Reisen Gorge

Moving around behind some rocks is a rabbitman by the name of Shea. 

"I'm so tired of waiting!" Shea whines. "When are they going to appear?" She sighs.

A loud roar is heard and Shea tenses up. She shivers and turns around to see a T-Rex with two heads looking at her. The two heads roar at the rabbit and Shea screams in fear.

She begins to run away as the Two headed Rex chases her. "Hurry up and appear!" She gets cornered and starts to climb up the wall as one of the Rex's heads snaps at her.

The Rex tries to climb after her.

"Please, someone, save me!" Shea whines and suddenly a large magic circle shines under a platform above her. "Here they come! Huh?" A large beam of Magic shoots out from the Magic Circle, sending Shea and the Rex monster flying back. "WHAAAAA?!"

Ruby, Hajime and Yue stand up as the spell ends. Shea roughly lands a ways from the three. The T-Rex lands and runs away.

She sits up and notices three figures in the distance and she gasps. Making a heart shape with her hands she looks at them.

She then lowers her hand and smiles. "I-I finally get to meet you!"

...

...

"All right!" Hajime smiles "We made it to the surface!"

"Mm-hm!" Yue's excited.

Ruby laughs. "This is amazing!" She gives a big toothy smile, then she grunts and brings her hand up to her head to block the sun. "But does the sun have to be a dick?"

Hajime just chuckles at Ruby and she glares at him.

"I've been waiting for you!" Shea yells as she runs towards the three and they look over to her. "I finally get to meet you!"

"Did someone order fast food?" Ruby questions.

"The hell is that?" Hajime asks.

"A rabbitman?" Yue questions.

"She keeps saying weird crap like 'finally meeting you' and 'waiting for you.' "

"Sounds annoying. Let's go."

The three begins to wall off.

Shea launches herself at Hajime. "Wait! Please, don't go!" She lands head first into the ground, just missing Hajime.

"What a worthless rabbit." Yue says.

 "I don't think she'll even taste good." Ruby says.

The three continue walking and Shea pushes herself off the ground. She then launches forward and latches onto Hajime, getting dragged along. "I'm begging you, please save my family!" Shea begs.

Hajime stops. "Your family?" He glances back to the Rabbit.

Yue starts to pull on Shea's large white rabbit ears. "Get off him."

"No!" Shea yells. "If I get off, you'll just toss me aside, won't you?!"

"Of course!" Ruby states.

Hajime then speaks. "Why do we gotta rescue some rabbit I've never even met before?"

Shea falls to the ground. "N-No hesitation!" She looks at Hajime with tears in her eyes. "Won't it wound your heart to turn away a beautiful young lady in need?!" She bats her eyes.

"Kid-" Ruby motions to Hajime. "This man has no heart. And besides, you're not a beautiful lady."

"Ack!" Shea falls back to the ground.

The three begin to walk away.

"She has no shame." Yue states.

A loud thud is heard and the two headed T-Rex returns and it roars. Shea yelps in fear.

"Did that thing just roar at me?" Hajime asks.

Ruby waves her hand in front of her nose. "It's breath stinks."

"Reuben, deal with it." 

"Don't tell me what to do." Ruby grabs her scythe off her back and it glows, changing into Crescent Rose and puts it into Rifle mode.

Shea grabs onto Hajime. "You can't! It's horribly violent! Run while you can!"

Ruby loads a large magazine into the gun and pulls the bolt back. The T-Rex roars as Ruby aims up her gun and fire off two rounds, pushing the girl back a few steps.

The two rounds slam into the T-Rex's heads, blowing half their heads off. Ruby just smirks to herself as she changes the scythe back into Grimm form and sets it on her back, and the T-Rex's body slams into the ground.

"She took out that Diheadoar... Wow!" Shea sweats a little.

"C'mon, let go of me already!" Hajime orders the Rabbit girl and he punches her on the head.

A large bump forms on Shea's head and she holds it in pain. "I am Shea, the eldest daughter of the Haulia beast tribe!" She stands up. "Please, save my family! I'm begging you! Please!"

Hajime turns away and Shea grabs onto him again. He aims his revolver down onto the girl. Tears form in her eyes as she stairs up at Hajime, not letting go at all.

Hajime then stops aiming his gun down at the girl. "The hell is wrong with you? You don't give up." Yue is trying to pull her off Hajime.

"If I don't keep this up, the future of my whole race might..." Shea says.

Hajime puts his gun away. "Alright.

Shea smiles, but then groans as Yue roughly pulls on her ears. "That hurts!"

