That afternoon I let June know that I got accepted into Beacon. She had known I was training to get in, and while she was sad to lose such a reliable employee, she was also incredibly happy to see me taking the reins of my life again. She told me that I could continue to use the second floor as my apartment, and if I needed money I'd always be welcome to come back and work, even if it was just for a brief period.
I appreciated it, more than she could possibly know. If it weren't for her, so much in my life would have turned out differently. I'd have never met Cinder, nor any of the regulars, I'd have probably ended up in a much worse situation overall… Maybe someday I'd be able to repay her for everything she'd done for me.
It was only right, after all.
The details that were emailed to me explained that I would be boarding a large carrier ship that would dock at a specific place in the city, this was the same ship that took everyone to Beacon from the show, I knew. It honestly made me nervous, the idea of actually meeting these people, after having watched their adventures for so long. Teams RWBY and JNPR… I just hoped that at the very least they'd get to be on the same teams again, I'd much rather have a separate team, it was a lot less complicated that way.
Besides, with how well those teams worked together, the idea that my presence might result in the teams being scrambled wasn't nice. It was like I was preventing a family from forming… or something like that, anyway.
However, I wasn't too worried about it, there would no doubt be far more initiates to end up teamed up with this time around. The odds of me ending up with someone from either of those teams was miniscule, ultimately.
Cinder responded to the news over text with a simple 'Good.' Which was more or less expected, and besides, she was busy doing…whatever she was doing. Nothing good, I was certain. Just as I asserted to myself originally on the day I chose to go on a walk with her, she had her duty and I had mine. One day, sooner rather than later, we might be forced to fight. Although I desperately hoped that day would never come, for more reasons than one.
Just thinking about it made my stomach sink and my heart hurt, so I tried not to, at least then and there. I was supposed to be preparing for tomorrow! Packing, setting my alarm, and seeing if there were any last minute surprises the talisman had for me.
After I was packed and ready with a suitcase I had bought just for this occasion, I sat on my bed for what I figured would be the last time for a good while and lifted the talisman in front of me. I did get that Observe skill some time ago…I wondered what I could learn by using it on this?
As I observed, the talisman began to glow a light blue and several dialogue boxes appeared in front of me.
New Skill Unlocked!
Magic
The Talisman in your hand is imbued with magic. As you grow stronger, you will be able to use it to cast spells, the amount determined by the MP you have access to. You will gain more spells as you get stronger, and get more creative. Your MP will recharge daily after you get a full eight hours of sleep.
Current skill
1/100
Relic MP
10,000/10,000
Effective MP
10/10
Spells Available
Fleet Foot
The Talisman imbues you with a slight increase in your reflexes and speed, granting +1 Dexterity for one hour.
MP Cost
10
Light
Create a light source that will last until you dismiss it, allowing you to illuminate a room!
MP Cost
10
Magic? I mean, that was cool…What wasn't cool, was how utterly useless it was. I furrowed my brow and let go of the amulet, allowing it to rest on my chest again.
That was when I heard the Assistant's voice next to me, they sounded…smug, "What's wrong, Neve?"
I started in surprise before looking at them, they had an equally smug smirk on their face, "You know I was kind of hoping for-"
Assistant covered their mouth and giggled, "World-ending powers? Awwhh, sorry to disappoint." They were decidedly not sorry.
I huffed and crossed my arms, "No! Just something useful! You know, a shield or something?"
Assistant uncovered their mouth, "Oh don't be like that! The Light spell can help during a dark night! Get in some light reading, maybe avoid stubbing your toe on a table?" They giggled more, and I was starting to wonder exactly when Assistant had gained such unrepentant smugness.
I looked away, "Why is my relic such a brat? Are you a person or a being of pure smugness and haught?"
They gave me a light shove, "Both, dummy." Then they vanished, and I was (for the moment at least) left to my own devices.
I guessed this was just going to be part of my life now, oh joy…
Maybe they had restrictions or something keeping them from displaying their personality before I got into Beacon? Maybe now I was more in-sync with the world and the Talisman, so they were able to display this part of themselves?
I guessed there was no real way to find out without asking them, and I wasn't about to do that right then. So instead I just focused on enjoying the rest of the afternoon. I would have tomorrow morning to eat breakfast and tell June goodbye for now, and then in the afternoon it would be time to go to Beacon.
I was on the timeline now, and more than anything I was curious to see just how much had changed, and just how much had stayed the same.
The next day after doing everything I had planned to do I left for the carrier ship dressed in my huntsman gear. Honestly, I could understand why most hunters just wore their battle attire as everyday clothes. If you could look cool twenty-four seven, why wouldn't you?
The ship itself was massive, clearly built for the purpose of ferrying large amounts of people, complete with holographic television screens on the walls, the news was on and they were talking about the continuing dust robberies when I entered the ship.
It was a good thing that cargo was kept somewhere else and that I wasn't afraid of crowds, because man there were a lot of people. Way more than the shadow-people of Volume 1 would lead you to believe.
Luckily, however, the ship was large enough that people were mostly able to fan out and enter into their own little groups to talk and mingle. I took a seat on an outcropped part of the ship that was designed to be one long bench, from one end of the ship to another. There were two on either side, for people who got tired of standing.
I started to look around, trying to pick out anyone of interest, and particularly, the people I would recognize immediately.
I saw Jeanne and Jaune in a corner, talking to each other excitedly. Jaune looked about as I expected him to, as dorky as his sister. The ship hadn't taken off, I wondered if she had motion sickness like her brother?
Sitting on the other side of the ship with her nose in a book was Blake Belladonna, her black bow concealing the cat ears I knew were there. She was as stunning as I expected her to be, but that was the thing, I expected it. Because it seemed like everyone on this ship was in their own way exceptionally good looking. Sure, some people were plain, but even then! Maybe it was because hunting Grimm generally meant higher standards of maintaining one's body?
That was probably it.
It didn't take me long to spot Ruby and Yang, honestly getting used to actually seeing everyone here was going to be difficult to adjust to. They were real, as real as I was! It was…surreal. Just like how seeing Cinder for the first time was surreal. Ruby was her adorable self, although she appeared to be slightly older than in canon? I think I remembered the news saying she was sixteen, huh… Yang looked normal, as well, although as Yang darted off to go talk with a friend of hers, I expected Ruby to be left on her own.
However, that was where the first major difference manifested itself, or rather, manifested himself.
