{Code: Red}
The small, red-haired girl that stood approximately three metres in front of Ray was shrouded in guilt. Crimson eyes deliberately looking anywhere else but his own.
Ray placed his scroll in his pocket and folded his arms. "Well…?"
Scarlet looked like she just wanted to run and to be honest, Ray wouldn't have stopped her.
He did find this all highly entertaining however.
Especially so, considering the girl's face blew up in a furious blush, both her cheeks and forehead flushing to the point where it looked like her face would explode. From his brief exposure, he could tell the girl was timid, however this was just glorious.
However...
A few moments of painstakingly awkward silence was all it took for Ray to become bored once more.
The hacker sighed. "Well," he began, "Alright then, whatever suits you best."
He shrugged and turned back around with the intention of leaving the clearly embarrassed girl where she was as he continued on with his day.
He didn't have the time to fuck around with the socially inept – highly hypocritical of him given his long track record of having literally one friend – he had many other things he could be doing to kill time.
Scarlet, on the other hand, had other plans. "W-Wait!" She called to him in a pleading voice.
Ah, just the paradigm of confidence, this one.
Ray groaned in a mixture of both utter boredom and annoyance.
Who was she? What did she want? And why now?
Shaking his head, he increased the speed at which he walked away from the persistent pursuer.
"P-please! Wait!"
Even faster did his legs pick up speed. Ray had actually began to beseech the sky for a divine intervention at this point. Hoping - no - praying that she'd go away.
He could hear her footsteps as she jogged towards him, trying to catch up as he worked his way through the bountiful gardens of the academy. Too bad he didn't have the time to acquire a better view of the resident fauna there.
"Please! I just want to tal-" Ray stopped walking on a whim and the pest, Scarlet - too predictable for her own good - slammed into his back and fell to the ground.
Slowly, he turned around to glare at the girl sat on the floor in a dazed, confused heap.
Both confident and graceful.
"What. Do. You. Want?"
The tone of his voice made Scarlet once more shrink under the pressure.
It was too easy for Ray, pretend to be furious, though in reality he was pretty irritated, and the girl would crumble like wet sand.
As predictable as the twelfth hour.
"Really? You're just going to crawl back inside your shell? Even after following me and begging me to stop, you're just going to cower away and seal your lips? Seriously, what the hell do you want, woman?" Impertinence was embedded into every syllable Ray spoke, this was exhausting him and the novelty of scaring the girl was wearing very thin.
Still, the girl only stared at him from behind a thin veil of fear.
Before Ray had the notion to formulate a secondary escape attempt, he bit down on his grit and extended his hand.
"C'mon, get off of the floor, you look ridiculous." Scarlet's eyes only studied the purple, fingerless glove Ray had offered her, sheepishly staring at it as if it was some kind of trick.
Ray broke eye contact for a moment to glance around at the small group of students looking their way before locking his eyes with Scarlet's again.
"People are staring, Scarlet. I don't have all day."
Eventually, her small hand found itself locked with his and he effortlessly pulled her up.
Ray looked at her for a spare moment before turning on his heel and walking in the same direction he was prior to stopping.
Scarlet's frame deflated as she thought he was going to ditch her again.
"You coming? I haven't got all day, remember."
Her confused daze was dismissed with a shake of her head.
"O-okay!" She cried, though her response could have also been classed as a whimper from the easily agitated Huntress hopeful.
She may have lost her confidence, but she soon found her feet as they carried her towards the retreating boy ahead of her.
Both Ray and his new, self-proclaimed friend – she had declared that not five minutes after Ray picked her sorry ass up off of the floor – found themselves sat inside the cafeteria. It was 7pm, giving him plenty of time to drop an excuse and ditch the girl when it came to bedtime.
One thing had been made clear over the past five hours; Ray seriously failed to understand Scarlet Rubine.
One moment she could be as timid as a mouse in snake territory. The next thing he knew, her personality would pull a complete 180; turning her into a completely different person, speaking to him nonchalantly as if she'd known the boy for years.
She didn't, for the record, no one possessed that privilege but Ly.
Ray's only replies were a chorus of mhm's and yeah's as Scarlet spoke her mind, seemingly speaking without the need for oxygen.
The girl was completely oblivious to the level of apathy he was expressing, only stopping periodically to take a sip of her fourth carton of milk in the past ten minutes before once more motor-mouthing to him about nonsensical and downright irrelevant things.
It was headache-inducing, Ray actually downed a pair of painkillers mid-conversation with her as he propped his head up with his hand as his elbow rested on the table, half listening, half daydreaming.
"So, as I was saying," the girl's soft-spoken voice had been the only thing he had listened to for five hours straight.
He watched as she set her carton down and resumed speaking. "I really, really wanna pass the test because otherwise if I don't, my entire seven and a half years of extensive training would have all been for nothing and I'm just really worried that if I don't get in, then my mom and dad won't ever see themselves in me and I'll just be noth-"
"Scarlet..." Ray made an attempt at gaining her attention, but evidently, the girl was too focused on belittling herself.
"-ing to them but a huge waste of time and-"
"Scarlet-" Ray had no interest in hearing about how low she thought of herself.
