Ruby Rose, age 7, stood in front of her mother's monument. It was their tribute to her memory. She stood there and wondered what she would be doing with them now, her and Yang. Yang was upset with the loss of her mother too, even if she wasn't her mother through blood, she was better than she could have ever asked. It was lonely, just her, Yang and their dad, but she didn't really remember much about her mom.
"Mom, if you're listening, I just wanna say I love you, and that Yang will be going to Signal soon, so it'll just be me and dad here in Patch," Ruby spoke aloud, "Yang's pretty excited, I mean, I would too, but that just means I have less time to spend with her, so really…" Ruby trailed off. "I just really wish you were here," Ruby concluded.
Ruby closed her eyes, imagining her sister and father. She didn't notice how the winds began to pick up and the fallen Autumn leaves and flung them around. She paid no attention to her red cloak whipping around her legs, because, after all, it was just the wind. But it wasn't just the wind. A pair of grey, orange-souled boots touched down on the golden covered ground, giving a slight crinkle of the leaves. Ruby spun around to see who it was.
Standing there was a woman who Ruby only came up to her chest. Ruby could tell she was a girl even with her grey cloak on and a forest green lined hood drawn, bits of black hair dripped out from under it. There was a crow with glowing green eyes on her shoulder.
"Good evening." The stranger greeted.
"Wh-who are you?" Ruby asked, apprehensively.
"Guess manners will be first on the agenda," The figure murmured before clearing their throat. "My name is Grim." The girl offered her hand. Ruby cautiously took it and they shook hands.
"H-hi, I'm Ruby…"
"Oh, I know." Grim smiled behind her hood. "That's why I'm here."
"What do you want?" Ruby felt a sense of dread.
"To Train you." She said flatly. Ruby's fear was replaced with confusion.
"To train me? Why?"
Grim's hand reached for her hood. She lowered it and opened her eyes. Ruby Gasped.
"I never believe wasted potential…" Grim told her, her silvers eyes, glistening.
Ruby: Age 9
A boot slammed into Ruby's side as she doubled over. Grim stood over her, her cloak hung over a tree while they sparred. Grim had been teaching her since their first encounter at her mother's grave.
"Stand up Ruby. You need to give it more effort than that." Grim chastised.
"I just don't want dad to know." Ruby offered weakly, Grim scoffed.
"You know I can heal you, so that's not gonna save you from fighting me," Grim told her as she threw a left hook at Ruby, who blocked it with a grunt. "You're fast, Ruby. Dodge, don't block. Block only if you can use it," Ruby fired a kick. Grim blocked it and promptly grabbed her leg and threw her to the ground. "Never stop your momentum, if you fall, keep with the momentum and get back up."
It had been like this for two years now. Grim would train Ruby every weekend, for four hours a night, sharpening her skills. Even if Half of it was hand-to-hand spars, reflex enhancement and physical conditioning. The other half was academic-focused and strategy. Ruby was reluctant and apprehensive at first but quickly got over it after she realized how nice Grim was. Grim was a stern and blunt teacher, but also a fun person to be around, and told great jokes, unlike Yang's unbearable puns.
Ruby scrambled to her feet and went jabbed Grim in the side, who dodged it. Almost.
"Hey, good one," Grim congratulated, "We'll stop here for tonight." Grim walked over to the tree that held her and Ruby's cloaks and threw Ruby's over to her. As Ruby reattached the cloak, Grim walked over to her and put a hand on her shoulder.
"Good work Ruby, you're getting better, …ever so slowly." Grim praised backhandedly. Ruby beamed all the same.
"Thanks, Grim!" Ruby said before hopping off.
"Ruby." Grim stopped her. Ruby spun her head around. "We're beginning Aura training next week," Grim told her. Ruby's eyes grew wide and so did her smile. Grim smiled and shook her head. "I'll see you around, Ruby." She said, soon followed by Ruby zipping off.
