"DAMN YOU, TSUTSUMI!!"
Yang's scream echoed so loudly through Beacon's hall that a couple of passing students practically jumped out of their boots. A second later she barreled around the corner, eyes blazing red and fists glowing like they were ready to turn the entire school into rubble.
"You bastard!" She snarled, throwing a wild punch at his head.
Tsutsumi casually tilted his head to the side. Her fist connected with the wall behind him, stone exploded outward, sending dust, debris, and a very unhappy-looking statue toppling to the floor.
"Do you even understand how precious my hair is, huh!?" Yang roared. She swung again, and Tsutsumi stepped back just in time for her punch to drive straight through another section of Beacon's unfortunate architecture.
Tsutsumi watched a few broken bricks roll past his shoes.
"…You're seriously this mad over a few pieces of hair?" he finally asked, torn between amusement and irritation.
"They weren't just hair!" Yang snapped.
Another punch. Another wall gone.
"They were my beautiful, golden hair! Do you have any idea how long it takes to maintain it!?"
She lunged again, fists blazing. Every swing was destructive enough to make the maintenance budget of Beacon cry, but not a single strike came close to touching him. Tsutsumi simply stepped aside, leaned back, or shifted just enough that she hit everything except her intended target.
He let out a slow exhale.
Honestly, he never understood her obsession. It was just hair. Strands grew back. She acted like he had chopped off her arm.
If she were angry because he launched her into the ceiling one too many times during their match, he'd at least understand her point. He might've even let her land a hit before launching her into a different ceiling.
"I didn't expect you to be an idiot," Tsutsumi said flatly.
Yang's eyes burned brighter. Her Aura flared so intensely her hair almost looked like actual fire. Her fists clenched so hard her knuckles turned white, and the floor beneath her cracked from the force.
"You… want to repeat that?" she growled, her voice trembling with fury.
Tsutsumi blinked once. "What? The 'idiot' part or the 'unexpected' part?"
With a roar, Yang launched herself at him again, the ground bursting beneath her from the sheer force of her takeoff.
Form Ride: Ruby Rose!
Tsutsumi's silhouette blurred, twisting into a swirl of rose-red light before reshaping into a perfect copy of Ruby, hood, hair, cloak, everything. The transformation happened so fast Yang skidded to a halt mid-punch, her brain stalling like a broken engine.
"What!?"
Tsutsumi, now Ruby, spun past her in a tight red whirlwind and landed lightly behind her just as the rest of RWBY and TNPR finally arrived… drawn by the trail of destroyed hallways that Yang had left behind.
"Ehhhh!? A-Another me!?" Ruby squeaked.
Her hands immediately snapped around her folded Crescent Rose, pulling it protectively to her chest like a mother guarding her kid. "I-I won't let you take my baby!"
"No, you dolt! That's Tsutsumi!" Weiss said, pointing accusingly at him. "Look at the belt!"
Yang's eye twitched.
"Tsutsumi, you absolute scumbag! Do you think I can't tell the difference between you and my real sister!?"
"Is that so?" Tsutsumi said, in Ruby's voice, before tapping his belt.
The belt disappeared, like scattered petals. Before anyone could breathe, he pulled out his Crescent Rose and used Ruby's semblance to dash straight to the real Ruby, splitting into a large crimson swirl before cleanly separating again.
Blake blinked. "…Ruby?"
"I'm here!" both Rubys said in perfect unison.
Everyone: "..."
"No, no! Stop that," Weiss muttered, rubbing her temples.
"I'm the real Ruby!" Ruby insisted, pointing at herself.
"No, I'm Ruby Rose!" the other Ruby countered, matching her tone, posture, and earnestness beat-for-beat.
The two stared each other down like mirror images, same eyes, same little foot tap, same awkward determination.
"Ren?? Which one is our leader?" Nora whispered urgently.
Ren stared, then shrugged. "Can't tell."
Nora simply nodded.
Yang's anger had cooled into confusion, her fists lowering slightly. "Okay, look. This isn't funny anymore. Tsutsumi, turn back so I can punch you properly!"
"Yang, can't you tell!? I'm Ruby Rose! Your sister!" one Ruby pleaded dramatically, pointing at herself.
