Ilia Amitola did not expect to find herself inside Beacon's infirmary. At least, not so soon. Luckily enough, it was not for any major injury that she sustained, rather some minor cuts and bruises that her aura had not yet had the time to heal. A nurse had administered a quick aura enhancing needle and patched it up with a small pink flowery bandage more suited for a little kid than a potential huntress-in-training and told her to be on her way.
Instead of leaving, she chose to visit her partner, who also managed to find herself inside the infirmary. Actually, many people had been brought to the infirmary.
"Boy, that Initiation was tough, right?" Came Nora's boisterous voice as a doctor was wrapping a bandage around her head.
Ilia winced at the sight. It looked like her partner had gotten a pretty severe injury. It should have been her job to defend her partner's back, but instead Ilia had only watched her own.
"I'm sorry," she croaked out, taking a small step towards the girl.
"You better be!" Nora shouted in reply.
"I should have watched-"
"You shoulda blasted me with your electric whip! I woulda gone all BAM! BATTOW! KABLOO-EY!" Nora motioned the swinging of a hammer with her hands, annoying the doctor who tried to hold her steady as he finished his work.
"Wait, what?"
"I get stronger when I get zapped with electricity, duh."
"H-how am I supposed to know that?" Ilia shrank into herself, her skin turning an embarrassed orange. Was that something huntsman were supposed to know about each other? Could they just tell what another person's semblance was at just a glance? If Ilia herself didn't know her own semblance, would her partner or another huntsman be able to figure it out for her?
"I was shouting it to you in sloth! Didn't you hear my sloth speak?"
"Was that what all the screaming was?"
"Huh," Nora paused to think for a moment. "I guess my sloth is a little rusty. Sorry Ili-baby! I'll make sure to practice for next time."
Ili-baby. And now Ilia was bright pink. How did this girl always do this to her?! She just hoped that there weren't any other cute or attractive girls on her team to rile her up. She almost chuckled. Who would have thought that she would want to have boys on her team?
"Welp, I'm just about done," Nora said, hopping off the bench as the doctor finished up his work.
Swinging an arm around Ilia's shoulders, Nora lead the confused and slightly flustered girl out of the infirmary and into the wider Beacon campus.
It had a much different atmosphere than that morning. For one, most student-hopefuls were either sulking about how poorly they had done or were discussing the impossibly hard climax to Initiation. It was easy to tell how shaken many were by the events. Quite a few had bandages, but not many. Only the ones to have collected pins from that civilian girl and tasked with waiting by the cliff had fought against the Grimm incursion.
"Ahem!" Came a loud voice from behind.
Ilia, about to apologize for whatever she did, stopped herself. And not a moment too soon, otherwise she would have once again been plagued by embarrassment.
Standing on a bench, was a tall, lanky man in glasses with vibrant green hair. He was shouting over the conversations of everyone in the area, to grab their attention.
"Hello student-hopefuls!" Came his cheery, though slightly fast-paced voice. "Can everyone please make their way to the gymnasium so that we can begin the closing ceremonies of this Entrance Examination!"
At once, people began heading where directed. Ilia stumbled as Nora grabbed her hand and dragged her towards the mass of students, all the while cheering and shouting out her Grimm kill count of one hundred and thirty-seven.
It was quite impressive compared to Ilia's paltry twenty-three. Though she didn't consider two of them as her kills, as they were finished off by others.
As they reached the gymnasium, finding some space as it filled up, Ilia looked around, only to find her partner had disappeared on her.
"Renny!" Ilia spotted the short redhead as she jumped and air-tackled a man with black hair and a single pink stripe running through it.
So that was the fabled Renny that she had heard so much about.
Okay, she hadn't heard anything about the boy, but it was too obvious to tell how much Nora liked him. Once again, it confirmed the fact that her partner was unfortunately, one hundred percent heterosexual. Or at least bisexual. Would it be wrong of her to hope?
Ilia shook that thought from her head, walking up to the pair.
"Renny! You've got to meet Ili-baby. Her sloth sounds are even better than yours!"
Ren quietly stared at Ilia, though with an almost imperceptible smile. He bowed his head, "Hello. My name is Lie Ren. Please. Call me Ren."
He held out his hand.
Ilia forced down her body's natural reaction of changing colour, and took his hand in a nervous, yet firm shake. "Ilia Amitola."
"Ilia's a chameleon faunus!" Nora cried out, arms waving frantically.
Ilia flinched, preparing for the incoming hate. Only to find… nothing. Ren still stood there was the same gentle, almost imperceptible smile on his lips and no other sign of emotion.
"It is nice to meet you, Ilia."
Ilia let out a deep breath she had not realized she was holding.
"Please, let me introduce you to my partner," he held out a hand to bring forward another boy. A tall blond.
"Hello. The name's Jaune Arc. Rolls off the tongue, lady's love it."
"Not interested."
