Hello once more my friends! So sorry for the wait, but here's part 2 of Seeing Red, which is a bit of a doozy. Onto reviews, you glorious bastards!
Jak Fortune: I can only hope you've been enjoying the story so far dude.
merendinoemiliano: Really pleased that you liked the Grimm! Just to note, some I may give some other Grimm visual references so readers have a better idea of what it looks like.
The Vigilant Spider: Welcome aboard dude, so happy you're liking the story so far!
Ian Roosevelt Jap: Just who the hell do you think I am!? Of course I gotta reference of the the most alpha fictional character ever XD! Also, really happy to have made your day bro, everyone needs a little boost these days :D
Sithdoom: Honestly, I died to a surprise attack on the bridge to Irithyl, damn dog. Ah Bladewolf... so sad there's no Revengance 2 :(. Now, I'm gonna be honest here, I sorta just came up with some of the names using a random Latin translator site because I thought it sounded cool XD. You pretty much got all of them right, though I'll go through the ones that really mean the most to me. Your connection to the Starved and Nurgle is rather apt, though I'll be honest and say papa Nurg does not exist in this Universe... not really, anyway. Ah, nice catch on the Kraata! Bionicle was such a massive part of my childhood, and I find that there's certain things that I find... applicable to this fic. The Useless are heavily inspired by one of my favourite artists, Mikefranchina on Instagram, whom in general I take a lot of inspiration from. As for what you think the Redacted means, well... I won't confirm nor deny ;). Happy the relationship between Ruby and Pyrrha is still well-received! Cherish it. Jaune acts like a headless chicken a good deal of the time during the first few Volumes, so no surprise there XD. Glad you liked the chapter, hope you got some sleep XD.
KHARAKI TAKAN: Ooh, interesting that you bring up Blake! She's going to be more of a slow-burn in terms of actual upgrades, but they're gonna be awesome, I promise that. Mmm, I see what you mean with Yang... in general, Ruby seems to kinda suffer the same bad writing as well, same with the fights in the show nowdays. ESPECIALLY the recent Ironwood fight. For the Past Heroes, yeah just to clarify, not all of them have Silver Eyes and they were/are largely focused on Grimm-based conflicts. Funny you should mention them not being entirely human... but I won't say anything on that yet ;P. Don't worry, Ruby and Yang get an equally rough reality-check. The Fury Hound isn't like the one from the show, it's an entirely different Grimm that happen to share similar names because I goofed up XD. As for humans inside of Grimm, well... ;D. Worry not, the tree was not needed XD. I can see why Ruby not knowing what Pyrrha's semblance is being annoying, though she's got a pretty good idea. She'll figure it out in due time (coughPyrrhavsRubycough). As for the redacted portion, haven't found a way to lit black out words, so had I go with that :p. Glad you enjoyed the chapter dude!
The-White-Spiral: Ah, the Hound of Tindalos, happy to see a fan of the Cthulhu mythos! We'll get into more eldritch Grimm later down the line ;D. So happy you're loving the story and my balancing act of writing!
Alucard45: I'm so sorry dude, a hate blueballing as much as any other dude and I feel your pain XD. I try not to do major cliffhangers whenever possible, and to be honest, I think I might've screwed this one up as I now feel like this would've been better as a single long chapter. I'll do my best not to constantly pull shit like that, though I will say that there will be times that it may be inevitable. Here however, I made a mistake and I apologize for that. Stoked that you like what I did to flesh out Port! I went through pretty much the exact same thoughts when thinking about him writing up a book, mainly through the diagrams on his classroom that we see. Explaining his censorship is a bit tricky, but think about it like this: information like that in Remnant, if it got out to the public, would be disastrous for morale. Port is free by all means to go out, study and write up on whatever classified Grimm he's seen as it's his expertise, but he intentionally redacts pieces of info on them in that case that the book somehow gets out, like a sort of safeguard. The book her gave to Ruby in particular has less of this as it's more of his own personal research, but it still applies nonetheless. Of course, knowing RWBY's luck, they'd have to run into one of them sooner or later XD. To be honest, it bugs me a bit that it took eight volumes to hear certain things confirmed, it's good to see some things put into the light, especially the sisters' talk on Summer. Of course, Pyrrha and Ruby's relationship is more than jests and jokes, I personally had a lot of fun putting in more the wholesome side to their relationship, and you nailed the reason behind it on the head. As for the aura-sonar, I'll admit that yep, it's kinda broken, though I will say that's the full extent of Ruby's aura-utility. She can't hold a candle to someone like Fox's sonar from CFVY, or other characters when it comes to physical enhancement (which I'll get to soon ;D). The fight is finally here, so dive in my dude!
