Having heard her utter the word 'Partner', knowing that he'd actually made it this far, Izuku couldn't help himself. A wide grin stretched across his face as he let his head fall back against the tree. He looked up to the sky. The energy flowing through his body, despite how exhausted he felt, was almost overwhelming. He threw his fist into the air, aimed directly at the sun shining down on him, and felt the first trickles of tears forming under his eyes.

"T-Thank you..."

'Hold it there!' The voice of Toshinori emerged once again from the back of his mind, 'You can't cry at a moment like this. Certainly not in front of your new partner!'

Izuku tried… he really tried. Like Toshinori told him, to cry after a victory like this was so… lame. To do so in front of the partner who he was going to spend the next four years of his life with day in and day out would have been doubly so.

But... well he never really stood a chance as rivers of tears fell from his eyes, Izuku's breath hitching and choking between the barks of joy filled laughter. In between his tears, he had enough sense to at least undo the mechanism on one of his gauntlets so he could rub his face. It must have been such a strange sight; someone crying their eyes out while also sporting the biggest, happiest smile they probably ever had on their face.

"I-I'm sorry…," he stammered out, his breath continuing to catch in his throat. He swallowed, and attempted to speak more clearly, "this probably isn't something you want to see from your partner, but…"

But when he finally managed to hold his tears back as he managed to bring his emotions back into check, he just found Pyrrha Nikos standing there patiently. She seemed amused of course, it'd be hard not to be, but she just shook her head, the same smile from earlier still there.

"Consider it nothing... this is your moment after all." With that she Mecha-Shifted Miló back into its short sword form, and then placed it on her back along with her shield. Izuku nodded, grateful for the understanding, as he took a long breath.

And then… well he did what had become second nature to him after all these years. He reached into one of his pockets, and pulled out the required Grimm Analysis For the Future notebook. When he felt that that pocket was empty, he reached into another pocket, and just before he could reach into the third, he slapped himself. He'd left those notes behind so that there was no chance all that work would be damaged.

'That's okay though,' he pushed himself up, still slightly shaky from the earlier fight, 'I can record all that later,' Eventually Izuku arrived on his feet and, after rubbing at his eyes one last time, he gave Pyrrha a grin.

"So... partner. I guess the plan from here on out is to get north to the ruins, right?" Pyrrha nodded in agreement as he tapped his chin, "Now let's see... I think I can get us some pretty good bearings on that, but some observation would help. Pyrrha, do you think you could get to the top of the tree and try to get a lookout for the ruins?"

"I can certainly try."

And try she most certainly did. With far more grace than Izuku had climbing down, Pyrrha had been pretty easily able to get to the top of the tree in little time at all. He saw her scout out the area a bit and, finding a suitable branch, set herself down on it as she switched Miló to its rifle form to look through the scope.

"I think I may have found something!" She called out from the top of the tree as Izuku looked up. "There's a few clearings around the area so it was hard to narrow it down, but there's one in particular that seems to connect to a set of ruins set into a cliff side... I think that might be our destination!"

"Can you give me a direction." He saw a vague nod from Pyrrha, it was a little hard to tell with how high up she is, as he saw her very purposefully point her rifle in the direction she's spotted the ruins.

Izuku tapped his chin as he took a gander up at the sky; as noon slowly passed and the sun began to drift down to its setting position. Between the position of the sun and Pyrrha's pointing he figured that the ruins she was pointing to were the correct ones; the end of her gun pointed north, give or take a few degrees. The problem was never going to be 'finding' north though, but rather maintaining it. Thick forests like the Emerald Forest were so treacherous for people unfamiliar with them to traverse not because of their own ability to ascertain directions, but to 'keep' going in that direction. Undergrowth, stray roots and the positioning of trees in the forest could force a traveler to lose orientation; any wrong step that ended up with them mistaking a direction for their desired course could send them going off in the wrong direction. From there, they'd have to stop, find their orientation again and hope that it didn't happen again...

Thankfully, Izuku had an advantage going for him. He really did just know his stuff; it had been ingrained in him for a long time. While Mountain Glenn was more of a town than it used to be, it was still considered somewhat rural due to how far out it was from the City of Vale proper. The wilderness wasn't all that far off from the very heart of the town and, on top of the misspent hours of his youth with Kacchan and the rest of his friends in the forest, exploring it had been the focus of the Combat School. All of this actually familiarized Izuku with how to manage moving around in environments like this. A well of surprising confidence erupted in the wannabe Huntsman; he actually felt like he could manage the journey up to the ruins.

"Pyrrha, about how far off would you say that they are from our position?" Pyrrha brought up her scope again and tried her best to judge it. It took a little bit of time for the two of them to judge the distance; Pyrrha didn't quite have the training herself to make an accurate guess, though she'd said it was at least five miles off. Izuku, decided to take a bit of a risk, climbed up the tree himself to give it a shot. It was a bit of a slow climb but he managed it and, after looking out across the Emerald Forest himself, Pyrrha even offered her scope to give him a better look, he managed a better estimate; ten miles off.

"Hmmm..." Izuku rubbed at his chin a bit as his eyes dipped across the forest... it was pretty thick with a few rolling hills, but the rolls were fairly gentle before they led up to the cliffs or the mountains. Heck, by the looks of it, the ruins themselves were on perfectly flat ground. Given his own knowledge of traveling the terrain, he thought he could actually manage this pretty reasonably. Izuku estimated that if he went at a full hard walk, he could probably get to the ruins in four hours. Of course, this would mean that he wouldn't be taking it easy and he'd be... be going through this forest in his current state... almost entirely exhausted. If he went slower he'd be able to recover a bit, but he definitely wouldn't make it to the ruins in time. He conferred with Pyrrha as the two tried to figure out how exactly to proceed.

