Nights in Vale were never truly dark. Even now, almost an hour after midnight, million lights shined even brighter than the Moon in the sky. Be it night or day, city such as this simply couldn't be asleep, not even for a moment. Countless thousands of people walked the streets, all for their own reasons. Some wanted entertainment, some had jobs that required them to work during the night, some were criminals who thought they had a better chance of getting away with their deeds under the cover of relative darkness.
And some people were planning how to best commit mass murder together.
Three of these people now sat around an oval table, on the lowest storey of a large, officially abandoned storehouse. Grim it may sound, the room itself was actually very cozy. It had some high-quality carpets, the lighting was good and the walls were thick enough not to let the coldness of the night creep in. Cinder wouldn't have it any other way – it simply wouldn't do for such an important group of people discussing such important matters to meet in a place that failed to meet the basic standards for elegance.
Although, while the location did reflect the importance of the meeting fairly well, the participants did not. While Cinder was, naturally, perfectly elegant in her crimson dress and just serious enough for the occasion, the two men accompanying her left a lot to be desired. It wasn't their attire, since they both wore high-quality clothing, it was just who they were that irritated Cinder quite a bit.
Roman Torchwick, the self-proclaimed master criminal, was irritating mostly because he was actively trying to be. He would often crack idiotic jokes for seemingly no reason, kept asking about details that he really had no business knowing and showed little to no respect towards his superiors, unless directly threatened – and even then, he would maintain a certain level of smugness. While he was hardly the most powerful of fighters and was nowhere close to Cinder in terms of power, he was still valuable to the plan and that gave him partial immunity. That was not to say he couldn't be disposed of – Cinder was fairly sure she could achieve her goals even without Roman to help out. But it would be significantly more complicated, and thus the annoying thief needed to stay by Cinder's side. For the time being, in any case.
The other one was annoying in a completely different manner. Adam Taurus, the commander of the Valish division of the White Fang and one of the organization's most powerful warriors. He was even more useful than Torchwick for these reasons, and it irritated Cinder to no end, as she would really love to kill the man on the spot. Everything about him, form his sense of superiority to the need to state how much he hates humanity every couple minutes, was utterly, undeniably infuriating to an extent which Cinder hadn't thought possible before meeting the bull faunus several months prior. Even the way he looked right now, in his black suit and with a mask covering his face, was somehow irritating. It was a demeanor of someone who craved for attention, more fitting for an angsty teenager than a terrorist leader.
And yet, Adam was a necessity. For all her cunning, for all the strength she and her underlings possessed, Cinder would not be able to succeed without the sheer manpower White Fang could provide. While there were likely some ways to gather the forces necessary outside of the White Fang, it would take far too much time for Cinder liking and likely make her current plan impossible to carry out. She entertained the idea of killing Adam the moment Beacon had fallen, but that too didn't seem very practical. Salem herself would likely find herself interested in that man, if more for his position in the White Fang than anything else. Tragically, Cinder had to keep Adam Taurus alive in order to pursue her goals properly.
Still, she could kill Adam if that proved necessary. If the bull faunus ever decided to betray Cinder, he would die plain and simple. That threat had been made abundantly clear back when they started working together and persisted to this day, making Cinder the dominant in the relationship. They both dominated over Torchwick, since the thief was both less valuable and physically weaker than Adam. It was a simple dominance hierarchy, one far simpler than one you could find among pack animals like wolves or lions, since there wasn't a mating element involved – Cinder would never consider getting intimate with any of these exceptionally annoying males, even if it would make them more loyal.
Then again, none of their trio placed much value upon loyalty. In this regard, they were all worthy of respect. Even though none of them would show any towards the other two.
"And so, thanks to my effort, we have acquired several crystals of rare and valuable dust." The thief said, leaning back in his seat. He had just finished reporting his success in the recent dust robbery and seemed very proud of his accomplishment. Or maybe he was just playing proud to seem even more annoying than normally. There was really no telling with that fool.
"Truly an amazing feat." Adam commented, somehow managing to put irony in his voice without changing its usual tone very much. Still, he earned points from Cinder for pointing out the other criminal's limited usefulness. "Stealing dust from a barely defended store. It's such strength and bravery that will let us achieve our goals."
"Now Adam, let's not be unfair to our accomplice." Cinder said, assuming calm and pleasant tone, more out of habit than to actually make the other two any more comfortable. "He is a major asset to our plans and you can clearly see he is doing his best. I am forced to ask though, how long will it take until we reach our goal regarding dust? We still only possess about a half of what we need for the next step."
"How am supposed to tell, exactly?" Torchwick replied. "I am not collecting corn here. I have no way of telling how the future raids will go. For all I know, I might get injured or killed during the next one, not for my own fault of course, but through the incompetence of the goons I am force to hire. Couldn't the goatman here lend me some of his fabled troops to help me in my task?"
"That's Major Taurus for you, human." Adam growled. "And no, I cannot safely assign any of my men under your command. Most faunus of the White Fang are even less tolerant of your kind than me and will not willingly work with someone like you."
