I awoke and found myself in dark room, with very little light coming in from the windows. Despite this my eyes adjusted to the dark almost immediately as I felt my pupils dilate, his was just one of the perks of being a [Night Person, in my case anyway. I quietly sat up from my bedroll five feet away from the four other official beds in our dorm, all but one of its occupants being female. I quickly, but cautiously stood up and began to dress with the same level of carefulness. The night before, I was made the official fifth member of Team RWBY, and because of this I had to share a room with the rest of my new teammates, whatever Ozpin's reason for this was, I knew it wasn't from senility.
By the time I finished getting dressed, it was 5:55, which meant I had three hours to myself before classes would begin. In that time I planned to eat breakfast and do some research so that I could understand this new world better since Ozpin didn't care to elaborate on what Remnant was like beyond what I had so far observed, and what little he's already told me. That hopefully meant the classes I'd be taking here could fill in the rest.
As I finished dressing, I turned to a mirror nearby and examined myself. I wore a dark suit with gold lining, beneath it was a white dress shirt that held a red tie wrapped around my collar. I couldn't help but admire the way I looked in it, while I had tried on a handful of formal attires from the Wasteland, none of them could compare to the uniform I wore at the moment, probably because most of those outfits back in the Wasteland were stained from centuries of neglect and the uniform was relatively new. After slipping on my boots and grabbing a notebook I found before coming to Beacon, I dematerialized it and began to creep out of my room, doing my best to avoid waking the rest of my team as I did.
My pace was slow and steady, and as I reached the handle, I glanced back to see the others hadn't moved at all, other than to turn in their sleep that is. So I carefully turned the knob and opened the door, and crept hurriedly out the door and into the hallway. Once there I made a small detour to the bathrooms to brush, our dorm room had a bathroom, but again, don't want to wake my teammates up. After that I started the walk to the cafeteria.
When I got there I found the doors were locked, and a sign hung over the knobs saying it wasn't going to open until 7:30. Considering it was now 6:20 I had quite the wait ahead of me. Though it wasn't too big of a deal, I could just go over to the library and study until the doors open, there was no way it wouldn't be open right now right?
Ten minutes later I stood still in front of the Library's double doors, reading a the word "CLOSED" in all caps. Beneath that was a message saying it would open at 7:50. I found this odd because not only was it closed this early, but wouldn't be open until after breakfast. And when I examined it's lock, I discovered this lock couldn't be picked, not that I would pick it anyway, because I was no longer in a lawless Wasteland and trespassing is considered a crime here.
With very little options left, I decided to head back the cafeteria's entrance and find a bench to sit on. I found a small, spruce bench that across the entrance and sat down, I set an alarm for 7:30 on my Pipboy before taking some deep breathes and waiting.
While I normally don't have much patience for doing things like this, I could wait in one spot for hours on end either sitting or standing if I focused enough. In this mode, time could pass in just seconds. Though I'd only do this as long as there are no enemies around, since this method I developed has the side effect of nearly blocking out the world around me, including sights and sounds. The good news here is that I doubt I'd be under any real danger at Beacon, at least not between classes.
"Kid?" A voice shook me out of my trance, I noticed someone snapping there fingers in front of me. I looked up to see a janitor in a navy-blue uniform wearing a red cap. He looked concerned as he stared at me.
"Hm? Is everything good sir?" I asked.
The man gave me an odd look, "Kid, you've been sitting there for a whole hour and haven't moved at all, were you having a stroke or something?"
"Oh no, I was waiting for the cafeteria to open." I explained as I looked past him to see if it was open yet.
"I was just about to open it." The janitor jiggled a keychain in his hand. It was then that my Pipboy's alarm beeped, signaling my wait was over.
"You sure you were alright?" The janitor asked one more time as he started to walk over to the doors.
"Yeah, it's just a method I found to help me wait, you know what meditating is right?" I asked. The man nodded.
"So what, you can walk on nails without an aura too?"
"...no, not yet..." I shrugged, mentally taking note of yet another term I needed to learn about if I was to blend in.
The janitor unlocked the doors and I walked in to the cafeteria, it took an additional five minutes for the food to be ready, by then I was joined by the rest of this school's early birds. I decided to try some cereal today and poured myself a bowl of Pumpkin Pete's, after the cereal came the milk. I actually felt a bit of excitement, while the Vault did have cereal, most of it was pre-war, and even with all the preservatives they packed into the stuff it still had a stale taste, but here I was, with some fresh cereal, and milk that came from an honest to goodness cow, not a Brahmin, a cow.
So, I scooped up a spoonful of the orange flakes floating in the milk, and took a bite.
A few seconds passed as I chewed the cereal and swallowed...