Yang gasped. "Ah-ha! So YOU'RE the imposter!" She spun toward the other Ruby.
"…You really can't recognize your own sister?" the second Ruby whispered softly, making the saddest, most wounded expression imaginable.
Yang froze again.
That look hit harder than any Grimm.
"Then… you're the imposter!?" Yang spun back, pointing at the first Ruby.
"Yang!" they both yelled.
Their identical disappointment only made Yang panic more.
"I CAN'T TELL WHO IS MY REAL SISTER!?"
Weiss groaned into her hands. "Great. They broke Yang!"
Blake sighed. "Tsutsumi, this is getting mean."
Her gaze shifted toward Tsutsumi's teammate.
"You aren't gonna help out?" Blake asked, noticing Pyrrha, Ren, and Nora hadn't moved an inch to figure out which Ruby was Tsutsumi.
Pyrrha shook her head with a small smile. "Honestly? I'd like to know who the real one is too. But… this is more fun."
Nora nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah! It's way better watching instead of accidentally hitting Pyrrha or Ren with Magnhild."
Ren simply nodded like this was all normal.
Meanwhile Yang looked like she was two seconds away from exploding again.
"Quick! Tell me something only the REAL Ruby would know!" Yang demanded, glaring between the two Rubys. Both Rubys paused… then both inhaled like they were preparing to ruin somebody's life.
"You once wet yourself at ten after a nightmare because you thought you'd gone bald!" Ruby #1 said.
"And then you poured water on the bed to pretend you spilled it so Dad wouldn't get mad!" Ruby #2 added helpfully.
"STOP! STOP!! I SAID SOMETHING ONLY THE REAL RUBY WOULD KNOW! NOT MY DARK HISTORY!" Yang yelled, her eyes turning crimson.
Weiss blinked. "…How did he even know about that?"
Everyone turned toward the rest of TNPR.
Pyrrha shrugged. "It's probably from his transformations. When he turns into one of us, he gains our skills… and maybe our memories too." Her expression softened. "With them, he understands our struggles, our efforts, even the parts we try to hide."
She scratched her cheek sheepishly. "It's a bit embarrassing to be read like an open book… but he never shares any of our secrets. He keeps it all to himself like it were his own."
The comment landed harder than she expected. This caused team RWBY to pause as they took in the information she just dropped.
It was thanks to this special sense of understanding and connection that Tsutsumi was able to understand those he turned into, know about their story, and record them.
Which is why he was able to help his teammate improve so much in such a short amount of time; he understands Pyrrha's desire to be treated like any other normal girl. Nora's dependence and attachment to Ren. And Ren's pain and grief over losing the place he once called home.
With information, he knew exactly which buttons to push and which to avoid, and ways to help them in ways that they didn't even know that they needed.
"So you're saying no one's secrets are safe around him!?" Weiss blurted out, voicing everyone's thought.
Yang stiffened. Blake's bow twitched.
"I don't know," Pyrrha replied lightly. "I'm not Tsutsumi."
Not confirming. Not denying. And absolutely messing with everyone's nerves.
"You really do deceive people with that smile…" Blake sighed, defeated. If Tsutsumi did know her identity as a Faunus and about her past. But he never once mentioned or used it against her. That alone was enough for her.
"That's the most disturbing and disgusting ability I've ever heard," Weiss muttered, shivering at the thought of Tsutsumi casually knowing everything about her.
This caused the other to look at her.
"What!?" Weiss snapped, crossing her arms defensively. "You can't expect me to feel comfortable with a guy who knows everything about everyone and thinks chaos is a personality trait!"
Then Weiss's gaze slowly slid back toward the Rubys.
"…So you can see my past, right? Uh… you won't snitch, will you?" Ruby asked nervously.
Ruby smiled. "Why would I snitch on myself?"
The other Ruby smiled back, perfectly mirroring her tone, posture, and expression. The shared understanding in their eyes made it even worse.
Tsutsumi can transform into other people, gaining their experiences, skill sets, equipment, and memories.
Even with all that information, he still wouldn't go around sharing other people's secrets. Since, in a way, he kinda views himself as those he turns into, treating those secrets like they were his own to keep.
