Well, here's another chapter. Two in one day? These really are short. Oh well.

Lemme reply to some questions and other things you guys left for me.

97: When I said that thing about opening her eyes, I was referring to her waking up as something different. It was just a way to say that she was awakening. Her eyes at the time held no significance beyond, well, being silver, I guess.

Jiggly Joe: Great name. Seriously. As for the chapters, yeah, I agree. I'm just kinda posting them once I reach a point at which I can end the chapter neatly and I don't feel like writing anymore.

Bomberguy789: Yeah, I guess my intentions could be misconstrued there. Honestly, the only ones who I thought would've been offended by that statement the way I intended it are the Grimm. And you're absolutely right. Just because Ruby can't feel much doesn't mean she's going on a trigger-happy killing spree.

Genesic Savior: I promise I'll answer the question about her original condition!...In about 100k words from now. I'm probably kidding, I think.

To everyone else who expressed interest in this story: Thank you! I really do appreciate it.

PS: It's hard to write a serious fighting scene between a 10 year-old girl and a veteran Huntsman.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own RWBY. Whoever's giving me credit, stop it.

Five years ago...

"Alright, Kid. Do it just as we practiced. I'm not gonna stand here and wait for you forever."

Ruby gulped, nodding her head hesitantly and tightening her grip on her borrowed weapon. She kept her gaze trained on her adoptive dad, who was standing across from her, nonchalantly waving about a stick that was about as large as her own sword.

Despite being riddled with cuts and bruises, fatigue was absent from her mind. Her eyes rapidly scanned over her opponent's body, desperately looking for an opening she could take advantage of.

"Cut that out. That's not going to-" he idly picked up a stone and threw it at the pigeon circling his daughter's head "-help you in a fight." he commanded.

There was a slight pause before her response came. "Huh? Cut what out? I thought 'as we practiced' involved searching for openings?" she continued to dart her eyes around.

"No, not that. What I want you to stop doing is that whole desperation thing you're trying to pull off."

Ruby widened her eyes by a fraction. "That too. You're supposed to be in a fight for your life right now. You don't have time to act like someone you're not. It's just going to slow you down. Save that stuff for when you're not facing an enemy."

Ruby arranged her features to express confusion. "But this is how I am. It's natural. There's nothing I can do about it." Qrow shot her a disbelieving look.

"Yeah, and you're actually my daughter, conceived between my sister and I." Ruby made a gagging sound at his poor joke.

"That's nasty, Dad!" Ruby made an exaggerated show of being disgusted. He rolled his eyes and adopted his professional attitude once again.

"My point is, that's a load of crap. We both know it. And It's exactly because it's not natural that I even have to make an issue of it."

"But..." Qrow continued staring, waiting patiently for her to finish. "Before we left, Dad- not 'you' Dad, but 'Daddy' Dad- instructed me to always remember to arrange my features and act appropriately at all times, so people didn't think I was weird." she pointed her eyes at the ground, looking guilty.

Qrow sighed at the sight. Everything she did...it all looked so 'real'. He had been fighting her for over an hour already and it took him until just then to point out what she was doing wrong. He mentally berated himself. She was likely, no, definitely, acting this way because it was the first spar in which he was actually coming at her with the intent to cause her harm. Every blow he landed, were it with his real weapon, would've been fatal to the girl, and Ruby knew that.

She had picked up the ability to sense negative emotions, after all.

Faced with something new for the first time, she fell back on her habit of trying to act like Ruby Rose.

Qrow signaled for a time out. Ruby relaxed her muscles and thrust the sword into the ground. He walked to her side and comfortingly placed his left hand on her back. Ruby looked up at him with sorrowful eyes, begging him to say something.

"Ruby, I'm not saying that you have to-" he grabbed the hilt of his weapon and removed it from the ground, then pointed it behind them. The clockwork mechanism in his blade whirred to life, shifting the grip into a position perpendicular to the blade. He pulled the trigger and an unfortunate Beowolf met with a spread shot through it's skull. "-stop acting or anything."

Confusion appeared once more. "But you said-"

"I said that you shouldn't waste time searching for and forcing a reaction in battle. That kind of stuff can make the difference between life and death for a Huntsman."

Understanding seemed to settle in her eyes. "So, then, it's fine for me to forget about acting 'natural' when I'm up against an opponent?" she questioned.

Another sigh. "That's what I've been saying from the start, Kid. You really need to work on your hearing," he teased.

"Hey, take that back! I take pride in my impa- impi-..." her father snorted mockingly.

"Impeccable?" he suggested.

"Yeah, my implacable hearing!" she puffed her cheeks out in indignation. He moved his hand to let it rest on her head, messing up her hair.

"Right. Don't grow up too fast, Rubes."

"Ahaha." she laughed. At the sound she made, Qrow brought a hand to his mouth and looked away, desperately trying to control his own laughter from spilling out. Of course, he failed.

Ruby pouted as her father spent a good half of a minute guffawing at her failed attempt at a laugh. She knew it was a little weird, but it wasn't that bad...right?

