Shub sat on the cliff's edge overlooking the forest.

She had come there to calm down a bit after the hectic situation, while also being able to see Benares from the corner of her eye. Every now and then she couldn't but look what it was doing, like it was going to have a change of heart any moment. That wait had become indefinite for now, as no matter how many times she looked, it was simply minding its own business with some 3rd years. It acted like it hadn't been fighting to the death a few moments ago, while she couldn't help but stay on guard.

Even with all her suspicions, she wouldn't be able to do anything. Anything but a direct attack from it couldn't justify her even touching the beast. Her looking at it wouldn't make any difference. It was under the protection of both Beacon and the Schnee, and neither party she wanted to oppose. It was such a weird thing of knowing you can't do anything, but still trying, nonetheless. For now, the dragon would do as it pleased, no matter how little she liked it.

And it wasn't even just that she couldn't do anything against it, but that she didn't want to. She wanted it dead but also wished to do it no harm, all stemming from their sudden new relationship of student and teacher.

It's as if the gods cursed me for their entertainment…

How was someone supposed to handle such a situation? It was near unreal; something out of some romantic novel about forgiveness or something. It would have been most convenient if she could forgive, but could she really? It had killed all that was important to her on Earth and had nearly killed her too.

To forgive it was to insult everyone it had killed.

Even if Benares was her student, she wouldn't forget what it had done. It would only bring herself misery, but it was all she could to please the spirits of her comrades. It wouldn't bring any of them back, but she felt that the spite she held justified her own survival from the Dragon.

"Maybe it's the price I need to pay…"

She moved her gaze from the forest to her metallic hand. It was another reminder of what happened that day. Same went for the rest of her augments. They were better than normal flesh and blood; they had much more strength and weren't as fragile. But it was humiliating. Half of her body was reduced to nothing from the moment's venture into the Quanta. She wasn't tuned with it, unlike her mother, so the Quanta was quick to reject her presence.

When she barely managed to squeeze the last juices from the tumour inside her and escape the Sea. She remembered feeling something missing. There was no bleeding from what she remembered, as her leg, arm, face, and part of her torso had been cleanly removed almost like they never were there. Luckily, she never saw what she looked like at that moment, but she could imagine.

Her current body she owed to Ozpin. She had been found by a few Huntsmen, who had gotten her to a hospital. The doctors had been quick to tell it was going to be absurdly expensive—more Lien than a Huntress would make in their lifetime. Ozpin had fortunately been informed of the incident by the Huntsmen, and he had decided to sponsor the procedure.

She was suspicious of why Ozpin decided to do so. Maybe the Huntsmen had convinced him, or he was expecting to get something out of saving her.

She heard footsteps approach on the grass to her place on the edge. Looking behind her back, she saw Ozpin holding his cane against the ground.

"What's up boss?"

Maybe it would have been more polite to stand but her tired human leg protested the notion, still tired from the fighting.

"Just came to talk about a few things," Ozpin explained. "About your upcoming days."

Oh

She had been expecting Ozpin to come to her to talk about the incident, but it sounded like the news had yet to reach him, or he just didn't think it needed to be mentioned.

"So. I'm going to start teaching tomorrow?"

It was her best guess what the old man was coming to talk about. She hadn't been given any clear tasks to do, just the general idea that she needed to teach the students assigned to her.

"Yes." Ozpin nodded. "I assume you're up to speed with who you'll be working with?"

"Ruby Rose, and…Bella." She answered tiredly.

That was what Benares seemed to be called on Remnant.

Ozpin nodded. "Yes. You will be teaching both for the foreseeable future. They will need a lot of help to catch up with the rest of their peers."

"Yeah definitely." She slowly rose. "Ruby luckily was only a few years behind, but what about Bella?"

Feels odd calling it that…

It sure looked like a girl, but she didn't see it as human to begin with. A Honkai Beast wearing the skin of a human didn't make its nature of being humanity's enemy disappear.

