Big thanks to Gamerjay, SwapAUAnon, and Gladsome Praetorian for being the Beta Readers for this chapter.

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Chapter 11: First Day

"Yang, it's time to wake up."

Yang was stirred out of her slumber when she heard a soothing voice call to her. Despite that, she refused to leave the comfort of her bed. Then a more high-pitched voice yelled out:

"Yang Xiao Long, you dunce, wake up this instant or I'm grabbing an ice bucket and pouring it on you!"

Now that got her up, albeit reluctantly as she grumbled and rose from her bed. She rubbed her eyes and yawned as she saw that each of her teammates where already dressed in their Beacon Academy uniforms. Each of them were wearing brown shoes with plaid skirts and black tights alongside white blouses and dark maroon vests.

"Why's everyone dressed already?" Yang asked, trying to fight off another yawn as she did so.

"We're getting ready for class, and we needed to wake you up." Pyrrha said, smiling as she did so.

Yang turned to look at her alarm clock, which showed that it was 7:45 a.m., "Isn't class supposed to be at 9:00? Why are you guys all dressed up so early?"

Tsubaki was the first to answer, "Well, we wanted to get ready early. Our dorms are a bit of a ways off from where our first class is supposed to be, so it'd be better for us to prepare ahead of time so we're not in a rush to get there."

"That, and, uh..." Pyrrha started before she nervously petered off.

"What?" Yang asked, not sure what was wrong.

"Well, it's just, that..." Pyrrha again started but stopped. Weiss ended up finishing in her stead.

"It's your hair."

Yang looked offended as she ran a hand through her treasured golden locks. "What's wrong with it? If you're expecting me to get a haircut, no way in hell."

"It's nothing like that Yang, I assure you." Tsubaki said, "It's just that, well, it seems like a lot of work to manage, so it would probably be a good idea to get started now."

"My hair doesn't take that long to fix up." Yang replied with indignation, "It only takes, like, thirty minutes tops."

"…You do know that you're not helping your case, right?" Tsubaki said after a brief moment.

"Ugh, fine, I'll start getting ready." Yang said as she got her change of uniform and went to the shower to freshen up for the day. As she did so, she contemplated on her teammates and reluctantly regretted that she couldn't be on her sister's team.

While she did want to help Ruby out of her shell, she was at least hoping to be by her side in the end and on the same team. How else was she supposed to help her little sis if they were separated? Now, from what she saw of her teammates, she at least had confidence that her sister would be fine. They seemed like pretty decent people, that one jackass notwithstanding, and from the looks of them, Yang knew Ruby would be fine in the end.

Her team, on the other hand, was a different story.

Now, she didn't have any issues with Pyrrha. Her partner was a sweet person and a total badass. Who wouldn't like her? It was the other two that she had issues with.

Yang's problems with Weiss were fairly obvious given the white-haired girl's attitude towards her sister. She came across as bossy, rude, and entitled, all of which were things that Yang knew were gonna drive her up a wall in the foreseeable future.

Tsubaki, while much better than Weiss, was way too strict for Yang's liking. Sure, she was nice, but she acted so...rigid. She acted on this by-the-book rule-abiding mindset. While that was something Yang could understand, where was her sense to cut loose and have fun?

She finished cleaning and changing as she finished her thoughts, walking out of the bathroom in her beacon uniform. The rest of her teammates stood waiting for her.

"Alright, done. So we just head to class now?" Yang asked her team leader.

Tsubaki looked at her watch and said, "Well, it's currently 8:18, so I'd say that we should. We can pick up breakfast along the way."

At the mention of breakfast, Yang placed a hand on her stomach as it growled. She then smiled and said, "Alright, lead the way boss lady."

In response, Tsubaki sighed and said, "Yang, I understand that it's a nickname, but I'd appreciate if you didn't call me that. Just Tsubaki would work well. 'Boss lady' just sounds wrong to me."

And with that, she started walking out the door with Weiss following after her. Pyrrha turned to Yang and just gave her a small shrug before following suit as well. Yang couldn't help but groan as her stomach growled again. At this point, she was too tired and too hungry for the whole uptightness of at least half her team. Hopefully they'd lighten up later down the road.

"Thank you! Come again!"

Nora was having a magnificent time as she sold her customer an Ursa skin rug, right from the back of the Grimm she killed not a few hours ago.

At the moment, she was wondering when Ren would get back from skinning those Beowolves. They had pelts to sell and they needed to keep up with their customer base.

Just before she could pull out her scroll to call him, the smell of butter and syrup entered her nostrils. Floating out of her spot, she closed her eyes and followed the sent to wherever it could be. When the smell became super strong, she opened her eyes and saw Ren wearing his usual clothes and a "Kiss the Cook" apron standing in front of her and holding a plate of delicious, fluffy pancakes with butter and syrup.

Nora, seeing the yummy food in her best friend's hands, immediately dove for it, only for Ren to sidestep, causing her to fall face first on the floor.

As soon as she got off the floor, she looked to Ren with a look of betrayal in her eyes, whining, "Reeeeen! WHY!?"

"Sorry, dearest Nora. But if you want these pancakes, then you must do something for me first." Ren said, almost in a sinister tone.

"Anything!" Nora said with her hands clasped together. So long as she got those fluffy delicious pancakes, she didn't care what she had to do.

"It's very simple. Wake up." Ren said.

Uh, what? Was the first thought that came to Nora's head. What did he mean by "Wake up"?

