"So… Pyrrha tells me you have strange dreams, Jaune."

"I told you that your weapon was meant to slaughter Grimm, not friends."

"Why not? Ren slays me all the time. Anyways, Jaune, time to 'fess up. Give me all the juicy details."

Jaune pushes his eggs and ham breakfast around his plate with a fork. "What are you talking about?"

As was typical of dreams, most of its contents had faded away from his memory upon waking up the next morning; he genuinely doesn't remember much of it… well, except for—

"The kind of dream that makes you wake up and shout, 'I'm not a crossdresser!' at strangers!"

"We'd already met by then," Kairi justifies from her end of the table, where she's sitting with her two childhood friends. When the silver-haired one glares at him, Kairi quickly leaps to Jaune's defense: "He's really not so bad, Riku. You just have to get to know him!"

"Five minutes does not warrant a friendship."

"Com'on, Jaune," Nora pesters. "If you tell me exactly what happened, I'll tell you all about the evil plans that Ren's cooking up for freshmen initiation."

Jaune's mind goes blank at this. "Initiation? Didn't we already suffer through that?"

Without an ounce of tact, Nora ostentatiously scoffs, "Really, Jaune, you were pretty much the only one who had a horrible time. You and Weiss. I blew shit up in mine. It was loads of fun!"

"A second time, though? Why?"

"This time around, the upperclassmen are running the show, not the school administration," Nora replies quickly. She abruptly slaps a hand over her mouth, then pounds both fists onto the table as she leans towards Jaune. "Trickery! You're tricking me into spilling deets without telling me about your weird dreams first!"

Kairi's other childhood friend, a baby-faced boy with spiky brown hair, pipes up then. "It's survival of the fittest," he offers through a mouthful of bacon. "Like, you know how all the teachers were watching our duels? They weren't giving us points and they didn't care if we won or lost; they were analyzing our battle technique to sort us into the best Direction possible. But the upperclassmen—"

"Are looking for pack recruits!" Nora bursts. "Shut up, Sora, Ima do the talkin' here. Anyways, they're actually looking for talent. Or potential. I'm not worried though, cuz I'm already in Ren's pack. Well, it's actually the other way around, since I forced him into mine. It was fate!"

Pyrrha nods in agreement. "The first week is always the best time to network: vertically with your seniors and horizontally with your fellow classmates. This freshmen initiation is probably meant to serve that purpose in the best way possible."

"By fighting!" Nora cheers. "There will be blood… heh heh…"

Just like that, Jaune's lost his appetite. "Isn't that hazing?" he says weakly.

"This is a battle school," Pyrrha laughs, bopping Jaune's shoulder with a fist. "Though despite what Nora says, I think it should just be some light sparring."

Fighting again, huh? Jaune stares despondently down at his breakfast. He did come here to practice and improve his fight, to become a soldier like his brother and his father and his grandfather. And, well, it's only been a week, but he doesn't feel like he's benefited a bit by sneaking into faunus territory. Seriously, it does wonders for the ego when your biggest accomplishment so far is establishing yourself as the school's dirtiest student.

Why does he even bother? Maybe he should have just floated into a desk job at his father's company. Maybe he should tell everybody he's a human and deport himself. Maybe…

"Snap out of it," Nora barks, reaching across the table to rap the top of his head with a spoon. Her face transforms back into its usual cheerful grin when he jumps and glances in her direction. "You're not absolutely hopeless, you know. In fact, I'm sure that tons of senpais will want to check you out and test your limits. You don't have to fight either. You could try running! Evasion tactics and stuff like that. Besides, you are pretty well-known for sowing confusion and chaos with your god-like levels of dodgy pervertedness."

"…What?"

"Let's start training tonight," Pyrrha hurriedly jumps in, in an attempt to switch topics. "After classes. I doubt freshmen initiation will be soon, so we'll have a bit of time to—"

Jaune leans towards Nora, ignoring Pyrrha's attempts to alleviate his angst. "What are you talking about? Chaos and confusion?"

