Capítulo 668: 11
Chapter 11:
Six years ago:
What the heck is up with these people? wondered Qrow. For whatever reason, asking about Ruby or, rather, the two people she was traveling with, caused anyone he talked to to clam up tighter than an actual clam. All he'd gotten so far was the name of one of the people who had taken Ruby...Kyo. I should probably look into this guy's history. What is it about him that makes people not want to talk about him?
Normally, the kidnapping line was a good way to get people to open up. People hated the thought of an innocent child being stolen away against her will. More than that, they certainly didn't want to think of themselves as an accessory to such by not aiding someone searching for the kidnapped. Granted, Qrow didn't think Ruby was actually traveling with these people against her will. However, she was too young to legally consent to something like this, which could be used to argue a charge of kidnapping in court. It had happened before...and worked.
Taiyang had been livid about Ruby's disappearance, accusing Qrow first, which Qrow wasn't exactly happy about. After it had been proven that Ruby wasn't with him, Qrow and Taiyang had searched through Vale, turning the place upside down for any sign of her.
Knowing why Ruby had probably run away, Qrow had run down the owners of fighting schools scattered through Vale, checking with everyone from those who took care of Huntsman pre-training to the teachers of basic self-defense classes. A couple of them did indeed recall a girl in a red hood asking questions about entrance, only for her to disappear when it was revealed that they required parental consent.
Qrow had grown more worried when his inquiries didn't turn up Ruby herself. She had stolen Taiyang's stash of emergency cash, which would have been good for a couple of nights in a low-rent hotel, and a few meals. However, Ruby would have only been able to use it for food at best and, even then, it wouldn't last longer than a couple of weeks. So it wasn't much of a surprise when, after working the streets for a few days, he ran across a baker who had seen a girl of Ruby's description.
"Caught the little rat eyeing my stock," the woman had said tartly. "I was getting ready to call the cops on her if she tried to take anything. But then she went off with one of those filthy faunus."
Resisting the urge to deck the woman for calling his niece a rat, Qrow instead tracked down the most promising lead he'd gotten thus far, looking into faunus-oriented and friendly establishments in the immediate area. Sure enough, he hit success at a small diner just a few streets down. The waitstaff recalled seeing a girl in a red hood with a diminutive fox-faunus, who had definitely been older than she looked, from her manner, and the fact she'd been able to pay for the meal. The waiter who'd served them even recalled the fox-faunus offering to take the girl out of the Kingdom to meet with a friend.
From there, Qrow had made his way out through the nearest exit, past the walls and into the wilderness beyond. Fortunately, the unique qualities his association with a certain Headmaster had enabled him to search a large area with considerably greater ease than most. It wasn't long before he found the remains of a campsite. It had been broken and cleaned up to reduce impact, but not to the extent where it was apparent that they were trying to hide its presence entirely. Inspecting the area, Qrow found evidence of three people, including signs of a girl about nine years old, by the measure of her footprints.
From there, it was slow going, following their trail through the wilderness. They had apparently covered ground at a surprisingly fast clip, despite having someone as young as Ruby with them. They were making her walk on top of that. Or maybe she wants to walk, thought Qrow.
If there was one thing that he knew, Ruby was a girl of singular ambition. Her desire to be a Huntress trumped pretty much anything. And if she was enticed into following a pair of complete strangers into the wilderness, it could only be for one reason, they'd promised her the training that her father had denied her. That being the case, then walking over long distances would be one way to build up strength and endurance.
What he couldn't condone was taking a nine-year-old girl for an extended jaunt in a wilderness full of Grimm. Qrow encountered plenty of them while following their trail, and had seen all the signs of Grimm traveling along and across the very same trail he was following. Thanks to his...attributes...he was able to avoid unnecessary battles. But a pair of people on foot, with a child in tow, would not have the same advantage.
