Up in an airship heading for Beacon Academy, Yang pulls her little sister into a tight hug. As she nearly crushes Ruby with her bear hug, Yang exclaims, "Oh I'm so proud of you!"
"Really sis, it was nothing.", Ruby replies as she struggles to breath in her sister's grasp.
Sapphire, who's standing next to the duo, scoffs at her claim and says, "I wouldn't exactly call that 'nothing', Ruby.", as she points at a screen on the wall. The sisters glance over to see it's the news.
"Hello, I'm Lisa Lavender with the EBC News Network. Today's story: Infamous criminal mastermind Roman Torchwich was captured late last night, following an attempted robbery of yet another dust shop. Eye witnesses claim that one of Beacon's teachers, Glynda Goodwitch, along with an unknown female worked together to take down Torchwich, leading to his arrest. In other news, yesterday's peaceful Faunus protest turned dark as members of the White Fang disrupted the protest, lighting stores and restaurants ablaze. The amount of damage is still un-", the news anchor explains before the transmission is suddenly cut off.
In her place, a life-sized hologram of Professor Goodwitch appears, standing in a stern and confident manner. "Good evening, I am Glynda Goodwitch. You've all been gifted with the privilege to attend this prestigious academy. Our world is experiencing a time of peace and as future huntsmen and huntresses, it is your duty to uphold that peace to the best of your ability. You have all demonstrated the courage needed for this task and now it is our turn to provide you with the knowledge and the training needed to protect our world.", the hologram explains before vanishing as quickly as she shown up.
"Wow, to think you'd get to meet a Professor from Beacon out of the blue like that. That's some luck Ruby.", Sapphire says as she pats the young girl on her shoulder.
"Woooah, guys look!", Ruby exclaims as she runs over to the nearby window. As the all peer out the window, they see that they're unrealistically high above the ground. "You can see Signal from here!", the young girl exclaims as she presses her small face against the glass.
"I guess home isn't too far.", Sapphire adds as she walks up to the window and puts one of her hands against the glass while looking down on Signal Academy.
Yang stands between the two girls and puts a hand on their shoulders before saying, "Beacon's our home now."
Their tender moment is disrupted however by a boy with blonde hair making uneasy noises, almost as if something was troubling him. "Is that guy...okay?", Ruby asks before the boy starts running across the ship toward the trashcan, holding his mouth shut with his hands as he runs.
"I'd say that's a no.", Sapphire replies with a slight smile.
Yang just shrugs it off and adds, "I guess the view isn't for everyone."
Ruby sighs and says, "It was a nice moment while it lasted.", as she crosses her arms while continuing to look out the window.
"I wonder who we're gonna meet here at Beacon. Oooooh, maybe we'll meet some cute boys!", Yang says with a childish grin.
"Hopefully they're better than Vomit Boy over there.", Ruby says, earning a giggle from Sapphire and her sister.
Sapphire suddenly smells something before looking down and saying, "Looks like Vomit Boy couldn't hold it all in for you, Yang."
Yang raises an eyebrow at her before looking at her sister, who has a completely disgusted look on her face. "Eww, Yang! You got vomit on your shoes!", Ruby shouts, causing Yang to panic. "
Gross. Gross! GROSS!", Yang exclaims in a panic.
Ruby starts to panic as Yang starts to flail her foot around, trying to get the vomit off her shoes, and she shouts, "No! Keep it away from me! Keep it AWAY from me!"
As the airship finally docks, everyone makes their way off into Beacon, except for Vomit Boy, who's still throwing up in the trashcan by the exit. The boy comes up for air only for an orange haired boy built like a jock to push his head back down into the can, getting it stuck in the process. "Hey!", the boy shouts in a panic only for the jock to reply with, "Later loser.", before walking off.
As the girls pass the poor boy stuck in the trashcan, they find themselves in Beacon's main courtyard. The main building towers over them and multiple students pass them as they're left looking up in awe of the view before them. "That view of Vale has nothing on this place.", Yang says as they continue to admire the design of the school.
Ruby happens to glance over to see another student and shouts, "Ohh! That girl has a collapsible staff!", before starting to follow them. She turns her head to see a boy walking by and she sees his weapon before squealing, "And he has a fire sword!", and starting to follow him as well.
"Calm down Ruby, they're just weapons.", Sapphire says as she and Yang pull her back, trying to keep her from looking like a creepy stalker girl.
"They're not just some 'weapons' Sapphire, they're like an extension of ourselves! You know a person's weapon can say a lot about them. And they're just so COOL!", Ruby replies as she breaks free from their grasp.
Yang gives her a confused look before asking, "Why can't you swing over your own weapon like that? Isn't it cool enough?"
