The early morning air that hung around Vale was humid, something Ruby Rose had grown accustomed to over the course of the year. Waking up ridiculously early and preparing herself for the day, it was a wild shift from her schedule back when Yang and her were attending Signal. After all, they didn't have to be there at five in the morning. It was at seven, which for some freaks would be little difference at all. But for a milk loving, gradually growing girl like her, it was an absolute nightmare!
But now that she was walking through the dimly lit and unoccupied streets of Vale, Ruby had to admit there was a certain charm to it. The silence it brought was always enough to get her in an introspective mood, thinking about the topics she usually wouldn't have any interest in. Like the normalization of non-mechashift weapons in the Huntsmen field. She didn't think it was a bad idea at all, if anything she encouraged it among those just starting their huntsman career; Normal weapons were easier to handle, they were very cheap to maintain and overall they had less opportunities to jam on you unlike mechashift weapons.
It was an unfortunate reality, but Mechashift weapons were slowly dying out due to their expensive nature. She could attest to that personally with the sheer amount of money she's had to spend on her beloved Crescent Rose, a scythe-rifle hybrid that she hung up in favor of running the shop over her semester break.
The passing roar of a car popped Ruby out of her inner thoughts.
She sighed as she waited by a crosswalk. The only things that could break her out of these introspective moments would depend. Sometimes it would be from the odd car passing by, and other times a person who was also commuting in the same direction as her would go out of their way to start small talk.
Now, if she had been the same Ruby Rose that attended Signal, the one who slept, bathed, and practically treated her weapon like a baby, she would be left a silent bubbling mess. But as she was now? She'd like to believe she could be a "social butterfly" if she really wanted to. But she wasn't Yang. Her older sister was the life of the party wherever she went, always smiling and doing whatever she wanted with no hint of embarrassment or regret, and did she mention Yang had pretty hair? Meanwhile, most of her conversations were done for the sake of business, a way to get a sale from her customers and send them off on their merry way.
Okay, so maybe she wasn't as socially adept as she'd like to believe, but it's not like she needed to be when it came to her business. The act of selling an item to an individual wasn't hard if you know what you're talking about. In her case, she specialized in the legal sales of firearms. From pistols that are meant for self-defense against any would-be thug roaming the streets of Vale, or a semi auto rifle for home defense, it was her belief that the average citizen of Vale should own a firearm to defend themselves in these trying times.
So of course The Council would take offense to that. With law after law slimming down the types of weapons she could sell to the general public, it was no wonder the amount of crime would start ramping up again! Even if she didn't agree with it, she could understand why an anti-material rifle would be taken off the market, but .300 BLK? That was just unnecessary!
Another point. The broken window of the store that conveniently was right next to hers, From Dust Till Dawn. It had a healthy amount of yellow police tape covering the broken windows of the store, so the incident had been done and over with for a while now, and thankfully for her fast beating heart, her store didn't seem to be affected by the event either.
Her brisk jog came to a stop as she approached the entrance of her store. It was a smaller store in comparison to its more roughed neighbor, but what it lacked in size, the coziness more than made up for it. At least, that's what the young redhead thought as she entered the small store.
The first thing that greeted the young girl was a dimly lit red neon sign with the words 'Guns and Roses' making up its frame. The counter, which was big enough to stretch across her whole store, had a plethora of small arms weapons on display, while the bigger and harder hitting weapons rested nicely along the walls of the store and conveniently behind the counter too. And lastly there was the rest of the space she dedicated for all the different ammunition types under the proverbial rainbow. That, and some dust infused bullet packs. But those fancy fellows cost a pretty penny and were more often than not a real hassle to get.
Really, if the SDC wanted to kill off the dust ammo market, they were doing one heck of a good job at it.
The young redhead made her way to the counter, and after almost tripping a few times in the darkened store, managed to flick the switch that controlled the lights. Suddenly, the mildly lit room presented itself in full as the lights above it slowly flickered awake. Not long after, the sounds of a guitar softly playing a tune started spreading across the store, courtesy of the work scroll she brought, plus the guitar playlist she had built up just to hit the perfect mood for Guns and Roses.
"Alright," the girl took a deep breath as she took a look around the store. "Let's get the ball rolling!" It was a bit cheesy, but she liked shouting small phrases like that from time to time to motivate herself for the upcoming hours. And boy were those hours going to be busy, there were many leftover boxes from her last delivery, the small clothing section she had for huntsmen and huntresses was a huge mess, with the clothes themselves being either on the floor or hung in places they shouldn't be in, lastly, the small warehouse-like area in the back of the store was packed full with miscellaneous items that she needed to clean out.
And that's exactly where she started.
The storage room was always her top priority for her due to how many things would simply pile up over the week, heck, if not for her semblance's flashy speed boost it would have been impossible for the young Rose to get a fraction of the work done.
