Asuka Ruby, Mina and Fumika
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After a more than just weird conversation with the Class-B Bully Amane, the visibly confused nekomimi made her way to the entrance of the dorms just as she had initially intended. It’d be just a few more moments before she could finally lock herself into her room and have her mind wander freely through the lovingly and carefully crafted fantasy worlds within her beloved novels that were stored in Ruby’s room. All while listening to some of her favorite tunes with the help of her headphones which were unique since they were created to fit even her feline ears. Already lost in her own thoughts about the events that just occured, the stinging pain in her hands and about what was to come in a few moments, Ruby was very absent-minded. While being a rather uncommon occurrence for the cautious and careful catgirl, right now she basically couldn’t pay less attention to her surroundings.
It is because of this unique state of mind she was in that Ruby did not notice the other two people approaching the other side of the doors to their dorms who, just when Ruby was reaching for the door herself, pushed it open from the other side. The catgirl, who was still dressed in her somewhat tight and rather dirty gym clothes after her intense training session, her hands being bandaged fully due to the small injuries the sustained, was caught so off guard that the door just slammed into her face. A cute and quiet shriek of surprise came from within the neko as she stepped back and held her nose with both hands.
"Eeh!"This small but literally impactful moment brought her back to reality as she saw the two figures standing in front of her, only one of whom she recognized. Ruby was incredibly embarrassed nonetheless, her cheeks blushing as she waited for them to step through the door.
Mina was the first to emerge, and seeing that the door she’d opened had hit the cat girl in the face, turned Lady-mode back on, and bowed to Ruby profusely.
”Oh my gosh! I am so sorry! Is there anything I can do to help?”Asuka blinked as she felt the slight bump against the opening door. There hadn’t been anything outside next to it when she’d come in, had there? She didn’t need her sister’s perfect memory to be sure of that much. So then what, exactly, had she just hit? Or rather, who? She quickly pulled the door back mostly closed and slipped gingerly through the remaining gap, peering around from behind Kasuke and finding her suspicions confirmed. Someone had been standing right on the other side, and she hadn’t noticed since she’d been preoccupied watching the Yoshida kid with her stupid sister. As to who it was… well, of course Asuka didn’t know that. If Fumika had ever mentioned someone with cat ears to Haruka, then she certainly hadn’t been around at the time, and of course it was too much to hope that her idiot sister would introduce her to anyone - especially if she’d already been going around telling everyone about how mean and horrible she was.
Well, regardless, that was no reason to prove her right, so, even if Kasuke seemed to have the situation under control, she felt obligated by courtesy to follow suit. So, she flipped her mental switch one more time and made a tremendous effort to make a good impression, even if, thinking about it honestly, this girl probably wouldn’t even remember her face ten minutes from now, and would probably just think of her as “that ditzy bitch who hit me with the door” regardless of what she said to smooth things over.
How utterly exhausting.
Emerging from behind the door, Asuka covered her mouth in obvious surprise, her face coloring the expected shade of red.
“Omigosh, omigosh… I’m soooo sorry! I spaced out and didn’t even see you there! Are you okay?” She folded her hands and bowed sheepishly once, then twice for good measure.
Both of the people stepping through the door were actually being very polite towards Ruby even if she only recognized one of them. SInce she usually had a fairly decent memory it was fair to assume that they had never met before.
While still covering her nose with her hands, the neko watched them as they bowed and apologized, rightfully so as Ruby thought. Nonetheless she was happy that they did apologize to her like that, even though obviously Ruby was partially to blame as well.
After she had quickly checked the bandages that were wrapped around her hands with which she had covered her nose, Ruby saw that there was no blood on it which meant that her nose wasn’t seriously injured and it made her sigh in relief. This sudden wake-up call however, had her feline ears perked up in attention again.
The catgirl lifted one hand up in order to calm the two of them down.
“Don’t worry, it was more my fault.” She reassured them, being a bit overwhelmed by the profound apologizing. Upon a second inspection of the people in front of her, Ruby saw that the person she recognized initially was one of her classmates. Mina’s face did take Ruby back to just a few moments ago and her interaction with Amane.
Before the neko would be caught staring at the girl long enough to make it awkward she would quickly start talking.
”Are you... doing alright again?” She asked with genuine curiosity even though that was barely audible through her voice. Despite her edgy and quiet persona, Ruby still cared greatly for her peers even though she expected that Mina might be tired of hearing that question.
Mina’s facade dropped when it appeared she was getting pitied again. Even if part of her appreciated the fact that this usually quiet cat girl was showing concern, there was an instinctual freezing over at the showing of any kind of compassion by otherwise strangers, as also happened in this case. Despite the iciness, there was clearly no aggression or unfriendliness directed specifically at Ruby.
