As we exited the airship a blonde head rushed off to my right. I was confused as I first thought of Yang when that happened, but when I looked over to see who it was I found that it was the 'vomit boy' that was hunched over the nearest trash can. Poor boy already has a nickname and worse yet it was made by Yang. Once she gives you a nickname it tends to stick for the rest of your life. I could still remember the pain of poor 'milk shooter' every time he was called that. I hope he finds a rock to hide under to get away from that name.
As Yang and I walked into the main courtyard after the air docks we were both stunned by the beauty of this place. All the ornate lights along the path bore Beacon's prestigious symbol, flanked by vivid red trees from the Everfall forest. Around those were either nice greenspaces to relax in or articulately designed water fountains that seemed to make the air glow. Yet beyond these dazzling sights stood the main building of Beacon. Its ornate marble sparkled in the sun's light only dimming when the large windows allowed the light to pass through into the building itself. It had towers sprouting across its back side in a trio that kept your eyes wandering up. While many other buildings also towered above the main building, none were as eye-catching as Beacon Tower. It stood taller than all the rest and towards the top you could see the headmaster's office windows just below the emerald glow of what gave this place its name. It was a literal Beacon for this maritime based city, one you could sometimes even see from the isle of Patch.
"Wow" both Yang and I said at the same time as we stared at this sight. As much as I did not want to be here yet, seeing this alone has made it all worth it. To see this and know that I will be here for the next four years just fills my soul with so many emotions. "The view from Vale got nothing on this." Yang said, still in her daze. My eyes finally started to wander and I finally noticed all the other students and more importantly their weapons. My eyes started zooming around gazing at their beauty and individuality. Sure I know not everyone makes their own weapon or designs it like I did. Yet as far as I see there is not one identical weapon. I first see a collapsible staff that my mind instantly tries to piece together the mechanisms for it. Before I could fully deduce the staff though my eyes caught a woman walking by with a fire sword. Now that one must have been hard to make, now how do you imbue the dust to make such a weapon practical. Especially if you don't want to burn yourself when using it.
"Hey why you looking around Rubes? Don't you already have a cool little weapon there?" Yang asks.
"Of course I have a weapon, and she isn't little either. Can't I just look at all the different weapons without asking if I am cheating on my sweetheart?" I retorted.
"Right.. You can say it has your heart." Yang replies with a wink. Oh god the puns have already started, save me now. "Why don't you make some new friends?" Yang then asks.
"Why would I need friends when I have my sweetheart?" I simply ask.
"Everybody needs friends. See my friends are here now.." Yang states as she points to the group of guys that went to all the parties with Yang during and after Signal. ".. And we need to catch up. So see you later. Bye, bye!" With that the group zooms off towards the campus, leaving me in the dust. Whelp she is gone now, so no more worrying about puns for the moment. The problem now is that I do not know where I am supposed to go. Getting everything ready in two days did not leave a lot of time to figure out the whole first day schedule and what not. Meaning at this point I am utterly lost.
So I just continued to walk down the main path, all in the hopes that it would lead me to a professor that could tell me what we are doing. I stop halfway down the path to look at a weird bird sitting in the nearby tree that cawed at me. As I looked at the bird I felt an air of familiarity with it despite it being just a regular crow. Well almost regular, it was slightly bigger than the average crow and even seemed to act in a manner that said that it actually had some brain power. Where is the weird familiarity coming from though? Is it because my uncle's name is Qrow? But they are spelled differently, and while he does have black hair and red eyes he definitely doesn't look like a bird.
As I am pondering this weird bird sitting in the nearby tree something crashes into me, causing me to fall backwards onto my butt. Ow that hurts, despite the pathway looking to be made out of stone this oddly feels like I am sitting on metal. I look down to see that I have seemed to have fallen onto a luggage cart and the many cases that once were on said cart were now thrown onto the ground. A shrill voice yells out "What are you doing!?" I look up and see the epitome of white standing in front of me. Like this girl has long white hair in a slanted ponytail behind her head, her skin is a light pale color showing that she never really came outside much. She wore a strapless white dress that ended above her knees that was covered with a white bolero jacket that ended at her hands. Across all of it was entracte stitching of snowflakes that just showed throughout the entire ensemble. The only contrasting colors across her entire figure wass the red inside of her bolero, the little black that peaked above her dress in the middle of her chest and the icy blue eyes that were narrowed at me currently.