A guy who looked about Ruby's age, platinum blonde hair, brown eyes, fair skin. He wore a beige cloak that had a leather strap in the middle that connected the two sides of the cloak. Underneath that, he wore a white T-shirt with a gold marigold symbol over his heart, a pair of black trousers, and black work boots. He seemed familiar with Ruby, which was decidedly not normal considering that as far as I remembered she had left all her old friends behind at Signal. Who was this guy?
Only one way to find out, I activated observe and focused on him.
Lunus Marigold
Age - 16
Level 7 Handyman
Vigor - 15
Mind - 10
Charisma - 10
Endurance - 18
Strength - 20
Dexterity - 10
Intelligence - 20
Aura
100/100
Skills
Saw Blade Fighting
40/100 (Above average)
?
Oh. He was good. At least, good for an amateur huntsman, better than me certainly. Wait, Marigold? Like the family from Atlas? Then how did he know Ruby? So many questions I almost didn't notice that my Observe skill was giving me slightly more detail than it used to. It must have leveled up.
As for this Lunus guy, I counted him as another timeline difference and decided I would need to figure it out later. They seemed to be having a good time talking to each other, so I wasn't going to go interrupt them. I saw Weiss sitting on the opposite side of the bench I was on, she wasn't talking to anyone and she seemed to have a butler near her, was that Klein? Maybe. He would be the one she had come with her to Beacon even for a brief period of time.
I was sitting firmly in the middle, and there weren't many people sitting, even as the ship began to take off. When the ship started moving, the Arc siblings both reacted with the exact reaction I was expecting, motion sickness. They ran off to throw up in the garbage cans on the ship, while I turned my gaze to my left to see who was sitting at the other corner.
It was a fair-skinned girl, she had fluffy brown hair with a black stripe running vertically across it, her hair went down to her neck. She had a fluffy racoon tail that marked her as a faunus, which was currently wrapped around her waist. She was wearing a red tabard with black accents, it was long and reached her knees. I couldn't see what she was wearing underneath, I hoped she was wearing shorts…She had to be, right? She was, however, wearing black stockings that seemed to cover her legs, and a pair of black boots to finish it all off. She seemed to have a thing for black and red.
However, the most interesting thing about her (which was saying something because she seemed interesting overall) was the one silver eye I saw, which was currently reading a manga she was holding, the other was hidden under a black eyepatch. Did she lose it? She also had this strange effect while I was looking at her, as if there was some kind of mirage around her, I could still make her out, but the area immediately around her was…wobbly.
She seemed busy, so I was about to leave her to her own devices, when suddenly I got a new type of quest.
Substories!
A substory is a type of quest that is not essential to your efforts to become a huntsman, nor is it a matter of life and death or critical importance, but it is still something you should consider doing, if it suits your fancy.
Substory
The Silver-Eyed Racoon
With no friends of your own to speak of at the moment (at least, ones that aren't vomiting their guts out) maybe now is a good time to make some new ones? This girl seems like a good place to start! Besides, she already noticed you looking at her like a creep!
Rewards
A new friend, 50 Lien
Penalties for Failure
Feeling like a friendless loser.
What? I didn't want to bother her…
Wait, did it say she saw me looking at her?
I dismissed the text boxes and sure enough I saw her glancing at me, her face was red and she had brought her book up to cover the lower part of her face..
Oh boy…
Well, now if I wanted to not appear like a creep I really did need to go say hi.
I cleared my throat and stood up before walking over to her. Her face reddened even more as I approached, I spoke in a friendly tone in an attempt to make her relax, "Uhm, hey…I didn't mean to freak you out or anything, I just, uhh…Thought that you looked cool, with that mirage…effect…thing." I was normally pretty good at talking to people, but this was awkward on its face.
The mirage around her manifested a…charcoal colored slightly translucent hand? The hand waved at me and then lowered the manga as she began to smile, still looking down and not meeting my gaze, the hand vanished as she spoke, "Cool…?" I nodded, suddenly her smile brightened into a large grin as she stood up, and I saw she was actually very short. Under five feet!
She placed one hand on her hip, the other raised, her fingers splayed over her eyepatch-covered left eye, her voice filled with bravado, "Aha! Of course, I, the great Umber Sha'dow XIV Esquire, Master of the Eight Blades of the Eclipse and future Savior of Remnant, am very cool!"
I watched her belt out this introduction with a dumbfounded expression on my face, "Uhm…I'm Neve. Neve Cadere. Is that your real name? And what's with the eyepatch?"
She grinned and responded, pointedly ignoring my first question, "The eyepatch is a power limiter, if I remove it then everyone on this ship would feel the true power of my unfettered silver eyes!"
I had a feeling she had no actual idea what silver eyes did, but still, I humored her and asked, "Really?"
Her smile fell a bit and she spoke in a deadpan tone, "No, I just think it looks cool." I was reminded of a certain show I loved back in the other world, and I realized this was my one and only opportunity to react to it in the best way possible.
I reached out towards her eyepatch, not actually intending to grab it, and she recoiled, waving her hands in front of her face, "No, don't! I'm innocent I tell you, innocent! I just like to look cool!" I smiled and relented, lowering my hand.
I used my Observe skill on her, curious as to just who she was exactly.
Violet Merino
Age - Seventeen
Level 8 Chuunibyou
Vigor - 12
Mind - 37
Charisma - 20
Endurance - 15
Strength - 10
Dexterity - 16
Intelligence - 10
…What the hell?! Her mind is insane! Mind was gained through experiencing life, like when I got robbed by Torchwick…I felt a sinking feeling in my chest as I asked myself the question, just what exactly had she been through?
I had a feeling it was better to not ask, especially on our first meeting. I dismissed the textbox as she gained an indignant look in her eye, "You threatened to take my eyepatch! There's only one thing you can do to repent for your crimes!" I tilted my head at her, and she continued, "You have to be my friend! I demand it!"
Paradoxically, immediately after she belted that out, she shrunk away and pushed her fingers together shyly, looking away, "I-I mean, if you want to…You don't have to…" I had to stop myself from recoiling at the sheer power of this girl.
Why the hell was she so adorable?!
I swallowed a lump in my throat, "O-On one condition! Tell me your real name, and I'll be your friend!"
Her eyes lit up and she gasped as if I'd just handed her a thousand Lien, "Really?! Violet Merino! That's my real name, and now you're my friend! Oh, oh! Do you read manga?! We could read some together, and play video games, and that kind of friend stuff!"
I got a new notification once she was done speaking.
The Silver-Eyed Racoon
You've got your first friend! She may be eccentric, but she's got spirit! Just what did she go through to give her that mind stat, though?
