NITL
Volume One
Arc One: Beginning of a New Story
Chapter Nine: Welcome to Beacon
Naruto grunted as he patted his slightly red cheeks, walking off the Airship's docking platform. While walking around the avenue of the school, the boy grumbled to himself, "Stupid lady and her stupid slaps… what the heck did I do?"
So focused was he with his grumbling and his complaints, Naruto never noticed the girl in question glaring at him, trying to use her nonexistent powers to set him on fire.
Well, she probably could, but that was beside the point.
"Yang, you ok?" Ruby asked, worried about her older sister's eyes turning red in anger. Tsuna wisely kept quiet, knowing that with her eye color change, Yang's infamous Semblance, and rage, is not far behind.
"Ruby," Yang turned to her sister, "Whatever you do, don't-…"
"Oh, Yang, LOOK! That guy has a flaming sword!" Ruby pointed at a pink head – which was an odd hair color, now that Yang and Tsuna thought about it – ecstatic to see an awesome usage of Burn Dust to a simple broad sword.
"Yeah, I get it. It's hot," Yang punned, trying to get Ruby's slight ADHD under control. "But what I wanna say is-…"
"OHH! That guy has a collapsible spear!" Ruby gushed, "Or maybe it's a javelin? Ooh, I wanna ask him what it does!" Ruby quickly tried to rush towards another male in a tan-colored cloak. She was, however, interrupted when Yang pulled her back by grabbing onto her hoodie.
"Gosh darn it, Ruby! Pay attention!"
"Ow ow ow ow ow ow, what!?" Ruby asked, rubbing her neck to relief some of her pain.
Yang sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Ok, look, Ruby," She began slowly, portraying her inner-mama bear mode, as Ruby would lightly put it. "There'll be a time, as you grow older-…"
"Yang, you're creeping me out…" Ruby commented.
"Oh Dust, Yang… you're not giving Ruby the 'Talk' right here and now are you…?" Tsuna wondered with a slightly paled look on his face, worried if Ruby's naïve mentally would survive the trip. The boy ignored Yang's glare, knowing that she was being serious about whatever topic and situation she was going to talk about.
Although…
The way she glared at her fellow blonde earlier… should he be worried?
"So… this is Beacon," Ichigo pondered as he looks at the towering building. Shuffling his hands into his pockets, the orange head walked forward, intending to get it all over with so that he could find a place to sleep in the night.
Ichigo never had the chance to even walk several meters before a familiar voice called out to him, "Ichigo!?"
Blinking, the swordsman looked back to see a familiar redhead rushing towards him. Recognizing her, especially with her bronze colored armory, he answers, "Pyrrha?"
"Ichigo! How are you doing!?" Pyrrha asked her friend. Truly, she thought that the orange head would have been attending Haven Academy in Mistral. But here he was, standing in front of her with the same scowl of his etched on his face. The gladiator couldn't feel any happier at that fact. Feeling his gaze on her, Pyrrha felt her face flush.
"Doing fine. What about you?" Ichigo asked, now turning to face her. "I thought you would be attending Haven?"
"Oh! Well, I thought that I might have needed a change of pace and view, so I decided to come to Beacon instead," Pyrrha answered. "And you?"
"Eh, the place is a bit too stuffy, in my opinion," Ichigo muttered, "I don't think I would've been able to handle another one of those mudslides…"
Pyrrha giggled.
The two flinched when a crowd of soon-to-be students rushed pass them. Pyrrha blinked while Ichigo scowled at the crowd. "Tch, rude much?"
"Well, they could be excited?"
Ichigo raised a brow at her.
"Um, very excited?"
The orange head rolled his eyes at that. "You sound just like Karin," Ichigo commented, "Who're you gonna be next, Yuzu?"
"Well-…"
"Don't," Ichigo pointed a finger up, resting the bridge of his nose onto his other hand. Pyrrha simply giggled, knowing already what the orange head would have said next. The scowling boy groaned before gazing at her with a pointed look and a scowl. He blinked when he noticed a certain familiar charm tied onto her belt. His scowl narrowed. "You still kept that?"
Pyrrha blinked before she followed his line of sight and onto the omamori tied to her belt. Her eyes widened in realization before her face flushed. "Oh! Um, well, it was the fi-first gift you gave me…" Her fingers found their way twirling her scarlet red hair.
"It doesn't actually do much, y'know…" Ichigo breathed out, "All it does is offer a bit of Aura protection, nothing else…"
"Still, it was helpful during the Regional Tournament," Pyrrha said, "It sure helped me with our fight the last time."
"So that's why it was harder to chip off your Aura level," Ichigo pointed out. Seeing the redhead nod, the swordsman groaned, "You do realize that it's actually il-…"
*Boom*
The two blinked when the earth shuttered a bit. "The hell was that?" Ichigo asked.
"It feels too weak to be an earthquake…" Pyrrha offered, ignoring the "no shit" from Ichigo. "It could be that someone might have accidentally discharged their weapon? Perhaps a second year or above?"
"Based on that explosion? I don't think so. More like somebody sneezed on a cloud of Dust. What idiot is stupid enough to wave a vile of Dust in front of somebody else?"
"Speaking from experience?"
Ichigo was silent for a second. He glared at his friend, "Shut up."
Pyrrha simply laughed as the two walked into the auditorium.
