Homeless Bunny (RWBY/Campione)

Homeless Bunny 7

Yang Xiao Long

‘This may have been a mistake,’ I thought as I dodged a claw swipe from the red one.

I knew a fair bit about anger and coping mechanisms; I had to with my Semblance being what it was. Dad and I burned hot, same with the white one. We were all passion and fire and fury. The red one though? She was ice-cold. She reminded me of Uncle Qrow, calculating and dangerous. She was the one that’d make sure I slept with one eye open.

When I punched her sister through a pillar, the look of frozen fury on her face almost made me hesitate.

She was easier to deal with now that her other half was knocked out cold. It wouldn’t be for long, probably a minute at most with aura, but the raw hatred in her eyes hurt as much as her claws.

I hadn’t meant for things to escalate like this. It was supposed to be a simple run. Get in, bully Junior for information about mom, and get out. Maybe knock some heads together if I needed to, but definitely not take on the entire gang overnight.

I was a prospective Beacon student, I could probably pass it off as cracking down on gang violence or something, but dad wouldn’t let me hear the end of it if he found out.

What did it say about me that I was more worried about getting chewed out than I was about fighting a gang?

‘That I’m fucking badass. Gotta meet Ruby right after this anyway. I should finish up.’

She was letting her anger get to her, nowhere near as experienced with it as I was at reining it in. I grabbed a sloppy slash towards my throat and spun her around like Zwei did with my old dolls before spiking her into the floor with all my weight. She had aura; she could take it.

Except, when I flung down, she was nowhere to be found.

“That’s enough of that, I think,” I heard behind me. I whirled and saw a rabbit faunus with snow-white hair and ruby-red eyes. Discounting the footlong ears that folded and flopped expressively, he was short, maybe even shorter than Ruby.

He was pretty. No, not just pretty, adorable in ways I couldn’t describe, ways that I wasn’t sure was humanly possible. His face was perfectly symmetrical and his large, red eyes and dainty nose gave him the image of perfect, angelic innocence. It was like looking at the most beautiful sculpture come alive, with fluffy bunny ears thrown on top for… reasons… I met his eyes and felt the instinctive need to collapse my gauntlets and go pet those ears.

‘Shut up, Yang,’ I chided myself. ‘He’s probably a gangster if he’s still here.’

I looked at him more closely. He was cradling the red twin in one arm and had a… plate of egg in hand… It actually looked pretty good, some kind of boiled egg wrapped in sausage and fried. He’d managed to save the red one, so that probably meant he had some sort of mobility Semblance. Maybe short-range teleportation?

He’d moved to the white twin in the time I’d taken to look him over. A golden seal that looked like a five-pointed star appeared and the smell of freshly cut grass filled the room before the white one sat up with a moan of pain.

That was… unusual. A healing Semblance of some kind? Those were rare, and meant my guess about teleportation was wrong. I looked around cautiously. That meant there was someone else here.

“A bit late to the party, fluffy,” red said with a relieved smile. So definitely not on my side then.

“I believe the words you’re searching for are ‘you’re welcome,’” the bunny replied dryly. “Now, what have we learned?”

The twins looked at him incredulously. “Seriously? Are you actually lecturing us right now? That’s totes lame, right, Mel?”

“Right, Mil,” the white one added. They were identical twins and even had similar names. Joy.

“Well too bad,” the bunny chided. “You two did alright, but Melanie, you tried to match a berserker in a contest of brute force and lost miserably.”

“Hey!”

“Shh! You should have stuck to what you were doing, breaking down her guard so Miltiades could whittle down her aura. Then, when she was critical, you could have gone for a decisive strike to end things. Instead, you got sucked into her pace of battle and let her dictate the way you engaged her. That was stupid.”

“Well, I-” She looked like she was going to argue before bowing her head. The white flower in her hair sagged with her. “I’m sorry.”

“And you, Miltiades. You lost the moment Melanie went down, but you losing control of your anger and getting sloppy wasn’t helping matters. If you played hit and run, there was a decent chance you could hold out long enough for her to wear herself out, or for Junior to grab a reload on his rocket launcher and recover a bit of aura before coming back. A battle isn’t fought alone, nor is it the place to lose yourself,” he lectured.

“I’m sorry, Tianyu. We’ll do better,” the red one said, head equally bowed.

I blinked in surprise. The bitch twins were showing respect. I thought they and Junior were the top dogs in the gang. It made me cautious. He was obviously strong enough or important enough to cow them. Maybe it was a little racist to think so, but a faunus probably wouldn’t get to be someone important without also being really strong in a human gang.

He placed the plate of battered egg down on the floor and reached out to hold both their faces. He gently lifted their heads so he could face them. Then, with a tenderness that ran contrary to his words, he began to pat them on their heads.

