We filed into the Great Hall that we had stood in a mere hour before. It was a now a large auditorium filled with chairs with swinging desktops. The sides of the room had large windows, letting a lot of natural light into the vast room. The front of the room had an elevated stage, and a projection screen was being lowered down. I walked over to an empty seat in the middle of the large room, and put my earbud back in my ears, pressing "Play" on my Scroll. I looked up into the high vaulted ceiling. Apparently, this space was also used as a cafeteria, ballroom, and large combat practice room for class. The third of which I had hoped to see soon.

~I am… a point in the sky… A star in a constellation~ (Ants by Forgive Durden)

I smiled as another favorite song of mine played. I watched as the multitude of student piled into the room. I caught a glimpse of Elysia sitting by the side of the room, taking in the view given through a nearby window. I could see Nero sitting in front; his tail was poking out from the side of his seat. Looking behind me, I scanned the room to see who else wasn't still socializing and were sitting ready for the first part of the initiation exam. My eyes rested on the girl wearing the blue hoodie that I had seen outside. She was sitting in the corner, and appeared to have scooted her seat away from the main group.

Upon shifting my field of view even slightly away, she happened to vanish! I took a double take and focused on her again, leading to us making eye contact. A mixed look of surprise and mild panic sprung up on her face, so I assumed she was purposely doing something to avoid being seen without reason.

"Sorry," I mouthed, raising a hand in apology, which she responded with a shy smile and small nod. At this moment, I felt someone tap on my shoulder. I pulled out my right earphones and turned to meet the person. "Oh, hey Rama."

"It's Professor Apocrypha to you, now." Meet Rama Apocrypha. At this proximity, I felt enveloped by his usual cologne that was cigarette smoke. If I hadn't spent years training with him, I would have been coughing the moment he was three feet from me. His short, spiky hair with two strands falling on the sides of his forehead helped to bring out an intimidating visage to those of weaker minds. His amber eyes flicked to the blue-hoodie girl and then back to me. "You're not even accepted to this place yet and you're flirting with girls. You better get back in focus, Railen. I'm making exactly sure that you get no favoritism from me."

"I'm not expecting any, Rama." I smiled as his scowl deepened at the use of his first name. "I know you'd be disappointed if I don't work my ass off here."

"I'd be damn disappointed if you didn't get past this exam, boy." He retorted. "Either way, I'll be doing my best to make your life straight hell."

"Please Professor Apocrypha," A new, unfamiliar voice spoke up now. I turned slightly and saw an average-height man with curly black hair and pale gold eyes. "I'd prefer it if you'd stop with the hostilities towards the students, you're starting to scare the others.

Looking around, I couldn't tell if the surrounding students were indeed startled by Rama's actions towards me. Turning back to this man, I could just make out furry ears in the mess of black hair. A Faunus? I thought. Could he be able to sense emotions around him? Who is this man?

"My apologies, Headmaster Watson," Rama said, before looking back at me. "I was just letting Railen know that I wouldn't be going easy on him despite our connection."

Headmaster? I was inwardly taken aback. It was a very rare occasion for a Faunus to be in such a high position of power. He must be very good at what he does as a Hunter. I probably should have done a bit more research about the staff at this place aside from personally knowing only one of them.

"Of course not," Headmaster Ronan said with a kind smile. "But you shouldn't be going easy on any student in general, Rama. You're to be teacher the best of the best here. Now please, let's join Professor Artrus at the stage to start this exam."

I watched Rama walk back to the stage, hands in his pockets, casting his gaze toward other students in their seats. I didn't notice Headmaster Ronan was still standing by me until the Faunus man spoke up.

"I've heard of you, Mr. Roame. Both from Sanctum and… other sources." He said, the second sentence drawing some caution my way. "I wish you good luck in your career here."

With that, he went to the two Professors on the stage. The projection screen now displayed the common examination time details: Time Left, Time Now. Apparently, we had about 90 minutes to get through the exam. Upperclassmen were going around the room, giving pens to those who needed. The last one, a rather young looking girl, looked around with a handful of pens in hand. After seeing that no one else needed them, she approached the professors and nodded.

"Thank you, Kestrel." Professor Artrus nodded in thanks. She then held up a stack of papers with very blurry looking text. "Now, you will receive your exams, and you have the rest of the allotted time to finish it."

The papers were promptly passed throughout the students, and much to our confusion, the words that were supposedly the questions were blurred out like newspaper print in the rain.

"The first part of your initiation," Artrus started, ignoring any questions about the exam. "NOW!"