Kivuntappaja: Shhh, careful, you're getting awfully close to the truth, and we can't have that now can we XD? Disgusting is EXACTLY what I'm going for with some of the new Grimm, so I'm glad I got that across. Redacted refers only to a small part of the sentence, not the whole thing. It's understandable that you skimmed through it, its intended purpose just by reading through one or two of them is for foreshadowing anyway. And no, I can confirm that sleeping on public-restricted information that can upset the entire population tends not to be very comfortable XD. Glad you caught the 'Team CRDL being useless' part, I personally get running away from a scary-ass monster, but when there's four of you and only one Grimm, that's just embarrassing. It's actually been a long time since I've read through Red Thorn, though I will say that Moguera as a whole is a big part of why I came back to writing Ruby because his stories are really damn good, so I may have been subconsciously inspired by it. Though, this Grimm in particular is a bit special. Good catch on the lack of Polarity reveal too dude!
Now, the players are ready, and the battlefield it set! Let's rock baby!
Fighting Rose
Chapter 12
Seeing red, part 2
"Now… let's get this over with."
As if to sense their readiness, the Lupa bared its teeth and used one of its arms to point at the group's general direction. With that, the swathe of Beowolves tore forward, a mass if howling, snarling and bared slavering teeth… going well around the group.
"FUCK!" Ruby roared, veins popping up on her forehead, "NORA, FIRE A SHOT INTO THE AIR AS AN S.O.S, THEN PUT DOWN AS MANY OF THEM AS YOU CAN! JAUNE, FUCKING COMMAND YOUR TEAM!" Ruby again forced herself to concentrate, ignoring his startled look before turning back and rushing in with Yang and Blake, the latter leading the charge as the fight began in full earnest. Despite its size, the Lupa was shockingly silent and agile with every move it made, including its breakneck-speed attacks. Yang dodged left and Ruby to the right, Blake just barely able to use her semblance to dodge straight up as it soundlessly lunged forward its snapping jaws, almost clipping her feet before she landed on its back. It was near-instant in its reaction, its extra hands lashing out to grab and rend her to shreds.
'Rapid Slash.'
She burst forward with a push from her Semblance, quickly sheathing and unsheathing her blade to slash across every possible surface. Her blade flashed across its back, arms, hands, elbows, and yet it felt like she was trying to cut through bark with a butterknife. Her momentary surprise made her reaction to a backfist slow, its knuckles catching her cheek right as she used her Semblance to try and dodge. The raw force behind it rattled her brain and sent her flying off its back and straight to the ground, yet utter rage boiled in her stomach as she snarled and spun mid-air, wielding both sword and sheath to become a wild buzzsaw to try and rip its side open. Her mind was sharpened once more as she saw one of its fists racing towards her, forcing her to bring up her weapons to deflect as she phased to the ground feet-first. Again, it already reacted, its mouth in an open smile as it craned its neck to stare directly at her, poised to pounce before she could. 'Think you can give me that look, you mindless mutt-?!'
"WIDE OPEN NOW YOU FURRY FUCK! RISING DRAGON!"
Yang was right under its head, her aura bursting as she drew her fist back and rocketed straight up like a burning drill, smashing right into its jaw with a deafening *CRACK*.
"Falling Rose!" Ruby blasted out of the air and crashed into its face with a diving kick, another *CRACK* echoing through the forest as she drove its snout into the dirt. The haze disappeared from Blake and everyone else's mind, the trio whaling away with whatever they had while their minds were still clear. Yang ran a full-speed combo on its jaw while Blake and Ruby dashed in together, the latter blasting with a storm of sidekicks at the hands that tried to grab Blake while the former dashed in, sheathing her blade and flooding it with aura.
