In another shuttle, Blake Belladonna was deeply engrossed in a holobook while waiting for it to arrive at its destination. She was, like Ruby, an orphan as well. She hailed from a different orphanage in Coruscant. Blake had lived a majority of her life as a homeless street-dweller and stowaway. On each planet she reached, she would always affiliate herself with a gang for a degree of protection and belonging. She never met her parents. In fact, she could not remember what her early childhood was. Only her various exploits and mishaps on each planet she had been. Sometimes, she even questioned if her name truly was her name.

Life was never easy for her. She had a fairly large amount of close shaves with death and fates far worse than it. Gang wars, mugging, street fights, near-sexual slavery and the worst of them all...losing food. She saw the worst the criminal underworld had to offer, yet she pushed on with the goal of surviving. Why? She didn't know. It was just an instinctive feeling she had.

One of the things that she believed that contributed to her plight, was the fact that she was a half-alien. She had partial feline alien traits: having heightened hearing and vision and "cat" ears. The ears were quite small and because Blake had some amply thick hair, she could hide them easily with a hidden black headband. Her DNA was really close to a human's, however. This enabled her to go undetected as a half-alien. The first two traits she could not deny that they helped her a lot in surviving, but the last trait had gotten her picked on frequently as a young child. She came to resent it and wished that she was purely human, since because of that she was considered lesser than most of her fellow kids back then.

It was on Coruscant when she was apprehended by the Imperial Social Welfare Service when she wandered into the higher city portions, which essentially gave her a chance at a normal civilized life. She passed off as human really well and came to enjoy her time in the orphanage. Now was the time for her to repay the Empire for giving her a chance, but in whatever profession that would befall her.

"Our arrival at the Royal Imperial Academy shall take no less than a few more minutes. We are still waiting for a clear space to land our shuttle," the pilot announced.

Finally stopping her reading, she placed a bookmark and closed the holobook as she looked out the window. Sure enough, there was a significant amount of similar shuttles unloading students from different origins on one of the landing pads of the Academy. It was only a matter of time until she would join them all down there.

She glanced at her right to find her seatmate, whose name she didn't bother to know, was dozing off. It wasn't like she wanted to talk to him or anything, though. Despite enjoying her time at the orphanage, Blake was never the type to socialize. She usually kept to herself and read whatever books she could get ahold of, as she frequently did during her life as a stowaway. It was how she usually passed her time hiding in whatever nook and cranny of the starship she was on. Before doing so she would of course steal a few books from wherever she could find them from.

Eventually, the shuttle landed. The only luggage she carried were a few belongings from her old orphanage and some clothes. The school would provide them with the rest, she was told. As protocol, they were instructed by an officer who would serve as their temporary charge to form into lines, which they all did. Unlike Avros, this officer did not give them the privilege of being able to talk to each other. Not that she didn't mind.

They were all given their communicators, and Blake wordlessly went to her assigned room. Her roommate, a girl named Kayren Amarre, was already there. She and Blake exchanged some formalities, with Blake retiring afterwards to her bed on the top bunk to continue reading her holobook. Kayren left her to explore the Academy further. Blake then broke her stoic expression and smirked.

"Yes! She finally left!" Blake thought as she jumped down from the top bunk. She quickly opened her bag and pulled out another holobook. It was titled "Interstellar Love: Act 1".

"Now I can read this in peace!" she thought as she hugged the holobook. Suddenly she heard some footsteps near the door. Blake instinctively looked at the door and rushed back up the top bunk, laid down, covered herself with a blanket and turned away from the door to look like she was sleeping. Luckily for her, the steps just passed the door until they were inaudible.

"Phew..." she thought. Blake then flipped the open the book. The first page had a warning that read: "This book is rated SAO for STRICTLY ADULTS ONLY. Minors are not permitted to read this book or be punished under Imperial law together with their parent/guardian."

"Keep it moving! Just because you were all determined suitable for a normal education doesn't mean you kids have special treatment! Time is a precious commodity!" an officer said to a medium-length line of "formerly" delinquent orphans begrudgingly walking into another entrance of the Academy. These orphans were the delinquent orphans from the different orphanages in Coruscant whose behaviors were deemed satisfactory to be given the same educational privileges as the normal ones. The ones who weren't were shipped off to "discipline camps" or as slave labor.

