[Left Atlas!] - [1 Coin!]

A single coin?

I only got a single coin after the airship that Weiss and I had boarded left the airspace of Atlas.

[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. However, 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', if I should call it so, to leave Atlas. So, I didn't know when the danger that 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 a different 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 to a day and a few hours.

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 could do was 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 at the door.

"One moment!" The sound of clutter filled any sort of silence that might've filled the air, before the door was opened with a hiss. "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 clicked a button and closed her door, then she cleaned up a bit, before taking a seat on her bed.

I wasn't a fan of the beds on this airship, as they lacked a good shock absorption, so turbulence was a pain. Fortunately, we won't be sleeping in this piece of junk. I could only hope the next airship was better, or I'll just stay up all night.

"I was, uh, h-hoping we could choose a name together." Weiss sheepishly looked at her twirling fingers as she spoke.

"You know? I never noticed it 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 since then."

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 his, 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 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 eating 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 series out of those books you like."

"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."

"You wouldn't be a bother! In fact, I'd love to tell you about the things you don't understand."

"Weiss, if I asked questions I'd just be taking away your focus from the show. I just want you to enjoy it as much as possible, is that too much to ask? Aren't you excited to watch it?"

"I'd enj…" Her face quickly flushed red as her words died in her throat. "I am excited, I want to see the characters I grew up with in action. Though some actors don't quite match up to my imagination."

"Oh? Who exactly, and do you know of any other actor who would be better for the role?"

"N-no one in particular. Everyone is a pretty good match for their characters in the books, it's just that… I always pictured a different appearance for two characters." Her voice was as quiet as a mouse as she finished talking.

"Which characters? And what did you imagine they looked like?" I was mostly just trying to keep the conversation going, I didn't particularly care about her headcanon.

"Y-you…" Her head swiveled away, "…wouldn't get it."

"Oh, if it's on your mind you can always talk to someone, it doesn't have to be me. I know you browse some story forums, you should make some friends by chatting about your grievances.

The faint red coloring her cheeks faded away completely. "H-how do you know?"

"Hmm? When I came to wake you up one morning, your Scroll was still on in your hand. Y'know it's not good to be up on your Scroll until you pass out, right?"

"D-did you see anything else?" Her voice was shaking.

Ah. I get it.

"If you're asking if I read anything, you should know by now that I don't like reading. And I don't like invading people's privacy, so why would I go snooping around your stuff?"

I can see the tension leave her body.

"That's… good." Her shoulder slumped a bit, but she seemed a bit nervous.

Relax Weiss, I didn't read any cringey fan-fics you might've written, or see any ship war you might've taken part in. Perhaps I should've, but I do think it's healthy for you to have separate hobbies form me, it'll help you grow.

I personally didn't get you involved in a lot of my own hobbies, mostly just because I gave up on most stuff within a year. The only field I didn't immediately give up, even though I'm struggling with it, is mechanics and robotics, but that's for reasons I can't really talk about with you.

Though, it didn't look like she wanted to keep talking in general at this moment.

I didn't want to leave yet, but changing the topic to something random while she was feeling down might lower her trust and affection for me. I would prefer to remain an emotionally dependable brother who was a tad physically weak and required protection from serious danger.

"Hey, since I have nothing else to do, I'll read a book until we land. How's that sound?"

"Great!" She immediately bounced up and dashed over to her book collection stuffed in a suitcase, then she shoved one in my hands. "Uh, I hope you like it." Her smile was wide.

As I stared at her face, I realized something. She didn't have a scar over her eye.

Like the absence of some of her songs, it was an event I categorized as something that would someday happen. But for eighteen years I've seen an unmarked face, and I had forgotten about her scar until this very moment.

"Sure." I looked away from my sister and sat down on a nearby chair. Then I 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 the book 'A Game of Thrones' when I was 11, and 'A Dance with Dragons' should be released to the public in a few months. I was counting on Salem's attacks to disrupt society so no one would care that 'The Winds of Winter' wouldn't ever be written.

By the way, the 'Harry Potter and Order of the Phoenix' book was just published a few months ago, and the 'Prisoner of Azkaban' movie is coming out in a couple months.

The filming of 'The Lord of the Rings' was still in progress, Grimm attacks kept interrupting takes. Eventually I got fed up with the setbacks and included some attacks in the script, it'll probably dilute the film a bit.

I left the filming and production up to the studios, but I was still directly involved with script writing and casting decisions. If Weiss did really have an issue with an actor, I would've made a few calls.

As I re-read this book, I was once again reminded of how embarrassed Weiss had been when I found her reading it in a secluded corner. It seems like 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 had started puberty a bit earlier than most and she had started combat training with me, so she was pretty mature I guess.

I yawned as I closed the book, Weiss had fallen asleep on her bed, 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.