Ruby pulls her weapon off of her back before turning it into its scythe form and saying, "Of course I love Crescent Rose! It's just, I really like to see new ones sometimes. It's like meeting new people, but without the awkward small talk and handshakes and them judging you for wearing a skirt in the middle of Winter."
Yang just chuckles at her sister's reasoning before pulling her red hood over her face and saying, "Oh Ruby, come on. Why don't you try to make some new friends or something? People aren't that scary."
Ruby quickly fixes her hood before asking, "Why would I need more friends when I have the two of you here?"
Yang quickly grabs Sapphire's hand and says, "Well, Sapphire and I have a few things to do. Gotta go! Catch up later! See ya, bye!", while rushing off in a hurry.
Ruby's left speechless and spinning in confusion.
As they run off, Sapphire looks over at Yang and asks, "Are you sure that was a good idea? She's still a kid ya know."
Yang just grins before saying, "Ruby's smart. She'll probably figure something out, and besides, if she can't find her own way, she'll just have to ask someone, right? That's basically a guaranteed friendship, right?"
Back with Ruby, she's still spinning from Sapphire and her sister both ditching her so quickly. As she's spinning, she shouts, "Wait! Where are our dorms? Do we even have dorms!? Where do I go now!? Ohhhh, what am I doing..?" But as she falls, she happens to fall into some luggage, knocking over a few cases as she falls.
"What are you doing!?", a white haired girl exclaims as she turns to see what Ruby has just done.
Ruby is still in a daze from her sister leaving her and all she can reply with is a "huh?"
The girl picks up one of the cases and inside are multiple bottles filled with what looks like colorful sand. The girl pulls out a red bottle and says, "This is Dust, mined and purified by the Schnee Dust Company from the Schnee Quarry!"
Ruby's still confused due to the girl speaking so quickly, and asks, "W-what?"
The girl shows her the bottle and says, "What are you, braindead!? Dust! Fire, water, lightning, ENERGY!", as she happens to also shake the bottle with her overly dramatic hand motions. This causes some of the red Dust to escape the bottle and form a small cloud around the two. As the Dust starts to tickle Ruby's nose, the girl asks, "Hello!? Are you even listening!? Is any of this sinking in to your thick head!? What do you have to say for yourself, you idiot!?", as she continues to accidentally shake the bottle and send more Dust into the air. This last amount of Dust is enough to push Ruby's nostrils over the edge and cause her to sneeze.
The sneeze has explosive consequences, literally, as the energy from her sneeze triggers the Dust, causing an explosion that engulfs the two girls entirely and sending the bottle of Dust to go flying into the air. As the dust from the explosion begins to dissipate, the white haired girl shouts, "Unbelievable! How could you be so reckless!? This was exactly the kind of thing I was warning you about! You should've listened to my warnings, you dunce!"
Ruby starts tapping her finger tips together while saying, "I'm really REALLY sorry!"
"What is a complete and utter DOLT doing at a combat school anyways!? And aren't you a little young and inexperienced to be attending Beacon!?", she replies in a hostile manner.
Ruby is barely able to say, "Well, um I..", before the girl cuts her off by saying, "This isn't an ordinary combat school, idiot! It's not just sparring and practice you know! We're here to fight MONSTERS, so watch where you're going next time!"
Ruby quickly snaps back with, "Hey, I said I was sorry, Princess!", and to her surprise another voice corrects her, saying, "It 'Heiress' actually." She turns to see a girl with black hair wearing mainly black and white with a black bow on the top of her head, who's holding the bottle of red Dust in her left hand and a closed book in her other standing behind her. The girl glances over to the 'Heiress' and says, "Weiss Schnee, Heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, one of the largest generators of energy propellant in the world."
The white haired girl grins and says, "Finally, a bit of recognition around here!"
The girl with the bow finishes by saying, "The same company infamous for its controversial labor forces and questionable business partners."
Weiss is brought aback by this claim and shouts, "I- How dare you!? The nerve of-!", before trying to swipe the bottle out of the girl's hand.
As she goes to grab it, the bottle goes flying into the air and heads toward the school building. "What?", the three girls ask in unison before following where the bottle was going back to a boy with black hair and silver eyes standing on top of one of the street lights that line the sidewalk. "Don't forget she's apparently the worst bottle closer of all time. Like, really? With all your money you can't afford to have someone teach you how to close a damn bottle? You Schnees are pathetic.", the boy mocks her with a grin on his face as he catches the bottle as if it were floating right into his hand. They see he's dressed in black dress pants and shoes, a white dress shirt under a silver dressy vest. On his hands are gloves with pieces of metal shaped in the form of claws on the tips of his fingers.
Weiss grinds her teeth in frustration and shouts, "Give that back right this instant, you thief!"