One of these delinquents was a certain Yang Xiao Long. Abandoned by her parents in an orphanage since her toddler years, she was unfortunate to have landed in an orphanage with a large population of delinquent children. Most of her childhood was spent trying to survive in a prison-like environment that required her to fight other kids verbally and physically. As one of the only girls there, she was constantly bullied and picked on to the point where she ended up as one of the most hardened and violent children in order to fight back. She even led her own small gang of women, with the goal to protect each other from the majority of delinquent boys. Over time, due to her reputation, no one bothered to challenge her as her underlings would quickly maul anyone who dared to do so. Because she managed to last a long time without participating in any physical violence (Despite finding herself enjoying the thrill, pain, and satisfaction of violence) she suddenly found out that she was one of those selected to go to the Royal Imperial Academy.

As much as she wanted to answer back to the officer, and so did the others, she restrained herself. Swinging her bag at him would be a stupid decision, especially if you had a whole squad of Imperial Army Riot Control Troopers armed with stun batons escorting you as well.

"Halt! Single file, single file!" the officer said. They stopped in a dull gray colored room with a large security door. The room was quite large, filled with different crates of varying sizes and cargo moving equipment. The huge sign in Aurebesh that read "CARGO BAY" hammered in the fact that they were still treated lesser than the normal students.

"Beyond that door is the Royal Imperial Academy of Coruscant. Consider yourselves fortunate that you have the privilege of studying here," the officer said condescendingly.

"Consider yourself fortunate that I can't kick your arrogant ass," Yang thought as she struggled to keep a neutral face as her left hand balled into a fist.

"As such. I will have your communicators distributed to all of you," the officer said, with a Riot Control Trooper carrying a small box of communicators stepping forward and handing one to each.

"Unlike other cadets, we will be monitoring your activities in the Academy. Any single act that might or can harm other cadets or this school's reputation will be met with punishment. Understood?"

All of them gave a halfhearted yes.

"I said...IS THAT UNDERSTOOD?!" he shouted.

"YES, SIR!" all of them replied in return.

"Hmph." the officer said as he looked at the door.

"Open the door," he ordered. The door opened to reveal the more cleaner and shinier looking corridors of the Academy, although the floor was partially dull as it was still connected to the Cargo Bay.

"Enter the Academy in an orderly fashion," he commanded sternly. Yang and everyone else picked up their bags and walked inside as calmly as they could. She passed by a group of troopers, glancing at them with scorn. When one of them was sure that they were in, he turned to his comrades.

"D-Did you guys see that?"

"Get used to it, Zuhn. They're 'former' delinquents! Pretty obvious that they'd still hold some contempt for figures of authority." his senior officer said.

"I don't know about you guys, but if that blonde girl in the ponytail wasn't a cadet here, I'd totally take her out on a date." another suddenly said out of the blue.

The others looked at this trooper with a mix of surprise and disgust.

"Kellin. What the fuck?"

"By the Emperor, Kellin! You aren't in this job to ogle women! You even did this after an actual riot!"

"What? Come on! But you guys agree that she does look pretty hot, right?"

They all stared at him. He was then shocked into unconsciousness by the senior officer.

"I want this guy out of my unit. NOW."

Yang fortunately didn't witness that embarrassment of an Army trooper as she was already further inside. They were only accompanied by four Riot Troopers now, with the rest staying behind in the Cargo Bay.

"Stop here." the officer ordered. They were stopped in front of a double automatic door that led to Academy's main grounds.

"Open your communicators. If you look at the message inbox, you will find your schedule, personal information, and assigned rooms. Your holobooks for study will be already placed in your rooms. You are expected to behave accordingly as once those doors open, you will no longer be under my supervision, but under the school's instead. Is that clear?"

"Yes, sir!"

"You may enter," he said, with the doors sliding open immediately after.

Some sighed in relief as they walked in. Yang, however, was stopped.

