…"Manni! What'd you find?" he shouted as he heard his faithful dog bark in the distance…

...The dark, nightly forest was cold as the winter had settled in properly… The ground was covered in thick snow, but he kept walking towards the sound of the barking nevertheless... He heard a faint, sickening crunch followed by a loud whine, and he felt cold dread sink into his stomach…

...He ran through the snow to see a faint, dark shape leaning over Manni's motionless form, the dog bleeding heavily onto the snow…

...The dark shape over Manni reared back and he heard a tearing sound as the form tore a bloody chunk from Manni's flank…

"No! Get off him!" he shouted, charging the black form and kicking it off. The form flew back and landed on all fours, and he saw it's long, blood-stained teeth glisten in the faint moonlight…

...He lifted his rifle and fired, the shot impacting the creature's chest and he saw explosion of dark red blood as the bullet exited the creature's back- but it wasn't enough,,,

...The creature leaped and landed on his chest and he tried to push it off with his rifle, but the creature was too strong… ...In desperation, he pulled his long carving knife from his belt and stabbed it into the creature's stomach...

...He felt the old blade get stuck and snap at the hilt before his world was filled with pain as the creature's long maw bit onto his exposed throat….

.

..

"Gaah!" Jaune woke up with a strangled gasp and he reached to push something away from his chest. The offending object didn't let go of him and he heard a faint tearing sound as his claw tore the object apart in retaliation…

A faint growl escaped from his lips before he managed to stop himself, and he opened his eyes properly to see a faint, eerie red glow illuminate his surroundings…

...He looked down to discover the top of his bedsheet torn in two, his clawed hand likely having ripped into the stuffed fabric as he had had felt the fabric constricting his movements.

Jaune closed his eyes again as he took deep, repeated breaths while massaging his throat carefully after he felt his claws turn back to fingers.

Minutes passed in silence as he worked to calm himself down, feeling a surge of heat radiating from his body as he cooled down from his brief transformation.

After feeling back in control, he pulled the torn fabric off him and pushed it to the bottom end of his bed before looking around to see the dorm-room assigned to his team being faintly illuminated by the moonlight shining through the room's single large window. The room had four wooden beds, one for each student. There were two long study desks with two chairs each next to the single entrance door to the dorm-room directly opposite to the room's single window, and the walls had four large wall-closets and there was a side-door leading to the dorm-room's solitary bathroom and shower.

Jaune rose to sit on his bed with his knees close to his chest. He looked at the other beds in the room to see the slowly breathing forms of his sleeping teammates.

If he concentrated hard enough, he could feel the faint waves of emotions rolling off of them…

'...Fear… uncertainty… shame…' Jaune thought as he sniffed the air, feeling his teeth sharpening as he felt the Shadow calling him to tear…

'No! Not like this!' Jaune slammed his head against his knee, feeling the bloodlust starting to rise again.

He breathed in and out again before reaching for his Scroll to check the time '4:30…' he thought before putting his scroll away again 'It's nearly morning… Weiss ordered for us to wake up at 0600… so that'd be a hour and half from now'

Jaune settled himself back on the bed and pulled his blanket back over him, hiding the torn part of it under his legs.

'Still… What was that dream about?'


The morning came slowly to Jaune as he kept rolling on his bed with sleep eluding him until the ringing of the Scrolls finally broke the rest of the team off their sleep.

"Good morning, Team. We begin our day by…" Weiss started to speak to the team as soon as her Scroll's alarm rang.

"Dibs for shower!" Ruby announced before disappearing from her bed and vanishing into shower before anyone could so much as react much less object.

"That girl! We haven't even established a schedule for taking a morning shower or the time allocated for a single shower!" Weiss grumbled from her bedside as she rose from her bed to brush her long hair "I will not have disorderly conduct in my team!"

"Do we really need a schedule for taking a shower?" Jaune asked from his bed.

"Yes! How are we supposed to know when it is our turn without it?" Weiss answered.

"By knocking? You know, on the door?" Blake lifted her eyebrow.

"That's not as efficient!"

"I'm done!" Ruby announced from the shower door, fully clothed in her school uniform with her hair damp from the shower.

"Whoa, that was fast" Jaune said before taking his school uniform and rising up…

...To see Blake disappear into the shower in a black blur. Sighing, he sat down while the white-haired heiress continued to growl beside her bed.

"Yeah, I'm pretty quick when it comes to showering… Back at home, I had to be because Yang always took an eternity to do her hair and to take a shower, so unless I was faster than her to get into showers I'd only get cold water" Ruby explained while draping her red cloak on her shoulders. "Plus my Semblance is Speed so I can just boom in and out!"

Jaune was about to comment on that, but Weiss's arctic voice interrupted him.

"Then, in the future you'll be the last to shower!" Weiss scowled.

"Wha… wha… why?" Ruby whimpered as she looked at the white-haired girl.

"For disrespecting my authority!"

"Umm… what authority?"

"How dare you! I am the leader of this team! I demand you to respect my authority!"

"You do know that respect cannot be commanded, right?" Jaune asked from his bedside as he looked at the two two girls "You can demand it all you want but in the end it is earned, not demanded"

Ruby looked at Jaune with wide eyes "Whoa, that's deep"

"My dad told me that before he… uh... Let's change the topic" Jaune started before pausing, taking a breath and beginning anew "What should we do today?"

"Fine, I'll let the subject of disrespect drop for now… but we're not finished" Weiss growled before continuing "We being our day at 0600 by waking up and performing our morning routines, followed by unpacking our luggages starting at 0640. Afterwards, at 0735 we will have a light breakfast in the dining hall. Our studies begin with Grimm Study class which is scheduled to start at 0815, and we shall arrive to the classroom by 0800. Following the class, we will have a lunch break from 1100 to 1155, and then we shall attend History class from 1200 until 1615. Once the lessons are over, we will have a teamwork and strategy meetup in one of the spare meeting rooms, starting at 1620 and lasting until 1900..."

Weiss continued on while fiddling with her Scroll. Few seconds later Ruby's and Jaune's Scrolls buzzed as they received a schedule file from Weiss.

"Uh, that's pretty detailed…" Jaune said as he looked over the spreadsheet file "Did you really need to specify each minute as a separate entry?"

"Yes, of course. We have no time to waste. I modeled the schedule and listing based off the template that I used during my studies as the heiress and the next leader of the SDC" Weiss said as if it was obvious.

"...That explains so much about you…" Ruby whispered before putting her hand on the heiress's shoulder "You can relax now… we have time- you don't have to strong-arm us, we're friends!" she said softly as Weiss looked at Ruby with wide eyes.

"Are… Are you pitying me?" Weiss asked, completely taken off guard "How… how dare you!" she shrieked before shooting up and walking briskly to the shower, passing Blake as the black-haired girl came out of the shower, fully clothed on her school uniform.

"What's up with her?" Blake asked, lifting her eyebrow at the door as it closed behind the arctic heiress.

"I'm not sure what I did wrong" Ruby muttered with her head down.

Jaune nudged her shoulder "I think Weiss thought she'd be doing us a favour if she made a minute-accurate schedule for us and pushed us." Jaune said.

Ruby looked up as Blake shrugged.

"I'm sure it will all work out in the end" Jaune continued, ignoring the growling that came from the shower.

Precisely ten minutes later, the heiress emerged from the showers in her school uniform with her hair done, allowing Jaune to enter the shower.

"..."

'Of course the water would be cold by the time I'd get in…'

.

..

Jaune walked out of the showers to scene of Weiss arguing with Ruby and Blake.

