'The girl continues to prove herself a mystery.'
Salem scribbled in her journal, etching words in a dead language into a tome older than most who currently resided inside her dark tower. Candles illuminated her study, many having long since discarded copious amounts of wax onto her simple desk. Ever still, she continued to write.
'Rozen Maiden physiology, I have discovered, is a rather interesting journey of perplexity and abnormality, one that shines brightly in this dull remnant of a world.'
To this moment, she recalled Hazel speaking of his insights into the matter. The hulking figure of silent aggression had long since mellowed out in the presence of a sweetie like Hinaichigo, continuing to interact with the diminutive Rozen Maiden like one would a surrogate sibling, or even akin to that of a father caring for his daughter.
It stirred feelings within Salem, ones that rattled her deeply.
'Despite the supposed autonomy present of an inorganic creature, Rozen Maiden appear to possess the ability to consume food and drink much like that of humans and faunus. However, they produce no waste, nor do they appear to derive any kind of sustenance from the act of consumption whatsoever.'
And, yet, the girl desired sweets. She had favourite flavours and was capable of identifying them to a rather uncanny degree of accuracy. Berries grown from varying sections of her many gardens had long since been identified in various meals, to where Hinaichigo had confessed to Hazel that she preferred the berries grown in the northernmost garden above all others.
'They are, in all intents and purposes, ageless, needless, automata. Yet, they still have desires. They still learn. They feel. They adapt. How long have they lived? How long have they walked the world?'
Hinaichigo, bless the little thing, had been attempting to help clarify Hazel's numerous questions as best she could, but it would appear her frame of reference was completely incomprehensible to the rest of them.
'More than once has Hazel spoken of Hinaichigo recalling events that, while sounding to be of some historical significance, elude my knowledge base entirely. She has spoken of wars which eclipsed the very world itself, of countries and continents outside all historical documentation of Remnant.'
Here, Salem paused, feeling a distinct annoyance surfacing in her mind.
'I do not believe the girl to be lying. It should be impossible, but I simply must attest to the complexity of her story. She is, in essence, a young girl contained within a doll body. A very young girl. Her capability to lie is extremely low. More so, she is far too terrified of my very presence to risk angering me through desperate lies. No. They are too complex, too detailed, to be anything but the truth.'
The image presented by such thoughts was baffling, filling her with a vengeance that she could not fully comprehend.
'If I am to embrace the belief of the truthfulness behind Hinaichigo's words, then it leads to the theory that the tiny little blonde doll currently under the care of Hazel is, in fact, older than myself. Substantially so.'
After Salem had allowed the idea to permeate her mind, observations had begun to surface. Only now, after stewing in a menagerie of ideas, did an opportunity present itself to document them entirely.
'Originally, I had believed these Rozen Maiden to be akin to a kind of aura-enhanced automaton, barring some degree of similarity to the information Dr. Watts provided of the research in Atlas. The Rozen Maiden being a prototype auric automaton for Atlas appeared plausible in working theory. But, considering their probable age, may they be magical in nature instead?'
It was not outside the realm of possibility. The Age of the Gods was wrought with magic, given to humanity to experiment with by the Dark Brother. Tales of their use was legendary, intertwined deeply into her own history, up until her eventual confinement within the Tower. Stories of such times, before her birth, had been long since faded, yet scraps remained even if only in her memory, and that of her twisted adversary of an ex-husband.
'Simulacrum, they were called back in those days. Puppets, animated by the magic of a suitable caster. Many of which once populated the Tower. They were bound to a string of commands, given rudimentary minds through ritual sacrifice. Could these Rozen Maiden be of a similar design?'
...She dismissed the idea after some thought, a grimace on her face.
'Unlikely. The knowledge spoken by Hinaichigo speaks of a world vastly different to Remnant, whether it be the Remnant which housed the Gods or the husk that remained after they ran.'
She paused, when a thought came to her, dread surfacing in her mind.
'Could the Age of the Gods have been only the latest in a series of experiments by the Brother Gods? Could Hinaichigo and the other Rozen Maiden have come from a previous version of the world?'
Knock knock.
Startled out of her thoughts in a rare moment of intrigue, Salem blinked profusely and set down her writing tools, looking towards the entrance to her office.
"...Who is it?"
The answer came swiftly, muffled through the thickness of her door.
"Hazel, Your Grace. You have a very special guest, who would like to speak with you."
Who would-
Ah. "Very well, you may enter."
As was expected, Hazel was swift to open the door, having no hassle in moving the aged wood. His presence was nothing of a surprise, as the man had been delivering verbal reports regarding the Rozen Maiden to her office for several weeks now. It had become something of an enjoyable pastime for the Witch when she wasn't busy allocating grimm across the various continents.
The tiny little blonde doll clad in a strawberry-pink dress currently clinging to Hazel's leg, was, however, a rather extraordinary deviation from normality.
Her eyes softened imperceptibly at the sight of little Hinaichigo, who had seemingly built up enough courage to visit Salem alongside Hazel. The girl reminded her far too much of her own daughters, innocently curious to a fault. In a rather strange way, many of the recent developments regarding both Hinaichigo and Hazel had been giving Salem quite the nostalgic sense.
They had been simpler times, before the interference of the Gods ruined everything.
