There were a handful of reserved airships, flying through the clouded skies. Students had boarded through the hatches, either conversing with their friends or keeping to themselves silently. The main lobby area had been somewhat filled, keeping a decent occupant capacity, but the four brothers were able to keep each other in arms reach, traversing through the crowdedness.

"There's more people here than I expected," Naofumi said, glancing around. No matter where he looked, there was always a flooding of students while they walked on the clear makeshift pathway. "It's a bit hard to believe that everyone here wants to be huntsmen and huntresses."

"Given the entire Grimm situation, I wouldn't have doubted such a thing," Ren responded. "Besides, even if a student isn't interested in fighting for the sake of morals, being a renowned huntsman pays well. Even the smaller crew can get their big paydays given the right jobs."

"Right. I hear that the Grimm have been more active nowadays and they've been nesting up in more territory like the forest near the orphanage."

"I wouldn't even doubt it if some of the people here are learning to fight because of a Grimm incident in their childhood." Ren turned his head back towards his brothers. "Kinda like us. And honestly, I feel we're the fortunate ones to not have lost anyone."

"A story of vengeance against bloodlust-driven monsters, huh?" Itsuki pondered as they stopped by one of the wide windows. The sight was truly something to behold; a bright beauty of nature was coursing past their eyes. "It makes you think about how we could have turned out if we had lost Moto that day, not to mention anyone else."

"Though, I guess this is it." Naofumi took a deep breath. He could feel his heart pounding, all before they could even take a step on the campus. "We've been training for this moment ever since we got adopted and we shouldn't waste such an opportunity. Like how Miss Fitoria said, we have to look out for each other and make sure we're walking on the right paths."

"Speaking of that," Itsuki injected, "where the hell did Motoyasu go?"

Naofumi blinked emotionlessly, spinning around to scan the area.

"... Huh?"

Itsuki was correct; Motoyasu seemingly disappeared.

"W-Why does this keep happening? One thing is said, then the opposite happens!"

"Knowing him, he's probably off chasing girls. Saw a cute one out of the corner of his eye and walked off the path without even telling us," Ren sighed, crossing his arms. Before Naofumi could even bother to suggest it, Ren kept his train of thought. "He'll find a way back to us. Motoyasu is a dumbass, but he can handle himself just fine."

"I certainly hope so…"

"Anyways, we should focus on how we're going to be spending our time," Ren continued, changing the topic away. "Once the opening ceremony ends, there's going to be a period of time where the students are free to look around the campus to get their bearings before night falls."

"We've been on the campus before a few times already, but it's a whole other ballpark when we're the students this time around." Itsuki placed his hand on the window, feeling the cold air from outside being absorbed into the glass surface. "Not many, but enough visits to know the general layout and all."

The campus itself could be considered as the size of a small village, but if it could be counted of all of Beacon's territories, then that number jumps up to a solid fraction of Vale's urban area. They only knew of the buildings and pathways where most students were permitted to be on a daily basis, but that was already good knowledge for most of their next few years there.

"We'll just hang around?" Nevertheless, Naofumi didn't know where Ren was taking the conversation. "It's not as if we have to revisit the places we're familiar with."

"But that's boring!" Itsuki quickly turned to them with a pout. "There has to be something we could do instead of loitering!"

"And that's where my suggestion comes into place." Ren hung back against the wall, looking as if he was trying to be cool. "I say that we head into the forest and take a few rounds against each other. I think you two are nervous about the whole academic life and you could always shake yourself back up to normal with a good training session."

"W-What!? Seriously!?"

Naofumi was taken aback, but that had only been a small portion of his reaction's reason. He doubted that Ren had forgotten what their father said about their semblances, but he wanted to make sure.

"Father said that we weren't allowed to use… them for fun!" He tried his best to be vague about the semblances, making sure that his brothers knew what was to be substituted in as the actual word. "We're strictly permitted to use them whenever he tells us to, but as long as that rule is in effect, we should only be limiting ourselves!"

Itsuki shuddered in the memory as his face paled before the brothers. "Y-Yeah. I-I don't want to experience his lecturing and punishment again for what happened last week…" He gazed away from Ren in a quiet mood. "If it weren't for that, I would have been on board, but it'll have to be a nay for me…"

"Not with our weapons, you idiots. There's more than one way to fight and if we're to be hiding them, we'll have to be just as good with our original perceived semblances. My water spells, Itsuki's earth spells; it's as simple as that."

Naofumi pondered at the idea. "When you phrase it like that, it's almost impossible to say otherwise. Extra training is always good for us, but maybe I would suggest something else?"

"What is it?"

"Well, we've been training for the last two years constantly. It was like a full time job and most of our spare time was kept to ourselves in our small brotherly group." Naofumi rubbed his chin, seeing Ren raising his eyebrow in curiosity. "Maybe Motoyasu has the right idea."

"Are you suggesting that we go pick up girls? Naofumi, what's wrong with you!?"

"N-No!" His face blushed following his shaking head. "That's not what I meant!"

"Actually, I think I understand," Itsuki nodded. "Nao's trying to say that we should get to know the other students here and he has a valid point. Father said that we've been training so hard that our skill capacity was greater than the average entry student at Beacon, so despite understanding the option to train, it's not really needed either."

Ren glanced around, quietly judging everyone else in the airship's lobby. There was not a corner in the lobby where words had not filled it, but the longer he looked, the longer his mental grumbling was.

"Do we have to?"

"What?" Naofumi furrowed his brows. "Are you acting like a kid?"

"I'm saying that it feels a bit unnecessary, alright?"

"Don't know if I agree with that one, chief," Itsuki deadpanned.

