Shirou Schnee, Weiss's little brother, was someone she heavily depended upon, one of the three people that treated her like an actual person, not as a way to boast about the family name like her father, not as someone who he viewed on a pedestal purely for her family name like her classmates at that Atlas Combat School, but an actual person.
He teased her, doted on her, argued with her whenever she did something that he thought was bad,
He treated her like her own person.
-Which only made it hurt more when someone filmed that, resulting in him getting sent to another continent, her father not even making some type of convuluted excuse and plainly admitting that he was a burden to the family and it was his punishment.
The only type of pain worse than having nothing was having something, only for it to be taken away, the feeling of 'what if' always being on the back of her mind.
What didn't help was her mother's mental state deteriorating after the words said in the argument between her and Jacques the same night Shirou was sent off.
Once she found out about the kingdom he was sent to was Vale, her decision to go to Beacon Academy was partly to have a chance at seeing him again.
-And that choice paid off.
Weiss's eyes dilated as her lips quivered at the sight, the figure in front of her had his crimson cape fluttering in the wind caused by the still present winds of the earlier explosion, her anger for that girl being completely forgotten.
"Sh-Shirou?" She manage to muster up, the silver eyed teen turned to her as she tried her best at not tearing up.
He instantaneously appeared in front of her, only for him to… headpat her!?
"Wh-what are you doing you idiot!? this isn't the time for that! We haven't seen each other in three years and you decide to tease me!?" Well, she wasn't actually mad, the headpat felt nice and the feeling of it only gave her a sense of nostalgia.
"I suppose you're right, Weiss." he put his arms down while she could only narrow her eyes at his words, Shirou actually listening to her and not teasing her? Impossible.
"We should start off by having you apologize to this girl."
"What!?" Weiss yelled at his random statement while Ruby did the same in her head, both becoming confused at why he would side with the crimson-headed girl.
"I don't see why I should apologize to this dense idiot that ran into me earlier and caused that explosion!" Weiss pointed at her while she gave off her reasons, the girl responding by looking down, actually guilty for her actions.
Shirou shrugged, "She may have ran into you first, but weren't you the one shaking that dust vial so close to a person's face? It's quite odd that you're becoming so infuriated when a person sneezes because of it."
…
Oh.
"I-… I suppose you're right about that," Weiss really couldn't refute that statement, as hard as it was to admit her being wrong, she had to accept that fact, besides, her mood was in a reverse landslide after reuniting with Shirou…
Ruby Rose could only stare with her mouth slightly open, dumbfounded at the scene, the girl that was screaming at her just a few seconds ago was now acting reserved, calm, (didn't blow out her eardrums when she spoke), the primary cause being the appearance of her brother, Shirou, who was also the guy she fought with 2 weeks ago.
So did Ozpin also enroll him? It would only make sense since he did help her in that Dust Robbery.
After Ruby got questioned by that blonde teacher who nearly made her tear up with words and her threats of being hit by a riding crop, she did try to find him, but it was futile as she was told by the Headmaster himself that the guy immediately left,
(Shirou was quite hungry after the long and tedious process of enrolling a 15 year old to what amounted to a University without the contact of his guardians).
-and what was that thing she said about them not seeing each other in three yea-?
"I-I," her train of thought was interrupted by the girl in front of her, stumbling on her words while failing to keep eye-contact.
"I apologise for how I acted." Weiss's voice became stable as she resolved herself to act on her mistake, surprising Shirou at how quick she actually did it.
"Oh no, it was kinda also my fault for bumping into you…" the crimson-headed girl retorted while raising her hands to her chest.
"Well it's nice that you two seem to be getting along now, but I think that we need to go ahead." Shirou appeared beside Weiss, the difference in height being apparent as he put his hand on her hair, the girl trying to hide a blush as she faked an attempt at getting the arm off.
