Welcome to Beacon

There were three large circular landing pads for the airships, and the large airship that was carrying the freshman students settled in the middle pad. Ruby was also sure she saw a dock for transport by water at the foot of the canyon. She made the mistake of looking at the main campus while exiting from the airship, causing her to freeze, dumbstruck and in awe at the sight of the prestigious Beacon Academy up close. From first glances, it seemed like a modern castle, mostly due to the Cross Continental Transmit tower and the smaller towers and structures around it that loomed over the entire campus. However, seeing it properly and up close brought a newer perspective.

The pathways from the landing pads led to a circular space in between, which was connected to a large and wide main avenue with a clearly better appearance with the concrete than any other paths. The pathway of the main avenue was a dark shade of black and was elevated by a few meters with steps connecting the circular space to the elevated pathway. There were railings along the side, with neon blue lights glowing underneath. Light poles draped with green flags bearing the emblem of Vale were evenly placed along the length of the entire pathway, save for a single large circular area in the middle of the path, from which the path expanded into and contracts from. This spot seemed like a lookout spot for scenery, probably great for a date. But, Ruby believed she was destined to marry Crescent Rose, her beloved sniper-scythe.

The avenue ended at a large structure, somewhat like a dome with protrusions from within, the entrance covered with a pair of tall wooden doors that were now visibly open, but before this structure was a large circular pond area with circling pathways around and in between. The avenue had another set of stairs that led people down from the elevated path to the ground-level path here. At the center of it was a fountain with an iconic statue that showed the triumph of Vale in the Great War 80 years ago; it showed the last King of Vale standing atop a rock, raising his sword in triumph, next to a younger Faunus woman with large horns protruding from her head, who was known to be the one who led the forces of Vacuo into battle, who had a double-edged battleaxe planted into the ground in front of her. In front of the rock was a Beowolf, a wolf-like creature considered the most common type of Grimm, cowering in the shadow of the rock, believed to be in fear of the mighty King. Stretched around this fountain was a garden of trees with red leaves, probably taken from the popular 'red forest', Forever Fall, with benches placed under them.

Surrounding the structure in the middle was a double ring of colonnades, bisected by the main avenue. The first ring was placed within the pond, encircling the garden, while the second ring was taller than the first and was outside the pond, encircling the center area. There were large blunt tip designs for every alternating column in both rings of colonnades. Two large buildings were flanking either side of the structure in between. And of course, the medieval-esque towers in the background loomed over this arrangement of structures. Ruby was sure the dorms and classes would be in those towers, or at least behind the structures underneath. She hoped it was the former.

"Heeeyyyy, Ruby! Stop daydreaming or you'll be left behind!" Yang, who had walked all the way to the stairs before the elevated avenue before realizing she had lost her sister now waved at her, calling her name.

Ruby, unaware of how many minutes she had spent on the stairs descending from the airship with her mouth gaping and her eyes fixated on the campus, felt slightly embarrassed by the trouble she may have caused other exiting people and her face when they walked by her.

She quickly hurried over to Yang's side. Yang then faced the towers, comprehending the beauty she was viewing. "Wow. It's pretty amazing when you see it up close, huh? It feels like unlocking a new area in a video game, especially since we would always see it from a distance, shrouded in mystery." Yang smiled to herself when she made the reference to a video game, thinking how she still hadn't grown out of those and never would.

"Well, Ruby? What do you thi-" as Yang said these words, she turned around, and immediately regretted it. Her sister had the gleeful and dreamy eyes of a hungry predator that had found its prey. And in this case, the prey was…

"Oh. My. Gosh! Yang! Yang! Look at that! It's a foldable staff! Ooh! A gun-lance! No way, it's a fire sword! Oh my goodness what is tha-"

Before Ruby could rush off creeping people out by checking out their weapons and possibly setting them off by accident, Yang grabbed her by the hood of her cloak and pulled her back.

"Now, easy there little one. Don't go running off like that. I don't want you getting a bad reputation off the bat like Vomit Boy there." She pointed at a tall, blonde freshman torturing a poor trashcan with his puke. "Besides, they're just weapons. No need to get excited."

"Just weapons!?" Ruby exclaimed in reply. "They're like an extension of ourselves! They're a part of us! A part of what makes us, us! Ugh, why are they so cool?"

"What about your own weapon? I'm sure your Crescent Rose wants the attention sometimes too."

"No, no, I love Crescent Rose! It's just, I also love discovering new ones. It's like meeting new people. But better. And less stressful." She said this as she moped.

