I gasped as our destination loomed in the distance. This was it, this is Beacon academy. The best hunter and huntress academy that there is. I saw Glinda Goodwitch appear on the holographic screen, welcoming us to Beacon Academy. This is a dream come true. We all moved to look at the view from the ship, I was awestruck. The huge, grey, castle-like school, the clock tower at the top. The mood was ruined when there was the sound of someone puking. I cringed, gross.
"Some view huh?" My best friend, Poppy Niane, came up to me. I turned towards her, taking in her shorter, small, lithe body, shoulder length brown hair, and olive colored eyes.
"Yup, you don't know how relieved I am to actually get accepted here." I sighed.
"Come on, of course you would make it here." She laughed, poking my indigo glasses.
"Hey, stop it!" I complained, swatting her hand away.
"Fine, fine." She laughed, placing her hands on her hips. She wore her normal battle outfit. Saffron converse high tops, black leggings, and a saffron skirt. Which seems like a bad idea, but it's a very flexible skirt, and she wears shorts underneath. Which is more realistic than some other girls who I've seen. Seriously though, dresses and capes? She also wore a white tank top and a saffron half-sweater over it. Her twin swords hung from a belt across her waist, one on each side.
"I still can't believe you stole my twin swords idea." I grumbled.
"It was a great idea!" Poppy exclaimed, "but I did give my payment."
I sullenly agreed, I was one of the few people who use dust in their weapon. I wielded a one handed sword along with a shield, my sword had a dust revolver within it, and hidden within my battle outfit were multiple kunai knives that were specially created to manipulate dust. I'm also equally dominant on both hands, which is why I initially decided to use twin swords.
"Come on, don't be such a spoil sport. We're going to Beacon!" She exclaimed.
"You mean we are at Beacon." I corrected her as I noticed the ship landing.
"We're here!" She squealed.
"Calm down ya big fangirl." I joked.
"You're one to talk." She snorted, knowing about my not-so-secret obsession with anime.
"Oh shush." I reprimanded her in a friendly way. The two of us followed the crowd off of the ship, heading to the great school called Beacon Academy. It looked even more amazing up close. The wide grey, stone, walkway. The large grey archways around the area. The gigantic fountain in the middle. The green bushes around the walkway. Amazing.
"Oh snap." Poppy remarked by my side. I only nodded in agreement. Since neither of us knew where we were going, we just followed the crowd of students who we had followed off the ship. There was evidently some sort of assembly going on, why else would there be a mass of students in the same area and two professors getting up at the stage. Professor Ozpin and Professor Goodwitch. Even though we were in the back and couldn't see very well, we could make out Professor Ozpin's messy grey hair and green suit. Professor Goodwitch was distinguishable by her blonde hair, black skirt and leggings, her white shirt and the purple cape fanning out behind her. The stage was amazing, a semi-circle with some sort of curved enge leading up to it. Blue bands of vertical light going up it. Along the back of the stage was a tall structure that got up higher in steps. The room was definitely an interesting place. It was very grey, and there were bands of long horizontal bands of windows. There were so many people, it was kind of dizzying.
"Claustrophobic much?" I asked Poppy.
"Oh yeah." She agreed. Professor Ozpin started talking, something about wasted energy and us taking the first step. After him, Professor Goodwitch began talking, telling us about where we would stay for the night, and that the initiation began tomorrow. "Well, that was real positive."
"Totally." I sarcastically agreed. We followed students as we headed to the ballroom, where piles of sleeping bags and backpacks were lying about. This is way they told us to make our items easily distinguishable. I looked around for my backpack, I had tied a neon pink ribbon to it. I walked to the piles, turning over purple backpacks, looking for one with a pink ribbon on it. I felt a feeling of satisfaction when I found it. I picked it up and slung it over my shoulder, double checking to make sure it was mine, and walked over to the pile of sleeping bags, picking one up. I waved to get Poppy's attention and she jogged over to me with her stuff.
"This should be an interesting night."
I fervently agreed. "I'm not gonna lie, but I'm kind of scared. You don't put a whole bunch of teenagers in a room together."
"Oh yes. This'll be interesting. I'm guessing that the majority of the students here are seventeen, and that's only because that's our age."