"...No, you cannot have that ridiculous cape as part of your uniform! And take that bow off, it looks silly!" Weiss said with her hands on her hips as she looked at Ruby who had tied her bright red cape on her shoulders while Blake was holding tightly onto the black bow on top of her head.

Blake was sending a murderous glare at the white-haired girl while Ruby looked like she was on a verge of tears.

"What's going on in here?" Jaune asked from the bathroom doorway.

"Weiss is being annoying and is trying to strip us!" Ruby whined while holding onto her cape tightly.

"That's not how I would have put it, but that is essentially correct" Blake said, not taking her eyes off the heiress whose scowl deepened.

"You are a bunch of children! How can you not see how your obtuseness affects the team's outward appearance! Why do you insist on dressing against the dress code and wearing all sorts of silly attachments and accessories?!" Weiss said.

"Hm, how about we vote on it?" Jaune tried to defuse the situation "Plus, on the subject of accessories, don't you have a tiara on your head?"

"You don't 'vote' against a team leader! I give the orders and…" Weiss began but was interrupted as the dorm room opened, revealing half-asleep Yang Xiao-Long in her pajamas with a serious case of bed-hair.

"Wha-ats going on in h-here?" Yang yawned before leaning against the doorframe "I could heard you guys arguing across the hallw…" rest of her speech was lost in a tired yawn and she closed her eyes briefly.

"We are currently discussing about our team-specific matters! Please leave!" Weiss said strictly.

"Weiss is being mean!" Ruby whined to Yang who opened her eyes slightly.

"If you bully my lil' sis, I'm going to punch your jaw down your throat so deep that you're going to have to eat your meals by sitting on them" Yang said to spluttering Weiss before turning around tiredly and going back to her own dorm.

"Well, that was a thing" Jaune said to the now-silent dorm-room "So, what happens now? I vote that we let Ruby and Blake keep their clothes, and if teachers object then they take them off?"

"Again, that's not exactly how I'd put it... but wearing accessories, which capes and bows are, is not only allowed but encouraged within Beacon" Blake said calmly from the side, although she had faint tint of red on her cheeks. "After the Great War, self-expression has been highly encouraged across all four kingdoms… although I imagine that Kingdom of Atlas, being successor to the originator of that War, would skim on those lessons…" she ended with an icy glare at the heiress whose cheeks reddened ever so slightly.

"F-fine! Have your stupid cape and bow! But if the teachers so much as utter a word, you are both taking them off!" She finally said, crossing her arms and looking away.

"Yay!" "Finally" came from Ruby and Blake as Jaune sighed, happy that the conflict would be resolved for now.

"So, do you guys want to unpack your stuff?" Ruby asked, clapping her hands together before pointing at a wall closet "Dibs on that closet!"


Weiss announced that it was time to depart for breakfast after a brief but frantic unpackaging frenzy, during which the wall closets were stuffed full. Ruby and Blake had tried to put up few posters on the walls, but the paper posters had been swiftly removed by Weiss.

"The posters wouldn't have hurt anyone" Ruby pouted as she kept shovelling cereal to her mouth at breakneck pace in the dining hall "And I really wanted to have bunk beds too…"

"The posters were inappropriate!" Weiss retorted while cutting her fruit "And the bunk beds you suggested were both ugly and dangerous!"

"I disagree on both" Blake said quietly from the side.

"What's 'The Pillar Men' anyway?" Jaune added his two cents, not recognizing the poster that Blake had put up before Weiss had torn it down hastily.

'Not that being out of touch with the new trends is difficult since I did kind of return to civilization just few days ago, I think' Jaune added in his mind as no-one answered his question.

He shook his head. Being aware of trends wasn't important to him, but it once again brought to his mind the events that had caused him to drop out of civilization's radar.

'I hope Sapphire, Jade and Coral are okay…' Jaune thought back to his three sisters that he had lost contact with during the bandit raid into Shion village 'I need to hurry up and get stronger... so I can go and rescue them… If they are still alive… and avenge mom and dad'

He hoped that the Beacon would provide training and knowledge for that purpose- his wanting to become a Hunter was secondary to rescuing his family… and killing the scum that had brought an end to so many lives...

A small hand appearing in his sight broke him off his thoughts and he looked to the side to see Ruby waving her hand in front of his face.

"Are you alright Jaune? You had kind of scary expression just now" She said, pulling her hand back.

Jaune looked down at his hands to discover them gripping his utensils tightly with his knuckles white.

"It's nothing, I just started to think back on some things…" he said, letting his grip loosen slightly. "Uh… by the way, why are you sitting so close to me?" he asked Ruby as the smaller girl was drinking straight from a milk carton while being basically glued to his side.

The girl in question spluttered while drinking, causing the liquid to drip past her chin and onto the table.

"N- No reason! It's just that there isn't much space in here!" she said, waving towards the empty seats all around them.

Weiss raised her eyebrow as she wiped her mouth, having finished her breakfast.

"Well, regardless if miss Rose is unable to drink from a glass and respect personal space like a civilized person, it is time for us to depart into the classroom. Plus, in the future, you need to add vegetables and fruits to your breakfast, mr. Arc! " Weiss announced, giving the pile of food still in Jaune's plate a glare and sending another at the red-clad girl who was busy drying up her face and the table with napkins.

"Don't we still have twenty minutes until the class starts?" Jaune asked while eating from his pile of boiled chicken eggs, fried sausages and bacon.

Ruby checked the Beacon's map on her scroll after putting the wet napkins away "The classroom is like, two minute's walk away!" she announced few seconds later.

"Yes, but we need to prepare ourselves for the lesson and recite the material given to us well before the lesson starts!" Weiss scowled, grabbing Jaune by his hand and bodily dragging him off the table "Also, you need to lose weight!" she added after a moment as her face started to turn red from exertion.

Jaune gave his half-finished breakfast one last longing look before shaking Weiss off him and turning to walk after her.

Ruby and Blake followed the pair quietly while giving eachother an exasperated gaze when Weiss wasn't looking.

.

..

"Hello, class! I am Professor Port, the strongest Huntsman in Beacon and the conqueror of both endless hordes of Grimm and young maiden's hearts!" an old, moustached man announced from his desk in front of the class of assembled students, winking at the crowd and causing few of the female students to gag in disgust.

"Welcome to the Grimm Studies class where we unravel the mysteries of Grimm and the logic of the women under my tutelage!" the man said while turning around to point at several drawings of different Grimm forms.

"...Is he for real?" Ruby leaned closer to Jaune to whisper into his ear as Jaune was staring at the man with his mouth slightly open.

Blake had buried her face in her hands and Weiss was scowling at her team while taking notes as the team sat on the half-circle classroom.

A loud crashing sound from behind the team caused Jaune's answer to Ruby's whisper to be lost in the echo as the entire class and the professor turned to look at the source of the sound…

...To see team RYNN having burst through the door and fallen on the floor all the while panting almost as if they had ran a mile in a minute.

"Welcome to Grimm studies, lovely young ladies, and a bloke. Would you mind explaining yourselves?" Port asked while twirling his moustache.

"We're late because we had too much fun decorating our dorm, sorry!" Yang answered from under a furiously blushing Pyrrha, before shaking the red-headed girl off her shoulders and helping her up.

"I think I hurt my neck, Renny, can you blow on it to make the pain go away?" Nora asked as she was strewn all over a groaning Ren who had hit his nose on the hard wooden floor.

"Well, do take your seats and try not to be so late in the future" Port said before winking at Yang.

Yang gave the slightly overweight professor a long, disgusted stare before walking to her seat and pulling her Scroll out.

The professor nodded at the now-seated students before continuing to boast on about his deeds and tell the class about the Grimm that he had encountered…

Few hours later, Jaune wanted to tear his eyes out.