Yang sighed, before offering some advice, "Why don't you just go and make some friends of your own? It's a lot easier than it seems at first." As she said this, she pulled Ruby's hood down on her.

"But…why would I need friends if I've got you?" Ruby replied, lifting her hood.

Yang looked at Ruby, and then looked down at the ground in front of herself. She didn't particularly enjoy how her sister kept pushing herself away from social situations like this.

Luckily for her, Vomit Boy broke the awkward tension.

He was hurling even louder all the way into the trashcan. Yang was sure nobody was going to use that garbage can for a long, long time after today. But then, she saw an opportunity. She put her hand on Ruby's back and shoved her in his direction.

"Well, here's your chance to make a friend! Off you go!"

"Huh!?" was the only response Ruby was able to muster as her sister's arms of incredible strength shoved her away. When she finally regained balance, she saw Yang dashing away at nearly the same speed Ruby's Semblance could create.

"Hey! What's the deal with this!!??" Ruby called after her.

"Well, you know how that saying goes, sometimes you've gotta sprint before you can crawl!" shouted Yang, her voice fading away.

"THAT'S NOT HOW THE SAYING GOES!" Ruby shouted back, doubting her sister could hear her.

Ruby began stressing out. She felt dizzy again and muttered, pleading for Yang to return. Before she knew it, her knees felt too weak to keep her upright, and she crashed onto the ground. Except, she landed on a different surface than she anticipated. Something like a…briefcase…

"Hey! What do you think you're doing!?"

Ruby heard an unfamiliar voice. The tone, combined with the voice, reminded her of rich, spoiled brats from the fiction she used to read and watch back home.

She sat up to see that she had, indeed, landed on a briefcase. Several, in fact. White, metallic briefcases with a familiar snowflake symbol that she remembered seeing in the Dust shop from the other night. They seemed to be in a mess.

"Are you deaf? I asked you what you think you're doing, you dolt!"

Ruby turned to look at the speaker of this unfamiliar voice and was greeted by a furious expression from what looked like a literal princess dressed for combat. "Sorry…" she said.

This princess, suspiciously armed with a voice you would hear from rich and spoiled kids, had a pretty face consisting of pale skin and pale blue eyes, along with a scar running vertically down her left eye. She also wore thin, rectangular silver earrings. Covering her forehead, right eyebrow, the sides of her face and part of her ears were bangs of white hair that was…styled oddly in Ruby's perspective, to say the least. It was pulled back into a long ponytail, but…for some reason, it had been placed slightly to the right side of her head, pinned with an icicle-shaped tiara. Nonetheless, her appearance still spoke of that of a princess.

What intensified the princess image was her outfit; she wore a thigh-length strapless dress with faint color graduation from white to pale blue at its hem, which appeared to be stitched and scalloped to resemble snowflakes, with layers of white tulle under the skirt. Alongside this was a small piece of black lace sitting in front of her neckline and a necklace of a small, black apple pendant on a silver chain. Over the dress, she wore a bell-sleeved bolero with the same color graduation as her dress from the shoulder to her wrist along with the same snowflake designs at the wrists, lined in red with a ruffled collar. Under her dress she wore pale blue thigh-high boots that were white at the toes along with slightly elevated and wedged dark blue soles that were higher at the back than the front. Finally, a thin pale blue sash was wrapped around her waist.

She picked up one of the briefcases and opened them, checking on the contents, probably to see if they were still in one piece. She then pulled out a small glass bottle from the case that contained red-colored Dust, which Ruby recognized as fire Dust.

"You fool! Do you have any idea what this is!? This is usable Dust mined and refined by the Schnee Dust Company! What would you have done if these vials broke and, say, exploded!!??" she continued her rant that was unfortunately only going through one of Ruby's ears and coming out of the other, until the last line.

"Wait, 'exploded'!?"

The girl gave Ruby an annoyed and sassy 'are you serious?' expression, before rolling her eyes and replying to her.

"Fine. Even though you should already know this, allow me to enlighten you." The sass and pride inside her had arisen and become increasingly evident with the way she spoke those words and her expressions alongside them.

'Yep,' thought Ruby, 'definitely a princess.'

"Dust is a necessary resource to produce energy and electricity and to fuel the technology and weapons of the people of Remnant. It can even take the form of basic elements like fire, water, wind, earth, et cetera, but to be used efficiently as a resource it needs to be refined into a liquid or powder. However, refining the Dust can make it unstable and as such, dangerous, which is why it could've exploded with your stupid act." said the girl, giving an annoyed look at Ruby.

