Note (11/1/2022): In the process of writing chapter three but I wanted to do some revisions here to make it better to read for any peeps re-reading or reading for the first time.
AN: Hello again, glad to see those of you who stopped by for another chapter. Before we jump into things, I would like to thank you all for the general feedback and support on the first chapter. Moving on, three reviews were left on the story so I would like to take a moment to go through them and address any comments or concerns that I found.
ChunkyFunkyMunky: I appreciate the feedback and will be keeping that in mind. As for the team comment, I don't plan on having five people on a team. I will be using more characters to ensure that there are only four people on each team. As for Tatsuki, well, I plan on trying to not have her be useless. Thanks for reviewing, I hope you'll stick around.
SomethingAncient: I truly appreciate the kind words and you are mostly right with that assumption. I'll be trying to nerf and buff characters from both series to balance things out a bit.
Toast Guts: Thank you! Hope you enjoy this one as much as you did the last.
Peaceful was likely not the correct word to describe the group's night in the forest clearing. Getting to sleep, now that was extremely easy, staying asleep however was a completely different story. The most notable event from the previous night was easily when they were awoken by the sound of animals scampering about the area. The little critters gathering around the area was admittedly a bit of an adorable sight at first, though Uryu and Ichigo had found themselves a bit on edge. Tatsuki had also been a tad skeptical while Orihime and Chad were overtaken by a mutual weakness: cute little animals. However the situation certainly wasn't cute, even to the aforementioned pair, when the rodents attempted to tear apart their bags in an attempt to steal their food. Needless to say this didn't leave them in the most joyous of moods.
Out of the five, Tatsuki and Uryu were likely the ones who expressed their displeasure the most. Furrowed brows, a scowl, and gritted teeth, honestly if one didn't know any better they might assume that the pair were simply doing an impression of a certain spiky haired individual. Speaking of which, Ichigo was...well, he was still scowling but it was a slightly different scowl that emphasized his displeasure. Most people likely wouldn't be able to tell the difference though, Tatsuki barely noticed it and the girl has been friends with the guy since childhood. Chad's expression was practically nonexistent as usual while Orihime was still spewing overwhelming amounts of optimism despite the rough start to the group's day. Even with her best efforts however, she was unable to alleviate the trio's bad mood. While no one would be able to fault the cheerful girl for trying, it was still painfully obvious that they were going to be like this for a while. After all, losing out on the majority of one's rest for the night would likely put them in a rather bitter mood and a long trek through the forest likely wasn't helping all that much.
It had been about four hours since sunrise, which was also when they had started moving once more. So far, they had been lucky enough to not experience any kind of setbacks as a result of Grimm encounters or aggressive wild life. Obviously this was a good thing for them as the long journey had caused them to walk at a more leisurely pace in an attempt to conserve energy in the case of any threats or setbacks that might occur. Currently the Karakura quintet were walking along a dirt path with the shade from the looming trees offering them protection from the sun's rays every so often. The path could potentially be a bit of a hazard for them however, it was well defined which meant that it saw a lot of foot traffic otherwise the shrubbery likely would have dominated the area. Despite the possibility of bandits or some wannabe thugs confronting them their current route was likely the quickest. It may seem a bit arrogant but the five believed that they'd be more than capable of handling any of the common degenerates that would assault a group of travelers, it was more or less Ichigo, Tatsuki, and Uryu who thought this but that's besides the point. When the topic came up in discussion Ichigo and Tatsuki's point was that they were all were many times more capable than the average person in combat scenarios while Uryu attempted to reassure the unsure Orihime and the indifferent Yasutora by stating that: "The moronic fiends would likely underestimate us due to our age." And it worked surprisingly, though a small argument broke out between Ichigo and Uryu over the latter's tendencies to state things in the most melodramatic way possible.
"Uryu, how far are we now? We've been at this for a while." Ichigo yawned loudly as he finished speaking before attempting to rub the fatigue from his eyes. The sound of rustling could be heard as the fair skinned male began to rummage through his bags for a few minutes. Unfortunately, Ichigo wasn't feeling all that patient, causing him to glance back at the bespectacled teenager.
"Well?"
"Well, I'd be able to tell you if you gave me a moment to get my notes, Kurosaki." He spoke in a rather annoyed tone. This caused Ichigo's eye to twitch for a moment as he seemingly became just as irritated.
"Give you a moment? Didn't realize that two minutes are shorter than a moment."
"Be quiet, let's see here…" His eyes quickly scanned the contents of the papers and notebooks he had pulled out. It would take him a few seconds before replying to the scowling male's initial question due to needing to calculate a few things.
"Seems like we're making better progress than I thought we would. We should be at the stop within four days. Five would likely be a more realistic estimate assuming we don't run into a large number of setbacks."
"Stop right there!" Just as Ichigo was about to respond a voice would catch the group's attention. Turning to see who had just shouted at them, Ichigo would find himself standing half a foot away from a middle aged man with a double barreled shotgun. He seemed to be about average height, being maybe an inch shorter than Uryu. His jacket and baggy pants were covered in dirt, appearing to be just about as dirty as he was. From the looks of it, his weapon was extremely old and poorly maintained with rust covering a few sections of the barrel along with the wood on the stock being yellowed. The mantle lover's assumption seemed to be right as he was staring at the group of five with a wide grin, which unfortunately allowed them to see his rotten, yellow teeth.
"No sudden moves less y'all are lookin' to get hurt. Empty yer pockets and leave them bags ovah there." He attempted to gesture for the group to drop their bags where they were currently standing by swinging the gun barrel a bit however it just came off as being extremely awkward and forced rather than intimidating. Ichigo and Tatsuki stared at the man with equally blank expressions while Uryu seemed to be a bit more disgusted.
"There's only one of you? No goons ready to jump out of the bushes if we move?" The wannabe thief would raise an eyebrow at Ichigo's comment, seemingly confused as to why he would even bother asking.
"No, why would there be?" As if waiting for some kind of cue, Tatsuki would abruptly lunge forward, lowering her body as she quickly closed the distance between herself and the shotgun wielding male. The tomboy easily managed to latch her fingers onto the barrel of the gun, pointing it at the sky before delivering a harsh elbow strike to his stomach and yanking the weapon from his grasp. The would-be robber didn't even half a moment to collect his thoughts before a large metal object smashed into his face, shattering whatever Aura he had left from the first strike as he was forced into the dirt.
"Ah! Dammit! I think ye broke someth-" His sentence was cut off by the gleaming blade of Zangetsu which unfortunately was pointed at him. If Ichigo's scowl was anything to go off of, his situation had become dire.
"Get out of here." It was clear that the brigand didn't need to be told twice as he scrambled to his feet before rushing back into the forest. Ichigo let out a huff as he placed his blade on his back, a satisfying click indicating that it was fastened securely. His brown eyes drifted towards the shotgun that was left behind.
"Don't plan on keeping it?" The black haired girl scoffed at the comment as she continued to pry the rusted shell from the gun's barrel promptly before tossing them to the side.