"Ren and I are together, well, not together-together."
Came the two girl's responses.
"Aww," Jaune sighed. Perking up a little, he faced Ilia head on, "how can I change your not interest into interest?"
"Umm," Ilia looked between the two others. "You can change your gender?"
"Oh," Jaune said sheepishly, reaching behind to give his back an awkward scratch. "Sorry about that. Just trying to go for the whole 'confidence' thing. Seems like I'm barking up the wrong tree."
He didn't look to have any prejudices against her. Nothing on his face read 'faunus-hater' or 'sexist'. Just an awkward apologetic expression.
"It's alright then. It's… good to meet you."
As Jaune opened his mouth to speak, he was interrupted with the loud ringing of a microphone being too close to a speaker.
"Welcome all once more to Beacon Academy." It was Professor Goodwitch. She looked a little more flustered than she had earlier on in the day. It almost looked like she was holding off on giving them all a firm and angry lecture. "Five hundred and sixty-three of you participated in this first of its kind Initiation. Of that total, one hundred and forty-two of you collected your pins from my… from the civilian. You should all be proud of what you have accomplished here today."
She looked around the room was a kind eye, letting them all give themselves an appreciative round of applause. Even Ilia got into the spirit, though it left her confused as to why they were congratulating themselves for not dying.
"That being said, Beacon only accepted a class of a maximum one hundred. This year, only eighty students managed to pass Initiation. Some potential students did indeed drop out after the Initiation, seeing firsthand and likely for the first time what it truly means to be a huntsman or huntress. To them, I wish them luck and good fortune in their future endevours. This life is not for everyone.
"To those that failed but remained in the top 50%, we will inform you by way of scroll or letter. But to those that passed, I welcome you to this school. Now, to read out the names of those new students as well as their partners and teams for this year, headmaster Ozpin."
There was some more applause as he made his way to the stage. It was muted however, as many were fearing what was to come. Only eighty students had passed.
The headmaster cleared his throat loudly into the microphone. "Now, the partners you had selected during this Initiation will remain so for the next four years of study. Your teams however will not. Each year following this one, you may select which other pair of partners you wish to form a team with and then select a name in the vein similar to the one conducted tonight. Please do understand that team selections as first years is final and not subject to debate or change. Yearly team leaders will always be assigned by Beacon's staff. And now…"
He began to read out names, two at a time, denoting the passing pairs, and then the team name and leader for that group. There were quite a few to get through, and plenty of cheering and clapping between each set. Ilia found herself yawning when they were only halfway through.
"Nora Valkyrie and Ilia Amitola." Came the headmaster's booming voice, stunning the faunus girl. She could feel tears sparkling in her eyes and her head and was full of diverging thoughts and emotions that she almost missed what followed.
"Blake Belladonna and Weiss Schnee. Together, the four of you shall become Team BWNI, Team Brownie."
Wait, did Ozpin just say Blake Belladonna? Daughter to Ghira Belladonna, the chieftain of Menagerie? The same Blake Belladonna who was a member of the White Fang that had saved her from Atlas?
No, it couldn't possibly be… Ilia looked up at the large overhead display which placed a picture of each of their faces overtop the initial in their name which made up their team acronym. Yup. That was definitely the same Blake Belladonna.
Did she get more attractive?
Ilia shook the thought from her head. No, now was not the time to be distracted by attractive teammates… And roommates… Maybe a little distracted.
"Lead by Blake Belladonna."
Some more applause rang out as Ilia remembered one more very crucial detail.
"Weiss Schnee?!"
Thank you Darknight2124 for the amazing team name! You get some *hee hee* brownie points!
Kivuntappaja - Aaaah, that makes a lot more sense. Sorry for the misunderstanding. Pyrrha could have done that, but I'm going to say, siilar to the show, she doesn't like broadcasting her semblance.
Zapper Frost - I'll probably get to a chapter about that eventually. Could be a fun little bit of bonding. But at least you've got Nora's and Ilia's final numbers!
Nagaichi - Thanks!
Darknight2124 - Ya, I'm quite happy with how Initiation turned out. In both this and the show. In this, I definitely wanted to show that as good as these kids think they are, they are by no means trained and experienced huntsmen just yet. Even those a few years out of Beacon are loads better than even the strongest of them.
merendinoemeliano - Thanks for the tip! I'll be sure to do that for next time.
YuukiAsuna-chan - Anger or admiration... My money is on anger. With some begrudging admiration. But mostly anger.
ExRayBEx - Thanks for the compliment! I love seeing that discrepency. They're still kids after all, no matter how talented they think they are. There is only one prodigy in this story and that is my favourite cinammon roll!
chinaluv - No, they passed. It's in the latest Glynda chapter.
Psiah - Hey, when you've got the looks and the attitude, you can get away with anything. ;) Whoah-boy is Ilia in for a world of trouble when the two of them meet.