She nodded, and replied with a much more earnest and natural tone;
”Physically, I’m more or less back to normal. No lasting damage except to my pride.” She managed a wry smile before continuing.
”What about you? I doubt you got those bandages from doing homework. What’s the story there?”Damage to her pride, huh? That was understandable. It was hard to imagine someone’s pride not having at least taken some hit after what had happened to Mina. Even though Ruby wasn’t exactly an expert when it came to how other people felt, this seemed somewhat obvious. Nonetheless, the fact that Mina had already healed her wounds just showed how amazing the medical staff at the school was. Before the neko had a chance to reply, she was asked about her bandages. While not exactly being surprised by the question, she was still somewhat caught off guard. Out of all people, Mina just had to ask her that! After just being told that the girl’s pride took a hit, Ruby could only imagine what she must feel like if she found out that Ruby had just beaten Amane in a spar. Yes it was a quirkless fight- but the fact would surely upset Mina. At least, that is what Ruby concluded after a few moments contemplating which left the other two girls standing in awkward silence.
“Oh you know… I just went a bit too far while training that is all.” She said.
It technically was not a lie since her going overboard was what caused the injuries in the first place. However, of course she did not tell the whole truth.
“Just some scratches.”Before Mina had much of a chance to reply, Ruby turned her head to face the unknown girl, Asuka. Even though she would prefer to not talk to other people that much, given the fact that she had met plenty new people already with her classmates and Persia earlier, it seemed rude to not introduce herself. Besides, this was a way to change topic away from her bout with Amane.
“I don’t think we’ve met yet. My name is Ruby Mamoru, it is my pleasure to meet you.”Rather than reaching out her arm to give Asuka her hand, it made more sense for the catgirl to bow given the fact that her hands were injured. So she bowed forward slightly and politely, since the unknown one made a good and polite first impression with her apology. Despite her polite tone, Ruby did not smile at all. It was not really her thing to smile a lot anyways since it would show her fangs which she feared would perhaps deter some people. Therefore the catgirl just looked Asuka into her eyes with her own golden-colored ones after having bowed.
Asuka returned the bow in kind, giving a chipper nod as she raised her head and making significantly more of an effort to show a welcoming smile than the impassive girl she was speaking to.
“Yup, we haven’t met yet. My name’s Motome Asuka. I’m not actually a student here, although my big sis is. I’m here visiting her. Her name’s Fumika. You might know her already?” She kept her voice cheerful and friendly, and externally, she didn’t seem to jump to any assumptions that the catgirl was friends with her sister or anything like that, but her own inward thoughts were a very different story.
Despite dismissing her apology immediately, this Ruby girl had hardly even looked at her since then. No, rather, it was almost like she was being pointedly ignored in favor of Kasuke. She didn’t know what they’d been talking about just now, and it clearly hadn’t been any of her business, so she’d been polite enough not to interrupt, but this was a different story. Now that the cat-eared student was actually paying attention to her, her expression had seemed to harden into an ultra-serious stare. Even if her voice sounded disinterested and impassive, that blank, completely calm poker face she gave as she introduced herself didn’t exactly bespeak enthusiasm. It seemed obvious to Asuka that she wasn’t the only one putting on a front here - she was just putting significantly more effort into it. This girl probably had already heard about her from her sister, in which case, it only made sense she’d act that way. But the really annoying thing was just how much her unenthusiastic front reminded her of Fumika herself. She’d only just introduced herself, and she could already tell that she was probably in for a truly unpleasant conversation.
Mina sensed a hint of tension coming from Asuka. It was similar to what she felt when Asuka was with Fumika. She didn’t get involved then because it was sibling issues and that was none of her business, but this kind of tension with Ruby was puzzling. Maybe Asuka had taken offence at Ruby’s naturally impassive nature, which could be taken to be impolite. No, that didn’t make sense. Asuka had relaxed when Mina dropped the pretence of being ‘polite’ and allowed them both to be frank and natural. There was something else going on in Asuka’s head, and now wasn’t the place to look into it.
That wasn’t the only mystery. Ruby had been deliberately vague about where she’d gotten those injuries, which suggested that it was either somebody she was ashamed had given her them, or somebody she didn’t want to bring up with Mina, and there were only two candidates in the latter category. Seeing as how carefully she’d chosen her words, it was unlikely to be a case of Ruby’s own pride. Mina was very suspicious of the possibility that Ruby had sparred with Amane, given the pause. Ruby had no reason to know the full story between Mina and Kaida. There was a tiny voice in Mina’s head warning her that she was being overly paranoid but it was drowned in her constant and frantic thoughts, and suffocated by the threads and chains of ‘logic’.
