The small bell above the door chimed as Ruby opened the door to From Dust till Dawn, her favourite dust shop. Hearing that soft sound, the old shopkeeper looked up from the register he was tending to see the young wolf eared girl enter his shop.
"Hello miss Rose, may I ask if that outfit is new?"
The clothes in question were a short black and red dress, worn under a belt holding a pair of magazine pouches, some loose bullets and black and red rectangular box on the back. Her legs were covered by black leggings which ended inside red laced, black boots. The outfit was completed by a pair of greaves made of blackened steel covering the half Grimm's legs up to slightly over her knees, a pair of dark red leather gloves and the same red cloak she always wore.
"It is, my Dad took me and my Sister shopping for 'real Huntress outfits' when we received our letters of acceptance into Beacon. Although it did take us most of the day to find a tailor that could add a tail hole to my new dress. Anyways, I'm here to check if my orders arrived by now?"
"Well congratulations miss Rose, and yes they did, the magazines are in the back if you want to read them now, I could load your empty ones with the Dust rounds you ordered."
"Sounds good, thank you." Ruby said while pulling out four magazines, two from each pouch, and placed them on the counter before heading further into the shop.
When she reached the stand containing among others the magazine's she had ordered and or waited for, Ruby put on the headset hanging around her neck so she could listen to some music while browsing through the magazines she was going to buy.
While flipping through the pages of Weapons Weekly, the half Grimm thought back to the three years at Signal that were behind her. While most of the classes were not as easy as she had hoped, she had managed to keep up, mostly because of uncle Qrow's and Yang's help, and the fact that she didn't need to sleep thanks to her Grimm nature. Even so she hadn't made one friend there besides Yang, most other students either keeping their distance from her because of the Beowulf 'mask' that was her face, or the fact that she was a few years younger than most of her classmates. Her wolf like ears and tail also made her a target for many racist comments and insults, which she mostly ignored, except for the delicious anger and hatred that came with them, which made for nice snacks. Luckily with her dad and uncle both working as teachers at signal, no one tried to do anything to her besides that. All in all, Ruby was glad that Beacon meant a fresh start for her and that this time she would at least have her sister sitting in the same classes as her.
As Yang had promised to pick her up and give her a ride home, the now 15 year old girl took her time in reading through her magazines. Just as she had finished reading the second magazine,the latest Destructively Dusty, her fur covered ears picked up the sound of the doorbell for the first time since she had entered the shop. Her interest waked, Ruby perked that pair of ears up in order to listen what was happening at the counter, after all only very few customers had come in the few times she had been here this late.
"Do you know how hard it is to find a Dust shop open this late?"
"Please just take my Lien and leave."
As she realized what this exchange most likely meant, Ruby pulled up her cloak's hood and flipped down the microphone of her headset, while she dialed officer Viridian's number with the scroll in her other hand. She held her breath while she waited for the policeman on the other end to pick up the call.
"Hello miss Rose, you are aware how late it is?"
"Yes, but the Shop I'm at is being robbed right now." Ruby answered, her voice as quiet as she could make it while still being picked up by her mic.
"Wait, where are you right now?" The officer's voice suddenly sounding fully awake and alert.
"I'm inside From Dust till Dawn, at the back of the shop currently out of sight from the counter I hope."
"Ok, stay there and try not to draw attention to yourself. But if they do find you, try to move the fight outside and keep the property damage as low as you can."
During this last reply, Ruby heard footsteps approaching her from behind.
"Hey you, hands in the air where I can see them!"
"And try to stay at the shop until we arrive, so -"
The person behind her grabbed her shoulder to turn her around before addressing the girl.
"Hey I said hands in t-"
His exclamation was interrupted by a powerful punch into his gut, which was quickly followed up by a kick that sent him flying back towards the front of the shop.
Roman was quite pleased with the way his evening had turned out so far. First he had managed to get Junior to offer him a discount when he hired the thugs now assisting him. THen, despite what he had told the old man behind the counter, the first Dust shop he came across after leaving Junior's club was still open.
But then one of his men came flying back to where the rest of them were gathering up Dust. He quickly signaled another of the henchmen to check out what happened back there, before the redheaded thief went back to loading burn Dust crystals into a small black box he was carrying. A few seconds later, a black and red blur flew past him and crashed through one of the front windows.
When Roman turned around and looked outside, he saw another of Junior's men lying seemingly unconscious on the street, with a black and red clad Faunus standing over him. While the girl took a rectangular, black and red Object from behind her back, which unfolded into an approximation of a simple quarterstaff with one half being octagonal while the other seemed round, the criminal mastermind assumed her to be a member of the White fang because of the Grimm mask she wore. He quickly banished that notion however, as her mask was to elaborate for a simple grunt, and he would have been informed if someone higher up the ladder were to visit Vale.
Noticing that the rest of his hired help were just standing around, he let out a deep sigh.
