The next day, Ash and Ruby take a carrier plane that would take them along with the next batch of students to Beacon Academy. As they walk around the halls of the ship, a girl with extremely long and messy blonde hair that went down to the bottom of her back and lilac eyes wearing a short tan open vest over a yellow crop top with large yellow bracelets on both her wrists which Ash assumed were her weapons, a brown half skirt and brown belt over small black shorts and brown boots with orange socks, ran up to the two of them and hugged Ruby tightly. "Hey, Ruby! Oh, I can't believe my baby sister is going to Beacon with me! This is the best day ever!" Ash just smiled and stood behind Ruby, hearing her mumble painfully. "Please stop." The blonde girl jumps back still excited. "But I'm so proud of you!" Ruby brushes her sister off. "Really sis it was nothing." "What do you mean? It was incredible! Everyone at Beacon is going to think you're the "bee's knees!" He sister excitedly says. "I don't want to be the 'bee's knees' okay, I don't want to be any kind of knees," Ruby whined. "I just want to be a normal girl with normal knees." Ash looks at Ruby with a raised eyebrow. "What's the matter? I mean, this is your dream school? Aren't you excited?" She turns to Ash with a disheartened look. "Of course I'm excited but… I got transferred ahead by two years. I don't want anyone to think I'm special or anything." Ash smiles and shakes his head. "It doesn't matter if your special or not. Just be happy that you got accepted here. Not everyone can get in, especially someone two years lower than the age requirement." Ruby takes a deep breath and smiles at Ash. "Whew, thanks, Ash. I guess I'm just nervous." Ash waves her off with his hand. "Yeah, I'm nervous too. It's a new school after all."

"Wait, Ruby who is this guy?" The blonde girl looks behind Ruby and straight at Ash. Her eyes move from him to Ruby, and back again before she hugs Ruby even tighter than before. "OH! MY! GOD! I can't believe my little sister got a boyfriend before me! That's so cute!" Ash puts his hands up innocently and Ruby's face turns redder than her cape. "It's not like that!" They both yell at the same time. The other girl looks at both of them with a raised eyebrow and a smug grin. "Are you sure about that?" Ruby pushes her sister away and waves her arms. "I only met him yesterday! I don't like him like that he's just a friend!" Said boy nods rapidly at Ruby's claim. "Yeah your sister is pretty great but I don't like her like that!" Yang pouts and crosses her arms. "Aww~ but you look so cute together. Anyway, hi whoever you are, I'm Yang! Ruby's older sister!" Ash extends his hand which Yang grips and shakes firmly. "I'm Ash. I transferred here a year earlier like your sister." Yang lets go of his hand. "Yeah, I figured."

A hologram of the woman Ash saw last night suddenly appeared in front of the windows of the ship, catching the attention of the teens. "Who's that?" Yang askes. ["Hello and welcome to Beacon, my name is Glynda Goodwitch. You are among the privileged few who have received the honor of attending…"] Ash tunes out the announcement and decides looks around the ship to get an idea of his potential competition at Beacon. His eyes rest on a tall, muscular boy who looks like he was trying to stay away from all the windows on the ship. The boy had short black hair and brown eyes and wore a black leather jacket with large brown gloves on both hands, gray pants and metal greaves that covered his bottom legs and feet. Strapped to his arms was half of what appeared to be a large black hexagonal shaped shield with triangular patterns on the outer rim. Ash walks up to the boy and lightly tapped his shoulder, and was startled when the other boy whipped around and grabbed Ash's wrist tightly, his arm and body shaking with fear and anger. "W-What's your problem huh!? Y-You trying to start something!?" Ash is stunned at the ferocity of the boy's grip and feels his bones being crushed in his grip. Showing no emotion, Ash uses his other hand and pries the boy's hand off his wrist and throws the other boy's arm down, making him stumble from the force, "No, I was just going to say there are other ways to hide your apparent fear of heights." The boy looks at Ash with wide eyes and is about to raise his fist when Ash presses on. "If you're going to deny it, don't. Strength isn't hiding your fear, it's overcoming it. You have my word that I won't tell anyone, but the sooner you get over your fears, the better." The boy says nothing as Ash walks away from him and lowers his hand while looking down in defeat. Ash looks down at his wrist and lifts his sweater sleeve to see bright red abrasions with small puncture marks from where the guy was holding him. 'These aren't human hand marks' Ash thinks to himself and looks back at the boy, now with a better idea of whom or rather what the boy was.

