'Well, this is rather inconvenient.'

This was the thought going through the head of a young woman found in a certain shop late one night. Were a passerby to peer inside, they would have seen that said lady had a very unique look to her, with her long, charcoal-black hair styled in a loose "hime" cut, framing ruby-red eyes and a pinkish, stylistic eye tattooed on her forehead. Her fashion sense consisted of a small red silk vest over a white-silk yukata with voluminous sleeves and red highlights on the hems, framed and accented by gold threads and beads, held closed by a large white obi sash and a decorative lavender sash, and a pair of baggy red hakama pants, white tabe socks and wooden sandals. In her left hand was a large redwood staff in the shape of an ankh, a large topaz gem set inside the loop at the top with smaller, sharpened gems at the points. In her right was a plastic bag filled with 'Dust' crystals of various shapes and types.

And pointed right in front of her decidedly unamused face was a baton-sword held by a scruffy black-suited thug in shades.

Throughout the store, the young lady could see several similarly-dressed men robbing the store, directed by a lanky, flamboyant orange-haired man with green eyes, dressed in an extravagant white coat with a black ascot, black slacks and dress shoes and a black bowler hat with a red strip over the rim, pointing to-and-fro with a metal cane and lit cigar as he was intimidating the elderly shopkeeper. Out of the corner of her eye she could see one of the goons accosting the only other customer in the store, another young lady with short black-red hair and silver eyes, who was largely obscured by her vibrant red cloak.

"Where d'ya think yer lookin' at, brat?! Gimme all the Dust ya have, and I won't hafta carve that tacky brand off yer face!"

Despite his angry bluster, the thug couldn't help but flinch back when his "victim" turned back to give him a deathly glare. Despite being maybe sixteen years old, the young lady had the eyes of a vicious warrior twice her age, and while it must have been a trick of the light, he could have sworn that the "tacky brand" was giving him a scathingly affronted look, before she closed her eyes and heaved a tired sigh. After a few seconds she reopened them, going back to the disinterested "regal" expression she had before.

"Whatever had happened to put you on this path, I cannot help but pity you."

That was all she said before giving the mobster a jumping high-kick to the face, dropping her staff to the side as he staggered back from the surprise and pain. As she landed back on her feet, she thrusted her free hand out, where large bamboo shoots rapidly shot out from underneath her sleeve, punching into her foe with enough force to send him flying through one of the windows, just as the red-cloaked girl drop-kicked another goon straight out of another window. Upon landing outside, the girl is revealed to be wearing all black-and-red, with a gothic corset dress with long sleeves, a frilly combat skirt held by a belt with a silver rose pin, dark stockings and black leather combat boots. Reaching underneath her cloak, the fifteen-year-old took out a scarlet rectangular box, before twirling and unfolding it into a very intimidating hybrid of a mechanical scythe and high-caliber sniper rifle.

The commotion drew the attention of everyone else in the store, with the underlings gaping dumbly at the two teenagers and the mob boss looking about in exasperation before gesturing at them, snapping at his accomplices with a "Well? Get them."

On that signal, half of the goons rushed outside to deal with the red-cloaked girl, while the rest converged on the tattooed one, who had gently set her bag on the ground as her shoots receded. As the first two goons reached the girl she sprung back to her feet and flung out her arms, sending out a flurry of nettles into their faces. As the two fell down clutching their faces in agony she flung out an arm at the next, a set of vines shooting out to ensnare his head, before a vicious yank sent him crashing into the floor. The fourth one managed to swing at her but hit nothing as she crouched down into a sweeping kick, knocking his feet out from under him. By the time he managed to get back up to his feet, the girl had retrieved her staff and promptly thwacked him across the face, knocking him out cold. The last two thugs, having been smart enough to hang back to see what she could do, shared a hesitant glance before trying to flank her. Yet even that fell flat as she simply charged at the one on her left, swinging her staff upwards to catch him on the chin before thrusting the butt behind her to catch the other in the gut, followed by a low sweep to topple both of them to the ground. The young woman then ended the fight by harshly stomping her feet onto the face of the one in front of her and pivoting on top of it to slam the looped head of her staff into the other thug's chest.

