Coming down from the airships, Beacon Academy was massive to look at. Even a single glance from the skies above couldn't capture the sheer size that the campus held to its name. With such a large perimeter and countless paths that intertwined between buildings and locations, morning jogs became a refreshing moment for the brothers.

"huff… huff… I-I… I think I see the light…"

At least, it was supposed to be refreshing.

With Motoyasu slowing down behind the pack, the rest of the brothers stopped. Naofumi himself even came back to check on him while Ren, who was leading the charge, scoffed at the eldest sibling.

"You're already dying? Seriously? We barely made a single lap!"

"Hey! One lap of the entire campus is bigger than you would expect!"

"You didn't expect that?" Itsuki said, furrowing his brows. "We still have two more laps to go and if this is where you're at right now, you're going to end up way behind us."

"Can we simply just consider, like, taking a break or something!?"

Ren shook his head, having no sympathy for him. "You know, this is less running than what Ozpin usually puts us through. Remember how he pushed us to constantly run throughout the perimeters of the entire city?" He waved his hand in dismissal and turned his back. "And besides, you got your water bottle on hand. You'll live."

"I beg to differ! Even Ozpin gave us breaks in between here! As for continuous running, I think this is the furthest I've made it!" Motoyasu hung his head, leaning on Naofumi for support. His legs didn't simply feel like jelly; they would require him to actually have feeling in them. "It doesn't help that you decided that we should do full sprints here!"

"Right now, we attend Beacon as students," Itsuki said. "I think our own self-expectations should be raised to quite a margin. We don't want to let Father down, after all."

"I'm just begging for a single break here..." Motoyasu moaned. He wasn't sure if the water coming down from his face was sweat or tears. "At least, just give me a chance to refill my water bottle…"

Naofumi sighed, holding a gentle smile. "Calm down for a moment. You got this, Motoyasu. It's only two more laps and at the end of it all, I'll make sure I'll whip up some seafood udon for you when I get the chance."

"Really!?" Very suddenly, Motoyasu stood up straight and with passion in his eyes, he pounded his fist with a returning vigor. "Alright! I'm motivated now! Let's go all out!"

With that declaration, Motoyasu sprinted off from Naofumi, leaving the brother in the dust and a bewildered expression. He expected the bait of Motoyasu's favourite order from him to be a decent incentive, but he certainly wasn't expecting it to be this effective. The thought of it still managed to make him laugh, watching as the older brother easily overtook the younger pair.

Ren and Itsuki slowed down, blanklessly gazing.

"Moto does realize that Nao would have made him the udon regardless, right?"

"I wouldn't worry about it if I were you, Itsuki."

The three brothers did their best to catch up with Motoyasu, but as they approached the full lap, they noticed two figures standing about the front gate of the living dorms. Their older brother was stopped by them and once they got into his perceptive range, he beckoned for the rest to stop on by.

Coming closer, they made out Ozpin's appearance, but the second person was unknown.

He was a tall man, probably in his forties. Big and muscular, he was covered in scars like some sort of a war veteran. Although he was bald, he did have a decently sized beard. Gloves held onto his hands with a short-sleeved shirt and some leather pants with suspenders to round out his wardrobe. The most interesting thing was a rustic container of some kind, such large object being held in a single grip.

"I suppose Ozpin wants to talk a bit more from yesterday," Ren said, walking down to the meeting. "That being said, I don't think I recognize the other guy. We can only assume he's with him."

Itsuki squinted his eyes to get a better sight of the man. "He kinda gives me that vibe of being a weaponsmith, doesn't he? Give him tech and a metalworking lab, I promise you he'll fit in right at home."

"Oh, him? That's Erhard," Naofumi chuckled. "I guess he does look the part and that's pretty important, considering he really does work as a weaponsmith."

"You know him?"

"I met him a few times while I was with Father. He actually works with him to supply for students at Beacon, if they require it. Though, I did notice that a lot of people brought their own weapons, despite how much weapons Erhard makes. Maybe it's for something else I missed?"

"Ozpin does have various connections and if he can hook some of them with weapons, then that would be a better reason to keep that bridge intact."

"You're making it sound like Father is some sketchy alleyway dealer," Itsuki groaned.

"It still makes sense," Ren shrugged.

"In what regard?" Itsuki asked, slanting his eyes.

Once they were closer, Ozpin nodded with his salutations.

"Morning, boys. I had a feeling we would cross paths and I'm glad to see that everyone is not skipping out on their training. I'm proud that no orders were required to be given for this instance."

"Oh? Y'all up and training this early in the morning already? You really are the elite among the elite, aren't you?" Erhard's compliment came with a small smile on his face; it was enough to tell that he had a gentle heart, but small enough to show that he knew how to play when dealing with business. "I've heard of freshmans going hard before, but I expected nothing less from those who Ozpin trained himself."

"At this point, it shouldn't be anything special for us. Some people just need to work on their stamina and endurance a bit more." Ren's eyes coldly leered over to Motoyasu; the brother whistled and glanced the other direction. "Anyways, I'm sure you're here for a reason."

"Ho ho! Straight to the point! I like it!" After a boisterous laugh, he turned to the brothers, gesturing his hand at the container. "Some time ago, Ozpin pulled in a few favours that I owed to him and requested that I help you guys out with what talents I'm proud of. The result? I present to the four of you these gifts."

"Although," Ozpin briefly intervened, "it was obviously before you had discovered the newest function to your semblance. They will no longer be ideal for what concept I originally had in mind when presenting the idea to Mister Erhart here."

"Huh? What do you mean by that?" Naofumi asked.

"I will still say that I do hope you'll find some use for them. Knowing how you four are, I'm sure that you will."

"Surely, they would. I put up my best foot forward on these weapons, so if they don't end up using them, I'll end up feeling disappointed."

With a nod from Ozpin, Erhard laid down the container and flipped it open for the brothers to see. They huddled over, letting the weaponsmith see their beholden expressions for his very own eyes and it was always a delight to see customers as excited to see them as for it was for him to present them.