Rewards
New Friend: Violet Merino, 50 Lien
I dismissed it and responded to her, "I haven't read manga in a long time now…It couldn't hurt though." I smiled, "And I'll never turn down an offer to play games!" Maybe a bit ironic, considering I was more or less a video game character, but what can you do? "So what's with the…hand thing you had a second ago?"
Violet grinned and crossed her arms, suddenly the mirage separated from her, forming into a larger version of her that was standing next to her and posed much the same as she had before, "That's Aura, my semblance! She can do anything I want her to do, sometimes I don't even have to think about it!"
Wow…That sounded very handy.
She was about to ask something else when suddenly a guy's voice spoke up behind me, sounding fairly average, "Hey you two!" We both looked, it was that Lunus guy and Ruby standing next to him. I swallowed a lump in my throat as I saw her. She was looking away shyly while Lunus smiled, "I wanted to try and help Ruby here get out of her shell a bit, her sister wanted her to make some new friends, talk to some new people, so… Mind if we join you guys?"
Well, all things considered he seemed fairly normal, especially compared to how I knew Ruby behaved when she wasn't being shy. Violet spoke before I could, "Sure!" She singled out Ruby, "What's your name?!"
While they struck up a conversation, Lunus and I split off into our own separate conversation, I asked, "So, excited? Name's Neve." It was a simple question, easy small talk, yet I found that a lot of people struggled with it, unless it was something they were passionate about.
As if to prove my point, he rubbed the back of his head nervously, "Ah, my name is Lunus, and uhm… yeah…" He trailed off and things went silent for a moment before he thought of something else to say, "I'll be honest, I got bumped up a grade because of my performance, so I'm extremely nervous. I think Ruby's got it worse though, she was brought up because the Headmaster took a shine to her skills."
Huh, he must have been good to get bumped up like that, I placed a hand on my hip and smiled, "Then what's there to be nervous about? You've got the skill to carve out your niche here, so you shouldn't have any problems with that!"
Lunus shook his head, "That's not it, I'm… Not the greatest with people. I'm better than Ruby! But… She and I have really been each other's only friend since we met each other like… a very long time ago. We can't stay like that forever, though, especially with the likelihood of us ending up on a different team."
Well, that was a smart thing to do, even if it was…odd that they'd never really had any other friends. Were they both just socially stunted, or something? That seemed to be a running theme with the huntsmen, even the most normal-seeming of them had some kind of hang-up with meeting people. I guess that meant it was time for me to be the social one, those months of talking to people at the store were finally paying off! Well, they had literally been paying off already, but still! "Oh come on, it's just talking to people. It's not that hard…I mean, sometimes it can be, but you just gotta put your best foot forward! Be confident! Eh… I know that's easier said than done, but it's better to try and fail than to never try at all, huh?"
He smiled and seemed heartened by my words, "Yeah, you're right, and hey, I guess I talked to you, that's a start, right?"
I nodded, "Exactly! You can't get to the end of the path if you never start walking." As soon as that little conversation was finished, I got two new textboxes, curiously enough.
New Skill Unlocked!
Leadership
In the world of Remnant, leaders are the glue that holds many a huntsmen team together. They can also be relied upon to calm civilians in the event of a crisis, to lift spirits when they're low, to make split second decisions in combat, and more! By unlocking this skill, you've taken the first step towards becoming a competent leader.
Skill Level
1/100
New Ability Unlocked!
Rally
As you improve your leadership skill, you will unlock new abilities that you can use to the advantage of your friends and to the disadvantage of your foes. As you improve your Rally skill, you will be able to lift spirits in the darkest times, weather the winds of change, and eventually provide your team a second wind!
Skill Level
1/100
Eh…? I wasn't trying to be a leader or anything there…He just needed a pep talk! It wasn't even a good one! Oh well, just another example of the System giving me skills for every little thing I did. I guessed that I shouldn't have jinxed that whole 'Not getting a skill for every other word' thing I mentioned before.
Oh well…
I dismissed the textboxes and we continued to talk idly for the rest of the trip. Ruby and Violet seemed to hit it off, both being weird in their own ways, which was endearing. I mean, we were all weird, but those two seemed blatantly unashamed about it. Meanwhile, Lunus seemed to be a nice conversation partner when he got past his awkwardness, probably the most level-headed person I'd met up to that point, which was honestly not saying much, but still!
Eventually the ship docked at the entrance to Beacon, and with that the doors were open and our luggage was brought out for us by the ship's crew. After I grabbed my suitcase, I turned towards the exit of the ship and saw that Ruby and Lunus had apparently drawn the ire of Weiss. Well, I guessed some things never changed.
I saw Violet, who gathered her own suitcases (two of them) plus her weapon, a great scimitar that was sheathed on her back, and was looking in my direction from the pathway. I smiled at her and made my way over. We started to walk towards the ballroom where we were supposed to leave our luggage before making our way to the auditorium for Ozpin's speech.
We were joined by the Arc Siblings while we were walking, Jeanne had what looked like a claymore on her back while Jaune had his usual weapon, Crocea Mors I think. Jeanne introduced her brother, "Hey Neve and girl I don't know, this is my brother, Jaune! I've told you about him before, Neve, he's a dork." They were walking to my left, and I smiled in amusement as I saw Jaune give an aghast look to her.
Jaune crossed his arms, "Yeah, well, you're no better! Who was the one gushing over every cute person you've met since coming to the city? A barista, almost every student on the ship, I could go on!"
Jeanne huffed and placed a hand on her hip, "Yeah? Let he who is without gushing cast the first insult! What about you and that white haired girl? You know she's a Schnee, right? It's not gonna happen." Wow, even Jeanne could tell how well Jaune's future efforts were going to go there, and yet Jaune didn't seem too moved by her warning, of course he wasn't.
That was when a loud explosion was heard back towards the ship, we all turned around and saw a smoking crater where the Signal Duo had been, with Weiss looking annoyed more than anything. The four of us shared a look before we walked back to inspect the crater, of course both of them were fine, although Jeanne and Jaune did the polite thing and helped Lunus and Ruby respectively out of the hole in the ground.
Violet watched the whole thing with a gleeful expression, "That was so cool! Life at Beacon is already way more exciting than life before, how often do you get to see explosions like that?"
As we started to walk, Lunus shook his head, "Well, I'm glad our explosion was so impressive. I dunno what that Schnee girl was expecting when she waved around an uncorked dust vial like that…and she was the one talking about dust safety!"
