Idea courtesy of TheArmedwithWings on my YouTube channel.

Recommended Reading is Crimson 37: Premonition

Extra 014: Marketable Hell

"Making my way downtown, walkin' fast."

Ragna didn't remember the rest of the song's lyrics and he had even less of an idea who actually wrote that piece of music, but he'd heard it so many times when he was studying around his girlfriends that it had gotten stuck in his head and he was unable to keep from humming along the catchy beat.

That first bit of song was a pretty decent summary of what he was going through anyways. Speed walking through the streets of Vale as he made his was down to the usual streetside market he shopped at. He didn't need to worry about feeding the entirety of Beacon Academy this time so it'd be a far simpler shopping errand. His big reason for this trip wasn't out of any obligation, just that he felt like making a nice meal for himself and Team RWBY. Maybe soon enough he'd even start inviting his brother's Team JACK and Jaune's Team JNPR to these little cooking sessions… once he managed to find some decent vegetarian options for Jin.

It was almost weird in all honesty; now that he was past most of the bullshit and drama that the start of the quarter had brought him, he was starting to let himself enjoy the moment like he didn't have any worries of finding Terumi on the horizon. Sure there was probably still some dark plot going around with Torchwick, and Cinder was… well she was still at least worth keeping an eye on. Regardless, he would be back in the tournament if he kept up his current streak of wins and everyone at the Academy was starting to take notice of that fact. Now he was barely getting scowled at when he was passed in the halls… though there did seem to be a few lingering stares.

But what did he care?

He'd barely noticed in the first place. As long as he was on good terms with the few people he truly cared about, he couldn't care less about his personal reputation.

'There's the market up ahead… took me a while to get here without Yang's bike.'

He'd considered asking the blonde to rent her beloved Bumblebee while he did his errands again, but he'd decided that there was nothing wrong taking it slower and getting a brief but relaxing walk in instead. This also meant he'd have to carry supplies back when he was done shopping, but he'd already made his mind up. Walking through the market, he scoured around both for his favorite stands and the ingredients he'd need for that night's meal. Nothing all that rare or fancy so it shouldn't have been much of a search, but he couldn't help but notice all the stares he was getting from stall owners and shoppers alike.

'…I got something on my face from breakfast?' was his first thought.

"Hey! Excuse us!" Ragna heard someone call from further down the street. Two young children, probably late elementary school. A boy and his sister if the familial resemblance was anything to go off. They were obviously shouting for him and they certainly seemed excited in their rushed jog towards him. "Are you the famous student from Beacon Academy?"

"Famous?" Ragna repeated. 'Pretty sure in my case it'd be more infamous than famous.' "You're probably thinking of Pyrrha Nickos, so no."

"We know who she is; she's the lady on our Pumpkin Pete cereal boxes." Right, Ragna had completely forgotten that she'd had that promotion even before coming to Beacon. "But we heard different stories of this really strong guy from Beacon. Someone that they're saying is going to win the entire Vytal Festival."

"We've got plenty of strong people at Beacon, and again winning the Festival sounds more like a Pyrrha thing," he denied patiently.

"What about saving this Market Street and beating up that bad guy before he drove a car through here?" Okay, he couldn't deny that and nodded at the sister's question. "Knew it was you! Can we have your autograph?"

"My… my what?" Ragna asked, clearly caught entirely off guard. Glancing around, he realized that he had even more eyes on him at the scene they were causing. Nothing judgmental, but plenty of curious bystanders. "…Are you sure you don't want Pyrrha's?" At this point, he was just denying it.

"Nuh uh! We want yours!" the brother insisted as he brought a small pad of paper and a pen out of his backpack. His sister seemed just as eager as she got out her own pen and paper.

'I guess there's no real reason to deny them, right?' "Okay, who am I making this out to?" It wasn't anything all that flamboyant or personal, but the kids practically had sparkles in their eyes the entire time he was writing the messages to them. "There. Does that work for you?"

"You bet it does! Thanks a ton!" the sister said before turning to her brother. "All the kids at school are going to be so jealous of us tomorrow!"

