Chapter 5
Sewers Tunnel- Afternoon
While Weiss was paying the bill, Ruby saw something amazing - a sword, that seemed to be a combination between a large cleaver and a gun, leaving the restaurant, so she did the only thing that was reasonable, she followed it, and before she knew it, she seemed to be in the sewers, and the weapon was also gone. So Ruby stood there, thinking what she should do, and then she spotted a black haired woman.
'Isn't that the one of the student from Haven? What was her name again? Maybe she knows how to get back to the dorms.' Thought Ruby, walking towards the black hair woman.
Suddenly, the black haired woman sprinted, and then jumped from wall to wall, and made a sharp turn left at a fork. Ruby smiled.
'Oh, that's cute, think you can outrun me do you?'
Using her Semblance: Petal Burst, Ruby disappeared, leaving behind red rose petals where she was previously, and now standing where the dark haired student was before when she turned the corner, but…
'Where did she go?' Wondered Ruby, as she walked down the Sewer.
In actuality, after Cinder turned the corner, she immediately jumped up to the ceiling, and was now hanging on a pipe on the ceiling. Looking down at the girl, she didn't understand.
'Why is she following me? Does she suspect something? Does she recognize me from that night with Torchwick? Too troublesome, I'll just end her here, once and for-'
?: "A… A… Azure… where… you… hid IT!"
Just before she was about to ambush the little red huntress, someone, or something beat her to it, and dropped from the ceiling first, right in front of Ruby.
"What…" The thing that almost landed on her, it looked like black goo, with a white mask with three holes, that she assumed are the eyes and mouth.
Black goo: "AAA AZURE?"
'A Grimm?' No, thought Ruby, Grimms don't talk, and there are no Grimms that look like a goo.
"A… AZURE, I I I, give me NOW!"
"What? I don't know what that is?"
'Is that some kind of soft drink here?' Thought Ruby.
"AZURE!" The goo screamed, and jumped at Ruby. Ruby dodged to the side, and drew her weapon, the Crescent Rose, pointed at the goo, and fired a shot; the bullet punched a hole through the goo, but the hole was filled up almost instantly. The goo then liquefied and dived into the ground.
"Huh?" Wondered Ruby as the goo extended and surrounded her, she immediately transformed the Crescent Rose into a scythe and did a Corkscrew Slice around her, only to hit nothing. Ruby looked down, but it was too late, hundreds of strange insects, spawned from the goo's body had swarmed her.
"Ah… ahh! Get away!" Screamed Ruby, swinging her scythe wildly.
Ruby fired a shot with her scythe, and combined with her Semblance, it sent her flying into the air, and while in midair, she fired two more shots, until she landed a safe distance away from the monster and its insects. But then…
'My head… it's spinning, why?'
It was odd, she hadn't been fighting that long, but she felt so drained, her head dizzy and her body hot. Using her scythe as support, Ruby tried her best to stay up, but she can feel her consciousness leaving her.
'Was I poisoned by the insect?' Thought Ruby.
'So, this is the monster Kval told us about.' Thought Cinder as she looked on at the battle, and then suddenly, the goo turned its mask face at her, and the surrounding insects swarmed towards her, but Cinder just smirked, let go of the pipe and dropped to the ground, and as the insects reached her, a barrier of intense heat formed around her and turned all the insects that flied near her into ash.
"Foolish creature, I would have left you alone, but you just have to go and piss me off." Said Cinder with a smile as she stepped on the char remains of the insects, and blasted a stream of fire at the goo. The goo jumped and stuck its body to the wall, evading her fire. Its body then opened up like a flower, and fired a LASER at Cinder! Cinder dodged to the side, barely evading the beam, but the goo moved its body and the beam tracked and chased her. Cinder stopped and created a glass shield to block the laser, and then threw a glass spear at the creature, the spear pierced the goo but it just liquefied again and slided down the wall.
'Slippery worm.' Thought Cinder.
Beep, beep, beep.
