This is a fanfic. BUY THE FUCKING MERCHANDISE!
With new day, another day at school. But this day had a new twist to it.
Standing outside of Signal Academy, a 15-year-old Minato Arisato (politely declining the last name Xiao Long or Branwen) was waiting at the entrance of the school. Normally, he would be waiting for Yang to arrive and they would head home together or even grocery shop before going back to the house.
But not today. Currently, it was the first day of a new school year. That meant that there was entirely new batch of children attending Signal Academy. Since Ruby was 2 years younger than him and Yang, the little sister of the blonde was going to be amongst the pack.
His back was leaning against the gate, watching the tsunami of teenage people stroll past him. Most completely ignored him, not knowing or caring about his presence. But those that gave him looks, he knew that they were in the same year as him. He recognized faces and Minato also had a bit of an infamous reputation.
The kid that was considered emo but then managed to somehow form a relationship and was going out with Yang Xiao Long. A bit of a tag that was whispered in the halls occasionally which became a nuisance if one did ask for Minato's opinion.
…What he thinking about before that? Something about waiting…
Ah, right, he was waiting for Ruby.
Which begged the question, where was she at the moment?
Y13
The day was finally over.
Ruby trudged to the gates of Signal, a little bruised and weary but otherwise she thought she had covered herself well. She didn't want any of her family to worry about her.
Her first day at Signal Academy… it was terrible. None of her friends from elementary went to Signal, so she was one of the only kids that didn't know one another. She tried to initiate a conversation, just like how her sister would do so with Minato, but it yielded no positive results.
Not only that, she was teased or picked on mercilessly at the same time. She was tripped in the hallways. She was roughed up a few times by a few girls. She was mocked when she shared what kinds of interests she had.
However, despite the terrible day she was having, all of those bad feelings went straight out of the window once she caught sight of familiar blue hair at the school gates.
"Minato!" Ruby chirped up, waving her hands wildly and running towards the boy.
"Ruby." Minato nodded his head, patiently keeping his weight against the gates. He watched as the smaller girl approached him.
When she was right next to him, Minato started to turn around and lead Ruby back to their home. His step was halted as he took a double take of his charge. Very light-blue eyes narrowed as he scanned the teenager up and down. The girl with red highlights had faint bruises peppering her small form that couldn't possibly be from just mere clumsiness alone and raw pained emotion practically bleeding out of those silver orbs despite the other's best attempt to hide it.
Wordlessly, the boy frowned slightly as male fingers grabbed the girl's arm, dragging her roughly to an unknown direction.
"Minato?"
"Be quiet Ruby."
Ruby flinched slightly at the curt, cold tone. She barely ever heard Minato ever like that recently. In fact, there was perhaps never a time when she was with him did the boy ever even speak so harshly. Was… Minato angry? Why would he be like that? Ruby didn't understand why.
There was a tense silence between the two until finally the male had found a place that satisfied him. Silently they went in, ordered a table for two while telling them something, and ungraciously pulled the confused rather scared girl onto a chair. Looking at their surroundings, Ruby realized that they were in a café. Now she was just plain confused.
"Minato, I don-"
"Ruby, I want you to tell me the truth." Minato seated himself but leaned forward so they were at eye level. His voice was low and slightly gravelly but the strange thing was there was no trace of the usual boy's neutral tone. It was all so suddenly serious that the female just wordlessly nodded much to the other's satisfaction.
"Good. Now – are you being… bullied?"
Ruby's figure froze for a second. She didn't want to tell the truth. It was like admitting how weak, how pathetic she was. Unable to fight back against measly words and simple harassment.
It was simply humiliating.
Minato saw that Ruby was biting her lip to stop tears that threatened to escape. He sighed and softened his gaze. His right hand hovered hesitantly over the girl's shoulder before rather gently resting it on her, giving a slight squeeze as he did so. "Ruby…" He started off. "…It's okay. If you think I'll think badly of you, I won't. So…"
But the teenage girl wouldn't speak… Or she couldn't. It was like the words had knotted together and gotten stuck at the back of her throat. Any attempt to say it felt like there were little hands scraping her brain in an attempt to stop her. She didn't know what it was, but something had overridden everything.