My lips scrunched up as a hand clamped around my mouth while I used all the strength I had to not gag as the flakes went down my throat. My tastebuds had been assaulted by the overpowering taste of pumpkin and a dash of cinnamon. The taste wasn't terrible, in fact it beat Sugar Bombs by a long shot, but it was...strong. Maybe it was the pumpkin, but the taste was very strong. It may have just been that I wasn't used to eating fresh cereal since I looked around and saw the other students who'd gotten a bowl were eating it with ease. Meanwhile I was starting to feel my eyes water as my mouth burned.
Rubbing the tears from my eyes, I grabbed myself a cup and poured myself a glass of milk, I couldn't taste much of it thanks the the Pumpkin flakes, so I poured myself a small bit of milk and drank it. It took me a few seconds to taste the difference from the Brahmin milk, with one being it didn't have a green tint to it, and then there was the taste, I could describe it as more milky than Brahmin milk, which had a watery taste added in.
But overall, my breakfast was going well, and when I was finished here, I could go visit the library until it was time for class. I took my spoon and readied myself for another spoonful-
I almost missed the flash of red that burst through the door, it made its way to the servers and collected some food, as I squinted my eyes slightly to see it better, I saw rose petals coming from it. And I could make out two small, grey orbs turning to me.
"Wait, is that-"
A rush of air almost knocked me off my seat as the thing dashed over to me at speeds rivaling that of sound, I braced my arms up to my face and torso when I thought it would crash right into me, it stopped just inches from my seat, and as I looked over at it...
"THERE YOU ARE!" Ruby called out to me, giving me a exasperated look. "We were wondering where you went." Ruby continued, as if she were trying to scold me. She was also dressed in her school uniform, which matched the boy's uniform, but also came with a plaid red and black skirt.
"...uh...hi Ruby...?" I awkwardly greeted.
Ruby sighed, "You didn't even bother to wake us up either, we could've all come down to eat together..." she said as her cheeks puffed out.
"I was up at 5:50 this morning Ruby-"
"5:50? Then what were you doing for the last hour and a half then?" My leader asked.
"Waiting, for at least an hour and forty minutes." I simply replied, "If you wanted to come down to eat, why didn't you bring the others then?"
"We don't have time for that, I was going to come down and bring us up some food, and look for you darn it." Ruby gestured to the pile of breakfast foods beside her. She hurriedly scooped them into one arm, and grabbed me with her free hand.
"Hey-hold on." I said as I grabbed my cereal, trying to stop it from spilling. "Why don't we have time to eat here?"
"You'll see!" Ruby exclaimed as she pulled, "As your leader, I command you to-"
"Jeez, alright. I'm coming." I said as I followed Ruby back to our dorm. Almost twenty minutes later, I opened the door for Ruby and the two of us entered, the other three girls were also dressed in their uniforms.
"I found him!" Ruby announced as she plopped the food on top of a book case, crossing her arms and smiling.
"And where have YOU been all morning? Do you realize this child made us wait for YOU to get started here?" Weiss complained.
"If you guys have to know, I wanted to get to the library early for some studying." Technically I was telling the truth.
"But Wanderer, today's our first day, we haven't been given any assignments yet." Ruby pointed out.
"Well, I wanted to dust up on what I knew already." I lied.
Shockingly, Weiss came to my defense, "While it is early to be doing so, I think...our teammate is on the right track, not wasting his time with pointless socializing." Weiss smiled confidently, though I picked up on that odd pause she made.
"Thank you Weiss." I thanked my snobbish teammate, "But what exactly did you guys need me for in the first place?"
"Decorating!" Yang beamed as she held a box filled with the rest of Team RWBY's belongings.
"We still have a lot to unpack." Blake said as she held up a briefcase, which promptly unlocked and scoured her belongings to the floor. "...and clean." She added.
"Alright then," I nodded. "Let's-"
Ruby came up to my face and blew a whistle in my ear, eliciting a scream as my hands clutched my ear.
"Ruby?! What the he-"
"Alllright! Weiss, Blake, Yang, Wanderer, and their fearless leader Ruby have begun their first mission, BANZAI!" Ruby cheered, raising a fist to the air.
"BANZAI!" Yang and Blake followed our leader, the trio then leaned over to the right, all three smiling.
"Since when did we make a cheer?" I asked, Weiss shrugged as the five of us got to work.
Remodeling our room wasn't a difficult task compared to the tasks I've done in the past. I helped move furniture around as Yang hung up a poster of some boy band from the this world, Ruby tried moving some curtains with her scythe, only to cut off a chunk off their bottom half. Weiss hung up a portrait of a scenic spot in fall, Blake got to work stocking the bookshelves with a myriad of books she owned, one of them she pulled out caused her eyes to widen as a look of embarrassment took hold, she glanced around to see if anyone was looking, missing me as she did, before lowering it out of sight. I couldn't see what the title of it was, but I had a feeling asking Blake about it was pointless. After a little while we all stood in front of our door, examining our work. Yang's poster hung by the window, the bookshelves were packed (mostly by Blake's books), and the girls managed to stitch the curtain back together without my help. But our work wasn't finished yet, as the four beds were now all piled up in front of the window, my sleeping bag had avoided such a fate due to it's size.
