Considering the circumstances that led to the man being where he was today, he'd say he's done pretty well for himself. That said, there wasn't much to appreciate about being launched into a forest and left to fight off a giant Ursa with the only backup being some people he just met, but eh, he's now a team leader at Beacon. That came with a few things, namely a team, but it also meant the burden of being in charge; the man could handle that without much issue.

Other people, on the other hand, seemed to be having a harder time.

One such person having a difficult time was a small dark-haired girl with little red streaks in her hair; up to this point, they haven't met, but from the first team captain meeting, it was clear she wasn't a born leader. He's shocked to learn she's two years younger than him, not even old enough to drink. The prodigy had apparently been welcomed into Beacon because of her skill, but judging from her overall apprehensiveness, her physical ability greatly outweighed her personal skills.

Ruby Rose, as one learns, did, in fact, know how to handle herself in a fight. Mostly. Most learned this during the special team captain training; in addition to meetings to help engender relationships, Beacon saw fit to throw the team captains together in order to mix up their comfortable team dynamic. After all, it was important to mesh well with more than three other people.

Ruby's problem in that regard was that she was a bit too skilled.

There were four because the universe just seems to love that number. Four team captains faced off against two Ursa Majors only two weeks into being Beacon students, and it was a hell of a wakeup call to those who didn't understand the value of teamwork. In addition to the man and Ruby, there was some manly blonde guy and a taller guy with light brown hair, though the blonde barely seemed to count as a fighter, thus necessitating teamwork in order to keep each other from dying.

The first thing that stuck out about Ruby after her age was that she was the first to react in a situation. While the competent guy readied his weapons and the blonde lagged behind, Ruby instantly unfurled her scythe before lodging it into the ground. As the first Ursa charged forward, it received several sniper shots to the skull; though they were small cracks on a big target, Ruby had analyzed the situation and acted accordingly, and with pinpoint accuracy.

Ruby was a natural and turned to shout, "Take care of the other one," leaving an Ursa Major for the leaders to deal with. Had it not been in the middle of combat, the man might have thought about how suicidal Ruby had just sounded and stopped her; instead, he looked to the others and pushed forward. Leaving the prodigy to fight on her own, he readied himself to fight the Ursa.

Rather stupidly, the blonde guy (Jake? John? The man'll learn names eventually.) rushed forward with his shield before getting knocked aside. After watching him hit a tree and slump down, he wonders A. how he made it into Beacon, and B. how he made team leader, but this was not the time. The tall guy (Asshat? Douchebag? He came across as a total prick, but now was not the time.) took a second to belt out a laugh before looking to his teammate. Rushing forward, he swung his mace back, igniting the fire Dust in the head before meeting the Ursa's claw head-on; personality aside, he was strong, as evidenced by his mace blowing the massive claw back, leaving an opening.

"Your turn, hotshot!" the tall captain yelled back, using his free hand to deliver a heavy blow to the Ursa's jaw. Even though it was just a fist, it left enough time to rush forward and attack; delivering some solid attacks to the Grimm's less-protected stomach, the man managed to make it stagger back.

Though heavily wounded, the Ursa roared back to life, furious that it was being denied its kill. Having learned from its mistake, it preemptively went for the heavy hitting mace captain; though he blocked, he was still pushed away, leaving the man to face the Grimm alone. The Ursa got down on its front legs and readied itself to charge. Still a relative novice at fighting, think the best option would be to avoid the beast, and be ready to jump out of the way.

"Don't move!" Despite feeling as though his life would end if he stayed still, the man listened to Ruby and faced down the Ursa, not moving a muscle. As he felt time slow and his last moments prolong, he feels the wind crack right next to his ear; the Grimm immediately stands to grasp at its face, a sniper bullet having shot out its eye. "I got it!"

Now that the Grimm was completely open, the man shares a nod with the tall captain and delivers a dual attack. As he goes for the stomach with a flurry of attacks, the other guy charges a flame-fueled home-run swing, shattering the bony mask and defeating the Ursa. As it falls away into acrid smoke, the man looks to Ruby, who fired the bullet that let him and the tall guy defeat the Ursa.

The man takes a breath and makes a note to get the other captains' names so they don't remain blonde guy and tall guy for the rest of his time at Beacon. The man looks at the Ursa Ruby managed to take down on her own, lying still on the ground. It was amazing; even though she was younger than everyone, she had managed to solo an Ursa Major faster than three… two could take out another. She even had time to help! He watches the prodigy retract her scythe and start walking over to the other captains, leaving the Grimm corpse behind.

Wait, that wasn't right. Grimm don't leave corpses. On closer inspection, the hulking black mass shifts.

"Ruby, get away from it!"

"Wha–" Ruby started, nodding her head before getting interrupted by the Ursa wrenching itself up and swiping at her. Her tiny frame was easily blown away, her red aura flickering as it failed her, though luckily she flew towards the man; he catches the girl and topples over, cushioning her fall. As she gains her sense back, Ruby hazily says, "Th-thank you," before awkwardly sliding off of his chest.

The man and Ruby quickly stumble back to their feet and face the Ursa. It was mid-charge, beelining towards the tall guy, who met it with a heavy mace swing. As he locked it in a stalemate, he looked to the two and signaled for some help.

Trying to think of the best course of action, the man formulates a fraction of a plan. "When I say, 'go,' knock it off balance!" Turning to Ruby, he says, "Cover fire!" and charges forward.