The boy grins at her and says, "Thief? I'm only closing this bottle for you since you're apparently to incompetent to do it on your own. You should be thanking me, Snowflake." He pushes down on the cork before tossing it down to her.
She almost drops the bottle, but manages to catch it before it hits the ground. She gives a stern glare to the black haired girl and boy before storming off in a fit of frustration. As she storms off, Ruby waves to her while saying, "It was nice meeting you!" Two servants wearing sunglasses, dressed in black and white suits pick up the knocked over luggage and follow after Weiss.
Ruby just sighs and says, "I guess I'm not the only one having a bad first day." She quickly turn to the other girl and goes to ask her, "So what's your n-", but before she can finish, she sees the girl is already gone. Ruby looks up to where the boy was a second ago and sees he's also gone. Completely abandoned, Ruby falls to her knees before falling on her back and saying, "Welcome to Beacon."
Over in a maze like garden, Yang and Sapphire are walking together. "Aaaaand we're lost.", Yang says as they both come to a stop at a fork in the path.
"Yeah, this is the third time we've seen this same set of bushes. It's a nice view and all, but after seeing it so many times it loses its wow factor.", Sapphire adds as she glances around, trying to figure out which way the two originally came in from.
Yang looks around and says, "Well, we'll just head back the way we came and go around instead. I think it's this way.", before turning around and going back the way they came.
Sapphire grabs her wrist, stopping her, before saying, "I'm pretty sure the way out is this way.", and pointing toward the path to her right.
"I'm pretty sure I know where we came from. Let's just go back this way. It'll probably be quicker.", Yang replies with a slight hint of doubt.
They both start down the path that they came from before hearing a boy say, "You're going the wrong way." They both turn to see a boy who looks like a wandering swordsman from some Japanese manga. He's wearing wooden sandals with white puffy pants that are held up by a cloth tied into a bow, a grey v neck like shirt that has fairly long sleeves. Every other part of him was covered in bandage wrapping, only leaving his grey eyes for them to see.
"Huh? Are you a student here too?", Yang asks with a confused glance at the mysterious boy, to which the boy nods.
Sapphire looks the boy up and down before seeing his weapon, a strange looking katana in a grey sheath he's holding in his right hand. "Another sword user?", she thinks to herself with a curious look on her face.
"Are you two perhaps lost?", the boy asks them, walking up to them without any hesitation.
"What gave it away?", Yang asks as she rubs the back of her head nervously.
The boy gives the two girls a cold look before saying, "You two have been going in circles for a while."
"Y-you saw that!?", Sapphire asks, completely embarrassed by her sense of direction.
The boy nods before saying, "I simply thought you two were admiring the flowers in this garden. But now it's almost time for the induction ceremony to begin, so I thought I would warn you two that we were running out of time."
"The induction ceremony!? We're gonna miss it!", Yang shouts in a panic before frantically looking for the way out.
"Yang, calm down! If we panic we won't get out of this place!", Sapphire says, trying to calm Yang down.
The boy glances over at one of the rosebush walls before saying, "When finding the exit becomes near impossible, one must make their own exit." The boy places his hand on the grip of his sword, causing the two girls to raise their eyebrows at him. He draws his blade in one quick motion and as they hear the metal clank as he returns the blade to its sheath, a chunk of the nearby rosebush wall is sliced to pieces. He walks through the newly formed exit before saying, "The ceremony is to take place in the Amphitheater. I'll guide you two there."
The two girls quickly follow after the boy, and Sapphire asks, "So, do you know where this 'Amphitheater' is by chance?" The boy nods his head and simply continues walking as they follow.
"Well, do you have a name, bud?", Yang asks him as she glances over at him.
"Ash.", he quickly replies with a glance over at her.
"Ash? Well Ash, I'm Yang and this is Sapphire.", Yang replies as points to herself then Sapphire.
He simply nods before saying, "It's pleasant to meet the two of you."
As they continue to walk, the come across a large pair of doors that are left wide open, leading into the room. They see it's a large room with a small stage that only has a single stand with a microphone on it. "This is the location.", the boy says, earning a raised eyebrow from Sapphire.
"Are you not from around here Ash?", she asks with a puzzled look on her face.
The boy looks over to her and replies with yet another nod before saying, "I'm from a small temple of monks who live in the mountainous area of southern Anima. We used our own language there, so getting used to this new way of communications has been... difficult.", pausing to try to find the right word to describe his situation.
Yang wraps an arm around his neck and pulls him into a slight choke hold before saying, "It's alright. So you're a little different and speak a little funny, so what? You seem cool enough. How about we all hangout later and you can show Sapphire here some of those cool sword skills that you have going on there?"
Ash seems confused by Yang's positive attitude toward him, but seems to quickly brush it off before saying, "We should enter. This area seems to be slowly losing available space."