"You know, that's something I just cannot understand about you people. Why limit yourself like that? If working with me will let you kill more people than you otherwise would, why won't you just do it?"
"We don't aim to simply kill people, Torchwick. I don't expect you to understand it, but we are fighting for an ideal, to bring change to the world."
"Ah, forgive me please. I simply failed to see how the murder of random people helps your species in any way. Tell me, how many humans will you have to kill before some magical change..."
"Calm down Roman." This time, Cinder felt a need to correct the redheaded man, as he was pushing his luck rather far. "You should not questions your ally's ideals in this manner, even if your concerns are legitimate." She then turned towards the faunus, who seemed quite angry at the moment, but luckily wasn't furious enough to do anything too stupid just yet. "Adam, are you certain that none of your men would be willing to aid Roman in his escapades? I am sure even a small amount of troops would make his task far easier."
"I suppose I could figure something out." Adam replied, after a moment of silence. "I don't have any division of human lovers under my command, but there are probably some individual who could be persuaded to work even with someone like him. Though it will take time."
"I will count that matter as resolved." Cinder didn't want to start a discussion regarding the specifics, as she wanted that meeting to come to a close as soon as reasonably possible. "Speaking of your organization, what exactly does the High Leader think about our cooperation?"
"You mean Sienna? She doesn't know that much in the first place. All she knows is that I have some human allies, which she is willing to tolerate. If she knew the extent to which we work together though, she would likely object."
So, Adam had not, in fact, informed his leader about the situation. It was something Cinder had been counting on, though she wouldn't outright order Adam to keep their alliance a secret. Sometimes, the best way to make someone do something was to let them make the decision themselves – especially when you would have no way of knowing whether or not they obeyed your command.
By the Gods, keeping Adam and the White Fang loyal was a challenge even to Cinder's leadership skills. They were all easily manipulated, but there was only so much you could do to control somebody who hated your species and who could, potentially, betray you at any moment and get away with their life. Currently, Cinder could probably kill Adam if he decided to confront her or hunt him down if he decided to turn tails, but once she would enter Beacon, she would be away from the White Fang dwellings and close to some of her most powerful enemies. If the faunus decided to betray her then, they would likely evade all repercussions, save for not being able to participate in a plan not all of them liked anyway. That shaky loyalty of theirs was a problem that could prove deadly in the future.
Luckily, there were some ways to mitigate said problem. One of which Cinder was about to try out.
"Unless either of you has any problems you have not yet mentioned, I think we can bring this meeting to an end." She announced. "I wish you both luck in your respective endeavors, be they connected to our mission or not."
"I would much rather if you joined me on another raid. You are a great help whenever some kid with a scythe appears and gives me trouble."
"I am sorry, but I lack the time necessary. You should be able to handle such incidents yourself from now on, especially since most children with dangerous weapons are studying right now. Speaking of which" Cinder turned towards Adam. "May we speak in private?"
The bull faunus nodded, somewhat reluctantly. Torchwick, much less reluctantly, left the room, twirling his cane as he did.
"Remember to use protection!" The thief said, before disappearing behind a door. Both Cinder and Adam winced at the suggestion, though neither would honor Roman with a response.
"So, what is the matter and what does it have to do with huntsmen students?" Adam asked. Apparently, he was intelligent enough to get the point – not a great achievement, but Cinder expected even less of him.
"My associate from Haven recently gave me an update regarding the huntsmen database." She explained. "New students have joined the academies this day, forty initiates in Beacon alone."
"I know how the system works. You have to understand how your enemies operate."
"I would never doubt that. I just thought you'd recognize few names from that list." Adam's face almost seemed to show interest upon hearing those words. "The Schnee siblings both have been accepted into Beacon and sorted into separate teams."
"I thank you for the news, but they are hardly shocking." The faunus replied. "We are keeping tabs on the Schnees and I knew that the two young ones would be attending Beacon. That they didn't get themselves killed during the initiation is disappointing, but not surprising."
"It is not the main reason why I am mentioning Beacon students. One of the Schnees was apparently lucky enough to be made a leader, of a team with three young women at that." Cinder could see that Adam's interest waned due to hearing such seemingly unimportant news, but she suspected that would change quickly. "I think I heard about one of them before. Blake Belladonna, do you recognize the name?"
That earned a reaction from Adam. He did his best to hide the emotion, but it was clear that the news, or even just hearing the name of his former partner, made him quite angry. He grimaced and moved one of his arms towards the sheathed sword, as though his first thought was to find the girl and murder her.
"I do not think it will cause us much trouble." Cinder continued, as though she hadn't noticed her interlocutor's reaction. "As far as I'm aware, the girl left your group a while before we started working together. She shouldn't suspect we are up to anything, let alone recognize me as one of the culprits. Still, I thought you deserve to know."
"Thank you." Adam said, clearly struggling to sound calm. "I will consider how this information affects our plans."
"That is all I ask." Cinder nodded. "You can go now. And if you come to any conclusion regarding the Belladonna girl and whether she will become a problem in the future, do not hesitate to discuss it with me."
"I will keep that in mind." Adam gave a reply, upon which he too exited the room.
