I only got a single coin after the airship that Weiss and I were on left Atlas airspace.

[Next Step: Survive.]

My eyes blinked twice before my mind understood what it was I was reading. This could be meaningless, and just a placeholder until an actual quest popped up. It could just be a silly joke, but I didn't find it remotely funny.

Survive means to continue to live after the risk of death. If I were to take this just at face value, my life was at risk, it was as simple as that.

Death was something that I was surprisingly not okay with. I would think that since I have already died and been reborn I would be a bit more open to it, but for eighteen years I've been preparing myself to survive, to live in this world. So dying wasn't anywhere on my list of goals.

Strictly speaking, I had a few days to accomplish my last quest, to leave Atlas, so I didn't know when the danger I was supposed to survive would arrive. The airship was moving steadily and would arrive at Argus in a few hours, and then it would take a day on another airship to reach Vale.

If my quest was to complete the story, it would stand to reason that arriving at Beacon would be its own quest, so basically the window of this quest was just about limited.

Fuck all this. My heart and brain were working overtime to prepare, but it was all pointless since I didn't know the nature of the danger. The best thing I can do is relax and ensure I was in a reasonable fighting condition.

Or fuck that too. I shook my head as I stood up from my seat and then walked out of my compartment. There was a simpler and more effective way to make sure I survived. I walked down the small hallway, and knocked in the door.

"One moment." The sound of clutter filled the silence, before the door was opened. "N-Noire, w-what brings you here?" Weiss looked a bit flushed, her cheeks were just a bit red.

"Sorry, is this a bad time?"

"Uh, no, no, not at all, come in."

As she stood aside, I walked into her compartment, her area was a bit messy. Food wrappers were littering a table, and the small blue fairy was nibbling on a wafer, small crumbs were falling along some snowflakes. "Did you name that thing yet?"

"Oh, uh, no." Weiss closed her door and then she cleaned up a bit, before taking a seat in her bed.

I wasn't a fan of the beds on this airship, they lacked a good shock absorption, so turbulence was a pain. Fortunately we won't be sleeping in this piece of junk.

"I was, uh, h-hoping we could name her together."

"You know what? I never noticed before, but you sure do stutter a lot. You didn't use to do so, in fact I think you only started around the time we started sparring, I didn't give you brain damage or something did I? It would explain some of your more bizarre behavior."

Weiss coughed into her fist, and the look in her eyes changed. "Nonsense, I assure you I am perfectly healthy. And I do think that since you gave form to a living thing it is your duty to name it."

"Ugh, fine." I had claimed to be its creator, of course I didn't specify how I created it and only vaguely said it must've been my Semblance. "Fey, let's go with fey."

"Veto." Weiss huffed.

"C'mon, it's a good name, and also I made him, so I say his name is Fey."

"It was a gift to me, and at the moment it didn't have a name. Since it's mine now, I have a say in its, no, her name."

"Then why do you want my input? Also her? Did you check or ask or something?"

"It's a joint responsibility, you made her and I'll raise her. And I can just tell."

"So why can't we name her Fey?"

"I'm not daft, I can tell you're just barely not saying Fae, she needs a more personal name."

"Fine, give me a minute." I checked my brain for an appropriate name. "Uh, how about Noelle?"

"Noelle? Hmm, Noelle." Weiss placed out a hand, and the ice fairy flew down into her palm. "Hello, Noelle."

Noelle made happy chirping sounds, as she finished the wafer that had been the size of her body.

"Great, now that we've named her." Fuck, I couldn't really think of another topic to occupy time, I couldn't just outright say I think we're in danger. My eyes scanned her room, and I found something to talk about, a book. "Hey, did you hear? Apparently they're making a TV show out of those books."

"I heard, d-do you want to watch it with me? I know you said you aren't a fan of reading, but watching it is fine, right?"

"I don't know, you've been a big fan since the first book, you should have the best experience watching it possible. I'll probably ruin it by asking questions."

"Okay." Weiss looked downfallen.

I didn't want to leave yet, but changing the topic to something random while she was sad might lower her affection for me. I would prefer to remain a dependable brother who was a tad weak and needed protection. "Hey, since I got nothing else to do, I'll read the book until we land, how's that sound?"

"Great!" She immediately bounced up and dashed over to her book, then she shoved it in my hands. "Uh, I hope you like it."

"Sure." I sat down on a nearby chair, and read the first book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series. I still remember typing out every thing I remember, so it was a bit dull to read again.

Since I didn't plan on going into the Dust business, or the spotlight like Weiss, I decided to make some money by plagiarizing some literature from earth. I published A Game of Thrones when I was 11, and was counting on Salem's attacks to disrupt society so no one would care that The Winds of Winter won't ever be released.

As I re-read this book, I was once again reminded of how embarrassed Weiss had been when I found her reading this book in a secluded corner. Seems she was really taken by the story, but still I don't think this kind of book is good for a young girl, though I guess she was in puberty and she had started training with me, so she was pretty mature I guess.

I yawned as I closed the book, Weiss had fallen asleep, and Noelle was drifting around her without a care.

I was still a bit disappointed that I didn't have my own fairy, but I was sure my twin sister would do her best to protect me.

What was I doing here again? I yawned again, and rubbed my sleepy eyes. I tried standing up, but my body was too tired, and I fell back into my seat. My body was going numb and I felt confused.

[Next Step: Survive.]

Oh yeah, that was—

Sudden and sharp turbulence made my head smash against the wall behind the chair I was in. As my vision faded, I tried to use my Aura to stay awake, but I couldn't focus as everything was going black.

In my final moments of awareness, I saw masked people with guns and swords barge into the room.

A loud bang reached my ears, and sharp pain blossomed in my chest.

With my head lulling, I saw blood leaking from my chest.

I couldn't breathe as my consciousness shut down.