Beeping sound, in her right pocket…
'The Seithr sensor! The Seithr here has reached dangerous levels! Why?' Thought Cinder.
?: "Oh. It's you again, the creepy self-proclaimed maiden."
"You!" Cinder turned and saw Ragna, standing right behind Ruby.
"Huh? Maiden?" Wondered Ruby as she's losing consciousness, only standing with her scythe as a crutch.
"Yo… you you YOU! Have thethe Azu... AZURE! I WANT AZURE!" Said the black goo.
"What?" Asked Ruby, confused.
"It means me, now get out of the way kid."
Ruby felt a strong hand on her shoulders, but before Ruby could turn and see who it was, the hand pushed Ruby down with such force that she landed on her butt, and she soon lost her consciousness.
Cinder grinned her teeth, but now was not the time. This was prefect, for some reason, that monster seemed more interested in Bloodedge than her. Good, she can just let the Grim Reaper handle that black goo, while she gets away.
"Azu zure Azure! Gehyahahaha!" screamed the black goo.
"So you're Arakune. And what the heck are you? You look more like goo than a spider." Asked Ragna, looking at Arakune. 'That thing is emitting Seithr? No, it is made of Seithr.'
"The Azureee! I must must have ititit!"
"Sorry, but that's my arm you're talking about, and I kinda need it. How about I give you a beating instead?" Said Ragna as he drew his sword.
'Azure? Arm?' Thought Cinder as she made her escape.
"AZUREEE!" Screamed the Arakune as it jumped at Ragna. As Ragna lifted his sword, the black goo spawned eight long spider leg like claws!
"Shit!" Said Ragna as he immediately extended his sword and turned it into a scythe, hooking Arakune before its claws reached him, and then pulling the black goo into the ground!
'Now!' Once the black goo was on the ground. Ragna grabbed one of Arakune's claws with his left hand, lifted the goo off the ground, and then slammed it into the ground again! Ragna then stabbed his sword right through Arakune, and pinned it to the stone floor! With its body pinned and one of its claws trapped in Ragan's iron grip hand, Arakune couldn't run, and Ragna begin to gather dark energy in his right hand.
DEAD SPIKE!
The dark energy turned into a large monster's head, slamming into Arakune while biting down at the goo like a shark, ripping Arakune free from Ragna's sword and hand, and slamming it into the wall! Ragna chased after it, gathering energy in his right fist, he punched Arakune right in its mask face, and after that, using his bare hand, Ragna begin pulling pieces of Arakune's body off one by one!
'My Drive, it's eating and draining Seithr from this… "thing".' Thought Ragna. 'Not sure that's a good thing.'
Arakune's body suddenly opened up and insects flied out and swarmed Ragna, completely surrounding him. Ragan took a few steps back, trying to cover his face. Arakune laughed, and opened its "mouth", trying to swallow Ragna whole, but suddenly, a flash of dark energy swallowed the insects, and all of them fell to the ground, drained of life. Arakune's survival instinct kicked it and tried to run, but Ragna's right arm, now turned into a giant dark claw, scooped up its gooey body and lifted it off the ground.
"Where do you think you're going? I thought you wanted my right arm, here it is."
Now perish! Was what Ragna wanted to say, but before he could finish Arakune off, he heard something flying towards him and he immediately dropped Arakune and then jumped back, just in time to dodge a huge rod!
'What?'
The rod was thrown with so much force, that it buried itself into the ground, and then, a black haired woman appeared. At first, Ragna thought it was that black haired woman from before, but no, it was someone he'd never seen before.
?: "Please, let him go. He's suffered enough." Said the woman in red, standing in front of Arakune, shielding it from Ragna.
"G… eh! Wh… ho… are you? The Azu… zure is MINEEE!" Said the goo.
Arakune jumped at the woman, Ragna immediately pushed her out of the way and grabbed the goo with his claw, and slammed it into the ground with a boom! Arakune liquefied again and slipped through Ragna's claw, grew six legs, and tried to escape. Ragna tried to give chases, but the woman grabbed hold of his left arm.