Ruby joined in on the discussion, "Yeah! She was really mean… What's her deal, anyway? Just because she's a Schnee doesn't mean she's all that!" Technically it kind of did, but that didn't mean she needed to act like it. Good thing I had the foreknowledge that the whole thing was, at least in part, an act brought on by her family's expectations of her.
Inevitably the conversation shifted to weapons when Ruby asked what everyone fought with, with her explaining Crescent Rose to us, and prompting a show and tell. Lunus was up first, he took his weapon off his back, it looked like a large red and white Buzzsaw, although the blade seemed to have been retracted into the body, "I've got Selene, it's a uh…giant buzzsaw with the ability to shoot flechettes out of it!" It looked impractical as hell, but hey, so did Crescent Rose.
Ruby took this opportunity to put Lunus on blast with a smirk on her face, "Yeah, it's super cool, not like that old weapon of yours. What was it again? Hmmm…" Lunus' face paled as Ruby grinned deviously, "That's right! A bat! Just an aluminum bat with some dust-conducting wire on it!" She laughed, "What were you even thinking with that?"
He shook his head, especially as Violet joined in the laughing, although the Arc twins didn't really have much of a leg to stand on when it came to simple weapons. Lunus defended himself, "Look, I didn't have time to finish working on Selene before the due date, so I just had to bring the first thing I had laying in the garage! I didn't expect to get stuck with it for a whole month. Man, Qrow is ruthless…" He grumbled as Ruby patted his back to console him.
Jaune came to his defense, "Hey, simple weapons are cool! I've just got uh…" He drew Crocea Mors, "My sword and shield, it's a family heirloom. Same with Jeanne's weapon! You gotta respect the classics, even if the classic is a bat, I guess."
Jeanne drew her sword off her back, "Yeah! His is Crocea Mors, mine's Alba Mors! As you can see, mine's bigger than his." That drew an immature laugh from Violet, a snicker from Ruby, and amused expressions from Lunus and I, while Jaune looked horrified.
I threw him a bone by reaching to grab Dawn from under the back of my cloak, I drew the blades, "This is Dawn, a couple swords, and…" I joined the two blades together, "It's also a bow."
General noises of appreciation followed, everyone could respect a weapon like that, even if Ruby thought it should have turned into a gun instead of a bow. That was when the last of our group showed off her weapon, drawing the scimitar off her back. It looked impressive for such a small girl to have such a large weapon, but then I remembered that Scimitars are supposed to be very light, even at this size, "This is Suncutter!" The blade itself was colored dark purple at the top and faded into an orangish red like the color of the afternoon sky towards the hilt, "Giant sword, and…" It began to glow purple and she suddenly yanked the grip off the scimitar. The blade itself curled in on itself and turned into a chakram, while the part she was holding turned itself into a gun. I wasn't a big gun nut, but it reminded me of a… Mini-14? It wasn't that large, for sure, "Also a gun!"
While she was busy directing the blade to unfurl itself and go into her sheath, Ruby seemed amazed, "Wow, that's so cool! You gotta let me try it out someday!" Violet seemed more than happy to oblige, and not long after that we reached the ballroom and left all of our luggage there, against the walls. It was a good thing we all had the foresight to invest in nametags…
The auditorium was crowded, and while Lunus and Ruby went off to go talk to Yang and Jaune went off to try his luck flirting with Weiss, I was left with Violet and Jeanne. Adorably, Violet didn't seem to do very well with a crowd this size, she hovered close to Jeanne and I and pushed her fingers together while trying not to look around too much, "I hate crowds…They make me feel weird."
Jeanne and I worked on consoling her while Ozpin gave his speech, the same one I'd heard before. It was brief, he talked about how all of us lacked guidance, and how the goal of Beacon was to provide that guidance, so on and so forth. After that, it was already getting dark, so most people went to change into their night clothes and to roll out their sleeping bags.
I did the same, and man…Something that I never thought about was how Remnant didn't seem to have the concept of splitting genders in any way. Nobody seemed to think it was a big deal that men and women changed in the same giant locker room, so I just focused on myself and got changed as quickly as I could into my pajama bottoms and T-shirt before escaping back to the ballroom and staking a claim to a spot against the wall for my sleeping bag.
I was soon joined by Violet, wearing a silk black pajama top with red accents and a matching pair of pajama bottoms. She had her sleeping bag in her arms, "Mind if I join you?" She looked around nervously, "I don't like all these people being here…It makes me feel weird." I gestured to the spot next to where I was sitting and she smiled in relief, rolling out her sleeping bag and sitting down, "Man…It feels good taking off those wrappings, I can breathe again!"
Oh I had noticed that she had been wrapping her chest before…I just chose not to say anything, nor to look at her like that, because that was rude! I was better than that. Ample development aside, I changed the topic, "Tomorrow's initiation…Are you excited?"
Violet nodded, "More than anything! I've been waiting for this my whole life! I hope I'll be able to get to sleep quickly…When I'm excited I usually end up staying up super late because my brain is too busy…"
I hummed and gave her some advice I remembered receiving once, "Well, if you end up not being able to sleep, don't lay in bed staring at nothing. Get up and go for a walk, or read some manga, you know? Don't just lay there, otherwise you'll take even longer to fall asleep."
Violet gasped as if this was brand new information, "That's a great idea! Thank you, Neve." She smiled, "I'm glad my first friend has all of this sage advice for me!" First…friend? That had to be an exaggeration…
And the advice wasn't even sage, it was simple!
I saw Jeanne walking about, unlike Jaune she wasn't wearing footie pajamas, instead she was wearing a tank-top and pajama bottoms, she seemed amused at Jaune's choice of attire, I had to wonder if she had something to do with it? It would be like a sister to embarrass a brother by messing with their wardrobe choices.
They seemed to have taken up a couple spots next to each other elsewhere, I saw Ruby, Lunus, Yang, and one of Yang's friends all talking. Yang's friend was a guy with dark blue hair that fell to his upper back, kept straight. His features were…refined, he definitely seemed like the last person I'd expect Yang to be friends with, but hey, there were a lot of surprises in this timeline.
The shadow friends Yang had being turned into real people was probably the least surprising thing about this whole ordeal, after all.
It didn't take long for people to begin winding down for the night, after all today had been busy. Waking up early to make sure everything was squared away before dragging our suitcases to the ship, getting in and mingling with people (which could be exhausting in and of itself), among other things.
I, too, went to sleep. Violet, at least, seemed to have an easier time sleeping than she feared she would. Hell, she fell asleep before me. She did seem thoroughly exhausted from all the talking she did today. I had a feeling she was a major introvert.
