Beacon Cliff, Beacon Academy, Sanus.

They crested the last of the pathway they'd discovered, set into the wall of the cliff and stepped out onto the grass. The pathway curved back towards Beacon for about fifteen meters before it vanished behind the first of the buildings—Lima noted that there was absolutely nobody else around, and when he turned his attention towards the distant set of platforms that had been responsible for launching them down into the forest, he was greeted with more nothing.

"There's nobody here," Lima said. "Are we the first ones back?"

The sound of footsteps caught his attention, and when he turned back, he found Glynda Goodwitch striding towards them, her scroll sitting in her hand. He could just see a series of small panels showcasing a reversed image of the forest below from dozens of different angles—that would be how they were grading them then.

"That would be impossible, Mister Morta," Glynda said. "Given that you spent an entire hour hunting Grimm before you bothered to complete the objective."

Considering she'd been far out of earshot of him when he'd said that, he could only assume that the pathway had its own set of cameras and that they also included an audio feed—he spent a moment trying to remember if he'd said anything particularly egregious while in the forest and then winced.

"Uh," Lima prefaced, "When I said you were a complete bombshell, I was talking about your fighting prowess—it's really, um, explosive."

"Please ignore him, Professor," Teak said, grabbing the back of Lima's sleeve in an attempt to reel him in. "I'm sorry we took so long, but we managed to find a relic."

Lima plastered a bland smile on his face in an attempt to pretend as if he'd never spoken at all, and after a long moment, she peeled her narrowed-eyed stare off of him to address Teak.

"Yes—I can see that," Glynda said, "I must admit, I wasn't sure how well you would do during this test after our last lesson together, Mister Fawn, but you performed admirably given the situation."

"Thank you, Professor," Teak said, ducking her gaze. "I don't think I would have done as well if Lima hadn't helped me."

Lima waved off the words the moment they registered.

"You were the one swinging the sword, Teak, and you already had the ability to kill those things whether I was there or not," Lima said, shaking his head. "You were just never put into a position to find out that you could."

"Quite," Glynda said, nodding just once. "Your accomplishments are your own, Mister Fawn—you must learn to shoulder them yourself."

"I—I'll try," Teak managed before glancing back over the cliff. "Professor? There was a forest fire during the test. Did anyone get hurt?"

"A rather unfortunate event, but nobody was injured by the fire, and it's already been taken care of," Glynda said, "Now, as you are the last remaining pair to complete the exam, we can finally move on to the grading phase—if you'd both kindly return to the ballroom."

"You got it, teach," Lima said, firing off a salute. "Don't forget to give us bonus marks for cleaning up the forest for you—"

Teak dragged him away before he could finish saying his piece, but they'd only made it a few feet before Glynda cleared her throat, and the shorter boy stopped to listen.

"Mister Morta," Glynda said in parting. "My fighting prowess has never once been described as explosive—and if you're going to lie to my face, you should at least try to make it believable."

Lima took point, breaking the grip Teak had on him with a simple twist of his wrist before dragging him behind in his wake. Teak let out a startled noise at the sudden speed increase, but Lima wasn't willing to dig himself even further into the hole he'd made.

"I can't believe you said that to her," Teak said, glancing back over his shoulder. "She's a teacher—"

"I was trying to do damage control," Lima defended, keeping his breathing even through the run. "I didn't realise they were listening into our conversations in the forest—stop laughing, damn it."

Teak's breath, already stolen by the pace he was being forced to endure, was further ruined by the giggles that broke out, and they only seemed to grow louder. Lima cracked a moment later, laughing at his own misfortune, and when they turned the corner, he risked a look back—Glynda was watching them from the same spot on the path, and even with the distance, he could have sworn she was smiling. They ran almost the entire way back to the ballroom, with the last ten meters becoming something of a cooldown jog, and by the time they made it through the doors, Teak was outright panting for breath—from the hundreds of students that had been here last night, less than half of them remained—although the largest portion of eliminations had come from dropouts, there were definitely a few people missing that had been there for the test itself. There would likely be even less by the time the grading phase had been dealt with.

"Everyones looking at us," Teak managed. "I can't believe we were an hour late, and now everyone probably thinks we're terrible—and I am terrible, so it's even worse."

"What did they do? Grab a chess piece and run back to the cliff? Anybody could do that," Lima said, stepping further into the room. "We spent a whole hour showcasing our ability to kill Grimm—we're practically overqualified."

Lima started forward without another word, moving towards the area he thought his assigned sleeping bag was located.

"Wait for me," Teak breathed.

He spotted Weiss staring at them from across the room, with her hands on her hips, and the short girl who'd bumped into him earlier standing beside her, beaming at everyone that came within a few meters of her general position.

"It's weird seeing everyone here with their combat gear on," Teak said, finally getting some of his composure back. "It was nicer when everyone was wearing their pyjamas; it was almost like a sleepover."

"World's biggest sleepover," Lima said, impressed. "Want me to go ask Weiss if she'll put her pyjamas back on for you?"

Lima made as if he was going to lunge in her direction, and Teak swung out at him in a panic, smacking him in the arm before he really knew what he was trying to do—it turned into a grab a moment later, in what was clearly a preventative measure in case he actually did attempt to go through with it.

"Lima," Teak squeaked, "That's not funny."

The sudden strain that had appeared in the forest seemed to have almost entirely vanished now, and Lima couldn't help but feel a bit relieved that he'd managed to bury whatever it had been beneath making a fool of himself in front of Glynda and all of the jokes that had followed.

"It's super funny, but mostly because you've gone all red," Lima said, smiling a bit. "Pyrrha did end up saving Jaune after all, huh? Partners, too, by the looks of it."

Teak held onto his arm for a moment longer before finally letting go after he made no further attempt to go through with the threat of pyjamas.

"Oh," Teak said, "Yang and Blake are partners too."

"Who the heck is that?" Lima asked.

Lima moved to follow his line of sight towards the tall girl with the impressive mane of blonde hair and a shorter, dark-haired girl with amber eyes that he hadn't seen before.

"Tall blonde girl?" Lima prompted.

"Yang Xiao Long, and the girl with the black hair, is Blake Belladonna," Teak said, nodding. "Our temporary lockers were right near each other, so I had a chance to speak to them earlier."

"Gotcha," Lima said, "I overheard the names of those two earlier—Ren and Nora."

The two of them spent a while pointing out each of the people whose names they already knew for the benefit of the other and then started making up names for those they hadn't had the chance to meet.

"The ginger guy with the mace is obviously Nora's older brother," Lima said in consideration. "Gemrald."

"Lima," Teak said, "Gemrald isn't even a real name."

"Well, what would you call him?" Lima said, shrugging. "Go on, big brain."

"Caramel?" Teak tried. "That's a darker colour than his hair, but it's closer than Gemrald."

"Whatever," Lima said, brushing the criticism off. "What about her—the short girl with Weiss."

"That's easy," Teak said, "Silver—because that's the colour of her eyes."

"I already used that for the chick with silver hair," Lima complained.

"You never said we couldn't do double-ups," Teak said, crossing his arms. "What would you call her then?"

"Wheat," Lima said. "Because—"

"Because of her scythe," Teak said, cutting him off. "If we ever have to name anything, I'm not letting you do it."

"What the heck?" Lima said with feigned outrage. "What if the two of us end up getting married—I want to name our firstborn Grimmkiller the Grimmkiller."

Teak gave a start at the words before opening his mouth and then closing it again.

"That's a terrible name," Teak said, more than a bit flustered. "You're definitely never naming anything—and—and—we're not getting married."

"I said if," Lima said, leaning back on his hands. "Besides, I haven't decided what we're doing yet."

"It takes two people to decide that," Teak squeaked, "Just—stop being the way you are—what's his name?"

"So immature," Lima said, flapping a hand at the shorter boy. "The guy with the green mohawk—obviously, he's Sparkle."

"They're all terrible," Teak said, shaking his head in disbelief. "All of them."

#

Ballroom, Beacon Academy, Sanus.

The air was almost buzzing with the tension, and the almost candid atmosphere that had existed while in the ballroom had fled the moment every last applicant had received a simultaneous message on their scrolls. Lima checked the notification and found a simple set of directions with nothing else to indicate its purpose. A quick check of Teak's own scroll showed a matching set, and it was clear enough by the confusion sweeping across the room that everyone had received something similar.

"Think it's another test?" Lima wondered.

"I think it's the results," Teak said, voice quiet. "I don't know the grounds well enough to tell where this leads."

"Oh well," Lima said before tucking his scroll away. "No point in worrying about it when we can just find out—let's go, Teak."

"Just like that?" Teak said, a bit startled. "You're still not worried?"

"Worst case scenario, we challenge Ozpin to a duel for kicking us out," Lima said, "Between the two of us, I think we can take him—you hold his arms, I'll punch him."

"Something tells me that won't work," Teak said, "But I suppose we have no real choice."

Lima steered the boy in the direction of the north door, and their movement seemed to set off a chain reaction as people moved to follow—it became clear that some of those present had received different directions because they moved towards the other set on the opposite side. The hallway was entirely empty as they stepped outside, and Lima regretted putting his scroll away because he'd already forgotten the way. Thankfully for him, Teak still had his own one out, and they set off in pursuit of an answer to the mystery. Halfway through the directions, he actually figured out where they were going because he'd been in that part of the school already—

"We're going to the Amphitheatre again," Teak said, voice quiet. "They must be splitting us up in order to help preserve the dignity of whichever group didn't get selected."

"You think they're bringing us in first to congratulate us or kick us out?" Lima wondered. "Hundred Lien says that we're in—"

"Lima," Teak said, eyes on the ground. "If we failed, it's because of me, and you're really good, so it's not fair on you that you got me as your partner—I'm sorry if I'm the reason—"

Lima dragged the shorter boy into a headlock, choking off the rest of his words—Teak didn't even attempt to break free; he simply grabbed onto his forearm with both hands, grip tight.

"If we failed, it's because I dragged you off to go kill Grimm instead of completing the objective," Lima said, keeping him trapped as they entered the amphitheatre. "But we didn't fail—have some faith in us, Teak."

Ozpin and Glynda were both standing on the stage, watching the doors as the rest of the students filed in behind the two of them. Lima grinned up at them without fear—not because he was certain they'd passed, but because while his goal would be made a hell of a lot easier with it and a team by his side; it didn't really require it. If he couldn't get a Huntsman License, then he'd simply set out without it. Lima dragged Teak right up to the stage, intending to face whatever their decision was from the very front of the crowd. Ozpin looked down at them with an implacable expression, and Lima's smile settled more firmly on his face at the challenge—if anyone wanted to stop him from killing the monsters of Grimm, then they were more than welcome to try.

"We have reviewed your transcripts, we have studied the examination footage to measure your prowess, and perhaps most importantly, we have deliberated on your character, your actions, and your skill," Ozpin said, speaking at length with that same unhurried quality that seemed to enrich the man's words with something more. "Those of you who are standing here right now—are those who have passed, and the others are already on their way back to Vale."

Teak's head snapped around to look at him, tears pooling at the corners of his eyes, and a spark raced down Lima's spine as the meaning of the words settled in—the headlock became something more like a one-armed hug as Teak scrubbed at his eyes in an attempt to hide his tears. Ozpin's gaze swept across the crowd, searching for someone in particular, and whoever it was received the faintest of smiles.

"Those that have failed—but whose goals have persevered in spite of it—will have an opportunity to reapply in a year, so you may yet meet those whom you have befriended once more." Ozpin said, "As the day grows long and your exhaustion builds, we will endeavour to make short work of the formalities to follow."

The monitors hanging above the room flickered from the Beacon insignia to the black silhouettes of four people before fading into colour—each of their names was spelled out in elegant font beneath each banner.

"Please join me on the stage as you recognise your team formation," Ozpin said, tapping his cane on the stage. "Russel Thrush, Cardin Winchester, Dove Bronzewing, Sky Lark—the four of you retrieved the black bishop pieces, and from this day forward, you will work together as Team Cardinal led by Cardin Winchester."

The four boys came to stand on the stage and basked in their success as the entire room applauded for them. They moved off at the headmaster's direction, leaving the stage as a group, and Lima couldn't help but clench his fist at the sight of it—the monsters of Grimm had no idea that a whole new generation of Huntsman and Huntresses were coming for them. The monitors flickered over to a new set of four, and the people in question moved from two separate places in the crowd to meet by the stairs before assembling before Ozpin.

"Jaune Arc, Lie Ren, Pyrrha Nikos, Nora Valkyrie," Ozpin said, visibly lingering on Pyrrha for a moment before moving on, "The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces, and from this day forward, you will work together as Team Juniper led by Jaune Arc."

Nora took Ren almost entirely by surprise when she grabbed onto him in her excitement, and he managed to free one of his trapped arms in order to return the hug, no longer able to maintain his unmoved demeanour. Jaune, on the other hand, looked entirely stunned by the situation, almost like he couldn't really believe he'd made it into Beacon Academy, or perhaps it was simply that he'd been chosen to lead the entire team. Pyrrha looked the most comfortable up on the stage, clearly used to the attention they were getting, and she placed a supporting hand on Jaune's back, a bright smile on her face as they were applauded.