"Take a good look at them."

Four weapons resided, comfortably tucked within its confines. On mere sight alone, they seemed to be shortswords with stained blades of various colours, but the devices were much too mechanical to be mere swords alone. On their handles, there were revolving cylinders, so that might have been a good hint as to what was to come.

"Newly-patented, these are revolver-shortsword hybrids that can interchange between the two forms," Erhart explained, picking up the blue shortsword for a presentation. "These weapons were designed with secondary utility in mind, mainly because I was told about the weapons that you were already training with. Ozpin was insistent that these new weapons were strictly offhand, so I worked with what I had to make do with that."

With a quick spin of the blade and a trigger near the handle, the sword transformed into a revolver in a single swift motion. Erhart imitated shooting the weapon at a distance and then spun it once again to it back into its shortsword form.

"It was slightly difficult, trying to come up with something that felt like an equal addition to your arsenal. I didn't want anyone to get the short end of the stick, but we also didn't have the manpower to develop exclusive weapons for each of you. Hopefully, we ended up with success with this product."

The brothers gasped at the demonstration, stealing glances at each other as if they were making sure they were all seeing the same thing. Of course, they've received many gifts while being underneath Ozpin's wing, but they all had to agree that this probably took the cake as one of the highest-ranked presents. Transforming weapons were already expensive in their own right, but these weapons were designed specifically with them in mind on top of that.

"What do you think?" Erhard asked, swelling a mixture of confidence and worry as he handed Ren the blue weapon. "Interested?"

"Being interested would be an understatement!" Motoyasu exclaimed, leaning in to take the red one. "These were seriously made for us in mind? That would just make it more awesome!"

Itsuki claimed the amber one while Naofumi took possession of the green one. The only difference appeared to be the colour and besides from that, all of the weapons functioned exactly the same as the other. It was almost endearing that they had the same offhand weapons, acting almost like a unity pact between them.

Erhard had a sigh of relief, seeing the stars sparkle in the brothers' eyes.

"Thank goodness. I'm not sure what Ozpin means by having a new function in your semblances, but if you can find a way to incorporate these weapons into your fighting styles, that's all a weaponsmith could ever ask for. That and money, but money's not on the table right now."

"Speaking of which," Ozpin slowly panned his eyes over to Ren, "perhaps we should show Mister Erhard what I was rambling on about."

Ren was quick to catch on, staring down at the blue shortsword. Despite being hybrids, this was still a partial sword. He hasn't tested out the new semblance mechanic yet for himself, but that was simply because the opportunity hadn't shown itself for him to do so.

At least, that was until now.

"Are you sure about that?"

"Something, something; flow of information or something?" Itsuki sarcastically added from the side. "Didn't we just get lectured on this yesterday?"

"Of course," Ozpin nodded, "but Mister Erhard is our ally, is he not? In addition, he's a worthy weapon supplier whom I couldn't recommend enough for his prowess of creations. I believe we would benefit if he holds that same knowledge, correct?"

"I guess that makes sense," Ren sighed.

Focusing on the sword, he summoned out his holy sword in order to see how this entire thing worked. The entire process was still foreign to him, but he kept his eye on anything on his HUD that might be able to manually trigger the results he needed.

Sure enough, a pop-up had appeared automatically without too much difficulty.

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

Ren nodded, finally seeing the weapon copy in effect. He didn't hesitate to select [Yes]. To be honest, he couldn't find a reason why he wouldn't choose to copy a weapon, but it must have been for a clarity of importance if anything.

Emergency Revolver Blade / Version Blue - Unlocked!
- Increased Agility (Low)
- (Special) Form Shift (Shortsword/Revolver)

"Emergency Revolver Blade, huh? A bit of a mouth-fill."

Erhard frowned, but it was mainly with confused burrowed eyebrows. "Y-Yes, that would be its full name, but it was short handed to the Erblade, named similarly to the man who led the project of its creation, me. It's… a bit embarrassing now that I say it out loud."

"Yeah, I'll call it the Erblade," Ren grunted in satisfaction. "Rolls off the tongue better, that's for sure."

"Hold on. How did you know what it was called to begin with?"

Ren glanced at his holy sword, seeing that it didn't change automatically once he copied it like how Naofumi's holy weapon did with that student's shield. It must have been because he was mindful of the weapon copy mechanic that the system didn't need to let him know how it worked anymore.

Opening up his menu, he mentally scrolled over to the newly unlocked form and activated its command, causing his sword to change shapes immediately. In the blink of an eye, the sword flashed white and transformed into the Erblade, leaving Ren with a great smirk on his face.

"H-HUH!? WHAT!?" Erhard physically stepped back, unable to contain his surprise. "How!? What did you just do!? The Erblade Version Blue was supposed to be a unique weapon! Why are there suddenly two!?"

The weapon copy feature was something truly amazing to see, even for the brothers. The standards of semblance were already reaching far and beyond, but with something unheard of like this, the concept might have been much more amazing than any weapon Erhart could make for them. Even right now, it was still hard to believe that something like this existed.

Ozpin took his cane and softly tapped the weaponsmith back into place.

"This is the newest function to their semblances. We refer to it as weapon copy, making its user able to perfectly copy pre-existing weapons and allow them to use it for themselves." Ozpin held a gentle smile. "Quite powerful, is it not?"

"You're saying… they can copy weapons perfectly…?" He glared at Ozpin, thinking this was a prank of some kind, but the unreadable expression of the headmaster kept ever vigilant and telling.

"Absolutely correct."

Erhard's head snapped over to Ren; to be more precise, he was still flabbergasted at the holy sword. It was like a thousand yard stare, coupled with a pair of widened eyes. Everyone stayed silent for the weaponsmith to be able to mentally catch up with what's in front of him.

"You have to show me! Please!"

Stepping forwards, Ren wordlessly extended his holy sword over to Erhard. Unfortunately, he couldn't let go of the sword for a long period of time because of how the semblance worked, but it was apparently enough for the weaponsmith to inspect it as it was.