Which made it so unusual that he found no evidence of them fighting any Grimm. Granted, it was always hard to spot evidence of a battle with the Grimm, unless people took the casualties. Grimm remains dissolved into nothingness, taking away everything any other kind of corpse might have left behind, blood stains, bones, rotting flesh. To find evidence of a battle against the Grimm that didn't leave any human or faunus casualties, one had to look at the environment: the torn up ground where claws scrabbled for grip or scored the earth in the wake of missed blows, the flattened vegetation left behind by a violent charge, the residue of Dust-discharges, holes in trees left by missed shots. All that and more were evidence of a pitched battle taking place. But Qrow never saw any sign that the trio had so much as met a single Grimm in their travels. It was uncanny.
The trail had led him to the unremarkable settlement of Dunedain. It was here that he'd expected to make at least some progress, get some information on where the trio were heading next, what they might be planning to do, where their final destination was expected to be. That knowledge would give him a leg up, and a chance to close the gap, which was a lot harder when he was following their trail through the wilderness, a trail that would be rapidly going cold. This was his chance to make up lost ground...which made it all the more frustrating to be met with a stone wall.
The moment he'd posed the question, the barkeeper had notably avoided the topic. Not even Qrow flashing a little extra cash had gotten the man to open up. Qrow had briefly considered flashing something a bit more dangerous, namely the sword on his back, only to dismiss the notion. Threatening violence was not the best way to get information. Worse than an angry or upset informant refusing to talk or give legitimate information, a frightened informant was just as likely to babble out anything he thought the one threatening him might want to hear, which had every chance of leading Qrow in the wrong direction entirely.
Fortunately, even if the barkeeper hadn't answered Qrow's questions directly, Qrow had learned that people were much more talkative when they didn't realize their interrogator was listening and, introducing a topic was a good way to get them talking about it when they thought the one asking wasn't listening in. It helped that Qrow's unique...attributes...made him much more inconspicuous than the average eavesdropper.
So it was that no one paid any mind to the crow hopping along a window sill, just outside the kitchen, pausing to caw occasionally or peck at the wood. The cook only looked at it occasionally to make sure that it wasn't going to try and fly in to steal the pub's food.
"Rough night?" asked the cook as the bartender ambled in, looking tired.
The bartender took a seat at the table where the pub's staff took their breaks, leaning back with a sigh. "Had a Huntsman come in to ask after Kyo," he said. "The guy just wouldn't stop asking."
Had he lips at the moment, Qrow would have smiled. Qrow had pressed him hard and persistently. If he couldn't get the man to talk directly, then he'd make it damn hard for the poor guy to get his mind off the topic for a few hours afterwards.
"Dangerous guy to ask about," noted the cook, tidying up his workspace, now that the pub was closed.
"No kidding," said the bartender. "Tried a new angle, though. You remember the girl that was with Kyo and his friend?"
"The one with the red hood?" asked the cook rhetorically. "Yeah. She was a sweet little thing, cute as a button."
The bartender nodded. "Well the Huntsman was claiming to be her uncle. Said the girl was kidnapped."
That caused the cook to stiffen for a moment. "You think she actually was?" he asked.
"If she was, then kidnapping was clearly the best thing that ever happened to her," noted the bartender, his remark making Qrow twitch his avian head. "You remember how they were, when they went out, practically a little family. Cutest darn sight was that time Kyo put her on his shoulders."
"Well, if she's really that Huntsman's niece, then there's a story there," noted the cook, wiping down his stove.
"Probably," agreed the bartender. "But I couldn't get it out of him. That guy had a one-track mind for sure."
"What'd you tell him?" asked the cook.
"Just Kyo's name, and that he comes through here every once and a while," said the bartender. "That's the basic story that we're supposed to stick to."
The cook nodded. "I wonder why Kyo would even feel the need to kidnap someone?"
"He wouldn't have to," said the bartender. "Heck, all he'd have to do is ask, and half the families in this town would give him their daughters, although they'd probably stick to the ones of marriageable age. People don't want to risk forfeiting his protection after all."
The cook snorted and nodded again, moving on to a new task. "It's a blessing that the only thing he ever asks for is a few days' room and board, in exchange for sticking around for a while. Now, if I had his kind of power, I'd use it to get all kinds of things."
Now Qrow would have frowned, had he lips. What he was hearing was stranger, disturbing...and confusing. This Kyo person appeared to have a lot of pull in this community, despite being someone who apparently passed through infrequently. What was more, he apparently had some kind of protection racket going on. However, there was a distinct lack of resentment in the way the two men were talking about his presence. Qrow couldn't parse why that was.