Ruby facepalms.

"Sheesh, I'll hear you out, fine." Hajime states.

Shea then starts to rub her eyes and nose with Hajime's coat. "Dank you bery mush!" She then smiles up at Hajime and he punches her again, making a bump appear on top of the other bump.

"And don't think you can go wiping your face on my coat like that!"

Shea stands up and holds her head in pain as tears form in her eyes. "Y-You hit me again! I can't believe you hit this beautiful young lady!"

"I can't believe you can say this crap with a straight face!" Hajime yells at the rabbit.

Yue and Ruby look to each other then back to two bickering. 

Hajime continues his rant. "Especially when you're standing in front of Yue, who's leagues better than you! Even Reuben is better than you!"

'He's never gonna call me by my new name, is he?' Ruby questions in thought.

Yue smiles and blushes a little.

Yue looks down in defeat. "S-Still!" She moves her hands down her body, showing off her curves. "I...!" She lifts up her skirt a little. "I know there's one thing about me that's better than her!" She grabs her large breasts. "I win! Look at her, she's completely flat!"

Shea put her hands behind her head. "How do you like this!" She winks. 

Ruby backs away from Yue as a dark aura appears around the vampire.  Hajime also turns around.

"Are you blushing?" Shea asks Hajime. "Are you totally flustered?" Purple lighting travels around Yue and Shea notices. "Uhh, would you forgive me if I apologized?" She asks Yue.

"Any last words?" Yue's voice echoes and she casts a tornado spell.

"NOOO, I don't wanna die!" Shea yells.

A little while later everyone has calmed down. She sits on her knees in front of Ruby, Yue and Hajime.

"So you were exiled from your home, then attacked by monsters?" Hajime asks the rabbit.

"Beastmen aren't able to manipulate mana, but for some reason, I can, and on top of that, I can use specialized magic that only monsters can use!" She informs.

"Specialized magic?" Ruby questions.

"Yes, it's called Future Sight, and it lets me see possible futures. Like, if you made this choice, this would happen, kind of stuff. That's why I knew you three would appear! Please, save us! If you don't the Haulia race is doomed!"

"No." Hajime says after a few seconds. He then holds his hand out with the creation ring and two motorcycles appear in a blue magic circle.

One for Hajime and the other for Ruby, which she named Bumblebee.

"Please, wait!" Shea calls out. "I saw into the future! I saw you were helping us!"

"And what am I going to get out of it?" Hajime asks.

"Huh?"

"Huh? Nothing, right?"

Hajime gets on his bike and adjusts his prosthetic hand a little. Ruby stretches and gets onto her bike.

"You're headed for the Great Tree in the Haltsina Sea of Trees, right?" Shea asks and she takes a few steps towards Hajime. "It's always surrounded by a thick fog. It blinds the senses and makes everyone get lost!"

"So?" Hajime asks.

"So if a native of the Sea of Trees were to go with you..."

"Let's take her with us." Yue suddenly says.

"You can't be serious!" Ruby nearly yells.

"It'll be nice to have a guide."

Shea lunges towards Yue. "Thank you so much!"

Yue glances at the rabbit and he eyes shine. The rabbit then lands next to Yue in a large block of ice.

"Thank goodness!" Shea says.

In the forest a couple miles from the four, a group of Rabbitmen are hiding from some winged monsters flying above them.

A few peeks out of the underbrush.

"Look, look!" A young voice yells and they all look to see a child rabbitmen running towards them holding a fruit. "I found a fruit!"

"No, come back!" The child's mother yells.

Suddenly one of the monsters flying above them dives down towards the child.

"No!" A rabbit man yells.

But before the monster can reach the child, a bullet flies through it's head and sends it crashing to the ground, away from the child.

The child's mother runs over and hugs the little girl tightly. 

"Father!" Shea's voice rings out and everyone looks to the canyon.

Heading towards the Rabbitmen is two motorcycles. One with Hajime and Yue and the other with Ruby and Shea.

"I brought help!" Shea yells as she leans onto Ruby, making the Grimm girl growl in annoyance. 

"Shea!" Shea's father yells, he then spots Ruby and he grows a little scared of her appearance. 

Ruby looks up as she hears roars above her, only to be pushed down by Shea's chest. "Father, everyone!" Shea yells.

Ruby growls and lifts Shea up by the ears. "Since you seem to like annoying me, g and annoy the monsters and be bait for us! Go get 'em you worthless rabbit!"

Ruby throws Shea up towards the flying monsters and she screams. "Noooooooo!"