"Ruby Rose will catch up quickly, but as you said, I am unsure about how well Miss Bella will do. It is rather uncertain how much she knows right now, due to lack of proper testing and documentation."

"So…The plan is for me to figure that out." Shub guessed.

"You catch on quick," Ozpin confirmed her guess. "The likelihood she could catch up with the rest of the students before the end of the term is very slim, but in any case, Miss Bella will need to get a proper education to prosper."

Ozpin turned his attention fully to her. "Tomorrow when you have time, I would like it if you would take care of it. Ruby Rose will start studies like the other students but will have extra classes with you to patch up what she is still missing."

"I'll do free-form testing, or do you have a test ready?"

"I'll leave it up to you. It will be you who will be using that information to make plans for Miss Bella's after all."

"I guess so. I'll get something together for tomorrow then."

She made mental note of that before she asked Ozpin something.

"While it doesn't really bother me, why bring her to Beacon of all places? She should've gone to lower academy first, right?"

For her, the idea of having Benares anywhere else didn't sit well with her, but for Ozpin it didn't make sense to not question it. He didn't truly know what Benares was, or maybe he had accepted it into Beacon for the same reason as sponsoring her surgery: he knew something wasn't right about them. Both she and Benares were aliens in Remnant, so maybe the professor had realized something was off about them?

Ozpin didn't answer as he looked at her in thought, and then the forest, thinking.

"She is a very special case, as you will know after reading her profile. She has incredible potential, and I fear she may become a target due to that. It is why I let her come here instead."

"Of whom?"

Unless there are more people from Earth here, no one should be able to notice anything special about it, besides me

And on top of that, what Ozpin said only reinforced her suspicion that the old man could really tell they were both abnormalities in this world. Besides having a versatile "Semblance" and wings, Benares wasn't anything unheard of, and for now, the only people that knew it was summoned through Weiss Schnee's Semblance were limited to only a few.

"From people who'd want to misuse her powers," Ozpin answered. "Her Semblance can do much damage if it is used for wrong. That is why I let her come along with Weiss."

That he is right about

Benares could do serious damage if it really tried to. During their fight, it was severely holding itself back, or it had simply become weaker. Its true form had become much smaller than before, hinting its Honkai Energy reserves were low.

"Well, I will make sure it learns everything a Huntress should." She turned to walk away to her office. "I'll see you tomorrow.

Scene Break

She looks worried...

Through the slightly blue-tinted screen she watched Weiss and the red-haired girl—Ruby—stop and hold each of their weapons out as a gigantic black form faced them. It had a huge body, and its white skull contrasted with its black body. It was the same type of being as the one she had fought before she and Weiss had travelled to Vale.

The current beast was a different kind though. It was larger and more…round?

"What is that?"

She turned to Coco, hopeful for an answer.

"You mean that Ursa?"

Coco seemed to find the question odd, but still carried on with the answer.

"It's one Grimm you'll see way more often here than Solitas. If you haven't faced one before, they can~ be a little intimidating, but other than that they're really not that bad. Just don't try to wrestle with them."

Wrestle?

Before the bear got any closer, Weiss sprung off the hard dirt floor with glyph propelling her. The white dash rose into the air before it turned downward towards the Ursa in a sudden motion as it reflected off another glyph. The Ursa—even with its large body—was pushed back and released a growl as Weiss impacted on its skull.

More strikes from her rapier this time came one after another in a quick session after Weiss landed on the ground, and each pushed the Ursa back more but didn't do much else. Frustrated, the Ursa raised its paw and mauled at Weiss.

Weiss had already pulled back and as the giant paw neared, she jumped over it, revealing a red whirlwind.

A painful roar was released from its jaw as its head was hit from below. Its footing trembled and its head turned to the ground as it stumbled, but its pained cry was silenced soon after as the sharp blade of a scythe cut its neck open. Bella expected blood to spew out, but the creature just disintegrated into black particles.

