Blood Red Roses
is a BlazBlue fanfic written by Temari-Desert-Storm.
In this story, Rachel is to be married to Jin, the next head of the Kisaragi family, but she finds herself becoming enamored by Ragna, the successor to Bloodedge.
While the story starts off as a love triangle between Rachel, Jin, and Ragna, it later diverges from that and becomes an Alternate Universe retelling of BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger.
The story hasn't been updated since late 2012. In addition to both the author's profile and other stories on the site receiving no updates in over 7 years, it is likely a Dead Fic.
Blood Red Roses provides examples of:
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Ragna's actually got it worse in some areas than he did in canon. His first attack on an NOL facility has him reeling due to the weight of his actions and the Murakumo he encountered, and since he didn't know about Jin's more monstrous nature due to Yukianesa and Terumi's influence, his betrayal hits him much harder.
- Adaptational Nice Guy:
- Ragna is less crass and cynical than he was in the games, being more polite with others. It also helps that Rachel is much less antagonistic with him.
- Rachel's tsundere qualities are downplayed compared to canon, where she was practically the embodiment of this trope. While she and Ragna still trade barbs, it's nowhere near the caustic level that it was in the games.
- Jin gets a few more Pet the Dog moments with Noel early on. He's also not responsible for cutting off Ragna's arm since he was already adopted by the Kisaragi family when it happened.
- Adaptational Species Change: Of a sort. Ragna was a dhampyr in the first timeline, while in all others (including the canon timeline that the games take place in) he was the natural born son of an artificial life form. Here, he's both a dhampyr thanks to Rachel and the reincarnation of the Black Beast due to being born from its corpse.
- Composite Character: Ragna's personality is more in line with his post-Chronophantasma character. He's also part of one of the timelines where the Calamity Trigger is stopped, but he's a dhampyr like his original timeline version. On top of that, activating his Grimoire turns his arm into a "devoured by darkness" claw like his manga version.
- Dead Fic: The story hasn't been updated in 7 years and shows no sign of continuing.
- The Dreaded: Ragna is shown to be highly feared by the NOL, with many civilians speaking about him in hushed tones. Many bystanders tend to get weary about where he might show up.
- Foreshadowing: Hakumen screaming in fury reminds Ragna a lot of Jin's whining when he didn't get his way. This signifies that they are the same person.
- Healing Factor: Ragna's dhampyr nature and the Grimoire's powers grant him immense healing abilities. When shot by an NOL soldier, he only noticed the shot due to the sound. His wound healed so fast he didn't even know it was there, and that's before getting into shrugging off impalement.
- "Not So Different" Remark: As a child, Ragna puts together that he and Rachel are both alone in the world, with Ragna having no one and Rachel being the only vampire on the planet.
- One-Man Army: During his first assault on an NOL facility, Ragna is described as effortlessly slaughtering any soldier that tries to get in his way, with them coming in by the hundreds.
- Pet the Dog: Despite crass and crude attitudes, Ragna and Jin can be lenient depending on the situation.
- Ragna shows mercy to Arakune and decides to let him live at Litchi's behest. He also buys Taokaka food without complaining.
- Jin, after angrily berating Noel and insulting her, backpedals on his behavior when she maintains her politeness towards him. He even apologizes to her for his attitude.
- Screw Destiny: Ragna fully intends to avert his fate of becoming the next Black Beast and destroyer of the world.
- She's Not My Girlfriend: Jin is quick to insist that there is nothing between him and Tsubaki. His overly fast insistence is noted to not really help his case.
- The Stations of the Canon: Once the story hits the Calamity Trigger portion, it follows the events of the game mostly to the letter, albeit with differences in dialogue and focuses primarily on Ragna, Jin, Noel, and Rachel.
- Super-Strength: Ragna displays this throughout the story. He can easily lift Blood-Scythe like it weighs nothing, and rip elevator cars off their hinges and throw them, though not without strain.
- Unrelated in the Adaptation: Since Ragna was born from the corpse of the Black Beast in this story, it's stated that he isn't biologically related to Jin and Saya. However, Rachel doesn't consider this possible, since they have far too many similarities in appearance for them to not be related.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Ragna and Rachel are closer here at the start than in canon, but that still doesn't stop them from having Snark-to-Snark Combat with each other.
- Wipe the Floor with You: Ragna does this to Hakumen during their fight. He grabs his opponent and proceeds to ram him into a wall, running at Super-Speed and grinding his armor against the surface.
