"Ruby!"
"Dad!"
It wouldn't be long before Ruby returned to her father's side. Taiyang thought it'd be long before seeing Ruby again but the news that had manifested from only today was changing that. Embraced by her daughter's arms, Taiyang swept her hair to get a clearer view of Ruby's face.
"Hello sweetie, you got yourself past round one, I'm so proud of you!" Taiyang then starts nuzzling her head before outright hugging her little girl as much as he could and a quickening rush of blood came to Ruby's face.
"Dad! Not here, please… too many people!" Ruby choked out, as Taiyang transitioned to hugging her. It was in the Xiao-Long bloodline for bearhugs that could crush concrete.
As they looked side to side, there was a growing amount of people looking at the pair. Keeping in mind Ruby's resistance to being treated like a kid, she was already feeling the prolonged stares, especially when most of the town recognized her.
"What's wrong with a little father and daughter bonding? It's only been hours since I left you at the Colosseum and here you are winning! I couldn't wait to tell you how-"
"Dad, can't… breath…"
"Oh, sorry about that."
After getting released, Ruby took a deep breath. "You and Yang really need some self-restraint lessons. At least my tanks don't get too clingy."
"Ruby, your tanks don't have arms."
"Not if I can help it! I'll make sure that they're going to be super cool transforming robots by the end of the year!"
T'was yet another idea that was concerning, to say the least.
"Is that… legal?"
Déjà vu.
"As one of my close companions told me… no, but that's what makes it exciting."
Ruby was starting to get more and more influenced by the tanks and her friends. Whether this was a good or bad thing was left for the future. Taiyang winced as he dreaded the day he would have to wrangle two troublemakers.
"Please don't be like Yang and violate road safety regulations, I had to pay the Council a fine for one of her incidents concerning the use of gravity dust to 'Make Bumblebee sting like a truck and fly like a bullhead'."
"Hehe… erm… so…?" Ruby worryingly asked, without even a full sentence to go by, Taiyang could already tell what Ruby was asking for. Taking a knee in front of her, he makes her come closer.
"...Right. Yamato. She's been excited to meet you all this time. I told her that she'd meet you after the Vytal festival but I only now knew what had happened."
"Dad… how did you find this out?"
Taiyang shook his head and cupped a hand over Ruby's cheek. "This morning after I left you at the arena, we had to check every day if she could do it. Ironwood and Ozpin asked for us to do it a week after we found her. Don't think about it too much, Ruby. It'll give you a lot more time to introduce yourselves and get to know her."
Ruby perked up at meeting the famed Yamato, with its class of ships living throughout the ages as one of the largest on Earth. For Remnant, it was inconceivable that such a size ship was even made.
"...Is she mad?"
"Mad? Why on Remnant would Yamato be mad at you?"
"I left her alone all this time, wouldn't she be mad? I feel horrible even if Ozpin told me it's for a good reason. I do get carried away when I meet someone new from Earth. It's like with… Raven, am I bad for leaving Yamato?"
It was a greater leap of logic but Ruby had her concerns. Taiyang immediately denied it, swaying his head from side to side and properly explaining to the young girl what all of this meant.
"No, Ruby. Yang's mom is… troubling but this situation is not the same. Sure, you could say that you need to be together all the time but don't these tanks take after their crew? Unlike Raven and Yang when she was still little, your tanks have combined experiences of adults. They know who you are as a person. I've told a lot of stories about you to Yamato too. Look, why don't we ask her? Being scared is one thing, but pushing onwards despite the fear of rejection is always better."
"Thanks… Dad. I hope this isn't just leading to anything worse." Ruby appreciated his words with a smile.
Taiyang stood back up and looked at the bullhead pilot giving a thumbs up at him. "Looks like they finished our pre-flight checks, is there anything you want to do before we go?"
"Uhm… no, ah wait! My tanks!"
"Your tanks? Don't you always have them in those extra pockets you have sewn in?"
"Oh, I let them out for a walk… erm, drive. Tiger asked me for them to be all let out, I still couldn't get Centurion to come with us because I still don't know where he is." Ruby turns from her father and starts calling out, "Guys where are you?"
A few moments later, minuscule tanks pop out from nearby, a semi-circle of them idling. "Uhh, we're right next to the curb!" Sherman quickly answered.
Ruby looked among the raised concrete and saw them neatly parked. "There you are! I admit, it does get a bit boring when you only see darkness and the cloth from my combat skirt. Is uh… Pershing okay?"