The only difference he could find was the mysterious blue gem that was embedded in Ren's semblance-summoned sword. Everything else was as advertised on the cover.

"What exactly are these weapons!? Look, I've dealt with countless experiments when it comes to building types of things; it's in my craft and business to do so. Strengthening a weapon or even gaining new abilities from injecting dust, that's almost basic nowadays. Using Grimm as a replacement, I can understand the logic and theory behind that!"

Erhard tapped on the gem, almost in pure anguish.

"How did this weapon make a perfect copy of something that took over a month to develop!?"

Naofumi suddenly felt bad for the weaponsmith. Erhard was certainly someone that had pride in his skills and slacked off no quarter from effort when he crafts these weapons for people. For something to be replicated so easily, it must have been painful. He was sure that the trope of an honour student working hard for a paper, just for someone else to copy-paste their work would apply here as well.

"Sorry about that. I didn't think sharing this information with everyone else would—"

"I should have brought more weapons!" Erhard's frown almost flipped on its head, interrupting Naofumi's attempted apology. "If I knew this ahead of time, I would have brought over more of my wares for everyone! I got countless weapons waiting for an owner back at my place!"

A sigh of relief escaped Naofumi, knowing Erhard wasn't actually disheartened by this ordeal.

"You guys can copy the Erblade in your arsenal as well?"

"Sadly, we can't," Naofumi answered, scratching his head. "Our semblances only allow us to copy the respective weapon types to the base form."

"That does make sense, as much as perfect-copy weapons can make sense to begin with."

Itsuki and Motoyasu both tried copying the Erblade, just in case if anything changes, but no notifications were popping up. There were no real signs of triggering any special pop-up either. They both sighed in unison, but their chances were only going to grow from here.

"Anyways, I was about to talk about the concept of the Erblade before that little distraction."

The idea of the Emergency Revolver Blade originated from the concept of covering weaknesses that would come from a specific weapon type. In other words, it must fulfill multiple purposes without overcompensating on one scenario or overcasting their main weapon. Erhard received data on their weapon types and branched out from there.

Melee combat was integrated for Itsuki's bow in the form of the sword, as well as being the perfect range for close-quarters and tighter combat to contrast Motoyasu's spear style abilities. The revolver end was supplied to Ren in order to provide more range to possibly close in on targets. Both forms assist Naofumi in dealing more consistent damage for himself, if it was ever needed.

"But honestly speaking? If I knew you had your copy ability, I would have made something completely different," Erhard groaned.

"I wouldn't worry too much in that regard, Mister Erhard," Ozpin said. He briefly glanced at them, prompting them the underlying suggestion. "I'm sure that the boys will still greatly appreciate it."

The brothers would have been idiots to have not picked up that obvious cue and once they quickly lined up, they sent their synchronized bows to the weaponsmith. Motoyasu was the one to voice out their thoughts for them.

"Thank you for the gifts. We'll treat these with care and respect, using them to their fullest potential."

"Whoa there," Erhart wryly chuckled, raising his hands in surrender to the politeness. "There's no need to be formal here. It's just part of my job, y'know?"

"With all that said, I suppose we spent enough time here," Ozpin announced. "I'd suggest wrapping things up earlier today and setting your sights on what will happen in a few hours."

"That's right. It's the Initiation of Beacon. I guess we should save some energy for that whole thing."

"Exactly my point, Ren."

With an amused chuckle, he gave the brothers full attention.

"Please get yourselves changed into proper attire and prepare in order to take the Initiation. You've trained a great amount for this moment, so I have high expectations for you four. I myself still have business to attend to, so I shall take my leave. I will see you all there."

With his final words, Ozpin turned on his heel and walked away.

"In the meantime, I'll be heading back to my workshop in Vale and try to find some good quality weapons for everyone to copy. Take care in the meantime and if you want to drop on by, you're always free to do so. Simply send regards from Ozpin to the staff if I'm not at the front and you'll get taken to me."

Erhard started walking his own way towards the airship port, bringing the now-empty container with him.

"Oh! And good luck on the Initiation!" he waved. "Something tells me you won't need it, but it's always good to have by your side!"

Not before long, the brothers were finally left to themselves.

"They seriously just left us like that, huh?" Motoyasu said, still inspecting his new weapon. He kept swapping between shortsword and revolver like it was some type of toy.

"What else did you expect?" Ren asked. "Both of them must be busy during this time of year, especially with everything that has to be going on in the background. We've already acknowledged that Ozpin isn't going to have much time to play favourites here."

"You say that, but…" Itsuki continued his sentence by dangling the Erblade in front of Ren's face.

"You know what I meant. He's our patron, so he's obviously going to do what he can to help us out. Regardless of that, he's still the headmaster of Beacon. Parental values won't change his tight schedule."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Motoyasu shrugged.

"You know what could change? My stomach. I'm starting to get hungry," Itsuki said. Motoyasu's eyes lit up immediately, turning his head to Naofumi. "How about we work on fixing that?

"We don't have much in the fridge yet, so how about some scrambled eggs? It's basic, but I can put a twist on it, depending on what else we got in the cupboards. We might end up with normal eggs if there isn't enough though."

"Don't worry!" Motoyasu cheered. "If it's your cooking, anything would be delicious! Just the thought of it is making me drool here!"

"Please don't actually drool; it's unbecoming of you," Naofumi grumbled. "And besides, it's literally scrambled eggs at the end of the day. It's nothing to lose your head over."

"But! They're! Made! By! You!"

"You know, I've wanted to ask since the kids at the orphanage always praise it too, but is my cooking really that good? It doesn't seem like anything special to me. I merely follow Miss Fitoria's techniques that she taught me, even to this day."

"Damn straight, it really is."

"Oh, you don't even know the beginning of it…"

Naofumi took a step back, seeing that his brothers were suddenly cooperating in making a drool puddle. Yes, it was pretty disgusting and it made him not want to make the breakfast anymore.

