Red 001: An Unwanted Burden

"Damn, this forest just ain't letting up…" a certain Reaper growled to himself as he continued to travel through the mist covered woods. "That'll be an awesome way to spend the turn of the century, alone in the woods surrounded by nothing but Seither and trees. This is starting to get on my damned nerves…"

The vulgar figure in question was one Ragna the Bloodedge, otherwise known as The Grim Reaper, The SS-class criminal, the head that could buy a country, and several other less flattering titles that he'd been given in his crusade against the world government known as the Novus Orbis Librarium, or NOL as it was more commonly known. He'd just destroyed a branch and the cauldron within rather recently, but he hadn't been satisfied with his work, not by a long shot. Sighing to himself he continued to trek on, starting to become aware of a presence following him.

'Whoever's following me ain't no slouch at going stealthy, but I can tell exactly where they are,' he thought to himself with narrowed eyes. 'The next clearing, I get to I'm going to-'

"Uhhhhhhh…" a voice moaned sickly. Ragna's first thought was that there was a ghost in these forests and that he should book it, but he heard another sickly gurgle from nearby. "Muuuhhh…"

"Tch, now what?" he groaned to himself before he decided to check it out against his better judgement.

Keeping his senses open for whoever was following him, Ragna passed through a light thicket and leapt over a few ferns with ease to come upon what looked be a young girl leaning against the base of a tree. She had dark brown hair and silver glazed-over eyes. Her dress consisted of a black corset and skirt along with white sleeves for armwear. A small trail of drool seemed to be escaping from her lip and nearly made its way down to her clothes. Kneeling down and getting a better look at her, he could clearly see what the problem was.

"Seither poisoning," he observed aloud. "Doesn't look like she's at the terminal level yet, but if she stays out here any longer she could get there… But what the hell's a kid doing out in the middle of nowhere in the first place?" Putting those thoughts aside for the moment, Ragna decided to address his other problem. "You might as well come out whoever you are, I'm starting to get tired of you stalking my ass."

"Heh, yer about as crude as ever, eh Ragna?" a familiar voice said as a figure leapt from up above. Ragna turned to face the newcomer with a surprise in his eyes. A short furry and bipedal cat that he knew quite well.

"Master?" the Reaper said with confusion. "What the hell brings you out here?"

"Out on the middle of an errand I had to do; saw you wanderin' about and swearin' ta yerself so I figured I'd drop by and see how you were doin'. Wasn't expecting ya ta spot me so easily though."

Jubei, Ragna's teacher, was a hero of a time long since passed known as the Dark War. He was part of an old order of warriors known as the Six Heroes which was known for saving humanity from the brink of destruction. After the war though, Jubei had gone into hiding, and it was clear that he and Ragna had similar views for the NOL's control of the world. It'd been quite a while since Ragna had seen his old teacher, back before his own personal rebellion had begun.

"So this kid's yours then?" Ragna had to ask as he looked to the downed girl.

"Nah, I just found her when you did, no tellin' who she is or what brings her to this place," Jubei told him. "Lucky you found her before she got into real trouble."

"Yeah, lucky," Ragna grumbled to himself before looking off in the distance. "Looks like I'm getting closer to Kagutsuchi, I should pick up the pace if I'm going to get there soon."

"Hang on, you're not just going to leave the poor girl here are you?" Jubei demanded. "Didn't think turning ya into a rebel meant making ya heartless…"

"Who are you calling heartless? I'm just leaving her with you since you seem to care so damn much," Ragna retorted him with a glare. "Besides, she doesn't seem so innocent; she's carrying a damn weapon ain't she? She's probably some kind of kid vigilante or something."

"You got a good eye, but I can't take care of 'er; got my own errands to worry about," Jubei told him. "She's your responsibility."

"Wait a damned minute!" Ragna yelled harshly. "I don't remembering signing up for shit like this when-!"

"Uhhhhh…" the young girl moaned again before lurching forward and vomiting. Looking down at the poor thing, Ragna felt a pang of guilt for leaving her like this while he argued with his master. Looking back up, he noticed Jubei glancing his way with an expectant eye.

