[Chapter 10]

Tai would do anything for his children. Case and point, Ruby being allowed to keep the Gore Magala even though they had absolutely no clue what it was nor what continued exposure would do. In hindsight, not his best of plans, but they made sure to have scheduled visits with a doctor and kept an eye out for anything that may have been considered negative. Plus, with how happy it made her, especially during the time that it was, he felt separating them would have done more harm than good in the long run. So he caved. They all did.

And you know what, it wasn't half bad of a decision. As much as the changes to Ruby absolutely freaked the fuck out of them, they pushed on. And what a weird series of events that brought on. Like seriously, who would have thought that any of this shit would have happened?! Raven comes back and stays! Ruby's some mixed powerhouse of human and Elder Dragon. Whatever the hell that was anyway. And then Qrow and Glynda have this weird unspoken thing going on. The only curveball he needed now was for Yang to walk down one morning with short hair that was dyed pink or blue.

A shiver shot up his spine at the mere thought of that image. Purge the thoughts Tai, purge them. He scratched his head in annoyance as he continued to look down at the schematics in front of him, a notebook off to the side opened on a page with a similar image. In Qrow's own words, 'a big ass scythe.' That was what he was looking at right now.

As was tradition of Signal Academy. When you started your first year, you're tasked with coming up with an idea for your main weapon you wished to go on and start your hunter career with. Of course it was purely theoretical. This was just to give you a vague idea of what you wished to go forward and create in your second year after you've had been taught a lot of the theory behind weapons smithing as well as a few practice practical lessons.

And by that point you were able to go crazy, add as many and whatever attachments or modifications as you wanted to your initial weapon. Hell, you could scrap it all and start again, you had the backing off the school with almost unlimited recourses at your disposal to fuck around and find out. However when Ruby found out that Signal students make their main weapon model, or at least started around first year, he wasn't sure if she wanted to top that or just smirk and call them amateurs.

Because by the point signal students had their first idea pop into their head, Ruby had already created two of her weapons. Granted it was with help from people who specialize in weapon craftsmanship. But that's beside the point. She was turning fourteen at the end of the year and was already way ahead of the curve, having two where most had none. She created her first weapon, Leumundslist, when she was around ten, of course with a lot of help from Qrow and supervision of himself, apparently she got the name from an online friend up in Atlas. Meant something like Reputation or Reputs Ruse.

It was fairly simple in structural design, two cleaver like daggers that connected to make a Glaive. But she wanted to make it as a thing to show her bond with Gore. The weapon itself looked like it was made from Gore's scales, plus the blade had a pink shine from where the metal met the scale like material, he was pretty sure she was copying the way her horns glowed sometimes.

Seeing as it had no dust properties, Qrow thought it would be a good idea to let her make it early and with him. Oum knows why, but seeing that excited look at the idea of having her own self-made weapon that was all hers… he couldn't say no to that face. And so then a month or two later, Ruby came charging through the front door with two murder weapons in hand and a shout of victory.

They missed one thing that should have been obvious, Raven got jealous.

Qrow had just gone and helped Ruby create her first weapon. So with a determined sneer that has been forever ingrained into his head. She sat both Ruby and Yang down and started going over Dust theory with them and how to implement it into weapons. And he could only sigh and watch as they ate it up. Sometimes he did in fact wonder where it all went wrong. Then all he had to do was look to the growing murder wyvern and nod in understanding.

Then after finally having to put his foot down and say no, she cannot in fact take Yang to make her flamethrower gauntlets of mass destruction, and that yes it may have been a bit unfair that Ruby was allowed to go and make her mini dust cylinder blade holder or whatever when she was two years younger. But Yang was actually a first year at Signal at that point and some form of tradition had to be followed in this household!

He denies ever having that outburst, no matter how much Raven and Qrow say otherwise.

