(N POV)
I can't believe I actually made it aboard. I should really start looking into setting up an alarm; I don't think I can rely on my mom or dad to wake me up anymore. I wandered around the ship for a while (yes, wandered, this thing is pretty damn big), taking in all it had. It makes me wonder just how exactly this big hunk of metal is even flying in the first place. As if to answer my question, one of the hologram screens began talking about the latest technology being developed by the Schnee Dust Company. Right, Dust, that's how we're flying. That stuff is pretty damn incredible what with all the uses it's got, from powering this ship, household appliances, computers, to the tips of some of my arrows, it's become a pretty key part in our lives. I wonder what would happen if all the Dust ran out? Would there be war over what could possibly be left? And what would we fight with?
While I was having all these deep thoughts about a Dustless, post-apocalyptic world, my body reminded me of something I skipped doing back home; and it did so with great urgency. I looked around the ship in search of a bathroom, and once I did, I charged at it with nothing but sweet relief on my mind. What wasn't on my mind was that someone could be in there, which resulted in a head on collision with whoever was coming out. It felt like such a cartoonish moment, my glasses falling off adding to the silliness of this situation. I fell to the ground from the impact, disoriented from the crash.
"Hey!" Before I could assess what happened, a loud voice came from the victim of my high-speed bathroom rush, "Who do you think you are? Huh?"
She sounds really mad, I should apologize before it gets any worse.
"I'm so-"
"Do you know who I am?" she demanded. I looked up to see a white figure standing over me, who I assumed was the person yelling at me. I couldn't really make out what they looked like without my glasses.
"Well, not really, but-"
"What!?" She cut me off yet again. "How could you not know who I am?!" This girl sounds more upset that I don't know who she is; what important person would be riding to Beacon in a ship with a bunch of students? Was she related to someone really important? Or maybe she's a prodigy from one of the fighting schools? Or maybe-
"Hello?! Are you even listening to me?"
She breaks me away from my thoughts; okay, this mystery girl is really starting to get on my nerves. "Yes, I am. Look, I said I was sorry, okay? What else do you want?" I get off the ground and look at her head on.
"Don't you talk to me like that!" She was furious. "What are you even doing here, did you get on the wrong ship or something?"
"The hell's that supposed to mean?" I yell back. Who exactly does this girl think she is? Our little face-off drew in a small crowd of students. Fantastic, this is just how I envisioned my perfect first day.
"In case you didn't know, this ship is headed to Beacon, a school to fight monsters, and you don't look like you can fight." Don't go there… "But don't worry, I'm sure you can take a ship to Vale before the comic store closes."
Okay. That's it.
"Well excuse me, princess, some of us don't have the luxury of daddy buying us whatever we want!"
There was complete silence, both from her and from those watching. The girl who had not been able to shut up just a while ago now stood absolutely quiet. Haha! I got her! A smile crept on my face as I saw the blurry face of shock from the loud-mouthed girl. Her shocked face soon went back to anger, but it wasn't the same as the one before. Uh-oh, maybe that wasn't the most appropriate comeback. Maybe I can take i-
-Slap-
Nope, too late. Before I could even think about apologizing, she swung her palm across my face at full force. At least, I hope it was full force. I don't want to imagine her full strength, if that's the case. The girl glared daggers at me, or at least I think she did, and walked away. Great, I haven't even set foot in the school and I'm already on somebody's shit list. Good job, me. I sighed and absent-mindedly rubbed my cheek, still stinging from the hit. Right, I should probably start looking for my glasses, they should be around here somewhere. I knelled down and started looking around the floor when I hear another girl's voice, "I see you've met the heiress; here." I look up and see someone was handing me my glasses.
"Thanks." This one seems nice; please don't let her be like that last one. I grab my glasses and put them on, getting a good look of this girl. She had wavy auburn hair that reached past her shoulders, light brown eyes, and wore a dark yellow, hooded coat. She looks like the spitting image of a mage from one of my fantasy books, except without the pointy hat. Was it mages that wore pointy hats? No, it was wizards. Then what did mages wear? Not-so pointy hats?
"You okay?" she said, waving her hand in my face.
"Oh sorry, I spaced out for a moment. I can figure out this hat thing later."
"What?"
"…I said that hat part out loud, didn't I?"
She giggled; this is going infinitely better than with that last girl. I couldn't help myself from snickering at my own slip up.
"Anyways, you shouldn't worry too much about what Weiss said, she likes to put people down even when she doesn't know them." So, that girl from before is named Weiss. Huh, what important person in Atlas is named Weiss? Wait. Don't tell me.
"You said she was an heiress, right? Heiress of what exactly?"
"The Schnee Dust Company, of what else would Weiss Schnee be?"
Chills ran across my body and I started to feel faint. Not only did I manage to make someone hate me before even landing at Beacon, she's the heiress to one of the largest Dust companies in Remnant. The future superpower of Dust called me a weak nerd. I called her a spoiled daddy's girl.
"Are you okay? You're looking really pale." The auburn haired girl asked me. She's looking at me as if I'm about to pass out on the spot. Okay, Nathan, relax, don't stress this girl out, too. "Yea, just a bit of motion sickness. I'll be okay."
"Oh, these might help with that," she said as she reached into her bag, pulled out a container of pills, and handed me some, "I get sick while flying too, so my mom gave me these for the trip."
God, this girl is so nice, why couldn't I crash into her instead?
"Don't you need those?" I don't really need the meds, as the sickness isn't from being on the ship.
"No, it's okay, I haven't felt anything after the initial take off, so I don't think I need them." she smiled, "So, take it. I love helping people out, so you'll be helping me by helping yourself."