'Remember what he taught. Focus and compress, then…!' She used her semblance once more to boost her momentum as she drew her blade in a flash of violet light. 'Release!' Sheathe and unsheathe, sheathe and unsheathe, over and over, again and again. She slashed away at full speed, finally managing to wear down its tough hide as black blood began to fly. It swiped at her only to hit her shadow, Blake having launched herself straight up and shifting her weapon into its tethered form before sharply spinning. Deft tugs and light wrist-flicks let it flash through the air and bite into its hide at multiple angles in an instant. Knocking back Ruby and Yang with its paws, it snapped up with its massive jaws in a blur, catching Blake right on the shoulder as she sharply phased down, hissing in muted pain and almost getting stomped on. Once again she focused and dashed forwards, another barrage of slashes cutting at its belly. She pushed off clone after clone, bouncing back and forth to constantly slash wherever she could, avoiding its extra mouths and the stomps of its hands, though Ruby was quick to shoot in with a drop-kick to one hand that threatened to grab Blake. Even still, it all amounted to barely a few surface-wounds, receiving a wild swipe from her blind-side that caught her clean across the ribs then sent her flying backwards, one of Ruby's legs being caught by another hand and flinging her in the same direction.
"Yang, grab Blake and throw her back!"
"Got it!"
Blake herself shifted Gambol into its ribbon-form and twisted to throw it right at Yang, the blonde catching it deftly as she planted her feet and swung as hard as she could, sling-shotting Blake right back at its right paw, Ruby blasting through the air for the left. Both of them were met with it rearing up on its hind legs before catching them mid-flight, one paw smashing into Blake's face while another crunched across Ruby's stomach and legs before attempting to slam them both into the ground. Ruby and Blake barely recovered in time as they used their Semblances to escape, its paws punching through the ground easily enough to make craters. Ruby and Blake kicked and slashed respectively at its now-grounded forelimbs right as they landed, sweeping its balance out from under it and send its chin smacking to the dirt with a surprised yelp, even as it warded them off with its hands and tail.
"LITTLE BASTARD!" Yang roared, tearing forward with the aid of Weiss' Propulsion Glyph and swinging wildly at its snout, the *BANG* of her thunderous impact and discharge of golden fire snapping its head to the side. Despite the strike being dead-on, it continued to turn with the momentum and slammed its hind fists full into Yang's face and stomach, the blonde unable to defend in time thanks to her anger clouding her mind. She shot back and smashed clean through a tree, screaming in pain as she writhed on the ground for a moment before forcing herself to her feet. Ruby's face was twisted into a snarl as she front-flipped into an axe-kick right between its eyes, Blake dashing under its head to try and rip its throat open with her blade, Ruby meeting one of its swipes with a vicious forward kick of her own, only to be tossed to the ground by its sheer weight. However…
*CRACK*
For all three of the girls, their minds cleared once more as the hand Ruby kicked had all of that force used directly against it, breaking its forearm and leaving its hand a mess of gore. It reeled silently in pain as it backed away, all three girls instantly taking advantage of the situation once again. Blake went into a deep stance, sheathing Gambol once more before she sharply breathed out and unleashed an Aura Slash that finally cut clean through the ruined limb, Ruby delivering a right-roundhouse, left-roundhouse and spinning back-kick to its jaw, and Yang stepping in to cover for them as it rocketed three of its left fists for them.
"ROYAL GUARD!"
They smashed into her guard as she focused her aura into her arms, blocking the attack with every ounce of strength she could muster in that instant with another metallic *BANG*. Her timing was near perfect, yet the transferral of weight and momentum sent her crashing into the others and sending them skidding back.
"Ah!" Ruby cried out, stumbling as she clutched her left thigh.
"Ruby, are you-!?" Yang cried out, both her and Blake quick steadied Ruby, the girl in red kissing her teeth.
"Not the first time," She ground out, "But I'm really hating your durability Yang."
Blake expected Yang to do something like laugh boldly or become prideful, only to freeze up in surprise as Yang's face drooped, unable to hide her sadness. "Ruby…" Said girl gently pushed away from both of them, adjusting her hood before reaching into a pouch, bringing out one of the same odd-looking Wind Dust crystals that she'd used against the Nevermore during the initiation and placing it in her left greave.
"Ruby… no, absolutely not!" Yang shouted, "If you don't get it right, you'll break your leg! Please!" She didn't listen, looking as if she'd zoned out entirely while somehow also being so deeply concentrating, Blake herself felt like she was standing right next to an approaching storm, her skin crawling with the intent to kill radiating from the younger girl.