"Let go of me! Crazy bitch!"
"Please! I beg of you! Look, he's just confused right now. He doesn't mean to hurt anyone!"
"Have you gone full retard?! That thing attacked that girl over there, it attacked me, IT JUST ATTACKED YOU!"
"Ugugugu! AZURE… Az… zure!" Said the goo as it disappeared into an old pipe. Ragna rolled his eyes and sheathed his sword.
"Fine! Whatever! It was never my problem anyway. Suit yourself."
"Thank you…" Said the woman.
"Just carry that girl over there to the surface. I need to be somewhere else." Said Ragna, pointing to the unconscious Ruby on the ground.
Normally, in this situation, the man should be the one doing the carrying, but people, for some goddamn reason he could never understand, always thought pedophile when they saw him. So as a precaution, he decided a long time ago that he would never take any chances when it comes to underage girls.
'Now I can just return to Kaka-'
"No. The Kaka Village is nearby. And also I got equipment there."
'Why does the world hates me!?'
In the shadow…
Cinder looked at Ragna behind a corner. She only pretended to escape.
'I was hoping that black goo, even if it couldn't beat that grim reaper, could at least weaken him, but he beat it so easily!'
Cinder looked at Ragna's right arm.
'That arm… it must be the secret to his power… the power to match mine… the Azure… it can't be The Azure… I can't be that lucky, can I?'
Unbeknownst to Cinder, while she was watching Ragna, behind her, a one-eyed swordscat was watching her.
'More weirdos? Don't we have enough of 'em around here?' Thought the bipedal master swordscat.
En route to Kaka Village
In the end, Ragna and Litchi made a stretcher out of Ragna's jacket and Litchi's rod and another pipe Ragna just randomly pulled out of the wall. Together they carried Ruby to Kaka Village.
"We need to move faster. Her Seithr induced fever is getting worse."
'Yeah, because of that gooey friend of yours. That thing was just radiating Seithr.'
"And yet we're bringing her further underground?"
"Like I said, I'd prepared equipment there." Replied Litchi.
'So she is the one I was sent to find.'
"By the way, sorry I haven't introduced myself, my name is Litchi Faye Ling, a doctor in Orient Town."
'… Shit, now she'll expect me to introduce myself too… need to give her a forgettable random name…'
"I'm um… Smith…"
"I already know who you are."
Ragan paused.
"But now is not the time, we need to get her to Kaka Village as soon as possible.
'And beside, I owe you.' Thought Litchi. 'You stopped Roy from killing people.'
Kaka Village
?: "You would just stand there and watch as your brethren are enslaved!?"
When Ragna and Litchi arrived at Kaka Village, the first thing they heard was shouting.
"I am their elder, not their queen. While I sympathize with your people's plight, I can't just order my people to join your crusade." Said Totokaka the Kaka elder.
?: "So If I can convince the people here to join me, you wouldn't stop me?"
"I will not stop them, but I will try to talk them out of it."
?: "So in the end, you will still interfere!"
"Young man, you have the right to talk them into your resistance, I have the right to talk them out of it."
Ragna ignored them and walked towards the building Litchi was pointing at, but the horned man that was doing all the angry shouting suddenly walked in front of him and gave him a detestable stare. Ragna wanted to throw his ass out of the village, but unfortunately he was still carrying an unconscious girl. And also he didn't want to cause any trouble for the village.
"Why are there humans here?" Asked the masked horn man with disdain.
"That man is a guest, the woman is a doctor, and it's none of your business." Replied Totokaka.
"Yes." Said Litchi, wanting to move on and end the conversation. "Elder, we got a patient here, so we don't have time to chat."
"Go right on ahead." Replied the elder.
"Wait."
As Ragna walked pass, Adam called out to him, and then Adam's men surrounded them. Ragna Sighed.
"Someone, carry this."
And a Kaka walked up to him and took the stretcher from him. Once Litchi left, Ragna turned his attention towards Adam.
