Be sure to check out the last section where I make some things regarding the plot and narrative clear and also answers to some of the questions you've asked me in the reviews. Thanks for reading and all your feedback, it means a lot to me!
I noticed sometimes it gets confusing if the POV is in 3rd person or in the POV of a character. So to make things super clear, from now on,
Italics will be used for POVs of characters.
"Things inside italic quotes like in this sentence will indicate thoughts of the characters"
Normal text font is used for 3rd person narrative, which is the default mode.
Oh and I did have one other thing I wasn't sure of. The story will get quite dark later on, but for now, its not at all like that. I'm not sure if the rating has to be changed right away to 'M' or if it can be 'T-rated' for now and later changed to 'M' when those parts come. Since there is no such content now, I'm uncertain how this works. Perhaps someone could tell me?
Chapter 2: The hollow rose joins the gang
The world was black. Her world, was black. Drowning, sinking. That was the sensation she had as her vision shimmered in the distance, like the surface of a lake would when looking from below. Then she heard voices. No, sounds. The sounds of something tumbling occasionally hitting something, causing her vision to jerk around and distort. There was also the sound of someone or something walking alongside her. And yet, though she could hear them all, her world was still covered in black. The footsteps would be uneven at times, and even stop for a bit before they continued in their uneven pace. Clearly, whoever or whatever was walking, was not in its best condition. Probably wounded, or tired or both. Occasionally, she would also hear the wind passing through the leaves of trees and the sounds of branches of trees snapping as the walking person or thing would walk over them. The noises of creatures around them also surrounded her, giving her a good indication that she and her partner walking were not alone and were in a forest of some kind.
A long time later, she stirred, some of the blackness finally growing less black. The rippling surface in front of her lit up a tiny bit, revealing a foggy image. She could make out the edge of something like a cage, or perhaps it was a box of some sort? And in front of it, a figure stood, with her back turned to her. She didn't know why, but she was sure the being in front of her was a girl and was a person. There was no logic or reasoning as to why, she just knew it. Blonde hair, a simple set of clothes, tattered and torn with scratches and burrs adorning her. Ruby tried to move her arms, legs or just her head but nothing she tried did anything. Her body had given in to the sleepiness it seems. She could only spectate. But she noticed that the noises from before were gone. It was silent except for the occasional noises of insects or small animals hidden in the blackness. The figure with the blonde hair in front of her was shaking, inching closer to Ruby and blocking her vision even more. Her head was affixed in a certain direction. A direction which was completely void of anything save for two glowing embers staring back at the girl in front of her and then to her. Her still asleep mind didn't register any of that and only allowed a single word to escape it, the same one that popped into her mind before.
"Yang…?"
Ruby rose jolted awake, shivering and gasping hard. Her eyes were still blurry, and so was her memory. She was still reeling from the weird dream she was having just moments ago. Or perhaps it would be better to call it a nightmare, since she definitely did not feel good about it. She blinked furiously in an attempt to make the fuzziness go away. As her sight became clearer, she noticed 3 distinct adjuchas leaning over her, with a 4th, almost human looking hollow watching from behind the 3 in front of her.
Strangely enough, she was hardly panicked. It was strange why she wasn't as worried as she thought she should be, being surrounded by potential enemies. But then again, when had she ever been when fighting adjucha? At most, it was always like a game to her, some you win, some you lose, but so far, thanks to her agility and speed, she'd always managed to pull through and admittedly, they were fun. Perhaps it was because if they really wanted to, they could have killed her in her sleep anyways. Or perhaps it was that other human-looking hollow. The name vasto lorde popped into her mind. Wow, a vasto lorde! was her first reaction. This one in particular had blond hair, a human-like shape but with hollow bones covering her like some sort of armor, and a sword that seemed to be attached to her arm. Wait…..a sword arm….? . ?!
Ruby immediately jumped in excitement, and darted over to Harribel's right side, eyeing her arm as her silver eyes full of life sparkled with amazement.
