This is interesting. Technically, Ruby has more offensive abilities, but Yagyu has a unique set that might directly counter Ruby.
For one, Yagyu’s ability to affect the spirit in the form of NPI might mean, given Aura is literally your Soul being used as protective armor, that Yagyu could bypass it entirely. Not through ignoring it, but specifically targeting it with her physical output. So unlike Tao V Yang, where Xiao-Long’s Aura can act as a defense that negates superior firepower (for a limited time) because it doesn’t apply, Yagyu can directly and critically focus her efforts on Ruby’s Aura and get rid of it pretty quickly.
Shinobi Barriers seem to be similar to Veils in JJK, or Palaces in Persona—Insofar as it’s just the in game explanation why people don’t notice the ninjas, environments don’t change, etc. as it’s just a separate dimensional space. So it holds no direct advantage, but I do think it’d hold indirect ones. If I understand correct from her profile, Yagyu has pretty limited range. It’s noted that it creates “an impenetrable space of fixed size.” This means that it’s basically a perfect way to limit Ruby’s hit and run tactics, as well as sniping ability. It also puts Ruby at risk of harming herself with her own Dust.
Speaking of, Yagyu’s perception automatically gives her a constant insight on Ruby’s location, so sniping from a vantage point simply doesn’t work. Furthermore, she has stealth capacity, so arguing Ruby could snipe her down explicitly would also necessitate Ruby having a method to track Yagyu down, which she doesn’t really have. And like the other thread, one of her early series flaws is—Despite being a sniper with terrible physical capabilities relative to the baseline of her superpowered world—She likes to charge in head first. Which means she both wouldn’t go for the shot until later to begin with, but she also opens herself up to practically any trick Yagyu has to offer.
Not to mention that her own Ricochet based air mobility and trajectory are null due because Yagyu can air dash to create the same effect. Meaning no one gets an aerial mobility edge.
That said, it’s not a complete walkthrough, here. For one, while Yagyu’s ice is nice, it’s not guaranteed freezing—However, more importantly, Ruby’s battled an ice user multiple times (albeit in offscreen training), so she likely would be able to get around it, or not be stuck at too far disadvantage. Similarly, she’s dealt with a wide range of monsters jumping her, so she has the mobility to get around the Squids. On top of that, Blake also specializes in Ninja-based combat, and again, Ruby has experience against her. So the stealth problem, while there, isn’t absolute. And a lot of the Dust options are simply things Yagyu doesn’t resist, so getting tagged isn’t really an option outside of her getting set on fire. (Since, y’know, gravity because air dashing and fire because she can fight while set aflame). However, most CRITICALLY, is the speed disparity. While Yagyu seems fully built to diminish Ruby’s abilities and defeat her, that’s if and ONLY IF she is able to 1) Tag her, 2) Realize Ruby’s limitations and act on them 3) Stay in the battle long enough to meet tasks 1 and 2 considering Ruby is only about 50% weaker, making death by 1000 cuts a real possibility given she’s nearly 2x faster than Yagyu. She can also practically evade most means of harm the ninja has via her elemental intangibility, which the Shinobi can do nothing about because it’s not a spirit based thing that fits within her NPI.
These minor factors plus the two large issues of speed and intangibility basically net Ruby an easy victory so long as she plays smart. Similarly, Yagyu has to fight intelligently to defeat Ruby, thanks to the aforementioned countering of traits Ruby has.
So the fight comes down to who would do what faster, mentally. And I can’t really get much on that from Yagyu’s profile. It just says she can keep a cool head and is pretty smart relative to her world, which isn’t saying much. Ruby also isn’t a slouch intellectually, though she’s not known for her smarts in battle. Due to this, I’ll default to Ruby.
Ruby’s methods to win are slightly to mildly easier, and given they have the same intelligence rating, even assuming Yagyu is the smarter of the two and would realize faster were they fighting at the same speed, due to the fact they aren’t Ruby will probably take note of the things she needs to do to win before Yagyu does.