With her current adversaries dispatched, the tattooed girl frowned in contemplation as she looked outside, catching the tail-end of the red-cloaked girl's flurry of swings as it launched the last goon into a nearby trashcan. 'How odd. These criminals had Aura, yet I was able to beat them with very little trouble. Back home it would have taken three times as many strikes to take down the average bandit with the same effort. Have I really become that strong without noticing, or were they just incompetent?'

The ringleader of this gang, having slipped towards the mouth of an alley, was of the opinion that it was the latter given the way how he merely looked at his devastated henchmen in disgust. "Truly, you were all worth every cent." Tossing away his cigar as he spat out his sarcastic approval, the thief shifted his gaze to the two girls. "Well Red, Bamboo, it's been an eventful evening, but I'm afraid this is where we have to part ways." With that, he pointed the bottom of his cane towards 'Red', pressing a hidden button to have the bottom pop off into a targeting reticule. With the press of another trigger, the newly revealed flare cannon shot out a large fireball towards his target, forcing her to dodge out of the way as he retreated.

Seeing the thief trying to escape, 'Bamboo' turned to the shopkeeper. "I'm going to chase after him. Will you be alright by yourself?" Upon receiving an affirmative nod, the girl dashed out of the shop and into the alley, where she saw 'Red' use the recoil from her weapon to launch herself onto the roof. Inspired by that display, she then extended her left arm, causing her vines to rapidly shoot out and latch onto the building's rain gutter, before retracting with enough speed to send her flying up to her companion. The sudden force, however, nearly wrenched her arm out of its socket, which caused her to stumble as she landed hard. 'Oww! Damnit! That worked out better in theory. I'm going to have to practice that move later after this.'

The flamboyant felon was obviously less-than-pleased with this development. Muttering a curse under his breath, he turned back to face the two pursuers, seeing 'Red' helping 'Bamboo' back on her feet just as a large VTOL arrived behind him. Reaching a hand into his coat, he withdrew a large, dull-red crystal and tossed it directly at the two girls with a malicious smirk. With a cheerful "End of the line, you two!", he fired another flare at the rock, causing it to violently explode as he jumped into the vehicle's open hatch. Turning back to see his handiwork, the thief was dismayed to find the two unharmed, courtesy of a transparent purple shield generated by a third arrival: a mature and well-endowed woman with blonde hair tied in a braided bun and stormy green eyes. Her ensemble consisted of a cream-colored pleated blouse with long puffy sleeves, a stylized cape that reached down to the small of her back that was black on the outside and navy blue on the inside, a black pencil-skirt that reached down to her knees, brown stockings and black knee-high boots with bronze heels. Completing the look was a pair of black oval-shaped glasses and tear-shaped emerald earrings. The newcomer could be called "stern disciplinarian" personified, a description only enhanced by the riding crop clenched in her right hand, glowing a faint purple just like the shield in front of her.

She was also evidently someone the thief recognized, as he gained a somewhat panicked expression before dashing towards the cockpit. Shouting "We've got a huntress!" the moment he arrived, he quickly slid into the pilot's chair as his associate rushed to the hatch to take care of this complication. Stopping in a position that would leave their face concealed by shadows, the thief's associate was revealed to be a woman wearing a classy red dress with stylistic orange trim, black high heels, red bridal gauntlets and glowing amber eyes. Glaring at the trio of interlopers, the woman made a gesture with her hands, which suddenly combusted as a hail of fireballs materialized to rain down on them. Recovering quickly from their scramble to dodge, 'Red' counter-attacked first by embedding her scythe into the roof to act as leverage as she levied shot after shot at the fire witch, only to be deflected by a barely-visible force in between her hands. Seeing this, the huntress waved her wand to ensnare the rubble from the explosion in her purple aura. With a flick, the rubble coalesced into a spear before being launched at the aircraft, piercing through one of the wings and destabilizing it. This caused the woman to stumble somewhat, but not enough to fully reveal her face.