'So the entire school these kids go to has heard of me?' Ragna questioned before deciding it probably didn't matter. In fact, it was actually kind of a good feeling, once he got through the initial surprise of it. "Sorry, but I gotta get going."

"Okay, thanks so much Mr. Ragna!"

He was still trying to come to terms with his new reputation and where the hell it could've possibly come from as he continued scouring the stalls for what he was looking for. In truth he smelt it before he actually laid eyes on it; even fresh fish still had that distinct smell to him. The owner of the stall was an old Tabby Cat Faunus, and this was far from the first time he'd done business with the Reaper.

"Back already, are you?" he grunted. Pretty no-nonsense feline (he wished he could say the same about Tao). "Thought you wouldn't be back for a while after that massive order you put in at the other stalls."

"…Did I somehow offend you? Your tone seems awfully bitter," Ragna noted.

"Why didn't you come shop at mine for the big meal!? Everyone else managed to make a killing and you didn't even come and talk to me!" …Make that no-nonsense as long as profits weren't being sacrificed.

"Sorry, but there wasn't a lot I could get from you. We were making Pizza."

"They're called anchovies!"

"And most people think they're disgusting." Ragna admittedly liked them here or there, but that was a really salty taste to add to anything. Ignoring his own earlier slight, he took a careful look at the produce out on display. "Huh, pretty decent selection today."

"Only the best, but this stuff won't be cheap for you," he warned. "And no, I'm not about to give our local celebrity a hefty discount."

"I wasn't expecting any… what do you mean celebrity?"

"Unless you gave my shop a ringing endorsement, maybe that'd be enough to drive profits up." He answered like he hadn't heard Ragna. "So, can you put in a good word for me?"

"I don't even know-"

"What about me!?" Ragna heard a call from the local butcher nearby. "Hell, give me enough profits and you can get your cuts for free!"

"Don't steal him away from me! I offered first!" the fishmonger shouted at his butcher rival. "…Fine! Same offer!"

'Oh damn, that is tempting… but I still don't have any idea what's going on.' Ragna sighed before something out of the corner of his eye caught his attention… and his blood went cold. His mind completely refocused, he avoided the two bickering shop owners and headed to object in question.

"Now look at what you did! Frightening him off like that!" the human butcher yelled with so much aggression that her face was turning red.

"ME!? What about you!? I just about had him before you got involved! You harpy!" the fishmonger shouted back just as violently and returned the glare just as fiercely… before dropping it for a moment. "Oh, almost forgot to tell you. Got a call from our daughter while you were dealing with that other customer. Said she'll be back to celebrate our 50-year anniversary with everyone after all. Even bringing the grandkids."

"Aw, she managed to get time off for us," the butcher sighed. "Couldn't have been easy for her to save up for the trip from Atlas either… we raised a good kid."

"That we did… because SHE doesn't move in on my profits!"

"Your profits!? My stall is the real breadwinner in this family!"

Ragna had long since moved on from this spousal bickering to what had caught his eye a second ago. In this small mostly Faunus based marketplace, he hadn't done much shopping here outside of looking for ingredients he could use for upcoming meals. There was other stuff available for sale like certain nicknacks or amateur art pieces, but at best he'd given them simple passing glances on his way to the food stalls he was really there for. Now though… they were displaying something he just couldn't ignore.

A small plushie. Handmade and relatively well crafted too. It was soft to the touch as he held it, though it was clearly durable enough that it wouldn't fall apart anytime soon. Quite the quality craftsmanship… however his compliments ended there as he didn't appreciate the doll being made in his perfect likeness. Red coat with a black hakama beneath, spiky white hair, mismatched red and green eyes, and there was even a soft replica of his Aramasa sword on it back while the real one was still being repaired.

"Interested?" It was the stall's owner, a bat-based Faunus who was only a few years older than Ragna. Like whenever he saw her, she was chewing some of her favorite gum before blowing a bubble and letting it pop close to his face. "Thought I'd sold out of these before I got a chance to set this one out. It'll go quick if you don't buy it now."

"Why the hell am I a marketable plushie!?" Ragna shouted.