'It's almost like…!'
Whatever Ruby was planning to do, she instantly snapped up as the Lupa reared up, sounding as if it was breathing in deeply with all of its mouths.
"…EVERYONE COVER YOUR EARS!" Ruby screamed, and everyone followed through in an instant. Though, Ruby felt panic explode from Blake and she saw why: she was covering her human ears. 'Well shit.' Ruby just moved, pressing her palms down flat on Blake's bow right as the Lupa howled. To those with their ears covered, it was like metal grinding against their skulls, a thousand obscenities scraping against their mind, the roaring of blood in their veins, yet they managed to hang on. Ruby?
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"
Not so much.
Her eyes had rolled into the back of her head as her scream seemed to be on par with the beast itself. Any form of mental control she had was shattered like glass to the stone, images flashing through her mind as she relived walking up early every morning to wallow in foolish self-pity and longing, feeling her knuckles and shins bleed as she trained herself half to death, the anguish and powerlessness looking at the grave of the one she called mother, the burning line across her stomach as Ripper sought to gut her like an animal, the sensation of her life slipping away all because she simply wasn't strong enough. It all violently twisted beyond simple rage within Ruby Rose, and what engulfed her like a tsunami was an endless ocean of unnatural, blood-red wrath. Yet through it all, she never took her hands from Blake's bow.
…
Yang's eyes were squeezed shut as she gulped air, just about managing to push down the frothing anger that rumbled within her, opening her eyes as the roaring halted and immediately being treated to a sight that nearly made her heart stop. Ruby was stumbling away from Blake, clutching her head as she thrashed and clawed at her stomach, howling like a banshee.
"RUBY-!"
*BANG*
Her head was whipped back as blood flew from her nose, the impact ringing through her entire body from the top of her head to the tips of her toes. She set her feet on raw instinct and shifted into Royal Guard, only for a vicious dropkick to the stomach to send her back even further before she could try to block. Ribs groaned and her back ached as it felt like she was being pierced right down the middle. She put up another hasty block, only for no attack to come, and she saw why. Ruby was writhing on her knees, visibly changing. The Lupa, though looking tired also seemed curious at the sudden development, eyes narrowed and cocking its head.
Her aura seemed to warp and lash out randomly, actual steam rising from her body. Veins visibly popped all across her visible skin, said skin turning a shade of light red.
"It hurts! I don't want to die…! I won't die… because…!" She whimpered, before she snarled and looked up at Yang. The whites of her eyes weren't just bloodshot, they were a bloody red, veins thrumming across the skin of her face. "I will become unrivalled under heaven!"
*THOOM-THOOM*
The sound emanated from her like the stomps of a giant, tears in Yang's eyes freely falling as she didn't need to use any kind of awareness to see that Ruby had been twisted by the Grimm's strange ability.
"Ruby…" Yang's choked voice seemed to stop Ruby for a moment, her face turning softer before Yang hardened herself, shifting into a stance and flaring her aura. Ruby's body seemed to move on its own, years of instincts making her move into her own stance as she seemed to slowly calm down, the rage slipping away from her body. That was shattered as the Lupa suddenly cackled, so similarly to the hyenas of Vacuo, Ruby's rage returning tenfold as her eyes widened in madness and blood spurt from her nose with another *THOOM-THOOM*. Yang was ready to face her maddened sister, but what Yang and Blake didn't expect was for Ruby to seemingly ignore Yang and snap her body to face Lupa, her stance feral as she crouched low and bared her teeth at it.
"I'm not weak! I'M NOT WEAK!" She screamed before the ground under her feet exploded, near-instantly crossing the distance far faster than ever before, her foot blasting across its cheek with another *BANG* that made everyone's ears ring. It wasn't even able to try and shake off the damage as Ruby kicked off the air to wildly smash both heels into one of its eyes, a sickening squelch and a burst of black ichor erupting from the ruined organ as it shrieked and thrashed wildly in pain, slamming its many fists directly into her stomach. She didn't even bother to dodge, lashing out with a savage kick that ripped through two arms, blood flying from her mouth as the third hit her dead on, yet she wrapped her legs around it and gripped its wrist, roaring as she bucked her hips up and yanked as hard as she could. There was a moment of resistance as the Lupa howled and attempted to squash her with the captured arm, only for it to be ripped clean off at the elbow. Despite its shriek of agony, Yang and Blake still felt mentally sound (minus of course the shock of seeing Ruby go absolutely berserk), and Blake was able to quickly come to a realization.
