Homeless Bunny (RWBY/Campione)

Homeless Bunny 11

Ruby dragged me out to a place called From Dust Til Dawn, a quaint, little store that sold dust to huntsmen in various grades. The store had two, large windows that gave passersby a good look at its wares and a near selection that ranged from self-serve powder dispensaries that charged by the weight in one wall to fist-sized dust crystals behind glass exhibits that doubled as the counter. Some of the dust was also pre-shaped into specific cartridge sizes for easy use.

Most of all, what struck me was the mana. I could feel it flow through the store, the presence of magic sealed in each crystal grain calling to me. It was at once chaotic and beautiful, each element playing a different song to my sensitive ears.

I felt Ruby take me by the hand and bodily drag me into the store. "Come on, Tianyu! Let's get our baby some ink!"

I rolled my eyes and tried to suppress a smile. Kid was too cute, honestly. "You realize how stupid that sounds, right?"

"Whatever. Crescent Rose needs dust! Ooh! And they have gravity! And wind!"

"They do indeed. Question is, do you have money?"

"Uhh… Yes…?"

"Enough for two high-end crystals? Because higher purity will naturally make for a better product."

"Umm…" She glanced at the exhibit and visibly winced. "Ooh… D-Does it have to be top grade dust?"

I chuckled and handed the shopkeep my card. "It's fine. You owe me money, got it?"

"I-I can't."

"Didn't you want the best for 'your baby?'"

"Our baby. We made her together."

"Still creepy. And seriously, it's fine. I refuse to engrave your silly sniper-scythe with anything less than the best of the best," I said, explaining the context so the shopkeeper would stop staring at us like we were teen parents.

"Are you sure? I-I'll pay you back. Promise!"

"Sure, whatever you say, kid."

It really didn't matter. Junior did pay me after all. I wasn't raking in millions or anything, but considering I lived at the club and all my standard of living concerns were provided for, I didn't mind. If anything, I had a lot more lien than I knew what to do with.

Moreover, the newly reforged Crescent Rose Mk. II was worth incomparably more than anything else in this world. I could quite literally give her a New York skyscraper and that kind of cash would still be considered the cherry on top compared to a weapon of lunar cold iron. Ask a mage from earth and they'd consider Ruby among the wealthiest people on the planet simply for having that weapon.

I nodded gratefully to the shopkeep, an elderly, balding man with gray hair who faintly smelled of ramen, and stashed my two dust crystals. I was ready to head home, but Ruby pulled me aside to a magazine rack.

"Ooh! Tianyu, look! The latest edition of Lock & Load came out!"

"Ruby, I have no idea what that is."

"It's the best magazine for guns! You should check it out!" she exclaimed excitably.

"I don't have a gun so I don't care about the magazine," I said patiently. I then spied something else. "Now, Cuisine Connoisseur sounds like a magazine I'd be interested in."

"Do you think about anything other than cooking?"

"Do you think about anything other than guns?"

"Of course not, they're super important for a huntress. Actually, you should get a gun."

"Ruby, I'm faster than your sniper rifle."

"Nu-uh. Even I'm not that fast."

I sighed and remembered that I didn't actually do any moving while Ruby watched. She tried to hit me with her scythe and I just kinda slapped her around for a bit, didn't take a step. "Ruby, if you were to fire your bullet at the streetlight outside, I'd be able to run outside, catch the bullet, and put it back in your hand before the bullet could crack the glass."

"Hah, yeah, right. You're strong, but no one's that fast."

"Sure, whatever."

We let the conversation die as we went about reading our respective magazines. Ruby pulled out a set of headphones, emblazoned with her personal crest, and started listening to some rock-pop thing I vaguely remembered hearing on the radio. I was happy with how the evening turned out. Jeremy got his kitchen. I got to clear my debt. Ruby got a kickass weapon. Everyone won tonight.

I must have spoken too soon because I heard a familiar pompous ass step onto the street. Civilians cleared the way as quickly as they were able, though how they could take Roman Torwick of all people seriously, I had no clue. Maybe I really was losing touch with the common man. Was… Was Torchwick supposed to be scary to normies?