The moment I decided to focus on the first question, it faded into focus.

What is the most important about being a Hunter?

This is a kind of a loaded question. I thought. My answer ended up being, "In the end, we are the wall between the vulnerable innocents and the Grimm and evil that threaten to swarm into our world. It is our duty, no matter our upbringing, to fight for those who cannot."

While I didn't personally like that answer, it was the best way for me to word my own personal opinion that we were the only ones able and worth training to try to fight for those who just can't. I turned my focus to the next question, which read:

How would you describe your fighting ability in one or two sentences?

I sighed. This was a rather simple sounding question. Looking around, I could see people shaking their heads and tapping their pens against the table in thorough contemplation. I looked up to the stage and saw Rama gazing around the crowd. Headmaster Watson caught my eye and whispered something into my acquaintance's ear. At this, I remembered something my acquaintance had told me a long time ago, when we started training together. "Brute strength can only get you through so many doors; Strategy will be my skeleton key." Satisfied with that line, I decided to write that down as my answer. The third answer was another rather simple question upon fading from blurriness:

What are thoughts when encountering an enemy?

Well, it was a simple one for me. My background taught me well enough about people before I took any formal training in Sanctum. I answered, "Never underestimate your enemy, or assume you have the upper hand. Rather, I assume that I am the one at a disadvantage and immediately try my best to identify points to escape if the worst is to happen. I should not be the priority if I am protecting people from this person. Simply strong-arming my way out of this will not guarantee a victory, and may lead to some fatal consequences."

The last question was what really stopped me after turning the page. It was the shortest question of them all, but was an even more of a loaded question than the first one. It was also not blurred out originally, so I assumed that it was one for all of us to answer.

What is Courage?

What did this question want from me? An example or an actual definition? I saw many students already rising from their seats to submit their papers, Elysia being one of them. I could just make out a full essay on the back of her paper to answer this question. I thought hard on how I should answer, nearly to the verge of panicking. Why was this question so much harder to answer than the others? I watched as more and more students approached the stage to hand in their papers. Even the super shy blue hoodie girl was finished before me! Looking down at my paper once more, I took a breath and wrote out the only thing on my mind. It was risky, but I didn't know any other way that might stand out. With that done, I got up, briskly walked up to the student named Kestrel, who accepted my paper with a smile. I walked out of the Great Hall to explore the large square courtyard once more. We would be called back in to sleep for the night, but we would not know our fates until the morning.

Later that night, in the Headmaster's Office…

Ronan Watson sighed as he put yet another declined student's paper into the corresponding pile. He looked to his Scroll; it was now 12:45 in the morning. He had been up working on sorting these students out for a while. Watson had been expecting this many rejection; so many students stated that they were Hunters for the fame, fortune, or fun. While all that was great, Haven and Remnant were in need of serious Hunters that understood why they were going to be sent around the world to risk their lives for the people. The last question about courage was also very important. People like Argos Hadrix and Calliope Brekker gave great answers, as well as students like Elysia Ceres, and Dartmouth Natterjack.

Now, the teacher had picked up Railen Roame's paper. A capable young man, with a background that many officials would question harshly. However, both Rama and Watson believed the boy had potential here. The first three questions were answered rather smartly. The Headmaster smirked at Rama Apocrypha's own motto being used as Roame's answer to his fighting ability question. What really made the Haven Headmaster smile was the young man's response to the courage question.

"Well young Mr. Roame," Watson spoke softly as he stamped an "ACCEPTED" on the soon-to-be-student's paper. "Hopefully we see this kind of attitude during the initiation mission."

It would be a rather difficult one, indeed, as well as deadly. Luckily they would have enough staff on standby to make sure everything turned out well. In the end, Railen, Elysia, Nero, and everyone else would have to put themselves to the test tomorrow. Watson put the Railen's paper down in the much smaller pile of accepted students. On top was his answer to the question about what he thought courage was.

"This."

Author's Note:

HEYO. BleachCadelina with the revived Chapter 3 to the best of my memory! Chapter 5 is a about 3/7 of the way finished, and the initiation mission is only just about to get spicy.

A minor setback announcement now:

Finals are coming up soon, meaning that Chapters 5 and 6 are most likely to come up much later this month and early June. Also, my girlfriend has been in the hospital for a week now, and it has been confirmed to have a cyst in her brain. However, since it is still small, she's expected to be discharged soon and able to go home. I've been staying with her to make sure she stays healthy, which is why Chapter 3 hasn't come out earlier.

Thanks for hanging through the delays, and I hope you enjoyed the revival of this chapter!