Disclaimer: See First Chapter

Prototype


It was one of the rare days off that Ruby held in relatively high value. An entire day in which she could choose to do whatever it was she wanted. An entire day of playing video games, or on the phone with the SDC trying to buy more dust, or doing some homework because her dad wouldn't let her mind rot even if she worked as a weaponsmith professionally...

Did she just have a high work ethic, or was something just seriously wrong with her? Ruby wasn't sure which, but she knew it had to be something like that.

Considering she was now in the back of a classroom in Beacon paying attention to Professor Port's lecture who had somehow not noticed the underaged weaponsmith at the back of the room, Ruby admitted it was probably something wrong with her.

She hadn't actually intended to be in the class. She'd actually just wanted to visit Yang and the rest of team PABY, but somehow she'd gotten lost in the rest of Beacon, probably because it wasn't as if she could just ask someone where they were, and had followed the rest of some people that she recognized to this room.

Where they had all filed in. Like lemmings, and promptly sat down in some random chairs.

Port's lecture was something else, too. It was a grandiose tale of how to fight an ursa and a mammoth at the same time. Ruby recognized it from one of Qrow's old stories, from when team STRQ was a thing, although Port's story had him as the main character rather than the person it actually happened to, Raven.

Probably a good thing because according to Qrow, Raven had been pissed about that particular incident for months afterwards. Which naturally led Qrow to bring it up as much as he could. Qrow had left that part out, but Ruby knew he had. Brothers were just as annoying as sisters, and Ruby knew that she wouldn't let Yang live that kind of thing down.

Port seemed to be finishing up, "And by shoving the ursa's head into the mammoth, I made them both fall down the cliff, defeating them both without firing a shot!" He grinned, as if expecting applause.

Raven hadn't shoved the ursa's head into the mammoth's head, and the only reason she hadn't fired a shot was because her sword had been cleaved in half by a lucky shot from the ursa.

Port's face fell as no one applauded, and Ruby could see the exact moment when his eyes fell on Ruby. Instead of frowning and turning her in though, he got a mysterious twinkle in them. "Ah, someone new! Well, I was going to save this for the second years, but I think it's always helpful to see how much better than most some others are? In that case, how about you come down here and show how to defeat this ursa?" he said jovially.

Ruby blinked, before she pointed to herself. "Yes, you in the red cloak!" Port answered happily. "Please come down here and see what you make of him!" he continued, pointing to a large cage that Ruby could tell contained the Grimm.

Ruby slowly walked down, expecting to hear the dozens of comments of what she was doing there. She could see Jaune in the corner...asleep? Actually more than half the class was asleep. Pyrrha was awake, albeit barely and it seemed more as if she was sleeping sitting straight. There were only a few others that were awake too.

"Um...before you say anything-" Ruby started.

Port interrupted, "Who am I to spoil a fair lass' learning? I am well aware of who you are, Ruby Rose. Ozpin told us quite well to be on the lookout for you. So no, I'm not going to tell, and as you can see, most of them won't tell either!" Port grinned as he looked around to his class.

"So...you know they're asleep?"

"Oh yes. There's more than one reason for that! But for now, please, enjoy the hunt!" Port said, lifting off the white sheet. The ursa, a Grimm in the shape of a large bear with claws nearly larger than her hand, roared at her. Despite that, no one still woke up. The teacher grinned again, as if there was any other expression for his jovial face, as he let the gates crash down. The ursa immediately roared at her before charging. Ruby pulled out Crescent Rose, sending herself flying backwards.

This was a good opportunity for a field test, wasn't it? Controlled conditions, a teacher watching over her...she'd killed beowolves by the dozen before, and it wasn't like Qrow hadn't taken her out to kill Grimm before either. This was no stranger to her.

She reached for her back, pulling out her test. She hadn't quite gotten to test it yet, but it was something she needed to do before she wanted to market it. A kind of better grade of ammunition, using less dust and more regular explosions.

It didn't help that it was a powder form, too, and though it was extremely volatile, she had no doubt that eventually it could take things off.

She leveled the small box, and watched it expand all the way to its full rifle form. The ursa watched her warily as she took aim. It was just like Crescent Rose's scope, which was good. Just like planned. She pulled the trigger.

The recoil on the thing hit her aura hard, far more than a dust shot would have. On the other hand, the effects were unbelievable. The ursa's head had been taken clean off, practically blown up, and black dust was in its place as it slowly evaporated.

"Oh my! What was that, Ms. Rose?" Port asked.

"Experimental prototype," Ruby admitted. "I didn't think it would have that big of an effect on a Grimm though. It wasn't that big either, only .38's."

"How much dust did you use in that thing!?"

"That's the trick," Ruby smirked, "None." Port nodded his head.