"WOOOOAAAHH!A SWORD ARM!THASSOCOOL!" she screamed, practically scaring Hueco Mundo's moonlights out of the 3 adjucha behind her.
"CANITOUCHITPRETTYPLEASEPLEASEPLEASWITHSUGARONTOP?!" added Ruby, looking up at Harribel practically with sparkling puppy dog eyes. Granted, she was a cat-like adjuchas, but still.
Tier Harribel, a vasto lorde that most never dared to approach, considered one of the strongest beings in all of Hueco Mundo, one whom even the king of Hueco Mundo dared not deal with her lightly, was for all practical reasons and purposes, completely lost for words. Heck, she was so taken aback by the whole thing, she wasn't even sure what she was looking at anymore or what was the right reaction. She thought she'd seen enough noise when she'd witnessed Apacci and Mila-Rose's 'play' fights when they fought over who got to lie down next to her. But this, This, was on a whole new level. If she visited some humans in the living world right now, she was sure she wouldn't find someone among the living with this much life in them. What a strange feeling. Looking at her then as she was almost dying and now full of life, the contrast was sunning. Not to mention, those 3 hadn't ever been like this around her. The 3 whose tops were about to blow any second now.
"Wh…wh..wha..what?!" stuttered Apacci, "Wh..who does this little pipsqueak think she is, wanting to touch Harribel-sama's sword?!"
"Definitely not the impression I got after listening to Harribel-sama" said Mila-rose, this whole thing obviously new to her too.
"That sounds so wrong when you put it that way. As expected of a low-class idiot who can only think with her horns" mused Sung-sun looking at Apacci. "Even Mila-rose said something sensible this time"
"What was that?!" came the immediate reply from both Apacci and Mila rose, obviously protesting for different reasons.
For the first time ever, Harribel sighed in complete relief because the 3 of them were arguing. Normally, she'd step in to stop another conflict, but this time, she was glad to be given the chance to deal with the enigma that was the little one.
"That's enough you 3" she said firmly, following which the 3 obliged. Tier really was thankful for the sudden change in the flow of conversation, mostly because it gave her time to compose herself. She then looked at the little one.
"First things first, little one. What is your name?" she asked.
"Yes ma'am! I am Ruby Rose! Pleasure to meetcha!" she replied enthusiastically. Harribel could almost imagine a little girl raising her hand while standing in attention while she introduced herself with a lopsided smile on her face. "Now can I please touch your sword?" she asked again, her hopeful, puppy dog eyes back in full force.
"You know, for someone surrounded by hollows, you sure are carefree, pequeño" said Mila-rose, almost amused at the lack of caution this strange hollow was exhibiting. "Normally one would ask where they were when they just woke up"
"Oh, now that you mention it" pondered Ruby, looking around. "Where AM I?" Harribel hoped this would deviate the little one's mind from her arm, for good if it was possible. "We are at my lair" she answered. "My name is Tier Harribel, and these 3 here are Emilou Apacci, Cyan Sung-sun and Franceska Mila-rose" she added, pointing to each one in order. "I found you almost dead and had to feed you to keep you alive. I also brought you here since it would be a lot safer here"
"Rose? Woow you have the same name as me!" declared Ruby animated. "I'm sure we'll be best friends!"
"Uh, yeah, sure.." replied the lioness adjuchas, unsure of how else to respond to such enthusiasm.
"You sure this girl doesn't have a nut loose or somethin' " asked Apacci. "Doesn't sound normal to me"
"And as usual, why am I not surprised at the loudmouth…" thought Sung-sun exasperated, almost imagining herself facepalming.
Ruby didn't know why, but the image of the blonde girl from her dreams surfaced to her mind again when she looked at Tier. She also realized she'd nearly died of hunger and was only there still thanks to Harribel feeding her. Without at second thought, she lowered her head.
"Thank you so much" she said, her voice earnest. Then she remembered.