Ruby recalled those moments, a cursing southerner bent on 'Releasing Jacques from his existence with a nuke to the face! Nay may God save him because only MacArthur is the only true higher figure when the atoms start splitting!' or at least that is what Ruby got from the ramblings of an American whose accent started to fade into another language.
"He tried to drive away into a bullhead bound for Atlas. Don't worry, Maus somehow found a way to make him not do that… yet." A precious resource being meddled with by business and capitalism, Pershing had to answer with fire and steel. The irony of it all was astounding.
"…What were you all talking about anyways?" A gathering of the tanks meant something, Ruby was curious.
"Eh, mostly on what we would call ourselves now that we are technically allied together and forced into working with each other. Tiger says it shouldn't be something as bland as the 'Allies'."
"That much is veracious, your Majesty! Wouldn't the 'The Axis' sound dubiously wicked compared to our wholly righteous alliance 'The Allies'?"
Unexpectedly, Ruby found herself staring at Centurion, she didn't recognize him at first due to the fact everyone was tiny. She swore that counting them on the ground was getting harder and harder every day.
"Centurion? It's great that you could make it here! Also, I think naming yourself after a literal axis is not that evil. Though… it's better than just Allies. Isn't a group of nations in a defensive pact already called an alliance?"
"Sehr gut!" The German near Sherman proudly declared, if he had a face, he'd be smiling ear to ear. "The Berlin-Rome Axis reigns supreme again! If only the Japanese are here to witness our victory."
"Well, we're going to meet her, Tiger! I know I shouldn't be super happy when something bad is going on with her… but I'm still uhm… excited."
"That is an understandable concern, I've never heard of anyone losing our abilities that derive from being transported here. I have some… thoughts going on about what Ozpin told us." Tiger's words had a double meaning, the other tanks knew what he was talking about.
"Yeah… I hope it's nothing worse, I can't imagine Yamato not being able to join us wherever we go because of her lost ability to shrink. How'd that even happen?"
"I don't know… but… I have a probable cause aside from Ozpin's oil explanation."
Ruby eyed Tiger curiously. "What is it?"
"Yamato's the only person you haven't had physical contact with for weeks. Consider this… Yamato has been here since she got spotted during your trip to Mountain Glenn right? I think that's a point to consider."
'However, that's what Ozpin didn't mention earlier. Someone like him would've noticed that.' Tiger mentions to himself.
Slowly, Tiger has been building a sort of conspiracy against the tanks ever since they got away from the school proper. A lot of inconsistencies and background checks of the headmaster were all they needed to be convinced.
The Allied tanks were at first dismissive of the idea that Ozpin might be hiding something. But then, Tiger brought out all he knew; Ruby's early entrance, next was she being given a special rank which Tiger was already wary of, then came the way Ironwood hadn't updated them on other vehicles being searched and why progress was so slow in regards to that, finally what convinced them was the eerie coincidence of Ruby being part of every major fight with people that aimed to do harm in Vale.
In short, Tiger observed a lot of unknowns maybe more if given time to research and observe.
"So… you're saying because I haven't met her in a long time, Yamato lost her abilities?" Ruby concluded. It was as Tiger theorized as well, with the help of Maus. "I-I didn't know that."
"It's just a theory, besides, don't blame yourself for it. For all we know, it's the increasing lack of her oil as of recently. There's only one way to find out."
Ruby nodded to herself and picked each tank up before putting them inside her pockets. "It's settled then, let's go meet Yamato."
In a separate channel, away from Ruby's hearing, Sherman stared at the German with a worried gun barrel. "Hey, are we sure this is the right course of action? We might be enemies but this is Ruby's life we're talking about."
Tiger huffed a bitter puff of exhaust. "This is the only choice. No one crosses Ruby, we're here to be the tools we've always been. War machines like us made to be sitting around all day don't feel right to me. We all know she can't do what is necessary to solve the problem. She's too nice… but that's where we fill the gap."
Sherman sighed as he got picked up moments later. "We're going to be busy, huh? I hate that we, the Allies, actually agree. You think everyone will be happy with it?"
"Torchwick… Cinder… Jacques… Ironwood… Ozpin…" Tiger lists off. "They might curse or praise us as much as they like. Where we go it is always forward, and the devil in us merely laughs."
Guns. More guns. Bigger guns. …But not enough of the right type of guns.
The Yamato was daunting and formidable from a far distance at least by appearance. Among the waves that crashed among its bow and stern, even in its idle state, Ruby could see the lustre of its thick armour glistening in the mid-day sun.