"It needs to focus on who to enrage…" Blake breathed, "… And now its focusing entirely on Ruby."
"Goddamnit!" Yang cried, starting to move forward only to stumble as she gulped in air, "Wh… why am I so tired!? W-we didn't even fight that long!"
"The angrier you are, the more effort you subconsciously put into everything you do," Blake said, noticing that she too was breathing pretty heavily, "And that means wasted energy. That's why Ruby was so adamant on trying to keep our heads cool and divide its attention."
"And now my little sister's gone and thrown herself into the fire again!" Yang snarled, her voice cracking as tears flowed from her eyes, "Why can't she get it into her head that she ain't alone in this, that I'm here too!?"
Her hair erupted into flame and her muscles tensed, though Blake was the one to quickly jump in and hold Yang back with a full-nelson lock, planting her feet in the dirt yet almost thrown off by Yang's incredible strength.
"Yang, get a grip!" Blake hissed sharply, "You charge in as you are right now, we'll have two berserkers to deal with. Ruby isn't herself because of that… thing, so whatever your personal reasons are, shove it." Blake struggled not to gag at her own hypocrisy, Yang thankfully not noticing as she managed to put a lid on her rage and frustration. Blake gently let her go, both of them baring witness to the back-and-forth beating between Ruby and the Lupa, waiting for the chance to strike. Even with all but one of its front-left arms ripped away, the Grimm was holding its own against the absolutely berserk Ruby. She would throw her entire body into its neck like a rocket or throw kicks so wild they seemed almost amateur if it weren't for the blinding speed and cleaving of flesh, while it retaliated by snapping at her with its jaws or spinning rapidly to savagely beat her around. Really, it almost seemed like… two beasts equally trying to rip the other apart.
The Lupa actually retreated a bit at one point, grabbing a few beowolves and chucking them at Ruby. She blasted one of their skulls straight into the dirt with a stomp, roundhouse-kicked the face off of the second and rammed her body into the third, knocking the breath from it before she shot up, wrapping her legs around its neck, and grabbing it by the jaws.
*SQUELCH*
Ichor flew once more as she yanked its upper and lower jaws opposite ways, ripping it right in half right down to its pelvis as the inky black blood covered her snarling face, killing it instantly as being ripped in half by the mouth tends to. She promptly fell to her knees, greedily sucking in air as her body continued to steam and her nose leaked blood, her left leg convulsing and right hand struggling to move as she tried to force her body to her feet. The Lupa on the other hand snatched up another unfortunate Grimm and, to the horror of everyone, proceeded to chuck it right into its mouth. There was a quick yelp before its body was mangled by the crushing jaws of the Lupa, swallowed into the beast's belly soon after. It stood still before its body trembled, growling in pain before regrowing one arm lost on its right side; though, the act itself seemed to further drain the Grimm of its stamina. Ruby however, was not longer in the same spot.
"DIE!"
Directly under its chin, her foot shot straight up into its chin with so much force that it lifted the beast onto its hind legs, blood and shattered teeth flying from its broken mouth. Again, she seemed to appear right above it in a flash of smoking petals and steam, her leg high above her head and its eyes widening for the final time in its blood-soaked existence.
"DIE!"
*BOOM*
She descended like a meteor, the smashing and piercing of bone smothered by the explosion of air knocking Blake and Yang back a step. The beast's eyes were still open and alive, but they rolled senselessly, the light from them fading as quickly as its movements stilled. That did not stop Ruby. She continued to scream as she ripped her boot out of its brain-matter before clawing away with her bare hands, screams of "I'M NOT WEAK, I'M NOT WEAK!" echoing through the forest. It rapidly dissolved to nothingness, Ruby's body changing back to its normal state just as quickly even as she continued to punch and rip away. Granted, she was slowing down, her screams turning into sobs and heaving breaths, eventually causing her to pass out right there and then… right in front of three hungry beowolves.
