章節 29: Ruby in Action

[Xiao Long Family Cabin – 10:00 AM]

Ruby Rose is in her forge room, sitting in front of a workbench cluttered with tools and metal parts. In her hands, she holds the handle of a weapon in progress, the one she promised Daniel. A week has passed since they last spoke, since the last message he sent her.

Ruby sighs, carefully placing the tool down on the table. As much as she wants to write him, she still hasn't found the courage to do it. Instead of facing her emotions, she focuses on creating the best handle she can forge. Maybe, with some luck, this project will give her an excuse to meet Daniel, or at least talk to him and apologize properly.

The last time she saw him, things didn't end well. Ruby remembers how, the morning after the incident, she woke up early, determined to find him. But when she reached his room, he was already gone, leaving only a note. Panic took over her.

She was about to run after him when her mother, Summer, stopped her. Calmly and firmly, she made some calls, managing to find out that Daniel had been seen in the city of Patch. Although this news calmed her a bit, it didn't dispel the guilt she felt.

The door to the forge room opens, breaking the silence. Yang enters without hurry, leaning against one of the walls. She doesn't say anything at first, just watching her sister. The atmosphere is tense.

A few minutes pass before Yang speaks. "So… are you going to tell me what's going on?" she asks softly, but with curiosity.

Ruby keeps staring at the handle resting on the table, not responding immediately. Yang knows something's wrong. Her sister has been down all week, and it's not hard to connect the dots: everything seems to have started after Daniel's sudden departure.

"Nothing's wrong," Ruby answers, not lifting her eyes from her work. She finishes polishing the handle of the rapier. Yang, leaning against the wall, raises an eyebrow at her sister's response. She walks over to inspect the weapon.

"What are you making?" she asks, looking at the weapon with a mix of curiosity and confusion. The design seems surprisingly simple, lacking the usual complex transformations or features of Ruby's weapons.

"I'm making a handle," Ruby replies dryly, not stopping her work.

Yang waits a few seconds, thinking Ruby will elaborate, but she stays silent. Finally, Yang lets out an incredulous laugh.

"Just a handle?"

"Yes," Ruby confirms, not looking at her. "This is Daniel's rapier. He asked me to make a new handle for it, and I agreed, so I'm making it for him."

When Ruby finishes with the handle, she moves on to work on the blade, now with slower and more careful movements. Yang, noticing her shift in focus, moves closer and inspects the blade.

"It looks like bad quality," Yang comments, frowning.

Ruby lets out a heavy sigh. "Ah... yeah, I'm afraid it'll break," she admits, not taking her eyes off the blade.

"And what would happen if it got damaged?" Yang asks, grabbing a hammer from the nearby table, a glint in her eyes.

"Well..." Ruby hesitates, focused on her work. "Daniel would probably hate me..." She doesn't finish the sentence when Yang, without warning, strikes the blade with the hammer.

"AHHH!" Ruby screams, covering her eyes with her hands. "WHAT DID YOU DO?!"

Yang, ignoring her sister's complaints, calmly observes the blade. "I just wanted to see how strong it was."

Ruby keeps her hands on her face, too scared to look. "It's broken, right?! Of course, it's broken! It's definitely broken! He's going to break up with me, I know it!"

Yang inspects the blade and is disappointed to see that it remains intact. "Ah… Ruby, stop complaining. It's still fine."

"WHAT?!" Ruby removes her hands from her face and looks at the rapier with wide eyes. "IT'S FINE! It's a miracle!"

Yang lifts the hammer once more and strikes the blade harder. This time, the impact resonates throughout the room.

"STOP!" Ruby yells, furious, grabbing the rapier as she frantically inspects it for any damage.

Yang drops the hammer and places her hands on her hips, visibly upset. "This time, I used my aura! How did it not break?"" she exclaims, frustrated, glaring at the rapier.

"YANG, WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?! WHY...?" Ruby was about to shout at her sister when something in Yang's words made her stop. Her mind processed quickly. "Wait... did you use your aura?"

Yang nods calmly, crossing her arms as she watches Ruby's reaction. Ruby, silently, looks at the rapier's blade. With a mix of curiosity and skepticism, she picks up a steel file from the workbench and carefully runs it along the blade's edge.

To her surprise, there's no mark. Frowning, Ruby applies more force, scraping the blade harder. However, the result is the same: not a scratch.

Yang, who had been watching silently, raises an eyebrow. "What are you doing, Ruby?"

"Wait here," Ruby responded quickly, though it seemed like she was speaking more to the rapier than to her sister. She rushed out of the room, leaving Yang alone with the weapon.

Yang looked at the rapier and shrugged. "Well, after all, you're not of that bad quality, huh?" she muttered under her breath, as if the weapon could hear her. However, her little conversation ended abruptly when Ruby returned, holding a huge saw.

"Ruby, where...?! AHHH!" Yang jumped to the side, barely dodging the spinning blade of the saw that Ruby aimed directly at the rapier without hesitation.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Yang yelled, alarmed, watching the dangerous scene unfold in front of her.

"EXPERIMENTING!" Ruby yelled back, not losing focus on the rapier as the saw cut through the air with a deafening screech.

The chaos continued until suddenly, a loud CRACK echoed through the room. The saw broke, its pieces flying around the room. Both sisters were covered in a light cloud of metallic dust.

When the air cleared, Ruby and Yang looked at the rapier. Ruby, incredulous, touched the blade carefully. It was intact, not a single scratch.