Ruby did hear about the to of them not seeing each other for three years which… was kinda sad for her, not being able to see someone close for that amount of time would be difficult, so she couldn't really blame them if they wanted to be alone with her…
Ruby Rose was one of the few students Shirou thought to be worth keeping an eye on, but the two other students who watched that entire debacle were what he was really interested in,
The first was a blonde boy, Jaune Arc, the student who was mostly staring at his sister wasn't that eye-catching but what were was the weapons the boy wielded, having a primary color of white while it was accented with gold, Croeca Mors.
The collapsible weapon itself was simple, but what made it so intriguing was that It was old, extremely so, and with that age came the history of its previous wielders, the fact that made him raise an eyebrow was their skill, they were mostly sufficient enough to be minor heroic spirits, which didn't sound much but it was a feat of a different level for normal humans.
-But the boy itself, from what he has seen, was completely incompetent, the small part of its history that actually included him was just the boy posing in front of a mirror with the ancient weapon, and even in the rare times that the boy fought with it with practice dummies, he was horrid.
There should be a reason that he actually got into the most revered school in Remnant, shouldn't he?
Shirou decided it best to simply keep observing the boy.
Then there was the second student that had a rather large bow, mostly staring at him during the entire fiasco, Blake Belladonna, a faunus.
The girl wielded a rather complicated weapon by his standards, Gambol Shroud,
She hid her faunus attribute, her cat-ears, under her bow, which isn't an uncommon action done by faunus, but what was more eye-catching was that she was previously a member of the White Fang.
It was a fact that would've bothered him if not for the history of the blades that showed the girl's whole hearted attempt at betraying the group.
"Hey! Are you even listening to me!?" A voice broke his inner monologue, right. Shirou was currently walking to where the academy's auditorium was, with his sister.
"Yes?" His unsure tone only resulted in his shoulder being lightly punched.
"Geez, I asked how you even got into Beacon." Weiss asked, crossing her arms as they both continued walking.
"Oh, I assisted that girl, Ruby Rose, from preventing a simple Dust Robbery by Roman Torchwick." he said in a nonchalant tone while Weiss slightly faltered in her tracks, processing the information.
"Wait Ruby Rose? Do you mean that red head?" Shirou nodded,
"Yes that Ruby Rose which you probably would've continued screeching at if I hadn't been there."
…
"Could you dislodge your foot from my pants?"
Weiss only kicked his thigh for a second time in response.
"I already apologised to her, so could you stop poking fun at me?" Shirou took a glance at the slightly dirtied heel-print on his combat pants, aside from the laundry he'll be doing, the pain from the armoured heels kick would've hurt fairly bad had he not activated his aura in time.
"-But still, you must've done something pretty impressive if the Headmaster enrolled you…" Weiss said in a slight awe as the both of them turned the corner, seeing the large entrance of the auditorium.
"Yes, if Jacques found out, he would probably still parade my achievement even though I'm only technically a family member by name." Shirou joked, referencing his semi-disownment as he glanced down to Weiss.
Ah…
His sister didn't seem to enjoy the off handed comment, only moving her head down in a show of melancholy.
Well, there was only one solution to this,
"Weiss," he said in a soft voice,
"I'm gonna go do something else, stay here and be well-behaved, or perhaps even make some friends." And that solution was by teasing her, well, he did need to actually see the weapons of more students.
"What!?" It worked as she forgot her earlier lamenting in favour of lecturing her smug brother who just said those words as if she was a child.
"Don't treat me like a chil-!" Weiss quickly turned her head next to her to where he should've been, only to interrupt herself at seeing that she was only yelling at empty air, her brother probably fleeing.
"Dammit Shirou…" She could only mumble as her arms were crossed,
"You really haven't changed…"
"Shirou? That guy that helped you with that robbery?" Yang Xiao Long could only ask after hearing her sister's story of the events that apperantly occured in the brief time she left her.
"Yeah! and he was actually invited into Beacon, like me!" Ruby said with a slight excitement in her voice, she was quite delighted at the fact that she wasnt the only students who was enrolled 2 years early, her face showing a small smile at that fact, which only made Yang respond in a smug grin while she came to a 'reasonable' conclusion
"Nice going sis, two friends and a crush." The girl could responded with a red face that matched her hair as she comprehended the words of her sister.
