Welcome everyone! If you're new to my writing then I'll point out some quick things. I usually only use bold letters for author's notes and as such, are not part of the story itself. I'll rarely actually put them in the story itself unless I decide it absolutely needs them. This is kind of a successor to "It Takes Some Time," that I began writing last month. I recommend reading it to see why things are like they are in this story. It's not required to read but some people like a little back-story. Enjoy!

Orange and brown trees covered the distant backyard of a modest yet well established house. It was well maintained and the yard was devoid of the pesky leaves that threatened to constantly fall on the otherwise green grass. Even though it seemed like a quiet place to live, there were always the sounds of the four women who spent their lives there, away from the city of Vale. A city that they loved, but only one of them had an untarnished memory of the bright sounds and sights that it had to offer. The other three held onto bitter-sweet memories that always reminded them of a true huntress who lived a short life that changed them for the better. These four people were outside, preparing for a big day that all potential hunters and huntresses had to experience at some point in their lives. The chance to gain acceptance to their chosen school of choice to further their skills and knowledge to become a full fledged hunter. In this case, it was the chance to enter the highly acclaimed, Beacon Academy. Specifically, a girl named, Cadenza Rose Belladonna, whose dark amber eyes burn with anticipation at what may lay before her.

Caden

"You aren't striking fast enough! Your swings are leaving you exposed!"

I rolled my eyes at the statements. I knew I wasn't as fast as I could be without my weapon, but I couldn't just throw it away and leave myself defenseless. I didn't have much training in hand-to-hand combat and even then, I wasn't strong enough to keep that kind of style without breaking something early on. My scythe could take out the training dummies that were set up for me in one swing but according to Aunt Weiss, that alone wasn't going to cut it. I kept swinging Thorn with more and more of my dwindling strength in hopes of getting a faster arc, but it was to no avail.

Aunt Weiss wasn't impressed at my futile attempts. "Still too slow!"
I sighed and turned toward her. "Well what do you expect me to do? Gain ten pounds of muscle in a few minutes?"
"Well maybe if you stuck closer to Crescent Rose's design when making your scythe you could have used the recoil for some extra force." Weiss was still arguing about that, it seemed.
"I don't need that to use Thorn though!" I argued right back.
She crossed her arms. "Then prove it!"

I huffed at her stubbornness. I failed to see how she could have gotten into any kind of relationship, let alone with a hyperactive girl that Aunt Ruby supposedly was. A laugh came from the house's porch that I easily picked up thanks to my heritage. Mum was laughing at me and Weiss arguing. Her bright, golden hair nearly blinding me in the afternoon sun's light. I always wondered how she never got her hands stuck in that mess.

"Yang, it isn't that funny." Mother had tried, in vain, to quiet her.
"Sure it is, Blake. It's like watching you and Weiss arguing all over again." She proceeded to keep laughing.
Weiss couldn't help but interject. "I'm trying to train your daughter over here. Can you keep it down?"
Mum waved at Aunt Weiss. "Sure, okay. I'm done."
Aunt Weiss turned back to me. "Now then, Caden, move faster!" (A/N: If you haven't picked it up by now. Mother=Blake. Mum=Yang)

Aunt Weiss was never one to let things go off course, as evidenced by her constant training schedules the day I made and brought home my sweet, sweet, Midnight Thorn. At first, Mother wasn't too keen on letting me use such an apparently dangerous weapon, especially after they saw some of the features I added to it. Mum eventually convinced her it was fine, but I had to take extra lessons from Aunt Weiss so I could learn to control it without hurting myself. But now all the training was to make sure my chance of living my dream was as high as possible.

I readied Thorn and tried to think of a way to decrease the time of my arc. It wasn't exactly a heavy weapon but it did have its troubles. The head added some extra weight and just going through the swinging motion took a little more strength than originally thought. It didn't take me long to realize that it was simply not possible at this moment to fix that, and instead, I thought of the problem differently. Instead of attacking one enemy at a time, leaving myself open to others, I should try to take out as many of the dummies as possible in the least amount of strikes possible. With this new line of thinking, a plan quickly popped into my head.

"I'm waiting!" A hand was impatiently placed on Weiss's hip.
"You've got this, Caden!" Mum cheered, trying to offset Weiss.

I smiled at them and rushed at my first target and yelled out. "Watch this, Aunt Weiss!" The first dummy to face my wrath was directly in my sights. I swung Thorn at it and chopped it cleanly in half without second thought. Thankfully, my plan didn't end there. The moment I knew the target was done, I clicked a button on Thorn's handle and its head shot out off and away from the handle with a chain as the only thing attaching them together. A single spike was at the top of the scythe, which helped lend it the name. The head slammed into another dummy and impaled it with its spike to keep it in place. With Thorn ready and waiting, I began concentrating on my aura, willing it to my favor. I sometimes had trouble getting it to work for me but thankfully, it was generous with me and let me shadow-step past and around three more dummies. The chain began pushing against each dummy, cutting them clean in half without trouble. The thing that made Mother cautious of Thorn was actually the pivotal point of my plan, which was the fact that every chain link had its own razor-sharp blade. It was hard to make but worth the time as it payed off in the end.

My momentum was still high at this point and I didn't want to slow down. I decided to end on a flashy note and clicked the button again forcing the scythe head to retreat back to its master. An audible crack was heard as the spike pulled and ripped the impaled dummy into a mess. The head flew back at me, ready to be whole once again. When it reached me, the head slammed back into place, the force pushing me towards the last dummy. One last crunch and the deed was done. Six dummies utterly destroyed in less than ten seconds.