Luffy stretched as he dropped his sack of personal supplies onto the ground. Immediately, he smacked his lips and exited the Airship, being one of the last to do so. Once he did, however, Luffy was forced to look up to see the tall tower of Beacon. His eyes turning into small four-pointed stars, the raven head exclaimed, "Holy CRAP, that's high! Wonder if I can climb on it? I bet it'll be fun!"
Grinning to himself as he grabbed his sack and began walking down the paved walkway, Luffy pondered back to when he got the news of his brothers attending this prestigious school.
He had no idea how he knew such a word, but it was still a good feeling to know that he would be attending the same school as his brothers.
Luffy then frowned. Over the past two years, the simple thought of his two brothers tug at his heart, but the straw hat wearing boy shook his head to dismiss the negative thoughts. He did promise, after all, to his brothers to live a life without regrets, and that is what he's going to do.
"Hmm, I wonder if they got any meat? I'm hungry. SANJI- oh wait, he's not here. Stupid blondie cook, he can keep his stupid kicks and kick himself. Hmph... I'm hungry."
"What do you mean 'stay away from him'!?" Ruby complained, "Naruto's a great guy!"
"'Great guy' nothing!" Yang shot back, pointing back at Naruto who was looking around in wonder. "That guy is nothing but a perverted, whiskered-faced, stalker! And I am NOT letting you within 5 feet of that asshole!"
Ruby pouted, crossing her arms and glaring back at her older sister in defiance. Despite what Yang said about what Naruto did back on the Airship, the redhead was sure that Naruto was a good guy. No other guy would waste their time rescuing a coffee shop and stopping a robber if they were bad. Plus, he had awesome stories about killing hordes of Grimm! He had to be a good guy! He had to be!
As Ruby and Yang were having another of their sisterly dilemma – translation: arguments – Tsuna looked around the room, seeing plenty of familiar faces from Signal, the pre-Hunter Academy he'd attended during the last 3 years. Unlike other students who started with 4 to 5 years, depending on how early they began, Tsuna was pre-trained earlier than most. Trained under his company's number one assassin, Tsuna began training at the age of 10 before transferring to Signal at the age of 14.
Needless to say, despite of how strong and experienced Tsuna was in the battlefield, the boy can still be as clumsy as a dog somehow chasing its own leash thinking it is another canine's tail.
Before long, Tsuna blinked, noticed, and paled all at once. The first thing he saw was white. Pure white hair. The next was a familiar symbol of a certain company that his father would often strike deals with. Immediately, Tsuna nonchalantly hid himself behind both Ruby and Yang, using as many of the soon-to-be students as he could to hide himself from the girl who was grumpily looking around the auditorium.
"Why is SHE here!?" Tsuna thought to himself. "I thought she would've gone to Atlas Academy, but noooo~ she HAD to come to Beacon!"
"What're you doing, Tsuna?" Yang asked.
"Huh!? O-oh, uhh, n-nothing-…" Tsuna started before Yang gasped.
"Could it be?" Yang began, covering her mouth before moving to cover her own behind, "Is Tsuna starting to think of some Yang-in' time with lil' ol' me?"
Ruby and Tsuna both groaned out loud. Planting his face onto his hand, Tsuna mumbled, "No Yang, I wasn't-…"
"Oh don't you worry one thing, lil' Chestnut," Yang played, booping the brunette on the nose. "These sexy Yang-Buns are for your… personal use… only."
"Oh Dust, Yang…" Tsuna drawled out, a blush on his face.
A slight feedback was suddenly heard while the brunette could only hide his blush behind his hands. The large group of teenagers' attention were now pointed towards the center stage when a silver-haired man walked up to the mic.
"I… shall keep this brief…" Professor Ozpin spoke from his place on the stage. "All of you have traveled from great distances. Some, from across the lands. Others, from across the oceans. Having learned as much knowledge and strength as you have from wherever you hailed, you have come here in search of even more knowledge. For more strength. Of which you all plan to protect humanity from the dangers of the world."
The man paused to keep up the dramatics he was keeping. From behind, Glyna barely rolled her eyes at how her employer was keeping up his antics.
"But I look at you all… and all I see is wasted energy. A road which will lead to nowhere, but a dead end. A needless journey in search of purpose, of answers." Ozpin leaned slightly forward, dismissing the look of glares from a few children, "You all assumed that with the knowledge and strength this Academy shall grant you will assist with your own self-discovery. But your time at this Academy will only show you that such knowledge and strength will only carry you so far. Beyond that is up to you, to take that next step."
And with that, the man walked off, leaving the soon-to-be students confused and in need of more answers. Instead, Glynda walked up to the mic and began her own set. "Now then, the Initiation will begin tomorrow morning. I expect you all to…"
"Well, that wasn't ominous at all…" Yang commented.
"I'll say," Ruby agreed, "It's like he wasn't even here."
Tsuna looked around, glancing at his fellow students beginning to file out and head for either what seems to be the locker rooms or the showers. He turned to his friends, "Guess we should shower then?"
Yang grinned, "What, so eager to see me in all of my Long-some glory?"
Tsuna groaned while Ruby began to flush. "Yang, be quiet."
"Are you sure? I thought the sound of my Xiao-xy voice turned you on?"
"Yang, please."
"Hmm, you sure you don't want me to leave you Yang-ing?"
"GodDAMMIT, YANG!"
A/N:
I had fun thinking up puns for Yang. Honestly, I do.
Next chapter is a World of Remnant, featuring our favorite Shinigami (or as most Westerners say, Soul Reapers, scoff). Prepare to have your ears – or should I say eyes? – Yang-boozled.
