Was Yang Xiao Long enjoying her Initiation as much as she thought she would? Well, she knew that the situation may eventually change, but as of that moment, the answer was a clear no. She had thought her time would be spent punching the creatures of Grimm and generally fighting her way through the hordes of monsters to collect some Knick-knack to take back with her.
That was what her father and uncle had to deal with after all. They had been launched in the same group, found each other fairly quickly and spent most of their time bickering before they found what they had to; a playing card. The entire time was spent fighting, trying to show their dominance in their partnership by taking out more Grimm than the other.
But there she was. No Grimm in sight. Just an empty forest. Well, not completely empty, as there was a clear reason as to why she was not enjoying Initiation.
"Ho ho! Get back here so I can club you once more!" Yang yelped, feeling the heat of a bullet rip past her and embed itself into a tree next to her. These professors were taking this way too seriously. The person chasing her was large. Large and with a massive moustache which blocked out his entire mouth. He was old, judging by the grey hair he had, so he was most likely a professor. And yet he was keeping up with her!
It was surprising her how in shape this old man was. She fake left and turned right, hoping to leave him in the thick brush. As another dust-infused bullet whipped past her, ricocheting of a tree in some random direction, she sighed. Her mind was travelling a mile a minute. Already breaking down her problem into a few smaller, more easily manageable objectives. The first idea had been to run and try to tire the man out, but that seemed to have been an absolute failure. Then she thought about fighting him head on. The more direct, brute-force method that she favoured above all else. But that idea was quickly brushed to the side due to the added risk of bringing herself closer to a professor and risking being captured and by extension, expelled from a school she had not yet even begun attending.
No, her current objectives were as follows. Objective one was to put some more distance between them. Objective two was to use the thick foliage and trees as a barricade; cutting them down to put a clear wall between them. Objective three and in her opinion, the most risky, was to use those extra seconds of time to create a path that looked like she had gone down, while hiding herself. It worked all the time in movies. The hero slipping down a corridor between buildings while the unnamed enemies continued the chase, unknowingly rushing right by their supposed victim.
She knew that the strategy had much to be desired, but it was an on-the-fly idea and it was incredibly hard to think of something better when she had a madman of a huntsman chasing after her with a shotgun-axe combination weapon.
And she was still trying to complete objective one. "Do are you so fast old man!" She shouted, jumping off a tree to fire three shots at him from Ember Celica.
"An expert huntsman such as myself does not let something so foolhardy as age keep him from being the best! There was one time in my youth, many years ago…"
He was telling a story, Yang realized. This professor huntsman guy was reminiscing and telling her a story, while giving chase to her and dodging her shots. Yang needed a new plan. This one was not at all going to work unless she found a useful distraction.
A blur of red went rushing by.
"That'll work," she noted, veering in the direction of the blur.
Whatever it was, it was moving incredibly fast, darting in, out and around the trees, as if it knew where everything was with perfect precision. Yang did her best to chase after it, firing her gauntlets behind her for a little extra propulsion. She was losing sight of the blur. It was much faster than she was.
Yang was grateful that it was not taking a straight route, choosing to flick around each tree, sometimes spinning in circles around a particular one before darting off. It reminded Yang almost of a puppy exploring a new place for the first time.
Yang laughed at herself. She was finding a blur of red adorable. And just as quickly as it came, it vanished.
"Owie," Yang heard someone squeak out. Stopping to check on the noise, she realized a little girl in a black skirt and red t-shirt and equally red cloak was sitting on her butt, rubbing her head.
"You okay?" Yang asked, checking her surroundings for any sign of the mad huntsman.
"I wasn't looking where I was going," came the girl's cute reply.
"What are you going in the middle of a forest? Aren't you a little…" Yang was not quite sure how to finish that sentence without hurting the girls feelings. "Short?" she attempted.
"Hey! I'm not short! Well, I am, but I'm still growing. Just you wait until I hit puberty." The girl stood up, placing her hands on her hips. A little pout plastered on her face.
Yang could only stare at the girl. "Are you here for Initiation?"
The girl nodded rapidly. "Yup! I'm Ruby! I'm the civilian everybody is looking for!" Ruby's face dropped. "Oops. I'm supposed to keep that a secret until you catch me. Promise me you won't tell mommy?"
Yang chuckled, "sure. I promise. I'm Yang."
"Nice to meet you! Are those your weapons?" And then, all of a sudden, the little girl was darting around her, holding onto her elbow and wrist to get a better look at her gauntlets.
"I designed them myself." Yang began, enjoying the 'oohs' and 'aahs' which accompanied the girl's perusals. "So, does this mean I caught you?"
"You need to have caught me after you found a partner," Ruby explained.
"Really?"
"No idea."
As Yang thought about whether or not this counted as a capture, Ruby interrupted her thoughts. "You do know that if you remove about half an inch of plating here, you can fit in another three dust rounds without compromising the integrity of the weapon? It'd also be lighter and put less strain on your wrists. Don't want to get carpool tunnels."
"Carpal tunnel?"
"That's what I said."
Yang cleared her throat. "So, since you don't know if I need a partner to capture you and I'm already here, why don't we agree that I caught you."
"Nope," Ruby said, taking a step back with a smile.
"And why's that?"
"Because you didn't restrain me. And you let me distract you enough for Uncle Porty to catch up."
"Ho ho! Right you are little missy. This one was quick and nearly gave me the slip!"
Yang blanched.
Ruby smirked and gave her a little wave. "Nice meeting you, Yang. I hope we can be friends if you escape."
And with that, she was off again in a cloud of rose petals, cackling like a child hopped up on too much sugar.
Yang watched her go, only managing to dodge a blast from Port at the last second. The tree she was near seemed to implode on itself, leaving Yang grateful her uncle had taught her to dodge first-think later.
"I am so going to get that little pipsqueak."
Jumping around another blast, she amended that thought. "Once I escape him… Again."
I had way too much fun with this one.
Darknight2124 - So true.
Eyelashh - I'm not quite sure what you mean. Why would she need to leave the forest in the first place?
Blessings of Babylon - It's one of my many charms
merendinoemiliano - Thank you!
Therecklessone - Ruby is way too young for romance. While there may (or may not) be ships for other characters in the (far) future, Ruby will just be a kid for the duration of this. As for Ruby's father... in this story, it's not going to play an important role. It can be an OC, or a named character, but in the end, it won't really matter. Probably. At least for now anyways. I haven't thought that far yet.
chinaluv - And your wait is finally over! though it was a little longer than I had hoped for.
Zander2212 - I do know that. And I've read a majority of Coeur's fics including Service with a Smile. In any case, this one will be a lighter, slice-of-life fic.
PrepareForSomethingAmazing - No, I generally do not do requests. I love hearing them and using them for inspiration in the future, but I can never promise someone that I will do their request. Sorry. :)