"You're not as nice as him," the bartender retorted. "Now if only the Huntsmen, the people who are actually supposed to protect us, could be half as nice. That jerk just wouldn't let up. Kept bugging me through my whole shift."
"Ain't that the truth," muttered the cook, joining the bartender at the table. "You even know where they went?"
Qrow tensed. Now they were at the juicy bit.
Bartender shrugged. "They headed out to the northwest. Kyo travels straight overland, when he wants to get somewhere, doesn't bother with roads. If I had to guess from his direction, they're probably most of the way to Barrowdown by now."
That was enough for Qrow. The talk turned to speculation about where they were heading after that. However, Qrow had what he needed. Assuming they were right, then Qrow could find newer, fresher leads in Barrowdown...assuming he got there quickly enough. Fortunately for him, he could cover ground a lot faster than the average person.
Barrowdown was a mess, that was for sure. The place had been hit by bandits, and nearly overrun. A portion of the town was still occupied by burned and damaged buildings, most of them midway through the process of repair, at best. Showcasing that selfsame toughness that drove them to brave the dangers of the frontier, and build lives for themselves away from the protection of the Kingdom's walls, the inhabitants were moving on with a brisk acceptance of hardship that Qrow always found himself admiring.
However, once again, though, Qrow was struck by a sense of strangeness about the whole affair. The evidence of the bandit attack was concentrated in a single portion of the town, which indicated that the bandits had been effectively contained. A quick search had turned up a mass grave for the bandits themselves, outside the settlement's walls, in comparison to the town's casualties, who were interred in the actual cemetery. What Qrow couldn't understand was the absence of other...consequences...that usually followed an event like this.
Normally, a bandit attack, whether it was successful or not, brought the Grimm snapping on the attackers' heels. It was always a singular risk, when it came to the settlements. An attack led to a surge of fear and anger, along with plenty of other negative emotions, which drew Grimm like flies to a corpse.
Even if that wasn't the initial result, the aftermath of the bandit attack would have led to a surge of sorrow and grief, which also drew the Grimm, one of the things Qrow hated the most about them. People in places like this couldn't even afford to properly grieve for lost loved ones, without the threat of the Grimm, spurring them to move past their sorrow, like animals driven by a whip. An attack that led to multiple casualties would only compound the problem.
Yet there were no signs that the Grimm had been here at all, in the wake of the attack, aside from the occasional wandering one. In fact, despite what they'd just been through, the residents of Barrowdown seemed remarkably comfortable and secure. There were no signs that the settlement had been pressed.
And, once again, Qrow encountered a brick wall, when it came to his inquiries about his niece and Kyo. The people here apparently were much more wary of him than the ones in Dunedain had been, but they covered for him all the same. It took Qrow a little longer to get the info he was looking for this time, having to start multiple "conversations" like the one in Dunedain that had led him here to begin with. However, he'd gleaned a few interesting tidbits.
Kyo had apparently been singlehandedly responsible for turning the tide against the bandits, showing up and slaughtering them to a man.
The fox-faunus Kyo and Ruby were apparently traveling with was named Sasame, and possessed some kind of healing Semblance that had saved quite a few lives during the attack.
Ruby had apparently been involved in the fighting. More worryingly, Qrow heard mixed accounts indicating that she might have had to kill one of the bandits herself...knowledge that only firmed his resolve to find her...and bring her home. He wanted to help her become a Huntress, truly he did. Coming this far on foot was a sure sign of just how committed Ruby was to becoming stronger. When he got her back, Qrow was prepared to fully commit to making Taiyang see reason. If he couldn't manage that...then Qrow decided to commit to making sure that Taiyang no longer had the ability to decide Ruby's future for her, probably by getting that guy in on the matter. But there was no way Qrow would allow her to travel a path that led her to becoming a killer at the tender age of nine.
