Jaune Arc sat contentedly in his seat as the cramped metal airship tumbled through the sky to its destination. His destination.

He wore a red business jacket with matching belted pants, dress shoes and a red tie. Underneath the jacket he wore a plain white dress shirt unbuttoned enough at the neck to allow him to breathe easily. His straight, golden hair rested unmoving atop his head, combed immaculately to frame his pale facial features.

A pair of red-tinted, rectangular-spectacled sunglasses sat plainly in front of his eyes.

He could feel the passengers around him. The rhythmic thump-thump, thump-thump of their heathy hearts was as audible to him at a distance as if he were to place his ear upon their chests. He could smell them. Their quiet perspiration stank in the cramped confines of the ill-cooled passenger vessel. He knew when they'd last exercised and for how long. He knew what they ate and drank in previous hours and days – a girl, younger and stronger than the rest (yet also more nervous and unsure) had eaten a batch of store-bought chocolate chip cookies within five hours of the very moment he examined her.

He could feel them through his tactile nerve endings. The vibrations and pressure changes of their movements through the metal ship and the air itself. The subtle cracks of their joints as they leaned and stretched. He could sense their body heat, elevated to the levels they normally were among individuals who regularly made use of their Auras.

But he couldn't see them. The color of their hair or skin. The way their lips curled when they smiled or how their brows furrowed when they were angered. Instead, his other senses told him what he needed to know, but in different ways. Like an alien language describing a common phenomenon, some small, emotionally necessary things were lost in translation.

He had abilities that would make the most sensitive and acutely-aware faunus breeds weep with envy, yet he was blind. He hadn't seen with his eyes since he was nine years of age. He'd turned seventeen nine months ago.

The ship descended and came to a stop.

The airship opened. Warm air splashed across his face.

He flicked his crimson walking cane and stood, tapping the device in front of himself as he walked towards the exit.

As he entered the sunlight – he could tell because of the rapid temperature change he experienced when he stepped outside – he took a moment to breathe in the scents of his new environment.

Beacon Academy. Lonely, isolated, but so full of life, and not just the humans and faunus who made themselves so readily known to his senses. The smell of well-nourished trees and fresh-cut grass met his nostrils and he instantly knew everything. The age of the trees – the youngest was about six years of age – the time the grass around the nearby cement walkways was cut – roughly nineteen hours before his arrival at Beacon, by his estimates.

A sharp crash echoed across his remaining four senses; even taste, as the chemical components of whatever had been dropped – Is that Dust?

"Ahhhh-choo-BLAM!"

Jaune winced.

"Just what do you think you're doing? Have you no sense of caution?"

Woman. About adult age. Angry.

Girl. The strong one from the passenger ship. Scared.

The girl spoke. "I-I'm sorry. I-I didn't-"

Thump-thump, thump-thump. Honesty.

The woman clasped whatever remained from the sneeze-explosion and gestured wildly to the girl in front of her.

Thumthum-thumthum-thumthum. Anger.

"This is Dust, you imbecile! As heiress to the Schnee Dust Corporation, I know more about Dust than most people alive. You could have gotten someone hurt or even killed!"

Jaune plastered on a smile and walked over to where the incident was taking place, dragging his black suitcase behind him.

"And I'm sure she's sorry, right Ms…?"

The girl trembled and spoke. "Ruby."

"Yes, I'm sure Ms. Ruby is sorry for what happened, Ms. Schnee. Right, Ruby?"

He felt the girl nod her affirmation.

"Sorry? Sorry doesn't change the fact that this– this girl nearly put a crater in the school!" Schnee answered.

"But clearly what she did was accidental. In the realm of Valean law we call that a mitigating circumstance," Jaune said.

The Schnee heiress huffed, though her heart had slowed by at least five beats per minute.

"Fine. Just... be careful next time you decide you want to run into someone," the heiress directed at Ruby. "And stay out of my way," she added flatly before stomping away.

"Man, what a meanie," Ruby said. "Hey, what's your name?"

Jaune twirled his cane his left hand, collapsing and re-extending the device as he spoke.

"Jaune Arc," he held out his hand.

"Ruby Rose," she shook it.

