*Author's Note**Yo, Dravyn here. I know it has only been a few hours since I last updated, but I couldn't sleep. So I just poured back the Monster, got myself set up, and decided to bring you the next chapter. Now, to those of you who disliked how I treated Pyrrha, too bad. Necessary evil. But be happy. This chapter is gonna feature Pyrrha going all yandere and causing hell for Ruby and Jaune. So, here's chapter 12*
It was a normal morning like any. Ruby woke up, did a little yawn and stretch routine, and got ready to face the morning. Sparring with Jaune the night before was fun. She felt bad about all of the bruises she left on him. Well, not just the bruises. The cuts, the torn clothing. And the mild concussion she believe she gave him when she kicked his shield up into his face. Ooops.
She had been feeling a little awkward around Jaune lately. She wasn't sure what it was at first. She wasn't afraid to admit that she was rather dense when it came to romantic things. Yang always had to handle the boys that came after her. And boy, did plenty of them try. Ruby was by no means unattractive. Her tom-boyishly short deep ruby-red hair and mysteriously bright silver eyes captivated quite many a young boys heart. And outside of her naturally cute looks, her figure was also rather good. Anyone who looked at her would notice that, even in her heavy black combat-dress and billowing cape, she had a good figure, even if it was a bit petite. But certain people with strange hobbies found that even more charming.
Back to the subject at hand, since Yang had always handled her potential suitors, Ruby had very little experience in dealing with males other than her father and Uncle Qrow. Jaune was her first male friend that wasn't attacked by Yang instantly. Well, the first that hasn't tried to make an advance on her. But anyhow, with her lack of interactions, Ruby had assumed the warm feeling she had around Jaune was normal for friends of the opposite gender. But lately she had been talking with Blake about books and borrowed some novels. Some of what she borrowed were romance novels. Thankfully, Blake had the good sense to not read anything with sparkly vampires or exhibitionist werewolves.
These novels gave Ruby some insight on love. Or so she thought. But after reading through some half dozen or so romance novels (Blake thankfully didn't give her anything smutty. Come on, we all know she has some), she started to think the warm feeling was love. Well, why not? Jaune was nice, friendly. He treated her normally, despite her weapon freaking most of the other students out, and her reputation from having defeated Roman Torchwick causing people to treat her a bit too respectfully. With Jaune, she could just have fun. Smile, laugh. Be herself.
As it was still the weekend, and nobody else was up yet, Ruby decided to get some early training in. She was heading to the training grounds to get some marksmanship training done and maybe practice a few new moves she had thought of after watching Yang and Ren fight. When she got to the training grounds, she found someone else there. It was Pyrrha! But why was she just sitting there in the middle?
"Hello Ruby," she said, without ever physically acknowledging her presence. That was odd. Very odd. Aura can allow one to use extra sensory perception to an extent. But to know exactly who had just arrived wasn't possible. "Did you know that almost exactly like clockwork, you tend to train here beginning around 6:30 in the morning. Well, of course you should. It's your schedule after all."
"Uhm, Pyrrha?" Ruby was starting to get freaked out. Pyrrha's demeanor was strange, and her knowledge of Ruby's schedule was absolutely weird. Pyrrha slowly began to stand up. As she began to turn around, Ruby unconsciously felt her hand sliding toward her weapon, Crescent Rose. This is dangerous, she thought. Something is wrong with Pyrrha. Beginning a slow retreat, Ruby was about to exit the place when Pyrrha began to speak again.
"So, why you?" W-what? "Why would he want you over me?" Huh? "What is it that you have that I don't?!" Uwaa... "If only you weren't here!" At this, Miló and Akoúo̱, Pyrrha's sword/spear/gun and shield were pulled off of her back. Getting down into a combat stance, Pyrrha rushed at Ruby. Barely having time to react, Ruby pulled out Crescent Rose, unfolded it into the full scythe form, and blocked Pyrrha's attack. All in the blink of an eye.