The moment Team Juniper stepped down off the stage, the monitors changed again, and this time, Lima found his own face amongst the four—light green eyes and a short-cut mess of black hair. Teak's smiling, androgynous face sat directly beside his own, the lighter colour palettes that had been chosen for the background in stark contrast to his own. The two other team members were a pair of girls that he'd seen several times in the last few days but never heard the name of—now that mystery had been solved for him. The silver-haired girl with green eyes, a shade darker than his own but not quite as dark as Pyrrha's, was named Claire, and the blonde Faunus with the scales on her temple was apparently called Lux—which meant that his earlier guesses with Teak had been about as far off as he expected.

Lima found himself at the stairs alongside Teak as the other pair moved from the complete opposite side of the room to meet them there—the blonde girl gave him a challenging glance as she shouldered past them to climb the stairs first. Lima just laughed quietly to himself, content to wait until the other three had gone ahead of him. Teak glanced back as he reached the top, almost as if to make sure he was still, in fact, coming up and that he hadn't suddenly vanished in those few moments. Ozpin regarded the four of them over the top of his odd glasses, and once they'd come to a complete stop in front of him, he spoke up.

"Claire Diamond, Teak Fawn, Lux Fulbright, Lima Morta," Ozpin said, "The four of you retrieved the Black King and Black Queen pieces, and from this day forward, you will work together as Team Malachite led by Teak Fawn."

Teak looked horrified at the idea of having the mantle of leadership dropped on his shoulders, and Lux gave an annoyed grunt at the revelation.

"Uh, sir?" Lima said while the clapping was washing over them. "Is that even a real colour—you didn't just make that up, did you?"

Ozpin raised an eyebrow at the words, apparently unaware that they were going to have a discussion up on the stage.

"I can assure you Malachite is, in fact, a real colour," Ozpin said, smiling. "Or rather, it is a green gemstone that is made up of copper carbonate."

"Awesome," Lima said, impressed. "Ozpin, do you think we can get our Licenses early—Teak, wait, I'm not done yet—hey—"

Teak dragged him away by his arm, aiming for the stairs where both Claire and Lux were already waiting, leaving Ozpin to watch them with a raised eyebrow. Lima allowed himself to be maneuvered down the stairs by Teak's efforts and then followed the pair of girls to the side of the crowd as the next team was called up.

"Why'd you get to be captain?" Lux said, staring down at Teak without even an attempt at being tactful. "You don't look very strong."

"Here we go again," Claire said, sighing.

"They shouldn't have picked me," Teak said, wringing his hands together. "I don't know anything about being a leader—maybe we can change it?"

"I doubt it," Lima said, shrugging. "They decided you were the best fit; that's all there is to it."

"I should be the leader," Lux said without reserve. "The strongest person in the team should be the one making the rules—"

"Nah, that's stupid," Lima said, interjecting. "Besides, I don't really feel like being the leader—thanks, though."

"I wasn't talking about you," Lux said, narrowing her eyes at him. "You were the last to finish the exam—that means you're both weak."

"That's a pretty bold assumption," Lima said without a care. "A hundred lien says I can kick your ass all over the school."

"A thousand lien," Lux said, leaning forward in an attempt to intimidate him. "Unless you're scared."

"There's two of them," Claire sighed. "Why couldn't I have been on a team with Yang?"

"I'm sorry," Teak said as if her circumstance was somehow his fault. "Lima, we don't need to fight—"

"I don't even have a thousand," Lima complained, speaking straight over the top of him. "I spent most of my money on the trip to Vale—seven hundred and forty lien."

"Weak and poor?" Lux said, tilting her head all the way back so she could better look down her nose at him. "I should have guessed—seven hundred and forty-one lien, or you're a coward."

Savage.

"Teak, listen," Lima said, clearing his throat. "I'm going to need to borrow some money—"

"—Flora Powder, Savanna Ray, Squall Opal, Jupiter Wasp," Ozpin said as the four came to a stop in front of him. "The four of you retrieved two matching sets of opposing pawns, and from this day forward, you will work together as Team Flower led by Flora Powder."

Lima glanced up at the stage for a moment—Jupiter and Savanna were perhaps the tallest people in the entire group of applicants, leaving them to tower over their two teammates. Squall's poor posture left him hunched forward, with his arms almost dangling directly in front of him, almost as if the effort of pulling himself up onto the stage had been far too much. Flora stood out for two-fold reasons—the first was the two-toned hair, split down the middle in a pink versus blonde divide, and the second was the sheathed odachi that stuck out behind her, a constant threat of knocking her teammates down if she chose to turn to quickly.

"I'm not lending you money so you can fight each other," Teak said, "We're supposed to be working together."

"Thank god," Claire said, a bit relieved. "At least you're normal—hello, by the way, I'm Claire."

"Hi," Teak managed. "My name is Teak."

Lima cleared his throat again, interrupting their attempt to lance through the tension.

"Claire, listen," Lima said, trying again. "I'm going to need to borrow some money."

"Pathetic," Lux said, baring her teeth in a vicious smile. "If you can't afford it, maybe I'll do some charity work and beat you up for free."

The absolute audaciousness of this woman—he loved it.

"Seven hundred and forty lien, and Teak will let you become captain if you win," Lima said, grinning. "Your move, brighteyes."

"Lima," Teak said, a bit hesitant. "I thought you said we couldn't change leaders?"

"We won't be," Lima said with complete confidence. "Trust me—this will be as easy as walking a dog."

Lux snatched hold of the front of his cloak at the words and dragged him forward a step—and he was annoyed to discover that she actually had about two inches on him in height.

"The second this crap is over," Lux said, "I'm going to crush you."

"As if," Lima said, "When you're on the ground, wondering how you lost—you better not start crying."

"—Crane Gravel, Ash Bell, Nox Cymbal, Gray Plains," Ozpin said, the man's voice putting another stop to their conversation. "The four of you also retrieved two matching sets of opposing pawns, and from this day forward, you will work together as Team Canape led by Crane Gravel."

Lux bared her teeth at him, using her grip on his shirt to shove him back a step before finally letting go.

"Well, this is going well," Claire said. "I can really feel the teamwork already—although, what makes you think either of you is the strongest?"

"You think it's you?" Lux said, eyeing her.

"It might be," Claire said, "Instead of a duel, how about we all fight, and whoever wins can be the leader?"

"I don't want to be the leader," Lima said, "But I'll agree to that as long as Teak stays captain when I win—deal?"

"Fine by me," Claire said, smiling. "Teak?"

"I can't really fight well yet," Teak said, hesitating. "I'm not sure I should even be included in the first place—"

"You will be fighting," Lux said without compromise. "I'm not going to let you back out now."

"I didn't even want to do it to start with," Teak defended.

"—Blake Belladonna, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, and Yang Xiao Long," Ozpin said, "The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces, and from this day forward, you will work together as Team Ruby, led by Ruby Rose."

Ozpin pinched his cane between his elbow and hip before starting to applaud, leading the rest of the room to follow. Once the final team had moved off the stage entirely, Ozpin ceded the floor to Glynda, allowing her to take the reigns once more.

"With that, we have all of our first-year teams assembled, and the process of turning you into true Huntsman and Huntresses can finally begin in earnest," Glynda said, smiling out at them. "You will find that the dormitory building you were shown during the tour have now been adorned with the names of your teams—and that is where you will be sleeping for the next year."

There were some excited murmurs about the news. The corridor they'd been led through during the tour had revealed nothing of what may lay beyond the blank, unadorned doors, and Lima was more than curious to actually see the inside of the rooms—and figure out if he was going to have to smuggle in a new bed or not.

"As fully accepted students of Beacon Academy, you have been enriched by all the rights and privileges that affords; in short, you may go wherever you wish on campus and use all of the facilities at your leisure, so long as there are no signs or rules prohibiting access," Glynda said, "First years have a ten O'clock curfew, and if you do end up falling asleep in my classroom, you will find my response to be quite compelling—ensure you rest well, for tomorrow, your journey shall truly begin."

#

Amphitheater, Beacon Academy, Sanus.

Ozpin and Glynda vanished soon after, leaving the room without interacting with them any further, and the newly formed teams seemed pretty excited to explore the school. Teak and Claire spoke quietly as the rest of the first years slowly vanished from the amphitheatre—while Lima stoically endured the intense stare Lux was giving him.

"What do you think the dorms are like?" Claire wondered. "There wasn't any information about it in the pamphlet."

"The doors were spaced pretty far apart, but I'm not sure there is enough space for four bedrooms," Teak said, pressing his knuckle against his lower lip in thought. "I wonder if we have a personal bathroom or if there's a public one near the dorms."

Pyrrha looked back at them for a moment as Nora pushed her team out into the hall, a flicker of curiosity in her expression as they made no attempt to leave.

"Who cares," Lux said, "Everyone is gone now—can we fight already?"

"In here?" Teak said as if he had just realised that's why they'd been waiting around for so long. "Are you sure we're allowed to use the stage—don't we need permission?"

"Eh, worst case scenario, we can blame Bestwitch for telling us we could use the facilities at our leisure," Lima said, shrugging. "This seems like it should count as something we can use."

"Just try not to break anything," Claire said, eyeing the monitor above the arena. "Maybe we should avoid using projectiles, though, so melee only—and no dust."

"Semblance use?" Lux demanded.

"It doesn't really matter to me," Lima said without a care. "I say use whatever you've got—because you're going to need it."

Lux turned around, already striding towards the stairs, clearly unwilling to listen to any more talk.

"If you're actually terrible after all of this, I'm going to laugh at you," Claire said, hesitating a bit now that everything was coming to a head. "Fair warning, though—I saw her kill some Grimm in the forest, and she's definitely strong."

Claire started off towards the stairs and left the two of them on their own for a moment.

"Lima," Teak tried, staring up at where Lux was already impatiently waiting for them. "Are you sure we have to do this?"

"It will be fine," Lima said, steering him forward. "Treat it like an impromptu spar—nobody is going to get hurt, I promise."

They crested the stairs a moment later, coming to stand in something of a rough rectangle, with each member of the team acting as a corner. Lux reached behind her, to the short, thick pole that was sheathed down her spine, and when her hand came forward, she twisted it—the pole extended in a blur as the machinery unfolded into a much longer weapon, and the tip of it burst outwards into what could only be a glaive.

"Elimination is when your aura drops below fifty percent, or you get knocked out of the arena," Lima said, taking a few steps away from Teak. "Just to make sure, does everyone have their scroll set up to alert for aura threshold?"

Claire fiddled with her scroll for a moment, and Lux leant her weapon against her shoulder to do the same.

"I think mine is set to the wrong percent," Teak said, quickly pulling it out to check. "How do I—oh, I see."

Lima took a moment to lift his own alert from the ten percent it had been sitting on since his last session with Sage—almost two weeks ago now, the realisation of which sent an odd pang through his chest.

"Damn," Lima muttered, "Has it really been that long already?"

"What was that?" Lux said, eyeing him. "Saying a prayer?"

"Sure," Lima said, tucking his scroll away again. "Praying that you'll last more than ten seconds against me."

The glaive spiralled around into a complicated set of movements before she hyper-extended it at the last moment, leaving it pointed directly at him and clearly marking him as her first target. Claire slipped both of the shortswords out of the sheaths at her hips, not bothering with any of the flare of her partner—he noted that she'd already turned slightly, more concerned with Lux's proximity than either of them. Teaks longsword came free of the sheath with far less confidence than either of them, and he'd moved even further back as if to remove himself from the immediate fighting.

"Take your weapon out," Lux insisted.

Lima just smiled before lowering his centre of gravity a bit in preparation for the fight, and Lux bristled at the absolute disrespect. The battle started a moment later, and surprising even him, Lux cut to the right, glaive swinging forward towards Claire—who suddenly vanished from the stage. Not with speed, or because she'd been struck, she'd simply disappeared without explanation. Even so, there was a clang as the very tip of the glaive struck something, and a shower of sparks scattered away from the impact.

"You can turn invisible?" Teak said, startled.

Lima straightened up, no longer needing to react to the threat of Lux, as she continued her attempts to catch her invisible partner—four blisteringly fast sweeps in, she managed to hit her again, and this time, she didn't give the invisible girl a chance to move away from the area. Lima remained where he was, content to allow them all to tire themselves out on each other—less work for him in the long run. The still-invisible Claire found herself hemmed in towards the corner, unable to escape the rapid series of circular strikes, and then with another shower of sparks, she reappeared on the floor beside the stage, pouting. Lux gave a satisfied nod at what she'd accomplished before turning back to face the two of them.

"Why do you hit so hard?" Claire sighed. "Geez—it's like getting smacked with a sledgehammer."