But that's where the second weapon comes into play. With Raven's help, they made a weapon that was similar to her own, only built for a different type of blade. A 'Chokuto' he believed. According to Raven anyways. Apparently it quite literally meant straight sword. Which was a pretty accurate description, a short straight sword that had the scabbard resting on her lower back just above where her tail sprouted whenever she did the thing with Gore.

She called that one Corvus, a tribute to both Raven and Qrow for helping her make her first weapons. Which Yang continued to be mopey about until she made the prototype for her now final idea of shotgun gauntlets and Ruby started to help. The sister bonding was so beautiful and he managed to capture every moment of it.

And that brings him to here. Staring down at this schematic of her final weapon. Crescent Rose. A Sniper Scythe combo. He had no clue where she got the idea from, but it truly was amazing. And the only reason it took her a bit longer to get this one to the stage where she could start, was because she wanted to do this one alone. Her ability to start creating her glaive was a gift from Qrow, he handled the materials and times to smith and helped wherever he could. Then the same with Corvus and Raven.

But this, she wanted it to be all her. She would use the smith down at Mr Stone's under the supervision of at least one of them, but that was it, no other help was going to be used in the creation. Every mess she would fix, every inspection she would do, and every outcome would be all her. But there was one glaring problem, that most don't even realize when they attend Signal.

Weapons were expensive.

Signal would handle the import of supplies and keep forges going as well as having an experienced weaponsmith on hand. You didn't have that in real world. Or at least, not for free. Now it's not to say that they were struggling and couldn't do this, the only problem was that it was such a complicated weapon, that all three of them would most likely have to pool together to safely do it, cause as good as Ruby was, doing this alone meant there were going to be a few screw ups. No first tries on this.

And Ruby didn't want that. So that left very little options, theoretically, even if Ruby would have been old enough to earn her own money, Tai would absolutely forbid her from getting a job so early. She also couldn't exactly earn money from huntsman missions… could she?

He stewed over the idea for a few seconds, the amusing image of a tiny Ruby stood victoriously over a dead beowolf whilst Gore chewed on one in the background. But he ultimately shook the thought out of his head, no matter how funny. Glynda would kill him. And he denies anyone who says that is his only reason. There were others, he just didn't feel like telling them.

So after a few moments of contemplation, an internal battle that both sides were losing, and a few headbangs to his desk he was sat at. He reached into one of his drawers and grabbed a slip of paper before rolling up the schematics, grabbing the notebook and heading out.

[~~~~]

In the kitchen of the Xiaolong/Branwen household. A paper advert was slapped onto the table. Both Branwen twins looking at the poster confused before looking back up at Tai. "What am I looking at?" Qrow decided to ask. "A poster you thick shit." Raven grumbled earning a scowl from him. "Fuck off you mooch." He shot back, getting a fiercer glare in return. "Guys. Not the time. I got a solution to this whole Crescent Rose problem." That got both of their attention, now taking actual looks at the posters in front of them, Raven started to read to herself out loud.

"Vale Regional tournament. Damn, didn't realise every kingdom had one. Needs to either be in a combat school or recognised by a licensed hunter. Reward of Woah. 100k Lien for a kiddy tournament? Technically that should be enough for it all. I don't see why it wouldn't be." She mumbled, scratching her head in thought as Qrow kept reading to himself. "Yo Tai. This bottom part for real?" He suddenly asked making Raven stop and look confused.

"I was hoping you could confirm for me." He admitted, right at the bottom of the poster and a weirdly smaller font, was an added reward of a request towards Beacons current headmaster, Ozpin himself. "Tch, can't she just skip that?" Raven scoffed, only getting amused looks in response. "That's some strong hate there. Surprised it hasn't rubbed off on the other two." Qrow muttered whilst pulling out his scroll and typing a message.

"Didn't you specifically say you didn't want either of them in the showboating business?" Raven suddenly asked, a raised brow pointed at him as he sighed to himself. "I don't, no one fights for real in those things and if I'm gonna give my kids anything in their career, it's gonna be to fight properly, not flashy." He grumbled out, not really answering her questions as she gestured for him to continue.