"Ah, Hinaichigo. Welcome to my office. Please, enter. You shall find no grimm here."
Sans herself, of course. Her suicidal dip into the pool of darkness had changed her in many ways. But, Salem would never say such a thing aloud in Hinaichigo's presence. No need to frighten the poor thing. Following Hinaichigo's prompt arrival, the Rozen Maiden had made her discomfort of the grimm all too clear on several occasions.
From what she understood, Tyrian was still finding berry vines all over the lower quarters, to this day. A vast amount of the passageways leading towards the spawning pools remained completely overtaken by the strange ability of the Rozen Maiden.
Not that she particularly cared about such passageways. The vines, meanwhile, were far more intriguing.
"R-Right…" Hinaichigo's frightened whisper was heard only through the silence in the room. With a hesitant glance up at her supportive figure, Hinaichigo tentatively let go of Hazel's leg and walked into her office, glancing around at the various posters and documentation littering Salem's private abode.
Salem casually gestured to the other side of her desk, where two upholstered chairs faced her. Levelling a significant look at Hazel, the man seemed to understand and followed right after the diminutive Rozen Maiden, closing the door as he did so.
"Do you like my office, Hinaichigo?" Salem inquired, wisely setting her paperwork aside for the meantime and conjuring a small tea set from her stores. The Rozen Maiden's eyes snapped to the magical display, sparkling with interest.
Ah. Even now, the looks of her own daughters' faces after her first magical display in their presence rang vividly in her mind.
How many years had it been? As she gazed at the squirming little Rozen Maiden doll, Salem found that she couldn't accurately account for how long it had been. The passage of time had cast a fog over her very memories themselves. Perhaps, of all things, that had been the one part of her that the gods could not keep eternal.
"I-It's… very nice… gloomy… but, um! Still nice!" she jumped, seemingly recognising her words at the end and fearing for an aggressive reaction.
Salem merely sighed. Many weeks had passed and the poor thing was still rather terrified of them all. For such a little childish doll, she was a remarkably apt guess. Most were right to fear her.
Were her subject of interest to be anyone other than an uncomfortable reminder of the past, Salem may have considered using this fear to extract information. However, an unaging childish doll at war with a sister capable of erasing the entirety of Vale, was something of a unique circumstance. It was for this reason that she chose another route.
And for that reason alone.
"You needn't be so afraid of us, little one. Have we not been hospitable?" Salem sighed, suddenly feeling rather old in comparison to the denizens of her abode, even if the doll sitting before her held the possibility of being older than her by a considerable margin. "I can only begin to imagine that Hazel has been taking care of you, yes?"
Face with a familiar subject, one that doesn't necessitate thinking about the 'scary witchy lady', Hinaichigo seemed to perk up considerably. Or, perhaps, it would be the man that she had chosen to be her 'Master' that was the result of such admiration?
"Hazel has been very nice!" Hinaichigo gushed to the apparent discomfort of the lumbering man seated beside her, his face shifting into a tight frown. "He always listens to what I have to say, like actually listens and asks questions! He's… not a very good drawer, but he tries… And he says that if I improve my drawing he'll get me some more colouring pencils and paper! Provided that they're not permanent markers…"
Salem listened to the childish admiration of Hazel with a detached smile, cataloguing the important parts of her own volition and discarding the rest as useless babble. She did not need the reassurance of Hazel's ability with children, his past experiences with Gretchen and subsequent quest for vengeance following her demise showed Salem the depths of his heart rather adequately, far more than any exuberant retelling could ever hope to achieve.
Admittedly, it was rather amusing to notice Hazel's supposed embarrassment over 'drawing' with Hinaichigo, the activity of which the doll had made apparent didn't always necessitate the use of paper or canvas to constrain said creations. Many a wall had been covered in little cutesy drawings, before Salem's council learned to provide the appropriate equipment in copious amounts. The mental image of Hinaichigo and Hazel drawing on the walls of her dark abode was quite an amusing thought indeed, provided they were, of course, not permanent. She had a reputation to uphold, after all.
Considering the man's flinch at Hinaichigo's retelling of 'not permanent markers', he seemed to recall her command against the procurement of such things, so she didn't comment on the matter.
"Good, very good," Salem adopted what she hoped to be a gentle nurturing smile, one that had the doll grinning at her in response. So, she would label the attempt a rare success. "As you can see, despite our appearances, we are not as frightening as one would initially assume."
"Uh-huh…" Hinaichigo gave a slow noncommittal hum, the hum of a child knowing that they were in for a lecture. It was an awfully human behaviour for a magical creature that could easily turn out to be far older than Salem herself.
Regardless, the little doll was listening to her and seeking Salem out of her own accord, and that in and of itself was an achievement of significant magnitude. As a result, she would spare the girl a lecture, and move on to other subjects.
"Now that you're comfortable, has Hazel told you about the current situation regarding your younger sister?"
Truly, it baffled Salem's mind as to how the one responsible for the events surrounding Vale was younger than the childish doll sitting before her. However, Hazel's report had been exact- Kirakishou was the seventh and youngest doll, the final doll that had been created by their ever-illusive Father.
Hinaichigo looked down, frowning and shifting in the chair. She seemed… sad.
"...Imouto-san did something bad."