"Being at an academy isn't all about studying and training, Ren," Naofumi properly explained. "It's also about the social interaction with peers as well. I know we've known each other for a long time and while I know that nothing about our bond will change, I do feel like we should extend our wings and see what the outside world has in store for us. All we knew was the world within the orphanage and whatever connections Father had provided to us."

"Was that not enough?"

For some reason, Naofumi felt like Ren was highly against the idea of befriending new people, but he couldn't exactly understand the explanation for it.

"No," he said plainly. "It's not."

"Outside of our little group, we don't have friends or people we could even talk to that are about our age," Itsuki added, pointing his finger sternly at the aloof brother. "This is the perfect opportunity to fix that! We don't have to be playboys and get a girlfriend in a matter of a week, but Nao has the right mindset here! We should really try our best to interact with the other students."

Ren's mouth started to twitch as if he wanted to say something, but couldn't find the words to defend himself and his stubborn decision. He ended up grumpily turning around, hiding his face from them.

"W-Whatever. Do what you want, but leave me out of it."

He was praying for some type of distraction to get him out of this situation before his brothers could press him on any further for answers, but he was surprised that it merely took a smidgen of hope.

Off to the side, there was a broadcast playing on the screen, depicting the daily news by some of the well known reporters and newscasters. At the moment, there looked to be some type of protest being talked about before it was interrupted by a familiar voice.

He didn't mark it up to a mother's helpful instinct, especially when Glynda wasn't even their legal mother, but he needed to pause for a second to be able to stop himself from saying so. All of Itsuki's unintentional calling towards her was starting to catch up in his head.

"Hello. Welcome to Beacon!"

"Why does she sound upbeat?" Itsuki grimaced. "That terrifies me. That terrifies me alot."

"Yeah, that… does seem off putting," Ren said, glad that he wasn't the only one with that feeling. "Probably doesn't want to scare anyone with that sternness of hers."

"Miss Glynda isn't that bad," Naofumi tried saying with a wholeful heart. "It's not like she's some type of demon or anything."

"Yeah, she would make demons themselves quit their jobs if they ever met…" Ren trailed off.

The brothers all looked to what they knew was a prerecorded message, waiting to hear what she had to say to not only them, but the entire freshmen population as a whole.

"My name is Glynda Goodwitch."

Her straight posture held a commanding atmosphere, even if she wasn't truly in front of them.

"You are among a privileged few who have received the honor of being selected to attend this prestigious academy! Our world is experiencing an incredible time of peace and as future huntsmen and huntresses, it is your duty to uphold it. You have demonstrated the courage needed for such a task, and now it is our turn to provide you with the knowledge and the training to protect our world."

With that final piece, the hologram alongside the quick transmission disappeared, leaving the students back to their own business.

"... Well, that was less interesting than I thought. And much shorter."

"What else did you expect, Ren?"

Ren looked at Itsuki, but held his silence for a brief moment. In the background, there were students excitedly approaching the other windows to see Beacon in the distance, but for them, there wasn't anything too amazing for them to see. Ren simply muddled in his thoughts before he defeatedly opened his mouth.

"You know, I don't even have an answer to that."

As Itsuki and Naofumi chuckled at Ren's mishap, they all heard a person groaning and gagging as that person quickly rushed past the other students, them included. Naofumi noticed his face was turning green and the blonde boy was in incredible distress, trying to find something desperately, but held a sense that he didn't know where to find it.

He kept his eyes on him, worrying for the complete stranger.

"A guy with air sickness?" Itsuki asked rhetorically. "Must be terrible to have."

"Unbelievable," Ren said, shaking his head. "How could one becoming a huntsman with air sickness? Fights aren't always land-oriented and you're always moving about."

"I think you're confused on what air sickness means," Itsuki sighed.

"I'm not. I'm saying the sickness will translate into other important factors. If that guy wants to be a solid huntsman, then he has to overcome his air sickness in order to become more mobile in jumping around a battlefield."

"Yeah, just like how you need to fix that seasickness of yours."

Ren stammered at Itsuki's cheeky mention. "H-Hey, it's not the swaying boat that gets me sick! If it was, I wouldn't be alright with an airship! They're basically the same thing here!"

"Sure, sure. Whatever you say."

"It's totally not! Naofumi, say something about this! Tell him I'm… right?"

As Ren turned around to see his older brother, he was surprised to see that he had completely vanished from where he stood. Itsuki widened his eyes as he matched what Ren was seeing, confirming that neither of them were hallucinating.

"Wait, when did he...?"

"... I-I have no idea."

Looking back and forth, any attempt to find Naofumi through the crowd was useless. It would have been much easier to push everyone else aside, but for legal reasons, they obviously can't do that. Naofumi couldn't have made it far, but there wasn't a good way to reason which way he had gone without splitting up and creating more of a lost mess between the brothers.

Itsuki then whispered to Ren quietly with a sense of dread lurking about.

"A-Are you going to be the next one?"

"That's not how any of this works. This isn't a damn horror movie," Ren groaned with exasperation. "Look, I trust Naofumi alone more than Motoyasu alone, so he'll probably be in a better position. For now, the both of us should stick together and act like everything is normal."

"But where the hell did Naofumi go?"

"Doesn't matter," he shrugged. "He'll come back eventually."

"Hey, uhm… Are you okay?"

Naofumi posed the question to the boy who seemed like he had trouble with air sickness while approaching him from behind. In spite of the fact that this situation had nothing to do with him personally, he just couldn't stand on the side without at least trying to help the poor guy.

"Y-Yeah, I'm good…" The boy replied while still facing away from him, leaning over a wall of the airship. The immediate sound of him holding in a barf however, was enough of a giveaway.

Naofumi silently narrowed his eyes at him.

Thankfully, it looked like most people that used to look at the guy have already either lost their interests or became too grossed out by the sight. Still, it was a bit hard to simply walk off now. He tucked his hand under his green sweater and from the semblance's inventory, he pulled out one of those plastic grocery bags.