'Really? Really? Is this THE Beacon? Did I come here just to listen to an overweight old men spout nonsense while my sisters are being held captive by bandits and slavers, if they are still alive at all?' he fumed internally as he looked over the assembled students at team RYNN to see Yang playing with her Scroll, Pyrrha looking at the professor with a forced smile on her face while her eyes were glassed over, and Nora poking at Ren who was completely still with his back straight and looked like he was sleeping with his eyes open.

Not that team SABR was in better shape as Weiss was still taking notes of god-knows-what and sending the rest of the team occasional glares, Ruby was drawing a picture of two stickmen holding hands on her notebook and Blake had fallen asleep curled on her seat.

"...And that's how I defeated the dreadful horde of Boartusks that had tried to overwhelm me and doing so, saved the town mayor's daughter from a certain death!" Professor Port ended his speech before leaning on his desk.

"Now, I have produced a live sample of the Grimm we have talked about today. Who amongst you is ready to provide the class a demonstration by defeating it?" Professor Port said before tapping on his scroll. A heavy steel-reinforced concrete box lifted through a trap-hole that opened in the floor, before the hole closed again under the concrete box.

Jaune could feel the Grimm raging within the box and slamming itself against the sides of it's prison. He shuddered as it reminded him too much of his brief time in the White Fang's captivity…

"I am ready!" Weiss's eager voice sounded amongst few other students who voiced their desire to break away from the monotony, with the rest of the students going from bored to attentive in seconds.

"Splendid! Miss Schnee, go and change to your combat-wear and prepare to face your prey!" Professor Port said as the girl walked into the armory that was adjacent to the classroom.

Few minutes later Weiss emerged from the side-door in her combat dress and with her rapier tied to her side.

Professor Port gave the white-haired girl a critical eye before nodding and taking his shotgun-axe from it's holder above his teacher's desk.

With a press of a button, he released the Grimm from its cage.

The Grimm Boartusk charged out instantly and tried to gore the heiress with its long tusks.

Weiss swung her rapier down to create a glyph behind her, and she jumped on it before the boar managed to get to her. The glyph launched the girl high into the air and she made another motion to spawn identical glyph in the air in front of her, which then launched the girl back at the Grimm boar from above.

'Yeah, that might not work' Jaune thought as he saw the rapier get stuck on the creature's thick hide, unable to break through it.

Weiss seemed unaffected though, and she cycled the cylinder at her rapier's hilt with the cylinder stopping at red Dust as the Grimm started to trash around, likely trying to shake off the girl that was standing on it.

Before it could throw her off, however, Weiss pulled the trigger on her rapier and the rapier's blade started to glow red-hot.

The flame-colour seemed to get injected into the Grimm alongside the length of the rapier as Weiss pushed the blade deeper into the creature.

The Grimm gave a squeaking whine before exploding from the inside in a shower of black flesh and dark red blood.

Weiss landed on her feet, having jumped off the creature before it detonated and avoiding most of the gore that now coated the wooden planks on the classroom's small combat arena.

She gave the crowd of students a smug smile and a polite bow before heading back to the armory.

"Splendid! Splendid! While I would have used an attack to the Boartusks weak belly to destroy it, Miss Schnee showed a inventive way to bypass it's thick hide- to ignore the creature's thick hide completely and attack it from the inside by injecting it with exposive red Dust! She also avoided the creature's charge, which is an extremely important step when fighting Boartusks- never take it's charge head on as the creature packs surprising mass for it's size!" Professor Port continued after Weiss had disappeared from sight "Not to mention how Boartusks have, well, tusks that are sharp enough to gore you severely- and to capitalize on that, the Boartusks like to charge between your legs, which causes the tusks to gore both of your major arteries in the thighs at the same time and make you bleed out in minutes should your Aura run out! So don't let them go between your legs!" he finished with serious voice, before reaching to twirl his moustache

"However, on the subject of things between your legs, have I told you about how I met this one barmaid during my mission to destroy a group of Alpha Boartusks who…" the Professor begun anew with jolly tone.

The class groaned as the Professor continued his usual boasting and few minutes later, the class's sharp and attentive mood had returned to it's passive and sleepy state from before.

As the time ticked on Jaune felt his frustration mount up.

'I could just skip the classes and do some experimenting on the Emerald Forest… it's full of Grimm so it's prime grounds for me…' his thoughts were interrupted as Professor Port finished his speech and announced that the class was over.

"Miss Schnee, would you stay behind, please. Mr. Arc, headmaster would like to see you before the lunch in his office if you'd please" the slightly overweight professor announced with jolly tone as the students made to stand up and leave.

Jaune gave a curious glance at Weiss who, alongside the rest of his team, gave equally curious glances at Jaune. He shrugged and turned to leave, but before he could so much as take a step he felt something grab his sleeve.

He looked down to see Ruby standing extremely close to his side "You don't know where the headmaster's office is, do you?" she asked innocently before turning to lead him, still holding tightly onto his sleeve...


As Ruby and Jaune left towards the headmaster's office, Weiss turned around to tell Blake that she was dismissed only to see the black-haired girl disappear into the crowd on her own.

Weiss scowled as she walked down the classroom's steps towards the Professor who had called for her.

"Ah, Miss Schnee! Excellent!" Professor Port announced as Weiss was the only one in the room beside the professor "You might be wondering why exactly I called you here. Well, let me relieve of your curiosity: I wanted to ask if you are alright after yesterday's Initiation test!"

'Wait, this is about that?' Weiss thought internally, puzzled as to what could have caused the Professor to worry over her performance. 'Hold on, is this about…'

"After all, you fell unconscious in the face of a Grimm Abomination" Port finished, his tone turning from jolly to slightly more serious.

Weiss felt his cheeks get a faint tint of red as she looked at the older man, frustrated.

"I'm very much alright and capable of performing my duties as both heiress and as a student! I was merely not prepared to face a creature that I.. I... thought had... " she felt her voice starting to waver slightly as she recalled the feeling of dread when she had thought that the Grimm creature had killed Jaune and the rest of his team.

It didn't help that she had seen a nightmare of the encounter last night, and in that nightmare she'd seen her sister, Winter, scolding her for the mistake, for her weakness- and dragging her out of the Beacon and back into Atlas with the blood of what was now her team on her hands.

"Hmm, I see. To be honest, none of us professors expected something that would classify as a Grimm Abomination to show up in the forest" Port explained "Although we are still in the process of figuring out just what happened in the Emerald Forest, encounters with creatures like that usually require an intervention by entire teams of trained Hunters to have even the slightest chance of victory!"

"Abominations, sir?" Weiss asked, taking her chance to change the subject.

"Grimm Abomination is the general name for Grimm forms that are unique, intelligent and herald the arrival of other Grimm. Those Grimm creatures are seen very rarely and whenever they are spotted, they herald the doom for entire frontier villages and towns. There have been very few documented cases of such creatures as they very rarely leave witnesses after them." Professor Port recounted.

"We usually teach the students about Abominations during their third or fourth year as the creatures are excessively rare, and the creatures borrow heavily from other Grimm forms to the point where there hasn't been a single case of two similar Abominations in recorded history." he continued on "The most recent case of Abomination sightings, bar this one, has been during the destruction of the village of Kuroyuri where a Abomination nicknamed 'Nuckelavee' was spotted nearly ten years ago."

The Professor went silent for a while as he seemed to think about something, before he reached to twirl his moustache ever so slightly.

"Nevertheless, the case of the Abomination in the Emerald Forest was resolved fairly swiftly, although the professors are still patching up data as to how it got there and why the creature choose to come here" he continued and gave Weiss a inquisitive look "it seems that you recovered nicely from your initial meeting with the creature though. No, don't explain yourself to me, I don't need to hear it, only to know if it will affect you in the future." he interrupted Weiss before she managed to so much as open her mouth to make an excuse for her fainting..