They're just lucky that he was still a nice guy.

"To the town of Vale, rode a stranger one fine day

Hardly spoke to folks around him, didn't have too much to say

No one dared to ask his business, no one dared to make a slip

For the stranger there among them had a big iron on his hip

Big iron on his hip..."

While walking, Itsuki kept playing with his new weapon in its revolver form, spinning it around rapidly with quite the unexpected dexterity. He kept up a little tune to help with the concentration, treating it more and more like a game and in Naofumi's eyes, it was rather impressive how good his brother was at it. There were occasion breaks to pretend a gunshot into an empty direction, only for it to flow right back into the revolutions.

Despite having the shortsword form being meant for his usage, Itsuki was certainly more interested in the revolver form. Erhard wasn't going to like how that turned out, but there wasn't much he could have done about that.

"Nothing's stopping us from using the other function of the Erblade," Ren explained. "It might not be as strong as Itsuki's arrows, but guns fire much quicker than a bow. It would be perfect for Itsuki to use in order to put more pressure on the enemies."

"You got a point there," Naofumi nodded as Itsuki's song kept cooking in the background. "This is probably what could be included in using them to their fullest potential."

After following Ozpin's advice, they kept themselves reserved for the upcoming event with a good breakfast in their stomachs. When the time arrived, they made their way over to the locker rooms to debrief themselves and get mentally ready for what was in store for them.

Itsuki was still distracted by his revolver-twirling act, waiting on the announcement for further instructions.

Apparently, they were all set with the exception of Motoyasu who was too busy tending to his hair. Despite the preparations they took, Naofumi still had a concern after glancing about the other students in the locker room. There was a varying theme between all of them and it contrasted them in particular.

"So uh, I got a question. Is this really alright?"

"Is what alright?" Ren asked, closing his locker.

"We're only wearing our usual clothes. It doesn't really feel right." Naofumi lightly tugged on Ren's blue jacket that was tied around his waist. "Even in our training, Father would provide us with the proper training equipment to wear."

"I mean, what else do you want to wear?" Motoyasu said slightly in a muffle by the hairband in his mouth. His eyes were mainly kept to the mirror. "It's not like we got anything better in our closets. Father took back the training equipment when we were done."

"Yeah, but shouldn't we have some type of armour?"

"Where the hell did you get that idea?"

"Guessing it's a stretch that Father would keep combat suits lying about for the students, but I thought it was a fair assumption that there would be basic gear for those who didn't have them."

"If a student didn't have the basic gear in order to fight," Motoyasu responded, "something tells me they wouldn't be attending Beacon in the first place. I mean, our situation is different, but I don't think many people can say that they were adopted by the headmaster and thrown in to fight as huntsmen."

"I'm only a bit worried…"

"You shouldn't be," Ren said, crossing his arms. "If you're thinking that we might get hurt while looking like this, should I remind you about how Aura works? It provides us all the protection we really need and the practice Ozpin gave to us easily allowed us to harness its basic toughness capabilities. On top of that, we have you as the safety net."

"Not sure how I feel about being a safety net," Naofumi chuckled, knowing it to be a light-hearted joke. However, his eyes still surveyed the other students. "Still though…"

"For as many students that have proper equipment, there are just as many that are wearing normal clothing. Perhaps it's not as basic as what we're wearing, but it still serves the same purpose; if they don't need armour, I don't see why we should either."

"Maybe that other half is onto something with their armour. Like, take a look at that spartan girl right over there," Naofumi said, nudging his head over to a particular student's direction. "She looks like a student that knows what she's doing."

Ren glanced over, seeing the girl Naofumi was talking about.

The description of a spartan surely fitted her appearance, but her face certainly didn't match with that mental thought. Nevertheless, the equipment she wore still managed to perfectly compliment her natural appearance. A circlet on her head, a leather vest wrapping her torso, bracers on her arms and high boots on her legs; all of it was reinforced by brass materials.

Something about her felt familiar though.

Anyways, she seemed like she was talking to another girl of white hair and a white dress. Ren amused himself by thinking how bad it would have been if it got stained, only to snap back to the main topic at hand.

"Yeah, I don't think that armour is really meant for protection purposes," he sighed, shaking his head. "Take a better look at her again, Naofumi."

"Huh?" Glancing back, he started staring at the girl upon a deeper level of inspection. Now that he was aware of it, Naofumi started to recall one of Ozpin's lessons. "Oh, right. You're thinking about all those weak spots in her armour."

"Most of her vitals were completely exposed, adding up some of the important body parts that people might look to hit during a real fight. Her shoulders, neck and thighs are probably what I would aim for if I was in a real fight with her. I feel like it's almost illegal to go into battle with that much exposed skin."

"Huntsmen wouldn't need to fight other huntsmen though. We're all trying to protect humanity from Grimm and accordingly, uphold the peace of the world. Maybe another human might see weakness in that, but I'm sure Grimm wouldn't know anything about abusing those weaknesses."

"Well, she better make sure she doesn't face off against anyone who knows what they're doing then." Ren sighed, turning away to tend to a few stretches. "It'll probably come back to bite her one day, being that Achilles' heel and all."

"And I'm all done!" With the sudden shift in conversation, Motoyasu spun to his brothers with his ponytail all fixed up and ready to go. With a satisfied grin on his face, he turned his head to showcase the hairstyle to them. "So? How do I look?"

"Uhm…" Naofumi rubbed his chin. "Am I supposed to see a difference? It looks the same as always."

"Then it's perfect!"

Motoyasu came up to Ren, throwing his arm over the brother's shoulder. It prevented Ren from doing any more stretches which clearly bothered the younger sibling.

"Who are we talking about here? You guys got your eyes set on some lovely ladies?" he said while bumping his fist on Ren's shoulder. "If you need some help, your big brother Motoyasu is always available for support."

"We're talking about no one. Buzz off."

Instead of taking the hint, Motoyasu quickly scanned the area and locked on the root of the conversation. He did a dramatic sightsee gesture once he figured it out.

