Chapter 1:

Late Arrival

Ooh boy….this feeling deep in my chest…it's something I've never felt before. Fear? No….excitement. This is a feeling I haven't had since I was younger. Well, at least younger than 17. I sounded like I was some old man at first hehe. That is beside the point though.

I should at least introduce myself. My name is Shen, Shen Lon. I'm also a Faunus, a half human half animal hybrid. My certain animal happened to be a raccoon. Hehe that's funny. My name means "Dragon", but in reality I'm just a 5'4….sc-scared raccoon.

Why am I scared? At the moment, I'm heading off to an academy, a hunting academy, to be more precise. In this world there are these dangerous creatures called the creatures of Grimm. Over the years there are these warriors that hunted Grimm and protected the human civilization for centuries since the beginning of time. These warriors were known as Hunters and Huntresses. And fortunately, that's the reason why I want to go to an academy. I want to be a Hunter, but theirs is just one problem. I'm heading to the best school in the city Vale, Beacon. That means it's going to be even harder to graduate from…..I think I just gulped my uvula down my throat….

The helicarrier I was in felt empty. Due to the fact that the semester already started, I'm not surprised. Which reminds me….how am I going to be treated by the other students when they know I'm a mid-starter? I could already hear the insults being thrown already. Not just about starting late, but also about me being a Faunus. At the moment, Faunus aren't exactly equally treated. We're going through a civil dispute and some things aren't exactly going well. Chalk that up to the White Fang, a Faunus only freedom fighting group that take drastic actions to ensure our rights and equality are met, even if it means more burning buildings and bloodshed….

My train of thought was suddenly interrupted as I could feel the ship rumble from docking at the school's entrance. I was so excited I thought my orange hoodie was going to fly off from how fast I got off the helicarrier. My brown raccoon tail wagged behind me as I looked all around the courtyard of Beacon. I had a feeling that sparkles were filling up my eyes the more I looked around in awe at the sheer size of this place. So in awe, that I didn't even notice someone running at me. I ended up colliding head on with the person as I just saw books flying everywhere. As I was falling I thought I was bleeding from the impact, because all I could see was red. When I landed on my back, I could see the sky blue as ever.

Looking up over my chest I noticed that someone's face was right in front of mine, a girl's face. As her eyes opened up, hers met mine. I was suddenly lost in a sea of silver not being able to look away. Yet, someone had to say something. "Are you ok?!" The girl jumped off, quickly pulling me up by my arm. She was strong for a girl her size. In fact, I think she might be at least a year or so, younger than me. What was a girl her age doing at Beacon? Unless, she actually attended the academy. "N-No need to apologize miss. I wasn't watching where I was going…" That was all I could muster out from how embarrassed I was. First person I meet at this school, I almost caused brain damage to.

The girl started picking up her books. No wonder I saw red at one point during the fall. This girl was covered up by what looked like a red hood. Underneath the hood it looked like she wore a black dress. Or was it a combat skirt? I could never tell the difference. I got down on my own knees as I helped pick her books up. "Hey, you don't need to help me…." She said flustered.

"It was my fault for even getting in your way. It's the least I can do." The girl fell silent after my response. For some reason, she really interested me a lot. I couldn't help it for what I said next. "What's your name?"

"….Ruby." She got up and took the books I gathered. "Ruby Rose. I'm a first year here at Beacon." So she's in my year. I would say lucky me if I wasn't leaving such a weird first impression. "I'm Shen."

"So you're a Faunus huh?" She caught me off guard as I wondered how she knew. At that moment I felt my head freezing from a passing wind. I looked up seeing that my brown hair and raccoon ears were uncovered from my hoodie, completely exposed. I accidentally let out a yelp, quickly covering them up. "Hey, why are you hiding them Shen? Hehe they look cute." Man, this girl was catching me off guard all over the place. Her last comment made my face completely red. Luckily, my tail was there to cover it up.

This Ruby girl started giggling at my embarrassment. Aaaw man, I knew this would start out bad. "You're funny Shen." Funny? Me? My hands slowly went down to my sides allowing my raccoon ears to stay out in the open. "Hey." She looked at my face very closely and analytically. "How come I haven't seen you around before?"

"Um….I-I'm a late starter."

"Ooooooh that explains it."

"Y-Yeah, I've just been busy with important things that I wasn't able to start at the beginning of the year."

"So I'm guessing you're looking for Headmaster Ozpin, huh?" I nodded my head. She pointed out toward a building with a big clock tower rising out from it. "Go inside, keep going straight, and you'll see an elevator that'll take you straight to the top of the clock tower. That's where Headmaster Ozpin is."

"Oh! Th-Thank you very much mi- I-I mean Ruby." She giggled once more before waving goodbye to me as I made my way to the clock tower building.

I walked in and just like she said, there was an elevator that led straight to the top. As the elevator arrived at my designated floor, I could hear the turning of gears all over the place. Then again, I was inside of a clock tower. I kept moving forward in the narrow corridor until I arrived at an open circular platform with a desk in the middle of it. Sitting in it was a thin looking man who had ash grey hair and wore black, circular spectacles. He wore a black uniform and by what looked to be a green turtleneck shirt underneath. "I've been expecting you Mr. Lon. Please, take a seat." I sat down in the chair that was presented to me. "Now please explain your decision for why you are joining Beacon in the middle of the semester."