"Oh, you think I based this off of-?" She couldn't keep her snide remark up under the Reaper's scowl. "…I made it a little different at least."

"By making me a wolf!?" Indeed, the small doll had additional wolf ears and a tail that matched his own hair color.

"This one was. I made most of these with you as a human, but I made some of you as wolf or a cat as a collector's variant."

"Then who the hell is collecting these?" Ragna demanded as he scowled so hard at the mini-him it should have caught on fire.

"Most of them were our regular customers; people you'd see shopping here most days. So usually other Faunus families or people that are more tolerant of us…or come here because they're trying to shop local instead of big chain. Take your pick."

"I'd rather it was Option D: None of the above," Ragna snapped back angrily. "So how many did you sell?"

"First batch of these little guys I made fifty, so accounting for the one you have in your hands I managed to sell 49 of them."

"...And how long did it take for you to sell them?"

"Couple of days." Ragna's face was starting to pale. "Hey, don't blame it all on me. Our local artist even drew a little something in your likeness. Wasn't anything erotic, so don't worry about that. Actually a pretty decent picture of saving the market by flipping that car over."

"That's not my problem!" Truthfully, he was a little relived not to be illustrated that first way, but right now it was a small comfort at best. "Why the hell are you guys even doing all of this!? What's the point!?"

"You were the one that saved us all by stopping that runaway drug dealer," she reminded him. "Plenty of people took pictures, so you got a fair bit of publicity with that one."

"That's not nearly enough for something like this," Ragna denied.

"Well, that order you put in gave a lot of us some pretty substantial profits; enough to where we can focus on improving the quality of life for this little street of ours." Ragna still wasn't moved; it was just business. A good business day for them maybe, but still. "After that, some of us were thinking about coming together and doing a little something for you."

"And this is what you landed on?"

"No, it wouldn't have been this big. Probably just give you some nice discounts or a decent thank you package with all of us chipping in." The Reaper was currently longing for something that simple compared to this headache. "But… that was before we got an unintentional visit from one your classmates."

"What makes you say unintentional?"

"The girl had no idea where she was going. I think she'd been trying to get to Beacon's cafeteria." That cleared up who it was quickly. "I guess she heard some of us talking about you and had plenty of her own stories to add. Things like how strong you were in the fighting, how you'd have a really good chance of winning the Vytal Festival, and the fact that you constantly stand up to any case of Faunus discrimination you find. All that sweet stuff she had to say about you, but then she told us that you didn't have the best reputation in or outside of your school. So… we decided to try and fix it ourselves."

'Dammit Celica. I know you meant well, but for the love of Maidens…' "But… this couldn't have been done over more than a couple of days. How well known are you guys?"

"It's called Social Media for a reason, lot of us are talking you up and even trying to make you big sponsor for our shopping district come tournament time."

"You did this before you went and asked me?" Ragna demanded.

"Gotta hit that iron while it's hot… or something like that," the Bat Faunus weakly defended, though she clearly wasn't concerned over it. "Tell you what; why don't you take that little guy in your hand as a gift from me. Will that make you feel any better?"

"Hardly."

Later -Team RWBY's Room-

"Uh, Weiss? Don't I get a turn with him?" Ruby asked as Weiss had been holding the mini-Ragna close to her with no signs of letting go. No response to her leader's question either. "Doesn't anyone else get a turn with him?"

"Please don't tell me you're all obsessed with that damn thing now," Ragna begged, starting to wish he'd just thrown the doll away instead of handing it off to his girlfriends.

"Aw, is someone feeling jealous?" Yang teased. Ragna's scowl at the blonde did little to alter her sunny disposition. "Don't worry, I still love the real thing most of all!" Okay, maybe the intimate hug she was giving was helping, but he was still getting a headache from all of this shit.

"So… no grilled salmon for dinner like you promised?" Blake asked.

"Kind of going through something else right now; I'm just not sure how important it is."

"We already know dinner's important." She wasn't trying to sound too needy, but it was clear what she'd been looking forward to since he'd made the offer this morning.

"Weiss, let Ruby have a turn with that thing. We gotta talk about what we're going to do next," Ragna insisted.

