Beacon Academy was the most beautiful building Ran and Letty Firth had ever seen. It was constructed out of pure, beautifully carved rock and shimmered like a diamond in the blazing sunlight, and its towers and structures seemed to go on forever into the watery blue sky. The grass surrounding it was a blinding shade of fluorescent green so bright it looked almost artificial, and the clothes the students wore formed a garish palette of unfamiliar colours. The twins, unused to the climate and the general brightness of the area, had to squint to make out shapes and textures in what otherwise looked like a child's painting, a blank canvas smeared with as many colours as a school paintbox would allow, and the movement of the never-ending crowds of students gave it a dizzyingly kaleidoscopic effect that could have caused motion sickness.
In the communities surrounding the Schnee Quarry the only true colours anyone ever saw were the sludgy brown of the miners' uniforms and an occasional glimpse of a shining piece of unrefined Dust: everything else was either soot-black or a drab shade of grey. To the twins, who were used to depressing towns constructed from bleak slabs of concrete and populated by listless men and women with no hope for the future, Beacon seemed as distant as a picture from one of the books donated to their school by the Society for the Education of the Residents of Impoverished Communities.
They still remembered that day, even though it had happened at least ten years ago, when a group of kind ladies had come into the classroom and given each child a book of their very own, as well as a shipload of paper, pencils and exercise books for the school. Ran's had been a tale of adventure, full of beautiful drawings of shadowy beasts and heroes on epic quests, while Letty's had been about a princess who lived in a palace that looked just like Beacon Academy: large and white and covered in towers and spires to explore. They'd cherished those books so much that, along with a piece of rock from the quarry to remind them of home, they'd taken them to Beacon in their heavy old trunks. Even now it still seemed like a fantasy they could only access in fiction.
Yet now they were standing before it in flesh and blood, about to begin their first year of training to become Huntsmen like their aunt was before she fell off a cliff and had to retire. After years of studying as hard as they could with the resources they had (a set of ancient textbooks, a children's guide to the creatures of Grimm they'd stolen from school, their amazingly knowledgeable aunt and the weapons she and her old teammate had handed down to them) they'd just managed to scrape past the entrance exams and win scholarships to the Academy, with the emphasis on the word "just": their interviews hadn't gone too well and their exam results weren't exactly first-class. Considering their economic circumstances and the fact that their textbooks and most of their aunt's knowledge had been at least thirty years out of date, however, just passing the exam was still a remarkable achievement.
Now the entrance exam results were the last things on their minds. All they could think about now was how they were going to find their way inside the Academy.
"Ran! Get out of my way!" Letty shouted across the din of conversation. "I can't see where I'm going 'cos your stupid fat head's in the way!"
"Move yourself," Ran murmured, not actually intending for Letty to hear him. "Your field of vision isn't that small, is it?"
Letty ignored him and shoved him out of the way, striding forward with the approximate grace of a bull and leaving Ran ambling along at his usual pace with his hands in his pockets. This usually happened every five minutes when they were out together.
He was stopped in his tracks by Letty's shrill, grating voice from in front of him, except this time it wasn't directed towards him. Crap, he thought. They hadn't even been inside the building and Letty was already about to cause a scene. That was their target of two tantrums every month screwed.
"You leave her alone!" Letty shouted as forcefully as she could. The boy was at least twice her height and built like a block of steel on legs, but when Letty got angry she could grow metres, and nothing made her angrier than seeing a girl having her chest manhandled without her permission.
"Why should I?" He cocked his rectangular head to the side and smirked, revealing a glinting gold tooth. "She asked for it, didn't she?" The girl struggled to break free of his vice-like grip on her breasts, shouting every obscenity she could think of.
"Because you don't go around grabbing girls without asking them first. Doesn't everyone know that?" she replied. She looked up and locked her eyes onto his, taunting him to attack. "If you don't get your hands off her, I might have to break your fingers." She licked her lips and enjoyed the moment of sadistic pleasure she always experienced when making threats.
"Quit wastin' your time," said the boy, scowling. "I don't fight little girls like you."
"In that case," Letty said, reaching for the handle of her sword and beginning to draw it from its compartment at the back of her jacket, "for the purpose of this fight I'll be a boy. Deal?"
The boy released his grip on the girl, who bolted for the nearest safe area, and cracked his knuckles. "Suits me," he said menacingly. "Bring it on."
Letty flicked her sword out of its travel position to reveal a heavy blade almost as big as she was and held it with one hand. The boy produced a spiked mace hanging precariously on a glowing blue plasma wire and prepared to attack, his eyebrows furrowed with concentration. Unfazed by his imposing-looking weapon, she shifted into a strong fighting stance, her weight on her back leg and her free hand guarding her face, and prepared for her first move. There wasn't much point in planning any complicated strategies, since she'd learned from years of brawling with the big kids on her street that most of the time your plans got screwed up before you'd even got started. Besides, this wasn't a tournament or an exam: neither she nor her opponent was out to show off. She was there to give him what she knew he deserved. Without hesitation, she charged towards him with all the speed she could muster.
