Once again, thanks to Gladsome Praetorian and SwapAUAnon for being the Beta Readers for this chapter. Also big thanks to GamerJay (author of Remnant Inferis: DOOM) for being another Beta Reader for the chapter.

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Chapter 9: Final Pairings and Analysis

"RUBY! WHERE ARE YOU!?"

Pyrrha heard someone calling out nearby. When she initially made landfall, she did try her hand at looking for Jaune, but she was unable to find him. True, she did say she'd let the chips fall where they may, but a part of her really wanted Jaune to be her partner in this. It wasn't just because of his kindness and endearing nature that drew her to him, he also treated her like an actual person. He was the first person who saw her and didn't see her reputation, mainly because he didn't seem to know who she was.

"RUBY!"

The person that was nearby and out of Pyrrha's sight at the moment, however, wasn't Jaune. From the sound of it, the person was a woman and was looking for someone else.

While Pyrrha wanted to help her out, she felt it would be detrimental to both of them in terms of partnering. This person clearly wanted to partner with someone else, whoever this "Ruby" was, and Pyrrha had her sights on another. Going to her meant that they would both have to be partners with each other, therefore preventing them from pairing off with the people they wanted to team up with.

Suddenly, she heard what sounded like feral growling coupled with gunfire. It was coming from the same area that she heard the woman calling from, signifying that she was now combatting Grimm.

Pyrrha, not one to abandon a fellow student in need, stormed off in the direction she heard the noise coming from; Milo and Akouo in hand.

When she got close to the area, a black shadow rushed at her, prompting Pyrrha to raise her shield as she charged and bashed said shadow, knocking it forward. This sent the Grimm, which she could see was an Ursa, flying back towards the woman she heard before, who countered with an uppercut that sent the beast flying into the air.

Pyrrha then heard a growling to her right and saw that another Ursa was charging her. She quickly threw Akouo at its face before retracting the shield to her hand with polarity and shifting Milo into rifle mode. Firing off two shots to her disoriented opponent, knocking it back, she then ran forward and drop kicked the Ursa, sending it flying back into a nearby tree. Before it could gather itself, Pyrrha finished it off by throwing Milo in it's javelin form directly at it, impaling the Grimm through its mouth and killing it in an instant.

Having finished her opponent off, Pyrrha then turned to her fellow student, whom she could see was a blonde woman with lilac eyes in a tan jacket, and saw that she was putting the finishing touches (or in this case, punches) on her opposing Ursa.

The blonde woman then turned to her and said, "Thanks for that, but I could've taken them, y'know."

Pyrrha smiled and said, "Well, as a huntress-in-training, it wouldn't sit well with me if I didn't help a fellow student, now would it?" So far, so good. The woman didn't break out into any form of fangirling or awkward adulation. Hopefully this meant she could meaningfully interact with her.

"Yeah, guess I would have done the-" The blonde started before she stopped herself and a face of realization hit, "Hey, wait a minute. I know you!"

Aaaaand there it is. Well, there went any chance of a mutual partnership.

"You're that fighter chick from the cereal boxes!" The girl in front of her exclaimed.

Pyrrha only had one thought in her head at the moment. What.

"Yeah, saw you on some of them when I was shopping for groceries." she said, smiling at her. "Didn't buy any though."

Pyrrha rubbed the back of her head and replied, "Well, I wouldn't recommend it. It really isn't a good brand."

The blonde held out her hand, "Anyway, name's Yang."

Pyrrha reached her other hand out to shake it, "Pyrrha."

"And that seems to be the last pair." Glynda said as she watched Yang and Pyrrha make eye contact from the many monitors placed throughout the Emerald Forest. "From the looks of things, those two should get along just fine."

So far, in Glynda's eyes, there had been multiple partnerings that seemed well adjusted with each other that would lead to efficient cooperation for when they collected the relics. The partnerings of Weiss Schnee and Tsubaki Yayoi, Jaune Arc and Noel Vermillion, and Blake Belladonna and Makoto Nanaya, all bore fruitful results given the positive interactions they have all had since becoming teammates. Even Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie, despite her misgivings that they wouldn't work out due to how opposite they were in personality, seemed to get along swimmingly.

As far as the individual students went, the most concerning among those pairs were Mister Arc and Miss Belladonna.

Jaune Arc's overall fighting skills didn't match up with what his transcripts described him as. According to them, he was an average fighter with decent Aura control. Nothing remarkable, but nothing terrible either. However, his display throughout initiation had at this point been consistently less than average. She had made it a point to let Ozpin know as such, but he didn't seem to respond, likely because he was enraptured by the rest of the student performances so far. Hopefully, Mister Arc's lackluster performance was just a symptom of the initiation's stress and not an indicator of his actual...abilities.

Blake Belladonna however, was another story. She was a former member of the White Fang, a peaceful organization turned terrorist group, and while she did claim to want to turn around from the violent past of the organization, Glynda couldn't help but be cautious in regards to her presence at Beacon. When she questioned Ozpin about it, he was quick to bring up Qrow, former member of the Branwen bandit tribe. In response, Glynda just as quickly brought up Raven and how, in the end, she went back to the bandit tribe's way of life, unable to be found. Ozpin, however, was very determined with his decision to enroll Blake, stating that she genuinely wanted to put the past behind her and that she wouldn't turn out like Raven did. Glynda still had her doubts, but Miss Belladonna did seem fairly well-adjusted with a good head on her shoulders, and her current partnership with Miss Nanaya had been nothing but positive so far. Really, most of the pairings had been positive.