He rejoins Ruby and Yang and the former marvels at the view of her old school. "I guess home isn't too far after all." Yang puts her arm around Ruby and shakes her reassuringly. "Beacon is our home now." The three of them hear a strange noise behind them and see a blonde boy with blue eyes in white armor over a black hoodie, jeans and black and white sneakers similar to Ash's, looking over the edge of the ship put a hand over his mouth and runs past the group to the bathroom. "Well, I guess the view isn't for everybody." Yang comments. "I wonder who we're going to meet?" She wonders. "I just hope they're better than "Vomit boy," Ruby replies. Ash yawns and cracks his fingers."Yeah uhhh…" He looks down and sees something near Yang's foot. "Hey, Yang?" Said girl looks at Ash, the clicks his shoes together making her and Ruby look down at their feet before screaming in disgust. "Eww, Yang gross! You got puke on your shoe!" The two sisters begin to freak out with Ruby comically running away from Yang as Ash stands off to the side, trying to stifle a laugh.


When the plane lands, Ash is one of the first few kids to walk off and the 'Vomit boy' quickly runs past him to the nearest trash can. Ash goes into the courtyard and looks in awe at the main building of Beacon. "I can't believe it. I'm actually here in Beacon." He puts his hands in his pockets and smiles. "This place is a dream come true." He keeps walking forward and doesn't see someone in a long black cloak walking in front and he runs into the person, knocking both of them over. Ash quickly gets up and extends his hand. "Oh god, I'm sorry I should have been paying attention." The person reaches out and grabs his hand. "No, it's fine I…" Ash looks at the person he hit and finds a girl about the same age as him with pink hair and dark crimson eyes looking up at him under her black hood which covered her body all the way down to her ankles. The two of them look at each other without saying anything, both of them lost in each other's gaze. Ash snaps out of his reverie and pulls the girl up but doesn't let go of her hand. "Uh, ah, Hi, I-I'm Ash Valdis. What's your name?" He starts to mentally panic at his unusual behavior. 'Why the heck am I stuttering!? It's just a girl for crying out loud!' The girl takes her hand back and pulls her hood lower and looks away from Ash. "M-My names-" An explosion suddenly rocks the earth and Ash looks up to see a red cloud with sparks of ice and lightning. 'Why do I have the feeling that Ruby is somehow behind this?' Ash wonders. He closes his eyes and lets out a long breath and turns back to the girl. "Hey sorry but I…" When he opens his eyes, is surprised to see no one in front of him anymore. Raising an eyebrow and scratching his head, he begrudgingly runs off in the direction of the smoke and doesn't see the girl hiding behind a nearby pillar, blushing like crazy under her hood. 'Ash Valdis, I wonder just what kind of person you are?'

Ash runs past a bunch of other kids and unsurprisingly sees Ruby in the center courtyard being yelled at by a girl covered in a layer of ashes. "Unbelievable! This is exactly the kind of thing I was talking about!" Ruby is awkwardly touching her pointer fingers together. "I'm really, really sorry!" The girl stamps off the ashes, revealing pale skin and white hair pulled into a side ponytail held by a silver crown pin and pale blue eyes with a small scar over the left eye. She had a pale blue knee-length dress and tall white boots and a silver belt with a small pouch and a silver rapier with a revolving barrel strapped to her side. Ash was able to get a quick look at the back of her dress and he recognized the familiar Schnee Dust Company logo, giving him a good idea at who the girl was. "Ugh! You complete dolt! What are you even doing here?" Aren't you a little young to be attending Beacon?" The girl exclaims angrily.

Ash moved forward and put a hand on the other girl's shoulder, getting her and Ruby's attention. "Ok, now that's enough. First off, if she's able to attend Beacon at that age, doesn't mean that she has more skill than the average student here? And second, if she is that young, shouldn't someone older like yourself set an example for her?" Ruby is left stunned about Ash defending her while the other girl turns her anger on him and knocks his hand away from her, appearing to have forgotten about Ruby. "Who do you think you are?! Do you know who I am?!" she screamed. Ash smugly raises his head and an eyebrow and looks down at the girl. "To the first question, I'm no one important. Just a boy trying to go on about his life. I'm only here because you yelling at my friend right here. To the second question, yeah, I think I know who you are. You're a spoiled princess who has to learn how to be around other people."

