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REAPER IN RED

Chapter 43

I woke up remembering the most beautiful music I had ever heard. Whatever the voice in my dreams had said, it left me happy, albeit in a bittersweet sort of way. My dreams were a clashing mess of sweet memories of life with mom, along with the somber melodies of a trained virtuoso.

As I blinked awake, teary eyes parting for the first time in hours -after the longest sleep I had in ages- I remembered flashes of what I had dreamed of. Jumping puddles after heavy flood rains, my mother's incredible laugh accompanying my own.

The gentle words as I held onto her scythe for a Reaping.

"Hold on tightly, little gem." Her gentle hand on my back relaxing me as we stared down at that human. She waved her hand over the elderly man, his fearful eyes quickly turning into ones filled with love.

"I missed you," he said to mom. She gave a small smile, holding his cheek, gently rubbing her thumb to wipe away the few tears he had shed. With her other hand, she brought her scythe towards him, plucking his soul from his body.

His last shudder of life was peaceful and happy.

Mom smiled at me and I had returned it to the best of my ability.

That angelic music surrounding that memory and making it come alive once again.

I stretched out, enjoying the tingling cracks that rocked my body. As I sat up, I yawned. Even with a human's length of sleep last night, I still felt tired. Checking my boundary, as was becoming a regular morning occurrence, I noticed it was holding strong. The first night that week without any change. It seemed to be holding strong.

Standing up with another yawn, I got ready for another day. The weekend left me with little homework, assignments, or upcoming tests to handle. Just a team training session in the gym later that day, and free time.

"Good morning, Ruby." Weiss said as she brushed her long hair, a sweet smile on her lips. "Did you have a good sleep?"

I nodded. "I'm still a little tired though. You?"

"I had a very pleasant sleep." Weiss replied, "and some more than pleasant dreams."

"G'morn," Yang said from the bathroom, the door swinging open revealing her in a tank top, with toothpaste covering her mouth. "Blake's up and out already. Said she's spending the day in the library. She'll meet us for team training later on. Not a good sleep from what I heard. Nightmares all night. Wouldn't tell me what they were about."

My heart went out to her. I hated when my friends were feeling scared. Especially when they were defenceless in their sleep. Should I have stayed awake last night to watch over her? It had been some time since I last did that. And my team still needed me. Maybe this night.

Weiss hummed in response. "I think I shall join her. I am a little behind on my aura theory. I'll see if she is okay."

"Sounds good," Yang said.

"Have fun Weiss." I waved.

Another yawn left me blinking back sleepy tears. I must have been lacking a lot more sleep than I thought. Yang and me went for a quick and easy breakfast. Others had the same idea, as the cafeteria was crowded with students from every huntsman academy. Surprisingly, there was even a table for the professors. Professor Port was sharing a story with a still sleepy-looking professor from Atlas Academy -judging by his uniform, of course- while Professor Goodwitch was talking to someone I didn't recognize from Haven. Or was it Shade?

I shrugged uncaringly. It was one of the two. I wondered what those other academies were like. Would it be worth it to visit them sometime in the future? Maybe in a century or two after I had my fun exploring Vale a little bit. Maybe after I had spent some time with Team RWBY as professional huntresses. Ooh, that would be so much fun!

I hadn't thought much of what I would do after Beacon. My attention had been so focused on keeping myself from being noticed and figuring out how to claim a territory. And keeping myself distracted from-

I shook the thought from my head.

I was in a good mood today. No point in sabotaging that so early in the day. Maybe tonight just before bed when I was in front of my notebook, and I could properly write out all my feelings.

"Hey guys," Nora cheered as she slid up beside me, hips bumping each other. "Anybody else have a great night's sleep? I had the best! I dreamt about that one time that I-"

"-Nora, give them time to say hello before sharing your dreams," Ren interrupted taking up the spot next to Yang.

Jaune and Pyrrha sat across from each other on mine and Yang's other sides, each with their own trays of food. It seemed like everyone had had a good night last night. Maybe it was the lack of any real homework. Or just the buzz of having so many new students here. I wasn't even sure I wanted to compete in the Vytal Tournament, yet the thought of its approach was making me excited.

I giggled to myself. Imagine how funny it would be to compete and win the festival. Imagine me! The first Reaper to win a huntsman tournament! Would Cinder have a good laugh at that? I liked to think so. Ooh, maybe I should tell her about that idea.

But then again, she had been a little distant from me. Not that it was too much of a shock, really. Reapers were mostly solitary creatures after all. And then, there was also that creepy message about not fully trusting her. What type of super secret agent spy tells you not to trust them?

There was that movie on my scroll that I watched the other day, where the big baddie was actually the mentor of the hero. He even shot the hero in the leg and then said, 'I told you not to trust me'! What a bad story twist! The mentor baddie had so many other ways to turn on the hero, but why wait until the very end?

I shook my head, muttering about boring villain endings.

I hadn't realized, -due to my own internal musings- that Nora was describing her night's dream in excruciating detail. Hands waving around madly as she described snuggling with a beowolf, while Ren was doing something with a pinecone and a rubber duck. I scratched my head in confusion. I had definitely missed something important about the story.

"Any big plans for the day?" Yang asked. Some shrugs and nods were her response.

"Just going to take the day for some R and R." Jaune said, a hand scratching at his neck.

Ooh! R and R! That's…. that's… rest and relaxation! I was getting so good at human slang words.

"Nora is going to be taking me into Vale for something called 'pancakes a la Nora'? I'm not entirely quite sure what they are, but she has assured me that they taste much better than Pumpkin Pete's." Pyrrha happily said.

"Is that a compliment?" Yang retorted.

Pyrrha's smile widened. "I am not in all honesty sure."