Sora laughs awkwardly and rubs the back of his head. Kairi studies the blueberries in her oatmeal religiously while Pyrrha facepalms. Nora blissfully continues, "Yeah, you're practically the god of it. Okay, there are a few… some… most faunus who think you're just a straight-up creep, but some of them think that maybe you're just psyching us out. Like, still a pervert, but not for the sake of just being a pervert. Do you get what I'm saying?"

"…What are you talking about?"

"Pyrrha, be all understanding and encouraging and help me explain!"

"You're setting yourself apart from the crowd by causing as much trouble as possible," Riku growls, abruptly getting to his feet and taking off. As a parting shot over the shoulder, he accuses, "It's faunus like you who keep screwing us over."

"Sorry, he has a thing about darkness," says Sora quickly, hopping up. "I'll talk to him. And for the record, Jaune, I think you have plenty of light in you!"

"You shouldn't worry about it too much," Pyrrha says as Sora patters off. "We communicate through actions what we can't put into words. That's socialization at a battle school at its best. If you have some battle technique to show off, that's the perfect time. If you run the entire time, nobody's going to stab you in the back."

"Not unless they desperately want to see your blood!" adds Nora.

"Weiss," Jaune says instantly.

"Ms. Schnee has more enemies than you do," Kairi supplies. "She'll have her hands full dealing with them."

"Couldn't she send underlings after me?"

"…Possibly."

"Probably."

"Blood! Huehuehue…"

Their breakfast table abruptly slants as a bulky weight settles at one end, causing an uneven distribution of weight. As one, the three girls and Jaune glance at the newcomer.

"I need to talk to you," Cardin rumbles.

Jaune glances around at his companions before pointing to himself. "Who, me?"

"What do you think, nitwit? I'm staring straight at you."

"Is this about Mil—"

The guy is a Boar. He'd barely moved during his duel with Velvet, and when he had, he'd had to charge up beforehand. He shouldn't be able to move as fast as he does now, snatching an apple off Kairi's breakfast tray and pegging his face with it. Jaune lets out a little snort of pain as the fruit flattens his nose, then shatters into little fruity pieces that find their ways up his nostrils.

"Waugh! What was that for? So you don't want to talk about Milt—?"

Kairi's spoon, ripped straight from the girl's hand and trailing chunks of oatmeal, flies much faster than the apple. Pyrrha plucks it out of midair while wordlessly handing Jaune a napkin.

"How do you even do that?" Jaune splutters in Pyrrha's direction.

The redheaded Tigress smiles faintly. "I'm a lancer. I throw and catch metal objects as a specialty."

"Thanks." He blows his nose, expelling equal measures of boogers and applesauce. "Ugh. Gross. Fine, Cardin. Let's talk."

"Alone," Cardin rumbles. "We can talk about her. Just not here."

"You're practically begging to start a rumor when you talk like that," Nora teases. "Now I have to know. Who's the mystery gal? Starts with Mil, ends with—"

Kairi gives up on her breakfast as Cardin lobs the entire content of her tray—bowl of oatmeal, glass of orange juice, and fork—at Nora. Nora instantly runs damage control by using her own tray to catch the bowl and scoop up as much flying oat-y sludge as she can, though Jaune doesn't appreciate it at all when she dumps his uneaten plate of ham and eggs into his lap and uses his tray to shield herself from the splash of orange juice that descends from above.

"Whew," Nora giggles. "That was close."

"Nora! You just dumped orange juice onto my head with my own tray."

"Hey buddy, your uniform isn't looking too great," Cardin points out. "Bummer."

Jaune glances down through his dripping bangs at his uniform. Yeah, those are definitely grease stains on his brand new blazer. And there are speckles of orange juice on his white shirt. "Cardin," Jaune growls.