In response to her confused silence, Ren replied, "Well, guess I have no choice." Before he pulled out a foghorn and pressed down.

HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONK!

"AHHHHHHH!" Nora woke with a fright as she stumbled out of her bed, landing face first on the floor. She could hear the sound of Makoto laughing and Blake stifling her giggles.

Not even bothering to get up from her position, she instead pointed to where Ren was based on the sent of pancakes that she could smell through the carpet.

"You. Are. Evil." She said with her voice muffled by the carpet.

"Uh, Nora, you're pointing at the desk. I'm right here."

Nora looked up and saw that she was, indeed, pointing at a desk with a plate of pancakes on it. She then looked around and saw Ren (still holding the godsforsaken horn), Blake, and Makoto standing in their PJs. Well, technically, Ren wore the same clothes he always wore, so they sorta counted as his jammies. Blake was wearing a...yukata? That's what Nora assumed it was called. And Makoto was just wearing her underwear, or at least what looked like undies since they could have been a sports bra and shorts for all she knew.

Deciding to ignore that for now, Nora then moved toward the breakfast food, but stopped when she saw that it was just one plate...for one person.

"Ren, where's the rest of it?" Nora asked.

Ren was about to answer, but before he could, Makoto raised her hand high and said, "We ate it all."

Nora found herself stumbling and let out a whine, "You guys started breakfast without me!"

"It was rather necessary." Ren said in reply, "The alternative was to wake you up with everyone else and risk you eating it all."

Nora was about to retort that she wouldn't eat it all, but then she thought back to all the other times Ren made breakfast and how it'd all find its way into her mouth, even if it was for both of them.

"Point taken." Nora relented before sitting down on the bed and digging into her meal. After two seconds, the entire stack was gone and the plate was cleaned. As she licked off the last bit of syrup from the plate, she felt eyes on her, prompting her to look up. She saw that Makoto and Blake were staring at her wide-eyed while Ren didn't even react, given how many times he's seen her eat her food before.

"Wow. Just...wow." Blake muttered out.

"I've got some big eaters in my family, but damn girl." said Makoto.

As if in response, Nora burped out and said, "Yep."

"So, Nora." Ren started, "You were muttering something in your sleep. Was it the dream again?"

The dream? Nora thought, before asking, "Oh, you mean that recurring one I keep having about killing dozens of Ursa and selling Ursa skin rugs?"

"Last time you had it, you told me it was Beowolves. And that there were only two of them." Ren responded.

"I'm pretty sure it was Ursa. Besides, beating up a dozen Ursa is a better story than a dozen Beowolves, don't ya think?" Nora said with her usual joviality.

She heard a gasp of excitement emanate from Makoto, who sat down right next to her, "You tell your own stories?" she asked.

"Yup! Awesome stories just happens to be my middle name." Nora said, smiling at her new friend's excitement.

"Actually, her middle name is-"

"Hush you." Nora said, but found that Makoto said it at the exact same time, causing the two to look at each other.

Makoto smiled and said, "Oh, I think you and I are gonna get along just fine. Let me tell you about the time I beat up a Goliath with a rusty spoon."

Before Nora could burst with excitement, she heard Ren sigh and say to Blake, "You have one too?"

"Yep." Blake said, crossing her arms with a smile, "They're wackos. But they're our wackos."

"Agreed."

After they finished talking about them right next to them, Makoto continued in her story, with Nora entranced by every detail.

Ruby woke up after a restful night of sleep, greeting the day with a smile and saying, "Good morning guys." In a drowsy but happy tone.

When she received no answer, she opened her eyes and looked to her right and saw that Noel and Jaune were still sleeping in their respective beds. Noel hugging a small panda plushie and Jaune was drooling and wearing...a onesie?

Aw, they look so cute. Ruby decided not to wake them up just yet since she couldn't help but find the two of them adorable as they slept.

The turned to her left to greet her partner, "Morning Rag-"

Only to stop when she saw that no one was in the bed.

Her confusion turned to panic when she saw that her partner was missing. She started darting and zooming all over the room to try and find him, looking under the beds, in the closest, in the bathroom, but to her increasing dread, she didn't find Ragna anywhere.

Amidst her search, noise came from the two occupied beds, causing Ruby to turn to them. It seemed all the noise she made in her search caused Jaune and Noel to stir as they both woke up. Noel simply yawned and rubbed one of her eyes while Jaune stretched and said, "Alright, alright, I'm up, what's with all the-"

"Ragna's gone!"

Ruby's panicked yell caused both of them to snap awake as they jumped out of bed.

"Wait, what!?" Noel was the first to respond to the shocking news.

"Why would he just up and leave before we could start the first day?" Jaune asked, wondering why their grumpy teammate would leave.

"I don't know," Ruby said before her face became more determined, "But we have to find him. He's our teammate, and we're not giving up on him."

"Right." Jaune said first as Noel nodded along, herself gaining a determined face.

Ruby, glad to have her teammates on board in their search, said, "Alright, then let's let Operation: Find Ragna comme-"

"What the hell are you guys doing?"

The sudden voice sprang up from behind Ruby as she turned and saw that Ragna was back and just walking into the room. Unlike the rest of them, he wasn't wearing any pajamas and instead had on the same clothes he wore from the day prior.

"You're back!"

Ruby then sprang from her position and wrapped her arms around his neck to hug him. Unfortunately...

"What did we say about grabbing, kid?"