"Welp!" Nora exclaimed, jumping out from her spot. "I think it's time for Pyrrha and I to go! Don't want to miss the flights into the big city! Catch you guys later! Oh! And let me know how much Ruby crushed you all in team combat training!"

Without letting Pyrrha stand up, let alone clean up her dishes, Nora was already dragging her from the table and out the cafeteria.

Not long later, my team was together again in one of Beacon's many practice combat arenas. The room itself was an average size. No bigger than Professor Goodwitch's classroom, without the rows of tables. There were still benches so that people could watch from the stands, and that was where we had put all our extra dust, ammo, water bottles and towels.

The arena floor was just like any other arena. Made of simple concrete materials that were easy to destroy, but more importantly for the school, easy to rebuild and repair. Judging from the scratch and burn marks on the walls and ceiling, repair was a pretty regular occurrence.

As Yang and Weiss stretched, I looked through my notes in my notebook, seeing if there was anything specific I wanted to work on. I quickly checked my territory, admiring how the border was strengthening and expanding inwards, giving me a slightly stronger perception on everything happening along the outskirts. People were flying in and out of it, likely on bullheads. Just little blips of notice, not enough to gauge any real information about them, just their species and a very rough estimate of how many there were.

I yawned as I relaxed my view of my territory, wiping away any straggling sleepy-tears with the sleeve of my shirt.

There was one thing that I wanted to make sure I could still do. It was quite an important thing now that I really had a chance to think about it. I had to make sure I could actually fight without losing focus on my territory. It would be a shame to lose hold on my borders every time I had to participate in Professor Goodwitch's class

"Okay!" I clapped once, grabbing everybody's attention. "Three against me! And then we can fight in partners."

There were nods all around. Or, well, nods from Weiss and Yang. Blake seemed to flinch when I looked at her and dart into the arena.

A quick count down and we were off. Stabbing and shooting, they did their best to hit me, but I was just too fast! Dipping into my magic when I needed to, I flew off in random directions, shadow-formed petals floating around the room in my wake.

"Blake, to me!" Weiss called out, the star spirals of her semblance beginning to form at the end of her sword, as Blake dashed forward, shooting off at much faster speeds.

I parried her attack with the edge of my scythe, turning it towards her to give me some room. My eyes met hers.

At once, she retreated. Her semblance pulling her from combat. I hadn't even had any time to fake-strike back! That wasn't fair.

Before I had any time to think on it, Yang was next to me, firing off gauntlet blasts into my face, barely missing me. Her speed was definitely improving from the beginning of school. As was her aim. I had to push myself a little bit to keep out of her way, doing my best to unbalance her with the butt of my scythe.

I went to jump, only to realize that I was being held to the floor by Weiss. Blake went in for the attack, shouting as she struck down at my head. A quick shift of my body sent her attack directly into Yang's path.

I couldn't help but laugh at that. "You're supposed to be fighting me, not each other," I taunted humorously.

"Argh!" Blake screamed, pushing off of Yang's face to strike at me again.

Her hilt in her left hand, and sword in her right, she came at me like a woman out for blood. Lunging and thrusting. Feints leading into wild blows, and slices at any part of me that could be sliced at. I dodged as many of them as I could, blocking the rest. My scythe spinning with a flurry of motion.

Then a mistake. She had switched her hilt from a forehand to a backhand grip for an attack, limiting her striking distance. A foolhardy move against someone like me with superior range.

Weiss definitely caught the mistake too. A shout of "Blake!" was all she could say, before I was inside Blake's defenses, lightly pushing against her with the snath of my scythe.

Snath, what a funny word.

Blake fell back. I raised my scythe over my head, the sharp edge and even sharper tip pointed down over Blake's defenseless body.

Blake cried out, curling into herself, an arm outstretched. Her eyes went wide with fear as she screamed, "don't kill me!"

I stopped.

"What?"

Blake was in tears. Her next words were whispers. "Don't hurt me. Please."

"Blake? Are you okay? I wouldn't hurt you. You're my friend."

Team training was over after that. There was no point in training when one member of the team was fleeing from the arena.

I would like to inform you all that the shaft of a scythe is called a snath. Snath. That is my new favourite word ever.

ilikedyinglight123 - Thank you!

Dragon Lord Draco - Things shall be continuing to happen with Blake. Don't think that this is the end of it.

Sm0keyPanda - Glad you enjoyed it. There shall be more Cinder/Ruby shenanigans soon!

TM Calypso - That would be a fun twist indeed!

Dragonqueen1993 - I personally think that there is nothing strange going on with Blake at all. She is a perfectly normal faunus who acts completely normal... normally. :P

Devashish Karatolios - Glad you are liking the story. Reverse murder mystery is a fun way of looking at this.

firewyrm2 - Things will start happening quicker now, so it will be fun to see who knows what.

C3l3st14 - I really want to answer your first question, and I guess I should try, without too many spoilers. In a one on one fight between a Cinder-aged Reaper and a Ruby-aged Reaper, without anything extra, Cinder-Reaper is exponentially stronger. Ruby is 115 years old. We don't know how old Cinder is yet. As for Reaper reproduction, that isn't something that will be touched on in this story, so I hadn't really put much thought into it. All I know for a fact is that all Reapers look female. Any head canon you have for Reaper reproduction can be true.

Appah - How was it all in one sitting? Hope you can handle the 2 week wait time between chapters! I know I always hated waiting patiently for new content.

Athrick - Thank you!

Mexicat03 - Could be. Could be indeed.

Guest - Like I said for C3l3st14, I didn't put any real thought into Reaper reproduction for this story, because it's not a focus for this story. Any head canons you have on the subject are just as true as anything I write here in these review responses.

Nagaichi - Thanks. I'm hoping you like where it goes from here too.

See you all again mighty soon!