"Ha...sorry, Ruby. That always gets me. Though, forget fighting, I think we need to work on your poor excuse for laughter more than anything else," he grinned. He also extended the barrel of his shotgun and exterminated an Ursa that wandered a bit too close for his liking. "Let's get back to it then. Here." he switched his weapon back into its blade form and handed the hilt to Ruby. "Remember what I told you; give your enemy your undivided attention."

"Didn't you just kill an Ursa while having fits of laughter?"

"Yeah, what about it?" he gave her a cocky grin, knowing exactly what she was attempting to refer to.

"...Never mind."

She calmly focused on her enemy. Her eyes dragged across his posture, taking in any openings in his stance. He stood with his weight distributed evenly, sans the stick that unbalanced the right side of his body, even if only a little. Obviously, he was uncomfortable with wielding something so light compared to the sword/shotgun/scythe hybrid that she had in her hands.

On the other hand, she was used to the weapon in her hands, though it really was a bit too heavy for her to swing about freely. She had undergone strength training with her father since she was seven, but there's only so much muscle a little girl could build in three years.

As she was now, she had no choice but to end it quickly. She was already fatigued from the past hour of training, her muscles screaming in protest of simply holding the sword above the ground.

She needed a plan. Logically, her brain told at her, there was no way she could defeat Qrow. However, she didn't need to actually reduce his Aura to 15% to win. This wasn't a tournament, but a spar.

One hit. If she could score one hit, she would consider it a success. Against a Huntsman of her father's caliber, it was almost impossible.

Qrow's eyes narrowed when he saw his adoptive daughter's red eyes shine brightly, leaving behind a red glow whenever they moved. The muscles in his legs tensed, he stepped forward with his right foot, and pushed off.

Ruby, if she was still bothering with the whole acting thing, would've been surprised. She had seen him move that fast only once before, when she and Yang had went to look Yang's mother, only to be attacked by a pack of Grimm.

Though, right now, she couldn't afford any distraction. She took a breath and observed. She didn't bother looking everywhere. She didn't have to. Her eyes skipped over his legs, payed no heed to the large stick in his right hand, and instead focused on his empty left.

The common people, faunus, and Huntsmen/Huntresses shared one misconception concerning Grimm. They all knew that the Grimm had some sort of ability to sense negative emotions, and that the creatures were drawn to them. That much was true. A rare smile found it's way onto her face without her knowing. She bathed in the murderous intent emitted by her father.

What they didn't know, however, was that the Grimm could actually see them. It wasn't some abstract sixth sense, but rather one linked to their sight, like some sort of synesthesia. Hence, she didn't bother trying to figure out how Qrow would strike her. She saw the rope of black smoke connecting his left fist to her solar plexus. That's where his intent to harm was focused.

Ruby baited the old crow, purposely leaving her abdomen unguarded, and waited for the moment after he feinted to act.

After forcing her to block an overhead strike from his weapon, Ruby made her move. In the blink of an eye, Qrow's fist was nearing her plexus, ready to deliver a strike that would definitely send her to the hospital.

Ruby was waiting for that moment. She let go of her sword, which was still holding back his weapon, and with a speed that proved to be about half as fast as her father's, she swiveled to the left. With his weapon no longer meeting resistance, he stumbled forward.

While he was off balance, she clenched her right fist and sent a blow to his stomach. It wouldn't do much, considering her build didn't allow much in the way of strength yet, but it was still one hit, like she promised herself.

Her fist was only an inch away from his body when she saw that cocky grin.

Faster than she could perceive, he pulled the same move she had used earlier, pivoting to the side. Like he had done earlier, she stumbled forward from putting all of her weight into her punch.

For a moment, right after he moved, Ruby saw that the rope had changed locations. Make no mistake, it was still attached to her solar plexus. However, the end that should've been attached to Qrow's left hand had moved down to his right knee. The knee that was currently folding her body in half.

Her body fell limply to ground as she spat up globs of spit and blood.

She heard the perpetrator crouch down next to her. "See, Ruby? This is why we need to improve your speed and reaction time. And that's not even mentioning that pitiful strength of yours. Though," he wore a proud smile on his face. "That attack? You probably would've gotten most trainees at Beacon with something like that." Ruby, once her coughing settled down, looked up at the older man. "Pretty good for a kid who's seven years younger than the youngest of them all. One who doesn't even have Aura, at that."

She didn't manage to get even a single hit in. She didn't accomplish what she was trying to do. However...

'Ruby...' she thought, 'This would make me happier than anything else, I think.'

And so she sent her biggest smile back up at her adoptive father. "I think that I did my best today!" she exclaimed.

"Yeah, kiddo, I think you did, too." he replaced his proud expression with a teasing smile. "That is, for someone who wasn't even able to get in a single hit." Ruby figured she should probably be mad at that, so she made her face fall. "For someone normally so smart, you really showed me how dumb you can be sometimes. Did you really think I wouldn't try to hide my intent from you? After you yourself told me you could visually see where I was going to strike?"

Ruby knew she should be kinda embarrassed at that, but it was really hard to force a blush, so she settled for an embarrassed laugh. "Ahaha."

Qrow burst into laughter once more.