AN (6/4/2023): If you are returning to this fic, you may have noticed that this chapter was rewritten as of 4/17/2023. This is because I went back to rewrite the first three chapters with a few good people after dissatisfaction over where my fic was headed and how it read. That said, I hope you enjoy the remade chapters, and I hope you're looking forward to what lies ahead! And as such, special thanks to Anton797659865 (1-3) and Myst66 for proofreading the rewritten chapters, as well as SgtChrysalis for additional help on certain scenes in C3!
It was supposed to be a simple, hard-to-screw-up mug job.
For starters, nobody around was a troublesome Huntsman or Huntress, nor did they have the knowhow and tools to protect themselves. Good, nobody tried to be a hero. Just like that, those five muggers pointed a gun at him, a poor teenaged sod. He took out what little Lien he had, then they tried to search him for whatever he was hiding...
Little did they know, they would soon be met with a metal staff to the gut.
What happened next was a blur of two-way beatdowns.
Suddenly, three more teenagers showed up, seemingly without any indication that they ever received a distress signal of sorts. None of the four spoke up, the only hint of speech being a call for police from the cow-horned Faunus girl with red twintails and brass knuckles.
Eventually, the four subdued the five. When the police came, they found the teens standing proudly, one of them with their foot on a criminal's head. None of the five ever objected, only subjecting themselves to handcuffs and a nice ride to the police station at the back.
There were a couple words from the police not to try to engage in vigilante action again, but the four teens understood and went their merry ways.
Or at least I, Strings, did.
So. Here I am, looking at myself from four places at once in the boarding station for Beacon.
It's kind of funny just how long I'd been waiting; 17 years ago, I'd been born in four separate corners of Remnant; Vale, Vacuo, Mistral, and Atlas. Due to my circumstances, I lived a calm and uneventful life as Livio, an exciting life of thrills and drama as Paz, a scary life that left me fighting for survival for a while as Emi, and a difficult nomad life as Talan—all at once. It sounds like a lot, but when you have four bodies at your disposal, it really isn't.
Sort of. I'm still working on bleedover.
I won't forget the rush that kicked off when Talan came to the city of Vale at long last. At that point, he'd been journeying out of Vacuo for days ever since his last two brothers sacrificed themselves for his safety. Before then, Emi had moved in with her adoptive parents while Livio and his uncle rented an apartment home.
Not long after, they all headed for the commercial district. Some fools tried to steal money from Talan, and then I know what happened next. Ah, it was fun while it lasted. I'm sure I'll be willing to try that again sometime.
"Thank you; come again!" Paz waved goodbye to the two fans who asked for her—well, my—signature.
Right, unlike those three, she's famous enough that people stop to ask her for signatures or pictures outside of Alsius Academy. Then again, what else? She's only done a few shows outside of Atlas, but hey, she got famous enough to meet Weiss Schnee.
Now, what am I waiting for? I better board the ship for Beacon while I can.
I sighed, then walked over to the two ships I'm scheduled to take: the one on my left and the one in front. Emi and Talan are taking the latter, Paz and Liv the former. Simple enough.
"Emi!"
I—Emi turned around to see her stepparents waiting for her. In particular, her stepmother waved towards her. "Ma! Papa!" She called back, rushing to hug the two, one by one. The two hugged her back.
"Good luck at Beacon!" Her mother started to tear up. "I'm proud of you..!"
"I know," Emi smiled. "Trust me, everything's going to be great!"
Her stepfather sighed, then looked up into his daughter's eyes. "Emi," he began, "please, listen closely as I say this: I'm glad you got accepted into Beacon, and I get how important it is to your new life as a Huntress."
"Yeah, but?"
"While becoming a Huntress may be your dream, it is also a rather dangerous one. And I want you to stay safe if you can. Is that okay with you?"
"No problemo!" Emi saluted, then looked off to the side. "Well, I'll be on my merry way! Later, alligators~!" She waved to her parents as, finally, she made her way towards the front airship.
As always, keeping distance between my four bodies should be easy enough. I've done this with one of them in each of the four Kingdoms, I can do a crowded area with all my parts. After all, I can't raise suspicion among... everyone...
I really, really can't let that happen. I just can't.
Is it normal to feel left out just because I'm not like them? Sure, it's one thing to be a Faunus. That alone can get alienating enough, particularly in Mistral. It's another to be four people at once. As far as I understand, there is no one else like me out there.
At least, that's all I know.
. . .
I gotta admit, the view from those ships is quite nice.
You got the City of Vale itself for one, but then there's the trees and mountains from far out, the river leading into the ocean, just how green the grass and trees looked... the sky's pretty clear, other than a couple clouds. Those clouds complimented the blue sky and the green land rather than overpowering the sun. Not that it looked too bad. Frankly, I prefer it to be sunny outside.
I wouldn't mind taking pictures of it, actually. Oh, wait. I have.
Of course, you gotta throw in a few selfies as well, because what teenager doesn't take any? I sighed. There's nothing else to do than to either entertain myself, check texts, or see who's on the ship. C'mon, when's the initiation? I'm ready to kick Grimm ass and take names!
