The sun was starting to set as a young Yang Xiao Long was pulling a red wagon, which had her three-year-old little sister Ruby as she had decided to take her along to not leave her alone at the cabin back in Patch as she had decided to leave after their father left the house as this was the perfect moment to search for her birth mother as the old photograph had given her a clue on where she is.
To put it simply, Yang was exhausted after hours of who knows how long of walking, and she had cuts and bruises on her hands and legs, but she didn't care, as this was a clue to finding the answer to why her mother had left. As Yang turned around, she saw Ruby, who had fallen asleep peacefully. She couldn't help but smile, as nothing had gone wrong so far, but it's not like they would be gone for a day or so; it was just a long, long walk, that's all.
Or that's what she told herself at least, but she didn't care as long as she could get her answers. That was fine. She was also surprised at how the wagon hadn't broken apart with all the rocks and holes that had hit it during the journey.
Shaking her head, Yang looked ahead of her. She had seen all the tall grass and fields finally start to end, and the ground, which was a little flooded, was up to her shoes; finally, it had an end point, as well as there was a tiny hill to climb, and above it was a building that look kinda rundown from where she was at.
Yang wiped the sweat from her forehead before grabbing the wagon's handle tighter.
"There...I finally found it after so long, I made it," she whispered.
The more she walked toward it with the wagon, the more rundown the building was, with no windows or even a door. Parts of its roof had collapsed, and the wooden walls were weathered from years of rain and wind. It didn't look like a place anyone would live anymore.
The place in the photograph...
But this place felt so off; it didn't look like a place anyone would live in. If anything, it felt like it was abandoned a long time ago... if anything, did she travel all the way here for nothing?
Yang's excitement slowly began to fade.
"No..." She said as she got closer and looked around, seeing that nothing had been touched.
At that moment, Yang had realized that the photograph had been a dead end; it was like all the progress she had made to find her birth mother had been all for nothing, and she had taken her baby sister along with her for this cruel joke to come to light.
When Yang was engulfed in a moment of despair, her thoughts became clouded as she shook her head in an attempt to regain clarity. Suddenly, a low growl echoed from the abandoned building, which had no door. A pair of red eyes glowed in the dark entrance.
Then a second, then a third, then many more red eyes began to appear as Yang realized what was in front of her, while her dad and Uncle Qrow told her about them...
Creatures of darkness.
Monsters that hunted humans.
The dark creatures known as Grimm.
Her heartbeat began pounding loudly inside her ears. As the glowing red eyes continued to multiply in the darkness of the abandoned building, it appeared to be a dozen of them.
Yang instinctively took a step backward.
Then another.
She could see every pair of red eyes immediately locked onto her, as Yang could feel her blood run cold, as her fear had taken over, and she didn't even realize she had screamed as she grabbed the wagon's handle and began pulling it with all her strength.
The wheels bounced violently against the uneven ground.
Behind her, the Grimm poured out of the ruined structure like a pack in her eyes; they looked like wolves from the stories that she had been reading by herself when her dad wasn't around, or Ruby had been asleep, and she had nothing to do.
But that's not all. What scared her the most was that there were so many of them that she couldn't outrun them forever, and if she did, her baby sister was going to get hurt because of her...
Or maybe even die because of her own stubbornness and selfishness.
This was all her fault.
She should never have brought Ruby here at all or even have come here herself if she had known this was a dead end...Now her dad was going to be all alone because of her own fault, after what happened to Summer, and now this.
Tears were beginning to form in Yang's eyes.
She was only a child... No, she was a bad child.
A bad child who had wandered too far from home.
A selfish big sister who had brought her little sister into danger.
The wagon suddenly jolted.
Ruby had woken up.
"Huh...?"
Sleepily rubbing her silver eyes, Ruby looked around only to almost fall from another sudden jolt.
"Yang?"
Yang looked back.