Weiss groaned. "No. Absolutely not. Stop bonding. Stop whatever this is."
Yang couldn't take it anymore.
"That's it! I've had enough!" she shouted, grabbing both Rubys by the head and slamming them together like mismatched action figures.
A loud bonk echoed through the hall.
Her mind was completely fried.
First she wanted to beat Tsutsumi up for messing with her hair.
Then he turned into her sister.
Then he ran toward Ruby and shuffled with her.
Then they exposed her childhood disaster.
Then Pyrrha casually revealed he knew everyone's secrets.
Then the two Rubys started passing around secret Ruby-knowledge like trading cards.
At that point, Yang's brain simply stopped processing.
Violence became the only button left to push.
"Yang… I'm pretty sure that didn't solve anything." Weiss said, covering her mouth in shock.
Yang breathed heavily. "If it didn't fix the problem… at least it made me feel better."
"I don't think making them kiss fixes anything," Blake said flatly.
Yang froze. Then she slowly turned around.
Both Rubys were still locked together, lip to lip.
"No, no, no! Stop that!" Yang yanked them apart like she was defusing a bomb. One Ruby was her sister. The other one was definitely not her sister. She had no idea how things turned into this, but she blamed Tsutsumi immediately.
Her little stunt of smashing their heads together clearly backfired.
"M-My first kiss..." Ruby whispered, face glowing a shade even redder than her cloak. Her trembling hand went up to her lips like she still couldn't believe what happened.
That was enough proof. Real Ruby found. Which meant the other one was Tsutsumi.
Yang snapped her head toward him, ready to explode again, only to stop when she noticed something was… wrong.
The air around Tsutsumi shifted, dropping in temperature as if the world suddenly exhaled frost. His fake-Ruby face had gone still. Too still.
"I'm sorry..." Aki's soft, breaking voice.
"Every day, I imagine a future where I can be with you..." Monika's hopeful, lonely little melody.
"Promise me that you won't give up on finding love, okay?" Jeanne's warm, fading smile.
One after another, those memories surged through him, sharp and familiar, like reopened wounds he thought had healed.
"Tch. This really is the worst…" he muttered, a hand pressing against his chest like he was steadying something that wouldn't stop shaking.
He didn't know much about love, but he knew what it cost. The people who loved him. They vanished or died. Every time, it ended the same way.
Aki died protecting him.
Monika got erased.
Jeanne accepting the end with a smile she didn't deserve.
Miyabi dying in his arms, calling him her son.
Azu's red-black bow matched the torn one his future self carried like a gravestone.
Every connection that crossed that invisible line ended in tragedy.
This caused him to subconsciously form a mental barrier between himself and those he cares about, fearing that if that line was crossed, their fate would tragically end.
And now this, Ruby's first kiss, stolen by an accident he didn't cause, but was still involved in. Yang had basically planted a giant death flag on Ruby's head.
Meaning that is something to happened to Ruby and caused her story to end.
It would be his fault.
And his brain latched onto that like it always did.
"Henshin."
Form Ride: Black Hazard!
The black metal pieces slammed into him from both sides, locking into place before hissing open. Dark smoke, purples, blacks, poured off his body like he was bleeding shadows.
He raised his head. Still in Ruby's form. But drained of all color, wearing entirely black clothes, the crimson cloak now turned pitch-black, and his hair lost its shade of red.
Those silver eyes were cold enough to freeze marrow.
He didn't look emotional. He looked like a guy who had reached the limit of what he was willing to tolerate today.
Yang backed up. "Uhh… Tsutsumi? Hey. Buddy. Pal. Friend?"
He didn't respond. He just started walking toward her.
Slow. Heavy steps. Not dramatic, just the pace of someone who had completely run out of patience.
Yang panicked and bolted down the hall.
Tsutsumi chased after her, not yelling, not saying anything, just moving toward her menacingly.
Honestly, he didn't care about the accidental kiss.
He didn't even feel embarrassed.
He was just mad she accidentally dug up stuff he spent a long time burying, and now Ruby, whom he'd just started warming up to, and technically in the line of "people he might care about." Might have an unfortunate end because of him.