'I took those last time when I went shopping and I never really bothered to pull them out afterwards. At least I found a use for them now.'

"Here's a bag if you need it," he offered. "You're lucky I had one in my pocket."

The pale-faced boy slowly looked over his shoulder at him, embarrassment visible in his eyes and vomit still inside his full mouth. His eyes lightened up with some degree of hope after noticing the bag. Grabbing it without hesitation, he then excused himself to let it all out away from the crowd of students.

Naofumi looked to the side while scratching the back of his head, unsure if he should do anything else at this moment. He looked around the cabin in search of anything that could potentially help and his eyes stopped at the AC vents in the ceiling not too far away from them.

"Ugh…" The blonde boy grunted, still bending over the now partially filled bag and still pale, but at least with no more vomit in his mouth. "T-Thanks, man. You're a real lifesaver, you know that?"

"Come over here." Naofumi said, gently grabbing the guy by his shoulder.

"W-Wha…?" The guy didn't know what Naofumi was doing, but there wasn't any resistance to his little tug.

Naofumi proceeded to lead him under the vent, from which a chill breeze was being blown.

'This should help him feel better…'

Once under the vent, the boy was able to take a couple of deep breaths. His posture straightened out and even the colour in his face started to return. There was a subtle feeling of bliss nestling in Naofumi's chest, seeing the boy recover to some degree.

Turning over to him, Naofumi was able to get a proper look at the victim.

They were about the same height, but his hair was like Itsuki's, blonde and quite curly, only that it had much more pronunciation in its golden shade. He was wearing a thin black hoodie, with something that looked like a metallic breastplate on top of it. Two metallic shoulderpads and a pair of leather gloves on his arms, and a pair of blue jeans on his legs, decorated with two leather belts. One of them had a sheath with a sword within.

Regardless, the boy had a thankful expression on his face.

"Thanks about that. I really appreciate it, uhm..."

"Name's Naofumi," he chuckled, "and it was no real problem. I was taught to help out people that needed a hand at a young age."

"Still, you really saved me here. Don't know how much longer I could have held back there." The guy spoke softly while looking at the partially filled plastic bag in his hand. His sight returned back to Naofumi, giving him a now questioning look.

"Uh, you can keep it." Naofumi held up his hands to stop whatever thought the boy had briefly crossed.

"R-Right."

He wryly laughed and turned around to look through the window, only to figure out that he made a terrible decision, even if it was to escape from that awkward atmosphere.

Almost immediately after doing that, a new wave of nausea hit the boy again, causing his face to go pale and forcing him to vomit once again, barely managing to bring up the bag in time. Naofumi sighed, bringing a palm right to his forehead, but given the time, it should have been nearing their arrival. He decided to glance outwards to share that view.

Outside the window, he could finally see the site of Beacon Academy. The tall towers of the complex, standing firm within the heart of that land, were already quite familiar to Naofumi. Although, he never saw them from such a perspective before, not to mention with this experience.

Everything looked so small from this perspective, especially from this height.

Naofumi shook a bit from the recollection.

After hearing about his little phobia years ago, Ozpin did his best to help Naofumi get over this problem. Well, 'help' is a bit of an understatement. Their adoptive father did everything in his power to forcefully remove that issue. Even though the experience was for the better, Naofumi would have liked to be given a method that was less drastic.

Through some of those trials, they also discovered Ren had terrible seasickness and Ozpin promptly did preparations to fix it as he was doing with Naofumi. Unfortunately for Ren, it was significantly less effective.

Despite that training, Naofumi still closed his eyes and turned away. Heights weren't a huge problem as they were when he was a kid, but he liked to avoid confronting the situation if it wasn't required.

At that moment, he realised his brothers disappeared.

Naofumi didn't even notice when it might have happened, but he guessed it was around the moment he went to help the knight guy out. He supposed he did wander over here without alerting them. The thought of looking around the cabin crossed his mind and he tried to find them among the crowd from where he was standing.

After a short while, he remembered their last talk was next to the holographic screen that showed Glynda's speech earlier. It was his best bet, considering that place was the last place he was with them, and it was easy to scout out as it was big enough to be visible from any corner of the area.

Displayed on that screen, a news broadcast was playing and something interesting pulled his attention.

A picture of a man with red hair that covered one of his eyes was being shown. He looked quite familiar, but Naofumi couldn't put his finger on it exactly. Although he couldn't hear what was being said about the man in this broadcast, he could see the fact that the photo looked like it was taken straight from a police department.

The man held a panel with his name imprinted on it.

"Roman Torchwick?"

Naofumi read the name clearly and with that, the memory was being fished back into the hull of his head.

"Huh," Naofumi muttered under his breath. "So that's the guy Itsuki and Moto faced off against the other day?" Itsuki wouldn't shut up about hunting him down by himself, so the name was at least the most he could remember.

Unbeknownst to him, he subconsciously clenched his fist.

Even on a police file photo, that Torchwick guy still had the audacity to smirk on it, as if he was laughing at them. He knew it shouldn't be taken personally, especially when the brothers didn't have much of a chance to suddenly catch a criminal on the way to the groceries, but a frown still persisted upon his mouth.

Naofumi wasn't a particularly vengeful type of guy and yet, there was something about this person that made him want to erase that smirk of his.

However, a loud sound of the knight guy behind him vomiting again woke him up from his thoughts. He turned back and narrowed his eyes, trying to reserve his personal thoughts to himself and only offer the helpful ones.

"Y-You sure you'll be fine? Do you need a second bag?"