"What are you waiting for? Get her before she calls the police."
At that command, the three remaining thugs moved outside and did their best to surround the wolf tailed Faunus. The young girl didn't waste much time and charged at the first man, before he even got into position, hitting him over the head with the angular half of her weapon. As that strike did not break the thugs Aura, he quickly stroke at her with his sword, which the girl managed to parry easily before she pressed a small button near the center of her staff, firing a bullet from the forward end of her staff.
The bullet hit the man in front of her, tearing through the last of his aura, the backlash of which knocked him out. But what really surprised Roma, was that she used the recoil of the shot to simultaneously thrust the other end of her staff into the chest of the thug coming at her from behind. After a short stepped to the side the man still continued his advance, but when he came close enough to reach her with his blade, she suddenly jumped up quicker than should have been possible, followed by a trail of rose petals. While she was above him, barely out of reach, the Faunus performed a quick backflip as she came down behind him. Using the momentum generated by this acrobatic move, she brought up her left leg between his own pair, and as her metal covered shin connected with his groin, he toppled over in pain.
But when the girl turned around to face the last of his men, the thug was already mid strike. She barely brought her staff up in time to block the man'S sword, the short distance between them turning the long weapon into a disadvantage. Obviously the little wolf realized this as well, taking one hand of her staff and pulling a combat knife literally out of her sleeve. As Roman could already hear sirens approaching, he decided to cut his loses and get himself to safety. As a lst present to the annoying little girl, he pulled one of the uncut crystals out of the box he carried, imbued it with some of his Aura to activate it, before he threw it towards the two combatants. As he ran into the nearest alley, the last thing he noticed from in front of the store was the explosion the crystal eh threw had caused.
Ruby was in a familiar interrogation room, although the person with her wasn't familiar to her at all. The woman walking in front of her was wearing a white blouse under a black corset, along with a violet cape and black skirt. Her green eyes gazed into the half Grimm's silver ones as she began to talk to her.
"Young lady, do you know what could have happened if I had not arrived in time to protect you from that explosion? Or better question what do you think you were doing taking on armed criminals on your own?"
Ruby fidgeted in her seat under the blond woman's stern look before she carefully answered.
"Well I just tried my best to follow the instructions officer Viridian gave me as best as I could."
This reply caused the older woman to stop, clearly surprised, before she resumed both walking and talking to the girl sitting before her.
"Even so what you did was very dangerous. If it were me I would congratulate you on your luck to come out of this unscathed and send you back home."
As the blonde in front of her was about to continue, Ruby could hear steps approaching the door to the room.
"But there is someone else here who wants to talk to you."
As if on cue, the door opened and a grey haired man clad in a dark green suit entered the room, his eyes behind pair of green tinted glasses. When he reached the table the young girl sat at, he placed the plate of cookies he had been carrying in front of her before he took the large black scroll the blond woman hold out to him while sitting down.
"Ruby Rose, you are wearing a very intricate Beowulf mask. would you mind telling me why?"
"It covers some nasty old scars I got years ago during an escalating Faunus rights demonstration."
"Would you mind taking the mask of and showing them to us?"
"Yes, after all I don't even take it off in front of my family."
"Well if you don't want to that's fine."
He quickly selected the security footage taken from the fight earlier tonight and started to play it on his Scroll, holding it so all persons in the room could get a clear look.
"Tell me, why is a girl that got accepted into Beacon two years early because of a letter of recommendation and her early graduation from Signal, both of which praise her skill with a Scythe, using what looks like a simple staff to fight against armed robbers?"
"Well you see it's actually very hard to 'pull your punches' with a Scythe, so if they had been weaker than I thought, I could have ripped of arms or crushed bones accidentally if I had used a Scythe."
"That is very thoughtful of you, but it does raise the question of how you got that good with two weapons in the same time other students may not even gain such proficiency with only one weapon."
"That's easy, see a Scythe is nothing more than a staff with a blade, so much of the training I did for using a Scythe translates over pretty easily. That is also why I decided to include a staff like form when I crafted Crescent Rose at Signal."
"Well then remember the airship to beacon leaves tomorrow at noon, I for one suggest you go home and get some sleep before then."
Fennec9: I was excited to see how things progress when Ruby gets into Beacon, but now Im super hyped for Signal! Will she make any lasting friends? Will she need to intimidate anyone for acting like Cardin? I cant wait
as evidencet by this chapter, I am Skippign over Signal, as I was not interested in writing abotu Ruby working her ass of day and night to keep up with her studies. But to answer your questions: No, she did not make any friends, and she also did not scare of any of the racists that supplied her with nice spicy hatred between classes.
Greer123: When will Ruby's condition be revealed to the public?
Sometime between the truth coming out for team rWBy and the end of the Vital tournament.
As always thank you for reading, comments and critique are welcome.