"What do you mean? From what you told us, nothing about this sounds like a problem," Weiss said as she (reluctantly) handed off the plushie to Ruby who all but squealed as she got her turn with it. "If anything, wouldn't this be the first positive thing for your reputation in quite a while?"

"There's positive, but this seems like a total headache," the Reaper groaned. "Seriously, I didn't even do much, but if word of this gets out to the other students I'm going to be getting a ton of attention that I don't want." His annoyance dissipated as he felt a more solemn concern. "That and… it'll be harder to continue our relationship with so many new eyes on me."

"Sweet of you to worry, but would it really even be that bad?" Weiss had to ask while Yang went onto her scroll to check something. "From what you've told me it's only this merchant street that's using your likeness and they're just grateful that you saved them. That's understandable, clearly not worth a cease and desist."

"Maybe not, but I still want to insist that they stop," Ragna affirmed.

"Solid rhyming pun," Yang complimented.

"Thanks. Besides, this is me we're talking about. Somehow the universe just seems to love putting into awkward situations that get even more inane." Dead silence at the lack of arguments.

"I mean… he has a point," Blake had to admit.

"And more than that; he's right." They all turned to Yang who'd used her scroll to bring up an online auction that was looking to sell one of the standard human versions of the plushie. It was already going on sale for 300 Platinum Lien and the price was continuing to rise. "And this is just for a standard one; somehow they've already become quite the collector's item."

"…Dammit," Ragna groaned with his head slumped forward as Ruby got a closer look at the scroll.

"It doesn't look like most of the people buying them even know it's about you. Most of the comments are saying that it's going to be the next big thing or This design is really going to catch on." Taking a look at said reviews himself, Ragna came to his own realization.

"A lot of these reviews have been written by the stall owners of the street; they're trying to artificially drive up their value so that they can sell more for the next batch that comes out. Devious… and I'm fairly sure it's not legal."

"I'd have to check up on that," Weiss admitted as she eyed the plush Ruby was holding. "…So how much is the wolf one going for?"

"Hey! We're not selling it!" Yang shouted… though she did decide to still check. "Whoa. One offer's for six hundred and climbing."

"You could by a lot of salmon dinners with that," Ragna desperately whispered to Blake.

"Nice try," she returned with a deadpan.

"I'd cook 'em myself?"

"I thought that was implied. Still no."

At the sudden knocking on Team RWBY's door, Ragna followed standard procedure and made himself scarce; in translation, hiding under the bed so whoever came in wouldn't start any additional rumors if they found him in the all-girls room. Once he'd hidden himself away, Ruby answered the door to find Nora on the other side… with three of the offending plushies. A human, another wolf, and even one of the cat variants.

"So… I heard one of my buyers say that they'll add an extra hundred Lien if I can get Ragna's signature on these," she explained with a bright smile.

"Isn't that scalping?" Weiss asked, wondering how much money was left from her weekly allowance.

"Eh, call it what you want," Nora answered in a very laissez-faire way. "What would Ragna say to it then?"

"…That he's taking 30%," came his defeated voice from beneath the bed.

Later -Team JNPR's Room-

"That's… certainly something." Pyrrha didn't really have the words to accurately explain how she saw Ragna's current situation.

"If even you're taken off guard by this then I have a real problem; I figured you were best person I know to go to for advice here," Ragna sighed. It was just the two of them in the team room; Nora was still finalizing her sale while Jaune and Ren… well, she hadn't said where they were, but Ragna assumed they were finishing up their own Project Hell. "I mean, what happened when you became a big celebrity with her own cereal box?"

"Not much? I just signed a few deals to use my image and left it there; I really don't pay it any attention, nor do I really care what people think about me."

'Aside from Jaune. The fact that he doesn't see you as a celebrity…' Ragna knew to keep his mouth shut though. He wasn't a part of this relationship, just a friend from the outside who'd act if he was invited into the drama willingly. "Normally I wouldn't either… I guess it's just… I don't know."

"Maybe you're so unused to having anything simply go your way that when it does you either don't know how react or you're waiting for it to go horribly wrong?" She was offering the idea genuinely.

