Chapter 26: A Tall Dragon and a Little Devil
«»
Deep within a forest heavily wooded with hundreds upon hundreds of tall, sturdy trees, a Beringel missing its entire lower half used its massive arms to claw itself away from the battlefield of smoldering, black dust, the remains of its brethren filling the morning sky in profuse amounts. It was the only survivor of the very short battle not a few moments ago.
But that was about to change.
The creature froze when it saw its doom slowly walking towards it, the world growing darker with each step she took. It bided its time, hoping it would catch her off guard when readying herself for the final blow. Those moments of arrogance, when a Huntsmen or Huntress has dealt a Grimm a mortal blow, and would finish the creature off, is when they are vulnerable, as any other being would assume when their foe is at their knees.
However, this young girl was far smarter than the creature.
Just as she stood before it, read to kill the beast, it did as expected and swung its massive arm with great speed, sure of itself that it hit the girl. But it felt nothing. The last thing it did feel however was a foot forcing itself down on the back of its head.
And so Ciel crushed the skull of the mighty Beringel as if it were a mere balloon, it's head Simply vanishing under the intensity of her stomp, the ground forming numerous cracks as black blood seeped into the earth, the creature's body soon vanishing immediately after in a cloud of black dust.
Ciel let out a sigh as her scythe, Praenuntius, vanished in a burst of white and black Aura, kicking away the last remains of the slain Beringel as she continue her path through the forest.
"Fifth Beringel today, and this one was dumber than the previous three…"
The young girl had encountered one Beringel and a pack of ten Beowolves within the early morning before the sun rose over the mountain and slew them with ease. Just now, she killed not only one Beringel, but two of them and a pack of twenty Beowolves.
"Well, I am pretty strong…" Ciel stated as she slapped one of her biceps lightly as she flexed.
In terms of raw, physical strength, Ciel was by far stronger than both her brothers, but her precision wasn't as top quality as theirs. However, she did make up with it with her speed, which mixed with her freakish strength, made the young girl a terrifying foe. And this was by natural means as well without usage of her Semblance.
Ciel has suddenly tilted her head to the side with a questioning hum, looking up into the trees. She couldn't entirely spot what caught her interest, but she had an idea where it was. Leaning down, the young girl picked up a baseball sized rock, tossing it up a few times before standing in a pitcher's pose before unleash her fireball throw. The rock cut through the air with blinding speed, phasing through the tree line and soon into the sky as the corpse of a Beowolf fell out from the cover of the tree's massive branch.
"Ha, suck it scrub."
Before Ciel had moved on, she used her toes to flip over the slowly fading corpse of the creature to see her rock had hit its mark; straight through the forehead of the Grimm.
"Dead center beeotch." She said before continuing her way through the forest, "Man, I should play baseball or something. Then again, if I did, I wouldn't be having as much fun as I do with Foxy and my broskis."
She let out a sigh from the thought of her baseball career ending just as soon as it began.
Ciel didn't enjoy baseball too much either way.
She did however enjoy time with her friends and her brothers, but she also enjoyed poking fun at them time to time. Especially Inuba.
Particularly Inuba.
If anything, her venturing alone for the past three days gave her insight.
Traveling alone sucks. More than… Actually, I'm not finishing that thought.
Shrugging her shoulders, she stopped in front of something that caught her interest. It looked like a symbol of sorts resembling…
"A lizard? Oh, I know! A Gecko! No no, wait, a chameleon! No no no, wait… A dragon! Definitely a Dragon!"
Though Ciel knew not what the symbol stood for, she ventured a guess that she might have been walking into the quote unquote den of the dragon, especially since the inner part of the forest further in was blanketed in a thick fog.
"Yup. Totally nothing nefarious in there."
Was she planning to go on further ahead?
"I'm gonna dive in there with no idea of what might be in there."
She was.
With no concept of danger in mind, Ciel skipped ahead into the thick fog deeper within, humming a tune to herself as she entered into a narrow pathway of ruins. A few moments in, she stopped, as if remembering something, that something being wise words her older brother Dante once spoke.
