Story starts here. I'm still in the middle of making chapter 3, where the title will become relevant. Enjoy this one first, a'ight!

Beacon, Vale's renowned institute for training teens who hope to one day become great Hunters, and to protect the world from the monsters known as Grimm, training them for everything that they must know in combat against humanity's foe.

For years, the school has been known for its state-of-the-art facilities, with professional Hunters as its staff, and for producing great people that would, had, and still are, making names for themselves.

Teenagers from around the kingdom of Vale come to this institute to finish their training and to become fully fledged Hunters. Right now, all of these teenagers were on Dust-powered airships and are on their way to the landing ports of the school, excited and nervous, all at the same time.

Inside one of these airships was a teenager wearing a black vest hoodie, with a mark on its back showing a full silver moon wrapped gently by a dark ebony grass. The teen was rubbing his temple in annoyance as he was trying, but failing, to stave off a headache at the moment. Amakusa Kouya was wondering if there was another way to get to the school without using the airships.

He had been standing close to the windows earlier on before the flight, but as the airship ascended, his head slowly started to ache from the nausea of looking at the city in the air without feeling any wind lulling his sick feeling away.

It was suffocating to be inside the airship, like a glass cell in the sky. There was no feeling of freedom, only the air-conditioning installed in the interior. The slight vibrations weren't helping either. It made him want to hurl.

"GlughuaHH-!"

Like that blond guy that just passed him, who dunked his head inside one of the trashcans in the ship. He felt for the guy, he really did. If he hadn't stepped away from the glass windows to find a nice small space for him to start daydreaming, to let his mind wander and forget about the nausea, he would have been the one emptying his lunch in the trashcan. Or he'd probably be sharing it. Ew.

But still, he could show some sympathy for the guy. Being someone from out of the city, he needed to start making friends.

Walking over to the blond teenager, he placed his hand on the guy's back and started soothing him gently.

"Hey, feeling better?"

The blond looked over to him, probably wondering who was kind enough to help him. The blond nodded slightly, stepping back and away from the smelly can. Kouya did not envy the people who were going to clean that. But then again, it was their fault for not providing any barf bags on these ships.

The blond looked happy that there was someone kind enough to help him in his motion sickness and not make fun of him because of it, like what the other students were already snickering at their general direction.

Kouya saw the blond smile and nod to him, looking slightly better after emptying his stomach. The motion sickness was probably still there, and the blond looked like he still looked green. It probably wouldn't leave until the ship stops moving or they land, so they both would have to make do with his current state at the moment.

"I'm fine, thanks for asking. I get air sick easily."

"I know the feeling." Kouya walked over to the closest wall to lean on before taking his attention back to the blond. "I'm also feeling a bit sick at the moment, but for me, it mostly because of the lack of fresh air coming in. My body knows that the air from the conditioning system is fake, so it doesn't really stop me from feeling sick." He nudged his thumb over to one of the vents where the artificial air was coming from.

He looked over at the blond and finally took a better look at him; Blond hair, blue eyes, fair skin, steel chest plate and shoulder pads over his black hooded jacket, orange warmers that kept his forearms hidden, and wearing brown gloves on his hands. His pants were a little impractical, being denim and all. Finally, there was the black boots to finish his gear.

"My name's Amakusa Kouya, by the way, nice to meet you."

"Yeah, me too." The blond scratched his head in embarrassment from his earlier display. "The name's Jaune Arc. Are you from the east, by any chance?"

Kouya smiled a bit from the question, scratching his cheek a bit. "No, but my ancestors were before they migrated somewhere by the borders of Vale. Amakusa is my family name, meaning 'Heaven' and 'Grass', while my first name is Kouya, meaning 'Midnight', hence the black vest with my family's crest on my back." He turned his back and lifted his hood to show the silver moon wrapped in grass over the black cloth.

"Wow, cool. My family's symbol is on my shield, it's just two yellow arcs, with one over the other." He pulled out his sword and unclasped the sheath from his belt. The dark haired teen was pleasantly surprised when the normal looking sheath suddenly expanded into a shield, on its surface was the mark that Jaune said it had.

"Don't be ashamed of you family's crest, it's probably like that for a reason." Kouya looked over to the space where most of the students had gathered to see a holographic projection of a blonde haired woman announcing a welcome to the coming students before the airship began to descend for landing. "Looks like we're here."

Jaune moved over to one of the glass windows, peering down on the city below then on to the Beacon Academy, sitting on the edge of a steep cliff with a lake/giant river below. The academy was only accessible by airship, a boat ride to the bottom of the cliff where you could either take the stairs or elevator up, or going around the school where a Grimm infested forest resided.