Although it was the same air that he breathed in, it was an entirely different atmosphere coming to Beacon through this method. The difference was staggering, from independently arriving with Ozpin for training and other business to exiting the airship with countless other students. He took the relieving space to readjust his hair back to normal, feeling like that airship was slightly too cramped for his liking.

Though, Motoyasu had to give credit where it was due. It was almost amazing how he managed to lose his brothers so quickly on the carrier. All he wanted to do was ask a girl for their number, being pulled in by her beauty. He didn't think that they would move further than he expected, so he ended up in this situation.

And no, he didn't even get her number. Nothing lost in that - there were plenty of fishes still in the sea and Motoyasu believed he was quite a patient fisherman. There would be more opportunities to get along with girls at Beacon, but that was beside the point.

He needed to reconvene with his brothers as soon as possible and rather than to hunt for them through the crowded airship, he thought it would have been better to be one of the first ones off and camp the exit to spot them out. He knew their heads like it was ingrained in his memory.

Motoyasu walked out to the end of the bridge and watched the students go on by. All the girls were quite stunning, but he kept shaking his head, trying to focus on the objective at hand. Though, he thought it wouldn't hurt to extend his hand to a fair maiden and introduce himself.

However, time passed with his better introductions and he soon noticed that people stopped flowing out of the airship. He really outplayed himself this time.

"Damn it, I must have accidentally missed them. I shouldn't have tried for that date." Motoyasu ended up shrugging to himself. "Eh, it's fine. It's not as if something is going to explode."

An explosion occurred almost immediately afterwards.

Surprising Motoyasu, he quickly turned his head to the source. Although it wasn't too big, it kicked up a tall smoking trail and certainly brought some onlookers to the origin to see what happened. Of course, he himself was curious as well, shortly joining them with a few steps.

Luckily, there weren't too many people, so he could see clearly.

In the middle of the pathway, there were two people covered in gray ashes, presumingly students. One of them was standing with annoyance painted on her expression while the other was on the ground, falling on her butt from that explosion. Thankfully, it didn't seem like either of them were hurt and judging from the circumstance, it certainly didn't take a genius to know that the disruption came from them.

However, through all of the ash, Motoyasu was able to recognize the girl on the ground. That particular black and red dress was far from forgettable, for more reasons than one.

"Huh? Ruby?" he mumbled to himself. "What the heck is she doing here?"

As far as he was aware, she was still too young to attend here. He thought about it for a bit, but the gears started turning in his head and the lightbulb turned on.

"Oh! Her sister must be here!"

Just oriented for a completely different direction.

Though, even with the meeting of the older sister in the horizons, he couldn't exactly leave Ruby to fend for herself here. Besides, he still didn't know why she was here to begin with, but as someone that she knew, it was probably best to lend his hand.

When he approached them, the other girl, surrounded by fancy luggage and dressed in white, seemed to have been lecturing her. It was quite one-sided and not exactly friendly, but if he had compared it to Glynda's own lectures, this girl couldn't hold a candle's flame.

"What are you even doing here!?" the girl continued with her rant. "Aren't you a little too young to be attending Beacon!?"

"What seems to be the problem here?" Motoyasu intervened, stepping ahead to grab their attention. "I'm sure it's nothing worth raising our voices over, right?"

The white-dressed girl glared at him. "And who might you be?" A snare curved underneath those words. "Is she your little sister or something?"

"Just a passerby," Motoyasu smiled, waving a bit.

"Then don't stick your nose in other people's affairs!"

"Ah, but mettling is quite a virtue," he winked. "I can't just leave this situation to be unresolved peacefully."

He turned back to Ruby to check up how she was holding up, giving her a soft smile to tell her that he could handle this for her if she wanted him to. However, he didn't expect Ruby to outright point him out with a surprised gasp, though that should have been predicted from the formula.

"Ah! You're Motoyasu, right!? I didn't know I would see you here!"

"Nice to see you again, Ruby. Though, this wasn't the place I expected to be meeting you again."

He extended his hand for the girl, giving the assistance she needed to get back on her feet.

"Thanks, I really appreciate it."

"Don't mention it."

Now that Motoyasu had a better look at the cheeky, adorable Ruby Rose, he could see that underneath that sparkling energy, she was a bit frightened at the fact that she had just caused a huge explosion on her first day here.

Her flustered face was truly something to behold, almost like it was a little animal trying to desperately blend in. Even if he knew that she was a strong individual, he could barely resist patting her head and that alone at her age was something mighty. If she had a few more years to add to her name, she would have been a certain 8, but as she was right now, he would give her a 7.

The other girl scoffed with disgust. "Look at this wannabe knight, trying to help out a child that doesn't belong here."

And then there was the white-haired girl.

She brought a very aristocratic atmosphere around here and she certainly had the beauty to cover that, along with her lighter-tone skin and beautiful outfit helping out. However, the sour attitude stained her expressions of its potential.

She sounded rather stuck-up and considering that was their first meeting, it definitely didn't leave a great first impression. Though, he would give her the benefit of doubt and label her as a 7 as well. Though, if this was how she usually acted, it would have dropped to a 6 or even a 5.

Motoyasu always liked seeing ladies like flowers, blooming a gorgeous appearance for all to see, but he obviously knew that judging by the book's cover was not all that matters. If the bud was rotten, the petals that the flower showed off truly meant nothing.

However, as Motoyasu tried to defend himself, Ruby stepped in.

"Hey! Shout at me all you want because I probably deserved it, but he didn't do anything!"

"Oh? Look at that! The child is talking back and yet she hasn't even learned to walk properly!"

"I said I was sorry, Miss Princess!"

This was getting out of hand too quickly, but before he could make his attempt at de-escalating it, a calming voice joined the conversation from aside.

"It's 'heiress' actually."