"We need to get to the ruins quickly," Izuku said flat out, looking back at the sun. With ever millimeter the sun descended, he could feel his grasp on his dream slip away, "If we move at our full speed, we should be able to get there in about four hours plenty o-"

"Izuku," Pyrrha raised her hand, "You just had a big fight right back there. You must have used up quite a bit of your Aura," he remembered the claws tearing away at him coming ever so close to dealing really grievous damage, "I think we should go a bit easier. At least so you can recover a bit of your Aura."

"That," he did some calculations in his head, looking back up at the sky, "might work," he began to count, "If I go at a more leisurely pace for about two hours, then walk at full speed for three, we should get to where we need to go with about an…," he looked back at the sun, then nodded once more, "hour or so to spare."

"That sounds good."

"Hopefully," he continued, "We don't run into any more Grimm while I recharge. I don't want to be a burden and let you fight anything all on your own."

"Izuku," there was both exasperation and humor in her voice, "The way you fought those Grimm, I hardly think you would be a burden," she then smiled and placed her hand on his shoulder, "besides, you are my partner. It's our job to have each other's backs from now on, right?"

'Oh Goddess I'm going to cr-'

'For Goodness Sake Boy! Have some pride!'

Izuku managed to hold his tears this time, and simply put up a smile, "Yeah, yeah it is. Thanks Pyrrha."

Plan in hand, Izuku and Pyrrha climb down from the tree. He find that he had a rather remarkably easy time this go around, probably from how much practice he'd gotten in. It was his third time scaling the tree one way or the other, after all. He watched Pyrrha on her way down and it looked... troubling at best. A branch that the both of them had been using snapped under one of her feet and for a moment it looked like she was about to plummet down. However he could practically feel her extend her soul through her body to steady it, Pyrrha hung on by a thread before she settled herself back into a stable position. The rest of the climb down went on without issue.

"Okay, that was a little close." He muttered as he placed a hand to his chest, Pyrrha just chuckled slightly as he looked at her. "You just used your Aura, right? That's how you managed to catch yourself?" The red haired tournament fighter just nodded to herself as she dusted herself off.

"Indeed. I hadn't quite expected that but, well, that's why we have Aura I suppose." She watched him nervously chuckle as he scratched the back of his head, tilting her head to the side slightly as he did so. "Are you... not able to yet?"

"'Fraid not. I-" 'Haven't had Aura before two days ago, I have no clue what I'm doing,' "-haven't exactly gotten a lot of practice in with Aura. I tended to focus a bit more on my studies and such..." Pyrrha nodded her head understandingly.

"Well it certainly shows." An appreciative grin formed on Izukus face, the both of them quickly deciding to confer on what exactly the both of them were capable of. After all, if they were going to be partners, they might as well know that information going in.

As the two begin to go at his pace, he took a bit of a breath. He killed those three Beowolves and that was an accomplishment, but that's far from the end of his Initiation. The next step was to get to the ruins, grab their relic with Pyrrha and then get out of the Emerald Forest. If he did that then... then he was a Huntsman. He would have done Toshinori proud and he would have gotten another step closer to accomplishing his dream. There was a determined smile on his face as he treaded forward, confidence finally beginning to fill him. With Pyrrha as his partner and his own experience and knowledge... he thought they stood a far better chance of accomplishing that than he had before.

They were a good pair, as far as he'd been concerned. He had to wonder if this truly had been random, or if there was something to all this that Ozpin had planned...

He was Ozpin, Headmaster of Beacon Academy, Leader of a small circle of Conspirators and keeper of many, many, many secrets...

But today, it was all about the simple things in life. The things that made the day to day goings on of managing Beacon, the fate of the world and the lives of so many impressionable young minds just a little bit easier. These tasks were rewarding in and of themselves but, well, he found that even rewarding tasks can be a bit heavy on the shoulders without something simple to relieve that stress.

The first was the cup of coffee he was currently holding in his hand. Fine Vacuoan Brew, freshly ground and poured not even ten minutes prior. It was a rich flavor, he thought, just right and it never failed to dull even the most intense Qrow-induced migraine.

The second was the opening act of the Initiation Ritual. Yes, perhaps it was a bit cruel to some but, well, watching the reactions of the various students as he went through his spiel, talk about how they would die if they did not act with the utmost certainty and destroy everything in their way, and how they would not receive any teacher's aid... seeing the variety in the reactions, it made him smile. All in what usually turned out to be little more than a harmless joke; no student had died in Beacon's Initiation because Beacon's Initiation... well.

"I have to say, the boy was mighty impressive up until he started crying. Although I do suppose that even the greatest of men must be able to have their hearts on their sleeves every now and then."

It was probably the most closely watched Initiation out of all the major Academies, if he was being honest. He and Glynda, with their own scrolls unfolded and filled with the various video feeds from several dozen, if not hundreds, of angles throughout the forest. Port, Oobleck, Peach, Aizawa and Yamada kept just enough distance to stay out of sight, but close enough that any student who found themselves in... serious trouble was quickly and quietly escorted from the forest.

And then there was the new addition this year. The 'in case of emergency, Go Hero' button as it were.