"W-What are you talking about!?" Ruby flailed her arms, ignoring the other students staring at her in the auditorium.
"C'mon Rubes, a boy and a girl that fought two dozen guys and the Roman Torchwick together under the moon, what else could be more romantic?" Yang ignored the light punches she took from her still-red sister, in fact, her sister's face only made her want to tease the girl even more.
"-And you two both got into Beacon two years early, isn't that not fate-?" Yang crossed her arms, slightly stumbling on her words as she saw a well-dressed girl in white start to make her way over to them.
"Yaaang-!"
"You're Ruby Rose, right?" a new voice interrupted in between Ruby's pleas for Yang to stop, the two of them turned to it.
"Oh! It's you." Ruby turned to her with a sense of recognition, was this the 'Weiss' she talked about?
"Yes, I thought it would be nice if we introduce ourselves properly." the girl said with a practiced grace, enough that imagining her doing a princess-like bow wasn't that far off.
"Let me begin, I'm Weiss Schnee of the Schnee family, the new heiress of the Schnee Dust Company." Weiss had a slight falter in her face at mentioning her status in the SDC, or more accurately, her brother's.
"Wa-Wait! Schnee family!? as in that Schnee Family!?" Ruby blurted out, she was heavily surprised by that fact, well, who wouldn't? Even Yang could be noticed slightly widening her eyes, after all, The Schnee Dust Company was the largest supplier of dust in all of Remnant, so even she would be surprised by the girl's newly determined identity.
"Uh, Yes." Weiss responded in a slightly awkward manner in seeing the girl's surprise, she never had many, or rather, she didn't have any person she could call a 'friend' back in the combat schools and prep schools of Atlas, she was always put in a sort of pedestal purely for her surname, she really hoped that this wouldn't happen again in Beacon.
"Oh, well… my name's Ruby Rose, nice to meet you, but how did you know it already? You said it earlier when you called out for me…"
"Ah," Weiss had both her eyes slightly widen at the girl's words, "-well, Shirou told me about how he helped you in that Dust Robbery." At hearing the statement, Yang had a grin while looking at her sister, who could only respond in a small blush, making Weiss slightly curious.
"I'm Yang! Rube's here is my little sis!" Yang had a big smile in her introduction, Weiss tried her best not to make a face at the girl's excessively loud voice that caused some students to glance at them.
"It's pretty cool that there's another pair of siblings here."
"I supp-"
"Ahem." a voice interrupted her, not to mention every student in the auditorium.
"You have travelled here today in search of knowledge,"
"to hone your craft aswell as gain new skills,"
"and when you have finished you will plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people"
Ozpin said as many students around the room were nodding, agreeing with what the Headmaster had voiced.
"But as I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted
energy"
The claim said Ozpin made some of the students gasp, and almost all of the first years were left flabbergasted at what the man said. The reactions of the students now being a complete contrast to the reactions of the Headmaster's first statements.
"You might assume that knowledge will free you of this, but your time at the school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step"
The Headmaster ended his speech as he calmly walked off-stage, ignoring the students still dumbfounded at the man's blunt yet still somehiw uplifting words.
A blonde teacher made her way towards where the Headmaster was in his speech, she did it in a composed manner all the while having a stern look to her face, Glynda Goodwitch.
She explained where the students were going to stay the night, the first years being told to go to an old building to rest the night before their initiation.
Elsewhere as Shirou stared at a red-headed student, contemplating the history of her weapon, he simply brushed off the speech, he could say that it atleast caught the attention of these hero-complex-having brats since it wasn't a typical school speech, though the older students seem to have already heard it judging by how they were unphased.
Shirou sat at one of the verandas in the building the students were told to spend their night, the school not even seeming to care about separating the hormone-filled young men and women.