Ah. Imouto-san, respectfully meaning 'younger sister'. It had been one of the many odd discoveries regarding Hinaichigo and the Rozen Maiden, to learn of their use of a lost language. A unique dialogue, with varying phrases that were used interchangeably depending on the speaker's relationship with the topic. Ozma would have loved it. Very sappy.
Thankfully, the Rozen Maiden appeared to be capable of speaking the current spoken language in Remnant to some varying degree of aptitude. Which, considering the nature of their creation, could be chalked up to a quirk of magic or some hidden trait of the dolls themselves.
Cinder's constant reports and the information they had tortured out of Emerald hadn't mentioned any verbal miscommunications by Kirakishou, implying that the girl was fluent enough in Remnant's language to pass herself off without difficulty. The doll had been able to effortlessly blend in with the local population, hiding her true self from all but the most devious of infiltrators.
...Ah, that reminded her, who was the name of the person detailed in Cinder's report labelled as a tri-toned lunatic ranting about Kirakishou turning people into dolls? Ah, yes, Neopolitan. She had been an associate of Torchwick, a notorious crime lord that Cinder had forcefully recruited into their organisation through the use of her powers as a half-maiden. Neopolitan had been able to utilise illusions, focused on herself. She had chanced upon a moment of Kirakishou discussion some important information, supposedly, and discovered that Kirakishou was behind the sudden appearance of a doll bearing Summer Rose's visage. Her current location, like much of Cinder's failed plan, was in the wind.
Cinder had dismissed the girl immediately and shunted her from further actions, a poor decision on her part. Never discount the strange, lest the strange become your reality and leave you blindsided, as it had for their failure of a half-maiden. Cinder had seen the world through lenses of her own design, unable to believe it to be hiding secrets unbeknown to herself. It was a foolish notion that had resulted in her eventual downfall.
As for Hinaichigo's assessment of Kirakishou's actions, it was similarly coloured by her own childish idealism and naivete. This, however, could be rectified given enough time. Or, in Salem's case, mere speech.
"Your youngest sister slaughtered her way through a city, Hinaichigo, ending the lives of many. Even now, people continue to debate the exact death toll of her actions."
Hinaichigo shuddered, tearing up at the news, as Salem looked on stoically, hardening her heart. The girl deserved to know the truth, rather than having Salem pointlessly hide it to protect her innocent self. "S-She's… she doesn't know what she's doing… it's not her fault."
Raising a brow at the accusation, Salem reconsidered her thoughts of the Sixth Rozen Maiden Doll. It had been obvious that both the Sixth and the Seventh shared some kind of history, given how Tyrian reported of the pink-dressed doll flinching at the mention of Kirakishou's mere name at first. This was an interesting deviation.
"And why do you say that?"
Hinaichigo paused, glancing over to a stoic Hazel. "Y-You told her about the N-Field, Hazel-chan?"
Salem hid her smirk. Hazel-chan. As far as she understood, the '-chan' suffix was typically used when referring to small children, close friends, or lovers. And, almost never was it used in reference to a boy. Something that Hinaichigo had supposedly stressed to Hazel many times. However, she supposedly found the suffix 'cute' for him, much to his apparent ire.
"...I did. And, I remember distinctly telling you not to call me that, little one."
"And I would if you didn't call me little one!" Hinaichigo harrumphed, crossing her arms and puffing her cheeks out rebelliously. It was, were Salem to put it bluntly, one of the most strangely hilarious sights for her to witness in the past four hundred years.
"You were saying?" Salem inquired gently, purposefully interrupting to get things back on track.
Poor Hinaichigo squeaked, jumping at the sound of her voice. Salem levelled an easy smile her way, that appeared to have the opposite effect and merely frightened the poor sprite ever further.
A failed attempt. She cancelled the expression and adopted a neutral one, which seemed to be more relaxing to the doll's eyes.
"S-Shinku told me…" Hinaichigo began gently, casually referring yet again to her friendship with the Fifth Rozen Maiden doll, "...she once told me that Kirakishou was different to the rest of us. Kirakishou was never given a body by Father, and forced to remain inside the N-Field as a spirit. Until recently, she never really had a chance to talk with people or anything, only watching from within the N-Field. She doesn't really understand, um, friends and stuff."
Salem raised a brow, mentally restructuring her thoughts regarding the Rozen Maiden dolls once again as another facet of their creation was revealed to her, outside of her rudimentary knowledge of magical simulacrum. Unlike the magical constructs of the past, the Rozen Maiden appeared to exist separately from their bodies. Curious.
The N-Field, however, she had already been informed of previously by Hazel. Apparently, it was one of the many topics with which little Hinaichigo was quite interested in. She had shown the man her own N-Field several times in the past. Apparently, it was a rather pleasant mental environment apt for the art-inclined mind of an eternal sweet-loving child, but other than that Hazel would offer no further concise description, supposedly sworn to silence under oath from Hinaichigo herself.
In the interest on maintaining their tentative connection to the Rozen Maiden, Salem had relented on further questioning at the time, despite her burning intrigue on the subject at hand.
Just imagining the possibilities of this supposed N-Field had given her more joy than the past hundred years of bloodshed combined. A connection of such magnitude, going unnoticed by Salem and Ozma both, by even the Brother Gods themselves. It was almost implausible, if not for the evidence presented by the walking impossibility herself and her six sisters, one of whom had utilised this N-Field to great effect, swallowing the entirety of Vale and manifesting her own N-Field in its place.