"I see! Well keep working on it. And tell me when you've perfected it, because I want ammunition like that!" Port boomed. He turned to the class, "And for those of you that are awake, no homework! For those of you that aren't, page 312 on the book. All five questions!" he boomed.

Ruby raced out of the class as people started to stir, their sleepy minds being reminded that they have homework now. Small petals flowed out from her as she went around the corner, not expecting anyone to recognize her.

"Ruby? I thought that was you," Pyrrha said as the red-haired champion made her way to her. "What are you doing here, especially on the school day?"

"Oh, I uh...wanted to see Beacon! And I forgot that it was a school day so I just kind of followed everyone and then they all led me to the class and before I knew it class had started and wow Port really is as boring as Yang says I never thought anyone could be like th-"

"I get it, Ruby," Pyrrha giggled. "You don't have to justify it to me. Come on, do you want to see the dorms? Yang and Blake should be there soon. Depending on when combat class gets out today," she said.

"Don't you all have other classes to do?" Ruby asked. "I mean that's how it was at Signal. Multiple classes in one day, so all topics are taught, but I really only liked weaponsmithing and basic training..."

"Beacon is less of a major school and more of a university. We each are taking the same classes, yes, but it's rare that all of those classes are the same ones," Pyrrha explained. "Yang and Blake all have Grimm studies in about two hours though. Long enough for Port to go back into the forest and find another ursa. I unfortunately have a leadership class at the same time, otherwise I'd be taking their course."

"People are separated out? I thought you all were supposed to be teams and did everything together!" Ruby said. Pyrrha gave a quiet giggle. Ruby knew she was technically wrong on that, as even when Yang was in one of her 'we're sisters we need to do everything together!' phases that didn't mean talking to people, taking a shower, being at home...okay, so maybe her interpretation of 'everything together' was a bit wrong.

"Mostly just the leaders. We're supposed to have more responsibility," Pyrrha grimaced, before her face turned back to a neutral smile.

Ruby caught it, but she wasn't sure what that meant. Did that mean that Pyrrha didn't like being a leader? "How's Jaune doing with Mors? He hasn't come by for a bit," Ruby asked.

Pyrrha nodded, "He's getting the hang of it. Blake and I are having trouble getting him to actually fire the gun part, but he should be getting better. I hope."

"If he wants he should come down. I can probably show him a trick or two!"

"He might like that," Pyrrha said, a slight scowl on her face that went away just as quick as Ruby saw it. She turned off to the side and through a small kitchen and living room area. "This is the kitchen for our dorms. All of the first years share this kitchen, and the other floors have theirs."

"I thought you had a cafeteria."

"We do! This is just for cooking outside meals, or if you get hungry late at night," Pyrrha said. "I've seen Blake out here more than once at midnight or two grabbing a tuna sandwich."

Ruby gave a hesitant chuckle. Was that because Blake was a faunus, or was that just because she was weird? "She does like tuna a lot, doesn't she?" Ruby said quietly.

"It's one of her favorites, apparently. The other is salmon," Pyrrha answered, as if nothing was wrong. Ruby blinked. Did...they not know? Come on, it was Pyrrha Nikos, she had to have known. It wasn't that hard, Blake used a freaking Menagerie weapon! Only people from Menagerie used those! Like ever! In the history of ever!

A good chunk of that though was because most people refused to use Menagerie style weapons, so maybe Ruby thought she was just overthinking things.

It was kind of obvious, though, in hindsight.

The room was fairly small, Ruby noted. Four beds side by side, although Ruby couldn't help but notice that one of them was much closer to the other bed than on the other side. There were only two desks. One side bed had a large amount of books next to it, probably Blake's. The one next to hers, a reasonable amount next to it, was probably Yang's by the poster on the wall. She remembered seeing it back on Patch.

The other side bed was fairly sparse. It had a few comics on the side, similar to how Blake had her books, and was slightly messy but still well made. Probably Jaune's. The one next to his was almost right next to his; almost immaculate looking and bare looking. It looked like it had room for stuff, but its owner, probably Pyrrha, had changed their mind on what they should put there.

"I know it's not much, but-"

"This is fantastic!" Ruby screamed as she darted around, flower petals filling the air. She made sure to bounce on everyone's bed at least once or twice, making sure to properly step on Yang's, as she flew through the room. It wasn't just what she imagined, but it was near perfect! There was a window, half open to let in a small breeze, and Ruby stood at it to stare out over the courtyard.

Two more years, Ruby told herself. Two more years and this is where she'd be. She could do this, she said. Just two...more...years...


Arcade


Ruby cautiously closed the door behind her, Crescent Rose hanging longingly on the back shelf of the shop. This was...she shuddered at how to think of it. She only had a few days off during the month, and here was the second one in a row…

And of course she had to spend it shopping. Shopping! The bane of all people everywhere! But no, her Dad and Uncle Qrow had both said she needed to buy some new clothes because her older ones were...well, falling apart was putting it lightly. And they were, at the least, falling apart.