"Hell no, who knows where this thing has been." To emphasize her point, she would throw the poorly kept weapon into the nearby bushes.
"Here, you might want to take a moment and disinfect yourself." An open pack of disinfectant wipes was promptly placed in front of Tatsuki's face as Uryu urged her to take one. "If his smell was anything to go off of then you should do so sooner rather than later." She nods before taking two from him, one being for her fingers and the other being for her gauntlets.
"Are you two alright?" Orihime spoke out, her words seeming to hold some level of concern for Tatsuki and Ichigo. Her worry for their wellbeing was more so on the mental level rather than the physical. Even if they were planning on being Huntsmen and Huntresses, it didn't change the fact that getting held at gunpoint wasn't exactly an experience that any of them were familiar with.
"Yeah, we're fine." Ichigo gave a slight shrug, being a tad indifferent to the entire situation.
"That didn't seem pleasant." Chad's sudden remark seemed to earn a slight smirk from the orange haired swordsman. In this particular situation, it seemed that Tatsuki was more bothered about touching the dirty weapon than Ichigo or herself were about having a gun aimed at them.
"Yeah, pretty sure that guy lives in the woods or something. He reeked…" Tatsuki's comment seemed to earn an awkward chuckle from Orihime and Ichigo as well as a slight smirk from Uryu and Yasutora. While she hoped for a slightly better reaction to her little jab at the wanna be highwayman, she was content knowing that she managed to lighten the mood a bit. Given the events that had just occurred, the five of them did a quick scan around them to make sure there weren't any more surprises awaiting them before continuing on their journey.
"We're making surprisingly good time despite that little encounter. I never expected a run in with a thug to be such a minor setback."
"You're gonna jinx us!" Whatever train of thought that Uryu had going, or anyone else in the group for that matter, was swiftly cut off by Orihime shouting at him. Her sudden interruption caused the traveling party to be momentarily dumbfounded, staring at her with widened eyes and cooked eyebrows.
"I'm...I'm sorry? Would you mind running that by me one more time?" The male adorned in white seemed to have a rather skeptical tone lacing his words. There was also the slightest undertone of disbelief as he didn't quite feel that he heard the cheery girl right. It almost sounded like she said…
"You're gonna jinx us if you keep talking like that Uryu."
"Well, with all due respect Inoue I don't really see how my words will have any impact on how our journey plays out."
"Just ignore it, Uryu. We need to keep moving." Ichigo cut the imminent discussion short with a rather blank tone, gesturing for everyone to keep moving.
"Well it's true!" Orihime pouted for a moment as Tatsuki rolled her eyes before glancing back and lightly patting her on the head.
"Yeah, yeah, we know. Don't talk about things not going badly so they don't end up going wrong. Got it, c'mon we're moving."
"I told you! You shouldn't say things like that when things are fine!" Despite what she was saying, Orihime's words didn't hold any kind of emotion aside from concern for the other four people within the group.
"Now is really not the time for that!" There was an important lesson that Tatsuki had just learned. It is extremely difficult to have a loud conversation with a friend while fending off Beowolves.
It was almost like Uryu's words had offended some kind of deity or ancient wizard because only half a day later the five teenagers had found themselves fending off of a large pack of Grimm that just finished ransacking a caravan. Fortunately Uryu managed to pick up on this before the group had got within striking range which had allowed for them to prepare a bit. The sound of Uryu's Sanrei Kojaku mecha shifting from its folded state into a body sized bow was the indicator that the party would be engaging soon. His Semblance allowed him to quickly track and determine what they were up against as well as confirm that they would be unable to avoid a mildly lengthy battle due to numbers alone. After he had confirmed that everyone was ready for battle, the bespectacled teen pulled the drawstring back causing a shimmering blue arrow to manifest between his fingertips.
That was a basic summarization of the events leading up to the current conflict. Ichigo harshly brought his blade down upon a Beowolf that had lunged at him, the steel edge easily rending through whatever matter the creatures of Grimm were made of. A few feet behind him, Tatsuki easily ducked under a broad attack from one of the beast's claws. She retaliated in an instant, embedding her fist within its stomach before activating Deadly Magnum's special feature. The red gauntlet radiated a red light for a moment before unleashing a small wave of fire from the knuckle area. The scorching flames tore through the Beowolf's body before enveloping two of its brethren that were attempting to join in on the battle. They didn't seem to stay ablaze for long however as two glowing blue arrows would pierce through the bone like armor covering their heads' causing the beasts' bodies to break down in moments.
"Not sure if I should be glad that you got my back or mad that you stole my thunder there!" Tatsuki shouted back at the group's archer with a slight smirk on her face. Uryu flashed a smirk in return before pushing his glasses back up on the bridge of his nose.
"You can never be too safe."
"You got that right four eyes!" His moment of pride would be cut off by an incoming Zangetsu being swung in front of his face. Uryu quickly crouched under the weapon's arc as it cleaved clean through a Beowolf mid-leap. The black haired male gritted his teeth as he felt a vein on the side of his head bulge out tremendously.
"Care to mind where you swing that Kurosaki?! You could've taken my head off!" Ichigo wore his signature scowl as he hopped back a few feet.
"I know your Aura is strong enough to take a scratch from this thing. Besides, I wouldn't have to swing my damn sword anywhere near you if you watched your ass for a minute instead of gloating!"
"I happen to keep a very close eye on my surroundings thank you very much!" His sentence was followed by the sound of a Beowolf being pummeled into the ground by Yasturoa's Brazo Derecha de Gigante mere inches from where Uryu currently was standing. The large male looked down at the smaller archer for a moment as he opened his mouth for a few words.
"You should keep a closer eye then." The only sound that was more prevalent than Chad's bass filled voice in Uryu's mind was the sound of Ichigo laughing hysterically at his misfortune. This was short lived as the sound of glass shattering alerted the orange haired male to look behind him. Faint fragments of a glowing yellow substance could be seen fading to nothing as a Beowolf was attempting to stand back up only to be permanently downed by none other than Orihime delivering a devastating axe kick to its neck causing an unpleasant crack to ring out through the area.
"Seems like you still remember what we went over!" Tatsuki spoke with a grin upon her features, wiping a few beads of sweat from her forehead as she approached the two. Her brown eyes hardened for a moment as she glared at Ichigo before swifting her attention to Uryu for a moment. "It would also be nice to have a warning for the next time you two want to start a pissing match in the middle of a fight."
"Tell that to the barbarian over there." Uryu wore a deep scowl that could easily rival Ichigo's usual expression as a result of being positively furious at being accused of disrupting the fight for such a trivial reason. Ichigo merely scoffed in response as he rolled his eyes at the two of them.
"Alright Captain Arrow, don't get your cape in a bunch." Ichigo having been labeled as a delinquent for most of his life did have some benefits. One being that he knew how to piss off people that were overly uptight and Uryu's pride just made him the perfect target for this skill. Having been properly acquainted with the guy for three or four years now, he already could imagine how the reply he was due would be.