As the monsters try to eat Shea, Hajime shoots them down. Ruby laughs as she watches Shea scream in panic every time a monster gets close to her. 

"Now that's more like it!" Ruby laughs.

Shea falls back towards the ground and Hajime catches her before she lands on her head.

A couple monster bodies land next to the four.

Shea starts to cry. "I can't take this anymore! You're both being so rough with me!" Hajime throws her to the side. "Can I ask for gentler treatment...?"

Hajime and Ruby talk to the Rabbitmen and they tell them about some problems. Hajime deals with some bear beastmen while Ruby goes around the forest killing many different kinds of monsters, with the help of Yue.

On the first night they all head back to the rabbitmen's village. Ruby is walking around and she smells a large scent of fear and sadness coming from a tent.

Ruby follows the delectable scent and enters the tent to find what looks like a heavily injured Cat beastman. The girl has black hair and a pair of black cat ears.

She has a large bloody bandage on her stomach along with a bandaged over a stump of her right arm. A rabbit man walks in with some fresh bandages.

"Oh, hello, you must be one of the new people." The man greets and Ruby glances at him, noticing the slight scent of fear coming off him.

"Sure." Ruby replies.

"I see you've met our friend Blake, she and her family lived here for a long time. Though her father died a few years back and her mother is off on a trading business to bring money and food back to us, but we haven't seen her for a long time."

"So what happened to her."

The rabbit man walks over and kneels down to the sleeping cat. "She was attacked by some monsters when gathering food. Barley got back alive." He looks to Ruby with a sad look in his eyes. "Do you happen to know any healing spells?"

Ruby looks at the cat girl then back to the man. "No." She then walks off.

"Good night." The man calls out.

Ruby hums to herself. 'She could be of use to me, but I can't do it now. Just need her to be a little weaker minded and out of options.' Ruby smiles to herself. 'Oh, Salem, I could add another to our family!'

Ruby, Hajime and Yue deal with some of the Rabbit men's problems throughout the next few days. Ruby goes back and checks on Blake every night, seeing her condition getting worse with each passing day.

One night Ruby is laying on the ground as Yue and Hajime sit against a tree. Shea sits on a tree trunk next to them. A large group of rabbitman sleep among some glowing flowers.

"I never thought I'd see the day when everyone was able to relax like this..." Shea smiles. "Thank you so much."

Hajime puts his hands behind his head and leans back against the tree. "No need to thank me. I promised I'd protect you if you guided us to our destination." 

Ruby picks some meat out of her teeth. A rabbit girl walks over to Yue, holding a glowing pink flower.

"Um, this is the first time I've met someone else who can use monstrous powers." She says to Hajime then motions to Ruby. "Or even seen someone like her."

The rabbit girl gives Yue the flower she's holding, and Yue graciously accepts it. The little rabbit girl then walks away.

Shea continues. "So it's hard for me to think of you as only a stranger. What's the goal of your journey?"

"I have one goal." Hajime says. "To go back home, with Yue in tow and bring Reuben with me. That's all."

"I have several, but you only need to know a couple." Ruby says. "One is to see my Sister again and the other is to get back home."

"I've made my decision!" Shea states. "I'm going to join you on your journey!"

"No thanks." Hajime and Ruby say together.

"You'll just hold us back." Yue says.

"You didn't even hesitate!" Shea whines.

The next morning Ruby and Hajime get up to notice all the Rabbitmen staring at the two.

"Its kinda early." Ruby rubs her eyes.

"We want to get stronger!" Shea informs.

"We don't want to be weak anymore!" A rabbit man says.

Shea's father steps forward. "Please, Hajime, Ser. Ruby, Dame, we beseech you!"

Hajime and Ruby look at each other, then back to the rabbit people. "Well..." Hajime starts.

Over the next few days Hajime and Ruby start training the Rabbitmen, while Yue trains Shea.

Ruby creates a large Grimm pool and a couple Beowolves climb out. All the rabbitmen yell in fear.

Ruby points to the Rabbitmen. "Attack them, but no killing!"

The Beowolves howl as they charge the rabbits, they all scream in fear.

Several minutes later all the Rabbitmen lay on the ground in defeat. Causing Ruby to facepalm. 

Another day Ruby day Ruby creates a Deathstalker.

Ruby rubs the large Grimm's head and it chitters. All the rabbitmen start backing away in fear.

"Dame Ruby, isn't this a little much?!" Shea's father questions.

Ruby backs away from the Deathstalker and looks at the rabbits with a smile. "Nope." She points at the rabbits. "Get them, no killing."

