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RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth.
Chapter 9: Enter Unfamiliarity
The Sunday following my meeting with Ozpin came, and my daughter found herself on an airship to the academy. She was surrounded by both prospective and returning students. However, due to her time with me, she knew none of them. That didn't necessarily mean she was idle though. Normally, I would have expected her to be forming and dissipating Death's Thorn. She wasn't. Instead, she was tossing one of her dust knives up and down. Tossing it to eye level and catching it. It was little more than a method to pass the time.
She told me that her mind was preoccupied during the trip. She was thinking about our conversation the night before. Specifically, about my stern warning that the Necropolis and my identity are to remain a secret. I also told her the cover story I created so that no suspicions would, hopefully, be aroused.
Yet, despite being a relatively short trip, the flight to Beacon felt like hours, according to Ruby. Then again, from my own experience, I know time does seem to flow slowly when you pay attention to its passage… or when you're bored. Hey, when you live for ages like I have, then you will experience an age's worth of boredom.
Anyways, the airship touched down on the academy's grounds. Ruby was among the last to disembark. The first was a blonde boy, an interesting Jaune Arc, who fell to the ground and began kissing and worshiping it. Apparently, he was afflicted by that most heinous of curses. Motion sickness. Appropriately enough, he barfed on the shoes of one of the other prospective students. Since she was preoccupied, Ruby didn't actually see this, but she heard about it later.
So, Ruby disembarked and got her first impression of Beacon Academy. She must have looked like quite an odd sight. Most of the students were either excited to be returning, looking around in awe, or reuniting with old friends. Ruby was doing precisely none of those. She was staring up at the tallest tower of the academy and was comparing it to the Necropolis. If anything, Ruby appeared slightly underwhelmed.
Not that I can blame her. The Necropolis is one of the greatest places to ever exist, and a feat of engineering and architecture that just can't be matched.
With a sigh Ruby began to follow the crowds towards the academy's entrance. Her eyes were wandering around, taking in the sights, feeling out the grounds for weak points and strategic positions when she actually saw a rather familiar face. No points if you can guess who. It was Ozark.
Ruby turned and began walking towards him. Her curiosity getting the better of her. Of course, most people would be curious to learn that I let a soul trapped in the fields return. Yet, as I'm sure you remember, Joseph Ozark is far from the average soul.
However, before she could reach him, she collided with a luggage cart. Or rather, a luggage cart collided with her. Yet, the instant and insistent beratement of the luggage's' owner had Ruby convinced that she was at fault for a short minute, until she looked at the scene. The cart had hit her, not the other way around.
"Do you have any idea who I am?!" the berater finished yelling. Ruby only relayed the conversation from the last question onwards.
The person yelling at my daughter was the daughter of the head of the Schnee Dust Company, and one of the only people on Remnant who I could point to owning enough suitcases for three luggage carts. Weiss Schnee, at the time, the entitled heiress presumptive of the SDC.
"Not particularly, princess." Ruby replied. "And I think you are the one at fault here."
"What?" Weiss asked, shocked at the audacity of my daughter, a mere peasant in her eyes, to contradict her.
"You ran into me." Ruby clarified. "However, I'm willing to let bygones be bygones if you apologize and continue on your way."
"I did nothing wrong!" Weiss yelled. "Do you know who I am?!"
"Again, no." Ruby replied.
"She is Weiss Schnee, heiress of the largest producer and distributor of Remnant's biggest crutch." Ozark announced, stepping into the conversation. "And you Ms. Schnee were most certainly in the wrong here."
"Crutch?" Weiss questioned.
"Crutch." Ozark clarified. "Now, Ms. Schnee, if would kindly leave, I need to speak with Ms. Rose."
Weiss huffed and began to leave. Her various serving people hurried to gather her luggage and follow after her.
"I've never liked rich people." Ozark commented.
"What did you mean by Remnant's largest crutch?" Ruby asked.
"That's what Dust is. A crutch in the fight against the Grimm. Huntsmen and Huntresses have been using it ever since the time of the Omega Grimm. But that is neither here nor there." Ozark answered off handedly.
"So why are you here, Doctor?" Ruby inquired. "Dad only lets reaper's wander among the living."