The next morning was abuzz with activity, I had to carefully maneuver myself around Violet, who was still sleeping when I woke up, so I could pack up my sleeping bag and then go change back into my huntsman gear. Thankfully I woke up a lot earlier than most people, so the locker room wasn't as packed as it was yesterday. For once my habit of waking up early to open up the cafe paid off!
After I was dressed and armed, I started to head out, knowing that sooner rather than later the place would be packed with students getting ready for initiation.
As I started to walk through the door, I accidentally bumped into someone. On instinct I apologized and stepped back, only to see it was none other than Weiss, wearing her silk pajamas. I had to repress the urge to grimace, she looked annoyed, "Watch where you're going! You almost knocked me over."
I highly doubted that she would have been knocked over by me of all people, but nonetheless I smiled apologetically, "You're right, sorry about that. I should have paid more attention, it's my fault." Dealing with Weiss at this point was like dealing with an annoyed customer at the cafe. By diffusing the situation, I took the wind out of her sails. Demonstrated by her seeming surprise that I actually apologized, which yeah, I guessed most people here would be fairly combative with someone like Weiss, either because she's a Schnee or because of her prickly attitude,
Her face dusted up a light red, she looked embarrassed with herself, "Uhm…Yes! You're right to be sorry." She walked into the locker room, "At least you have better manners than most people here." She turned her nose up at the thought of the others, "Like that girl who made a crater in the ground yesterday."
Now I could have jumped to Ruby's defense, told her how she had the wrong idea and that she should give her a chance, but if things went as I anticipated they would, then she could work things out with Ruby on her own. So instead I shrugged, "I try. Good luck with initiation. I hear the partner selection is totally random."
Weiss' face paled, if that was even possible with how light her complexion already was, "I… see. I appreciate the warning. I'll have to take some precautions…" She started muttering to herself as she walked deeper into the locker room. I shrugged and left.
People were already starting to wake up, Violet among them. After we traded 'good mornings' I waited until the announcement that was going to direct us to the cliffs.
While I was waiting, I got a notification of a new quest!
New Quest!
Players and Pieces
Initiation! The day you've been waiting for for months, willingly or not. What happens during initiation will determine a lot about your future, and it's incredibly important you do everything you can to get out of the Emerald Forest alive. Find your partner and your relic, as well as maybe the pair you'll be partnered with for the next four years, and make it back alive!
Rewards
Team formation, 100 Lien, further rewards depending on your performance during initiation.
Penalties for failure
Not getting a team, everyone will be disappointed in you, your life will most certainly end in a fiery explosion.
Well, I was going to do that anyway, but I would never turn down the Lien this thing gave me! Although the threat of blowing me up seemed excessive at this point, I swore Assistant just liked threatening me with it. That was when Glynda came on and announced the start of initiation, so I started on my way there, fully knowing that most people here were going to be surprised by the Headmaster's unorthodox methods for judging students. I swear Ozpin must have enjoyed doing this for initiation, especially considering it was kept a secret until the last minute.
I was one of the first there, Ozpin seemed pleased to see the early birds here, "Good morning." He greeted us, and we greeted him back in kind. Glynda was with him, looking at her scroll. She was tapping on it after looking up at us every so often, presumably she had some sort of attendance sheet.
The others trickled in and took their places, with Lunus on my left and Violet on my right, Jeanne was further down on the right, she'd be one of the last launched. Once everyone was accounted for, Ozpin began to speak, "For years, you have trained to become warriors, and today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest." Or a couple months in my case, thank the Brothers for my ability to learn quickly…
Glynda cleared her throat, "Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of your teams. Well, let's put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates… today."
Some murmuring followed with students curious and confused as to how that's going to work. Ozpin continued the explanation, "These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon. So it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well." Finally, he dropped the bombshell, "That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years."
The expected shock and panic rumbled throughout the students while I just silently drew Dawn and put it together into its bow form while Ozpin continued, "After you've partnered up, you will make your way north to one of several ruins that dot the area near the cliffside. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path, or you will die."
Well, that was different from the show, the relics should have only been at the ruin! Still, he continued, "You will be monitored and graded through the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. Find your relic, one per pair, and then return to the top of the cliff. We will regard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?"
Predictably, Jaune asked his question about how we were getting down there. Ozpin replied, "You will be falling."
That was when the launches began, I drew an arrow and nocked it as I lowered myself in preparation for the launch. Violet seemed positively ecstatic at the concept of getting launched into the air, while Lunus just silently prepared himself for the launch.
I saw the future members of Team RWBY get launched, then most of Team JNPR, with Jaune being an exception as he was next to his sister. Then Lunus got launched, and then before I knew it I was catapulted into the air as well.
I'd been planning for this since I got accepted, foresight was a beautiful thing! I took aim with my bow, the arrow was a special one with a rope attached to it, the tip imbued with gravity dust to guide it true. As I sailed over the trees, I kept my eyes on where my opening would be.
Nope, nope, nope…There! A tree branch that looked sturdy enough to support me, just based on a quick glance. I loosed the arrow and grabbed a hold of the rope once the arrow lodged itself ahead of me, using the rope to swing myself under the branch before I ended up using the momentum to go in a full circle and land atop the tree branch, the rope wrapped around the branch now.
Now to prevent Jeanne and Jaune from ending up partnered…
I took out another arrow, this one also tipped with gravity dust but not equipped with a rope. Sure enough, I saw both Arc siblings flying through the air in a panic. I aimed and loosed the arrow, the gravity dust activating as it went. I saw Jaune get caught by Pyrrha's javelin just before Jeanne got caught by my arrow and sent in the same general direction. I heard Pyrrha shout, "I'm sorry!" from where I was standing.
I, however, was not sorry at all, that was fun! I hopped off the branch and started to make my way to the area where Jeanne had been stuck, breaking apart Dawn and sheathing them as I went.
I found the Arc Twins pinned to opposite sides of the same tree, perfect! No eye contact there. As I approached I heard Jeanne talking to Jaune, "Did you SEE that? How'd he hit an arrow like that? It was amazing!" I tried not to let her swooning distract me, I had a job to do!
Jaune, in the meantime, was audibly struggling to get out of the javelin Pyrrha had used to pin him to the tree, "Yeah, really cool and all, now we gotta get down and make eye contact so we can be partners!"
I cleared my throat and looked up at Jeanne, her eyes brightened as soon as she looked down and spotted me, "Neve! Nice save, you stopped me from ending up with at least a few broken bones… or just a lot of pain!"