Finally, after three days of pressing for information, and getting enough tongues wagging in presumed privacy, Qrow got the info he was looking for. Kyo, Sasame, and Ruby were still heading northwest. In fact, speculation was that they might be heading to the seaside settlement of Anduin, a bustling town built around fishing and shipping...as well as smuggling. Furthermore, Qrow was now a lot closer behind his quarry now, having managed to close the gap by a considerable margin. If he was lucky, he might even manage to catch them while they were still there.
Fortunately, Qrow's own luck was generally pretty stable, in comparison to the people around him. So, spreading his wings, Qrow set off, now heading for Anduin.
It was a rough trip, over some pretty rough terrain to boot. The weather wasn't in Qrow's favor either. Unfortunately, heavy thunderstorms were not exactly conducive for overland travel, especially not for a bird. The fact that he ran into several successive ones made Qrow wonder if his Semblance had finally started to bare its fangs at him as well. Granted, it had always bared its fangs at him, in a roundabout manner. He just hoped that his quarry were slowed down by the inclement weather as much as he was.
Fortunately, despite nature's best efforts, Qrow made quite a bit of progress, and heaved as much a sigh of relief as his bird-lungs would allow as he crested a final rise and alighted on a tree that gave him a view of the coast, and the town that had grown up around it.
Anduin mixed the look of a rustic, seaside fishing village with a much more modern and industrial aesthetic. Squat buildings, made from roughly-carved wood, clearly harvested from the surrounding forests, shared space with blocky, taller ones made from concrete and steel. There was no overall sense to the mess. However, the town was bordered by thoroughly modern touches; the large docks facing the sea, where almost any ship but the largest of freighters could pull in; and the sturdy wall that encompassed the town's landward flank, lined with powerful Dust-turrets that faced the strip of open ground between the wall and the forest.
Qrow didn't know what he'd expected when he'd reached Anduin. The few things he'd heard about this Kyo person, and the fewer things he'd heard about his companion, made him completely unsure of just what kind of effect he had on the communities he apparently passed through on a seemingly routine basis.
However, Qrow did know that the last thing he'd been expecting was to find the residents throwing a party...much less an earnest festival, complete with fireworks, one of which singed his tail-feathers on the way in.
The entire town was awash in a riot of light and noise. Children were racing down the streets, laughing and playing with toys they bought at stalls that appeared to have opened for the occasion. Performers of all stripes plied their trade, though many of them appeared to be amateur acts put on by the town's own residents, rather than the more professional acts of traveling troupes that normally participated in such events. In fact, much of the festival had a strange ad-hoc, spur of the moment feel to it. However, from what he could see, it seemed that people were earnestly enjoying themselves.
Alighting on a lamppost, Qrow surveyed the crowds below as they wandered about. He cocked his head, twitching and pecking, acting as crow-like as possible while he took in the events of the celebrations surrounding him. As a prosperous settlement, Anduin hosted a large population. Finding three people amidst all this noise would be a difficult task indeed...
Which made it distinctly unnerving when Qrow spotted his target almost immediately.
His gaze had been immediately drawn by the flash of red weaving through the revelers below. Many people wore red, but few went with the red cloak the way his niece did. It certainly made her easy to pick out in a crowd. A closer look confirmed Qrow's suspicions as he saw her black hair, which gradated to red at the tips. Seeing her looking around, he also caught the flash of her unmistakable silver eyes.
Relief and anxiety surged through Qrow in equal measure. Ruby was alive and, from the look of things, was perfectly well. Her clothes were worn, showing signs of having been occasionally torn and mended. The sneakers she'd worn back on Patch had been swapped for a pair of tough-looking boots more suitable for travel over rough terrain at some point. The leggings she typically wore were dotted with holes and tears. The red cloak was looking a bit rough around the edges. Her hair was longer and a bit more unkempt. But she looked healthy. There were no signs that she was undernourished. In fact, she looked healthier than ever. On her arms and legs, Qrow could see signs of considerable muscle development. Ruby had been working out...and working out hard.
There were two other things about her appearance that caught his attention in particular. The first was a peach-colored rose that had been worked into her hair on the left side of her head. The other was not one, but two swords strapped to her waist. One was a wooden sword, the kind of training weapon Qrow wouldn't have been surprised to see on her. But the other one was real, an actual katana-type sword, clearly made to suit Ruby's current size, set into a sheath of black lacquer, with red wrapping around the handle that matched her cloak. The sight of his niece carrying a real weapon, and confidently at that, took Qrow aback.