The students around were all talking more excitedly now, already looking forward when the ships touchdown. All of them were in their battle gears, with the rest of their luggage in the cargo.

The site was rather breath taking; with the sun high with no cloud in sight, the waters falling from the multiple rivers on the cliff of Beacon was creating quite a few rainbows on the lake's surface. Though it would have been better if they could feel the fresh air that came from flying high up where they were. It would have been perfect, then.

Jaune was looking quite distracted by all of this, already ignoring his motion sickness at the moment. That was until the ships began to descend faster, which made even Kouya feel his stomach lifting inside him. He grimaced at the moment, the scene before him losing all of its beauty when nausea reared its ugly head. He took a long deep breath, ignoring his body's complaint about the fake air of the conditioning system, and pushed down the bile that made it half-way up his throat.

Unfortunately, Jaune didn't have the same luck.

The teen's cheeks bulged as his motion sickness returned with a vengeance. Jaune ran his way back to the small spot with the trashcan from earlier, spraying a bit of bile every step of the way.

Poor guy. Kouya even heard one of the girl students close to him about seeing a bit of puke on her friend's shoe. Of course, girls being girls, they started overreacting. The blonde that had her shoe baptized by Jaune's puke started wiggling it over to her friend's direction, repeating the words 'gross' again and again, while her friend tried her best to keep away from her.

Once again, poor Jaune.

Touchdown was a whole lot better than lift off, in Kouya's humble opinion. Now that he had his feet back on solid surface again, and the wind was back to whipping on his face again, he decided that if he was ever going to fly to Beacon again, he'd rather do it on his own, lack of wings and all.

As soon as the doors to the outside opened, Jaune was the first to claim freedom.

"GlughuaHH-!"

Only to seek another container to dispose of his stomach's content.

Even if the ride was over, it still takes a lot out of a person, especially if they weren't used to the mode of transportation. Kouya still had a bit of throbbing on his temple as he fought to keep the ride from affecting him too much.

He stepped behind the blond and soothed his back again, "Come on, Jaune, let's step off the platform, it'll help you feel better."

Jaune nodded his head weakly, stepping away from the can wobbly. Kouya would have offered a shoulder for him to lean on, but he really didn't know the guy that well yet to be alright with the specks of puke on his clothes.

Instead, he grabbed the armor on the blonde's back and slung him over his shoulder like bookbag, with his passenger's legs barely even touching the ground, showing that despite his lean frame he could perform this act with only minimal effort.

"Hey!"

"Just enjoy the ride Jaune." the dark haired teen shifted his arm into a more comfortable position. "There's no railing on this ramp, and I don't want you to accidentally plunge yourself to your doom."

For emphasis, he gestured to the side where the blond found his gaze going down the cliff and in to the water. They weren't even close enough to the cliffs to grab on to if they fell. They'd probably be able to scream a full two minutes until they meet the water below. It was just that high.

Kouya took Jaune's audible gulp as a sign of acceptance for the ride, before pointing over to one of the other ships. "At least you're not the only one."

Jaune saw a guy walking out off one of the ships. On his shoulders was a girl, swaying dangerously from side to side.

"Noh-Ra!"

"Sorry, Ren!"

"See?" Kouya chuckled as he heard the guy's rather frustrated voice and the girl's carefree reply.

Jaune felt relief washed over him. The other students were looking at the odd pair more, and were ignoring them altogether. The girl on that poor guy was definitely not for people with weak hearts.

Kouya took this moment to weave around the other students in front of them, and moved faster to get to the ground. All the while, he replayed the guy's voice in his head and the girl's reply over and over again, silently laughing to himself.

"So, what do you think they're going to teach us here?"

"Well… from the piece of paper that had eye-catching stuff in it, that they gave me, we'll be learning about the different types of monsters, their behaviors, weaknesses, habitats, and so on. There are also classes about Dust, Aura, Tactics, Combat, etcetera etcetera."

Jaune's shoulder seem to slump after every subject uttered by the Amakusa boy. These were probably the basics that every Hunter needed to know before they go on their journeys. Hunters were all probably exceptional in everything that they did. Coming from Beacon, they were probably obligated to.

The dark haired teen let his eyes roam on everything that it could see in Beacon. His friend had already recovered from their ride on the ship and was now walking with a bit of cloud of depression hanging over him. He chalked it up as having an eccentric or dramatic friend.