Minato made some sort of gurgling strangled sound that seemed to be a mix of a sigh and a groan of frustration. Ruby was not talking, and that was a bad sign. He was trying to figure out how to approach the situation now, since being blunt about it was not working.
"Ruby… if it makes you feel any better…" He started talking again, scratching his blue hair almost uncomfortably if the girl didn't know better. "I know what it's like. I was singled out for many things. A lot of the time because of how I looked and or acted."
Ruby immediately caught onto the message. But it was also obvious since Minato practically did tell her what she already knew but was now reminded. "People were… mean to you too?"
The blue-haired figure scratched the back of his neck, eyes looking down at the table. He kept himself from actually falling over though due to using both hands again to support his body. "…Yeah, people were… mean to me." Minato worded his answer to slightly mimic Ruby's question.
"Th-they called you names?"
"Yeah."
"They made fun of your mistakes?"
"Yeah." Minato's eyes narrowed and teeth uncharacteristically gritted, not because of embarrassment but to hold back some anger for the one he was in charge of at the moment. His days of being harassed were long over but he could still remember the bad feelings and helplessness. It was not pleasing to him that Ruby was experiencing the same thing.
"A-and they tried to take your clothes too?"
"Y-" Minato almost answered immediately. But then his mind caught himself in an instant. Slowly looking up, he stared neutrally. But really, it was taking most of his effort to keep a straight face. "I'm sorry. What?" He asked with a bit of edge to his tone.
Ruby blushed nervously, her large eyes still glittering but no longer threatening to overflow with tears. That fact however did not sooth Minato's negative feelings at the moment. "They… ah… said they… didn't believe I was a girl…" The female murmured timidly.
Minato wondered for about a second of Yang, Qrow, and Tai were all becoming an influence to him. Inwardly he was swearing all the obscenities he had heard toward the high-school pervs for ever trying to think of stripping the girl. Telling a teacher or any other adult authority was going to be a second thing to do. The first thing was most likely going to have to teach those kids a vital lesson in pain and common sense.
He even forced himself to unclench his hands on the table because with anymore force in them he would end up breaking his own fingers at this rate.
"Ruby. Did they… succeed?" Minato managed to get out.
The girl with red highlighted hair tilted her head to the side, raising an eyebrow. "Why is that important?"
So it would tell Minato determine something. Whether he and his Semblance beat the bastards half to death first; or get Yang to beat and burn them half dead before stuffing them inside his Semblance's coffins to toss them into Grimm-infested waters! "Because Ruby… Just because."
Ruby tilted her head to the other side in thought before nodding and letting it go. Nope! I kicked them away and waved around a knife Qrow secretly gave me! You should have seen their faces!" The girl smiled proudly.
"…" Minato immediately made a mental note to both scold and then maybe praise the man later for giving Ruby that knife.
…The others really were rubbing off on him.
Both looked at each other, light-blue/grey and silver staring into each other intently. Then those silver eyes flashed beautifully and Ruby smiled just as brightly. Despite the darkening bruises peppered on her skin and the ugly scrapes decorating her at that moment to Minato, the girl was glowing.
Getting off of her seat, Ruby shuffled over to the other side of the table. Hoisting herself up to the chair next to Minato, she then hugged the boy when she sat down. Minato had his arms raised, surprised at the sudden action. But he eventually wrapped one arm around her shoulder and pulled her in with a bit of an awkward look on his face.
When Minato released her, Ruby blinked after a few seconds before realizing that she should let go as well.
At that moment, a waitress came up holding a tray full of consumables that looked like they were completely full of sugar. "One strawberry shortcake, one milk, and a root beer float all right here." She informed the two of them, placing the tray down to distribute the plates. "Is there anything I missed or you need?"
Minato shook his head, politely declining. Ruby meanwhile was just staring in awe at the size of the cake and drinks they received. "Is… is this really for us?" She questioned as the one who had served them walked away.