His first impulse was to swoop down, transform, and snatch her up, rush straight to Anduin's airdock, and use his pull as a Huntsman to get an airship straight back to Vale. After months spent searching for her, worrying over her, and dropping everything to follow her trail, he finally had her in sight. Qrow could bring Ruby home and know that she was safe again.
But the sight of the happiness practically radiating from her eyes made him hesitate. Ruby was the happiest Qrow had seen her in years. The smile on her face had certainly become a rare sight, after Taiyang had made tying her down into his life's ambition. Whatever had induced her to accompany two such unusual people out so far away from her home and family and everything that was known and familiar, coercion was apparently not a part of it. Qrow only had the roughest idea of what her companions looked like, but he couldn't see any sign of anyone with her at the moment, which indicated that Ruby enjoyed a degree of freedom that the average kidnapping victim would not normally have.
She looked so happy that Qrow started to question whether or not bringing her home was the right idea. True, she'd be safer at home...but Taiyang's obsession with keeping Ruby safe was what had driven her to run away in the first place. And, after the scare she'd put him through, Qrow was fairly certain that Taiyang would be even less inclined to let Ruby out of his sight after this incident.
But Qrow also knew that he couldn't just allow this to go on. What Ruby had done was reckless and irresponsible. It was true that she'd managed to escape the dark fates that befell so many young people who'd escaped or been driven into the Kingdom's streets, but that didn't change the fact that she was playing with fire. What was more, she was Summer's child, something that Qrow saw more and more of every time he visited and saw how she'd grown.
At the very least though, Qrow figured that it was best to convince her to come back willingly. He was still her favorite uncle. That should have enough pull to get her to come with him.
So Qrow descended.
Ruby took in everything around her with wide eyes. The people of Anduin certainly knew how to throw a party. Granted, they couldn't exactly plan it, given that the timing of Kyo's arrival in their community was always unplanned and unannounced. But they certainly did well with what time and resources they had on hand. It was much larger, louder, and brighter than the festival at Dunedain had been. There was so much to see and do.
It felt strange not to have Sasame or Kyo with her. Both of them were presently occupied. Sasame had offered her healing skills to the local hospital, and was working her way methodically through their patients. Kyo, however, had headed toward the docks to secure transportation for the next leg of their journey. Ruby was excited by the prospect of getting to travel over the ocean. The closest she'd been to that experience was taking the ferry between Patch and Vale, which she supposed counted. But, this time, they'd be heading to another continent entirely. Ruby wasn't just leaving Vale, but Sanus behind to see a wider world that she only could have dreamed of back home.
The consequence of this was that Ruby had been left to her own devices. Sasame had suggested that she go see what the festival had to offer, warning Ruby that she should stick with the residential section of the settlement, and not venture into the seedier sections of town around the docks. Since the residential section was where the festival was centered anyway, Ruby was happy to abide by Sasame's recommendation.
The only downside to her situation was a lack of lien to spend on anything. Ruby would have loved to try some of the treats and confections on offer. Sasame carried a little cash on her for when she visited the Kingdoms themselves, where Kyo did not actually enter. However, she'd spent what little she had in Vale, the last of it being spent on the meal she'd bought for Ruby. Out in the settlements, where Kyo was welcomed like a living good luck charm, there was a certain irony that the fact that Kyo and Sasame could get practically anything for free meant they had no use for lien themselves.
Unfortunately, Ruby didn't think anyone would believe her or afford her the same privilege, if she told them she was with Sasame and Kyo, unless they were actually present to support her. Besides, she would have felt guilty getting free things simply because she happened to be their companion.
So, for the time being, Ruby contented herself with taking in the sights, watching as a few of the locals set up impromptu street performances to show off their more eccentric talents. There was plenty of fun to be had, even if she didn't have a lien to her name.
Ruby made her way down a street, following the flow of the crowd, gleefully imagining what tomorrow and the days after might bring, wondering what lay on the other side of that endless stretch of blue beyond the docks, where Kyo and Sasame were taking her…
"Ruby."
