Chapter 1
The trees were singing. The cold fall wind could make anything sing, whether it be the falling leaves, the whispering willows, or the townsfolk when Jack's wind starts to cut against their once warm skin. Blood ran colder during the fall and winter season.
Little Red knew this well.
Day after day after day, she was subjected—no, she allowed herself to be beaten and doused in cold freezing water by her mother. Mother dearest did love her of course, Red knew that well but, if she wanted to become a Rose, no punches could be held back.
And so her tiny body hardened against the cold air. Her skeleton mirroring hard steel beams with each time they were broken, the pain becoming duller and duller as time went on. Her immune system, so to say, was as deadly a killer as she.
She was trained to be the perfect killer, yet still gave off the look of a cute girl on the outside, for the assassination was not simply the act of killing. It was a dance of death and seduction; all bunched into a body that barely reached five foot three.
She mulled over this as she stared in the mirror as she began to pull out her uniform for her new school.
The Beacon Academy uniform was nothing impressive. A pleated skirt reaching just above the knees for the girls, along with a dress skirt and a blazer. The dashes of color were light; a light red-orange along with the skirt with a similar tie, all against the black of the blazer and the white of the shirt. Plain, yet it spoke words to her accomplishments. Not every child gets to go to Beacon.
She turned towards her mirror before dying a bit inside—whatever cruel mistress that controlled bed head had it out for her. She groaned before grabbing her towel that hung near her mirror and going to the bathroom that connected to her room.
Twenty minutes later, her hair finally took on its usual look—down and slightly longer on her left side with two small cowlicks forming at the sides of her head. No matter how hard she brushed as a child, they never went away. She twirled a strand of hair in her fingers, seeing how red the ends were.
"Why...does Rose hair get so red?"
She didn't have the answer to her question, and Ruby was sure even her mother didn't know.
No matter, it wasn't the time to ask such questions. She had to finish packing, Beacon was a boarding school, and so far, she only had one of her two bags packed.
The next hour was spent carefully picking out casual clothes, along with the necessary toiletries. She was about finished when she heard a knock against her door.
"Ruby sweetie? Are you awake?"
The voice of an angel. She swore whenever her mother spoke it was the voice of an angel, granting her divine words.
"Mhmm, come in mom!"
Summer Rose looked like a much older version of her daughter. Her hair was much longer, going halfway down her shoulders. Her features were defined and one could make the argument that her body was more 'endowed' than her younger daughter.
"You almost ready red?"
Red was the nickname everyone called her. It's been stuck with her for the longest time. She was her mother's little red killer, her hair was just part of it.
"Yeah! Hehe, are dad and Yang still asleep?"
Summer sighed and nodded, the two dragons slept just like their namesakes. She sat down on Ruby's bed whilst the girl continued to pack her remaining few items, including a small container.
"You're taking your gun I see."
"Yeah...is that okay?"
Ruby's gun was a gift from her mother, who likewise was given it from her mother. It was a pistol fashioned to look like a much older model. The modern killer had a silly name for itself. The Mauser C96 pistol was good in its time, but the Rose's have made it something deadly.
"Of course. You know before I gave you it, I had it customized for you."
Ruby knew it too well when she was using it during her time in the Junior Academy. Each shot was like shooting a sniper rifle, without the relief from the recoil the size of a sniper gave. If it was anyone else, they would have had a broken arm, but little red didn't break so easily.
"Yeah! The recoil's wicked but you trained me for it, and the internal silencer leaves it looking beautiful, it's such a pretty model!"
Summer chuckled, she knew how crazy her youngest daughter was about weapons. She ruffled her hair, earning a small slap to her hand to bat it away. She chuckled again before standing up and walking towards the door.
"Get ready soon Red, You're leaving in 20 minutes. We wasted enough time as is."
Ruby nodded, before picking up her finished suitcase and wheeling it out to go with the one already by the door. She decided to keep the pistol on her body, hiding it in the holster she wore under her blazer, testing her quickdraw from it before placing it back and going towards the living room.
"You want some pancakes?"
Summer yelled from her spot in the kitchen and Ruby gave a similarly loud reply, before grabbing the remote and flipping the channels. She stopped on the news broadcast; a killer does need to stay informed after all.
"A recent string of murders has been continued just last night, the killer, known now as the cigar killer, has been tied to these murders so far."
"His call sign—a cigar half-smoked left on his victim's eyes—has been found on each of the victims of last night's murders. I'm Alysha with news channel 4, bringing you today's events."
Red flicked off the television finding the 'cigar killer' such a boring person. She could've done better work.
"Morning Rubes..."
A large mass of golden hair greeted her as it fell onto the couch adjacent to Ruby's.
"Heya Yang!"
Yang Xiao Long was a dragon. Her half-sister, Ruby Rose, and she were a duo to be feared. While Red was small and petite, Yang had much larger 'assets' to say the least. Ruby remembered when a guy tried to go onto her one night when Yang brought her to Juniors.
It was safe to say his funeral was a quiet one that day. Yang was to be feared when someone tried to mess with her family.
The Xiao Longs' came from a distinguished line of brutal killers and shinobi back when they had ties to Mistral the East. It was said they derived their power from the ancient dragons of old, allowing them to have such power in combat.
It also explained why Yang and her father took forever to wakeup.
"You ready Rubes? It's your first day at Beacon!!"
Yang was standing in front of her sister at this point, with a smile that just brightened up the cold morning. She grabbed Ruby by the underarms, with a yelp from the small rose, and squeezed her like no tomorrow.
Yang's infamous bear hugs.
"Yang! Can't...breathe..."
Yang let good and chuckled, ruffling Ruby's hair, earning her a slap on the wrist as well.
"Seriously what's with everyone and my hair today? First mom than you!"
Ruby fixed her hair, with Yang chuckling at her. Even if they were half-sisters, they shared many traits.
"Anyways, are you ready? Beacon's such a fun place. You'll love it for your first year!"
Yang was a second year at Beacon Academy. In actuality, there were talks that perhaps Ruby could have skipped ahead, and while the family was all for it, the higher up council was against it.
It was against tradition, thus leading her to be a year separate, yet no matter, It was a school for killers.
Ruby believe or not was a quiet and timid child, her outward persona was one of a ruthless and cynical killer, yet inside...
She was scared shitless and wanted with all her might to kill the men who didn't let her skip ahead.
It was funny really, nobody who knew her at surface level would expect a girl like her to be so shy around new people, but Yang knew. She looked at Ruby and smiled before placing her hand on her head again, and Ruby looked up.
"You can come to visit me anytime you want Rubes, I'm sure the girls would love to see you again!"
Ruby smiled before hearing a timer ding in the kitchen. Her mother's pancakes had finished, and with only 10 minutes to spare at that. She ate quickly, not wasting any time and waited while her mother grabbed one of her many car keys to drop her off at the airship station.
It was going to be a fun year.
AN
Hey, I'm alive! Yeah, so it been like three months since I last wrote? Sorry bout that, I've been writing this one chapter for like that entire time. It wasn't hard I just needed some time to find out where I wanted to go with the story. Turns out, I still don't know! If anything I'm gonna makes it actually flow like I'm keeping continuity and actually telling a flowing story not rushing into things. We won't see Velvet in chapter 4. I don't know if she'll get her own parts as of right now, but I wanna work on what I had laid out already and try to make it flow better. I'm going to college this year so hopefully, I can write some chapters then! Also due to the recent bad things this year I have plenty of time to write haha, so maybe I'll even get a second chapter out. If anything it's biweekly to weekly. No set schedule besides at least once a month maybe two. Thanks for reading!