The girl looks like she is about to blow her top when someone else speaks first. "It's Heiress actually." Ash turns to see another girl with fair skin and long black hair with a bow on top and amber eyes walks up to them. She wore a short loosely buttoned black vest over a white undershirt, had long black ribbons wrapped around her forearms and black low-cut boots. She held a vial mostly full of red powdered dust with the Schnee logo on the front of it and had a black sword with the handle of a handgun was strapped to her back. "Weiss Schnee. Heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, one of the largest producers of energy propellant in the world." Ash's smirk gets wider as he answers. "Yeah, I had a feeling. But I honestly didn't care." Weiss glares at Ash as the other girl continues "The same company infamous for its controversial labor forces and questionable business partners." Ash laughs so hard he clutches his stomach and Ruby puts a hand over her mouth to snicker as Weiss starts to stutter at the girl's statement and grabs the dust vial from the other girl and storms away.

"I'll make it up to you!" Ruby yells after her, but Ash puts a hand in front of her. "You should be obligated to do that. She has to learn that not everything isn't handed to her on a platter, no matter whom or what has to show her that." Ruby head down and turns to the other girl, but she was already walking away, making Ruby's head go lower and her legs to give out under her. She slumps to the floor and lies on her back. "Welcome to Beacon…" Ash is about to reach down but someone else moves before him. He looks over and sees the 'Vomit boy' holding his hand out to Ruby, "Hey. I'm Jaune." She takes his hand and pulls herself up; "Ruby" Ash does a two-fingered salute to Jaune. "I'm Ash Valdis, nice to meet you." Ruby takes a quick look at him and chuckles. "Aren't you the guy that threw up on the ship?" Jaune makes a shocked face and Ash snickers to the side.


"All I'm saying is that motion sickness is a more common problem than people let on!" The three walk around the school together with Jaune explaining in detail the problems that motion sickness brings. "Look I'm sorry." Ruby apologized. "Vomit Boy" was the first thing that came to mind." Oh yeah? What if I called you Crater-face?" Jaune shot back. Ruby shook her arm in defiance. "Hey, that explosion was an accident!" Jaune stood up straighter and introduced himself, "Well the names Jaune Arc. Short, sweet, rolls of the tongue, ladies love it!" Both Ash and Ruby raise a skeptical eyebrow at his claim. "Do they?" They ask at the same time. Jaune's confidence face falls and he puts his arms out defensively. "They will. At least I hope they will. My mom always said that… Never mind." The three walks in awkward silence until Ruby breaks it. "So... I got this thing." She reaches for the compact weapon strapped to her back and it unfolds it into the scythe she used in the video Ash watched, making both boys step back. "Whoa! Is that a scythe?" Jaune asked in disbelief. Ruby holds it up and smiles. "Yep, it's called Crescent Rose and it's also a customizable high impact velocity sniper rifle." Jaune looks confused so Ruby cocks the weapon for emphasis. "It's also a gun." Making him awe in realization.

Ash flips out of his sword and shows it to the other two. "This is my weapon, I call it Scattered Fragment." Ruby runs over to Ash and takes his sword form him and looks it over from top to bottom. "Wow!" She exclaims and takes a few practice swings. A sudden gust of wind blows past her and she looks to her side to see Ash holding his sword in his hand. "Sorry." He says to Ruby and he puts his sword back into his arm. "I'm just not used to others messing with this. This sword means a lot to me, you know?"

Afterward, Jaune tries to show off his weapon, which was a simple broadsword and a shield that retracts to make the scabbard for the sword he wore on his side. Ruby looks underwhelmed at the simplicity of the weapon and reaches to examine the shield, but Jaune lost control of the expanding mechanism and it uncontrollably bounced out of his hands, almost dropping it. Ruby holds up Crescent Rose and rubs it softly "Sorry! It's just that I'm kind of a dork when it comes to weapons. I think I went overboard designing mine." Jaune looks surprised at her statement, "Wait you made that?!" Ash looks at Jaune questioningly, "Yeah, I all students in combat schools forge their own weapons. Didn't you make yours?" Jaune looks down at his sword, "It's a hand-me-down. My great-grandfather used it in the war." "Sounds like a family heirloom to me." Ruby says insensitively, making Ash elbow her, "I mean I like it! Not many people have an appreciation for the classics these days." Jaune looks down at his weapon with a deflated look, "Yeah, the classics." After putting his weapon away and walking around a bit longer, Ruby turns to Jaune, "Hey do you know where we're going?" "No, I was following you?" Ash looks at the two with disbelief and shakes his head. "Ok follow me, I think I know where we're going."