I mumble out "Sorry" to her in a hope that this will bring the fastest conclusion to this unpleasant discussion. Of course it did not with my luck.
She just points down at me and snarls out "Sorry! Sorry! Do you have any idea of the damage that you could have caused!?" After she continues to look at me and sees that I indeed had no idea the damage that could have been caused, does she have like antiques in her luggage or something, she continued on in her seemingless never ending rant "There is dust mine and purified from the Schnee quarry in there!" I started to piece together why that could have been bad now that she mentioned that she was quite literally carrying dust in her luggage. But why must she say where the dust came from? Don't most huntsmen just take whatever dust that they can find and not care about the rest?
I must have taken too long to respond to her because yet again she continued onwards in her rant "What are you brain dead!? Fire, water, lighting energy! Are you even listening to me!"
Finally after all of this berating from this woman I snapped. I yelled back "Yes I know what dust is princess!"
Then a voice came from a short distance away from the both of us. It was a voice with a soft purr to it that drew me in "Its heiress actually. Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company. One of the largest producers of energy propellant in the world. The same company infamous for its controversial labor forces and questionable business partners." During the entirety of this interruption I stared at Weiss and saw her go from acting so proud to getting extremely angry, well deserved in my book.
"How dare y-.. The nerve!.. Ugh!" exclaimed Weiss as she turned around and stormed off towards the school. Finally someone set that woman in her place! Yet now it makes sense why she wanted to talk about where her dust came from, must be either pride or a near marketing strategy for the company. Wouldn't leave it past them to try to get huntsmen to say they are using their dust during battles, makes them look like they are somehow helping people without doing anything and making more money than anyone could imagine.
I turned around to try to congratulate the other girl on her perfect victory against the heiress, but I was disappointed to see her slowly walking away in the other direction. She was also putting extra sway in her hips, so I could tell that she was happy. Now that I got a good look at her I saw only her backside that displayed the exact opposite of Weiss. She was wearing mainly only black clothing, except her lower portion of her leggings that were purple and what looked to be white shorts. Her wavy black hair went all the way down to the middle of her back and covered most of her weapon, which appeared to be a sword of some sort. Just like Weiss she was wearing heels as well, which to me is quite weird. Who in their right mind would ever want to wear such uncomfortable shoes around when you are a huntress? Is this like some unspoken rule that I have not heard of? If so it is the most dumb rule ever, I would much rather be wearing my combat boots.
Once again I was left alone, which didn't bother me at all. Though making potential enemies with one of the largest dust companies on Remnant was a downside. Hopefully Weiss wouldn't hold it against me about today's accident. I mean nothing bad really happened, but at the same time I can totally see that girl has a stick up her butt about anything… So… Yeah this could go either way and I would not be a fan of it going down the path of me being banned from buying their dust. Sure there are other dust companies as well, but none as big and ever present as the SDC.
Finally another person showed up and talked to me. This time it was a guy, so fingers crossed that this doesn't end up like the last person I talked to. "Hey I'm Jaune." Said the blonde man in armor. Armor that was quite literally covering a hoodie, this man had a black hoodie as his combat gear. I laughed at that, I have never seen that before and to be honest I don't think I would ever see it again.
After my outburst of laughter was over I replied "I'm Ruby." Finally a gear clicks in my head and I ask "Aren't you vomit boy?" With this the boy's face turns a pink shade as he rubs the back of his head and he does a reluctant nod.
"All I am saying is that motion sickness is a much more common problem than people let on." Jaune retorts. True some people do have motion sickness and some people have never flown before, the turbulence can really get to you. Especially if you are looking out a window and see all the buildings passing below you.. At their slow speeds.. Yeah he is getting me to admit that one, if we were in a bullhead I could buy it. Yet we were actually in a passenger airship going at the slowest speed possible, and he somehow got motion sickness? Nah, he just must be nervous. I'm going to let that one go though, I can tell it is a sore spot for the poor guy.
We continued to head towards the main campus in a silent walk. Silence that was even getting to me as we continued onwards and as I glanced at Jaune, was really getting to him. So I broke the silence by pointing at his sword on his hip and said "Cool sword you got there. What does it do?"
With that Jaune pulls out his sword and says "It's just a sword and the sheath turns into a shield." With that he flicks his wrist which deploys the sheath into a shield. The action of it deploying launches the shield off of his wrist and he tries catching it, and fails miserably, until it smacks him in the face. "What about you?"