"When and how did we do that?" I pointed to the bed pile.
"This isn't going to work." Weiss concluded, my question went unheard.
"It is cramped." Blake commented.
"Maybe we should ditch some of our stuff?" Yang suggested.
"Or, we could ditch the beds...and replace them with BUNK BEDS!" Ruby exclaimed.
"Uh, that sounds incredibly dangerous." Weiss advised, meanwhile my common sense and my inner child clashed, one agreed with Weiss's concern, as the other screamed at me to side with Ruby.
"And super AWESOME!" Yang pumped her fists.
"It does seem efficient." Blake agreed, the only one to have provided logic to the suggestion.
"Well-we should put it to a vote." Weiss whined.
"I think we just did." Ruby said as Blake gave a thumbs up, Yang held up her hands in a weird sign, Weiss slumped forward in defeat.
"Even if no one asked, I would also like t-"
"Quiet you!" Weiss shouted.
The four then raced off towards the the bunks and got to work. I joined them to help, since I had a feeling none of these girls had any knowledge in carpentry whatsoever, not that I had much, but what little I did could help. Ten minutes of lifting, tying, and nailing later, we once again stepped back to examine our room. By some miracle we had managed to set up two bunk beds, Ruby's was held up only by a few ropes, while the other top bunk was held by four book stacks.
"This...is dangerous." I said, the beds before me looked as held together as my makeshift parachute did yesterday, and knowing how well that went made my fear for my teammates' safety.
"Oh don't be like that, it's perfectly fine." Yang said.
"Fine as long as we don't get an earthquake that is." I replied.
"Alright, our second order of business is..." Ruby began, before landing onto her bed with an open notebook, "...classes." She frowned.
"Now, we have a few class together at-" I had already raised my Pipboy as Ruby began to speak, and panic set over me as my eyes read the time.
"Gee willikers! It's 8:55." Everyone but Weiss looked confused.
"It's almost 9:00 AM." She finished. I saw Weiss bolt past me into the hallway. The other three realized we were going to be late and we chased after Weiss, I set a marker on the local map to our first class. I briefly caught sight of Team JNPR peaking out of their room, and the sound of a group crashing behind us told me that they had also been caught off guard.
Despite their late start they caught up to us quickly, within two minutes we burst through the doors leading out into a courtyard. As we ran I turned to see Professor Ozpin and Professor Goodwitch watching us hurry, Oz raised his mug and drank his coffee as Goodwitch checked the watch on her arm.
After that it only took us a dozen or more seconds to reach the class. we almost knocked the double doors off their hinges and we scattered like radroaches to find seats. The room matched a Pre-War college lecture hall, hanging from the top of the front wall was and odd Battleaxe, when I squinted at it, I saw that it's handle was the barrel of a blunderbuss, as cool as it was though it didn't beat Grognak's axe. The front desk had a globe that depicted Remnant's continents, it would be useful if I could get a little closer to it. Looking at the desk from my view to the right was a gilded portrait bust of our teacher. And beneath the battleaxe were five sketches of Grimm. I recognized three of them from yesterday, them being the Beowulf, the bird which was a Nevermore, the Deathstalker, and the Ursai. Though the fifth one was new, a boar-like Grimm called a Boarbatusk. I quickly jotted down the names of the Grimm, describing which was which since I'm not the best at drawing. After that, our teacher finally came in.
He was a slightly portly fellow, with a head of grey hair, two big, bushy grey eyebrows that concealed his eyes, and a matching grey mustache. He wore a burgundy suit with gold buttons. "Good morning class!" He greeted with a jovial voice, "I'll be your teacher for Grimm Studies, Professor Port." He announced, "Now then, before we go further, allow me to give you a rundown of our class..."
Port spent a handful of class going over our material and what we'd be studying like any class on the first day of school. The syllabus was boring, but I managed to pull through without [waiting]. Some of my classmates weren't as attentive and were looking off in different directions or whispering to one another. Soon enough Port finished his syllabus talk and began our first lesson.
"Monsters, Demons, Prowlers of the Night!" The professor exclaimed boisterously. I sat between Weiss and Yang. Somehow, Port's lecture grew more boring than before, with Ruby having dozed off moments earlier, Blake looked like she was trying to focus but couldn't, Yang was staring off into space, and Weiss was copying down everything Port said as if he was going to quiz us on it later. "Yes indeed, the creatures of Grimm have many names...but I merely refer to them as prey." Port finished with a heartily laugh, which woke Ruby up. "And you will too, once you graduate from this prestigious academy. Now, as I was saying, Vale, along with the three other kingdoms are the only safe haven in this otherwise treacherous world. Our world is teeming with creatures that would love nothing more than to tear you to pieces..."