I smiled, "Just doing my part, what kind of friend would I be if I let that happen?" I activated the remaining dust in the arrow that pinned her hoodie to the tree, just enough to yank it free. She fell, and while I could have tried to catch her, I knew that I would have just ended up crushed beneath her, given that she was wearing her armor, had a claymore on her back, and was probably not the lightest girl in the world.
She hit the ground with an "Oof!" and I extended my hand out for her with a smile. Once she recovered from the fall, she smiled back warmly and took my hand. I helped her stand while she asked, "What about Jaune?"
I let go of her hand and patted her shoulder, "I think his partner will be along very soon. Let's get to relic hunting!" I turned on my heels and began to lead the way. I had no idea where to start looking, but I supposed hunting for ruins like the one in the original timeline wouldn't be a bad idea.
I heard Jaune protest, "Heyyy! What about me?!"
Not a second later I heard Pyrrha, "Are there still spots on your team?"
I smiled as I led Jeanne away, "Keep your eyes open. This place is bound to be crawling with Grimm…" I drew Dawn and gripped the twin swords in both my hands, yet I kept them low. We didn't need to be paranoid, just alert, "Let's start towards those ruins, huh? The relics aren't going to find themselves!"
Jeanne agreed with a smile as she walked next to me, "Yeah! You know, Neve, you're really skilled, you must have had a good teacher!"
I rubbed the back of my head as my thoughts were drawn to Cinder, "Yeah, I did. She's great, honestly." I tried not to imagine what she could be up to right now, and instead focused on that hug we shared. It felt so wonderful…
Jeanne smiled, "Maybe I can meet her some day? I could always use some tips as well, you know! I'm… not the greatest fighter, but I want to get better!"
A stark contrast to Jaune, who seemed very against asking for help, another difference of theirs, "Maybe someday. Until then, I can try to give you some pointers that she's taught me…Although I'm nowhere near as good as she is." Not yet, at least, "She also made these clothes for me, she's really talented."
Jeane gasped, "Wow! Is she your girlfriend or something? She must really care about you a lot!"
I smiled meekly and shook my head, "Nah, just…a good friend." There was a lot between Cinder and I before I could comfortably entertain the idea of asking her out…Hell, I might not ever be able to. If I weren't so hung up on her, I might have just tried to move past her, but I couldn't, because somehow over the course of the months that I'd known her, she'd become a constant, and a constant was hard to get rid of, especially if you didn't want it to go at all.
Mercifully, Jeanne accepted that and her short attention span was already changing to focus on something else, "So what do you think these relics look like? They can't be anything special if he's willing to put them out in the open like this."
Well, certainly not the kind of relics he built the academies to protect, that was for sure. Nor the one around my neck, thankfully he hadn't connected the dots on that one yet…I thought so at least, there was no real telling with Ozpin.
We entered into a clearing and continued on our way when suddenly the hair on the back of my neck stood up and I readied my blades, "Jeanne, I think we're being watched."
She reacted accordingly, raising her sword and gripping it tightly as she looked around, "R-Really?! Where from?"
As if to answer her question, several trees parted and fell to our right and left, thankfully not in our direction. There were two Ursa, and they didn't look happy to see us in the slightest. I gripped my blades tightly and took a deep breath, "Alright, we can do this…" I was telling myself as much as I was telling her, this was the first time I'd ever actually seen a Grimm up close. Creatures of pure evil and manifested from humanity's greatest fears they were indeed.
Jeanne seemed a lot more freaked out than I was, but truthfully it was just because it was more visible on her, I was just as freaked out as she was. I swallowed a lump in my throat, "Okay… You get the one on the left, I'll get the one on the right. Ready?"
Ready or not, the Ursa roared and didn't get us much of a choice as they both began to charge at us. Seeing no other recourse, I raced towards the one on my right, ducking underneath a paw that it swiped out towards me. The beast roared in anger, as if the idea I wasn't up for being its afternoon snack was offensive.
Well, it could be offended! I stabbed one blade of Dawn into the creature's side, yanking the blade out and jumping backward as it tried to roll over me using its massive weight to its advantage.
I glanced up and saw Jeanne squaring off with her Ursa, she seemed shaky, unsure, but I knew she could pull through! She saw me looking at her and suddenly her resolve strengthened and she raced forward towards the Ursa, swinging her claymore in a broad horizontal swing and managing to catch the creature in the chest as it moved to stand, but it wasn't down yet.
I had to turn my attention back to the one that tried to roll onto me. It was starting to get back up, I couldn't jump onto the creature's back due to the bone spikes, but I could do something else! I activated some of the ice dust in my vambraces and, much like against the robots, channeled the dust into my blades.
I stabbed out with both blades again as the beast began to turn towards me, striking true as the ice coated the beast and slowed it down. Still, I knew it wouldn't get frozen, it was too strong for that.
Fire would be a bad idea, considering we were in a forest… Ice didn't do much other than slow it down…
Aha!
The beast stood on its hindlegs as it moved to swat at me, too slow thanks to the ice, I managed to duck underneath. I backpedaled to get a look at the situation for both of us, Jeanne was still fighting her Ursa, she seemed to have put some dents into it, but she was starting to look tired herself!
We'd have to work on that.
I joined Dawn into its bow form and fished out an arrow tipped with lightning dust, nocking the arrow and activating the dust as I did so, the sparks flying off the tip before I loosed it and watched it fly…
…Only for the Ursa to bat it away and only get a minor shock for its troubles. The dust ignited one of the trees the arrow landed near, great, now we had a forest fire anyway!
While the beast lumbered towards me, I tried to think up a new plan. Well, if this thing was gonna set the world on fire anyway, then I had all the more reason to not hold back! I nocked another arrow as the fall leaves on my vambraces began to glow a mixture of red and bright orange, putting as much distance between myself and the beast as I could, I loosed the arrow towards the Ursa.
It tried to swat the arrow away, but the effect was much more immediate this time. The arrow turned fiery projectile slammed into the beast and sent a massive amount of explosive force into the thing, sending it flying backwards. Jeanne and the other Ursa were still fighting behind the one I was fighting, luckily she reacted quick enough and dove to the ground as the bear-like creature slammed into the other one and sent them both flying into a denser part of the forest, causing multiple trees to fall on top of them as they came to a stop.
The black smoke rising from their general direction was enough to say they were dead. I relaxed and sighed heavily, "Man…" I broke apart Dawn and headed over to Jeanne, who was clambering to her feet, "Are you okay? Wasn't aiming for you, kind of just happened…"
She was panting heavily and she almost fell forward, I caught her by her shoulders and helped her stand up. She smiled gratefully at me, "Okay? That was great!" Her smile turned into a grin, "I doubt Jaune is gonna see anything that cool!"
