Chapter 2: What's In A Name

I blinked. Did I really just call him a professor? "I... I didn't... But..." I started shaking.

"It's clear that you know who I am." He motioned for me to sit back down, and being unable to think of anything else, I walked back to the table and once again sat across from him. "Now why don't you tell me who you are."

I sat in silence, unsure of how to answer that question. I just stared at the table in front of me. I glanced up and noticed that, unlike before, his full attention was now on me. I tried to think of something, anything to say to this man. But even trying to recall my own name caused me to want to tear my brain out of my skull. At this point, lying would probably just make the situation even worse. I looked up into the mans gold colored eyes and took a deep breath. "I don't know."

"You don't know who you are?" He raised an eyebrow in suspicion. I shook my head.

"I can't remember."

"Hmm..." He took another sip of coffee. (How much is in there?!) "That sounds quite troublesome." I raised a finger towards him.

"At this point, I think I know more about you than I do about myself." I stated, pointing my thumb at back at my chest. He brought up his own hand.

"Tell me, what do you remember?" Gesturing towards me.

"Not much." I said, shaking my head. "All I remember is waking up on a rooftop around sunset and then wandering around the streets for a few minutes before bumping into you."

"That's all?"

I nodded, "That's all."

With a sigh the professor closed his eyes, pushing his glasses up his nose as he did so. "It would appear that you may have a serious case of amnesia." He shook his head again and opened his eyes. "But I'm no doctor and am in no position to diagnose the memories of someone I've only just met."

"Well maybe if I go hit my head against the side of a building I'll remember something." I smiled, jokingly.

"Perhaps." Once again taking a sip from his cup. (Is there a waitress going around filling that thing while I'm not looking?!) "However, if your memories fail to return, what are you planning to do then?" He asked inquisitively.

I looked back down. "I don't know, keep moving I guess? Look for people that might know who I am?" I could feel his eyes staring across the table at me. Judging me. I didn't like it.

I shifted in my seat and went to put my hands in my jacket pockets. "Hmm?" My hand brushed up against something in my pocket. I pulled it out and held it in front of me. It was a key, or rather a key-chain. Upon inspection the key-chain itself was a key-shaped ornament with writing along one side that said, 'Memory is the Key.' We both looked at it and I just chuckled. It was kind of appropriate, given my current situation. I kicked myself for not checking my pockets earlier and began to rummage through them looking for anything else I might have missed. The only other thing I found, however, was a small silver multi-tool. I Stuffed it and the key-chain back into my pocket. I had been awake for less than an hour and the number of unanswered questions seemed to multiply every minute. "Why are you trying to help me?" I questioned.

"Would you have rather I didn't?" His eyes were trained on me.

"No, I didn't mean it like that, it's just..."

"Is helping someone in need of aid so wrong?"

"N-No, I appreciate it! Honestly!" I began waving my hands defensively as I was starting to get nervous again. Maybe I should just stop talking. I let out another sigh as I brought my arms back down. That's when something caught my eye... The newspaper he had been reading, it was sitting off to the side of the table. Maybe...

"Would you like to borrow it?" Apparently I had been staring at it longer than I thought... That or this man could read minds.

"May I?" I asked. He gave a quick nod and passed me the bundle of pages which I took greatfully. I looked at the name of the paper, 'The Vale Times'. Well that's a neat name. At least I knew where I was now. Not that it helped too much. I shifted my eyes to the main article, 'Dust Shipment Stolen'. Apparently an entire train car full of whatever this 'Dust' stuff is had been stolen by members of some organization called the White Fang... "The White Fang...?" I muttered to myself. Did these words mean something? Forcing back another headache I looked at the photo in the article, it was a logo in the shape of a snowflake by the look of it for the Schnee Dust Company, 'one of the largest producers and exporters of Dust in the world'. "Schnee Dust Company... Schnee. Schnee..." I stared at the image. "That name... Weiss...?"

Almost from no where, my head felt like an ice-pick had been plunged into it, I grabbed my head and cringed in pain as I tried to rid myself of the agony. The newspaper fell to the floor and small groans left my mouth as if to display my discomfort.

"Are you alright young man?" I couldn't see his face, but from the tone of his voice it was clear that he was concerned from my sudden outbursts. I felt the world clouding up around me as all of the questions that had added up in my head began to rip my mind apart, desperate for answers. I found myself falling to the floor as images and words that I didn't recognize flashed in front of me. The White Fang. The Faunus. Dust. Humanity. Grimm. Beacon. So many words. I could hear the worried voices of other patrons of the cafe but I couldn't make out what was being said. I was on my knees, praying for it to all stop. I tried to open my eyes, and when I did I saw Professor Ozpin kneeling in front of me with a troubled look on his face. Wait, why did I know his name? I tried to say something but no words would come out. All the while my brain was being bombarded with information that made it feel like it was being squeezed in a vice. I was beginning to think that I was surely going to pass out from the onslaught of pain, but almost as quick as it had started, there was silence.

After some time I finally came to my senses. I was sweating, my breathing was heavy, and I felt like I had just ran a marathon. As I tried to calm down my vision began to return.

"So you're awake..." I looked up to meet the gaze of... Some guy. I tried to stand up but only got about half way when my legs gave out beneath me, as I fell the man caught my arm and hoisted me back up. "Whoa there kid, you're not gonna pass out on us again right?" He helped lean me up against a nearby counter top, using it as balance I looked around. From the looks of it I was in the back room of the cafe, I could see the table I was sitting at through a small window. The whole place seemed to be empty. I returned my attention to the man standing before me. He was tall and muscular and wore a dark button up shirt with black pants. His skin was tanned and he had black hair that went back into a ponytail which reached the center of his back. He had a dish towel slung over his right shoulder and looked at me with a smirk on his face.