"Huh, wouldja look at that, it's not full this time!" Ruby Rose stared at a room filled to the brim with boxes that presumably couldn't fit in the store's shelves at the moment. The young girl patted herself down, taking out any items on her person that could fall off during the use of her semblance, like her scroll, and some loose dust rounds she had on her from her outing to the range. Whoops.
Briefly, she patted her combat skirt and thankfully found nothing. She was ready to go. Ruby quickly opened her scroll and scrubbed through her app library until she found what she was looking for. She tapped on the play button that signified the scroll's built-in music player and scrolled through her personal work playlist until she found it.
'Red like Roses part 2 instrumental ver - Artist Unknown'
Yep, that was the one.
As soon as the first beat dropped, the young rose had started her work. In the span of an hour the giant and elegant tornado of roses flung itself in and out of the storage room, leaving out of the back exit of the small store to presumably throw away whatever unwanted items sat inside the room for the week. Once the hour passed, the Rose tornado went to the leftover boxes, as soon as the tornado passed by these boxes, they would be unpacked, stocked, and accounted for all in the blink of an eye.
With a Semblance like hers, maintaining a store was as easy as making a batch of cookies and chocolate milk, which was a weird analogy to make, but what could she say, Ruby really liked her snacks.
Once the last of the boxes were done being unpacked, the unrelenting tornado of rose petals finally came to a stop. The clothing section didn't need her awesome speed to clean up. All the young store owner really needed to do was shake the dust off of clothing that had been on the ground for too long, and find the corresponding hangers for them. Easy enough.
But before she could start, the loud noises of someone banging on the door could be heard. Ruby turned off the music from her scroll and made her way to the store's entrance to hopefully shoo off whoever was making such a ruckus so early in the morning.
As she exited the clothing section and got closer to the entrance, Ruby had to squint her eyes as she let out a yawn, now that she was essentially done with her clean-up duties, the morning drowsiness started to fully dawn on her. But it didn't stop her from opening the door to tell off the person knocking at the door. "I'm sorry, but we're not open 'till seven, so can you please not-" the young lady couldn;t finish her sentence, as she felt herself getting embraced by the person in front of her.
The drowsiness blurred her vision so she couldn't make out who it was at first, but then the mystery person spoke.
"Aw~ Look at you being so responsible!" Whatever drowsiness was left in the young Rose evaporated into thin air.
"Y-Yang?! What are you doing here?!" Now, this wasn't to say she didn't like Yang being here, in fact she was elated that she came and visited her, but the lively Blonde had a tendency to show up unannounced, a bad habit that usually left Ruby in very awkward situations back in her first semester at Signal.
"Come on, why wouldn't I come visit my little entrepreneur!" The older Blonde ruffled her younger sister's hair, which she didn't appreciate so she quickly swatted the Blonde's offending hand aside.
Ruby sighed as she stepped aside to let her older sister inside. "You could have at least given me a call or something, I would have made some macadamia cookies."
Yang chuckled as she entered the store. "That's exactly why I didn't. Knowing you, we'd be stuffing ourselves with an entire pack of those things." Her smile only grew with her little sister's defensive cries.
"Now you're just being mean! I already promised you and Dad that I'd cut it with the sugar intake." Ruby was practically stomping her feet. Yang Xiao Long was the best sibling Ruby Rose could ask for, that fact would never change, but sometimes, there were those moments where being the younger of the two was headache inducing. At least with Yang, she didn't push it too far.
"I know, I know, and I believe you too! You don't have all that loose fat like you did back at Signal." Yang tried to grab her stomach for emphasis, but Ruby swatted the offending hand while taking the compliment.
"Why thank you! The no-cookie diet was a pain in the butt to follow, so I'd be mad if it didn't work." Ruby puffed her chest with pride. The diet was a strict one, it required strong discipline and a strong will to not gorge on junk food at a first glance, and she'll admit that the first few times she had failed to maintain this diet. But on the fifth time, she had managed to successfully swap out most of her sweets for healthier food.
Yang raised an eyebrow at this, "Ruby, you do realize you also have to work out, right?" That caused the young Rose to sweat. " I mean, yeah, you can lose weight by simply not eating as much as you would normally do, but you're a huntress-in-training Rubes! You gotta be more than a slim cutie to make it in the Monster killing business."
Ruby processed her older sister's words for a minute, mulling it over until she could confidently answer. "Bah! You only say that because you're the one that has to throw punches, me? I may not be super buff and stuff like you, but I can still swing around Crescent Rose. As long as I can do that, I will never go to the gym!"
