The weapon locker rooms were bustling, crammed from end-to-end with first-years preparing for their initiation. Keeping her mind clear of the noise around her, Weiss Schnee applied a custom resin to Myrtenaster's blade, while double-checking to make sure that the dust exhaust port was cleared of any debris. This day was to be her debut as a student of Beacon, and she wanted to be at her absolute best.
This is why the knowledge of the team assignment process worried her. Evidently, teams would be decided by some aspect of the initiation itself. There are plenty of people here that I'd love to partner up with… Pyrrha Nikos, for one, would be preferable.
Indeed, the Pride of Mistral was an easy choice as far as options were. Her performance in combat was nigh unmatched, and she carried herself with the level of professionalism that one would expect of a future Huntress. Given the choice, Weiss would have recruited her, along with Yumi and Akatsuki, her friends and close confidants from Atlas.
Still, she couldn't simply ignore the fact that the team compositions were seemingly beyond her control.
It isn't as though I'm incapable of working with stranger's, but so many of them are completely undesirable! There was that blonde boy that assaulted Yumi, that shameless faunus and her cohorts, two boys stealing mattresses, and I even passed by some pigtailed girl that was throwing a tantrum like some kind of toddler!
The more that she contemplated the potential results of team assignments, the harder it became to focus. Weiss needed a distraction from that line of thinking, so she decided to put away her maintenance tools into her locker, and start heading out to the cliffside where they were scheduled to meet. It was still a bit early, as even some students were still having breakfast at that hour, but perhaps she'd at least be able to meet up with the few friends that she did have.
However, as she rounded the corner out into the school's hall, a voice called out to her.
"Oh goodness, is that Weiss I see?"
Oh please, not her.
The voice in question came from a girl in an elegant white dress, with excessively long, orange hair that was tied up in spiraling, drill-like pigtails. With a smirk as she walked up to Weiss, she continued, "My, what were the odds that we'd be coming to the same school? I suppose that Beacon Academy will accept just about anyone, won't it?"
"Certainly would seem that way, given my current company." Weiss snapped back, returning the girl's smug commentary with her own. Two can play at this game, Petra.
"How cruel of you to say such a thing," Petra feigned a look of sorrow, serving only to annoy Weiss more. "It seems that you really do take after your father!"
Officially pissed off, Weiss was not going to let that slide. "That's quite the take, coming from the daughter of mere researchers, posing as nobles!"
That seemed to get under the Lagerkvist Heiress' skin, as she rested her hand by a holster strapped along her waistline, which held two handguns, Christina and Alexandra. "Posing, you say? Perhaps we ought to find out which of us is really posing… after the Initiation, of course."
"For once, I'd say that we're in agreement."
"So, uhhh… what are these weird plates that we're standing on supposed to be?"
Jaune couldn't help but fidget as he looked down at not only his own feet, but the many plates that ran alongside the tall cliff overlooking the massive forest that was supposedly the grounds of their Initiation. Peering over the edge, Jaune couldn't help but feel a bit ill as he was reminded of the flight to the Academy that had led to him ejecting the contents of his stomach the day before.
Saki Tsuzura, who Heart had previously referred to as "Sa-sa" , responded to him from the plate to his left. "They could be some sort of pressure plate or springboard… or perhaps they may only be decorative. However, we won't know anything for certain until all the other first-years have arrived and the headmaster explains it." She crossed her arms and seemed to look off into the distance. "There's little use stressing about what could be, though."
"I suppose you're right," Jaune decided to distract himself as he looked around. Okay, it looks like everybody's just about arrived… It sucks that Heart, Hyde and Kanji are assigned to different plates… I sure could have used someone to talk to besides Saki. She might not be as cold as last night, but she definitely doesn't seem like she's up for a full-on conversation…
Though, as he thought that, somebody stepped on to the plate on his right side. Finally, somebody that I can talk to—.
Oh. Nevermind.