"Um, Miss harribel..? Did you happen to see a cloaked body with me?" she asked uncertainly, partially because she didn't want to impose something on someone whom she owed her life to, but her worry caused her to ask away regardless. "Its quite important to me"
"Do you mean that?" came the reply, her sword arm pointing to one of the indents in the cave. And sure enough, in the space just big enough for such an object, lay a degraded corpse still wrapped in a red and black cloak. Knowing that Harribel had troubled herself to bring along the body along with herself gained more than just gratitude from Ruby. She immediately went over to said corpse, presumably to make just assure herself that it was present wit her and then went back to the others.
Harribel already knew that it was something important enough for Ruby to carry it around, even though it would only slow her down when fighting. And yet, she wanted to ask anyways.
"Why do you carry the corpse of a human around, little one?" she asked in a gentle voice, to assure her that the intent behind her question was not ill meant.
"I'm not really sure myself" said Ruby monotonically. "I just know its something really important to me"
"Tch, It's just creepy if you ask me" said Apacci in a snide manner. She had a closer look at the corpse, and it didn't get any better than the last time she'd looked in the past 2 days Ruby was sleeping. She merely flinched.
"So much for tact" replied the snake adjuchas, appalled but not too surprised that Apacci would pass an insensitive comment.
"I don't remember much from when I died" said Ruby. This was normal, agreed all the other hollows present in the room. Most if not all menos class hollows or otherwise remember their past lives. Harribel did not, and neither did any of Apacci, Mila-rose or Sung-sun. So it was no surprise the little one in front of them didn't either.
"But…..it feels like I might lose something really important if I let go, so I brought it along with me wherever I went!" Ruby's tone was more determined than sad when she said that. She sounded proud that she's accomplished to hang on to something that meant a lot to her for so long. It also sounded like she was happy rather than sad; almost as if she was happy a part of herself was still with her. Almost as if to break the heavy mood, her stomach grumbled much too loudly for her liking.
"Aah well….ehehehe…oops, sorry about that" she said sheepishly, with an awkward 'smile' given that her adjuchas form couldn't really express what she felt the same as a human would. It did take the others by surprise, but soon, the 3 adjuchas around her snickered, and then laughed lightly. Even Harribel smiled to herself.
"So what do you say? Why don't you stay with us from now on then? As a group, we don't need to fear being outnumbered by packs of adjuchas or Gillians and we can even support each other if one of us is incapacitated" offered Tier "This way, even when hunting, you can secure nourishment much more easily"
"Sounds good to me!" chirped Ruby, which did surprise the vasto lorde. Not that she was complaining.
"Once again, I'm surprised by how quickly you trust complete strangers" commented the snake adjuchas. "We're adjuchas you know. The same type of hollows you hunt and feed on. Are you really ok with that?" she asked. Sung-sun knew it was a foolish question, especially since they had already discussed/shown that by not attacking and tending to Ruby, they had more or less agreed not to prey on her. So asking this question now seemed pointless. This was more for Ruby herself, to test her decision and if she really had no problem suddenly joining with other hollows especially since all she had know so far was that adjuchas were things she hunted and fed on.
"Of course, why wouldn't I be?" she replied, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. The innocence in her words was not missed by any present in the lair. "You guys saved me and even tended to me when you didn't have to. And besides, if it means I get friends, I'll be more than happy to tag along!" she added "Sure, I do run across some bad adjuchas every now and then, but I don't think they mean anything bad, even they have to eat just like me. So I never hunt more than I need to. Luckily, I'm super fast, enough to escape if I need to! But I wont deny that its fun when I meet a particular tough enemy, he he!" she added, a mischievous tone to her voice.
"Hmph, whom are you calling frie-" *SMACK* The snake adjuchas made sure to smack her with her tail before she could finish that sentence, leading to another squabble. Ruby couldn't help but laugh, thinking how fun it would be to get to see such things on a regular basis from now on. And besides that, she wasnt sure why but she felt comfortable around Harribel. She felt safe. Perhaps it was due to that dream with the blonde girl that she had. When she looked at Harribel, she couldnt help but carry over her feelings from her dreams.
