her arrival.
Wow, this place is pretty nice! The forest had given way to fields around half a mile before arriving at the village. Alaala consisted of a collection of houses, all of which had two stories and a porch area. Although it seemed there was a small yard for each home, there was no clear boundary between yards, giving the place a fairly open feeling. In the town center, there were a series of buildings including an inn, a small library, several small stores, and another large building.
Before entering the village, Ruby took a good look at the flyer she was holding. So I'll be investigating the cause of several strange murders in the village...murders
"If anything, we should be looking forward to a fight with actual guidelines and not…well, murderers."
Ruby shook her head violently from side to side. No, I'm fine. It's been a week since the last time this happened, it's not happening again!
Unbidden, images began to flash through Ruby's mind. Penny's body lying in several pieces on the arena floor. Roman being devoured by a griffon while she watched. Helpless citizens being carried off by Nevermores, screaming the whole time for help that would not come. Yang with a bloody stump where her arm used to be. Pyrrha with an arrow through her chest...
Abruptly, Ruby grabbed the outside of the sign for Alaala, and banged her head on it. The images stopped, although she had to take a moment to regain her bearings. "Ughh...alright I'm fine I'm fine!"
After managing to orient herself again, Ruby began walking down the road to the center of the village. She encountered several of the villagers on the way. Most of them seemed rather curious about their visitor. One of the nearby women approached "Excuse me miss, you seem to be new to the area. Are you looking for anything in particular?"
"Um, uh yes! I'm here to help out with this!" Reaching into her pocket, Ruby withdrew the flyer detailing the mission.
The villager seemed a bit surprised. "Oh, you're a huntress? You seem fairly yo- " she paused, embarrassed, before continuing to talk "Well anyways, if that's the case, you'll want to talk with the mayor at the town hall. It's the building right in the middle of the village center."
"Thanks!" Ruby began to make her way to the center of the village. Now that she was closer, she could see a sign on that one large building she had seen earlier. Town hall...wait I thought this was a village. Shouldn't this be called a village hall or something? Shrugging off this random thought, Ruby walked inside.
It seemed to be a fairly informal setting, given that it was a town hall. In the foyer, there was a sign pointing to the direction of the mayor's office. At the door, there was a sign stating "Please knock" as well as some business hours for when the mayor could be expected to be in the office. Seeing that he was currently in, Ruby rapped on the door.
"Come in, come in!" a voice from within the office sounded out. Opening the door, Ruby walked in. The office was filled with cabinets, as well as a desk with a chair in front of it. Papers were scattered all over the desk, where the mayor seemed to be attempting to sort them into a more organized manner, with limited success.
The mayor was a middle aged woman who was only slightly taller than Ruby. Her dark hair had begun to grey, and her face showed some sign of weathering, as if she was often outside. She wore a suit, but the tie was undone and only loosely around her neck.
Looking up from her paperwork, she smiled and spoke in a practiced, cheerful manner "I don't believe I've met you before! You must be a visitor to Alaala." She stood up before continuing "I am Mayor Sininen. What may I do for you?"
Suddenly a bit nervous about pulling this off, Ruby replied "Well...hello! My name is Ruby Rose! I'm here to, uh, do this mission!" Inwardly, she winced I don't feel like that sounded very confident.
Mrs. Sininen blinked, then realization seemed to dawn on her "Ohhh, you're with the Beacon group! I thought you weren't getting here until tomorrow!"
Confused, Ruby tilted her head to the side "The group from Beacon? It's true that I was a student there until...well-"
"Are you not with the group we were told was coming?" Mrs. Sininen inquired, looking more confused than ever. "We received a letter yesterday saying that a team of former Beacon students was being sent with an Atlas specialist to take on this mission."
Ruby shifted uncomfortably, instinctively reaching up for her hood before stopping herself from pulling it over her head. "I'm a former student, but I found the flyer for this mission at a mission board near my house. I wanted to see if I could help."
For a long moment, Mrs. Sininen seemed to examine Ruby. With a sigh, she responded "I appreciate it, but I'm not sure this is the type of mission I would feel comfortable assigning to someone of your age."
"I've done a few missions before, I can handle this." Ruby chose to conveniently leave out that these missions consisted of her team's self-assigned attempts to learn what the White Fang was up to, and the one mission where they had been all assigned to Oobleck. She hadn't really gone on a solo mission yet. She doesn't need to know that.
"I'm not concerned about your ability, I'm just-" Mrs. Sininen sighed again, putting a hand on her head. "This mission will involve an investigation into several murders. This may include analyzing pictures of the murder victims. That will not be a pleasant experience."
I know that now. Ruby internally grimaced, but responded easily enough "That doesn't matter. I'm here, and I'm here to help."
About 40 minutes later, Ruby exited the town hall, feeling exhausted. It had taken much longer than she would have liked to finally convince the mayor to let her help out. Mrs. Sininen had eventually given reluctant permission for her to perform an investigation, and had given her a signed letter to present to the sheriff. This was so much easier when I didn't need to ask permission!
Walking into the station, Ruby noticed the sheriff sleeping on his desk, pen in hand, using whatever document he had been filling out as a pillow. He was around the same height as the mayor, had short blonde hair, and wore a neat blue uniform that signaled his station as a sheriff. "Umm, hello?" She walked up and knocked on his desk.
In an instant, the sheriff sprung awake, Ruby just barely dodging the pen which flew out of his hand and at her face. Now that his face wasn't on the desk, Ruby could see that he had a bushy blond mustache and had an expression that could be described as two parts cheerful, one part wild. The man suddenly spoke, the words coming out rapidly "Whaa!...Oh, sorry miss! I've had a few too many late nights recently I'm afraid, it's never a good thing when this man is too busy! I don't believe I've seen you around, are you a visitor? Just moved in? Oh! How may I help you?"
