A.N. (8/9/20) - Another day, another chapter. A bit short but still something nice. Enjoy!

Chapter 16 - Class Time

-10 Months Before the Fall of Beacon-

Pyrrha didn't really know what to think about her teammates.

On one hand, no one acted like excited fans waiting for the nearest opportunity to ask her for her autograph. That was one thing Pyrrha feared about when she imagined what her teammates would've acted like. So the fact that her team was mostly cordial was already a plus positive in her book.

But that was it. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either. Everyone was too tired after the events of yesterday to do anything more than collapse on their beds and waste the rest of the day away. Especially the two males of their team. Nora had excitedly babbled for a while before realizing that Pyrrha wasn't exactly a chatterbox herself. There was an awkward silence for a while when Nora had run out of things to talk about before they both decided to just call it a day.

So Pyrrha hoped that the morning would be a bit different. She'd wake up early to prepare for the day and wait for the others to wake up. And then hopefully they'd find time to get to know each other for a bit before classes start.

Things got crazy when everyone woke up to the sound of an explosion happening next door.

After finding out what was going on, Jaune apparently invited Ruby to come to their room while her teammates continued to fight. Pyrrha and the others didn't mind her presence, but then Pyrrha realized something.

Jaune had Ruby to talk to since apparently they became friends before initiation. Ren and Nora knew each other before coming to Beacon. This meant that Pyrrha had no one to talk to and thus she was awkwardly lingering around near her bed with no idea what to do.

"Hey, Jaune! Open up, it's Rin." The sounds of someone loudly knocking on the door broke the conversations in the room. Jaune was making a gurgling sound in fright as he realized who it was at the door.

"Hey! It's Rin," exclaimed Ruby.

"Oh no, it's Rin," moaned Jaune.

"Is there something wrong," she asked. Ren and Nora had also taken to staring at their suddenly fearful leader.

Jaune turned to Pyrrha with eyes of fright, hands grabbing the side of his head. "She's gonna kill me! I borrowed her sword to use for initiation - and I broke it! What if she asks for it back? What if she's here because she knows?"

"Oh yeah, I totally forgot about that," Ruby commented. "But this is Rin we're talking about. Fifty-fifty says she'll either not care at all or blow a fuse if she knows."

"Don't worry partner," a smiling Nora said. "We'll avenge you once she's finished pummeling you."

Rin's voice came from the other side of the door. "Hello? Anyone gonna open the door and let me in?"

Ren looked at Jaune and quirked an eyebrow. "You do realize that she's most likely gonna be even angrier if you leave her outside too long."

"Yeah, I know." Jaune sighed and got up to open the door. A young girl around the same age as Ruby walked into the room. She was dressed in a similar color scheme as Ruby and was even similar in height to the caped girl. For a moment, Pyrrha thought she might've been Ruby's sister. After all, if someone like Yang with a drastically different physical appearance could be sisters with Ruby, why not someone like the girl in front of her.

Rin was about to say something before Ruby tackled her with a hug. "Rin! Did you miss me? Did you miss me?!"

"Ruby, we saw each other just yesterday. We talked for hours after the welcome ceremony."

"Yeah, but that's yesterday. I wanted to see you today," replied Ruby with a bright smile. Rin's face flushed before she broke their hug. Clearing her throat, she turned to Jaune. "Hey, la Pucelle. Aren't you gonna introduce me to your team." A weird look crossed her face for a moment. "Team Avalon, right?"

"Oh, right." The boy looked happy that Rin wasn't mentioning what happened yesterday. Jaune turned and gestured to Nora. "This is my partner, Nora Valkyrie. Over there next to her is Lie Ren, we call him Ren. And his partner is Pyrrha Nikos."

Rin took a moment to look at her. "Oh, the Greek girl. Ana was curious about you yesterday."

"A-Ana?"

"Yeah. Oh, speaking of which," turning to Ruby and Jaune. "I haven't introduced her to you yet Ruby. Jaune's met her already, but I forgot to introduce you to her yesterday."

"Oh, yeah. You mentioned something like that before. Something about a friend you met over the summer?"