Seeing this, the tattooed girl simply cursed to herself, lacking any truly ranged options to take advantage of this moment. Not wanting to lose this chance, she prepared to use her vines once again to try and tether herself into the aircraft, only to collapse with a strangled cry, drawing the attention of the other combatants. It felt as though a molten spike just suddenly wedged itself into her forehead, the pain was so intense!

"Aaaaauuughh!" 'Wh-what is this?!'

Soon a flurry of vague images began to rapidly flash under her eyes: a scared little girl curled under a table; a raging fire devouring a house; a pale-black wraith taking her hand; a flurry of blood-soaked glass; a bug-like demon lunging at her face; a metal puppet sliced by its own strings. The girl was too disoriented by the pain and lack of context to do much of anything. Seeing this, the fire witch capitalized by gesturing a burning hand, causing a strange burning glyph to appear underneath the incapacitated fighter. Sensing the danger, the huntress quickly used her powers to pull both girls towards her before raising a shield over them, just before the glyph violently exploded. The huntress flinched hard as the shield cracked from the force, but both managed to stand firm. By the time the smoke cleared enough for the three to see however, the aircraft was already escaping, too far for any of them to catch up to. Sighing at this development, the woman lowered her wand and the shield before stepping back from her impromptu allies, a stern glare settling on her face as she turned to face them. 'Bamboo' seemed to slowly regain her bearings from that sudden migraine and manhandling while 'Red' was looking at her in… admiration?

"Woooow~… you're a real huntress. CanIhaveyourautograph?!"

The girl's answer was in the form of the huntress frogmarching the two young ladies to the nearest police station.

Shortly after in one of the station's interrogation rooms, the huntress could be seen pacing to and fro at one end of a table, chastising the two who were rather awkwardly sitting at the opposite end. 'Red' had a contrite look on her face as she was dressed down while 'Bamboo' kept up a rather impressive poker face, their weapons and scrolls.

"I hope you two realize just how much trouble you've landed yourselves in. Your actions tonight had placed yourselves and others at serious risk!"

"Buh- b-b-b-but they started it! They're the ones who came in threa-mmph!"

The red-cloaked girl's emotional rebuke was cut short by her companion slapping a hand over her mouth. With a disturbingly calm glare the girl wordlessly ordered the distressed reaper to let her do the talking. Turning back to the huntress, she gave a respectful nod. "In our defense, ma'am, those ruffians had threatened to rob us and commit physical harm the moment they arrived, without any provocation. Are we not allowed to defend ourselves from such a threat?"

The older woman was decidedly unphased, however. "You are, and had you done just that and waited for the law enforcement to arrive than there wouldn't be a problem. But there is a difference between defending yourselves and endangering yourselves. Impulsively chasing after the leader as he retreated without any regard for the possibility of a hidden accomplice, an ambush or possible bystanders was beyond reckless. Were it up to me, you would both be getting a pat on the back, and a harsh slap on the wrists!" She emphasized this by slamming her riding crop down on the table near 'Red's' hand, scaring a high-pitched yelp out of her. Even 'Bamboo' flinched from the sudden and loud action. However, the huntress merely sighed with a resigned expression on her face. "However, someone else wishes to speak to you both."

As if on cue, the door opened to reveal a sharp-faced man around the same age as the woman. His appearance consisted of tousled silver hair and wood-brown eyes under shaded spectacles, a black unzipped suit-jacket over a forest-green vest and light-green shirt, black suit pants and shoes and a green cowl with a silver-and-amethyst cross pinned to it. In one hand he carried an ornate cane, the lower two-thirds a lacquered black wood with a pointed silver endcap, with the upper third a patterned silver handle with a knuckle-guard, the bottom area flaring into a disc with clockwork gears inside a glass window and a clear-white jewel at the pommel. In his other hand he held… a tray of chocolate-chip cookies?