Yang sighed at this. Ruby was many things, an excitable girl, a fanatical gun nut, (she prefers the title "firearms connoisseur") to which Yang gingerly ignored for the former title, and a big sweets lover. Now, when you hear traits like that, it doesn't exactly scream Gym material, does it? From the very start of their Huntsman education in Signal, Yang had tried to get her sister to be more physically active but the small redhead would always weasel her way out of it. Every time.
And that's why Yang was glad to see Ruby still being the same goofball as she was back at Signal. The Blonde chuckled and replied to Ruby's outburst. "Simmer down there cookie monster, I was just trying to give a bit of advice, y'know, like an older sibling should." Yang sauntered her way toward Ruby's desk and leaned on the store's counter. "But enough of the boring chit chat, let's see some of the cool stuff!"
Ruby was already by the counter at the mention of "cool stuff", with a shining smile the young store owner pulled out six boxes and spread them out evenly on the table. At the top of these small boxes were 12 Gauge followed by what type they specialized in, some of these differences seemed to be based on velocity since they had things like High Velocity and Standard Velocity imprinted right next to the caliber round. Everything else went over Yang's head. It wasn't like she was picky with the ammo type, if it went bang when she swung Ember Celica then everything would be fine.
"Alright, so when it comes to twelve gauge, I notice you tend to use the number four buckshot version of it. Which works fine enough for Grimm, but here's the issue, that type of buckshot is meant more for home-defense and deer hunting. Sure, you'll still be able to kill a Beowulf with a well placed shot to the head, but for a more armored Grimm? You might as well be shooting pellets at it." At least Yang had her answer as to why Ember Celica seemed to pack less of a punch during its firing mode. It wasn't the weapon itself that was the problem, it was the owner who came ill equipped in the first place.
"Well, if these regular number four buckshots can't do jack against the bigger Grimm, then what type can you recommend? To that, Ruby excitedly slid one of the small boxes her way, she grabbed it as it reached her and the lively Blonde read what was written on the top of it.
12 Gauge - Flechette rounds
That was new.
Unlike the regular twelve gauge Yang was used to using in combat, this variation had small dart-like rounds contributing most of the shell's insides. Which confused the young brawler, why replace perfectly fine pellets with a few odd twenty metal darts? "Rubes, I don't know about this. What are these things used for anyway?"
The younger sibling was quick to reply, "Oh you know, penetrating trees to shoot Faunus out of trees." Ruby said as if it was the most casual thing to bring up.
"Huh?" Yang did not quite catch that. "S-Sorry, could you repeat that?"
"What? That they penetrate trees-" Yang cut in before she could finish.
"No, the thing after that." The younger sister tilted her head to the side. It took her a minute to remember, but once she did Ruby's face lit up in recognition.
"Oh! That the Flechette rounds were used to shoot Faunus out of trees!" To Ruby, this was just a minor fact about the gun's history, one that not many people now about these days, so it was nice seeing her older sister take such interest in the history of these unique-
"Ruby please! Just, just promise me you won't say that to anyone else." What's got her so worked up?
Ruby scratched her head, not really knowing what to say to her sister's sudden attitude change. "Um, sure? I don't see what's wrong with it but I'll definitely leave out the tree penetration part." Yang's face was hard to read after that, but Ruby was sure she'd calmed down from her little episode.
"Ruby, I'm not talking about that, I'm talking about the Faunus bit." Ruby's lone raised brow told the Blonde brawler everything she needed. Yang sighed, she knew Ruby was a bit of an airhead when it came to certain things. And loathe as she was to admit it, Dad and her probably made that aspect of her worse with the constant coddling since childhood. But this? This was downright silly. "Rubes, I don't think telling someone, 'Hey, buy this neat caliber! It was used to kill Faunus that were hiding in trees' is a good thing to do."
That finally seemed to get through the younger sister's head, a small oh escaped her mouth, but that didn't exactly mean she had to agree. "I-I mean, yeah, when you put it like that it does sound pretty bad. But, even if its history wasn't exactly the cleanest, I'd still like to believe that it's still something people should know about." The conviction in her voice was palpable, the younger sister would not back down from this.
"Y'know, sometimes I wonder where you get that stubborn attitude of yours." It was meant to be rhetorical. Unfortunately, Yang forgot that Ruby Rose does not pick up on the subtle things in a conversation.
"If all those stories Dad told us were true, then I probably got them from mom!.. Kinda how I got most of me from her?"
Yang smacked herself in the head. "Ruby, just give me two boxes of the damn Flechette rounds."