"Yeah. I'll introduce you to her now. Hey, Ana! You can come out."

Pyrrha was wondering who Rin was talking to - since she wasn't facing the direction of the door - when out of nowhere the young girl from yesterday suddenly appeared in the middle of their dorm room. Ruby yelped and moved backward while Pyrrha herself was slightly surprised herself. Jaune looked used to it, while Nora was staring in shock.

"Intriguing. Is that her Semblance." Somehow Ren didn't freak out and instead seemed to be taking things in stride.

"Oh - my - gosh. You're friends with a ghost?!" Nora exclaimed.

Rin winced. "That's... not untrue. But please don't call her that."

Pyrrha took the chance to observe the young girl that just appeared. Similar to Ruby, the girl wore a cloak around herself - covering up most of her body. She was about a foot shorter than Rin herself, making her the shortest person in the room. The girl was staring right back at Pyrrha. Embarrassed, Pyrrha turned her head to the side. From the corner of her eye, Pyrrha saw that the girl lost interest and went back to watching Rin.

Rin continued on. "This is Ana. She's someone I kinda knew from back home. We met up in Vale and now she's living with me. Ana's a pretty good fighter and can match blows for blows with the likes of Qrow and a few of the professors at school."

"Wow, even I'm not that good." Ruby held out her hand to Ana. "Hi, I'm Ruby Rose. I'm Rin's friend too. It's nice to meet you."

Ana stared at Ruby for a moment, causing Ruby to awkwardly hold her hand in the air. After a moment, Ana shook her hand. Ruby beamed at that.

"Hey, class starts in an hour. It's probably best if we have breakfast now while there's still time," Jaune commented. As if waiting for those words, the sound of his stomach growling echoed throughout the room.

Rin snickered at that. "College boy, getting his priorities straight."

Jaune's face flushed and he hurriedly explained. "I haven't eaten a proper meal in days. Literally, the burger you gave me and the dinner last night were the largest portions of food I've had in weeks."

As everyone started to walk out of the room, Pyrrha could hear Rin conspiringly whisper to Nora. "The blond fool got scammed real bad about a month ago and lost all his funds. He's the most stereotypical broke college student I've ever met. So make sure he doesn't just spend the rest of the school year eating instant noodles again."

"Roger that, oh Lady of the Twintails."

Ren sighed next to them. "Nora, that's a bit rude."

"Nah, it's fine. I kinda like that title." Rin posed and held her hand stretched outward. "Fear me, for I am the Lady of the Twintails."

She felt a hint of envy at how easy the rest of her teammates were chatting with each other. Somehow, a stranger was getting along better with her teammates than her. Sure, she's known Jaune for a while now and Pyrrha had just met her teammates. But that's no excuse for how Rin's able to befriend Nora and Ren.

And Ruby and Jaune were getting along too. Pyrrha sighed. Why was this so hard? Why was she getting jealous over such a small thing?

The Invincible Girl. Able to best all her opponents, yet unable to even have a simple talk with her teammates.

"You okay?" A quiet voice broke her thoughts. Looking to her side, Pyrrha stared at the girl walking beside her. Now that she thought about it, Pyrrha wasn't the only one who seemed unable to fit in.

"Are you okay," the young girl repeated.

Pyrrha thought about it and awkwardly smiled. "I'll be fine."

Hopefully, she will be.

}-{

"Looking forward to lessons, Leader?" Yang asked as she sat to her right. Weiss, fuming over another argument they had, sought to place herself to Blake's left. Ruby walked passed her and Blake couldn't help but send a glare her way. Ruby awkwardly chuckled as she took a seat next to Weiss.

Some partner, abandoning her earlier this morning.

"Yes. I am interested in how Beacon will handle our classes," Blake said, carefully choosing her words. Before Yang could speak, the Professor started his lesson.

"Monsters! Demons," an expressive Professor Port began. "Prowlers of the night! Yes, the creatures of Grimm have many names, but I merely refer to them as prey! Ha-ha!"