"Ah. Those two beautiful ladies?"

"How are you so perceptive at the oddest times?"

"If that wasn't a clearer answer enough, you're right," Naofumi followed up, "We were talking about that red-haired girl in particular, but it wasn't anything worthwhile for you to nudge your nose into."

"Hold on." Motoyasu squinted his eyes to get a better look at her. "Is that who I think it is? Oh my, it really is! It's Pyrrha Nikos!"

"How do you know her name already, Motoyasu!?" Ren raised his eyebrows in distress. "That's kinda creepy! Should I be calling the authorities on my brother to get her a restraining order of some kind?"

"What? She's a celebrity, you know. A cute one at that. Why wouldn't I know her?" Motoyasu unhesitatingly pointed to her without any embarrassment. "I'm more surprised you don't remember her."

"I don't keep up to date on stupid celebrities."

"She's on the cereal box that you love to eat."

Ren snapped his head over to the scarlet-haired girl. His eyes widened, finally figuring why she seemed so familiar to him.

"Seriously!?"

"Yeah! And with an opportunity like this, I might try and score some chances with her. This is probably a once in a lifetime! You can't look at her and not tell me that she's pretty hot!"

"Unless she goes up in flames, my definition of hot won't match yours."

"You can't tell me that you aren't interested!"

"Get me out of this conversation."

Ren sighed, glancing over to Naofumi for help. He knew Motoyasu was just playing around, but seeing how bothered and uncomfortable the younger brother was acting, Naofumi tried to shift the conversation as best as he could for him.

"What about the white-haired girl? She… looks kinda nice."

It was a shame Naofumi wasn't very tactful about the transition.

"Oh, her? That one, I've already met." Motoyasu released his grip on Ren and looked over to the person of the subject. "Before you say it, I'm not stalking any of these people. I came across her yesterday while we were all separated from the airship."

"I wasn't going to," Naofumi frowned.

"Well, I was," Ren muttered.

"But alas, she does have a sour attitude," Motoyasu shrugged. "There's a lot left to be desired from her despite her elegant appearance. If you are going after her, I'd suggest that you play some care into your words."

"You know it's an interesting situation when Motoyasu himself says to be careful around a girl," Ren announced rhetorically. "We should probably keep an eye on her and avoid encounters at any cost."

"Though, that was only our first meeting and on her behalf, she was rather agitated on what happened before I walked in to quell any bad animosity. I'm willing to get to know her better and give her another shot. She might be one of those ice queens with a warm heart."

"And we're back to square one."

Almost as if the world was tending to Ren's silent wish, an announcement on the speaker rang out for the students to hear. Everyone looked up to the screen, including the brothers. It was incredibly odd for them to hear Glynda's voice on the other side of the speakers when they were mainly used to getting lectured in person.

Needless to say, they would prefer this over the in-person lectures.

"All first year students are to report over to Beacon Cliff immediately. The Initiation will begin shortly. Again, all first year students are to report over to Beacon Cliff immediately."

"Looks like time's up!" Itsuki closed his locker and finally held the revolver to a stop. He transformed it back into the shortsword form before sheathing it into its place on his hip. "It's time to show everyone what we're capable of!"

"What are you even talking about?" Naofumi asked. "We're not going up against them here. The Initiation isn't one of those battle tournaments I hear of from time to time."

"Itsuki's still right, you know." Ren rolled his wrist as he slowly paced himself past the brothers. "We have to make good first impressions on everyone, so let's make sure we do our best on the Initiation. You can bet that I won't be pulling any stops here."

"Of course! We have to make Father proud, after all!" Motoyasu cheered.

"Right. That too, I guess."

Ren's whisper to himself went unnoticed by his brothers, so all Naofumi and Itsuki nodded their heads to was Motoyasu's proclamation. The younger brother decided to lead the way, letting the other follow behind him, but he noticed that they stopped before they could reach the exit.

He turned around to see what's up.

"Oh! Nao, look!" Motoyasu nudged Naofumi's arm. "It's Ruby and Jaune! I knew they were around here somewhere in this group!"

"Yes, I have eyes too. Though, I wondered what happened?"

Naofumi noticed what type of position they were in. Jaune was sitting on the ground with his eyes down as Ruby was extending a hand to him. It was nice that they managed to be good friends so quickly, but he was somewhat worried about something else.

There was also another girl with them that he was unfamiliar with, being an attractive blonde standing next to Ruby while holding a confident air around her. The moment he realized, he turned to Motoyasu to try and stop him, but he was already coming forwards. He blamed himself for not acting quick enough.

"I don't understand…" Naofumi overheard Jaune's trailing voice. "My dad said all women look for is confidence in a man. Where did I go wrong…?"

"It might be good to be confident, but it's definitely not everything," Motoyasu intervened. "As long as your feelings are genuine, it won't matter if you're confident or not. Putting your heart behind your words is what's really important, since people, not just girls, want to hear how a person really acts. If the compliment feels unnatural, you shouldn't say it. If it does, don't hold yourself back. It's as easy as that!"

It wasn't a way Naofumi expected him to enter, but it was leagues better than opening up with introductions to the blonde girl. He and Itsuki followed behind their brother as Ren backtracked and came to see what was going on.

Ruby turned and had a smile on her face, all while pulling up Jaune onto his feet.

"Oh hey! It's Motoyasu and Naofumi! Haven't seen you since you, uh, ran off so suddenly." Her silver eyes glanced over to Itsuki. "Oh, and you must be one of the brothers they were talking about. Hey, wait! I remember you too! You were helping Motoyasu out that night, but sorry! Your name is slipping through me."

"Don't worry about it. My name's Itsuki," he said, extending his hand to shake hers. It was much smaller than he would have expected, but she was younger than the normal admittance age for Beacon. "It's nice to meet you as well."

"You remember me too?"

"Definitely. It's hard to forget someone like you. You kicked some serious ass that night."