I nodded, "it'll be a miracle if we survive tonight." The two of us got ready, finding a clear spot and then unrolling our sleeping bags, and then taking turns to go to the bathroom to do the night-time routine, Poppy went first.
"Goodnight." I said to the girl next to me.
"Night Orchid." She responded.
...
"Wake up!" Poppy cried, bouncing on me.
I groaned from the impact."Ow, get off of me."
"Today's initiation day, let's go!" I nodded and gathered up my stuff to go use the bathroom. Once I had securely locked myself in a stall, I took off my blue penguin printed pajamas, and put on my battle outfit. Capri length black denim pants, a violet knife holster on my right thigh, a purple tank top and a light black jacket, which I left unzipped. My jacket had many pockets for my specialized knives. I had sleeves that started as fingerless gloves and they rose past my elbows that were held up with elastic. The right one black, the left one violet. I put on my wrist weapons, they were dust revolvers that helped to enhance my weapons, the dust would go down my gloves to the weapon. I put on my shield and sword holster. It started from my right shoulder and went down to my left hip, then wrapped around my hip. I placed my shield on my back, and then my sword on my left hip. I then pulled on ankle high, black, suede boots. Satisfied with my outfit, I unlocked the stall and walked out, combing out my too long black hair.
"You're turn." I yawned to Poppy, properly putting my stuff back in my backpack. Ella jumped up and slung on her backpack, heading towards the bathrooms. I turned to my rustled sleeping bag, rolling it back up so it could be stored. I fell back onto the floor, waiting for Poppy to return and braiding my hair into my signature french braid. I looked around at the students around me, dresses, capes, heels, random scarves, seriously, some of these outfits are so unrealistic for fighting. I checked my dust revolvers, the two on my wrists, and one on my sword, making sure that they were full. At the moment, I only have a few types of dust, fire, ice, earth, and wind. My sword dust revolver was basically my backup, as my fighting relies heavily on the use of dust. The ones on my wrists were automatic, and the one on my sword was manual.
"Excuse me, but do you happen to use dust in your weapon?" Asked a voice. I looked up, the girl had long white hair that was held in a ponytail to the right side. She had on a white-ish, blue dress and a half sweater over that. Her silver rapier hung on her right side, she wore white heels that went up halfway up to her knees.
"Uh, yes. Why?" I stood up, to avoid being the inferior person in this conversation.
"Which dust provider?"
"I just go to the From Dawn Til Dust store."
She nodded, as if sizing me up, "I'm Weiss Schnee." She held her hand out to be shook.
"Orchid Kizzire." I answered, pronouncing it as kiz-er-ee shaking her hand, "I'm assuming you've got some relations with the Schnee company?"
"Yes."
"Well it was nice to meet you," I noticed Poppy coming back in, her hair up in twin tails.
"You as well."
I nodded and picked up my backpack and sleeping bag, grabbing Poppy's and walking over to her. "Here." I shoved her sleeping bag into her hand. "Let's go get some breakfast." We threw the sleeping bags in a pile, and then we walked over to the locker room. The night before, we were given locker numbers, luckily, the two of us were next to each other.
"Nice lockers." Ella remarked.
"Yeah, these are pretty cool." I agreed, putting my backpack in it along with my sword and shield. The two of us closed the lockers, locking them and then walked in the direction of the dining hall.
"Who do you want on your team?" Poppy asked, as we walked to the dining hall.
"Well, for sure, you. Not Weiss Schnee."
"Who's Weiss Schnee?"
"She approached me when you were changing, she's the one girl who has white-ish blue dress. She's got white hair in a ponytail to the right side."
"Oh, that girl." Poppy nodded, "she seems very...bossy. We'll leave it at that."
"That one girl with the red hair and armour seems very powerful. Though, her armour doesn't seem to be the best choice. How about you?"
"Well, there's a girl with blonde hair and some sort of wrist weapon. She seems powerful, along with that one guy with black hair in a ponytail. He's got a green and white outfit."
"Hm, well, we'll see what happens." The two of us entered the dining hall, it was huge. The ceiling was extremely tall, there were cathedral like windows along the outside wall, and there were tables with benches in the hall.
"Huge." Poppy gasped, I nodded, ignoring her grammar. The two of us walked over to a table that was relatively empty. I took a plate, grabbing some pancakes. I poured a heaping amount of maple syrup onto my plate. "Easy with the maple syrup." Poppy laughed.