"I am a bit confused, however. His Combat Scores that were sent over from his previous school in Mountain Glenn would suggest that he couldn't handle even a single Beowolf. It's... concerning that they missed the mark by so much." Glynda spoke softly from the side as she looked over Izuku Midoriya's data, while a snort of derision was heard over the line.

"You know how most of these Combat Schools run those tests. They don't actually send them out against Grimm, too 'dangerous'. Considering that the kid was in the same graduating class as Katsuki Bakugo, I wouldn't be surprised if his scores just got bumped down because he got stomped by a better student... it's irrational." A tired sounding voice sounded over the line as Ozpin nodded in quiet agreement.

Of course it also had to do with the fact that he had scrubbed any mention of the fact that the boy had previously had no Aura from the would not have been good to have that hanging over his head here at Beacon.

Though, that did bring him to the third thing, the third small, simple thing in life that he found quite enjoyable. He rewound his own video again and watched the look on that young man's face as he realized his accomplishment. The tears might have been a bit goofy, even he did admit... but they spoke to a sincere happiness, a joy the boy had. It was plain to see on his face just how much this moment meant to him...

Even beyond the other two, Ozpin thought moments like those were why he found it in himself to keep going.

"If nothing else, the boy is quite mentally adept most students facing the Grimm would panic and rush at them hoping to take them down with minimal effort by blindsiding them instead he fought-"

"Slow it down Oobleck, jeez!" Peach's voice rang out and interrupted the fast-talking-

"Doctor Oobleck, Professor Peach."

-Doctor, yes, coughed a bit before he resumed.

"At any rate, his use of terrain in the fight, keeping his back to the tree, also shows good judgement."

"Even managed to get partnered up with Pyrrha Nikos. Gotta say, this kid's got some luck!" A far louder and more energetic voice spoke up next, as the tired voice just scoffed again. Ozpin merely chuckled. Yes, luck. That's all it was wasn't it? Or at least, another name for what he believed was at play.

After all, not everyone could be assured of Destiny.

Though some could...

He walked forward to the third man joining him and Glynda on that cliff. He wouldn't be going in until things got desperate but he would if need be. After all, he had a personal stake in this. It was sometimes hard to believe that the man he saw regularly on the news and that shrunken shell are one in the same... but every day he found that, no, that was the truth of the matter.

"So Toshinori, your ward seems to have struck down his first group of Grimm. What do you think?" He took a long sip of coffee as he watched Toshinori's hands; repeatedly they pulled back the footage on his Scroll to look over the battle between Midoriya and the Beowolves. Ozpin watched as he opens his mouth and-

"Gods be damned Izuku... you were so close to looking cool there. Why'd you have to blow it by blubbering like that. In front of your partner no less..." It sounded frustrated and aggravated, like he was annoyed. However, the wide smile on his face gave the game away as Ozpin saw Toshinori watch the footage of his Successor again and again. He stopped at just the moment before the tears really started to fall, when Izuku punched his fist into the air with the widest smile that boy's face could probably manage.

"You know, I have to admit, you surprised me those ten months ago Toshinori." He saw the blond man turn his head to look at him, one of his eyebrows arched in such a way that he could more plainly see his blue eyes. "I had thought that you'd be coming to Beacon Academy in order to 'find' your Successor... I wasn't expecting a call at 8:00 in the evening telling me that I needed to make an arrangement 'for' your Successor to attend my school." Toshinori actually had have the decency to look a bit sheepish, though he laughed it off to show that he meant well.

"Sorry about that Oz, I know we had plans but... you needed to be there to understand it." That was probably true enough... though the news footage of the event still painted a very impressive picture, as had Toshinori's personal accounts. "The kid... the kid is something else Oz. Everything that embodies what it means to be a Huntsman... it's in him. I saw it then in a way I knew I wouldn't see it anywhere else. He wouldn't be the strongest young man to inherit One For All, I knew it... but there was no one else who'd carry the torch like he would. I'm confident of that."

"If he's managed to ignite such a fire in you again Toshinori, I can only imagine so." The muppet of a man scoffed a bit as he scratched the back of his head. Ozpin smiled as he took a drink of his cup of coffee; for so many years, ever since his battle with... 'him', Toshinori had seemed lost and without purpose. Fear had come to cloud his mind and paint his own picture of himself and his work as a Huntsman. The transformation between that man and the man Ozpin had worked with for these past ten months... the stark contrast couldn't be oversold. It was as if new life had been breathed into Toshinori.

The Symbol of Peace and Hope's smile seemed far more genuine then than it had for many years. Still, while all that was a romantic notion, it didn't stop the necessary facts; the boy was the Inheritor to One For All, one of the most powerful Semblances Ozpin knew about, one that was only getting stronger with each generation. He would be an important piece in the times to come. He needed to know how ready he was.

"Perhaps it is unfair for me to ask this question only two or so days after he's acquired his own Aura..." Ozpin began as Toshinori glanced over to look at him. "... But be straight with me Toshinori. In the ten months you've worked with him, how far along is he? How much of One For All can he manage?"

The silence between him and Toshinori was almost deafening as the shrunken man sighed and scratched at the back of his neck. "He can use 100% of One For All without his limbs flying off... but that's about all at this point." Ozpin couldn't help the quirk of his eyebrow as Toshinori admitted that. "I wish I had more time to work with him before he'd come to Beacon, a chance to shape his body further... but he needs the education and experience that this Academy can give him too much. He'll learn how to use One For All over time... but given what's on the horizon, he needed Beacon now." Ozpin could not help but nod slightly. The experience and knowledge that one could gain from his Academy was vast. Izuku would do well here, he suspected...