It appeared as though Cinder's little idea had been successfully utilized. She didn't exactly know what the relationship between Adam and that teen was, but it clearly involved some murderous intent from the former's side. It would make him more dedicated to the cause, more open to the idea of bringing the Beacon Academy down to rubble. He would still be a pain to deal on regular basis, but his loyalty was now less of an issue.
To play on people's emotions like that, to secure their allegiances and to eliminate doubts... even despite all the annoyances, Cinder found her role fairly satisfying.
Outside, the moon slowly lowered itself towards the horizon, the fake night slowly coming to an end.
There were several ways a person could wake up, some more pleasant than the others. You could wake up all by yourself, to the rays of sunshine and the chirping of birds, which almost made you eager to get up and start a new day. You could be woken up by the sound of an alarm clock or by a servant ordered to do so at the appointed hour – the things that brought you away from the sleep's embrace, but only really bothered you for the short while it took to get up. You could get woken up by nightmares, either conveniently right before dawn or in the middle of the night. This particular type of waking up was definitely not pleasurable, but there was something probably even worse to experience...
"Wake up lazybuds! It's morning! A brand new day awaits us in our new school! Come on, you don't wanna sleep through it all, do you?" A loud, nasal voice chanted, causing Jaune, and likely anyone nearby, to wake up from peaceful slumber and see the light of day.
The newly-accepted huntsmen student opened his eyes to see the room his team had been assigned to last evening. It was a simple dwelling, with four medium-sized beds, enough space to comfortably house as many people and an en-suite bathroom. It wasn't the type of comfort Jaune was used to, but it wasn't terrible either. Before he officially joined Beacon, he half-expected that the Headmaster would take the rough approach and have the students sleep in the ballroom for the entire school year, or maybe even figure out something as dangerous as having them camp in the Emerald Forest each night. But luckily, the accommodations they had been provided with were not much different from what Jaune heard a typical boarding school would have. Besides, even if they had been ordered to sleep in the forest, that would hardly be Jaune's worst problem.
By dust, it sounded so rude, even in his thoughts. Sitting up, Jaune looked over his teammates, the people with whom he was suppose to spend the bulk part of the next four years with. Nora was running around the room, praising the benefits of getting up early, somehow already fully dressed in her school uniform and extremely energetic. His other two teammates had far less energy at their disposal, as they were both struggling to get up from their respective beds. Unlike Nora, they were still dressed in their pajamas and had their hair in disarray, but that barely made them look any less attractive than usually. An interesting phenomenon, given how women tended to look significantly worse in the early morning – or maybe that was just a Weiss thing? It's not like Jaune had that much experience with girls.
And wasn't that ironic? Back when Jaune first started making plans for what he wanted to achieve while in Beacon, ending up as a leader in a team with three unusually pretty and unusually strong females seemed like a perfect scenario. And it would be a perfect scenario, if only those were some other females sharing a team with him.
Again, it felt unfair to categorize his teammates as 'the worst people possible'. None of them was bad on their own – they all had their unique, seemingly effective fighting styles and none of them seemed like an absolute jerk. If anything, it was him who made the team less than perfect. He managed to antagonize Blake, be it through his family name alone or some behavior of his, which would make the girl less cooperative. He found it hard to properly work with an embodiment of chaos that was Nora, who might or might not have held a grudge towards him for bumping into her during the initiation. Yang was certainly the least problematic, but if she developed a habit of teasing him as she had done a day earlier, it could lead to some problems regarding the professionalism of their cooperation.
And then there was the tactical aspect of things. Once again, each of the girls was a good fighter on their own. Jaune honestly doubted he could defeat any of them in direct combat. The issues were how their abilities complemented, or rather didn't complement each other. Weiss, whether she realized it or not, had really come out better out of the initiation. She failed to become a team leader, sure, but she got a team consisting of a powerhouse that was Pyrrha, a sniper and a heavy hitter that was Ruby and Ren, who apparently was not only a good fighter himself, but also had the ability to mask himself from the Grimm. With Weiss and her glyphs, that team could become a tremendous battle force – though for Weiss to perform at her best she would have to realize that she would be most useful playing the support role, which was unlikely to happen any time soon given her attitude.
Jaune's team wasn't balanced in a similar manner. It consisted of three melee fighters and a girl whose main offence were explosives – which was not a good combination. Now that Jaune thought about it, the Death Stalker fight would have gone far smoother if they had someone able to shoot the monster's eyes from a distance, instead of stepping within its range of attack. Perhaps Blake was capable of high-precision shots – Jaune hadn't gotten a good look at her weapon yet – but it was no sniper rifle. Their combat options were sadly limited, at least when it came to direct attacks.
Although, maybe there were some ways around that. Weapons weren't everything – there were also semblances, various aura-manipulation techniques and individual talents, some of which were not obvious from simply seeing somebody fight. In hindsight, perhaps Jaune should have asked the girls at least about their semblances – the fact that he didn't spoke poorly of his qualifications as a leader, and maybe hinted at some kind of bias of his.
"Nora, why would you wake us up at... six?" Blake asked, looking at her scroll, clearly unsatisfied with her awakening.