That might've been because she had been training in them, and trying out new weapon and weapon designs while in decent clothes was probably a bad thing, but how was she to know!? It's not like she was psychic about these things!

But that all meant that she had to to go shopping on her own.

She had plenty of money. There was no shortage of that right now, and even if the shop didn't sell anything for a while she'd still be set for the next three months. And she'd even been paying herself a stipend for upkeep! Granted, it wasn't nearly as much as she would pay an actual employee, but considering she could just put everything as an expense to the shop, she wasn't in need of much.

She idly wished that Yang was here to help her with this. But no, they'd gotten in trouble somehow during one of their field trips and so they all had detention. Ruby wasn't sure why they all had detention at the same time, wasn't the problem that they were together!? There was apparently another team with them but again, the problem was that they were together.

Not together together, apparently, as Yang had told her they said a lot, but together. Ruby tried to wrap her mind around it, found it erroring, and then promptly scrapped that line of thought.

The first shop she had to go to was "Erin's Clothes Boutique", according to Uncle Qrow who was out on a mission or something and told her that this was where she needed to go first. Ruby took a few looks in, realized that they were all for...older or more developed persons, and promptly took out her scroll with a reminder to kick Qrow's butt next time they trained together.

The second shop was just down the street, and that was more her alley. A simple outside, with a "Robin's Combat" sign hanging from the top. Combat boots, combat skirts, a few pajamas that were easy and quick to get out of should she awaken in the middle of a mission...perfect!

A deer faunus gleefully smiled at her as soon as she walked in. "Hello, welcome to Robin's Combat Clothes! Feel free to look around, or if you're looking for something a bit more special, let me know!" she said with a smile. Ruby smiled back, already trying to make herself look as small as possible.

Then she went back to scowling and glancing down at her scroll. That was much more...natural, Ruby thought. Yeah, natural was the right word for it. She looked through the combat boots first, trying to find ones that were the same size and style as her current ones. She liked her current ones, but they weren't fireproof and she was starting to be in some serious need for fireproof boots.

Not even while forging, just while training and practicing. And calibrating. Oh the calibrating! She'd have to remember to do that soon. The weapon at aisle 3C, a type of crossbow and rapier combo, needed some TLC. It kept misfiring every time she tried to calibrate it, and now the designs wouldn't leave her head. She took out her scroll and made another reminder to herself.

Right, the combat boots! Unfortunately, they didn't appear to have any fireproof ones. Shame, she might have to special order some from Mistral or Atlas, and that wouldn't be coming cheap at all. No, no it wouldn't.

She skipped over the combat skirts, her current one doing surprisingly nicely considering the hundreds of nicks and loss of fabric that came when her Dad pulled out a sword and gun combo. She probably could have used a new one, but eh, she didn't like spending money on something that wasn't weapons.

She took her time through the shop, looking over every detail, before her eyes finally went to the small collection of dust in the corner. Dozens of gems and jewels sat there, encased by a glass case and locked to the extreme.

"Oh, sorry Ma'am. You need a huntress license to get any dust," the shopkeep said from the front, slowly walking towards her.

"Oh, I was just looking!" Ruby quickly offered. "I've been having a hard time with white ice dust recently and wanted to see what you have."

"You shouldn't be having any dust without a license." Ruby already knew that, did this person not know how much she argued with the SDC over that very topic!? It was as if every few days was having to spend all day on the scroll trying to argue with them.

"I run Summer's Weapon Shop just down the road," Ruby said. Immediately the deer faunus' eyes widened, and Ruby found herself accosted by her.

"You're her aren't you! The one that helped the street against the White Fang protestors a few weeks ago!" she was saying right into Ruby's ear. Her voice was surprisingly sharp this close, and Ruby tried to struggle out of it. She felt her bones start to be crushed, and she couldn't answer as the air in her lungs escaped as a loud squeaky toy. "Oh, sorry!"

"Don't be!" Ruby said breathlessly, trying her best to get something into her lungs. "And I didn't do anything. That was all Tukson. He runs the bookshop just down the way," Ruby finally answered. She could run at superspeed. Next time anyone tries that, she was using Petal Burst to get out of the way. Never doing that again!

"Oh, I see. Tukson told us it was mostly you. I could see why he would though. It's pretty rare to see a human here."

"I don't see why. You have some awesome stuff. Like the combat skirts! Or...those boots over there!" Ruby said, pointing to a small rack off to the right, the ones she'd just been looking at. "You wouldn't happen to have any fireproof ones would you?" No harm in asking, she supposed.

The faunus blinked in surprise, before she shook her head. "No, sorry. Not much demand for them around here. Supposedly in Atlas there's a bit, so maybe you can get some from there."

