Chapter One: The First Night

"That's quite a bit larger than I thought it would be" thought Shiruba as he looked out of the tree he was sitting in. He watched as various new students like himself wandered around the campus grounds, awaiting the orientation ceremony. "Maybe a bit too big for my tastes." Shiruba was never one for crowds or large open areas. In fact, he hated the thought of it. "There are too many people..but at least it's better than the streets back in the city."

"Hey!" being jolted from his thought, Shiruba looked down below the tree, to where someone was calling from. That someone would be Mori, Shiruba's younger sister, who was attending Beacon as well this year. Standing there in her casual get up, a simple T-shirt and jeans, with a jacket that went about halfway down to her waist, Mori was looking up at him with that goofy looking grin she always wore. "Shiru! Come on down from there! Let's go explore!" she called out.

Sighing, Shiruba took one last look around, before gripping his cane and tipping backwards, falling down out of the tree. Before hitting the ground, Shiruba reached out with the cane, latching onto one of the lower branches. Using the momentum, he swung away from the ground, detaching his cane from the branch and performing a backflip before he hit the ground, tumbling into a roll and landing on his feet. Standing up as if this was normal, which it was, in fact, normal for him, Shiruba walked over to Mori.

"Can't you climb down the tree like a normal person?" Mori jokingly teased Shiruba, "You know, you won't be able to make many friends if people think that you are a tree-climbing weirdo."

"Now, you know I'm not looking to get friends, Mori. We are here to learn", rolling his eyes and chuckling, Shiruba replies. "Just like those two over there should, handling Dust like that. If they aren't careful, they.."BOOM! Having been cut off by the sound of an explosion, Shiruba started to chuckle as two girls picked themselves up off the ground, one of them yelling very loudly at the other. "Oops, too late."

Jokingly punching Shiruba in the arm, Mori replied, "Well, doesn't that look like fun. Why don't we wander over there? Maybe get into a scuffle, make some friends out of it?"

Sighing, Shiruba responded "Again, not looking for friends. Anyway, it's almost time for the ceremony, we should find the auditorium."

Pouting, Mori followed him, "Aww, you're no fun Shiru!" And together, the two headed off for the auditorium.

Having reached the auditorium, Shiruba immediately began taking note of the different people that would become his classmates. Once again, he saw the two girls from before, arguing, but this time there were two more girls with them. One of them, a tall blonde, noticed Shiruba looking towards them, and winked at him before turning back to the others.

Ignoring her, Shiruba continued to scan the room's other occupants. Noticing a rather large individual, he took note of how he, like Shiruba, was one of the only ones to still have their weapon on them. Unlike Shiruba's cane however, the guy had a much more common weapon, a hand and a half sword. The only other person he saw with a weapon would be his sister, who like Shiruba always carried her weapon with her. Mori's weapon, Yajū was different from most in that it didn't have a full transformation like others. As a one handed sword with a blade only on one side, that left the other side open for the semi-automatic shotgun that completed her weapon. The only minimal transformation it had was to change the cross guard and pommel of the sword to a handgrip and stock. Yajū was resting in its normal spot in a loose sling on Mori's back.

In contrast to that, Shiruba's weapon, named Tsukiakari, was like many others in that it had two separate modes. Besides the 5' tall cane form, Tsukiakari also became a suppressed PDR rifle complete with an angled fore grip and a small telescopic scope. Shiruba was curious as to just what kind of weapon this individual had, but his thoughts were interrupted as a man who appeared to be the headmaster approached the microphone on the stand.

"I'll…keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge—to hone your craft and acquire new skills—and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But, I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose—direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step." Having finished his speech, the headmaster stepped away from the microphone, and turned to leave the stand. From here, the students were told by the deputy-headmistress, a "Glynda Goodwitch", that they had the rest of the day to themselves before the curfew.

Later that night, in the ballroom where all of the first years were sleeping for the first night, Shiruba was getting ready for bed when he was hit in the head with a pillow. Looking up, he saw three other guys all looking at him. "Hey, stupid fox boy!" the one who seemed to be the leader said, "Who let an animal like you in a place like this? You should go back home before you get hurt!"

Ignoring them, Shiruba turned away and continued to get his things together for bed. "Hey, I'm talking to you!" called out the leader. At this point, the leader had knocked Shiruba over, and towered over him with his two buddies, glaring at Shiruba. Calmly getting up, Shiruba looked the leader in the eye without saying a word, daring the bully to shove him. Angered by this turn in events, the bully took a step forward, only to be blocked by Mori, who put herself between the two.

Visibly confused, the bully looked at Mori. "What are you doing, protecting that faunus?" He questioned her.

"First of all, he's my brother," Mori replied, "and secondly, I'm not protecting him. I'm keeping him from kicking all of your collective asses, so I suggest you move on before something happens." Standing there, she continued glaring at him until the bully backed down, walking away with a "Whatever, let's go boys" tossed over his shoulder.

Turning to look at Shiruba, Mori exclaims, "Really? First night, and already getting into a fight? This place is gonna be fun!"

Sighing, Shiruba responded, "You enjoy fighting way too much for what can be considered healthy." Even as he was saying this, however, he couldn't hide the slight smirk he had. Motioning to her, he said "Come on, it's getting late. You should head back to the girls side of the room, and get some rest. Who knows what may happen tomorrow?"

With this, the night came to a close as both Shiruba and Mori went to their separate sides of the room.

Author's note—

For those of you wondering about Shiruba's cane, it gets its inspiration from the cane wielded by Sly Cooper, from the game series by the same name. Thus, it is not a "walking" cane per say, but much larger in size, being about 5 feet tall, almost as tall as Shiruba himself. The style of it is more like Ruby's scythe rather with its hard, straight edges than like Ozpin's cane, as it is a much more technology based transformation.