Then a strong hand grabbed the back of her pajama shirt and pulled her off him, holding her up. Ruby awkwardly laughed and poked her index fingers together as she looked down before saying, "Sorry. My bad."

Ragna then dropped her and walked to the closet, looking like he was going to get his uniform. The rest of the group just stood there as they watched their teammate before Jaune broke the silence.

"So, uh, w-where were you exactly?"

"Sleeping."

That answer seemed to confuse them. Ruby couldn't really wrap her head around what Ragna just said. He left his bedroom in the middle of the night while they were all sleeping...to sleep somewhere?

"Wait, why would you leave the bedroom to sleep somewhere? Where were you even sleeping?" Noel started asking, inadvertently vocalizing the questions Ruby found herself asking in her head.

"Under a tree." Ragna bluntly answered as he picked out a uniform.

Now even more confused, Ruby asked, "Why where you sleeping under a tree? You have a bed here, that doesn't make any sense."

He didn't answer and just ignored the question as he walked to the bathroom and shut the door behind him, leaving the rest of them to just awkwardly stand there.

Jaune was the first to break the silence by saying, "Well, at least we know he didn't ditch Beacon on the first day, right?"

Ruby just said, "Uh, yeah, I guess," while Noel quietly mumbled out a "sure".

A minute later, Ragna was out and dressed in his Beacon uniform, which was a dark maroon tuxedo and pants with a white undershirt, though he seemed to forgo the tie.

"Alight scrawny, it's all yours." Ragna said as he indicated towards Jaune, causing the blonde male to stutter out a "oh, right, thanks." and rush to the closet to grab his uniform and then head straight for the bathroom to change and get ready. Ragna, meanwhile, just leaned against a wall and crossed his arms.

Looking back, it might be a little awkward sharing a room and a bathroom with two boys, Ruby thought to herself.

A couple minutes later and Jaune walked out in his uniform and said, "It's all yours ladies."

"You can go first Ruby." Noel said, "I can wait."

Ruby thanked Noel and swiftly grabbed her uniform and went to the bathroom in a flurry of rose petals. As she changes, she couldn't help but question why Ragna decided to sleep away from the rest of the group. Sure, he came across as a loner (much like Uncle Qrow), but she couldn't get why he'd want to sleep under a tree of all things when he had a nice and comfortable bed here in their dorm room.

After about 30 seconds, she was changed and ready.

"Alrighty, all yours Noel." And like that, Noel grabbed her stuff and went in to change. She got out fairly quickly, though unlike Ruby's uniform, Noel opted to keep her red tie from her normal clothes.

"So what now?" Jaune asked, "We don't have class until 9:00."

Ruby checked the clock and saw that it was 8:00. "Well, as team leader, I decree that our first order of business is to unpack and make this room our own." While saying this, Ruby pointed to the sky and struck a heroic pose.

"Let this be our first act as the newly formed Team RNJR. Together, we shall conquer the evils of bland and boring dorm rooms as we make our room the greatest in all of Beacon's known history! Now, are. You. WITH ME!"

"AYE!" Came the responses of Noel and Jaune as they excitedly thrust their hands up. Ragna just kept leaning against the wall.

"Whatever. Not like I got anything better to do." Was his response.

Okay, after this. I need to get 'Operation: Get Ragna to stop being a grouchy pants' up and running, Ruby thought as her partner's constant attitude was beginning to get on her nerves.

The group got to work on setting up their dorm room. Jaune unpacked and started filling shelves with a bunch of comics and games, some of which were some card games Ruby had as she made a mental note to make some trading deals with her teammate later on. Noel took out and placed on her bed what could only be described as a large mountain of plush animals. Bunnies, dogs, teddy bears, panda bears; if it was an adorable plushie, it found its way onto Noel's bed. Ruby also noticed that she was trying to find a place to hide a book she was holding in her hands, before discretely putting it underneath her mattress, thinking none of her teammates saw her do so.

Probably her diary, Ruby mused as she decided never to so much as look under Noel's mattress for the sake of her teammate.

Ragna, on the other hand, just threw what looked like an over-the-shoulder bag into the closet and went back to leaning on the wall, only instead of brooding, he looked like he was waiting for everyone else to finish.

"Uh, R-Ragna." Noel asked, "You're not gonna unpack?"

"Already did." He said, clearly not wanting to talk further.

"Oh."

Ruby decided to continue and unpack all her belongings, including some of her favorite fairy tales and weapons tips magazines, and she ushered the entire group to step back and look at their work.

"Ah, now this is the most magnificent room ever conceived at Beacon Academy," Ruby marveled as she spoke in an accent that she saw on tv once. "And Ragna, we need to work on your side of the room. Kinda dull."

"Anyone know what time it is?" Ragna asked, ignoring Ruby's statement.

"Let me check," Noel checked her scroll, "Uh oh, guys it's 8:45. We need to get to class now."

"Then let's get moving!" Ruby exclaimed as she was the first to rush out the door and her teammates followed.

Weiss sat in her seat in the middle row of Professor Port's class as the clock ticked 8:55, signifying that class was about to begin. To her left sat Tsubaki and to her right sat Yang and Pyrrha respectively. The professor himself had just arrived and was patiently waiting for 9:00, as well as for any students that had yet to arrive. Within the room, Weiss noticed a large black crate that occasionally rocked to the side. The red eyes that flashed within signifying that the instructor had a live Grimm in class with him, likely to use as an example.