"You can't tell me what to do." I retorted, "and you're one to talk." I gestured to the puddle of maple syrup on her plate.
"What do you think that we'll be doing for the initiation?"
"I don't know, you're guess is as good as mine. Probably something that involves creating the four man squad."
"I think it'll involve fighting!"
"Probably." I agreed, taking a bite from my pancake.
"Or maybe finding treasure!" Poppy exclaimed with her mouth full.
"Don't talk with food in your mouth. It's gross." I cringed.
"Don't be such a party pooper."
I sighed, knowing that I had lost this fight. I finished cutting my pancakes and proceeded to eat them.
"Do you think there are faunus' here?" Poppy asked suddenly.
"I'm pretty sure I saw someone with bunny ears."
"I think it'd be cool to be a faunus."
"No. Faunus are discriminated by the public, and the White Fang doesn't help at all."
"Yeah, that's true, but that doesn't mean it isn't cool."
I shook my head at my friends foolishness, "you're strange." The two of us finished our breakfast in silence, not knowing about what else we could talk about. As we walked back to the lockers, we started talking about weapons. "What's one of the coolest weapons you've seen?"
"I don't know. We haven't seen them in action. Y'know what I mean?"
"Yeah, I know what you mean." The two of us had arrived at the lockers, I punched in the code to unlock the door. Each button giving a small beep when I pressed it. I finished the combo, the locker giving a click and I swung open the door.
"Do you know where we're supposed to go?"
"I'm pretty sure I saw a sign by the door explaining where new students should go." I responded, taking out my shield and sword and placing them in their respective holsters. Just as I said that, an announcement rang, telling us to head over to the place where we will be initiated.
"Okay. Let's go." We walked over to the door, reading the sign that explained how the students were supposed to gather by the launch pad. We would be flown over to the site. "Cool." The two of us walked over to the place where we had been dropped off yesterday. A crowd had already gathered at the site. "I'm pretty sure there were more of us at the beginning."
"Some people have already been picked up. I think there are rounds or something." A blonde-haired boy provided.
"Thanks." Replied Poppy.
"No problem. I'm Jaune Arc."
"I'm Poppy Niane, and this is Orchid Kizzire." Poppy gestured to me.
"Hi." I waved.
"So, what're you thinking the initiation is going to be about?" Jaune asked.
"It looks like something involving fighting." Poppy suggested.
"I hope it's somewhere safe-ish." Jaune muttered.
"Why? Are you not comfortable fighting?"
"Well, I'm not that experienced when it comes to fighting grimms." He admitted. I raised an eyebrow, then how'd you get into Beacon?
"Yeah. I see." Poppy nodded, "nasty creatures those things are, but I'd rather fight grimm's versus each other. Grimm don't strategize, humans do."
"But Grimm are much larger. Like those Ursa and snakes."
"Eh," Poppy shrugged, "that's true." Their conversation was cut off as a plane came into view. Landing on the launch pad. It wasn't as big as the one we rode in yesterday. The door popped open.
"Alright first years! Hop aboard!" I wasn't sure who said it, but it didn't sound like Professor Ozpin or Goodwitch. The crowd started moving towards the plane, everyone walking aboard. Once everyone had got on, the door closed and the plane took off again.
"So, Jaune." Poppy prompted.
"What do you want me to say? That I've developed a crush on him from the minute conversation you had with him?" I asked.
"Well, that would be nice, then I could set you up and then you'd be in a relationship. For once."
My cheeks heated up at the statement, "this is why I don't tell you these things."
"Come on! You're 17 and still haven't dated."
"Can we please move away from this topic?" I pleaded.
"Sure, but what do you think about him?"
"He seems even weaker than me." I bluntly stated.
Poppy seemed taken aback, "well that was harsh."
"It's what I think."
"I do agree with you to some degree. He seems afraid to take on a grimm."
"Exactly my reasoning."
"Okay. Hey it seems we're here." The plane started losing altitude and we came to a stop at a grassy overlooking of the forest.
"Looks like we're fighting in the forest."
"Yup." The door opened and the crowd started to walk out.
"This'll be fun."
"Glad someone thinks that." As we exited the plane, we were told to take a place at one of the launchers. One person per launcher. Poppy and I walked over to the launchers and stood next to each other on our respective launchers. "This is it." I smiled, the thrill getting to me.