As was typical of his luck up to that point, the girl beside him was that same gorgeous girl that he had slammed into earlier. Her fair skin and yukata were especially vibrant under the morning rays, shining as she walked forward with her eyes looking off to the horizon. Enchanted by her figure, Jaune almost failed to realize that he was staring blankly at her for longer than he probably should have.
Crap! He snapped his attention forward, tensing up as he recalled their only prior interaction. What was I doing, just standing there with my eyes glazed over?! Now she'll definitely think I'm some sort of creeper!
However, he was proven wrong as the girl began to tug on his sleeve to get his attention. "Um… excuse me. Do you have a moment?"
Jaune nearly leapt back out of surprise, flailing about for a moment as he came close to losing his footing. Luckily, he managed to return to an upright stance, saving himself from the embarrassment of landing on his rear end.
"Wha-ah-ah-oh! That was close!" Jaune tried to smile as he collected himself, though he did find that he had to force it a bit. "Hehe, sorry about that… Guess I need to work on my balance."
The girl seemed relieved, having clearly not been ready to try and catch the clumsy teen. "Oh, well I'm glad to see that you're alright. Apologies if I startled you."
Huh? Wait, shouldn't this girl be pissed at me for what happened earlier? Why is she being so nice? Jaune scratched the back of his neck as he awkwardly laughed off her apology. "Hey, don't even worry about it! Heck, I should be the one apologizing for bumping into you yesterday! A guy should always be ready to take responsibility for his actions!... Or at least, that's what my folks always told me."
The girl giggled a bit in response. "There's really no need to worry. I realized afterwards that you were probably just in a hurry and weren't aware of your surroundings. It's just that between Weiss' accusations and Akatsuki's overprotective nature, things got out of control before I could even realize what happened."
"Oh, I think I get it." Well, I guess that the best I can do is hope those other two come around soon. Wait, isn't this the best time to introduce myself? "Well, now that that's out of the way, my name is Jau—."
"Good morning, students!"
Jaune leaned over past the girl to see who had spoken, seeing a man dressed in a black-on-green suit, who casually walked alongside the cliffside as he sipped some drink from a small mug.
The girl whispered into Jaune's ear. "Sorry, but let's try not to interrupt the headmaster, okay?"
Is that the guy in charge of the school? Jaune let out a short sigh, as he realized that he'd probably missed something important during his time passed out. What I'd give for a redo of Orientation Day…
Although there were plenty more students whispering amongst themselves, the headmaster continued his speech as if he had their complete attention. "As you all know, the Initiation process is a test to determine not only your future team's, but also to gauge your ability to work with people you've never met before, and find ways to enhance each other's strengths… and make up for any weaknesses. Rest assured, you will all have your performances observed, and your capabilities scrutinized by both my colleagues," he waved to a group of what Jaune assumed were staff members, "and by myself. However, this test, which is typically a 'race to the finish line,' has been modified this year." He took another sip of his drink, though something of a smirk seemed to hide behind it. "Given both the backgrounds and… unique Semblance's amongst our first-years, we've decided to change the goal for this particular test."
A blonde woman from the staff members' group pressed a few buttons on a scroll, and suddenly a massive projection appeared over the cliff, large enough for all students to see. It showed various images of campsites, fire pits, and wildlife.
The headmaster pressed on with his explanation. "The goal for this year is survival. Each student will have a timer assigned to their respective student ID, which can be viewed from your scrolls. You will be assigned to a team based on the first three other students you encounter. Once you have gotten into teams of four, each members' timer will begin counting down, and you each must survive together for a duration of six hours. Once that duration has hit zero, a security guard from DES will be dispatched to escort you back to the Academy. Those of you who fail to join a group within the first two hours will be pulled from the Initiation grounds and randomly assigned to any remaining teams left… and said team will have cleaning duty for their first week here."
That final revelation was naturally met with groans and further whispering from the students, but the headmaster continued on, just as he had done previously. "So with all that being said, let the Initiation commence… oh, and do be ready to employ your own landing strategy. All approaches are viable and accepted, so long as you don't bring direct harm to another fellow student."
Wait… landing strategy? What does he mean by that?