Teak's sword came up to point at Lux as she stepped towards him, and Lima pretended not to notice the shorter boy's silent plea for help—instead, he reached up to cover his mouth before letting out a yawn. His attempt to taunt Lux into attacking him again had absolutely zero effect, and it left him wondering if he'd actually misread her entirely—maybe she wasn't as hotheaded as he first assumed and instead had acted that way in order to trick them all.

"Wait—" Teak cried.

Teak shifted backwards as the glaive cut through the air towards him, but Lux spun with it, drawing the long weapon close to her as her footwork cut the distance between them in the blink of an eye—the glaive came out again, the tip almost scraping across the floor of the arena into a rising, angular slice. Teak's sword was in the completely wrong place to respond to it, but the short boy still tried, striking downwards with all of his force. The impact of the two weapons was framed by a shower of sparks, and then Teak's hands were all the way above his head, the longsword almost tearing its way free of his grip from the rebound. Lux spun into a tight, blisteringly fast circle and let the but of her weapon crash into his stomach—Teak's aura flared to life from the hit, and he was sent tumbling back over the edge of the arena with a startled cry.

"Now, I get to destroy you without anyone getting in the way," Lux said, almost gleeful. "Let's see how long you last—"

Nope—he'd been entirely correct in his assessment of her; she was a total hothead and solely driven by her need to come out on top. Lima took a step backwards as she lunged at him—and then burst forward, using his extended leg to push himself towards her and enhancing the movement with a faint spark of his Semblance. The tip of her glaive went right over his shoulder, his left hand clamped down on the shaft of her weapon, inches from her own hand, and his right palm made contact with her shirt, right over the top of her belly. For a moment, both of their faces were inches apart, and he watched as her eyes grew wide—then she vanished over the edge of the arena, tumbling across the floor in a mess of limbs as she attempted to regain control of herself. Lux got her feet underneath her about halfway across the room, and with her hands flat on the ground, she managed to slide to a stop before she could crash into the wall beneath the stands.

"Whoa," Claire said, turning to look behind her at where Lux was rising to her feet. "What the hell was that?"

"Well, that was fun," Lima said, giving her glaive a bit of a twirl. "A bit short, though."

"I want a rematch," Lux demanded. "That wasn't—"

"Now that we've established that I am, in fact, the strongest member of Team Malachite," Lima said, ignoring her entirely. "I hereby declare Teak as our overlord."

"Are you sure you don't want to be the leader?" Teak tried one last time. "I didn't even land a hit—on anybody."

"Stop ignoring me," Lux cried in outrage, "That wasn't even a real fight—hey—"

#

Malachite's Dormitory, Beacon Academy, Sanus.

"There is something wrong here," Lima said, eyeing the room. "I can feel it."

"I can see it," Claire said, frowning. "We all have to share a single room—there's, like, zero privacy."

"The showers are the same," Teak said, peeking through the door. "It's just a set of four stalls—they kind of have doors, though."

"What the hell does kind of mean?" Lima said, striding over to check. "Oh—kind of."

The situation was essentially four stalls in the middle of the room with a path around it; four large, flat showerheads emerged from the ceiling above each of them. The dividers were only about as tall as he was, and the doors were the kind you found at a public pool, with a large gap at the bottom. There was a bench on the inside of each and a series of hooks for towels or clothing—all in all, it was far more revealing than he'd have expected.

"Is it bad?" Claire said from out in the main room. "It's totally bad, isn't it?"

"Beacon Academy called, and they said only short people deserve any kind of privacy while bathing," Lima said, scratching his cheek. "I think we're going to need some kind of shower schedule to make this work."

Claire turned sideways before carefully slipping past him into the room, and he made an effort to lean back against the doorframe to let her get past unmolested.

"Oh god," Claire said.

Lux pushed past him without any kind of consideration, forearm somehow finding the side of his neck in the process, and he took a swipe at her in response, but she ducked further into the shower room before tossing him back a superior look.

"It's not even that bad," Lux said, moving to peek over the top of one of the dividers, her natural height allowing it without any kind of adjustment being needed. "They don't have any soap—we'll have to buy some, I guess."

"We were told to bring our own soap to avoid any allergy stuff, jackass," Lima complained, rubbing at his neck as if his aura hadn't blocked it entirely. "Lima Rule, 1A; if anybody touches my shampoo or conditioner, I'm going to throw you off the cliff—it's vanilla and cocoa butter, and it smells delicious."

It was also super expensive, but he didn't think that they needed to know that part.

"You brought shampoo with you?" Lux said, laughing outright. "Are you even a guy?"

"Unlike some people, I actually take my hair care routine seriously," Lima said, entirely offended. "What do you use to wash your hair—soap?"

There was a bit of a silence in the wake of his comment, in which Lux gave him a puzzled look—and he stared at her in disbelief.

"You don't actually—" Lima tried.

"Of course I do," Lux said, frowning. "It's soap; that's what it's for."

"No, it's not—you've got all that beautiful hair, and you're using soap," Lima said in complete indignation. "Where the hell is your self-respect?"

"It's just hair," Lux said, turning to Claire for support. "Right?"

"I mean, I brought shampoo," Claire said, holding her hands up in defence. "I don't have any conditioner, though."

"Um," Teak said, speaking up. "I've always used soap as well—"

"Teak," Lima pleaded. "You can't do this to me, man."

Lima stepped back into the main room and then very deliberately shut the door to the showers, sealing them all away inside where he hoped to never encounter them again. Claire let out a protest at the finality of it all, and he turned away from the closed door in disgust, setting out across the room in an attempt to investigate the beds. They were doubles—thankfully, because if they were singles, he might have lost it entirely—but when he tested the mattress, he found it was pretty meh. The shower door opened up again as the three of them emerged from where he'd entombed them.

"We're going to need some dividers in here," Lima said, eyeing the gaps between the beds. "That should give us at least a little bit of privacy."

"Why bother?" Lux said, dropping down to sit on the second bed from the right. "We can get changed in the shower room or the bathroom."

"Because I usually sleep naked," Lima said, "Which isn't going to work at all, considering we're all in one room."

"I could never sleep without clothes on," Teak said, sounding startled. "Aren't you worried that someone would walk in?"

"The only person I've lived with for the last four years is my guardian," Lima said, shaking his head. "I don't think he's ever entered my room even once."

"My parents come into my room whenever they want, so I usually wear pyjamas," Claire said, suddenly hesitant. "I didn't realise this was going to be so complicated—Lux, what do you wear?"

"Either nothing or just a shirt, but it's not as hot here," Lux said, plucking the front of her clothing in answer before pausing. "I didn't bring a towel either—was that on the list?"

"Yes, it was, but forget it for now; I have a spare one you can use," Lima said, shaking his head. "We need to go buy a bunch of stuff on the weekend—or maybe after classes tomorrow."

"Shopping is boring," Lux said, falling back onto her chosen bed. "I don't want to."

"Stay here then," Lima said without a care. "I'll have more than enough fun spending your money for you—seeing as you lost the bet and all."

Lux snapped back up into a sitting position, eyes bright as she glared at him—but he'd already turned away. It didn't really matter how they divided the room up, given how small it was, so he sat down on the bed second from the left. Teak snuck forward to sit down on the bed between Lima and the wall, leaving the last bed for Claire—and she took it with a quiet sigh.

"Maybe we could come up with some ground rules?" Teak said, with his hands in his lap. "That way, we can try to avoid getting on each other's nerves as much as possible."

"Like what?" Claire asked. "The shampoo thing Lima said?"

"Broader than that," Teak said, holding up some fingers before ticking them down. "No borrowing things without asking first, no yelling in the room, no playing music too loud, no disturbing the others while sleeping, no bringing people into the room without clearing it with everyone else first—that kind of thing."

"I'm fine with all of those," Claire admitted, "How about cleaning stuff—like don't leave messes or dirty clothing lying around."

"That's a good one," Teak said, impressed. "Do you guys have any you want?"

Nobody seemed too sure about what boundaries to set, and then Lux spoke up, breaking the silence.

"I exercise in the mornings," Lux muttered. "Do I have to leave the room if you're all still asleep?"

"I do that as well," Lima admitted, cracking an eye open to glance over at her. "What time—and what type of exercising?"

"Six," Lux said, eyeing him warily. "Yoga."

"I do flexibility stuff as well, but I'm usually up at five," Lima said, humming. "That stuff is pretty quiet, though, so I doubt we will wake anyone up."

Neither Teak nor Claire seemed to have a problem with it either.

"Do you—do you think I could join in?" Teak asked before glancing over at Claire. "Or maybe we could do it as a sort of team thing?"

"Team yoga?" Claire wondered. "I know a little bit of it—I'm down if you guys want to."

Lima had spent the better part of the last decade doing morning flexibility routines with Sage, so he was pretty open to sharing the time with someone else.

"Nobody was ever up that early back in Vacuo—or interested in doing anything, either," Lux said, sounding a bit unsure. "Will you really be awake?"

"I'll set an alarm," Teak promised, pulling out his scroll to do just that. "That's earlier than I usually wake up, but I'm sure I'll get used to it."

"What time?" Claire asked, following his example. "Five or six?"

"Five," Lux said before he even had a chance to speak up. "We'll get up at five."

"Thanks," Lima said, glancing over at her at the consideration. "I don't know about any other rules, but we can always add to it if something comes up."

"Right," Teak said in agreement. "Lima? You said you would help me practice—do you still want to do that?"

"Yeah, man—we should probably try and do that daily," Lima said, opening his eyes again to look up at the ceiling. "What's our schedule look like? First class starts at eight-thirty, doesn't it?"

"Mm," Teak noised, "The last class ends at five in the afternoon."

"An hour of yoga puts us at six," Lima said, considering it. "What time do they stop serving breakfast?"

"Eight," Claire said, speaking up. "You can still eat or hang out in the cafeteria, apparently, but they start closing up around then."

"We could do some sparring and practice from six to seven every morning?" Lima said, "Say about half an hour to take a shower, put on our uniforms and then half an hour to get to the cafeteria for breakfast."

"That sounds amazing—and I know I asked," Teak said, hesitating a bit. "But are you sure you want to spend so much time helping me? I don't want to take up all of your free time."

"Nothing else to do in the mornings anyway," Lima said, shrugging. "I've already got my Saturdays planned out, though—I'm going to sneak off into the Emerald Forest."

"I'm pretty sure that's one of the things we definitely can't do without permission," Claire said, tilting her head to see him from around Lux's shoulder. "There's nothing down there except Grimm and trees."

"Exactly," Lima said in agreement. "Isn't it great?"

"I'll help with practice," Lux said, clearly stuck on their previous topic. "Where are we doing the sparring?"

Lima was almost certain she just wanted another chance to fight them all—but he'd give her the benefit of the doubt for now.

"May as well make it a team thing as well," Claire said, dropping down onto her bed and propping her head up on her palm. "Besides, I've never really had a regular sparring partner—at least outside of class stuff; it sounds fun."

"That's great," Teak said, shifting a bit on his bed. "Thank you."

"Now," Lima said, "Have any of you got any pet peeves or berserk buttons we should avoid?"

There was a few moments of contemplative silence as they all considered it, and just when Lima thought nobody would be able to think of anything, Claire spoke up.

"Sometimes, when I'm having a bad day, I'll put my headphones on, and I won't really want to talk to anyone," Claire said, clearly unsure about revealing it to them. "If you could leave me alone if you notice it, I'd appreciate it."

"Of course," Teak said, "My mum does that sometimes too."

Claire gave a bit of an awkward laugh at the comment, but she was smiling now, and then Lux spoke up in turn.

"If you don't want to do something, just say so straight away," Lux said, eyes narrowing in distaste. "I hate it when people say they want to do a thing, and then they make up a shitty excuse at the last minute to avoid it."

Lima found it a bit funny that the mere mention of it was somehow enough to evoke an almost visible annoyance in her.

"That's a pretty good one," Claire admitted. "Lima—you brought it up, do you have one?"

"I crack a lot of jokes, even when I probably shouldn't, but none of it is supposed to be hurtful, you know?" Lima said, prefacing it, "I really don't like mean-spirited stuff or bullying in general—Sanctum was full of elitist pricks, so I spent most of last four years in detention for getting into fights with them all."

"Oscuro was like that," Lux said, leaning back on her hands. "Not elitist or anything—just people looking for anyone else they could push down to make themselves look better in comparison."

"There was barely any bullying at Signal," Claire said, frowning. "How come you spent all that time in detention, but they didn't get in trouble?"

"Because they'd either start shit outside of school or in the halls when there were no teachers around to see it," Lima said, shrugging. "There was never any proof to really get them in trouble, so I just started kicking their asses every time I saw it—my guardian was an instructor, so most of my detentions ended up being with him."

"That's awful," Claire said, "Your guardian must have known what was happening—why didn't he do anything?"

"He knew about it, but Sage is pushing seventy now, and he grew up in the direct aftermath of the great war, so his perspective on that kind of thing is completely out of date," Lima said, shaking his head. "Literally all of the adults in his life had spent their lives trying to kill each other over every little thing—so he doesn't really think any of this little school stuff is a big deal."