Of course, with some accounts by the early Cold War-era tank friends, Ruby had small accounts of the Yamato coming from word of mouth, mainly by Pershing and Centurion who told her that it was a class of battleship that truly embodied what a battleship should be.
If this were put into a place where ships of this size weren't made, people would easily mistake it as a small island. Because 'there's no way there would be a ship of that size in Remnant, right?' That's what most people thought when they could see the silhouette amongst the mist.
Putting it into perspective, the Yamato's guns can fire an average car's weight just below the distance you would run a marathon about 1.5 times in a minute, the Yamato had three triple turrets, so that's a lot of cars being launched at you at the speed of a bullet. Not to mention the number of additional guns used as secondary armaments or the hundreds of anti-air guns.
It was a bone-shaking amount for a weapon geek like Ruby… but in the end, it was a ship suited for a different war.
Where the seas were once ruled by the ships that cut across the waves, now it was ruled by the skies. Air superiority was the main factor for the super-battleship that ultimately sank from the American doctrine of aircraft carriers, its sinking was also in part due to the lack of better anti-air by the Yamato. Its fate rested on the hundreds of planes the Americans sent to destroy the famed ship and her sister ship Musashi. Inevitably, the skies were ruled by the Americans and Yamato-class wreckages were sealed in history as a case study for the nature of warfare.
Nevertheless, Ruby was absolutely quivering at the sight of the massive ship.
…
Oh, yes, especially the barrel widths.
'I'd love to handle a barrel that big!' Ruby's sentiment toward pieces of steel came ahead of her moral sense of restraint. 'I can't imagine how much Grimm butt it could blow up when it unleashes its entire load!' If Yang was here, she'd have to reassess Ruby who keeps saying innuendos she found herself oblivious to saying.
Admittedly, who wouldn't want to hear a full broadside? Or rather, the lack of hearing you would get from the ear-shattering explosions from the numerous guns, all of which were controllable by Yamato and would all fire simultaneously.
Ruby would die… literally if she would ever get to witness such a life-changing event.
Too bad everyone in Vale would hear the canon fire. Curse physics for having such restraints in soundwaves.
"There she is, Ruby. Let me tell you, walking around on the deck takes long minutes, I had whole laps around it and I was surprised it worked me up a sweat!" Taiyang proclaimed, seeing the starry eyes coming from his daughter.
The Yamato was settled near an island far away from the coast, its old location closer to the mainland for refuelling purposes was forced to be abandoned the moment it lost its ability to keep itself hidden.
To prevent it from drifting in the sea, mooring lines were recently installed within the island's shore. With the immense size of the Yamato, many of the Atlesians assigned in keeping Yamato company rushed to finish it in a few hours.
Though, with the aid of technology far superior in transport, it was done with confidence. The effort needed to just have Yamato idle was a point of contention for Ironwood and Ozpin. With Ozpin wanting Ruby to leave out the gigantic threat to national security, he'd decide to let Yamato roam free while Ironwood told him it'd be better to just let Ruby control her to save on the effort.
To be fair to Ozpin, Tiger and Iosif destroyed part of the dorms on their first day. One shudder at the thought of Yamato suddenly going all crazy and starting to use the guns she had. Concerningly, Ruby was expecting that kind of outcome.
"She's so… awesome…" Ruby slowly reached her hand out in the air, her excitement was palpable. "I always wonder why people from Earth make these things. If we could use it to defeat Grimm permanently, I don't think we'd have problems by now."
"I could totally believe that. When some people from Atlas arrived at her for a look, they couldn't believe how she was built. We already have tight resources here from Remnant, the steel needed to make this would be enough to build a small city."
"...Dad, can we do a shore bombardment?"
He choked on air as soon as her innocent daughter finished that request. Ruby is asking for a potential violation of international law restricting the use of excessive and destructive weapons on sovereign land.
Taiyang was forced upon by the deadliest weapon in Ruby's arsenal, the look of hope she emanates when she used her adorable face to appeal to his humanity nested deep in his heart. Although Taiyang can battle Grimm of the horrific variety, this one was the tallest hurdle he needed to overcome.
"...N-No, sweetie. Scaring the population with massive explosions is a bad thing."
"But Dad… can't we just do one?"
*CRACK*
That was the sound of Taiyang's resolve slowly breaking apart.
"...Hrnkk!... Ruby, it's not going to make Ozpin happy… weren't you worried about her minutes ago?"
"I know Dad…" Ruby sheds a tear. "Which is why I want to experience her guns firing… I might never see Yamato fire her guns… so… please?"