"...If she tries to get me in the back when she recovers, I'll never let you here the end of this, cat," Ragna finally relented, causing Jubei to smirk slightly. Grabbing a handkerchief out of his pocket (Rachel had insisted he carry one for whatever reason), Ragna did his best to wipe to drool and vomit off the comatose girl's face before picking her off the ground and carrying her off piggyback style.

"Damn, forgot to give the boy the warning," Jubei thought to himself aloud after Ragna had left.

"Even if you had gifted him with your foresight, I doubt that he'd be able to be make much use of it," a cool voice told him.

"Whoa! Dammit Rachel, you gotta stop sneakin' up on me like that!" the former hero shouted in surprise. "That ain't healthy for an old man like me…"

"Old or not, I'd say your health is still in quite fair condition, oh One Eyed Lotus," the young girl with long blond pigtails said as she looked upon her old ally.

"Quit callin' me that, you know how much I hate that name," Jubei told her. "More to th' point though, is that girl Ragna found your doing?"

"Therein lies a mystery I'm afraid," she told him. "That girl does not seem to be of this world nor does she seem to be another shift, I'd say she's wandered here uninvited… She does not appear to be of Terumi's doing, that much I can be sure of."

"That still seems like a problem," Jubei admitted. "Wonder what Ragna's going to do when she wakes up… or if he can even make sense of this…"

"Knowing him that's doubtful," Rachel told him. "I only hope his laughable temper doesn't lead him towards committing anything drastic."

"Yeah, no kiddin'…" Jubei muttered. "Anyways, I should be off; got my own errands t' run."

"Godspeed Jubei," Rachel told him with a kind smile before disappearing.

Not far away, Ragna was busy sprinting through the woods as he carried the girl on his back. He knew that going to Kagutsuchi with the condition the girl was in would be risky, so at the moment he was resolved to try and handle said problem himself while he could. During his frantic search he finally managed to come across what he'd been searching for.

"This place will do, seither's as thin as it'll get and we've got some medicinal herbs," he said aloud as he set the girl down.

Listening to her mumble incoherently a he laid her against a tree, he placed his hand upon her forehead and muttered a brief incantation. He'd learned this Ars from Jubei a while ago; it had the ability to drain a still body of Seither for recovery. Initially Ragna hadn't seen the use of such an ability since he wouldn't be able to use it on himself, but it looked like his old teacher had the right idea. The young girl's complexion immediately seemed to improve as color slowly returned to her face.

"Uhh… What… happened…?" she moaned as she looked up at Ragna, who was only a dark and blurry figure to her eyes, yet she could easily she the glowing green and red of his irises. "Who…?"

"Take it easy, you're not looking too good right now," Ragna said before reaching into grabbing the herbs and crushing them into tiny pieces in his hand. "This is gonna taste bitter as hell, but it'll help you get the rest of the Seither out of your system."

The girl in front of him mumbled incoherently, so Ragna forced the herbs into her hand and made her bring it up to her mouth. At their promised bitter taste, her eyes seemed to light up with disgust, but luckily the girl only hurriedly swallowed the herbs instead of spitting it out in his face.

"Ugh…" the girl moaned as her head continued to slump over.

"Hey, stay with me," Ragna ordered as he gently shook her shoulder just keep her awake. "C'mon, listen to me. You got a name?"

"R… Ruh… Ru...by…" the girl muttered as her head slumped forward. Somewhat worried, Ragna put his fingers on her neck and checked her pulse, letting out a breath of relief when he felt a strong beat. To make things easier, he then heard light snoring that showed she merely fallen asleep.

"Well that's her taken care of," he muttered to himself. "But why's all this shit being pushed on me all of a sudden? I'm supposed to be a terrorist, not a damn babysitter." Seeing her shiver in front of him at the lack of warmth he let out a sigh. "Guess I can't just leave her here, last thing I want is this chick's ghost coming back to haunt me."

Taking his jacket and sword off, he laid his favorite fashion statement over the mysterious Ruby while sitting cross-legged in front of her holding his trusted blade. Listening to the sounds of the forest, he knew that there would be Seither beasts out soon enough, but it there was no telling when they'd start going for the two of them. The Reaper let out a long groan as he readied himself for a long night.

Author's Note: I don't own anything.

Went back and edited my mistakes, but that was about it. Hope you enjoyed it.