Blake and her team arrived a bit later than they did, with Makoto and their leader taking the time to warmly greet Tsubaki when they arrived. While Weiss didn't want to say it out loud, something about how Makoto and Tsubaki interacted...bothered her. She couldn't exactly pin down what bothered her about their interactions that made her feel uneasy. While Faunus usually made her uncomfortable, she knew that it had nothing to do with that, which was another thing that bugged her. If she was simply discomforted by that fact, then it would be easy to understand what bothered her, but this felt different, and she just couldn't tell why.

"Sorry we're late!"

Interrupting her thoughts, the door slammed open and in rushed that Ruby girl and her teammates, Arc, Vermillion, and that brute.

"Not at all Miss Rose, you and your team are..." Professor Port began as he checked his watch. "Right on time in fact! Now, take your seats so we can begin."

As the four of them took their seats, the professor began his lesson.

"Now, the Grimm are known throughout our world as many names; monsters, demons, and prowlers of the night. But once you graduate from this prestigious academy, you shall know them by only one name: Prey. Ha-ha!"

The professor was met with awkward silence at his attempt at humor. While Weiss didn't find things to be too interesting just yet, it was clear that he was trying to make his lesson more enjoyable for the less academically inclined students here.

"Uh...anyway," He continued after an awkward stumble, "The four kingdoms of Remnant serve as safe havens for these monsters that have engorged every nook and cranny of this hostile world. When the time is right, it will be up to you, the Huntsmen and Huntresses of the next generation, to protect the innocent from the very world that seeks to do them harm."

"But before all that, allow me to tell you the tale of a handsome young man...me!" He exclaimed, "It all started when I was a boy..."

As the professor continued to, well, not so much teach but rather gush about himself after a while, Weiss looked around as she saw that Tsubaki and Pyrrha were diligently taking notes and paying close attention, while Yang only seemed to pay attention, but otherwise didn't seem to do much else as she just listened to the..."lecture", if it could be called that. Over to where Team BRNN sat, the only two members that took the class seriously were the team's leader and the member with the pink strand in his hair, Ren if she remembered correctly, while Nora and Makoto looked like they were on the verge of falling asleep. Well, Makoto was on the verge of falling asleep, but if nothing else, she put in effort to try and stay awake, while Nora looked to already be slumbering through class. Weiss swore she heard her mutter something about "pancakes" while she snored.

And then there was Ruby's team. Their leader showed no sign of paying attention, instead dedicating her time to drawing and showing Noel the pictures, which the blonde laughed at with stifled giggles. Jaune, meanwhile, ended up falling asleep and laid face down on his desk. And Ragna just kicked his legs onto his desk and leaned back in his chair with his hands behind his head. Seeing this frustrated Weiss as she stewed silently in her anger.

On some level, Weiss was starting to feel bad for Ruby. Granted, she didn't thing the younger student would make a good leader, given how inattentive and careless she was. But she had to put up with someone who was incompetent to the point where she wondered how he even managed to get accepted for Beacon in the first place and a thug who antagonized people without reason and didn't know the first thing about respect towards his peers. And while she didn't want to think negatively of Noel, given her friendship with Tsubaki, she couldn't help but find the blonde's borderline neurotic anxiety to be something that would frustrate any leader regardless of who they were.

Really, why else would Ozpin put Ruby in charge of her team? She was ultimately the best of a bad lot, so it's not like there was any other solid option for leadership.

"So, the moral of the story?" Professor Port said as he finished his story. "A true Huntsman must be honorable, dependable, strategic, educated, and wise! Now, who among you believe that they possess these traits."

Weiss moved to raise her hand, determined to show that she knew and understood what a Huntsman was about, but before she could...

"Ah, young Ragna!"

To her shock, she looked down and saw that Ragna had raised his hand first with the same uncaring attitude he had as he sat down.

Does that brute honestly think he possesses the traits that define a Huntsman!?, Weiss thought with outrage at the older student's delusion that he was anywhere close to what a true Huntsman was.

"So, you believe yourself to carry the aspects that a protector of man has, do you?" Port asked inquisitively. Rightly, he didn't believe Ragna had those traits either. Weiss was silently glad for the teacher's perceptiveness.

"Tch, no." Ragna said, much to Weiss' surprise. "There's a Grimm there and I'm guessing you want a student to fight it. I'm bored, and I want to kill it, that's it." He continued as he pointed to the cage.

So, he just wants to kill the Grimm, Weiss thought, still angry. Granted, Ragna seemed under no illusions that he wasn't what a proper Huntsman could be, but did he really believe that being one was all about killing Grimm? That was all he seemed to care about.

Port, in response to Ragna's bravado and nonchalance, simply said, "Very well then. Step forward and face your enemy." Where he indicated to the Grimm shaking the cage it was trapped in.

While Weiss knew it was wrong to wish misfortune on someone, a small part of her silently hoped that the Grimm would be more than Ragna could handle to teach him some humility. Besides, if that happened, the teacher would have to step in and put the Grimm down, so it's not like it would cause too much trouble if that happened anyway.

Finally, Ragna thought as he stood at the center of the classroom wearing his standard attire; brandishing Aramasa into a reverse-hand grip as he faced the unopened cage. After all that boring prattle, he could at least see some action.

"You can do it Ragna!" Jaune yelled out from the desks.

"Go Ragna!" Noel called out.

"Yeah, represent Teeeeeaam RNJR!" Ruby said last amongst them.

Ragna elected to ignore his teammates. Whatever the Grimm was, it was small enough to fit in a cage barely bigger than a student. Not like he needed any good luck to take it down.