*CRACK*
'AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-'
"Sir?!" The pilot startles. Taiyang's internal screaming was halted as he looked toward the cockpit of the bullhead. "There's a problem!"
"Haaa…. Haa…. Wh-what is it?"
"It says it's detecting a drop in pressure inside the bullhead! That should be impossible, we already don't respect the laws of physics!"
"Ah, that might be my heart sinking deeper into my body. Carry on, pilot, there's a larger turbulence I have to overcome and it's not about the bullhead we're in."
The pilot nodded as he tapped the display. "I think the meter's programming is broken, it keeps saying we're about to crash."
"I already have…"
"...What?"
Ruby pressed forward with more of her psychological warfare. "Dad… I love you… please give me permission to bomb the shores?"
*CRACK*
"No, Ruby. I'm sorry I have to tell you this but you can't shoot the Yamato's guns. You're going to be banned from all weapons for a month if you do."
"...Aww… but… I-" Ruby sniffles. "O-Okay…"
Moments later, the bullhead lands on the spacious deck of the Yamato near the bow, with a slight drag on her feet, Ruby leads out towards the outside.
"Sir, we've landed." The pilot announces. "Sir?"
"Bradley, call the doctor. I think I am having a heart-"
*THUD*
"Uhh… we have code 'the bear has fallen' over here."
Meanwhile…
"Yamato?"
A silence crept from the ship, its only functions from nearby Atlesian operatives being heard while Yamato herself didn't squeak a word. Ruby remembered a fact from her times with Centurion, royalty was always respected.
"Oh. You can talk to me casually, actually, I demand you to! I tried to make Centurion stop calling me royalty but this time I won't forgive you if you don't talk to me like normal!"
Rather than a threat, Ruby's declaration felt more like a child's playful wish.
…
Though, the imperial ship did not take it this way.
"...F-Forgive me, empress!" Yamato cried out in pain, much more seriously than Ruby thought she would. "How will atone for this sin of offending you!? No! This act of mine is unpunishable by normal means! I shall restore honour to the Imperial Japanese Navy with swift disembowelment!"
Ruby looked up to the bridge of the ship in shock. "Huh!? Wait, no! I heard of this, please don't commit seppuku! You don't even have a stomach or hands to stab with!"
"Unforgivable… unforgivable… unforgivable… I will not sully the empress' name with my foolishness! A torpedo to the magazine will do!"
"No, you're not! I forgive you!"
In utter gratitude, the sentient ship briefly stopped all its actions. All its constantly idle engines and autonomous-like movement of its anti-air ceased before it came back in relief. "...If you wish so, empress! I will not forget this act of mercy, I shall repay it tenfold by surprise attacking a nearby enemy harbour!"
"No need for a surprise attack, we are in a time of peace and uhh… I'd like for us to catch up! There are also the others, I waited for so long to meet you. I can spend weeks just looking at your engines!"
"Thank you very much! But… you said there are others here right now?"
"Yep." Ruby nodded as she picked out her tanks and placed them on the deck. Since the deck space was large enough, she let them go into full form. All the tanks were now staring at the behemoth of a ship right at the centre. "So, uh… can you see them? Actually, can you see me? I don't really know how you 'see' things yet, I assume it's the bridge where your 'eyes' are. It's kind of like the viewports in the tanks."
"That would be correct, I can see you from all the way here!" Yamato then shifts to varying tones as she meets the other of her dimension-hopping vehicles. "So… I see others have been serving you. I recognize those marks."
"Well, guys, this is Yamato. Yamato, these are my tanks… and planes."
"Hmm…" Yamato stared at the German tanks and had a higher-pitched response. "The Germans… good, very good! You carry your weight."
Yamato stared at the Italian planes. "Italians… I suppose it could be worse!"
The Soviet tank was only given a quick glance. "As for the Soviet Union, no comment. Ask the problematic side of the military." The harshness of her words permeated everyone.
Iosif responded with an unusual sense of understanding. "Oh, I guess that makes sense. You're a ship so there's not really much of an opinion when we fought over land than sea."
Then came the British tank. "You British, I respect… but get off our continent!"
"My! You may be a lady but I have to protest on your indignation! We invaded our parts of the continent first!" The Brit defended his nation with pride and determination. "Americans! This scoundrel seeks to uproot our righteous conquest with their own!"
"I dunno, you're both imperialists," Sherman admitted, much to the disbelief of Centurion.
"Americans…" Yamato mused. "You are our worst enemy! Nothing can stifle the burning hatred I feel toward Americans! But! You are a decent opponent, I suppose there are enemies I hate more."