A girl of slim figure and of black hair walked by and stopped, but never made an attempt to approach them. Her eyes were golden and her face had soft, beautiful features. She was wearing a white, sleeveless shirt with a black vest on top of it, buttoned with a single silver button in the front. She also had white shorts, covered by high stocking with a black-purple gradient on them, completed by a pair of black low-heeled boots.

All of that was complemented by a cute black bow on top of her head, that kind of looked like ears of a cat faunus.

Total score was a high 8 to a low 9, but that's besides the point. It seemed like that girl was taking control of the conversation's flow with her abrupt entry.

"Heiress?" Ruby asked.

She nodded, glancing over to the girl of the hour. "Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company. They're one of the largest producers of energy propellant in the world."

Motoyasu never heard of the name, but if they were a large dust company, then it shouldn't have been farfetched to assume that was where Ozpin was supplying them with dust to absorb and use for their weapons.

"Finally!" Weiss smirked with satisfaction. "Some recognition here!"

"They're the same company that's infamous for its controversial labor forces and questionable business partners," the girl continued, immediately wiping that smile off Weiss.

"W-Wha!? How dare you!?" Weiss rose in a fluster. "The nerve of you!"

Motoyasu tried to keep a straight face, knowing it went past the point of no return. He thought that the girl would help douse the small flames, not pour another gallon of gasoline into it. The tension was so high that even he wanted to take a few steps back from it, but noticing Ruby's giggles, he was somewhat relieved that somebody was enjoying this.

"Ugh, forget it!" Weiss suddenly turned on her heels, losing the resolve to even retaliate, and swiftly left from the group.

"Hey, wait!" Motoyasu reached out. "Everyone might have started on the wrong footing, but I'm sure we can all just… And she's gone."

Despite his attempt, they fell onto pridely deaf ears.

"It's okay, Motoyasu. You tried," Ruby said, patting him on the shoulder.

"I gave it my best shot. Hopefully, we'll make up with her one day," Motoyasu sighed, scratching the back of his head. Ruby might have given him a look that suggested "maybe not", but he already turned over to find the black-haired girl.

"Now, I guess I should at least appreciate your attempt at helping out, I guess? What's your—"

As quickly as she entered, she was already gone.

"—name. Huh."

There might have been plenty of fish in the sea, but it still stings when he's simply left in the dust like this so coldly. The real world might be more brutal than he might have assumed, leaving lasting impressions on his expression.

"Rough first day?"

"Could always be worse," Motoyasu shrugged. He really shouldn't let it get to him too much. "Anyways, what are you even doing here, Ruby? I don't want to rudely point it out, but Weiss was right about your attendance here. Aren't you a bit too young to be coming to Beacon?"

She tilted her head, figuring that he didn't hold the same malicious intent as Weiss did - not that she had any doubts to begin with. "Remember that day at the police station last week? Our first meeting?"

"Oh, right. Miss Glynda took you into a private room for an interrogation. It must have been brutal, but at the same time, I'm glad I managed to escape before she could pull me in. Nothing personal."

Ruby laughed. "Yeah, she's a bit scary, but she's definitely not the worst!"

"Couldn't be more right about that. Underneath that sternness, there's a loving and caring woman that hides."

Ruby raised his eyebrow. "Uhm, that's a weird way to phrase it, but I think I understand what you mean by that." She shook her head, trying to get back on track. "A-Anyways, that's not the point here! After she ended her scolding, the headmaster of Beacon came to see me!"

"Trust me, I know," he nodded. "Itsuki and I were still there when he passed by. We noticed he had a plate of cookies and he offered some to us, so I remember that well."

"An entire whole plate! They were so good, it was a shame to not eat them all!"

Motoyasu blinked blanklessly. If he recalled, there was an entire batch that was prepared, but she didn't show any shame, owning it like it was an accomplishment.

"When I met up with him, he said that I helped with the situation rather well before you guys took over. He said something about a blossoming potential that has to be tapped into immediately, so he let me into Beacon two years earlier than normal applicants."

"So you'll be attending Beacon?"

"Yeah! I'm so excited, but I'm also a bit nervous at the same time!"

"I'm guessing your older sister is here as well?"

"Yeah, but she kinda ditched me," Ruby wryly smiled, but completing the sentence caused her to flinch. "W-Wait a minute, how did you know that I have a sister?"

Motoyasu chuckled, tapping a finger on his temple. "I've actually heard about you two from your Uncle Qrow. Never actually knew what you two looked like, or even gotten a name, but that fighting style of yours alongside your weapon reminded me a whole lot of him. Mind me if I made some assumptions of my own."

Ruby's eyes started to shine. "You actually know him!? Really!? How!? From where!?"

"Just from around," Motoyasu answered. He wasn't sure if Qrow and Ozpin would have appreciated it if he outright told someone about their special training, but it shouldn't be too much of a problem if it had implications. "Let's just say my three brothers and I were no match for him."

"You have three brothers? Oh, wow!"

Out of all the things Ruby could have picked up on, she went with the most convenient one for him. He wasn't complaining, but maybe Ruby's priorities seemed to be a bit off.

"We're not actually related by blood if you were wondering."

"Huh? Not by blood?"

As Motoyasu was about to explain, he felt someone grabbing him on his shoulder and in one motion, he was tugged away from Ruby. He was a bit surprised, but he calmed down when he heard the familiar voice call out to him.

"Hopefully, you're not bothering the girl."

"Ah, Naofumi! There you are! I was just about to talk about you!"

"Then it's a good thing I interrupted you."

Motoyasu noticed Naofumi was sounding a bit tired, matching with a fitting deadpan expression. Behind him, there was a blonde-haired guy, but it wasn't Itsuki. To be frank, he had never seen the guy before. It seemed like Naofumi got lost and found a companion along the way.

"New friend?"

Naofumi hesitated. "I suppose so."