"Keep your voice down, Ruby. They don't know." Ozark chided. "As for what I'm doing. My reasons are my own, but it is a favor from your father to the headmaster."
"Dad owes a favor?" Ruby asked.
"No, he's now owed a favor." Ozark corrected.
"That sounds more like him. So why did you need to see me?" Ruby returned to the original topic.
"I had something for you…" Ozark trailed off as he began to search his pockets.
His search ended pretty quickly. He handed Ruby a vial full of a crimson fluid. Ruby took it and looked at it. Her questioning gaze turned back to Ozark, but he was holding out a different vial. This one was full of crystal-clear liquid. Ruby took it in her other hand.
"Ruby, tonight when you go to sleep, drink all of that red liquid. Drink the other vial when you wake up tomorrow." Ozark instructed her.
"What are these?" Ruby asked.
"Aid." Ozark replied. "The red liquid is an incredibly powerful aura suppressant. It should allow you to sleep tonight without endangering anyone. The clear liquid is an aura stimulant, it will counteract the effects of the suppressant."
"Did Dad ask you to do this?" Ruby questioned.
"No, he has full confidence in your ability to control your aura. This is a request from… the headmaster…" Ozark answered, looking around. "You should hurry along, the orientation will begin soon, and I have a meeting to keep."
Ozark turned and left. Ruby watched him go, suspicion mounting as she stored the drugs in her pockets. My daughter ran towards the school. She made it to the auditorium as Ozpin was taking the stage. As such, she stayed near the back of the room. In front of her stood the crimson haired champion of Mistral, Pyrrha Nikos. Not that Ruby knew that. She just stood and listened to Ozpin's speech.
"Greetings and welcome, prospective students to Beacon academy." Ozpin began. "You have travelled here from far and wide in search of knowledge. Knowledge we will impart to you. By the time you finish here, you will be fully fledged, licensed huntsmen and huntresses… or you will be left behind like yesterday's trash. We will not coddle you here. We will train you to fight. We will train you to survive. Most importantly, we will train you to protect. Your time here at Beacon will be long and hard. We will show you the cost of being huntsmen and huntresses. It is a price you may begin paying during the coming years. That being said, I do wish you the best of luck, but only the best will be accepted. Tomorrow, when you wake, you will be initiated into this academy. Your partner and your team for the next four years will be decided tomorrow. For tonight, rest easy. You are only at the beginning of a long hard road."
Ozpin stepped back and his deputy took the stage.
"Despite what the headmaster has just said, we will be providing you room and board for the night. Food and drinks will be provided, and you will sleep in the ballroom." Glynda instructed. "For now, you are dismissed."
Students slowly began to leave the auditorium. Ruby stayed back and mulled over what the headmaster had said. However, she wasn't allowed to stew in her thoughts for long. A kindly voice broke her from them.
"Are you coming?" the girl asked.
Ruby looked up to see the confused face of Pyrrha Nikos looking down at her.
"Yeah, just thinking." Ruby replied.
"What about?" Pyrrha asked.
"Ozpin's speech. It sounded… ominous." Ruby answered.
"It certainly wasn't meant to be encouraging, was it?" Pyrrha replied.
"No." Ruby answered. "I'm sorry, I don't know who you are."
"You don't?" Pyrrha questioned.
"No… should I?" Ruby inquired.
"Most people do." Pyrrha replied. "But I'm Pyrrha Nikos."
"Ruby Rose." Ruby responded with a smile, holding out her hand.
"You really don't know who I am?" Pyrrha asked, incredulous.
"I do now. You're Pyrrha Nikos." Ruby said as they exited the auditorium. "Are you famous, or something?"
"Kind of." Pyrrha replied. "Four-time Mistralian tournament champion."
"Impressive… mostly." Ruby replied.
"Mostly?" Pyrrha questioned.
"Mostly." Ruby repeated. "If you truly want to impress me, beat my aunt. I don't think she's ever lost a battle."
"Is she a tournament fighter too?" Pyrrha asked.
"At one point, maybe, but I don't think so anymore." Ruby answered as they entered the ballroom.
Set up along the back wall of the massive space was a series of tables filled with food and drinks. Next to the tables was a pile of cheap sleeping bags. Ruby noticed a lot of the people in the room were following the two girls as they walked and talked. Ruby didn't like so many eyes on her. It made her feel uneasy. In her mind she kept repeating that they were watching Pyrrha, not her. Still, it bothered her.