"You may be immortal, but you can't just recklessly run about into traps and the like as you please. You'd be surprised what can still affect you. And especially don't charge in recklessly when you have a team with you."
But she was going solo at the moment, so she could afford to move about recklessly.
"Ugh… For as smart and cool big brother is, he's still a bit of pain in the ass when it comes to all these 'lessons' and 'rules' and the like. Then again...he's taking his role as a big brother seriously. Like über seriously. Can't really blame him." She spoke with a smile on her face, "He does care way too much."
The young girl stopped as soon as she heard a clicking mechanism shift underneath her feet, and looked down to see her foot sinking slightly into the ground with a tile.
She saw all of the Montana Jones films way too many times to not know what was going to happen next.
"Crap…"
Looking ahead of her, she could see a whole row of ten spears emerge from the floor of the narrow forest pathway every point two five seconds, quickly making its way to her.
"Oh, that isn't so bad."
Then ten spears emerged from the left side wall and the ceiling of the narrow ruins in unison with the ground spears.
"I really need to shut my stupid mouth."
The wall of spears approached her quickly, leaving only a small space of escape towards the bottom right. Directly behind that wall, another wall of spears emerged almost immediately, only the arrangement was different, being that there was only escape through the gap on the top left side.
It didn't take all too long for Ciel to notice the patterns in the arrangement. But she didn't have time to ponder. She had to move.
And she did, for she slid under the bottom right corner before twirling herself left and jumping through the open gap up top, sliding under another gap before continuously twirling herself left and under the bottom right gap. This process of graceful dodging continued for another minute, until finally she leapt through a top right gap, bounced off the wall before the spears emerging from it got her, and landed at the end of the hall of spears feet first, hands raised in the air triumphantly.
"Perfect ten! Oh yeah!" She screamed taking different poses as she comically flexed, "Alright, that's enough of that. Still though, I'm glad I took that gymnastics class. At least that was the one good thing that came out of…"
She closed her eyes briefly before opening them again, remembering the promise she made to herself.
"Seriously. I wish I can just get a memory scrub like big brother did. Only, I'd want to forget 'that place' rather than pretty much all my life."
Instead of pondering on the past, the young girl moved on ahead, holding her hands behind her head as she looked around the ruins, waiting to see if something else would pop out to target her. To her surprise, nothing did.
But when taking a few steps forward, she immediately stopped before her foot touched another tile, prompting her to say "Aha!" before taking a step back. Only, this was a trick, for when Ciel stepped back, her foot sank into the floor slightly.
"Oh what the hell?! Now that's just horse hock!"
Focusing her attention to the front, the whole floor glowed and hummed with light blue energy between each of the tiles, symbols of the exact same glow color appearing on the face of the tiles. Her mathematical skills weren't on par with her brothers, but IF she calculated correctly, there was about fifty feet to cross from her side of the wide, enclosed room to the other side.
But what did crossing to the other side entail? What extremely convoluted and complex method did she need to perform to get to the other side?
When she looked, she saw a similar set of symbols lined up perfectly together, as if they had an order to them. Maybe she had to step on the tiles shown up there in order? She quickly opened up her holographic display by clapping both hands together and spreading them out, then tapped her HoloScroll's camera app to open it up and take a picture of the order of symbols.
With that, Ciel left her display in front of her as a guide of sorts as she made the first step onto one of the tiles. Given that nothing happened, she had to assume she stepped on the right one. To make it a bit more interesting, Ciel didn't just step on the tiles in order. She danced across them fluidly, sliding left and right, twirling forwards and backwards, even finding time to throw in a somersault before finishing it up by hand standing and spinning herself around onto the next few tiles.
She was actually glad she wore short-shorts today. That, and she was lucky she made it through unscathed, and without making any of the tiles fall.
Being perfect was hard work.