It was his first time in Beacon, like most of the students that rode with them. There were probably some who had connections that allowed them to visit it earlier on, but for a guy that lived most of his life in the countryside, in Grimm infested forests even, the experience of being in a famous school was… new. Nothing special, just new.

But a dismissive part of him was already wearing that novelty off.

There were Faunus' walking along with the Humans. Their race were highly discriminated by the human society as a whole, with only a few kind souls treating them like human beings, like the people in Kouya's village who accepted the extra hands in their home. The Faunus looked like humans, with a few added animal parts on their body. Their physiology was also a little different than a human's, but in a good way.

There was a Faunus girl with rabbit ears on the top of her head looking at everything like they would attack her at any moment. There was a Dog eared Faunus being given a wide berth by the other students for some reason. But there were other Faunus' that stuck as groups and chose to ignore the humans that walk by them.

Kouya had to frown at both race's behavior. He didn't have right to judge them, but if they didn't do anything to change the status quo, then there wouldn't be any difference in interaction in the future.

He and his blond friend were knocked out of their thoughts when they heard the familiar clicking sounds of a weapon's deployment.

The blonde girl whose shoe that Jaune accidentally violated was looking at her friend's black and red colored scythe. Kouya couldn't help but appreciate the weapon design and its details, and was wondering how the girl could wield such a weapon when it was taller than her.

"Impressive." Kouya muttered.

"How can she even use that thing?" Jaune whispered with a bit of disbelief.

"You know what they say about judging a book by its cover."

"To see if it's PG rated?"

"Exactly."

At least that's what he thought it was. He did ask Jaune a valid question.

Kouya and his new friend watched the blonde and the other girl talk to each other until a group of students took the blonde away to the school, leaving the obviously distraught girl all by herself.

Jaune and Kouya shared a look for a moment before Kouya nudged his head to girl. It would have been a kind gesture to help her, and Kouya didn't peg Jaune to be the heartless kind. The blond was about to nod, before something caught his eye. Kouya looked at him oddly then turned his head back to the girl, only to do a double take.

"White." He couldn't help but mutter. "A whole lot of white."

Beside him, Jaune nodded. Both were entranced, but both had a different reason why.

The girl that they decided to help was talking with someone else, though they looked more like a one sided nagging. The one talking was a new girl, like Kouya described, decked head to toe with the color white: albino hair, pale skin, with equally pale blue eyes, a thin scar that ran on the outer side of her left eye, traveling from the brow, missing the organ, and running a bit on her cheek. The girl was wearing a one piece battle dress with long sleeved bolero jacket over it. On the girl's legs were thigh high, heeled, boots. All of her clothes were white, tinting to the pale color of blue as they went closer to the hem.

Kouya couldn't help but grimace at the outfit. He was no fashion enthusiast, but he still liked to look good, before and after a battle. Be presentable to watchers, like his father said. Compared to his practical black and silver motif, he didn't know how the girl's clothes would survive in a fight. Wasn't she afraid of stains? Rips? Dirt? Blood?

Again, he probably shouldn't judge a book by its cover. She could be one of this flawless fighters that fought with speed and grace, finishing a fight before it even began, and walking away in pristine condition. But the way she was bitching on the other girl, he highly doubted that.

Jaune was also in his current state because of the girl's state of dress. She looked like a snow fairy. His mind didn't even register the girl's attitude towards the other one that they thought to help out, but that didn't really matter at his current state.

"You're drooling, Jaune."

The guy sputtered, his hand going to his lips. Indeed, there was a bit of moisture there. "W-What? No I'm not."

"Yes, you were." Kouya said flatly, "And we should probably go help out the girl, she looks like she's being bullied."

"Who? Snow Angel?"

"No, Jaune, the other one."

Boom

Both guys looked back again to find that the snow fairy had transformed into an ash monster. The girl had been waving a bottle of Dust and pretty much ignored the spill that was coming from the container. The other girl must have done something to cause a reaction for it to blow at their faces, with only the girl in white to take a full body color change.

It was enough to kick Jaune out of his love at first sight shtick, but Kouya could tell that he was still interested.

"Uh, shouldn't we go and help out?" the blond asked.

"We probably should," the dark haired teen gestured to his legs. "But for some reason my feet don't want to move."

Jaune couldn't help but wince at that. "Well, I can't really say that you're the only one. I mean, look at how angry she is."

Kouya really wanted to help the other girl, but there was just something about pissed off women that strike the fear of Dust in him. It all probably started when his mother kicked his father's ass that one time when he was younger.

Then she sent him through a wall.