"How many times do I have to tell you? It is not a cape, it is a mantle." He was blissfully aware of the eldest Kursosaki child's little jab for roughly 1.009 seconds before the aforementioned male's snickering and muffled cackling gave it away.
"Are you making a fool of me Kurosaki?" Uryu was trying so, so very hard to be more mature and not push the situation any further but Ichigo made that more and more difficult with every passing second.
"I've got no idea as to what you mean ." Forcing that sentence out of his mouth nearly resulted in Ichigo dying from laughter. Not wanting to explode into hysterics, he wordlessly began to move along the path in front of them.
"The nerve…" Uryu gritted his teeth as he waited for everyone else to start moving so the Karakura quintet would be able to reform their original marching order.
"I swear you two are like little kids…" Tatsuki spoke rather loudly, making sure the troublesome pair heard her. Shaking her head, the tomboy began walking at a hastened pace in order to catch up to Ichigo. Orihime followed behind her soon after, once again not approving of her friends teasing one another.
"You shouldn't be so mean to Uryu, Ichigo! He worked very hard on making those you know."
"Inoue, telling him that doesn't really help…" He spoke in a low and somewhat defeated tone as he watched Orihime get back into position. After a moment, he felt a firm grip upon his shoulder, immediately directing his attention to his left only to find the imposing form of Yasutora standing beside him once more.
"I think you did a great job on them." It seemed that Chad was trying to be helpful in regards to the mantle situation. While it wasn't much, it was still fuel for Uryu's pride, and his love for that specific article of clothing.
"I appreciate that. We should get moving lest we be left behind." Being the quiet person he is, the large male merely gave a nod in response to his friend's words. With those two moving once again, their little traveling party was functioning normally once more.
Calling the last few days eventful was putting things likely. With every hour that passed, it started to feel as if the group had actually angered some kind of all powerful being with their words in some way. The five of them had spent a decent amount of time shifting the blame to different things, Ichigo and Tatsuki blaming the former's horrendous luck with things like this, Uryu just chalked everything up to mere coincidence, and Orihime of course had been re-stating her whole speel about not jinxing things. Finally there was Yasutora...who was completely silent during the whole course of that conversation.
The obvious annoyances were the Grimm, while thankfully not in as large a pack as the first one they had faced, fighting them still meant wasted time. Unfortunately there was no real way to avoid combat once they noticed them. This wouldn't be too bad if it wasn't for the fact that the group has had to deal with entire groups of brigands that wasted more time talking than they did exhibiting their ridiculously sloppy skills with both gun and blade. There was the entire animal ordeal, the attempted theft of their food supply became such a frequent occurrence that they had to set up a guard system complete with member rotations, excluding Chad and Orihime for obvious reasons. That wasn't even covering the absolutely horrid weather they had been experiencing. Four storms complete with gales and harsh downpours, all while traversing through the dense forests and cliff sides of Anima was not exactly something that any of them would look forward to doing again.
Thankfully, roughly an hour after the rain let up the group managed to locate a small village. After a quick glance at his notes and maps Uryu informed the group that they were practically at their stop with the quaint settlement being half an hour away at the very most. So, the five had gotten themselves situated and rented some rooms. They desperately needed some rest and having the next three days to just lounge about was nothing short of pure bliss to them at the moment. Shortly after the Karakura quintet had broken off to their rooms, Tatsuki staying with Orihime, Ichigo rooming with Yasutora, and Uryu having his own room because he felt that staying in the same room with Ichigo would mean the death of other himself or the scowling male.
A rather pleasant sound filled Ichigo's ears as he re-entered his room. Sitting on the edge of the bed on the left hand side of the room was Chad lightly grasping his bass guitar as his large fingers quickly plucked at the instrument's strings. The orange haired male quickly ruffled his hair with a towel in an attempt to fully dry it as he moved towards the bed on the opposite side of the room.
"That part of something you wrote or you just playing whatever comes to mind?" Yasutora simply shrugged as he continued playing, only offering a small sentence in return.
"Bit of both."
"Nice," Ichigo would take the towel off of his head and drape it over his shoulders before leaning back. His brown eyes would quickly glance over to his large friend as he grabbed the remote for the old television set positioned towards the center of the room.
"Mind if I flip through the channels a bit? Gonna be a bit before our clothes are done drying."
"No, go ahead. I think I've figured out where I'm going with this." Yasutora spoke in an even tone as he propped his guitar up against the bed before taking a pencil and writing a few things in a spiral bound notebook. Ichigo would press the power button causing the aged T.V. to come to life. The image quality was rather poor but neither of them really expected anything too fancy considering the village seemed to be a bit on the poor side. He would continue to flick through the channels, passing by a few documentaries, an old school romance movie, and a show featuring a tall, tanned skin man with glasses, a mustache, and an obnoxiously flashy outfit. As Ichigo went to change the channel, Chad would stop him.
"Leave this on. I kinda like this show." The orange haired male would raise an eyebrow at his words as he looked over at him. Before shrugging and directing his attention back to the box shaped television set.
"Forgot you liked Ghost Bust. I could never really get into it though."
"Mhm, I just think Don Kanonji is kinda funny when he runs into ghosts."
"Meh, pretty sure Yuzu said something like that awhile back."
"Come to think of it, weren't you on his show before?" This caused Ichigo to groan rather loudly as he heard the remark.
"Please don't fuckin' remind me of that Chad." He spoke in a rather low voice, being physically pained by the unfortunate memory that the gentle giant had just brought up. His response had caused Chad to chuckle audibly.
"I don't get why you get so upset about it. Just means you were on T.V."
"You and Keigo both say that but think about it. I was on T.V. with that guy!" Emphasizing his point, he pointed at the eccentric man posing on the screen as he apparently located a "bad spirit."
"How'd that even happen again? Sounds like something you wouldn't usually agree to."
"Eh, well apparently someone opened their mouth about that whole thing with me seeing ghosts then low and behold that guy and his producers showed up at my house. They asked me to assist with the production of an episode so I thought I would be helping set stuff up on site."
"Makes sense."
"Not to mention the money was pretty good too. Only had to help with one episode and they were paying like 116,000 Lien?"
"That's a lot of money."
"Exactly! I was sitting there thinking 'I'd have to be out of my mind to turn this down' and now I'm wondering if embarrassing myself by being on the same screen as that guy was worth it or not."
"I'd say it was. Your episode was pretty funny. I think you should have done another one." Ichigo merely scoffed in response at his comment.
"Not in a million years man." Ichigo would adjust himself, hanging his legs off the bed, facing Yasutora's direction. "Here, catch." He'd lightly toss the remote towards the usually silent male who'd easily catch.
"You going to sleep already?"
"Nah, I figured I'd go check on our stuff and grab a snack or something. Should be back in 15 minutes or less." He spoke as he began to rummage through his bags for a few moments, pulling out a black tank top and a pair of red slides. After taking a few seconds to put them on, Ichigo promptly moved to the door before exiting the room.