"Yeah, don't we have a couple more hours before the lessons start?" Yang backed her partner, though she sounded somewhat less sleepy.
"There is nothing wrong with having an hour of three headstart, right Jaune?" Nora replied, turning towards her leader at the last part.
"While my partner doesn't seem to understand what headstart means" Jaune said, standing up from his bed. "She is not exactly wrong. We have some things to discuss, the sooner the better."
"What, are we preparing some grand strategy for the lessons?" Blake asked, sleepiness in her voice giving way to... not sarcasm, not quite, but a kind of snarky skepticism she exhibited back at Emerald Forest. Jaune would probably find it annoying, but he was braced for that kind of treatment from the black-haired girl.
"Something like that, yes." Jaune responded. "But let's all get dressed first."
"And washed." Yang nodded. "I call dibs on the shower, by the way."
It later turned out that Yang intended to fully utilize her right to the shower, staying there far longer than Jaune would think was necessary even for her unnaturally long hair. It wasn't too much of an issue though, since it gave the rest of them the time to properly unpack their things and it gave Jaune the time to make a list of the things he wanted to talk about. By the time everyone was finished with their hygiene procedures, they still had over two hours left before the lessons started – Nora's 'headstart' truly came in handy.
At Jaune's request, everyone soon sat down on their respective beds. It hardly looked like a professional meeting, without any blackboard or a screen to display presentations, but it was as serious as it could plausibly get considering the circumstances.
"So, what is this about?" Yang asked, still brushing her hair offhandedly. "Do you have another prophecy you'd like to share with us?"
"Yeah, who's the chosen one?" Nora asked impatiently. "Is it Ruby? Will she have to save the world from some grand evil villain?"
"It is not my place to tell." Jaune replied. "And no, it's nothing quite as serious. I just wanted to make several things clear, those things being mostly our skills and powers."
"You've seen how we fight back in the forest. Do you doubt our abilities even after that?" Blake asked, raising one of her eyebrows.
"I do not doubt any of you in that regard." Jaune assured his teammate. "I just want to know the specifics. More than anything, I would like to know how your semblances work and what emotion you carry with you."
The last part would sound strange to people without the knowledge of aura use, or even people whose knowledge was purely theoretical, but Jaune had no doubt all his teammates understood the question. While each semblance worked in its own unique way, they all had some sort of trigger necessary to use them. Moving your body required you to send electric signals down your neural network and not much else, but aura and semblances were not a part of biological framework in the same way arms or legs were. In order to use your semblance, you needed to achieve a specific state of mind, which usually came down to feeling a specific emotion.
Well, not quite. Sometimes it really was as simple as getting angry or scared, but other times you needed to feel something like a specific desire or a specific fear. The Glyphs, for example, required the user to feel a need to control the world around them. It could be a simple wish to adjust the battlefield for your purposes, but it could also be something more abstract. Weiss and Winter both managed to get a grasp on their semblance by wishing control over their lives and their future – or at least Winter did, according to her own words. Weiss would never openly admit her insecurities like that, for all that it was obvious.
Admittedly, asking somebody how their semblance worked could be considered a very private question, even offensive in some cultures. Still, learning each other talents and even personal feeling was something teammates had to go through eventually. Might as well gain all that knowledge as quickly as possible, instead of waiting a semester or two.
"Well, my semblance allows me to absorb the damage I receive and use it to boost my strength." Yang was the first one to reply. "You know, dishing out the pain others give me, but stronger. All I have to do is get angry once I absorbed enough hits."
Anger, then. According to the study Jaune once read, about one in every three semblance was activated by some variant of rage, anger or resentment. Which made sense, considering that these emotions were the evolution's method of compelling the organism to assume a battle stance.
"But you still have to actually feel the damage?" Jaune asked. "It doesn't get negated or anything?"
"Sorry, my semblance is not a cheat code. My aura still get lowered and everything. No pain no gain, or something."
"And those flames I saw you catch?" Jaune kept on asking. "That's a secondary effect, correct?"
"Yup. It's not really fire, it doesn't eat oxygen and I'm yet to accidentally commit arson. It would still hurt if you touched it, but the damage wouldn't be all that significant. I tried to weaponize it somehow, but it never quite worked." Yang said, and then turned towards Nora with a smile. "But enough about me, even though I'm awesome. What's your semblance? I haven't seen you using it, I think."
"Yeah, my semblance is kind of... situational, I think that's the word." Nora replied. "I can absorb electricity and get stronger at the same time. It works great when there's a nasty storm, but otherwise it's not really that useful."
"So you just wait for a lightning to strike you?" Blake asked, once again with her eyebrow raised.
"Well yes. I know that most people have those powers that they need to activate by feeling or not feeling something, but I just kind of get stronger the more I get shocked."
"That's weird. How did you even unlock it? Did a lightning just randomly strike you while you were walking down the street?"
"Yeah, exactly!" Nora replied bluntly. "And how did you unlock your copycat thing?"
