As Neo exited the classroom, she could feel eyes on her. She did not relish the feeling, It was the first day of classes for the Students of Shade after they had been delayed in arriving by a Grimm Cloud, And after Neo's Mom decided she would be taking over combat classes, Neo was thoroughly embarrassed, especially after she showed that damn leaderboard.

Neo walked out of the classroom alongside her 3 teammates, idly chatting with them as she tried to ignore the stares, that is until a tall yellow haired girl stopped her and her partner in their tracks.

"Hi! I'm Yang, my sister here would very much like to meet you, but is too shy to ask, and so me, the best big sister ever, thought to introduce you!"

Neo was all at once taken aback, struggling to hold in laughter, and trying (And failing) to keep a radiant blush off her face. Neo collected herself silently, and then turned her attention to the girl in question. Ruby Rose... Her Adoptive Mother, stood in front of her. But not the imposing visage of a golden cloaked reaper of death, with piercing blue eyes, laser focus, and an acute sense of what was happening around her at all times. No, the girl in front of her was an awkward silver eyed 15 year old girl, who was blushing brightly, mumbling something, and attempting to fight her sister, all at the same time.

Neo extended a hand, and (Attempting to emulate her mother as much as possible) gave a warm smile, "Hi, I'm Neopolitan Lazuli, Its nice to meet you."

Ruby quit her struggle with her sister and turned her attention to Neo, "Uhh, H-hi, Im Ruby Rose, Nice to meet you too... ummm... canilookatyourweapon?"

Neo blinked, and then mentally facepalmed, of course her mother's younger self would want to look at her weapon, still smiling warmly, Neo reached out to her side into seemingly empty space, and pulled her weapon out from around an invisible corner. The sisterly duo watched this and gawked, with Yang pointing a finger at the spot in mid-air and asking, "Uh, How?"

Neo chuckled, People always did that when they saw how she stored her weapon, Her semblance, Crystal Light, let her make any thing she imagined, in whatever color she imagined, and only took aura upon the creation of an object, therefore, she used her semblance in tandem with her imagination to make a 4D box that floated next to her when she wasn't fighting. The box, because it was 4D, could be walked right through, and couldn't be seen normally, but Neo knew exactly how to reach into it to pull out her weapon, making it so that she never needed a holster or sling. The only downside of her semblance was the fragility of her illusory objects, they disappear in a shower of multicolored rose petals if more than a couple pounds of pressure are put on them.

Neo simply responded to the girls question with, "Oh that's just my semblance, a simple 4D hypercube for storing my weapon."

Yang stared blankly for a second, and then turned her attention to her sister, who was currently staring at the Ice Cream colored girl's weapon. Yang shook her head and gave the red cloaked girl a bop on the head, drawing her attention. "Hey, are you even paying attention?"

Ruby rubbed the back of her head and said, "Ow yang, sheesh, I'm just looking at her weapon. Whats his name?"

Neo gained a small smile, nobody before had guessed that her weapon was a he... "He's called Faceted Crescent... How did you know?"

Ruby, now more relaxed and in her element, "A beautiful name, and I just have a knack for that sort of thing, weapons are like people, they tell a story about their wielder and have identities of their own. Like my weapon-" Ruby drew an angular rectangle of red steel from the small of her back, "I call her Arching Sun, Shes a sniper rifle, a reverse grip scythe, and a gravity assisted throwing Kama."

Neo was intrigued, "But shes only one weapon, what does the gravity lock onto?" Ruby raised her left wrist and pulled her sleeve down, revealing a small silver bracelet with a purple sun on it.

Neo then asked a follow up question, "Okay, last question I promise, why Arching Sun, I get the arching part, but the sun?"

Ruby smiled and expanded her weapon, the medium sized box unfurling into a large scythe with a curved handle, though the curve went in the opposite direction you would expect, instead of curving backwards against the blade, it instead curved in the same direction as the blade. Ruby then pressed a button on the shaft of the scythe and the blade seemed to hum, then the blade changed color all at once, snapping from a cool steel gray to a radiant yellow, glowing and emanating heat.

Neo blinked and responded, "Okay that's cool, that seems really hard to use though."

Ruby collapsed her weapon, "Nah, its just unconventional, even more so than a regular scythe, with a normal scythe people only expect you to attack in certain ways, but with a reverse grip, I get options most don't expect, and I have a much wider range... Now explain your weapon."

As Ruby and Neo continued to talk about weapons, with Neo explaining the intricacies of her own weapon to Ruby, Yang and Scarlet shared a look, and nodded to each other, before walking off to their next class, leaving the two weapon crazy girls to discuss thier instruments of destruction.

Aurum sat in her desk in her new classroom, patiently watching as students filed in, her eyes observing as several faces she knew from her time at beacon walked in, some of them giving her a pang of loss and grief in her heart. She couldn't look Weiss or Blake in the eyes, her emotions wouldn't let her... she would have to talk to Theodore about this. You know, I'm not to bad of a counselor myself, I have been in your head for a decade and a half now, I share most of your experiences Aurum heard the kind voice of her constant companion and sighed to herself, Rose I know... I... Thanks, you really are a good friend you know? Aurum's attention was drawn towards her weapon, in its compact form, she could see that the formerly blue godly light emanating from it had changed to a rosy hue, Awww, I didn't know you could blush without being summoned, that's cute. Aurum's smile grew a bit as her weapon's accents turned from a rosy hue to a hot pink hue, signaling that Rose was blushing even heavier now.