"Oh my gosh! I'm sorry, I had no idea! I mean, I knew Dust had all those elemental forms and is used as fuel and all, but I didn't know it could be dangerous like that…"

The girl sighed, before continuing her verbal slaughter of Ruby. "Seriously, how did someone so ignorant of such basic knowledge even get in at Beacon? What are you, braindead?"

The girl then gave Ruby a suspicious look. "Hold on a second…aren't you a bit too young to be attending Beacon?" She then gave her a smug smile when Ruby reacted, before putting her hands on her hips.

"You know, this isn't your ordinary combat school. Only the best come here in the hopes of becoming a great warrior, a proud Hunter, who protects the people of Remnant. We don't just spar and practice; we train to fight monsters and to be dependable guardians, the backbone of our modern society. This isn't a place for a dimwit child like you. Now why don't you just run along home to mommy, hmm?"

At the last line she bent forward and looked up at Ruby's eyes, trying to show the difference in height and maturity. Unfortunately for her, there wasn't much of a difference in height…or maturity. At least, physically.

Ruby was getting more and more frustrated the more the girl spoke. "What is wrong with you, you stuck-up princess!? I already apologized for what I did! Why can't you just accept that and go along with your day, huh?"

"Because an apology doesn't simply fix the errors you've made! What would you have done if the Dust vials broke and possibly exploded, huh? You could've put both of us in danger! You idiot!"

"Who do you think you are to call me an idiot, huh? You stupid princess, along with your stupid, prissy hairstyle! I mean, who even ties a ponytail like that!? That's an insult to hairstylists!"

The girl was dumbfounded with her mouth gaping at that comment.

"Besides, you shouldn't even be talking about proud Hunters and whatnot! A jerk with that kind of bad attitude could never be a so-called 'backbone of society'!"

"Shut up!" The girl had heard enough, and stomped her feet together, releasing a shockwave of wind in the process. She looked at Ruby with gritted teeth and a murderous expression, while Ruby was shocked at the display of power. A wave of nervous shock spread quickly through the mediocre-sized audience that had gathered around them to hear the argument, and they began to disperse.

"Stop. You're dragging your family name through dirt."

Another girl walked in from behind Ruby. She seemed around two to three inches taller than the other girl, was fair-skinned, had long, wavy black hair, amber eyes, purple eyeshadow in cat's-eye style, and a ribbon tied in an unusually large bow on top of her head.

She wore a black buttoned vest with coattails and a single silver button on the front. Underneath it was a white, sleeveless, high-necked crop undershirt and white shorts that had zippers on the front of each leg. Under these, she wore black low-heeled boots and full stockings with black graduating to purple from the thighs to the ankles. On the outside of both thighs, on her stockings, was an emblem resembling a fire that was colored white. She had a detached sleeve on her left arm and a silver cuff around her left bicep, and she had black ribbons wrapped around both forearms. She wore a loose black scarf and had a black blade diagonally sheathed on her back. In Ruby's view, it kind of looked emo.

'I don't think I want to do puberty anymore…' she thought to herself.

"And who do you think you ar-"

"You're just as stuck-up and bratty as the rumors say, Weiss Schnee. Heiress to the 'mighty' Schnee Dust Company." The new mysterious girl made air quotes when she said 'mighty'. "Not to mention, arrogant and prejudiced."

"How dare you!"

Ignoring Weiss's response, the girl continued her verbal assault. "All you do is babble about being a proud Hunter or a 'backbone to society'. You're full of pride, but nobody is proud of you. The irony there must be harsh." She then walked past her, while saying, "So, unless you enjoy making a fool of yourself and your family honor, I suggest you be quiet. Or else your family business's ethics won't be the only thing giving it a bad rep."

Before anyone knew, the girl had already ended the issue in one fell swoop and walked it off like it was nothing. The crowd that had remained to hear the mysterious girl verbally slaughter a Schnee were all shocked and impressed by the boldness of the girl. All Weiss could do in response was grit her teeth even harder – so harshly that Ruby thought they would chip off – in frustration and embarrassment and storm off to the large structure with the big wooden doors. "I-I won't forget this!" she warned, as she angrily stomped away. As she turned away, Ruby noticed the same snowflake emblem she saw on the briefcases now engraved on the back of Weiss's bolero.

"I'll try to make it up to you somehow!" Ruby called after her, despite knowing her efforts would most probably end in vain.

Out of nowhere, butlers in expensive-looking outfits had already picked up the briefcases and were following after the heiress.