Ruby did her best to hide her disappointment. "I know. It's just going to be expensive, I know it," she said. "Thanks for letting me look around!" she said, leaving the shop, feeling like she was a bad person for leaving without buying anything. The woman didn't say anything, but smiled happily and gave a wave as she left.

That would have to be on her wish list then. Her birthday wasn't for another couple of weeks, but honestly she wasn't expecting much, considering she'd gotten an entire shop not long ago. No harm in putting it in a wish list then.

Ruby kept going down, walking the streets of Vale. A few restaurants gleaned her eye, but nothing spoke out to her right that instant. She wasn't hungry or bored, just...not excited. None of the other clothing stores piqued her interest either.

Then she saw it. The thing that Yang had forbidden her from going anywhere near the instant that Yang had learned of it. Pretty lights at the top, a large sign that read "Lights! Cameras! Arcade!". It was easy to hear the sounds of various machines and games that Ruby had never thought or heard of, and the crying of children just waiting to be beaten by one of the best arcade players on Patch.

Her eyes lit up as she burst towards it, small petals falling from where she'd been. Yang was nowhere near her now, and thus had no way of knowing she was going to the arcade! So what if she'd accidentally spent all of her money there once until Yang had found out and then promptly forbid her from ever going again except under direct supervision! Tickets for her to win, prizes for her to gain!

It was rather busy, she noticed instantly, but she was in her element of games. The counter had dozens of prizes on it, and with a gleaming eye Ruby noticed there was a good combat knife buried far in the back with a small note saying that the winner had to be above fifteen. She wanted that. She could get it...eventually, but only if she played enough games.

There was that dancing game that Yang favored in the corner, with a small audience around them cheering the players on. That was one she'd leave to Yang without any problems. There were also a few Grimm hunting games next to them, using light guns rather than actual. She checked her wallet, making sure she had enough lien to cover it all.

She realized very early on that she'd have to be good. She didn't have that much in her wallet, just enough for an afternoon of fun, and she wouldn't take any more out. The rest was for the shop, this was just her pocket money. If she had any. Which was rare.

Eh, it was a day off. She shouldn't have to worry about money on a day like this! She could do that tomorrow! She popped in a lien card into the machine, grabbing the light gun with a grin.

The Grimm fell to her powerful light blasts easy enough, and just made her wish that she could be actually at Beacon rather than doing what she was. She'd been so close! But this was a close second, even if it wasn't actually helping anyone.

A voice cut through her thoughts. "Mind I step in?" a boy, barely a man asked. He was tall, with small floppy dog ears not unlike those that Velvet had, but much smaller and more...well, dog-like. He had darker skin, except for his face which looked like it didn't see a lot of sun. "I find the game's better with two."

"Sure! Come on in," Ruby said, moving over so he could use the other light gun. "I'm Ruby," she said, waiting for the game to finishing loading up a second player. It would make the game harder, but honestly it was easy enough with just her. She wanted a challenge!

"Perry," he said with a small smile. "Shouldn't you be at school?" he asked, flipping the gun around in his hand as he shot another virtual Grimm.

"Shouldn't you?" Ruby retorted easily. "Watch out for the ursa on the right," she warned. Perry turned, catching it with a single headshot. A boarbatusk came in from the side, and she took it out with another blast from her gun.

"Watch out for the ursa on the left," Perry warned in an echo of her voice. Ruby took it out with barely looking, its shoulder exploding into virtual black blood, before disappearing just as the actual things did. "You're not half bad," he said, taking out another few more.

"I was training to be a huntress. You're not half bad either," Ruby answered.

"Really? I was too. Then I got pulled out for...well, things were getting bad," he said, pointing to his ears. Ruby frowned, but nodded. She knew well enough, seeing the White Fang picketers already, and then having both Tukson and Blake try to explain everything to her. She wasn't going to say she understood, because she didn't, but she knew.

"That's too bad. I bet you'd make for an excellent huntsman," Ruby said, pulling out her tickets from the machine. She got nearly a hundred with Perry, and only twenty five from going at it solo. The game was really trying to get people to cooperate, weren't they? "I can keep going for a bit, can you?" she asked.

Perry looked at the clock. "I can go a few more rounds before anyone's going to ask for me," he said, a not so hidden smirk. "I bet I can get a higher score than you."

"You're on," Ruby narrowed her eyes. Despite being a cooperative game, she still had a competitive streak when it came to her games. She wasn't going to lose this!

A few hours later, she walked out of the arcade, grinning as she carried a brand new combat knife, her tickets having been used entirely. Perry walked out with much the same look on his face, and Ruby gave him a small wave as she went back to her shop for the night. Then she froze. She still had to go clothes shopping!


Poor Ruby. Little does she know...

Edit: 7/5/24 - Added an extra line explaining why Yang didn't want Ruby to go to the arcade. Thanks to Kharaki Takan and Noob6 for pointing it out!

Until Next Time!