What really got my attention were the half dozen Xiong Family grunts following behind him. They swaggered down the street like they expected rent money from all involved, which now that I thought about it, might be true.

The men made a beeline towards this store, passing several other stores that were closed for the night, and thus would be easier marks if they were out for cash. That made their objective clear: dust. What Roman wanted with this didn't interest me as much as why Junior agreed to lend him men.

'At least the twins aren't involved in this shit,' I thought. 'If they were, I'd have to provide them with more guidance than usual…'

I could have led Ruby out of the store, made things easy for them, but… upon reflection, I decided to pull a bit of a prank on the gang members. And sometimes, doing nothing was the prank.

X

"Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a dust shop open this late?" I heard Roman's voice behind me. Next to him, one of Xiong's grunts pulled a gun on the shopkeep. I made a note to discipline him later.

I waited and sure enough, one of the mooks came our way. Ruby heard nothing, distracted with the latest silencer model from Atlas.

"Put your hands where I can see them?" the mook called.

Slowly, I folded my magazine and turned around with a beatific smile on my face. My ears fell, lying flat against my scalp in a sign no one could misinterpret. "Are you… robbing me?"

I cackled inside as the poor man went deathly pale. He may or may not have pissed himself a little. "Uh… I… No…?"

I coughed insistently. If they wanted to rob a joint, I expected them to show a little commitment, damn it. Besides, I figured if I "fought off" a gang, no matter how incompetent they were, I could clear my name. I couldn't possibly be White Fang then, right? Just a humble chef doing his civic duty.

My eyes narrowed in unspoken threat. I could quite literally hear the cold sweat trickle down his back. "I said, are you robbing me?"

"Yes?"

"Are you asking me or telling me?"

"Telling you?" He coughed awkwardly, red machete swinging around like a balloon animal. "Telling you."

I nudged Ruby with my foot. She turned around, saw the suited man with a machete, and looked at me with betrayal.

I rolled my eyes. Just because I lived at the club didn't mean I had anything to do with these idiots!

Slowly, in the most pained deadpan I could manage, I said, "Aah… I, a helpless, adorably fluffy, and unimaginably talented chef, is being robbed at knifepoint by a vicious gangster… Won't a brave, vertically challenged huntress save the day?"

Ruby blinked. She looked around the shop, saw Roman rifle through more dust, and finally connected the dots. "Ohhh… Haiyaa!"

Ruby launched the poor mook out the window with a spinning dropkick. The girl had a surprising amount of power in her lithe frame, maybe from swinging around a sniper-scythe.

She leapt after him, pulling Crescent Rose from her back with the hiss of mechashift joints. It unfolded in gleaming silver that caught the shattered moonlight above. The lunar cold iron seemed to react to the moonlight, casting an eerie aura of power around the young woman.

Roman and the rest of the grunts turned at the noise.

I held out my palms in surrender. "Hit me and you can find someone else to make your cocktails," I snarked.

Roman took one look at me and dismissed me as a non-factor. He gestured to the men on loan. "Okay… Get her."

It was a short fight. They swung their machetes like idiots, with zero thought to form or technique or even basic common sense. I found one trying to wield it in a reverse grip like a praying mantis, only for Ruby to promptly feed him his teeth with a backswing that shattered his aura.

Honestly, I was a little ashamed to be associated with these guys. I wasn't part of the gang or anything, but the fact that Ruby thought I was involved in this stupidity stung a little. Had I known I'd be lumped in with them, I might have even taught them a thing or two so they wouldn't be so fucking embarrassing to watch.

"You were worth every cent, truly you were," Roman grumbled under his breath as the last of them was knocked out cold and flung at his feet.

That was a relief to hear; it meant Junior loaned him a few men for money, not for a partnership or anything. Mercenary work wasn't the cleanest occupation out there, but I could respect the hustle. I'd have to talk to him about taking jobs from more reputable sources however.