Ruby, feeling intensely exhausted after the craziness that took place, fell to the ground and just lied there, arms and legs sprawled out, thankfully not landing in another person's belongings.

"Welcome to Beacon…at the trusty hands of the most lovable welcoming party…" Ruby muttered to herself, closing her eyes.

She then felt a shadow cover her face. She opened her eyes to see a tall boy with fair skin, dark-blue eyes and short, blonde hair messily layered on his head, with his hair being slightly longer on his right than his left, messily facing down, with the front part of this covering the right side of his forehead and nearing his right eye, while the left side of his hair was swept back.

"Hey there." he said. "You okay?" As he said this, he bent forward slightly, extending his right arm, gesturing to help her up.

"Um…yeah, I'm alright." Ruby took his hand and stood up.

"I'm Jaune. And you?"

"Ruby."

Jaune was wearing a somewhat casual outfit for someone who was attending a prestigious academy for fighting monsters, where first impressions would mean a lot on the first day. At least, compared to the outfits Ruby had seen.

He wore a black short-sleeved hoodie with detached reddish-orange sleeves on his forearms. Partially covering a symbol on his hoodie was a diamond-shaped white chest plate that was connected to another piece of armor covering his upper back through straps. There was also additional armor wedged between the chest plate and back plate that covered the spots under his armpits. On his shoulders he wore white spaulders with rerebraces set under them, although this armor only covered the outer sections of his shoulders and upper arms. He also wore brown wrist-length gloves with exposed fingertips and a small metal plate on the back of each. Under the gloves, another piece of white armor was visible, covering the back of his wrists.

Below this he wore blue jeans with a white patch on the left knee and black high-tops. He had two belts crisscrossing slightly above his hips, at the top of his jeans, with both belts being different shades of brown. There were a pair of small pouches on his right and a sword in a sheath strapped to his left.

Ruby gasped as she recognized this guy as the one who was witnessed and guilty of assaulting a garbage can with his puke and realized that his outfit didn't matter because he already had a horrible first impression.

"W-what?" he asked nervously.

"You're the guy who was throwing up with those exaggerated noises at the trashcan!" she replied, giggling uncontrollably.

"DON'T BRING IT UP!" he exclaimed, visibly embarrassed. "Motion sickness is a bigger issue than most people think, alright!? It can really mess with your stomach, especially if you've had a nice sandwich just before!"

"If you knew you had motion sickness why did you eat before getting on the airship in the FIRST PLACE!?" Ruby exclaimed, still in the middle of laughter.

"That's…a fair point." Jaune said, looking down. He had intended to make a good first impression with this seemingly cute girl, but it all flopped the moment he puked.

Ruby tried controlling her laughter before she spoke again. "Look, I'm sorry about that, okay? It's just, the first thing that came to mind when I saw you was…" her face puffed up again, about to burst in laughter, and she tried her hardest to keep it in. "…VOMIT BOY!" she said, clutching her stomach and laughing again.

Jaune formed an annoyed expression and rolled his eyes, drooping his shoulders. "Alright, fine, fine, I get it! Now can you please stop laughing?".

Ruby looked at Jaune and then stood straight, closing her eyes, straightening her hands and putting them together in front of her face, with the palms and fingers touching. She then took a few deep breaths, or at least made a horrible attempt to. A grin was slowly forming on her face and let out a soft giggle before trying to control herself again. She then opened her eyes, looked at Jaune with a dishonest poker face and almost burst into giggles, before finally controlling herself and grinning at him.

"Okay, okay, sorry, it's just that what you did was just so funny, okay?" she said, trying not to hurt his feelings.

Jaune rolled his eyes before responding. "Yeah, suuureee." He then looked at her with an intense face as the two began walking in the direction of the large structure. "The name's Jaune Arc, got it? Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue, and the ladies love it."

Ruby looked at him, suspicious. "Do they?"

"They will!" he said, quickly turning and extending his hands out, desperately trying to reason. He then retracted this gesture and looked at the ground while walking. "At least, I hope they will. I mean, my mom always says that…er, um, nevermind."

After a brief awkward moment, Ruby continued the conversation, a first for her. "So, what weapon do you have? I've got this beauty." She pulled out Crescent Rose and extended it into its scythe form, planting the blade into the ground.

"WOAH! Easy th- is that a scythe?" he said, seeming somewhat frightened.

"It's also a customizable, high-impact sniper rifle." Ruby said this pridefully as she swung the scythe to hold it with both hands, as if presenting it.