Was Hinaichigo capable of something similar?
Oh, she wondered what it would be like, for the broken frigid landscape of Atlas to be consumed, or for the sands of Vacuo to be drained and replaced with an astral world made physical. The world could be turned away from the designs of the gods, and replaced with something different, something that could be controlled by the user.
But, alas, she was getting ahead of herself.
Hinaichigo's assessment of Kirakishou was intriguing. She wished to learn more.
"And you believe that this… social ineptitude… is the cause behind her actions?" Salem clarified, privately amused by the prospect. She had witnessed much in her eternal lifetime, calamities of all kinds, most of which tied into her machinations against Ozma and the Gods. And, yet, she had never been faced with a slaughter in the hundreds of thousands as a result of social ineptitude.
Hm. Perhaps, applying basic human and faunus psychology to a Rozen Maiden doll was clouding her judgement? While Hinaichigo tended to fit the profile of an innocent human or faunus child to a high degree, Kirakishou appeared to be unsuitable for such a design.
"...Mou… kinda?" Hinaichigo confirmed, sounding unsure at the exact phrasing as she idly kicked her legs on the chair, humming to herself as she glanced over at a silent and stoic Hazel. "...I think she's just lonely, really."
"Lonely?" Salem parroted, curious. Cinder's reports had indicated otherwise. From what her useless excuse for a half-maiden had reported, the Seventh Rozen Maiden doll was in some sort of relationship with a trainee huntsman at Beacon Academy. A Ruby Rose, daughter of Summer Rose. A fellow Silver-Eyed Warrior like her mother, that had been inadvertently turned into a Silver-Eyed Maiden through an aura-transfer device utilised on the previous Fall Maiden, Amber Autumn.
Cinder's scathing report on the matter indicated Kirakishou had confessed to being behind a fair amount of actions behind the scenes, actions that had led to Ruby Rose becoming a Silver-Eyed Maiden. Which, in direct opposition to Hinaichigo's theory, indicated a fair amount of possessiveness over the daughter of Summer.
Perhaps she had been lonely, as Hinaichigo said, which translated into intense possessiveness following her forging of a relationship with Ruby Rose?
However, if Kirakishou was indeed previously labelled as 'lonely' and had been confined to this nebulous N-Field for a sizeable portion of time, it likely meant that this Silver-Eyed Maiden was now also contracted to Kirakishou.
Who else would she take, after all?
"Yes, lonely," Hinaichigo nodded after a moment, having clearly seen her pause. Hazel's own face had morphed into a look of concern for a moment, before quickly flattening. The man was emotionally invested in this conversation- a difficult development to handle. "...You don't know what it's like, to be confined to a small area for so long. It hurts and hurts and hurts. All you can do is dream, but even that loses flavour after a while. Kira had been confined since her creation. It would hurt. She would do anything to be free. I can understand that, even if I really wish that I didn't."
"You sound like you're speaking from experience, Hinaichigo," Hazel spoke up for the first time in a long time, glancing down sympathetically at the doll.
The doll in question flinched, whirling around to stare at her chosen Master with wide eyes, before eventually letting out a hiccuping sob and wearily nodding her head. Salem raised a brow at the action.
"O-One of my previous Masters… they locked me away for a long time… until Tomoe-chan found me…"
Tomoe-chan. Likely, her former Master before Hazel.
"That must have been quite difficult for you," Salem idly voiced.
Whether Hinaichigo heard her or not appeared to be a matter for debate, as the doll merely sniffed and wiped her eyes.
"Imouto-san never got that. So, when she grew powerful enough to reach out into the world… I think she just wanted what we all had. She just wanted to be free."
Grew powerful enough to reach out into the world?
That was a daunting statement indeed.
"She grew powerful?"
Hinaichigo nodded. "...It happened so quickly… old Masters would disappear, they'd fall asleep and never wake. Shinku said that someone had stolen their souls. W-We eventually found out it was our imouto-san, our youngest. She took them all, so that she wouldn't be lonely."
Salem's eyes widened. This correlated with Cinder's final report, following the failure at Beacon Academy. The half-maiden had stated that the doll was gathering 'seedlings', using the victims trapped inside what would become Kirakishou's N-Field as fuel for manifesting in reality.
Prior to her knowledge of the Rozen Maiden, a being with an ability of such magnitude existing in the current godless world was an utterly absurd notion to consider. However, when one factors in an external contributing source, like the Rozen Maiden and their mysterious creation prior to the Age of the Gods, the possibility for the absurd becomes… statistically higher than before.
Salem could liken it to the semblance of the late Marcus Black- a semblance that could harvest the semblances from his victims, to be utilised at his own leisure. A terrifying ability indeed. There had been a reason why Salem had originally compiled a dossier for potentially recruiting the legendary assassin. A semblance such as his could, when nurtured correctly, grow to cause considerable harm to the world and its denizens.
Unfortunately, Marcus Black had been slain by his own vengeful son, thus ending the potential in favour of an angst-filled teen with paternal issues, rudimentary training, and a distinct lack of semblance. Salem could only lament the passage of time, ruining yet another avenue for potential abuse.