The sight of her little sister's innocent, confused expression nearly shattered her heart.
Ruby didn't understand what was happening.
She didn't understand why Yang was crying.
"Ruby, please hold on tightly and don't look back, you understand!" Yang yelled as Ruby was still confused, but understood as she held tightly and did not look back, even if she heard loud growling and the sound of fast footsteps
Yang pulled harder.
Her exhausted arms and legs burned, but that didn't matter to her as the Grimm were getting closer.
Yang then heard a loud growling coming from her left as she saw a Grimm leap toward her, and her eyes went into shock as she didn't know they were this clever to hide in the darkness and jump her from the left before she could even evade it.
Its claws sliced across Yang's shoulder.
"Aah!"
She stumbled and lost her footing as the wagon tipped sideways hard, and as Yang saw Ruby's body tumored out and crashed in front of her onto the muddy ground.
"Ruby!" She screamed out in terror as she ignored the pain in her shoulder and rushed toward Ruby, and got in front of her to protect her.
The Grimm surrounded them.
One by one.
Their glowing eyes formed a circle around the two girls.
Yang wrapped both arms around Ruby and pulled her close, and made sure she couldn't see the Grimm and be more terrified than she already was.
Yang could see that Ruby was trembling in her arms.
"Yang...?"
The blonde girl bit her lip as she could hear the fear in her baby sister's voice.
She couldn't stop crying anymore, as the tears started flowing out uncontrollably.
This wasn't supposed to happen...
She was supposed to find her birth mother.
She was supposed to get answers.
She was supposed to protect Ruby.
Not get her killed.
The largest wolf-looking Grimm stepped forward.
Its massive jaws opened as it got ready to leap into the air.
Yang squeezed Ruby tighter.
"I'm so so sorry..."
For the first time in her life, Yang truly felt helpless...that was it, and it was all her fault.
The beowolf leaped into the air straight to them as it was ready to kill their prey, going straight for Yang
And at that exact moment...
Ruby's silver eyes opened as they shone just a bit, but enough to draw attention to anchor something not from this world, but also something else was able to anchor the same thing, and that was from...
A pure and innocent wish born from a child's heart.
"Please..."
Ruby held onto Yang.
"Help my big sister."
Then the world froze.
The wind ceased.
The beowolf halted mid-stride.
As throughout that moment when that wish was formed, Yang felt an intense, burning pain on the back of her left hand as it left a mark imprinting itself onto her skin as she gritted her teeth in agony
Squelch
Yang's pain faded away as she looked up to see the beowolf no longer leaping toward her and Ruby, but it was hanging in the air as its mouth was pierced through by a spear that looked like water as it turned to dust, leaving nothing behind.
Yang turned a little to her left to see a man who was in front of them as he turned around a bit to look at her, as the broken moon's light shone from above him and at her, as the man standing before her had short messy orange hair, dull blue eyes, and a red mask tilted to the side of his head and was wearing a gray jacket and had a red looking scarf across his chest over his left shoulder.
But what caught her attention even more was an emblem of sorts near his belt, the color of water, with a symbol.
However, Yang noticed something in the man's dull blue eyes; there seemed to be... excitement, which scared her a little, as who would be excited to fight Grimm?
One of the Beowolves lunged toward him when he was distracted, looking at her and Ruby.
As Yang wanted to scream a warning, but she never got the chance, as she didn't need to.
As in the blink of an eye, the man's hand moved quickly like a superhuman.
Two daggers formed, just like the spear made of water, as the weapon appeared as naturally as breathing, as the man got into a stance.
SHING!
The Beowolf was quickly impaled through the skull by one of the daggers before it even realized what happened, as the man then kicked one of the beowolf's hard to the side, hitting the others from the pack as they flew away. The beowolf that was impaled turned to dust
The man's smile widened.
"Well then...Since I'm already here..."
The air around him shifted as water gathered, creating another long dagger for his left hand to replace the one he had impaled a beowolf with.