Professor Bore walked up to the side of the cage and pulled out what looked like a cross between a blunderbuss and a battle axe and lifted it overhead. "Aaaaaaand..." he said as he brought it down, "Begin!"

The locks on the cage broke against the teacher's weapon swing. releasing the Grimm inside...

"A Boarbatusk?" Ragna said, rather disappointed by the Grimm he was fighting, before thinking to himself, Geez, this'll be almost too easy.

The Grimm charged at him as he stood there, waiting for it to come close. When it was in range, Ragna swung Aramasa, striking at the Grimm's tusks and batting it away with an obnoxious squeal and sending it flying into the wall, leaving a crater as it fell to the floor on its hooved feet.

"Ho ho, such impressive strength!" Ragna heard the teacher praise.

The Grimm then charged again and spun in the air, rolling into a sphere as it did so. Ragna held Aramasa in front of him to block the attack; sparks coming off of where the Grimm's spinning form met his blade. Before he could push the Grimm back...

"Come on Ragna, kick its butt!" Ruby exclaimed.

"You can do it!" came from Jaune.

"Yeah, get 'em Ragna!" was said by Noel. Though as she said it, Ragna found himself hearing that same voice in his head, but this one was far younger and brighter.

Yeah, get 'em brother!

Dammit, shut up already! Trying to concentrate. Ragna thought in frustration as he tried to stave off the memory.

However, this distraction caused the still-spinning Grimm to push him back. Ragna's hands went up into the air as he was knocked back several feet, with the Boarbatusk landing on its feet in front of him. Aramasa flew out of his hands and landed behind his opponent, impaled to the ground.

"You no longer have your weapon. How will you respond?" The teacher called out.

Ragna found his frustration growing at what just happened. Sure, he'd been disarmed before, but not by a Boarbatusk of all things. These things were practically a dime a dozen and as effortless as Beowolves. Something like this shouldn't be giving him any trouble.

The Boarbatusk charged him again, only this time Ragna jumped over it and landed far behind it where his sword had landed as the Grimm crashed into a wall. Ragna grabbed Aramasa and held it in his right hand behind him, flipping it into a reverse-grip as he did so. Before he could charge at the Boarbatusk now that it was vulnerable, a high pitched voice yelled out...

"Ragna! Try attacking its stomach! It's unarm-"

Oh, for FUCKS SAKE, Ragna though, now on his last nerve. A dark aura flaring around his body as he turned to face the source of his annoyance.

"SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU DAMN BRAT!" He yelled at the silver-eyed girl.

Ruby's expression quickly turned from encouragement to hurt, while Jaune and Noel were taken aback with fear in their eyes; Noel in particular ducked with her head poking out from behind her desk. Ragna calmed himself and did his best to ignore their expressions as the aura around him subsided. No more distractions, he needed to kill this thing and get it over with.

Looking back to the Grimm, he ran headfirst at it as it rolled towards him. Just as he closed in, he swung Aramasa upward, knocking the still rolling Grimm into the air. He then jumped and followed it as it uncurled from its ball form, grabbing it by its tusks and swinging it back down to the floor below, landing it on its back in a crater. He immediately followed up by pointing his blade towards the pig's underbelly as he came back down, impaling it as he landed with one knee on the floor. Still thoroughly frustrated by the events, Ragna then grabbed the tusks of the impaled Grimm and pulled with all his might, ripping the monster's head off and throwing it aside in anger; the decapitated head hitting the desks as students dodged it.

As Ragna stood up, he heard the professor say, "Well...that's certainly a tad more...uh, visceral than how most students kill a Grimm in this class. Nevertheless, excellent work. Now, I'm afraid that's all the time we have for today..."

Ragna ignored the rest of Bore's words as he stood there looking at the fading body of the Grimm, frustrated by the effort it took to kill that Boarbatusk. Normally, he'd kill these things way quicker than that and with less fuck ups by his lonesome. But this one knocked him away. This one disarmed him. And all that happened because...

He looked at Ruby, Jaune, and Noel, glaring at them with anger in his eyes. In response, Jaune looked down to the floor, Ruby's face gained an even more pained expression, and Noel...

Noel looked like she was about to cry.

Dammit, Ragna thought as he walked out of class, trying to ignore the looks on his teammates faces. The last thing he needed was the thought of making that face cry. He'd already seen it more than he'd like.

He started walking down the halls, intent on getting away from those three. But just as he made it around the corner...

"Ragna! Wait!"

He looked behind him and saw those three following after him.

"What's wrong?" Ruby asked, still having the pained expression from earlier. "Why'd you just leave like that?"

"Gee, I don't know," Ragna retorted with anger laced into his voice, "Maybe it had something to do with the fact that three obnoxious brats kept bugging me when I sure as shit didn't need them yelling in my ear!"

"Ragna, we were just trying to help." Jaune said.

"Well, did you ever stop and think that I don't need any of your godsdamn help!?" Ragna yelled as he fully turned to face the three of them, a brief dark aura flared up as he did so.

When the three backed away, he took a deep breath and continued, "Look, I would have been just fine if you idiots just shut the hell up. I never needed any help with something like that before, and I don't need any help now!"

He then turned and started walking away before stopping and continuing, "Shit, I didn't even want to be on a team in the first place, but now I'm stuck with you three. So just do me a favor and don't bother me ever again. You're the last thing I need right now."

He then walked away, not wanting to look back nor face any of them.