It was depressing.
"-I'll probably fulfil my aunt's expectations of being the runt of the litter and-"
Ray had finally heard enough of her self-loathing speech, not only did it put a huge downer on the atmosphere of the room – not like anyone else was listening – it also made Ray's headache worse.
"Scarlet!" Ray cried, slamming the palm of his hand on the table in exasperation.
Ray's yell sent the entire cafeteria into a deafening silence and Scarlet's face immediately changed as she adorned a shocked expression.
He exhaled heavily as he returned his hand to its position under his chin.
"You really need to chill." Ray's words came out slow and lethargic, a stark contrast to his momentary outburst, the boy looked at her with half-closed eyes.
"I understand that you're anxious about the initiation, but trust me, with the amount of syllables you can spit out in ten seconds, you could probably kill Grimm out of boredom alone."
The Rubine progeny, or at least one of them from what Ray gathered, was unsure of how to react, however, she took his half-assed insult in stride and gave him a meek smile.
"I like you, Ray. I hope we get to be on a team together." Violet eyes widened as her sincerity surprised him enough to even make him raise an eyebrow.
"You want me? On your team?" He questioned in disbelief, chortling as he did so and receiving a nod in response.
"Even though you realise that I honestly haven't found anything you've said to me all day to be worthy of any real interest?"
Scarlet nodded again and her smile widened by a fraction.
"Absolutely!" She chirped. "I mean, I know I don't know you that much – well, I don't know you at all, really – I think you'd make a great teammate, you're kind~, you're a great listener~" Scarlet listed these 'traits' of his on her left hand before Ray suddenly shot up in attention and held up his hand to pause her.
"Wait, wait! Did you just say 'kind'?" He asked incredulously as he narrowed his eyes.
She's got to be crazy, right?
Scarlet actually grinned. "Yeah! You're the kindest person I've met today!"
What?
"You've gotta be kidding me, I've literally just told you that I did not care about anything you have said to me in the five hours of company you forced upon my poor soul. How can I be the kindest person you've met today?"
Scarlet's frame deflated slightly as her grin receded into a frown. Where her eyes were really bright just moments before, they were now displaying an entourage of saturnine emotions.
Ray didn't take long to put two and two together.
"Have… people been... picking on you or something?" He asked, his voice much more tame than it was before.
A few brief moments of silence passed before Scarlet slowly inhaled.
"I'm... used to it..." The girl murmured solemnly, her eyes blankly staring at the wooden grain of the dining table.
Oh. That's not good.
The tone her voice adopted was incredibly sobering for Ray. All day had he wanted nothing more than to be rid of the girl, but he didn't have a clue as to why she was following him in the first place.
Obviously, curiosity boiled in his mind as she continued to cling to him, but now? Knowing that a victim of bullying followed him around because he was possibly the only person that didn't feel the necessity to harshly talk down to her and make her feel completely unwanted – believe it or not – made the whole situation almost heartbreaking.
If he had a heart to break.
He couldn't help it – in fact, he felt ashamed of himself for doing so – but he almost felt like he could relate to Scarlet in a sense.
No friends, lack of confidence, clinging to a single individual, and never setting foot outside of her comfort zone. Traits Ray once suffered with a long time ago, right there in front of him, stuck to Scarlet Rubine like moths to a flame.
This girl hated herself.
All because she was susceptible to being harassed, talked down to, mocked, and hurt by the 'bigger fish'.
Ray hated that. Bullies were something he despised, loathed beyond all else, thus he had taken up the responsibility of hunting them down and making them pay for their crimes. A job he took very, very seriously.
Scarlet Rubine was a small, timid girl, trying her best to fill some pretty big shoes and all the while, trying to remain true to herself.
A respectable task for someone of her stature. However, this bought the attention of sadists. Assholes who believe that their balls are so big that it grants them a god-given right to pick on her and treat her like absolute filth, just for trying to accomplish her goals and striving to follow her aspirations.
No one deserved that.
Ray wouldn't wish that on his worst enemy, let alone a complete stranger.
No fucking wonder as to why Ray scared her in the amphitheatre, his snappy attitude probably made her think that he was one of them.
And the boy had to be honest here; nothing else made him feel more disgusted.
"You know," Ray's sonorous voice dispersed the silence between them with ease, "I'm sure you'll do great in the initiation. Gods know you didn't get here out of luck alone, so you must have some skill, right?"
His diversionary tactic to steer the girl away from dark thoughts seemed to have slightly succeeded, her head perked up and she made eye contact with him once more.
"Y-yeah… I guess..." She shrugged.
Ray shook his head in disapproval. "You guess? C'mon Scarlet, no one gets into Beacon because they guess they have skill, they get into Beacon because they know they have skill. Judging by your – no offence – tiny, but muscular build, I'm gonna take a shot in the dark here and assume that you prefer using polearms, correct?"
A nod from the crimsonette confirmed this assumption.
"So, you want to tell me what your weapon can do? Or do I have to cheat and look it up myself?"
It was working, Scarlet's mood had improved, if not by much, then at least enough for her to resume speaking to him normally.