Perhaps I should not be shocked. That creature I faced did the same thing if I recall correctly

"Guess I should've expected as much from the Schnee Heiress." Coco mulled the thought out loud. "And Ruby wasn't bad either. But I think Weiss needs to limit her Aura usage a bit maybe…"

While Ruby was standing proudly with her scythe, Weiss was leaning on her rapier with ragged breath. It looked she might fall over at any moment.

Bella sighed as she knew the reason. I fear I may have exhausted her more than I was permitted…

"By the way Bella," Velvet interrupted her thoughts. "Do you know if you have fighting class tomorrow?"

"Fighting class?" Bella asked herself. "I do not know. I have not been informed about what my schedule will be. Weiss said that I at least would not be following standard procedure when it comes to that."

"Well tomorrow classes should start for everyone, so can you message when you'll be having fighting class. I'd be interested in coming to watch if I get the chance."

"You want to watch me fight?"

"Yeah!" Velvet nodded happily. "I haven't ever seen you fight before."

Bella was glad to accept. "Once I know about the details, but I'll say I am not experienced in fighting. I received my weapon a few days ago, so I still lack sufficient skill with it to use it well."

"No worries, that only makes it more exciting." Coco waved away her worry. "Noobies like you usually come up with the craziest fighting styles."

"Professional Huntsmen have incredible skill, but it's sometimes it's more fun to watch someone inexperienced, to get a new perspective, and new applications for things like Dust."

"And you can take a few pics, right?" Coco asked, and Velvet nodded.

Dust application seemed to be more unique than before and grow in complexity with newer generations. The old generation would teach their findings to the younger generations, and they would learn them and add to them and then the cycle would continue. And everyone's own unique Semblances only added to what you could do with Dust.

"I will definitely ask my teacher when we will be having our next class then."

Bella smiled broadly. She wasn't sure if she'd live up to the expectations of her new friends, but it was exciting, nonetheless. The fight with the red-haired woman had at least given her some gauge as to how well she was doing, and that was alright. To her understanding, it had ended in a tie, and with both alive.

During the fight, she did remember wanting to fight back harder, but never to the extent of wanting to kill the woman. There was something about her that made Bella feel sympathetic. The woman had known her, while she didn't recognize the woman at all, so maybe perhaps she could tell about the past she had herself forgotten.

"But who will I be fighting?"

She asked the question as she realized that was never specified.

"Ehhh…Usually a peer, or the teacher depending on who it is." Coco answered. "If you happen to have Goodwitch as your teacher, then you will probably be fighting other students. She has been our teacher for the large part of our past two years here and that's how we did practice."

"But may we get hurt?"

"That's why you'll be having a lot of practice here, to make sure that doesn't happen. A punch through your Aura might hurt but it won't do damage to you, only the Aura."

Ah…I remember Weiss mentioning that

It might not apply much to her, but perhaps for others, their Aura was easily strong and plentiful enough to block attacks. She was better off dodging for now or taking the hit normally.

"But seriously, I can't believe you've gone through lower academy and not know any of this." Coco looked baffled at Bella. "Like, you did go through lower academy?"

"Well…" Bella scratched her hair. "No."

""…""

Coco and Velvet were simply silent as they confirmed that Bella did in fact say no. She felt the gazes on her. If before they were doubtful of her being a regular student, now they were sure of it. Their looks were questioning, and maybe even thinking that she was lying, and in a sense, she was, by not telling the entire truth

"I can give you a very valid reason, for why that is the case, but you must not talk about it to anyone…

She sighed as she accepted that the secret of what she was would be revealed. At least there was no one around now besides Coco and Velvet, both of who she trusted.

Hopefully Weiss will understand

Author's Note

Well I am back at last. A bit of out of the blue, yes, but here I am at least :D

Took a good break from writing, and I definitely don't regret it. I feel I may have just exhausted myself trying to write something I wasn't as excited about.

Now, I won't promise a new chapter next week or something, rather, I'm going to see when I can write and publish more. Upper secondary is approaching its last year, so I'm going to be busier then than ever, but before that, I will try to write as much as I can!