"You looked like you needed something to cheer you up." Minato simply replied back, dragging the glass of milk in front of himself while beginning to cut up the cake. It probably was not the greatest idea to feed Ruby a large amount of cake in the middle of the afternoon before dinner. But he could consider giving her one or two slices for a snack. Maybe three if he were feeling generous. The rest would have to be leftover for everyone else.
When Ruby saw that Minato had taken the milk, she assumed the root beer float was for her. Shrugging her shoulders, she began to consume the combination of soda and ice-cream.
"Hey everyone, check it out, it's the red-hooded nerd."
Ruby was too busy enjoying her drink and food, so Minato was the one to look over. "…" He decided not to say anything, seeing that there was a small group consisting of boys and girls looking like they had just come from a stereotype punk themed boutique.
"Look at her." Another one attempted a verbal jab. "Completely ignoring us. How could she do that to her new friends?" One seemed to mock.
"Hah, think she's trying to eat her worries away?" There was a third taunt.
…What was the first option Minato was going to do again? Ah, right. He was going to beat the bullies black and blue.
But before he could even move, Ruby suddenly grabbed the pepper shaker and smashed it right against of the heads among the group. Right after, without giving anyone time to respond or even comprehend what had happened, she then grabbed the salt shaker before jumping into the air and slamming it against another bully.
Rushing over to what looked like a counter full of condiments, she squirted some mustard into a container and ran back to cram it into a third face. No one still had the time to even know what was going on before Ruby went back and forth to suddenly splash several packets of vinegar on a fourth person.
"PEPPER, SALT, MUSTARD, VINEGAR!" Ruby chanted in an extremely hyper speed with an energetic tone in time with each respected condiment used. Standing back up on her chair all of a sudden, she had her hands on her hips and chest puffed out as if she were a superior person. "WHEN I'M THROUGH, YOU'LL ALL BE SKINNIER!"
A single battle cry escaped her lips immediately before leaping into the group and proceeded to beat them up.
Minato watched with his face seeming to be just the slightest bit bewildered. Ruby zipped all around the punks, punching, kicking, even biting them viciously. He tried to think about what could have caused Ruby to quickly change attitudes from content to hyper, energetic and a bit crazy.
Ruby rushed back to her table and grabbed her drink. "BEWARE, EVIL BULLIES, FOR I AM THE ROSE OF JUSTICE!" She yelled before chugging the rest of what was in the glass. Slamming the object down, she wiped her mouth with her sleeve then pointed dramatically with that exact arm. "NOW FEEL MY PRICK!"
As Minato just continued to watch Ruby laugh maniacally while becoming a blur of rose petals, it began to click.
Ruby was drinking a root beer float…
A root beer float…
Root beer…
Soda.
"Hey Minato, girls, I bought you a new game!"
Tai's presence and intentions were known through the Xiao Long (and Arisato all but Minato argued) household as he walked through the door. Several footsteps were heard going down the stairs. Ruby was faster, being the first one already on the ground floor. Yang was second and Minato was third due to their moderate pacing.
"Ooh, what did you get, what did you get, what did you get?" Ruby asked, stuck on repeat in an eager fashion.
Reaching into a bag, Tai pulled out a game case. "I got Blazeblue Cross Tag Battle!"
"That's so awesome!" Ruby snatched the object from Tai's hands.
"Oi, Rubes, let me have a look too!" Yang chimed in as well, trying to get a good view of their new game.
Minato meanwhile did not crowd around the two girls, but instead walked up until he was a foot away from Tai. "Thanks." He nodded his head.
Tai only smiled. "No problem. Just look at it though. Yeah, Blazblue is in it. The Under Night In Birth cast is better though. But the absolutely best part is that my girls are in it: And all of your favourite Persona characters!"
As soon as Tai said that, both girl stopped fighting over holding the case and looked over towards Tai with blank eyes. "…Then why isn't Minato in this game?" Yang deadpanned.
"…Umm…" Tai looked at Minato awkwardly while the boy just shrugged his shoulders. "Your favourite characters from Persona 4?"