"You saw her Rae, this is something she needs to do by herself. And this is the only way I could figure out how. All it really means is that we're gonna need to make sure she doesn't start with the flashy crap. Up the intensity we go at her with or something. Plus, if this Ozpin thing is legit, then I figured she could ask him to fund her weapon creation then just have 100k stashed in her pocket for other stuff." When you looked at it that way, it really was a good idea. Plus this could give her a chance to get used to how people other than her family fight. She knew a few of their tells after so many years, so some fresh blood couldn't hurt.

"I suppose it's not the worst idea. Also getting Oz to pay for her weapon sounds funny." She relented. A small smirk on her face before she looked back over to Qrow. "Nothing yet. Might take a few anyway." He told them both, pocketing his scroll and looking down at the poster again. "You brought it up with the kid?" He asked, a shake of Tai's head being his only response.

Walking over to the backdoor, Raven opened it and leaned out. "Gem! Get your ass in here!" She called out, a loud gasp coming from the shed as the door flung open, Ruby rushing out with a smaller Gore attached to her back, his wings draped over her shoulders and acting as a cloak on top of the quilled purple one she was already wearing.

"Bad word! Swear jar! Where's the Jar!" She called out, Gore puffing out a cloud of purple in amusement before dropping off her back. "Shut up Gem, come in here for a few." She responded whilst moving back inside. Ruby begrudgingly walking behind her whilst dragging her feet. Gore next to her who seemed oddly amused by everything going on.

When she walked into the kitchen to see all three of the adults looking at her, she couldn't help but send a wary look back. "Yes?" She asked making Qrow smirk. "I think I found a solution to your scythe problem." Tai answered for her, grabbing the poster and walking over to the slightly miffed Ruby, before she could even speak up, Tai had interrupted her. "And I know. You don't want any help, that's why this way is going to be all you, I'm just bringing it to your attention." He told her, handing over the poster as she sceptically looked between him and it before deciding to just read what it said.

"… I can get paid to punch people in the face?" She innocently asked, a genuine look of bewilderment on her face that had forced Tai to hide a smirk. "Of course Gem. It's one of the best ways to get paid in my opinion." Raven helpfully supplied to the suddenly interested girl. "A lot of moneys if I win as well." Ruby muttered, a contemplative look being sent down to the poster in her hands.

"Read the bottom as well." Qrow piped up, the girl following his words and looking at the bottom of the page at the smaller words. "Holy cookies." She breathed out. "You think I could get him to make me headmaster?" This time a snort of laughter slipped from Tai, Qrow not even holding back, and Raven had looked the proudest she had ever been. "We won't know unless you try Gem." She encouraged, a smirk ever present.

"No! There will be no trying to overthrow the headmaster." Tai quickly defused, but his smirk let them both know he was greatly amused by the idea. "Maybe, instead, you could ask him to fund Cresent Rose and use the extra Lien on whatever you want. Maybe buy your super awesome dad a little vacation?" He suggested, and if her smile was anything to go by, she was amused and was at least hovering over the idea of entering.

"Listen kid. At the end of the day, this will be good for you, you're a cut above the rest of the usual crop. The reward will help you get some pocket change and your final weapon, then there's also the fact that you can fight some new people that aren't us. The training is fine, but fighting the same few people over and over again for too long can mess things up a few. So just… think about it." Qrow told her, watching as the girl hung onto his every word before she silently nodded to herself.

"Sounds like fun." She answered before handing the poster back to her dad and then going over to one of the lower cabinets to grab a snack. Finding absolutely nothing, she looked over to Gore who she knew rolled his non-existent eyes before suddenly growing in size and boosting her up to the counter where she had access to the higher ones.