Ruby froze in place, her entire body going rigid. It was more than just her name…that voice…Hearing it again made Ruby's heart shudder and her stomach turn to jelly. She didn't want to look, to see who had spoken. She knew who it was. She could not see or speak to him for a hundred years, and she still wouldn't forget that voice. Yet, she knew she had to look, she had to accept that he was here…that she'd been found.
Her movements jerky and hesitant, Ruby slowly turned to look, taking in the sight of her beloved Uncle Qrow. He'd emerged from an alley, trying his hardest to look casual. The look on his face was…conflicted. It did a pretty good job of mirroring the way Ruby herself felt.
On some level, she was happy to see her uncle. She was always happy to see her uncle. Qrow was still the coolest Huntsman on earth, to her eyes, for all that he seemed perpetually disheveled, and constantly hovered in the space between sobriety and complete inebriation. She loved him with all her heart and knew that, despite his gruff demeanor, he loved her back just as much. She'd looked up to him, wanted to be just like him. But now she'd been away from home for months, traveled across miles of wilderness, and pushed herself to her limits for weeks on end. After all of that, looking at her uncle again, Ruby almost felt as though she was in the presence of a complete stranger. Yet she also knew it wasn't because Qrow had changed…but because she had changed.
Furthermore, Ruby was terrified by the realization. There was only one reason Qrow would go so far and travel so far to find her. He's here to bring me back.
Smiling weakly, Qrow raised a hand in greeting. "Hey, kiddo," he said.
"Uncle Qrow," said Ruby cautiously, shifting her weight, not heading towards him, but not edging away either.
"You're a hard girl to track down," commented Qrow, stepping out of the alley to walk towards her.
Now Ruby began to back away. "I'm not going back."
"Look…Ruby…Let's talk about this." Qrow raised his hands. "I know Tai's been…unreasonable. But we can get through to him."
"No," said Ruby firmly. "I tried to get through to him for four years, and he just keeps getting worse. I'm done. I'm not going back."
"It's your home, Ruby."
"No," growled Ruby. "It was my prison."
"Come on, Ruby," protested Qrow. "Don't be like that. You know your dad and Yang love you."
"Then why did they treat me like some kind of stupid china-doll?" demanded Ruby. "Why do they keep ignoring my feelings and try to always make me do what they want? Why does Dad keep trying to lock me away?"
"Look, Tai's having a hard time, because your mom-" began Qrow.
"I'm sick of that excuse!" exclaimed Ruby. "He became a dumb drunk, and didn't snap out of it until Yang and I nearly died." She grit her teeth. "At least Yang could get over it. At least she was strong enough to take care of me. But Dad's had years to deal with the fact that Mom's gone. Yang's over it. I'm over it. Why does he get a pass for not being over it, and why do I have to be the one who suffers for it?"
Qrow groaned and rubbed his hand through his hair. "Look, I'll be the first to say that Tai may not have all of his marbles right now. But your running away isn't going to help anything."
"It's helped me plenty," said Ruby, her eyes narrowing. "I met people who've helped me, who actually care about me, about what I want. I'm stronger because of them. I'm not leaving them to go back to him."
"Listen, Ruby," said Qrow, beginning to lose his patience with the situation. "I know this isn't ideal. But you need to bear with it a little longer. I promise I'll help you get trained. I know a guy…"
"I've got all the help I could need and want," said Ruby, edging a little further away.
"Ruby…" said Qrow. "Don't make this hard."
"Don't make me make this hard," growled Ruby.
Qrow reached out for her…and suddenly Ruby was gone, a cloud of red petals scattering in her wake. What the-? Qrow snapped his head around to see Ruby already a fair distance down the street, ducking and dodging between revelers, her cloak flaring out behind her. "Dammit!" he snapped under his breath. "Ruby! Stop!" He rushed after her.
A leap took him to the rooftops, allowing him to bypass the crowd and quickly close the distance between him and Ruby. Jumping off, he aimed to come down right in front of her and cut her off. In fact, if he got this just right, she'd run smack into his arms.