"Wonder what we're supposed to do?"
I shrugged, bending down to make sure my laces were on tight, and then making sure all of my dust revolvers were locked. I vaguely listened to Professor Ozpin as I made sure my holsters were on correctly. First person who you make eye contact with will be your partner, and thus on your team, and we have to find the relic. Seems simple enough. The people all the way on the left had started to get launched.
"So when we land, try to meet up with each other?" Poppy suggested.
"Definitely, and if not, then we'll meet up at the relic. The teams are a four man squad."
"Got it." The people next to Poppy go launched, "see ya soon!" She laughed as she got launched, followed by me.
"Meet up with you later!" I yelled back, smiling. We were flying, how can you not have fun? I heard yelling and looked behind me, it was Jaune. A tree was coming up fast ahead of me, I put my arms in front of me, dust coming out and forcing me backwards, slowing down my momentum so I could land on the tree branch with minimal damage. I looked around, noticing Poppy still falling from the sky.
I jumped down to the ground, my hand resting on the hilt of my sword. The forest was really pretty, but it was the dangers that lurked behind the bushes that scared me. They didn't say anything about the forest being safe, that meant there would be grimm lurking around. I heard heavy footsteps behind me, I spun around, a beowulf. I smirked, this shouldn't be a problem. I ran at it, my sword already raised and swung at it's neck, causing a gash to appear. It lunged at me and with wind dust I slid backwards out of reach. I hissed, this wasn't turning out really well, I switched gears and used fire dust to set my sword ablaze, running back at it, this time aiming for it's legs. I took my shield out and slid towards its legs, holding my shield above me, swiping at the legs and ducking right through the legs. The beowulf howled as it's legs caught fire. I ran back at it, the fire on my sword already out and slashed at where the nape would be, creating a large enough gash for the beowulf to fall forwards. I jumped over it and continued to walk forwards, to where I saw Poppy landing.
An arrow shot itself into the ground in front of me, I immediately took out my sword and looked around the trees, looking for the culprit. "Good job taking on the beowulf." A guy landed in front of me. He wore a black hoodie and he had the hood up and it was zipped as far as it would go, baggy black cargo pants that had a stripe of slate blue on the sides, and around them were straps and his holster for bow and arrows over his hoodie. He also wore legitimate thick black combat boots.
"Thank you." I placed my sword back in it's holster.
"So you're a dust manipulator?"
"Yeah..."I fiddled with my sweater, I hated talking to guys.
"I'm guessing you haven't made eye-contact yet."
"No."
"Well, neither have I. Uh, do you anything against faunus'?"
My head jerked up, "no." What a strange question.
"I know we haven't had eye contact yet, but uh, do you just want to pretend we did?"
"Sure." I replied, honestly glad with the suggestion.
"Okay, well, to find the relic, have an idea other than the fact it's at a temple?"
"No, I'm thinking it'll probably be in a clearing, they're not going to make the relic impossible to find."
"Sounds good." He picked up the arrow and put it back in his holster, "by the way, I'm Teal."
"Orchid." The two of us continued to walk, conversation was minimal, and the silence was awkward.
Suddenly, there was a crackling sound and then we smelt smoke. The two of us looked around, noticing a fire starting to our right, "darn. I hadn't hope we'd find a fire."
"That doesn't matter." I looked at the fire, "it's coming our way. Run!" As soon as I said that, I took off, going left through the trees. Ducking under branches and jumping over fallen logs. I heard a twang and then a thunk to my right. I looked over and noticed Teal shooting arrows that had rope attached to them, the rope was somehow connected to his body as he flew over to the arrow. As he stood on a branch by the arrow, he took the arrow out and readjusted it to be reused. I smiled, that's pretty clever, reusing arrows. I wasn't looking where I was going and tripped over a log, I fell over and rolled over to land back on my feet.
"You okay?" Teal asked from his perch on the branch.
"Fine." I responded, getting up to run again.
"Alright."
I nodded as if to reassure him, and then took off running again, I could still hear the crackling of the fire. We continued to run until we found a clearing, where I stopped to take a breather. "I think, we're good."
"Yeah."