"I..." Blake was visibly hesitant to say anything regarding her semblance. Apparently, she was one of these people who did consider the question somewhat private. "Well, I don't think it matters much how I unlocked it, does it? I can make a clone of myself so that it can take a hit for me. I can combine it with dust for additional effects, but there isn't that much philosophy to it."
"I could buy you some dust if you'd like that." Jaune offered. "I think I will purchase some anyway, for the sake of combat versatility, so it wouldn't hurt if..."
"No thanks." Blake said, cutting Jaune off. "I'm doing great with what I have. Now tell us please, do you have a semblance of your own?"
"No, I do not." Jaune sighed, both at the mention of his lack of semblance and Blake's continued refusal to properly cooperate. "I am yet to unlock mine. And there isn't much to tell about my fighting style, since it is rather simple. I just strike with my sword whenever it's convenient and use my shield whenever necessary."
"You're making it sound so boring." Nora objected. "Give yourself more credit. Gouging the eyes of a giant scorpion is pretty badass."
"Thanks." Jaune responded with a smile "But let's keep going. How are your academic pursuits going?"
"You mean our grades, right?" Yang asked.
"Right, sorry. I mean your grades." Jaune mentally kicked himself for using his father's sort of language. "We are in a school, after all. We should all try to maintain decent grades, if only for the sake of graduating."
"My grades are just about perfect." Yang said, earning looks of disbelief from all around the room. "Hey, it's true. In Signal I had two family members as teachers. I was held to a pretty high standard. Trust me, I won't have problems graduating."
"I never went to a combat school, but I think I will manage as well." Blake was the next to answer Jaune's question. "From what I know, all subjects save history are combat oriented. When it comes to fighting, I'm good in theory as well as in practice."
"How so? I'm not doubting you, but where did you learn theory, if not in a combat academy?"
"Let's call it private schooling." Blake said dismissively. "Didn't you get something similar? Private training and such?"
"I did." Jaune nodded. "I cannot exactly call myself an exemplary student, but I should be alright when it comes to learning."
In that moment, three sets of eyes focused on Nora.
"Well, I'm not an exemplary student either..." The redhead started. "I did get good enough grades to graduate from an academy, but it might or might not have involved, um, taking inspirations from other people's projects..."
"Noble and honorable warriors, everyone." Blake remarked, rolling her amber eyes.
"You're being a jerk, Blake." Yang pointed out. "Can you really say that you never did anything worse than cheating in school?"
"...no, I might have done a few bad things myself." Blake replied after a moment of silence.
"Therefore, let's not judge each other here." Yang proclaimed. "Unless you are about to judge me. I'd gladly listen to someone telling me how awesome I am."
"I think we have better things to talk about." Jaune declined. "We have battle classes today, so I think it's important to prepare for different scenarios and make sure that we look well whatever..."
"Why would we even care about that?" Nora objected. "I mean, I get that we are supposed to do well and be strong, but why worry how we will look?"
So that Jaune could win an absurdly high-stakes popularity contest with his sister, of course. He couldn't say that, of course, since his teammates definitely wouldn't take kindly to being used as assets in his game against Weiss, especially since two of them had someone in Weiss' team who they would probably rather not fight against.
"Alright, forget it." Jaune replied. "We can do something else, like..."
"Hey, maybe we can decorate this place!?" Yang suggested. "I have a poster I would really like to hang somewhere."
"Of course!" Nora exclaimed, jumping upright. "I should have thought about it myself. I have some glitter we can use. Like, a lot of glitter."
Jaune groaned quietly. He didn't like the idea of decorating the room provided to them by the school and he certainly didn't like the idea of covering it with glitter. But he had to build positive relations with his teammates somehow, and if two of them liked the idea...
"Sure. The room could use some decorations." Jaune said, causing Nora and Yang to visibly perk up and Blake to look visibly more annoyed than before. In all honesty, Jaune sympathized with his dark-haired teammate in that regard, but he wouldn't do very well as a leader without the willingness to let his teammates do something silly from time to time.
He just had to keep some limits regarding that silliness...
There was a certain joy in creating things. Some people took pleasure in painting, writing, or other pointless activities such as these. Ruby had little interest in any such form of 'art', but she still considered herself an artist due to her love for designing things. Not designing posters and stuff like that – she designed real, three-dimensional, practical things. Weapons were the most obvious example, with a masterpiece that was Crescent Rose being the prime evidence of Ruby's talent, but her skills could also be used for other purposes.
"That looks incredibly dangerous." Weiss remarked, looking at two sets of bunk beds that now stood in their room. They were the result of a collective effort from the entire team RRWP, under Ruby's brave leadership of course. They didn't look quite like regular bunk beds, as each one was made from two regular beds, but they were strongly secured by ropes hanged from the ceiling, so they could be called bunk beds for all intents and purposes.
"Oh come on!" Ruby replied, hoping to pass some of her enthusiasm down to her grumpy teammate. "Even if they fall on our heads, it won't hurt that much. We can tank bullets, I'm sure we can handle a bed falling down on us."
"Ruby is right." Luckily, Ren came to his leader's defense. "It's no more dangerous than the things we do on regular basis."