“You did good,” he said. “Despite it all, your movements are getting cleaner. You didn't showboat. You took her seriously right from the get-go. You’re learning and that’s what really matters.”

“R-Right,” they chorused, their faces burning. I was starting to get an idea of their dynamic now. Their crushes were so obvious even Ruby would be able to tell.

Then he dusted himself off and picked up the plate before standing to face me. “And as for you, blondie, you’re going to apologize.”

“Excuse me?” I was ready for the fight of my life. I was at roughly half my aura. My Semblance had cooled a bit but I could probably stoke the fire a bit longer if I needed to.

And he wanted me to apologize.

I looked around at the wreckage and felt a little guilty. “Ehehe, guess I kinda went overboard, huh? How about we call this a wash tonight?”

“Nope.” He held out the plate. “Jeremy went out of his way to master my Scotch egg recipe. He was really looking forward to taking control of the kitchen tonight. You fucking around cost him his customers and made him waste this egg. That customer must have been looking forward to eating Jeremy’s dish. So you will apologize. Take this plate, march into that kitchen, and find the one with the blue bandana. Then tell him you’re sorry for ruining his dish.”

“What?”

“Go. If you do, I’ll consider us even.”

“You’re kidding me.”

“I am not. You will apologize for ruining his hard work and be grateful that’s all I am asking of you,” he said sternly. He sounded a bit like dad, both as dad and Professor Xiao-Long at Signal Academy, like he was talking to an unruly child.

I saw red.

Seriously, who was this guy? What gave him the right to stroll in here and act like I owed him something? Where did he get off with this fucking arrogance? And he even looked so damn earnest with it too! Like I was the one in the wrong and he was doing me a favor!

I suppressed the quiet voice in the back of my mind that agreed with him. Instead, I stoked the pyre inside my soul. The world around me burned gold as my hair caught fire.

“You want me to apologize. Over an egg.”

“Please don’t apologize,” the red twin called from the side.

“Right. Totes. You can take him,” the white one added.

“This is going to be so funny, Mel.”

“Yeah, Mil. It’s finally happening.”

“I know, right? Someone else is going to get spooned.”

“It’s way better watching from this side of things.”

Then the both of them fell into a fit of giggles. I got the weird impression that they didn’t think I could take him.

That just made me angrier.

“Last chance,” the bunny said. “If you go find Jeremy and say you’re sorry, and if he forgives you, I’ll let you walk away.”

“No. Fuck that. I’m going to punch in your smug little face.”

“Suit yourself.” Then the little shit reached into his pocket. I expected a knife. Maybe brass knuckles like mine. No, he pulled out a fucking spatula. “This might be beyond your abilities, but someone who desecrates food and refuses to acknowledge her fault deserves the Wooden Spatula of Righteous Rebuke.”

“Oh, god, that thing had a big brother,” I heard one of the twin bitches whisper. There was genuine, undisguised awe mixed with horror in that voice.

“Blondie’s going to die, Mil.”

“Yeah… Blondie’s going to die.”

“I kinda feel bad for her,” one of them said. The worst part was that there was real sympathy, like I was supposed to be afraid of an oversized spoon.

I refused to be treated like Ruby with her hand in the cookie jar!

I saw red. I discharged the spent casings and whipped out a fresh set of ammo for Ember Celica before slotting them in with a satisfying click. Then, I pressed my shot-gauntlets behind me and fired, discharging two shells and launching myself forward. Fist cocked back, I yelled, “Eat this!”

He swung his spatula to meet me. I saw a streak of brown before my aura shattered like it wasn’t even there. Above fifty percent to feeling like a newborn baby faster than I could blink. All it took was a single flick of the wrist.

And then the rest of what happened registered. The scream of tortured metal. The explosion of dust rounds as they were compressed beyond all reason. The gauntlets I’d made with Ruby, proof of my status as a huntress, blew up. Half of Ember Celica shattered into a million pieces as I was thrown back by his counter.

‘It has to be some kind of dust-casting,’ I groaned in my head. He had that weird seal thing so there was probably some hidden dust crystal in the handle. Maybe gravity for striking power and added durability?

I didn’t know wood could be reinforced like that, but to be fair, I didn’t know a lot about dust. I knew enough to maintain my weapon and make new shells with fire dust and little else.

He walked up to me, spatula spinning in his fingers like a butterfly knife. “You can still say sorry.”

“It’s just an egg!”

“It is. It is also representative of my apprentice’s efforts this past three weeks. It is the tangible proof of his growing skill and you ruined it. Apologize and you can walk away. Or don’t, and I will stop being nice.”