"It's just a shame. He'll have all this power but if he uses it now... he'll do such tremendous harm to himself." Toshinori nodded in agreement, but a determined look came over him.

"He'll manage to learn though. He'll get One For All under his control... even if he has to work three times as hard to do it... he will." Ozpin actually grinned a little bit.

"You sound very certain of that Toshinori."

"I've seen him do it already. I'm beyond certain he'll manage it." His gaze softened as the conversation slowly left the more dramatic topic, as both of them went back to watching the feed. A stray thought crossed his mind... and, well, it was true in his mind.

"... She'd be very proud of your decision, Toshinori." He saw the blond huntsmen tense up as he said that, taking a sip of his coffee before he continued. "You've picked a fine successor for One For All... I doubt she'd find a single complaint with this young man."

"... I wish I could agree Oz. I really do." Toshinori's smile disappeared as his eyes fell to the ground, his shoulders slumped. "But you and I both know how she felt about this whole Hunter thing at the end..." Ozpins eyes drifted a bit as he nodded, taking another drink. The two of them remained in companionable silence for the following few moments. As he was about to leave to rejoin Glynda, Toshinori raised his head. "Hey Oz... mind if I ask you something?"

"Go right ahead Toshinori." He motioned for him to continue.

"... Why do you still do the whole 'life or death' spiel thing? I understand that you get a kick out of spooking some of these kids and all, but... I dunno, isn't it getting a bit old at this point?" Ozpin actually chuckled as Toshinori said that, shaking his head as he looked over the Emerald Forest.

"Toshinori, while I do enjoy the... varied reactions that my speech can bring out of students, I don't do it for simple enjoyment. I find that raising stakes to such life-or-death levels... it tends to bring out what's really in people. It shows the true character of some who might shroud themselves in far more noble colors than what is true to their soul..." He glanced down to Toshinori's Scroll before he finished.

"For others, it's an opportunity; a chance to shine."

The first hour of his and Pyrrha's more leisurely pace actually passed by with little in the way of trouble. It was a close call at one point, however; during the latter part of the hour, he found that he nearly crossed paths with a group of Beowolves, though he hadn't been able to ascertain their numbers. Considering how exhausted he still was and that even Pyrrha burnt a bit of her own Aura to help with his landing, they both decided to do their best to pass them on by. they were surprisingly successful and soon the Beowolves were far behind them. The second hour went even longer without a meaningful interruption as the two continued at their strolling pace. By the end of the second hour, both he and Pyrrha felt completely recharged and ready to go.

Over the course of those two more leisurely hours, he and Pyrrha actually ended up talking a bit, coming to be more familiar with each other as partners. he asked questions about Mistral and what it was like to live there and she asked questions about Vale and, more specifically, the infamous Mountain Glenn. He tended to avoid questions about her fame or previous career, much to her own obvious pleasure, while explaining to her various things about 'The City Saved by Toshinori'. It was a lot of surface level information, not a lot of things either of them would be able to use, but it was a nice way of coming to understand how the other grew up. He could tell that Pyrrha was enjoying being able to speak so plainly about her home and where she came from and he? Well, he was just enjoying having a partner that he could get along with! It was a pretty big relief, all things told.

As the end of the second hour approached and the both of them prepared to move into a more full-blown march towards the ruins, they both heard something off in the distance; sounds of battle.

He couldn't quite make out what the sounds were, though their sheer volume betrayed where they came from, while Pyrrha raised an eyebrow.

"It's... gunshots, sounding like it's coming from a rather large one. Explosions too, so someone might be using Fire Dust in the fight. They must've run into some Grimm too, I can hear a rather loud roar." Pyrrha was able to narrow in on the location of the fight far more closely than him and pointed out the direction. There was a moment where he honestly thought about his decision, where he felt his throat dry.

But he quickly swallowed it as his eyes narrowed in determination.

"If there's other students fighting, then who knows what they're up against. We have to go help them!" Pyrrha at first seemed very surprised by that declaration and even more so by the determined edge to his gaze. Soon however that surprise melted away to a smile as she nodded in ready agreement.

"Of course, let's go!" He tripped the safeties on his shotgun bracers as they both broke into a sprint, Pyrrha retrieving her weapons from her back as she did so. As the two of them got closer and closer the gunshots and explosions suddenly died off, the sound of the battle ceasing almost as soon as they heard it kick off. Fearing the worst, that perhaps the Grimm involved in the fight had managed to overwhelm the two hunters, they kicked themselves in the ass and moved as fast as they could. As he approached the sound of the battle, a stray 'crack' from around a tree caught his attention and he prepared to swing his fist at the approaching threat.

Just as he thought, something came from behind the tree and raised a... large, metal bracer in the shape of a grena-

"KACCHAN?!

"DEKU!?"

Izuku and Bakugou both immediately threw off their punches as far from each other as possible, Izuku;s missing by a country mile and, thankfully, not triggering his blast while Kacchan nearly tripped over himself in his attempt to 'not' blow his old friend to bits. Pyrrha stopped suddenly as well, her own green eyes wide in surprise as she watched the two of them throw their punches spectacularly off course. As they turned on each other, he and Kacchan met eyes... and Kaachan's red orbs glared back at him.