"A-a what?" Jaune was visibly confused.

"It's also a gun." Ruby cocked Crescent Rose as she said this.

"Ohhhhhhhhh…" said Jaune, finally understanding. "That's cool!" he said, excitedly.

"So, what about you?"

"Oh, um…" Jaune nervously pulled out his sword from his sheath. "I've got this…sword!" he said, with a nervous smile.

Ruby cooed at the sword before she even looked at it, and she was ever so slightly disappointed to discover it was a plain steel longsword with a blue handle and golden cross-guard.

"Yeah…and, um, I've got this shield too…" he nervously picked up the sheath in his other hand and extended it into a shield that attached to the outer section of his forearm. It was white with a gold trim and had an emblem of two crescents in gold.

"So…can they transform into anything? You know, like how this thing can become a gun or scythe?" Ruby nonchalantly tapped his shield, causing it to pop off Jaune's arm. He desperately fumbled with it for a few seconds, managing to get it back on his left arm.

"Th-the shield can get smaller! So that, you know, when I get tired of carrying it on my arm, I can…just put it away…?"

Ruby looked at him, confused. "But…wouldn't it weigh the same?"

Jaune looked down sheepishly. "Yeah, it does…"

Ruby tried to raise Jaune's spirits a little and spoke more. This really was a first time event. "Well," she laughed nervously, "I am kind of a nerd when it comes to weapons, so I guess I went a little overboard in designing it."

"Wait, you made that thing!?"

"Of course!" she said, putting Crescent Rose away. "All students at Signal Academy design their own weapons! Didn't you?"

"Um…it's a hand-me-down. My great-great-grandfather used it to fight in the war."

"Sounds more like a family heirloom to me! Besides, I kinda like it! Not many people appreciate the classics these days."

"Yeah…the classics." Jaune looked away, his expression slightly clouded over.

'I hope I didn't make him feel worse…' thought Ruby, as she changed the topic. "So, why'd you offer to help me up in the courtyard?"

"Eh, why not? My mom always says that strangers are just friends you haven't met yet." Jaune's expression quickly changed back to normal.

Ruby pondered on this for a moment, before taking in her surroundings. "Hey, do you know where we're supposed to go?"

Jaune seemed slightly surprised as he looked around. "Oh, no idea. I was just following you!"

The words 'are you serious?' were spelled all over the disgusted face she gave Jaune. Remembering the giant gardening tool she had, stuck to her lower back, Jaune nervously tried to help her out. "Um…it seems like everyone's going to that place. How about we go there?" he said, pointing to the large structure with tall, wooden doors at the end of the avenue.

"Okay, sure!" Ruby's face immediately changed into a smile as she walked to the place he pointed.

'I swear this woman is going to kill me one day…' Jaune thought, as he sighed in relief before following after her.

***

It turned out that the structure actually held a very large glass-domed amphitheater that also seemed to double as an assembly area.

There were crowds of first-year students gathered in the open area in front of a large, circular stage at the other end of the room with a single microphone standing at the front of it. The stage extended further backwards, causing that entire back portion of the room to be designed specifically for the stage, with the extended section being elevated with stairs, and a set of stairs leading down to the open area on each side, next to the walls. The entire stage also had a tall, ornate backdrop with blue lights. Tall, red curtains hung on either side of the stage that, when closed, could hide away the extended section. There were also a few doors set in irregular locations on the walls surrounding the open area; two regular-sized ones at the back, next to the stairs for the stage, a large one to the right of the main entrance and another one of the same size to the left of the main entrance. There was a slightly elevated black platform that circled around the open area directly in front of the walls. The dark walls rose to quite a few meters but were much shorter than the backdrop of the stage. This was because after the walls came raised bleachers arranged in a circle, surrounding the open area and stage, that began from the walls of the tall ornate backdrop. There was fencing composed of cyan hard-light Dust and Ruby could spot doors behind the bleachers that probably allowed the entry and exit of spectators.

"Ruby! Over here!"

Ruby heard her name and turned to where the voice came from. She saw Yang waving at her, sticking out like a sore thumb in the middle of a crowd of people to the right of the room.

"Oh, hey, I gotta go!" she called to Jaune. "I'll see you after the introduction!" she tapped his arm before running off, giving him an apologetic look.

"Hey, wait!" Jaune called after her, hoping to not be left alone. Unfortunately for him, it was ineffective, and he sighed, looking down. "Great. Where am I supposed to find another nice, quirky girl to talk to?" he said, walking off to the other side of the room.