Grim walked over to the tree line and picked her extravagant black scythe back up, as well as her two, smaller scythes before drawing her hood and whistling for her Dust, her crow, who flew down and began encircling her. As he did, he left black feathers behind along with black ash. Dust continued until Grim was obscured from sight, and, when the feathers settled…
They were gone.
Ruby: Age 11
"Ruby." Grim approached her student after an hour of training. Ruby turned her head up to Grim from her sitting position. "It's time I teach you the next step of Aura emission."
"Really?!" Ruby exclaimed. Grim nodded which elicited squealing from Ruby.
"Ruby."
"Yes?"
"You have no idea what I mean, do you?"
"Nope!" Ruby smiled as Grim sighed and sweatdropped.
"Tell me what aura is, how it is generated, and what it can do," Grim asked.
"Aura is a physical manifestation of our souls, it is generated by our souls and the greater one's soul, the more aura they can produce. Aura can be used as a shield that prevents attacks from damaging oneself, and gives each person a special ability, called a semblance." Ruby stated.
Grim smiled, "Good, it seems you have been listening during my lessons. Now, what is your semblance?"
"Speed. I can increase my speed but lack some ability to react during it."
Grim raised an eyebrow.
"A-and I make rose petals as a by-product of it."
"Very good. Next question. Why is that your semblance?" Grim questioned.
"Because… because… umm…" Ruby trailed off, scrunching her face.
Grim chuckled. "I'll give you a hint: your semblance is a reflection of your soul." This only resulted in Ruby scrunching her face up more in thought. "Okay stop that. Your semblance is speed because you are so energetic. Much like how your sister's is retaliation because of how she is short-tempered." Grim explained. "So summary: aura is soul." Grim sat down next to Ruby. "And silver eyes are soul conductors." Ruby listened on with awe and intrigue. "It is commonly believed that the silver eyes are cosmetic, and that 'those with silver eyes are believed to lead the life of a warrior'. Kind of how people believe that four-leaf clovers are lucky." Grim continued.
"People who know the run-of-the-mill silver eye wielder knows how they are able to petrify the creatures of grimm. This, however, is only a simple impulse that occurs when a great deal of emotion is felt. It can be trained to require less emotion inputted but is relatively underwhelming in comparison to the other powers on offer." Grim smiled at Ruby's shocked reaction. Grim then jumped up and put a hand out to Ruby. "So! Ready to learn how to fly?"
3 minutes later…
Grim and Ruby were stripped down to their sports bras and tights.
"Do we have to do this like this?" Ruby asked, blushing in embarrassment.
"Yes," Grim answered bluntly.
"Whhhyyy? I feel, exposed…"
"Because it's easier to begin without any encumberment, it makes the fourth and fifth steps easier to handle." Grim pointed a finger out at Ruby. "Step 1! Gather your aura up to your eyes, like how I trained you to dense your aura in areas you're about to be hit." Grim demonstrated, and a green misty glow surrounded her and then retracted into her closed eyes. Ruby attempted to copy it, and, if not slower, she did so with a red and flowery glow.
"Step 2!" Grim called "Refine your aura in your eyes, this will create refined soul energy that is more powerful than a regular aura, and more versatile than semblance. You should be able to do it by imagining you're removing dirt from water." Grim explained. Ruby did as her teacher instructed, feeling a sense of euphoria as she did so, beginning to tremble. "Do not succumb to the feeling," Grim told her, sensing her reaction, "Your body has never had pure soul energy in its physical system before, it will begin to go away after use." Ruby did as she was instructed, purging the feeling from herself.
"Step 3! Flow the energy back through your body, such as you would aura." Ruby did as Grim did, trying her best to focus on it and not the best Damn FEELING EVE-
No! Focus!
"Step four!" As Ruby opened her eyes again, she saw Grim was covered in a white glow. She looked down at herself and saw the same glow before it faded. "To fly, you need to use your new energy to propel yourself. Imagine you have a magnet on your feet and it's repelling you away from the ground, and then attempt to hover. Like so," Grim then slowly floated about two metres of the ground.