That was all Blake could remember before the entire lecture descended into an extremely boring waste of time. Almost the entire class was knocked out as the minutes passed. Yang's head was dropping onto the desk in front of her. Ruby looked like she was paying attention, but Blake noticed that she was actually sleeping while sitting upright.

Blake noted that the team that Ruby was close to was also struggling to stay awake. Nora was loudly snoring while Ren seemed to be meditating or something. Pyrrha was yawning while Jaune laid flat on his desk.

In fact, only Weiss seemed to be struggling to stay awake. If Blake didn't know any better, she would've assumed that this was some kind of mind-affecting Semblance of the Professor's. Once that caused mind-numbing boredom.

Luckily she brought a book with her to read. Honestly, it's probably best if she just reads on her own time instead of listening to the Professor. If he's this boring, then why not self-study. She could probably read ahead and skip listening to the next few lectures without too much trouble.

Blake sadly wasn't able to find a good seat near the back. Due to her teammates arguing almost the entire morning, the three of them were almost late for class, causing them to take the remaining seats near the front. It was only because Ruby came back to warn them that they actually made it on time in the first place.

Blake ignored the slight feeling of jealousy at how her young partner was able to escape most of the argument. Why did she think it was a good idea to lock herself in the bathroom again?

A harsh whisper broke through her thoughts. "Are you seriously reading right now?"

But of course, someone had to ruin her day.

"Yes," she whispered back to Weiss. "I am."

Weiss huffed. "A proper Team Leader should lead by example. If someone such as yourself displays examples of slacking off in class, it can jeopardize our team's reputation in the eyes of others."

Blake's eye twitched. Someone as myself? What exactly did she mean by that? She couldn't help but reply back sarcastically, "Such as whispering to your classmates when you should be taking notes."

"T-This doesn't c-count," an embarrassed Weiss replied back rather sharply. "I am just concerned that you are not up to the task of being a suitable leader."

Really? Is she serious?

"And what, you think you'd do a better job?" she asked.

"But of course," and she actually began to preen. "I am Weiss Schnee, and I have studied and trained to be able to accept the role of leadership for years under the finest of tutors. My qualifications come all the way from the most famous of Atlas private schools."

Does this girl really not realize what others think about her. Ruby is avoiding the girl. Yang constantly argues with her. And she herself had spent several dozen minutes running from the girl so that she wouldn't become her partner. Blake couldn't help but wonder if the girl was simply arrogant or deluded into thinking that she would succeed at leading this team. Blake imagined the worst at the possibility of Weiss giving her orders while arguing with Yang.

Then again, the other option was having herself lead the team.

Huh.

"You know what, fine." Blake closed her book with a snap, but not loudly enough to draw the Professor's attention. "I didn't want this stupid leader position anyway. If you want it so bad, we can talk to the professor after class and tell them you want to be the leader. Happy?"

"Very," Weiss nodded, ignoring Blake's slightly irritated look. "Thank you. I am glad that you have listened to reason."

Ugh, she was making this entire thing really difficult to go through. Seriously, she may not be her partner but Weiss Schnee somehow found a way to become an annoyance on her team.

Blake didn't exactly want the Schnee to become her leader. But other than the fact that Blake would have to lead otherwise, it's not like it's the end of the world if Weiss is made leader of the team. As long as it's not an order while on the field, Blake had no obligation to actually listen to the girl. Besides, Weiss will probably be too busy handling Yang.

So yeah, Blake's just gonna wait for class to be over so that she can foist this unwanted position onto Weiss and finally hide in the background. It's not like they're gonna say no when clearly both of them would feel that it would be better for a change in leadership.

Some strange Murphy's Law reasoning told her that things probably weren't gonna go her way.

"Who thinks themselves a true hunter!?" Port bellowed.

"I am!" Weiss's hand shot into the air.

}-{

Rin hummed a melody as she fiddled with a few Dust crystals in her hand. "You think everyone is having fun with lessons right now?"

Ana didn't respond, but Rin felt her emotions through the Servant bond. Rin left Ana to herself as she finally finished with her project.