"Hey there," the guy came up, introducing himself with an extended hand. "My name is Jaune."

"Wait, aren't you the guy that threw up on the ship?" Ruby commented. It was rather tough to forget a scene like that for any of the ongoing students there. Even Jaune himself knew that, wallowing his head in both embarrassment and shame.

"That aside, sorry if my brother here annoyed you," Naofumi said, bowing apologetically for Motoyasu, leaving the apparent culprit confused as to what he did. "Moto never really learned what a boundary was."

"Excuse me!? I haven't done anything wrong yet!"

However, Ruby ended up giggling. "Moto? Is that your nickname, Motoyasu? It's pretty funny!"

"It's just a name he kept since childhood. I'm used to it."

"But really, you don't need to apologize," Ruby continued. "He's only been nice to me so far!"

"That's a relief." Naofumi looked over to everyone present. "Anyways, shouldn't we all be preparing to go to the welcoming speech? It should be starting soon, so we don't have much time to spare."

And as a reminder, Naofumi specifically gave Motoyasu a certain look, holding a conversation without words. Given the topic, Motoyasu could infer what his brother was trying to say, being along the lines of how they had to go meet up with their father before anything else. He nodded along, to let Naofumi know that they were on the same page.

"Well, we can talk on the way!" Jaune suggested.

The rest of the group wordlessly agreed, finding themselves striding along to the main campus. The meeting hall couldn't have been missed, seeing how the flow of students seemed to have been funneling over there with some stragglers doing some quick sightseeing of the academy.

"Where were we?" Ruby mused to herself before turning to Naofumi. "Ah, right! Motoyasu was talking about his brothers. I assume you're one of them?"

"Brothers through adoption. We were raised at the same orphanage, so nothing really changed between us. We were basically siblings back there already."

"What about the other two? Oh, is the guy with the bow one of your brothers too?"

"Huh!?" Naofumi immediately snapped over to Motoyasu. "Don't tell me you two showed her your weapons!?"

"Look, it was an emergency! Itsuki and I couldn't have helped with the situation otherwise!"

Naofumi felt exasperated already, realizing that this must have been the girl Motoyasu was talking about last week. It was just their luck, but he wanted to press on to get a more satisfactory grip on the circumstances here.

"Your name is…?"

"It's Ruby. Nice to meet you!"

"Well, Ruby. How much did you see?"

Her eyes twinkled in the memory. "Enough to know that they were amazing! I've never seen weapons like that ever! They changed colours and shapes in the middle of battle almost seamlessly! Those were some type of interchangeable dust core weapons, weren't they!?"

Honestly, there was almost too much bursting energy than Naofumi could handle and he was the one dealing with the kids at the orphanage.

"You guys have weapons like that?" Jaune asked.

"Actually, do you have them with you right now!? I'd love to see them again!"

"I… don't think that's—"

"Sure thing!"

Naofumi glared down Motoyasu's neck. He wanted his brother to get the message quickly, but Motoyasu clearly didn't notice it, starting to summon his spear out for them. Before he could shout out to stop, the spear already manifested.

As both Ruby and Jaune peeked at the weapon with curiosity and amazement, Naofumi's frustrations could only increase from there. He pulled Motoyasu quickly to the side, whispering in anger.

"What are you doing, Motoyasu!?"

"Hey, relax!" he whispered back. "Isn't today the day we can start to use our semblances freely?"

Motoyasu sure picked a bad time to technically be correct.

Ozpin once said to them during their training sessions that once they started their studies at Beacon officially, they wouldn't need to hide their semblances to the world anymore. To what logic that had been, the brothers still didn't know, so Naofumi thought it would be better if Ozpin told them explicitly, especially if there was a reason why they had to keep a low profile on it.

He suspected that it would be talked about when they met up with him.

"Still, I don't think it's a good idea."

"Really? C'mon, Naofumi. Don't let her down!"

On the side, Ruby was giving him one of the strongest cases of puppy eyes he had seen in his life. Dare he say, it was hitting harder than anything anybody from the orphanage could pull out.

"But we…"

Ruby clapped her hands and squealed. "Pretty please~!"

Despite her attendance at Beacon, Ruby's childish self was hitting all the weaknesses in Naofumi's heart. It managed to reach the point where Naofumi started weighing the options and figured out, rather reluctantly, that it might not have been too harmful. Hopefully, Jaune and Ruby wouldn't have many questions about its origins and treat it like any regular semblance.

There wasn't much to hide on the surface, now that Motoyasu simply pulled it out of nowhere.

Though, seriously - upon looking at Ruby's pleads, he wondered if it was illegal to be this sweet.

"Gah, fine. Have it your way."

Heaving a sigh, he extended his arm. A flash of green covered it and within a single blink, his shield materialized, being attached to his wrist. Both Ruby and Jaune watched in amazement.

"Mine isn't all that fancy."

"A shield, huh? I mean, that's not really a weapon, but it still looks really cool!"

For some reason, that hurt Naofumi's feelings way more than it should have.

"Anyways, where did you even take them from? It looked like they appeared from out of nowhere!"

Naofumi dreaded that question, not knowing how to respond. He hesitated, trying to grasp straws, but Motoyasu gestured to cover for them. "It's our semblance. They let us keep things stored up in a free-forming inventory and we can pull them out anytime we want! It's pretty convenient, even for daily life!"

"So you two have the same semblances?" Jaune tilted his head.

"You sure you two aren't actual siblings?" Ruby asked.

"Well, do we look similar?"

"Point taken."

"Anyways, we already showed off our weapons," Naofumi quickly said, trying to change the subject off them before questions started to become dangerous. "How about you two show yours as well? Seems only fair, right?"

"Oh, totally!" With the same spark of energy, she reached out for a black and red coloured equipement from underneath her cloak and swung it. "Allow me to show you! This is my Crescent Rose!"