"Whoa…" Ruby gasped.
"Whoa indeed Ruby, and if you wanna give this a go, you must do as I told you." Grim reminded. Ruby did so and shakily floated off the ground. It was like balancing on a bike but standing up. She then tried to propel herself forward, using the same concept but ended up launching herself into a tree. Dust began cawing as if he was laughing at her failed attempt to fly. Ruby scowled at him.
"Shut up Dust."
"And that's why we begin with just hovering, Ruby," Grim smirked. Ruby scowled at her as well. Before she chuckled, grinning back.
Ruby loved training with Grim.
Ruby: Age 12
Ruby trudged home after another night of intense training with Grim. She was mentally and physically exhausted. Since Ruby had made her Scyther-rifle, Grim had been insistent that they trained with it. Mid-air. Whilst flying. It wasn't too hard, but when Grim had introduced things such as:
Reciting History mid-battle
Soul-infused weaponry
Special attacks
And Soul constructs,
It had gotten quite demanding. She was also beginning to take time to have her do leadership training, even at Ruby's objection. Grim's reasoning was 'Just because you aren't a leader, doesn't mean you can't lead'.
Grim had also been making Ruby train her semblance as well, so that it now made her overall agility faster instead of her outwrite movement.
And finally, Dust crow-laughing at her every failed attempt did not help. Stupid bird…
"What'cha doing there, Rubes?" Yang asked her, appearing out of nowhere beside their house, face serious.
"AH!" Ruby yelped and leapt in fright. "Yang! W-what are you doing up?" Ruby asked her sister, sweating profusely.
"Not much, got up to go to the toilet, noticed your bed empty," Yang said. She was toying with Ruby. "What about you?"
"O-oh, you know, just out for a late-night stroll!" Ruby shrugged, somehow sweating more.
"With Your combat outfit and Crescent Rose?" Yang raised an eyebrow, suspiciously.
"Well, wouldn't want anything terrible to happen, now would we?" Ruby began trying to scoot around Yang.
"Okay… If you say so…" Yang accepted, knowing that she was far from done with interrogating Ruby on the topic.
"See you tomorrow Yang!" Rube ran away without room for any further questions.
The Next Day…
Yang had dragged Ruby out to a training field a fair distance from their house.
"Yang, where are we going?" Ruby asked Yang as they followed the winding dirt track.
"We're going to do some training. You vs. me." Yang called behind her. Ruby groaned loudly. Yang only trained with Ruby when one of three things occurred: one, Yang was in a bad mood. Two, Yang wanted to get information out of Ruby. Or three, Yang just felt like tormenting her. And while none of them were mutually exclusive, she had a feeling it was just number two. They reached the allotted training ground, surrounded by the green spring trees.
"Is this about last night Yang? I told you, I was taking a walk!" Ruby pleaded.
"And I completely believe you, this is just a friendly spar," Yang told her with an undertone of sarcasm. Ruby groaned. The only way to get out of this was either to tell Yang what she was really doing or beat her to the point of exhaustion.
They hadn't had a spar since before Yang went off to Signal, so it was anybody's guess who'd win. On one hand, Yang had more experience than Ruby. On the other, Ruby had been training with a one; Grim R.
They stood opposite sides of the clearing and readied their weapons. Yang took her classic brawler stance, one fist in front of the other, While Ruby used one of the stances Grim taught her. A sprinting position with Crescent Rose over her shoulder, blade pointing away from her, specifically used for countering close-range fighters. Yang snorted.
"What's that stance, Ruby?" Yang snickered "I never seen Uncle Crow do one like that, and it looks ridiculous."
Ruby stuck a finger out at Yang. "Laugh now sister! For with my newfound strength I will beat you and never tell you what I was doing last night!"
"So, you admit you were doing something last night?" Yang pointed out. Ruby stood there, shocked for a moment before facepalming.