"Then why is Aigis in the cast?" Ruby replied dully.
"…Okay, you girls and Minato have fun now! I've got work so I won't be here for dinner!"
No one could even reply and Tai was suddenly out of the door. "Well, who wants to go first then?" Yang asked, holding up the case so that Ruby couldn't grab it. "I'll set up the game."
"I call dibs on playing!" Ruby exclaimed. "I'm just going to grab some snacks for us!"
As the red-hooded girl rushed into the kitchen, Minato walked over to help Yang boot up the game. It was an extremely simple process. But in the middle of getting everything ready, Minato heard a loud belch in the kitchen followed by the sound of clattering metal.
Curious, he walked over and almost had Ruby splat face first onto his body. Watching the two girls, Minato peeked into the kitchen. In the middle of the floor, he saw Zwei licking a small puddle that had a few bubbles in it.
"…This can't be good." Minato said to himself.
Y13
Minato just decided to watch, seeing how intense Yang and Ruby got when playing competitive video games against one another. He thought about interfering at first, but his suggestion was answered with two controllers being smacked in his face.
He could practically hear their thumbs moving around at such high speed and coordination that he could almost say he was impressed at the display… What they were saying though… was basically them a bit too immersed into the game.
"Hah! Hoo hoo, huah!" Ruby breathed, as if she were the one attacking. Watching herself go around on screen, she made a quick motion with her thumbs. "Rifle shot!"
Yang meanwhile was being surprisingly quiet at the moment, seeming to be incredibly focused.
"Tri-pod!" Ruby exclaimed, using her special move. Unfortunately for her, Yang had herself on screen jump over the attack and end up behind Ruby before using a super.
"Can you take this?!" Yang asked, when her super was hitting Ruby. "Well?!"
"Ow! Guh! Shit! Augh! God damn it! Fuck! Ow!" Ruby swore up a storm as she was getting hit from Yang's super. It was not a good situation for her considering that she only had one character left while Yang still had her two. Continuously grunting in frustration, Ruby took a quick peek at her health bar. "No, I need to live!" She exclaimed, seeing how she practically had no health left and that there was only a red bar which was her regenerative health.
Seeing how she was still assaulted, Ruby quick initiated a push block. With a quick tap on her controller, Ruby activated her powered-up state. "Let's resonance this shit, bitch! Hah, huah, hah!" Ruby made her character zip all over the screen, trying to eventually catch Yang.
A couple of seconds later, Ruby saw that Yang had called out an assist. But that was a fatal mistake. Yang also realized it as well, so she quickly tired to change partners. The blonde did succeed in switching, but her original character was still left in the open.
"Screw your ice shard!" Ruby exclaimed, hitting both of Yang's characters at the same time while beginning a deadly combo. "Happy birthday, bitches!" Her button mashing was actually a proper string of attacks as she almost killing her sister's team. "Eat my god damn Crescent Rose!" She shouted while doing her super.
[Down!] The game exclaimed, showing that one of Yang's characters had just died.
Ruby exhaled in a disturbingly calm manner. "Let's do this…" She muttered to herself, waiting for her sister's last character to go in. She waited for the perfect timing… and then… "Hey Yang, everyone only likes your character because you look like a slut!"
"What?!" Yang exclaimed, taking her eyes off of the screen to glare at Ruby with red eyes that promised pain.
At the same time, Yang's character came flying across the screen. Ruby knew this was coming though, and commanded a jump so that the hit would miss her. Hitting the character, Ruby quickly did another motion. "Oh, I am so top-tier!" She yelled as her character's instant kill began to play out. "RUBY ROSE DOESN'T LOSE!"
[Astral Finish! Ruby! Blake! Win!]
"Haha!" Ruby laughed, grinning like an idiot. She then looked over to her side and saw that Yand was still glaring at her. "…Uh oh…"
Y13
A new round had started, and Yang had blown off all of the steam she needed after that pervious fight.
It wasn't anything Ruby couldn't handle.
In the middle of this new fight, Yang was dominating. Sure, one of her characters was badly hurt, but she currently had herself out there, and she was absolutely wrecking.