"Your friend across the table there was the one who pushed the projectiles in your direction," the Boar says. "But come with me now and I'll put in a good word for you at the dry cleaner's. He's a buddy of mine. Could probably get the job done in two hours or so."

"We have our first class in half an hour," Pyrrha says uneasily.

"Do you really want to go to class wearing your breakfast?" Cardin questions, raising an eyebrow.

No, he really doesn't, but he wants to give in to Cardin's badgering even less… then again, this man is Miltia's bodyguard. Forget about asking Lie Ren; the Boar will definitely have answers on his mystery friend. Important answers, like whether she's just a construct of Jaune's imagination, or if she's something completely from left field, like a split personality of Melanie's or an evil spirit.

"The new shipment of uniforms came in last night," adds Kairi, glaring at Cardin. "I picked up my replacement shirt this morning. You could probably grab a replacement set of shirt and pants now while you wash your current set."

"Can't wash the blazer in regular ol' water," interjects the armored guy. "You'll have to get that dry-cleaned. The sooner, the better." He practically growls the last sentence, his patience apparently wearing thin.

Clean the jacket. Get answers from the Malachites' personal guard. Two birds with one stone. Seems like a good idea, but just in case, he glances at Pyrrha for her opinion. She subtly shakes her head.

Cardin snorts and noisily excuses himself from the table. "I'm sorry; I didn't know that you had to ask your mom for permission first," he simpers.

"Wait!" shouts Jaune, leaping upward. "I'm coming. Wait up."

Cardin doesn't pause in his departure, forcing Jaune to scamper after the Boar. The moment they're passed through the cafeteria doors and are out of sight from the others, however, the bigger guy whirls around, grabs two fistfuls of Jaune's uniform, and slams him against the nearest concrete wall. "Jaune Arc," he snarls.

"Hello to you too…"

"What are your intentions with Miltia?"

He says the first thing that comes to mind, which, frankly, is the most important thing to establish; except when it comes out of his mouth, he feels incredibly stupid. "She exists?"

Cardin's lips pull up over his teeth in a terrifyingly feral snarl. "What kind of question is that."

"I… I don't know! I've asked around, but nobody will tell me anything, which is why I agreed to come along with you in the first place, by the way, and not because I like getting roughly interrogated by her bodyguard. Plus there's the fact that I've really only met her once—"

"Don't you dare lie to me," the Boar barks, pulling Jaune forward just so he can thump him back into the wall again. "She latched onto you that first day—her friend, she kept saying. So I figure you're the only one who could know where she's disappeared off to this entire week… only you hide just as well as she does." Something seems to occur to him just then. "You haven't been doing any funny business with her, wherever you two are hiding, have you?" He turns his head slightly and mutters to himself, "Who am I kidding, this is the god of perverts."

"Excuse me—?"

All the air is squished out of his lungs as he's slammed into the wall again. "Where are you hiding her?" Miltia's bodyguard barks.

"I have no clue what you're talking about," Jaune states, "But, um, you really need to stop slamming my head into the wall if you want me to keep thinking coherently."

Cardin releases him abruptly. Jaune slides down to his feet, probably leaving a wet trail of orangy nervous sweat behind him. "Okay," the larger man barks gruffly. "Talk."

Jaune takes a moment to collect his roughhoused form. His shirt is damp with maybe 25% orange juice and 75% nervous sweat, but one word keeps circulating his mind. Friend. That's a nice word. The Sheep who healed him his first day here, and opened his chakra to increase the flow of his aura. Or something. It's been a while since she gave him the spiritual explanation of it all. Not since Cardin interrupted their courtyard conversation… and then his duel with Weiss. "I've been frozen in a small glacier at the Lake of Zen for all of Initiation week," Jaune protests. "I literally just woke up in the hospital yesterday. I thought everybody knew this."