Unsurprisingly, the only thing that greeted him on the second floor hallway was the tacky wallpaper that seemed to be from a few decades ago. Ichigo makes his way down the hall, coming towards the stairs before feeling a rather solid object make contact with his shoulder. The sound of a thump would draw his gaze downwards to the source of the noise. He barely had a moment to fully process what had just occurred before a rather deep and mature female voice rang throughout the area.
"Watch where you're going you fool!" Saying that Ichigo was a bit surprised by the appearance of the female was an understatement. She was a fair skinned girl with medium length black hair with quite a few strands hanging in her face. In all honesty she appeared to be a few years younger than him if her stature was anything to go off of since she was only a few inches taller than his sisters who were somewhere around four and a half feet tall. Her large purple eyes didn't really help with making her look any less youthful. This left him with a bit of a dumbfounded expression present upon his features, he was finding it increasingly hard to believe that the voice had come from the small person in front of him.
"Uh...Sorry about that?" While she still glared at him, the girl seemed to have deemed it as an acceptable apology as she turned her back to him with a rather audible scoff. He raised a brow as he noticed her attire. She seemed to be wearing a red kimono with an orange obi and a rather intricate floral design. It looked incredibly expensive which only served to make her stand out even more than she already did with her more traditional choice of clothing considering the building they were in. The inn wasn't falling apart by any means but it certainly wasn't the kind of place that Ichigo would expect to see a seemingly rich person in. Letting out a rather shallow sigh, the scowling male quickly moved on with his night and proceeded with his business.
The rest of the night had gone on without much of note on Ichigo's end. He and Chad's traveling clothes had dried a few hours after him checking on them. The two had just sat around and watched whatever had come on the television set with the limited amount of channels it got with Yasutora being much less interested in what they watched due to his general indifference to most T.V. shows. Eventually, the two ended up passing out, allowing them to catch up on some much needed rest. The next two days didn't bring much worth mentioning either as the five from Karakura Town had passed the time by moving between rooms and lounging about. They had some rather basic conversations from time to time, watched whatever was on T.V., and occasionally played some games, ranging from something that Orihime had made up entirely or brought along with her to the handful of video games that Ichigo had remembered to pack. One might say that they were spending their time like a bunch of lazy teenagers during their summer vacation but they'd be damned if they hadn't earned a bit of relaxation before finally heading off to Beacon.
Finally the day had come for them to complete their journey. The five woke up at the crack of dawn to ensure that they had all their belongings in order. The main hitch was the group convincing Uryu that he should just dress casually rather than wearing his much more formal looking combat attire. After a quick meal, the traveling party from Karakura proceeded to make the rather small journey to the stop followed by a waiting period that lasted for just under two hours. There were quite a large number of people present by the time the airship had arrived. Aside from some shoving and pushing while trying to board the aerial vehicle, there weren't really any issues that came up. That was until the airship actually took off.
Ichigo hadn't expected the ride to be quiet, he really didn't. It'd be hard to have an entire airship filled to the brim with 17 year olds to stay completely silent during a flight that would take more than a few hours. But the amount of noise that managed to arise from the passengers was definitely a bit more than the scowling teenager had bargained for. Out of the Karakura quintet, he and Uryu seemed to be the ones that had an issue with the level of noise, however they quickly got over it with some outside assistance. Orihime had predictably not been bothered by it and actually ended up causing the other four to contribute to the racket due to her own insistence on expressing the excitement she felt in regards to attending Beacon.
Between the group's own moments of silence, they'd be able to hear some of the other happenings and conversations that were going on. Obviously, any conversations heard were fragmented as none of them were really fond of the concept of eavesdropping, especially on some random conversation that would probably be the exact same or painfully similar to the ones they were having. Everyone was excited about getting to attend one of the best Huntsman Academies in the four kingdoms of Remnant so that much was natural. Orihime had been randomly pointing out random little things about the other passengers, like their outfits, their height, their weapons, how they look like they're going to projectile vomit all over the ship, etc. Naturally they had also been on the receiving end of some stares from the other passengers. Ichigo's bright orange hair. Yasutora's gargantuan size, and Orihime's "assets" were a few of the perceived reasons. There were a few comments that had managed to catch on, mostly being based around their looks as none of them were exactly what one would call unattractive. However, there were some people that got carried away with their remarks, as one might expect. This is where Tatsuki came into the equation.
She was very sure that Uryu, Ichigo, and Chad didn't exactly mind the female attention and would be able to fend for themselves in the case of hearing more perverse comments; however, she didn't quite feel like Orihime would be capable of the same. Put bluntly, the girl was a bit of an airhead and as a result Tatsuki had taken it upon herself at a very young age to fend out unwanted or negative attention that was directed at her best friend. This led to her staving off those who were leering or gawking by way of glares, threat of physical violence, and the occasional brief argument. Orihime was blissfully unaware having entered one of her day dream periods in which she lets her imagination run wild while standing there with her mouth hanging open. Chad was much too quiet of a person to go out of his way to say something unless they were actively harassing him or his friends. On the other hand, Ichigo and Uryu were far too busy trying to keep their "cool guy" image together as both of them were fairly perceptive and just so happened to catch a few of the lewder comments that were made in relation to their appearances. Honestly, had they been a few years younger, the two likely would have a vibrant crimson hue across their faces but thankfully the pair weren't quite as easily flustered as they were when they were 15. Between catching other people's comments and hearing Tatsuki's little "disagreements" with some of the other passengers, Ichigo had personally attempted to divert his attention elsewhere with Uryu seemingly taking the same course of action.
He soon found his eyes drifting towards a large holographic screen with a news broadcast being projected onto it. It wasn't really something that he'd watch regularly but it would have to do. From what he could gather from the reporter, some dust shop was robbed recently in the city of Vale. He was a bit surprised to learn that the suspect, Roman Torchwick, a criminal who was apparently already wanted for a multitude of other crimes, hadn't been apprehended. After giving the usual spiel about contacting the local police department if you know where the guy is or if you saw him the reporter would turn the broadcast over to a woman named Lisa who would change the subject matter. She'd go on to talk about a Faunus civil rights protest that had gone south after the White Fang decided to show up and disrupt everything. Unsurprisingly, the protest became violent soon after the Fang came along. There wasn't really a chance for any more details to be revealed as the screen simply faded away. In its place, a holographic projection of a blonde woman in glasses and a white blouse would appear.
It was clear from some murmuring, and a female voice even questioning who was on screen, that there were a decent amount of students that also didn't quite know who she was. After a few moments it was revealed that her name was Glynda Goodwitch and given the fact that she was greeting them via a hologram meant she was likely one of the more important staff members at Beacon Academy. She would go on to give a rather predictable welcome message to the potential first year students. In short, the entire thing was basically a bit of an ego stroke accompanied by some words of encouragement for them to work hard during their time at the school. Uryu seemed to be indifferent but on the inside the message had worked as intended to some degree. Yasutora as usual was silent, being completely indifferent to the whole thing. Ichigo also lacked any form of interest in the words that were spoken by the hologram, it may have actually annoyed him if anything. Tatsuki seemed to share a similar attitude to Chad as she didn't really see the need for them to reiterate about how much a privilege having the chance to attend Beacon was. Orihime contrasted her best friend since she was rather visibly excited about the whole ordeal.