"'Sounds like fun' she says." Raven repeated with a grin. "Who's dealing with the sign-up process?" She asked, the other two adults looking over to her before both twins looked towards Tai. "Guess that settles that." She answered herself making Tai sigh. Then, a sudden scheming smirk found its way onto her face, and with practiced ease, she killed it before turning to the participant to be.

"Gem. A Task for you when in this tournament." She started, easily gaining the attention of the girl who had a cookie half shoved into her mouth. "I want you to treat each fight like an ambush situation. You have no information on your opponent and they potentially know everything about you. So that means between fights, you wait in the fighters lobby and don't watch a single broadcast, leaving you at a disadvantage. Do this, and I owe you a favour." She laid it out for Ruby to either accept or refuse, both adults looking at her confused, but the girl in question just nodded cheerfully before going back to her cookies.

"Rae?" Qrow simply asked. "I've got a plan." She simply answered back, both of them realising they weren't going to get much more out of her, just looked between each other before shrugging it off. It wasn't the first mock scenario dropped on the girl, so it wasn't that out there.

And have a plan Raven did. When Tai and Qrow had moved on to talk specifics with the hybrid girl, she went back outside and towards the shed. The sound of some horrific boy band being played loud through a speaker was all she could hear. How her daughter had managed to pick up a taste for that filth was unknown to them all. But… she seemed to genuinely enjoy their music, so she let it slide. She was offended, don't get her wrong, but she let it slide.

With another cautionary glance to the backyard door, she walked into the shed and closed the door behind her, the sound managing to make the blonde-haired teen stop and look over. Surprise and confusion on her face as she stared at her believed Aunt. Then a quick scan of the admittedly small workshop. "Where's Rubes gone?" She asked with a quirked brow.

"Talking to your dad about something. Not important though, what is, is this thing he found for you." She started whilst pulling out the same tournament poster they had shown Ruby. Yang carefully taking it from her hands before giving it a quick once over, her eyes widening in shock before she settled on a wide grin.

"I can get 100k and a favour from Oz and all I gotta do is crush a few weaklings?! Sign me up." She enthusiastically answered, the ravenette grinning with pride at the response. "One second there. If you join the tournament, then it's going to be under a certain challenge. You up for it?" She asked, not disclosing a single bit of information on what said challenge was.

"Hit me." She replied with vigour, a challenging smirk on Yang's face. "Alright then. You need to treat this as an ambush situation. You're not allowed to watch any of the other competitors fights, between rounds you need to block out noise however you see fit, and go into every fight thinking the enemy knows all of your secrets." The terms laid out to her, Yang easily nodded along before agreeing heartily. "You got a deal Auntie Rae. And don't worry, I'll make sure to Heat up the competition. Heh? Heh?" An expecting smirk and slight nudge from Yang's elbow was all Raven needed to realise it was intentional. She adopted a look of both disappointment and disgust in her daughter, emotions she made very clear. "Maybe you you're not ready for the public…" Her words trailing off as she just thought about whether or not including Yang in the tournament was a good idea.

"HA! No! Auntie Rae I'm sorry. No puns I promise." She managed to laugh out, an amused smirk the complete opposite to Raven's still distraught one. "Fine. The tournament still isn't for another month so we can get you signed up another day. I'll come send your sister back through and let your dad know."

[~1 Month~]

This had been a surprisingly easy task to accomplish. It's honestly a miracle that they had managed to keep the fact both of the kids were going to be competing in the tournament a secret from them. Raven thought it would either be funny, or a way for both the girls to get a proper challenge out of this. Because according to said woman, this thing is only going to be filled with wet behind the ears kids flinging sticks around. A way with words that one.

Ruby's a bit miffed though. Apparently it never occurred to her that she would have to leave the ever changing murder machine at the house, and that no, she cannot in fact bring him into the tournament to fight along side her. Nor could he be brought to watch, because as much as Ruby denied it, and to be honest, how much the entire family also hated the label, Gore was a pet. And you can't exactly bring a pet like that into a public setting like this. Plus he was blind. What was the creature going to watch.