Once Ruby arrived next to Yang, she asked, "So, little sister, how's your first day going? Made any new friends?"

"You mean when I got into a stupidly long and unnecessary argument with some random princess – no, heiress – because I tripped over her stupidly large luggage and then this mysterious pretty girl showed up and roasted her like barbecue and then I had to have an awkward walk and conversation with Vomit Boy just because YOU DITCHED ME?"

"Yikes. Sounds like it was fun."

"Did you even listen to me?"

"YOU!"

Ruby jumped at Weiss's voice, turned to find Weiss herself standing beside her, and clung onto her sister.

"Oh no, she's back for more!"

"What is this I'm hearing about me being roasted like barbecue? And being stupid? How dare you accuse me of that, you child!?"

"See, Yang!? All she does is yell at me! That's why the issue went on for so long! I just wanted her to stop yelling…"

"That's because you did something incredibly stup-"

"Ooooookay ladies, calm down!" Yang interrupted and prevented the second coming of what had occurred outside. "Look, lady," she said, turning to Weiss, "I think you two just got off on the wrong foot. Why don't you just start all over again and become friends?" she said, with a hopeful smile.

"Also, I'd appreciate it if you stop treating Ruby like she's a little kid."

"Great idea, sis!" Ruby jumped away from Yang and towards Weiss. "Okay. Here goes." She took a deep breath, and then spoke again. "Hello, Weiss! I'm Ruby! Wanna hang out? We could go shopping! You know, for….um…school supplies!"

Weiss gave her a deeper frown than the one she already had etched on her face. "I don't get how this is going to help you make it up to me…" she muttered. But then she forced a bright smile on her face. "Oh my gosh, yeah! And we can paint our nails, try on clothes, and talk about cute boys like tall...blonde...and scraggly over there!" she pointed behind her with her thumb without looking, hoping her description had been accurate, otherwise it would have completely humiliated her. Fortunately (or maybe unfortunately), it had landed on Jaune, who looked up when he heard those words spoken out loud, hoping someone had taken an interest in him. Weiss's completely random guess had actually worked.

Ruby was in awe at what she just witnessed. After all, Weiss hadn't even looked behind her but knew Jaune was there. 'She has to be some kind of genius!' was what Ruby was thinking. Unfortunately, she didn't sense the sarcasm.

"Oh, wow! Really!?" she said, getting excited.

"…" The two stared at each other for a few awkward seconds, Ruby's face unchanging while Weiss's slowly melting back into its regular frown as she spoke.

"NO."

"Aww…." Ruby looked down at her feet, to which Weiss simply scoffed and turned away, her arms crossed.

"Wow, you almost had me fooled there, Weiss. 10 out of 10 for sarcasm." Yang commended Weiss even though she just bullied her little sister.

"Great job supporting your sister, Yang." Ruby said, giving her an angry look.

"Hey, you gotta be a good sport, you know?"

Their short banter was interrupted by the sound of someone clearing their throat at the mic. The first-year students looked up to see Professor Ozpin standing in front of the microphone. He smiled at the audience.

"Hello, new students, and welcome to Beacon Academy. As you all know, Beacon is one of the only four Hunter Academies in the world, and the only place where you can train to be a Hunter in Vale. These Academies have been founded solely to train, educate, and prepare Hunters to be the Guardians this world needs against the threat of Grimm; creatures considered to be pure destruction manifested in physical form. They cannot be fallen through ordinary means, and so they pushed the world to the brink of darkness in the past. However, the discovery of Dust changed the entire situation. It allowed us to drive away the darkness, allowing us to make way for civilization and prosperity as we discovered more and more methods to harness this Dust to our own needs. And now, in order to continue preserving these peaceful times brought about by our ancestors, you all have enrolled into four years of strenuous training. We can only hope that you are all prepared for what is to come. However, do not forget that it is important to balance work and play. You are all still young, so you should also strive to make these next four years the best in your lives." Ozpin continued smiling down at the freshman students.

However, his smile quickly faded as he displayed a grim expression. "Although, I must say…all of you here today have travelled here in hopes of achieving something. Those goals of yours may…be questionable and differ from what it means to be a Hunter, but I can only hope that at the very least, you have come here in search of knowledge. To hone your craft and acquire new skills. And then, hopefully, you plan to dedicate your life to, as mentioned, preserving the peace through protecting the people; to be 'guardians'. But…I look amongst you…and all I see is energy, wasted. A dying spark, desperately in need of direction and purpose. You may assume that knowledge will quickly free you of this burdensome school and that being a Hunter is simply the ideal way to live. But your time at this academy will prove that knowledge can only take you so far, and that there is so much more to being a Hunter than an ideal solution. I suggest you do not waste the overflowing energy in you and reignite your spark; give yourself a direction and purpose, because I assure you; without either of those, you will not be leaving this academy with a Hunter's License. In the end, it is up to you to take the first step."