But that was a lie, she was nowhere near perfect. She was in many ways flawed and imperfect, but the secret to it all was how well she hid it. Ciel knew this was true of her brothers too, they hid their flaws very well. Especially her big brother. Even if the three of them were flawed in many ways, that never stopped them from moving forward.
Whatever stood in the path leading to a desire or want of theirs, they crushed the opposition completely within the palm of their hands.
Though, if she thought about it, Ciel didn't really have a want or desire at the moment, nothing to achieve, nothing to gain. Well, maybe a few things here and there to gain, but those were all small things at best. For now, she was simply going to follow behind her big brother as best she could.
Speaking of following, she had continued onwards through the ruins at a constant pace, running into nothing strangely enough.
"Maybe they ran out of traps?"
Just as she said that, she felt the ground rumble and quake, dust loosening itself from the walls and ceiling. When Ciel turned around, she saw in the distance something very Montana Jones like.
"A freaking boulder?! Are you kidding me right now?!" She shouted as she took off into a sprint down the corridor.
She moved out of the way of things obviously made for the intention of tripping up a runner; walls, barricades, outcrops of stone, etc. But the young girl leapt over or dodge everything in front of her, even sliding down under a low beam of stone. But as Ciel ran, she couldn't but realize something simple.
"Wait, why I am even running?"
With a quick shift to the side of her feet, Ciel slid to a halt and turned around waiting for the boulder to make its way towards her, eventually spotting the huge chunk of spherical stone rolling its way towards her after rounding a corner.
Without any sign of hesitation, the girl raised up her right hand and turned it around so her palm faced the air, brought her center finger and thumb together, and waited for the boulder to get closer.
As soon as it was within arms reach, Ciel extended her hand further and flicked the huge chunk of stone, all while saying "Boop!". When her center finger made contact, the boulder had virtually been shattered into thousands of pieces within and instant, all of those pieces rushing past Ciel as they clattered loudly on the stone floor.
Dusting herself off, the young girl raised her hands up into the sky and grabbed hold of her fingers, stretching herself out as she let out a satisfied sigh of relief.
"Well, just like that boulder, I guess I better...roll out!"
No one was present besides her, which was something she only remembered after making the terrible pun.
"Right."
Fortunately, she wasn't going to begin signing a song describing how "all by herself" she was.
After blowing past two large stone doors, Ciel found herself outside in the forest, this time with light peeking through the tree lines. And for once in a long while, she could hear different sources of wildlife, mainly birds and the like. To be honest, this area looked to be more of a jungle of sorts rather than a forest. All that she knew now was that she could see the tower in the distance, and she was virtually three fourths of the way there now.
"Maybe I'll win the bet with Leo after all…" she silently said to herself as she looked off into the distance.
No matter how far away she was, she could feel something…off about the tower she was heading to. Whenever she looked to it, she could feel this strong sense of unease from it, like something Dark and sinister lay within, waiting to come forth.
It could be something really is bad about these towers… Even so, Ciel knew she had what it took to destroy the tower. Now it was just a matter of-
Ropes soon found themselves bound around Ciel's arms, wrapping her up entirely from under her bust all the way to her waist. Whoever had done this must have been really into bondage play if they were this skilled in tying people up so quickly.
"Yes! We got the the intruder!"
What the actual fu-?
Ciel immediately discarded that her current though when she looked around her and gasped in surprise. She was completely surrounded…by the cutest, smallest children in the entire world! They had to all be Faunus given their appendages, but that didn't change their cuteness in the slightest, it only served to maximize it in fact. They weren't exactly wearing rags, but their clothing seemed to have an ancient, rustic feel to it, almost the way Inuba dressed but...seemingly of older fashion.
There was something else she noticed. Their Faunus appendages were reptilian-like, tails and horns and such, but they seemed more draconic, particularly the tails and their different variations for those who had them.
A group of five children wasn't a threat, at least physically. But mentally, their cuteness could kill.
"If we take her back to the boss and show her we captured and outsider, she's bound to be impressed!"
"Yeah! And she might even start training us early too!"