"So in other words, just like home." I thought to myself.
"...and that's where we come in. Huntsmen, and Huntresses." Port clicked his tongue and winked, I turned to see Yang roll her eyes and give a small, nervous chuckle. "Individuals who have sworn themselves to protect those who can't, from what you may ask? Why the very world!" Port explained, expecting a rousing response from his audience. I heard one kid raise his fist and yell in agreement, but after seeing no one else join him he sank back to his seat.
Port then went on and started to recount a tale from his youth, I partially tuned him out for a little bit and heard someone scribbling something to my left, I turned and saw Ruby doodling something on a sheet of paper. After hearing something about someone smelling of cabbages, Ruby gave a weird, gargled chuckle and held her paper up to us. It was a crude drawing of our teacher, shaped like a beach ball and lines indicating a bad smell, Ruby made a small fart sound and earned a small laugh from Yang and a small glare from Weiss. A firm "ahem" from our teacher drew our attention back to our lesson, Port finished his lecture with a bow afterwards.
"The moral of the story, a huntsmen must be honorable-" Port started, my gaze turned to Weiss who was still staring at Ruby, her glare from before remained.
"A true huntsmen must be dependable-"
Weiss's glare seemed to worsen, Ruby looked none the wiser, taking a brief nap as Port talked.
"A true huntsmen must be strategic, well-educated, and wise-"
Weiss's teeth were now visible, she let out a soft growl that Ruby didn't seem to hear.
"-So, who among you thinks themselves to be the embodiment of those traits?" Port inquired.
The very second the words left his mouth, Weiss said "I do sir!" And shot her hand into the air.
"Well then, let's find out." Port smiled. Weiss got up and strode off to the locker rooms, about several minutes later she returned, dressed in her dress and wielding her rapier.
"Wait, we aren't supposed to have our weapons in class?" I thought as another thought came to mind that made me nervous, "I dematerialized my weapons from yesterday right?" I quickly patted myself down and sighed when I didn't feel my 10 mm's holster. I wasn't going to leave all my weaponry in a locker, in case anything goes wrong I don't want to be caught off guard.
In the time Weiss was preparing for the demonstration, Port had pulled out a cage that was slightly bigger than Ruby, we heard growls and grunts from within, and the red eyes that peered out told us that inside the cage was a Grimm.
"Go Weiss!" Yang cheered.
"Fight well!" Blake cheered with a smile, waving a red flag with the letters "RWBY" printed on it, I then noticed a smaller "W" squished between the first W and the B. I had a feeling I was one of the Ws.
"But when did Blake have the time to make our own brand of merch? It hasn't even been twenty fours hours since we became a Team."
"Go get em Weiss." I joined my team in cheering Weiss on.
"Yeah! Represent Teeeeeeeam RWBY!" Ruby cheered.
"Ruby! I'm trying to focus." Weiss scowled at Ruby.
"Oh, sorry." Ruby apologized as Weiss faced the cage. We quieted down as well, despite Weiss targeting Ruby with the warning.
Port raised his battleaxe above the padlocked cage, "Let the match...BEGIN!" Without hesitation, Port swung his axe down, cleaving the lock off the door and letting loose its contents.
The Grimm was a boarbatusk, it was smaller then Weiss by a few inches, with it's face and back armored with the same bone-material as its brethren. With it's two, long tusks that I didn't know were as big, or bigger than a real boar's tusks.
The moment the creature saw Weiss it charged right at her, she was able to roll to her left after parrying it with her rapier, guiding it past her. After Weiss had gathered her bearings, the Grimm had already turned back around to face Weiss.
"Hahah! Wasn't expect that, were you?" Port laughed as Weiss held her rapier back up, readying for another assault.
"Hang in there Weiss!" Ruby said.
Weiss ignored her and let her rapier carry her towards the charging Grimm to stab it, it jerked it's head upward, catching Weiss's sword between it's tusks and carrying her with it in it's charge. When it stopped the two had a small tug of war for the weapon.
"Come on Weiss! Show it who's boss!" Ruby rooted.
Weiss spun her head to Ruby, looking like she wanted to say something to her, but didn't get the chance because the moment her attention left the Grimm, it got the upper hand and knocked Weiss's rapier away with another jerk upward. It followed up with knocking Weiss into the air and sending her back a few feet as her weapon clanked to the floor behind the boar-like monster.
"Ohhh? Now what will you do without your weapon?" Port asked bemused.
Weiss had just gotten to her knees when the boar charged her again, this time she just barely dodged it, it's momentum carried it into the desks, knocking it to its side and giving Weiss enough time to run and grab her rapier.