…
This girl is a saint.
I took the pills and pretended to swallow them, pocketing them afterwards; never know when I might need them. "Thanks a bunch, umm…"
"Rory." She said with a tilt of her head.
Nice, friendly, and cute; seriously, why couldn't it have been you?
"Well, Rory, I'm Nathan. It's nice to meet you, and thanks again for all your help."
"Don't mention it. Anyways, my friends are probably wondering where I am, so, I'll see you around, okay?" She gave me a bright smile and headed off to another section of the ship.
"Y-yeah, see ya later."
Okay, let's recap. I haven't set foot at Beacon yet and so far I've made one enemy, and one friend. Well, you can't win them all, I guess. Maybe that incident wasn't so bad; why did it happen again? My bladder quickly responded to my question with pure agony. Riiiiiiight, that's why. I went into the bathroom slowly, not wanting to cause another accident, and prepared myself for the opening of the Nathan Forrest water park.
After paying the park's water bill, I exited the bathroom to see that everyone was heading out of the ship. Did we land already? How long was I in there? Hopefully no one got the wrong idea, I don't want anyone to think I'm… handsy. I followed the wave of students off the ship, and finally got my first real look at the school. There's a really long and spacious courtyard, and it leads up to the school. The school itself is quite large and looks an awful lot… like a… castle. It looks like a castle.
A castle.
A fucking castle.
Oh my god.
It's sooooo cool! I can't believe I'm going to be here for the next four years of my life! It looks like it came straight out of a book! I ran to the edge of the school and looked out towards the city. This is insane, I can't believe this is real! It's like I'm in one my stories! I'm gonna be able to go on my own adventures! I headed back into the courtyard, my mind lost in wonder. This school's function is to train future warriors to protect the world from the creatures of Grimm. Oooh, maybe I'll meet some would-be knights here. My train of thought was interrupted by the smell of vomit, which seemed to be coming from the blonde boy just now coming out of a ship. Aside from a white chestpiece and shoulder guards, he was wearing a black hoodie and blue jeans; he looked very pale and weak, clenching his stomach. Yikes, it looks like I'm not the only one who had a bad time on their trip here, wish I could help him out. Wait, I still have the pills that Rory gave me; she did say she wanted to help people. But, what if he thinks I'm a weirdo or something? I mean, what kind of person just walks up to strangers and offers them medicine? C'mon, me, you won't be able to make any friends if you keep making excuses for yourself. Just do it. I hesitated a bit before heading towards him. I really hope he's friendly.
"Hey." I said as I tapped him on the shoulder.
He jumped from the tap and turned around, "Oh, uh, hi."
This guy seems harmless enough, thank god. "You okay? You look sick." I probably should mention the smell, but I have a feeling he must know.
"Oh I'm fine, just motion sickness," he chuckles weakly.
"Uh-huh, well, I got something that can help with that." I reached into my pocket and pulled out the pills, "Here."
He looked at me and the pills skeptically, a reasonable response when someone you don't know comes up to you and offers you something they pulled out of their pockets. I need to say something so he'll trust me.
"Relax, I got these from a girl back on the ship. They're totally safe." That made it sound even worse. I should really think things over before I say them.
He seemed even less convinced that I meant no harm, until his gut reminded him of its current situation. The boy took the pills from my hand and swallowed them, albeit while shaking. He looked pretty surprised when his stomach pain went away and nothing else happened.
"See? Totally fine. I'm Nathan, by the way."
"Jaune, and thanks." He extended his hand towards me with a warm smile. Well, his suspicions sure died quick; I guess he just trusts others easily.
I shook his hand, "No problem." I think I'm getting the hang of this.
-Boom-
"Ummm, what was that?"
"I'm not entirely sure." I looked over to where the explosion came from and saw a cloud of smoke, as well as two people inside of it and one outside. One was a girl in a red hood and the other one was a familiar, white-clad girl. Oh, that can't be good. The other was a girl in black, but she didn't seem like she was involved in the explosion.
"You think they're okay?"
"I don't think that explosion did much to them." After all, they are protected by their aura. "But I think that red girl might need help soon."
"What makes you say that?"
"Call it a hunch." True enough, when we looked back the red-hooded girl was alone and dropped to the ground. Jaune quickly went over to her and I followed in suit. This might actually be a good way to leave him, after all I want to go see the rest of this school, but I don't want to leave the guy alone. We reached the girl and Jaune stood over her, extending his arm.
"Hey. I'm Jaune."
"Ruby." she replied and she took Jaune's hand. She looks really young; maybe she was able to skip some years in school? If that's the case, she must be really strong.
"Aren't you that guy that threw up on the ship?" she said with a snort.
That's my cue to leave. "Hey Jaune, I'm gonna go. I'll see you around." I started walking towards the school, leaving the two behind.
"Bye Nathan, thanks for your help."
I gave him a small wave, not breaking my stride. I couldn't see it, but I'm pretty sure he had smile on his face. I looked forward at the towering building in front of me. Let's see what else this place has in store for me.
Hello readers, WindRanger here. I wanted to get some things out before I continue the story. First off, the main cast for the story are all going to be OCs, but the main cast of the show will still exist and might show up from time to time. The main focus is team RKNE, so I will avoid using any story arcs from the canon that mainly revolve around the other teams. Second, I intend for this story to reach up until the events at the end of volume one, unless of course I get very into this, which will most likely be the case. Lastly, I will be doing my best to update as frequently as I can. Any criticism, good or bad, is accepted and thank you for reading. I hope to see you in the next chapter.