As if to answer his question, a loud yell could be heard far to his left, and Jaune could barely make out the figure of a student flying off the side of the cliff, diving down into the forest below. What the hell?! Did he jump off or something?!
Saki nodded as she observed the falling student. "I see, so they're some sort of launch pads. Very well, this shouldn't be an issue for most of us, anyhow."
What do you mean, "shouldn't be an issue?!" Jaune stood completely flabbergasted at Saki's calm reaction to what he saw as guaranteed death. Damn it, I've never activated my Aura before! If I can't figure out what to do here, I'll have no cushion!
His panic only grew as more and more students proceeded to be launched off their plates, as the line grew shorter and shorter, and he saw that only a couple students remained ahead of him.
"Um… hey, Saki?" Jaune whispered to his acquaintance. "Quick question…"
"You better make it extra quick, Jaune." She clearly was not in the mood for questions as she widened her stance to prepare for the launch."
"Okay," he responded, trying to ask his question quickly. "Let's just say, hypothetically, that somebody—totally not me, by the way—decided to launch off here without their Aura activated. They'd probably still survive, right?"
"What, no!" Saki's stanced loosened as she tried to process the meaning behind the question. "They would be in extreme danger doing something so reckless!"
"Okay, but they wouldn't die, right?"
"They would most certainly die!"
"Oh." Jaune turned to face forward again, peering over the cliff face. "That's not good."
"Wait a minute," Saki looked right at Jaune, failing to realize that the student to her left had just gone flying. "You can't seriously be planning on launching off here without activating your Aur—aaaaauuuuggggghhhhhh!"
With that, Saki had been launched far off, screaming as she spun through the air uncontrollably.
…Shit. My bad.
Loud rock music blasted from her earphones as the teen soared across the sky, her eyes darting from tree to tree below her. As the wind and gravitational forces began to force her descent, Ruby fired off two rounds from her sniper barrel behind her, retaining some momentum as she looked for a spot to land that'd be reasonably close to where she'd thought to have seen Yang fly off to. I think that she landed somewhere around here… Eyeballing a thick tree that rose alongside a flowing riverbed, she decided to propel herself downward, activating her Semblance as she launched toward the tree, aiming her scythes blade toward it as she prepared to swing it toward the bark to slow her descent.
However, as she headed down, something struck her in her right side, knocking her towards the branches of the tree, and causing her to lose her grip on Crescent Rose as she spun out of control, barely making out the shape of a boy behind her as the branches began to snap and fray as she flew down into the brush below, her Aura softening what would've otherwise been a serious impact.
Ow… what just happened? Why the heck did he just slam into me like that?! Ruby struggled to rise up out of the bushes she'd landed on, realizing that some thorns inside it had caught her cape. "Oh, come on! This can't seriously be happening right now?!"
As she continued to struggle, she could hear a rustling coming from another bush nearby. Ruby froze up as steps began to make their way towards her. Crap! If I'm caught here without a weapon, I'm done for! I could try using my Semblance to run away, but I don't know how much Aura I have left… Shoot, what now?!
Finally, the brush began to part, as a boy with partially blonde hair walked out, holding the remains of her busted headphones that evidently had gotten knocked off her during the fall. Wait, is that Hyde? The boy quickly noticed her struggling to get up, and ran over to aid her. "Oh crap, are you alright?!" He leaned over her shoulder, tugging at the cape to get her loose. "That landing had me rattled a bit, but it looks like we'll both make it through."
Pulling her up, Hyde began dusting off Ruby's back. While she appreciated his help, she felt a bit uncomfortable being so close. "Oh, you don't need to go out of your way!" she exclaimed.
"If you insist," the boy relented, handing Ruby her headphones back. "Looks like you won't be getting much use out of this anymore, though."
Sighing, the young teen put away her broken headphones, its wiring completely snapped and frayed. "I guess that's what I get for playing music during all this."
"Seriously, I tried to warn you ahead of time that we were about to collide!" Hyde nagged at Ruby, giving her one last check for thorns. "At least we both made it, though. I guess that makes us teammates, huh?"