"We gotta-!" Blake started, only for Yang to blast off the ground with such force that it knocked Blake off of her feet, vision vibrating with… a flash of black? When she looked up, Yang had already crossed the distance, a flying left hood ripping the head of the closest Grimm clean off, a right uppercut atomizing the chest of another. Still, she was still a single person defending her sister and had blind spots, one of the beowolves launching in at Ruby from her far left. Blake had already caught up, smoothly stepping in with a beautiful upward cut, slicing clean through the Grimm before she pivoted and slashed straight down, a blade of aura lashing out from her blade and cutting down a handful in front of Yang.
"Thanks," The blonde said breathlessly, "Sorry for charging ahead earlier."
"Ruby's out cold and in danger," Blake chuckled back, "I don't blame you. Still… didn't think that the Alpha would bring out this many Grimm."
With Weiss still defending Jaune and the rest of JNPR fighting their own battles, the swarm now moved about unrestrained by their fear of the Alpha, cutting them off from each other. Yang and Blake quickly went in a figurative back-to-back formation, defending the unconscious Ruby in between them.
"How's your stamina?" Blake asked, eyeing the Grimm surrounding them.
"I'm a bit worn out, but nothing I can't handle," Yang shot back simply, "What about you? You're no slouch, but you took some big shots."
"I'm fine, so don't worry about me," Blake said, gripping her weapons tight as the Grimm collectively prepared to pounce, snarls rising up from them. At least, until they were promptly launched into the air. Both girls almost fell over in shock as a purple glow enveloped the mass of Grimm, Yang suddenly turning to face Ruby as the girl shuddered and came to.
"Y-Yang…?" She croaked, her voice weak and small. With their apparent safety, Yang quickly knelt and cradled Ruby in her arms, an odd and… disturbing sense of repetition behind her movements, as if she'd done this many, many times before.
"I'm here Ruby," She said softly as she gently picked her up, "I'm here."
They watched in awe as Glynda Goodwitch hovered in the air, a brilliant purple aura swirling around her as she didn't even bother to draw her riding-crop. Righteous fury adorned her face as she motioned with her hands, the swarm all of a sudden crashing together with pained cries as they were surrounded by what looked like a purple-hued bubble. She clasped her hands together and slowly began to press down, the bubble doing the same as bones snapped and bodies were mangled. Tighter and tighter the bubble contracted, from the size of a small house to a room, from a room to a closet, and by this point, the hundreds of Grimm within had been pulverised to little more than a black mulch. The bubble popped and let the dark slop hit the ground with a wet sploshing sound before disintegrating, Glynda slowly floating to the ground and wiping the sweat from her forehead as she composed herself.
"Well…" She said after a moment, "…needless to say, this field trip is over."
…A few hours later…
"I did wut?" Ruby asked, dumbfounded at the Nurse's explanation.
"I didn't stutter," She replied bluntly, "You've fractured your left leg in three places, your left femur in two, somehow over-worked all of your muscles, and pushed your heart so far beyond safe human standards that you could have died from heart-failure had you not had your aura to reinforce your body. Even then, you've ruptured some of your weaker capillaries no thanks to that blood-pressure."
"Oh…" Ruby muttered before turning to the rest of the team, "… sorry for worrying you guys," She chuckled sheepishly, and though she hid her shaking very well from the rest of RWBY and JNPR, one person saw it as clear as day. Yang squeezed her shaking hand while Ruby silently squeezed back, shooting a deeply thankful look to her older sister as the nurse left the room after making her final checks.
"I mean, it looked kinda scary from when I caught glimpses of it," Nora admitted before she broke out into her usual smile. "But that was totally awesome. You didn't break its legs, but arms are basically the same thing!"
"Nora, no," Ren chided, everyone laughing as the mood lifted.
"Seriously though, please don't throw yourselves into such a risky situation like that," Weiss said to Ruby, trying to be strict but unable to hide her own worry from the younger girl, "At least, not without me to fully support you with my Semblance."
"Yeah, that was kinda dumb," Ruby admitted, "But it's more important that you defended Jaune and Cardin. You've got the best wide-area defensive skills out of all of us, and I trust you."
"W-well…" Weiss turned a bit pink, clearly unused to honest praise, "…you're welcome."
Ruby giggled, her own mood lightening just a bit more, the tense nervousness fading away piece by piece. Though, she sensed someone getting nervous, seeing Jaune fidget for a bit.
