"I'm sorry, Ms. Schnee. I have no intention of working alongside your family in any manner. The Kirijo Group will remain independent of foreign contracts, as we always have."

Those words played on repeat in Weiss' mind as she walked out from her morning classes. Mitsuru Kirijo, who had inherited control of the Kirijo Group as a teenager, had completely refused to partner with the Schnee Dust Company, instead preferring to maintain the competitive relationship that their respective families had established long before her father's passing many years ago.

The nerve of that woman! The young heiress' mind filled with frustration as she walked through the halls of Beacon Academy, her pace quickening to nearly a jog. My father suggested to her such a great business offer, and she flat-out refused! Just who does she think she is-

Before Weiss could finish her thought, she had bumped into another student, knocking them both on to the floor.

As she got back up to her feet, the white-haired student began to apologize. "Please forgive me, I wasn't paying proper attention to my surroundings." However, as her body and eyes moved back up, Weiss realized who she had collided with. "Oh nevermind, it's just you."

Ruby Rose, still trying to process what had just happened, sat up, trying to massage her now-sore rear end. "Uhhh….. Wait, Weiss? What are you doing here?"

"Leaving." Weiss scoffed as she turned to walk past Ruby, but was stopped by someone much taller than either of them.

An older student stood before the heiress, his white-hair doing little to conceal the look of displeasure in his eyes. Though she noticed his heterochromia, Weiss chose to pay this no mind. "Excuse me, may I help you?..."

"No, but you can help her." The young man pointed to Ruby. "That little accident there was your fault, and you were about to just leave her there. That's pretty damn rude, don't you think?"

Rolling her eyes, Weiss reluctantly turned to help Ruby, lifting her back on to my feet. "I suppose that was inappropriate of me. After all, that technically was my fault."

Ruby laughed a bit, though she still seemed a bit unbalanced after standing up. "Don't worry about it, Weiss… Stuff like this happens all the time…"

The tall student crossed his arms, wearing an aggravated expression as he approached the two girls. "Just so you know, that's my teammate you almost ditched, there. If I see you acting rude to her like that again, I'll be the one putting YOU on the floor, got it?!"

Appalled by the student's attitude towards her, Weiss snapped back at him. "Just who in the world do you think you're speaking to?!"

"Oh, I know exactly who I'm speaking to. I'm speaking to Weiss Schnee, the stuck-up child who gets all her money from a certain rich bastard who insulted my Master three years ago. Apparently, she's also a little bitch who doesn't know what respect for others even is!" He narrowed his eyes as he came face-to-face with Weiss. "I'm going to say this just once; nobody in this school gives a fuck about your connection to the SDC, or your piece of shit father!"

As Weiss' eyes widened in anger, Ruby cut in to try and resolve things before they could get worse. "Oh, don't worry about Ragna, he's like this with everyone!" Ruby nervously tried to laugh the whole issue off, though it seemed as though sparks were about to fly between the two between them. As their tempers flared, students began to crowd around them, likely expecting a fight to break out. "Wait, please don't fight you guys, I'm sure that we can talk all this out!"

The heiress grit her teeth as she looked up at Ragna. "I don't know who you or your so-called "Master" are, but if you don't take all that back, I'll make sure you regret it! I won't have some common gutter filth tarnish my family name!"

"Then do something about it, 'heiress'! Or are you all talk like your dad?!"

Just as things were about to come to blows, two girls ran to intervene. One of the two was Tsubaki, who was followed by a short, brown-haired girl. She approached Weiss and Ragna, still in her school uniform like Weiss and Ruby. "Weiss, pay Ragna no further mind. He's made a habit of starting fights with other students."

The other girl nodded, adding that "Guys like him don't deserve your time, Weiss. Just forget about him and come back to our room!"