Ruby gave a light-hearted giggle and a teeth-glistening smile. She acted proud about that accomplishment, quickly turning over to the last brother of the bunch.

"Look at you, Ruby!" the blonde girl laughed. "Looks like you already have friends! I had nothing to worry about you getting along with people!"

"Ugh, you're really starting to sound like Dad!"

Ren had held himself silent through that routine of theirs and was planning on leaving without saying a single word, but Naofumi caught him by the shoulder without looking.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"Ugh."

"Introduce yourself to Ruby."

Ren didn't take the cue, but the younger girl did.

"O-Oh, uhm…" A bit nervous, Ruby ended up extending her hand to him. "You must be that fourth brother Motoyasu and Naofumi were talking about! I haven't seen you before, but it's nice to meet you as well!"

Ren merely looked at the hand, not accepting it and only giving it notice with a humm.

"Huh? Did I do something wrong?" Sweat dripped from her forehead, flicking over to the others. "Please tell me I didn't do something wrong. Did I offend him or something?"

"Nah, you didn't do anything wrong," Itsuki chuckled, giving the brother an odd look. "He's apparently not much of a talker, but his name's Ren if you're looking for introductions."

"Wasn't there another Ren in the first years?" the blonde girl asked.

"Another Ren?" Naofumi asked.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure that was his name. It was pretty hard to ignore them, especially with that girl pulling attention to them everywhere they went in the locker room. Now that I think about it, he kinda looks similar to your Ren, too." Ruby explained.

"Oh? Maybe he's the long-lost fifth brother to your entourage, huh?" the blonde smirked. "Wouldn't that be a shocking Ren-velation?"

Itsuki immediately turned to Ruby.

"Does she do that often?"

"Yes."

"Oh."

"It's still unlikely," Ren grunted, answering the joke seriously. "I think we would know if we had another sibling somewhere."

"Come on!" the blonde laughed. "That was a good one! It's okay to laugh with me!"

Ren's straight face greatly contrasted her amusement.

"Who even are you?"

"Me? Ah, I forgot to introduce myself with the rounds!" the blonde smirked, winking at the deadpanning brother. "My name's Yang; remember it with a bang! I'm Ruby's older sister! Thanks for taking care of her while I was away!"

She promptly wrapped her arm around her sister, forcing the younger girl into an uncomfortable hug. Ren started to feel with Ruby on a personal level, carefully glancing at Motoyasu out of the corner of his eyes.

"You abandoned me almost immediately when we got to Beacon!"

"I said I was sorry! Geez! In my defense, I didn't think you would get caught up in a literal explosion. You're lucky Motoyasu over here saved you a bunch!"

"I shouldn't have been lucky! You shouldn't have just ditched me to the wolves like that!"

Ren kept quiet, looking between the two girls. If he had to say anything about it, they do sound like siblings, but they clearly didn't look anything like each other. Though, he wasn't the one to talk for himself, considering his familial structure right now. Was it possible they were in a similar adoption manner as they were? It was equally fair that one took after their mother and the other took up their father, so there wasn't much to go off on.

"Uh, guys?" Jaune waved his hand to catch everyone's attention. "I'd love to chat a bit more too, but we should probably get going to that Initiative."

"Initiation," Naofumi corrected.

"R-Right. We should get going on that Initiation."

"Oh, wait! I know!" Motoyasu clapped his hands to steal the spotlight. "Once we're all done with all the formal stuff today, we should have a little party to get to know each other! I'm sure Naofumi could cook something up for us!"

"I consented to nothing as of yet," Naofumi cried.

"Whoa! That sounds awesome!" Yang smiled, pumping her fist. "If that's the case, Ruby and I would definitely come on by!"

"Y-Yeah…! M-Maybe…!" Ruby irked out, still being immobilized by her sister's tight grip.

"It's one thing cooking for the kids at the orphanage, but it's another to cook for a party like this!"

"Great! You won't be disappointed! I promise!"

"Are you even listening to me!?"

"We'll take your word for it," Yang chuckled, lightly punching Motoyasu's shoulder playfully. "But the lady-killer in training has the right idea. We should probably get going before we get in trouble."

"We don't even have the proper stuff in the fridge yet!"

"Yeah. We… definitely wouldn't want that…" Itsuki groaned, relapsing in the sheer mention of trouble. Knowing that Glynda would help proctor the Initiation, it certainly gave frightening memories. "L-Let's go."

The group set off towards the exit, leaving Naofumi to be ignored. He wasn't bothered by any cooking, but it was still troublesome to be making portions for a group larger than four people. He supposed it should have come as a practice for…

… Naofumi couldn't think of an example.

"I guess I'll be hitting up the grocery store after this…"

Thanks to Ozpin, the brothers weren't strangers to the environments around them. Although they never went anywhere too deep, they at least held knowledge of it. Beacon Academy was divided up into sections and despite what it's labelled on the tin, it didn't simply include the campus. It extended outwards in a large area, amounting to one of a small city. However, it wasn't all used for buildings.

Such an example was Emerald Forest, being home to many different types of Grimm. Standing on top of the Beacon Cliffs allowed a beautiful sight to take in, right down to the green-lusted horizons. In addition, Emerald Forest was one of the few training grounds for the students of Beacon and it seemed like this was the location chosen for this year's Initiation.

Once they reached the cliffside, the first-year students were instructed to stand on the special launch pads and wait for further instructions. It didn't take much longer for the two main proctors of the Initiation, two very familiar faces, to arrive once everyone was accounted for.

It certainly felt like they were out of place. On one hand, the brothers were already used to situations where Ozpin and Glynda would debrief them on what their training procedure would be for the day, but it was a different experience to hear them alongside the other first-year students.

Naofumi couldn't stop having butterflies in his stomach, despite what types of trials he knew lay ahead of him and his brothers. A mere glance at them though, it truly said that they were excited for what's about to happen. Even now, they were still joking around with each other.