The red-eyed girl pondered on that for only a second before lurching over the table, another lance of pain stabbing through her head as another vision presented itself. Thankfully it didn't hurt nearly as much as the previous one, but the litany of pictures that accompanied didn't make anymore sense: a vaguely similar man in royal garb storming a massive stonework tower; a despondent maiden with fair features learning to smile; the pale wraith from before snarling at a ghostly image of the royal superimposed over the man with the cane; a quartet of feminine silhouettes with the color of the seasons.

"H-hey, are you alright?!"

Looking up to see the concerned faces of the other three in the room, the tattooed girl was quick to wave away their concerns. "I am alright. I sometimes suffer from migraines, and I merely forgot to take my medicine for it tonight. Please, do not worry yourselves."

'Red' seemed to believe her immediately, although the adults looked rather skeptical of her claim. Neither of them chose to pursue her about it, however, as the man set down the cookie platter before taking a seat at the table. "Well, if you insist, then I shall take your word for it. But for now, please, help yourselves. It has been an eventful night and I find it's often harder to relax when on an empty stomach."

Both girls were reluctant to accept the offer at first, out of both shyness and skepticism, but eventually 'Red' took the plunge and tentatively ate a cookie. Seeing this, 'Bamboo' made to grab one herself…

"Ah, hey!"

…Only to flinch back as the other girl proceeded to inhale almost the whole platter. For her part the cloaked girl had the decency to look ashamed as she offered the very last cookie to her.

Chuckling as the offended girl roughly snatched the treat away, the man leaned back as he laid out a 'scroll' on the table, the mobile device playing footage of the foiled robbery recorded by the store's security cameras. "Now then, I have a few questions I would like to ask you two in regards to tonight's events, the first being why you decided to fight the criminals off and putting yourselves at risk instead of letting them rob you." He then gestured at the silver-eyed girl. "Let's start with you, miss Ruby Rose."

Put on the spot, the now-named Ruby floundered for a second. "W-well, it was the right thing to do! I'm studying at Signal and want to get into Beacon to be a Huntress, like my sis Yang is doing and how Mom and Dad and Uncle Qrow did!"

"Studying to be a Huntress? You wish to fight monsters, then?"

"I want to help people! Before Mom… went away, she always read us bedtime stories about Huntsman and Huntresses. And yeah, fighting the Grimm is a big part of it, but the stories were also all about how Huntsman and Huntresses are supposed to help people, to give them hope and to try and make the world better for everyone. I couldn't just let those mean crooks just rob the store blind, they would have all just ran away and continue stealing if we did. That's not what a Huntress would do!"

The actual huntress in the room had an appraising look in her eye as the man developed an intrigued, if not slightly pleased expression on his face upon hearing this. "Interesting. And how about you, miss Himi Kinboshi?"

The tattooed girl gave a small nod upon being addressed. "It's 'Kinboshi Himi', sir. My parents were from a village that had a tradition of putting your family name first before your given name. And my reasons are very much the same. Before it was lost, the people of my first home believed in doing good whenever you can, especially if you have the power to help those less fortunate than you. That is why most of my adoptive family is entering into Beacon this year as well, and why I hope to apply next year. And even had I not been one of the people being threatened, just letting those villains get away with their crime when I had the power to stop it would have been beyond shameful."

Now the man had a small, genuine smile on his face. "Well, it is very reassuring to hear the people of this new generation upholding such values, although you have my condolences for your loss, miss Kinboshi. Tell me, where did you young ladies learn to fight like this?"