"Let's have some fun," as the man's dull blue eyes shone in excitement for a challenge
The whole pack of beowolf's howled and charged straight at him as Yang's eyes widened, as there were too many of them for only one person to figh-
BOOM!
The ground exploded beneath his feet.
Yang blinked.
He was suddenly in the middle of the pack.
The only thing she could see was fast slashes and red eyes moving so fast that she couldn't keep up at all, as this didn't feel real at all like a dream, but it wasn't, as she saw...
Blue slashes of water carved through the Grimm like it was nothing, and it made Yang full of envy at how this man could be that strong, but here she was not strong at all and had put her family in danger...
She wanted to be strong too...
SHING!
She then watched as the man formed a two-bladed spear and spun around swiftly, slashing four beowolf in half. He then threw the spear at another beowolf that was hesitating, impaling it through the head and sending it crashing into a tree. As the fifth beowolf disintegrated into dust, he pulled out a beautiful blue and white bow out of nowhere. He summoned an arrow and drew it back, watching as the arrow began to gather water like a tide. When he released it, the arrow struck a beowolf in the head that was attempting to flee, exploding on impact and turning into dust.
Soon, only one beowolf remained from the pack.
The last beowolf growled and took a step back as the blue amulet from the orange-haired man's waist began to glow. In response, the Grimm turned and fled, glancing back only to see something shining like a star. The shining "star" suddenly drew closer... and closer.
It turned out to be a water arrow that struck the beowolf right in the eye, causing it to fall. As it struggled to get up, the beowolf saw in front of it the orange-haired man who had attacked its pack. The beowolf noticed the long dagger the man wielded, and it felt the dagger hit their skull, turning the last beowolf into dust.
The orange-haired man stood motionless for a few seconds.
Then he glanced around.
"...Guess that's all of them."
Yang could only stare.
Every Grimm was gone.
The muddy field that had moments ago been filled with monsters was now silent.
The only sounds left were her own shaky breathing and Ruby's quiet sniffles.
The orange-haired stranger slowly twirled one of his water-forged daggers before allowing it to dissolve into countless blue particles.
Ruby slowly peeked out from Yang's arms.
Her silver eyes immediately landed on the stranger.
"Whoa..."
The little girl looked amazed.
The stranger noticed her staring and blinked.
Then a grin spread across his face.
"Oh?"
He crouched down slightly.
"You're awake."
Ruby nodded.
"You saved us."
The man scratched the back of his head.
"Guess I did."
Yang quickly pulled Ruby closer.
She wasn't sure if this man was dangerous or not.
He saved them...But she shouldn't trust him.
The stranger noticed her cautious look and laughed.
"Relax."
He raised both hands.
"I'm not planning on hurting either of you."
Yang didn't lower her guard.
"Dad says strangers are dangerous."
The man stared at her, but then nodded seriously.
"Smart man, good thing you listen to him."
Yang flinched at the last part as she hadn't listened to him at all; if she had, then Ruby and she wouldn't be a part of this mess at all.
The orange-haired man then went wide-eyed as information went into his mind immediately of this world.
Huntsmen and Huntresses.
Aura.
Creaters of darkness named Grimm.
Academies.
The Brother Gods.
Salem and Ozpin's war.
A desperate wish anchored him.
He was a Heroic Spirit...and that means...
His eyes immediately moved toward Yang's left hand.
There it was.
Three crimson markings...Command Spells
The summoning had succeeded, and this girl is a master, which means...
Yang followed his gaze and looked at the back of her left hand.
The strange red symbol was still there.
"What is this?"
The orange-haired man stood quietly, but then started smiling as he took a knee and looked at Yang calmly as he spoke.
"Servant, Pretender. I'm Number 11 of the Fatui Harbingers, code-named Childe. But I also go by Tartaglia. I ask of you, are you, my Master?"
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
"...Huh?"