What the hell did you get yourself into, Tenno?

I realized I had made an enormous mistake the moment Cardin started charging toward me with his oversized mace held high. Instincts took over and I willed myself to dodge back-

FWOOM

-and instantly smacked against the forcefield bordering the arena that should have been several meters behind me. Cardin's mace struck the floor I previously occupied a second later. The harsh impact stunned me, giving my opponent ample time to recover from their attack. I focused back on Cardin just in time to see him charging once again, mace held skyward. Without any more room to evade, I shot my hand toward the mace in a desperate attempt to defend myself-

BT-DEEW

-which reversed the momentum of Cardin's weapon easily. Unprepared for the extreme shift in force, my opponent lost his grip on the mace which struck the forcefield at the opposite end of the dueling platform. I took my chance to go on the offensive, willed myself forward-

FWOOM

-and sent Cardin airborne. His body arced over the arena, fearfully screaming. I watched from the arena's center as he rebounded off the forcefield and struck the floor harshly. He scrambled to his feet, grabbed the mace, and entered a much more defensive stance. He held his weapon horizontally and started circling me cautiously. His team yelled something at him, but I didn't care enough to listen to them.

"Damn bitch," Cardin muttered loud enough for me to hear, "She knows a few tricks. Whatever. One good hit and this match is over."

I didn't respond, knowing that anything I say could be used against me. My opponent hadn't quite grasped that concept.

"Just one good hit," He kept muttering while continuing to circle me. "One good hit and it's over. Just one. All it takes."

Cardin was right for once; I could end this pointless fight with one good hit.

I relaxed my stance slightly so I could concentrate on channeling the chaotic energies of the Void into my hand. Ribbons of black power mingled with wisps of lime-green sparks, weaving themselves over my arm and through my fingers. I took aim at the floor between myself and my opponent and released-

BWOOOOOMMM

-a titanic surge of raw power into the arena. It easily shredded the platform to bits and continued digging into the floor directly below Cardin. Blue sparks erupted from the arena as the surge of power shattered and overloaded holographic emitters and delicate electronic components. The forcefield flickered and died once the platform's power supply had been severed. I willed the flow of Void energy to halt its discharge after realizing the scope of what I had unleashed.

Between myself and Cardin was a nearly perfect circular hole in the ground at a 45 degree angle. Smoke rose from the platform's fried circuitry, filling the air with the stench of burnt plastic and electronics. Cardin himself was, somehow, physically unharmed, but he held an expression of utter terror. His mace fell to the floor with a loud thud, and a dark spot was growing between his legs.

The sight of Team CRDL fleeing from the training facility was the last thing I saw before lost consciousness for the second time that day.

Someone lifted up my eyelid and shone an entirely too-bright light directly into my eye. I swatted it away before a migraine could manifest itself, but not before spots of darkness burned themselves into my vision. The stench of fried circuitry still hung in the air.

"You're much more trouble than I expected, Miss Tenno." The voice of Glynda Goodwitch chastised me once again. "While much of Beacon's equipment is not expected to last a full semester, willful destruction of said equipment will not be tolerated."

"It was an accident, Goodwitch," I mumbled as I sat up. "I'm still getting used to this 'Aura' thing."

My reply was honest, even if it made me look weak. The only Void-based abilities I could utilize were, so far, a continuous beam-like discharge originating from my hand, a burst discharge to amplify punches or to parry incoming attacks, and a quick dash that can send opponents airborne. My Aura has only affected the Void-beam with devastating results, at least so far. I clearly needed more practice regarding Aura usage if I didn't want to knock myself out after every use.

"I can see that. Whatever you did exhausted your Aura reserves. Under normal circumstances, you would be in a coma for at least twelve hours, a full week at most. Yet here you are, awake and alert after barely two minutes. You are something else, Miss Tenno." Glynda stood up and swiped at some things on her tablet. "Hopefully Atlas isn't back-ordered on Dueling Platforms; the warranty on this one is still good."

"How did you know I was out for two minutes? You weren't here." I asked while standing up.

"This thing alerted me." She replied, tapping the tablet in her arms. "One of the platforms sent out a critical damage signal just before going offline. I then switched to the live security camera feed in this room and caught Team CRDL running out the door and you collapsing on the damaged platform." Her free hand went to her hip. "If you claim what happened here was an accident, and the security feed confirms it, you'll be off the hook. For now, you will be confined to your quarters for the rest of today."

I rolled my eyes and groaned in annoyance, but made no attempt to argue further. Glynda had my testimony. There was nothing else to say further.

At least I felt better after destroying something.

Just before I was finished being escorted to my room by Goodwitch, I realized that I didn't have anything else to do. A wave of students were just getting out of their afternoon classes, clogging up the hallway with noise and bodies blocking my vision. Everyone was taller than me!

Glynda unlocked my door with her tablet and opened it for me. She gestured for me to enter and I did so, but not before sending a brief glare her way. I did not need her hovering over me like a parental guardian. She closed the door shortly after I entered the room.

Thankfully, my room was vacant of other people. The chair Ozpin sat on earlier was neatly pushed under the desk. On said desk, however, was a small box with stylized designs and an image of what Cardin had said was a Scroll. Opening the decorated cardboard revealed a thin device, multiple leafs of paper I could only assume were instructions, and a charger cable. I pressed the yellow diamond button on the Scroll, causing it to pop open and play an obnoxious chime. A video tutorial played on the transparent screen, showcasing all of the features the current model of "Scroll" could provide.

I quickly skipped the tutorials, already familiar with a multitude of different user interfaces. This one was just a stylized personal communication device. Oddly enough, it asked me to sync itself with an electronic door lock. Recalling one on my own door, I brought the Scroll near it. Both devices beeped, and the door unlocked itself.

I slapped myself in the face for realizing I was locking myself out of the room every time I left. If it wasn't for Glynda letting me back in, I would be stuck outside.

I made an affirmation with myself to never leave this room without this Scroll, but now I had another problem to deal with; my jumpsuit has no pockets.

Groaning at the implications of wearing the same ridiculous clothing as the students here, I looked in the room's only dresser to find a dictionary, extra bed sheets, and a… package of crystals?

The package called itself 'Dust Lamp Replacements', but that told me nothing of value. The four crystals were pale yellow, cut like an emerald, all the same size, and trapped between sturdy cardboard and vacuum sealed plastic. On the cardboard was a snowflake symbol in the corner with the words 'Mined and Refined by the Schnee Dust Company'.

Schnee. Weiss Schnee. Her icy attitude wasn't an act. She was definitely related to this company in a big way. How big, I wasn't certain, but the very thought of companies and corporations and the deplorable things they would do for their oh so precious profit left a bad taste in my mouth. The Corpus weren't on Remnant; I was fairly certain of that, but their cult-like fascination with monetary gain seemed to transcend their own race.

I placed the package of crystals on the dresser and searched the other drawers, finding them empty. The term 'Dust' bounced around in my mind, begging for an explanation to rest upon. I turned my attention to the dictionary and carried it toward the desk; it was much heavier than it looked.

I sat down in the chair, only for my eyes to barely clear the top of the desk. With an annoyed sigh, I hauled the dictionary off the desk and onto the bed.

I opened the heavy book and didn't close it until the early morning.