He wore what he could call his 'casual clothes' a tight grey shirt that showed some of his muscled figure, and standard black combat pants and boots.
Shirou just finished his nightly training in the use of glyphs, he wasn't really making progress in using its normal abilities but it couldn't hurt to try and improve it, just as he did before with his magecraft.
He was simply enjoying the peaceful night, a quiet moment under the shattered moon's dim light.
"SHUT UP" the voice of his sister sounded, ruining the nice scene, well, atleast he could still entertain himself with whatever is happening in there.
Blake Belladonna sat, her pajamas were worn as she enjoyed the peace of reading a book-
"Helloo! How're ya doin tonight?" she sighed, looking up to see a blonde girl with overly revealed… assets, dragging a crimson-headed girl.
"I was doing fine, reading this book in silence." she made small jabs at them, all of it was promptly ignored though.
"Books, that's… cool, I guess." the blonde tried her best at making a conversation, scratching the back of her head while Blake simply turned back to her book, why is this girl even here?
"Oh! I'm Yang Xiao Long, nice to meet ya, and this is my little sister, Ruby." she introduced herself along with the girl behind her, putting her arm around the girl.
…
…
"Blake." the brief introduction after that long moment of silence only made Yang twitch her eye, cringing at how introverted the girl was.
"So…" she tried yet again at starting up a conversation, at this point Blake figured that they really didn't plan on leaving.
"You're the girl that was helped by Shirou Schnee right?" she glanced at the other girl, Ruby, atleast this topic was going to be interesting for her.
"Oh, uh yeah? but how do you know him?"
What? Are they serious? how could they not know of him?
"Uhh… What?" Yang said in a confused manner while Blake cursed herself at her accidentally saying her thoughts aloud, her words slightly confusing the two as she mentally facepalmed at her dumb actions.
"-is he supposed to be famous or something?" The blonde put an arm on her waist, "I get he's a Schnee and all but-"
She was interrupted by Blake pulling out her scroll, the girl planning to play that video. That same video that has been seen on the CCT for more than a small but considerable percentage of Remnants population (mostly faunus), and that didn't even include the countless reposts after the video was taken down for 'privacy reasons'.
What ensued afterwards was Yang's laughing getting increasingly louder at every one of the twelve year old Schnee's insults, though she didn't know most of the people he was insulting, what he revealed about those people were still funny as hell to her.
Ruby's reaction was quite different though, she was shocked at how harsh the young Schnee was being at wording his insults compared to the helpful guy she had met before.
Blake had a small smile the entire time at seeing the Schnee bravely criticising his own family's company for its inhumane treatment of their underpaid faunus workers, aswell as chuckling lightly at hearing some people she recognised to be known as open faunus discriminators getting heavily insulted.
What made it better was that she knew that those people soon had their reputations plummet once their private secrets got out to the world thanks to the popularity of the video.
"AHAAHAHAHAA! HE REALLY DOES HAVE A PORNSTAR STACHE!" Yang held her stomach while laughing deafeningly at seeing the appearance of the Head Schnee dragging off Shirou and the video abruptly ending, the students all around them who were trying to sleep being awoken.
One girl in particular who was in a deep sleep from the relief of finding out that her brother was really going to Beacon with her, was one of those students.
"HEY! ALL OF US ARE TRYING TO SLEEP here…?" Weiss Schnee threw her blanket in the air in her quick motion of standing up, her brows being furrowed at the loudness, before having her voice trail off as she stared into the scroll Blake was holding, recognising the familiar final frame of a video that showed an entire audience of well-dressed people glaring at a boy being dragged out.
"Man, you're brother's a real funny guy," Yang said after her laugh finally ended, still having a smile on her face as she tried to put her arm around Weiss's shoulders, only to have the Schnee push her away.
"Shut up! you don't know anything!" Weiss yelled while the blonde only seemed to look behind her, the other students could only groan at seeing the girl that was supposed to shut up the trio join them in making noise.