"Alright. What? Did I kill your friends or family members or something?"
"Ragna the human. I don't know why you have such a ridiculous price on your head, but that money can help further our grand cause."
And all of Adam's men pulled out their weapons.
'I really don't want to fight here.' Thought Ragna. He then looked around. 'Tao's still not back yet? Why? I told her to go back before me.'
"Stop." Said the elder Totokaka. "I do not allow violence in my village."
"And how do you intent to enforce it, elder?" Mocked Aden.
"Let's take this else where. On the upper level."
'Perfect' Thought Adam. 'I'm almost at my limit with the Seithr here.'
"Fine. Human."
Alucard's Domain
New actors had entered the stage. Rachel did not know what Terumi was thinking, what grand scheme he had installed, or was there even a scheme to begin with. Terumi may well just be doing this out of a whim, and there was no deeper meaning to any of this.
Looking at the three members of team RWBY, frantically trying to find their leader, she felt sorry for them.
'They should have never been involved with our problem to begin with. Ragna and Jin are already broken, how many more victims will come of this?'
She then turned her gaze at the little red reaper.
'And that girl, a silver-eyed warrior… With similar powers to Celica. No, it's more appropriate to say that she has a more weaponized version of Celica's power. Why would Terumi take a risk like this?'
She almost wished that this time would be a failure as well, just to spare them. But no…
'The act has gone on long enough. And no one likes a play that never ends. I must end the cycle. Even it means involving them.'
It's cruel, and unfair, but…
'This endless cycle of suffering and death. I don't want to go through that again… I can't.'
"Valkenhayn. I will be leaving for a while."
"Understood. My lady." Answered the old werewolf butler.
Orient Town
Blake jumped from building to building, hoping she could spot Ruby at a higher vantage point, while Yang frantically grabbed random people off the street and asked about Ruby.
"I don't know! Now please, let me go… Please…" Pleaded Normal Citizen A.
Blake jumped down, and put her hand on Yang's shoulder. "Let's him go. This isn't helping."
Yang let go of the man, and he quickly ran off, that was when Weiss and Neptune returned.
"Well?" Asked Yang.
"The NOL Said they can't put out a search unless she is missing for forty-eight hours. They did promise to keep an eye out for her." Said Weiss.
"Lieutenant Vermilion and her friends are helping. But she said it's going to be hard, since they're not familiar with the area as well." Said Neptune.
"Useless!" Said Yang, angrily hitting a lamppost so hard, that something fell from it.
"Yang! Look what you did! You broke…" Said Weiss as she looked down and saw the thing that fell from the lamppost…
On the ground, lied a yellow hoodie cat faunus, who, despite being part cat, landed on her back.
"It's a person?" Said Neptune.
The cat girl suddenly jumped on her feet before Neptune could help her up.
"Nya… Why did you do that for!? It was such a good nap, and I was just about to eat a huge meat bun in my dream, and now it's gone! Now you owe me a meat bun! Meow!" Said the cat faunus, taunting them with her air boxing.
'Nya? Meow?' Thought Blake. 'NYA! MEOW!? Why is she doing the cliché cat girl thing!? Doesn't she realize how hard we cat faunus had to fight to combat these stereotypes?
?: "What seems to be the problem, my disciple?"
They turned to the voice, and saw a tall, muscular man in green, looking at them with his fists resting on his hips, and a HUGE metal nail on his back.
"Scruffy man!" Said the cat faunus. "They ruined my nap and stole my meat bun!"
Weiss: "No we didn't! Well, maybe your nap, but your meat bun doesn't even exist! You just said you dreamed it!"
'Stop talking about sleeping and eating! You're giving cat girls everywhere a bad reputation!' Thought Blake, screaming inside her mind.
"And you are?" Asked Neptune, walking in front of the scruffy man, shielding him from the ladies.
?: "I'm Bang Shishigami! The Shinobi of Love and Justice!"
Blake: "What?"
To be Continued