"There's another one coming." Jaune pointed to another girl joining the two, this one was had black motif like Kouya. She gave the white girl a bottle, who looked a bit smug but then turned to indignant after the girl in black said something. Then the girl in white walked away.

Then so did the one in black.

That left Kouya and Jaune with the original girl that they wanted to help out. Awkward didn't even begin to describe what the two teens were feeling at that moment. They could already tell that life in Beacon was not going to be a walk in the park.

"Now should we help out?" the blond asked.

"Yeah, now should probably be safe." Kouya nodded.

Turns out that the girl they intended to save was called Ruby Rose, a girl two years younger than they were that got scouted by the headmaster himself. She was dressed like Little Red Riding Hood, with a black dress and boots, and also a few bits of red here and there. Even her hair was black with a bit of red tint at the end.

"So Jaune, Kouya, what do you two think of Beacon so far?"

The three of them had taken to walking along the school, anywhere that wasn't the same place where Ruby met Ms. White and Lady Black. Jaune was already dreading the next few days while Kouya was just awkward of it all.

"After seeing your experience? I learned that I should stay away from rich girls dressed in white with an attitude not as pure as their chosen color." Kouya raised his hands in surrender.

"Come on, she's not that bad."

Kouya gave Jaune a flat stare when he heard the him take the rich girl's side. Rudy looked like she was on the fence with the dark haired teen's opinion, but what the white girl did really left an impression on him. He had a better opinion on the girl in black when she helped Ruby. It also helped that her clothes were more combat suited than the Snow Fairy.

"Vomit Boy, your tastes are horrendous."

"Hey! Can we stop it with that nickname?"

Kouya raised his hands in a placating gesture. "I'm sorry, but it just sticks. I've heard a few nicknames but that one's just really hard to forget. It's new, fresh, like a rash that keeps on itching and demanding to be scratched…"

"You were also feeling sick on the ride!" the blond cried indignantly.

"Ah, but I was better at hiding it." The dark haired teen raised a finger in retort before swiping it in the air as if pointing at a blank art canvas. "I was in one corner, minding my own business and pushing the nausea to the back of my mind, then you came along," he waved his hands in an ascent motion, making a wooshing sound effect, "rushing in front of me and went straight to the trashcan, then you were all 'Bluergh!'." Kouya held his throat and opened his mouth, sticking his tongue out for a better description, "So you have to understand what I felt when I heard 'Vomit Boy'"

"You felt that your new friend was being made fun off and you suddenly felt the fury of a thousand suns?"

Kouya scratched his cheek a bit in mild embarrassment. "No, it was more like; 'Why didn't I think of that?'"

Jaune was about to make another retort when both boys heard their companion's girlish giggle, "You two are really good friends."

"Well, no, we actually just met on the ship," Jaune admitted. "but nausea has a way to connect people."

"I'm really jealous of you two, I wish I could make friends that fast." The girl's shoulders slumped at the admission.

Kouya and Jaune could somewhat understand the girl's situation. All of her friends were at Signal Academy, and she was now attending Beacon, a school where almost everyone was at least two years older than her. It was like taking one lion cub from a nursery full of them and then transferring it to a cage full of adult lions instead.

She had to prove that she was also one of them… or else.

Kouya was from the countryside, a very isolated but not socially ignorant village. He was actually the first one to attend Beacon, under the recommendation of one of the Hunters that sometimes stumble upon their humble little village.

Jaune was… well, he actually wasn't sure about the boy, but his jittery movements made it clear that he also empathizes.

It took a few banters between Kouya and Jaune to break the ice for the girl. It was her comment about Vomit Boy that she started easing up and started to become active in their conversation. Kouya already had a plan for her to make friends easier.

"We just have to talk about something that we can all relate to. If you do that, conversation should come naturally."

Ruby contemplated his words for a moment. It's how him and Jaune were able to bond, though he wished it was something else. But beggars can't be choosers.

"Well, I got this?" The girl pulled out and deployed her high tech scythe and stabbed its blade to the ground, emphasizing its sharpness to both boys in hopes to impress them.

Both of them were impressed indeed, Kouya more so than Jaune.

"I-Is that a scythe?" the blond asked nervously, not missing the heavy sound that it made when she planted it on solid concrete. How heavy was that thing?

"I'm more surprised that you can lift it." Kouya stood back to admire the weapon properly. It was pretty uncommon for people to make scythes as weapons. They were pretty tricky to use, but are great weapons for mob control.

"It's also a customizable high impact sniper rifle." Ruby said, patting her weapon lovingly.

"Neat."

"A wha-?"

"It's also a gun." Ruby showed Jaune the magazine before pulling the chamber and reloading a round.