Eventually, her jovial attitude settled back in as they discussed her weapon in detail. Scarlet was incredibly passionate about her double-bladed bardiche, Crimson Brigade, and Ray could see why.
The weapon's blade alone used an alloy he had never seen before, Vacuan titanium, pretty rare stuff if his memory served him correctly, not to mention professionally forged Vacuan titanium not only holds its edge extremely well, but its density allows it to effortlessly cut through most other materials – extreme cases include Dust and Aura reinforced blades.
It wasn't cheap either, the rare element cost upwards of three to four thousand Lien per kilogram. This is due to the naturally occurring element fusing with minute amounts of Dust from veins lying dormant under Vacuo's hazardous deserts.
It was almost miraculous, how the molten metal would collide with these veins, introducing it to Remnant's energy propellant and the long cooling process - which could take up to one-hundred years - would permanently adhere the Dust to the metal.
This also meant that no two ingots of Vacuan titanium were the same and - depending on the type of Dust it was infused with - drastically varied in price.
Scarlet's bardiche was one of the rarer variants, the metal was found in a deposit of Gravity Dust. This made the blade heavier, but its density meant that it's cutting power and durability was far superior to most others.
Crimson Brigade was by far one of the more impressive weapons he had seen today, the mechanical properties alone giving him a run for his money, but Scarlet's weapon also had range to it, as well.
Aside from the bardiche, it doubled as a repeating cannon. A rectangular slot approximately halfway down the shaft was used to fit magazines that held fourteen 15mm high-explosive shells.
The thing was a powerhouse and a work of art.
The fact it came packaged with a 5'2" timid girl, too pressured into making her parents proud, was almost comically ironic.
When they left the cafeteria, Scarlet had actually shown Crimson Brigade to Ray, allowing the boy to get a good look (and scan) of the weapon before handing it back to her. Not before accidentally cutting himself on its extremely sharp edge.
Ray - with his index finger in his mouth - subtly admired the way the weapon receded into a baton, the blades folding inwards and concealing the barrel of the integrated cannon before the entire shaft collapsed in on itself, allowing it to be much more easily carried on the belt around her waist.
Speaking of her attire, Ray never really paid much attention to the clothes Scarlet wore until the pair actually began engaging in a two-sided conversation.
Scarlet wore an armoured, carmine sleeveless tunic that extended to just below the waist. A pair of black tails on the rear also fell to just below her knees and on the rear was a small keyhole revealing a portion of her upper back and shoulder blades.
Ray noted the lack of chest support...
Below the waist, a pair of form-fitting, black leather pants reached the middle of her calves and each leg had a darker, cherry red strip running down the length at the sides. Her footwear consisted of black, red laced combat boots and a Templar cross badge was secured to the tongue of each boot, the cross was red with a black outlining and appeared to made of metal.
Her accessories consisted of what could be considered as a black utility belt; holding her weapon, a couple of magazines for said weapon, a carabiner for grappling or abseiling, a reel of steel wire, and a multi-tool kit.
Around her neck was a black chain with a pendant attached to it. The pendant was in the shape of an eye, white in colour, that had the same red Templar cross situated in the centre, where the iris was.
Ray figured that any doubt Scarlet had in herself was clearly misallocated, he wasn't sure if he had seen anyone else more prepared than this girl – he knew he wasn't. Even through her timid shell, he could tell that she was resourceful, if nothing else.
A small recess in the back of his mind held a sense of relief that he had actually taken the time to get to know her somewhat and maybe, just maybe, he would get to see her during the initiation test tomorrow.
Though he had to remind himself of why he was here in the first place.
All that mattered was that last piece. Ray could not afford to make attachments, even if a small part of his conscious wanted to. The less connected he was to his peers during his stay in Beacon, the easier it would be to make his retreat.
This place was not his home and these people were not his crowd.
For all the good Ly said it would do him, he felt that making friends here would also be creating anchors to stay. He had a job to do, he couldn't afford to hold himself back.
Not with the daunting responsibility resting on his shoulders...
The pair entered the ballroom where the initiates were all beginning to settle down, it was 8PM and the lights went out at 9, so he had more than enough time to reserve a quiet spot in the hall to bunker down for the night and rest, Gods knew he needed it.
What tomorrow had to bring for Ray Chroma was a mystery, he just hoped he would make it out alive. Though he knew that his training would grant him that right. Even if he never asked for it in the first place.
All in due time, I suppose.
He bid Scarlet goodnight as he claimed a spot under the stairs, shielding himself from what little light the moon offered and he passed out on his sleeping bag in full clothing, minus his jacket and gauntlets.
He never was the most graceful of sleepers.
Author's note:
Ray always sleeps in full clothing, never changes his attire and always has his beanie attached to his head.
Whether you chalk that down to laziness or efficiency - considering he has multiple items of the same clothing, save his jacket - is your choice.
What's most interesting is how one of the biggest hermits on Remnant ended up stuck with an incredibly small and clingy pest.
That should end well, huh?
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, feel free to give it a Favourite and/or a Follow.
And please, give me a Review, it's nice to read your opinions, whether they be positive or negative.
Have a good one!
-Hydra