Well…He probably was, but who knew. Maybe he wouldn't get into a fight with a massive Death Stalker. I smiled back, "Maybe, maybe not, now let's keep going. Especially because…" I looked to the trees that had been struck by lightning and sure enough the fire was growing, soon there'd be a full on blaze, "It's not a good idea to stick around."
Jeanne and I both made our hasty escape, continuing towards the north. A lot of walking later and we spotted a break in the trees, pushing forward I saw one of the ruins! That must have been where some of the relics were. No sign of any other partner groups here yet…This one didn't look to be the same one Teams RWBY and JNPR fought at, so no worries about last minute scramblings on my part.
Jeanne excitedly pointed to the ruin, "There! I bet there's some relics there!" She hurried ahead of me, eager to get her hands on a relic. I followed close behind, still unsure how she managed to have so much energy. It was practically infinite! At least, in most cases. She seemed kind of tired after the fight earlier, but she got over it pretty quickly.
Once we reached the ruins, we climbed some stone steps to find several raised stone pedestals with assorted chess pieces on them. Jeanne looked at me, "I think you should pick! You were the one who shot me out of the sky, after all." She smiled meekly, "I kind of didn't do much of anything…"
Oh boy…I was going to have to help her get over that self-image problem. Not Jaunedice, Jeannedice. I patted her back, "Hey, you did plenty. We didn't even get into that many fights, and you held your own against the Ursa, just because I had some dust arrows doesn't make me any better than you. So chin up, okay? You're great!"
I received a notification that my Rally ability had gone up two points, and my Leadership by one, and I wasn't even trying to do anything special! I guess pep-talks counted as rally actions. Jeanne's face flushed red thanks to the compliment and she looked away, "Thanks…I hope you're right."
I smiled at her and nodded, "You'll see, and if you need any help, I'm your partner, so I'll help you as much as I can." I moved my hand off of her back and then looked at the assorted chess pieces. I eventually grabbed a gold pawn and slipped it into one of my satchels, "Alright, I think we're good."
Of course that was when two more people burst through the trees. Lunus and Violet! Both had their weapons drawn and both were almost out of breath. They stopped at the foot of the ruins, panting, with Violet looking up at us, "Th-There's a really big one following us! We knew we couldn't take it alone, so we came here to try and find some help!"
Jeanne drew her sword, frowning worriedly, "I hope we can handle it, if it's really a strong one."
I took Dawn's blades out of its sheaths, "Four of us against one of them? We can do this!"
That was when we heard the screech of Grimm, knocking trees over as it came. The Grimm that appeared was indeed massive. It looked like an overgrown platypus with a giant bone shell on the back, nasty looking barbs at its feet, and emerging from its back were several tendrils that reminded me of a squid. Jeanne gave it a name, "Splitback!" She sounded worried.
Lunus revved up Selene, the body of the thing extended out even more! It was such an impractically large weapon it looked like you could get away with surfing on top of it, "It's got poisonous barbs on its heels, if it can get through your aura, you'll be laid up for a week if it hits you with that! If not longer…"
Violet pulled off the grip of Suncutter, it turned into its rifle form while the blade, powered by gravity dust, slid out of the hilt and curled into itself, forming a chakram, "Well, let's show it our true power! We can do this!"
The urge to say 'Titans go!' was powerful, but I held off on it in favor of channeling ice dust into the two blades of Dawn, "Let's show it what we can do!" And the Academy as a whole, but I wasn't going to bring that up, there was enough pressure already.
Thus we leapt into action. Lunus was first, he rushed forward and spun up Selene before dropping it onto the ground, gravity dust activated and caused the blade to glow purple as it continued to race forward, with Lunus jumping on top of it! He really was surfing on the thing, and piloting it around with a mixture of manipulating the gravity dust within it and through his own movements.
As he drew close to it, he knelt down and grabbed the handle of the saw before making the weapon move up, suddenly he deactivated the gravity dust and swung the saw at the creature's side as he jumped off of it. However, whatever he was planning to do next was thwarted when one of the creature's tendrils whipped out and wrapped around his waist, lifting him up.
While he worked on sawing it off, Violet moved into action. She shot at the tendril holding Lunus with her rifle, sending several fire dust rounds at it and causing the creature to roar in anger, and that was before her chakram flew forward and chopped off not just the tendril holding Lunus, but three more of them as well! Then, it came back to her side.
The beast started to race towards us, that was when her semblance activated. It separated from her body, forming a ten foot tall version of her silhouette, colored charcoal-gray, and then it grabbed the thing by the beak and held it in place!
This gave Jeanne the opportunity she had been looking for as she rushed forward to the creature's left side. Raising Alba Mors, she swung in a wide arc and chopped into the beast's hand, almost cutting it off! Of course, it didn't like this, roaring in anger as it kicked one of its feet back, jabbing into Jeanne with its poisonous barb! Luckily, her aura was able to block it, but it didn't stop her from getting sent sprawling onto the ground.
Taking this as my time to strike, I sprinted forward on the creature's right, where Lunus was still getting back on his feet after being dropped and preparing his weapon for another round. I slashed outward vertically from the ground up, sending one wave of ice out in a stride and true method, the ice froze two of the beast's legs, but it wouldn't last. I jabbed the other blade into its side as it roared in pain, the ice would slow it down like it did the Ursa, but it wouldn't last.
Lunus called to me, "Neve! Electricity!" It was a simple request, one I was more than happy to fulfill as I took out a vial of electric dust from my satchel and tossed it to him, he grabbed it with a free hand and then sprinkled the dust onto his weapon blade, which wasn't spinning at the moment.
Seeing him with the electricity dust gave me an idea, "Violet! Hold it there!" I joined Dawn together and fished out an arrow tipped with wind dust, "We're gonna send this thing into the air, get ready to hit it with everything you have!"
Violet didn't need to be told twice, her semblance redoubled its efforts in keeping the creature in place. Jeanne got back on her feet and delivered a rising slash with her blade, finally lopping off the creature's hand while letting out a warcry fueled by adrenaline.
I drew back the string of the bow, "Nice, Jeanne, now back up and get ready to throw some dust, if you've got it! Anything!" Jeanne and Lunus both backpedaled away from the creature as I activated the dust, wind whipped around the tip of the arrow before I loosed it and it flew true, but I wasn't aiming for the beast.