The words, "Got it!" follow as Ruby starts firing well-placed shots at the Ursa, too busy wrestling with the tall guy to dodge. Bits of black and red shoot out of its shoulder area as bullets strike it; though he didn't think that far ahead, the tall guy began overpowering the beast due to its arm failing, making his job easier.

As the man gets closer to the Ursa, he yelled, "Go!" and watch as the tall guy pushes the deadlock to Grimm's weakened side. As all of its force was directed forward, it started toppling to the ground once its wall stepped aside, meeting his weapon instead; the weak spot underneath the bear's bony mask falls right onto the man and his weapon as he slides in, and he unloads several shots into its exposed neck. The Grimm sputtered for a moment but quickly expired and faded into smoke.

As the weight of the bear starts to turn into a thick gas, the man pushes the dissolving body of the Ursa off and gets up. Turning to Ruby and the tall guy, he flashes a thumbs up, pleased he managed to work together… at least, three did. The man looks to John Jake Jack, who was just getting up from his resting place at the base of a tree; holding his head, he stood up, saw that the three were victorious without him, and swore under his breath.

After the four reconvened, the man, Ruby, Jaune, and Cardin (...finally asked their names) went back for the report for the exercise. Sitting in a classroom, they watched several of their professors finish discussing with one another.

"First of all, we're very proud of you for being able to defeat those Grimm," Professor… what was it? Port said. "Those were very difficult types for ones such as yourselves to face, but we knew you were up to the task. That said, there was much to improve with all of you."

Another professor, Glynda(?), followed up with, "For starters, Jaune, you rushed in immediately with no plan and didn't even attempt to communicate with your team. I know you're all new students, but teamwork is imperative!" Cardin snickered, looking at Jaune and his hanging head. "You, Mr. Winchester, over-relied on your raw strength, not to mention laughing at a teammate in a life or death situation. Though I find that exceptionally poor teamwork, you working together and trusting your other teammates is a good skill to possess."

Cardin, already sitting backward in his chair and resting head on his hand, scoffed. Glynda glared at him, clearly indicating she didn't think highly of the man.

Glynda moved on to the man, taking a moment to remember his shortcomings. "You, young man, were the best out of all of you. While you left Jaune by himself, you were able to understand your partner's specialties and devise a plan in a short time. Otherwise, I'd say to never accept a teammate saying that they'll face a powerful Grimm on their own." She looked at Ruby with a darker look than with Jaune. Frowning, she said, "You, young lady, tried to do too much on your own and were punished for it. We placed you in teams in the hopes that you would learn better teamwork."

Ruby audibly pouted and tried to hide in her hood, clearly not used to being reprimanded.

Seeing Ruby shrink, Glynda hesitated before grabbing her shoulder. "That said, being able to mostly take care of an Ursa Major at your age is no small feat, but you can't always take care of things on your own. Please keep this in mind, and that goes for the rest of you as well. Dismissed."

The four stood up and began exiting the room. Ruby stayed with Jaune and consoled him as they went back to their respective dorms, but Cardin got a hearty slap on the back, adding in a condescending, "You'll get them next time," before he departed. Having just beaten two high-level Grimm, the man thinks he's earned a nice shower, and heads for his room.

The next day passes mostly uneventfully until lunch. Sitting with his team eating what could be called food, the man idly chats about his new life as students. Off to the side, he sees Ruby and her somehow-related sister talking about something, interspersed with the pair looking at him and Ruby refuting whatever the blonde was saying. Yang had already made a name for herself, so he recognizes her hushing, "Go! Go!" and then something something something, "…make friends!"

Clearly not enthused about the situation, Ruby awkwardly gets up and makes her way over to the man's table and asks, "C-can I sit here?" to the seat across from him while simultaneously trembling. Looking back to her sister, she receives a thumbs up. The man's team looks at him, wondering why an insanely cute and super shy girl was asking to sit by him.

Taking the moment to one up his team, the man says, "Sure," and watches Yang excitedly grab a dark-haired girl's shoulder in the background. Ruby sits down across, not touching her plate of exclusively cookies; it was obvious she wasn't much of a socialite, but eventually, she got out, "Th-thank you for saving me yesterday…".

Basking in the glory of his team's jealousy and surprise, the man tries to soothe the socially awkward girl by saying, "And thank you for shooting that Ursa Major! I thought it had us!" The man realizes he didn't go into much detail with his team about how the captain meeting went. Wanting her to feel at least a little more comfortable, he continues with, "Your weapon is pretty awesome!" As he sees Ruby's face light up, he turns to his team and says, "It's this huge red scy–"

"Oh, oh!" Ruby interrupts, forgetting that she was nervous. "Crescent Rose is a High-Velocity Sniper Scythe! It uses special Dust cartridges and has a compact, sniper, scythe, and halberd form! My uncle taught me how to use her, and I've been training since I could walk!"

The man and his team share a shocked look at the transition from cripplingly shy to overenthusiastic. The man makes a note that Ruby really likes her weapon.

Before the man could stop her, Ruby asks, "Your weapon was really cool, too! What's his name? The specs? How does the firing mechanism work? Does it have Dust capability? How much does he weigh? Do you want him to be lighter? I can make him lighter if I have some of my tools!"

The man watches Yang grab the black-haired girl's hand and use it to high five herself. Ruby continues spouting questions about his weapon for the rest of lunch and leaves for her next class with a smile on her face and a bounce in her step. Yang congratulates her on making a friend, and the man exhaustively takes a breath, not having spoken that much in a long while.

The man is pleased with his decision to come to Beacon.