Training as a prize for capturing an outsider? That wasn't something that sounded all too bad for a reward.
"You guys are that bored that you'd willingly take a captive and turn them in just so you can get a head start on training? Man you guys must have almost nothing to do wherever you're from."
"Quiet prisoner!"
"Woah, easy there little guy. I'm just passing through is all. If you let me go, I'll just be on my way and stuff."
"No way! Outsiders who enter within our territory have to be taken captive and brought to the village leader to have their fate decided! Just so you know, it usually never ends well."
"Uh-huh… Say, what kind of Faunus are you little guys?"
"D-Dragon Faunus…" the only girl of the group meekly spoke.
"Woah! I've never seen Dragon Faunus before!"
"F-Flattery will get you nowhere, human!"
"Oh, I'm not human little ones." Spoke Ciel as she smiled at them.
"You can't fool us outsider!"
"My name's Ciel."
"Doesn't matter what your name is! You're coming with us and that's final!"
Ciel let out a small chuckle at the Dragon Faunus children before saying "See kids, I'm actually a devil of sorts." She said as she elicited the exact reactions she was expecting, "So if you don't let me go, I'll use my magic to play a trick on you."
They all seemed intimidated now, just about ready to let go of their ropes.
"Y-You're lying!" One of the boy's mustered up enough courage to say.
"Nope. One hundred percent true." Ciel spoke as she was now next to the boy in a squat, smiling at him with her trademark grin.
They all jumped away from her, seeing that she was now free of her bindings and very sure that the young girl was about to gobble them up. And that was when they all took off running. Well, at least three of them did. Two of them, one boy and the girl from before were left behind. The boy stood at the front of the girl, most likely in the event to protect her from Ciel.
Though, the only thing they had to worry about was a power hug from Ciel.
She reached out her hands to the two, who closed their eyes and expected the end to come for them. Though, no such thing came about. Instead, Ciel gently patted the top of their heads, giggling in some form of a blissful state.
"Y-You aren't going to eat us..?" Asked the little girl as Ciel continued patting the girl's head between the small horns on her head.
"What?! No! I may be a devil, but I'm a peace loving one that likes protecting people. Especially cute little ones like you two!" She replied, her head rubbing growing more intense until she stopped moments later, "That and I don't eat people. I do like cookies and cream ice cream though."
"Ice cream..?" They both questioned.
"You don't know what ice cream is?!" Ciel questioned in shock as she quickly stood back up.
"We don't go outside of the village at all, so we don't know much about the outside world other than a lot of humans and Faunus are fighting a lot now a days."
"Closed off from the rest of the world huh..? Can't say if you're the lucky ones or not…"
The outside world was potentially a cruel and terrible place. But it was also full of so many other wonderful things as well. To be cut off from it all… How secluded was this village..?
"This isn't good Kana… If we go back and the leaders see's we didn't bring the outsider back, we're going to get in trouble!"
"But… Ms. Ciel isn't a bad person at all Haru…"
"She could be lying for all we now and might turn around and eat us if we let her go!"
"You could be right. That IS a possibility. But I guess you just have to take it on faith that I won't do anything. In fact…"
Ciel found the rope she escaped from and rebound herself with it, offering the rope to the two that stared at her in confusion.
"You guys can take me back so we can clear things up. That way I can go on with my quote unquote mission, and you guys won't get in trouble. Fair?"
They looked at each other for a few moments before giving each other silent nods, leading Ciel with the rope around her hands this time back to their village.
"Don't try anything funny, you hear?!" The young Dragon Faunus boy Haru spoke.
"Nothing to worry about me from."
"Um… Ms. Ciel..?" The young Dragon Faunus girl Kana meekly Asked.
"Hmmm?"
"What exactly is ice cream?"
"Heh… Only the best thing in the whole world world. Well, second best since first at the top is se… Yeah, not gonna say anymore. Just know it's totally the most awesomest thing you'll ever eat in your life."
"There's more like you?!" Haru with shock in his tone.