But, just as he was about to land, Ruby suddenly accelerated, shooting underneath his feet in a streak of red, and leaving more petals in her wake. Qrow spun about to look after her, only to see Ruby dart around a corner and disappear in another burst of petals. That speed's not normal. The way she accelerates, and those aftereffects…that has to be a Semblance. If she has a Semblance, then that means her Aura's been unlocked. That's not good.
Qrow didn't know how Taiyang would react to learning that his youngest daughter's Aura had been unlocked. One thing he did know for sure was that it wouldn't go over very well. However, that was a problem for later. Catching up with Ruby was a problem for now. Fortunately, her Semblance wasn't all that well-developed yet. It was clear that Ruby could only use it for short bursts of speed. If he factored that into his plans, Qrow figured he could still head her off. Determined, he took to the roofs once again, in hot pursuit of the girl in red.
Ruby rushed along as fast as her legs could carry her. When she saw that Qrow was about to catch up to her, she channeled her Aura out through her feet to go faster than her legs could carry her.
It was a far cry from perfect. With the practice she'd had thus far, her speed, while remarkable, still didn't hold a candle to what Kyo and Sasame could do, moving so swiftly that they seemed to teleport or, on occasion, appear to be in multiple places at once. On top of that, the most she'd managed so far was a measly three steps. It wasn't as simple as letting her Aura explode from her feet like a rocket's thrust. There was a technique, almost a science really, to using Flow in order to affect the timing of her movement. On top of that, there was a pattern of releasing her Aura, not merely in the one-two sequence of footsteps, but in the sequence of lifting the heel and then stepping off the ball of each foot. Furthermore, the footwork required was a far cry from typical running, bringing down the ball of her foot first, then propelling herself off her heel like a springboard, almost the complete reverse of the typical heel-toe motion of normal running.
On top of that, even though her technique speeded up her body, it couldn't do anything for her mind and senses. When she moved faster, Ruby couldn't perceive things around her any faster. That meant she had to hone her own senses to keep up with her speed. She needed to expand her awareness to track her surroundings with more than just her eyes. Practicing in the forest, she'd once tripped over a tree root and broken her leg. She was fortunate that one of her teachers was such a skilled healer, and that the injury was tended and good as new in a matter of seconds. So many things had to come together in order for this technique to work; it was amazing that Kyo and Sasame managed to make it look as easy as they did.
As such, Ruby limited her use of this new technique to short bursts, when it looked like her uncle was going to catch her otherwise. In the meantime, she ran. Ruby's first thought had been to run for Sasame. She knew exactly where Sasame was, and that Sasame was the closer of the two, between her and Kyo. However, another thought had occurred to Ruby at the same time.
"When I act as a healer, I protect those in my charge with all of my strength. I do not brook threats to their wellbeing. I have no tolerance for any who would do them harm."
Ruby knew that Sasame was plying her trade at the hospital at the moment. If she interpreted Qrow as a threat to her patients, she wouldn't show any mercy. Ruby also didn't want to find out if Sasame's statement would apply to her, if Ruby knowingly brought a threat to the doorstep of those she was treating.
So instead, Ruby disobeyed Sasame's advice and headed towards the docks, looking for the person she didn't know she could find. She had to get to Kyo.
Logically, Ruby had nothing to go on, save for the fact that Kyo was somewhere in that section of town, making arrangements for their travel over the sea. However, that was the extent of Ruby's knowledge. For all she knew, Kyo might have finished up already, and was making his way back, in which case, they could potentially miss each other entirely. And Ruby couldn't keep ahead of her Uncle forever. He was a grown man and a veteran Huntsman. Her technique wouldn't keep her out of his reach forever.
But Ruby had an inkling of where to go. Ever since her Aura had been unlocked, her awareness of the world around her had been slowly expanding. Eventually, she'd grown aware that she was beginning to sense the Auras of others, even those of people whose Auras weren't unlocked. A short ways out from Anduin, she'd come to realize the nature of Kyo's Aura.
It was vast, swirling around him in a radius so wide she couldn't perceive its limit. It was subtle, like the softest breeze, yet always present, unless he initiated Suppression to hide his Aura. Ruby got the impression that this was what the Grimm avoided so completely. Ruby could understand in a way. Just from what little sense she got from Kyo's Aura, it felt so vast that she was certain his true strength completely surpassed her imagination.