Three metres away, Ran rolled his eyes. It was so typical of Letty to get into a fight with the first person she came across, even in a place like Beacon Academy, where first impressions could determine your entire future. He'd learned the hard way in the schoolyard that if you tried to stand up for yourself you'd only end up getting squashed flat, even if, like her, you had skin as thick as an armadillo's and muscles like steel rods. If he was her he'd have bitten his tongue and kept his hands to himself, like any halfway sane person would.
Letty leaped up and thrust her sword towards her opponent as hard as she could, putting all her weight into the blow. He grabbed it as if it was a tennis ball and shoved it out of his way, sending her crashing to the ground. Her ears rang and red spots danced in front of her eyes. She may have been strong, but this guy was at least two times stronger. Mentally, she kicked herself in the face. She should have been able to tell how strong he was from his build. If Auntie Let was here she'd have knocked her into the middle of next week for her stupidity.
Get up, she heard her aunt's voice say in her head. Remember what I said. Don't give up just because you made a stupid move. Swallow your pride, learn from your mistakes and move on. Your opponent won't wait for you to finish stewing.
Her aunt's words of advice energized her and she dragged herself off the ground.
"Is that the best you can do?" the boy taunted. "You sure talk big for someone so weak."
His words bounced off her skull and she charged again, this time going for a right slash. This time it worked and he stumbled backwards from the force of the blow, though he tried to counter it with a clumsy but powerful swing of his spiked ball which she easily dodged. Speed may not have been her specialty, but her small frame made her a lot faster than him, which gave her at least a small advantage. She swung her sword as fast as she could to follow up her first blow and was pleased to get another hit, sending him sliding backwards on his feet. She breathed a sigh of satisfaction.
"You're not going to win that easily," he snarled, holding his weapon in front of his face. Letty was about to wonder what kind of trick he was about to pull on her when something flew straight past her, grazing her cheek. She jumped out of the way to find that the spikes on the heavy steel ball were completely gone and were now stuck in a nearby wall. Before she could take a closer look they shot back into the ball as if an invisible force had pulled them towards it. Blood dripped down her cheek and the rusty taste filled her mouth. She'd let a pitiful opponent like him draw first blood! How could she have been so stupid? She braced herself for another bombardment of spikes: he wasn't going to fool her this time. When the next one came she used her sword to deflect them and send them ricocheting in all directions. Not a single one hit the boy, but she was still pleased with herself for pulling off such a smart move. Auntie Let would have been proud.
Before her opponent had time to send another hail of spiky projectiles, Letty switched to a two-handed grip for power and tried her signature forward charge. Since he was concentrating on preparing his next barrage, he didn't notice when her forceful blow sent him flying backwards about ten feet and still didn't seem to know what had happened when he hit the ground. She kept her guard up just in case he still had some fight left in him but relaxed when he stayed supine.
"Now who's the weak one?" she said, watching him pant like a dog in a hot airship. She felt pleased to have finally trained him.
He coughed wordlessly, seemingly accepting her as her master. But she wasn't finished with him yet. She hadn't even delivered a proper final blow.
"Nice work. Now play dead!" She leaped out of her stance and was about to dramatically cleave his chest open when she felt a hand grab the back of her jacket.
"Haven't you tortured him enough?" said Ran, trying to keep his struggling sister from pulling free. They'd caused more than enough trouble for one morning.
"Ran! I can't leave a fight without finishing it properly! You don't just leave your opponent half-conscious! They could get back up and stab you in the back!"
"I don't think he's in any condition for stabbing. But don't give him ideas." He let go of her and she dusted herself off. "Come on. Everyone else is going in and we need to get to class."
"Fine," Letty sighed heavily. She and her brother walked away from the scene towards the school gates.
"Wait!" said a gruff male voice from behind them. It was the boy, standing up as if nothing had happened. Letty raised her eyebrows in admiration: he must've been pretty tough to stand upright after a pounding like that.
"Nice match," he said. There wasn't the same cockiness in his voice that there had been when they first met.
"Thanks," Letty murmured in reply.
"I-I let you win, though," he said hastily, his voice returned to its initial tone. "I can do a lot better than that. I didn't even use my Semblance." He paused for a moment, then smiled and gave her a bone-crushing handshake. "I'm Jaeger, by the way. Jaeger Bergman."
"Letitia Firth. Call me Letty," Letty replied, returning the handshake. "And," she gestured towards Ran, who was tapping his foot impatiently, "that's my brother Randolph."
"Ran," Ran cut in.
"Letitia and Randolph," said Jaeger. "Funny names."
"We didn't choose them!" Letty said indignantly. Names had always been a sensitive topic in their family. "I'll have you know I was named after my amazing aunt, and Ran after our father!"
"I meant funny in a good way," he laughed. "I'm not good with words. I meant…unique."
"Good!" Letty replied. She looked around and found that the grounds were completely empty. "Crap. We'd better go in, Ran!"
"You guys go. I'll catch up," said Jaeger. Without a word, the twins ran off as fast as they could, never looking back.