Aurum looked up from her weapon and turned her attention to the classroom doors, watching as both Yang and Scarlet entered the classroom, but with no sign of her daughter, sighing, she called out to the girl, "Scarlet!"

Said girl froze, and roboticaly turned her head to the teacher. "Y-yes Ms. Lazuli?"

Aurum gained a dangerous glare, attempting to scare the poor girl, "Where is my daughter?"

Yang decided it would be a good time to butt in, and spoke up, "Oh, shes talking with my sister Miss L, They're discussing weapons."

Aurum turned to Yang, met eyes with her and then immediately looked away, guilt flooding her. Shaking it off, Aurum looked down and pinched the bridge of her nose, letting out a deep sigh.

Elsewhere a girl animatedly explaining the complex mechanics of mechashift used for her weapon froze, all color draining from her face. The girl the said 4 words to the other, and the two promptly disappeared in a cloud of multicolored petals.

Back to the classroom, Aurum was looking at her right wrist, watching the seconds tick by as she waited to see if her daughter would be used as an example for her first class.

Watching the minute hand tick over, and listening to the bell ring, Aurum gained a dangerous glint in her eye as she witnessed a ball of Red, Brown, White, and Pink rose petals fly into the classroom right as the bell rang.

Aurum shook her head and then glared at her daughter, who she could see scratching the back of her neck up in her seat, with a confused Ruby Rose looking at her. Aurum closed her eyes for a brief moment, and decided to let it go... Turning her attention to the class she addressed them all,

"Good afternoon class, and welcome to The Art of the Semblance. Now, in this class, we will explore uses for semblances beyond what you currently know, along with increasing endurance for semblance use, and discovering new abilities, or if you haven't already, unlocking your dormant semblance."

"So, would anyone like to start in theory crafting? Or if I'm unclear in how this class works, please ask questions to clarify."

A few hands raised in the seats, and Aurum looked among them and selected one, "Miss Schnee, would you like to start, or do you have a question?"

"A Question Ma'am, In what way have you used this class to find new uses for your semblance? I'm curious."

Aurum's face lit up in surprise, "Oh, that's... actually not a question I've been asked before. Why ask?"

"I'm curious about what exactly we learn in this class, is it specific or is it general, I'd just like to be informed about the curriculum."

"Well Miss Schnee, I guess that's fair. In this class we will delve into many aspects of semblances not normally thought about by huntresses, exploring new ways to look at old problems. For example, as all of you may know, I have two semblances, a rare but not unheard of occurrence, my primary semblance, Petal Transmutation, has been refined in leagues throughout my tenure at Shade.

When I was in Combat school, I thought my semblance was just speed, and the petals were an aftereffect; Later, in my instructive years at Shade, I learned I could carry others, and split into multiple parts, during my mission years, I learned of the ability to use my petals as cover, for a distraction, or on a lighter note, as decoration.

Then, during the roughly 13 years I've spent at shade, I've learned how to selectively turn sections of my body into petals, accelerate my weapon using the speed boost, or empower my kicks and punches with it, turn other matter into petals, and so on. All learned by teaching this class. Does that answer your question Miss Schnee?"

Weiss had listened closely and nodded when prompted, sitting back down afterwards.

"Alrighty then, would anyone else like to begin, or ask another clarifying question?"

Several hands shot up, and once again selected one from the crowd,

"Miss... Adel is it? Are you going to start us off?"

"Sure, I'm kind of curious how this all works anyways."

"Alright then, please, explain your semblance."

"I call it Hype, I can increase the potency of any nearby dust multiplicatively, the more aura I put in, the more power I get out."

"Hmmm, Interesting, How do you use it currently?"

Coco blinked, "I use it to amp up my ammo for my Gianduja, That or elemental attacks."

"Have you ever thought about using it to amp up your weapon itself, say, in the motor used to mechashift it, making the process faster, or maybe in the action, speeding up your rate of fire?"

Coco's face went blank, her glasses sliding a bit down her nose. She then shook her head, "Uh... no I haven't, uh, anything else you can think of?"

"Well no, not me personally, but that's not how we do things in this class. Everyone, if you have an idea, raise your hand."

Coco looked around in the seats as several people raised their hands, and then back down at her teacher.

"Well? Call on one, see what they've got to say."

Coco looked around and picked a student, "Uh you, in the black with the bow."

Blake put her hand down and spoke, "Couldn't you use your semblance on your opponent's weapon? If you did it right you could do all sorts of things, maybe jam their weapon, knock it out of their hands with unexpected recoil, or even make it mechashift on its own?"

Coco was once again left speechless, How did she never think of any of this?

Aurum chuckled, "Alright, if you want you can take to the stage and try some stuff out, now, who wants to go next?"

As the students all filed out of the class, they were alight with conversation, just in the short hour and a half time period set aside for that class, 20 students had been called on, and all sorts of new uses had been thought up, Nora got the idea to use lighting dust on herself, Blake realized she had never used any type of dust other than Fire, Earth, and Air, and Weiss got some creative ideas for combining glyphs in new ways. Along with many others.

By the way, just letting you all know, we're about at the point right before Dance Dance infiltration in the timeline, just an FYI, next chapter will probably either be Dance Dance Infiltration or it'll be Burning the Candle