And that was how the adjuchas known as Ruby Rose became a part and parcel of Tier Harribel and her 3 future fraccione's lives.
Their first hunt with Ruby in their party was not far off, taking right after Ruby joined them the same day. Given that she hadn't eaten anything in a 2 days, and that they also needed to go on a hunt anyways, the 4 of them left off together in search of prey. It was also a good chance to be familiar with how Ruby hunted, they reasoned. Although they were the ones who went in search of prey, it was the prey that found them first. A hoard of 20 Gillians.
Now, Gillians by themselves, even in a small group were no threat at all to an Adjuchas. They lacked intelligence, were slow, large and didn't respond to situations well. But a group as large as 20 was not something to be taken lightly. Harribel of course, would stand by in case she needed to step in. But as always, it was the 3, now 4, under her that would be handling them.
"Alright ya lugs, its first come first serve!" taunted Apacci, racing towards the nearest one and ramming into it hard, toppling the Gillian next to it as well. The Gillians next to the toppled gillians slowly noticed that they had company. One of them did nothing but take a slow swing, which of course missed. The other one charged a bright red orb in its mouth.
"Watch out for that one's cero!" warned Mila-rose, slashing into 2 Gillians ripping their robe-like body to shreds. She then lunged and bit down hard on the one in front of her, causing it to fall, crack its mask and disappear. A Gillian was not worth much as a meal, but she took a bite out of it anyways.
The cero blast flew true to its aim, flying towards Sung-sun. The snake adjucha swiftly slithered out of harm's way, coiled herself, and lunged at the gillian's mask, and wrapped herself around it, crushing it.
Ruby on the other hand, was having too much fun. Sure, she'd fought gillians before, but fighting with others as a team was something new to her and yet, they felt nostalgic for some reason. She nimbly maneuvered around the towering bodies of the gillians, occasionally avoiding a foot or a swinging claw. Sometimes she'd get a gillian to hit another one simply by moving about them haphazardly and confusing them. Other times, she would race about, gain some momentum and literally climb up their bodies and take a straight swipe at their mask or a good chunk off with a bite.
"Heh, quite the nimble one" thought Mila-rose to herself, dodging a cero blast.
"Considering she's survived by herself this long, I'm not too surprised. However, it escapes me that one could be this elated just by fighting together or just fighting Gillians for that matter" noted Tier, her stance more relaxed now. She was a bit tense initially, unsure how Ruby would handle herself. But now that she's seen her in action, she could relax a bit. She probably wouldn't be if Ruby didn't give off the childish and naïve aura that she did.
"Oy ya bonehead, stop getting distracted and look around!" screamed Mila-rose at Apacci. 2 Gillians were aiming their cero's at her. Apacci instinctively put up her guard and tried to get out of the way. She knew she wouldn't avoid it, but she could atleast minimize the damage.
*CHEEE!*
A red blast hit one of the gillians in the face, punching a hole straight through it and blowing up the cero the gillian was charging. The blast also disturbed the other gillian's cero, which then promptly blew up as well. Soon after that, the hoard was finished.
Everyone looked to the source of that mysterious blast, which wasn't hard to locate because Ruby looked really confused, her mouth open slightly in awe. And then it came.
"WOOOAAAHHH! WHAT WAS THATT! I JUST SHOT SOME RED BALL OUT OF MY MOUTH!" she screamed, practically jumping about.
"DID YOU JUST SHOOT A BALA BY SNEEZING?! HOW THE FUCK DOES THAT EVEN WO-?" screamed Apacci in disbelief, only to be cut off by the energetic cheetah adjuchas again.
"EEEEE! Bad word! Bad word!" Ruby closed her eyes and covered her ears with her front paws.
"Are you seriously kidding me?!" asked Apacci again in utter shock. Man, this kid was nuts, for sure! Where the hell did this enigma pop up from?
