Chapter 2
Glynda Goodwitch hurried through Beacon Academy's grounds. It was late, and she was more than in need of sleep, but that indulgence would have to wait.
Arriving at the clocktower that also served as faculty office space, Glynda entered the elevator and hit the button that would take her to the Headmaster's office.
Ozpin was already there, standing at the windows that made up the north wall, his suit rumpled and his usual tie missing. Glynda had known the man long enough to understand his habits. Ozpin was troubled, and Glynda had an idea why.
"Why didn't you push Mr. Emiya further?" Glynda asked as she walked up to stand beside Ozpin. "Even if he is from outside any of the Cities, we should have had some records of his existence."
Ozpin sighed and, instead of answering, turned and walked over to a little table adjacent to his desk where a half-full pot of coffee rested. Topping off his mug Ozpin took a sip of the rich brew before returning to stand next to Glynda.
"I don't think Mr. Emiya was lying when he described how he arrived. But it wasn't a semblance that brought him here. It was magic."
Glynda felt a chill run up her spine at Ozpin's words. Of course, most would think Ozpin to be joking. Magic was something that belonged solely within the realm of fairy tales. But Glynda was one of the very few who knew better. She knew that six beings on Remnant could harness the ancient power to manipulate the world as they saw fit.
"Do you think..." Glynda licked her lips. "Did She send him here?"
Ozpin, in a rare show, sagged and rested his forehead against the window.
"I have not discounted it, but I find that theory unlikely. She would know I would have felt such a blatant display of power so close to Beacon."
The tension in Glynda's shoulders faded slightly at Ozpin's reasoning.
"That still doesn't explain why you didn't question him further."
"No, I suppose it does not. In truth, I did not question Shirou because I was afraid that if I dug too deep, he would flee, and we would never see him again. Far better to bring him here where we can watch him and gain his trust."
"But to offer him a place here? You saw how he fought to say nothing to the fairness involved in making such a decision to admit him to Beacon. That boy is dangerous." Glynda turned to face Ozpin fully.
"And what if you're wrong and Emiya was sent by Her?"
Ozpin turned, and he looked her in the eye for the first time since Glynda entered his office.
"Then we will do what we must."
Shirou hadn't been able to sleep. When Shirou and Glynda had arrived at Beacon, she had promptly given him something called a scroll, which seemed to function as a communication device and computer all in one, and sent him to a dorm room.
Finally, alone and given the means to search, Shirou wasted no time looking up all the
information he could think of. So, a blearing-eyed Shirou stumbled along beside Glynda as she led him to the cafeteria for breakfast.
"You look like you didn't get much rest, Mr. Emiya." Glynda broke the silence.
Shirou fought back a yawn that threatened to escape
"Yeah, I had a lot on my mind after everything last night."
Glynda nodded. "Understandable, but I recommend you put it out of your mind until you pass your initiation."
Shirou suddenly looked and felt far more awake. One night of research would not prepare him for having to prove his knowledge academically.
"What exactly does initiation entail?"
"I can't give you the specifics, no Beacon perspectives are given those, but I can share that you will be required to prove your competence and ability to think as a Huntsman to succeed."
Shirou nodded contemplatively, and the rest of his and Glynda's walk was in silence until they reached a set of large double doors.
"This is the cafeteria," Glynda told him just as Shirou's scroll buzzed loudly. "I've just sent you a map of the campus. Feel free to look around after you've eaten, but you will be expected to report to the auditorium at 3 o'clock. Enjoy your day Mr. Emiya."
Breakfast had been a quick, uninspired affair, and Shirou hadn't wasted any time exiting the cafeteria. Instead, he took the time to walk around the campus, memorizing the layout. It reminded him a lot of the Clocktower in London in its architecture. It seemed like every building was made with heavy square stones, and spires seemed to cap at least half the facilities.
Continuing his wandering, Shirou eventually found himself standing outside of the library, but found it to be locked
'Should have figured.'
Seeing a bench just off the path, Shirou sat and pulled out his scroll. He had already spent the night researching aura and semblances. Once he had started, he hadn't been able to stop. Aura to mitigate physical harm and a semblance to break the laws of physics. Rin would have had a field day studying those forces. Instead, Shirou kept himself busy browsing the web, trying to learn as much as possible about the world. Just like the night before, Shirou found himself lost in his studies, and in what felt like an instant, it was time for him to make his way to the auditorium.
"Do you see him anywhere?" Ruby asked her sister, and she jumped up ineffectively to try and see over the people nearest them.
