The Rose of Nakajima

"If you could understand me, I'd say 'Welcome home', but I don't think you currently can." Qrow told Haruka, waving back at the VTOL as it receded into the distance, the last of the sunset long gone, the shattered moon in clear view. "Can you?" He glanced back at her.

"Hmm?" She glanced over at him, and turned back towards the house they'd been dropped off behind. "Ich nehme an, das ist dein Haus?"

"I still can't understand you without your translator." Qrow told her, starting to get a bit frustrated with the language barrier. "You really need to learn Valian."

Qrow was prevented from continuing by the sound of a pair of engines pulling up to the front of the house.

"That's probably them." He noted aloud, not particularly caring that Haruka probably couldn't understand him. "Come on." He made a 'follow me' gesture, and set off to the front of the house.

About halfway there, footsteps raced out to meet the two.

"Uncle Qrow! Uncle Qrow! Is it really—" Yang Xiao Long, his eldest niece, skidded around the corner, blond hair even more wild than usual. "My god. It really is." Yang stopped dead, lilac eyes going wide as she saw Haruka standing behind Qrow, who simply regarded her with confusion.

"Ruby!" She practically roared as she launched forwards, arms wide.

A wet metal sound emanated from behind Qrow, who immediately threw his arms out to stop Yang, and, glancing behind him, confirmed what he feared.

Haruka had dropped into a combat stance, her gloves gone and her claws out.

"Wer zur Hölle bist du?" Haruka demanded. A second set of footsteps sounded, and Taiyang came around the corner. He stopped dead upon seeing the scene in front of him, and Qrow could guess that this wasn't how he'd imagined things would go. To be fair to the man, Qrow hadn't expected things to go like this either, but he could at least understand that things wouldn't always go according to plan.

"Ruby?" Taiyang asked, slowly, as if he didn't entirely believe the girl in front of him was his daughter.

There was a faint burst of red from the odd cross-shaped scroll on her belt.

"Yes." Haruka spoke again, the odd scroll translating her words this time. "That would be me." She turned slowly from Yang, who's expression was a mixture of confusion and shock as she struggled against Qrow's arms, to look at him. "Who might you be?" Qrow didn't fail to notice that her stance had not changed.

"Taiyang. Taiyang Xiao Long." Taiyang introduced himself slowly. "Do you remember me?"

"No, why would I?" Haruka tilted her head in general confusion, but relaxed her stance slightly. "And who's she?" With a toss of her head she indicated Yang, who's expression hadn't changed, but she'd stopped struggling against Qrow's grip, having noticed the claws extending from Haruka's fingers.

"I'm your father, Ruby." Taiyang said, looking at Qrow in confusion. "That's Yang. She's your sister." Qrow shook his head, indicating that no, she didn't remember.

"Alright." Again, Haruka's surprisingly blasè response threw everyone else present for a loop. "What?" She asked, noticing the expressions she got in return. Taiyang opened his mouth to speak before Haruka cocked her head as if listening to someone else present before sighing. "As seeing as I don't remember any of you, and you knew very little of me, given my age when I disappeared, it seems the best course of action would be to take this is as if neither of us knew each other beforehand." She retracted her claws and put her hand out. "My name is Haruka Nakajima, and I insist that you refer to me with that from now on."

"Yang. Yang Xiao Long." Yang put her hand out to take Haruka's, having been let go by Qrow.

***

"So, what's with the metal gloves?" Yang asked Haruka, curious. The two of them sat in the workshop of the Xiao Long house, Haruka at the main worktable, running some kind of diagnostic on her odd scroll, Yang next to her, arms resting on the back of her chair. They were alone, Qrow having taken Taiyang aside earlier to speak with him, after which Taiyang went to make dinner. Haruka had asked to be taken to a workshop of some sort, and Yang had obliged, showing her around the house first.

Truth be told, she was having a very hard time restraining her curiosity. Alongside other emotions.

The last time she'd seen Ruby, her little sister had been about three years old, Yang being a few days before her fifth birthday. The two of them had been playing in the woods right next to the house, which had been specifically cleared beforehand by Taiyang of Grimm or anything else harmful.

Yet after about an hour or so, Yang had noticed that she hadn't seen Ruby for a while, and went looking. And hadn't found her after several minutes, so she'd gotten Taiyang, and the two had begun to look for her. After an hour with no sign of Ruby, Taiyang had called Qrow, and the search had begun in earnest. After several days with not even a trace, most of the searchers had called off their attempts, citing Grimm and the incredibly low chance of finding Haruka alive at that point as their reasons. But Qrow and Taiyang had kept searching, not stopping until winter's first snows came. Oh, they knew they had no chance at that point of finding Ruby alive. No, they'd been desperate for closure. Closure they'd never gotten, until, according to Qrow, an airship had crashed almost right in front of him, with Ruby aboard.