The hologram had quickly dissipated as the projection of the woman had finished giving its message to the students. The group quickly noticed that the vast majority of the students had started to shift over towards the windows. Orihime was quick to grab Tatsuki by the wrist and call out to the rest of the group to follow. Being somewhat curious about what the big deal was, the remaining male trio would follow behind her. Uryu tried to look generally disinterested in whatever everyone else was looking at in an attempt to look cooler with Ichigo doing the same with the only key difference being the latter's trademark scowl and furrowed brows. Then there was Chad, who was generally hard to read for the most part.
"Woah! Look at that!" Orihime exclaimed as she pointed her finger towards the windows in an attempt to further pique the group's interest.
As the airship began to approach the city of Vale, the potential first year students on board looked out at the view in complete amazement. Those who were more familiar with the city and the surrounding areas would waste no time calling out their old academies as well as shops they frequented, or just interesting spots and buildings they knew. The group from Karakura were absolutely awestruck with each of them needing a good minute or two to fully process everything that they were taking in. While Karakura Town wasn't exactly what you would usually call a town, it wasn't exactly a city and given its location in the continent of Anima, most of them hadn't been far away from their hometown. The only exception to this was Yasutora who lived in Vacuo for a few years as a child, although the area he was in was likely the furthest thing from a city. As such, the closest thing to a city that the group knew was the more urban looking areas in their hometown. Needless to say, the experience for them was a bit different when getting a good look at a proper city. From the altitude the ship was at, the city lights looked stunning. They seemed to form a display of sorts, one similar to the way one would decorate for the holidays. While obviously this wasn't the actual cause, many of the newcomers to the city seemed to liken them to this due to the way this sight was presented to them. It was a nice treat for the eyes for sure but what followed this was a bit more breathtaking.
Beacon Academy displayed in its full glory was soon presented to the airship's passengers. The school itself rested upon a sprawling cliffside with a rather large body of water resting beneath it which appeared to be a docking area of sorts. The actual campus was much more impressive however as it easily grabbed the attention of each and every potential student. Ichigo, Uryu, Yasutora, Orihime, and Tatsuki soon found themselves doubting that they had gotten onto the right airship. This was supposed to be a school right? An academy meant to train future Huntsmen and Huntresses? It was...different to say the least. The five had grown up going to a rather normal school, one designed just like pretty much any other building in their town was. It was simple and by no means off putting but this...this was something they only thought one would be able to experience in fairy tales. A long avenue covered with trees, flags, and aqueducts, sprawling towers and archways that only grew more impressive to look at the closer the ship got. Truth be told it was a tad bit overwhelming for not only the quintet but for a large portion of the passengers as well. While they had seen the school, or at least parts of it, in photos and videos, the actual sight of Beacon was an entirely different experience. Their time spent admiring the building they were supposed to spend the next few years of their lives training at would be cut a bit short as the airship soon prepared itself for landing. The students had to actually enter the building before anything else could start after all.
The five had to be careful when it came to moving through the ship's exit. The large mass of students was almost as overwhelming as the sight of the prestigious academy itself. With some shoving however, they managed to position themselves towards the front of the crowd which allowed them to have front row seats to the scrawny blond guy Orihime had pointed out earlier during the ride rushing towards the nearest garbage bin and promptly vomiting into it. Needless to say, the sound of their peer's heaving and gagging was probably at least as unpleasant as their journey from Karakura Town.
"I suppose some people have a hard time with high places…" Uryu spoke in a hushed yet disgusted tone as he averted his eyes from the sight of the boy. His companions would give him a silent sign of agreement as they nodded their heads and kept moving in an attempt to further distance themselves from the mess that had just greeted them.
"I can't believe it, this place is huge! It's like something out of a movie, or a story book, or a-."
"We get the picture." Orihime's sudden outburst of excitement was quickly cut short by Tatsuki patting her on the head like a parent or sibling would do with an overly excited child. Chad would take another look at the surrounding area, still being rather impressed by the sheer scale of the campus.
"It is a bit overwhelming."
"Right? Wonder how much it costs to build a place like this?" Ichigo had decided to partake in some casual sight seeing as they continued forward. The bubbly, orange haired girl being silenced moments prior didn't seem to sully her good mood judging from the way she re-inserted her way into the conversation.
"I bet it took like billions of Lien! Oh! What if this place was really a castle and they just made it into a school?"
"Given the architecture, I can't exactly say that would be entirely far-fetched for either of your claims Inoue. However, the school was only founded 80 years ago so I somewhat doubt that the school was actually a former castle." Uryu spoke in an even tone as he relied on the information regarding the school's history. Orihime lightly clapped as he finished speaking, finding the little tidbit of information to be both interesting and mildly entertaining.
"You really know a lot of stuff, Uryu."
"Of course, I've always believed that one should be well informed about their surroundings. Naturally, that also extends to our educational facilities." He wore a slight smirk on his face as the girl praised his mental capabilities. Tatsuki wore a slight smirk on her face as she glanced over at Uryu. The tomboy would throw a gentle jab at Ichigo's shoulder before nonchalantly gesturing towards the bespectacled male. He merely scoffed at her which prompted the raven haired girl to roll her eyes at his supposed indifference. Having known Ichigo since childhood meant Tatsuki understood him much better than most people would. For example, while he was trying to be the distant, cool guy, he was actually rather glad that Uryu was able to get along with everyone despite the two constantly throwing taunts at one another as a result of their rivalry.
"Y'know when I pictured us going off to a school in a different part of the world, I didn't really expect the place to look like this. When you say a school for training people to be Huntsman I just pictured some more...I dunno… boring?." Tatsuki had decided to continue the conversation in regards to the sheer size of the school grounds. The main reason was that she was somewhat eager to experience her viewpoint and that she wished to keep the conversation relatively open. Using the time in between responses, she would admire the surrounding area in an attempt to take everything in.
"That's what I was saying before Tatsuki! It kinda doesn't feel real…" The girl's pace slowed abruptly as she continued to stare at the marvelous structures with her mouth open. The group had almost left poor Orihime to the mercy of the crowd but thankfully Tatsuki had quickly picked up on what was going on. The tomboy came to a halt for a moment before turning around and lightly clapping in front of the daydreamer's face.
"Hello! Remnant to Orihime." Being brought back to reality, she would nervously giggle in response to her best friend's words.
"Ah, I was spacing out there wasn't I? Sorry about that everyone…" Ichigo merely shrugged in response to her apology.
"You're fine, we should keep moving though. Though, uh...Where the hell are we supposed to go?
"Seems like everyone else is just walking down the avenue. So following them would probably be fine."
"Seems like a good idea. Thanks Chad."
"No problem."