"I will not react to the Grimm like that in the future, sir" Weiss said.

"Good! Jolly good!" The professor said, his voice returning to it's usual friendly tone "In fact, I pulled you in front of the students just so that I could see you fight the Grimm, and I must say you did spending job at it with very innovative use of the Dust!"

"... Thank you."

The Professor sat down behind his desk and leaned forwards "So, how have you settled into the Beacon if I might ask? How is your team doing? Any troubles in the paradise?"

Weiss felt a frustrated bile rise in her throat and she swallowed before she'd lash out too badly.

"I believe the rest of my team is incapable of performing their role as members of my team properly" Weiss growled out.

"And why is that so?" Professor Port asked, lifting his bushy white eyebrow.

"They don't listen to me, or obey my orders, and…" Weiss went on to explain the incidents during the morning to the professor who listened quietly.

"Interesting. If you accept my counsel, I might want to warn you against pushing your team too hard. I'll go on a limb here and assume that you have been trained to lead a business company, and to lead a group people who might generally seek to exploit you should you make a mistake, am I correct?" Professor Port asked with serious tone.

Weiss nodded slightly, allowing the moustached man to continue "I see. I believe your mistake here was to try to lead your team like it was a squad of soldiers, or a group of unscrupulous businessmen who would exploit you for money if you showed any weakness- And doing so, you are alienating your team from you."

The old man stopped to twirl his moustache. "Keep in mind that you are now leading a group of hunter students, a group of teenagers who have chosen to commit their lives to protection of the humankind."

Weiss opened her mouth to object, but Port cut her off "You might have done what you did to try and make your team better, more harmonious, but you must remember that the Hunters are not a homogeneous mass that can be shaped and formed into ranks and files- you must give them space, you must give them freedom of expression and you must refrain from trying to become a tyrant amongst them…"

"I was not going to become a tyrant!" Weiss exclaimed, feeling frustration bubbling up inside her "I was just trying to make them better students! To make them the best team Beacon has ever had!"

"Indeed, but being a 'best team' is something that is done with a group, not with just a leader." Port pointed out

"And what if they don't want to become the best?" Weiss growled ever so slightly.

"Then convince them otherwise. Lead them as a friend and as a leader that they want to follow, rather than as a leader that they shun." the professor paused for a while as Weiss thought about his words.

"However, could you tell me why exactly you desire for your team to be the best amongst their peers so strongly?" Port asked "Is it because of your desire to be the best, or because it is expected of you?"

The quiet that followed his words was absolute as Weiss froze still.

After seeing that Weiss would not answer, Port continued as he kept stroking his chin.

"I see. I'll ask this out of sheer curiosity, but why do you think you were chosen as the leader of the team, miss Schnee?"

"B- Because I was the best, and I have been trained to become a leader my whole…" Weiss made to explain, but was cut off as Port continued to speak over her.

"As the cadre of professors gathered to observe the video-recordings from the Emerald Forest in order to choose the team leaders, both Ozpin and Glynda, alongside most of the Beacon's teaching staff, voted for Ruby Rose to be the leader of the team SABR" Professor Port explained to Weiss, causing the girl's posture to tighten and she fell quiet.

"However, I voted for you to become the leader instead." Port continued as Weiss kept staring at the man "Can you guess why?"

"W-why?" Weiss managed to get out, starting to get overwhelmed by the situation.

"Because I believe that you have the potential to become a great leader. You have the training and the mentality, but you don't have the experience… yet. Ruby Rose has the mentality and instinctive grasp she could use to lead the team, to pull the team together after her leadership rather than trying to push the team forwards under her heel- but she is still young and innocent, and leaders are expected to shoulder a certain degree of cruelty."

The old man sighed and Weiss could see tiredness in the man's eyes as he continued "Being a leader is not only about getting the best grades or solving problems with team relations. It is also about deciding who to save, when to commit your forces or when to pull away from situations that you could not handle in order to save what can be saved, to name a few."

The old man looked hard at Weiss "Miss Schnee, if one of your team-members had suffered a serious injury during a mission deep in the forests of Vytal, out of the reach of the civilization, and your team was getting pursued by a force of Grimm that was so large that you had no hope of defeating it, would you be able to leave the injured team member behind so the rest of the team could escape- to save the rest of your team by sacrificing one of your own? Would you be strong enough to face not only the Grimm, but also the grieving parents, friends and loved ones of those who fall in battle and tell them how their beloved fell?"

"I…" Weiss began but she fell quiet as she thought about the scenario.

Professor Port sighed as he looked at the girl's frightened expression "As you can tell, the role of a Leader is not for those who are incapable of cruelty and hard decisions. Can you expect someone like miss Rose to shoulder those, and still remain who she is?"

Weiss shook her head silently as she thought about the younger girl.

"I explained my reasoning to both Ozpin and Glynda, and they agreed, and thus you became the leader of team SABR, instead of miss Rose who would have no doubt excelled at it first, but would have broken later" Port fell quiet as he looked at the slightly pale heiress.

He shook his head "But look at me, going on about my stories again. If there's anything you might want to take with you from our impromptu counseling session, it is to try to be yourself rather than someone who people expect you to be- and remember that you are leading a team who no doubt wants to be your friend, and a group of people who you can trust"

The professor rose up from his seat in the nearly empty classroom.

"Treat your team as your allies and as your family, and they will never leave you. Treat them as your enemy and as your stepping stone, and you'll eventually lead a charge against the Grimm- but when you turn around, you'll see yourself standing alone." he finished, turning around with his back towards Weiss as the older man looked up at a large drawing of a Beowolf that had been stretched across the blackboard..

"Sir… about the injured team member in the woods… was it a made-up scenario or…" Weiss made to begin but the Professor's voice cut her off.

"Please don't ask questions to which you don't want answers, miss Schnee" the Professor said, his back towards the girl still.

Weiss knew when she was dismissed and she bowed slightly.

"I'll… I'll keep your advice in mind" she said before fleeing from the classroom.

The Professor kept looking up at the drawing of the Grimm in the wall as the wooden door of the classroom creaked to sign the girl exiting.

The old man sighed for the second time as he looked at the lifelike picture of a Beowolf as the creature's red eyes seemingly looked down on the old man...


"...And then Yang was really mad for some reason and she told me to take the scything blades off her bike, Bumblebee…" Ruby chatted on as she led Jaune towards the headmaster's office after having checked its location from her Scroll.

Jaune was starting to get somewhat uncomfortable about how the girl was walking so close to him that he had to actively concentrate to not step on her foot by accident.

"And here we are!" she announced in front of a large elevator door "Uhh, I suppose you have to go there without me… but I'll wait for you here!" Ruby said, letting go of his sleeve.

"You don't need to do that if you don't want to, I'm sure I can find my way to dining hall afterwards so we can meet in there before the next class…" Jaune begun.

"Nah, I can wait" Ruby interrupted him, pointing at a small row of seats and a plate of mints that had been placed on a small coffee table, likely meant for the people who would have to wait for an audience with the headmaster.

"If you say so" Jaune agreed before stepping into the elevator.

'Odd, she wasn't that clingy before the Test. I wonder what happened that made her so attached to me?' Jaune thought as the elevator rose upwards.

Before he could get too absorbed into his thoughts the elevator mechanism let a soft ping, indicating that he had arrived in his destination.

The elevator doors opened to reveal a large office with a clockwork mechanism clicking and whirring quietly below a thick glass floor with wide metal pillars on the sides. At the directly opposite side of the elevator there was a solitary ornamental office desk with a holographic computer and a clockwork-style chair.