As Ozpin walked away, he could sense the impression left upon the freshman students with those words. The atmosphere had become tense and grim. He'd lived long enough to be able to tell when such feelings were in the air.

Glynda, who had been standing behind Ozpin throughout his speech, then walked up to the microphone, and sternly gave the final words of the introduction. "You will assemble in the ballroom tonight. Tomorrow will be your Initiation. Be prepared. You are dismissed."

There was chatter all over.

"Wow…that was like the Headmaster of Beacon personally threatened every freshman to step up their game before school even starts or they would get kicked out." Ruby blurted, after the speech.

"Well, it's true that the role of a Hunter is taken for granted. People nowadays underestimate the purpose and necessity of Hunters in civilization." Weiss said, for once not sounding like she wanted to pick a fight. It seemed like Ozpin's speech rattled her, too. "The threat of Grimm is the lowest now than any other time in history, and Hunters can have other well-paying purposes, along with complete freedom of choice. People have formed the image of the Hunter profession providing a comfortable lifestyle for the least effort, and the concept of a true Hunter is tainted more with each generation…" she trailed off at the end, slightly embarrassed upon realizing how much she was talking.

"Then, well, I guess Ozpin's words were for the best! Right, sis?"

"Yeah…" replied Yang, although she paid no heed to what was being said. She was deep in thought, her expression grim. Ruby had never witnessed Yang in such deep thought or with such a serious expression before.

Their deep thinking was interrupted by Jaune appearing beside them, trying to pick up the chance he thought Weiss had left him. "I'm a natural blonde, y'know." He said, trying to sound smug, but that never seemed to work with Jaune.

Weiss simply facepalmed at his efforts and walked away, leading to Jaune drooping his shoulders, feeling hopeless. The other two just smirked at him, about to laugh.

Later that night, Yang found Ruby writing something in her notebook, and plopped down next to her on her own mattress. Ruby was wearing her usual pajamas; a black tank-top that, even though Yang couldn't currently see because of Ruby's front side being on her mattress but knew, had a heart-shaped Beowolf design on the chest, along with long white pants decorated with pink roses. Along with that, she was wearing her favorite sleeping mask; black in color and decorated with horizontally-oriented triangular red eyes.

On the other hand, Yang was wearing what she liked to wear at sleepovers; an orange tank top with her emblem, a flame shaped like a heart, colored in red on the chest. Under that, she wore plain black boy shorts.

"It's like one biiiig slumber party!" Yang said, while jumping on to the mattress.

"I don't think Dad would approve of all the boys, though." Ruby replied.

"I know I do." Yang gave a satisfied smile as she ogled the shirtless boys horsing around on the other side of the ballroom. She then saw Jaune walk by and immediately formed an expression of disgust.

"So, what's that?"

"A letter back to the gang at Signal. I promised them I would tell them all about Beacon, and how things are going." Ruby smiled as she said this.

"Aww, that's so cuuuute!!!" Yang was met with a pillow straight to the face.

"Shut up! I told you I had to leave my friends behind! It's weird not knowing anyone here…"

"What about Jaune? He's….nice…? There you go, plus one friend! 100% increase!"

"Pretty sure Weiss counts as a negative friend…back to zero."

"There's no such thing as a 'negative friend'! You just made one friend and one enemy!" Since Ruby felt that Yang seemed way too happy about that, she gave her another pillow to the face.

"Look, its only been one day! Trust me, you've probably got friends all around you, and you just haven't met them yet because you're so anti-social."

"I'm not anti-social." Ruby said grumpily. "I can socialize. I'm just not good at it."

"Yeah, well, same thing. By the way, why write a letter when you can just message with the Scroll?"

"Well, dad and uncle Qrow once said that letters are a way to show how much you appreciate the other person because you put in the effort to write it out yourself, or something like that. I don't want them to think I don't really care about them."

"I can bet you're gonna have so much fun here, you're gonna forget all about them."

"Yang! I don't want to!"