"What the Hell are you doing here Deku? I would've expected you to run back with your tail between your legs by now." Izuku felt a nervous lump form in his throat as he speaks, but he shook his head.

"I-I-I heard, I mean, Pyrrha heard the sound of fighting and I thought that whoever it might be, you know, might need our help..." He felt his words slowly die on his lips as he said this, Kacchan's gaze narrowing at his words.

"So what? Thought you needed to come over here and save my ass Deku?" Deku's face went pale white as Kacchan spoke, he waved his hands in front of his face as he shook his head fervently.

"N-N-N-NO! That's not what I meant at all Kacchan, I just thought-"

"OH MY GOD, FRIENDLY HUMAN CONTACT!"

Izuku was suddenly knocked right off his feet as he was blindsided by a tackle, a blur of black and red hitting him on his sides as a pair of tiny arms wrapped around him. He looked down to see who it is, only to find a familiar pair of silver eyes looking back up at him.

"R-R-Ruby?!" His face went red at the close contact as he saw Ruby grab his shirt while she looked at him like he was a life raft in the middle of a storm.

"OHMYGODIZUKUI'MSOSORRYFOREVERTHINKINGTHATYOUMIGHTBEWEIRDIMEANISHOULDN'TJUDGEBECAUSEI'MWEIRDTOOANDAWKWARDKIDSSHOULDREALLYSTICKTOGETHERBUTIDIDN'TREALIZEHOWBADIMIGHT'VEMISJUDGEDYOUBEFOREIMETKATSUKIIMEANHE'SSUCHAJERKIMEANHEGOTUSONTHETRAILANDEVENFIGUREDOUTHOWFAROFFTHERUINSAREBUTHE'SBEENSOMEANABOUTITAND-"

"RUBY! Hold on a second!" Ruby's mile-a-minute speaking was cutoff as Izuku grabbed her by the shoulders to calm her down, his own green eyes darting between her and Kacchan as he starred on. "Wait... do you mean to say that... you and Kacchan... ARE PARTNERS!?"

'Okay! Gotta find Yang gotta find Yang... oh, but what if I can't find her? Okay, who else could I be partners with? Well, there's Blake, she seems really nice and she has a pretty cool weapon but... ooh, I don't know if I could carry a conversation with her on just that. She seems like the cool, quiet and mysterious type. There's Izuku, he seems nice enough... but he is just a little weird and stammery... though should I really judge? Plus his weapons are kind of like my sister's so I'd know what I was getting into. Ummm, I guess I'd be fine with any partner so long as they were nice...'

These were the thoughts going through Ruby Rose's mind as she ran through the Emerald Forest, desperately looking for a familiar, or at the very least a friendly, face that she could quickly partner up with. The fact that she'd be partnered up with the first person she made eye contact with had sent her mind reeling; what kind of a system was that!? What if she met up with someone she didn't like or who didn't like her? Or what if she met up with someone who just wasn't nice at all? What if she couldn't work with them? Would she really be stuck with a bad partner for four years if that were the case? It just seemed crazy! Yet, here she was, running as if her life depended on it... because in these next four years it very well could, as she looked around desperately for a good partner.

As her mind thought over all the prospective partners she could meet up with, one thought definitely ended up coming to the foreground. So long as the person was nice, she... she'd probably be fine, right? I mean, so long as she wasn't paired up with that mean old-

Katsuki Bakugo, aka Kacchan, aka the guy she had just run into at full speed, sending her falling flat on her butt and causing him to stumble back.

"Oi, watch where the Hell you're..." Katsuki's words died on his lips as he got a good look at the person who'd just run into him, Ruby having lifted her head up to see who she had run into at the exact same time.

And at that moment, their eyes met.

...

"OH YOU HAVE TO BE FUCKING KIDDING ME?! I'M PARTNERS WITH THE RUNT?!"

"AAAAAAH! I'M PARTNERS WITH THE BULLY?!"

It wasn't necessarily a great first meeting.

"Oh, great, just my friggin' luck. You know, I was just thinking 'aside from Deku, who could be the worst fucking person I could possibly be partnered up with thanks to this stupid system Beacon turns out to run on'... and lo and behold, I run into the friggin' runtiest Huntress in the litter!" Ruby Rose had been taken aback when she had realized that she had made contact with this guy, this person who Izuku had... well, not exactly painted a great picture of and who didn't exactly present himself in a great manner. Still, as he continued to moan and complain, Ruby finally snapped forward, having taken offense.

"Hey, don't call me a runt, I'll have you know I drink my-"

"SHUT UP!"

"AAAAAAH!"

'Holy crap this guy is scary, is this what Izuku had to go through at his old school!? NO WONDER HE'S A NERVOUS WRECK! I'M SO SORRY IZUKU!'

Ruby's thoughts turned almost mournful after Katsuki Bakugo, in all of his explosive fury, turned on her with that terrifying look on his face, teeth barred and eyes full to the brim with a pissed off vim and vigor better fitting of a Beowolf. After a while the two managed to calm down a bit, Ruby by staying as FAR away from Katsuki as she could without getting out of his line of sight and Bakugo by just venting and raving to himself while little explosions formed around his hands. Eventually Katsuki took a deep, long breath as he turned to fix Ruby with an intense look, a grimace on his face.

