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Chapter 38Chapter Text

The second day of the trip was, for Team RWBY, frightfully uneventful. Because of Ruby's insistence on going where the highest concentration of grimm was rather than sticking to their assigned bit of the forest (well, not that Professor Goodwitch had told them that they had to stay in their designated zones), there was an entire swathe of the Emerald Forest that was just now entirely empty of grimm- to the point that not even Ruby could detect any more. That the crimson Huntress had purposefully drawn in as many grimm as she could by flaring her Aura and projecting the never ending simmering cauldron of burning destruction that rested in her soul was… well. It made life easier for everyone else, didn't it?

It meant that everyone else didn't have to deal with as many grimm, it meant that her team got extra credit and got to sit out most of day two and just do chores and heavy lifting around camp (and catch up on any schoolwork they might not have scheduled time for), and it also meant that Ruby got to tell Professor Goodwitch about all of the grimm concentrating in Mountain Glenn- which, apparently, Professor Oobleck had mentioned offhandedly once but didn't go into because that was a decidedly second year subject.

Because, really, the story of a planned expansion to Vale failing and being consumed by grimm was just… depressing.

So, all in all, Ruby spent much of the second day of their outing wandering around the base camp, making sure their food supplies were good (and joining one of the other team leaders on a quick run to get their water truck refilled for showers later), and occasionally doing some heavy lifting when one of the bullheads from Beacon came down and landed with more ammo. None of her special shells, but plenty of bullets and grenades and Dust for anyone going out. 

Ruby may or may not have taken the time to completely empty the stock of .50 bmg cartridges and shove them into her pouches. Hey- it wasn't like anyone else used that caliber or higher in their year. Mostly. Yang was a special exception. 

"Ugh… bored…" Ruby sighed, working on making some pre-prepared sandwiches because there really wasn't much else she had to do- all of her homework was pretty much done except for the stuff she needed her notes back at the dorm for, the CCT signal out in this part of town was too slow to actually play any online games, and Professor Goodwitch didn't seem to want to let her go out into the forest alone despite all of her protests that she basically lived in the forest alone for a good chunk of time as a kid!

Sorta! Always with Uncle Qrow nearby in case an actual emergency happened, but pretty much alone!

Ugh. It just wasn't fair. Yang was back in town with Blake because Professor Goodwitch needed people to pair off to leave- even if it was just back into Vale- and Weiss was in the RWBY tent working on her homework, and here Ruby was with nothing to do! To the point that she was using a freakin' machete to slice bread instead of the dinky lil kitchen knives that they had access to! 

Uuuuuuugh…

"Miss Rose, if you have time to dawdle while making sandwiches then you have time to actually make sandwiches, " Professor Goodwitch chided lightly, raising her eyebrow as she walked over with a quiet huff as she continued monitoring the teams that she'd sent out- more to the east, this time, since that was where the higher concentrations of grimm were. "That said- I have a few questions I'd like to ask of you regarding some… interesting things I saw in the drone footage."

Ruby blinked, her hands stilling for a moment before she forced herself to keep making sandwiches and wrapping them in plastic wrap for later. "Um… what kind of things, Professor? Was it our team combos? Because I swear, I've been working really hard on team attacks but it's a little slow going because Blake is getting used to Gambol Shroud's new design and I've kinda been planning out upgrades to Myrtenaster in my head and-"

"No- not that… though your initiative is commendable given that we won't be properly covering team attacks until next semester. Well done on your leadership- you've come quite far from the anxious girl who made a mess of stopping a Dust robbery," Professor Goodwitch stated, pushing her glasses up before continuing. "My primary question is… complicated. Mostly in that I saw you seemingly… eating grimm- I am well aware that you've listed your Semblance as 'Grimm Rose' and described its effects, but…"

"Oh um… yeah… I have to eat grimm to add more stuff to my Semblance," Ruby nodded slowly, clearing her throat as she finished the last of the sandwiches and cleaned up the leftover scraps and condensing them into a ball… that she summarily fed to the gaping maw full of sharp, bony teeth and glowing orange interior that suddenly formed on her stomach. Professor Goodwitch tried very hard not to stare, but ultimately failed. "It's… kinda weird, honestly. It doesn't hurt or anything, and it's not like it really affects me much… I just… summon grimm stuff. Bones, shadow stuff, glowing eyes… Um… sorry if I'm explaining too much."

"Not at all, though it does clear up how you manage to get the exact same pattern of bones to grow through your uniform… that brings me to my second question actually," Professor Goodwitch paused, then looked Ruby up and down as she carefully eyed the burning coal eyes dotting Ruby's body, glimmering orbs filled with hatred that carefully did not move much- if at all… except when Ruby was trying to pretend at innocence and was looking awkwardly to one side while whistling. Or when she was laser focused on something or someone during a fight. "How… much of you is grimm, and how much is still… you?"

"... um…" Ruby paused, clearing her throat and looking to the side slowly, the eyes on her body following suit while her ears twitched and her tail suddenly hid itself behind her legs instead of doing its usual slow undulations. "... I'm… not sure? Physically, there's a lot of grimm stuff except for parts of my eyes? I think? Internally, I'm… about fifty fifty? Something like that? It's how I feel at least…"

"I see. Well. I also noticed you used alternative weapons whilst fighting- some of which you could not possibly have brought with you before we came on this trip. Where did you get so many spare weapons from?" Professor Goodwitch asked, raising her eyebrow delicately as her eyes traced over Ruby's form as if trying to figure out where she could be holstering any extra weapons. "And… have you trained with all of them?"

"I keep them in my body, and of course I trained with all of them! I built, refurbished, and remade all of them… more or less… so I might as well actually learn how to use them, right?" Ruby shrugged, chuckling a little bit before clearing her throat and lowering her head in contriteness. "I'm… not in trouble for using weapons beside Crescent Rose, am I?"

"No, but you will have to register all of them to your ownership before you're allowed to use them in class in any capacity," Professor Goodwitch answered, struggling to keep a cool face in light of the knowledge Ruby was unwittingly dumping into her head. Ruby, meanwhile, just kept up her mostly benign, rather guileless attitude, because she really wasn't sure why Professor Goodwitch was asking her this kind of stuff- she could sense that roiling storm of tightly controlled emotion within her teacher, but… well. She didn't want to pry. "One last question- why did you decide to take your team east? Your assigned sector was rather not in that direction, and while I do not begrudge you going off to hunt more grimm, I can't help but wonder why. "

"Oh, that's easy. I can sense other grimm, and there were a lot of them close to Mountain Glenn, so I figured we should clear them out- and even if Blake and Weiss got tired, I knew me and Yang could handle it- Yang's the coolest, and I don't really get tired unless I spend too much grimm mass at once so… y'know," Ruby shrugged, treating it as if it was an entirely everyday thing that she and her team had killed over a hundred grimm in about four and a half hours total. How terrifying. "It worked pretty much exactly how I thought it would."

"I see… interesting. Well. Thank you for your time Miss Rose- I should be going now. You may take the rest of the day off- but I'll expect you and your teammates to be ready for tomorrow, as I will be deploying you then," Professor Goodwitch spoke, her voice brooking no arguments otherwise (not that Ruby had any) before she nodded at Ruby, looked down at her datapad, and spun around to get back to where she'd been standing a few minutes prior. "Now if you'll excuse me- I have other matters to attend to."

"Oh- um… alright then. Thanks for the talk?"

"Of course, Miss Rose."

[Ruby's Original Version 1 Design. You'll see her actual grimm form... in chapter 47]