Weiss continued to meet Ragna's glare for a few moments, before closing her eyes. She took a deep breath, then turned to leave, without saying another word. As the heiress left, Ruby's eyes began to tear up. She covered her eyes as she ran off in the opposite direction, leaving Ragna the Bloodedge behind, though he could hear her speak as she sped away. "Why do things always turn out like this?!"

Ragna clenched his fists. Dammit… I got carried away again. Narukami's not gonna be happy about this…

…..

Blake Belladonna walked through a small-town mall miles off from Beacon Academy, as the arrival of the weekend gave her plenty of time to explore outside of Vale's Centralized City. Although the boys in Team SKRB were generally pretty quiet and respectful, Blake still felt the need to get away from the close quarters of their room, even if only for a short time to get some groceries. She also wanted to find part-time employment.

As she looked through a selection of various fish products, a blonde boy in an apron approached her, rose held in his hands. "Excuse me, miss. I've worked here for quite some time, and may I say, you are simply the most gorgeous little flower I've ever seen walk through this mall."

Taken off guard by the boys horrific attempt at flirting, Blake took a step back. "I'm sorry, but I'm not exactly interested in someone I've just barely met…"

Laughing in a way that seemed far too forced, the blonde continued. "Oh, I don't mean to bear-don you, miss. I only wish to bask in the warmth of your radiance!"

Just as Blake was about to hit the boy, someone grabbed the flirt by the shoulder. A brown-haired boy, wearing a similar working apron, had an infuriated look upon his face. "You'll be basking in the feeling of unemployment if you don't get back to work, Teddie!"

The blonde named Teddie immediately straightened up as he realized he'd been caught. "S-s-s-sorry Yosuke! I won't leave my section again, cub's honor!"

Rolling his eyes, Yosuke sent Teddie on his way. "And put your dumb bear costume on, we've got a flash sale in the bakery department!" He turned to face Blake, as his expression shifted to a considerably more friendly appearance. "My apologies for the inconvenience, ma'am! Our employee's aren't usually this unprofessional, but I'll make sure that your experience from here on out is a great one!"

Blake smiled in response. "No worries, I've dealt with worse than him before." She glanced at the label on Yosuke's apron, which read YOSUKE HANAMURA: Junior Assistant Manager. "Excuse me, but would you know if there are any positions here for full-time students?"

Yosuke nodded, his expression mellowed out from before. "Of course there is! If you follow me, I can get you started with an application!"

A/N

Howdy fella's! Sorry for taking so long again, I just managed to get past some bad writers block, and with the release of BBTAG (and my newfound love for Killing Floor 2) I've had lots of distractions. Also, somebody created a TVTropes page for Against Despair! I don't know who did this, but thank you kind stranger! YOU DA MAN!

But enough about me, let's get to answering some questions!

The Imperator is indeed Hades: Izanami, although I've been considering adding elements of Izanami-no-Okami/Marie as well. However, in this story, you shouldn't think of Izanami and Saya as necessarily the same individual (nor are they entirely separate beings). There will be a proper reveal as the story progresses, so please be patient!

Although faunus are typically human-like, but with animal features, Jubei will still appear as a sort of "cat-person" with an almost entirely feline body, just like his appearance in Blazblue. While this will certainly be uncommon in Remnant, I had an idea on how to make this work: Jubei will be known as a "Purebreed", which is essentially a rare type of faunus that carries primarily animal traits, as opposed to the more human-like "Halfbreed".

The Team names won't be changed until after the Fall of Beacon.

I will elaborate more on the Black Beast in the future, but I will say that prior to its "birth", Remnant was still full of conflict between many different nations. This constant state of conflict created massive amounts of negative emotional energy (a perfect place for the Grimm to spawn and wreak havoc).

Jaune and Pyrrha are still in the same team.

The ages of Team HRRN's members are Ruby (15 years old), Hyde (17), Yu (17), and Ragna (18).

Any questions that I haven't addressed will be answered later on in another chapter. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go pass out, because I'm incredibly tired. See ya'll in the next chapter!