And no matter how much she busts out the puppy eyes. He would not falter.

Thankfully, she couldn't do that when they were already at the stadium, and the fact that she had gone with her uncle to the First Year section, leaving him and Raven with Yang as they wandered over to the Third Year helped a lot.

In his opinion, the brackets were interesting. There was eight in each year and then they would have a series of one-on-one fights, thirty-two contestants in total, seven fights per year, to be honest they were a bit lucky that there was still spaces left, three huntsman vouches for one kid as well as the same and a prep school vouch for another really helped the selection process though.

Continuing on, the four victors of each year will fight for fourth to first place, or you could choose to forfeit and take whatever place you are at. Usually the winner of the first and second year bracket would take it due to inexperience, but that was their choice. Interestingly enough, each placement got a prize reward for making it that far, sort of like a reward for being the top of that Year. 10k for fourth, 25k for third, 50k for second, and then the 100k for first. Where the money was coming from Tai honestly didn't know. And to be honest, he wasn't to bothered in finding out.

Either way, his kids were gonna be walking away with a bit of money to mess around with.

Then obviously there's the whole favour from Oz, turns out that was true, he actually didn't see that one coming, you'd think they'd advertise it more than just a small print on the bottom of a poster. But heh, who was he to judge the design choice. Stopping outside an open door with a sign saying 'Third Year Prep Room' they all stopped and looked inside, so far only around four other people were in. None of which seemed to be anyone Tai or Yang knew.

"Heh. What a bunch of scrubs." Raven muttered, a groan of annoyance coming from Tai and a small giggle from Yang. "Tell me about it." She muttered back.

"Yang. What have we said about putting down others." Tai quietly berated, a slight bit of disappointment on him making Yang look away. "Sorry dad." She mumbled dejectedly. "It's fine, just remember, these are also people who are training to go into the same profession as you, and they're here to compete, so they have to be either confident in their own abilities, or someone else was confident in them, like we are with you." A small smile broke its way onto her face before she adopted a larger more confident grin.

"Relax would ya. I'll play nice. Now get outta here. I gotta change and ignore everyone here, as is my little side quest." She dropped the bag that was resting on her shoulder into her hands before looking back to the two, the amusement in her voice rubbing off and yet Tai nodded all the same. "I would wish you luck, little dragon, but I doubt you're going to need it." Raven commented, the confident smirk never leaving her as Yang laughed and waved them off. "See ya after I win this thing."

[-First Year Prep-]

"Alright brat, you gonna be alright here?" Qrow asked, slightly crouched to be on eye level with his thirteen-year-old niece, he couldn't help but laugh at the confusion on her face. "Why wouldn't I be? All I gotta do is smack up a few people my age and win." She stated, apparently a bit too loudly if the way a few offended and angered glances were sent their way.

"Not… not that part. I know you'll be fine there. I mean about fighting in front of a crowd, can be a bit scary the first time." An amused grin on his face when he watched the visible cogs turn in her brain, a sudden nod of understanding before she seemed to think on it. But ultimately, she just shrugged her shoulders. "Meh. I got no clue really. There's a chance I can, there's a chance I can't. Doesn't help you guys won't let me bring Gore here." The last part being muttered to herself, but the fact that she was currently face to face with Qrow, he heard it loud and clear and just groaned in defeat.

"For the love of…" He muttered whilst holding his head in his hands. "Whatever, just. Good luck kid, win this so you can build Cresent Rose and buy as many cookies as you want." His final piece said, he stood back up and rested a hand on her head before ruffling her hair.

A shout of annoyance from the young girl whilst she swatted his hand away, pouting at the retreating figure of her laughing uncle. Then with a shake of her head and an annoyed grumble, she moved into the prep room to get changed and ready, completely ignoring the stares she was getting from everyone else.

[End Chapter]

And people, here we are. This was the little self made story arc I wanted to add. To be honest I feel like I could have probably eased it in better but eh, who cares, story is story, at least I made the reason good enough, I think. Meh.