The headmaster was nowhere to be seen, but the computer seemed to be unlocked and the screen showed a set of files, but Jaune couldn't quite make out the names of them.

'Uh, I don't think I should look at that anyway' Jaune thought after walking to the middle of the wide office room to stand and wait. 'This is the headmaster's office, right?'

Jaune was starting to get slightly worried as seconds turned to minutes and the doubt continued to rise 'What if this is some super secret room that controls the Beacon's main power supply and and stuff, and I'm standing on top of a massive…' his increasingly paranoid thoughts were interrupted as a sound of footsteps on metal floor rang in the office.

Jaune turned around to see the Headmaster of Beacon walk out of a second elevator adjacent to the one he had used.

"Welcome to my office, mr Arc." Ozpin said while walking past Jaune to sit on his office chair.

"Professor Port told me that you wished to see me." Jaune stated after a moment of silence during which the headmaster stared at Jaune warily "So uh, what's this about?"

"I'm fairly certain that you are the one who knows the answer to that question" Ozpin said, lifting his cane to point behind Jaune,

Jaune turned to see a massive hologram rise from the clockwork floor, showing a 3-D hologram of him growing and shaping from his human form into his Grimm form in the Emerald Forest.

Jaune kept staring at the image as the holographic video continued until the point where Weiss entered through the underbrush, and he saw the video stop to show his Grimm form facing the white-haired heiress.

Jaune turned slowly back around to face Ozpin, half expecting for the man to stab, shoot or somehow attack him at any moment at the slightest provocation as his Grimm side rose once again to order him to flee.

"I find this quite the curious scenario, mr. Arc" The headmaster asked, having stood back up and started to lean on his walking stick "I wonder if you can elaborate on what happened?"

"..." Jaune was speechless as he stared at Ozpin who stared back at him.

Ozpin seemed to take it the wrong way, and raised his eyebrow "Nothing at all? Perhaps I didn't see and record one of my students turning into a Grimm and nearly killing not only one, but two of his fellow students? And perhaps the first time I met with this student wasn't when the student had killed seven people in cold blood? "

"N- no! I mean, I didn't mean to do that!" Jaune managed to get out before Ozpin could get too carried away. "I mean, I did the last one, but I didn't try to kill Weiss…"

"Good, now we are making progress. What exactly happened?" Ozpin asked while leaning forwards.

"I sort of turned into a Grimm" Jaune explained, causing Ozpin to sigh.

"Yes, I saw that. What I meant was how did you turn into one, and why did you then attempt to kill your fellow students- who are also now your teammates I might add." Ozpin tapped the steel floor with his cane "One might even get worried..."

"I didn't mean to do any of that!" Jaune argued over the headmaster "I just got kind of hurt and…" he stopped.

'What should I do? Tell him everything? If I do, what's stopping him from killing me as some sort of Grimm?' Jaune thought as he felt cold sweat starting to form on his skin 'I should have thought of that before coming to Beacon' he realized in retrospect.

"Yes?" Ozpin motioned for Jaune to to continue.

"Please don't kill me" Jaune answered.

Ozpin sighed again.

"If I wanted you dead, I wouldn't be standing here and you wouldn't be standing there. Please focus on the matter at hand" he said, adjusting his glasses "Rest easy though, I will hear your explanation in full before I choose what to do with you."

Jaune felt the skin of his hands bubbling as he heard the underlying threat on the man's calm tone.

He took a deep breath, and exhaled.

'Here goes nothing' Jaune thought before he extended his hand to the side as the older man continued to stare at him.

The bubbling in his skin intensified as he let the Shadow come out of it's corner…

Shift

The skin of his hand thickened and blackened as his nails pushed forwards into long, sharp claws. He felt spikes of bone starting to extend through the flesh of his arm and break his thickened skin, and form a thin patch of bone-like armor on his hand…

Ķ̶̕i̶̸̡̛̕ļ̷l̴̷̨ ̵̴h͡҉̸͘҉i̧͘͜͝m̡̀͞.̧̛͝͏.͢͞͝.̧̨̨͏̧

̶̷̧̀͜T̵̷͢͠h̴e̢͢͡͝ ̶̨̨En̴̷̡e̸̴̢͘ḿ͞y̨҉̸͞.͞҉̕.҉̨.̵̧̢́͘

He closed his hand into a fist as he closed his eyes, feeling the sharp claws bite into the palm of his hand as the Shadow returned in force…

"...mr Arc?" He heard someone say his name through a dull haze that threatened to settle over his head. The voice and the pain from the cuts to his palm helped to pull him back towards reality…

And the reality rushed back to him as his face connected with the steel floor- his body having tried to leap forwards and stand still at the same time.

Jaune let out a muffled groan on the floor as Ozpin continued to watch the teenager warily.

He stood up slowly and looked to the side to discover his hand having turned into an armored claw.

"I... I think it's my Semblance. To be able to change my body, although I'm not really that good at it…" Jaune managed to get out as Ozpin looked like he wanted to say something to him. "It's sort of difficult to control… and I kind of sort of thought that Blake was a Grimm, and Weiss had sort of toppled over so I wanted to check if she was alright and…" the rest of his speech turned into nervous explanation as to what had happened in the Initiation Test from his perspective.

Ozpin listened through his disconnected ramble, although he didn't let go of his cane for a single moment during the explanation.

After Jaune had recounted the events of the Test from his perspective in full, Ozpin's grip had loosened ever so slightly but Jaune noted that the man still held onto it while standing.

"...And then I just kind of, got teamed up with both Blake and Weiss." Jaune finished, allowing his hand to return back to it's human form with sizzle of vaporizing Grimm-flesh.

Ozpin looked at Jaune for a while longer before sitting back down.

"When was the first instance of you… hmm, using your 'Semblance?" Ozpin asked, picking up a mug of steaming liquid from behind the desk and taking a sip.

"It was after… I was… after I had fled from Shion Village during the raid…" Jaune managed to get out through the bitter memories that flooded back as he recalled the first time he had used his Semblance, even if unconsciously.

"Ah, yes. That dreadful event" Ozpin said as Jaune rubbed his wrist and left arm, feeling a tingle of phantom pain from his first encounter with Grimm coming back to haunt him.

"What happened during the fall of Shion? I have read a report from the investigative Hunter team which was sent to find out what happened to the village, but they were unable to find anything beside traces of Grimm activity and broken buildings."

"It was bandit raid. The bandits… killed everyone. My dad… mom… they both died, and three of my sisters… I don't know what happened to them. I've told you of this before, but I mainly came to Beacon so I could grow stronger and get them back… or avenge them" Jaune explained.

"I see. Were you able to discover which bandit group did it?" Ozpin asked "There are quite few bandit tribes in the wildlands between the frontier villages and the five major cities in Remnant"

"The bandits… they had red and black clothes… and they had one woman who had white Grimm mask, wild and long black hair and she wielded a really long sword with switchable blades… I'm not sure who they are, but I will find out, and I will bring them to justice." Jaune grit out between his teeth as he remembered the hated woman who had cut his father down.

Ozpin was quiet as he kept sipping from his seemingly bottomless mug.

After a fairly long pause, he spoke again "Hm. I see. So you fled the village during the raid and discovered your 'Semblance'?"

"Sort of… I ate a Grimm and I started to… become able to turn into one. I spent the next two years wandering towards Vale and trying to learn to use my new ability" Jaune said, hiding the true events during those two years.

Ozpin raised his eyebrow but didn't press the issue.

"I see. So, happened just now? You seemed to pass out and fall just now" he inquired.