Ash leads them through a large gate and onto the main campus. From there, he walks the two through the school and into an auditorium where most of the students were gathered. He instantly spots Yang waving at them. "Ruby! Over here saved you a spot!" The Ruby waves back and says goodbye to Jaune before joining her sister and Ash sees the boy he met on the plane, now looking sad and dejected. "Okay Jaune you're on your own now. See ya." Ash gives Jaune another two-finger salute and walks away, leaving Jaune complaining something about cute, quirky girls. Ash walks up to the boy and taps his shoulder again, making the boy turn around and gave him an off-handed wave. "Hey mind if I stay here?" The boy nods and Ash plops down next to him and extends his hand. "I didn't catch your name, by the way, I'm Ashton Valdis but you can just call me Ash." The other boy takes his hand and shakes it firmly. "I'm Onyx Fractan, nice to meet you. Thanks for what you did for me on the plane by the way." Ash lets go and waves him off. "Don't mention it. We're all afraid of something; it's just a matter of overcoming it."

The whole audience becomes quiet as Ozpin walks onstage to the microphone. "I'll keep this brief." He starts. "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." Ash hears some of the students murmur amongst themselves in self-praise. 'Just wait for the kicker. Annnd...' He thinks. Ozpin continues his speech, now in a more condensing tone. "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." Ash looks around and the students who were so happy are now looking down at each other, the whole audience filled with unease. Glynda walks up to the microphone and takes Ozpin's place. "You will gather in the ballroom tonight. Your initiation starts tomorrow. Be ready. You are dismissed!" As the students stand up and walk around Ash looks at Onyx, who looks uneasy, "Are you doing okay Onyx?" The boy brushes it off and stands up next to Ash. "Yeah, it's just the speech getting to me." Ash nods in agreement. "Yeah, but I guess that was the only way he was going to get the message out. We really can die from this training. It's only going to get more serious from here." Onyx shakes off his fear and looks at Ash. "It was nice meeting you Ash; I'm going to hang with my other friends now. See ya." As he walks away, Ash looks around at the rest of the audience and internally frowns. 'That girl with the hood, she's not here. I wonder why?'


Later that night, Ash changes into a white short-sleeved shirt and black shorts as he lies on his sleeping bag. He fiddles with a necklace he wears under his clothes and stares longingly at his emblem, the same as the one on the back of his jacket, printed on a small metal coin. 'I wonder how she's doing. Hope she'd be proud of me.' He grips his emblem tightly in his hand and looks up towards the ceiling. 'I promise, I'm going to find you. It doesn't matter who or what stands in my way, I'm going to bring you home.' Ash can still remember her hair, her smile and most importantly his promise. 'Never again will I fail her.' Ash releases the necklace and says to no one in particular. "Okay, you've been staring at me for the past hour. What do want?" He turns his head over and sees an older girl with brown hair and bluish-green eyes, lying under her sleeping bag, looking straight at him. Ash uses his semblance and his eyes briefly invert, letting him see the outline of small gauntlets on her wrists hidden under her sleeping back, making him raise an eyebrow with interest. 'Why is she so paranoid?' Ash wonders. 'Were in a school with trained hunters as teachers. What does she have to be worried about?' The looks at him, unmoving and unblinking. 'What would she have to fear here I wonder?' She looks at him with a hostile look, making his take note of the placement of his sword. "I wanted to see what kind of person you are." She gestures to his neck. "That necklace you have has some sort of personal meaning to you. It drives you like it's the reason why you're here." Ash props himself up with his elbow and turns to her with a dark look in his eyes and asks in a threatening tone. "What if it is why I'm here? What does it matter to you?" The girl is undeterred by the boy and looks at him with a black expression, "I had something similar once, something that gave me hope. It's gone now and I have to pay the price for losing it." She turns over and faces away from Ash. "Whatever you do, don't make the same mistakes I did. Hold on to that hope of yours. My name's Rain Aqdrios by the way. Nice to meet you, Ash Valdis."

The boy says nothing as he lays back and closes his eyes and thinks back to the start of his day. 'Day One at Beacon and I've met Ruby's sister, someone who I think is a Faunus, two mystery girls, a boy who had motion sickness and a spoiled Schnee princess. Not bad actually.' As he drifts off to sleep, he actually smiles at his situation. 'At least my stay here won't be boring.' He thinks to himself before dozing off.