Eh. Time to play games.
Thus, I pulled out Emi's Scroll and started playing a game. Everything was great, but then there was that last Boarbatusk to pop. C'mon, kill it. I don't care how many birds I waste on that last Boarbatusk. I gotta finish that level, somehow!
Hang on. If I aim a little lower, maybe I'll finally pop that pig. I pressed my finger against my last bird, dragged to my left—this time making sure my finger's position was slightly higher than usual—and let go, watching as that bird—wait, that's it: that damned Borbatusk is dead!
The birds celebrated through the grilles of the speakers and at last, the results!
...One star. I'll take what I can get.
Phew! Glad to get that out of the way at long last. All that time sunk into trying to get past it and studying the level and launch trajectories necessary to clear that level, all the while avoiding walkthroughs that would have cheapened my victory? Worth it.
Onto the next one. And the next, and the next, and the chapter's done. There we go! All that progress just got made after days of trying and days of frustration. 'Finally,' Emi let out a silent sigh of relief. 'The big bad Boarbatusks are done.'
Okay, who else is—wait. No. Freaking. Way.
The world has to be kidding me. Weiss is on the same ship as Paz. The future CEO of the Schnee Dust Company herself is standing there with one of her butlers, brandishing a kind of rapier I hadn't seen before.
What happened? Did she not want the company anymore and move onto greener pastures? Had she been for the greater good the whole time? Who knows, but hey, I guess I'll try talking to her.
"Hello." Er, I mean... "Surprise seeing you here, Weiss," Paz looked at her with a smile.
Weiss was inspecting her nails when Paz's words disturbed her relative peace. "You must be Ms. Pastel Pacana herself," she spoke rather flatly, slowly looking towards her.
"Indeed! The Magician of Atlas herself, right here." Paz held her hands behind her back with a wink. "So, what brings you here? Weren't you supposed to be, y'know—"
"Inheriting the family company? Oh no," Weiss whipped her hair back. "I'm here to be a Huntress. After all, it's a life I want to pursue."
"Ah." Paz adjusted her tie. "You know, I would have expected otherwise, but that's respectable. My mother wanted me to get into the show biz as a magician, but I had different ideas."
Weiss's interest was piqued, but the increasing amount of eyes on her quickly eroded that into irritation. At that point, the unneeded attention was getting to the point where she simply wouldn't take it. "If you don't mind, I'll have to cut this short." Weiss sighed with a wave of her hand in her lack of will to continue. "Good day."
"Until then!" Paz took off her hat and bowed to the departing Weiss, who had just departed elsewhere on the ship.
'Huh, that was short,' Paz sat down and sighed. Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if I'm the latest in a series of annoyances for her. Not to say I'm particularly guilty of that, probably because that was entirely unprompted, but I'm sure she's had cameras, microphones, and flashlights flashed into her face in the past. And considering how controversial the Schnee Dust Company has been for its treatment of its... primarily Faunus miners, I can see where it was headed.
Yeah, I'm beginning to see her point.
Is the ship landing? I looked out the windows and saw that we were pulling up to Beacon. Oooh, I can feel it; four years at Beacon, here we come! All the team attacks I'll finally get to do, all the goofing around that I can actually pull now that these four are together...
And we've landed. Okay, that wasn't too long, thankfully.
Paz, Livio, Emi, and Talan all got up to walk out of the ship, crossing their respective bridges with nary a glance at each other. Shoot, how do I do this? I either just maintain my distance between myselves, or try to make them out as a friend group.
The first one could work, but here's the problem: they've met before. I know it was stupid of me to involve Livio and Emi in that alley fight, but c'mon, I wanted to do a team attack. Based on that, I can assume they have each other's contacts and they met each other again that one time, so it's all good, right? Not gonna lie, I kinda fumbled that one, though. Kept tripping up, trying to think of how to effectively talk to myself, like jeez. At least nobody was looking, right?
...Right?
Anyways, the second one. I mean, given all that's happened, this can work? Well, it can't possibly be all that implausible—okay, them suddenly coming to rescue from afar was—but hey, I can handwave it like this: Paz had no actual friends, just leeches and vultures waiting to prey on her, Livio's introverted, Emi was bullied in Sanctum, and Talan... yeah, the less said about Talan's life, the better.
Know what, I'll just do the second one. Okay, where will I meet, where will I meet. Oh, I can just meet at that bench over there. Perfect, and it's right near a pond that goes around the arches. I'll just go over there.
"Uh, yo!" Emi called out to Paz and Talan, who noticed her waving enthusiastically towards them. The two stopped, the former tipping her hat towards her and the latter lowering the hood of his purple sweater, smiling.
"Good morning," Paz and Talan said back.
Livio turned his attention towards the three, joining them as Emi asked, "Guess we're... we're all together now!"
"Indeed." Paz nodded. "We just have to—" Shoot, what do I say? What should I say? Hmm, how about: "Whatever teams we end up on, we'll have to try our best. Understood?"
Yeah, I'm prepared to adapt just in case my bodies don't end up on the same team. Then again, who am I to complain? Whether or not they all form a team together, they'll have fun separately like they have for the past 17 years or so.