"Alright... so you're my partner. Fine. I don't like it, damn well hate even, but that doesn't matter. I need to drag your ass across the finish line at the ruins to pass this Initiation, so that's what's going to happen." Ruby's cheeks puffed up again as the boy in front of her spoke so dismissively but he just turned as he started looking up one of the trees. "Now... gotta find out what's the right way to those damn ruins. Once we get on track, we can-"

"They're somewhere over that way." Bakugo turned on his heel to face Ruby as she spoke, the silver eyed young girl flinching slightly as she stood her ground. "I saw this huge clearing that had some stone structures in it while I was falling down here. It's gotta be the ruins... they're that way, North and a little to the west, but I couldn't make out how far off they were, exactly." Bakugo just glared at her for a moment before, with a burst of movement, he quickly climbed up one of the nearby trees. After a minute of scouting around in the direction Ruby pointed out, Kacchan dropped back down, fixing Ruby with that look of his again.

"They're about ten miles off. If we run, we'll probably make it in two hours, maybe three. Let's get-"

"Why bother running?" Bakugo glared back at her as she interrupted him but, with the air much more calm after Bakugo's initial outburst, Ruby just stood her ground as best she could. "If they're only that far off, then there's no point in wasting our energy with a run. The Grimm are in this forest too after all so if we waste our energy just trying to get there as fast as possible when we really don't have to... well, that'd be pretty silly."

If looks could kill, Ruby would be dead twice over... but there was something encouraging in this too.

Bakugo wasn't speaking up. He was staring at her and grinding his teeth as if to answer her but he didn't seem to be able to find one. When glares and angry looks didn't work to make Ruby change the facts of what she said... well, the explosive teen just threw his hands up in the air.

"Fine, whatever, let's just get going. Already pissed off being in this place..." With that, Katsuki Bakugo walked off in the direction of the ruins, Ruby Rose just sighing as she shook her head.

Well... these were going to be some... interesting...

Who was she kidding, next four years weren't looking too bright right now.

'Man… hopefully some of the others are having better luck… I wanted my partner to be my best friend or something. Suppose nobody can be that lucky…'

Without much of a flourish, Lie Ren landed gracefully on the forest floor, the King Taijitu collapsing into a heap just behind him. With a slight sigh and the dusting off of his hands, Ren stood tall, looking around for any sign of any of the other students... and one in particular. His magenta eyes so locked onto his surroundings that, for the briefest of moments, it passed by Ren's notice that the white head of the two-headed Grimm was slowly positioning itself to strike out at him, its fangs bared as the snake reared its head back. Just as Ren turned to face the Grimm one last time, an odd thing occurred; the Grimm, from the bottom up, slowly but surely began to freeze in spot. Ren watched in fascinated curiosity as the form of the white and black snake was slowly but surely covered in ice, the white head of the monstrosity wildly flailing about as it tried to resist the encroaching and inevitable death that it was faced with. Soon, though perhaps not soon enough for Ren's taste, the snake Grimm is completely frozen over, its red eyes still holding a semblance of its consciousness as the ice shined in the faint sunlight that managed to make its way into the clearing.

The sound of steady footsteps drew Ren's attention to the side where a red and white haired boy, a young man named Shoto if Ren was correct, walked into the clearing. The half and half young man looked at him with a somewhat blank expression that, had Ren been quite in the mood for jokes after his fight, would almost convince the magenta eyed young man that he was looking into a mirror.

"Thank you." It was a simple enough response and Ren was grateful; while he had the snake Grimm on the ropes for the fight, the introduction of the second head had been tiring. He had not wanted to waste a lot of his energy before the test even really began.

"You're welcome." Shoto had seen the battle from far enough off and, when he arrived, it was only natural he'd step in. "I suppose this makes us partners?" A curious tilt of his head, he hadn't met Ren before and Ren hadn't walked up to him to introduce himself in some hope of earning his favor.

"Y-Yes, I suppose it does." There's hesitation there, a moment where Ren's eyes glanced off to the side. Shoto's own eyes go slightly wide as he tilted his head to the side.

"Is this arrangement disagreeable to you." His even tone was almost enough to hide his surprise; most people would've jumped for joy to have the son of the Number Two Huntsman in their pocket as a partner.

"Not at all. Just was expecting someone else was all." Ren returned his gaze back to Shoto, expecting the young man to potentially take this almost dismissive attitude as a sleight, as if he hadn't been good enough. To Ren's barely visible surprise, Shoto instead returned to his even expression though, if one looked closely enough, there was a satisfied tilt at the corner of his lips.

"Then let us depart. I'm afraid I'm not terribly versed in navigating a forest myself."

"I shall handle that then. Follow me."

And so the most deep and manly of friendships was forged that day, the rock on which it had been made being composed primarily of talking as little to each other as humanly possible.

"WHAT?! You want some too?!"

Fantastic. Just great. First minute in this whole stupid forest and a pair of Ursa have already messed up her hair! Stupid, lousy, mangy animals, she'd turn them inside out and wear their guts for garters... I mean, she would if Grimm 'had' guts that could be made into garters...

'You know, the Grimm are surprisingly bold monsters considering how 'gutless' they are.'

Heh, Yang was definitely gonna save that one for later, that was pure gold. But that was beside the point; right now, she needed to get back to being nice and pissed about how those stupid Ursa had messed up her beautiful hair! Like this one, right in front of her! The dumb animal was just standing there, stiff as a board, probably frozen in fear at her fury and how easily she'd taken down the other one that had thought it could mess with her.