"This might sound crazy to you," Cardin scoffs, "But you're not the main character in some epic adventure where the story skips an entire week of time just because you're unconscious. The universe and all the lives within it keep moving forward with or without you. Shit keeps happening, so I'd really appreciate it if you'd be straight with me and tell me what you've done with Miltiades."

"Back up a moment. You've heard all about my accidental mishaps concerning girls but forgot that Weiss Schnee froze me and half the school in a gigantic ice cube?"

The bigger guy seems at a loss for words, so he settles for an intimidating warning growl.

"I'm telling the truth!" Jaune insists, getting to his feet so they can talk eye-to-eye. "I haven't seen Miltia since that day when she opened up my first chak—"

Hold on a minute. He… he had a dream about her. Or a real-life encounter. He doesn't remember much more than desperately wanting to sleep during his stay in that hospital room.

{"Promise to remember me."}

"Finish," snarls Cardin dangerously.

"Huh?"

"That word you were about to say. Finish it."

Jaune really doesn't like the glint in Cardin's indigo eyes. Not at all. He complies. "…Chakra?"

With a guttural roar, Cardin rears back with a fist and drives it—

Thankfully not into Jaune's face, but into the rock wall right next to. Because he's right there, he hears the crack—not of bone, but stone. Then his reflexes kick in and he dodges to the side, maintaining a wary distance. "What the…?"

Cardin drops his fist from the site of impact. He doesn't move, only staring at the cracked stone blankly, his brow twisted in troubled thought as he mumbles curses under his breath.

"Did…" Jaune can't exactly believe his ears. "Did you just say, 'soul eater'?"

Cardin turns a glowering glare in his direction, unclenching his fisted hand and shaking it out. "Huh. I missed."

"Please don't break my face."

The guard harrumphs. "Don't remind me. Melanie's got me working on my anger management, but you're making the task really, really hard."

"Melanie?"

"The only Malachite you need to worry about. The only Malachite you should worry about."

"So… there are two Malachites, right?"

Cardin scowls at him scathingly. "I don't have much patients for idiots. Yes, Malachite twins."

"People…" he bops the tips of his fingers together nervously, trying to work up the courage just to ask the big question. "Though I've asked around, nobody talks about Miltia. I've barely seen her around. For a while, I thought she might be imaginary… or Melanie's alter ego…" He almost misses how Cardin's nostrils flare slightly, how he inhales suddenly at that statement. He tries to continue on as if he hadn't noticed. "Just who is she?"

Cardin's hulking form seems to swell in size and muscle density, taking up twice as much space as it had a second ago. Jaune shies back appropriately as the Boar rumbles, "She's not Melanie. Miltia is much more dangerous."

Jaune barks out a nervous laugh. "Says the guy who punched at my face and cracked a stone wall instead."

"I'm serious. For your own safety, worry about Melanie and stay away from Miltia."

{"Promise you won't forget me."}

"Is that a threat?"

"No, it's a warning. A warning from a guy who really doesn't want your blood on his hands. Now here." He holds out a hand. "Give me your blazer."

"Huh?"

"I'll take it to the dry cleaner's. You go get your second set of clothes. Dragon and Tortoise have Human Studies together in three hours, so I'll have your jacket back by then."

Jaune stares at him incredulously. "I have trouble trusting guys who start conversations by throwing people into walls and threatening them."

"I was doing my job, dimwit, and by the way, thanks for all the help in that compartment. What, do I look like the shallow high school bully who puts people down to make myself feel better? Forget about high school politics. We survived a war, Jaune. Believe it or not, I'm actually on your side." He sticks out his hand again and motions in a 'just give it to me' gesture.

{Oooooh, if only he knew.} "Yeeeeeah—no. Don't believe ya."

Cardin heaves a frustrated groan. "Look, I don't have nail polish, so this is my version of trying to make a gesture of friendship."

"I'm not gay!"

"Does it look like I care? You don't see me making a fuss about how faunus peg me as straight." Cardin drops his hand and begins to walk away. "Hmph. Not worth it."