Ruby piped up first with an eager expression. "From my Uncle Qrow! I mean, I said I'm in Signal Academy right now, but for a while I was just totally garbage at it, I couldn't figure out how to even swing a sword right, but then my uncle taught me how to work a scythe like his weapon Harbinger, showed me a few moves and even helped me make my baby Crescent Rose, so now I'm all like 'tuwaooo-caCHAW! Wapow! Wuoa!'"

Everyone else shook their head in bemusement as Ruby started to do mock kung-fu moves for emphasis at the end. With an amused smile the white-haired man turned towards Himi, who took the hint. "As for me sir, I have rather little formal training. While some of what I know I was taught by my parents and my adoptive siblings, the rest I made up from fending off the Grimm, bandits and other dangers as we traveled for Vale."

After pondering for a minute, the man then turned to look at the only other adult in the room. A few moments passed as the two engaged in a silent conversation before they turned back to the young girls, the man giving amused smirk as the woman heaved an exasperated sigh. "Very well, one last question for you two: do either of you know who I am?"

Himi was non-plussed at the question, but Ruby answered with "You're Headmaster Ozpin.", a note of awe in her voice. This caused Himi to almost fall out of her chair in shock, whipping her head between the two in disbelief.

"Headmaster Ozpin? Of Beacon Academy?!"

Ozpin's smirk only grew bigger as he asked, "And you both wish to attend my school?", causing Ruby to nod with such eagerness one would think her head would pop off, while Himi answered with a rather dazed "Y-yes…"

"Well, okay then."

'Huh?'

About an hour later, after a deluge of questions, disbelief and phone calls, a battered black jeep pulled up near the police station where Himi and Ruby were waiting outside. Sitting in the driver's seat was a muscular middle-aged man. Tall, tanned and rugged with long tomato-red hair and caramel-brown eyes, he wore a black tank-top underneath an open brown vest, fingerless brown gloves, frayed blue jeans and sandy brown boots. His hair was swept back into a low ponytail that reached his tailbone, with a tattered and faded leather headband holding back a few stray bangs from his face. Upon seeing the girls, the man rolled down the window and leaned out to wave at Himi. "Hey, Princess! Heard you had a bit of a wild night tonight!"

The tattooed girl just groaned in response, causing Ruby to giggle in amusement. Shaking her head, Himi turned towards the other girl with a small smile on her face. "As crassly as my guardian might have put it, I must say it certainly was an eventful evening. It was a pleasure meeting you, Ruby."

"Same to you, Himi! I'll see you at Beacon!"

The two girls waved goodbye as Himi climbed into the jeep's passenger seat, Ruby turning to leave towards an approaching motorcycle driven by a woman with long blonde hair. Once the door closed, the driver began gently ruffling the young girl's hair with a grin, chuckling as she swatted his hand away. "Well look at that, you made a new friend all by yourself, and on a first-name basis too! You're finally breaking out of that shell of yours, eh princess?"

His chuckling just grew louder as she elbowed him in the arm in response, leaving the girl pouting and staring out the window as he started the car back up. "Oh, be quiet, Eoleo, and take us to the house. There is something important I have to tell everyone."

"About foiling a robbery and getting into Beacon early as a result? Everybody else knows already, I told them right after I go-"

"It's not that, Eoleo. I had visions tonight."

That brought the man up short for a minute, the only sound coming from the road as they drove towards their destination. "…Well damn. That is important. What were they about?"

The young girl looked out towards the night sky, the stars mantling the bizarre and broken remnants of the moon.

"I… do not know, exactly. All I know is that it was nothing good."

AN: Well, here we go again. After a few years of various things in life, I'm gonna try and take another shot at writing a multi-chapter story. The other attempts I deleted because I was a moron and didn't bother writing an outline for them when I started them up, so when my muse died I had no idea what the fuck I was trying to do with them anymore when I got the drive to write again.
Hopefully now things will be different since I actually have an outline for one of my dumb fanfics.