Ozpin cleared his throat, tapping his cane onto the dirt ground. That mere gesture instinctively shook the brothers up to a proper posture of complete discipline. They had to uphold their respect for their adoptive father and surrogate mother, as much as Glynda refused to take that title.

"For years," he commenced, "you have trained to become warriors. With that, there comes your experience. Such will be honed and such will be taken further beyond during your time at Beacon, but we must know where everyone's starting line is."

Glynda handed over a cup of coffee to the headmaster, in which he immediately took a quick sip.

"For today, your abilities will be evaluated within the Emerald Forest. I am sure that you are aware of what the Emerald Forest contains inside of it, so you are expected to demonstrate yourselves in the best of your abilities."

"Now then, I'd like to address something else while we're at it," Glynda announced. "I'm sure many of you have heard about the rumors concerning the assignment of teams. After all, selections aren't always consistent from year to year, but allow me to put an end to your confusion."

Motoyasu, for some reason, lost his composure with a quick snort. Perhaps he thought of a funny joke at the time? Recalling a pleasant memory?

Naofumi didn't know why he wanted to laugh, but a quick icy glare from Ren managed to kick him back into shape. If he could, he would have asked about it, but there was certainly a lot of time they had to themselves after getting through this little event.

"Not only will today be your Initiation, this will also be the time in which you will be given your teammates."

Glynda's words caused a few muffled voices to appear from the students. Of course, the brothers didn't have the need to do so, standing silent with their upright stance. A few seconds was all it took for the whispers to die down and Ozpin continued the dialogue.

"These teammates will be by your side for the rest of your time here at Beacon, so it might be in your best interest to pair up with someone with whom you can work well with."

Naofumi stole a glance at his brothers and while Ren and Itsuki kept their posture, Motoyasu returned to him with a wink and a smirk. They were already wanting to become a team together and they had the perfect number to assemble a full roster.

"That being said, you will be partnered with the first person you make eye contact with once you land. You will remain with them, without argument, for the next four years."

At that point, Naofumi started to sweat.

That gave the probability that if he wasn't able to come across Ren, Itsuki, or Motoyasu once he landed, they wouldn't be together for the next few years. Not only that, they had to secure the other pair to be with each other as well. To say that Naofumi was nervous about those odds, that was slightly understating it.

Even some of the other students were talking up a storm after such the reveal of such a selection process, but there were others trying to come up with a plan in order to be with the friends they were with. Ozpin took the time to sip a bit of his coffee again before the conversations started dying down.

He continued promptly.

"After you've partnered up with someone, I ask that each pair would make their way over to the northern end of the forest. Do not believe that the path will be easy, for you shall meet some opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path or else, you may die."

It sounded rather typical of some of Ozpin's battle training for them. If that was all that was in store for them, there was probably nothing worth fretting about. Naofumi still thought that partner procedure was the most daunting part of the entire Initiation so far.

"You shall be monitored and graded for the duration of your initiation, but know that our instructors and proctors will not intervene in any scenario. Whether you need help or if you believe it is too easy, they shall remain on the sidelines to watch and only watch.

"As for your goal, you will find an abandoned temple at the northern end of the forest. Once you reach that location, you will quickly find several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. We will regard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. From then, the Initiation shall be finished for you and your partner."

Ozpin gave everyone one final brief glance.

"Now then. Are there any questions?"

Jaune shyly raised his hand.

"Y-Yeah. Uhm, sir?"

"Good! Please take your positions!"

Itsuki nudged Ren quickly and whispered in a low voice.

"See? I told you that I'm not the only one that falls for that!"

"Shut up and get ready, Itsuki. You don't want to be falling on your face."

"Like hell that would happen. We've done this so many times that I can do it blindfolded!"

"But I don't think you can do it while silent apparently."

"H-Hey! Shut up!"

"Yeah. That's the plan."

Naofumi could hear the launch pads activating, one by one. Without trouble, they were able to launch students high into the air and right into the middle of the Emerald Forest. Even though it was as Itsuki mentioned, Naofumi could never get rid of the anxiety that occurs before the launch. He wasn't scared, but it was still quite the unpleasant experience for him.

He closed his eyes to prepare himself, hearing the noise of the pads going off. They kept getting louder and louder, closer and closer. He can remember the first time Ozpin threw him onto this device and how much he panicked once he learned what this was for, but this time?

There was nowhere to run, even if he wanted to. With a deep breath, Naofumi opened his eyes again, knowing that it was time to face this head on.

"Uhm… Sir, I still have a question," Jaune nervously said, keeping his hand raised. "So this entire thing concerning landing… W-What is it? Are you going to be dropping us off somewhere or…?"

"No. You will be falling."

"O-Oh, I see… So, like, were we supposed to be handed parachutes before or something?"

"No. You will be using your own landing strategy."

Itsuki watched the nervous student try to figure out what Ozpin meant by that, but the guy was clearly oblivious as to what was going on behind him. It might have been worthwhile to warn Jaune ahead of time, but…

… it happened to him more than a handful of times. It might be nice to see it from this angle.

"Right, right," Jaune nodded, scratching his head. "A landing strategy. Of course. But, uhm, what exactly is a landing strate—GYYYYY!?"

Before his sentence was finished, Jaune was flung into the air, leaving quite the impression.

Naofumi was going to be the next one and he braced himself for his turn to be sent into the air. He trained for this, so it wasn't the landing strategy that he had to be concerned with. He kept reminding himself to keep his eyes open in order to see where his brothers had landed and to make sure he was able to reach them first.

He waited for the launch pad to activate—

—and… he kept waiting.

His body loosened up and glanced down at his own launch pad. It was turned on, but it hadn't been triggering for some reason. Was there some type of glitch or malfunction? He quickly turned to his brothers to see that their own launch pads weren't activating either.

Everyone was confused and looked to the other as if any assistance would be lent somehow.

Suddenly, Ozpin chuckled.

"Oh my. Would you look at that? It appears that the first students you all made eye contact with are each other. Naofumi with Motoyasu, and Ren with Itsuki. This is quite the coincidence. Wouldn't you agree?"