Ruby to her credit, was quick to switch back to worker mode, shuffling around to find the second box as was requested of her. A few thrown boxes later and the young store owner found the item she was looking for, not wanting to leave her sister hanging she quickly scanned the Flechette item twice and checked the price on the register. "Alright, the two 12 - Flechette shots will be around two-thousand Lien-"
"Two-thousand?! Are you kidding me?! I can buy a whole heap of replacement parts with that amount of money!" Yang didn't like shouting, it strained her voice too much, messed with the party going persona she built up over the years, and Ruby was a precious sibling who was just doing her job. But it didn't mean she was going to sit there and be happy about the ludicrous price on some 12 gauge rounds she's never used before.
"Well, I'm sorry Yang. But I just don't have many of these left in stock, and with all the SDC raids… I'll just say it right now. Things may seem bad now, but it's gonna get way worse." Basically, Ruby's little pitch went down the drain and she knew it. "Um, l-let me get you those number four's you wanted, heh heh… Heh." Awkwardly, the young redhead slumped off to the back of the shop and rummaged through her inventory for Yang's request. But oddly enough, no matter how much she rummaged through her stock, she couldn't find the number four buckshot at all. Using her semblance the young store owner flew around her store, quickly checking through all the store shelves in a blazing red tornado.
Nothing. Not a single trace of regular four buckshot was found.
Of all the ammo types she could be missing, it had to be the one she could buy in bulk easily. "Hey Yang… You know how I said things were going to be way worse?" The Blonde's instant frown indicated that yes, she remembered clearly. "Funny thing about that… It seems I'm out- But! I can order them for you online!"
Yang stood there, unresponsive to her sibling's remark. If she was angry, she sure as heck didn't show it. "Yang? You okay?"
"Huh, oh yeah- I'm good. Just… Thinking about where I'm headed next." Even her younger sister, the young girl who made it her mission to stockpile everything gun-related under her little shop didn't have some basic 12 gauge. At first, the Blonde huntress-in-training thought that the lack of simple 12 gauge at the bigger gun stores near downtown Vale was just a mistake on their part, but seeing her younger sister struggle to find the same caliber proved the opposite. There was a damn shortage.
The only positive to this entire situation is that she still had a sizable amount of 12 gauge stockpiled back at Patch, hopefully it was enough to get her through Beacon. "Damn it, I guess that Connecting Rod is gonna have to wait." Shuffling through her small pockets, Yang pulled out a simple leather wallet and opened it. "Alright, here's half of my Summer vacation money." The brawler slid seven-thousand lien to her younger sister, the extra thousand to cover the taxes, although that may have been a tad bit over excessive.
"Woah, that's a lot of vacation money." Was her sister's awe struck response.
Yang couldn't help but stroke the ego, just a teensy bit. "Well what can I say, I'm just that amazing." All those hours dedicated to doing odd jobs around Patch certainly helped her financially, if anything, it served as a huge head start in her huntress career. So yeah, she deserved a little bit of praise in her humble opinion.
Of course, her sister was always quick to slap her feeling of greatness down. "I'm surprised you got paid at all, didn't half those jobs end up with you punching someone?" To be completely fair, those punches were well deserved and she would not be apologizing for knocking that asshole pitbull flat on its ass anytime soon.
"Just give me the damn Flechette rounds." Ruby gave a thumbs up, completely oblivious to the fact that she offhandedly struck a nerve.
"Alrighty then, with those seven-thousand lien you get three boxes chock full of Flechette rounds, use 'em right and they'll last you the year!" Ruby handed her older sister the three boxes of ammo in a plastic bag, and her change with it.
"I hope they do, Rubes. If all those stories of Beacon's initiations are true then I'm going to need them." This was the cue for Yang to leave. She had gotten what she wanted, to check up on her precious younger sibling and get some more ammo while she was at it, so now she could walk out the door and go on to tackle the rest of the day. But she just stood there, an awkward silence forming between the two sisters.
"Hey, Ruby?" The Blonde called out for her sister's attention.
This popped the redheaded girl out of her awkward bubble. "Y-Yeah?"
"I know this store means a lot to you, and I'm proud of you for working so hard to keep it running." For once, Yang let her easy going persona drop. A smile of warmth and eyes filled with soft love for the person in front of her adorned her face. "But if you ever need help, don't hesitate to call me or Dad, alright?"
Ruby's response to the sudden moment? "Yang… It's Dad or I, not Dad and me."
This girl.
"... You're really good at ruining moments, you know that?"
"Hehe, sorry. I guess there's still a few of Uncle Qrow's habits that I haven't shaken off yet."
After the eventful morning with Yang, everything felt monotonous by comparison. People came by, looked at her wares and most often than not, they'd put the item back in order to repeat the cycle, sometimes they didn't even put the items back in the right spot! If she sees another weapon magazine messily stuffed on the dust ammo shelves she would maul the person with Crescent Rose.