The new and improved Crocea Mors stood out with the blue and gold design on both the shield and sword. Rin had based the design off of the source of their team's name. Not just that, but Rin had taken the idea of the Atlas design for Crocea Mors and had implemented several features into it.

Now it has the ability to turn into a two-handed sword, create a hard-light projection to have a larger shield, and even repel certain forces with gravity Dust. And that didn't include the several reinforcements Rin made to the materials using several techniques involving Magecraft.

Honestly, Rin wanted to add a few more abilities to the set of sword and shield. But Rin felt that Jaune had to master the small things first before she could let him handle the more creative ideas she had.

But now that she's finished with Jaune's weapon, Rin finally had time to work on her next prototype for the Jewel Sword.

Rin thought about what she could do. The point of recreating the Jewel Sword was to impress Zelretch due to the inherent difficulty of the task itself.

To recreate the sword, she needed it to fulfill a few conditions. It must be able to draw in energy from parallel worlds, channeling that energy through the blade into an ether cannon, and being stable enough to handle that strain without breaking apart after only a few uses.

The ether cannon part is simple to figure out. The material and durability requirement might be harder to crack, but with Dust foundry techniques being what it is, Rin didn't have to worry too much on that front. Sure, she'll still have to research better techniques, but at least she has a stronger basis to deal with.

No, her problem is with the theory of the Multi-Dimensional Refraction Phenomenon itself. She needed to create a prototype capable of drawing in large amounts of energy from parallel dimensions.

Her previous attempt managed to recreate an ability to attack from multiple dimensions. But now, Rin wanted to understand how to interact and operate with those parallel dimensions and see if she could leech energy from passive and empty worlds.

Could she test that? Maybe she should start small. First, create something capable of drawing in a large amount of energy at once without breaking or exploding. Then, finding a way to link to parallel dimensions where the energy is not needed or used. After conducting both experiments separately, find a way to combine them.

Alright, now she has a plan. Before she could do anything else, something interrupted her. The sound of her Scroll ringing confused her for a second before she realized what it was. Pulling out her Scroll and seeing who was calling her, her confusion turned to worry. Quickly, she pressed the button to answer the call.

Roman's voice came from the other end. "Hey, Rin? You know how you asked us to call if we ever met up with someone from the White Fang? Well... you might wanna come to Junior's place for a bit. There's a weird lady in red making demands with a couple of Faunus goons with her. Things aren't looking pretty either."

A horrible feeling settled in Rin's gut. For weeks, Rin had wondered why nothing seemed to be wrong in the criminal underworld. But whatever butterfly effects Rin caused were finally gone. Things were about to turn for the worse, and Rin had to tell Ozpin.

Cinder was here.

So this is the first day of school. I kinda had trouble figuring out character interaction. In my head, I imagined that Pyrrha would kinda be a wallflower kind of person without anyone to interact with. Erin still doesn't really understand that Jaune and Pyrrha aren't really as friendly as they were in the show. I'm not saying that Pyrrha won't get along with her teammates, but it's a slow going.

Blake would definitely try and get out of her leadership position. I actually thought about having a sorta plot where Blake holds on to her leadership position because she doesn't trust anyone else since she's kinda-traumatized with her experience with her past leaders. But I didn't really know how to play that out.

It's interesting how much potential Blake has to grow as a character in a story. She has a tragic background and upbringing due to discrimination. She has notable personality flaws, such as distrust in authority. Heck, she even has harem-powers with Adam, Ilia, and Sun. Why isn't she the main character again?

It's not like she's my favorite character though. It's just interesting to write about her since she has such a workable package. Ruby's kinda harder to write about, especially after I upgraded her from introverted shy girl to competent mature genius. At most, she's probably gonna be the bestest supporting character and partner to Blake and her adventures.

And if you were wondering where in the world Cinder was all this time, then something is finally happening next chapter. Is Cinder finally making an appearance? Or could it be some other lady dressed in red? Maybe it's a crossdressing Adam Taurus making demands. Who knows? For all you know, it could be Raven having a drink with some random Faunus guyes dressed in White Fang uniforms.