"Grim is going to yell at me for this one," Ruby muttered.
Yang then charged with no warning, but her reflexes of Grim launching even faster surprise-attacks allowed her to dodge it with ease. She then stuck Crescent Rose into the ground and spun around, bicycle kicking Yang in the back of the head. Yang staggered, not only beyond surprised but actually took some decent damage from the attack. That was because Ruby had been purifying her aura secretly on the way there, stockpiling more than enough to take Yang head-on, and by using it on her blows, she could easily incapacitate her. The only problem would be doing so without raising Yang's suspicion any further.
"Wow, Ruby! Good hit, I really felt that one!" Yang praised. Ruby ignored it due to how Grim used it to have her let her guard down. Ruby swung her scythe so that the sniper barrel faced Yang. Ruby fire three shots in quick succession, two of which Yang dodged, the third catching her in the abdomen, blasting even more of her aura away.
Yang was at a loss. The last time she actually fought Ruby was six years ago. How had she come so far in that time? Sure, she was going to Signal too, but Yang had both more experience and physical power, practically dwarfing Ruby. But Ruby was not only just holding her own but handing Yang's ass to her. Any time she went for a blow, Ruby dodged it effortlessly and either counter attacked with her giant scythe or hit her with melee blows that could rival her own. Damn, they actually hurt! Yang knew she was on the losing side as her semblance was beginning to activate, and Ruby had not a scratch on her.
Yang began to swing wildly. Her semblance increased the power of her blows, but not the ability to hit them. Which Ruby immediately took advantage of. More dodging and parrying later left a battered and beaten Yang panting.
"C'mon, Yang. You're exhausted, just admit that you lost." Ruby pleaded. Yang just nodded dumbly before flopping over on her back.
"Man, Rubes…" Yang said with what little breath she had left, "How'd you get so good?"
"I've been training," Ruby told her truthfully, albeit not the whole truth.
"Well, you've been training pretty damn well. Man! I not even dad left me that bashed up after our spars!" Yang complimented. Her face fell and she looked up at Ruby. "What have you been training to be this good?"
Ruby sat down next to Yang, but, looked away from her. It wasn't like she Didn't want to answer Yang's questions, she wanted to answer them so badly…
Actually, Screw it! Grim be dammed, she was going to tell Yang.
"Well, Yang," Ruby began "somebody's been training me these past six years. They…"
"…Specifically told you not to discuss your training." Ruby whipped around to see Grim standing there with Dust perched on her shoulder. "To anyone." She finished as Dust cawed.
"Shut up you stupid bird…" Ruby muttered.
"Ruby, who is this?" Yang asked, uneasy with the appearance of this new figure.
"Yang, this is Grimm, she's been training me." She glanced to Grim. Grim moved forward to look at Yang. She gave her a smile once she was done, satisfied with what she saw. But Yang was only focused on one thing.
"You… have silver eyes…"
"Yes, I am quite aware," Grim replied matter-a-factly. "I've been training your sister here on how to use hers. Properly." She turned to Ruby. "As previously mentioned, however, I did instruct her not to divulge her training to others. As a consequence of this action, I believe that I can no longer trust her with my secrets and conclude her training here and now."
Ruby's heart shattered. "W-what?"
"You can't do that!" Yang shouted at Grim, not caring that she barely met her. "She just didn't want me to worry!"
"Is that so?" Grim remarked. "Ruby, is what your sister says true?"
Ruby got over her shock, tears welling in her eyes at the possibility of her training ending. "Yes. I-I couldn't keep my sister in the dark any longer! She's my sister and I trust her!"
Grim smiled. "Well done. I was wondering when you would have the courage to stand up to me and put your faith in those you care about."
"Wait what?" Ruby asked, confused as to what was happening.
