AN: Well guys, this is the first ever story I've written and posted on this amazing site. I hope you all enjoy it!

Disclaimer: RWBY belongs to RoosterTeeth and Monty Oum.


"Hey Nero, wake up, we're here!"

The soon-to-be Hunter in-training opens his eyes to see a giant man looming over him, offering his hand to assist him up. Taking his hand, he is pulled up into a standing position.

"Sleep is the best meditation." Nero says groggily.

"There you go again; quoting words that came out of that old man's mouth. When are you ever going to stop speaking like that? You'll scare away potential friends!"

"Whatever you do in life, surround yourself with smart people who will argue with you." Nero retorted.

Lightly slugging Nero's back, his friend Vince says, "Well it looks like we're already off with a good start! It's our first day at Beacon and you're already starting something with me. It's just like our old days in combat school, eh?"

Nero smiles as he reminisced. "Remember when we both first met? You were really short back then, Vince."

"And look at me now;" says Vince, "I tower over everybody at six foot eight! I could be the wall of a castle!"

As the airship approached their destination, they both received a breathtaking view of Beacon Academy.

"Take a look at that, Nero, the most prestigious facility for training teams of Hunters and Huntresses to slay the various monsters that plague Remnant. Beautiful, isn't it?"

"Definitely." says Nero, admiring his view of the academy. "So we're actually here now. I couldn't believe that we passed combat school. I wonder who we're going to meet here." Looking around, Nero scans the passengers on the airship. "Is that guy vomiting?" he asks Vince.

"Well, not everyone can sleep soundly on a flying piece of metal like you."

The airship's speed slows down, signaling that it is docking.

"Well let's get a move on. We wouldn't want to be stuck here when it departs." Adjusting the chains on his custom kusarigama, Sasayaku, Nero conceals it underneath his clothes with the blades sheathed to avoid unwanted injuries, shuffling around to arrange how the chains were wrapped around his body.

"As much as I love my Sasayaku, keeping her concealed is a hassle." Nero said.

Popping some joints, Vince lifts himself up and attaches his shield, Schützen onto his right gauntlet.

"Unlike your Sasayaku, I like to keep Schützen out in the open. It makes it easier to move him around.

"That enormous lump of metal that only you can carry?" asks Nero, baffled. "I think the statement 'easier to move' is a bit biased, don't you?"

Looking around the deserted airship, Vince notices the clamor that once surrounded the pair is no longer around them.

"Looks like we're the last ones," he said, "let's get off this flying whale."

Nodding, Nero disembarks the ship with Vince by his side.

"First day at Beacon and we haven't met anyone new yet," says Vince, after walking for a few minutes. "Should we part ways for now?" he asks Nero.

Nero shrugs. "Alright, but you know me, I doubt that I'll strike up a conversation with anyone soon."

"Alright then, don't get yourself into trouble on the first day!" Vince says as walks off in a random direction.

Nero waves goodbye to Vince as he leaves.

"I'm not making any promises," he says dejectedly. As he watches his friend walk away, he starts to feel lonely. "Looks like it's just me again..." Nero sighs. He begins to walk in the opposite direction Vince went.


Nero soon sees a girl in a white dress yelling at another girl wearing a lot of red and black.

The girl in white swipes the baggage from the girl in red sitting on the floor.

"Give me that!" the girl screams, "This is Dust, mined and purified from the Schnee Quarry!"

The girl pulls a bottle of Fire Dust from one of her bags and starts waving it in the face of the girl in red. What are you, brain dead? Dust! Fire, Water, Lightning, Energy? Are you even listening to me?"

As she continues on with her rant, the girl in white fails to realize that she is waving around powdered Fire Dust in the air, creating a larger and larger cloud with each shake of the bottle. The girl in red and black starts looking increasingly dazed from breathing in so much fine powder.

Nero looks at the Dust cloud and says to himself, "That doesn't look safe..."

Right on cue, the girl in red sneezes, igniting the Dust cloud and causing an explosion between her and the other girl.

"Didn't see that coming" says Nero sarcastically. "I should go check to see if they're still alive."

As the smoke clears, Nero notices that the girl dressed in white continues to berate the girl in red, who is trying to apologize.

"Hey," retorts the girl in red, "I said I was sorry, Princess!"

"It's heiress, actually." said a voice.

Another girl, who's dressed mostly in black and a white sleeveless undershirt that slightly exposes some of her midriff, walks up with the Dust bottle that was previously held by the girl in white.

"Wiess Schnee," starts the girl, "heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, one of the largest producers of energy propellant in the world."

"Finally, some recognition-"

"The same company infamous for its controversial labor forces and questionable business partners." The girl in black adds.

"Wha- How dare- The nerve of-!" she retorts with annoyance as she grabs the vial of Dust and storms off.

The girl in red apologizes to the heiress that walking off angrily.

"I'm sorry! I promise I'll make it up to you!" She sighs. "I guess I'm not the only one having a rough first day..." She turns to her right to look at the girl in black who just saved her from having to face the wrath of an heiress, only to be disappointed to see her leaving without getting to introduce herself. She falls to the ground, exasperated. "Welcome to Beacon..."

Right as Nero was about to say walk up and say hello, a teenaged boy with messy blonde hair, dark-blue eyes, and white chest plate and shoulder armor introduces himself to her as he helps her up.

"Hi, I'm Jaune." The boy said as he helped the girl in red up.

"I'm Ruby" she said. Ruby looks at Jaune and immediately tries to hold back laughter. "Aren't you that guy who puked on the ship?"

Hearing footsteps Ruby looks to her right and she sees Nero walk up to them.