"Weiss! Go for its belly! There's no armor underneath-" Ruby tried giving Weiss advice before she cut her off.
"Stop telling me what to do!" Weiss's head swiveled as she snapped at Ruby. Ruby seemed hurt by the comment, but not the slightest bit angry, just sad.
Weiss refocused in time to see the Grimm jump into the air and start spinning. It started rolling toward Weiss like a runaway tire, threatening to run her over. Before it could hit her, Weiss summoned a snowflake glyph in front of her, which stopped the boar dead in its tracks and sent it onto it's back. Weiss took this opportunity to launch herself up, place her feet onto another glyph, and launch herself toward's the Grimm, and taking Ruby's advice, impaled it's gut. The two slid across the floor as the beast let out a pained squeal, by the time the two stopped, the creature had begun to dissipate.
"Bravo! Bravo! It appears we are indeed in the presence of a true huntress in training. I'm afraid that is all the time we have today, remember to cover the assigned reading. And remember, stay vigilant. Class dismissed." Port dismissed us.
Weiss's victory didn't seem to cool her off, but rather, she looked even angrier than before. Her brows lowered as she glowered at Ruby, who looked even more hurt now. After this, she turned and stomped out of the room.
"Sheesh, what's with her?" Jaune asked behind us, Blake and Yang turned and shrugged to each other. Ruby got up and ran after Weiss.
"Yeah, I'll go check on them." I thought as I stood from my seat. Something was up with Weiss, and whatever it was, Ruby was part of it whether she knew it or not.
It didn't take long for me to find them, I started to round a corner when I picked up on their conversation.
"-why are you being-"
"What's wrong with ME?!" Weiss yelled, "What's wrong with you? You're supposed to be a leader, yet all you've been so far is a nuisance." Weiss argued.
"What did I do?" Ruby shot back.
"That's it, you've done NOTHING to earn your position. Back in the forest you acted like a child. And you've only continued to do so."
"Weiss, where is this coming from?" Ruby asked, calming down to try to appease her teammate. "What happened to all that talk about team work? I thought you said you believed in working together as a team?"
"Not a team led by you. I've studied, and trained, and quiet frankly, I deserve better." Weiss turned her back to our leader and crossed her arms. Ruby extended a hand to Weiss and began to step closer, before Weiss spoke one last time. "Ozpin made a mistake." I saw Weiss stomp down the corridor, leaving Ruby alone. Even then she didn't seem angry and just slumped forward.
I finally left the corner and went over to Ruby. The girl turned to face me as she heard my footsteps, "Oh, Wanderer, did you-"
"Hear that? I did." I answered, "Are you okay?"
"Not really...do you think I'm a good leader?" She asked.
"As far as knowledge goes, I'm not sure." I began, "Ruby, it hasn't even been a full day since Ozpin formed our teams, of course you can't expect everything to go well immediately. Nor can you be like Weiss and jump to conclusions." I explained as Ruby gave me a neutral look.
"Oh-"
"However, as far as first impressions go, Oz didn't mess up. After all, you made that plan in the forest to kill that Nevermore if memory serves." I reminded Ruby, who brightened up for a sec before she lowered again.
"If you hadn't of thought of that, we probably would've been there all day trying to kill that thing. No one else was coming up with any bright ideas besides 'keep shooting, we'll eventually hit something important'." I further explained.
"Hmph, he has a point Ms Rose." Both of us jumped as Ozpin suddenly made his presence known. Don't tell me they had Stealth Boys in this world too, right?
"I wouldn't say I was completely wrong, considering one of your teammates is willing to be a team player, as the Wanderer demonstrated." Ozpin commented.
"Are you sure though Professor? Not that I'm not grateful or anything, but-"
"Before that, Wanderer, if you would allow me to take it from here, you may have more classes soon." Ozpin said, before I could say a word he spoke again, "Your leader will be fine, just a small pep talk."
I turned to Ruby, and she gave me a look that said it was fine, "Okay, I'll be heading off then. Catch you later Ruby." I said as I wandered down the hallway.
I only had one more class that day, and it was a History class with Doctor Oobleck, he made sure we referred to him as Doctor instead of Professor, he went over what our course would look like and sent us off after ten minutes. So I decided to go to the library and do some research like I wanted to this morning, now that my teammates were all busy I and no more classes that day, I could spend as long as I wanted here.
When I got to the library I went to find some books on whatever I needed to know (some about Remnant's history, some about tech, etc). However things changed when I saw that a good majority of the computers were free to use and decided to check those out and see how different they were from the terminals of the Wasteland. I took a free seat and pressed a button on one of the monitors, and sure enough a holographic screen popped up before me, along with a holographic keyboard. It asked me who I wanted to sign in as and I went with the "Guest" account for now, which apparently meant I could do less on it, I needed to see if I could get an account for it later.