Unlike Marcus Black, however, this particular ability -of which she was unwilling to label a semblance- was in the hands of a doll, a timeless being that had no such problem in utilising her power to great effect on any and all who would seek to oppose her desires, whatever they may be.
Hinaichigo believed her desire to be an end to loneliness, while Salem suspected it to be a frenzied craving of overprotective yearning aimed at her Master and paramour.
"And she used these… harvested souls… in order to manifest in the world?"
Hinaichigo grimaced, looking down. She looked over to Hazel, seeming to draw strength in his reassuring presence alone. Salem knew that it was a good idea to have the two sit in with her, rather than dismissing Hazel outright. Their bond appeared quite useful.
Eventually, Hinaichigo spoke up.
"...No. She used them in order to try and find a body for herself, starting with her sisters. Starting with me."
"She tried to steal your body?" Rumbled Hazel, startled out of his prolonged silence.
Hinaichigo hiccuped and nodded, looking down at her hands. "...But it didn't work. Something went wrong. She devoured me. She had my body, but it still didn't work…"
Salem hadn't the slightest clue as to how such a thing could fail, nor how such an essence transfer could work in the first place. It was completely outside any of the magic she had woven, even during the 'glory days' of the gods, when the world was seeped in magic. She could only assume that it would have been rendered impossible, given the God of Light's fanaticism over the cycle of life and death. Transferring one's essence would enable a form of immortality, if one were to continually transfer before their body expires. It should have been impossible.
And, yet, once again, she had been proven wrong. Before her time, during the time of Rozen Maiden, it had at least been considered, if only by a desperate doll trapped in an astral world.
Fascinating. Completely bizarre to be attempted by an already timeless creature, but fascinating nonetheless.
"...What happened next?" Hazel gently asked, voice noticeably subdued. It was clear that the two had not broached this topic previously.
Hinaichigo shrugged. "I don't know. The next thing I remember is waking up here and bonding with you. How in the world I got my rosa mystica and my body back, I couldn't tell you…"
Ah, yes. Rosa mystica. The core of a Rozen Maiden. Remove it, and they become something akin to a regular doll. It had been spoken about previously, in regards to the Alice Game. As she had been over the Alice Game excessively during past reports from Hazel, Salem saw no need in questioning the doll further about that particular topic.
She was, however, quite interested in the nature of Hinaichigo's arrival in her dark palace.
"Would you have any ideas as to how you arrived here, Hinaichigo?" Salem asked, deciding a straight request was likely her best chance. She knew far too little about the Rozen Maiden in order to guess effectively.
The little doll paused, before frowning. "Ummm…. Probably Laplace-no-ma? I figure that it's the only thing capable of pulling us back together, though I dunno why… it's the referee of the Alice Game, as Shinku says, but it almost never does anything apart from annoying Jun-kun."
...What? Laplace-no-ma? Jun-kun? Who are they?
Ruby stood on wobbly legs, Crescent Rose clutched tightly in shaking hands, as the body of a Grimm Wyvern solidified before her roaring silver flames. Her heart beat fiercely within the aching confines of her tiny chest, a searing inferno of heat that pumped through her broken and battered body.
Beside her, Kirakishou was collapsed on the ground, having staggered back from the Grimm Wyvern's attack and landing on the crystalline floor, supporting herself with her hands as she stared up at Ruby with a wide singular eye.
A singular claw of the Grimm Wyvern was within centimetres of slashing the little blonde doll, petrified into an unmoving stone filled with malice. Its jaw had been opened wide, ready to bite down and rip apart the only being that had given Ruby meaning in this world.
It had wanted to hurt Kirakishou.
It had wanted to harm had wanted to kill Kirakishou.
And terrified her, to know how close the Grimm Wyvern had been to succeeding.
She had sensed it all, from the depths of her chamber within Kirakishou's crystalline cave carved by the N-Field. The creature had sensed their aura, their emotions, residing within the village. The village that it had destroyed, long ago. It had come for them, as a predator did its prey. And it despised their very existence.
Kirakishou, especially. It had felt something strange in the village, warning it away. And it had done nothing but stir the beast into a rage, for mere creations daring to think that they could control a beast of dark. When it had found Kirakishou, it had identified her as the source of this feeling, of this rage.
Ruby had acted. And she still wanted to act. Her body yearned for it.
Her very being ached to rip it apart. To slaughter those who tried to take what was hers. She wanted to destroy them all. To burn them away and turn them into statues. Unmoving. Uncaring. Unloved and unwanted. It would be a fitting end. And she would relish the satisfaction she took from ending each and every one of their pitiful-
Ruby shook, clutching her head and wobbling.
"Master… Ruby..." Kirakishou whispered, her voice a siren song calling for her attention. "...You're crying…"
Crescent Rose fell from limp hands, as Ruby shakily moved a hand upwards to wipe away tears that she hadn't even realised existed in the first place. Tears that shouldn't have been.
"I-I don't…" Ruby couldn't form the words. Her throat was burning. Everything was burning. Flames were spinning around her, racing over a still statue and carving deep. Trying to end the dead, to kill the slain. "I can't-"
"Focus, Ruby," soft hands held her cheeks, cradling Ruby's trembling hand that had come up to wipe her tears away. "Focus on my voice, Master. Focus on me, your doll. You saved me, Ruby. You're here. You're awake."