Motoyasu followed their father's laughter, elbowing Naofumi with a smirk. "Nice! So that means our team is secured! All that's left is to get the relics from that abandoned temple and we'll be done with this!"

"In fact, it's not completely finished," Glynda stepped in. From her pocket, she pulled out a small container and opened it. She brought it up to both Naofumi and Ren. "You will need these in order to have that team secured. We didn't tell the other students this, but the full team is assembled using the pieces that they collect. Pairing sets shall be united together to make a team of four."

"Huh?" Itsuki pointed at what was inside. "Aren't those supposed to be the relics we need?"

"And what do you know?" Ozpin said, acting surprised by the whole ordeal. "It seems like there are two identical relics right in front of your eyes. Truly, this is such a coincidence." He took a long sip from his coffee, to emphasize the fact that he was the mastermind behind all of this, if it wasn't already obvious.

Ren and Naofumi reached out for the relics and held it in their hands. Each of them took a shape of a chess piece, specifically a pawn. Naofumi looked at the relic in amazement and excitement, but Ren was showing some of his sulk.

"Wait, so we're not going?" he asked, clenching the piece in his hand.

"We've already done this countless times before, have we not? I know more than anyone else that your landing techniques are good enough. Motoyasu, over here, already used them last week in the dust shop incident."

"Oh? You saw that?" Motoyasu's nose must have felt like growing. "It was pretty impressive, right?"

"Still though," Itsuki grunted, "I get what Ren is trying to say here. I understand that you might want to keep us as a team and I also understand that you already know what we're capable of. Even so, I think outright skipping the Initiation is a bit excessive."

"Yeah," Ren proclaimed. "I wanted to see the other students in action and compare our skills to them for ourselves. We haven't had much interaction with other people our age ever since we started training, after all."

"Ren is complaining about having little human interaction?" Motoyasu giggled. "This is certainly a new sight to behold."

"Ugh, shut up. Leave me alone." Ren briefly punched Motoyasu's shoulder while the older brother playfully acted hurt. "I'm just saying we have no one to gauge our strengths against other than ourselves. This would have been a good time to do so."

"Is that right?" Ozpin had an approving nod. "You may be correct. Skipping the entire Initiation would be a little too much. After all, it is called the Initiation for a reason. It is a rite of passage that all freshmen must experience before they truly are accepted into the academy."

"So does that mean—?" Naofumi attempted to ask, not realizing Ozpin wasn't finished.

"Finding each other and the appropriate pieces, by pure chance might I add, merely promises that you four will be on the same team. In other words, I do expect you to still run through what we outlined for everyone. Just as Ren mentioned, I am also curious as to how everyone will compare to the other students.

"I see." With a giant smirk, Ren pounded his fist into his palm. "Now I'm a little motivated!"

"We'll do our best, Father!" Itsuki leaped excitedly, cracking his knuckles in preparation. "We won't disappoint you!"

"That, I do not doubt in the slightest." Ozpin let out an amused laugh. "As I mentioned before, I already know what everyone here is capable of. With that being said, you should be going now. Time is of the essence and you wouldn't want to take too long. Now, would you?"

He took one more sip of his coffee, nodding to Glynda to properly set off the safety mechanisms of the launch pad. To be honest, the brothers never actually thought there were such a thing, but it should have made some sense for people who had to set it up.

"Any remaining questions?"

"Actually, I still have one," Itsuki said.

"Good! Now get yourselves ready!"

Itsuki facepalmed himself, cursing him for accidentally walking into that one again. Ozpin liked for the questions to come immediately and to not have a preemptive opening line to them, especially if he was asking for them. Itsuki shook his head and began bringing out his concerns.

"What happens if someone gets suspicious of this? there's a few students that already know that we're all siblings, so it might be sketchy that we would end up together on a team."

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," Ozpin answered vaguely, leaving much to be desired.

However, Glynda answered properly while finishing that last unlatchings of the safety mechanisms.

"I suggest for Naofumi and Ren to hide the relics inside the inventory function of your semblances. If anyone does come to ask you about the team, please respond on how you all were able to come up with a predetermined strategy to come across each other. Simply emphasize how lucky you were that it ended up working and with the same relics, you may say that you merely thought it would be fitting to take the same ones."

"Would that explanation really work?"

"It is an explanation, nonetheless," Glynda nodded as she returned to Ozpin's side. "Students wouldn't pay more attention after you provide such a thing. Believe me when I say that they will probably have more important things to worry about."

Itsuki crossed his arms, slightly unsatisfied.

"Okay, what if they—?"

Itsuki's launch pad triggered first.

"GRAH!?"

"There he goes!" Motoyasu stood on his toes, watching Itsuki fly into the distance.

Naofumi merely glanced at Ozpin.

"Don't look at me like that. I didn't do that on purpose. My finger simply slipped."

Ren sighed in response. "I'll go after him."

Activating the launch pad forcefully, Ren stomped on the surface with enough force to make him the next one to fly after Itsuki. It caused the two remaining brothers to start off their Initiation with a light-hearted atmosphere.

"By the way, I almost forgot to mention this back when you were supplied with the weapons. I wish all of you the best of luck on your Initiation. I would ask that you to not die, but I think it would be better to wish that request onto the Grimm you'll be facing. They'll need all the luck in the world to survive an encounter from you four, right?"

"Not even luck could save them!"

"Good to hear."

With Naofumi and Motoyasu getting launched off at the same time, Ozpin was left with Glynda to finish up his coffee. Something about drinking some coffee on this gentle breeze was nice for a change, or perhaps it was the sight of seeing those boys grow.

Surely, he came to realize that they were not replacements, but perhaps it was that knowledge that kept himself some distance away from those boys. On an unrelated note, he couldn't remember what type of coffee he was drinking. Part of it tasted sweet, but another sip would sometimes taste bitter.

This is the last of the chapters i had ready to post, and since mid terms are coming id advise not to hope for anything more anytime soon, sorry.

Happy New Year, everyone.