"Transforming takes time and effort so I sort of passed out" Jaune lied, hiding the existence of the Shadow under the lie.

'I'm fairly sure that telling him that "Oh yeah I have this thing that's ordering me to kill everything and it causes me to lose control over myself occasionally" would not go down well' Jaune thought.

"So you are not a threat to the other students then?" the older man finally said "Hmm. I believe you, for now."

"However, It might be appropriate for you to not reveal your abilities to your fellow students, with the exception of your team" Ozpin continued after contemplating for a while "I am fairly certain that learning that they are studying beside someone whose Semblance essentially allows them to shapeshift into Grimm would not endear you to the rest of the student body"

"How am I supposed to participate in the combat classes then?" Jaune asked, lifting his hand and flexing his fingers "My transformation is my only weapon"

"I believe miss Rose has made herself small legend amongst the weapon engineers in Signal combat school. You might be able to commision a replacement weapon from her- After all, I believe you used a pair of red blades during the Initiation Test, correct?" Ozpin suggested, pointing at the hologram behind Jaune which rewinded to show him wielding two red bone-swords.

"...I guess that could work" Jaune said.

"Hm." The older man agreed.

Silence fell in the office as the headmaster continued to drink from his cup as Jaune stood still.

'Um, Am I supposed to do something here?' Jaune thought after few minutes passed in silence with just Ozpin staring at him and mumbling something under his breath.

"So, how have you found your classes so far?" Ozpin finally asked.

"Useless, sir." Jaune answered honestly.

"Elaborate" Ozpin prodded.

"The only class I have attended so far has been Grimm studies, which has been literally just sitting on the classroom for hours to listen an old man boast about his deeds and his battles"

"I see, so you have met professor Port then." Ozpin sighed

"His teaching style is quite unique, to be honest. He prefers to teach by telling about his experiences about the Grimm during the first-year studies, and progressively get more and more factual as the years go on" Ozpin told Jaune.

"So you are telling me to just sit and wait while listening to nonsense? While my sisters could be held by bandits and slavers?" Jaune snapped, forgetting who he was speaking to for a moment.

"And what would you suggest you'd do otherwise?" Ozpin raised his eyebrow.

"I'd get back into the wilds, and grow stronger fighting the Grimm until I would eventually find the bandits and…" Jaune begun.

"...And die in the hands of your father's killer." Ozpin ended Jaune's speech.

Jaune was quiet as he stared at the older man.

"I believe I recognize the woman from your story" The headmaster continued "She used to be one of our students- to the point where she even graduated from Beacon. She was a trained Huntress- and do you believe you could defeat her after having trained to fight like a Grimm, and as someone who she has been trained to kill with ease?"

"I…" Jaune made to begin but was silenced as Ozpin spoke over him.

"You would die, and your sisters would be left where they are. What I suggest for you is to take your chance to train in Beacon, to train yourself as Hunter- and should you find her, to fight her as a Hunter. And who knows, perhaps you will also have a team to guard your back."

"But…" The teen made to object.

"Your haste will only bring your defeat, and you likely wouldn't even know where to look for your father's murderer" Ozpin continued. "So I offer you this- Stay in Beacon. Train yourself as a Hunter, and I will work to find out where your sisters are, and what has happened to them."

"How exactly would you find them?" Jaune asked.

Ozpin tied his fingers together and leaned on his hands "I know more about Remnant and her people than most realize. I am not only the Headmaster of Beacon, but also a Hunter on my own right… and I have friends who know certain sort of people."

Silence followed his statement as Jaune thought over the proposal.

'I mean, I don't really want to leave the rest of my team behind… And his reasoning sort of makes sense… ' Jaune thought on the offer.

In the end, he realized that he didn't really have options.

"I'll stay in Beacon… But please, let me know if you find my sisters." Jaune said finally.

"And… thank you for believing me"

Ozpin nodded and turned back to his computer.

Jaune recognized the wordless dismissal and turned to walk back into the elevator which took him back down…


"You didn't really believe the brat, did you?" A slightly drunk man asked as he walked from behind one of the steel pillars in Ozpin's office. "He is hiding something"

"Indeed. However, his speech showed off some of his character." Ozpin answered, sitting back down on his chair "And the fact that he didn't take his chance to take a look into my 'conveniently' unlocked computer suggests to me that he may not be here under the 'Queen's' orders, or her goals do not involve spying on our systems, or perhaps she is simply not interested on them."

"What would you have done if he had tried to take a look?" the drunk man asked, leaning on Ozpin's desk.

"I'd have told you to remove his presence from Remnant." Ozpin said, lifting his eyebrow at the man while pressing a button on his Scroll that caused a clockwork chair to rise opposite to his desk, and the drunk man slumped down on it instantly. "Speaking of presences, what exactly happened to you, Qrow?"

"Didn't get a single minute of sleep last night" Qrow growled as he rubbed his eyes that had massive bags under them, and the whites of his eyes were laced with veins like he hadn't seen sleep in weeks.

"What happened?"

"You know damn well what happened. That Grimm-brat is partnered to my niece, and he's sleeping in the same damn room as her" Qrow growled on, reaching for his flask and growling even harder as he found it empty. "I spent the night perched on a tree outside the student dorms in my crow-form, staring at the brat through the dorm-room's window to make sure he wouldn't try to pull a Taiyang and do his entire team"

Ozpin raised his eyebrow.

Qrow growled even louder "Don't ask"

"Very well, Moving on, what did you find out about our resident Grimm?" Ozpin pressed on.

"He looks like a normal human on the outside, but he turned to Grimm briefly before waking up this morning and tore his sheets apart. He turned back to human few seconds later although his eyes seemed to glow red for a while afterwards." Qrow explained, rubbing his head and scratching his short, scraggly beard. "He also seems to be far heavier than he looks, since his bed was sinking hard under him- I'd assume he's four or five times heavier than a normal human of his size"

"Hmm." Ozpin was contemplating on the information his agent had gathered.

"Continue observing him. He is a wildcard for now, and we need to find out more about him before I choose what to do about him" Ozpin said finally.

"What about Raven and her merry band of cutthroats? And the brat's sisters?" Qrow asked. "I could find where that group is in around a week, and also what happened to the sisters"

"No. I'll tell him bits and pieces of what we know about her right now- But we can't afford to let him know everything. I have a hunch to what might have happened to mr. Arc's sisters, and I believe he would not be able to stop himself from charging into Raven's group should he know." Ozpin answered "It is cruel, I know, but we need to keep him in Beacon… for his sake, and for ours. If he isn't her agent, he could very well be a massive source of information about Grimm- maybe enough so to change the tide of our war against them."

"I don't like it, Ozpin." Qrow said "But we don't really have a choice, do we?"

Ozpin hummed in response while looking at the massive hologram showing Jaune staring at Weiss Schnee in his Grimm form...


"How'd the meeting go? Are you going to be okay? You look pale, do you need to drink something?" Ruby fussed over Jaune the moment he stood out of the elevator.

"I'm okay, Ruby" Jaune tried to calm the small girl who was checking him over for injuries. "Ozpin just wanted to talk… about things"

'He did say that I should tell my team about my Semblance… well, more like he didn't forbid me from doing so' Jaune thought as he looked at the small silver-eyed girl, who was forced to tilt her head back as she looked up to check his eyes.

F̵̶̴l͏e͏ȩ.̴̛͡.͡.̀͘

He felt vindictive glee as the instinctive dread washed over him when her eyes locked into his, forcing the Shadow back to it's hiding-spot.

"I was worried" Ruby muttered, looking away from his eyes with her cheeks red as Jaune realized that he had been staring at her.