Slowly, mechanically, Ruby's other hand came up to grasp the doll's hand on her cheek, before her entire body sagged and she collapsed onto the small Rozen Maiden, wailing in fear as the flames dissipated around their unified forms.
"I thought I lost you- I-I-I I could feel it, Kira! It wanted to hurt you! It wouldn't stop! It just wanted to destroy. It was so wrong, Kira! Everything about it was just so-"
"And you stopped it, Master. You woke up and you saved me," Kirakishou reminded her softly, reaching towards Ruby and fiddling with the rose that continued to remain blooming in her hair. "You took the power of the Fall Maiden into yourself and you saved me. Thank you, Ruby. Thank you for using your power to save me."
Ruby sniffed, choking back the tears that threatened to continue spilling from her. Kirakishou's voice sounded so very fragile in her ears. She could relate, albeit for an entirely different reason. The young trainee huntress felt like she was almost having a panic attack, with the sheer amount of energy coursing through her veins.
Looking around, she could see the devastation that the Grimm Wyvern had brought to Shiragiku once again. Patches of building, those not converted and assimilated into Kirakishou's domain, were lit ablaze by the grimm's fierce flames. Marble and masonry alike burnt and shifted as it fell to slag, lit aflame alongside patches of wood and vegetation, burning all the same in spite of her rudimentary chemistry knowledge telling her otherwise.
Of note, however, was that none of Kirakishou's crystals appeared to be immune to either the flames generated by the Grimm Wyvern. Whether that be through some quirk of Kirakishou's ability or a result of her environmental manipulations was a matter of conjecture that she really didn't want to think about at the time, for she knew Summer would probably be-
"Mom!" Ruby gasped, hastily looking around for any sign of her ball-jointed Mother and finding no sign of her. "Kira! Where's Mom?"
Kirakishou blinked, before idly gesturing off to the side. "...The creature was able to spawn lesser creatures. Summer Rose went to hold them off until you could awaken. She continues to fight as we speak. She is a very strong fighter, but they are many."
Ruby nodded. "Stay here. I'll check it out."
Hesitantly, Kirakishou nodded, clearly uncomfortable with the idea of leaving her alone. Ruby herself was in the same boat, but she felt that if she took Kirakishou with her at the moment, she'd spent most of her time looking out for the doll instead of having her head in the game.
It was safer inside the village walls right now, rather than out in the wilds. Ruby hated the idea, but she knew it was for the best. Kirakishou would be protected by the N-Field here, and Ruby wouldn't have to worry.
"I'll be here, Ruby. I'll be safe. Go, do what must be done."
She nodded, pulling herself together and standing up. She picked up Crescent Rose, dusting off her weapon before collapsing and refolding it back onto her belt. "I'll be back soon. I love you."
"I love you too, Ruby Rose."
With a soft smile tinged with a bit of worry over the little doll, Ruby activated her semblance and burst away in a display of pale rose petals. She barely even noticed the change with nought but a frown, wondering just how much the procurement of the other half of the Fall Maiden power had changed her.
Unlike when she was a mere half-maiden, becoming a full-fledged Silver-Eyed Maiden had done something to her. It was vastly different than before, almost to the point of being unrecognisable to the previous feeling. Ruby knew, as she darted from building to building, that she need only push forward with her desire and a searing silver inferno would greet the world once again.
It terrified her. Unlike the oddities that had surrounded her when initially bonding with Kirakishou, this power had the potential to cause real damage.
A flash of light caught her attention immediately, the tell-tale beam of Null Value catalysing its chamber of dust and ripping through the surroundings, accompanied by the shrill shrieks of numerous smaller grimm. Summer Rose! It had to be her.
Ruby surged forwards, pushing more aura into her semblance and launching upwards off a roof, a flurry of pale petals easily scaling the ruined external marble wall of Shiragiku.
A forest greeted her, sprouting up several meters outside the walls of Shiragiku, the external vegetation appearing mostly unmarked by Kirakishou's Palace of Beginnings. The sound of battle greeted her ears once more, yowls of pain amidst the sheen of Null Value's great blades. Summer was close by!
She darted forwards past dense vegetation, pale petals of grand silver escaping her aura as Ruby's semblance pushed her forwards. The young huntress-in-training found herself quickly realising that her semblance was coming to the call far easier than before, for little-to-no drain on her aura reserves whatsoever. Was it a result of her Maiden powers?
Brushing the thought away, Ruby reached for Crescent Rose mid-dash, an instinctual feeling of battle-readiness alerting her to the fact that grimm were nearby and she shouldn't be entirely relying upon her strange newly-enhanced powers for combat against a mass gathering of grimm.
No sooner than she did, Ruby found the end of Crescent Rose greeting the body of creep grimm that had lunged for her body, the smaller reptilian grimm having mistimed her movement and finding itself irrevocably torn to shreds.
Ruby cut power to her semblance in surprise at the sudden frenzied grimm, barrelling through a bush and tumbling into a small clearing devoid of-
"Ruby! Quick! Watch your right!"