Even someone as socially inept as Ruby noticed the slight tension in the air that was directed towards her. While pretty much all of that seemed to originate from Mina, it was kind of hard for Ruby to imagine that someone who was as cheerful and friendly as Asuka appeared to her would not be deterred at least somewhat by Ruby’s cold reply to the friendly advances. Feeling a little awkward in her position, Ruby rather replied to Asuka concerning her sibling for now since she wanted to show interest in the conversation, letting the rather polite stranger know that she was appreciated and that Ruby did care, contrary to what expression she might’ve given. Even though Ruby did remember the name Fumika since they were in in the same class now, she hardly ever had exchanged a word with her. The face that she had a sister was knew to her, how would she have known that?
“Yes I know Fumika. I didn’t know she had a sister though, I haven’t really talked to her all that much yet. I just got into this class a few days ago after all.” Feeling that the tension wasn’t really going away, Ruby started to put the blame onto herself. She knew that the cold expression she gave other people wasn’t exactly the most inviting one and by now the neko somewhat felt bad about it. Especially regarding people like Asuka who were generally friendly to the neko were the ones where Ruby regretted being so seemingly rude towards. Maybe she should really start to train to become more friendly towards others…
Her head dropped down after a few seconds of awkward exchange and she stared at the floor for a little while before lifting her head again and awkwardly scratching the back of her head with her right hand awkwardly.
“Look, I am sorry if I come across as rude. I am not often around people so I… I tend to give of the wrong impression. Really, I don’t mean to be… unfriendly.” Ruby tried to force a smile but the result looked more like someone who has never seen a smile in their life before and only heard about how it works in theory. It was incredibly awkward and very much cringy, but Ruby tried to show that she was not actually meaning to be rude towards the two girls, one of whom she only barely knows and the other one which she did not know at all beforehand. The smile did reveal her fangs though which is probably one of the few things that could be appreciated about it.
“No, it’s no problem at all!” Asuka replied with a bright smile of her own - a significantly better act, if she flattered herself, than that of the cat-eared girl who she addressed - waving her hand dismissively.
“I get shy sometimes when meeting new people too, so I totally understand.” Of course, that was a lie, but it was a polite lie.
Speaking of polite lies, however, the way she’d backtracked quite suddenly came off as suspicious to Asuka. Sure, it was possible she was just awkward, as she had said. However, the way she was acting now was completely different… less defensive, rather. Had she been expecting a more rude welcome, then, once she realized who she’d been speaking to? Given her earlier theory, it was possible - no, likely, even, that this girl had, like the others, been predisposed to expect the least of her, and now that she’d broken those expectations, this Ruby was struggling to find the appropriate way to react.
Well, whatever. It didn’t matter if that was the case or not. Unconvincing though it might have been, she was at least making an effort to be civil, which was more than Asuka could say for the cloaked woman she had encountered earlier. In that case, she supposed she could be bothered to keep acting like an airhead a while longer just for the sake of conversation.
Besides, now that she got a read on her, she seemed like a better person that Asuka had originally given her credit for. Reviewing the facts in her mind, she ran through the case like a true detective. When they’d accidentally hit her with the door, she’d immediately apologized herself, claiming it was her own fault. She’d noticed something about Mina which even Asuka herself hadn’t caught onto, and had inquired after her well-being. And after her admittedly frosty self-introduction, she’d been so self-conscious that she felt the need to clarify and apologize again. If she was feigning the whole shy-girl act, then she was way better at this than Asuka thought, in which case she deserved some measure of respect. And if not, then, well, interacting would probably be super awkward, but at least she was making an effort to be polite about it, whether it was out of obligation or some naive kindness, unlike
some people. Either way, she could have been a worse conversational partner, and so long as she was actually willing to be civil, Asuka decided that, act or not, she didn’t mind Ruby so much after all.
“I wouldn’t call it sh-” ”By the way,” Mina suddenly blurted out, choosing her timing badly, or possibly deliberately.
”It wasn’t Amane you sparred with, was it, Ruby?” Asuka turned, glancing at her with slight surprise, but made no comment.
Ruby was interrupted before she could finish her sentence by Mina’s questioning. Pretty much out of nowhere she decided to inquire about Ruby’s training-partner. Since Mina had asked specifically for Amane, it was clear why she was so energetic about it. However, it mostly only confirmed Ruby’s suspicion that the events during the exercise really affected Mina.
A small pause where Ruby gazed at Mina was all that seperated Mina’s blurted out words and the neko’s reply.
“Are you sure that you are okay Mina? Amane really seems to be getting into your head. You really shouldn’t become paranoid over it. Amane is just another student and you’ll be able to get your revenge in eventually, I am sure. Just don’t let it affect you this much, that is not very healthy” For once, Ruby actually spoke with a kind voice showing that she was genuinely concerned about her classmate, it definitely was not a pretty sight after all. Obviously, Ruby hadn’t forgotten it either. For any aspiring hero that was hard to watch.