Time passed slowly as he felt her fingers clasp his. Young, untarnished by war or pain, yet worn from manual work. She was strong, deceptively so, considering her small, young, surely delicate features. If he wanted to at that moment, he could have read every move every muscle in her body made, learned her tendencies and instinctive behaviors that went beyond base emotions.

For the sake of her privacy, he released her from the handshake.

"Thanks, for earlier," she said and then paused. Jaune felt Ruby's eyes narrow in contemplation and then widen.

"Wait a sec. Are you blind?!" she said.

Silence fell over the pair.

"Yes, I am," Jaune replied. His smile faded.

"OhI'msosorryIshouldn'thaveaskedpleaseforgiveme!"

"Whoa. Easy there, Ruby. Relax. You did nothing wrong," he felt her breathing slow somewhat at his words.

He gave her a reassuring smile.

"…Really?" The girl seemed genuinely upset about the turn of their conversation, so Jaune was willing to forgive her for her lack of tact.

"Really," he answered. He heard Ruby let out a long sigh.

"Wait, how can you…?" He felt her gesture towards his left hand, which still lazily twirled his red cane.

Jaune cocked an eyebrow.

"It's my semblance," he answered.

"Oh? What can you do?" Ruby said.

Jaune set his facial features as seriously as he could manage, leaned in and whispered conspiratorially.

"I'm a psychic."

Jaune felt and heard Ruby's eyes widen. He smiled inwardly.


"So you can see the future? Say something about me! What is my fortune, o-wise-one?" The dark-red-haired girl said to her blond companion as they walked through Beacon's hallways.

The pale brightness of the light fixtures on the ceiling mixed with the amber glow of the evening sun to illuminate the stark gray hallways of the school. Incoming students filtered through the hallway at varying paces, all seeking the same destination. Jaune's tapping cane and red sunglasses drew curious glances from passersby who were relatively less focused on rushing to the auditorium.

The blond-haired blind boy stifled a grin at the girl's expense.

"Well, I do know you ate Munchin's chocolate chip cookies right before you boarded the airship to Beacon," he offered.

Ruby pursed her lips. "You were there, so you could have seen… oh."

Jaune raised his eyebrows.

They came upon a silver-framed entranceway that led to a crowded, spacious room beyond of similar color.

"Oh, there's my sister, Yang!" Ruby gestured to a blonde-haired girl who stood around the center of the room. The blonde beckoned Ruby with her finger and a smile. "I'm gonna go sit next to her. Bye!"

Jaune nodded.

"Okay, nice meeting you Ruby."

She was already gone.

She's fast, Jaune thought. Really fast. Maybe that's her semblance.

Why do I smell fresh roses?


Jaune sighed and analyzed the room. Short, nervous heartbeats met his enhanced senses. Sweat, coarse and crusty, drifted through the air into his nostrils. Most of the incoming students now sitting hadn't had the opportunity to shower within the previous ten hours. One boy – Cardin, he judged from the way others were addressing him – wore the accumulated sweat and grime of three full days. Suffice to say Jaune tuned out his scent almost as soon as he sampled it.

Boys. Girls. Humans. Faunus. They were all visible to his senses and his to know whenever he wished.

Yet he found himself sitting in a corner. Dark. Alone. Just listening as the others made conversation. One thing he learned about being blind was that there was a distinct lack of things to do that normal people could relate to. He could read, write, play sports, but regardless of his actions he never focused what people associated with human attention – his eyes – on what he was doing. And if there was one thing both humans and faunus were wary of, it was someone who appeared to be doing absolutely nothing aside from sitting and listening. It meant that person was planning something, or did not belong in some way with the rest of the group.

It was probably why no one approached him for idle conversation. Or just to say "hello."

The angry Schnee heiress passed by him once, glanced at him, scoffed, and walked away.

Jaune supposed that was fine with him.

"Yang! Yang, come'ere! This is the psychic I told you about," it was Ruby trotting towards Jaune's sitting form. Jaune heard a short stumble as another nearby, albeit similar heartbeat followed Ruby.

Yang? Ruby mentioned a Yang when we first showed up here. Is that her sister?

"Ruby, how many times do I have to tell you? There's no such thing as psychics."

Taller than Ruby. Older. More confident. Strong. Similar heartbeats, body scents, and breathing patterns. They're definitely related.