Taking no pause to reply verbally to Summer's words, Ruby launched off a dust round from Crescent Rose and used the recoil to sweep her scythe around, jumping upwards and using the generated momentum to swing her entire body around, cleaving through yet another of the small reptilian grimm. An alpha. Her Maiden powers activated of their own accord, a flash of silver fire trailing the movement of her scythe and quickly overtaking the small grimm and leaving a petrified statue in its wake.
"Good work, little owl," Summer Rose jumped behind her, the two Roses standing back-to-back. "Keep your guard up. They're in the trees."
She took the time in order to survey the landscape. The 'clearing' that she had found herself in had most certainly been artificially created, several flash-cut stumps and fallen logs indicating Summer had used Null Value to cleave through the surrounding area in order to create some breathing room.
It had been a smart idea, all things considered.
Glancing over at Summer, Ruby gave a quick check over the doll's health. There were a few bumps and bruises on her outfit, and a large gash through her white cape that certainly hadn't been there before, but her Mother seemed relatively fine. Ruby breathed a little sigh of relief. For a moment, she had been really worried.
But, still…
"Are you okay?"
"Yes," Summer responded immediately. "The Wyvern spawned a great many creep. They're immature, but there are easily several hundred of them in the surrounding area," several hundred?! "They seem to be oddly hesitant, however. They've been using the trees and performing ambushing tactics, despite their subterranean nature."
Ruby's eyes narrowed. "That is strange…"
"Indeed," Summer went to respond, only to suddenly duck and impale a creep on the edge of Null Value, the creature dissipating shortly after. "We can't stay here for long. What's the situation in the village?"
A roar of anguish, fury at the creatures for daring to impede on its domain.
A cry of doll, calling for her.
"...Taken care of," Ruby hissed lowly. "The Wyvern is dead. Turned to stone. We should retreat to the village. Even with this clearing, if there's as many as you say they'll continue taking pot shots until we're exhausted."
Summer had raised an artificial brow at her initial reply, the doll looking as if she wanted to inquire further, but nevertheless conceded after a moment. "You're right. Let's go. Follow my tail?"
"Right."
Her Mother took no pause, lunging forward in a display of semblance-enhanced strength, Null Value cleaving through a nearby tree and sending creep raining from the skies. Ruby took that as her cue, Crescent Rose following after her Mother's silhouette and cleaving through the stunned grimm before they could recover. Once again, her Maiden powers activated of their own accord, bisected creep limbs clattering to the ground- a dull thud heard in the wake of numerous enraged roars.
Several creep dropped to the floor of their own volition, rage surfacing in their eyes. She could sense it, so alike to the Wyvern from before, yet split across numerous smaller bodies. They knew about the death of the eldest and were seeking their revenge. The utter idea was enough to make her scoff internally. Mere beasts of dark seeking their revenge on her?! After all they had done?!
Unacceptable.
Ruby would not allow them to take any more lives.
Silver flames sang in tune with her inner thoughts, the unnatural ability surging into being alongside her, resonating into a cloak of flame that burst from her pores and covered the surrounding vegetation in a flash-fire. Grimm and bush-land alike were lit ablaze, petrification quickly following for those foolish enough to get caught.
Many of the grimm were nimble enough to avoid her strike, their telegraphed agile movements indicating they had read her blood-lust and followed their instincts, over any strategic thought. Summer was right, Ruby noted to herself, these grimm are weird. Young enough as to not possess any honed ability through countless battles against humans and faunus, while possessing remarkably strong instincts. And, from what Summer had noted, the grimm were treating them as a threat.
Or, well, they had treated Summer as a threat. A suitable enough threat to warrant ambushing behaviour over simple swarming. Now, however, these grimm were acting little more than cornered animals fighting for survival. They acted as a whole unit, reacting with vengeance when one of their own was slain. Unity through adversity, essentially.
"...I'll do it," she hissed to the creatures, knowing they couldn't understand her. Regardless, her voice seemed to make the grimm focus on her, enough to where Summer could jump away after a moment's hesitation. "I'll slaughter you all for the pain you've caused to the world. Every grimm, young and old. You'll all die. And I'll relish the feeling that comes from turning you all to stone," Kirakishou's frightened face flashed in her mind's eye for a moment, the doll's expression oddly human in the wake of the violent Grimm Wyvern that had sought her demise, "and perhaps, then, will you all learn that it is a mistake to attack the ones I love."
The Creep responded by glancing at one another, before all turning to her in unison and releasing a single unified howl. Within moments the creatures were bounding towards her.
...Their instincts must be telling them to attack, fight-or-flight.
No wonder that a grimm would veer towards little things.
Ruby's scythe spun viciously as she retaliated, carving through the closest grimm and pushing forward, using the blunt side of her scythe to push the approaching grimm off balance.
And, yet, despite their instincts guiding them, I'm surprised they decided to attack. It seems almost desperate.
She tore through another, her Silver-Eyed Maiden flames sparking without hesitation. Ruby fired off a shot from Crescent Rose as her scythe spun around, impacting against the petrified grimm and sending shards flying everywhere. Against her aura, they weren't even a hindrance, but against the creatures without aura to protect them, the sharp fragments were quite effective.
Nowhere to to up against a superior foe.
All they could do was fight.
All they would do is die.
'Then, perhaps, they aren't truly attacking at all. Perhaps this is tantamount to suicide?' Ruby thought, the idea coming off as rather amusing to her. 'Perhaps, then, they're smarter than I give them credit for.'