I tried to stand but collapsed back to my knees. Aura exhaustion was a bitch and I just didn’t have it in me to fight. He loomed over me; the midget looked so tall like this. I opened my mouth to speak-

“Get away from my sister!” I heard. And with it came the familiar sound of Crescent Rose unfolding.

I turned, just in time to see Ruby aiming her rifle behind her. The crack of a sniper round sounded as a blizzard of rose petals cloaked her body. My eyes widened in horror. I had to warn her but no words escaped my mouth. I wouldn’t make it in time.

“Hiiyaaah!” Ruby yelled, her cherished blade scything through the air towards the monster bunny.

“God, there’s more of you?” I heard him mutter.

Then, in a move that boggled the mind, he caught Crescent Rose in two fingers. He held the blade there, frozen in place by impossible strength, an inch from his throat. Ruby’s eyes widened as she came to a stop. She was dangling in the air, refusing to let go of her weapon but not tall enough to reach the ground. It would have almost been funny if I wasn’t so scared for her.

“R-Run, Ruby,” I croaked.

“Hey now, brat. I’m not the one who marched in here, chased out all the guests, beat up the staff, and threw a tantrum like a child,” the bunny spoke. He looked bored, annoyed, and exasperated, but not angry.

That was probably a good thing. He’d officially moved straight past dad on the list of people who fucking terrified me. Even dad took a dozen hits to erase my aura and he was a top-tier huntsman.

“Yang wouldn’t do that!” Ruby yelled back. I felt a wave of guilt at her ironclad faith in me. I’d really screwed the pooch this time…

She tried to tug on the weapon to no avail. Then when that didn’t work, she yanked herself onto the shaft and rode it like a witch’s broom while pulling the trigger.

Crescent Rose was heavy. It had to be to withstand the stress my sister put on the weapon. The staff was made of an incredibly strong alloy. The joints and tips of the scythe blade had to be quality stuff. If Dad and Uncle Qrow hadn’t been teachers at Signal, there was no way Ruby would have had access to those metals from the forge.

The sniper had enough power to launch the scythe and Ruby backwards. Bullet for bullet, it was more powerful than Ember Celica.

And the bunny didn’t even budge. He held the scythe in the exact same position, not a single hair out of place. At best, he looked a little annoyed at having the sniper round go off so close to his ears. That left Ruby straddling her weapon awkwardly, staring back at him with mounting realization.

“Alright, I’m going to let you have your weapon back and you’re going to wait while blondie goes to apologize.” He let her go.

Ruby flipped in the air and landed in a crouch.

“You won’t get us!” she yelled. Her faith in me was awe-inspiring, but we were so outclassed it wasn’t even funny. She was in her own world now. “Stand up, Yang! He can’t beat both of us. Hiyaa!”

She turned her scythe around and started a rising swing that would have cleaved him from waist to shoulder. The bunny sighed and his spatula became a blur. Then I heard it again. Crescent Rose, Ruby’s pride and joy, the weapon she loved like her firstborn child, shattered.

“Okay, you don’t have a weapon anymore. Now will you listen?”

The room fell silent. Ruby slumped to her knees as she cradled Crescent Rose’s mangled shaft. Her hands trembled. I could see tears in her eyes and I swore I’d never forgive him for making Ruby cry.

“N-No… M-My baby…” she gasped. The immense sorrow in her voice rubbed my heart raw. I knew she’d rather cut off her own arm than damage her weapon. She’d spent hundreds of hours designing that thing, ever since Uncle Qrow first began teaching her. It was everything to her. Her hands clenched into tiny fists. “You…”

“It’s just a weapon, brat,” the bunny said. WIth those five words, Ruby found her nemesis.

“Just a weapon? A weapon? Y-You monster!”

She glared up at him with pure grief and righteous fury in her eyes. Then, something happened. Her eyes began to glow. I thought I could see wings of light erupt from them.

And then everything went white.

Author’s Note

Height. Tianyu is 5’ even. Canonically, Neo is 4’ 10”, Ruby is 5’ 2”, the twins are 5’ 5”, and Yang is 5’ 8”, making Tianyu the second shortest character so far.

And eyup… The casual arrogance of walking onto a battlefield, lecturing the defeated party, then telling the winner “Say you’re sorry or I’m going to be upset with you,” over a laughably petty matter. It’s the kind of attitude only a Campione can have and pisses Yang the fuck off.

So, Tianyu has zero clue how important Crescent Rose is to Ruby. He just sees a speedy brat who’s too eager to take a swing without hearing things through first. The Silver Eyes supposedly ignite like the sharingan from Naruto, at moments of incredible stress. Usually, that's the loss of a loved one or a life or death battle, but I thought it’d be funny if Ruby unlocked her eyes because she lost her “baby.”

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.