As Ragna walked away from them in a huff, Ruby looked to the floor, completely downtrodden by what had just happened.

Great, She thought to herself, First day as team leader and I completely screw things up with my partner.

She suddenly felt that eyes were on her, causing her to turn and see that teams TSYP and BRNN were just behind them.

"Oh," Ruby muttered, "You guys saw all that."

Yang walked up to her and gave her a quick hug, "Yeah, we saw. I wouldn't worry too much about it Rubes. He's just being an asshole."

"But he's my partner!" Ruby exclaimed, "We're supposed to be a team and I just...I messed up and now he's mad at all of us."

"Guys," Makoto said, "You didn't do anything wrong here. All you did was try and encourage the guy. He's just blowing up at you for no good reason."

"Excuse me."

All of them looked and saw Professor Ozpin walking towards them.

"Oh, Professor Ozpin, sir." Weiss said, trying to sound professional as she slightly bowed her head.

"Is there anything we can help you with, Professor?" Tsubaki asked in a more composed manner as she clasped her hands in front of her skirt and bowed her head in a similar manner to her partner.

"Yes, I believe I can help with this matter. I already sent Professor Port to go talk with Ragna regarding his behavior. Would the eight of you kindly give us some space. I'd like to speak with Team RNJR privately." The professor said as he indicated to Ruby and her teammates.

Ruby saw the reluctance in Tsubaki, Makoto, and Yang's eyes, but in the end, they relented and the eight of them walked away from Ruby and her team. Just before they left, Ruby saw Weiss turn towards her with a look of sympathy in her eyes before turning back to her team and walking along with them.

As they were left alone with the professor, Noel slumped and said, "We messed up, didn't we?" Her tone completely dejected.

"Well, yes and no." The professor said, with Ruby looking at him in shock. "True, the three of you may have caused trouble for him, but it was with the best intentions and none of you were aware that it was problematic. Mistakes happen, and it's only been the first day. I should know, I've made more than I've been able to keep count of."

Ruby and her teammates sat in silence for a brief moment until Noel spoke up and said, "Um, p-professor. Do you think it was a mistake making us a team? I-I mean, Ragna doesn't seem to like any of us very much."

"Miss Vermillion, I didn't put you to a team. The four of you became a team through happenstance during the initiation." He replied, "So let me offer this question; do you three believe that it was a mistake?"

His question silenced the three of them before he continued.

"As teammates, a major facet of your duty is to support one another and help each other through hardship. Now, you certainly tried to do so with Ragna, but perhaps you may need to try a different approach in doing so."

"A different approach? What do you mean by that?" Jaune asked, genuinely confused.

"What I mean, Mr. Arc, is that Ragna doesn't seem used to being on a team. He's in an entirely new scenario, and as such, he reacts negatively in an effort to try and force things back to how he prefers them. Maybe what must be done is to help ease him into the idea of being on a team rather than expect him to be a team player when you expect him to be, don't you think? Now, the three of you are good students with good hearts. That much I saw during the initiation, and I trust you all to do what you believe is right."

With that, he walked away, leaving the three of them to ponder on his words.

Fucking dammit, Ragna thought to himself as he laid down beneath a tree, trying to get his mind off his teammates. No matter what he did, he kept jumping back to how he yelled at them, how saddened they looked, and how Noel looked at him.

Just. Stop. Thinking about it! Ragna tried to silence his thoughts on his previous actions. He didn't need to care about them. They just got in the way and they'd still get in the way if he kept them around. The last thing he needed were distractions.

"Greetings, Mister Ragna."

Ragna opened his eyes and looked up to see Professor Bore walking up to him. Sensing a lecture coming in, he sighed and stood up.

"Hey professor," Ragna replied apathetically.

"May I ask what you're doing down there?" Bore asked.

Ragna just crossed his arms and replied, "Nothing."

"Well, I must say, that was quite an impressive display you showcased back in my class. Certainly a bit more graphic than most, but it suits you well as a fighter. And I must say, I don't think that Boarbatusk saw it coming, ho ho!" He praised, which ended in laugh.

"Would have been easier if I wasn't distracted." Ragna muttered to himself.

"Distracted?" Bore asked before continuing, "You're referring to your teammates?"

"Look old man, I don't need a bunch of deadweight holding me back. Never needed it before, so I don't need it now." Ragna said as he looked away and slowly started walking off, trying to end this line of conversation as fast as he could.

"That's preposterous!"

At Bore's statement, Ragna stopped and turned to him, "What!?"

"Now, while your teammates may have distracted you in your eyes, they only desired to encourage you. Do you know why they did so?"

"Tch, why the hell does it matter?" Ragna asked.

In response, the professor continued, "It's because they care about you and want to support you. It's all part of being on a team."

Ragna chose to remain silent, not wanting to engage in this conversation, but the professor spoke anyway, "You know, Mister Ragna, you remind me of someone I once knew."

"Oh let me guess, I remind you of you, don't I?" Ragna asked, his voice filled with sarcasm.

"Actually, yes."

At that, Ragna looked back to the professor, raising an eyebrow as he continued, "I was young, brash, and most of all, foolish. I believed that I didn't need anyone to solve all my problems, and that I didn't need to bother with forming bonds with others."

Ragna was actually caught off-guard, mainly because the teacher was actually talking seriously without any humor or that obnoxious boisterousness in his voice that he had during his little ego monologue from class.