"Yup! A whole legion of immortals who can kick anyone's butt!"
The two young children looked back at Ciel, questioning the authenticity of her statement.
"Okay, so maybe not like hundreds of us, more like four, but that doesn't change the fact we can still totally kick anyone's butt! Especially my big brother!"
"Your big brother?" Asked Kana.
"Yup! He's so cool and tough, not even God wants to mess with him!"
"Woah~!" The two children hummed in unison, not seeing Ciel's nostrils flaring with pride for a few moments.
"Where is your big brother though?"
"We split up for a while. He went to go regroup with a few friends, and me, my other brother, and a friend were tasked with going to the towers in this region. I was going towards that one further ahead until you guys 'captured' me." Ciel answered Haru.
"You probably shouldn't go there…"
"Why not?"
"The machine people coming out of there are really mean…" Kana said.
"Machine people..?"
Androids..? Why would they be this far out from Atlas?
"Yeah… They killed one of our friends' dad a few days ago…"
"That so… Sorry to hear that. But if anything, that should be all the more reason for me to hurry up and destroy the tower. That way things like the machine people can't your friends' family. Or even you two."
"You have to be really strong if you're saying things like that, outsider."
"You should call her ms. Ciel too Haru. It's more polite that way."
"Nah, it's cool. Technically I am an outsider, so it's alright."
Moments later, Ciel found herself gazing upon a massive wooden gate with stone double doors, each door containing the etching of a dragon breathing fire. From what else Ciel could see, she saw what seemed to be wooden houses and structures in the trees, numerous winding stairs of wood and rope bridges criss crossing the whole system of trees within the small village.
It definitely gave off that sense of a secluded village hidden away from it all.
The stone doors ahead of them were suddenly pushed open as a few adult-like Dragon Faunus poured out from within, spears and swords at the ready.
"Kana, Haru! Get away from her!"
"W-Wait! Ms. Ciel-!"
"If what the other children said was true, then she has to be a devil like she claimed to be!"
"Move aside!"
"No!"
"What is all this racket for?!"
All other voices were silenced by the woman who was passing through them, eventually making her way to the front of them all.
Ciel was breathtaken by what she saw.
This woman had lightly tanned skin, and long, pale blonde messy hair that reached all the way down to her waist with a few strands of her hair messy hair resting in between her eyes. She had shining violet eyes, and black slit pupils, like that of a serpent. From what else Ciel noticed, she stood at 5'10, six inches taller than she was, and had a deliciously toned body.
Her choice of clothing was similar to Inuba's in a way, where she wore white tabi socks and black zōri sandals, while wearing a black, split-hakama and a white kosode similar to Inuba's kimono where it ended at the waist, only with a few differences. For one, this new persons kosode was only half a kosode, where only her entire left side was covered by the robe-like garment and was tied with a black cloth obi. Her entire right side was exposed, but thankfully, she also wore a budget sarashi, which was a long, winding strip of cloth, very likely made of thick cotton, that was wrapped tightly around her bust, starting from just above above her bust and wrapping around all the way to the center of her rather ample bosom.
She had to be Inuba's size, or larger…
Ciel stopped herself for a moment, realizing it wasn't the time to fantasize.
Even with the budget sarashi, it still didn't cover enough of her chest, and in fact exposed it more, both below and above.
What Ciel assumed to be her weapons was a katana that was tucked away in her obi on the left side, paired with a wakizashi. Her katana's hilt had white hilt-wrapping, whereas the butt of the weapon had been covered with a silver colored metal cap. The guard was silver colored and rectangular in shape with an open frame much like a four-pane window. The blade length had to be at least three feet long. To top it all off, it was sheathed in a black wooden sheath. The wakizashi she possessed retained the same appearance as her katana, only the blade length was one foot long.
Looking back to her face, Ciel had almost forgotten one little extra thing. She had two obsidian colored, smooth, long horns at least a foot long on the sides of her head that curved inwards towards her head before curving outwards slightly.