{Wait hold on whoa there did he just...}

{He's getting away. Blast him for making me decide things on the fly.}

He quickly sheds his jacket and tosses it at Cardin. "Catch!"

Without turning around, the guy snatches the jacket from the air behind him and slings it over his shoulder all in one motion. Then he's turned around a corner and disappeared from sight.

Jaune really hopes he doesn't regret this decision.

When he realizes that Kairi didn't actually tell him where he could get the extra set of clothes, Jaune heads down a couple floors in the direction of the main office to check. At least, that was his intention, but after attempting to take a shortcut across an auditorium, he finds himself in a completely unfamiliar section of the main building, surrounded by unfamiliar faunus about to start their first class of the first semester. With everybody wearing the same brown or black blazer jacket and white ties {white ties on white shirts! Seriously?}, Jaune's orange-spotted white shirt and blue tie stand out like a sore thumb.

He should ask for directions—except men don't need directions. It's an established fact of manhood. He's not lost per se, plus he doesn't really want to draw any more attention to himself in fear of somebody from Western Tiger actually recognizing and possibly beating him up. Which is totally not the reason he's drifted into a less populated side hall. He's just picking a vantage point to better spot Blake or Ruby. If he could just find either of them—

"Please, leave me alone!"

The girl's plea is followed by a guy's laughter. "Com'on, little bunny girl. Skip syllabus day and let me show you the wonders of this place."

Jaune's feet are carrying him in the direction of the distress call before he's even made the conscious decision to do so.

"I don't want anything to do with boys like you." Her voice is tinged with a foreign accent—and quite a bit of fear too. Jaune picks up the pace, racing towards the light at the end of the hallway.

"Ouch. You wound me. At least give me a chance first."

Well, he finds out why the girl's voice was so magnified when he exits said hallway and enters into the first floor of a circular, three-story atrium. Sound reverberates all around the great open space, making the conversation easy to hear but the location hard to pinpoint.

"I'm late for class, Lark," the girl murmurs. "Please move."

Jaune finally catches sight of the male offender cornering a rabbit-eared girl against the railing of the second floor balcony.

The guy tucks a stray lock of shoulder-length blue hair behind an ear as he lifts his hands in the air, both of which are coated… with small blue feathers? "At least give me two seconds and I swear I'll blow you away."

The girl doesn't have time to deny his request before he brings both hands down. A torrent of wind accompanies this motion, hitting the ground and rebounding straight back up to lift the girl's skirt. She shrieks and attempts to hold down her dress as Jaune roars, "Stop it!"

"That voice…" Sky gasps. He glances over the railing and down at Jaune; in that interlude, the rabbit girl chokes out a sob and makes a quick escape. "You! I knew it was you…"

Jaune holds his ground. "Back off," he asserts. "Stop bothering her."

"I didn't touch her," the other pervert says petulantly.

Jaune's just a little surprised that this guy is actually listening to him instead of flying down to kick his butt. Maybe he actually has superiority here? "If she tells you to leave her alone, then you leave her alone," he demands.

A knowing smile gradually creeps its way onto Sky's face. "I get it," he muses. "You're marking her as yours, right? Then I suppose I have no choice but to defer to seniority."

Jaune gives him a strong side-eye. "Say wha?"

"I'll leave Velvet to your masterful hands, sir," Sky bows. He bows. And then he takes off in a blast of wind, leaving Jaune to wonder just what the heck is going on.

Well, at least he's relatively alone now. The roar of low conversation and pattering footsteps have died away thanks to the start of classes, so Jaune decides it's safe enough to continue his meandering trek down to the main office.

He's just exited the atrium when he hears familiar voices. He freezes, half-hidden within the shadows of the small hallway.

"Because Weiss Schnee is hiding something behind that lonely, frozen heart of hers," answers Blake Belladonna to an unheard question. "I'm going to find out just what—and where—it is."