"But you do," Claire said, watching him. "If you're willing to get into trouble in order to do something about it."

Lima just shrugged at the words—something like being stuck in detention wasn't enough to grind him down. Besides, some of these assholes needed to be dragged off their pedestals, and there was nothing like a righteous ass-kicking to make them realise that they'd been way too confident about their place within the world.

"Teak," Lux said, "You didn't say anything yet."

Lima glanced over and found that Teak was now staring down at his lap, hands clenched around the material of his pants.

"I guess I don't really have one," Teak said, trying for something approaching a smile. "Sorry."

Lux made a noise in the back of her throat, almost like she was disappointed that there hadn't been anything, but she said nothing in response.

"You don't need to apologise," Claire said, "It's not the end of the world or anything."

The others hadn't really caught it, but Lima had spent more time with him than they had, and he'd also seen what had happened in the forest, so maybe it was unfair to expect them to. Either way, Lima was absolutely certain that Teak had a boundary he wanted to set—he just wasn't ready to do it.

"Teak," Lima said before the conversation could move on. "If you don't have one to tell us now, you can always bring it up later—no need to rush, yeah?"

"I—okay," Teak said. "Thanks."

#

Malachite's Dormitory, Beacon Academy, Sanus.

Lima studied the dark shapes shifting about on the ceiling, the slight changes brought about by the ambient light of Beacon passing through the still-open window. While there was an air conditioner stationed above the dorm door, the temperature was pleasant enough that none of them had even considered using it. Lima plucked at the shirt he was wearing, the material grating against his skin and making it hard to find his way to anything approaching sleep. He'd considered dumping his clothing on the floor a few times already, but while he didn't really care if any of them saw him naked, he didn't want to make the situation any more uncomfortable for everyone—and from their responses earlier, Claire and Teak probably wouldn't appreciate that.

Beacon was far quieter at night than he was used to, the heaters that had kept the temperature from dipping too far into the cold weren't around, and the humming they'd made was stark in its absence. Hearing the breathing of three other people around him was just as odd, and while he'd experienced it on the train to some extent, there had been far more noise there to help mask it. The shifting pattern on the ceiling continued its endless movements, and he could almost imagine it as a writhing sea of Grimm, passing over and under one another—it made him want to set out for the Emerald Forest and burn off some of the remaining energy that was making it so difficult to fall asleep. Between all of the new and interesting things he'd seen since arriving, the people, the other teams, his team, the academy itself, and the knowledge that in about eight hours' time, they'd be starting their very first class, he had a feeling he would be in for a long tiring night.

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"Lima?" Teak murmured, voice barely audible even in the silence. "Are you still awake?"

Lima shifted his head until he could see the muddled outline of Teak's bed, and though he couldn't see him entirely, he was pretty sure the other boy was looking at him.

"I almost forgot you can see in the dark," Lima said, "You're lucky you spoke up because I was just about to start taking my clothes off."

"Lima," Teak warned.

Lima laughed quietly at the reproach in his voice and remained silent, content to wait for the other boy to say whatever it was he wanted—something that actually took a while, long enough that Lima almost thought there wasn't anything after all.

"I just wanted to say thank you for everything," Teak said, voice quiet again. "You've been really nice to me, even though we don't know each other all that well—and if you hadn't decided to speak to me or to become my partner, I probably wouldn't even be here."

"It's not like you haven't been nice to me as well," Lima said, brushing off the gratitude as best he could manage. "Besides, I already decided that we were friends the moment I sat down in that café, so you can't get out of it anyway."

"That takes two people to decide," Teak said in weak protest. "But—I'd really like it if I could be your friend as well."

"You got it," Lima said.

"That's so wholesome," Claire said, voice bright amongst the darkness of the room. "You're both adorable."

Lima felt a pang of alarm at the words and the knowledge that they'd been awake the entire time.

"You pronounced annoying wrong," Lux mumbled. "Are you going to start braiding friendship bracelets next—because I can go sleep outside if you want some privacy?"

"Oh my god," Lima said, "Teak—we can't let them live."

"We can't kill our teammates, Lima," Teak said, but he sounded more than a bit embarrassed as well. "I'm pretty sure the instructors will notice if we turn up to class with a two-person team."

#

Malachite's Dormitory, Beacon Academy, Sanus.

Lima snapped awake to the cacophony of four simultaneous alarms from four different places across the room, all of which were playing an entirely different song—by beat, rhythm and perhaps most startling, by genre.

"You listen to country?" Lima said, slipping his legs out of bed and standing up with a bit of pep. "You can't be a real person, Lux; I just can't fathom it."

Lux stared at him from her place, entirely upside down, and with one arm hanging off the edge of the bed closest to him—there were dark bags under her eyes, and while she had been the one to push for five o'clock, she looked far less enthusiastic now that the moment had arrived.

"Morning person," Lux accused like it was some kind of terrible affliction. "Yuck."

"What the heck?" Lima demanded.

Claire actually got up into a seated position, although her eyes seemed to be stuck mostly shut.

"This is five?" Claire managed. "It's so much worse than the stories."

Teak finally managed to kill his alarm and then gave a tortured moan as a second one started up almost immediately after—he pulled the covers up over his head, seeking to flee instead of doing battle with it a second time.

"Teak, you have to get up," Lima tried, "Bestwitch said you have to redo all your tests because you put the wrong name down—it turns out that your mum accidentally wrote Maple on your birth certificate, and it's become a whole mess."

"That's not true," Teak said, voice muffled by the blanket. "I know it's not because I've seen my birth certificate."

Lima scratched the back of his neck for a moment, eyeing the absolute state of disarray they were all in. He'd been like that once upon a time. Lux had been entirely wrong in her assessment of him because he wasn't a morning person—at least, not a natural one. His status as a morning person had been acquired, or rather, created through repetition and a few thousand five-o-clocks' in which Sage had banged on his door until he finally got up. Sage was the real morning person; at least, he said as much, but Lima had a feeling that it had been instilled in him in a rather similar manner.

"You were Maple all along," Lima insisted. "Also, dual wielding is now banned at Beacon—so you've been expelled, Claire."

"Isn't that going too far?" Claire complained. "I could just restrict myself to using one sword."

Claire was the first one to escape the gravitational hold the beds seemed to have on each of them—although Lux seemed to be using gravity itself to spill herself out onto the floor in an attempt to force herself to action.

"I'm sorry, Claire, but it's not the swords that are the problem; it's in the mentality," Lima said, voice a bit sad. "Reports are in, and dual wielders are just too edgy for Beacon Academy—they want to address it before you all start wearing fedoras."

"You suck," Claire sighed. "There's not much room—should we push the two middle beds to the side?"

Teak remained entombed beneath his covers, and Lima set himself the task of grabbing at the little hill where the boy's feet were tenting the material. Each grab was met with a startled cry and a vicious shake of the blanket, but he seemed determined not to come out—this was the kind of willpower that could only be forged in Vale.

"May as well," Lux muttered, rolling over on the floor until she could push herself up to her knees. "Teak—get out of bed; we're doing yoga."

Teak emerged from the blankets in defeat, unwilling to oppose her in the same way—either because she was the more intimidating of them or because he'd given his word that he'd be awake to participate.

"Now, as a little history lesson for those of you not so familiar with the practice of Yoga—it is an ancient art and one that has been passed down through the ages from teacher to student, but its actual origin is something that isn't so well known," Lima said, clearing his throat. "You see, it wasn't a human or a Faunus who created it, and it wasn't even meant as an exercise routine to begin with; it was, in fact, a prayer—a way for us to practice our worship, for the creamiest of all the gods, Yogurt."

Lux made a strangled noise in the back of her throat as he abruptly sent them all into a mental nosedive—Claire clapped her hands together as if in prayer before taking a deep breath and drawing all of their attention towards her in the process.

"Yum," Claire said, the word resonating in the back of her throat. "A-yum."

Lima clapped his hands together a moment later, joining in on the worship. Teak stared at them all through his messy bed hair, visibly at a loss from what he was experiencing, before slowly moving to press his palms together in some kind of unhinged solidarity—and Lima was suddenly certain, more so than ever, that Beacon Academy had been the only real choice.

"Ignore them, Teak," Lux demanded. "None of that was true, and Yoga doesn't have anything to do with Yogurt—just—will you stop praying."

#

Hallway, Beacon Academy, Sanus.

The aftermath of their first team Yoga session was followed by a search through the campus map for the nearest dojo to their dorm room, so they could move to attempt the second part of their morning exercise. According to that map, there were at least a dozen locations immediately around the dorms themselves to function for that purpose; the proximity there allowed every year level easy accessibility. They chose the closet one and found a large room with a pair of double doors on two different sides, the floor almost entirely dominated by a padded mat. The doors themselves were unlocked, and when Lima popped his head further into the room, he found a couple of seniors on the far side, going through a set of warmups. Other than glancing over to check who was entering the room, they returned to their own business after only a moment of interest.

"Well would you look at that," Lima said, sliding into the room. "Pretty convenient, huh?"

"Mm," Teak said, hesitating a bit when he noticed the older students. "We're not going to disturb them, are we?"

"The room is gigantic, Teak," Claire said, testing out the padding on the floor with the tip of her shoe. "Think we should take our shoes off for this?"

"Yes," Lux said, already in the process of doing just that. "Hurry up—we've only got forty-five minutes left."

Lima pinned one of his shoes to the floor with his heel and then slipped out of it without much effort, kicking both of them towards the unpadded floor by the doors. He considered the other three for a moment as they did the same, trying to figure out how to best use the small amount of time they had most productively.

"I want to fight you again," Lux insisted, already moving onto the mat. "Let's do that first."

"Hold that thought," Lima said, waving her off. "We need to structure this properly, and the initial purpose was to help Teak get some experience with combat before classes."

Lima stepped out onto the mat, ignoring the way Lux's face scrunched up at her impatience. Claire stumbled onto the mat, struggling to get her last shoe off before tossing it back to join the others. Teak took his time removing both of his own, moving to sit on the floor as he did so.

"An hour isn't a lot of time, so we should try and break that up into sections—no need for a warmup since we all just did a flexibility routine before we even got here, so that saves us some time," Lima said, scratching his chin. "Teak, you and I can take twenty minutes at the start of each day to go over the basics of striking, evading, and footwork—after that, we can do a series of fast but low-intensity one-on-one spars, exchanging opponents each time until everyone has fought everyone else at least once."

"Low intensity?" Lux said, frowning a bit. "I want full force."

"You can do that with me and Claire, I suppose, if she's up for it, but Teak isn't ready for that yet," Lima said without a care. "We can cap the end of the session off with some lopsided combat scenarios—two vs one, or three vs one, just to give everyone some practice dealing with multiple opponents."

"That's more like it," Lux said. "Claire?"

"We can do full force," Claire offered, "We're not doing that end part today, though, are we? We don't have enough time."

"Right, group combat stuff can wait until tomorrow, and if any of this doesn't end up working out, or we need to switch things up a bit, that's fine too," Lima said, nodding. "I'm going to start with Teak, so you guys should do some light sparring, practice some katas or work on whatever you've been doing most recently—reminder; we have a full day of unknown classes ahead of us, so don't tire yourselves out."

Lima waved Teak away from the other two and onto the corner of the mat; the shorter boy followed with a bit of hesitance.

"You're really good at this," Teak said, "They really should have made you the leader."

"You don't have a history with sparring or fighting, so this stuff is new to you," Lima said, shaking his head. "But I'm just regurgitating things that my guardian has been saying to me since I was younger—it doesn't have anything to do with leading a team, Teak."

"Maybe," Teak said.

Lima steered him away from the corner and then directed him into standing up straight with his hands up—Teak already had some of the basics down because the test punch he asked the boy to do was pretty close. It reminded him that the Faunus had already had a few lessons with Bestwitch, and he'd likely spent the weeks leading up to the entrance exam frantically looking up guides on how to fight.

"Keep going; I'll adjust you after each attempt," Lima said, standing just off his shoulder. "Step forward when you strike, your body is a conduit, and you want to maximize the amount of power flowing through you to the point of contact."

Lima showed him how to turn with the strike to funnel more of his body weight into it and then moved to stand in front of him, palm up to serve as a target. Teak had a bit of trouble striking with his offhand at first, but he seemed to get the change in balance under control after a little bit of practice.

"I'm going to start moving, and your target is now my upper body—chest or head," Lima said, sliding in front of him. "Follow me, step forward with each strike, and pivot to keep me in front of you, but make sure to pace yourself."

Teak was already breathing a bit heavily, and as he started to move forward, hands striking out in an alternating pattern, it started to grow worse. Lima continued leading him around in their corner of the mat, keeping just out of range of the attacks and giving him quiet advice on how to adjust himself.

"One of the most important things about fighting is breathing because if you can't maintain a steady pattern, you won't be able to continue," Lima said, reaching up to deflect one of the strikes to the side with his palm. "A common mistake for beginners is to hold your breath before attacking, so what you need to do is keep your breathing as even as possible—big breath in through your nose, then out through your mouth."