Yang looked at Ruby, lips quirked upward and golden eyebrow raised.
"Maybe, can't really be sure, though, since you haven't told me what he looks like."
Ruby paused her bunny hops mouth open slightly before she gave an embarrassed nod.
"Ok, good point. His name is Shirou Emiya. He's a little taller than you, with tan skin, red hair, and gold eyes."
"Pretty distinctive then," Yang pulled out her scroll to check the time. "We've still got some time. Want to walk around and see if we can find him?"
"Yes!" Ruby cheered, bouncing on her toes, looking like she would like nothing more than to sprint off.
Yang laughed and mussed Ruby's hair, earning a squawk from the girl.
"You're just too adorable!"
"Yang." Ruby groaned, shaking off the offending hand and smoothing her hair back down, glowering balefully into her sister's laughing lilac eyes.
"Come on, let's go find your mystery man."
Yang led the way, moving so they were at the back of the crowd of other Beacon initiates. Of course, there weren't that many of them, and it was something Yang had noted with a small amount of disappointment, but in retrospect, it made sense for class sizes to be small. Beacon was considered the most elite Academy in the world, and its admission criteria were no joke.
Yang glanced back at Ruby and bit the inside of her cheek. For all Ruby's talent, Yang wasn't sure her younger sister was ready for the challenges Beacon was sure to throw at them.
"So, how do we find him?" Ruby asked, still craning her neck the best she could.
"Simple," Yang grabbed Ruby under her arms. "We get a better view."
Yang hoisted Ruby up, ignoring her embarrassed yep that followed, smirking all the while.
"See anything?"
"Yang." Ruby whined, her face turning a deep red hue as people nearby watched, a few laughing at her predicament.
Yang laughed. "Come on, Ruby, now's your chance. Look around and tell me if you see him."
Ruby cursed her naturally petite stature, but still, she quickly scanned the crowd. While she saw a couple of people with red hair, it was the wrong shade, and they were both girls.
"I don't think he's–" Ruby said sadly.
"Ruby?" A voice asked from behind Yang and Ruby.
Yang spun around, and Ruby yelped at the unexpected movement, still held up high, but she forgot all about that as she laid eyes on the object of her search.
"Shirou!"
Shirou stood there looking up at Ruby and gave her a small smile before nodding his head at Yang.
"This must be the sister you talked about last night."
At his words, Ruby again became painfully aware of Yang's hands holding her and began to squirm.
"Yang," Ruby hissed quietly. "Put me down."
Yang didn't acknowledge Ruby. Instead, she focused on Shirou, a slight further appearing between her eyebrows. Something about Shirou bothered her, like an answer to a riddle that was right on the tip of her tongue but that wouldn't come out.
"Yang!" Ruby kicked Yang in the stomach to get her attention.
Grunting, Yang turned her attention back to Ruby, distracted from her contemplation.
"Right, sorry, Ruby."
Yang set Ruby on her feet and sent a sheepish grin to Shirou.
"We were trying to find you in the crowd, and giving Ruby a boost seemed like the best way to go about it," Yang walked up to Shirou and gave him a firm handshake.
"Names Yang Xiao Long, Ruby's older sister. Thanks for stepping in last night and giving her a hand."
"Shirou Emiya, and it was no problem. It's never wrong to help someone after all." Shirou said quickly, noting the thick yellow bracelets on Yang's wrists as he did.
"You should have seen it, Yang!" Ruby burst forward, speaking so fast her words bled together. "His semblance is awesome, he made like fifty swords appear and shot them at the bad guys, and then he used a bunch more to form a shield, so we didn't get shot. It was the coolest thing ever!"
Shirou shifted uncomfortably. His magecraft was never something he enjoyed discussing, as a rule. If they found out about the origin of his power, other magus would have happily dissected him just to see what made Shirou tick.
"Yeah? Sounds like your one hell of a fighter Shirou," Yang said, her laid-back stance and grin changing to something predatory as her eyes changed from lilac to blood red. "Can't wait to see you in action. If you get into Beacon, we'll definitely have to spar."
Shirou almost took a step backward.
"You wouldn't happen to fight with a spear, would you?"
"Nope. These bad boys are all I need," Yang said, holding up her fists and activating the yellow bracelets, which unfolded and became a full gauntlet with spiked knuckles and gun barrels at the wrist. "Ruby's great with weapons, but she outdid herself designing Ember Celica."
The pride Yang had in her weapons and sister was evident, and Shirou could help but grin slightly as Ruby pulled her hood over her head in embarrassment.