She was following her sense of that Aura now. It was omnipresent, even when he had been completely on the other side of the settlement from her. In a way, it was reassuring, like she was under his protection, even when he wasn't right next to her. But now, now that she needed to seek Kyo out, Ruby realized she could sense a flow, a current to Kyo's Aura. If she followed that flow to its center, she would find Kyo there.
Feeling her cloak flutter from the shifting air behind her, Ruby realized that Qrow was descending from above again. She pivoted, turning down a narrow alley, and shot off like an arrow, barely managing to avoid snagging her foot against a board tilted in the wall. It was strange. Her desperation almost seemed to have lit her senses on fire. She was able to perceive when Qrow was about to come in reach of her, where she could place her feet within the range of her technique, what spots were safe or unsafe to step. It was more than she ever managed in training. It seemed that the sense of crisis engendered by her situation had tuned Ruby's senses, the realization that she couldn't afford to make a mistake sharpening her skills more than any regular training ever could.
The next time Qrow's hand almost closed on her hood, Ruby managed four steps.
This is ridiculous! thought Qrow as his fingers closed on empty air again, Ruby suddenly shooting ahead and out of his reach by several body-lengths. I should have caught her by now.
This wasn't his first time being in pursuit of a fleeing person. But it was the first time he'd been thwarted so consistently. It was all the more galling that the one continually slipping out of his grasp was his nine-year-old niece. Even if she was using a Semblance, Qrow should have gotten her by now.
It wasn't simply a matter of age and experience. Qrow's own Semblance was always active. Loose cobbles in the street should have slipped from beneath her feet. A sign blown by the wind should have swung around to smack her in the face. Turning down an alley should have tripped her up with some boards angled against the wall that she couldn't have known were there. Yet, every time it seemed his Bad Luck was about to strike, Ruby shifted, seeming to effortlessly dodge every misfortune, great and small. The problem was, Qrow needed to catch her soon, preferably before his Semblance stopped her. If things kept up this way, the stroke of bad luck Ruby had might very well seriously injure her.
Then it happened. Fortunately, Qrow's Semblance appeared to be on his side for a change, and Ruby's luck ran out in the most passive manner possible.
She'd reached a dead end.
"Sorry, Kiddo," said Qrow, coming to a stop as Ruby backed away to the wall behind her. "This is it."
Ruby growled, tears gathering in her eyes. Her entire body tensing. Her hand reached over, her fingers closing over the dark-red handle of her wooden sword.
"You can't fight me, Kiddo," said Qrow. "You ain't ready for that."
"I'll do whatever it takes," said Ruby, beginning to pull her sword out from her belt.
Qrow frowned and took a step forward. Abruptly, his instincts, honed by years in the field, fighting the enemies of life itself, as well as enemies even worse than them, told him that something was coming. Something dangerous. Qrow leapt back as a black-garbed figure landed in front of Ruby, his legs bending in a crouch to absorb the force of his landing before he rose back up to his full height. Qrow took another step back as he looked into a pair of luminous, crimson eyes, not pale-red like his own, but that strange, shining crimson color he'd only ever seen with two other people.
"Kyo-nii!" gasped Ruby, her voice heavy with relief.
Qrow's eyes darted to the young man's sword, nearly five feet in length. It looked like a fairly standard weapon, aside from its size. It didn't seem to have anything fancy, no mechashift capabilities, no Dust-infusion. It was, for all intents and purposes, just a sword. His eyes moved to take in the boy. Beneath the fabric of his worn, loose kimono, Qrow could see well-defined muscles, the evidence of a physique that was no stranger to battle. There was the young man's balance, flawless, looking as though he could stand on one toe and Qrow wouldn't have been able to knock him over with a battering ram.
Taken altogether, Qrow could see why Kyo was someone most people didn't want to cross. It went beyond the obvious signs that Qrow could read with his own eyes. There was something about this guy that had his gut feeling screaming that he was dangerous, that this was a fight Qrow couldn't win. His eyes met Qrow's and Qrow's own eyes narrowed. I may not be able to beat this guy, but I'm, sure as hell, gonna try.
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