"What are you two talking so loudly about? Some of us are trying to…sleep…" Weiss had just interrupted, trying to get some sleep, and realized who the two girls she was reprimanding were. "Oh. Of course it's you two." Weiss was wearing a faded blue nightgown with short sleeves and a white trim. Her snowflake emblem, which Ruby and Yang figured were the Schnee family's emblem, was visible on the upper-right chest. Most notably, her hair was worn down plainly.

"Hey! What do you mean by that!?" said Yang.

"It means exactly as its said. You two together are like a disaster."

"Wha- how can you say that when you don't even know us!?"

Ruby butted in, saying, "Guys! Shh! Seriously! Weiss is right, people are trying to sleep, you know?"

"Oh, now you're on my side."

"I was always on your side!"

"Yeah, what's your problem with my sister!? She's just trying to be nice!" said Yang, joining in on the argument again.

"She's a hazard to my health!"

"What is wrong with you people?" A new voice, familiar to both Ruby and Weiss, came from behind the sisters. It was the same girl who had insulted Weiss earlier that day. Her pajamas seemed to be based on styles seen in the East, in the continent of Anima and, more specifically, the kingdom of Mistral. She wore a relatively small, black yukata-style shirt with white lining, closed over a purple undershirt. She had a skirt of the matching style as the shirt. She was also wearing a black obi around her waist, tied with a black and white string. Currently, she was reading a book, her eyes peeled to it, while reprimanding the other three. At the same time.

"You guys are still going at it even when its nighttime…can't you just chill for a moment? Especially you, Weiss."

"YOU! I never got to tell you off after you ran away like that earlier today!"

"Actually, you were just dumbfounded after what I said. Hit home, didn't it?"

Weiss scoffed at that. "Why are you blaming me for this anyways!?"

"Because you started the fight?"

"No, it was the blondie who started shouting!"

"Look, that doesn't matter anymore. Just shut up and practice what you preach; let people get some sleep."

Weiss was dumbstruck again by the audacity of the girl, but before she could retaliate again, Ruby spoke up.

"Hey, um…what's your name?"

Yang silently gasped in shock at this new development in her little sister. Usually it was Yang asking for the names and Ruby just sitting in the corner.

The girl turned her eyes away from her book and stared at her for a brief moment. "Blake." she said.

"Blake…what're you reading?"

Blake's facial expression showed a slight surprise before she responded. "Oh, this? It's a story about a man with two souls, fighting to take control of his body."

Yang formed a slightly disgusted expression at that description, but Ruby's words contradicted Yang's opinion. "Wow, that sounds interesting. You know, I love books. My mom and Yang used to read them to me almost every night before bed." Yang smiled as she gave a small wave towards Blake. "Stories of heroes and monsters…they're part of the reason that I want to be a Hunter!"

Blake gave a soft chuckle as she replied. "And why is that? Hoping you'll live happily ever after?"

"Well, I hope we all will! But, you see, as a little girl, I wanted to be just like the heroes in those books. Like, someone who fought for what was right, and protected the people…and all out of the desire in their hearts, not wanting any sort of material compensation for it."

Blake broke out a small yet soft smile as she heard this and put down her book. "That's…quite ambitious for a child. Unfortunately though, the real world just isn't like a fairytale…" Blake's smile melted into a sad frown.

"Well…that's why we're here, isn't it? To make it better?"

Before Blake could respond, Yang hugged (and possibly suffocated) Ruby tightly. "Ohhh, you're so adorable, my baby sister! Big sister is so proud of you~" Ruby tried fighting back, but her sister's hold was unbreakable. She made muffled screams from Yang's chest. Blake could make out a few words; "Cut…it…out…you…human…gorilla! Help…me…I'm…gonna…die…"

Blake looked over to Weiss and saw her already lying down on her bed, turned over, facing away from the sisters, probably asleep. Unbeknownst to her, though, Weiss was awake and had heard the whole thing, and was pondering on it.

Suddenly, a stern and loud voice rang across the ballroom. With it, every action in room froze in fear and anyone awake to hear the voice broke out in a cold sweat.

"CUT THE COMMOTION AND GET TO BED, YOU EXASPERATING FRESHMEN! IF YOU'RE SO FULL OF ENERGY, HOW ABOUT YOU SAVE IT FOR WHEN YOU'LL NEED IT, LIKE TOMORROW?"

And thus, every person awake was now suddenly lying on a mattress, covered in their blankets. Professor Goodwitch's words had cut the noise faster than the spread of wildfire.

Although, even after lights out, everyone awake was filled with excitement for their actual first day as students at Beacon, and the final, decisive entrance examination that awaited them; the Beacon Initiation.