"When I came to Beacon and became part of a team, I scorned the idea of working with others. After all, I did everything on my own before, so why would I need anyone now? That ended when I found myself biting off more than I could chew, and it felt as if I had no way out, but in the end, my team did come to save me. Despite how I scorned them and wanted nothing to do with them, they still came to my aid, not out of obligation, but because they considered me their friend and saw helping me as the right thing to do, and I found opportunity to return the favor and help them in kind."

Ragna was once again silent, though rather than his normal look of defiance, he had an inquisitive look to him as he stared at Professor Port. He could understand what the old man was saying, but he didn't know how exactly to react, or even what he was supposed to do here. For a long time, it had just been himself and Master Jubei, traveling all over the place as he learned how to fight and harness his abilities. Even if he wanted to, he didn't know how to let the others in since for as long as it mattered, he never had anyone else outside his master. Sure, before Jubei, there were...others...but...

Ragna then shook his head and placed a hand to his forehead, as if trying to stave off a headache, or a bad memory. Now wasn't the time to think about it.

"My point, Ragna, is that whatever the past may have been for you, you aren't alone anymore. You have a team that wants to be there for you and will need you in turn later on. While it may be frustrating for you, but you're here to learn how to be a Huntsman, and if experience has taught me anything, it is that no Huntsman can truly stand alone."

"Kind of late for that." Ragna replied, breaking his previous silence as he looked away again, "Pretty sure I burned that bridge already, so there's no point in wasting time on it."

"Ha! Believe me, if people were that easy to shake off, my daring team would have left me to fend for myself against that dreadful Beringel." Port exclaimed, his voice now regaining his bombast from class. "While it's not something you have to do now, I suggest you simply talk to them when you're able. I earnestly doubt you've even put an ember to that bridge."

Ragna just went back to silence for a moment as he heard the professor start walking away. Against his better judgement, he found himself turning to face the retreating figure of the instructor and said, "Okay, let's pretend that I buy into this crap and say that you know what you're talking about. Well, where the hell am I supposed to even start anyway? Not like I've ever been on a team anyway."

In response, he stopped and turned around, smiling and saying, "No one is perfect Ragna. We can only do our best. In this case, just be the best that you can be. Not the best fighter you can be, but the best person you can be. In doing so, you'll be the best teammate that they can ask for."

As the old man walked away, Ragna leaned back against the tree he was under originally and slumped to the floor.

Best person I can be? Ragna thought, I'm barely a person worth a damn. How the hell am I supposed to pull that off?

Still, if there was one thing the old man was right about, it was that the rest of Team RNJR were persistent, Ruby especially. Ragna couldn't see her giving up on trying to be friends with him anytime soon, and the rest would likely follow suit. If Ragna really was gonna be stuck with them...

"Grr." Ragna growled as he stood up, "Fucking...fine. Guess I have nothing to lose anyway, may as well give it a shot."

Night had fallen and in the Team RNJR dorm room. The light of the broken moon illuminated the room alongside Ruby's reading light as she studied for tomorrow's classes, or at least she tried to. Besides finding the questions more difficult than she was used to, she also couldn't get her mind off the entire fiasco with Ragna earlier today.

She wanted to help her partner and make this team feel like an actual, welcoming team, but she wasn't sure how. Sure, she was super anxious and didn't know how to interact with others all that well, but she still wanted to make friends, even if it was hard for her. Ragna, however, seemed to scorn the idea. How was she supposed to help ease him into being part of the team when he made it clear that he didn't even want to be here in the first place?

Turning to check in on her other teammates, Jaune was laying on his bed, reading one of his comic books. Based on the frown on his face, it didn't look like he was enjoying the content, though after everything that happened, Ruby doubted she could even read a weapons magazine without her mood turning sour.

Noel, however, sat on her bed with her legs crossed as her scroll's light lit up on her face. From the looks of it, she seemed to be texting someone, most likely Makoto or Tsubaki, though she also had a rather sad face as well.

Before Ruby could get the idea to try and cheer them up, she heard the door to their room open. She turned and saw Ragna walk in, his face rather awkward for someone who mostly scowled for most of yesterday and today.

"O-oh, Ragna, you're back." Noel was the first to respond to his return.

"Hey," Ragna said before silently staring at the floor. "Look, I-"

Before he continued, Ruby found herself speaking up and said, "Ragna, I'm sorry that I distracted you during your fight. It's just...I've never been on a team before and I wanted to encourage you the best I could. Your my partner, and, well, I just...I just wanted you to know that I was looking out for you."

Ragna just stood in silence for a few moments, causing Ruby to wonder if she messed up. However, Ragna simply sighed, rubbed the top of his head, and said, "Look, kid, I just wanted to say that...that I'm sorry for blowing up at you earlier. Just not used to this shit yet."

"Well, to be fair," Jaune piped in, "I don't think any of us are. We still want to keep going at it. I mean, I don't know if you want to be a team player since you don't seem to like being on a team but we're willing to give you a chance. Wait, I mean we're hoping that you'd be willing to give the whole team thing a chance though you don't exactly have to if you don't want to but we'd really appre-"

Before Jaune could continue with his rambling that even Ruby found impressive, Ragna butted in and cut him off, "Try shutting up before you run out of air."

Jaune immediately shut up, to which Ragna back-peddled and said, "Sorry. Look, I'm not good at this whole team shit. Don't know how to be a part of one, but I'm willing to go the distance and try to be the best teammate you guys need. Just hoping that even after all that crap I said earlier, you'd be willing to have me."