"Wait, we're not your worst enemies?"
Sherman was less offended by the fact the Japanese ship hated him, it was the fact the Japanese ship didn't think he was the most hated enemy. This stirred Yamato deeply, her rage was felt among her deck.
"Yes! Those within the Imperial Japanese Army are better off dead with the rest of the enemies we deemed worthless! They are vile and disgustingly incompetent, their resources would have been much better utilized if given to us, the IJN! They are traitors and we would've won the war by then if they were as capable as us!"
Tiger was in awe. "Mein Gott, this is the interservice rivalry I've heard about. I didn't think it'd be this bad in person. Sherman, did you really have to ask that? You know you have access to everyone's experiences during and after the war."
"No?" Sherman responded. "I don't catch up a lot on that kind of stuff."
"Once again American, you show your blatant ignorance. How in the hell did we lose to you?"
"That's it! I'm ripping you a new one-"
"Okay! Everyone, calm down before this gets too out of hand." Ruby thankfully stops the escalation typical of her troublesome tanks. "...Yamato, were you lonely while waiting out here?"
"Never, your father has been great company. He has told me many stories of your childhood! To think you mastered your ability called a 'semblance' by ramming straight into a tree first try! Truly a work of divine intervention, as expected of the empress!"
"Huh!? Dad told you what?!"
"Indeed! The bloodshed at such a young age is honourable!"
"That was a nosebleed!"
"An honourable nosebleed, empress!"
Honour was a touchy subject for Ruby to handle, so instead of contradicting Yamato's words, she just sighed and accepted the new origin story of her being an honourable person by breaking her nose during one of her many practice sessions.
"Well, it's nice to see my daughter having a great time with Yamato. I think she likes you already."
Ruby looked back to see her father joining up with them after a certain amount of time. He looked like he just had the worst nightmare of his life. "...Dad, can we sail?"
"Sail?" Taiyang spotted an opportune moment. "No, it's an engine-driven ship."
"You know what I mean…"
"Nope!"
"Why not?"
"Don't you mean why knots?"
"Ughhh…" Another day, another pun.
"Hahaha! Your father is very talented at comedy, empress!" Yamato exclaimed, getting a look of pity from the others. Only a few people appreciate puns, Yamato would be one of them for some reason.
"In serious thought…" Taiyang sighs. "We don't have a lot of fuel, unlike last week. It's been harder to get oil here without Jacques taking notice and investigating further. Especially when Yamato can't even go smaller anymore."
"Can't we at least sail to the open sea for juuuuustt a few minutes?"
Taiyang's heart was beyond breaking at this point.
"I'm so going to get a word from Ozpin from this… yeah, let's go for it. But, I'll have to make the Atlesians stationed here to leave and stay at the island. We still have to remove all the lines, which is going to take a while…"
"Taiyang, I have a proposal. Just let the men leave for their duty and watch!" Yamato yells energetically, as always.
"Uh, sure?"
Taiyang accepted, holding no qualms about whatever Yamato was supposedly going to do. He got to know the enthusiastic ship with his time keeping her company ever since he first found her.
The onboard men from Atlas departed from the ship. These people were meant to add an extra layer of security, not that a sentient super-battleship needed it. Mostly it was just an excuse for Ironwood to get some more physical information about the ship's specifications.
As soon as everyone left the boat and either flew from bullhead to island or just used smaller boats, Taiyang and Ruby stood at the shores wondering what the Japanese shi had in mind.
"I wonder what she's going to do," Taiyang asks out loud.
"You don't have any idea, Dad?"
"Nope, just sorta knew she had something in mind-"
Yamato disappeared.
Yamato shrunk.
Then she grew back up and reappeared, destroying whatever sad thought both Taiyang and Ruby had.
...
"Phew! The lines got repelled from me entering another dimension! I was afraid the intermingling of the separated dimensions of the lines and I would capsize me but shrinking saved me from such a pathetic end!"
...
...
...
""HUH?!""
"Now that's a surprise attack." Sherman joked.
"Yamato?! You can still shrink and go *poof*?" Ruby had her mind completely go numb, Yamato was supposedly losing her abilities… the same abilities she had shown now.
"...I forgot about that," Yamato replied, her words were equally just as confused.
"I have to report this to Oz, what the heck is going on? This morning it was clear when we tested her that she didn't have it. There's no reason for her to lie so I guess something fixed it while you were here, Ruby."
"That was anti-climactic," Iosif utters. "Guess that's a problem easily solved."
Hopefully, it would be the last.