The only breaks from her boring afternoon would come in the shape of a person with an oversized weapon; A huntsman/huntress-in-training who needed some much needed supplies to stockpile for the upcoming year. Luckily for these individuals the young Rose had plenty of ammo for their big and complex murdermachines. Although she had to admit, for a firearms connoisseur™ like her some of the mecha-shifts weapons were… Interesting to say the least.
For example, a young woman had come in to procure .44 magnum ammunition for her mecha-shift weapon, what Ruby imagined this weapon to be was a magnum hybrid, it had to be. But no, this individual had somehow managed to fuse a Halberd, with a bullpup rifle. No real specific influence either, just one that was made specifically to shoot .44 magnum.
Now, she wasn't as knowledgeable about bullpups as she should be; a modest mistake on her part. But the fact that the weapon hasn't become shrapnel on that girl's hands is a testament to how committed these newer mecha-shift users are to bastardize whatever weapons they see. It didn't help that when she asked how she managed to accomplish the feat, the girl shrugged. "I have no clue! But it works wonders for me so I won't look the gift horse in the mouth!" And shortly after, she left.
Another customer, this time being a young man dressed in nothing but tattered robes had walked in. He had a wooden pole staff alongside him so Ruby was at first confused as to why such a traditional looking fighter came to her store.
A case of grapeshot.
That is what this mysterious warrior had asked for. And through some connections the young woman had some stored in the storage room.
As the day went on, the trend of baffling weapon combinations and concepts kept piling on and on; a bastard sword that used fire dust to create an implosion for every hit it landed, an smg that could mecha-shift into an smg but with several barrels, a volleyball that used a mixture of earth and gravity dust in order to crush Grimm under its spherical supremacy.
For every sane, normal customer that came in with a regular assault rifle, pistol, or otherwise, five colorful figures would pop up to test how far she could see a cursed concept without having a stroke.
Well, except the girl with the volleyball, she was actually really fun to talk with. She even went as far as to design her huntress attire as a shimmering white sundress with a comfy giant-brimmed hat to finish that refreshing summer look. Ruby could respect the hustle.
She'd call her with the phone number she gave her once the shop was closed.
With such a vast amount of weapons to compare to, it further solidified what the young store owner already believed in. Crescent Rose still trumps them all. As a weapon, it was built elegantly, every part she installed into the scythe/rifle hybrid had a purpose, she knew what she needed and dear heavens she got the full package and then some. Was she being biased? No, not at all. Because sensible mecha-shift building is a lost art in this zoomer huntsman-in-training world.
After the silent sobbing session was done, the young store owner finally noticed the skies darkening outside the door. It was almost time to close up shop. And just to be certain the young girl pulled out her scroll- '7:50'- the big white numbers rested on the upper half of her scroll's home menu. Forget almost, it was time to close up shop
Fortunately with the power of super speed, she blitzed through all her nightly duties in a spectacular bundle of roses spiraling every which way. "Phew! Did it with three minutes to spare too!" The young redhead considered using the small timeframe she had to count the money in the cash register, but the thought of missing the last few airships back to Patch ultimately dissuaded her from doing so.
Patting her combat skirt, Ruby approached the door while in the middle of looking for the store's keys. After a bit of shuffling around the young girl yoinked it out of her skirt and was ready to finally close up shop. Unfortunately, a yellow blur prevented her from doing so. If it wasn't for her Semblance the young girl would have been hit full force by a swinging door.
The yellow blur, who had landed face first on the white tile floor of Guns and Roses was revealed to be a scraggly young man, with Blond hair, a sweater with a traditional breastplate right over it and some jeans to compliment the surprisingly normal attire. "I-I'm not late! Am I?!" His panicked cry was met with the sound of a gun being loaded.
His haggard breathing turned into a shriek of fear. "Waitwaitwait! I-I'm not a thief! I just came here to buy a gun but I got lost! That's all!"
It took her a few seconds, but after assessing the young man's behavior Ruby lowered her emergency Beretta and approached the young Blond, a cautious spring on her steps. "You know, it's not everyday someone slams themselves inside a store like that." Ruby then squatted in front of the young man, an amused smile adorning her youthful face. "So, what's your name Mr. Door Smasher?"
The young man, for his part, had tried his best to play it cool. "Well, if you really want to know, the name's Jaune Arc and uh, for all its worth, I'm sorry you almost committed an act of self-defense?" Awkwardly, the young man got up from his previous prone position and dusted off his pants. "But yeah! I came here to purchase a weapon. A gun, you know?"
Ruby chuckled at Jaune's stiff words and stood up herself. "Alright, Jaune. I'm assuming you're a huntsman-in-training, correct?" Walking back to the counter, the young store owner had slipped back to work mode and was already grabbing a small pool of guns that would fit the young man's potential request.