"Pyrrha, what are you doing?!" Ruby cried out. She had no idea why her friend was attacking her. She mumbled something about a boy or whatever? And then just attacked her all of the sudden. "Why are you attacking me?! What did I do?!" Is she trying to kill me?!
"He! Chose! You! Over! Me! Over! Me! WHY?!" Accentuating ever word with a new attack, a strike with her shield or a stab with the blade, Pyrrha was swinging wildly at Ruby. In her good form, Pyrrha would be more rational, but here she was just swinging like a wild beast.
Stepping back to put some distance between the two, Ruby took about half a second to assess the situation. Pyrrha has gone crazy and was attacking her, would likely give chase, and she didn't think she could maintain her full speed for too long after her practice match with Yang last night. So retreat was not a viable option. Odds are, nobody would enter the grounds for another two or so hours. At least, that has been the case in Ruby's experience. So holding off for help would be rather difficult too. Her only option was to knock Pyrrha out and inform a professor of the situation.
Hesitating no longer, Ruby was combat ready. Getting into her stance, Crescent Rose pointed business end towards Pyrrha, left hand at the front, she pulled back the slide, putting another round into the chamber. The plan was to swing Crescent Rose around so it faced behind her, use the shot to augment her speed and close the distance between her and Pyrrha, and then swing Crescent Rose around, using another shot to augment to speed, and smash Pyrrha on the side of the head, knocking her out.
After firing the shot, Ruby raced towards Pyrrha. Even sore from the last night, her speed made her nearly invisible to any onlookers. Swinging the massive scythe at Pyrrha, Ruby was sure of her swift victory. But, whether it was luck or experience, Pyrrha managed to get under Ruby, and attempt a counter by upper-cutting Ruby with her shield. Side stepping, and dashing past Pyrrha, Ruby stuck Crescent Rose into the ground, using her as a brake to slow her down and spin back around to face Pyrrha.
Oh, fudge! I was hoping we could end this quickly. I really don't want to be fighting with Pyrrha. Even if she's trying to hurt me, we're still friends. Right? These thoughts rushing through her head, Ruby just barely snapped back to reality to see Pyrrha try to close the distance between them.
"One advantage a sword has over a scythe is that the sword is much more effective in close range." Voice positively seething with venom, Pyrrha spit this little tidbit at Ruby. And Pyrrha was right. In most cases, a medium range weapon like a scythe or a spear would be ineffective at such close quarters. But Ruby was unlike most cases. She didn't just use Crescent Rose because she looked cool or had the creativity of a seven year old with the Mr. Potatohead of weapons. No, she used it because she could use it.
Successfully parrying Pyrrha in close quarters combat, Ruby forced her back with a large backhand swing from her scythe. Shifting her weapon to it's rifle form, Pyrrha began to fire at Ruby. Pfft, child's play. Ruby had been practicing dodging bullets practically from birth. Evading every shot with impunity, Ruby switched Crescent Rose back to the base gun form, and responded in kind. Firing back a round for each one Pyrrha had, Ruby was trading shot for shot with the crazy amazon. After a few narrow misses, one of Ruby's bullets had met it's mark. Had Ruby not imbued the bullets with some aura to dull them out, then Pyrrha would be dead. As it was, the bullet hit Pyrrha with the force of a hundred rampaging Boarbatusks. All that force, concentrated into a .50 cal bullet designed to make short work of even the strongest armors.
At the impact, Pyrrha was sent flying several dozens of meters into the nearby stands. Separated from her beloved Miló and Akoúo̱, and probably suffering from a few broken ribs and a concussion, Pyrrha was down for the count. Even with her aura being used to improve her natural healing (and to be used in a situation where she was barely conscious was worthy of praise), Pyrrha was showing no signs of recovering any time soon.
Pulling out her scroll, Ruby sent a message to everyone on her team, praying that at least one of them was awake. She didn't dare to leave Pyrrha here alone in this state. Nor did she want to see Pyrrha lay there forever. Getting a ping from her scroll, Ruby checked to see that Ren was awake, and was bringing academy's nurse on duty.