"Actually Weiss, I wanna apologize for holding you back," Jaune said after a moment before turning to a surprised and… proud Pyrrha, "And I'm sorry to you too Pyrrha. There's… something you all need to know about me." Ruby sat up, curious.
'Is this something to do with his really low skill-level?'
"I… I haven't really been truthful with where I came from, or how I got into Beacon." He breathed in deeply before he steeled himself. "…a month or two before coming to Beacon, I'd decided that I really wanted to be a Hunter, just like everyone in the Arc family history was. But apparently two months isn't enough to cram years worth of combat training according to my mom, but… I was still set. So I uh… faked my transcripts, took our sword, and made my way here. I'm really sorry for faking you all out but… I'm here now, and I'm gonna work as hard as I can to catch up."
There was silence for a moment, though Blake of all people was the first to speak up.
"That's… incredibly reckless of you," She chuckled, "But I'm not one to judge anyone's reasons for being here, are yours are pretty good, upholding family and all that."
"Yeah, it really does explain a lot," Nora said bluntly, "But you're still the same ol' Jauney to us!"
"Agreed. Background doesn't matter to Nora or I." Ren said simply.
Initially relieved, he turned Weiss, Yang and Ruby, the last of whom was looking down, her hair covering her eyes though her mouth seemed to move. Yang wasn't even paying attention to Jaune, squeezing Ruby's wrist now, as if to… hold her back? Even Weiss noticed that something was up with the younger girl, concern flashing across her face.
"Ruby-?" She started, only for Ruby to ignore her.
"Before those two months," Ruby asked quietly, Jaune's hair standing up on the back of his neck, "Did you ever think about becoming a Hunter?"
"Y-yeah... kind of?"
"Did you physically train?"
"N-not much, but-!"
"Did you study the basics?"
"…a little…" He said softly, shame overridden by the extremely uncomfortable feeling in the air.
"…Okay then." He barely saw her look up before his vision flashed white, his face slammed into the floor across the other side of the room. His right cheek ached, his vision swimming as he propped himself up on his elbows.
"SCUM!" Ruby roared, initially yanking out of Yang's grip to deliver a monstrous left hook despite her exhaustion and aura being severely depleted. She tried to lunge at him once more, only for Yang and Pyrrha to dive in and properly restrain her.
"R-RUBY, WHAT ON EARTH-!?" Pyrrha started, only for aura to spark and snap off of Ruby's skin, her teeth bared and tears welling up in her eyes.
"How DARE YOU!?" Ruby screamed, "HOW DARE YOU SPIT ON OUR EFFORTS!? All of us, ALL OF US, went through hardship, fought TOOTH AND FUCKING NAIL in one way or the other to just STAND HERE! Do you know how LONG I slaved away trying not to be weak, how much blood I've shed!? How many times I've exhausted my body, wrecked my hands legs to catch up to Yang, just to BE HERE!? You didn't just cheat to get here, YOU FUCKING WALKED RIGHT IN WITHOUT A DROP OF EFFORT!"
"Ruby please-!" Yang cried, only for Ruby to thrash again, her tears falling freely as Jaune looked on in utter shame, each word ringing true.
"You STOLE the place of someone who DESERVED to be here! You came here thinking this was a FUCKING GAME! You SPAT on everyone who's ever put in the work while you PLAYED HOUSE! HOW DARE YOU STAND WHERE SHE STOOD, CALLING YOURSELF A HERO!?" At that Ruby fully broke down, her struggling ceasing as she descended into wracked sobs. "… h-how dare her stand where she s-stood…?" Both Pyrrha and Yang gently held Ruby as the girl cried, Yang drawing her into a hug.
"I believe it's best if you go," Weiss said to him, a deep scowl on her face, "Now."
Jaune looked down like a kicked puppy before he quickly got up and left, ignoring Nora's plea and opting to just run to his room, curl up and never move again.
(TWBY Continued...)
All's well ends...? Yeah, no. Remember what I said a few chapters back about Ruby not getting with Jaune? Now you know why. When coming up with the Lupa, I was stumped for a good while wondering what to actually do with it. I didn't want it to just be another bruiser or DPS, as fun as that is, so I took inspiration from the Apathy and wondered what if other Grimm has a similar ability, though with different effects?