Ruby found herself being the first of them to perk up and immediately jumped off her bed to land right in front of Ragna, saying, "It's okay, Ragna. And as team leader, I promise to be the best leader and partner you could ever ask for, right guys?"

"Y-yeah. Ragna, you can be kinda scary, but we're still your team. Nothing is going to change that." Noel said as she twirled a strand of her hair.

"Same here. We also promise to be the best teammates you can have too." Jaune said enthusiastically.

At that, Ragna actually gave a small chuckle and said, "Thanks."

"Now let's group hug!" Ruby exclaimed as she moved to hug her partner, only for said partner's hand to press against her forehead and keep her from moving.

"Kid," Ragna said with exasperation, "What did I say about this?"

"Right, uh, sorry about that. I kinda keep forgetting." Ruby said as she rubbed the back of her head.

The two of them just stood in silence for a few moments while Jaune and Noel remained sitting on their beds. Eventually, Ragna sighed and said, "Y'know what, fuck it. You get one, but just one."

And with that, Ruby rushed forward and hugged Ragna with all her might, with her feeling Noel and Jaune bump in as well to join the team hug. Ragna still felt apprehensive, but he seemed more welcoming, if only a bit. After a couple moments, Ragna pushed them all off him, but not very forcefully, and said, "Alright, alright, that's enough. I'm going to bed, so unless you guys need anything, good night." And with that, he started walking out the door.

"Hey, where are you going?" Jaune asked.

Ragna turned back and replied, "Outside to sleep. Where else would I be going?"

"Actually," Noel started, "That's something I was wondering about. Why don't you sleep on your bed?"

Ruby was also curious about that. Hopefully, her partner would be willing to answer.

"Well," Ragna started, "My master and I travelled all over the place when I was training. Most of the time we'd sleep under the trees or on the ground, maybe sometimes in a cave to get some shelter from the weather. After a few years of doing that, I just got used to it."

Ruby pondered on Ragna's explanation, before a lightbulb went off in her head and she rushed to the window, opening it to see a large tree right outside near their dorm room.

"If you need to sleep outside, why not out there?" Ruby pointed to the nearby tree, "It's close enough to our room, so we'll still be close by in case you need us for anything, or if we need you for something."

Ragna then looked out the window to see where Ruby was pointing. After looking at the tree, he said, "It'll do." And proceeded to jump out the window, landing feet first on the ground that was three stories bellow them.

As Ragna walked to his resting spot, Noel joined next to Ruby and yelled out, "Uh, g-goodnight Ragna!"

Ragna paused for a second before raising a hand as he laid down at the foot of the trunk. Ruby didn't hear him say anything, but she was fairly certain he said "goodnight" under his breath. Ruby waved goodnight alongside Jaune as the in-room members of Team RNJR started preparing for bed. Ruby smiled as she began to doze off. The first day didn't really have the best start or middle, but she was glad she and her team could at least meet a solid end of the day. In her book, a pretty good start to the beginning of their journey to become Huntsmen and Huntresses.

Yeesh, I was not expecting this chapter to be this long. At first I wanted to only cover how Team RNJR started their day, but then I wanted to cover how the other important teams started their days, and then it just kept going and going. I was expecting another roughly above 2K words chapter, but it ended up going further than that.

Is this what it's like to write things? You say "This'll be my starting point and this'll be my stopping point." and things just spiral from there? Because I was seriously not expecting to do two borderline 10k word chapters back-to-back from each other.

Also, not entirely sure how this chapter turned out. Feels like it could have been better. What do you guys think?

So, kinda wanted to show Weiss' perspective here with the different teams. Similar to canon, she doesn't think Ruby is a good leader, but since she's now on a different team, she has less reason to actually care. While Weiss is envious that she isn't the leader of her team, since her team's leader is someone of similar societal position and education to her, not to mention someone she was close with in the past, she's more willing to keep quiet about it because it's a decision she respects more. Plus, she's less frustrated with Ruby being leader of her team because from her perspective, the rest of said team is even less qualified for leadership than she is. She doesn't like that Ruby got to be the leader of her team while she didn't, but in her eyes, it's a "Damned by Faint Praise/Best of a Bad Lot" scenario.

Also, since even the Betas expressed confusion about this, I should probably point out here that Bore isn't a new character or anything. Bore is just an insulting nickname Ragna gives to Port in his POV section because he finds him very boring. It's something he tends to do quite a bit in BlazBlue canon (Rabbit = Rachel, Old man = Valkenhayn, Masked Freak = Hakumen, etc).

Kinda had a hard time coming up with the conflict for this chapter. The problem in canon was Ruby not acting the part of leader while Weiss was acting entitled to the position. Here, that's not the case since Ragna doesn't care about that part, so it comes out more as Ragna needing to let his teammates in for the most part and actually start seeing them as teammates and not annoyances.

In any case, now that I've covered the first day, I think I'll take a break for now. Just get some time off for a bit then head back. Since the events of Jaundice and that plot bunny take place "weeks" after the first day, I'm also gonna have to try my hand at some Slice of Life chapters for our teams school days. Some of them might end up also doing things that could affect the story later down the road. They'd also give me some ways to showcase the differences the fused setting has that have altered canon.

Do remember that I'm very much writing by the seat of my pants. I have some idea of what I want to do, but I'm mainly just winging it. But I want to do my best with what I'm doing regardless.

Also, huge shout out to Gamerjay for, well, the shout out to this fic in his recent update of Remnant Inferis: DOOM.