Roman held out his cane like a gun and depressed a button on one side. The bottom opened up and stood straight, becoming a sight he could aim through. Then, with the press of a trigger, an explosive round of some sort was launched from the cane… because of course the fucking cane was also a gun…

I didn't bother moving even now. Ruby was plenty fast enough to dodge such a slow-moving round. And sure enough, the little reaper leapt through the air, needlessly pirouetting like a ballerina. At least her cape made it look kinda neat?

Roman was already halfway up a fire escape. Ruby caught up with a single bullet from Crescent Rose, using it and her Semblance like a demented pogo stick to boost herself up several stories.

Roman said some quippy one-liner, blew up some dust, and a blonde librarian who either really liked horseback riding or had some suggestive interests showed up. Roman got into an aircraft and was about to flee, leaving Xiong's men lying around the torn up street.

Seeing how they'd both forgotten about me, I was about to head back home when I felt it: mana.

It wasn't Ruby; it felt too different from her petrifying gaze thing to be her power going nuts again. It felt like fire, but with different elements swirling just beneath the surface. This world was still very new to me, but after weeks of study, I could at least consider myself well-versed on local legends and elemental magics of this caliber were associated with just one legend I knew of: the Maidens.

I blurred onto the rooftop.

"Tianyu!" Ruby cried in surprise.

"Stand back! This is no place for students!" the blonde yelled. A purple seal of some kind glowed in the air, not unlike my own. I felt her aura sink into the molten debris around her, shaping it into a lance she launched at the aircraft.

The magic came from the pretty woman in red. Beneath the shadow of the darkened aircraft, I could see a woman with long, wavy, raven locks and eyes of liquid gold. She had a confident smirk on her face and wore clothes embroidered with dust.

She brought her hands together and a burst of flame exploded out from her. The blast scattered the librarian's lance while leaving the debris unharmed.

I promptly ignored the librarian as she squawked out a warning behind me. Skipping into the air, I landed inside the aircraft. "What's up, doc?" I asked with a cheeky grin.

"How the hell did you get here?"

"Not important. You, fire-lady, what's with the magic?" The woman in red didn't reply. Instead, she shot me with a concentrated blast of flame that would have launched me clean out of the aircraft had not the mana simply fizzled out as it touched me. "Rude. Seriously, are you a Maiden?"

"Who are you?"

"I'm a chef. And I've been looking for the Maidens. Do you mind if we have a little chat?"

Another burst of flame washed over me, doing fuck-all. Her eyes widened in surprise and a little worry now. Seeing how magic wasn't cutting it, she closed with me in melee, launching a high kick towards my face.

I let it connect. She was good. Not Yinghua good, but good enough that I'd seriously consider introducing her to the Holy Cult of Five Mountains as a junior acolyte were we on earth. Still, Luo Hao hit me harder than this when we were messing around.

Nonplussed, I continued to ask her questions conversationally. "Really, I just want to chat. Do you know who gave you your powers? The legends say a great wizard blessed four girls, but who's the wizard? Is he dead? If so, where is his grave? Are you the original Maiden or is there some kind of inheritance ritual I should know about?"

"Get us out of here," the woman spat at Roman. She then drew a pair of knives made of obsidian glass. No, there was some dust-based chemical there too, probably why it could change shape. She lunged towards me, immediately going for the throat.

I didn't want to ruin my clothes, shopping was a pain when people were dicks to faunus and giving the twins carte blanche to use me as a dress-up doll sounded awful, so I tanked the attacks with my face.

"Look, if I let you keep stabbing me, can you please answer my questions?" I asked placatingly.

"You're fucking with me," Roman groaned. "What the hell are you, kid?"

"A chef."

"Cinder, we're clear."

"You know this faunus?" the woman called Cinder growled.

"Xiong Family's new chef. Really good cook."

I gasped, affronted. "Excuse me? I'm the best chef."

"For the love of… Why are you here?"

"Didn't you hear me? I'm just here to ask her about the Maidens!"

"What Maidens?"

"You know, the legend about a wizard giving magic to four girls. I'm still trying to figure out the rest but I'm like ninety percent sure your friend's one of them."