"I concur." Pyrrha added. "Besides, you have to appreciate the efficiency of such a solution. We now have more space to ourselves."
Weiss bit her lip and stood in silence for a moment, clearly struggling to dispute such a fine argument from Ruby's partner. Finally, the white-haired girl sighed in resignation.
"Fine, we will sleep on bunk beds. But may we go already?" Weiss said, pulling out her scroll and pointing towards an hour it displayed. "We only have half an hour before the first lesson starts."
"Um, that actually sounds like a lot." Ruby pointed out. "There is, like, ten minute walk from here to the classroom?"
"Having an excess of time is hardly a bad thing." Weiss retorted. "It is certainly better than being late. Now come, we are gaining nothing by sitting here and arguing."
Ruby felt an urge to point out that 'sitting and arguing' was a good description of Weiss' actions during the past hour, but she ultimately decided against it. Since their task of building bunk beds had been completed, there was nothing stopping them from going to class already.
"Alright, let's go team." Ruby proclaimed. With these words, everyone in the team grabbed their bags and stepped out into the corridor.
Initially, Ruby was worried they would get lost in school, as she had no idea where the class for 'Grimm studies' actually was. Luckily, Weiss soon took the lead and proceeded to guide the team in seemingly correct direction, as she had no doubt memorized the route beforehand. Maybe she learned when all the classrooms were purely to avoid getting lost, or maybe she was hoping for this exact situation to occur so that she could take the lead in Ruby's place.
Because that was just her style, wasn't it? Earlier that day, Weiss complained about Ruby waking her up, complained about Ruby attaching her cape to the school uniform and proceeded to complain about the idea of making bunk beds for half an hour straight. She clearly had some sort of problem with Ruby being in charge, a problem which Ruby struggled to understand. Had she done something to put her skills as a leader in question? Did the other girl had some important reason to be a team leader herself? Was that about showing that she is better than her brother? Or maybe Weiss just hated Ruby from their first meeting, but wasn't willing to just say so?
It made Ruby sad. Really sad. She wasn't exactly looking forward to making friends at Beacon – Yang was definitely being overly insistent on that one – but she was still hoping to have teammates with whom she could get along well. Ren and Pyrrha were just that, nice people who were also great to fight alongside – although she thought Ren could use some larger, multi-form weapon. In this regard, Weiss was an exception to the rule that said team RRWP was cool and easy-going.
Ruby tried to think of a solution to the problem facing her. She didn't know how to make people like her, let alone stop disliking her, but maybe there was some way to make Weiss dislike her at least a little less? Maybe the girl simply had low self-esteem and needed someone to compliment her?
Ruby increased her pace a little, so that she could walk shoulder to shoulder with Weiss. The white-haired girl did not acknowledge Ruby's company in any way, making the task all the harder.
"Um, hey, Weiss." Ruby started, unsure what exactly she wanted to say.
"What's the matter, Ruby?" Weiss replied, glancing in Ruby's direction.
"I just wanted to say..." Ruby searched her mind for compliments she could give. "Your weapon is really cool. It must have taken a lot of effort to make something like that."
"I did not make Myrtenaster myself." Weiss replied. "Forging a weapon of that quality would be way beyond my skills in the area. It was made by one of Atlas' best blacksmiths at a rather high price."
"Oh..." Ruby stayed silent for a second, before deciding to try out another compliment. "You know, your hair looks very nice."
"...thank you, but what does it have to do with anything?" Weiss asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Nothing, I just wanted to point this out." Ruby decided to ran with the compliment, even if it was rather uncreative. "I like that shade of white. It almost looks natural."
"It is natural." Weiss almost hissed those words. "It is a trait passed from generation to generation of the Schnee family."
So that white hair was a genetic thing? If so, why did Jaune... oh right, adoption. Ruby couldn't help but feel embarrassed at the realization that her compliments made Weiss even more irritated instead of causing her to become more friendly.
She glanced towards Pyrrha with a look that said A little help please? to which the redhead replied with an awkward smile that said Sorry, I don't know how to help. Ruby thought intensely hoping to find something, anything to say that would make the situation any less awkward – but before she came up with anything, the team had already reached their destination.
The corridor was mostly empty, sicne there were still over twenty minutes until the class was scheduled to begin. There were only four people already standing by the door, all of which Ruby just so happened to recognize.
"Ren!" Nora exclaimed as she rushed towards the sole man in Ruby's team and proceeded to hug him tightly."I missed you so much!"
"It has only been twelve hours, Nora." Ren replied, but nonetheless reciprocated the hug. Ruby found the display extremely cute, but the bulk of her attention was currently aimed somewhere else.
"Hey sis!" Yang said as she approached Ruby. Luckily, she didn't follow Nora's example and didn't attempt a hug – though calling those strangling attempts of her 'hugs' was probably unfair – and simply patted her sister on the shoulder. "I see you are early as well. I kind of expected you to be late, if I'm to be honest."