"This is too easy!" Yang exclaimed, killing Ruby's first character.
As there were two characters on the screen once more, the both of them kept on inputting jump commands. "Holy shit, I keep forgetting how much range your Crescent Rose has!" Yang stated, jumping backwards as Ruby was being aggressive.
Calling for an assist, Yang made her character go over and past Ruby. Ruby however blocked the attack properly. Tapping Ruby with a light attack, Yang then inputted her command grab and put Ruby into the corner. "This is over!" Yang exclaimed, tapping the normal attack buttons before activating super.
But her attack didn't come out when the command grab animation was still happening. When Yang had activated her super, Ruby's character was already recovered. Quickly, she activated her partner's super so her main character could escape.
Ruby blocked that attack as well. She then quickly activated resonance and used a super of her own. "Eat my Crescent Rose again!"
"NOOOOOOOOO!" Yang roared, watching her characters being absolutely demolished due to another mistake she had made. "Oh god, shit, god, she's so angry!"
[Down!] The game announced, Yang's partner dying because of the blonde.
"Oh god, where's my character?" The blonde's eyes quickly darted around the screen. She then saw her character get up and activate their powered up state. Yang immediately activated resonance in order to recover some health.
It was one on one again, the two of them had to be careful. Both of their characters were in resonance, which meant they each had enough power and resources to kill one another.
"Fuck…" Yang mumbled to herself, moving back and forth on the ground. "Fuck-fuck-fuck- Got you, bitch!"
Being wary, Yang forced her character to run forward. Hoping Ruby would continue to block, Yang had her character grab Ruby's. Her cheer came from the result watching her punch Ruby in the game. But it wasn't over yet. "Here it comes!" Yang then inputted the same motions Ruby did last match.
The blonde's character suddenly started absolutely beating Ruby's in a series of painful punches that just did not stop. "NOW EAT SHIT AND DIE, YOU!" She absolutely roared at the TV.
[Astral Finish! Yang! Weiss! Win!]
Yang then grabbed Ruby by her collar and dragger her up to her face. "VIDEO GAAAMES!" She then shoved Ruby back onto the couch while chuckling evilly. "Take that, Ruby! I'll have a drink. You know what I want."
Growling, Ruby got up off of the couch while grumbling angrily to herself. As the red-hooded girl went into the kitchen, Yang patted the seat where her sister used to sit. "Come on, Minato, let's go a couple of rounds."
"…" Minato looked at the spot previously occupied by Ruby before eyeing Yang. "Was that really necessary to say to Ruby?" He asked, sitting down and grabbing the controller.
"Ah, don't worry. We both just like to trash talk each other when we play against each other." Yang reminded the blue-haired male. She then went back to the character selection menu before looking over to the kitchen door. "Oh, Ruby," She sang. "Your saltiness is making me thirsty!"
What came next completely caught Yang and Minato by surprise.
"THERE'S MORE TO LIFE THAN YOUR PATHETIC WIMPY, FANCY DRINK! AND YOU KNOW WHAT?! YOUR LUST FOR THIS DRINK IS MAKING ME ANGRY! YOU WON'T LIKE IT WHEN I'M ANGRY! I GET HORNY – I START TO MASTURBATE – AND I CUM ALL OVER THE PLACE! THE FLUIDS JUST SPRAYING ABSOLUTELY EVERYWHERE! YOU SEE THESE WALLS?! WELL THEY'RE NOT GOING TO BE BROWN ANYMORE – I'LL PAINT THEM WHITE… WITH MY CUM!"
"…" Silently, Minato started to hide his face in his hands while groaning. He could have gone through his life without ever hearing that monologue but life had to mess with him.
Yang on the other hand. "…You make a good point." She nodded her head. "I'll have a chocolate milk."
"NOW THAT'S MORE LIKE IT!"
AHAHAH! I LIED! IT'S REALLY A RANDOM OMAKE YOU ALL FIND DISGUSTING! And yes, soda is deadly when given to the wrong person.
No flames please.