Ruby nearly choked on her spit in realization. Damn it, he's right! That means we only have two slots left! Where are you, Yang?!
"Oh hey, looks like your weapon got lodged up at the top of that trunk," Hyde pointed to the top of the tree behind them.
"O-okay, thanks for the save!" Feeling as though she had recovered enough Aura to safely burst to her weapon, Ruby flew to Crescent Rose in a flash, standing atop the barrel as she bounced up and down to try and wiggle the scythe blade out of the tough wood.
"Hey, nice moves!" Hyde called out. "Was that your Semblance in action?"
Ruby beamed as she proudly continued to stand atop Crescent Rose. "You bet it was! I'm actually pretty quick you know—woah!" The scythe came loose, plummeting back to the ground as Ruby clutched her weapon. Closing her eyes, she braced for another impact with the ground…
"I gotcha!" Opening her eyes in shock, Ruby saw that no impact had actually occurred. Instead, her new teammate had managed to catch her, his arms wrapped around her shoulders and legs, with her weapon still clutched in hand. "Uh… thanks for the save!" She nervously smiled as Ruby tried to avoid making eye contact.
"No worries!" The boy responded. "It's probably best to avoid any more falls today, though."
"Agreed," Ruby nodded. A couple seconds passed, as she began to blush. "U-u-um… You can let go of me now…"
"Oh crap, sorry!" Hyde returned his partner to her feet, trying to hide his own awkward blush.. "Anyways, we should try and meet up with a couple more students. Clock's ticking, right?"
"Right… let's get searching!"
"Go now, Izanagi!" Yu pointed forward at the charging Ursa, directing his Persona to attack. The tall, humanoid manifestation appeared before him, meeting its opponent head-on, cleaving it in two with a massive bladed weapon.
Unfortunately, two more Ursa were still hot on his trail. From the moment I landed, they've been chasing me down. "Izanagi, Zio!"
The Persona spun around, discharging a blast of electrical energy toward the two incoming Grimm, then Izanagi disappeared as it was recalled back to Yu. Of the two Ursa, the larger one leapt behind its comrade, using it as a shield from the blast, before resuming its charge.
What the hell?! It used its buddy as fodder! Having closed the distance, the massive Ursa swung its claws toward the young man, but was deflected back as Yu drew his personal katana, Wild Card, from its sheath. Close quarters was by no means his specialty, but Yu had enough experience to handle his own when push came to shove.
At least, that'd be true in a one-on-one fight. The Ursa roared in fury, drawing the attention of more Grimm from nearby. Damn! I can't safely call Izanagi at this range. I might need to bail until I can find allies to back me up…
As if on cue, a white-haired guy clad in red and black came flying from the bushes, splitting the Grimm reinforcements in two with what appeared to be an oversized broadsword. As the distracted Ursa turned around to face the unexpected threat, Narukami channeled some of Izanagi's electricity into the blade of Wild Card, stabbing into the Ursa and causing it to jerk uncontrollably from the voltage. Following up on his move, the other student dashed forward, skewering the Grimm straight through its spine and out its chest.
As the Ursa slowly evaporated before them, Yu let out a sigh of relief. "That was well-timed, partner! I'm not sure how things would've gone without your help!"
"Huh? What the hell do you mean by 'partner?'" The boy with spiky, white hair slung his large weapon behind his back. "I don't even know who the fuck you are."
"I suppose that's true," Yu sheathed his own weapon, remaining cordial with his new teammate despite the less-than-warm reception. "But given that we were both solo until a moment ago, it looks like we'll be teamed up together from now on. Better to start on good terms, right?"
The student rolled his eyes in response. "That old man and his damn teams… fine, let's just get this over with." He began walking off without a further word, though Yu wasn't about to let them move on in silence, following close behind. "I'm Yu Narukami, by the way. I hope we can get along."
"...Ragna," the boy responded shortly, showing little interest in further conversation.
"Ragna," huh? Well Ragna, I can tell that working with you won't be a cakewalk by any means… but I've dealt with worse before. We'll just take this one step at a time.