Teak lost some of the smoothness he'd managed to attain as he switched his focus from attacking to breathing, the movements becoming jerkier as he tried to fix the problem. Lima started adding more deflections into the mix, attempting to get him used to the idea that an opponent wouldn't simply evade an attack and that he'd have to recover in the aftermath of being pushed off balance or out of his rhythm.

"I—can't," Teak managed, bending over until his hands were on his knees. "I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize; you're doing great," Lima said, patting him on the shoulder. "Conditioning the body for combat isn't something that happens overnight, but you'll definitely get there so long as you work on it."

Teak breathed out something that he couldn't quite catch, but it sounded like an affirmation, so he just let it hang. Once the other boy had gotten his breath back, he coached him through some breathing to make sure he had some idea of what he was actually talking about and then set him into another chase around the mat.

"Changing your angle of attack is something we'll work on more next time, but for now, give yourself a one-step radius for each attack," Lima said, slipping one of the strikes before stepping out to the side and touching the tip of his fingers to Teak shoulder to show what he meant. "It doesn't have to be every single time, but make sure you're not limiting yourself to only a direct, frontal assault—we're fast enough to move around when we fight, so work it into your arsenal."

Teak tried his best, but with the additional focus on maintaining his breathing, he was straining to keep it all up. Lima caught him under the arm after the next missed strike sent him stumbling and helped him back upright while he regained his breath.

"We'll work on some basic kicks in a couple of days, but I'll probably have you practising the different types while standing still," Lima said, still steadying him. "Some of the higher kicks are difficult enough to learn on their own, but doing them while moving and while your target is evading isn't exactly beginner friendly."

Teak managed something approaching a 'that makes sense' if the standard mixture of breath versus sound that made up the words had been entirely flipped on its head. Lima glanced over at the other two for a moment, noting that Claire was sitting on the floor, attempting to catch her breath, while Lux was grinning with her hands planted firmly at her hips.

"They look like they're having fun," Lima said, bemused. "We should probably move on to sparring now because we kind of went over time a bit there—think you can take Lux out?"

Teak made a noise of disbelief in the back of his throat at the words, still not quite ready to talk. Lima steered him over towards the two of them before dropping down to sit a few meters away, and Teak followed with a sigh of relief.

"Sparring?" Lux demanded.

"Sure, but I think we've only got time for about two rounds before we need to leave," Lima said, rubbing the back of his head. "I just realised that if we're staggering our showers, we might end up missing breakfast—we should probably head back sooner than expected."

"I didn't think about that," Claire winced.

"I don't care about that," Lux complained. "I want to fight, and you're wasting what time we have."

"Come on then," Lima sighed, pushing himself to his feet again. "Teak and Claire can be round two."

Lux perked up, already moving back a bit to give them some space to move around and not run into the other two. Lima came to a stop across from her, lowering his stance a bit in preparation to receive whatever attack she started with.

"Full contact sparring, elimination by aura threshold or surrender, no Semblance use," Lux insisted. "I don't want you to cheat this time."

Lima almost sighed at the words and wondered how it could be that Sage was somehow speaking through her from an entire continent away.

"Ready," Lux said, teeth showing in her excitement. "Fight."

Lux surged forwards before the word was completely out of her mouth, her foot passing above his head in a blisteringly fast kick—it hit nothing but air as he lunged downwards, snatching hold of her standing foot and ripping it up off the ground. The sudden change destabilised her completely as she lost her only point of contact, and then he burst forward, catching her around the hip before burying her back first into the mat with a thump. He slipped his knee over her thigh, coming into a full mount on top of her and then sent a series of strikes crashing down at her face—her aura sparked to life beneath the first hit, bright and vibrant.

Lux let out a cry of frustration as she found herself entirely on the defensive, swinging upwards in an effort to break through his third attack, but Lima twisted with it, popping up onto a half crouch, hooked his left leg around her arm, before falling off to the side. He used his foot to pin her left arm to the ground and then dragged her right arm down between his thighs, levered it back further, carefully extending it all the way—

"Wait," Lux said, panicked. "I give up—"

Lima let go of her arm at the words, pulling backwards away from her and twisting back up to his feet. Lux stared up at him, her arm pulled close to her chest in an unconscious gesture to protect it from whatever had just occurred—then she let out a strangled noise in the back of her throat as he turned away from her to return to his previous place beside Teak.

"That was bullshit," Lux demanded, scrambling up to her feet. "I want a rematch."

"I thought that was the rematch?" Claire wondered. "It was really quick, though."

"Shut up," Lux said, horrified. "It doesn't count—he tricked me."

"We can spar again in the morning, brighteyes," Lima offered, leaning back onto his hands. "You two are up; come on—I'm not missing breakfast, no matter what."

Claire slipped up to her feet with a few quick movements, pretty much recovered from her earlier efforts, but Teak seemed far more unenthusiastic about what was going to happen next. Lux stormed over to take their recently vacated place, still glaring at him.

"I'm really not sure about this," Teak said, looking worried. "Maybe we can do this another day?"

Claire took a few steps closer to the shorter boy and then stood up on her tippy toes to further accentuate the height disparity between them—given she was the second shortest member of the team, there wasn't actually that much of a difference to begin with.

"There are no other days," Claire said, affecting a bit of sadness in her voice. "Teak, this is the end for you."

"That's not funny," Teak managed. "Claire—wait—"

Claire had the decency to go easy on him, and instead of the full contact sparring of the last bout, she stuck to testing his defences—of which there really weren't any. Teak managed to pull up on what he'd learned so far, and attempted to go on the offensive, stepping forward into her next attack. Claire slapped it out of the air with a smile but let him push forward. When she started returning fire between deflections, Teak wasn't quite able to keep up with everything that was happening. In a startling display of misfortune, Teak stepped into one of the strikes, his own attempt to attack thrown completely off centre—and it was through that moment that he landed the only successful strike of the round.

"Teak," Claire squawked in outrage. "What are you doing?"

"It was an accident," Teak cried out.

"Keep up the pressure, Teak," Lima said, laughing out loud. "Go for a palm strike this time; that's clearly her weak point—yikes."

"Claire," Lux said, snorting. "Groin attacks are illegal."

Teak attempted to turtle up in response to the foot glancing off his thigh, more than panicked now—and then Claire swept him off his feet with a low kick, sending him crashing to the ground. Claire loomed over him for a moment but lost a bit of her heat when Teak wilted beneath her.

"I really didn't mean to do that, Claire," Teak tried, guarding his head. "I'm sorry."

"It's—not that big of a deal, Teak," Claire said, sounding a bit off balance now. "That was actually pretty good for a first try."

Teak carefully sat up, now eyeing her like she was some dangerous creature that was moments away from devouring him for his unforgivable transgressions—it was just about the funniest thing Lima had ever seen.

"I'm pretty sure you've got the offence part of this down," Lima said, impressed. "The way you punched her in the tit was inspired—you're an absolute barbarian, my guy."

Teak buried his face in his hands in an attempt to hide himself away from the world.

#

Malachite's Dormitory, Beacon Academy, Sanus.

By the time each of them had finished having what might have been the shortest series of showers in the history of Remnant, dressed and then made a frantic dash down to the Dining Hall, they had exactly ten minutes before the kitchens were due to shut down. They passed through the queue, made an order from the menu provided, and were served in a few minutes by the kitchen staff working behind the counter. Lux led them over to one of the many tables that ran the length of the room, and Lima dropped down into a seat beside her, the tray clacking against the surface on contact.

"It felt like we were cutting it pretty close there," Lima said, already chewing on a strip of chicken. "How are we doing for time, anyway?"

"It's three past eight, and we need to be at Grimm Studies by eight thirty," Teak said, stabbing down into his own meal with his fork. "That's one of the classes we have every single day, it lasts until ten o'clock, and it's always in Lecture Hall, A4—unless otherwise specified."

Teak seemed far more in his element here, and Lima nodded along as the Faunus spoke.

"They made four lecture halls?" Lima wondered.

"There's also a B, C, and D series as well," Claire said, "Even with all the other years and their classes—it kind of makes you wonder."

"They may be planning on training an even higher amount of Huntsman and Huntresses in the future," Teak said, "It would make sense to leave room for an upwards trend in population growth over time."

"Makes sense to me," Lux muttered, stirring her food without enthusiasm. "Where is it?"

"There is a map display just outside the Dining Hall, and we've got one on our scrolls that we can use," Teak said, shifting his scroll out of his pocket to check. "Building A, first floor, west wing."

"Nice," Lima said, "Where the hell is Building A again?"

"We just walked past it on the way here," Teak said, almost impressed with how poor his sense of direction seemed to be. "There were signs above the door and everything."

"It's precisely as I suspected," Lima said, nodding once. "This is Building A."

"This is the Dining Hall," Teak said, alarmed. "Are we having two different conversations right now?"

"What's after Grimm Studies?" Claire asked.

"Crafting and Upkeep, which takes place in Workshop A4," Teak said, apparently having memorised the entire schedule with his galaxy-sized brain. "It's in Building C, on the first floor, and it finishes at twelve."

That caught Lima's attention a bit because he'd been thinking about the two missing spikes since the attack on the train had concluded, and that would be the place he could get his hands on some actual equipment in order to replace them—although replacing the gravity dust was going to be a nightmare given how expensive it was. It took a single crystal for each one, precisely cut down to size and then inserted into the compacted form of each spike—and he'd have to replace the anti-shock casing he'd made for them.

"Ugh," Lima groaned, dropping his fork onto his empty plate. "Why must everything cost money?"

"That's just, like, how the world works, dude," Claire said, bemused. "What made you say that?"

"Never you mind, Claire," Lima said, pouting a bit. "What's after that?"

"Lunch, which lasts for an hour and fifteen minutes," Teak said, "The kitchen opens at half past eleven, so if anything ends early, we can come back here."

Lux was now eyeing her fellow Faunus like he was the font of all knowledge, and Lima couldn't help but agree—Teak was coming in strong.

"Third period?" Lux asked.

"History, in Lecture Hall B4, it goes from one thirty until three in the afternoon," Teak said, furrowing his brow upon realising all three of them were staring at him now. "Why are you looking at me like that—didn't you read the schedule."

"Hell no," Lima said, aghast. "Now, tell me about the fourth period immediately—unless you don't actually know it."

"Fourth period is always Practical Combat, no matter the day, from three until five, and it takes place in several different places," Teak said, scrunching his face up at the teasing. "It rotates through the Amphitheatre, the Emerald Forest, and several different Training Fields—depending on whatever we're supposed to be working on."

"There were other classes, weren't there?" Claire wondered. "I saw Stealth and Security on the list—Plant Studies too."

"Stealth and Security replaces Upkeep and Crafting every other day," Teak said, "Plant Studies does the same for History as well—but they're both in different buildings."

"We only got those schedules last night," Lux said, eyeing him. "You really memorised all of that in one day?"

"Of course I did," Teak said, crossing his arms. "I was worried about it."

"So we're locked in from eight-thirty until five," Lima said, humming. "Suppose that gives us a couple of hours of free time."

Teak hesitated for a moment.

"There's also an optional fifth period right after Combat Studies; it's listed as Self-Directed Sparring and Exercise." Teak said, "I suppose that's there to guide us into doing stuff on our own."

"You guys want to move our hour of sparring to the afternoon or keep it in the morning?" Lima wondered. "That gives us a bit more time to shower and get dressed in the mornings—we can still do the Yoga and flexibility stuff."

"Whatever," Lux said before narrowing her eyes at him. "I'm still getting up at five."

Lima rolled his eyes at the words; she clearly thought they were engaged in some kind of competition now.

"That's probably a good idea," Claire admitted, "I don't think I could deal with a two-minute shower every day."

"I'm fine with that," Teak said before sitting up straight. "Oh no—we're going to be late."

#

Lecture Hall A4, Beacon Academy, Sanus.

Apparently, Teak considered being ten minutes early to class as 'being late,' something which left them arriving ahead of the vast majority of the class. Lecture Hall A4 was a pretty interesting room, with detailed sketches of various Grimm pinned up across all of the walls and a series of bookshelves with all sorts of books with interesting titles—Grimm Anatomy, Behavioural Study of Lupine Grimm, Griffons And How To Avoid Dying. Peter Port, the Professor of the class, was a barrel-chested man with fine grey hair and a large bushy moustache. He stood straight-backed in front of his desk as they filed into the room, eyes closed, but with an unmistakable smile on his face. Lima followed Teak past the large open area that took up most of the room, eyeing the reinforced flooring that was at odds with the rest of the floorboards that made it up.