"What happened..?" I asked, running a hand through my hair. He chuckled and turned towards the nearby sink.

"You had a bit of an episode out there is what happened." He proceeded to wash the number of glasses and mugs that had been stacked next to the sink. "Yup. After your little scene I had to just about kick out every other customer that was here." My eyes widened.

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean-" I was cut off by his sudden laughter as he turned towards me.

"Don't worry about it kid, I was getting ready to close up shop anyways." He gave me a wink as he smiled, "No harm done." I let out a sigh of relief. Being the cause of something like that? I would never forgive myself. "You did, however, manage to break a few glasses and a chair from all that thrashing around." Hang on, let me just pick my jaw up off the floor.

"I did WHAT?!" More laughter.

"Yeah, see for yourself." He motioned to the corner of the room. I couldn't believe what I saw, an entire wooden chair was in peices. It almost looked like a sledgehammer went through it! I could barely keep myself from passing out all evening, how could I destroy a chair like that?! I looked back to the man.

"I'm so sorry! I-I promise I'll pay for the damages." He cocked an eyebrow at me. I honestly didn't know how I was even going to do that, I didn't have any money, and it was obvious that he didn't believe me either. He just smiled. Well at least he had a good attitude about all of this.

"Perhaps we can work something out." He stacked a set of clean glasses in a cabinet opposite the sink as he spoke before turning to face me. "Tell you what, instead of having you sell the clothes off your back to pay me, just come see me here on Saturday mornings and I can give you some work to do for a while. What do you say?" I thought it over for a minute. It couldn't hurt, and I did owe him for what I did. Plus it didn't look like I had any other option at this point.

"I guess that seems fair. What day is today by the way?" It seemed like a dumb question to ask, but of course I needed to know.

"Haha, that tumble you took must have knocked the sense out of you more than I thought." He seemed amused by my query, I just rubbed the back of my head and let out a nervous chuckle. "Don't worry sport, I'm just having some fun with ya. It's Thursday." He shot me a sly looking grin as he began wiping down the counters. I smiled back and stood up, taking a second to make sure I could balance on my own two feet, and held out my hand.

"Thank you Mr..." He reached out and firmly grasped my extended hand.

"Jack Greene." I gave a nod.

"Thank you Mr. Greene."

"My pleasure. So what do I call you?" Well shit.

"M-Me?" He let out another small laugh.

"Well I can't just call you kid all the time now, can I?" There was no way I could talk my way out of this one. I had to say something! Come on brain, THINK! I prepared for another wave of discomfort as I tried to come up with a name I could use, but surprisingly, it never came. No skull splitting headache or irritation. Instead I saw an image of myself, almost as if I was looking at a photograph. I snapped out if it when I realized I had spoken without meaning to. Jack had his smile on his face as he shook my hand once more before releasing it.

"Nice to meet you, Hiro." Hiro... Was that my name? It felt so simple. It felt right. I had a name! I had a sense of relief come over me, until I realized that I had nearly forgotten something else...

"What happened to Professor Ozpin?" I was glad I actually remembered his name now.

"Ozpin?" He jerked his thumb to the door of the cafe, "Yeah he stepped outside a few minutes ago, said he had to make a call or something." Looking over his shoulder out the window I saw Ozpin standing next to a street light. He seemed to be speaking into some sort of device, but he put it away in his pocket before I could get a good look at it. He walked back over to the door and pushed it open as I walked over to meet him. My legs seemed to have gotten all of the feeling back into them at this point, so I was able to make it into the dining area without problems.

"You gave us quite a scare young man." A hint of relief was shown on the professor's face. "How do you feel?" I brought my hand up to my shoulder as I cracked my neck.

"I've felt better, but thanks for asking." He gave a nod.

"Of course. Now, care to explain what all of that was?"

"Well..." I scratched the back of my head, "I think I Got my memories back." He raised an eyebrow at my statement.

"Just like that?" I began waving my hands in a defensive gesture.

"W-Well, not completely! I've got some of them back.. But there's still a lot I don't quite remember..." He smiled at me.

"Alright then. So perhaps you can answer my first question." I looked at him puzzlingly. His first question? Then I understood and smiled. He just gave me a nod, "Do you know who I am?"

"You're Professor Ozpin. You're the Headmaster at Beacon." The words seemed to flow, as if I've always known. Ozpin seemed satisfied with my response.

"Hello."

"Nice to meet you." I didn't care how I knew half the things I had remembered, I was just glad I could remember something. I figured it'll come back to me eventually.

"Now who do I owe the honor of meeting today?" His subtle grin seemed contageous as I mirrored it back to him and held out my hand.

"It's Hiro. Hiro Colton." Ozpin reached out and shook my hand.

Thank you to those who fav/followed this story, it really means a lot to me that you guys actually like it. ^^

These first few chapters are mainly to allow me a chance to introduce the characters that aren't actually in the series. Oh! Before I forget, I feel like a lot of people might read 'Hiro' as 'Hero'. That's actually not the case, when I made this name I originally pictured it as saying 'High-Row'. More of an "eye" sound instead of an "eee" sound. Just figured I should clarify that here.

Deco: Thanks for the review! I felt like dropping the character somewhere where he knows everything from the get-go would be a bit simple and predictable in the long run. So I added it as a twist.~

SakuraNights01: It's a pleasure to see you here friend. ;) Thank you for the compliment, I'll do my best to keep the story detailed well. I tend to do better detailing in some parts over others, hope you like it~!

I'll try and get the next chapter out by Monday and will go for two chapters a week unless I am limited by time, in which case it will be once a week instead. That being said, You guys all have an AWESOME weekend! Stay Gold!