Ah yes, the moment I have been waiting for. I said " I have this." I grabbed Crescent Rose with my left hand and activated its unfolding mechanism. Quickly it turned into a full scythe and I embedded it into the path below us.
"Wow, that is so cool!" Jaune replied.
"Hehe, thank you. I guess I did enjoy designing it and made it a little more complicated than it had to be." I sheepishly said.
"Wait, you made that?" Jaune questioned.
"Of course! All students at Signal forge their own weapons. Didn't you make yours?" I countered. Who doesn't make their own weapons these days?
"It's a hand me down. My great-great-grandfather used it to fight in the war." Jaune said as he let his head fall down. Oh I guess not everyone forges weapons. Well this is awkward.
"Well not many people like to use the classics these days. So go you Jaune." I said with a slight chuckle, in hopes to lighten the mood.
"Yeah, the classics." Jaune replied, never letting his gaze up from the ground below us. Nope that did not work, this totally sucks. This is all Ozpin's fault. Ever since I met that man everything has gone wrong for me. I should have just not shown up and be forced to wait at least one more year.
"So why did you talk to me?" I asked in hopes to change the conversation. I was never one good at small talk and it was quite easily shown here.
"Well why not? My mom always said strangers are just friends that you haven't met yet." Jaune states. Great a momma's boy that goes off anything that she says. What next he is going to say that ladies love him because his mom said so? Pssh, even he couldn't be that dumb.
"So do you know where we were going?" I asked as we finally arrived at the main building.
"Oh no. I was following you." he stated as we both looked around us. Some other students were off to the side of the building walking and talking into a smaller separate building nearby. We both looked at each other and followed behind them. Hopefully they could lead out uninformed butts to where we had to be. Would hate to make the trip and get kicked out after missing initiation.
Upon entering the building I heard a very familiar voice call out "Hey Ruby! Over here! I saved you a spot!" I looked over and saw Yang slightly farther away from her friends, in a spot with fewer people than the rest of the room had. While she may be annoying most of the time Yang does understand how I like to not be too crowded. I guess she does have her moments.
I look over to Jaune and say "Sorry I am going to go stand by my sister" while pointing in her direction. He seemed to get the point and looked a little dejected as I headed over to Yang. Looking around there everyone seemed to be in their own little groups, most likely formed at the combat schools that they had previously been training at before. That raises the question of where Jaune went to school beforehand, and why he wasn't mingling with the other students from his school.
Once I arrived next to Yang she asked "So how's your first day going Rubes?"
"It's going alright I guess. I did already get in a fight with the Schnee heiress apparently." I replied with little to no emotion. I wanted her to know that I totally blame her on that one, if she told me where to go that entire situation could have been avoided.
"Yikes, I told you to make friends Ruby not enemies. Especially with a Schnee." Yang retorted, still in her happy voice. Looks like even her sister possibly making enemies with one of the largest dust companies in the world doesn't faze her. I wish I had that type of optimism.
Before I could reply to this though, said heiress walked up behind me and yelled "You!" I jumped at the sudden introduction and turned around to see her with that everlasting scowl on her face. At this point I don't even know if the girl could even smile. Maybe she scowled so long that her entire face was constantly morphed into that expression. "You're lucky we were not blown off the side of the cliff!" her shrill voice yelled out as Yang looked on in horror.
"Oh my Gods, you really did get in a fight with a Schnee." Yang mumbled behind me. Something that was heard by the heiress as her face indicated by getting an even stronger scowl.
Fed up with it I finally replied "It was an accident" my voice cracking and sounding much more like a squeak than I ever wanted it to. I felt my cheeks heat up at the embarrassment of this entire situation. I was thinking of ways to escape my current predicament when a brochure was shoved into my face. Said brochure was Dust For Dummies and other Inadequate Individuals and made me extremely livid. She just inadvertently said I was an idiot, because she ran into me and got mad that her dust containers fell off her cart. She then went into a rant about how the SDC is not responsible for any injuries caused by using dust, who wouldn't know that. I mean we are quite literally her too because huntsmen so why would any of us not know what dust is.
When she finished her ever detailed explanation on why she thinks I am stupid I finally exploded. "Why are you talking down to me! Because your luggage cart ran into me and I fell over knocking your dust off the cart!? How is it my fault that you couldn't see where you are going!? Just leave me alone, you entitled princess!" At this the girl's face finally changes, albeit for only a second. It first was an open mouth of surprise as if this was the first time in her life that someone dared to speak back to her, then it went back to the scowl but much worse this time.