The Deathstalker roars and charges at the Rabbits, they all scream in fear and run away.

"Yes, yes, you will learn to fear nothing!" Ruby laughs.

Over the few days Ruby keeps checking on Blake's condition, she's nearing death everyday. "Such a fighter." Ruby whispers as she stares down at the sleeping Cat and then gains a smirk. "Good."

Another day Hajime and Ruby meet up with Yue and Shea after a duel.

"You done with your duel?" Hajime asks.

Shea runs up to the two. "Yes, I was finally able to hit Yea! A glorious victory!" She turns around and rubs her head. "Man, I wished you could've seen it, Hajime-san.

"Huh. So, Yue, how is she?"

"She specializes in strengthening her body, on a monstrous level, too." Yue informs. 

"Well, damn." Ruby mutters with a smile.

Shea turns back to Hajime and puts her hands together. "Hajime-san, please take me with you on your journey!"

"Why do you wanna come with us?" Hajime asks.

Shea blushes and touches the tips of her pointer fingers together. "W-Well, uhh..."

"Uhh, what?"

"Because I wanna be with you, Hajime-san!" Shea yells. "I wuv you!"

Ruby chokes as she lets out a laugh. She starts laughing so hard she starts to cough, so she ends up banging her chest. 

"What?" Hajime questions.

Suddenly a bunch of dead monsters are thrown onto the ground near the four as the Rabbitmen walk into view.

"'Ey bosses, we hunted down all those monsters you wanted." Shea's father says with a different speak pattern from before, more warrior like.

"F-Father?" Shea questions. "Your speech is... Well, everything's different..."

"I told you one would be enough." Hajime states.

All the Rabbitmen are now toned and have muscles.

"A whole lot of 'em came after us, and they have the nerve to try and kill us..." Shea's father says. "So we cut 'em down."

A rabbit girl likes her knife blade. "They were so annoying, but their screams were such a pleasure..." A few of the others laugh.

Shea turns to Ruby. "Ruby-san, what did you teach my people?"

"Why are you blaming me!" Ruby shouts. "Even if they kinda act like me, doesn't mean I'm at fault!"

A couple hours later Ruby is standing in Blake's tent. A rabbit man is next to her.

"She won't live to see the next sunrise." The rabbit man states.

Blake is heavily sweating and taking big breaths. Ruby smirks. "Perfect then." She walks over to Blake and picks her up.

Blake's eyes slightly open and she looks up at the Grimm girl.

"Ma'am, what are you going to do?"

"Gonna make her pretty." Ruby begins to walk out of the tent.

"An angel?" Blake weakly questions.

Ruby smiles. "No sweetheart, far from it actually." A black pool starts to form under her. "Do you wish to continue living." Blake nods. "But there is one catch, you must serve me."

Blake just weakly nods again. "I want to see my mother, one more time." She softly says.

The rabbit man pokes his head out of the tent

Ruby smiles to herself and she kneels down to the pool of Darkness below her. She then lays the injured cat in the water and slowly starts to push her under.

".etaf ylno reh eb llahs lleh ni noitanmad neht ,yarteb dluohs ehs fI .ssentaerg ot kcab eman ruoy gnirb dna dlrow siht fo thgil eht yortsed ot em dna uoy wollof llahs ehS .mmirG eht htiw eno eb ot luos tsol siht wolla ,melaS sseddoG" Ruby chants in a dark voice and she fully submerges Blake under the pool and the Grimm girl starts to sink down.

Ruby stands up and watches the water ripple for a few seconds before going still. Ruby's black and red eyes just stare at the water. 

Then suddenly the water starts to ripple as a figure emerges from the water.

It's Blake, but she's changed. She's now wearing a ragged kimono and sandals on her feet. Both her arms have changed into tantacles with sharp scythe-like blades at the end, while a mask covers her lower face.

Ruby smiles as she looks at Grimm Blake. Blake opens her black and red eyes and looks to her leader. She then takes off her mask. "Am I pretty now?" She smiles.

Ruby walks over to the slightly taller Grimm girl. Ruby being 6'2 (188.9 cm.) while Blake is 6'4'' (195 cm.)

Ruby wraps her arms around Blake. "You are perfect."

Blake puts her mask back on and wraps her tentacles around Ruby. "Thank you for this opportunity, Mistress."

The Grimm pools seeps back into Ruby and the two Grimm girls walk away.

---

Ruby gained a Waifu! 1 of 4 collected.

---

They regroup with Hajime, Yue and Shea.

Hajime notices Blake. "Who's she."

"Your keeping Shea, so I'd thought I'd bring my own." Ruby says.

