Chương 1829: 60
Chapter 60Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
"Okay so… oh wow this is beautiful… triple changing weapons are always so much more complex than most mechashift weapons that just go between two forms, but this takes the cake…" Ruby murmured as she ran her hands over Miló's surface, the xiphos/javelin/rifle spread apart across the surface of her workbench and securely held in place by a thin sheet of grimmstuff. Pyrrha stood by, watching Ruby work with slightly bated breath- it was an exercise in trust for a Huntsman or Huntress to let anyone handle their weapon when almost all of them had to build their weapons from scratch and attune their Auras specifically to every last bit (even Jaune was starting to get more protective of Crocea Mors as he continued to do maintenance on it week by week), so letting Ruby handle Miló and Akoúo̱ the way she did, to see those claw tipped, delicate fingers tracing over the lines and curves of Pyrrha's beloved weapons… it was somewhat harrowing at times, even though Pyrrha knew that Ruby was, bar none, the best weaponsmith in the school- possibly the Kingdom .
"Well- thank you. I put a lot of work into Miló over the years… I do wish I could have spent more time on Akoúo̱ in the same vein, but I couldn't figure out what to do with a shield beyond making it more capable of rebounding back to me and reinforcing the structure," Pyrrha admitted, smiling softly as Ruby started cleaning every last bit of Miló with her tools, brushing away bits of dirt and accumulated grime and clicking her tongue every time she came across a slightly worn down piece or bit that was showing its age. "That said… I know you upgraded Weiss and Blake's weapons, and continue to work on your and Yang's weapons, as well as those of Team CMNE… so… I wanted to ask if you could help me with Miló? I'm afraid that there are just… some things that I can't particularly manage to fix no matter how many things I adjust, and I was wondering if you could-"
"There's some catching in the mechashift, right?" Ruby interjected, looking up and blinking at Pyrrha curiously, her eyes shimmering silver while her tail wagged slowly. "And it looks like it's been wearing some grooves into a few parts- I think it's because you forgot to account for the movement of the bolt while shifting from javelin to xiphos, plus with how the rifle mechanisms have to compress down- it still works but the tolerances are a little tight and you've got a few overlapping bits that just baaaarely fit together but it's- I can replace some of these parts lickety split, if that's okay?"
She paused, then tapped her chin. "Oh! Do you happen to have Miló's blueprints? It'd go way easier if I could revise the design as it is!"
"Oh- of course! I have the blueprints saved to my scroll," Pyrrha nodded, flicking the designs to Ruby as she pulled out her scroll and smiling. "Thanks so much for your help- that issue's been plaguing me for years and it always makes Miló and Akoúo̱ handle just slightly slower than I'd like. I've gotten used to it by now, but I'd like it to be faster, just in case. I have a few combat forms I have to deliberately slow down with, otherwise the transformation makes Miló shake a little in my hand."
"Yeah no prob- I'll trim out a few bits, replace a couple of the worn parts… y'know, you really should have been maintaining the internals better. I know all the literature says you should replace worn down parts when your weapon reaches half efficacy, but that's like, when you're super out in the field and can't get precision made parts at all and you have to make do with using your weapon until it either breaks or you find a blacksmith you can bum some lower quality parts off of," Ruby huffed, ears twitching as she took a few photos of Miló before looking over the blueprints and nodding to herself. "Mm… this is really good work- you could give Mr. Bronze a run for his money with your blueprint works."
"Mister…. Bronze?" Pyrrha asked, raising an eyebrow slowly as she tilted her head to the side, watching Ruby stand up and start reassembling Miló back together with swift, efficient movements that were, somehow, even faster than Pyrrha could do it- and she could fully strip and reassemble Miló in less than a minute blindfolded . Then again, Ruby's speed Semblance was… stupidly fast. "Who's that?"
"Oh! He's great! So, he's like one of the faunus shopkeeps that live on Patch and he's super nice to me cuz y'know I'm like him- he's a fox faunus and he runs the Bronze and Brass weapon shop in the main settlement near Signal Academy with Mr. Brass. He gets a lot of people from all over looking to try out new weapon designs or swap out old weapons for new ones so he has a lot of thrown away prototypes and stuff in his backrooms gathering dust, and he let me have all of them if I could get them functioning right and he also made the giant gun that I integrated into Crescent Rose- y'know how it expands real big for my big bullets and shrinks back down otherwise? He helped me come up with that idea when I was like fourteen and getting into really making sure Crescent Rose was perfect . And he helped me make most of my ammo too! Suuuuper expensive stuff, but it was totally worth it!" Ruby grinned, rambling happily as she did a few experimental twirls of Miló and made sure it transformed as usual- her ears twitching as she heard the sound of ever so slight grinding as she quickly forced a transformation between xiphos and rifle forms that sounded like sticking- definitely there were some lever arms and Dust components clashing as they slid past each other and just barely avoided sticking against each other. "Oooh, yeah I can really hear it now… But yeah! Mr. Bronze is the best! He and I talked weapons for years- ever since I was eight! He's basically like my second Uncle!"
