𝐈𝐧 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐃𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐬 (English)

Chapter 55

Ruby landed awkwardly, her left leg buckling under her own weight and causing her to stumble. It was instinct alone that kept Crescent Rose in front of her, but that wasn't enough to fix the current problem.

Pyrrha, so far above her that it was comical, stood across the arena, weapons drawn.

And she didn't have her team at her back anymore, not for the finals, not when she was stuck in a one-on-one with Pyrrha flipping Nikos and somehow expected to win. Ruby cringed as the crowds chanted Pyrrha's name, all turning against her so easily. They didn't even know Ruby Rose. Some were even screaming for blood, not that she thought Pyrrha would ever do that.

The redhead wore an almost apologetic smile as she closed in.

Ruby would have liked to say she danced but the truth was she flailed helplessly, always on the backfoot and always just a little too slow to stop Pyrrha's sword breaking through. Crescent Rose whirled but Pyrrha's weapon was like an angry wasp, stabbing and cutting, nicking her aura but never truly hurting her.

Until Ruby jumped back and felt a cold breeze over her bare shoulder.

With a flutter, her sleeve fell off, falling to the arena floor and exposing Ruby's arm and shoulder. The cuts had caught cloth, and while aura had protected her it did nothing for her fragile clothing. Grimacing, Ruby brought Crescent Rose forward, only to hear a whistle in the crowd followed by sudden laughter.

What were they—?

Cold air washed over her bottom.

Panicking, Ruby looked down to see her skirt in tatters on the ground. She had her stockings on, but even they were torn to show patches of pale skin. Shrieking, she dropped to her knees, dropping Crescent Rose and covering her butt and crotch. Only to watch in horror as her corset sprung loose, the strings cut, and feel thousands of eyes on her as her top began to shred apart from Pyrrha's blows.

The crowd roared with laughter—

"Nope!" A heavy uniform blazer fell over her. Jaune, her best friend, draped it over her body to cover her, somehow having covered the distance between the stands and her in a second, and even intruded in the finals of the Vytal Tournament. "Nope," he said, shaking his head. "Nope, nope, nope. Not happening. You are fifteen, Ruby. We are not dealing with a situation straight out of Blake's naughty books."

"More!" shouted the crowd. "Strip! Strip! Strip!"

Ruby blushed bright red and buried herself in Jaune's jacket. "Noooo!"

"Seriously, Ruby. As if Pyrrha would ever do something like this. And weren't you going to send Yang into the finals?"

Yang? Wait, that had been the plan, hadn't it? Yang and Weiss had even gone into the doubles, and it had to be someone from the doubles chosen for the finals, so why was she competing? Wait, how was she even competing? When did this happen? Had she even walked into the arena? None of this made sense!

"You're such a worrywart," said her friend, laughing fondly. He rubbed her head, uncaring of her partial nudity. "You don't have anything to worry about. If something like this happened, I think everyone would rush to your defence."

"If... If it happened...?"

Jaune smiled down on her.

And Ruby woke up with a lurch, sitting up in her bed, in her dorm, in her pyjamas, on her top bunk, with Zeri grumbling from his place curled up between her knees. He didn't like being disturbed before it was time to wake up, and it was one of the few times he'd ever growl at them. That or if they rolled over and accidentally buried him in the blankets.