"Um, well…H-Headmaster I-I-"

"Please speak in complete sentences Mr. Lon. You're among friends here." I nodded at his comment feeling a bit more relaxed. "I'm joining in the middle of the semester, because something came up at the beginning of the year that I couldn't skip on."

"Yes, yes I understand. You wrote it down on your transcript sheet very clearly. This is very important stuff in your line of work Mr. Lon." I chuckled. "Something funny Mr. Lon?"

"It's just that I've never heard anyone talk about my work so seriously like you did sir." This time the Headmaster chuckled. He intrigued me a lot in a good way. "Well I would like to think all of my students' life or future careers are equally important…to a certain extent of course."

"Of course sir."

"Now you understand the certain consequences for joining our school late, right Mr. Lon?"

"Yes sir. Since teams have already been chosen, I will have to spend the rest of the year in a team's room without the right to participate in any Hunting missions. I will also have to obtain the notes for the classes I'm in from another classmate, not the teacher him or herself."

"Very good Mr. Lon." He handed me two slips. One was a class schedule list. The other was a letter and a number. The letter was "C" and the number was "308". "This here is the dorm building and room you will be staying in." He handed me a keycard with my picture on it. "This keycard will allow you access at any of the school's building systems at a certain time during the days. Keep it with you since it is also your room key."

"Sorry if I sound rude sir, but which team's room am I staying in?"

"You'll be staying in the room of team RWBY."

"RWBY…."

"Now that you're settled, head on to your dorm. The other students should be done with their last classes for the day." I left the room and went back down the elevator. As it opened, this time the hallways were filled with students heading back to their dorms. I took this chance to put my orange hoodie back on over my head to cover my ears. While pushing through the crowds trying not to faint from the close quarters, I noticed a familiar red hood. "Hey Ruby!" The girl turned around as I recognized the same silver-eyed female from earlier. "Hey Shi!"

"Um that's Shen Ruby…." Ruby got all flustered and upset. "Oh no! I'm sorry Shen. I'm not good at remembering names for the first time."

"H-Hey, no skin off my back."

"So did you see Headmaster Ozpin?"

"Yep, he gave me my schedule and this room I'm supposed to stay in." I handed Ruby both my schedule and room number. "Hey! You're in my monsterology class with Professor Port! Awesome!" As soon as she looked at the other slip with my room number on it, she stopped dead in her tracks and her eyes went wide with her mouth shut. "Um….Ruby, is everything ok?"

"Um….Shen. You're in my room." My face became the same as hers before I let out a huge, "Whaaaaaaaaaaaat! I-I-Is that even allowed?!"

"Well…yeah it is. The dorm and dorm rooms are both co-ed." My face got so flustered and embarrassed, I pulled my hoodie further down to hide my face. "Hey, hey, hey, it's not that bad Shen. At least you're in a room with someone you know." I peeked from under the hoodie as I sighed at Ruby's brighter side point. "Yeah, you know what? You're right. Let's go." We both walked to dorm building C as we were right outside Ruby's dorm room. "Now I'm going to warn you. My teammates are a bit….interesting in a certain way."

"Wh-What do you mean by that?..." Ruby didn't explain any further as she threw the door open. "Hey girls I'm back!"

Inside the room were three other girls all around my age. The room had…improvised double bunk beds and I could tell off the bat that the one tied up to the ceiling was Ruby's. On the top bunk to the right, there was this girl with golden honey hair. She was wearing a brown tank top and pink pajamas bottoms. Not going to lie….she had a nice body. Below her was a girl with night black hair who was reading a book while leaning up against the wall of her bed. She wore a black shirt with cat faced pajamas on. There was something about that girl that struck me weird. Underneath Ruby's bed was a girl with snow white hair who was wearing a white night gown. She didn't look at all friendly.

"That golden hair girl there is my sister, Yang, the anti-social looking one there is Blake, and the ice queen here is Weiss." Weiss looked up from her study book. "Why does everyone call me that?!" I waved at the girls as I felt my face getting hotter and redder at the same time. Yang laughed from atop the bed, "Hey he's kind of cute Ruby. Be careful I don't steal him." Ruby's face quickly got as red as mine as we both hid our faces under our hoods. "Oh please. Ruby wouldn't know what to do with a guy if one landed in her arms." Weiss teased. Everyone including Ruby started laughing. I was still a little shy and only let out a little laugh that could barely be heard. I started placing my sleeping bag on the floor as everyone started getting comfortable in their beds. Ruby looked down at me, "Hey Shen, aren't you gonna be uncomfortable on that cold, hard floor?"

"Well where else do you expect me to sleep Ruby?..."

"I don't know. It's really comfortable up here in my bed if you want." I stopped cold while making my bed as my face turned red….again. That must've been the fourth time today. "R-Ruby, d-don't you think that's a little inappropriate?" Ruby had a confused look on her face. "Why would it be inappropriate?" She was very oblivious and naive…but I thought that was cute about her. As I lay down on the bed, my eyes slowly closed waiting for another day to start.