Before she could try to work in her gutless joke again, Yang was treated to a bit of a surprising sight; the Grimm just collapsed forward, falling face first on the ground as it slowly began to dissipate. Before Yang's eyes was the cause; a machete that had been buried deep into the unarmored portion of the back of the Grimm's neck. There were two things that were very odd about this machete; it's grip was... really, really odd. Like, she could imagine a normal pair of hands using it, don't get her wrong, but it didn't look like something she would see Ruby attach to Crescent Rose. The usual grip marks for fingers to wrap around were there but they wrapped all around the weapon and... went in a bit of a spiral in comparison.

The second odd thing was the long, stretch, pinkish bit of flesh that was wrapped around said grip. Probably should have led with that, Yang thought. She followed the line of flesh back to its source and was treated to quite the sight; it lead into the mouth of a young woman around her age with long, dark green hair and wide mouth, which had been opened to allow her... oh wow, her tongue? To come out and wrap around the end of the machete.

Neat, a frog Faunus.

"I could've taken him." Yang said with a bit of a grin as the frog Faunus in question nodded, her tongue immediately having pulled itself back toward her mouth. The end of it unwrapped from around the hilt of the machete as it approached her mouth, the young woman quickly snapping it out of the air and placing it in a hilt at her side as she nodded.

"I could tell, you looked like you were going to tear him in two. Still, figured that I'd want to make at least some kind of impression if we were gonna be partners, ribbit ribbit." Holy crap, she actually said ribbit? That was kind of adorable. The young woman easily leapt down to the forest floor to meet Yang face to face, her expression largely blank as her big old eyes met Yang's lilac ones. "Tsuyu Asui, though you can call me Tsu. If we're gonna be partners we might as well try to get along." Yang nodded in agreement with the sentiment; she could dig it.

"The name's Yang Xiao Long. Yang's fine." Yang grinned a bit as she looked to the dissolving form of the Grimm. "You know, for all the bluster these boys put up, they were pretty easy to knock down... though I really shouldn't be surprise. The Grimm are... gutless, after all. Eh, eh?" Yang smiled back at her partner as she gave her a nod. No better way to get off on the right foot in her opinion.

"... Ribbit."

*THWIIIP-WHACK!*

"OW!"

A few observations Blake Belladonna had made about her prospective partner. First off, appearances were deceiving. She didn't mean that in the usual hokey way of 'never judge a book by its cover' when it came to personality and such. Tenya Iida was clad in a rather large suit of armor for Initiation, his own version of what was his family's famous 'Ingenium' armor she was sure. Now, when Blake had first gotten a good look at it when he had stepped out onto the landing platform, she had been fairly certain she knew what fighting style the guy would be employing. The armor looked tough and looked like it could stand up to a lot of punishment and he'd probably use it, along with his Aura, to tank hits from the Grimm he'd come across before going in for some kind of kill; maybe his suit had some kind of built in gun? After all, for all the talk of the Iida Family's engineering skills and how 'fast' their suits were, she couldn't buy that something this big could possibly move all too fast. Still, she hadn't been entirely certain about that so when she had happened to come across him in the forest, she figured she'd sit in and observe to find out.

Well, turned out that suit was tough... but it wasn't being used to tank hits from the Grimm.

And it turned out it was exactly as fast as she'd heard about. Her wide amber eyes watched in fascination as Tenya Iida darted around the various Grimm that had tried to get the jump on him, his engines roaring as he sped about the clearing. One moment the Grimm would be on top of him as he finished off one of their own, the next he'd speed off, turn a corner, speed back and then kick one of them in the face, using his momentum to add strength to his hit. He was not the fastest thing Blake had ever seen and his combat mostly relied on the speed the suit could give him and the mobility and maneuverability that came with it...

'Still,' she paused to consider 'there were certainly worse things you could rely on in a fight.' That thought caused Blake to frown a bit; yeah, he wouldn't be a bad partner from a combat perspective. He could hold his own, clearly, and he could certainly tank some hits and take some attention that would allow Blake to do what she did best; sneak around and hit people... er, Grimm where they wouldn't expect her. It was everything else she that worried her; while the Iida family wasn't directly in with the Schnee Dust Company, the fact that their feats of engineering still required so much Dust pretty much made it impossible for them to not do business with the Schnees.

From there it pretty much made it impossible for them to not also be targets of the White Fang and to speak out against them. Now, Blake wasn't as... up in arms about speaking out against The Fang these days. Heck, wasn't that why she decided to hide out in Beacon?

Still, could she really see herself getting along with some Atlas stiff who'd probably view her as little more than garbage if he ever found out what she was?

As Tenya Iida easily finished off the remaining Grimm, she sighed to herself. Well, that was probably true of most students here at Beacon anyway. In for a penny, as they say...

He jumped a bit and turned in his fighting stance to face her when she poked at his shoulder after landing silently behind him. Pretty good reflexes and it spoke to his self control that, after having fought so many Grimm, he hadn't immediately clocked her out of surprise.

"Oh, greetings. Have you just arrived?" Blake flinched a bit as he said this. She probably should've jumped in to help earlier when she had been observing him now that she thought about it... but, well, she had wanted to see what the Iida was made of... and her own doubts as to whether a partnership could work with him had kept her from immediately jumping down.