"Well, he sure sounds like a great guy- smart too, if he could keep up with you," Pyrrha hummed, taking Miló back from Ruby as the corgi girl handed it back with a wag of her tail. "But thanks for agreeing to help- let me know when you need Miló back for the changes… or, I could just come with you to keep an eye on the process, if you're fine with that?"
"Oh yeah for sure! I'd never try and work on someone's weapon without them being there every step of the way- honestly, even Weiss got in on handling Myrtenaster, and she hates being in the forges for some reason. Dunno why, being in the forges is like a second home to me," Ruby shrugged, humming as she picked up Akoúo̱ and went over the shield with a critical eye. "Akoúo̱ here's in pretty good shape… you might have to fill and re-carve some of these Dust channels on the edges? I think the minor amounts of Gravity Dust you used to enhance the rebounds is starting to wear down the material and it might spill in weird ways if you aren't careful. Also, it might need a fresh reinforcement coating… I mean, it's a pretty simple piece so you could just reforge the entire thing but I'm assuming you don't want to do that."
"I'd rather not, yes," Pyrrha answered, shaking her head as she slotted Miló into its proper place in her back holster before reaching out and gently placing her hand atop Ruby's head with a gentle smile, ruffling the grimm girl's hair and giving her little scritches. "Thank you for asking, though. If you'd like to do a full set of maintenance on my gear, I'd be happy to oblige- your work is exemplary, and there's no one else I'd trust to handle it. Even Nora and Ren have said that they want to see what you can do for them. Jaune… well."
Pyrrha shrugged, thinking back to Jaune saying that Crocea Mors didn't need anything special in regards to the mechashift components given that it just expanded the sheath into a shield and that his sword was, well. A sword.
And nothing else.
Hm.
She should get him a gun. Jaune deserved a gun. Now, if only he'd stop silently mooning over Weiss. Sigh… what was she going to do with that boy? Hopefully get him to see her instead of Weiss eventually. Maybe get a relationship going like Nora and Ren (or… were they together? Pyrrha really had no idea) or whatever was going on between Ruby's older sister Cinder and her girlfriend Neo (and… Emerald? She wasn't entirely sure if Emerald was actually with them now…) or some other healthy relationship.
That'd be nice.
"Eh. I mean, I get why he keeps deflecting cuz Crocea Mors really isn't much of a mechashift weapon and my skillset is… y'know. Mechashift weapons…" Ruby shrugged, handing Akoúo̱ back to Pyrrha while relishing in the headpats and trying to actually stay in the moment instead of just letting her ears flutter and tail wag to the point that she ended up turning into a cuddle seeking puppy. "Mmrphhh~ you give really nice headpats… almost as good as Neo… mmmm~"
"Well- I'm glad to be of service," Pyrrha chuckled, continuing to scritch gently at Ruby's hair, grinning a little at just how puppyish Ruby was at times, her Semblance moving her shield onto her back to join Miló so she could start scritching with her free hand as well- which swiftly devolved into Ruby panting and barking incoherently moments later as she collapsed into her corgi form and all but fell into Pyrrha's arms. Ugh, so cute! If Ruby didn't have such sensitive ears, Pyrrha would have squealed with how utterly adorable she was even as a grimm corgi with glowing orange eyes. "Awww, you're so cute! Yes you are! Yes you are! Who's a cute widdle puppy awww yes you are you're the goodest girl aren't you awwww~!"
"... Pyrrha you do know she can still talk like that, right?" Blake deadpanned, peeking out from behind the makeshift curtains around her bunk and raising an eyebrow at the redhead hugging her partner, doing her best to not shudder at the sight of the red in her cape- the horrid little thing her usually adorable teammate had become- as much as Ruby was cute … corgis freaked her out. Their stubby legs were so weird . Dogs in general made her hackles rise but corgis? Ugh. Too much like walking marshmallows. "She doesn't actually start thinking like a dog, she's just… shaped like one."
"... I'm aware of that," Pyrrha cleared her throat awkwardly, blushing slightly as she let up on her ministrations and babytalk. "I um… should I go?"
"Eh. Do as you please," Blake snorted, rolling her eyes before retreating into the sanctity of her blanket fortress… and back into the giggling embrace of Yang , who was doing a terrible job of being stealthy in there.
Ruby blinked slowly, wiggling in Pyrrha's arms before nudging the champion's boob with her head. "Hey Pyrrha?"
"Yes Ruby?"
"... Wanna have a team movie night? Y'know, JNPR and RWBY…P?"
"... RWBY…P?"
"Look, there's really no good way to put Penny's name in there!" Ruby complained, bapping Pyrrha's chest with her paw and doing an adorable little puppy pout as she wiggled around some more, ears and tail wagging furiously as she tried to get comfortable with Pyrrha carrying her corgi form. "Anyway! Movie night!"
"... Well, I think we're all free. Sure!"
"Sweet!"
Notes:
Y'ever think about how Pyrrha's weapon is the first triple-changing weapon in the series but it's not really talked about most of the time?
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