Hajime laughs. "Keeping Shea?" He laughs louder. 

"Blake?" Shea questions.

"Hello, little Rabbit." Blake greets.

"You... very different."

"I've been reborn into something greater." Blake's eyes light up. "And Mistress said she'd let me come with her."

The party heads out, along with the rabbitmen, and they eventually reached the base of the Great Tree.

"So this is the Great Tree..." Hajime looks up at it.

"It's been dead since before Verbergen was established." Shea's father informs. "But it never rotted away. It's stood here for ages, dead and unchanging."

Hajime, Yue and Ruby walk over to a large stone. Shea and her father along with Blake are a few steps behind.

"This is like one in Oscar's..." Ruby says.

"Yes, it's the same design." Yue says.

"Looks like this must be the entrance to another labyrinth." Hajime states.

They look around the stone and Hajime finds an indent in one of the holes, in the shape of a ring band. Hajime sets Oscar's ring in the indent and it perfectly fits.

The ring lights up and texts appears on the stone.

Yue reads the text out loud. "Only to those with the four symbols, the power of regeneration, and beacon formed bonds will this door open once more."

"What does that mean?" Shea asks.

"The four symbols must be the relics from the other labyrinths." Yue puts a hand on her chin.

Shea crosses her arms. "And 'beacon formed of bonds' might mean you had beastman help getting here!"

"And power of regeneration..." Yue mutters and she puts her hand on the rock, since she has the power of regeneration. The texts disappears.

"Doesn't look like that was it." 

Yue sighs. "Perhaps once we clear the other four labyrinths, we'll earn the ancient magic capable of regeneration."

"I get it." Shea says.

Hajime rubs his head. "What a pain. Guess we've gotta head for those other labyrinths."

"That'll give us a chance to become very strong." Ruby points out.

"It'll be nice if I get stronger for your sake, Mistress." Blake says to Ruby and Ruby nods.

Hajime turns to Shea's father. "You hear that? I'm heading for the other labyrinths." All the other rabbitmen gasp in shock. "That means our deal is done. This is where we part. You should be able to survive out here now."

"Bosses!" Shea's father calls out. "Please, let us travel alongside you. We beseech you!"

"No." Ruby says.

"We'll follow after you, then!"

"No, you should just jeep training yourselves." Ruby says.

Hajime then speaks. "I might end up needing you the next time I come here."

Shea's father turns around and looks at all the rabbits. "You hear that, everyone? We're gonna get to training, so we can be just what the boss wants!"

All the rabbitmen cheer.

A couple hours later the sun is going down on the horizon. The party makes camp, Yue and Shea sit on a log together. Hajime is cleaning his gun.

Blake is sitting against a tree as she looks out to the sun, Ruby is laying her head in Blake's lap with her eyes closed. Ruby's scythe is resting against the tree.

Suddenly Shea turns to Yue. "Yue-san, do you remember our promise?"

"Mn." Yue makes a sound.

"Don't 'mn' me! The promise to let. Me. Come. With. You!

Yue sighs and waves her hand. "Fine, I'll honor that promise."

Shea smiles and giggles while Yue sighs again.

"The worthless rabbit is coming with us?" Ruby questions.

"It appears so Mistress." Blake responds.

The next morning at the edge of the Rabbitmen village, Yue is holding Shea's hand.

"Hajime, let's take this worthless rabbit with us." Yue says.

Hajime, Ruby and Blake stand a couple feet away.

"Were those the stakes of your duel?" Hajime asks.

Yue looks on with dead fish eyes. "Regretfully.

Shea walks up to Hajime. "Please take me with!"

Hajime scratches his cheek. "You can come with us, but I'm not gonna reciprocate anything."

"The future isn't absolute! Don't you know that? I believe that if I work hard enough, I can change the future!" Shea states and Hajime just stares at her. "I always wonder, in the end... When I couldn't change the future, I wonder if I could have done it if I'd worked harder. That's why I don't want to have any more regrets!"

"It'll be dangerous."

Shea grabs her rabbit ears. "Then I'm glad I'm a monster! That means I can come with you!"

"It'll be hard for you to make a life in my hometown." Hajime states.

"I don't care!" Hajime doesn't respond. "Is that all you have? Then I win!" Shea smiles.

"Win?"

Shea puts a hand over her heart. "It means my feelings won!"

Hajime looks away. "Whatever, weirdo."

Shea smiles and Yue crosses her arms and turns away.

"I'm already getting a headache." Ruby mutters.

...

...

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04-19-2023

4413 words