"Metal gloves?" Ruby, or Haruka now, asked in confusion, and Yang could hear the strange language she spoke faintly, but mainly overlaid by her own voice speaking Valian. She'd asked earlier how she was doing that, and had been told that it was a translator she had to rely on, as she didn't speak Valian. But Yang was distracting herself, she knew, and she forced herself to refocus on Haruka.

"I'm not—Oh. You mean my hands." Wait, what?"

"Your hands? Yang asked, confused.

"My hands are cybernetic replacements." Haruka informed her, turning in her chair to show Yang what she had though were gloves. Yang stopped, slightly stunned.

"When? What happened?" She asked, taking one of her sister's metal hands. Haruka looked at her, unamused, and withdrew her hand from Yang's, turning back to her 'Device'.

"I was blown up," She casually stated. "Sixty-eight percent of my body is cybernetic." She shrugged, continuing on, as Yang stared at her, horrified. How can she be so casual about that?

"Ask Qrow if you want the full story, I told him earlier. I don't really want to talk about it right now, if you don't mind." Yeah, I get that. I wouldn't want to talk about it much, either.

"Soooo…" Yang trailed off, mentally searching for a topic. "Are you in training to be a Huntress or something? I mean, you've got those claws, after all."

"No. I am not in training anymore, and I am not a Huntress. I am a Knight of the Saint Church of Belka." That took several seconds for Yang to process, by which point the table was somehow covered in a mass of interconnected components, most of which looked like weapon system parts.

"What."

"Hmm?" Haruka glanced over at Yang's baffled face, before going back to the weapon parts. There was a red flash of light, and different parts now covered the table.

I'm going to go back to that topic another time, I think.

"Alright. So, what's this, and how did it change like that?"

"My name is Rosenkreuz!" A cheery feminine voice rang out from the table. Yang nearly jumped back in confusion. What? "Look in the corner!" Yang did so, and saw the metal cross from earlier, the red gem in the center flashing in time to the voice. What.

"What are you?" Yang asked, thoroughly confused, and resolving to make sense of everything later.

"Rude." Haruka commented with a wry smile.

"I'm an Intelligent Device! I assist Meister Haruka!"

"Meister?"

"It's the Belkan word for 'master'." Rosenkreuz explained. "At any rate, my internal components are what is spread across the table. Meister Haruka is checking for damage to my systems." The 'Intelligent Device' informed her.

"Internal components? That's a lot to fit into such a small 'Device'." Yang commented, looking out over the table.

"Who said I was small?" Rosenkreuz responded, red gem still flashing with every word. "My full internal weight is approximately one hundred ninety-five kilograms of systems currently in use, not counting the Fortress System!"

"How the heck's that work?" Yang asked, baffled.

"Dimensional pocket technology." Haruka was the one to respond this time. "It's classified."

"Yeah… I don't really know what that means. The dimensional pocket thing, not the part about it being classified. That I get." Yang clarified.

Haruka chuffed in amusement, and shook her head. There was a red flash of light, and the weapon components disappeared, the ornate metal cross sitting the the center of the table. Haruka picked it—I guess that's Rosenkreuz—up, and clipped it to her belt.

"That's that." Haruka noted with satisfaction. "No damage to Rosenkreuz, and I ran checks on my cybernetics on the way here. No damage to them, either." She grinned. "Knight's Armor is just that protective, I guess."

"Knight's Armor?"

"It's a protective spell." Haruka casually stated, then looked down at herself, standing up as she did so. "And I'm still in my Knight's Clothing. No need to wear it here, I think." Spell? Wait, like—

Red light sprang into existence around Haruka, flashing bright and then rapidly fading from existence as her current clothing deconstructed into fading lines of that same light.

Now she was dressed in a black longcoat, buttoned once at the mid-chest level, under which she wore a plain completely-black suit of some kind, with a propped collar. Rosenkreuz had also disappeared.

"The hell?" Yang asked, sliding herself and her chair backwards. "What the hell."

"Oh, this?" Haruka glanced over at her, gesturing to herself. "Standard Knight's uniform, just in black instead of white. And with a longcoat, of course. Not going anywhere without my longcoat." Haruka's right hand came up, reached into her shirt, and pulled a chain up and out of her top, revealing a tiny Rosenkreuz, which she then let fall to hang in front of her uniform.

"That's not what—How did you do that?"

"Magic." Haruka casually replied, as if it were a completely normal topic. "Knight's Clothing is a Field-Type protective spell, of which Knight's Armor is a more protective variant. Though, actually, it's the other way around, as Knight's Armor was developed first."

"Magic." Yang repeated. "Magic. That's what that was?" What the fuck.