But lets be real, I'm right about the weapons. Without the backing of a huntsman school that shit's gonna be expensive. And I don't think it ever really clocked when I read other FF's on this app, especially SI's (Self Insert if you didn't know). Because unless they give themselves a starting weapon, they're always just like, oh yeah, I went and bought this super awesome weapon that does everything right at the start of my journey for less than an ice-cream. Which doesn't make sense to me, and obviously, I was exaggerating on the example, I hope you understand that.

BTW if it didn't make sense or I jumbled up a few too many things, for this part, Ruby is 13 and Yang is 15, Yang turning 16 and Ruby barely having turned 13. I think that's how that works. I'm putting this time decently early in the year and apparently Yang's B-day is June 28th and Ruby's is October 31st. Bit of trivia knowledge for you there. This put's Ruby at the age of a Signal 1st year and Yang on her 3rd year of Signal. :)

I hope I can do this right, and I only realised after the fact when I had everything set up for this, I'm going to need to create maximum 16 different characters if I want to show every fight Ruby and Yang have. That's a lot of people that don't have generic ass names that stick to the whole rule of colours thing they got going on. Pray for my soul if you would.

Anyway, let's see, you can probably notice that I skipped a date for a chapter release, that was just a dumbass mistake on my part, reason is in my Bio but if you haven't read, I accidentally left this draft piece on my work computer and then I went on my Christmas holiday, so I didn't have access to the document with over 2k words on it and I was not starting again. So yeah, dumbass mistake. But we're back.

Either way, saw a thing where people said to respond to reviews at the start or end of chapters like this, I prefer the end because that mean if you don't want to read the A/N or responses, just prance on by, no worries, not integral to the story. Still, I'll try my best, but am I supposed to respond to only reviews made on the latest chapter, the one before the newest release? or just any review that has been made since the latest and current update, even if it's say from chapter 1? Need halp. And btw if you got a weird ass name, then props to you for commenting with it, takes balls. First off though;

JawsOnYou67: First part, the plot point of Ozzy having the book of monsters in Chapter 2 does hold a bit of relevance to the world building, although they're more of an extinct thing now, which will also be explained later on, I'm pretty sure it was mentioned, sorry if not, but the book of monsters wasn't the only thing Oz brought with him, Gore just happened to trigger something that made him check that one.
Second part, thanks for the feedback on writing style, won't lie though, it's a bit late for me to change something like that because A, it's a minor adjustment I'd be making which obviously doesn't sound like much, but I'd accidentally skip past and miss the change then have to go back and change it again and again and it'd be a whole process. B, I write paragraphs in two forms, descriptive, or interaction based. Rather than a paragraph for one line of dialogue, I write for a few bits and make sure to include who's talking after each piece of talking as well as how they conveyed what they said. A whole he said, she said, they reacted kinda thing.
Hope that helps.

Igil (Dk if username is right shows up as Guest for me.): Glad you're liking the new Raven, that was kinda the whole thing I was trying to get across and to see that that worked is nice. I won't lie, I tunnel sometimes when I write and forget some characters, so the lack of baby Yang, unfortunately isn't some big brain writing scheme I'm putting together, it's just to me, this is a FF about Ruby and Gore, so that's usually what my head cooks up and I forget to add some stuff about other characters, the fact you pointed out the lack of though is good, I'll try to make sure not to forget any supporting characters in the future, or less of forget them, and moreso add more on top of what already exists.

So far that's all I got on reviews that need responding to, did I do that right? LMK, and review on anything else you want to, whether they be questions, suggestions, or even little ideas you may want to see in the future, I aim to make a story people will enjoy, I understand not everyone will, but if it ever gets too bad, just gimme a little nudge.

If you want to keep posted, then either favourite or follow the book and you'll get updated. Thanks for reading, and I'll talk to you all in the next one.