"Do you mind if I take a look?" Shirou asked, indicating Ember Celica with a hand. "I'm pretty good with swords, but I didn't even realize those weren't bracelets."
Yang walked up and threw her arm over Shirou's shoulders. It was a bit awkward given his extra inches in height over Yang, forcing Shirou to crouch slightly as Yang thrust her other hand under his nose.
"Sure! I'm always happy to show off Ruby's work."
Shirou ignored the discomfort of having Yang so close and focused on Ember Celica, running his hands over the metal as he analyzed it with his magecraft, and a blueprint of the gauntlet formed in his mind's eye.
"This is really impressive. I can hardly see where it clasps together."
Lost in his examination, Shirou missed Yang's spine straightening as he carefully grabbed her hand to turn it over.
"Do you incorporate grapples into your fighting style?" Shirou asked, running his hand over her bare palm and fingers.
Yang removed her arm from Shirou's shoulders and took a step back, smile still in place, but the tips of her ears were burning. Not for the first time, Yang was pleased to have such long wild blonde hair.
"You're pretty sharp there, Hawkeye, able to tell that just by looking. But now that I showed you mine, why don't you return the favor."
"Yes!" Ruby yelped happily, "Great idea Yang, those black and white swords you used were amazing."
Ruby zipped in a circle around Shirou, leaving a trail of petals in her wake before stopping right in front of him, silver eyes pleading.
"Where are they?"
Between Ruby's crystalline voice and wide quivering eyes, Shirou almost felt compelled to fall to his knees and beg for forgiveness.
"Well, I…That is, I don't really need to carry my swords on me, with my semblance and everything."
Ruby's breath hitched, and her eyes got even more prominent.
Yang snickered. "You're not gonna win, Hawkeye. You should just show her."
Shirou sighed but recognized that using a semblance was expected, and being too averse to showing it off would draw more attention.
Shirou called forth the Married Blades as he had done a thousand times before. Moving through the stages of tracing in an instant.
"Trace on." Shirou breathed out so softly that not even Ruby could hear him, and with a muted blue flash, Kanshou and Bakuya appeared in his hands.
Ruby squeaked, and her whole body seemed to quiver in excitement as her eyes danced between Shirou's own and the swords.
Shirou spun the blades and presented the hilts to Ruby, who took them from his hands almost reverently, grunting as their full weight settled in her hands.
"They're heavier than they look," Ruby said as she began to swing the swords about, trying to imitate Shirou's own moves from the night before.
Yang whistled.
"I'm not much of a sword girl, but even I can tell those are top quality. So where'd you get them?"
Shirou scratched at his cheek and didn't quite meet Yang's eyes.
"My semblance lets me copy any bladed weapon I've seen, so I guess you could say I stole them from the original owner in a way."
"Damn." Yang drew the word out, "That's a heck of a semblance."
Before they could continue their conversation, Ozpin appeared, Glynda following close at his heels.
"I'll...keep this brief," Ozpin said into the microphone set up at the center of the stage.
"You have traveled here today in search of knowledge-to hone your craft and acquire new skills. And when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to protecting the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy in need of direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step."
His piece said, Ozpin turned and walked leisurely off the stage while Glynda took his place.
"Good afternoon. Please take the time to become familiar with Beacon's grounds. Dinner will be served at 6:00, and you will all congregate in this room afterward to sleep. Initiation will be held tomorrow at 9:00, so please ensure you prepare accordingly. You are dismissed."
Orientation was starting to seem very lackluster to Shirou.
"You think he was trying to come off as mysterious and missed the mark?" Yang asked, scratching at her head.
"Maybe." Shirou said with a shrug, "He definitely seemed a little off."
Yang hummed quietly before turning her attention to Ruby, who was still messing around with Shirou's swords.
"Come on, Ruby, let's go look around before dinner. I want to check out what their training rooms look like."
Ruby looked up at the sound of her name and nodded before glancing shyly at Shirou.
"Shirou, do you want to come with us?"
Shirou debated for a moment. He was tempted to beg off and find a place for a quick nap, but looking at Ruby as she dug the toe of her boot into the floor convinced him.
"Yeah, sounds like fun."
Alright, a bit of a filler chapter, but I had a thought halfway through. I have no plans for this story, so I want to try something. Each week I'm going to set up a poll and give everyone a chance to vote on what they what to see going forward.
Also, thank you to everyone who followed and reviewed this story. Feedback is always appreciated and helps me improve my writing.