Jaune, who had followed Ruby to the counter, almost tripped on himself at the question. Fortunately the young redhead was hard at work already. "Oh yeah, I'm going to Beacon academy once the week is over." That was enough to bring the Blond's confidence back to an extent.
"Oh, then that makes you my senior then!" Jaune tilted his head, not really understanding what the young store owner just told him. So she elaborated the best she could. "Well, I'm still stuck at Signal for two more years ya see. And you're headed to Beacon, so that makes you my senior!"
"Oh, uh. I guess it does, doesn't it?" Jaune at this point was sweating bullets. He was no senior! If anything, the petite girl in front of him could mop the floor with him without batting an eye. And that's what worried him the most. Sure, slipping into the academy was just fine, pretty easy even. Pretending like he can manhandle Grimm with ease like the rest of his peers was something he could get away with if he put enough bravado into it. But the moment where if or when he has to prove his prowess in battle is tested, he'd be exposed as a fraud.
He couldn't let that happen, not after he's gotten this far.
"You okay, Jaune?" Jaune slightly jumped at the young girl's voice calling him. He was so wrapped up in his what ifs and potential consequences that he had forgotten where he was, and why he was even here.
"Y-Yeah, just had some nagging thoughts that took over for a minute." The Blond boy awkwardly chuckled at his admittance, it wasn't to say that he was bad at conversation, but sometimes he had a horrible habit of putting himself in bad situations by simply talking. "Anyways! I came here to buy myself a gun, something compact that can still pack a punch would be really good. Do you have anything like that in your store?" Luckily, he put himself in so many situations by saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, that getting out of said problem by talking his way out became just as easy.
Ruby scratched her head at the boy's request, he needed something small that could still be devastating when the time came. Judging by the sword it was safe to assume the young man was a very close quarters kind of guy, maybe a pistol that could afford to shoot one of the larger calibers could help him out in that regard. It could help him initiate fights from a distance and soften the enemy enough to gain an advantage in the initial clash, and if he's the one on the receiving end of a beating then the pistol could just as easily be used to force the enemy off.
But something about that sword nagged at Ruby. "Hey Jaune, do you mind if I see your weapon for a bit?" Maybe a quick inspection of the sword could give her a better idea on what she was working with. It had to have something that made it more than just a regular sword.
Jaune complied with the young store owner's request and brought his sword out of his sheath, the blade shining as its form was bare for the world to see. "So yeah, this is my family's heirloom, Crocea Mors. It was used in the great war by my great gramps." An heirloom that looked so Pristine it betrayed whatever history it may have had generations ago. Ruby had rarely seen weapons like these in her shop, but the few times she had seen and personally worked on one of them, she knew that she was working on a technical marvel. "And it even has a shield to go with it! It can collapse itself so it also technically acts like the sheath too but… It doesn't really make it lighter or anything so it can get tiring to carry it around all the time."
That was it, the feeling that nagged at the young redhead finally came full force and hit her right on the head. This ancient heirloom was a first generation mechashift weapon! A meticulous disassembly of the shield showed the inner mechanisms of this old beauty. The parts were simplistic in nature, of course they would be, that's what it needed to be if it was going to work the way it did. But now the question lied, what was its alternate form? Sure, the sheathing function was a nice convenience to hav, but it sure as heck wasn't its main purpose.
But when the young redhead inquired about any other functions the weapon could have, she was met with a very undesirable answer "Did it have an alternate form? I don't think it did…? At least, as far as I know." But that didn't explain the mechanisms apart from the ones that helped the shield turn into a sheath, if she looked at it right, some of the connecting rods and gears looked like they were meant to push something rather than help with the collapsing process.
But, as much as she wanted to prod further into the shield's mysterious second set of parts, she had to remind herself that the sword wasn't the main object of interest today, but the shield gave her a great lead.
As she went through the process of putting the Shield's front back on she continued from where she left off with the gun talk. "Well Mr. Door Smasher," She received an indignant 'Hey!' but the shop owner brushed past it with professional ease "I think there's a weapon that fits your needs right to a tee!"
That seemed to perk up the young man. "Really? Well what kind of cool gun do you have in mind? I think a magnum would be pretty cool, if not that then I heard Hi-Point-!" Ignoring the potentially disastrous suggestion the Hunter-in-training would have thrown out, Ruby had finished putting the shield back together and decided to quickly slink off to grab a weapon, a very specific one that she had lying around for reasons she couldn't disclose. When she came back, the young man was still spitballing suggestions to her as if she was there the entire time.
It was amusing hearing the young man ramble about Hi-Point pistols being competent self-defense weapons. But he was also making a fool of himself. "Alright Mr. Door Smasher, I got the weapon you need right here. It's not a Hi-Point pistol or anything, but I'd like to believe it'll do a better job than what you were suggesting." She plopped said weapon on one of the Blonde's extended hands.