She ignored them, grabbed some food and a sleeping bag. Pyrrha went her own separate way after grabbing some food herself. Ruby sighed and sat in a corner of the room. She gazed out at the students before her. As she silently ate, she studied the mass of bodies. Many of the guys were trying to show off for the girls. Most of the girls were ignoring the showoffs. There were a precious few people who actually garnered my daughters' attention.
The first two she studied were a boy in green with a pink strip in his hair. He was accompanied by an energetic orange haired girl with a pink skirt. Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie. She was holding his arm tight and rambling on about sloths. Interestingly enough, Nora was just as pointedly studying the students around them. She was hiding that fact with her hyper energetic nature. Conquest would have complimented her for that. Ren was simply meditating and appeared to be ignoring the girl. Didn't bother her though.
The next to catch her attention was Jaune Arc. Mostly because his entrance drew ridicule and laughter from many of the students around him. He wore a light blue onesie with the image of a smiling rabbit on his chest. Impressively, he took the ridicule in stride. Ruby chuckled when she saw him very obviously wink at one of the girls who was laughing at him.
The next person to catch her attention was a bored looking girl reading a book. What caught Ruby's attention was that the bow on her head was twitching. It didn't take her long to surmise that she was a faunus. Though, Blake Belladonna's secret would remain so until Blake revealed it. Actually, the more interesting part was the book she was reading. It's actually one of my favorite novels.
Blake was reading the story of a man who had everything going for him. Until one day, he's betrayed by his friends and the men in power, and subsequently arrested and tried for a crime he did not commit. In one day, he goes from having it all to having nothing and is tossed in a prison cell. There he meets an old prisoner who promises to educate him in everything so long as he helps the old man escape. For the next few years, they do. The old man teaches, the young man learns, they both try to escape. Then a cave in happens, and as the old man dies, he tells the young man about a hidden treasure on an uncharted, uninhabitable island. The story goes on from there the young man finds the treasure, becomes fabulously wealthy, and the latter half of the book is devoted to retelling his ingenious revenge for all who had wronged him years prior.
Sorry. I'm getting off topic, but it's probably my favorite work of fiction. It's also one of Ruby's favorites. I've tried to introduce Bianca and Keira to it, but they don't like it. For Keira, she doesn't like reading. For Bianca, it's too dry. I'll admit, it is a bit of a dry book, but it's very good. War and Famine don't read much either. Conquest, however, readily admits that book is his favorite. I'd say he's read a couple hundred times since it was written. Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if he's read it enough to know the entire book and be able to recite it, front to back, word for word.
Anyways, Ruby saw the book.
The next person to catch her interest was a girl with long blonde hair and lilac eyes. Though she didn't know it at the time, Ruby was studying her long lost sister, Yang Xiao Long. Though, since her adoption by her Uncle Qrow, she was Yang Branwen now. You'd think that it was the passing resemblance to a sister she was once very close to that caught Ruby's attention. If that's what you think, then you're wrong. Don't worry, I was wrong too. When Ruby first told me this, I was confused. Yang had felt familiar. Too familiar to be the sister that she was separated from a decade ago. The thing that was most disturbing was that she couldn't place a finger on why Yang felt so familiar.
Ruby sighed and yawned. She pulled out the vial of what Ozark said was an aura suppressant. She downed the vial. Her vision began to darken. The suppressant had acted fast. She crawled into the sleeping bag Beacon provided and began to nod off. As she fell asleep, she noted several of the other prospective students were nodding off as well.
It only felt like a few seconds to her, but what was odd, was the breeze and the chill that woke her. Ruby's eyes shot open, and she bolted upright. The air was still and warm in the ballroom when she fell asleep. Ruby took a deep breath and quickly calmed down. She wasn't in the academy ballroom. Instead, she was in a forest. A healthy forest with a multitude of different trees and a canopy of emerald above her head.
The initiation had begun.
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Data Log DoD-009
Thank you to all who read this, your feedback and views are much appreciated. Feel free to leave ideas and recommendations for the future.
Goodbye viewer; Fare thee well.
End Log S.T.K.