"Well, it wasn't really my idea." Ruby murmured. She didn't want to talk about that particular problem with Yang, fearing that her sister would feel obliged to solve it by, for example, punching Weiss out, so she decided to change the subject quickly. "Anyway, why did you decide to come her early? It's not like you to go out before drying your hair." For Yang, washing, drying and brushing her hair every morning was like a sacred ritual nobody was allowed to interrupt. As Ruby knew very well at that point, Yang would much rather be late for something than compromise the state of her hair.
"Oh, that." Yang grabbed a wet strand of her blonde hair and proceeded to toy with it. "I did wash my hair and let it dry, but then I had to wash it again to get rid of all the glitter. I normally would stay until it was dry again, but I figured I'd spare Jaune the stress of possibly being a minute late."
Glitter? Now that Ruby looked at the members of team JNBY, all of them save Yang had traces of glitter somewhere on their clothes or hair. With Jaune and Blake, it was barely noticeable, but Nora actually had it all over her uniform – and it didn't appear as though it bothered her very much.
"Well, it sounds as though you are having fun there." Ruby said.
"Yeah, I think my team is pretty cool." Yang shrugged. "What about yours? Are you all getting along well?"
"...mostly." Ruby replied, as anything more positive would have been an outright lie. She also made a slight head movement in Weiss' direction, indicating that yes, that girl was the source of the trouble and no, Ruby didn't wish to talk about it for fear of getting stuck inside an iceblock.
"Well, it's not all sunshine and rainbows at our place either." Yang said, now more quietly. "Jaune and Blake aren't the best of friends yet. That girl's an expert at finding problems with everything the guy says."
Ruby looked towards the depth of the corridor to see Blake and Jaune, each supporting one of the two walls. They weren't talking to each other, they weren't looking at each other, and they generally didn't act anything like teammates ought to.
Speaking of coldness, Weiss and Blake interacted with each other even less. Somehow, they went beyond not talking or looking at each other and acted as though they refused to acknowledge that the other one existed or had ever existed. Ruby already knew how little those two siblings liked each other, but it still didn't cease to unsettle her. Was whatever rivalry they had between each other really worth acting like that?
"Hey, you don't have to solve every problem you see." Yang said, correctly guessing what her sister was worried about. Not waiting for a reply, she patted Ruby on the shoulder once again and went to talk with Nora about something.
Ruby felt as though she really was obliged to do something, to somehow warm the air between the two. But, no matter how hard she thought about the issue, no solution came to her mind. She had simply no idea how to make these two any more eager to talk or even look at each other – the matter seemed far beyond the reach of her limited social skills. So instead of doing or saying anything, she just stood there in the corridor as more people arrived, until the time finally came and the class began.
Their teacher was an old man calling himself Professor Port. He had grey hair and a mustache, and wore a double-breasted suit which almost managed to hide his sizeable belly. Overall, he was not the kind of person that came to Ruby's mind when she thought 'huntsman' but there was a saying about not judging people based on their appearance alone. She was prepared to sit through whatever lecture the Professor had in store, and so she took a seat next to Weiss and pulled out her notebook, so that she could pretend to be making notes.
To Ruby's disappointment, the lecture turned out to be really boring. Well, lectures were almost always boring, but that one was definitely more boring than the most. It didn't really concern the Grimm themselves, but rather Professor Port and his achievements, as well as the achievements of his father, grandfather, grandmother-in-law... Ruby found the trophy's scattered around the classroom far more interesting than whatever the teacher had to say. They depicted different types of Grimm, from Beowolves to Death Stalkers and everything in between. They were all replicas, obviously, but it still brought back the excitement Ruby felt from being accepted into school that trained people to fight such things.
Not bothering to even pretend that she's writing things down, Ruby killed time by making funny drawings – you didn't have to be an artist to do something creative from time to time – and trying to balance a book on a pencil. Meanwhile, Pyrrha and Ren appeared to pay at least partial attention to the lesson, whereas Weiss constantly switched between making notes and taking deep breaths, as though to calm herself. Apparently, Professor Port's lecture was so boring Weiss found it very irritating. Poor girl.
"The moral of the story?" Professor raised his voice, as though he finally has something interesting to say. "A true huntsman must be honorable! A true huntsman must be dependable! A true huntsman must be strategic, well-educated and wise. So, who among you believes to be the embodiment of these traits?"
Silence overtook the classroom.
"Right, humility is a virtue as well." Professor said, and the coughed quietly. "I hardly expected you to think of yourself that highly. Now that I think about it, it would take some sort of narcissist to reply in the affirmative. Let me ask a different question then; Who among you is willing to fight a Grimm right now!"
Several hands shot up in the air. Ruby didn't feel quite brave enough to volunteer – not for fear of getting beaten by a Grimm, but of having to fight publically like that – and neither did any of her teammates. They all had their hands down, including Weiss, which appeared somewhat strange to Ruby given what she had seen of the girl thus far.
"That's better!" Professor was now visibly more satisfied. "Now I have to choose someone out of plethora of volunteers. Let us say... Miss Valkyrie, is that right?"
"That's my name!" Nora confirmed, smiling with her usual brand of joy.
"If you believe yourself strong enough to meet the challenge, I shall prepare a worthy opponent for you. In the meantime, I suggest you change into your combat attire and come back here once you are ready."