Jaune was many things, a man with a dream, an up and coming ladies man… According to his mother, and a decent cook. But a gun person was not one of those things, the entire spiel he just had about potential pistols he would like? It was all out of his ass and he wouldn't be surprised if half the guns he listed were either fake, or weren't suited for the role he needed. But, he didn't need to be an expert of weapons to comprehend what the young store owner had given him.
Of all things he expected, a sawed-off double barrel shotgun was not one of them.
"Wait! Aren't sawn off shotguns illegal?!" The blond was quick to panic as the very illegal weapon in his hand was not something he wanted to be associated with.
"Shh-Shh-shhh! Keep it down will you! You want to get my store shut down?"
"N-No! But if I buy this, then I'll head to jail!" There was a reason not many people rocked sawn-off's, including Huntsmen. These weapons, while highly effective are illegal in most parts of Remnant for the simplest fact that The Council didn't like the average citizen having ways of defending themselves, and while Huntsmen were exempt from that rule, he didn't know what stigma came with that thing!.
"Oh, that? Pssh, Huntsmen don't go to Jail for that. But! Just in case this particular girl is 'off-the-grid' so to speak." For the second time, the Blond was visibly confused, so Ruby did her best to elaborate in a hush-hush kind of voice. "That double-barrel has custom parts in it, plus the serial number is scrubbed off. So just say you built it in the family garage or something, I guarantee they will not care."
Jaune had to admit, those were some great points. Huntsman weapons tend to be bizarre abominations that aren't held down by any sort of restrictions, hence the utterly bizarre weaponry they tend to carry around, so what's a shotgun with the barrel sawn off that has to be scrutinized for? It was 'self-made', didn't have any feasible way to be proved as a commercial weapon, and overall it was a pretty cool weapon, even if he didn't want to admit that part out loud.
But the legal ramifications still loomed over his mind. Should he take this awesome weapon, or risk getting exposed for two counts of illegal activities? "I really shouldn't. But, what's the cost?" In the end his emotional side took over his logical one, and he was already fretting over the decision he'd made.
This sense of anxiety and internal berating was not shared by Ruby, who upon hearing the young man's words was quick to crunch in the numbers. "One Rottweil 72 Olympia will cost you… twelve-hundred Lien!"
Jaune almost hunched over from the metaphorical punch to the gut. He knew buying a weapon was going to bleed his wallet, but the amount Lien he would lose would mean he'd have to severely redo his budgeting for the week leading up to Beacon, that also meant he would have to skip out on the taco truck near the Inn he was staying in… Dammit, today was full of sacrifices.
"Is it too much to ask for a discount?" He weakly asked, begging for mercy for his poor wallet.
The young red-headed store owner's reply was swift. "Sorry, I already excluded the taxes off your payment, any more and I'd be handing you the weapon on a silver platter!"
This is as much mercy as the young man would receive. "Y-Yeah, I guess you're right." It hurt handing his Lien card to the cheerful store owner, but the pain was dampened once he got the receipt and some free 12 gauge ammo to help him not go completely dry, it was a slug variant according to her words and frankly he didn't have it in him to ask. "Well, I won't be able to afford food for a while, but uh, thanks miss…" Huh, what was her name?"
"Ruby Rose! That's my name. And hey, I'm sure Beacon will fill you right back up once you get there!" She happily chirped.
"Okay, Ruby. Thanks again for helping a goofball like me, even If I did crash into your store and all that." Jaune awkwardly scratched his left cheek as he made his way to the store's entrance. "If I pass initiation, I'll make sure to come back!" And like that, one last customer walked out with a brand new weapon in hand.
She was sure he would come back again, but to make sure that meeting didn't happen so soon she was quick to put up the closed sign on the entrance door. With that taken care of, the young redhead was also quick to count the money in the register, and seal away any excess amount in a zippylock bag. A few more miniscule tasks later and Ruby was officially done for the night, quickly taking a glance at her work scroll, it showed the time as '8:50 pm', giving her an hour left before the airships heading to Patch would stop for the day.
But before the young store owner shut down the lights and called it a night, she kneeled down under the counter and pulled out something near and dear to her. "Sorry Crescent Rose! I almost forgot about you with all the excitement that's happened today! But with all the business out of the way, let's go home and take a hot shower-" Before she could finish, the small bell that rang whenever the door opened sounded throughout the store.
Weird, she was sure that she just put the closed sign up. "Sorry, but the store's closed, if you want to purchase anything you'll have to wait for-" to her surprise, when she stood up the young girl expected to see a potentially stubborn customer, instead, she was met with a group of men wearing black suits who were equipped with vibrant red Katanas. They were obviously here for trouble, but the young store owner was ready to be diplomatic about the situation. "Excuse me! Excuse me! Yes, I'm calling out to you finely dressed gentlemen. Why are you swinging Katanas in my store?"