Overall, Ciel could think of only two words at the moment.
Perfection incarnate.
"Haru, Kana," she spoke in a very slight, deep voice as she crossed her arms, "What is the meaning of this?"
"W-Well leader… The truth is… Um…"
Haru didn't know what to say anything further in fear of upsetting this new arrival, who was apparently the leader of this village. Though strangely enough, when Kana spoke to her, she had almost no hesitation in her voice.
"We found ms. Ciel in the jungle entrance near one of the booby-trapped ruins, big sister…"
…
Big sister?!
Now that Ciel looked more closely, she could see the resemblance between them by hair color, horn color, eye color, and skin tone.
"What did I tell you and the other little ones about going near the trap entrances?" She spoke with a hint of harshness in her tone.
"I'm… I'm sorry… We just wanted to do something good so that you might start training us early…"
This little one was too much for Ciel to handle. She just wanted to hug the little dragon girl and never let go of her.
The older girl let out a sigh before approaching the little dragon girl, who was expecting some sort of punishment given how she closed her eyes, expecting to be punished. But no such thing. Instead, the older gel patted her little sister on her head.
"It's good that you and the others are eager to begin training yourselves to become powerful and honorable warriors. But this isn't just something that is done on a whim. Please, be patient. You and the others' time will come soon enough."
"Okay…"
The unknown girl let out a brief chuckle before looking to Ciel, seeing that she was doing some sort of shuffle dance while she was waiting.
"And who might you be girl that was willingly caught by my younger sister?"
"Me? Ah, I'm nobody special. Just a passerby who's trying to move past here is all." Ciel replied honestly.
"So you were the one who bypassed all the traps, even crushing the boulder trap?" Asked the girl skeptically as everyone behind her, even the small children in front of her gasped in shock.
"If you were the guys that set up those traps, sorry to say that I did. And that I broke your big rock. Sorry about that too."
"She really is a devil woman…"
The murmuring of the crowd wasn't entirely false. Though, Ciel couldn't help but think they were thinking of her in the wrong way.
The girl raised her hand in the air to silence everyone else before eyeing Ciel once again.
"Outsiders who pass through the ruins normally do not pass through alive. Much less unscathed as you did. Which means...you must be fairly strong…"
"Mmmmmmm… Yeah, I'd say I'm pretty strong. But there's someone way stronger than I am."
"She said it was her big brother." Kana replied.
"I see… Very well then, Ciel, your wish is to pass through here, yes?"
"Yeah, pretty much."
Though, she wouldn't object to staying for a little while to get to know this new girl a good bit.
"If you wish to gain admittance, then you must earn the right to pass through me."
A few of the villagers behind the girl smirked, but Kana and Haru were the only ones to show some concern.
"Eh… Don't wanna." Said Ciel, much to everyone's surprise.
"S-State your reason!"
The dragon girl seemed almost disappointed with her decision, but for Ciel, her reason was good enough for herself.
"Meh, I'm not really in a fighting mood today. That and...w-well… I don't really want to fight someone as beautiful as you…"
The dragon girl seemed shocked, and her face seemingly reddened for a few brief moments until she cleared her throat.
"I'm afraid leaving without a fight is out of the question. The fact you made it through the traps proves you have enough skill and strength to fight me. I won't allow you to leave unchallenged!" She spoke drawing her sword, "My name is Musashi Ryūjinhonō! Remember my name well, so called Devil!"
…
It seemed as though Ciel would not be leaving here without putting up some sort of fight. She was never one for unnecessary fighting unless she was angry, but she was going to have to make an exception for once. That, and using her Semblance to escape like she originally planned to would be cheating. And Ciel never really enjoyed cheating either unless in a situation where it was necessary.
Either way, it was time she got a bit serious. But not too serious. She'd destroy the village on accident if she did.
"Alright then. If that's what you want then. But when I win, I'm staying the night to recharge my batteries. Deal? No deal? Seal?"
"IF you when, then yes, I'll allow you temporary stay at our village."