I looked around the clearing, noticing some white rocks that seemed to be made in the shape of rocks. "I think I've found it." I called to Teal as I walked towards the rocks. I heard footsteps behind me and assumed that it was Teal, I walked closer to the rocks and noticed what looked like pedestals and there were chess pieces on them. "Yep, I found it."
"We're not the first ones here." Teal motioned to six missing pieces.
"Orchid!" I suddenly staggered under the weight of another person.
"Hello Poppy." I moaned.
"That's Ceil." She motioned to an Asian guy with black hair, your classic black nerd glasses, a black beanie, long black sweater and a plaid azure, black, and white scarf. Under his sweater which didn't seem to have any buttons or zippers was an azure shirt. He wore black jeans and over that were black boots that went up to his knees, on the boots was an azure band along the sole. He also wore black fingerless gloves.
"Hi. I'm Orchid."
"I'm Teal." Teal waved.
"Gold bishop. DIBS!" Poppy yelled, "catch!" She threw another gold bishop at me.
"Woah." I caught it, even with my surprise.
"Nice catch. So now what are we supposed to do? I'm assuming these are the relics."
"Supposedly we're going to get picked up, because I don't see any of the other teams." Ceil suggested, "or anyone else for that matter."
"Where would we go to get picked up?" Poppy asked.
"Great job planning." I muttered sarcastically, we heard a screech suddenly pierce the air.
"Sounded like a Nevermore." Ceil looked up and towards the direction where it came from, "fight or flight?"
"I wanna fight it!" Poppy bounced.
"No." I responded, "a Nevermore is one of the toughest grimms out there, I don't think we should risk it."
"I agree with Orchid." Ceil added, "Teal?"
"I think we should fight it, because then we can see how each other fight, besides, the teachers have got to be watching, if something life threatening happens, we'll have some sort of backup."
"Okay, I see the logic behind what Teal said. Do we want to fight it?" Ceil asked.
"Yes." Answered Poppy.
"Yeah." Teal agreed.
"Sure." I responded.
"Alright, let's go." The four of us took of in the direction of the screech.
"It sounds like someone's already fighting it." Poppy said, listening to the gunshots that rang through the air.
"Good, maybe they'll know where to go." I added. The four of us ran out of the trees and skidded to a halt as we almost fell over a broken bridge. "Well this is great."
"Stop being sarcastic." Poppy scolded.
"There's the Nevermore." Ceil pointed to where it was flying.
"How are we going to get over there?" Poppy was obviously dying for a fight. We looked at the Nevermore, along with the gunshots aimed at it, and then we jumped at the sound of roars behind us.
"We apparently have our own problem." Ceil said as we turned around to face the herd of Ursi. "We've got to keep them away from the other teams, I'm pretty sure there's also a Deathstalker."
"Alright, let's go." Poppy yelled, running towards me.
"At least give me a warning!" I shouted back as I pulled out my shield.
"No time for hesitation!" She jumped on my shield and I launched her up in the sky, where she landed behind the first Ursa.
"She's in the middle of all the Ursi." Teal said before shooting an arrow at the tree and shooting up to it.
"Yeah, let's go!" I yelled running at the Ursa in front of me, I took out my sword with my right hand, fire dust going through it. I stabbed the Ursa in the vital regions, jumping away quickly from its claws.
"I got it." Ceil shouted, pummeling the Ursa under a series of bullets from his sniper rifle, making the Ursa fall.
"Nice." I smiled, jumping over the fallen Ursa and launching myself at the Ursa that went towards Poppy. When I reached the Ursa, I swiped down with my sword, hitting its face, and causing it to howl in agony. It bucked and I fell backwards off of it, due to me not anticipating it. "Ow." I moaned, getting up to my feet, luckily my aura had activated just in time, allowing me to receive minimal damage.
"You okay?" Teal asked as he landed next to me and shooting frozen arrows at the Ursa I had attacked.
"Fine." I responded turning around and swiping the Ursa that had come behind us with a frozen sword, ice forming around the place I had slashed. "Do you know how Poppy's faring?"
"Ceil went in to assist her."
"Alright." I jumped at the same Ursa, repeatedly slashing at it until it fell over.
"Their numbers don't seem to be decreasing." Teal shouted at me.
"Just don't stop." I yelled back, earth dust going into my sword I then drove my sword into the ground, a mound of earth rising and crashing into a few Ursi. Burying them.