What shocked me was instead of the black and green color scheme that I was used to showing up with text, I got a window with a few icons.
"Okay, where do I go to find logs and journal entries?" I thought as I looked around the window at a couple of small icons. Ten minutes later I clicked on the "Web Adventurer" icon and a "search bar" as it was called appeared below a toolbar with an assortment of tinier icons. I clicked on the bar and typed in "Technology", underlined words appeared afterwards, clicking on them took me to more windows advertising and selling different kinds of tech, mostly household appliances.
I made my way back to the previous screen and searched "guns", and soon enough, I found more windows showing all sorts of firearms, appealing to my inner _Gun Nut] I even saw some magazines showcasing all sorts of huntsmen weaponry.
"This...this is...pretty nifty." I thought, nifty was an understatement, for the next few hours I travelled across the "Internet", browsing all kinds of catalogs and tabs. While I searched I did happen to learn some more about Remnant. For example, I learned all the firearms here used "Dust" rather than gunpowder, and "Dust" was also used as a source of power too, with the Schnee Dust company having a monopoly over the industry (as Blake mentioned a few days earlier). I also learned what scrolls are, they're basically portable dial up phones but smaller and with holographic screens. They could also be used to play video games and to search the Internet like computers. However, scrolls can also be used to send messages called "Texts", they're like emails but less formal and quicker to send. In a way they are like my Pipboy, since some Pipboy models can also play games, though scrolls could also measure and track a person's "Aura" apparently, while my Pipboy measured things like radiation, my healt, and so on.
Next thing I knew, it was already late in the afternoon. I got up to stretch and saw Blake at the far end of the library, her face having just left another book. She looked over and saw me, we both waved to each other and went back to doing our thing. As I returned to my current activity of looking at cute cat pictures (which the Internet had a lot of), someone had taken a seat across from me and cleared their throat.
"I see someone has just discovered the Internet, though didn't you say you had computers back in your 'Wasteland'?" Ozpin asked quietly.
"Don't-" I quickly looked around, "Don't bring that up here." I begged.
"Relax Mr Wanderer, the only souls here are you, me, and your teammate in the back, who's far enough away to not hear us." Ozpin raised a hand, motioning for me to remain seated.
"...as I have told you, we do have computers where I'm from." I said as I calmed down, "But our terminals didn't have a lot of uses other than data storage, journaling, emailing, and the occasional control center to unlock or even open doors." I explained, "We never had any of these...websites they're called?"
Ozpin snickered quietly, "And here I thought I had trouble with those. But yes, they are websites, and as you may have learned, computers here hold most, if not, all the known knowledge in the world. It must seem disorienting for one such as yourself."
"Easier to grasp then the rules of an alien world." I remarked.
"Funny you should mention that, I was going to ask you how your stay has been so far, but I can assume from that remark that it's been less than favorable, no?"
"Yes..." I paused, "It doesn't help that I didn't know we would be thrown off a cliff for our entrance exam either." I said.
Ozpin's smile faded, in place was a more serious look, "Oh, that..." he paused, "I would like to apologize for that Wanderer, I hadn't actually meant to leave you in the dark about that. It just slipped my mind until the beginning of the Initiation, by then it was a little late to inform you of it."
"That's a big thing to forget, don't you think?" I asked, "Since, you know, people were never flung off high places and expected to survive for an initiation in my."
"For starters, many of my students are all told of this as early as when they start at a primary combat school, and we also warn soon-to-be students in the acceptance letters we send. And even the ones who are either unprepared, or fail to land safely, their auras are usually strong enough to prevent any major damage." Ozpin explained.
"Again, I'm not from this world, and talk about stuff like 'auras' at best is considered pseudoscience in my world, at worst it's just crazy talk." I replied.
Ozpin perked up, "There's been talk of auras in your world?" He asked, partially intrigued.
"Yes, but it's not considered real and categorized with all the other life force beliefs like charkas, chi, and what not." I elaborated.
"But surely Wanderer, those had to have come from somewhere, or based on some fact, don't you think?" Ozpin inquired.
"Most of those theories were made up by quacks with little to no evidence. So no, if there really were 'auras' in my world, then they're needles in a huge, metaphorical haystack." I finished.
Ozpin nodded, "I see, in Remnant meanwhile, auras are not only real, but a huntsmen's most basic tool and weapon against the Grimm. It acts as a shield to protect them from harm and can even heal them as well." Ozpin summarized, "They're a manifestation of one's soul and are a part of every living creature excluding plants." He finished.
"Shields them from harm eh." My mind started piecing together all that I saw, the henchmen with the shields, Jaune surviving our launch, and all the hits Ruby and the others took during initiation. "That must have been their auras protecting them, but they have limits,like when I broke the henchmens' auras during the robbery." I thought to myself.