"How dare you talk to me that way! You are just some snot nosed idiot that shouldn't even be here!" she cried out.
"I earned my way here you snobbish princess! I didn't get my daddy to bribe my way in!" I screamed out with venom at the girl. I could feel Yang's hand on my shoulder trying to calm me down, and noticed how the room had got more quiet as others listened into this conversation. Weiss was getting even more angry as her body began to shake and faced started to turn red from the anger.
"I earned my way here! I did not let my father do such a thing! If he had I would be in Atlas now, not Beacon! Besides, why would anyone at Beacon let in such a dunce as you!?" Weiss' voice screamed out in her shrill voice that caught even more attention. I was not liking all the attention, but there was no way that I was letting this stuck up girl win this argument.
"Because I proved that I was capable! I proved that I belong here and the one that said I could was Headmaster Ozpin!" I screamed at her, inching closer to her face despite Yang holding me back.
"Ye-" Weiss tried to continue all the argument before we were cut off by a loud "Ahem" over the speaker system. Everyone in the room turned over to look at the stage now as the voice echoed across the room. Standing up on the stage at the microphone was Ozpin himself with a very livid looking Glynda off to his side. Oh I did not leave the best impression on the combat instructor or even give much hope to Ozpin on that one. This is shaping up to be one of the best first days for any student ever at Beacon Academy. I cannot wait to see what else fate has in store for me today.
"Well I want to keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills. And when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose.. Direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step." Ozpin said in an almost completely neutral tone. Not once during his little speech did her look anywhere. No he just kept looking straight ahead as if in a trance of some sort. It was a little off putting if you ask me, and based on how the others were acting in the room it looks like they would agree too.
Once his brief speech was done Ozpin simply walked off the stage and exited the room. This left Glynda to walk up to the microphone and pick up where our gracious headmaster left off. Unlike Ozpin she looked around the room at the students, and sent deadly glares at Weiss and I as she did her speech. "You will gather at the ballroom tonight. Tomorrow your initiation begins, be ready. You are dismissed."
I immediately zoomed out of the room to get as far away from Weiss as humanly possible. I do not want to be next to that girl right now and I have a feeling that if she tries to argue more there would be one less Schnee in the world and two less students at Beacon this year.
After a stressful day I was finally getting to enjoy my slumber In my comfy sleeping bag and inviting pajamas. The only thing that was keeping me from my slumber was quick thought about future upgrades to my sweetheart and writing it down in my weapons notebook. I had come up with a possible way to make Crescent Rose unveil faster than she already does and just the thought excited me. I heard a thud next to me and Yang said "It feels like a giant slumber party!" She was semi right, there were a lot of us sleeping in this one room. The only thing keeping the boys away from the girls tonight was the fact that each gender had to be on one specific side and a few huntsmen hired by the academy to enforce that rule. Beacon obviously didn't want anything bad to happen on this day and stain its reputation, though that did not stop the showgoating. I looked over my shoulder towards the boys side of the room and saw them purposely dressed without shirts on and flexing as much as they could. The mere sight disgusted me to all degrees.
With that i looked at Yang and said "Dad wouldn't approve of all the boys though."
"I know I do." Yang replied with doing her best purr impression. I mean she definitely doesn't sound like a cat, but that would totally get those jockheads over there going if they heard it. Then apparently Yang saw a guy that she did not like and made a disgusted noise before turning to me and asking "What's that?"
"Oh, I just came up with a new possible design for Crescent Rose." I replied happily as I continued on with the plan.
"Come on Rubes, you gotta do something other than think about your weapon." Yang replied. "Maybe like making friends, didn't you talk to that blonde guy today?"
"Yes I did, but I wouldn't count him as a friend yet. Plus I also made enemies with the heiress for the Schnee Dust company.. So today was a total bust in that department." I retorted at Yang.
"Look Ruby, it was only the first day. Trust me that you have friends all around you, you just have to let them in." Yang sweetly replied. Oh Yang is going into her motherly mode, well I guess I wrote enough down for the night. "Like that one over there" Yang says while pointing at the girl from earlier in the day that I met. The girl who totally brought Weiss to a bumbling mess and then walked off. While I still don't know her name she definitely is probably the closest to a friend that I have met here. It definitely doesn't have to do with the fact that she one upped the heiress with little to no effort. Just like her voice earlier in the day her face seems to have this neutral tone that just oozes, I don't want to be bothered with energy.