However, the problem pairing for initiation came in the form of Mister Ragna and Miss Rose.

When Ozpin had decided to enroll an exuberant, reckless fifteen year old here at Beacon, Glynda had let him know how much she believed it to be a poor decision. Now, while Miss Rose was a prodigy with such a sophisticated weapon, her careless behavior, which would have resulted in a lot more collateral damage than she intended to stop, was a red flag for Goodwitch. She knew that Ruby Rose was a good student at heart, but she clearly had a tendency to think with her heart rather than with logic.

But if she could give praise to Miss Rose for anything besides her scythemanship and strong moral compass, at least she wasn't Ragna.

That man is going to cause this school many problems in the future. I just know it. Glynda thought to herself as she watched the older student walk away from Miss Rose, who dejectedly followed him.

When Mitsuyoshi, aka Jubei, one of the legendary Six Heroes, approached Ozpin and called in a favor to have his protégé attend Beacon Academy, Ozpin's words were, "Who am I to say no to an old friend?" While Glynda didn't know the full history behind Ozpin and Jubei, she was fairly certain that it was tied to one of Ozpin's past lives. But more to the point, she was expecting Jubei's apprentice to be many things: honorable, disciplined, and noble. So far, Ragna had proven to be the complete antithesis of her expectations.

Now, Ragna's strength, skills, and overall fighting abilities had proven to be quite stellar and matched exactly what she would hope to see with someone who had been trained by one of Remnant's greatest warriors. His personality and character, on the other hand, was another story.

He had proven to be an uncouth rebel who refused to play things safely, lashing out at his enemies in reckless abandon and letting out a myriad of vulgarities when he so desired. He also refused to work with others, as whenever he and Ruby encountered Grimm, he'd rush in and kill them all without any regard for his partner, often ignoring her and not even giving her a chance to help out. A major facet of this initiation was working in unison with each other, and Ragna had so far refused to work with his partner either in combat or in conversation.

So far, the partnership between those two had been a negative one, as their personalities just clashed with each other.

While she felt sorry for Ruby given her poor luck with her partnership, the rules were quite clear in regards to them, so nothing more could be done about it. All that was left was for either Miss Rose to adapt, or for Ragna to be properly disciplined. Glynda was already setting out plans for the latter.

"I know that look Glynda."

Glynda looked up from her tablet and looked at Ozpin, who had a knowing smirk on his face.

"I can understand your frustration with him, but have some patience."

"Ozpin, with all do respect, he's so far been nothing but incorrigible throughout the entire initiation." Glynda responded as she placed a hand to her head, "I can just tell he's going to be a problem."

Ozpin simply took a sip from his mug and replied, "Funny, we also have some rather uncouth students in this area as well." Glynda looked at the video feed Ozpin was looking at and saw one of the students, Cardin Winchester, she remembered, roughhousing with his partner instead of focusing on the relic.

"You seem to be singling Ragna out for his behavior despite it not being uncommon among student initiations to have one or more of his ilk in every semester." Ozpin said, though in an inquisitive manner, as if he was expecting her to answer an unasked question.

"It's just, well, we know who trained him, so given that knowledge, I...I was expecting better." Glynda replied.

Ozpin looked at Glynda before wistfully smiling, saying, "Would it shock you to know that there was a time in my life when I was much the same as him?" That actually did shock Glynda to an extent. Granted, she knew about Ozpin's past lives, but she didn't know any of them were anything like that. He looked out to the forest and continued.

"What happened was that I met many good people. People who helped uplift me through my trying years, and it was because of my experiences with them that I became a better man than I was before."

He then looked back to Glynda with a smile on his face. "If anything, I believe Ragna could not ask for a better partner than Miss Rose. She's someone whom I believe will be able to bring out the best in him."

Glynda remained silent as she went back to her tablet and watched the students. While Ozpin's assessments had always seemed a tad odd, they usually bore fruitful results. Ruby was the cheerful optimist, while Ragna seemed the aggressive pessimist. The two just naturally clashed with each other, but if Ozpin was correct, then hopefully Ruby's kindness would rub off on her partner.

"Hmm, it would seem the students are about to have some unexpected company." Ozpin said, stirring her out of her thoughts.

She looked to him and followed his line of sight, seeing an all too familiar house-sized avian Grimm; a Nevermore. It flew about in the sky and seemed to be closing in on something. She looked back to the camera feed and saw that none of the student pairs were reacting to its presence, except for one, Ruby and Ragna. Ruby had her weapon in its sniper rifle configuration and firing on the beast that was diving after them while Ragna had his blade drawn and prepared to fight. It appeared that their lack of cooperation, or more specifically, Ragna's overwhelming attitude problems, had gotten them in a bind and drew the Nevermore out.

Well, if nothing else, hopefully this will teach him to keep his attitude in check. Glynda thought to herself as the Nevermore's talons scooped the two students up and lifted them into the air.

Being honest, I really couldn't figure out how to write a chapter around Yang and Pyrrha's partnering and dynamics being established, so I decided to combine it with Glynda's evaluation of the students and the pairings.

Now, for the record, I'm skipping over Nora and Ren's pair up because it more or less goes note-for-note exactly as it did in canon and was relatively short anyway, so there's really no reason for me to cover it here beyond it getting acknowledged in Glynda's POV.

Any who, the next chapter should wrap up the initiation, but it's gonna be much longer than the norm.