After getting dressed Yang and I went to the dining hall to go have breakfast. Loads of other people were already there, mostly current students but there were some first years I recognized. We grabbed our food and found a table with not too many people sitting at it. Yang wanted to get to know me more, and there was no reason I would say no to that other than to be a complete dick. I honestly didn't want to be an asshole to someone on the first day, no one did.
"So you two have know each other all your lives?" Yang asked.
"Yeah, we've known each other since we were six years old. We are inseparable at this point, so you could say we are pretty much brother and sister."
I considered Azura a part of my family. She was there for me and I was there for her. We couldn't leave the other's side. If we had to we would die together.
"What about you?" I asked the blonde sitting across from me. "Anything interesting about you?"
"Well..." She began, grinning as she thought of a story to tell. "When I was seven I accidentally lit some curtains-"
There was suddenly a loud crashing sound that interrupted Yang, which sounded like a food tray being dropped on the ground.
"What the hell is your problem!?"
A loud, pissed off voice sounded following the loud crashing sound. Yang and I both looked towards the direction of the yelling, which was to my right. The source of the crashing and yelling was two students. One was pale and at least taller than me by a head, wearing armor with what looked like a bird on it. The other was a girl with light brown skin, light blue hair and was maybe an inch or two shorter than Yang, wearing a brown fringe poncho, black shorts and a belt around her waist which holstered a knife and a small tomahawk ax.
She also had wolf ears from what I could tell. When I noticed that, I instantly knew what was going on.
"Son of a..." I whispered to myself. I then got up and was about to walk over to intervene when Yang spoke up.
"What are you doing?" She asked me.
"I'm not gonna let that just slide." I replied. At first I thought Yang didn't care about the girl, but then I remembered that Yang wasn't a bitch like my ex-girlfriend. If anything she probably didn't want a fight to start just before initiation.
Yang shot a glance to the girl and the douche before looking back at me.
"Alright, just don't do anything stupid." She told me. I gave her a quick nod before going off to end the confrontation.
The girl was obviously pissed and it didn't seem like she was going to put up with the douche. Said douche seemed much more relaxed and it didn't look like he gave a shit about what she was saying.
"That doesn't give you the right to do that!"
"Of course I do. What are you gonna do about it, wolf ears?"
Hello class, and welcome to How To Be An Asshole 101.
I had encountered people like this before over the past few months. It angered me seeing this happen, though what was happening was not as bad as what I saw before.
"What is going on here?" I asked as I approached the two.
"This smug prick thought it would be funny to knock my food out of my hands!" The girl said with anger clear in her voice while pointing at the asshole.
"Come on," He replied, seemingly talking to me, "It was funny."
"No it wasn't." I replied. The boy then looked at me like I just offended him.
"Your one of those people who like Faunus, aren't you?"
Suspicions confirmed. This guy was one of those people.
"Yeah, I am" I replied, "You have a problem with that?"
He then walked right up to me and looked down at me. It was only now that I realized how tall he was.
"Actually I do." He said menacingly.
I looked around and noticed some people were looking at us. It wasn't much, but I didn't want to start a fight. I looked over at the girl and she shook her head slightly, probably telling me not to take this any further.
We both turned away from the man and started walking away, back over to where Yang was. I was about to say something to the girl when I heard him speak up.
"What's the matter? Too much of a coward?"
I stopped dead in my tracks, but I did not turn to face him. Instead I raised my right hand and focused on his foot with my mind. I then moved my fingers slightly, forcing his foot off the ground. I tried not to laugh as he let out a quick shout while falling to the floor.
There was a loud crash followed by some laughter coming from the people watching. I turned around to see the boy lying on the ground. The girl was trying to contain her laughter. Key word is trying.
I walked up and knelt down next to him. He raised his head and looked at me. He was obviously not happy with what I just did.
"Let's get one thing straight," I said to him in a low voice, "You fuck with me or anyone again... Well, let's just say it won't be fun for you. Ok?"