Silence followed, and Mila-Rose straight up burst into laughter. She went over to Ruby, petting her with her paws.
"Ahahahah that was something else, pequeño, ahahaha!" Even the normally composed Sung-sun joined in light laughter.
Harribel snickered to herself, watching from a distance. She had never felt like this, perhaps in all the time she existed. The scene in front of her brought a certain warmth she could not describe, one that she felt was odd that a hollow like herself was feeling. But, it wasn't all that bad. I could get used to this, she told herself. And thus the group returned to their lair, with their hungers sated and a satisfied hunt with no one injured, included their newly acquainted comrade, the bundle of energy known as Ruby Rose.
Alright, that's it for this chapter, thanks to all for the reviews everyone, it means a lot to know that others enjoy reading my story, even though its still in its infancy. It also helps me improve as a writer all the way and well, you can clearly see I still have a long way to go there. Here are some responses to some of the questions you've been asking!
MegaElite: Thanks, glad you like it! As for Grimmjow, I can assure he will be there and that he will meet Ruby. The rest, you'll just have to wait and see!
erching: Yeah I felt the same too, the whole concept at least. I hope I can write out a good story that makes full use of the potential this plot has.
Q. Will Ruby ever return to Remnant? (NEGATARO)
A. Of course. But somewhere at the end of the 'bleach arc' as I would like to put it. The way I planned is that Ruby's time in the bleach verse is part 1, and when she returns to Remnant, it's part 2.
Q: Do you have an update schedule or update when a chapter is ready? (Astral Chronicles)
A: Well, it depends, but if I had to give a number, my aim is to release a chapter within a week's time. So if I have it ready earlier, I release it then. But at most, it takes a week. For now, I'm trying to get more chapters out since my story is new and its better if there's some content for new readers to read before they have to wait. Also, thanks for the review!
Q: There is a mistake regarding Tier's POV, where she addresses Ruby as Ruby and not Little one. (Kurose Cross)
A: Nice one catching that, I missed it even though I went through my script a few times! But the thing is, it was 3rd person, even if it sounded like Tier's POV. But the way I worded it was very confusing, since it did look like it was being narrated from Tier's POV. So to make things Ultra clear from now on, I'll use different fonts for changes of POV as mentioned before.
Q: What's up with Ruby's body status? Isn't it too soon for her body to decompose that quickly? (5h1n Z3r0)
A: Ah this one's a bit complicated. This happened because I overthought it and tried to be too accurate and also because I didn't quite specify what I had in my mind correctly. I also just googled some info on human body decomposition and it depends on a lot of factors such as humidity, how its stored, where its stored, temperature, etc etc (Since I'm not a biologist :'D) . I couldn't speculate if being in Hueco Mundo would affect that in a certain way or if Reaitsu affects such things at all or not. And also, there are no insects and other living organisms that contribute to a body's decomposition. Its not present in cannon, so for my story's sake, I took liberty there, by assuming that Hueco Mundo's atmosphere makes it slightly easier for something to decompose, since it's a bleak land representing death. But I should have mentioned it if that was the case, my bad. That is also why I left the time period vague, because that was something I planned to get back to much later. But for now you can assume Ruby was roaming around like that for a couple of months at the very least and besides, what I really meant was that her body was decomposed to such a degree that only her dry skin, cartilage and bones remained (also known as dry remains stage). To get here, it takes about 1-2 months, depending on conditions again. And after that it can take years to decades for the body to fully skeletonize as you have mentioned. But as you can see, all this would've been so technical and not really the point I was trying to convey. All that was being implied there was that Ruby was going around Hueco Mundo all by herself in a desolate land carrying her own corpse for a long, long period of time. If you consider how things in RWBY usually are and know Ruby from cannon, this is something dark you'd probably never see which is what I wanted to convey. But sure, I can be more specific in the future. Phew, sorry about getting all nerdy, hope I answered your question well, and didn't bore you half way through!