The first of the raised benches that made up the seating for the class was equally as reinforced, and he could see a series of scratches that hadn't quite been buffed out of the material—some kind of practical exercise, no doubt, although he wasn't sure what it could have been. Teak selected the front row of the left-hand side as their place to sit, and they slipped in beside him, taking the first four seats. The rest of the class began to trickle in a moment later, only a few seconds behind them—Pyrrha, Jaune, Nora and Ren passed through the doorway, and Lima wiggled his eyebrows at them when they made eye contact. Jaune came to a stop at the end of their row before turning sideways and shuffling down to take the seats beside them.

"Morning," Jaune said as he took the seat directly beside him. "Did you get put in a single room as well?"

"Hey—that's exactly what they did to us," Lima admitted, "We just pushed all the beds together and slept in a big old cuddle pile."

Lux had practically melted onto the bench in front of them, chin resting on her crossed arms and with the look of someone who'd been thrown in a prison by which she'd never escape—the comment didn't so much as peak her interest, and she continued to stare blandly at the teacher from her place.

"What?" Nora said as she passed behind him. "That is amazing."

"If you think that is cool," Lima said, beaming. "Just wait until I tell you about how we attempted to save water in the showers—"

"Dude," Jaune said, stunned. "What?"

Claire jolted him with her elbow in punishment, but he could tell that she was trying not to smile.

"None of that actually happened," Teak protested. "He's lying."

"Hello, Teak," Pyrrha said, amused. "I hope he hasn't been giving you too much trouble?"

"He's mostly behaved himself," Teak said before pausing. "I—really like our team."

Lux grunted at the words before turning her head so she could get a better look at him—Teak scratched at his cheek for a moment, not quite willing to meet her gaze.

"What about you guys, huh?" Lima said, bumping into Jaune's shoulder as the boy pulled his seat in. "Everything going swimmingly?"

Jaune glanced down the row at the rest of his team as they took their seats beside him, and then he nodded once.

"Everything's really working out," Jaune said, sounding a bit surprised. "I think it's going to be okay."

"J-man and Pawpaw, the ultimate pair, partnered up in the forest while they were flying through the air, a tumbling descent and a javelin that dared," Lima said, flicking his fingers at the boy. "An arc of a throw, and an Arc in despair, almost pinned him to a tree, but it missed by a hair—"

"Stop rapping," Claire tried, cringing. "Please stop?"

Jaune flushed at all the attention he was suddenly getting, perhaps having thought the moment had stayed unwitnessed by the other examinees. Pyrrha pressed a hand to her cheek as she got caught in the crossfire, letting out something of an embarrassed laugh.

"You actually saw that?" Jaune managed.

"We all saw that," Nora cheered. "It was awesome—I almost joined in."

"Nora," Ren wondered, "I don't think your weapon would have had the same effect if you'd thrown it at him."

"It would have worked better," Nora insisted, eyes bright. "Much better."

Weiss swept into the doorway, looking a bit panicked as she caught sight of most of the class staring down at her—and then Yang, Blake and Ruby all came rushing in behind her.

"You made us late," Weiss said, horrified. "Ruby—"

"No, no," Port said, speaking up for the first time. "Though you may have been the last to arrive, you are still two minutes earlier—please, take a seat, girls."

Weiss's face was flushed as she cut across the room, seeking out a seat on the right-hand side. Ruby's posture was slumped as she followed, and all of the enthusiasm he'd seen in her before was now looking a bit contested. Yang smiled at the attention, crossing the room with her head up high, meeting all of their gazes, while Blake kept her eyes on her destination, seemingly unbothered by it all. The very moment they'd taken their seats, Port took a step forward, somehow straightening even further as his eyes opened up—the man had a presence that filled the room, even before he'd said much of anything.

"Monsters, demons, prowlers of the night," Port said, "Yes, the creatures of Grimm have been known by many names throughout the ages—but I merely refer to them as prey."

A single sentence had been all it had taken, but Professor Peter Port had just firmly cemented himself as Lima's favourite instructor—and even though he hadn't met any of the others, he doubted it would have changed a thing.

"You shall too, of course, upon graduating from this prestigious academy," Port said, "But our shared reality is that this planet is absolutely teeming with creatures that would love nothing more than to tear you all to pieces."

Lima violently pushed away the imagery those words brought up within him, instead leaning forward to plant his elbows on the top of the bench, hands linked in front of his face.

"Vale, as well as the other three kingdoms, are safe havens in an otherwise treacherous world, and the academies are the backbone of each," Port said, making an effort to find eye contact with each of them. "Through them, each of you shall fulfil your chosen path as Huntsman and Huntresses—as individuals who have sworn to protect those who cannot protect themselves."

Port swept his arms out towards them.

"You have made a great sacrifice by choosing this life, and I will do my absolute best to honour it by teaching you to excel," Port said, nodding once. "But first, before all of that, I would tell you a story, a tale of a young, handsome man—a tale about me."

Lima found himself smiling at the not-so-subtle brag he'd attempted to shoehorn into his speech.

"It may come as a surprise to some of you, but I was once a boy, several years younger than you all are now, and at that time, I lived in a tiny little village on the southwestern coast of Sanus," Port said, "I was born there, I was raised there, and you certainly wouldn't have been able to find it on a map, even before its eventual fall to the Grimm—a history many villages that had once been bold enough to exist on the outskirts of society now share."

Port reached up, running his thumb and forefinger across his moustache, eyes seeking out the ceiling for a moment. Lima felt another flicker at the words, and a feeling of something that might have been kinship rose up. While Lima hadn't been born in Oniyuri, and the settlement hadn't really had a chance to come to fruition, he'd certainly been there when it had fallen. He felt some of the hairs on the back of his neck rise up at the direction his thoughts were headed, but once again, he managed to push it all away.

"Nevertheless, our village had grown quite accustomed to dealing with the smaller Grimm that had been common in the area, and once upon a time, we even had several Huntsman to deal with the rarer, more substantial threats that sometimes arose," Port said, "Unfortunately, they weren't present at the time this story took place, as they'd been called away to deal with a series of attacks in a nearby village."

Some of the good cheer that had been in Port's voice at the beginning of the speech began to fade away as he spoke, and Lima found himself studying the man's face in earnest.

"We thought nothing of it at the time, mainly because while the Grimm were attacking elsewhere, they hadn't touched our own village in what felt like an eternity. We were in something of an upswing; our good fortune bolstering us and, in turn, keeping all negative thoughts furthest from our minds," Port said, "Of course, the Grimm attacked almost as soon as the Huntsmen and Huntresses had left the area, and if they were capable of such a thing, I'd have labelled it as a startling display of strategy."

Lima pressed his linked hands further against his mouth, more thoughts rising up in response to the tale.

"Although my aura was unlocked back then, I wasn't a Huntsman, nor did I have any real experience in dealing with an attack of that magnitude," Port said, with an upward nod of his head. "I was working as a woodcutters apprentice at the time, so my weapon of choice, if you could have called it such a thing, was a simple axe."

Lima lifted his gaze to the weapon that was mounted on the wall above the sketches; a battle axe with a barrel on the other end—he glanced over to the left side of the room as Ruby let out a little snore, apparently not quite as engaged as he was or simply attempting to catch up on some sleep after all the excitement of the last few days. Weiss, on the other hand, was practically vibrating in her seat, her frustration with her leader building up and bringing a vibrant splash of colour to her pale cheeks.

"Despite smelling of cabbages, my grandfather was a wise man—something that comes with age and experience—'Peter, he told me, you've got to learn how to fight if you want to survive out here, we all do.'" Professor Port said, finding something of a smile once more. "He'd been a staunch advocate for providing everyone in the village at least some kind of training at arms, and it's most likely because of his lifetime of concentrated effort alone that we came out of that day as well as we had."

Peter nodded at his own words as if reaffirming to himself once again that the thought was the truth of the matter.

"Twenty-three Beowolves attacked the village that day, and I'm thankful to this day that there wasn't an alpha-variant amongst the group because that would have likely spelled the end for us," Port said, "The men attempted to repel the attackers, while the women hid the children away as best they could—I stood amongst them, my axe in hand, and with only a novice's enthusiasm to carry me forward."

A shift to his right caught his attention as Nora leant in towards Ren's ear, speaking quietly to the boy—Lima couldn't hear the words, but the two of them now seemed to be lacking the easy air that had followed them into the room.

"The strangest thing occurred during that attack, and I still can't quite understand the behaviour, even now, decades later—and with a profession that deals with teaching exactly that," Port said, furrowing his brow. "One of the village girls had been outside of the wall when the attack began, picking wild berries, and had returned during the worst of it—one of the Beowolves took her, jaws locked around her arm, and dragged her right back out of it."

Lima frowned at the words, gaze drawn back to the man and the look of puzzlement on his face.

"I gave chase, foolishly, perhaps, in an attempt to catch them before it could get too far away, bearing the brunt of trees, vines, and thorns in my rush to do something," Port said, clenching a fist in front of his chest. "With my axe in hand, I advanced into the forest, following those terrible sounds—"

Port shook his head at the memory, looking like he wasn't quite there with them in the classroom.

"As dangerous as the creatures of Grimm may be, they are—the younger ones, predominantly—simple things. They aim to menace their victims on approach because the fear they invoke is a siren call for them," Port said, "But once they have a victim in its grasp, they act in a single way, universal amongst all of the species, and regardless of age."

Port let his fist drop down to hang beside his hip again, his voice a far bit softer.

"They tear the victim apart on the spot with complete disregard for what is happening around them, lost to a sea of instinctual violence—and yet I found the girl unharmed, except perhaps, for the result of being dragged through the forest," Port said, sounding puzzled. "Regardless, I struck at the beast the moment I made it out of the trees, and after that, it was something of a mess—I lost hold of my axe several times, and the only kind of determination I had at that moment was brought on by fear of my own life."

Lima rolled his shoulders, trying to dispel the tension that had seized him—but despite his best efforts, he couldn't push away the image of his mother reaching out towards him, her arm the only thing visible beneath the writhing mass of Grimm.

"In the end, the Beowulf was no match for my will to live and thought my aura was all but spent; I'd left the creature grievously wounded—enough so that it could not move at all," Port said, breathing out a rush of air. "I collected the girl and dragged the Grimm back to the village, my clothes torn, my axe shattered, but with my head held high."

Lima had spent far too many nights dreaming of a world in which his own tale had ended up anywhere near as triumphant as that.

"I was celebrated as a hero on my return," Professor Port said, and there was a tremor to his voice now, "For those of you who weren't paying attention, the moral of my story is that I was incredibly lucky."

There was an immediate increase in volume as mutters broke out throughout the class, the man's words catching just about everyone off guard—Ruby startled back to the world of the living, swinging her head around in an attempt to figure out what was happening.

"If I hadn't had my aura unlocked, if I hadn't received some training on how to fight, if I hadn't caught the creature from behind at the very start of the fight, if I hadn't seen the girl being dragged away—by all rights, I should have died in that forest," Port said, stretching out a hand to all of them. "Listen to me now; A true Huntsman or Huntress must be honourable, they must be dependable, they need determination, they must have the drive and the hard-earned skills to destroy those who would align themselves against humanity, they must be strategic, well-educated and wise."

The atmosphere in the classroom buzzed, a sort of electric charge rising up at his words, and Lima finally managed to resettle himself, pushing all thoughts of the past away. A check of his immediate surroundings revealed that Claire was watching him, brows pulled together—he tried for a smile, but it felt a bit pale on his face, and he turned away again before she had much of a chance to react.

"So, who amongst you believes themselves to be the embodiment of these traits?" Professor Port said, closing his hand into a fist once more. "Now isn't the time to be shy—raise your hand at once."

Lima lifted his hand up into the air, and he wasn't the only one who had found the confidence to do so—Weiss, Pyrrha, Blake, and Cardin all raised their hands at the same time. The rest of the class began to follow their example until the vast majority of the class had their hand raised up above their heads. Weiss, perhaps in some kind of effort not to be lost amongst her peers, found her voice.

"I do, sir," Weiss said, uncaring of the attention it had drawn on her. "I embody all of those traits."

"Fantastic, then let's find out just how true that is," Professor Port said, starting forward into the middle of the room. "Come down here, and prepare to face your opponent."

Lima let his hand fall alongside the rest of the class, eyes tracking the man's progress across the room towards a large iron door to the far side of the room—and although he couldn't feel anything through it, he was suddenly certain what was waiting beyond. The scratches were worst near the base of the door, dispersing more with distance. Port placed his hand on the handle and turned, watching as Weiss stepped down onto the open, reinforced space.

"I suppose that explains why we were told to bring our weapons," Jaune said, sounding a bit nervous. "Exactly what's behind that door, though?"

Port swung the door open as if in response to the question, and iron bars were revealed, a towering cage beyond the door with a snarling Boarbatusk inside. Lima hadn't seen very many Grimm in captivity before, but this one was clearly small, young, and likely wasn't quite sure about its current predicament. Most Grimm simply dispersed after being subjected to long-term captivity, the older ones doing so faster as they realised the futility of the situation. This one must have been captured recently, either this morning or the night before, and prepared for the upcoming lesson.

"He's actually bringing them to us so we can kill them?" Lima said, more than impressed. "This guy is awesome."

