Hey, did you know that college is exhausting?
Well, whatever, now we are in the second chapter, which is basically half of the previous one because I am exhausted. I wanted it to be longer but I find myself wanting to at least get something out before April roles around.
Although, since this chapter is essentially just an exposition dump, I'm too sure if I want to call it chapter 2. Ah, well, semantics.
When the group of students steps down from the ship, two women at the dock, and one of them holding a sign that reads 'Beacon'.
The woman that is holding the sign is a short-haired blonde woman with a large white hat. She also wears a green dress with short white wings behind the dress and white stockings. Next to her is a bespectacled older woman with pink hair tied in a large twin tail, wearing a normal business suit with a pencil skirt.
"Hello, Beacon students, welcome to Mac Anu!" The blonde woman cheerfully said and bowed to them. "I am Chigusa Kusaka, I'll be your guide in Twilight Academy."
"I welcome all of you to Mac Anu too." the pink-haired woman said. "My name is Pi Saeki, Twilight Academy's admission and assistant headmistress."
Glynda walked towards the assistant headmistress and both of them shook their hand. "Nice to meet you too, I am Glynda Goodwitch, the representative teacher for Beacon Academy."
Pi nodded as she pulled her hand back and then pushed her glasses up. "I know that you have just arrived here and it is late now, so let up quickly head towards the academy and get all of you to your accommodation, shall we?"
The group then walked away from the dock. As they walk through the street, they notice that the buildings are very industrial looking and there are many pipes with steam coming out of the top of the buildings.
They continued to walk and observe their surroundings until they made it to the city square, a large space with different crossroads intersecting on this area and a large fountain in the middle of the area. They saw the area is bustling with people trading goods with each small stall, sellers raising their voices to promote their products, occupying all corners of the city square and even around the fountain.
"Stay close, everyone," Chigusa said and then pointed her hand to the right. "But if you somehow got lost, then just head to the Dome."
Ruby and her friends turned their heads towards where Chigusa pointed and saw an enormous dome that towers over everything in the city that they saw so far.
"What is that place though?" Ruby asked.
"Well, that is the place you all will be staying." Chigusa answered. "Well, the Dome is just a term for a big collective building and you all will stay and study in four of those buildings."
The teenagers were in awe, but since they cannot stay in one place too long (as they are tired), they continued to follow closely to their guides as they trudged through the street and towards the bridge to the Dome.
Once they finally entered the dome, they noticed something that confused them.
"Why is it just a room?" Yang exclaimed.
When they walked into the Dome, Yang said it was just a decently sized room with two very stalls being occupied by two Vital Vistas. There are no bridges or walkways for anyone to walk, and no other exits to speak of.
"Oh, oh, oh." Nora suddenly speaks up. "Maybe there is like a secret passage that we have to go, or maybe there is a teleportation device and we go like 'zoom' or something!"
"Erm… Nora, I don't think teleportation is something that exists." Jaune delivered his words in a deadpan voice.
"She's right." Pi immediately followed up with what Jaune said, throwing everyone off guard. "If you are all paying attention just now, that large gyroscope behind us is the teleportation device we use in Harald."
They look behind them and indeed, there is a gyroscope-like device floating in the middle of the room, then in front of them a blue light emanates in front of the device, where they saw a Faunus appearing inside the blue light.
Except for Glynda, all the Beacon visitors slack-jawed by what they witness in front of them.
"That caught them off guard, does it?" Pi said in amusement.
"That seems to be the case. Now I see why you like seeing people's reaction when they witness a Chaos Gate working." Glynda replied, she had seen many students being surprised, but this one might take the cake.
"Regardless," Pi snapped the students out of their shock. "I need all of you to stand close to the Chaos Gate, the teleporter that we will use to go to the academy."
"How does it even work?" Weiss asked as the heiress can't fathom that a teleportation device that doesn't use dust exists. There is nothing in her mind that can make sense of this weird magical device.
"I'll tell all of you later, but if you want the basics of how it works: ancient technology."
Weiss felt like it doesn't explain anything and just makes her more confused, but they need to go to the academy now, so she let it slide for now.
The students walked towards the Chaos Gate and stood around the teleporter, with Pi and Chigusa standing the closest to the device.
Then, Pi declared a sentence. "Delta Dazzling Twilight Knowledge."
Once she said that, everyone that stands around the Chaos Gate is surrounded by the same blue light and are sent to another place.
When the light dims down, the students are in another building, as they notice that the layout is now completely different. Pi called them to follow her to the dorm building, which is south of the academy.
"The architecture of this place looks so interesting, I have never truly seen architectures that blend two different styles so well before." As she looked around the academy, Pyrrha commented that there is a mixture of both Mistrialian and Valian architecture design.
"Harald has roots in Mistral. This island was originally used as a refuge for Mistral immigrants during the Great War by Vale." Pi explained.
"So then why is this island not part of Vale after that? Seems like a huge loss to Vale by the looks of it." Yang asked.
Glynda decides to provide the answer to the students, as she is quite familiar with Harald's history. "We broke off with Harald after the Vale King had a disagreement with Harald's Wiseman about the Color Naming Policy."
"Wait, really? All because of that." Nora said.
"It's more than that." Chigusa answered as she walked in front of the group and opened an elevator. The ground followed her into it and Chigusa proceeded to bring them to floor 5, the dormitory floor.