"Don't be. It's not like the headmaster would have eaten me, no?" Jaune chuckled at Ruby's horrified expression. "It was a joke" he added as Ruby's face had lost it's colour.

As Ruby sighed in relief, Jaune was thinking about the girl's odd behaviour.

'This is really weird… What happened to make you this paranoid and clingy, Ruby?'

Shaking his head and wanting to get on top of the problem before it could grow, Jaune took hold of Ruby's sleeve and led the blushing girl to a small study room that he had spotted on his way to the headmaster's office.

"What's wrong, Ruby?" Jaune finally asked as he closed the door behind her.

""W-what do you mean, what's wrong? Nothing's wrong, everything's fine!" Ruby stammered as she was caught off guard "Uhh, why are we here? What's going on?"

"You've been really clingy and paranoid recently. You weren't this clingy before the Test" Jaune pointed out "I'm getting worried here" he added as Ruby went quiet.

"It's nothing" Ruby answered with weak voice.

"Ruby… I want to help you" Jaune said, placing his hand gently on the girl's arm. "Can you please tell me what's been bothering you?"

'So there is something wrong after all' Jaune thought as he looked at the girl who was looking at everywhere that wasn't him. 'Now, how do I get her to spill it out?'

It seemed that the problem resolved itself as Jaune heard the girl whisper something quietly as her eyes were directed towards the floor.

"...die" Ruby whispered.

"What was that?" Jaune asked, confused.

"I saw you die" she said quietly "And I didn't want you to go away…"

Jaune blinked and stared at the girl who started to fidget under his gaze.

"But… I'm alive?"

"You were just lying there on a pool of your own blood… and you had bones sticking out of your skin…" Ruby continued, completely ignoring Jaune.

Her shoulders started to shake slightly as she continued "And then you started to gurgle horribly and went silent… and… and..."

Jaune could see small tears starting to form in the girl's eyes as she went quiet, vibrating on the spot.

"I don't want you to go away. You were my first friend in Beacon and my partner…" she said as she reached to once again grasp him by his sleeve.

'Is she still thinking that I actually died? That I'm just some phantom haunting her?' Jaune thought, confused over the girl's reaction.

"I'm not dead, Ruby," Jaune said, taking hold of the girl's hand as she was holding onto his sleeve "See, still living and breathing. I don't die that easily"

It didn't seem to do much to the girl who was shaking as he was holding onto her hand.

"I won't just disappear" he stated to the girl who lifted her face up slowly.

"Will you promise?" Ruby asked "Promise that you won't go away?"

'Hold on… was she acting so clingy because she thought I'd disappear if she wasn't with me at all times?' Jaune thought 'Then again, I did threaten that I'd leave Beacon so she might have a point'

"I'm not going to just go and die or go away, Ruby, I promise" Jaune said, starting to feel more and more worried over how Ruby was reacting to him.

"You don't have to follow me around- I'll be here even if you don't cling onto me so tightly" Jaune assured the girl while holding her hand.

"I'm not going to forgive you if are lying" Ruby said while wiping her eyes with her other hand. "How did you… not die? You went quiet and you were so broken…"

"It's the effect of my Semblance and of my Aura. They don't quite work like they should…" Jaune "My Semblance allows me to change myself, which prevents me from dying so easily- and my Aura doesn't protect me, but it heals me."

"But… why?" Ruby asked, looking up at him.

"I don't know" Jaune answered frankly. "I'm trying to find out why it does that, but so far I haven't got a clue"

"That's weird…" Ruby said mutedly as she held onto Jaune's hand tightly.

The moment seemed to drag on as Jaune didn't quite know what to say and Ruby seemed to be content just holding onto his hand while wiping her face.

"Oh yeah! Ozpin told me that I needed to get a proper sword and he told me that you could help me with that" Jaune finally said, pulling his hand back.

"Proper sword? What happened to your current ones?" Ruby asked.

"Ozpin told me that I couldn't use them during the combat classes so I'd need to make new ones… but I don't know how to make proper swords and he told me that you could perhaps help me with that" Jaune clarified.

"Hold on, are you telling me that you want me to make you a weapon? A pair of swords?" Ruby said as her voice started to regain to her normal, excited tone despite her slightly pale face and the small tear-stains on her face "Can they be red?"

"In fact I'd prefer them to be red…" Jaune said, thinking about his bone-swords.

Ruby squealed slightly and let go of his hand, jumping slightly as she burst into excited bumbling about swords, blades and mechanisms that went straight over Jaune's head.

Jaune looked around and saw a holographic clock on the wall showing that the lunch break was nearing it's end.

"Come on, we need to get lunch before the next class" Jaune said and took hold of Ruby's hand to pull her out of the small room.

"Uhh…" Ruby began with her cheeks red "can we perhaps not tell Yang about how clingy I was…"

"Sure" Jaune answered as the pair exited the small, dark meeting room.


After shovelling considerable amounts of food onto their bellies, the pair of teenagers ran to their next class and barely managed to get in before the professor arrived.

"I am Doctor Bartholomew Oobleck, but you can refer to me as Dr. Oobleck…" the professor spoke in front of the class and went on to introduce the History class and it's goals to the collected students, most of which seemed to center around human and faunus interactions during the first year.

Curiously enough, Weiss didn't comment on the pair's late arrival and the white-haired girl seemed to be far more muted than she was before the lunch break.

The rest of the class passed in quiet as Ruby was vibrating on her seat, although for different reason this time as she was passionately drawing multiple different sword designs on her notebook, Blake was reading a book behind the cover of her schoolbook and Weiss was taking notes quietly, although she was not scowling at her team anymore.

Jaune tried to concentrate on the professor's speech but found it difficult as the professor spoke far too fast for him to catch on.

It didn't help that the professor seemed to drink straight from a coffee pot every now and then before continuing on his speech.

The hours passed in a daze until the professor finally slammed his coffee pot down and announced that the class was dismissed.

.

..

"I hereby announce the beginning of first Team strategy and tactics meeting" Weiss announced after having gathered the team together and leading them to a empty classroom.

She was largely ignored as extremely excited Ruby was busy showing her sword designs to Jaune- and Jaune noticed that Ruby wasn't quite as clingy as she had been during the morning although she was still sitting quite close to him.

Meanwhile Blake was reading her book in the corner of the room, and had likely chosen to just completely ignore Weiss.

Weiss growled slightly which caused Jaune to lift his gaze from the intricate sword designs that he didn't really understand and look at the annoyed white-haired girl.

"Um, what was that?" he asked which caused the girl to growl even more.

"I said, this will be the start of our weekly team strategy and tactics meeting" Weiss repeated "We have little to no experience on our team members abilities, capabilities and strategies- things that we need to know if we want to work together as effective combat unit! Also, stop ignoring me!" she growled at Blake who sent a glare at the white-haired girl over her book before continuing to read it.

"Okay" Jaune said, taking the designs from Ruby and putting them on his bag. "I'll look through these later" he promised to the smaller girl before turning towards Weiss properly.

Ruby nodded enthusiastically beside him before turning towards Weiss as well.

"I'd like to start by saying that I'm sorry for the confrontation back at our dorms… and I'll do my best to become better leader for our team in the future" Weiss said, looking over each of the team members.

Ruby blinked and Blake raised her eyebrow behind her book "What do you mean by becoming a better leader?" Ruby asked, confused over the sudden shift in the girl's mood.

"I mean that I will attempt to take your opinions more into consideration, and aim to become someone who leads by example rather than someone who leads by force" Weiss explained, crossing her hands over her chest.

"...Does that mean we can have bunk beds?" Ruby asked with hope clear in her tone and Blake seemed to suddenly pay the conversation a little more attention and lift her head above her book.