WHEN she won, Ciel was going to have to figure out what exactly she was going to do if she were to stay for the day. That and what their means of taking a bath was.
"Alright then. If that's the way it's gotta be."
The young girl spread arms apart, easily breaking the rope bonds that tied her hands as she stretched herself out a bit.
"Hold nothing back against me. And do not cease fighting until I no longer stand!" Musashi instructed, "If you are a devil as you and the others claim to be, then you will show me no mercy!"
No mercy… That was a bit hard to pull off when intentionally trying to hold back. But she did insist…
"Now then...begin!"
Before Musashi even had time to fully finish "begin!" Ciel was already immediately in front of the Dragon Faunus. Musashi's eyes widened in surprise, prompting her to take a horizontal slash outwards with her katana, only to completely miss as Ciel blurred out of sight once again, reappearing behind her "opponent".
Musashi was unable to fully express everything she felt in the next few moments. But there was one thing running through her at the moment, and it was fear, fear so intense and overwhelming she could do nothing but watch as Ciel's fist came closer and closer to her face.
Death was approaching.
But before any contact was made, Ciel had stopped her fist a few centimeters from Musashi's face, a strong gust of wind passing through the area that forced everyone to cover their eyes and cower away from the sheer force that blew past them all and throughout the entire village.
The huge gust of wind died down as Musashi stared blankly at Ciel and her fist, unable to so much as speak as she stood there in awe, realizing her entire person was still intact and untouched. The only difference was her hair now as it was blown backwards from the intense force.
Ciel skipped upwards a bit to reposition herself to stand normally as she smiled and lightly tapped Musashi's forehead with the back of her hand, bringing the Dragon Faunus back to reality.
"So, when's dinner time?"
(Omake: The Secret to being Big, by me)
"Do you have any other siblings ms. Ciel?" Asked Kana as she looked back to the still rope bound Ciel.
"Nah, just my two brothers as far as I know." Replied the young girl as she continued walking through the jungle with Haru and Kana, "What about you guys? Any siblings yourselves?"
"Two little sisters." Haru quickly replied.
"I only have my big sister. She's really pretty… Though, I'm really sure a lot of the boys have been staring at her chest often."
Kana's reply was enough to make Haru jolt upwards a bit, and Ciel Lean in with interest and a smirk on her face.
"Oh? How big is her chest? Tell me, tell me!"
The little Dragon Faunus girl thought about it for a few moments before pointing to Ciel's head for accurate size representation, making the immortal girl let out a surprised and cheerful laugh.
"I definitely need to meet your sister now! Say Kana, wanna know how you can be as big as your older sister?"
"Really?! You'll tell me?!"
"Sure sure…" Ciel said leaning in to whisper in the young girl's ear, "See, I have this friend of mine who's a fox that has a chest as big, and she told me the secret her mom and sister told her. But really, I mean they are just perfect with perkiness, springiness, size, and-"
"I-I'm still here you know!" Haru shouted.
"Yeah? So?" Ciel said with a smirk on her face.
"J-Just be quiet..!"
"Oh well, guess I can't tell you then Kana."
Clearly Ciel could see the young Dragon Faunus girl was annoyed with her friend, given the cute pout and growl she gave him that focused his attention forwards.
"Ah… Children are just too damn adorable…" Ciel spoke silently to herself as she continued following behind them as their prisoner.
(Weapons Illustrated 11)
"What did you dress up as for Halloween?" Asked Dante.
"I was Countess Rubula! Unseen nightmarish blood sucker of the night!" She said cloaking herself entirely with her cape, "Bwahahahaha!"
"You did it because it had the cape, didn't you?"
"W-What?! No! Well what about you?"
"I just used my Shadow Skin. No big deal."
"Ha! You were just as lazy as I was about the costume!"
"Yes and no. Besides, Shadow Skin just screams scary."
"I guess…" Ruby said with a pout.
"Alright Countess Rubula, why don't you start us off on this week's weapon to be talked about?"