"PASTA!" I heard Poppy yell. The two of us had gone to the same school before this, and we were classmates, so I knew pretty much all of her ins and outs during fighting.
"She's in trouble. Teal, cover for me!" I didn't wait for his answer as I jumped in the direction of her yell. I didn't wait for any vocal confirmation from him before entering the fray, my shield out in a defensive position, fire dust around the outside, anything that touches it catching on fire. "Poppy!" I reached over to Ceil's and Poppy's position, seeing them battling a huge Ursa, an abnormal, while many others were attacking their unguarded sides. I could tell that they were taking quite a bit of damage already, and their aura only helped so little.
"Thanks for coming!" Poppy yelled, ducking from a swipe.
"We've already talked about semblance, but we feel like it's too risky!" Ceil shouted, elbowing the Ursa that came too close and shooting it down with his pistols.
"What's your plan?" I asked, stabbing my flaming sword into an Ursa.
"My semblance can manipulate time so it slows down a bit, so I was thinking, I could slow down the time, and Poppy could blind the Ursa while both you and Teal basically hack at the Ursa, I'd be able to use my pistol to keep some of the Ursi from getting too close, and Poppy could use her own swords. " Ceil explained, taking down any Ursa that came too close to the pair with his pistols.
"It's a good plan, but that leaves two, possibly three people handicapped from the use of semblance." I said, swiping the legs of an Ursa causing it to fall over, when a flaming arrow buried itself in its vitals. I looked up into the tree, seeing Teal shooting arrows at Ursi. He was positioned in a way where one knee was to the branch and the other propped up.
"That's what we were thinking, but this Ursa is too dangerous to be left alone, for all we know it could be the leader." Ceil responded, quickly switching his magazines.
"Teal, can you see how the other teams are faring with the Nevermore and Deathstalker?" I called to said person, ducking under an Ursa.
"It looks like they're finishing them off!" He responded.
"Okay, Ceil, let's go with your plan, finish this abnormal and then retreat."
"To where are we going to retreat?" He shouted back, continuing his assault on the surrounding Ursi.
"I don't know, do you have an idea?" I asked, once again driving my sword coated in earth dust into the ground.
"It's risky, but how about the trees?" Poppy yelled.
"Okay, let's go." I shouted, the plan going into action immediately. Ceil used his semblance and the surrounding Ursi seemed to move in a slower motion than earlier. Poppy immediately used her light to blind the abnormal Ursa, disabling it while I dashed in and Teal jumped from his position on the branch. I slashed my sword covered in fire dust at its vitals, while Teal attacked using his bow which seemed to have sharpened ends. After what seemed like many minutes, but was probably only one, the Ursa fell backwards and began to disappear. "Retreat now!" I bellowed, racing towards a tree and flipping over the branch to land on the top side. I looked around and saw Teal perched on a branch a few feet from me. Poppy scrambling up another tree that was a bit farther than Teal and Ceil scaling another tree close to Poppy. "You guys good?"
Poppy nodded while panting, and Ceil gave a thumbs up, his head hanging. I looked up when I heard the roar of a plane overhead, I pointed my sword up and a harmless fireball shot up in the sky, alerting the pilot of the four of us positioned under him. The pilot understood my message and turned, a ladder dropping down. I shot a 'WTF' look at the plane, which the pilot didn't see.
"I'll go and tell him about Poppy and Ceil." Teal shouted.
"No, it's fine, I can make it." Poppy insisted, her heavy breathing having ceased.
"Yeah, we were a bit winded, but we can handle this." Ceil agreed, and as if to prove it, he jumped from his perch, landing a bit shakily on the rope ladder but began climbing up nevertheless. Poppy, being the crazy person she was, flipped from her branch and landed on the ladder a few feet under Ceil.
"You fool! You just used your semblance, you shouldn't be doing tricks like that." I yelled at the brunette.
"I made it, I'm fine." She shouted back, laughing.
I looked at Teal, and within his hood, I noticed a pair of orange eyes gleaming, he nodded as if to say 'go ahead'. I returned the nod and jumped onto the ladder, following Poppy up. The ladder shook a few moments later and I looked down to see Teal's hooded head. I rolled my eyes, still slightly upset with the pilot, and continued my way up the ladder.