The events of the next couple of hours were a blur. The nurse, on arrival, nearly had a heart attack. Pyrrha was in bad shape. Bad. Taking her to the school infirmary, the nurse bandaged Pyrrha's wounds. The rest of team NNWB had been roused from their sleep, or pulled away from whatever they were doing, and brought to the infirmary. As Ruby was also involved in the mess, team RAYR was called in as well. With the headmaster in attendance, Ruby gave an account of what happened. Well, a very watered down account that is. According to Ruby, she and Pyrrha were training, and Pyrrha had asked Ruby to shoot at her so she could practice dodging ballistics. One shot had hit Pyrrha, and despite using her using aura to mitigate the impact, she had been sent flying.
After giving her report, and the rest of the two teams confirming they knew nothing about this, save Ren who was asked to bring the nurse, the two groups hung around waiting for Pyrrha to regain consciousness. After waking up, she was surprised to find everyone crowded around the bed. At which, nora started going on and on about how dangerous that was, how they were all worried, how dodging bullets was almost useless because Grim don't use guns, etc. The entire time, Ruby could see the gears in Pyrrha's head working as she tried to figure out what the hell Nora was saying. After the little gathering had gone on for too long, everyone began to leave. Ruby was the last person to stay in the room.
"So, why?"
"Why what?"
"Why did you not tell Ozpin and Goodwitch the truth? That I attacked you with the intent to hurt you."
"Wasn't it just training?" Ruby had always been incredibly good at lying, or playing a part. She could keep a secret better than most, and could tell a story of complete fantasy with a straight face. She knew it wasn't just training. She knew Pyrrha was trying to hurt her. But she didn't care. She just didn't want to see her friend in trouble.
"You know that it wasn't training, don't you?" Pyrrha wasn't shouting, or even angry any more. She was calm. Calm, and curious. "You know that I was trying to harm you. You know that, and yet you still lied. Why?"
"You were trying to hurt me?" Ruby asked with a slight tilt of the head, and an exaggerated hand gesture where her pointer finger was poking her cheek. "I really thought we were only sparring. Hmm."
". . . . ."
". . . . ."
With this silence, Pyrrha and Ruby just started at each other. The younger, more energetic red-head was smiling. The older, more experienced one was sizing up her younger foe. Pyrrha could not figure Ruby out for the life of her. She was an enigma, this little girl. Maybe that's why Jaune chose her?
"Fine. You're right. We were simply sparring. And you won this time. But I will not give up."
"Uhm, what?"
Pyrrha was starting to give Ruby a headache. After bidding her a farewell, Ruby left to go back to her dorm. The events of the day were tiring, and Ruby felt like she needed a nap. Opening the room, she found her older sister lounging around on the couch, watching some old TR Adventure episodes. She seemed to love those shoddy drawings they used for the animation. Admittedly, the characters were funny. There was even this blonde one who made puns as bad as Yang's.
After hopping into her bed, Ruby was about to nod off. With a bunch of thoughts just going through her head, she eventually settled on one of her and Jaune, sparring. She'd been thinking a lot about Jaune lately, and this brought her back to her thoughts from earlier. She likes him. Or she thinks she does. What else could it be? But she had no idea how to interact with boys her age. Thinking about what she should do, she decided to ask the one person who she knows has experience with guys. Walking out to the living room, she called to her older sister.
"Yang? Can I ask you for some advice. . . .?"
*Afterword**Well, double releases are not easy on my creativity. Sorry to all Pyrrha fans for leaving her hospitalized. She attacked Ruby without provocation. Rest assured, she will return later to mess with the happy couple. So yeah, any of you who have seen enough anime, cartoons, television, or movies will probably know what's going to happen next based off of the last couple of paragraphs. No spoilers in the comments section please.*
*So yeah, I hope you enjoyed this Monster and sugar fueled chapter. In the next chapter, things are going to heat up. There will be confrontations, complications, and likely some confessions. Look forward to the next chapter. I hope you enjoyed. See you next time.*