"Oooo! I definitely have one then! Hi everyone, and welcome to Huntsmen and Huntresses Illustrated Weapons Guide! Where we the hosts tell you almost everything that's currently known about a person's weapon! Let's get started!"
A monitor flashed to life behind Ruby as she began to speak once again.
"Today we'll be talking about my sister's weapon, Ember Celica!"
"So then, Ember Celica is Yang's Xiao signature weapons, where they're a pair of Dual Ranged Shot Gauntlets,DRSG's for short. They look like weird bracelets at first, but when activated, they cover Yang's hands and forearms, acting as arm guards of sorts. The gauntlets also have red shells in them, which Ruby will tell you about."
"Right! Inside the gauntlets are chambers that holster a magazine consisting of 12 shells, giving 24 shots in total when both gauntlets are fully loaded. A silver-ish gray barrel is concealed in the front of the gauntlet, aligned between Yang's knuckles of her index and middle finger. The gauntlets' offensive function is rooted in creating pulses of raw kinetic energy, where they emit flashes of light resembling explosions, or flames, and are capable of knocking enemies back great distances. However, they the projectiles only explode in contact with another surface. You know, an enemy, or a lamppost that got in her way…"
"Given from what I've seen and felt personally, the red shells do explode on contact, especially since she's knocked me back forcefully a few times using those gauntlets. I think they lack the ability of making exit or entry wounds that would be characteristic of being shot with a gun, but then again, when looking at past occurrences besides my own, could be that Aura blocked it all. Then again, I never use Aura shielding…"
"In any case, they are really really powerful, since a single punch from Yang knocked an entire dance floor outwards in a wave-like movement as if she hit people with a wave of the ocean, knocking multiple people off their feet with ease! In a way, just like how I use Crescent Rose, Yang uses Ember Celica for both attack and mobility, punching enemies and firing shots at them or using the recoil from the explosions to propel her great distances or out of harm's way!" Ruby explained eagerly.
"The short of it is that it's quick, power, deadly, and compact. And it works especially well with her Semblance, which Ciel and Leo will cover next time."
"I can't wait!" Ruby said jumping with joy.
"So with that, tune in next week folks. Until next time."
Ruby pounded on Dante from behind, wrapping her arms around his neck as she piggybacked him along with a little something extra.
"Are you...biting me?" Dante asked confused as he walked off the stage.
"The Countess needs no permission to suck the blood of the living!" Ruby spoke in a muffled voice as she playfully nibbled on his shoulder.
"You do realize Halloween's been over since last week, right?"
"Time is not a concept the Countess recognizes!"
"Alright then Countess, I'll be acting juice box for now until Thanksgiving."
"Awwww!" She said with muffled disappointment.
"You can't just keep drinking my blood forever. It'd make you sick. It's like drinking soda or alcohol way too much than you should. It's just unhealthy."
"Alright…"
"Cool. Now, let's get back to it. We've got a Dragon and a crazy Scorpion to fight, remember?"
"We'll kick their butts!" Ruby said triumphantly raising a fist in the air.
Nothing much to say except that I've been sick.
So with that...
I highly recommend you all go check out the freaking amazing story XSRA's Flame written by Xera Stark. His story overall is absolutely fantastic and is a must read, so I suggest you seriously read it. You won't want to miss out on this story.
Not only that, but check out his other awesome and highly entertaining story Rogue Huntsmen as I mentioned above. It's just pure awesomeness bundled into one story. Trust me, you'll love it pretty much immediately. And hey! Go check out HydraFLow's story Lost in Binary! It's equally as awesome and entertaining, and more than definitely worth spending the time reading and enjoying!
Questions? Ask them anytime. I will try to answer without spoiling.
Please remember to review, follow and favorite this story if you really enjoyed it and want to continue seeing more of it. And hey, even tell others about this story! Remember that your support is what helps make this story grow even larger and what helps improve it. With that, I bid you all an excellent week/weekend!
Bye-bye now!