"I guess I've actually had a lot of the first lately; what with getting over myself and starting a relationship with the girls." He gave a small smile. "This seems a hell of lot more annoying though."

"Even with Yang's bad puns?" she asked to add some well appreciated levity to the situation.

"I'd take two hours of her own standup comedy if it gets me out of the crap I'm currently in," he insisted. "So… how long am I going to have to put up with this?"

"It's kind of hard to say; despite what you were thinking I'm no expert."

"You've more experience than me. Please, anything."

"I'm sorry, even with what little I've learned in this industry, there's just not much I can say with how little we know about it. This could just be your fifteen minutes of fame and any craze with the doll will fizzle out before anyone even realizes it's you. The lingering problem there is that the Vytal Festival is coming up. If you really secure your place in the new qualification round and end up doing really well in rest of the tournament, it'll probably reignite interest in you… if it's not fueling what's already there."

"…Not about to take a dive if that's what you're suggesting," he answered snidely. "Gotta make the rest of you work for that trophy."

"I wasn't saying- …Oh, you of all people were making a joke. Have you been spending that much time with Yang?"

"Same as the others, so it's probably a lot." He allowed himself a softer smile in the company of someone he could call a friend. "…And I'm cherishing every second with them."

"That… was really romantic of you to say," she noted with surprise. "Shockingly so."

"Tch, not really one for the whole honeyed words angle."

"Oh trust me; we know." The two shared a brief laugh with each other, right as the door to their room opened and… Ranga immediately stopped laughing.

"Finally managed to get ahold of it; I knew that trade from the wolf to the cat was a good… one?" Jaune said as he was followed by Ren, the team leader holding yet another of the Ragna plushies. "…It's for my sisters back home."

"I don't believe you."

"No! Really it is!"

"Jaune…"

"I HAVE THE MESSAGES!" he cried, thrusting the thing into Ren's hands as he furiously dug out his own scroll. The Reaper was unamused as he turned to the mostly silent student, just as quietly demanding to know their part in this.

"I went along to make sure that he wouldn't get scammed in this trade-off… which he almost was."

"…Okay, that I believe."

"COME ON!"

"Ditto."

"Et tu, Pyrrha?

Torchwick's Hideout

"Aw, don't I get a turn with him?" Torchwick snidely taunted as another of Cinder's darts met and pierced flesh… felt flesh, but right now she was taking what she could get. "Your aim seemed a little off those first two shots."

"Doesn't matter, they still hit the target and I would've dealt a killing blow regardless," she argued back. Then throwing her last dart, she managed to nail the doll right between his red and green eyes. "Besides, I wanted to hit one of the cat ears."

"Brutal, but I guess it's something of a relief all the same."

"What's that supposed to mean?" she demanded, heading over to the doll and yanking one of the darts out.

"Some of us were getting a little worried about your boy toy," he informed before glancing to very damaged plushie. "Not that thing, the real one."

"And why was anyone worried about it?" she demanded, despite having a few good guesses what the reason was.

"One of two reasons. The first was that you'd somehow gone and fallen for that idiot… but really I think that's just Hazama being crazier than usual."

'Is he trying to spread rumors now? It's like he's trying to get me removed or killed off somehow… Or is he just trying to make sure he's keeping me in check. Either way, I'll pay him back in blood for this, mark my words.' "And what's the other reason for worrying about him?"

"That it's not that you won't kill him, but that you can't. Apparently, you got your ass handed to you pretty badly the last time you two had to come to blows." He wasn't saying this as a taunt, Cinder would've burned him pretty badly if he had. All the same, he was testing his luck.

"I wasn't able to use any of my real powers in that struggle; I'd have wiped him out in an instant if I had been," she promised. "And it won't matter in the long run; he'll die the same day Beacon falls… they all will." She may have talked a good game, but she was no fool. Now without Hazama constantly weakening the Reaper, she was going to need to change her approach of handling him. "Just focus on your part for making sure that happens."

"Hey, I know what I'm getting compensated for," Torchwick said as Cinder handed him the darts. "My turn?"

"Enjoy," she told him boredly as she walked off, ready to return to the academy after her hideout visit.