"Oh… that's cool!"

Kouya noticed how Ruby was looking happier now that she was talking about her scythe. Jaune also seemed impressed by the weapon now that he knew what it was.

"So, how about you guys? What have you got?"

"Well…" both boys looked at each other. Kouya shrugged first before standing on his toes and letting his shin guards transform into a set of armored leggings. Jaune and Ruby heard a whirling sound coming from his feet before it clicked into silence a moment later.

"Piercing Veil." The dark haired teen announced. "Nigh indestructible combat armor leggings." The whirling sound started again and the other two saw blue lines traveling from his ankle to his knee and heel. "It also has an Aura Conversion Device (ACD). It turns my Aura into energy, similar to how engines nowadays turn Dust into power to move vehicles, and I can use it to send energy projectiles to a limited distance equal to the power of my kicks."

"Oooo…" both Ruby and Jaune crouched down to get a better look, with the blond poking at the blue lines and Ruby checking his ankles to see where the whirling sound was coming from.

"It can only channel so much Aura until it overheats, and after that, I'll have to wait half an hour at least until it cools down."

"It doesn't have a ventilation system?" Ruby asked.

"It does." The dark haired teen scratched his head. "It's just that it's so compact that the heat has trouble getting out, and we had to find the right thickness between the engine and my legs. The engine is actually strong enough to burn skin if I remove the limiter that automatically turns it off after reaching a certain temperature."

"That sounds complicated." Jaune commented, wincing at the burning skin part.

"It is." Kouya nodded. "But thanks to my Semblance it never really comes to that. So, how about you Jaune?"

"Me?" the boy looked awkward when both Ruby and Kouya turned to him. "W-well, I got this sword? A-and a shield too!"

Pulling out said weapon, Jaune fumbled a bit with the shield that acted as the sword's sheath as well. It had a folding function that was pretty deceiving to another's eyes, if they didn't know it. Kouya's eyes glinted slightly with interest, so did Ruby's. Kouya had already seen it on the ship, but with the motion sickness gone, he can now properly appreciate the weapon.

"So, what do they do?" asked the eager girl.

"W-well, the shield gets smaller. S-so when I get tired I can just put it away, hehe." The boy finished with an awkward laugh. Jaune sounded like he was feeling pretty inadequate when compared to his friends' weapons.

"Doesn't it weigh the same?" Ruby asked.

"Yeah it does." Jaune admitted dejectedly.

"Don't be so glum, Jaune." Kouya patted his friend.

"Yeah. I mean, I'm a bit of a dork when it comes to weapons. I admit that I probably got a little bit carried away in designing it." Ruby lifted he scythe for an example.

"You made that?" asked the shocked blond, suddenly forgetting his depression.

"Of course! All students in Signal forge their own weapons. Didn't you make yours?"

"It's a hand me down. My great-great grandfather used it to fight in the war."

"You mean that thing's three generations old?" Kouya asked in shock. It was hard to maintain that kind of weapon if it's always being used, but the state of the blade showed that, yes, it's still being used and still being well maintained.

"How about yours?" Ruby asked the other boy.

"It's actually my dad's." Kouya admitted, giving the blond a smile. But unlike Jaune, Kouya was proud of his hand me down. "He gave it to me after the foldable frame technology was installed and the limiter was implemented."

"Wait. Your dad used that without the limiter? Wasn't he burned whenever he used that?" Jaune asked in shock.

"My dad has a few burn scars, but he only used the ACD to move faster when kicking off the ground or in emergencies. In truth, he really didn't need it. My dad is a master of martial arts that focused mostly on kicks, and thanks to the protection given by Piercing Veil, he can go all out without the fear of hurting himself in his kicks." Kouya stated proudly.

"So… you came here using your dad's style of fighting?" Jaune asked carefully.

"Only the basics." Kouya admitted bashfully. "Our approaches in fights are different, so his style wasn't really suited for me."

His father focused mostly on misdirection and speed, mixing feints with chains and well aimed kicks. He style was more like his mother's: attacking with overwhelming force and beating down his enemy without any chance of retaliation.

"Hold on, shouldn't we be going to the auditorium right about now?" Ruby asked suddenly.

"I thought one of you two knew where we were going." The blond said to the dark haired teen.

"This is my first time out of my village; did you really expect me to know where we are? I just followed the path where the other students were headed."

"Where are the other students?" Ruby asked.

"Uhh…" both boys turned to one another before looking around for any signs of life.

There was a cricket.

But nothing else.

"Does anyone have a map?"