I stood and began breathing hard, all of the training finally taking its toll on me. A glance at Mother showed a look of surprise at what I had accomplished.

Mum ran over and gave me a bear hug out of excitement. "That was awesome, Caden! It's hard to believe you've gotten so good with that thing. Even Ruby had trouble getting her techniques down."
I quickly backed out of the hug because I was sweaty from the action and looked at Aunt Weiss. "Well?" I asked.
She looked at me and the destroyed dummies. She put on a small smile. "That was very acceptable if I say so myself. You're free to go and do what you need before seeing Professor Ozpin.
Mother added in her own snippet. "I'm surprised he's still even running the school at this point."

The trio kept talking as I went inside to to clean up. A short shower later and I was pretty much ready. I looked at myself in the mirror, making sure I looked acceptable for meeting a headmaster. As usual, I kept things simple with some form-fitting jeans and a t-shirt. Hopefully he doesn't have a thing against the purple highlights I put in my hair. They matched my ears pretty well and I might as well show them off since Mother absolutely refuses to let me hide them. Something about being proud of what I am but I never had a problem with them in the first place. Although I sometimes wished it was possible to inherit Mum's bust, because even with Mother's genes, I was still a little disappointed with how I developed.

Before I could make any adjustments to my attire, Mum's voice rang out through the house. "Caden! It's time to go!" I grabbed Thorn and ran out the room, ready to get this stress over with. Apparently, Ozpin had taken an interest in me because of my parents and decided to personally see if I should be in Beacon. I don't know what his plan is but hopefully whatever it is won't be too bad.

"Go on. Hurry up and get it over with." Mother reassured. It was hard to take the advice though. We had arrived at some unmarked building and waited in a hallway. The only door at the other end took awhile to open and when it did, all there was on the other side was a dark room with a table and two chairs. I was hesitant to go in but my parents didn't want me to waste anytime. When I walked in, the door closed and I sat at the chair closest to me. A man, who I instantly recognized to be Professor Ozpin, walked in with a cane. Behind him was a woman with blond hair that seemed to start graying out in her age. Ozpin silently sat down and looked at me. It was definitely uncomfortable for me, having never met the man before today. My ear twitched at the sound of his companion tapping on her scroll.

"So this is the daughter of Yang Xiao Long and Blake Belladonna. It's obvious who you take after it seems." Ozpin finally spoke.
I still felt uncomfortable but I knew I needed to say something. "Uh, yea. Mother was always making sure that I didn't feel bad about who I am."
"A good trait to have. But right now I need to see if your Beacon material." He stated.
I wasn't sure what that meant. "Did you want to see me fight or something?"
He smiled. "No, that's alright. I've already seen you from the videos of your training sent to me by your aunt. You have an interesting weapon, a very dangerous one to be exact."
I pulled Thorn off my hip and unfolded it. "You mean this? I wouldn't call it very dangerous.." A click was heard as I accidentally hit Thorn's switch and its head flew into the ceiling.
Ozpin seemed less phased than his partner at this mistake. "And it seems you've made it even more dangerous than before. This should be interesting."
I nervously laughed at my mistake. "Soo, what do I need to do to get into Beacon?"
Ozpin stood. "Oh, right. You're already in. I just wanted to meet you for myself." He turned and began walking out. "Lets go, Glynda."
She began following him and talking. "I wish you would run things by me before enrolling random teenagers."
Ozpin chuckled. "She's not random. She's a bit of a special case."

And with that, they were gone from the room and the door behind me opened to my waiting parents. I walked out and they immediately began asking questions about how well my meeting went with Ozpin.

Mother looked worried. "I heard a crash in there. Did something happen?"
"Thorn accidentally launched into the ceiling. It went fine though." I calmly explained.
Mum tapped her foot at the explanation. "What do you mean, 'It went fine?' That didn't sound fine to me. And what about Beacon? Did you get in?"
I told them what I knew. "He said I was already accepted in. He just wanted to meet me in person for some reason."
Mother sighed. "He could have met us at our house then if you were already accepted. I never understood that man."
Mum pushed us along. "Well let's go get Caden ready then, Hun. No doubt she's excited to finally become a true huntress in training."

And with that, we proceeded to get everything ready for my eventual change of home to Beacon. I was excited for it because it meant my dream was coming true but now I had to deal with being separated from my long time family, even if it was only for certain lengths of the years to come. Aunt Weiss was so happy to learn about my acceptance that she nearly shed a tear it looked like. I probably would have to if it wasn't for the fact that I was so busy getting things ready. We even had a mini party to celebrate, mostly with some cookies and music since we didn't have much else on hand.

That night I sat silently in my bed thinking of all the things that I was going to potentially learn at Beacon. The excitement nearly made me giddy and almost kept me from falling asleep. Thankfully, I had the control to force my eyes closed and rest my body for the next day of preparations. Although I still wondered why Ozpin considered me a "special case."

And that is that. I'm putting this out there mostly to see how people react to Caden who was introduced in the last chapter of my first story. If the reactions are negative then I'll probably scrap this and go back to the drawing board. If it's a positive reaction then I guess I'll keep at it. And per my new policy, reviews are always welcome. Have fun and see you next time!