"Got it, teach!" Nora said. She then saluted her teacher and ran out of the classroom, presumably heading towards her room.
"Um, Weiss?" Ruby decided to ease her curiosity now that everyone, including Professor Port was more or less quiet.
"What's the matter, Ruby?" Weiss replied, turning to face her teammate.
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but you have this thing going on in which you want to prove yourself stronger than Jaune, right?"
"Well yes, I wouldn't say no to a chance to prove my superior skill." Weiss nodded. "So what?"
"Um, the chance just passed you by. Why didn't you volunteer just now? You could have shown everyone how strong you are."
"Ruby, do I even have to explain that?" Weiss sighed.
"Please do." Ruby requested, now even more confused than a second ago.
"The purpose of this exercise, this fight" Weiss pronounced 'fight' with a deal of irony. "Isn't for the students to prove their skill. It is rather to make us more humble, to temper the overt enthusiasm some students, such as our friend Nora, exhibit. In a few minutes she is going to lose against some powerful Grimm, Professor Port will rescue her and then give a long speech about how we have much to learn and how we shouldn't overestimate our abilities."
"Um..." Ruby glanced down at her teacher. Regardless of what proverbs said about judging people by their appearance, he did not seem like somebody who would make devious plans such as what Weiss described. "I think you might be overthinking this a little."
"I am not." Weiss denied. "Just sit here and watch."
Ruby obliged. A few minutes later, Nora returned to the classroom, dressed in the same outfit she wore during the initiation. True to his word, Professor took the time to set up the cage from which rather ominous growling came. There was clearly some Grimm inside of it, but Ruby wasn't able to tell what Grimm exactly.
"Alright!" Professor Port said, once Nora was standing few meters from the cage and with her weapon readied. He pulled out an axe – which Ruby had to admit, looked like a really cool weapon – and raised it high into the air. "Let the match... begin!"
With these words, Professor Port swung the axe and broke the lock which had kept the cage closed. A shadow jumped out of the cage, a Grimm that Ruby recognized as a Boarbatusk. It charged at Nora and, despite the girl's agile dodge, nearly impaled her with one of its huge tusks.
"See?" Weiss said, as though she had already been proven right. "Boarbatusks are extremely dangerous, at least for students such as us. I doubt that even Myrtenaster would be able to penetrate the natural armor these Grimm possess."
An obvious solution came to Ruby's mind – namely to strike at the boar's unarmored belly instead of trying to penetrate the armor – but something told her that in this particular case, advanced tactics wouldn't prove necessary.
"Right, but Nora has a giant warhammer and that thing isn't all that large. Shouldn't she be able to just..."
Before Ruby got to finish the sentence, Nora charged at the Boarbatusk with her weapon held firmly in two hands. She managed to hit the Grimm perfectly with the face of the hammer, causing the beast to be shot high into the air due to the sheer force of the blow.
Boarbatusk hit the wall in front of Nora with tremendous impact. Most Grimm would just dissipate on the spot from all that damage, but those particular Grimm were very durable. Slowing down only marginally, the beast broke through the wall, leaving a gaping hole behind it, and continued to fly into the blue sky outside.
Silence overtook the classroom once again. This time, it stretched for far longer than the last time. Ruby could see many different reactions from the students around her – Yang seemed amused, Jaune seemed embarrassed, Weiss wore a face of utter disbelief while Ren seemed completely unfazed by the scene in front of his eyes.
"Um, sorry, I didn't mean it." Nora began to exhibit a sudden interest in her combat boots.
"Ah, that is no issue, young lad." Professor Port assured his student. "The building receives such damage regularly. As for the beast I told you to slay, I doubt it was able to survive the fall."
A high-pitched scream came somewhere from the outside.
"But doubt is just one more thing a huntsman must purge out of their psyche." Professor proclaimed, not changing the self-satisfied tone of his voice even a little bit. "I have an idea; Whichever team manages to catch the beast before it seriously injures someone will have their grade increased on the next exam. As for the lesson, I'm afraid it's already over, since that's all I prepared for today."
"Well guys," Ruby said, standing up. She did her best to sound confident and enthusiastic, as true leader should. "It looks like team RRWP has another mission to carry out."
"I hate this school." Weiss groaned, massaging her palm.
And that was our chapter for today. As you probably noticed long before, Blake is significantly more antagonistic here than in canon. While this is a change that is hard to explain by the butterfly effect, I still decided to introduce it, because come on, it makes sense. One of her closest friends got orphaned because of the SDC and her former lover got a huge 'fuck you' brand burned onto his face. That is bound to generate some serious negative feeling towards the company and anyone who wishes to run it. And that's ignoring the fact that Blake spent the last five years in a cult of human haters, which makes me wonder why she is completely fine with fighting side by side with humans just like that.
Also, I hope you didn't mind the 'villain segment' at the beginning. I figured that, with the initiation arc being over, I should start setting up the challenges for the future, as Cinder is unlikely to abort her plans just so Weiss and Jaune can play their little game in peace.
Though of course, whether the story will ever reach that point remains in question.