The only sound that came out of him was a short groan as he let his head fall back on the ground. I got up and walked back to the girl, who had finally managed to compose herself. Her arms were crossed and she had the biggest smile on her face.
"Thank you for that," She said to me, "I never really get help from anyone when someone does something stupid like that."
"Well unlike him I respect Faunus." I told her, "I don't understand why people are treated differently because they have wolf ears or a cat tail."
I never really did understand the racism towards the Faunus and racism in general. It just never made sense to me. Hating someone only because they are different to you was incredibly stupid.
"I don't think anyone with a brain really understands it." She said while she shook her head. "I should probably go get some more food before initiation."
"You're a first year as well?"
"Yeah, you too?" She asked.
"Yeah." A few seconds of awkward silence followed so I decided to break that silence. "You should probably get your food before we have to get ready for initiation. I don't wanna keep you from that or anything."
"Yeah, yeah I should." She said. "Oh, by the way, I'm Nila. Nila Rolfe."
"Ash Krieger." I replied. "You know team Ash has a few open positions. If you need a team..."
She nodded her head in acceptance to my offer. I noticed that she hadn't stopped smiling the whole time we were talking.
"Ok, I'll consider it." She said. It was at this point that she started off to go get her food. "I'll see you around."
"Yeah, you too."
I walked back over to to Yang, who had finished her food and had her head rested against her hand.
"So what was that about?" She asked me as I sat down.
"The typical racist bullshit towards the Faunus." I replied. I then started to eat the rest of my food.
"No I meant why did that guy fall all of a sudden?"
"Oh that," I said after swallowing some food, "My semblance is telekinesis, so I can move things without touching them. What happened back there was me lifting his foot off the ground to make him fall."
"So you can move things without touching them?" It seemed like she wanted me to show her, so I raised up my hand and concentrated on her empty food tray. I then made it levitate a foot above the table.
"Yup." I replied. I then slowly put the tray back on the table. "Now I believe you were about to say that you accidentally lit some curtains on fire?"
I had my belt and a small backpack on while I was checking Janus to make sure he worked properly, and Azura was checking her arrows and Aeterna Flamma. I was sitting on a bench in the locker room with all the other first years. I had opened up one of the compartments on the lower portion of the hilt to make sure that everything was where it should be and that nothing was broken. Everything seemed to be in the right place and functioning properly, so I closed the compartment and I put the screw keeping the plate in its place and started to screw it back in with a screwdriver.
"Ash I'm nervous." Azura said suddenly.
"I'm nervous too," I replied, "Just don't let it get to you, it'll wreck your focus."
I didn't take my eyes off Janus while I tightened the screw keeping the compartment from opening. I heard Azura sheathe Aeterna Flamma and close the locker she was assigned.
"What are you doing?" She asked walking up to me.
"Just making sure that Janus works before initiation begins. I don't want to be killing Grimm and suddenly have him go out on me."
After tightening the screw completely, I set down the screwdriver and angled Janus in a way that it wouldn't hit me or my locker when I ignited it. I turned it on, watching the meter-long white blade pop out. Janus hummed and flickered as the blade stayed on. I then deactivated Janus and put the screwdriver back into the locker.
"How did you make that?"
I looked to my left and I saw Weiss Schnee looking at Janus. I assumed it had to do with how Janus was the only one of it's kind to work. Maybe she wanted to know so her family's company could reproduce similar weapons.
"That is something I won't divulge." I replied.
"Why not?" She questioned in a scolding tone.
"Because I don't want to."
She then gave me an angry look and stormed off back the way she came. I chuckled a bit, then shut my locker and clipped Janus to my belt.
"I hope she doesn't constantly ask me about Janus for the next four years." I said to Azura.
"I hope she isn't as much as a bitch for the next four years." Azura replied. We could both agree that we both did not like Weiss Schnee, but deep down I hoped that she would become nicer. I didn't understand why, I just did.