"Perhaps you should keep a better eye on your surroundings, Kurosaki. Maybe you won't need to ask about such obvious things."
"Whatever." Ichigo's seemingly annoyed grumble pleased Uryu. He would smirk to himself now that the score for their little jabbing competition was tied up.
Seeing as the crowd was quite literally just moving forward in a straight line, there wasn't much to be discussed or to be observed for the duration of the walk. The crowd of students both in front of and behind the teenage quintet made it an even simpler task than it already was. Sure enough they'd find themselves nearing a large door within minutes although their attention would be grasped by the large, decorated entryway. While it was much more impressive up close, the five didn't really show much care towards it. In all honesty, the walk down the avenue quickly wore down the campus' initial charm.
Continuing forward, the massive crowd of students would find themselves entering into one of the many buildings present on the campus of Beacon Academy via the rather large doorway. The dense formation of first years slowly began to thin out a bit as they began to pour into the academy's main hall, splitting into smaller groups in the process. As one might expect, the area did become crowded rather quickly with the noise level of the room rising rapidly with each new group that entered. However, the room soon began to fall silent as the crowd noticed the appearance of two figures on the stage.
The first was a pale, middle aged man with tousled gray hair and dark glasses, standing somewhere around six and a half feet tall. In his hand was a cane with a rather unique design. His attire consisted of an open black suit over a dark green vest with matching slacks and dark leather dress shoes. For some reason, he also seemed to be donning a cowl with some kind of cross-like pin attached to it. Judging from his appearance and his presence on the stage, this was likely the headmaster of Beacon Academy, Ozpin. To most of the students, he likely appeared to be a sophisticated older gentleman that was about to impart a nugget of wisdom in their minds via a speech. However, he reminded those from Karakura, especially Ichigo, of a certain candy shop owner if said individual "didn't dress like shit" as a certain scowling teen would put it.
The second figure appeared to be Glynda Goodwitch, the same blonde woman from the projection that welcomed them on the airship. She was rather tall which was further emphasized by the large heels she wore. Her attire was a bit like a mix between what a stereotypical teacher might wear and the outfit that would be worn by a mage or a witch in some sort of medieval fantasy, this being mostly due to the ragged purple cape she sported. However one of the most noticeable things about her was the riding crop that she carried around for some reason. In all honesty it was just plain weird to most people but it added to her intimidating and authoritative aura. Any murmuring that may have been heard moments prior had completely ceased as Ozpin stepped closer to the microphone.
"I'll...keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills, and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protecting-"
Ichigo had found himself nearly zoning out a few times during the course of the headmaster's short speech. The more he tried to listen, the more he felt a sense of familiarity from the headmaster. Whether it was good or bad was something he was unsure of. Chaddidn't really have any opinions in regards to the speech as he stood and listened so did Tatsuki and Orihime. On the other hand, Uryu attempted to analyze each word that was spoken. It wasn't bad by any means, the message was rather clear to most and was one that should be taken to heart for the tasks that might lay ahead. However, most of the students had pictured the whole "Welcome to Beacon" speech as being a bit more upbeat and motivational.
The unexpectedly serious tone had left most of the students with a decent bit on their minds. As such, the body of first years had started to murmur to themselves as they awaited further instructions. Ozpin merely walked off the stage, leaving only Glynda remaining. She stepped forward, green eyes scanning the crowd for a moment as she spoke.
"We ask that you all gather in the ballroom tonight. Your invitation shall begin tomorrow. Be ready. You are dismissed."
"So, does anyone else feel like the headmaster's kind of a weirdo?"
"That's a rather crude way of putting it Kurosaki...But I do admit that Headmaster Ozpin strikes me as being a bit strange."
"I'm sure he's not that bad, you two." Orihime interjected her own opinion into the short exchange. While their sentiments were understandable, she still didn't quite like the two talking about people they didn't know in such a negative manner. "I mean we haven't even had any classes with them or talked to them yet."
"You're wasting your breath Orihime. Especially with Strawberry there, he could give a mule a run for its money in the stubbornness department."
"What the hell did you just call mei?" Ichigo's eyes narrowed as his furrowed brows began to twitch in annoyance. The girl had taken great pleasure in occasionally poking fun at the scowling boy using that nickname. It had bothered him since the two were children however, the mere mention of it genuinely enraged him shortly after the group had entered high school.
"What I'm calling you by your name. No need to get all bent out of shape."
"You know damn well my name means 'he who protects' not strawberry." Orihime giggled along with Tatsuki, though for a slightly different reason. She didn't quite enjoy getting a rise of the orange haired male but she did find some of the faces he makes rather amusing. Uryu on the other hand was trying not to erupt into hysterics. He considered it to be justice that his rival was being teased for such a trivial thing, similarly to how they poked fun at his mantle roughly a week ago. Yasutora had simply smirked as he observed the exchange, watching as Tatsuki began to walk away from the stationary Ichigo.
"Okay, okay, I'll stop. We should get moving anyway."
Some time had passed since the headmaster had addressed the students and sent them to congregate within the ballroom. The potential first year students had of course spent their time socializing within their own pre-established groups or branching out into others. Of course as night fell, some groups would be required to split up. While the current sleeping situation involved both male and female students being housed in the same area, they were required to sleep on opposite sides of the room to reduce the chances of "complications." Currently on the male side of things, Ichigo, Uryu, and Yasutora were changing into some more comfortable sleeping attire. However, something would certainly catch them off guard in the midst of things.
"Looking good boys!" Their attention would be immediately drawn towards a blonde girl in an orange tank top with a slight smirk on her face. Ichigo turned his back to the girl and hurriedly slipped on his t-shirt in an attempt to hide his embarrassment. Uryu on the other hand seemingly froze up before following suit. Chad, while clearly a bit flustered, was the only one out of the trio to react in a much calmer manner, opting to not look within in her direction. As they continued to get themselves situated, they could hear the voice of another female seemingly bickering with the girl from before. None of the guys tried to eavesdrop so they could only assume that it had something to do with the comment directed towards them.
The blonde was in rather high spirits as she roared in laughter at the male group's reaction to her little remark. That wasn't to say that she exactly could blame them for behaving in such a way. She had a rather curvaceous yet well built figure, being like a mix between Orihime and Tatsuki, along with long, golden blonde hair. Not to toot her own horn or anything but the young woman knew that she was far from just average. She would promptly flop down on a sleeping bag, directing her lilac eyes to a smaller female figure.
"Y'know this is kinda like a big slumber party!" The other, pale girl with red and black hair would continue to write on a small piece of paper. She didn't even look up from the paper as she offered a brief response.
"I don't think dad would approve of all these boys though...Or you hitting on them."
"I know I do!" Looking ahead at some of the shirtless males, she would let out a purr before making eye contact with a blond male wearing rather childish pajamas. He would wave to her, causing her to groan before turning her head away from him.
"So, what do ya got there sis?" To emphasize what she was talking about, the blonde would tap the corner of the page.