"This was a test, Ruby. It tested the strength of resolve, your moral compass, and you trust in others. You succeeded on all fronts." Grim turned to Yang. "Yang Xio-Long, a pleasure to meet you, I am Grim. I've like to formally invite you to be present in our training sessions. Be aware I will not train you, but you are more than welcome to watch."
"Um… Okay?" Yang shrugged, not sure how to respond after such an abrupt 180 in the tone in the conversation.
"So, I get to keep training with you?" Ruby was apprehensive asking the question.
"Yes. That was never in question, to begin with." Grim answered. Ruby beamed.
"YES! THANK YOU GRIM!" Ruby cheered as she leapt up into the air and stayed there, causing Yang's jaw to drop.
"R-Ruby! You're flying!" She exclaimed.
"I know!" Ruby grinned idiotically back at Yang. Dust Cawed.
"Shut up Dust."
Ruby: Age 13 (Today!)
"So Ruby, who's present you gonna open first?"
Ruby Looked between the two presents that her father had presented to her after they and Yang had demolished the cake they had brought.
"Hold on there you two," Yang said, drawing their attention away from the two gifts and to a third Yang was carrying. "Somebody special asked me to make sure I get this to Ruby."
Ruby's eyes lit up. "Ah! Was is Grim?! Did she give me a present?!"
"Yep!"
Tai chuckled. "I'm still confused on who this person is but you two seem to be fine with it so least I can do is trust you."
Ruby hastily nabbed the present from yang and tore away the shiny black wrapping paper. Under it was two varnished wooden boxes, each with two golden latches on them. She flipped the latches on the rectangular one first and peeked inside. Laying on a bed of red silk, were two beautifully crafted hand cannons. One was black with a white skull on either side of the barrel and the name 'Executioner' etched on the onyx handle. The other was cut from a crystal and slotted into a holster that glimmered in the light, the name 'Cremator' written on it. There was a note accompanying the exquisite firearms.
'Dear Ruby, Happy Birthday.
I believe it is finally time to equip you with a few weapons of my own, special, design.
The black hand cannon is Executioner, will burrow its rounds deem into flesh and shatter armour with ease. Any bullets fired with this will have some tracking capabilities, so don't worry if you're aim is a little off.
The more… unconventional, one is Cremator. While I never wish you must face another person in serious combat, Cremator is made for such a task. The energy blasts it fires deal extra damage to auras and after six consecutive shots with it will tamper with an opponent's semblance. It also has the added benefit of siphoning that little extra aura damage to your own, so there's that.
I have never been one for particularly coherent messages, so I will leave you with this;
Happy Birthday, Ruby. Have the weekend off.'
Ruby's mouth was gaping at the explanation of the guns she now held. With every fibre of her being telling her 'NO!', she set the guns back to open the other box from Grim. Inside this box was a belt with a holster on either side, perfectly made to suit the guns she had just received. But what really caught her attention was the skull mask on top of it. It had her family rose emblem engraved in red on the forehead.
"Well, seems your friend gave you some pretty fancy things there darling," Tai broke the silence that Ruby hadn't even realised was there.
"YANG!" Ruby screamed as she whipped around to her sister, who jumped back at the sudden volume. "Do you want to go test these babies out?!" she waved Executioner and Cremator in excitement.
Yang smirked. "You just want an excuse to whoop my but, don't you?" Yang asked. Ruby smirked back. Tai looked between his two daughters with mild fear.
"Should I be worried or…" Tai never got to finish as the two girls rushed out the door. "R-Ruby! Your other prese- oh why do I even try." Tai slumped before straightening up with a smile.
As Ruby and Yang ran down a path to their fighting spot, a figure watched them from the trees.
"She's really something? Isn't she?" Grim asked.
"Hmm… Yes, she is." Dust, the crow, answered.
"She will be a great Reaper one day,"
"That she will."
Grim sighed. "Will you watch over her once I'm gone, Dust?"
"I watched over you for Lissene, didn't I Crème?"
"I guess you did." Grim looked back to the now sparring girls.
"I guess you did…"