"What about the Grimm? Don't they have auras too?"
"No, it's impossible for a Grimm to have an aura because they lack souls." Ozpin's look darkened briefly.
"Huh, I guess I must not have a soul then." I joked.
"You don't believe you have an aura?" Ozpin asked.
"I just explained that we don't have auras in the Wasteland, so chances are I don't have one either. Makes sense doesn't it?"
"Perhaps." Ozpin answered, "But I believe you do have one, if you have a soul, then that's all you need."
"So then how does one go about unlocking an aura then?" I questioned
"There's at least two ways to do so, either someone who has already unlocked their own aura uses their's to unlock one's aura manually, which takes a bit of the user's aura to do so." Ozpin began, "Or, you unlock it yourself through strenuous training."
"I'd say I spent the past year doing more than just 'strenuous training', and here I am without an aura."
"In the wasteland, but not in Remnant, maybe we can schedule you to get your aura unlocked sometime then." Ozpin advised, "I'd do it now, but I can already see some of the upperclassmen starting funnel in." I turned and saw some other students beginning to enter the library, if they saw Oz unlocking, or attempting to unlock my aura I'd have more attention drawn to me than I wanted.
"Perhaps another time then." Ozpin said as he stood up, "The whole point of our talk was originally just for me to check up on, and despite your feelings on your situation, you've already started growing accustomed to this environment, not fully, but progress is being made." Ozpin took a sip from his coffee, "It would be wise for you to have some optimism Mr Wanderer, you have to admit there's some light to this, isn't there?" He said as he took his leave.
Before he could go any further, Ozpin stopped. "Actually Mr Wanderer, if you could answer just one last question for me..." The headmaster turned back around.
"Sure."
Ozpin's gaze turned serious, "The night you...arrived here, you mentioned the...'vehicle' was inside a facility manned by scientists. What I want to know is if there are more of your people here?"
I didn't immediately answer as I thought back to that night, which was only three nights ago. I didn't get a good view of how much was effected by the machine, nor did I fully explore the facility either. As far as I know, only one other person was caught in the blast, an enclave soldier, but they were absent when I woke up in that alley. If they were also here I would've heard something about them, on the news would've been talks about some "tall, dark, armored figure roaming the streets" or something. Yet I've heard nothing.
Though I'd have tune into the news stations of this world soon just to be sure.
"...No, I don't think so."
"You don't think so? Does that mean you aren't sure?" Ozpin tilted his head.
"I can't say, as far as I know I woke up alone in that alley, so I think I'm the only one from...my 'home' to have come here." I said.
Ozpin nodded, "Very well then, I guess I'll be going then. If you happen to remember anything else from that night, even the smallest of details, I want you to report them to me Mr Wanderer." The headmaster requested, I nodded to him in response. After that, Ozpin turned and left.
After Ozpin left, I wound up spending two more hours in the library browsing the Internet before heading off for dinner.
Dinner went pretty well, I had some steak with a healthy side of vegetables. I sat alongside the rest of my team and Team JNPR, unsurprisingly Weiss was absent from our table, none of us knew where she'd gone, our best guess was she went off to sulk somewhere in the Academy. After dinner, bedtime started to approach us.
By 9:00 I was back in my dorm with the other three members of RWBY, Weiss was still MIA, and I didn't feel any better about my roommate situation.
"There has to be a spare room or two somewhere in this building that I can stay at." I pondered, since if I stayed here I'd never be able to enter without knocking. Plus I can't do anything private either, like work on any of my guns or any research without raising questions. I was already missing my privacy.
"I think today was a good start for us as a team, don't you think?" Yang asked us as we got tucked into our beds (or in my case sleeping bag).
"Maybe" I replied, since the other two members of our team didn't seem to pay mind to Weiss's behavior earlier.
I heard Ruby mumble "mmhmm" sleepily, she was supposed to be studying for something, my guess it was for Port's class, since most of us were either close to finishing, or already finished his assignment (in Blake's case). Despite starting late I was already making good progress on it. It also helped that I wanted to learn more about these Grimm and better ways to handle them.
"How stable are your beds by the way?" I asked my teammates.
"Fine..." Ruby murmured.
"Ours feel oddly stable." Blake replied, who hadn't been crushed by Yang's bed, despite the fact it was being held up only by four stacks of books.
"It's a good thing we didn't have anymore decorations to cram in." I commented.
"Speaking of decorations, didn't you bring anything from home other than guns Wanderer?" Yang questioned, "A picture, book, an heirloom even?" She suggested.
"...Nope...nothing. Only the clothes on my back pretty much." I lied. While I did have my own "decoration" from home, I wasn't going to bring that out unless it was Halloween. Neither of my teammates questioned me further on the subject.