"It's a letter to the gang back at Signal. I promise to tell them about how things are going and how Beacon is."
"Aw Ruby, that's so cute!" She was promptly silenced by Ruby via a pillow being launched at her face.
"Shut up Yang! I didn't get to bring any of my friends with me to school! It's just weird not knowing anyone here." Yang would quickly sit up and scoot closer to her younger sister as she spoke.
"Well, what about Jaune? He's...uh, he's nice? Right? There you go! Plus one friend, so that means a 100% increase!" Ruby would roll her eyes before rolling over onto her back.
"Then there's Weiss, pretty sure she counts as a negative friend. Back to zero…"
"No such thing as a negative friend. You just made one friend and one enemy!" As the last of the words left her lips, Yang was swiftly assaulted with another pillow, this one being in the shape of a dog's head. She was once again knocked onto her back as it made contact with her face. The elder sister quickly rose back up, tossing the pillow aside as she looked towards Ruby once more.
"Okay, look," she said in a somewhat encouraging tone. "It's only been one day. Trust me; you've got friends all around you. You just haven't met them yet!" The faint sound of two girls laughing would catch her attention for a moment. Yang turned her attention towards Ruby once more, who seemed to be contemplating what her older sister had said. A devilish grin began to take shape on the blonde's face as she slowly stood up.
"Don't worry about Ruby, you'll be just fine." Suddenly the shorter of the two found herself being yanked to her feet. "Because your big sister is here to help! C'mon, let's go make some friends."
"Woah, what are you doing?! Wait, wait, wait…" Ruby's moderately high pitched voice came out as a flustered squeak as she attempted to free herself from the clutches of her extroverted sibling.
"Nope, we're doing this right now!" Yang's energetic tone seemed to catch the attention of the individuals she was leading herself and Ruby towards. The two females watched the sisters approach them with curious expressions.
"Hello girls! How're you two liking Beacon so far?" The black haired tomboy simply shrugged before answering verbally.
"It's not bad, but I can't really say much until we actually get to something."
"I think it'll be fun once we get past the initiation." The orange haired girl spoke in a rather cheery tone, similar to Ruby when a conversation steers to weapons.
"What about you?" Yang gave a slight shrug with a smile before speaking.
"I'd probably say the same thing both of you did." Her eyes would drift towards her side, glancing at Ruby who was hanging back a bit. While the girl had never really made friends as easily as Yang did, it was quite plain to see that being at Beacon didn't help at all.
"Anyway, I'm Yang and this shy little gal here is my younger sister Ruby."
"Uh, hi, nice to meet you…"
"Nice to meet you, I'm Tatsuki."
"I'm Orihime, pleased to meet you two."
"So….." Yang racked her brain for a moment in an attempt to find an interesting topic. There was the whole thing with the initiation tomorrow, even though it might be a bit bland it would probably be the easiest way to hold a conversation for now.
"What are your weapons like?" The other three female students present would turn towards Ruby who had suddenly squeaked out her passion filled question. Her silver eyes would quickly snap towards Orihime, Yang, and Tatsuki for a few moments. She almost felt like she said something wrong judging by their blank stares.
"Uh, uh, I'm sorry, I just think weapons are really cool is all." Tatsuki would chuckle rather loudly while Orihime would giggle a bit. Yang sighed in relief before letting out an awkward chuckle. She was worried that her sister would come off as being way too weird in the other girls' eyes. While Yang would have just told them to take a hike in that case, it really made getting Ruby out of her shell a bit easier.
"Nah, you're fine. I'll show you Deadly Magnum before things get too busy tomorrow. I could try to describe them to you if you want though." Ruby immediately took a seat and scooted about four inches closer to Tatsuki within the blink of an eye. She stared at the older student with eyes full of wonder as she vigorously nodded.
"Okay so basically they're a pair of red, fingerless gauntlets. Mostly just use them to punch since I prefer to get up close when I'm fighting."
"Oh! Sounds kinda like Yang and her Ember Celica. Do you have any kind of ranged options built in or like a side arm?" The blonde couldn't help but feel proud of her baby sister. However, since she was mentioned by name, she may as well join in on the conversation.
"Yeah, I got mini shotguns in mine. Gotta say though, kinda surprised to meet another brawler on the first day." Tatsuki chuckled at her last comment, the feeling was certainly mutatal.
"I'm more into martial arts than street brawling but I definitely get what you mean. I never could get into the whole gun thing though. So, I never added any kind of mecha shift function to it but I do use Dust."
"That's so cool! You did say that your gauntlets don't mechashift though so does the Dust just blow up when you punch something?" Ruby leaned forward further, becoming slowly more engrossed in the conversation by the moment.
"Yeah, or something like that. If I punch something and press the trigger on the side of the index finger, the Dust just kinda goes off. I mostly use fire Dust and that shoots out of Deadly Magnum like a wave. I dunno if I'd fully consider it to be a ranged option though. It's way more effective if I use it right after hitting someone."
"That's kinda neat, bet that looks pretty cool when it goes off."
"Oh it does!" Orihime interjected in a hushed but excited tone. "It's like those fighting games that I've seen you and Ichigo playing when that one guy with the headband does his special move with the fireball."
"Oh! Oh! I know exactly what you're talking about! That has to be so awesome to see!" The two swiftly sidetracked the conversation with the overwhelming amount of energy they exuded. Yang and Tatsuki smiled, both being pleasantly surprised at how similar the two were in terms of their mannerisms. As the little talk regarding fighting games, giant robots, and a plethora of other things finished out, the conversation would quickly turn back to its original topic.
"Oh yeah! You didn't tell me what your weapon was like Orihime."
"I'm sorry, guess we got a little side tracked there…" The two bundles of energy would chuckle awkwardly for a moment.
"Let's see here…" Orihime would place a finger on the side of her face and stare up at the ceiling for a few moments. Her mouth started to hang open a bit as she began to space out while thinking. Ruby, having never seen this before, was extremely confused, as was Yang. The raven and redheaded girl would slowly turn her gaze towards Tatsuki and Yang, her voice coming out as a loud whisper.
"Did I break her?"
"Nah, just give her a second. She does that when thinks too hard...a lot actually." Tatsuki mumbled that last part to herself as she began to think about ways to possibly break her friend's little habit.
"Okay!" The abrupt return of the orange haired girl's cheery voice would seemingly startle Ruby, who nearly fell onto the floor.
"My weapon is called Shun Shun Rikka, it's a really nice shade of blue and it's made up of gauntlets and my hairclips." She gleefully pointed to the two shimmering six petal flower hair clips that were positioned at the ends of her bangs, tucking them neatly behind her ears.
"Your hairclips?" Yang was probably the most confused out of the group as Ruby ignored the odd design and eagerly wanted for her to continue.
"Yeah! When I touch one of my hair clips while wearing the gauntlets it makes my Semblance stronger."
"So your gauntlets are amplifiers?" Ruby scooted a bit closer, asking in a rather eager tone.
"Yep!"
"You're forgetting about the hair clips of Orihime."