"Er, no... I was... actually sitting up there on that branch watching your fight. I... I wanted to see how you'd do." While Tenya does relax a bit from his fighting stance, the straight-backed posture told her that he was still tense. Not exactly the best first impression she could make, but-

"Ah, yes, perfectly understandable! No need to jump into a partnership with someone unless you understand their capabilities!" Tenya wildly gestured from underneath his armor as he spoke, Blake slightly taken aback as he did so.

... What?

"Still, you were here this entire time? I have to say, you must be quite skilled or I was quite inattentive if I didn't manage to spot even in the midst of my battle. It speaks well of you... or perhaps it speaks of a failing on my own part to notice that I had someone observing me. Tell me, was my performance up to snuff?"

"W-What?" Blake asked, practically stunned into disbelief. "I mean, yes, yeah, you did great. That's... why I'm down here, after all." Tenya nodded in understanding, before he gestured to her.

"Your entrance and your ability to avoid my or the Grimm's detection is also quite intriguing. Yes, I believe this will work out just fine. Should I take off my helmet then? I'm afraid that while it's on we will not have technically made eye contact... though perhaps it is still within the spirit of the rule that having made eye contact through my helmet would still count."

...

'Is this guy for real?'

"URRRRAAAAAH!" Another wave of icy spikes erupted from the swing of her blade as they ran through the various Grimm, Weiss Schnee now thoroughly annoyed as she ran a hand through her hair. A half hour into this abysmal trek through the Emerald Forest and Weiss Schnee had found 'no one'. Not a single person; not Tenya Iida, Pyrrha Nikos or Shoto Todoroki. Not any of the other girls her age in attendance here at Beacon. Thankfully not that loud, abrasive, rude brute who had just pushed his way through Beacon Academy yesterday and today... heck, not even Izuku Midoriya. Weiss had been all alone, faced with several dozen Grimm and forced to take them on by herself. That wasn't so much the problem; Weiss Schnee was a decidedly deadly and dangerous young woman and she could handle some Beowolves. It was looking for a partner, anyone with whom she could pass the test with, that was irritating her...

That she also couldn't navigate this forest on her own also caused her considerable grief. With another annoyed grunt Weiss Schnee finished off the last of the Grimm that had congregated in this area, flourishing Myrtenaster as she did so. Well, at least this part of the Initiation would go right; she would show herself to be perfectly capable of fulfilling the 'kill Grimm' portions of a Huntress' duties. At the very least she could say she got 'that' out of the first half hour of this Initiation. As Weiss walked off ready to go looking for someone, 'anyone', to partner with she heard a slight echo in the forest; an odd groaning sound that reverberated back towards her. She rolled her eyes; it must've been an echo of the grunt and annoyed yells she had made during her fight. Heck, it sounded enough like them, albeit distorted by the echo, to be the case.

When she had heard this sound again, several minutes removed from when she herself had made those sounds... that was when she had gotten nervous. Weiss cautiously pulled out Myrtenaster, ready for another wave of Grimm to fall upon her to try and take her down. Really, she wasn't afraid; the Grimm in this forest, while certainly dangerous, had thus far proven incapable of truly threatening her so long as she had her blade and her Dust, the former of which was still in very fine shape and the latter of which she still had a good supply of. Still, she'd rather not waste so much of the latter before she had even truly begun getting on her way to the ruins. Weiss's eyes scanned the immediate vicinity, her body language tense as she awaited for whatever the beast was that had sounded like it was on the approach...

Not realizing until it was far too late that the beast had made its approach behind her.

"Urrrrraaaah!"

"AAAAAAAAAH!" Weiss damn near jumped out of her skin as she heard the sound from just behind her, having turned to face the beast with Mrytenaster in hand ready to slay the... not Grimm. Not a Grimm at all, in fact. An orange-haired girl who had fixed her with a very curious expression.

"Heeey... wait a minute. You aren't Ren. I mean, I probably should've been able to tell that but, well, I was making my approach through the tree line and the leaves are just so thick up there that I really couldn't see down at the ground too well. I just heard you making a sloth noise and I figured 'oh if that's anyone it has to be Ren, after all, only Ren knows about our secret signal to meet up'... but you knew the secret signal and you aren't Ren. I doubt you're a spy though, Renny and I were in a perfectly secure location when I gave him the idea to use a sloth noise to signal me... so there's only one other possible explanation." Weiss's light blue eyes just stared in barely concealed confusion at the orange haired young woman as she rambled this all off. Just when Weiss thought she stopped-

"YOU MUST BE A SLOTH ENTHUSIAST TOO! Oh my gosh, I thought I was the only one! It's crazy that I just so happen to meet someone else who knows what sloths sound like in the middle of Beacon's Initiation, I mean really, what are the odds of that? Super low I bet, though I really can't run those numbers right now! You know, I bet this is that crazy destiny stuff people talk about; I mean, it can't just happen to be that you were making a sloth noise just around the time I was passing by, no, that's too convenient! You and I must be destined to be partners! Oh this'll be great! We can talk about sloths and stuff while we walk around and try to find Ren! When we all get on a team together it'll be great! You and I can be good friends, but not best friends because Ren and I are best friends because we've been together for years, and that's just together not like, together-together, and-"

Weiss sighed as she put Myrtenaster away. She and this girl had made eye contact and, well, it seemed like she was her partner... perhaps not an ideal partner but a partner nonetheless. It was fine; she could still end up on a perfectly functional team and who knows, maybe this girl would be a strong asset herself. All Weiss would have to do was wait for her to stop talking...

Two hours later and Weiss realized, to her horror... that Nora Valkyrie would never stop talking.

Ever.