He has short, slightly messy brown hair, light-blue eyes, wearing what looks like a black long-sleeved vest with dark grey chainmail underneath. Small plates of armor on his shoulders, armguards, and black loose trousers that were tucked into his boots that were covered by shin guards. A gust of wind blows by as the awkward silence began.

Nero began to panic. "What am I supposed to say now? This silence is slowly killing me!"

The teenager named Jaune slowly raises his hand and waves, "Hey there, I'm Jaune"

Ruby then nods and introduces herself as well. "I'm Ruby."

Nero raises his hand to wave back, "My name is Nero, pleased to meet you." Before the awkward silence could begin again, Nero starts asking Ruby about the incident that just occurred.

"I watched the whole thing," said Nero, "I just wanted to check to see if you were alright."

"Yeah, I'm okay," said Ruby, "but I'm not sure I can say the same for Little Miss Dust. It looked like she was about to explode herself."

"She did seem very irritated." Nero said.

"So… uh…" started Jaune awkwardly, "do you guys want to start heading out? I, uh… I think we were supposed to be inside the school by now."

Nero nods in agreement and starts following Ruby and Jaune.


As the trio walked the path, Jaune continued to explain his motion sickness.

"All I'm saying is that motion sickness is a much more common problem than people let on."

"Look I'm sorry, vomit boy was the first thing that came to mind." said Ruby, apologizing for calling him out on his uneasiness on the airship earlier.

"Oh yeah?" retorted Jaune, "What if I called you crater face?"

"Hey! That explosion was an accident!"

"Well the name's Jaune Arc, not Vomit Boy! Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue. Ladies love it!"

"Do they?" Ruby asked with a questioning look towards Jaune.

"Th- They will! I- I hope they will…" Jaune answered. "My mom always says that- Ah never mind..."

Ruby giggles a little. "Well so, I've got this thing!" She then pulls out the compact red object from her back and it opens into a gigantic red scythe.

Jaune pulls back with surprise, "Whoa, is that a scythe?"

Ruby lifts the weapon into her hand, "It's also a customizable, high-impact, sniper rifle."

"A wha…?"

"It's also a gun." said Ruby, pulling the action back on her gun-scythe.

"Oh. That's cool!"

"So what do you have?" Ruby excitedly asks.

"Oh, uh, I- I got this sword." Jaune then draws his sword, a very simple long-sword with a blue handle and a golden cross guard.

"Oooooo" said Ruby.

"Yeah, I've got a shield too." He then pulls his scabbard off and extends it into a shield.

"So, what do they do?"

Before Jaune could answer, the shield snaps back into a scabbard unintentionally and Jaune stumbles after it as it jumps around him.

"The shield gets smaller," Jaune said after regaining his composure. "So uh, when I get tired of carrying it, I can just… put it away."

"But… wouldn't it weigh the same?" Ruby asks.

Jaune lowers his head in defeat. "Yeah, it does."

Ruby laughs a tiny bit. "I'm kind of a dork when it comes to weapons, so I guess I did go a little overboard in designing mine."

"Wait, you made that?" Jaune asked with a surprised tone.

"Of course, all students at Signal forged their own weapons! Didn't you make yours?"

Examining his weapon, "It's a hand-me-down. My great-great-grandfather used it to fight in the War."

"Sounds more like a family heirloom to me. Well, I like it, not many people have an appreciation for the classics these days."

"Yeah... the classics..."

Ruby then turns her head to look at Nero, "How about yours? You've kind of been quiet this whole time."

Nero nods and began to unravel the chains of his kusarigama and drops them through his sleeves. The small scythes made small clanging sounds as they impacted the ground. The grips were black in color as well as the blades but with a little hue of red on the edge. The chains were dark grey and it looked as if there were more hidden underneath Nero's clothes. Pulling them up by the chains, Nero showed them both that he can flick the scythe's blades up and turn them into one-sided short swords.

Jaune and Ruby let out surprised exclamations when Nero showed them his Sasayaku.

"Whoa, cool! How'd you keep them hidden underneath your clothes this whole time?" Jaune asked.

"Well, I have the blades in sheaths as the chains wrap around the chainmail underneath my vest as well as around both of my arms."

"So what you're saying is that it's even longer than that?" Ruby asked.

Nero nods, "Why, yes, the full length of Sasayaku is approximately 35 feet from one end to the other. It's a hassle just trying to conceal her."

"Did you make it yourself?" Ruby asked.

"I had some assistance making her; my uncle forged it using a mixture of Dust and steel. The chains were also made out of the same mixtures. It took about four months to craft and attach all the chains together." Pulling up the chains and scythe blades, Nero shuffles around to conceal Sasayaku again underneath his clothes.

"That's so cool!" said Ruby and Jaune simultaneously.

"Yes, she is quite cool."

The three continue walking in relative silence, admiring the school, when Ruby turns to look at Jaune.

"So… why'd you help me out back there, in the courtyard?" she asks.

"Eh, why not?" Jaune answered, "My mom always says, 'strangers are just friends you haven't met yet."

"That sounds very similar to what my Master once told me," said Nero "'Those whose names you do not know are waiting to know yours. That was very noble of you Jaune."

"Thanks Nero, it, uh, it was nothing."

They continue walking still when Nero realizes that he has seen a particular tree many times over.

"Are we… going in circles?" he asks.

"Hey, where are we going, anyway?" asks Ruby.

"Oh, I don't know, I was following you guys. You think there might be a directory?"

Jaune received blank stares from Ruby and Nero.

"Maybe a, uh, food court?"