As if those were the magic words, the item expanded outwards, becoming a scythe after a few quick automatic motions. She swung it lightly, letting it rest on her shoulders to show it off to the others.

"Huh!? That's bigger than I remember it!" Motoyasu flinched, being able to see it up close for the first time. Jaune gasped as well, seeing how a younger girl had such a devastatingly-looking weapon.

"It's battle scythe that can also transform into a high-impact velocity sniper rifle!" She pulled the scythe down from her shoulder and grabbed the charging handle, pulling it back and cocking the gun half of the weapon. She even did it with a dazzling grin.

All Naofumi could think about was how correct Motoyasu was, seeing the similarities between her Crescent Rose and Qrow's Harbinger.

"It looks powerful and certainly is beautiful, just like its use—Ouch!" Motoyasu made his unconscious attempt, earning an emotionless elbow strike to the ribs from his brother. Fortunately, Ruby wasn't paying attention to the second half of his comment.

"Thanks! It's custom-made! Designed it myself!" Ruby returned her weapon to its resting state, turning to Jaune. "How about you? Jaune, was it? What weapon do you have?"

"Me!? Uhm…!" The boy seemed much more flustered after seeing the three students show off their weapons. He scrambled for the sheath on his belt, pulling out the weapon hastily. "I-I have this sword!"

It was certainly underwhelming compared to Crescent Rose, but it shouldn't have been anything worth getting nervous over. Motoyasu awkwardly glanced at Naofumi who returned to him a shrug, but Ruby was still interested.

"A-And this shield too!"

He grabbed the metallic sheath that was leftover on his waist and attached it to his forearm, a bit messily. Once he managed it, the sheath extended in width, transforming into a heater shield.

"What does it do?" Ruby asked, reaching out to touch the shield.

"They, uhm—Argh!"

Ruby pulled on the shield a little too much and accidentally caused it to retract, bouncing off Jaune's arm. Those nerves were a problem getting to his head, not allowing him to hold onto it properly, but Naofumi's quick reaction caused him to catch it before it hit the ground.

"T-Thanks, Naofumi."

"Nice catch!" Motoyasu called out.

However, he merely looked at the independent shield. As if frozen in time, Naofumi simply stood there, holding the shield in front of his eyes.

"Uhm, Naofumi? Could I potentially get it back, please?"

Naofumi didn't respond, as if he suddenly drifted off to another world. Motoyasu became concerned, snapping his fingers in front of his brother's sight.

"Oi! Wake up!" That gesture successfully broke Naofumi out of his trance. "And here I thought I was the one that needed energy drinks!"

"Sorry, Moto. I just got, uhm," Naofumi leaned closer to Motoyasu, lowering his voice, "this weird message when I picked it up."

Appropriate weapon detected.
Would you like to create a copy?
[Yes] [No]

Naofumi wondered what this was all about, but being intrigued on what could happen, he decided to go ahead with this apparent copy message the semblance provided to him.

Crocea Shield - Unlocked!
- Increased Durability (High)
- (Special) Form Shift (Shield/Sheath)

With another flash of green, his shield automatically changed forms, looking almost identical to Jaune's shield in its extended form. The only difference was the signature green gem being embedded in the middle, but the joy of finding something new about their semblance was being overruled by the internal screaming.

'Oh. Shit.'

If the dangerous questions could have been avoided earlier, this definitely annulled any chances of that happening.

"Whoa! How did you do that!?" Jaune jumped.

"That can't be a dust trick, could it!?" Ruby exclaimed.

"Y-Yeah, how did you pull that off!?" Motoyasu added on.

'Moto, you're not helping me here!'

Though, he couldn't exactly blame Motoyasu for that being his first reaction to this discovery. He couldn't even put it into his own words as to what happened, especially how Ozpin only told them to absorb dust and grimm parts in order to unlock more forms for themselves. He mentioned nothing about outright copying pre-existing weapons!

In their father's defense, he did mention how he himself didn't know the full capabilities of their special semblances. Regardless of that, Naofumi knew he needed to tell Ren and Itsuki about this, but before any of that could happen, he really needed to get out of the problem he inadvertently caused for them.

He supposed he had to pull out a super special technique he reserved for only the most dire of situations. With a deep breath to calm himself down, he looked over to Jaune.

"Sorry, but we gotta hurry - catch you guys later!"

He tossed the sheath back to its owner, grabbed Motoyasu's arm—

—and he just booked it with zero hesitation.

Motoyasu was dragged along rather lightly, but he still waved back to the other two. "S-See you later, Ruby! And you too, Jaune!"

And with that, an empty silence reigned the pathway.

…

"What just happened?"

Ruby perplexingly shrugged. "I'm… not exactly sure."

Ozpin sighed as he finished up filling out his paperwork as per his schedule would allow. Albeit, he was much earlier than planned, but that wasn't to say he was completely done. There was still another stack left to go, but there were also other things he had to tend to. Such was the job of a headmaster, bringing much responsibility to the table.

All he could say was that the paperwork had been one of the easiest parts of that job.

"There you guys are!" A muffled voice, blocked by the door, echoed just loud enough for him to hear. "We've been waiting for ages! I was starting to think you completely forgot about the meeting!"

"Sorry about that," came another. "We got distracted and got kinda held up."

"Seriously? What was so important that it could distract you from speaking with Father?"

Honestly, that title given to him by the boys still hadn't rested well with him. He'd rather not be called that, but if he said something about it, they were smart enough to recognize there was a reason behind it. 'Caretaker' or 'benefactor' would have been much more preferable in his eyes, but no matter how many subtle hints he gave, they never changed their referral of him.

"Whatever, it doesn't matter. We're already running late here."