Torchwick wasn't about to turn this chance down, not with the trouble Ragna had caused to his plans whether or not it was done by the Reaper on purpose. He had a lot to pay him back for, so landing his first shot directly in the doll's red eye was an amazing catharsis.

'Hold up… didn't I hear somewhere that Cinder got ahold of two of the dolls? What's she doing with the other one then? …And where did I even hear that?' Torchwick knew better than to bring it up to her directly, but decided to keep this knowledge to himself should it ever be valuable to him in the future. Throwing his next dart, he nailed the doll right in the forehead. 'Hmm… maybe I could use these dolls as part of a new smuggling operation and give him his just desserts… Nah, let's just make cheap and crude knockoffs to piss him off indirectly.'

A Few Days Later -Team RAIN's Room-

Ragna was taking a rare moment to himself in his team room, lying atop his bed while he read through a short novel. It wasn't one of the books that Blake had picked for their… experimental readings (all of the other girls had joined in at this point, but she was still the key founder of this group). This was just a little something to help him pass the time reading about some stories that might've been adapted from Remnant's old legends. It was interesting to learn about indirectly… and if his fight with Messiah was anything to go off of, it might just save his life in the future.

"Delivery," he heard Tsubaki say from the other side of the door before she opened it. It was a fairly small package so she could open the way in herself, though Ragna did sit up at her arrival. "Team RWBY seemed insistent that I got this to you ASAP."

"Really? They wanted you to drop it off instead of giving it to me themselves?"

"That's what they said when I brought it up to them," she explained as she handed the package to her partner. "If I had to guess though… maybe they wanted to make sure you had a positive reaction to this surprise before they saw you."

"Oh, like that doesn't fill me with absolute dread after everything I just went through with those damn dolls," he sighed sarcastically. He didn't tell Tsubaki that he wanted to open his present in private, so she watched intently as he tore the top off the box and opened it to reveal… "What the?"

Tsubaki didn't have anything to say at first as she looked inside herself. There were four more dolls, made in the exact same style as the ones she'd already seen. The difference was that none of these were made to resemble Ragna in the slightest; instead each one was made mimic a member of Team RWBY. Noticing a piece of paper inside the box, she took it out and read it aloud since her leader's attention was currently preoccupied.

"We thought it was a little unfair that the rest of us got something cute to keep us company whenever you're not around, so we all pitched in and commissioned these little guys to keep you company. Sure you might not be able to display them proudly and all, but… we really hope you still like them.

Love,
Team RWBY

P.S. Blake said that your remedial Fish Dinner last night was to die for, so good job there."

"It's not a usual gesture by any means, but it's still really sweet of them to do this," Tsubaki tried, wondering how much she'd have to win Ragna over with how silent he was staying. "They look very well crafted."

Ragna still didn't acknowledge her, but he reached inside the box and set each of the plushies at the edge of his bed before sitting on the floor and getting the best view of them that he could, remaining silent for another half minute as he got a better look at them.

"You know what?" he started once he finally found his voice. Tsubaki waited for him to continue before he turned his head to give her a soft smile. "…I kinda get it now."

Author's Note:

Once again, huge thank you to TheArmedwithWings on my YouTube channel. They were responsible for getting this prompt to me when I held a small pseudo contest on my channel, so it literally wouldn't have happened without them.

Now that I'm done binging Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth (by which I mean I beat the game and no longer have to worry about blazing ahead to avoid spoilers from every corner of the internet) I'm back to writing regularly twice a month… though I guess I'm still on schedule with this shorter chapter. Weird.

Not much else to add, but I'll see you guys around. Ciao!

Review Responses

The Unplanner: That's fair, and again there isn't much point to it aside from becoming Chibi sized… which actually carried over to this chapter strangely enough.

Giggukarda Guy: Oh crap, did I really do that for a Stream? …You have a better memory than I do. And hearing just how RWBY chibi happened is… disheartening.

Wlyman2009: I mean it's not getting a ton of attention, but that's more the norm for the extensions story.

pendragonZx: Thank you!

P3R50N4: Yeah, I'm more familiar with that than their actually RWBY chibi appearances myself.