"Correct. I am an accomplished Knight, with a Rank of Triple-A, Air specialty, and a Mana Capacity Rank of the same, though I doubt I'll ever advance higher in either. My Magic System is Ancient Belkan, and my combat style is mixed Shooting/Bombardment with an emphasis on the former, though I'm no slouch in melee, thanks to Rosenkreuz and the Butcher's Nails, along with basic Strike Arts training, modified to accommodate my different Magic System, and some skill in the Kaiser Arts as an Inherited Ability." Haruka informed her.

"What."

"In basic, that means Meister Haruka excels in long-ranged combat, but isn't bad at close-range either!" Rosenkreuz spoke up from her tiny pendant-cross.

"...Alright. I'm just going to nod and say 'Okay'." Yang said. Haruka chuffed in annoyance, then sighed.

"I can demonstrate a few less-powerful spells later, if you would like—Actually, wait a minute." Haruka seemed to space out for a few seconds, then nodded, grinning. "Nevermind later, how would you like to see a few now?" She asked.

"Hell yes!" Yang, having gotten over her initial shock, was now bouncing in her seat at the possibility of seeing actual, honest-to-god magic.

Haruka grinned.

"Let's go, then. Outside."

With that, she turned and left the room, crossing to the back door just at the end of the hall, passing Taiyang and Qrow in the kitchen, deep in conversation.

"If you want to see a demonstration of magic, come with me."

Taiyang just looked at her, apparently baffled by the change in outfit, but Qrow grinned eagerly and followed Yang and Haruka out into the backyard. Yang heard her father sigh, and follow.

Haruka walked out to the center of the yard, and turned before asking a rather odd question.

"What's the air traffic around here like?" Everyone looked at her oddly, and Qrow answered after a few seconds.

"There really isn't much. About two flights from the mainland a day, morning and evening, unless there's some kind of emergency. " At this, Haruka nodded.

"Good." Haruka raised her hands to Rosenkreuz as the Device hung around her neck, then swept her left hand out to the side, as, with a burst of red light, the small pendant unfolded, —How the hell?—metal components sliding into being in red light, to become a staff of some sort. A blood red triangle formed of bands of light formed beneath her feet, a circle at each point and one more in the center, the three circles at the points connected to the center circle by more bands of light. An ornate cross formed in the center circle, and odd writing Yang didn't even recognize flashed into being within the bands of light, and larger text formed within the outer circles. "Ritterkleidung."

There was a flash as lines of blood-red light raced up Haruka's body, then with another flash, the lines instantly formed into the outfit she'd worn earlier; a breastplate, gauntlets, and armored boots, along with some kind of robe-dress.

"This is my Knight's Clothing. You might recognize it." She stated offhandedly. "It is the primary defensive spell used by practitioners of the Belkan Magic Systems. But this is not all I have to show you. Flügel der Dunkelheit, gewähre mir Flug!" Haruka called, raising Rosenkreuz skyward, and a wave of red light sprang from her back, forming into a pair of large black-feathered wings. Yang stared, her eyes going wide.

Then, Haruka leapt into the air, and as her wings spread out, took off in a blood-red burst of energy, a trail of the same color behind her as she flew, darting out of sight behind the house, only to abruptly come back into view as she came around the other side, body parallel to the ground and ten feet off it.

Woah. This… She wasn't lying. Magic's real. It's real!

Haruka stopped abruptly in front of the three stunned individuals, tilting her orientation from horizontal to vertical again, but nobody missed the thin trails of red streaming from her wings, or the fact she was still hovering six feet off the ground.

"This is Sleipnir, an Ancient Belkan flight spell. It was taught to me by Lady Hayate Yagami, the Mistress of the Night Sky, and an extremely powerful mage-knight." Haruka smiled. "She taught me many of my spells." Then, Haruka's mouth twisted into a half-grin-half-wince. "And also spent far too much training time trying to get into my other teacher, Knight Carim's habit, if you understand my meaning."

Yang threw back her head and laughed, Qrow burst out laughing, and Taiyang sighed, facepalming.

"There are rainbows straighter than Lady Yagami!" Rosenkreuz chimed in, causing Yang to practically roar with laughter, the volume of Qrow's guffaws to increase, and even Taiyang to chuckle, before he stopped suddenly.

"Wait, who said that?" Taiyang looked around, searching for someone else present, and seeing none.

"I did! My name is Rosenkreuz! I'm an Intelligent Device!" The Device's voice sounded even more cheerful than it had in the workshop.

"My weapon is the one speaking." Haruka informed him.

"Hello!" The gem at the odd top of the mechanical staff flashed as the Device spoke.

"What." Taiyang sounded confused, but Qrow just snorted, still chuckling lightly.

"I suspected something like that." He admitted, then frowned. "Wait, previous topic, habit, as in, a nun's outfit? Aren't nuns supposed to be chaste?"