"Understood!" Emi stood upright with a salute as the four approached the benches with Paz and Talan proceeding to sit down. "And then after that, I—we, erm, discover... things about me—us!"
"We still have to pass Initiation," Livio remarked.
"Which is why we've spent our time practicing in all those combat schools," Paz commented. "Isn't that right?"
"Mmm, yeah." "Uh-huh." "I agree, yep."
"Right." And then these four just look off into the distance, I guess.
Bungled that one up, too. I should really practice talking to myself, but hey, that's practice.
Huh. The view's nice. Beacon looks even better in person than in all those pictures I saw of it. Students are nice too, at least from what I've seen. Fire swords, tridents, big guns even... I think one of those big guns transforms into a greatsword, judging by the button on its side? Ooh, maybe one of them could be an axe! Livio's got one, but I don't think he's ever managed to make more than a few guns.
Wait, is that Ash over there? Shoulder-length blonde hair, nigh-luminescent green eyes, dressed in a fancy black waistcoat and white dress shirt..? Sword with a trigger on its handle, holstered on her side, and a small luggage cart with her things...
Yep, that's Ash. Kinda feel bad for her, though. Blossomed into her own person, only to get crushed under the boot. I can't imagine finally becoming the person you've wanted to be, only to then get shouted at and subsequently oppressed in the process.
Must've been demoralizing.
So, do I talk to her? Wait, if I do, how? I can't just creep her out by talking all at once, but I can't stand around awkwardly while one of me talks! Everyone's going to look at me funny and think weird things about me!
What the hell do I do?
Yeah, I'll deal with that later. Besides, I have an initiation to worry about anyway.
Wait, what the hell—what's she doing here?! I'm not sure how, but the way the hair strands brighten at the ends and the tint of those dark teal pupils, just... dear God, is she here?! I really hope not. I don't want to deal with her all over again, especially after having seen students get expelled because of her—plus I already barely got through my interactions with her back at Alsius.
I don't need a repeat of those days here.
Then again, who knows? Just a white tank top, a sky blue zip-up jacket, and boxing gloves on the sides. Booty shorts, high socks, and tennis shoes too. I don't see her going around telling people she's gonna be the, ugh, "Atlesian Supergirl," or something silly like that. All around, good signs.
Well, so far, that is.
What else is the—Wait, hold on, that can't be right. Black hair, icy-blue eyes, and that young face. Didn't I see him serving coffee back at that cafe? Hmm, what's his name, what's his name—ah, Neve. Eh, not much to say about him other than that he was nice to Paz and Talan when they visited. Something tells me that if he weren't, he either wouldn't have been there at all or Paz and Talan would've sworn that place off the moment they left.
Can't say the same about Paisley, though. Cockroach.
Welp, that makes two people I've seen before who randomly decided: "Hey, what if I showed up randomly at the same academy Strings is attending despite showing no apparent desire to do so? That would be really surprising, wouldn't it?"
Wait, where did everyone go?
Suddenly, an explosion rang out from afar, shaking the ground and bench around me. Wh—what happened?! Across the courtyard, two girls were standing near the site of the explosion, one of whom had a ponytail and was covered in a red smoke with ice and electricity materializing within!
I sighed, then made my way to the Beacon amphitheater.
. . .
"I'll... keep this brief," Ozpin's words echoed in my head as I left the amphitheater.
"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."
As the words replayed in my head, I stood in front of the statue. Two people atop a rock, a Beowolf below them. It looks beautiful for a stone statue, don't get me wrong, but that's not what I'm here for.
Instead, I'm here to see myself in those two people.
After what Emi's birth father did and the disappearance of Talan's family, I want to make sure that doesn't happen again to all the other people in the world. Indeed, I'm going to do just that under the guise of four "different" people, but I can't just stand back and waste my time all the time.
Sure, I'll let myself have fun, but if someone needs me, I'll be there for them.
"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."
He's right. I have to improve now that I'm here. This place is, by far, the golden opportunity to forge those team attacks of my dreams in fire, and it'd be a shame if I didn't. From the sound of my research on the CCTnet, Beacon is a rather difficult Huntsman Academy to graduate from, but that can be said for all the other ones. No wonder some people put so many hours into training; they have to be at their best when they do get admitted and they get put into initiation.
Plus, I didn't want to admit it, but... fine. I didn't think I ever had that problem, but now that I've been together, I'm gonna say this: whenever all four of my bodies are around, I get afraid of people. Perhaps it's not wanting to get found out. Maybe it's the fact that I've only talked as individuals, not as a group. Or it could be just me.
Still, though.
"You will gather in the ballroom tonight; tomorrow, your initiation begins. Be ready. You are dismissed."
I will, Glynda. I will. And once tomorrow comes, I'm gonna kick some Grimm ass!
Original AN (12/24/2022): Hello! Since people wanted a full length story out of the oneshot I made a little while ago, I have decided to make a whole story out of the concept! Let's hope this will go over well.
Anyways, here's the first chapter, or as I call it "Together at Last"!