"I was just about to ask about those." Tatsuki chuckled at Yang's comment.
"Just making sure she stayed on track."
"Don't worry about it Tatsuki, I was getting to those." Orihime would wave her hand dismissively as she attempted to reassure her friend that she was still on track. It wasn't working but Tatsuki would let it slide for the effort.
"My hair clips were tinkered with to also be Aura amplifiers. When I use them with the gauntlets, it's like super amplifying!"
"That's awesome! What's your Semblance do? Is it something offensive, is it strong? Is i-"
"Ruby, give the poor girl some breathing room will ya?" Yang laughed a little bit as Ruby had practically scooted up to the girl's face as she shot off her rapid fire questions. It was kinda adorable in her opinion, her little sister was like a little puppy trying to play whenever the conversation was about weapons. Now only if she could get her to act like that with other things…
"Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to invade your personal space like that…"
"Don't worry, it's fine, it's fine." Orihime once again used the same dismissive gesture and cheery tone as she reassured Ruby that she wasn't bothered.
"My Semblance is kinda hard for me to explain though...Oh I know! I could just show y-"
"Save it for tomorrow Orihime." Tatsuki looks towards Yang as the conversation was cut off.
"Sorry to cut them off but it's getting kinda late. We'll see before initiation stars okay?"
"You know it! Catch ya then." Yang would snap a pair of finger guns at the two as they got up promptly causing her to laugh at her own gesture.
"Bye bye!" Orihime cheerfully waved at the two sisters as she stood before following Tatsuki back towards the spot that they laid their sleeping bags at.
"Goodnight!" Ruby called out as she energetically waved at the two.
"See? What'd I say? Friends all around that you haven't met yet!" Ruby would awkwardly shrug as she started to speak.
"That wasn't so bad I guess…"
"Plus two friends! That's a 300% increase on your end just on the first day. Think about it, Rubes, if you keep this up: you'll be the most popular girl in the first year class!"
"Pfft, like that'll happen. That's definitely going to be you by the Vytal Festival."
"Stop selling yourself short sis. You're way more likable than you're giving yourself credit for."
"I'm saying I'm not likable...I'm just like a people type of a girl y'know?" The two's attention would be caught by a candle being lit nearby. Leaning up against a nearby wall was a fair skinned young woman with long, wavy black hair adorned in a long black shirt. She seemed to be engaging in some late night reading which explained the candle.
"That girl…"
"You know her?
"Not really, she saw what happened this morning, but left before I could really say anything."
"Well ain't it your lucky day because now's your chance!" Once again Ruby found herself being yanked to her feet by Yang.
"Oh gods, please not again!"
The night was passing by relatively peacefully for Ichigo, who was currently on the verge of passing out. Uryu fell asleep rather easily as did Yasutora, however the scowling teenager had stayed up a bit later as he had some things to think about. He mostly thought about what he was gonna say to his sister and his dad when he told them about the journey and Beacon. Then there was Keigo and the others that are still at Karakura Town, no doubt his Scroll was going to be blown up with notifications from him at the very least. He'd have to message or call him to let him know how things are going. With his thoughts all sorted out, he was ready to go sleep...Or at least he thought he was.
Unfortunately, Ichigo would be stirred from his rest sooner than he would like. After taking a few moments to get his senses in check, he began to hear exactly what it was that had interrupted his sleep. Somewhere in the room, a group of 1st years had decided that it would be a great idea to have a full blown argument while everyone else was trying to sleep. With a huff, he pulled himself into a seated position on the floor. Ichigo began to scan the room, his brows slightly more furrowed than usual. After a minute or two of searching, he spotted a short girl with what appeared to be black...or maybe red hair, a much taller young woman with golden blonde hair, and an unexpected female figure. Snow white hair, pale skin coupled with a blue nightgown… A Schnee? Had it not been for the recent scandals that had been blared over the news for the past few weeks, he probably wouldn't have been able to recognize anyone associated with the massive Dust manufacturer. It didn't really make much sense as to why someone from that family would even bother with coming to Beacon, but he wasn't going to dwell on it too much. After all, people turning down an easier life to try and become Huntsmen isn't too uncommon, he and his group were exactly like that after all.
He could have sworn that he's been awake for at least five minutes now and the commotion still hasn't died down. Honestly, he wanted to just ignore them and lay back down but this was getting kind of ridiculous. Doing his best to not wake up Uryu or Chad, the scowling teen pulled himself to his feet. He went to walk, stopping for a moment before looking where he had been sleeping. As a bit of a last resort, he yanked one of the pillows he had been using from the ground and continued on his little venture towards the center of the room. Ichigo cleared his throat in a loud and slightly obnoxious manner in an attempt to get the attention of the three girls in addition to the one he hadn't noticed that was reading a book.
"Could you keep it down? People are tryna to get some sleep here."
"Oh my gosh, I'm sorry! We'll try to keep it down." The silver eyed girl was rather apologetic, and quite frankly she felt a bit embarrassed that she ended up making such a scene. The taller blonde offered a quick apology as well, while she seemed much less bothered by the situation she seemed to share the same sentiment. On the other hand, the Schnee girl looked less than pleased. It wasn't like before she made her feelings on the whole ordeal clear with a huff.
"Excuse you, they were the ones who were being loud. I was w-" Without any warning, she was silenced as the pillow that once grasped in Ichigo's right hand made contact with her face and took her off balance. She quickly swatted it off of her as she sat back up and glared at her "assailant."
"Good. Night." She prepared to retort as the oranged haired teen turned away and began to walk away. However, the room grew a bit darker as the girl with the bow in her hair blew out the candle at her side. Continuing to fight seemed a bit ridiculous at this point, with the silence having just been restored...for the most part at least. After all, a little squabble that probably will never be brought up by anyone shouldn't keep them from resting up for the big day.
(Edit: 12/31/2019 - Ichigo's temper was a bit too much here, especially at the end. At first, I figured I would just leave it in but after thinking on it a bit, I ultimately decided that it would be better to actually rewrite the ending scene.)
AN: Ight, so I apologize for the chapter being finished like month later than it was supposed to be. I had about 5k words written for an old draft of this chapter and almost none of it actually worked with this current version of the story. As a result of not reading through things beforehand, I ended up underestimating how much I'd have to revise and rewrite. I also had some writer's block on some parts unfortunately so some sections may not be as good as I would have liked them to be. Lot of dialogue in this chapter as well so hopefully I didn't end up butchering any of the characters in the process. I did originally want to make this chapter a tad longer, but I figured that ending it at the night before the actual Emerald Forest section would be better since the chapter is already over 10k words. Now for the poll I posted, the results ended up coming back in a bit of an indecisive manner so all of you are just gonna have to wait and see how things turn out with the teams next time. Anyways, leave a review if you got any comments, questions, or criticisms and I'll address them as best I can at the start of the next chapter. Feel free to shoot me a PM if you have questions or concerns that you would prefer to be answered right away though. Hope you all enjoyed the chapter, see ya next time.