"So what do we do when we get out there?" Azura asked suddenly, "Do we try to find each other or do we make our way to wherever we are suppose to go?"
What were we supposed to do? All I really knew was that we had to find relics or something. In my mind the safest thing to do would be to just try to find the relics and get out of there.
"We should try to locate whatever we are suppose to find and try to find other students in the process. It would be best if we don't get lost trying to find each other. If they drop us off in the forest near each other like I think they will then we find each other and get together with a few other people and find these relics I've been hearing about."
Before Azura could reply we heard a yelp come from the direction Weiss stormed off to. We both looked over to see Jaune hanging from a locker by his hood from what appeared to be a gold and red spear. I then noticed Weiss and some other girl who was tall and had long red hair.
"I'm Sorry!"
Oh great, it's Captain Canada, I thought to myself. The girl looked familiar, I just didn't know why. Then we heard the voice of Glynda Goodwitch then played over the intercom.
Will all first-year students please report to Beacon Cliff for initiation. Again, all first-year students report to Beacon Cliff immediately.
It was time. I looked at Azura, who was now looked more nervous than before.
"Relax Goldfish," I told her while resting my arm on her shoulder, "We'll be fine, ok?"
She gave me a displeased look, probably because I called her by the nickname Jaune gave her. I could feel the anger resonating from her. I felt like I had made a terrible mistake.
"Call me Goldfish again and I will castrate you in your fucking sleep."
We then walked out of the locker room and to the Beacon Cliff, where our first steps to becoming Huntsmen and Huntresses would take place. We were all nervous, excited, or just didn't know how to feel. We all knew that initiation was gonna be hard, but we also knew we would survive. This wasn't gonna be a massacre because we were all trained in some way to fight and not die. Though I was confused as to why there were no dropships nearby. You would think that if we were gonna be dropped off into a forest infested with Grimm that the dropships would be there waiting for us.
Man was I surprised.
All of the first year students were standing on silver tiles in front of Ozpin and Goodwitch. The wind was blowing, and the forest was as daunting as ever. I looked to my right towards all the students. I was on the leftmost tile, with Azura on my immediate right. To her right was some smug-looking boy in tan-colored armor. He appeared to have some sort of sword. Next to him was Nila. She looked at me and waved at me with a smile on her face. I waved back and looked at the others. I saw the douche from earlier, another boy with what looked like a mohawk, Ruby, Yang, Jaune, a guy in a green jacket, a red head with a pink skirt, the girl with the bow on her head, some dude with a sniper rifle, and a few others. Then Ozpin started speaking.
"For years, you have trained to become warriors..."
Not Azura and I...
"...and today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest."
Fuck fuck fuck, why am I doing this?
"Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of teams," Glynda said, "Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates... today."
Well shit.
"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon," Ozpin told us, "So it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well. That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years."
That didn't surprise me, as I had known this since me and Azura came here three months ago. However, everyone else was either surprised or telling everyone else that they knew that.
"You will be monitored and graded through the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. You will guard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?"
Jaune attempted to get Ozpin's attention, but he just ignored him.
"Good! Now, take your positions."
"What does he mean by that?" Azura asked. I was just as confused as she was. Then I heard Jaune ask Ozpin something.
"Uh, sir? I've got, um... a question. So, this landing... strategy thing... Uh, wha-what is it? You're, like, dropping us off or something?"
"No. You will be falling."
"Well," I said out loud, "That's good to kn-"
Than it stuck me what was about to happen.
"Wait, what did he just- SAAAYYY!?"
I could not finish my sentence properly as I was sent flying into the air from my tile. I immediately regretted everything.
Now you see, I had no idea what to do, so I just kept flying through the air. I was flipping through the air uncontrollably, and every time I manage to look back at the cliff I could see a new student being flung into the air. Then it occurred to me what Ozpin meant by "landing strategy."
This was gonna hurt.