Mina’s gut reaction to that was anger, but thinking about it, Ruby had a point. Who was Mina’s anger really directed at? Not Ruby, possibly Amane, but probably herself. She lost. Badly. She thought she was over it but obviously not. Mina had never, in her life, lost before. Not in fights, not in
grades.It was only natural she wouldn’t take it well.
”Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go...get some water, or something,” Mina responded, looking...let’s just say distracted, as she started to leave the group. Before she left, however, she turned back to Ruby, with a worryingly focused glint in her eye.
”We should spar sometime,” were her parting words.
Asuka glanced between the two students, as if weighing her options. She could follow Kasuke - that would be the logical thing to do - but something told her that the blonde very much didn’t want to be followed. Not with that look in her eye. Still, that was no reason to be impolite, so, giving a cheery wave to her new “friend,” she sent her off as innocently as if nothing strange had happened in that last exchange at all.
“Thanks for showing me to the dorms, Kasuke!” And then, all that was left was to get out of this conversation.
“Ah, right. Speaking of which, I should probably head back now to see how my sister is doing.” She was just turning back to face the cat-eared girl and finish excusing herself when an unexpected voice from behind her decided that now was the perfect time to interrupt.
“You don’t need to do that. I’m fine.”Asuka jumped slightly, whirling around to find herself being stared down by those blank blue eyes… Except the fact that they weren’t nearly so blank as they should have been. Her face seemed pale, and her brow was set very intently. If Asuka didn’t know better, she’d have said that her sister was afraid. But what would she possibly have to be afraid of?
“Oi, sis, I told you not to sneak up on me like that! Don’t tell me you forgot?”“I don’t forget things,” the elder Motome replied seriously.
“But I also didn’t sneak. I just walked here normally.”“Ugh, nevermind, you big idiot… What’s the deal, anyway? I thought you were too busy flir- That is, catching up with that classmate of yours back there.” Asuka crossed her arms, angrily staring down her sister and trying really hard not to slip up. Fumika didn’t seem to notice, or if she did, she didn’t care - just like she didn’t seem to care about anything else her sister said or did either.
“...We have to go,” She declared gravely. Asuka did a double take, craning her head and raising an eyebrow.
“...Uh… Why?” She asked.
“A villain. A lot of my friends were hurt. They’re in the hospital now. I have to go make sure they’re alright. Haruka said it was dangerous to go alone.”The words hung in the air, and suddenly, Asuka understood the look of fear that her sister had worn all too well. She forgot to be angry at her sister for interrupting, for being so insufferable - even for telling stories about her behind her back. Having seen and spoken to Harukaze Haruka, it was impossible not to, in that moment, understand what her sister was thinking completely.
“Alright. It’s late, but if we hurry, we should be able to catch a bus or a train downtown. Come on, don’t just stand there. Are the others coming too?” Fumika nodded, and motioned back to the dorm.
“They told me to get you…” She answered quietly.
“Well, you’ve got me. Come on, let’s go see what their plan is.”Ruby half expected Mina to actually become angry at what she had said, so seeing her react relatively calmly was surprising for the catgirl. She would be justified in becoming angry, though not becoming angry really did impress Ruby actually, showing her that she knows how to control herself and that earned respect with the black-haired one. Before Mina attempted to leave she asked Ruby to spar sometime, for whatever reason. Even though Ruby was not the biggest fan of sparring, she returned a confident nod to accept the challenge, even though the actual spar would probably still be far away in the future.
Before Ruby could say goodbye to Asuka and leave, a classmate decided to make an appearance. Fumika brought some interesting news to the table, enough for Ruby to make a quick change of plans. Usually, she’d really love to be alone right about now, but hearing that her classmates were injured due to villains sounds like a serious issue and immediately spoke to the heroic spirit inside of Ruby which caused her to become concerned. Even though, again, she didn’t properly display that emotion to the outside, the neko replied to the other two girls.
”I will join you guys if that is okay. That sounds worrying…”She replied quickly and then would follow the others on their journey to the hospital.
Meanwhile, Mina had been close enough to hear Fumika’s news that many of their classmates had been hurt. As confused and emotional as Mina was right now, this news reached the Hero in her, and she vowed to make her way to the hospital herself, and assure herself that everybody was alive and stable. The fact that this was the morally right thing to do never crossed her mind. She was genuinely concerned for the safety and health of her classmates.
Xaltwind
Expendable
Noctis
Carlyle
The Otter
wintersoldier
TheMushroomLord
Neziul
Pen Name
Lugubrious