"Jaune!" Ruby said.

"Oh, so this is Jaune, huh~?" Yang's voice was directed towards Ruby. "When were you gonna tell me you got a boyfriend?"

"Erm-" Jaune stuttered.

"Yang!" Ruby admonished her sister.

Jaune stood.

"I think I'm just gonna go… over there," he gestured with his cane to a random corner of the room.

Ruby grumbled at her sister.

"Hey, hey, I'm sorry!" Yang said. "So, this is your friend, Ruby? Jaune, right?"

"Yeah," Jaune said. "You're Yang?"

"Yep," the tall girl answered and stuck out her hand.

Jaune shook it. He felt a well of power and energy swelling beneath her skin. Her heart beat strong and unceasingly like the core of a star. For a moment, he felt as if the girl before him could live forever.

And then the moment was gone. They broke the handshake.

The next moment he decided he wanted to see them. His enhanced senses worked in tandem to form a moving portrait of the two girls. To him, they glowed when his nerve endings registered their body heat. Their forms were featureless, bathed in fire. As the flames licked their glowing forms, his sense of sound felt the subtle vibrations emanated by the natural processes of their bodies. Every second or so, he could glimpse an eyebrow. He could register the individual follicles of their hair. He could feel their eyes. Cool spots on the suns of their faces. Blue pools of calm. To Jaune, they were two of the most beautiful girls he had ever decided to see.

"I'm not really psychic," Jaune said.

"Awww," Ruby expressed her disappointment. Yang crossed her arms and quirked an eyebrow in an "I told you so" gesture.

"But I do know you're wearing two sprays of Alice Five's Ringlace perfume, Yang. After you woke up this morning, you went for a thirty-minute jog, showered, and struggled to get Ruby out of bed so you both could make it in time for the airship to Beacon. You also had two day-old slices of pepperoni pizza straight from the refrigerator," he said.

"What- How?" Ruby and Yang answered at the same time.

"There are other ways of seeing," Jaune replied, and got to work setting himself up for the night. "It's getting late. You guys should get some sleep before Initiation tomorrow."


"Headmaster, I must speak with you," Glynda Goodwitch was not happy. "It's just come to my attention that we've accepted Mr. Jaune Arc into this academy."

A man at the other end of a dimly lit room turned from his window which was polarized to mitigate the harshness of Remnant's setting sun. He projected strength in his posture in spite of his graying hair and fragile spectacles that sat at the edge of his nose. Glynda sometimes forgot that Ozpin was decades old instead of centuries.

The Headmaster of Beacon Academy, Professor Ozpin folded his hands gently in front of his chest and smiled whimsically.

The blonde professor, Glynda Goodwitch narrowed her eyes at the Headmaster's antics. Sometimes she wondered if he delighted in making her job a living hell.

"Glynda, I was just making coffee. Would you like some?" Ozpin said as he moved toward a bronze coffee machine that sat at the edge of his large, ancient, oak desk.

Glynda's right eye twitched.

"No?" Ozpin filled himself a cup of coffee and took a generous sip of the scalding liquid. Not a single blemish made itself known on his face.

"Headmaster," Glynda grumbled.

Ozpin smiled slightly and nodded. He placed his steaming cup of coffee on his desk and sat down in his chair.

"I am well aware of Mr. Arc's condition, Glynda. Perhaps more so than yourself. That's why I approved his entry into Beacon," Ozpin's smile was gone now.

"He uses a blighted cane to move around, for Monty's sake!" Glynda said. "He's not ready to move around without assistance, much less fight Grimm! Need I remind you that people who can see struggle with everything they are to get into this academy? You're making a mistake."

Ozpin sat and listened impassively as his subordinate spoke. He shook his head at the end of her protest, as if disappointed.

"Are you familiar with the legend of the Night Devils?"

All color drained from Glynda's face. She nodded slowly.

Ozpin continued. "Stick found the boy, Glynda. He says he has the potential."

Glynda stared at her boss. Her emerald eyes glimmered in the dimly-lit room. She waited for him to finish.

"I believe Jaune Arc has the semblance of a Night Devil."


A/N: A short introductory chapter to my first foray into writing something RWBY-related. I might write more soon depending on how well this story is received. Let me know what you think.