It hit below the Splitback and caused a powerful blast of wind to shoot the creature upward in an impromptu tornado, "Now, light it up!" I yelled as I quickly fished out a fire arrow and prepared to loose it.
Everyone did as I asked, Violet started firing fire dust rounds, turning the twister into a fiery cyclone. Lunus shot out electrically charged flechettes from Selene, adding thunder to the cyclone of swirling death. Jeanne fished out a bright orange dust crystal and looked at me, I smiled and nodded at her and she grinned. Then, she tossed the thing into the mix while I shot my fire dust arrow at the same time.
Adding to the already swirling vortex of elements, the tornado became a geyser as an explosion shot out of the top of it, and the Splitback could be seen just barely getting shot out with it, although I doubted there'd be much of it left once it hit the ground.
The elements all began to dissipate, where there had once been a massive Grimm was now nothing but a burnt patch of grass. I was about to tell everyone good work when we saw the corpse of the Splitback fall into the ravine that split the Emerald Forest from Beacon. Well, if it wasn't dead before, it was now! Jeanne found this funny, she dropped to her knees and started to laugh, even if she looked tired, "Dust, that was awesome!"
Huh, I didn't know people actually used that as a replacement for a slur in this world. Something new every day! Lunus agreed as he turned off Selene and grinned, he looked as tired as Jeanne, although he didn't look in danger of falling over like she did, "Yeah, good thinking there, Neve! I was just gonna shock the thing, but that was both cooler and way more effective."
I rubbed the back of my head and responded humbly, "Ehhh…. I had no idea if it would work, really. I just thought it was better than nothing."
Jeanne shook her head and staggered to her feet, "Oh no! Don't you start!" She staggered over to me, and she grabbed my shoulders, much to my shock, "You've been telling me all this stuff about how good I am, don't start selling yourself short! You're awesome!"
My face heated up and I looked away, "...Alright, yeah that was pretty cool." I wasn't used to getting complimented that brazenly, it was different when it was coming from someone like Jeanne rather than someone with a vested interest in making me happy. I doubted Jeanne would mince words.
Violet had finished putting her weapon away and got an idea as she hurried over to Jeanne and I, "Group hug!" She threw her arms around both of us and pulled us close to her, "Lunus, get in here!"
Now, I didn't mind this kind of contact, although Lunus seemed hesitant. Eventually he seemed to dismiss his reluctance and walked over, joining the hug, "I guess we'll be a team now, huh? What piece should Violet and I get?"
I pushed through the sudden shock of an impromptu group hug and grinned, wrapping my arms around Violet and Lunus who were on my left and right, while Jeanne was across from me, "Grab the other golden pawn, then let's get going."
Afterward, we broke off the group hug and Lunus grabbed the pawn I specified. Luckily, I knew that this was how teams were selected. Together we found our way back up the cliff and presented our piece to Ozpin, who looked satisfied, "Very good. Make your way to the auditorium, placement will begin shortly."
So we did, making our way back to the academy while talking about everything we had been doing during initiation. It turned out that Lunus and Violet had landed rather close to each other and then got into a whole thing with a group of Beowolves, which they managed to defeat.
Jeanne and I's story was honestly less impressive, but Jeanne still told it with all the enthusiasm I had come to expect from her. We found our way to the auditorium and took seats next to each other, with Lunus on my right and Jeanne on my left, Violet next to Lunus. We continued to talk for a while until eventually it seemed like things were about to begin.
Begin they did, and to my pleasant surprise, the teams turned out as they were supposed to! Team JNPR formed, Team RWBY formed, even (regrettably) Team CRDL. There were some other interesting teams that formed, but they didn't register too much in my mind at the time.
Eventually, the four of us were called up and once we were on stage, Ozpin announced, "Neve Cadere, Jeanne Arc, Lunus Marigold, and Violet Merino found the two gold pawn pieces. They will form Team CALM, with Neve as their leader. Congratulations, and good luck to you all."
Why was I not surprised?
It was at that point that I was rewarded by the system.
Quest Completed!
Players and Pieces
After a climactic battle with a Splitback Grimm, Team CALM has formed and you are now on track to begin the rest of your life at Beacon! Classes both exciting and boring, sparring both fair and unfair, and more! Today marks the first day of the rest of your life.
Rewards
Team formation, 100 Lien, Relationship increase with Jeanne, Lunus, and Violet. +10 Leadership skill for your at least somewhat competent efforts, Rally ability potency increased by +5.
I dismissed the text box and after we all congratulated each other and made our way out, everyone's first goal was to get some lunch at the dining hall, which I had honestly been looking forward to the most. The dining hall was as amazing as the show made it look, and lunch was bound to be fantastic!
However, about ten minutes later while we were getting our food, I received a text. I opened it and was surprised to see that it was from the school. The message was simple, if somewhat alarming, "The Headmaster wishes to speak with you and you alone in his office. Please make your way there as soon as possible."
With no idea what this could be about, I told the others, "Hey, you guys go ahead and eat. Professor Ozpin wants to talk about something, dunno what…Maybe leader stuff?" I guessed I'd just leave the plate I was forming here, I was sure the others would eat it. Food was served buffet style here so it wasn't like I couldn't just come back and get another plate.
Violet placed a hand on her hip and frowned while holding her heaping plate of food in one hand, "Alright, we'll save you a seat, but don't take too long or I might eat all the good food before you get any, and I won't feel sorry!'
Despite her small size, I believed her, although Jeanne seemed intent on challenging her statement, "Not if I eat it first!"
While they were debating with each other, I turned on my heels and headed out of the cafeteria and through the courtyard to the Headmaster's office. My mind was racing on just what this could be about. Was it my performance? Did he somehow recognize Cinder's weapons? I ran through all the possibilities I could think of even as I reached the tower that held Ozpin's office and entered the elevator.
Once I was at the top, I looked around the office with the frankly really cool clockwork aesthetic as I made my way in, with Ozpin sitting in the office alone in his armchair, presumably having either finished assigning teams or pawning the rest off on Glynda, although I assumed that CALM must have been the last team, I couldn't say for sure as I wasn't really paying that much attention to the other teams. He smiled at me, "Neve, glad you could make it. I apologize for the sudden request on such short notice, but there is something I've been meaning to talk to you about, and it simply can't wait."
I furrowed my brow yet sat down nonetheless, "Alright…Did I do something wrong, Headmaster?"
Ozpin shook his head and sipped from his mug of hot chocolate, "No no, you didn't do anything wrong, however I do have a couple questions for you. First of all, why is your background information completely blank, and second of all…"
"Why do you have a relic around your neck?"