Ruby had taken a step back during this little speech, a little overwelmed. He's almost as bad as Oobleck...almost. "I'm here to assist on this mission." She pulled out the flyer and handed it to him, as well as the signed letter from the mayor.
The sheriff blinked "Oh, excellent! It's always good to have a huntsman around to help when things get dicey. Oh, my apologies, or a huntress! Although I was under the impression that there would be a group coming in to help? Are you a representative of that group? I'm sorry, I haven't introduced myself!" He stood, and took of his hat, making an exaggerated movement with it that might have been somewhat close to a bow. "I am Hendrick Berde! You may call me Mr. Berde, and you are?"
"I am Ruby Rose, but you can just call me-"
"Miss Rose! Ah, what a lovely name!"
I guess you can call me Miss Rose. Although I guess it makes me sound a bit older... "I'm not actually with the group that is coming. I'm from around here, so I figured I could help out.
"Quite an admirable sentiment Miss Rose! Not many are willing to go out of their way to help in these times. It warms my heart that there are youth such as yourself in the world. Now..." Sir Berde sat down, and his expression became a bit more serious. "Perhaps it would be best for us to get down to business."
Ruby blinked at the sudden change in his behavior. He changed attitudes quickly. Although I guess anyone would take this case seriously, no matter how odd they are.
Speaking a bit more slowly, Mr. Berde began to recount "All of this started a week ago. There have been a total of three victims so far." Reaching into his desk, he pulled out several photographs. "Victoria Levinson, Brian McDuff, and James Faldean."
Ruby looked at the photos, and at once felt bile rise in her throat. In the first photo, a middle aged woman was lying on the ground, with what appeared to be a knife wound in her torso. The second photo was similar, with an elderly man whose throat appeared to be cut. The last photo showed someone who looked like he was around Yang's age. His face appeared waterlogged, and there was a note on the bottom stating 'Cause of death, forcibly drowned in a water barrel.'
Trying to force the unpleasant imagery down, Ruby swallowed, and looked up at Mr. Berde. He bleakly continued "We have only one witness to any of these murders. A boy named Jakob Punainen. He claims that the one who killed Mrs. Levinson was a man named John Levinson." Pausing briefly, he sighed "Her husband."
Ruby looked horrified for a moment, and exclaimed "Why would he kill his own wife?"
"It's not likely that he was the culprit. He's been dead for a year. I attended the funeral in person, saw his body get lowered into the ground."
"What?!" Now Ruby looked more confused than horrified.
Mr. Berde nodded. "I honestly don't know what to think of this. I tried to talk with Jakob to figure this out, and unless the culprit was some long lost twin of his, I can't think of any other logical explanation." Standing up from his desk, and motioning for Ruby to follow him, he walked over to the window. "No one else saw the other deaths happen. I may have already talked to him, but it wouldn't hurt for you to try and get his side of the story. Maybe you'll find something I missed. His house is the one painted with a light blue color, its right next to the grey house you can see from here."
Ruby nodded "Sounds good to me." She winced slightly at the wording. Nothing really 'sounds good' about this situation.
The two of them walked back to the desk again. After sitting down, Ruby asked "Has anything else happened recently?"
Mr. Berde seemed to be about to say something, but then he closed his mouth and paused, before sighing and continuing "There have been some strange reports from some of the past few nights. People have sworn that they have seen people walking around in the dead of the night, even though everyone has been mostly locking themselves inside since the start of these incidents." Shuffling a pile of reports, he seemed to brace himself momentarily "All of these sightings have been of people who were dead. This has led to people believing that the murders are being committed by ghosts." Although the words seemed skeptical, his face didn't seem as sure.
Ruby shivered a bit and responded "What do you think?"
"In all honesty, I'm not sure what to think. I don't believe in ghosts really, but after all that's been happening...that belief is being shaken."
There was a long moment of silence, before Ruby stood up and broke it "Well, I should probably get started. I'll talk to Jakob, and a few of these other people, and I'll let you know if I find anything."
Mr. Berde nodded. "I'll just need you to sign these forms, to indicate that you are assisting us."
Ruby quickly wrote her signature on each form, briefly scanning them but for the most part skipping over the contents. Weiss probably wouldn't approve, but I don't think the sheriff is going to try and trick me into signing something bad.
While she was doing this, Mr. Berde walked to another room in the building, bringing a folder with him. He returned with another folder. "I've just made copies of all the related reports and records we have on the case. I'll be giving these to you, in order to help your investigation. Please report any of your finding to me right away." Mr. Berde handed the folder to her. "I wish you luck."
Things seem to be moving along somewhat! Ruby seems to have gotten over the excitement of this new mission rather quickly, but that's to be expected. I would imagine that for the most part, any missions RWBY have done, while they do involve saving people's lives by defeating Grimm or the White Fang, have not necessarily involved instances where they had to deal with people more directly. So this really would be new territory for Ruby at this point, especially since she isn't necessarily the most skilled in social situations.
And any mission where people's deaths are involved may bring up some unpleasant memories as well, after the Battle of Beacon. I would almost be a little disappointed if this isn't touched upon in Volume 4. I'm certain that they will cover grief over Pyrrha's death, and how that affects both Ruby and Jaune, possibly Ren and Nora as well. But there's more to the losses at that battle than the death of a friend. That's going to be part of my goals for this story, to try and convey the impact that the Battle of Beacon has had on Ruby after seeing so much death and sorrow, and not just grief over the loss of her friend.