"This—doesn't this seem really dangerous?" Teak managed. "Is Weiss really going to fight it in a classroom?"

"A single Boarbatusk has zero chance of killing Weiss, mostly because it wouldn't be able to deal enough damage to her Aura before Port killed it," Lima said in answer. "But considering the fact that she passed the entrance exam, just like the rest of us, she would never lose to something like this."

"I wasn't really thinking about it like that," Teak said, chewing on the tip of his thumb. "What if it destroys one of the shelves—"

"You're worried about the books?" Lux laughed.

Teak bristled at the words and then crossed his arms in protest, refusing to look at her anymore. Lux nudged the boy with her elbow in an attempt to get him to respond, but he outright ignored her, and she huffed.

"Lux," Claire wondered. "Why didn't you put your hand up before?"

"I'm barely any of the things he said," Lux said, without care. "The best I can do is fight—maybe I'll pick up the rest later."

Weiss slipped her rapier out, performing a flick that left it vertical in front of her before it slashed out to point at the still-locked cage. Lima was a bit sad that he didn't get the chance to kill it, but clearly, Weiss had wanted to destroy it more. He'd have to stop calling her old lady; she was actually way more relatable than he initially thought—

"Go Weiss," Yang called. "You've got this."

"Yeah." Ruby said, cheering out in support, "Get out there and represent Team Ruby—"

"Ruby, be quiet." Weiss snapped, "I'm trying to focus."

—or maybe she was still kind of an asshole, after all. Ruby slumped back down into her seat with a muttered apology, and Yang patted her on the back in an attempt to cheer her up.

"Now, I shall release our prey; ready yourself, Huntress," Port said, raising his voice. "The hunt will now begin."

The cage swung open, and the very moment the Boarbatusk found a place that wasn't covered by iron bars, it surged forward, cutting across the length of the room towards Weiss. Port moved to stand in front of the open cage; hands fisted behind his back as he watched with interest.

"They're fast," Teak said, staring down at it. "The Beowolves were nowhere near that quick."

"Beowolves trade-off linear speed for a range of mobility options," Lima said in answer. "Boarbatusks are fast in straight lines, but they can't do tight corners or quick turns without slowing right down."

Weiss slipped the initial attack, rolling back to her feet in a smooth, controlled manner and retaking her stance once more. The Boarbatusk hit the brakes, coming to a stop near the wall before turning, sweeping its four, glaring eyes across the students arrayed above it, before it settled back on Weiss once more.

"You're right; it came to a complete stop," Teak murmured, "How do they act in more open areas?"

"The same way, for the most part," Lux answered, "There's more room for wider turns out in a field, so they might try to curve around to maintain speed, but if you get behind them, they'll stop."

"Teak, are you taking notes? Oh, oh, do one for me too," Claire said, reaching up to twirl an invisible moustache. "If you were to target the underbelly of the prey, you could inflict quite a bit of damage because they don't have armour there—hah, hah, a critical hit is afoot."

"Don't make fun of him," Teak said, scandalised. "Besides, I don't need to write that down because Lima already told it to me during the exam."

"That's not fair," Claire complained, wagging a finger at him expectantly. "Write it down, or I'll totally be mad."

Ruby finally seemed to rally, cupping her hands around her mouth to help focus her voice.

"Hang in there, Weiss," Ruby called. "You can do it."

A bright light washed into existence beneath Weiss, and the moment she planted a foot on it, she blurred forward, moving at least twice as fast as before, rapier extended before her like a spear—but for all of the prodigal speed she suddenly possesses, it turned out she was facing the only Boarbatusk in the world that had been exclusively trained in disarming techniques. The creature twisted its head, catching the rapier between both of its tusks and locking her into a power struggle—a ripple of noise washed over the student body at the impossible sight.

"What the heck?" Lima said, slamming his hands down on the desk in alarm. "Who the hell taught that pig martial arts?"

"Forget that; what was that symbol on the ground?" Claire said, "I've never seen anything like that before."

"That wasn't any kind of dust effect, so it was probably her Semblance," Lux guessed, "She got faster when she stepped on it—she obviously creates boost pads, like in Streets of Remnant."

"But those only work on cars," Nora said, sucking in a sharp breath, "Unless—"

"Nora," Ren said, interjecting. "I don't think Weiss is a car."

"But it all fits," Nora protested.

"The Schnee family all has the exact same Semblance; it's one of the inheritable bloodlines," Jaune said, drawing all of the attention on himself. "The symbols are called Glyphs, and they do a bunch of different things—this is all public knowledge; I don't know why you're staring at me like that."

Weiss lost the power lock and was thrown halfway across the room, bouncing once before sliding back to her feet beside the wall. Teak attempted to stand up as her weapon bounced away in the opposite direction—Lux caught hold of his arm before dragging him back down into his seat.

"Lux," Teak tried. "She doesn't have a weapon."

"She'll be fine," Lux said, keeping him from getting up. "Sit."

"Bold new approach," Port said, stroking his moustache. "What will you do now, Miss Schnee?"

"Weiss is more than fast enough to get behind it—why is she attacking it head-on?" Lima said, staring at the gruelling battle with horror. "What is happening here?"

Weiss dove to the side as the Boarbatusk took a run at her, avoiding it by scant inches and leaving the creature to crash headfirst into the reinforced wall with a crack, leaving all of the benches to rattle from the force. Before the monster could turn around again, Weiss had already retrieved her weapon with a sliding pass that left her back on her feet and ready to fight once more.

"See?" Lux murmured, fingers still wrapped around Teak's wrist. "Nothing to worry about."

"Weiss." Ruby called, "Go for its belly—there's no armour underneath."

Weiss snapped her head around at the words, visibly furious, and took her eyes completely off the Boarbatusk in the process.

"Stop telling me what to do." Weiss bit out.

The Boarbatusk took the chance afforded to it, tucking itself into a ball and rolling forward at a blistering pace—but this time, Weiss seemed to have it under control as a Glyph burst into existence right in front of its path. The monster crashed headlong into it and was repelled, slamming down onto its back at the abrupt nature of the stop, its belly now exposed.

"She really is kind of an asshole," Lima complained.

"Don't say that," Jaune tried, playing defence for the girl. "She's just stressed, that's all."

Weiss flipped backward, landing on another Glyph that appeared in midair—although this time it flickered from white to black—and then she rocketed off the face of it, propelled by some unseen force, the tip of her rapier slamming straight through the Grimm in a fatal blow.

"Bravo, bravo, it appears we are, indeed, in the presence of a true Huntress in training," Port said, clapping his hands together. "Well done, Miss Schnee, a fantastic showing; you are welcome to retake your seat once more."

For all that she had decimated her enemy and emerged the victor, she didn't seem at all ready to begin celebrations. Instead, Weiss stomped back over to her team and dropped into her seat, refusing to look at her teammates.

The Boarbatusk began to fade away, drifting up into the air as it evaporated, and Port clapped a few more times before moving to address the entirety of the class once more.

"This will be a situation you should all familiarise yourself with, as I will be bringing Grimm to each class, and you will all be taking turns eliminating them," Port said, "Adjacent to that, I would like to inform you all that every weekend I head up a small hunting expedition in the surrounding areas."

Port directed their attention to a small board on the wall beside the door, a stack of papers pinned in place, and a pen dangling from a string beneath it.

"My detailed schedule is available on request; please sign up on that sheet by the door—you'll find that many students from other classes and year levels like to participate," Port said, smiling now. "Those of you who showcase a certain level of skill may even earn the privilege to set off on your own, within the sanctioned areas, provided you possess the skills to take care of yourselves."

Lima knew exactly what he was doing this weekend—he wouldn't even need to sneak off to manage it.

"These missions will have no bearing on your grades, nor are they mandatory, but if you seek further experience, then please don't hesitate to speak with me," Port said with a final nod. "Now, while the exciting part of the lesson is most definitely over, we still have much more to do—now, the main book we will be using this year is the Grimm Compendium—"

#

Workshop A4, Beacon Academy, Sanus.

Workshop A4 was larger than the Lecture Hall had been, with rows of floating benches filling up the middle of the room, each one stocked with a set of tools and with its own power supply. Two of the walls were entirely overtaken with shelves and hundreds of pull-out trays, each labelled with their contents and meticulously organised for ease of access. The third wall was lined with a series of large pieces of machinery, of which Lima only recognised about a third of them—Beacon Academy clearly had the funds to go all in with this. The only thing he couldn't seem to see anywhere was dust, and his hopes for quietly palming off a gravity crystal or two were dashed.

The professor was busy at his own workbench when they first arrived, dissembling something that looked like an exterior panel of an Airship. Shoulder-length dark hair, a thin, ragged beard that hung around his neck and small eyes gave them something of a disinterested once-over as they filed into the room and began milling about the space in front of the door, unsure of where they should go. Lima found himself stuck between Claire and Lux, the latter of which was shoving him into the former—he caught her around the waist with one hand, fingers digging into her hip in an attempt to stop himself from completely ramming into her.

"Lima," Claire protested. "Hands to yourself, mister."

"Tell that to the girl who's pushing me into you," Lima defended, "That's it, everybody get the hell out of my way before I start kicking asses—"

"Pick a bench; there's one for each of you," The professor said, "Whichever one you choose is the one you're responsible for—keep it clean, put all the tools back when you're finished with them, and if something breaks, fix it, or tell me if you can't."

Lima finally got some headway into the room, and Claire stopped giving him the side-eye over her shoulder. He got some distance from her in case she was feeling a bit vengeful and then staked a claim over one of the benches near the front of the room. Lima messed about for a minute, checking out all of the gear at his disposal and looking for what he'd need to make the casing for the replacement spikes.

"My name is Harold Mulberry," Harold said once they'd all settled a bit. "Welcome to Crafting and Upkeep."

The man strode around to the front of his own bench to see them better over the mass of metal obstructing his view and then nodded.

"In battle, your weapons are your only friends, forge them well, and they won't let you down," Harold said, "Fail to maintain them to an adequate standard, and you'll only be around to regret it for a little while."

Ruby was practically vibrating at her bench, hands planted on the top of it as she leaned forward.

"You have two main responsibilities in this class, and I'll be available to assist you with either if you need the help," Harold said, "The first is to perform regular maintenance on your combat gear to make sure it's all in good condition for the combat classes—that means you should be bringing both your armour and your weapons with you."

Harold crossed his arms before leaning back against his bench, the metal panel shifting slightly.

"The second is a year-long project, where you'll be creating a piece of auxiliary equipment to assist you in your goals—and while it doesn't have to have direct combat potential, it had better be useful," Harold advised, "That means armour, weapons, gadgets, sensor equipment, robotics, and anything else you can dream up are permitted—but something like a hair curling iron, a card shuffling machine, or a toaster is going to get failed."

The expression on the man's face was enough for Lima to guess that someone had tried at least one of those things in the past.

"I don't really care what you choose to make, and it's not a problem if you pull from existing designs to make something custom for yourself, but the final design should be accompanied by a blueprint and all of the resources you used to get there," Harold said, "Don't worry too much about infringing on a patent, but don't copy anything wholesale either—and I wish I didn't have to say this, but if you do copy something, don't try to sell it afterwards."

Harold directed their attention to the walls of materials and then to the machinery.

"All of this is available for you to use at your discretion, but if you find yourself in need of something more specific or that isn't so readily available, we have requisition forms in those cabinets," Harold said, pointing them out. "Fill them out with your request, and give them to me; we have a budget for that kind of thing, but there are some things it doesn't cover—there isn't a specific structure to these lessons, and how you spend your time here is largely up to you."

Harold pushed off the desk and came to stand at the front row of benches for a moment.

"If you're not so familiar with this kind of thing, you don't know how to use something, or you're worried about something going forward, come ask me," Harold said, "My job here is to help you, so don't wait around wondering if it's something you should bother me with—just come find me immediately, understand?"

There was a response from most of the class, an overlapping affirmation that they'd do just that.

"Good," Harold said, turning back around. "Talking is fine, but make sure you get your maintenance out of the way first—that's all."

Lima cut around his bench, moving to speak with the man right away, and Harold caught sight of him as he rounded his own desk.

"What do you need?" Harold asked.

"I lost some ammunition on the trip to Vale; custom retractable spikes with a gravity crystal in each one," Lima said, jerking his head back to the black box that was sitting on his workbench. "They're paired to the system in my quiver, so I can retrieve them after firing—does the budget here cover dust crystals, or do I need to buy those myself?"

"Out of luck there; they don't cover dust of any kind," Harold admitted, "We can requisition it for you, though, and they'll deliver it here if you front the cost—a week is about how long it takes for stuff to arrive."

"Damn," Lima sighed. "Probably faster for me to go buy it from Vale on the weekend—thanks, sir."

"Don't mention it," Harold said.

Lima returned to his desk in defeat, mind set on building the replacement casings—he could always add the dust at a later time.

"I've never had a class like this, but it's rather hands-off," Teak said from the bench adjacent to his own. "Do you guys have any ideas for what you're going to make for the project?"