Summer watched, hidden above in one of the few trees that had survived their attacks, the fading corpse of a lone grimm dangling on the edge of Null Value. Below, her daughter carved through numerous creep without effect, a vicious smirk on her face. Ruby was enjoying the battle.
It was a sudden change in comparison to Ruby's typical behaviour turning her previous bouts with the grimm, where she had seemed almost violently protective of both Kirakishou and herself, striking with all the justifiable anger of a ruler defending their territory from a hostile invader. Never had Summer witnessed her baby girl enjoying the action, however.
To her, personally, slaying grimm was a necessary endeavour, a chore to be done like any other. She was protecting her family through her abilities, she would be remiss than to allow them to go to waste. Whether those ideals be in part due to the fragmented memories Kirakishou had collected for her, or a true ideal, was unimportant. It was what she believed in, and that was all that mattered.
Much of the life that she had lived following her several resurrections into a doll had been spent slaying those that would seek to harm her precious baby girl, or the doll that Ruby loved. She had no hesitated, she had not paused. She hadn't enjoyed it, and she had suffered much at the hands of these threats. Laplace, in particular, wearing Taiyang's body, had hit her hard.
Much of Ruby's memories of Summer, few and far between as they were, consisted almost entirely of sweet moments spent with Taiyang and Yang. All together as a family. To witness the creature that had slaughtered her husband attempting to manipulate Ruby's older sister was… an endeavour. She had wished to end it all, to save Yang from Laplace's machinations, but the creature had prevented her.
And, summarily, Summer Rose had been forced to utilise Kirakishou's artificial spirit, Rosary, to end Laplace's influence over Taiyang once and for all. It had been a mercy. An unfortunate result of her career choice and the actions that had brought her to a horrid future where her daughter had become a huntress in her shadow.
Taiyang, freed of Laplace-no-ma, had been as her semblance-enhanced senses had stipulated- nothing more than a corpse. A rudimentary check over the corpse hadn't yielded any viable information in regards to the cause of death, nor did she wish to investigate further. It hurt, far too much, to think about.
So, Summer Rose had devoted herself to protecting her baby girl. And witnessing Ruby's sudden change in behaviour mere moments after harnessing the full might of the Fall Maiden power was beyond troubling. She could only begin to theorise the reason behind her warped behaviour, lacking any knowledge in her limited memories to ever consider a justifiable assessment on her part.
Summer could infer, considering the nature of Ruby's powers following her initial acquisition of Amber's half of the Fall Maiden powers, that they interacted strangely with Ruby's power as a Silver-Eyed Warrior. Yet another outside-semblance ability that Summer only possessed vague memories of any potential use.
People that were not her, speaking of those with Silver Eyes and their ability to slaughter grimm with nary a glare. Most had rightly dismissed it as myth.
General James Ironwood, Glynda Goodwitch, Hei Xiong, and a veritable host of smaller travellers to Vale had believed otherwise. They had known of the potential in Silver-Eyed Warriors. General James Ironwood, in particular, had possessed a memory of Ozpin mentioning a 'Silver-Eyed Maiden' as being one of the worst potential outcomes that could occur, if Ruby were to harness the Fall Maiden's power.
Ironwood had disregarded the comment, finding no evidence in his studies of the matter to point to a 'Silver-Eyed Maiden' having ever existed, let alone being a negative factor. Summer, however, found herself in a unique position to both agree and disagree with the memories of a dead man. Silver-Eyed Maidens did exist, or they did now in the form of Ruby Rose, and they were an outcome, but it wasn't a bad outcome. Negativity and preferential outcomes were biased on the user, Ozpin had wished for a pawn and feared her strength, while Summer had desired strength and feared for her daughter's safety under Ozpin.
She had seen the potential, witnessed her daughter utilising silver flames, cursed flames that eroded at the grimm like poison, twisting their beings into bizarre petrified statues. They were the ultimate technique against the grimm, an unstoppable attack that vengefully carved into the body.
And, now, just now, Summer Rose had witnessed her daughter's silver flames turning organic matter into the same petrified material.
Now, Summer Rose understood.
For Ruby Rose had become a Silver-Eyed Warrior capable of utilising her petrification abilities on more than just mere grimm.
And, now, her power was burning the world.
A/N:
Hello again! I hope you all liked this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. Salem, in particular, is one of those characters with an almost limitless possibility in fanfiction, for when you combine timelessness with, well, plot development, you can have them do practically anything and have it make some degree of sense in-story. Writing her is quite fun, but it's Hinaichigo that takes the cake for that scene. Little berry girl that she is. Ever read a RWBY story that featured the phrase 'Hazel-chan' before? Because oh boy was that a silly scenario! Bonding Hazel and Hinaichigo is just a recipe for cutesy little shenanigans. Just add a permanent marker!
Ruby and the Grimm was also quite fun to write. Now, we see a peak of what a Silver-Eyed Maiden is capable of unleashing in this story. Silver flames that burn the world, irrespective of their target being grimm or otherwise. Can't wait to write more of that! As Summer said, this is not typical behaviour for Ruby. But, nowadays, what do we consider typical?
Until next time, people! Be sure to let me know what you all think!~