Then Chigusa continued to explain. "Harald Hoerwick, the first Wiseman of this island -yes, this island is named after him- believed that the Color Naming Policy is an unnecessary restriction to the citizens. He understands the symbolic meaning behind the policy but still stands firm with his opinion.
Then, the Vale King wants to compromise it with a 20% increase in contribution hike in fiscal input, but Hoerwick declines and from there it leads up to both countries breaking up."
Once Chigusa finished her explanation, the elevator stopped and opened the door. Everyone shuffled out of the elevator, following Pi and Chigusa until they reached one of the last doors on the floor. Pi fetched out a key from her pocket and opened the door for the students to enter.
"There you go." Chigusa cheered. "From today onwards, this will be where you stay!"
They saw that the room is extremely huge, there are four bunk beds (that are not dangerous at all, thank the Gods), two large mid-century sofas, and a large kitchen to boot.
"Wait…" Jaune spoke up. "Why are there four bunk beds?"
Suddenly, the rest of the Beacon students looked around and started to share the same thoughts the more they thought about the implication.
"Well, like all the students in Twilight Academy, all of you will be staying in the same dorm room." Chigusa answered.
Hearing what Chigusa said, the girls from Team RWBY immediately protested against the idea.
"W-wait, all of us? As in both teams?" Ruby stuttered.
"Hold on, we have to sleep with the other guys?!" Weiss screeched. Then she glared at Jaune. "And with this buffoon, too?!"
"Seriously? That's more of your concern." Jaune winced from his crush's word, she doesn't have to be that harsh, right? Her immediate 'yes' didn't help it either.
"W-woah, are you guys sure about this? There must be an error, right?" To the surprise of her teammates (sans Ruby), Yang became very nervous. She will never admit it, but she never had slept in the same room with any male other than with her dad when she was young.
The first sleepover in Beacon doesn't count (to her anyway), there are a bunch of guys and girls sleeping there too.
"Where am I supposed to put my books now?" Blake said, not even realizing that she blurted out her thoughts.
Pi, annoyed by the complaints of the girls, decided that she needed to put her foot down and told them to be silent.
"Everyone, calm down!" she shouted. "Yes, all eight of you will be staying in the same dorm room, and this is no mistake. Besides, there is no gender separation back in Beacon, am I right?"
The girls couldn't retort against the assistant headmistress as they know it is true. They know that they are just making excuses due to their discomfort about staying in a room with other males.
"Besides, I do believe your sister team is one of the proof that this works."
"Yeah," Nora cheered with a smile, but the problem is that the smile is definitely not sweet at all. "Don't worry about Ren ogling you girls, he isn't the type to do that, am I right?"
Poor Ren could only nod in silence under such a terrifying presence that his childhood friend exudes. Besides, what she said is true anyway.
"I can vouch for Jaune too. He never once tries to do anything unsavory when we are all together. So let's at least give this a chance to get used to having to sleep in the same room with guys." Pyrrha chimed in to reinforce what Nora said.
The girls all reluctantly nodded, and then they began to walk in and place their luggage. Once they are done, Chigusa places the key on a table.
"We will bring you all to the cafeteria later at 7 pm. Until then, enjoy your rest! Miss Goodwitch, please follow me to your room."
After saying her piece, she closed the door behind her and brought Glynda to the teacher's room. Pi bid the two farewells and went her own way.
The student and the professor walked in silence as Chigusa led Glynda to her room.
Glynda stared at the blonde girl nervously, something that she will not show towards any of her students or in public in any way possible. She isn't sure what to say to the girl in front of her at all.
How are you doing? It's been a long time? Those words are unnecessary, it's useless to ask her those rhetorical questions.
"...Is there anything you like to ask, Miss Goodwitch?" Chigusa decided to break the silence and start a conversation.
"..." Glynda stayed silent for a little, collecting her thoughts before she decided to ask her a question. "You were radio silent for two years, Atoli. I was worried."
Chigusa stopped walking and turned around, fully facing Glynda with a serious face, without any of the cheerful expressions that she displayed before.
"I asked Mistral what happened, but apparently she told me that you had been living alone since you entered this academy, and even she had no idea what happened to you ever since then."
"I…" Chigusa hesitated, she was thinking about what she wanted to say to Glynda. "Something very large happened during that time, not even Aunt Mistral knows about it. And I'm not sure if I can do justice to just how many things that I want to tell you, but I will tell you what happened."
They both stayed quiet, hesitate to say another word. They want to say something, but couldn't find the words to express what they want to say, as if there is a lump in their throat blocking them from speaking any words.
Wordlessly, Chigusa turned around and began to walk again, continuing their journey to Glynda's room with the professor in tow.
They continued to walk down the corridor until Chigusa and Glynda stopped in front of a door. The blond girl fetched out another key from her pocket and gave it to Glynda before she bowed and began to leave.
"Atoli." Glynda said, stopping the girl. "Is it alright to at least let me know a little on what happened during the past two years?"
Chigusa, or as Glynda calls her -Atoli-, didn't react to Glynda's words. She sighs and then finally says something.
"It's a long story, but I can tell you now that in those two years is that…"
For all the hurtful things that happened, I also find the happiest moments in my entire life.