Lux spoke up, having taken the bench on Teak's right-hand side.

"No idea," Lux said, "Something to disorientate the enemy maybe—not sure what that looks like, though."

"I've decided to use three swords instead of two—that way, they can't expel me for dual wielding," Claire said, speaking up. "What do you think? Pretty cool, huh?"

Lima glanced over to his left, at the bench she'd chosen, and found her smiling at him—at least she wasn't still mad at him for the accidental grab.

"Nice," Lima said, bolstered. "Ozpin definitely hasn't thought of that."

"I don't even know what would help me in combat." Teak tried, "Maybe we can ask about what previous students have made?"

"Mechanized chopsticks and a double-sided fork," Lux suggested, "You can't fight on an empty stomach."

"I think that falls squarely in the same place as the toaster," Teak sighed. "Lima? Do you know what you're going to make?"

"A grappling hook of some kind," Lima said, scratching his chin. "Wrist mounted, maybe? I want a really long cable, so I suppose it depends on how compact I can make it."

"That sounds really cool," Teak said. "Claire, are you really making a third sword?"

Claire just laughed.

#

Dining Hall, Beacon Academy, Sanus.

"Well," Claire said, clearing her throat. "Thoughts?"

"Carrots are probably the worst food in all of history, but they are also objectively the best colour." Lima said, frowning, "It honestly makes no sense; nature is weird."

Lima weathered the three odd glances he got at the comment, but he ignored them entirely, too busy pushing the singular and entirely unfortunate carrot that had somehow ended up on his plate around with his fork.

"Um, okay?" Claire said, "I meant about the classes and the teachers."

"Port is an absolute unit," Lima said, "I doubt anybody is going to be able to top Grimm Studies—that story about the Beowulf, though, I didn't even know that they did things like that."

"I didn't either," Lux admitted, "What do you think it was trying to do to that girl?"

"It's a bit terrible to say," Teak said, hesitating. "But maybe it was saving her for later?"

"The monsters of Grimm don't eat to survive; they kill things because they enjoy causing pain," Lima said, "Maybe it wanted to torment her first, make her more scared before it killed her."

It wasn't a nice thought, but it was the only thing he could really think of that fit, and the group fell into a momentary silence as they considered it.

"Regardless, Port definitely seems to know what he's talking about," Teak said. "I wonder what the name of that town was, the one from his story—I'd like to look it up in the library."

"That reminds me," Lima said, "Did you find anything about those ruins in the forest?"

"I looked it up on my scroll last night, but it was hard to find much about the original ruins because they're old enough to be a part of our lost history," Teak admitted, "There was a much more recent company outpost built out there amongst the ruins, but they never managed to get it off the ground—instead the project was abandoned, and they went with Mountain Glenn instead."

"Mountain Glenn? Didn't that place get destroyed as well?" Claire said, blinking. "What was the name of the company?"

"Merlot Industries, a company that dealt with artificial intelligence and genetics research," Teak said, "There's not much information about it now, other than the company is now defunct."

"Can't say I blame them for giving up," Lima said, "Two locations down—they must have been hemorrhaging money."

"Doctor Merlot was the company's founder and its main financial backer," Teak said, nodding. "He apparently died during the fall of Mountain Glenn, so even if they wanted to continue, they wouldn't have been able to fund the expansion."

Two destroyed facilities, and then the man goes down himself? Talk about a case of bad luck. If the Grimm had any form of higher functioning, he could almost believe it was a concentrated attempt to get rid of the guy.

"Well, if there's no information on the ruins, we could always go out there and document them ourselves," Lima said, waggling his eyebrows at Teak. "What do you say—shall we have ourselves an expedition?"

"That sounds really fun," Teak said, eyes bright. "We could take pictures of them—did you know there's supposed to be more ruins out in Forever Fall?"

"Put it on the list," Lima said, nodding.

"Explorer Teak," Claire said, giggling a bit. "We'll have to buy you one of those helmets with the lamp in them."

Teak flushed a bit at the teasing.

"My boy Teak can see in the dark, but the mental image is pretty good," Lima said, "We might have to go shopping for cosmetics items, Explorer Teak."

"You can see in the dark?" Claire said before glancing over at Lux. "That makes two of you—I just had an idea."

"Are you going to share it with us?" Lux wondered.

"No way, it's a secret," Claire insisted. "Strategic topic change—Port does expeditions of his own; aren't you interested in those, Lima?"

As far as distractions went, that was a pretty good one, so he let her get away with it.

"You bet I am—every Saturday morning, I already signed up," Lima said, "Are you guys coming?"

"Lame, I'm signing up for the Dueling Tournament," Lux said, "That's on Saturdays as well."

"The duelling tournament?" Teak asked after an odd pause. "What's that, Lux?"

"I'm glad you asked, Teak," Lux said, "It's a tournament where us, the students of Beacon, all get to fight one another as much as we want."

The bizarre nature of his response caught Lima's attention, and he furrowed his brow for a moment.

"Wow, that's amazing; when does the amphitheatre open up for public sparring?" Claire asked as if on cue. "It was midday, wasn't it?"

Lima turned to look at her, the interest she was showing entirely artificial.

"You can sign up for it on your scroll, and it's open all day," Lux said, grinning now. "You can even choose a timeslot and challenge other people who have signed up—you can pick random as well, which will pick people based on some kind of hidden win-loss ratio."

"Am I listening to an advertisement right now?" Lima said, blinking. "Whatever this is, I demand you stop it immediately."

"Lima could do both of those things then, couldn't he?" Claire said, outright pretending that he had never spoken. "The Expedition with Port in the morning and duelling with us, his precious teammates, when he gets back?"

"Lima—maybe we should do it?" Teak said, looking apologetic. "I could really use the experience."

"You all suck," Lima complained, "What did she threaten you with?"

"I didn't threaten them with anything," Lux insisted before pausing. "I bribed them."

"Rich girl," Lima accused. "Disgusting."

"Shut up," Lux said, scrunching her face up at the word. "I want a rematch."

"Teak, we can no longer live a romantic life together, and thus I will be filing for divorce," Lima said, a bit sad. "I'm taking half of the squad; you can have the shit half."

Teak protested the nature of a divorce when there was no marriage to precede it, but Claire just laughed out loud.

"Shit half?" Lux demanded. "Exactly which side is the shit half?"

#

Lecture Hall B4, Beacon Academy, Sanus.

"Ninety years ago, a small conflict on the east coast of Sanus ignited the fuse that would lead to the world-spanning conflict colloquially known as the Great War of Remnant," Oobleck said, voice quick, but the words precise. "I think I can speak for all of us when I say that we do not want to see a second one start within our lifetimes."

Bartholomew Oobleck seemed to have an aversion to standing still for more than a few moments, the lecture taking him all across the room as he spoke—it was something of an effort to actually follow what the man was saying because if you lost focus for even a moment, you ran the risk of being left behind entirely.

"Mantle and Mistral had already developed something of a tight-knit alliance over the course of the better part of a decade, with those of Mantle having actively assisted the settlers in gaining a foothold within the hard environments of Northern Anima," Oobleck said, "There are a few settlements there now, but the one most well known is that of Argus, and the alliance has lasted the test of time, with an Atlesian military base being maintained right there in the bay."

Lima caught Pyrrha watching him from her bench, and she smiled when they made eye contact—hearing about Argus like it was something from a history book when they'd both lived there was a sort of strange thing to experience.

"There has been much good gained from it, and the heating technology that is embedded all over Argus actually originates from Atlas, as do the hard light shielding that makes up the city defensive perimeter," Oobleck said, "In fact, there are rumours that an engineered robotic defence system has been put into place there within recent years."

Lima had heard about that as well, and it had been a popular discussion a few years back. It had mostly fallen from the public discourse, though, after several years had gone by without it being used even once.

"Mistral, in its efforts to seek more resources for the growing empire, sent forth more settlers to the islands on the east coast of Sanus, at which point they found that Vale—the predominant inhabitants of that side of the continent—had already made some strides in doing the same," Oobleck said, waving his mug at them. "Most unfortunate, of course, because neither kingdom was particularly ready to give up on what they sought—they fought over the islands, and that simple dispute soon grew much, much larger."

Lima had heard most of this at Sanctum and from Sage, and both versions of the stories had been very different. Many of the older generation—elitist pricks or otherwise—still considered those who resided on the continent of Sanus as the enemy. Lima had heard the exact same kinds of arguments at Sanctum, the children of the older families having grown up listening to their parents and grandparents parrot the same rhetoric. Sage was one of the few of his generation who'd been entirely against Mistral's decision to attack.

"Mantle was quick to come to the 'defence' of Mistral, and together, they overwhelmed Vale's presence on the east coast of Sanus, at least for the first few years of what has been named the Ten-Year-War," Oobleck said, glasses glinting in the light. "Vacuo, of course, wanted to remain neutral to the conflict, as they had no stake in the war at that point—eventually that changed, after Mantle, through their coastal settlements, began making attempts to pressgang them into joining the alliance against Vale."

Lima found it a bit odd how differently the two schools had framed the events, and it left him wondering at the sheer disparity in how most people saw the war.

"Vacuo, showing a courage most still can't fathom to this day, decided to spurn Mantle and joined forces with Vale instead, and together they pushed the enemy out of Sanus entirely," Oobleck breathed, "These battles took place on both Sanus and Anima, and at times, the sea itself, but none of the fights touched the continent of Solitas—something that they have been criticised for ever since."

Criticised for in Vale, perhaps, the Argus version of this part simply framed it as Anima and Solitas managing to 'keep the fighting from spreading even further.'

"All of it came to a violent end after the King of Vale led his army alongside the men and women of Vacuo to decimate the enemy alliance entirely," Oobleck said, "It is said that the King personally laid waste to a large portion of the enemy forces by himself, although that's more than likely a partial exaggeration—history is written by the victors, after all."

Huntsman and Huntresses had existed for a long time, in some form or another, even back then, so Lima could see the mysterious King of Vale being a particularly strong hunter, perhaps with a Semblance that made him nigh-untouchable in combat. Even if the man had been witnessed fighting off a dozen enemies, that kind of thing could quickly spiral into the legend that would become 'The Warrior King.'

"Seventy-nine years ago, the four kingdoms met on neutral grounds, Vytal, and there they were unified, deciding as a group on what would later become known as the Vytal Peace Accords," Oobleck nodded once and then smiled at them. "Now that you understand the fundamental structure of the Great War allow me to touch upon some of the prominent issues that we will be covering throughout the year in more depth."

The man took a moment to wet his throat, sipping at his drink.

"During the Great War, many notable changes occurred; a very prominent one was that the number of Grimm attacks increased tenfold. War begets negativity, and each battle that was wrought amongst the kingdoms was one in which the Grimm would make themselves known," Oobleck said, "I'm sure you've all heard the term the enemy of my enemy is my friend—this is where it was first derived, both sides of the war front would halt their battles just long enough to deal with the threat of the Grimm."

Lima couldn't help but wonder how many soldiers were killed by surprise attacks during these pauses—he doubted it was as clean-cut as the books said.

"The Grimm attacks became even more frequent when food and dust rations were implemented; feeding an army is never an easy task, and a prolonged war only compounds those issues. The dust mines of Vacuo were at maximum production capacity for a very long time, but the needs of the war machine still weren't being met." Oobleck said, shaking his head, "Within a few years, Mantle had begun to show its technological superiority, and when that technology made it into the hands of Vale, a desperate arms race began—robotics, aircraft, mechanised armours, experimental dust weapons, hard light shielding, automated defence systems—they were all developed, or improved upon during the war."

Lima recalled having a similar thought once, although it had been in response to the threat of the Grimm and not the threat of human kingdoms drawing out war for want of resources.

"As you must have guessed, the rapid advancement of technology is our first issue, but there are others to consider—I'm sure that those of you whose grandparents are still alive have heard many stories of the past," Oobleck said, studying them. "Can anybody guess at some of the other facets of society that were caught within the winds of change during this rather turbulent time?"

Half a dozen people raised their hands, and Lima wasn't surprised to see Teak amongst them.

"Mister Fawn," Oobleck said.

"Conscription, slavery, and—" Teak said, hesitating for a moment. "Faunus rights."

"Well done, Mister Fawn," Oobleck burst out, the millisecond he'd stopped talking. "All three of those topics will be covered, and it will become quite clear that they are all heavily intertwined with one another."

Teak ducked his head at the praise, visibly startled by how fast the man had addressed him.

"Suppression of art and culture, the origin of naming conventions, the politics that helped prolong the Great War, the creation of the Academies, the Vytal Festival, the redistribution of territories, and the reclamation of land through the building of new settlements," Oobleck listed off, one after another. "Women's rights, the gifting of Menagerie, the surviving myths and what is known of our lost history—we will touch upon all of these subjects, and if you have any questions about a topic that is not being covered in our curriculum, but you believe it is related, know that I am always available outside of class hours for any questions or assistance, you need only ask."