"You can't live," Cinder whispered. "I'm sorry, Roman, it seems you now know too much. I didn't expect our partnership to end so soon, but needs must."

I rolled my eyes. "Seriously? What is it with you and all this melodrama? I come to ask some questions and you try to murder me. I tell him a neat little legend and you want to murder him too. Anyone ever told you that you can't solve your problems with violence?" I paused. "Unless you're Doni. Or Voban. Or Luo Hao. Okay, maybe you can, but you're nowhere near strong enough to do that."

She snarled and lashed out in a blur of strikes that I stopped with my trusty spoon. "What are you?"

"I told you already! A chef! Now answer my questions, woman!"

"I have nothing to say to you!"

She let out a shout of exertion and I felt her mana spike. A ball of fire condensed in her hand with enough magic to blow up a city block. I frowned. Her legs tensed and I knew she'd try to dive down in the blast, using it as a smokescreen to flee.

I couldn't have that. I didn't want to make too much of a scene, so I reached out and plucked it from her hand before stuffing the fireball in my mouth. It tingled a bit going down, but I wasn't terribly worried about potentially bypassing my protections. Even if it was strong enough, the Reaper of Harvests Authority would protect me from anything I willingly consumed, converting it all into mana for my use.

"You ate it!"

"Yeah? So?" I yelled back.

"What the hell are you?" Cinder screamed, panicked.

Instead of answering, I lashed out with a punch that knocked her out cold. She clearly wasn't in the right headspace to talk. I wrapped an arm around her waist as she slumped to the floor. Turning, I looked back at Roman with a glower.

"If I turn you in, Neo's going to break you out within the day, isn't she?" I asked. It wasn't lost on me that the midget wasn't around. She'd hear about his arrest within a few hours and bust him out on her own, and that was if she didn't need to buy the location of his holding cell from Junior first.

"Uh… I'm not sure what the right answer here is… buddy ol' pal…"

"You called me an animal and told me not to shed in your drink. Last night."

"Ahahahaha… What's a little ribbing between friends, eh?"

"I don't know, that was very hurtful, you know. It's not like I shed any more than a normal person."

"Ahahaha… I blame the alcohol?"

"Turn this plane around. You're alive because you can appreciate a good cocktail."

"Huh, I'm never going to that AA meeting," he mumbled.

Despite his bitching, the airship reversed course and I soon found myself landing back on the rooftop, the one called Cinder slung over my shoulder. Roman followed after me. He turned and eyed the controls contemplatively, but a glare from me kept him trudging along.

"Yo, Ruby," I greeted.

"Tianyu! How? What happened?"

I jostled the woman on my shoulder. "She's like you. She's got magic powers, but with elements instead of magic eyes. I'm pretty sure she's a Maiden. Oh, and Roman's turning himself in. We had a heartfelt chat and everything."

The librarian stiffened. "How did you know that? Who are you?"

"Why does everyone keep asking me that? I'm a chef."

"Is this a joke to you?"

"And here we go again. Look, I'm going to insist I'm a chef. You're not going to believe me. Can we skip this song and dance and get around to answering my questions for a change?"

She squawked something incoherently. Her face turned an interesting shade of red before she sighed and said something about me being Ozpin's problem. "Okay, fine. I can… arrange for answers… if you would come with us?"

"Thank you, that's literally all I want from you. Sure as hell isn't an S&M sesh."

"And if you would relinquish the criminals into my custody?"

I shrugged. She clearly knew what a Maiden was; I could probably trust her to hang onto Cinder. I also felt confident in my ability to find her later now that I knew what Cinder's magic felt like. "Fine, go ahead."

Author's Note

Remember, Roman and Neo haven't actually seen Tianyu fight. They've seen him cook with mad knife skillz ™, but they weren't around for Yang's fuckup, which means things proceeded as canon with Roman, Neo, and Cinder.

Thank you for reading. Believe it or not, this is the seventh website I've crossposted to. I want to make sure this site catches up with the others, but it's slow, tedious work. Until then, other sites will have a much more updated library of my works. If you want to read ahead, or check out other stories I've written, you can find them all on my Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/fabled.webs.