A ringing came from with in the house, interrupting Haruka as she opened her mouth to answer.

"That was the timer I set." Taiyang noted. "Dinner's ready."

***

"So, you were about to say earlier?" Yang asked Haruka, as the younger girl finished her second plate of food. "About nuns being chaste?"

"And why were you taught by a nun?" Taiyang added his own question, leaning over his plate.

"Second question first; I was taught by a Knight of the Church, not a nun, though she dresses the part of a nun sometimes. I was taught by a Knight because I, myself, am also a Knight of the Saint Church of Belka. In answer to the other question, nuns of the Saint Church don't have to be." Haruka told him with a grin. "Enforced celibacy would be weird considering the woman who's our Messiah figure was noted for having a… Taste for such pleasures—Oh, who am I kidding, she practically had a harem." Haruka noted.

"Harem means a bunch of women and—Wait, you mean—?" Yang asked, grinning.

"Yes, the Heiliger Kaiser had many female lovers. And a few men too, most notably a probable relationship with Hegemon Claus Ingvalt of Shutra, but most of her known or suspected lovers were female." Haruka told her, the expression on her face identical to the one on Yang's for a moment, before her face fell. "Though, can we discuss this another time?" She pushed the plate away from herself and stood up. "This discussion's just reminding me it'll be a long time before I see Cinque again." She turned, and began to leave in the direction of the guest room she'd been given, nodding at Taiyang as she did so. "Thank you for dinner, it was excellent."

"Uhhh, you're welcome, but, who's Cinque?" Taiyang asked as Haruka entered the hallway. She paused, and glanced back at the three still at the table.

"Cinque Nakajima. My wife."

WAIT, WHAT!?

***

Too many, too many. Every time one fell another took its place. She'd been too slow, and they'd all failed.

Rosenkreuz was destroyed, her Knight's Armor was failing, only the Butcher's Nails were left.

She twisted to slash at—

"MEISTER Haruka! WAKE UP!"

"AAAHHH!" Haruka screamed as she awoke suddenly, her Device's voice snapping her out of the nightmare.

The slash she'd aimed in the nightmare now wasn't a mere thought, and her arm came down, the Butcher's Nails shredding the nightstand next to her, before a series of noises in the hallway triggered her combat reflexes.

She leapt from the bed, darting forward to slam her claws through the wall and into whatever was in the other side when her Device spoke again.

"You are safe. Relax, Meister. It's okay."

The quiet voice of Rosenkreuz in her mind, while stopping her movements, was not enough to halt her momentum completely, and her claws embedded themselves in the wall, up to where her fingers started.

Taiyang exploded through the doorway, his fists raised.

He glanced about the room wildly as Haruka began crying, the day's stress, the hijacking, the horrific events she'd been grasping at anything to stave off caught up with her all at once.

She slumped to the ground, her claws still in the wall, leaving long gashes down the wall as she slid downwards.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." She whispered, speaking Midchildan for the first time since the crash.

"Haruka?" Taiyang whispered, before saying something in his strange language. He knelt down next to her, inadvertently triggering her again.

"Get away from me!" She screamed at him, and tore her left hand, the one closer to him, free from the wall, slashing it at him.

Her reach wasn't far enough, but it got the message across. Taiyang put his hands up, and slowly backed away. More footsteps raced up the hallway, and another pair of voices sounded. She couldn't understand the words spoken, and couldn't concentrate enough to pick up on the tones.

"Meister, please, just calm down. You're safe, you're safe. It's all going to be fine." Rosenkreuz told her. Haruka half listened to her Device, but something else caught one of the pieces of her attention.

A small, cold, wet nose pressed against her bare stomach. She glanced down through tear-filled eyes, the tiny, detached part of herself noting that she was only wearing panties and becoming embarrassed. And as she looked down further, she came eye-to-eye with a small, grey corgi.

"Arf." The tiny canine barked softly, and snuggled into her stomach, heedless to the tears falling onto his fur.

Haruka retracted the Butcher's Nails, and slowly moved her left hand to pet the corgi, needing the affection of something small and cute, something not remotely threatening.

After several minutes of gentle corgi-petting, Haruka had calmed down enough to slowly stand, picking up the small canine as she did so. She slowly made her way to the bed, and sat down on the edge, pulling her longcoat over her shoulders and returning to petting the small fuzzy animal and trying very hard to just not think of anything for a while.

Sometime after she sat down, she registered the voices in the hallway leaving, and noted that the door had been closed at some point.

This suited her quite well.

"You ought to try and sleep again, Meister."

"I don't think I'll be able to, after that…"

"Then I'll stay awake with you. So, what do you want to talk about? Or do you want to watch a movie or TV show?"

Haruka glanced over at her Device.

"Let's… I need to learn Valian, so let's start with that."

"Okay! So, first off…"