"Isn't it a little to late to have a shouting contest?" A new voice joined in, Weiss stiffened at its familiarity, especially how she heard it directly being behind her, realizing as to what the three other girls have been staring at.
Shirou made a slight face at what they were probably watching, as much as it was probably inevitable, he really wanted any person that he met to not have watched that video.
"I think that I speak for all of us that we should all get proper rests since the initiation is tomorrow." he shrugged it off and out his hands on his waist,
The other students in the room all mentally cheered at the words of their sleeps' savior's and how it seemed to atleast convince the girls.
Shirou took hold the last lit candle, the old fashioned building having them as its light source instead of fire-dust bulbs.
"-But!" Weiss tried to interject about how she wasn't one of the girl's making noise (well, in her mind atleast) but she was interrupted as the entire room went dark, Shirou having blown at the candle as the only light source was from the shattered moon.
The first year students stood on a cliff, overlooking a lush and green forest that one would probably think of as 'beautiful' if it weren't for the known hundreds of Grimm that infested it…
They were all currently being instructed on how their initiation test was going to entail, the main objective being to find a 'relic' of some sort then to bring it to an ancient structure built on a chasm.
Shirou took note of it while each of the students positioned themselves, being ready to be launched from the catapult-like mechanisms they were all individually standing on.
There was one peculiar exception though, Jaune Arc, the student who stood beside Shirou was only excessively panicking at something that was easily survivable with aura, then again, the scent that he usually smells when sensing aura wasn't on the blonde…
…
Oh.
As he was launched, he could only come to a conclusion, the boy didn't have aura. -But it confused him, how? Even in combat schools practically all the students had already manifested it, not to mention at the most revered school in Remnant.
So how? How could he not know of it if he was an aspiring huntsman, how did he get accepted into this Academy even with the skills he seemed to have in the history of his weapons?
It made Shirou suspicious of the blonde.
The boy was launched in a light parabola shortly after him, he screamed in the air while mindlessly flailing around in the air, closely comparable to a fish out of water.
'Oh?'
Shirou glanced to a spot that was quite close to where the boy was, seeing a student holding a musket-like gun while it was aimed towards Jaune Arc.
The red headed student was the same girl that interested him yesterday, a rather famous three-time winner of some Mistralian battle tournaments, and to Shirou, the student by far that impressed him.
From her two weapons, Akuo and Milo's history, Shirou knew she was skilled, extremely so, not enough to beat him but in a match against this entire first year class? she had a rather good chance of actually winning.
The girl was currently standing atop a branch of the tree she landed on, she calibrated her weapon into its javelin form and seemed to be readying it in a scarily accurate way that it would pin Jaune Arc's clothing to a tree.
Pyrrha threw the weapon in a straight line towards the still-falling boy's trajectory.
well, Shirou responded by summoning and throwing a nameless sword to intercept it, both weapons going to the ground as Pyrrha made a surprised face, glancing towards him where he could probably be imagined shruggung.
"Aura can be manifested by mental turmoil."
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAA-!" Jaune was falling from the sky, screaming from the top of his lungs as his body flailed around like a ragdoll, the reality of how the ground grew closer each as second only made him panic even more.
IdontwanttodieIdontwantto-
The phrase kept repeating in his head, time came to a complete halt for him as he was only a few meters from the ground, the ground where he was going to go 'splat' into a mess of blood, organs and bone.
What was he even here for?
The question made itself on his head,
Why…?
Why did he want to attend Beacon Academy so badly that he even forged his transcrpits?
To be a hero? Like his entire lineage has been? that was the conclusion he came up with when he first made his decision but… it didn't feel right.
Time continued, interrupting his inner monologue as a loud thud could be heard.
…
…
…
"I'm alive?" Jaune opened his eyes, his body was completely fine and he couldn't sense any pain, hell, he could say his body felt even better somehow…
Looking down at his feet, he saw a golden yellow barrier-like thing encompassing it,
Jaune came up with only a single conclusion as he made a small gasp…
"I HAVE SUPERPOWERS!"