"Oh, but I got something important to tell you guys! It's about our semblance!"

"Could it wait? Like, after the meeting? Please?"

"Ah, I guess it could."

Ozpin raised his eyebrows, picking at his interest. He didn't think that one of them would make a further discovery of what their semblances could do and considering he told them that he didn't know its full extent, it could be huge in their eyes. Amusingly, he started to wonder what exactly they found out.

A knock came at the door, allowing Ozpin to beckon them to come in. The brothers entered into the office and although this wasn't their first time inside, the unusual atmosphere always managed to throw them off their guard.

"Hello, boys. I trust that the trip to Beacon was manageable."

"It was fine," Ren answered, crossing his arms. "We just got separated for a bit, that's all. I honestly thought that using a private airship would have been better."

"Ah, but from this day onwards until your graduation, you are students of Beacon. I wanted you to get the full experience whenever you can, given you four didn't have a regular upbringing."

"Yeah, I guess it was still pretty fun," Motoyasu cheered.

"Speak for yourself," Naofumi sighed.

"Mind for you to forgive me," Ozpin went on, "but I overheard Naofumi speaking about a new discovery in your semblances. Would you like to share it right now to get it out of the way?"

Naofumi nodded. "I think I found a new function for our weapons. Motoyasu can back me up on this one since he saw it too."

"If it's what I think it is, it's pretty crazy!"

Ozpin merely chuckled underneath his breath, already suspecting it.

"Oh, and by the way," Naofumi added on. "We might, uh, accidentally shown the feature to two students as well. It wasn't planned since I didn't realize it would immediately take action."

"Seriously?" Ren groaned, shaking his head. "And here I thought the antics from last week were enough here. I expected this from Motoyasu, but not from you, Naofumi."

"There's nothing to worry about on that end," Ozpin said, trying to stop any pointless arguments from happening in the first place. "As you may know, the ban on your weapons is no more from today onwards. This means that you no longer have to keep it a secret from your colleagues, but I would advise you to not simply go out of your way to boast about them either. Take it as a form of lesson, controlling the flow of information from those who know and those who don't."

Ren sighed. "Take note of the first part, you guys. If our opponents don't know what our semblances can do, we'll always have the upper hand in a fight."

"Precisely. It is as Ren says," Ozpin nodded. "Now that is out of the way, perhaps you should continue to enlighten us on this new function, Naofumi."

"Right. I think it's easier if I show you guys first."

Naofumi went to select the recently copied shield from his menu, making it transform back to it.

Itsuki titled his head. "What dust did you absorb to get that?"

"Doesn't look like something that would come from a grimm either," Ren added on.

"It's actually the same shield that one of the students brought with them for their time at Beacon. It looks like my shield was able to fully copy it."

"A weapon copying function?" Ren mumbled. "That's actually amazing. How did you unlock that feature? How did you use it in the first place?"

"No clue. When I held his shield, it simply happened by itself. Well, I mean, there was a menu pop-up on my HUD that asked me if I wanted to copy it, but the rest of it was automatically done by the shield itself."

"Wait, so you literally just held the shield?"

"I… I think so."

Ren rubbed his chin. "Was there really never a situation when any of us held a different variation of our weapons before?"

Itsuki rolled his head back, a bit perplexed. "Now that you mention it, I never touched a different bow besides my own before."

"Maybe it's our semblances evolving, being unlocked recently for us. I know that semblances can develop over time," Motoyasu added. "What do you think, Father?"

"Who can say?" Ozpin vaguely answered. "Though, if you do find out anything else about the semblance, please come to let me know. I would like to hear about it. I do know some things about your semblances, but… I don't know everything."

"Oh, of course. We will," Naofumi answered.

"Now then, onto business after much delay," Ozpin announced, getting up from his seat. "I won't make this long, considering that duty is calling. I have to go and give the welcoming speech to the other students, after all. I've simply called you here to tell you four that you don't have to go if you do not want to. I'm sure it will be the same drivel that I've spoken to you four about already."

"So you called us to come to tell us that we can skip?" Itsuki asked.

"Well, there's something else that's better suited for that time. I'm assigning to you four a dorm room of yourselves and I expect you to place your things down in there. The dorm staff have already been informed of the executive decision." Ozpin walked from his desk and handed Naofumi a note. On it, it was simply a room number. The brothers simply looked at each other with varying reactions.

"New furniture has already been moved in for everyone and I don't believe that you would like to keep the rest of your things in those inventories of yours, correct?"

"Ah, so we'll be forming a team already?" Motoyasu noticed.

"Well, you've been together for so long and I don't see any reason why I should split everyone up, leaving it to the luck of the draw. You already make a great team together.

"Wait, but only teams live together in a dorm," Naofumi noted. "We haven't even gone through that initiation process yet. Isn't that where the teams are formed?"

"You do not need to worry about that," Ozpin chuckled. "I already have that covered."

Motoyasu laughed as well, but Naofumi didn't know what was going on. His brother slapped him on the shoulder, giving him a big smirk.

"You see, Nao. Truth is, the game was rigged from the start."

"Indeed it was," Ozpin said.

Naofumi blinked a few times in silence.

"Moto, I don't understand the reference."

"... Oh."

This one has to be my favorite chapter so far, so I hope you guys liked it as well.

Merry Christmas.

Bonus:

"Wait, so you said that you copied a weapon simply after touching it?" - Ren asked, wanting to know more.

"Yes, although I was holding both my own one, and the new one in my hands simultaneously"

"Hmm… I see. In that case, I think I changed my mind about socialising."

"Oh really?" Naofumi asked with a suspicious look in his eyes.

"Yes. Let's find some new friends…"

"No way. Who are you and what did you do with Ren?"

"...Preferably ones with some strong sword-like weapons."

"There it is."