"Fine, since miss Belladonna seems to be passive-aggressively wanting to get those as well" Weiss said, causing the black-haired girl to retreat behind her book. "But I'm not going to accept those dangerous contraptions of stacked books and ropes that you suggested! I will order proper steel beams to hold the beds up to maintain at least an illusion of safety"

"...What about the posters?" Blake asked quietly from behind her book

"No!" Weiss snapped, only to pause and take a deep breath before continuing in calmer tone "Fine, you can put them up but only if you put them so that they are only to visible to you, since I'll assume you'll be taking a top bunk alongside Ruby as the two of you are the only ones pushing for them"

Blake seemed to agree and she returned to her reading.

"What happened to Weiss?" Ruby whispered to Jaune as both of the partners were equally confused.

"I have no idea either" Jaune whispered back before returning his attention to Weiss as the girl started her speech anew.

"Now, I'd like to start our meeting by having each of us describe our Semblances if you have yours unlocked, and describe your current abilities and weapons" Weiss said. "My Semblance is Glyphs- the ability to create glyphs with Dust that conjure elemental forces or imbue objects and allies with effects such as temporary time dilation. My weapon is Myrtenaster, which is a rapier that doubles as a Dust-caster, and I can use it to fuel my Glyphs as well as to imbue the rapier itself with Dust effects" she finished, looking expectantly at the rest of the team.

"My Semblance is Speed! Which means I can move really fast!" Ruby picked up after the white-haired girl while demonstrating her Semblance by disappearing from her seat to launch herself from one side of the room to another with a steady stream of rose petals flying in her wake.

"Uh, I think the 'really fast' was implied with the 'speed' part" Jaune said as Ruby had settled down on her seat, causing the smaller girl to poke her tongue out at him. "My weapon is Crescent Rose! She's a foldable scythe with in-built anti-material rifle, and I can use it to both cut down and shoot Grimm and change my direction mid-run by using the rifle's selectable recoil dampeners! Also she has a high-powered scope and triple-row magazine for Dust rounds of..." the girl spoke on, and based off the look on Weiss's face, the rest of the technical details went as far over her head as they did over Jaune's

"...So yeah, she's pretty awesome" Ruby finished few minutes later while she pointed her pencil at a drawing that she held on her other hand which illustrated how the moving parts of her scythe worked.

"Uh, thank you, miss Rose..." Weiss said but her follow-up was cut off as Ruby spoke over the girl

"My name is Ruby! We're friends, I think, so we don't need to be super-official!" Ruby told Weiss, causing the girl to pause for a while.

"I see. Thank you Ruby, for that extremely over-detailed explanation as to how your weapon works" Weiss finally said to the smaller girl who had started to pout cutely.

"And Blake?" Weiss asked the reclusive girl in the corner who put her book aside for a moment.

"My Semblance is Shadow clones… or more specifically, the ability to use Aura and Dust to form copies of myself that can't move or attack… but appear exactly like me which allows me to misdirect and confuse my targets, as well as bait them to attack the clones in order to expose an opening. I can also imbue the copies with Dust elements to make them better suit my purposes" the girl explained before pausing for a while.

"My weapon is Gambol Shroud which is a pistol-bayonet that is connected by a long nano-fiber ribbon to it's holster, which allows me to use the pistol as a whip and dagger, or I can holster it to turn it into a cleaver. I can also use the whip to snare my targets and use it to fire the gun, allowing me to attack from behind walls and cover... " Blake's speech was cut off as Ruby basically climbed on top of the girl's lap.

"Oooh, so does the holster have a retracting blade or does the bayonet form the blade for the holster? Is the pistol Dust-round based or pulse-powered? How do you press the trigger on the gun with your ribbon?" The smaller girl went on with her eyes shining.

Blake froze still before pulling her eyes off the smaller girl and giving Jaune a look that seemed to scream 'help'.

Jaune shrugged before freezing still as well as he realized that it was his turn to try and explain his Semblance to the rest of his team.

"Umm… My Semblance is kind of complicated" he finally said as Weiss motioned for Jaune to start already.

Blake and Weiss both gave Jaune a flat stare as Ruby tilted her head to the side. "Yeah you said it was somehow weird…" Ruby pointed out as she waited for Jaune to continue.

'Yeah that doesn't even come close to covering it…' Jaune thought frantically as he struggled to think of a way to explain his abilities to the girls…

'Could I just tell them what I told Ozpin?' Jaune thought briefly as the stares intensified 'Although… he warned that I might easily alienate myself from other students…'

"I can turn into Grimm" he finally blurted out, causing the room to fall silent.

"You can do what now?" came the uniformly confused response from the rest of his team.

'Yeah I could have worded that better…' Jaune thought as he looked at the flat stares that were directed at him…

AN

Next chapter- 13-14. Oct.- The Grimm

Slightly late chapter, my apologies.

Omake:

Qrow left Ozpin's office after delivering his brief report and he turned back to his crow-form just before the elevator's doors opened to let him back to Beacon's grounds.

Few nearby students raised their eyebrows at the big, black-feathered and red-eyed crow that was politely paddling forwards on the side of the Beacon's hallway.

'Now… Where did that brat go?' Qrow thought as he looked around, turning his long beaked head to sneak a look around a corner.

He turned around as he heard a door creak behind him, and he saw his observation target exit out of a small, dimly lit meeting room...

...while holding hands with cutely blushing Ruby, who had small small tear-stains on her face and was smiling fondly at Jaune,

'Why? Why? And why it had to happen during the only moment when I wasn't tracking the guy... And why it has to always be the tall blondes with blue eyes?' Qrow cawed loudly and took flight towards his observation target, hell-bent on pecking the man's eyes out…

...and flew right at a glass door that he hadn't seen because of his lack of sleep.

'Goddamit.' Qrow thought as he cawed weakly from the floor, trying to regain his senses through the raging desire to peck a certain blonde man or two to death.

"...Is that crow alive?" he heard a voice ask in the distance, followed by another, different one responding to it "...yeah it's moving"

A pair of female legs appeared in his vision and Qrow looked up to see a ginger-haired girl standing above him, before the crow was violently pulled off the floor and crushed against the girl's moderate chest.

"Aww, don't be a sad birdy! Nurse Nora is here to save you and take care of you" the girl announced as Qrow could feel his thin ribs cracking and his black feathers starting to get crushed in the girl's grasp.

"Umm, Nora? I think you are killing the poor bird" a second girl said from the side, and Qrow felt himself getting picked from the ginger-haired devil's grasp into an infinitely softer hold.

He looked up to see a girl with blazing red hair and considerable bust holding him against the latter gently, which Qrow could definitely appreciate despite the age difference between the two.

He looked around lazily… and saw Ruby disappearing behind a corner with Jaune, reminding Qrow to just what he was supposed to be doing.

He let out long, tortured caww before taking flight from his temporary yet oh-so-comfortable nest to chase after the blonde teenager, leaving the pair of young students to blink as the apparently crippled bird took flight once more.

.

..

"I don't know what I did wrong." Pyrrha complained later to Nora who patted the tall, sad girl on the back.

"There, there. Birdies like that always run away if you don't hold onto them tightly. You got to let them know who's the boss, you know?" Nora told her. "Isn't that right, little birdy?" she added, looking at Ren who blinked and pointed a finger at his chest.

"Naaaah, I was talking about a pigeon behind you" Nora responded to Ren's wordless question, causing the man to sigh and turn around.

"Yes, hold onto them tightly…" Nora whispered sinisterly as she looked at the man's back.

"Ummm… should I be hearing this?" Pyrrha asked, and about second later wishing that she hadn't as Nora turned around to look at her...