One of the armed thugs marched right up to her and pointed the blade right up to her face. "Ain't it obvious girlie? We're here to sack the place!"
Oh. Well that wasn't very kind of them.
What the brutish man was not aware of was that she had a weapon capable of shooting .50 cal bmg bullets out of its barrel. And by all means, she was ready to let the man know her displeasure at the situation she was in. But another person decided to make their presence known.
"Simmer down with the gangster act, Mike." A voice came from behind the man, it was one filled displeasure. "We're not here to sack the place, it's more like… Requisitioning certain items for our needs." The mystery person appeared right next to the thug, and gently put the Katana down with his cane.
"Sorry about my friend Mike here, it's his first day on the Job." The mystery person, a ginger-haired man dressed in a white coat and black bowler hat approached her counter while twirling his cane.
"So, the boss leaving you in charge for the first time?" Well, she was her own boss so he was wrong on that front, not that he needed to know that.
"Something like that." Ruby had to admit, for a criminal the guy carried himself way too confidently, with a certain swagger that could only be matched by classy thieves from all those books she read back at Signal. Maybe he was trying to emulate one of those guys?
And another thing. "Are you wearing mascara?" Ruby didn't notice it at first, since it was a subtle application of it, but what gave it away were those eyelashes. They were a tad too long and dark for a man like him.
"No, little Red, I am not wearing mascara, It's actually guyliner-"
"HA! You just admitted it!" If Ruby had more self awareness, she would have noted the sour expression of the ginger-haired criminal.
"Alright, have it your way Red. If you don't mind, we'll just help ourselves to your dust bullets and be on merry way." He tipped his hat to her, to which she blew a raspberry at him, a pretty civil response considering the situation.
But that was the thing, the conversation had been civil, too civil. These people had come to her store, with weapons in hand ready to steal from her already very limited supply of dust. That just wasn't something she could afford to ignore. "Well, before you guys go off and raid my stores for the pitiful amount of dust ammo I have left, I have a small itty bitty question." Silently, she checked to see if she had a bullet in the chamber. She did.
As if this had already happened before, the orange man sighed and put an elbow on her counter. "For the fiftieth time this week! No, we're not going to steal the Hi-Points-"
"Did you know, under the Valean Amity scripture it is explicitly stated that a business owner is allowed to defend themselves and their property? Doing so and providing sufficient evidence that it was indeed a case of self defense gives the individual full immunity of the law?"
"...Is that so?" That was a red flag if he'd ever heard one, no scratch that, it was crimson.
Ruby had a smile fit for a professional cashier, the smile slightly grew as the windows outside had been suddenly covered by metal, the same thing happening to the door, but with an eerie scratching following besides its closure.
"Do you guys by chance have any level 4 body armor?"
This snapped the man from his cautious state. "Excuse me, what?" His answer did not come from the young girl.
All hell broke loose when the thundering noise of Ruby's Crescent Rose was heard across the neighborhood.
After a rough one and half years, I'm finally back with the Milk Jug. And I dragged along with me a story that started out as a goofy ass joke that has now spiraled into an actual written first chapter. Who knew that turning stupid sounding ideas into actual words on paper would bring me back from the dead, go figure.
All jokes aside, this last year and a half has not been kind to me, in between getting royally ass fucked by jobs that did not pay me nearly enough to deal with their bullshit, getting assblasted by le covid, and in general going through a major slump after realizing the newer stories I posted before dipping out sucked. It was rough to come back from all of those realizations and harsh realities sucker punching me in the gut.
But the good news is, after using a good chunk of my time to re-learn the basics of writing I truly believe my writing has improved exponentially since then.
In short, I got my ass kicked by life, and like the Saiyans from the titular anime Dragon ball Z, I came back stronger than ever.
It also helped that I've also used those two years to flesh out an original story that I hope to self publish in Royal Road one day.
As per the namesake, I will now shill for the discord server a good friend of mine has made for one purpose. That is to gather aspiring authors in the Fanfiction site that want to hang out and get some advice, share stories, and share other artistic hobbies, like art and music. It's a neat server with certified gamers that say some gamer things from time to time.
For legal reasons that was a joke.
Discord: CTw6W3VVkU
One small thing before I cap this rambling of mine off, this story will be the only thing being updated until it's eventual ending, or until I'm satisfied with the progression of the story to leave it be for the time being. That way I can focus on doing what I've wanted to do for a long time now; rewrite. Just rewriting the ideas that I ended up messing up in the past due to my impulsiveness and lack of restraint when it came to those finished first drafts.
Now that I've gotten all of that off my chest, a mimir.