"Ughhh...what now?" she mentally groaned.

"Miss Xiao Long. You have been assigned to move into a room with a regular cadet. Here are your holobooks." the officer said as one of the Riot Control Troopers handed her a small bag containing the aforementioned holobooks. Yang calmly took the bag and held it along with her personal bag to free her left hand for the communicator.

"Please don't do anything that you might regret. You are assured that this academy is a violence-free zone and shall remain that way."

"Thank you...sir." she said.

The officer just nodded and went off with the rest of the Riot Troopers.

"Now can finally go in..." she thought as she trudged into the Academy. Yang glanced at the communicator, using her thumb to select the message that informed her where her room was. As she walked, she made sure not to make eye contact with any other cadet a she passed them by. Soon enough, she reached the room.

Meanwhile...

Ruby had her eyes glued to a window. She saw a group of Stormtroopers, led be a female officer with white hair wearing the standard black officer's uniform, board a Lambda-class shuttle. After a few minutes the shuttle hovered, rose up and flew higher into the atmosphere towards one of the Imperial Star Destroyers in low-orbit.

"AWESOMEEEEE!" she exclaimed. She was immediately shushed by a janitor.

"Pipe down, will ya? There's people working, y'know." he said.

"Sorry..." Ruby said as she hung her head. She suddenly remembered that it was already nearing the late afternoon and she hadn't unpacked her things before going on a tour of the academy.

"Oh! I haven't unpacked my bag yet!" she immediately started running back to her room. Along the way, she was repeatedly scolded by school officials and maintenance personnel. She slid just as she stopped in front of her room. Panting as she fumbled though her pockets for the communicator, she noticed that one of the lights signifying if a person was inside was green. Normally the two lights would both be red, as Ruby was the only one occupying the room since she didn't have a roommate yet.

"Whaaaa?" she thought as she placed the communicator in front of the scanner. She was allowed entry and the door opened. Ruby slowly tiptoed inside as the door closed. Her bag was still beside the bunk bed, and it looked like it wasn't opened. A pile of clothes was on the floor. She examined it to find a gray jacket, an orange tank top, dark gray cargo pants and blank panties with a yellow garter. She could hear that the shower was on. In front of the bathroom, scattered on the floor, were a pair of white sneakers with yellow laces.

It was that very moment when the door to the bathroom opened a few minutes after the shower stopped. Ruby jumped back in surprise as a somewhat older woman with a towel wrapped around her body stepped out of the bathroom. Her eyes were closed as she took off the other towel (Which was meant to be Ruby's) wrapped around her hair, with her long, partially curly hair falling down gracefully around her head as she walked straight towards the closet. She threw the towel on the lower bed.

"Hey," she said with a smirk as she looked at Ruby before opening the right door of the closet.

"Errr...ummm...excuse me? Buuuuut...who are you?" Ruby asked.

"Looks like I'm your new roommate," she said as she dropped the other towel to her feet and put on some undergarments that were already provided by the Academy from the closet.

"Can you give me that pile of clothes?" she asked as she poked her head out the side of the door. Ruby saw that she had lilac-colored eyes and a delicate face. She quietly picked up the sweaty pile of clothes and handed it to her. She then threw the clothes into the hamper in the bathroom.

"Thanks, uhhhmm...what's your name, by the way?" she asked.

"It's Ruby. Ruby Rose," Ruby told her.

"How cute," the lady said. "I'm Yang. Yang Xiao Long."

Yang closed the right door and looked at herself in the mirror. She was already wearing a white and gray blazer with a white blouse underneath, gray pencil skirt with small cuts on the left and right for ease of movement, and balck tights with black and gray boots: the Imperial female cadet uniform. However, the blazer and blouse were a bit too small, exposing a small amount of cleavage as Yang had to leave two buttons for each article of clothing unbuttoned for her to wear it.

"How do I look?" she asked as she faced Ruby and put her hands on her hips.

"Ehhh..."

"I know. The shit's kinda small, but I don't mind." she said as she flipped her hair.

"Mind if you give me a tour of this place, Rose? I'm not taking no for an answer~"