I chuckle while thinking about it "You might be right Yang. As long as it is not the Schnee. She just rubs me in all the wrong places."
"I know Ruby, it takes a lot for you to blow like that and she got you there and past it." Yang soothingly replies. "How about we get some rest for the night, tomorrow is going to be a busy day." With that I nod into agreement and cover up under my sleeping bag. Yang is right, tomorrow will be a busy day of fighting Grimm and I want all the energy I can muster for it. It only took fifteen minutes for me to fall asleep.
Waking up the next day I had found that I beat my alarm by thirty minutes. Using this extra time I sneaked down to the shower and freshened up and after a little longer shower than I usually take put on my combat gear. By the time I came back into the hall that I slept in to check on Yang she had woken up. Knowing that a groggy Yang is something you don't want to deal with, trust me I have had to dodge a few semblance powered punches before, I let her go down to the showers when I grabbed our breakfast. Eventually Yang joined and through grunts communicated that she did not sleep well last night. I have no clue why she didn't, but that doesn't bother me too much.
After our meal we headed to the weapon lockers to group out gear and do any last minute preparation for the day ahead of us. I was doing some last minute look over on Crescent Rose to make sure that she was at one hundred percent. Of course much hasn't changed since the last time I looked at her yesterday, but you can never be too sure. Yang sat next to me talking up a storm and all I had to do was throw in some agreements every once and while and she just kept going. I was also paying attention to some of the other students getting ready. One was an orange haired girl apparently called Nora trying to ask if a black haired man named Ren could imitate a sloth. Despite all her energy he seemed to handle it well and even tell her that sloths do not in fact make much noise. I cannot prove or disprove his fact, but by seeing how calm he was I just feel the need to trust him.
Walking by us was Jaune who apparently could not for the life of himself find the locker that he put his gear in yesterday… Seriously, how did that guy get in here? Is it a legend when it comes to combat, that would be the only excuse that I could think of. Then finally I notice that detestable Schnee talking to a red haired girl named Pyrrha. I think I have seen her somewhere before, but I cannot put my finger on it. She definitely gives off the vibes that once you saw her you would instantly remember her. She is quite tall, good looking, and her bronze armor shines brightly. All things to easily remember her by. Of course she must be something good because Weiss looks like she is trying to recruit her. I don't really care, as long as I am not on that team.
To lift my mood though Jaune walks up to her and tries to flirt with Weiss, much to the heiress's dismay. I inwardly chuckle at it, Jaune is trying so hard but it just comes off awkwardly. And if I think it's awkward, then Weiss must be dying inside. Good she deserves it, I only feel bad for Jaune as he doesn't know what he is getting himself into. I left before they could finish that conversation, I did not want to be there when Weiss started her counter shriek against the poor man.
Yang and I arrived at the cliff shortly followed by the others and we noticed metal plates on the ground. Glynda ushers us to stand on each plate, so happily I oblique. I am so excited as this is what I am here for, kicking some Grimm butt. Glynda goes into how we will be assigned teammates today and Ozpin clarifies how they will be assigned. Well mainly our partner, he never clarifies on the team as a whole but how we get our partners. Apparently in such a prestigious academy your partner is decided by the first person that you lock eyes with in the forest. That just sounds like a recipe for a disaster. As long as it isn't Weiss I don't really care who my partner is, well maybe not Jaune either. I don't really want to get constantly flirted with when I absolutely have no intention of dating.
Afterwards Ozpin tells us our mission is to go to some ancient temple in the forest and grab some relics and come back. He goes on to explain that there are Grimm in the forest and that we should kill them or we might die. Overselling it much, I highly doubt that the teachers will let their students die on the first day. Yet this does get a few gulps out of the group, as if they thought that we wouldn't have to deal with Grimm at all during our initiation. We are huntsmen-in-training, this is something that we are literally being trained to do.
Of course Jaune had a question to this very detailed explanation by Ozpin, and of course that question was about the landing strategy. Apparently he didn't know how to stop himself from falling, though to be honest it does make sense his reservation towards it. All he has is a sword and a shield, not exactly the type of tools needed to slow one's descent. Ozpin looked kinda bored by it and barely even answered any of his questions, though I couldn't hear the last one as I was launched into the air.