RWBY: The Giant's Little Rose

Chapter 16

For Ruby Rose, Saturday was a day she could spend entirely on training and practicing her Techniques. She had woken up early to get a training room all to herself, since the school won't bring her anymore boulders. Pity, these droids would have to do.

At least they attack you instead of wasting time trying to pound, slash, and blast a boulder to powder. But they were also delicate compared to her powers, but it was a trade-off she had to make do with.

But something was off with Ruby. She wasn't fighting these droids for ordinary training.

No. She was stressed out and sealed those droids fates as stress relievers. It didn't really have to do with the gift her mother left her, or the fact she met her mother in a dream, and most certainly because she couldn't get her feelings across to Blake Belladonna.

No. At least not the first two.

What really got to her was what happened two days ago after she left the Infirmary. Something she should've expected, but didn't prepare for.

Two Days ago

The days passed quickly. Before they knew it, Ruby and her team had been at Beacon for almost a month and a half. In that time, Port occasionally called Ruby back down for more stories, and she fought in Glynda's class three more times.

The first was against Ren and Nora, which she made a note to never use electric attacks. EVER.

The second and her first ever loss was against a woman named Coco Adel. She was much stronger than she looked and would be why she didn't find her weapon just as stunning as her. She and her got along fairly well and would usually go to her for leadership advice.

The last one was the one she would be fighting right now; against her sister, Yang Xiao Long.

Glynda looked back and forth between Ruby and Yang. She'd had reservations about this matchup, but felt it was important to properly assess their abilities. Yang was the second-ranked fighter in the class, by Glynda's estimation. First rank was presently unidentified, with Ruby and Pyrrha both holding a strong claim to the top spot. Pairing the two of them off would be the simplest way to figure it out.

However, Ruby worried Glynda. She still sensed that Ruby was hiding her full capability. She first wanted to see if a close battle against an opponent with a style significantly different from her own might be able to draw out more of that hidden capacity.

The problem would be whether or not either opponent would fight this match seriously, and in the spirit of how these matches were supposed to be conducted. Yang was normally an eager brawler, always happy to give her all in the ring, which usually led to quick, brutal victories.

Ruby...on the other hand, worried Glynda a good bit more. Ruby's animosity towards Yang hadn't been hard to miss. It was apparent that she would prefer to act as though Yang didn't exist and always seemed to take it as an irritation whenever something Yang said or did reminded her of Yang's existence.

That had changed slightly. Though they sat apart in this class, sitting with their respective teams, Glynda couldn't help but notice that, for the first time, being forced to acknowledge Yang's existence had not elicited a hostile glare from Ruby. Now the two were standing across the ring from each other. There was no hostility to be seen from Ruby. In fact, both of them now seemed to have some degree of trepidation.

Despite that, they both nodded when she asked, "Are you ready?"

Deciding to simply hope that things went for the best, Glynda moved beyond the ring and brought up the safety barrier. As she did, she saw something that made her mouth go dry.