"Well, I guess we should rest up then, Goodnight everyone." Yang said as her head hit her pillow. I was finishing up our assigned reading for Port's class and would be asleep shortly, with the hopes of being able to be productive with my studies this time instead of browsing the Internet mindlessly, and also to get dressed before anyone can notice. By the time I finished, Blake was also sleeping soundly, leaving me the only occupant awake.
That was until the door creaked open, from the silhouette of her shadow, I recognized Weiss as she walked into our dorm, her sight landed on Yang and Blake, missing me entirely as she went to pull back Ruby's curtain. Up until then I thought to leave Weiss be for now, though seeing her peak up at Ruby's bed made me tense up, preparing for Weiss to try and berate our leader.
I heard movement on her Ruby's bed followed by her tired voice quickly rise slightly, "Weiss-I-I was studying-and-and then I fell asleep and-I'm sorry-" I sat up, startling Weiss as she turned to me.
"Weiss, please give Ruby a break." I said, "You've already made it clear to us how you feel about her."
"What-what are you-" Weiss began.
"Your not so quiet argument earlier." I replied. "And honestly, I get why your upset about our arrangement, but that was still no way to talk to Ruby." I started, "So unless you're going to apologize-"
"Now just wait a minute." Weiss started, "I'm not here to cause trouble." Weiss turned back to Ruby, looking at a mug that laid on its side next to her pillow. "How do you take you're coffee."
"Uh-uh-I don-" Ruby sputtered
"Answer the question!" Weiss shot back, but not in a aggressive way.
"Uh...Cream and five sugars!" Ruby answered.
The heiress sighed, "Don't move." Weiss said before dropping from Ruby's bed and racing out of the room. Ruby gave me a weird look.
"Did you say anything to her?" She asked me.
"No, I was in the library for most of the day."
Two minutes later Weiss returned to our room holding a fresh cup of coffee and gave it to Ruby.
"Here."
"Uh...thanks Weiss." Ruby said, her confusion turning to relief.
"Ruby...I think you have what it takes to be a good leader. Just know that I'll be the best teammate you'll ever have." Weiss said, sounding sincere. "Good luck studying...and that's wrong by the way." Weiss pointed to something on Ruby's papers that I couldn't see from my cot as she went to our dorm's door. "Hey Ruby..." Weiss began, peaking her head from behind the door.
"Uh-huh?"
"...I always wanted bunk beds as a kid." Weiss smiled before leaving the room.
Ruby turned to face her studies, I caught a warm smile spread as she turned. I'd lying if I said I wasn't feeling better about Weiss's sudden change of heart, but beyond that was also curiosity.
"I'll be right back." I said as I slipped on my casual wear pants. After leaving the room I saw Weiss a good distance away, how she made it that far by walking I wasn't sure, but I power walked down the hall after her, I didn't want to go faster than a brisk walk and scare Weiss. I was lucky enough to catch up to her within two minutes as she made it to the elevator.
"That was nice of you do to back there." I said as Weiss reached out to the call button. Weiss flinched slightly and turned towards me.
"I was just doing my part as her teammate." She responded with a hint of pride.
"Bit of a far cry from this morning if you ask me." I said, Weiss shuffled slightly. "I don't want to sound too nosey, but what's with the change of tune all of a sudden?"
"If you must know..." Weiss huffed, "...I spoke with Professor Port, and during our discussion he convinced me that I may have been wrong..." she paused, "And to instead do what I can as a teammate and help out."
"That's pretty humble." When Weiss started to glare I raised my hands, "Not that I didn't think you weren't humble or anything, but-"
"Don't act like you're any better, you still need to make up just as much as I did." She snidely replied.
"Me?"
"You snuck out early this morning to do your own thing, Ruby almost had a heart attack trying to find you."
"Well-I helped put the room together." I reminded Weiss, proving I had made up for it.
"We all did, so you're the one that still owes Ruby an apology." Weiss remarked. I felt partially tempted to bring up my pep talk with Ruby that would've made up for my absence this morning, but I decided against dragging Weiss back into her mess from earlier.
"Okay, I'll apologize to her when I get back to the room." I gave in, to be fair I felt a tinge of guilt for what I did, mostly because I didn't even bother to leave a note behind to tell my team where I was going. "So, where are you going now then?" I asked, changing the subject.
"To get some studying done outside, the weather isn't too cold right now, which would be perfect for studying. Chances are there will be even less people out there than in the library." Weiss explained. It sort of made sense, it wasn't too late, and as far as I knew Beacon didn't have any set curfews either.
"Alright then." I replied, "I'll just head on back to the dorm." I began.
"Goodnight...W...Wanderer." Weiss seemed to force my name out, did she really hate my nickname that much? It's not like that's a good enough reason for me to give her my real name though, she'll just have to earn it like the rest of my companions did.
"Goodnight to you to." I said as I turned to go back to the dorm for now.