"This can't be..." Ruby murmured, before an odd sound escaped her throat. It was a high-pitched squeal, full of excitement.

Yang took a step back, alarmed. "Ruby, maybe you should calm down..."

But Ruby didn't listen. With her eyes shining with excitement, she ran toward the door of the room. "I'll get a bigger saw!"

Yang placed a hand on her face, sighing deeply. "Oh no... I've unleashed the beast."

For the rest of the day, Ruby pushed the rapier to its limits. She started with bigger tools: circular saws, impact hammers, scorching fire, and freezing temperatures. Each attempt to damage the blade failed, and that only fueled Ruby's determination.

"What else can I try?!" she shouted, while connecting an electric current to the rapier.

Yang, sitting aside, watched as her sister tirelessly worked to break the blade. Ruby's frustration was palpable, and the number of tools she used seemed endless. There was even a point where Ruby, desperate, tried to bite the rapier, only to scream in pain when it didn't work.

Ruby glared at the blade with fury. "I need something more extreme..." she whispered to herself.

[Improvised Testing Ground]

"Ruby, are you sure about this?" Yang asked, looking at her sister with concern.

"OF COURSE I AM!" Ruby responded enthusiastically, quickly stepping away from the rapier, which was chained to a large rock about 200 meters from the cabin. Around it, several torches were aimed directly at the blade.

Yang frowned as she watched the scene. "Can you explain this to me again?" she asked, trying to process what her sister was planning.

Ruby, full of energy, began to explain. "Well, here's the plan: the rapier stays there, 200 meters away from the cabin. When I press this button," she said, pointing to a small device on her wrist, "the torches will start heating up the blade. Then, when it's hot enough, I'll shoot it with this," Ruby added, showing a sniper bullet.

Yang looked at her. "A sniper bullet?"

Ruby snorted. "Pfft, silly Yang! It's not just any bullet. It's a modified sniper round, filled with four types of Dust, in its most volatile form."

Yang stayed silent, processing the information. "Is that even legal?"

"It's not, but that's because it's not practical to use it against the Grimm," Ruby explained. "If you tried using it in your weapon, it would probably explode."

Yang thought about it for a moment, then asked, "So, wouldn't that destroy your Crescent Rose?"

Ruby nodded seriously. "Probably. That's why I'm going to use this," she said, showing a much larger sniper rifle.

Ruby approached her sniper rifle, gently caressed it, and whispered, "Sorry, but this is necessary."

She placed the weapon on the ground, adjusted the scope, aiming directly at the rapier's blade. As she made the final adjustments, everything seemed ready.

Suddenly, a voice interrupted the tense moment. "What are you doing?"

Summer stepped out of the cabin, holding a jar of pickles and munching on one. Ruby, surprised by the interruption, said, "Hiuu...!" looking at the pickles with distaste.

Summer simply rolled her eyes and continued with the question. "What are you doing?" she repeated, looking at both sisters with curiosity.

Ruby, taking a deep breath, smiled energetically. 'Making history, Mom!' she said, pointing to the rapier on the rocks. 'This rapier is made of some super tough material that I can't figure out, and I want to destroy it into pieces so I can create a super sniper cannon.'

Ruby wiped the drool that escaped her mouth just thinking about the possibilities.

Yang saw her sister drooling and resigned herself to the fact that Ruby wouldn't listen. She decided it would be better to join in on the fun. "Can I shoot?" Yang asked, grinning.

Ruby looked at her thoughtfully for a moment before responding. "Well..." she said, as if it wasn't a big deal. "You just have to pull the trigger, ah! And you have to turn on your aura, or the recoil will probably kill you."

Ruby stepped back several meters, leaving space for Yang next to the sniper rifle, while Summer followed, still confused.

"Mmm... Ruby?" Summer asked, still not fully understanding what was going on.

Ruby didn't pay her much attention. "READY!" Ruby shouted, pressing a button. The torches immediately began working, rapidly heating the rapier. Summer tried once again to get Ruby's attention.

"Ruby, wait!" Summer shouted, but Ruby, focused on the target, didn't listen.

"SHOOTING IN THREE!" Ruby counted excitedly. "TWO!"

"RUBY!" Summer exclaimed.

Ruby froze for a moment when she heard Summer's words. "Where did you get that rapier?" Summer asked, questioning where Ruby had gotten such a high-quality rapier.

That question snapped Ruby out of her trance. "YANG, WAIT!" she screamed, turning to her sister, but it was already too late.

BAAAAMMMMM!!!!

The explosion was so loud that the sound reverberated across the area. The bullet fired by Yang hit the rapier's blade directly, and in an instant, the explosion tore through everything around it. The chains flew into the air, the rock where the blade was attached shattered, and several meters around it were destroyed.

Yang got up, dizzy, with dust floating in the air around her. She looked at the sniper rifle, which was now completely destroyed. "Wow, she wasn't joking about having the aura on," Yang thought, observing how her aura had also been affected by the shot.

Ruby didn't wait a second longer. She ran toward the rocks, frantically searching for Daniel's weapon. "Where is it? Where IS IT?!" Ruby screamed, raising her arms to the sky as if begging for help, while desperately searching through the rubble.

-/-

Author's Note: Another chapter? Crazy, right? I thought it would be fun to write this, hahaha. If anyone's wondering what happened with the rapier, I haven't decided yet. Comment something, I like reading the comments!