Yang leaned casually against the wall, feeling oddly at peace for someone who’d just made the terrible first impression of manhandling one of her new classmates. She looked up and smiled when the boy, whose name she now knew was Jaune, emerged from the bathroom doorway, not a speck of evidence of his recent regurgitation on him.

“You all cleaned up?” she asked in as pleasant a tone as she could.

“Yeah. Thanks for staying with me.”

“Oh, it’s the least I could do for embarrassing you like that.”

He waved her off. “Trust me, I’m used to it.”

Yang frowned, breaking eye contact.

Way to make me feel like even more of a jerk.

Deciding not to voice this thought, she strolled outside to look for Ruby with Jaune in tow. He seemed to have forgotten her transgression and taken to her like a puppy in the space of a few minutes. She couldn’t help but wonder why he would want to hang around a girl who just beat him up, but shifted her focus back to her sister.

First, she saw only a sea of unfamiliar faces wielding various weapons, carrying books, and chatting about inane subjects. Then she spotted her. Ruby kicked one leg out in a repetitive motion as another girl, dressed in frilly white clothing, pointed and berated her about something. Yang was too far off to hear anything, but she forced her way through the crowd, hoping to make it in time. Halfway through her journey, a loud, resounding boom shook the landscape, and a plume of colorful smoke rose into the air. Students shouted and hurried away from the source of the spectacle, thinning the irksome masses that kept Yang from her sister. When she finally emerged into the open space where Ruby stood, the girl in white was angrily storming off, her clothes blackened and tattered. Another girl clothed in black and white garments was turning to leave just as Ruby attempted to speak with her. Anger boiled in Yang. Was every student here this rude?

She tempered her emotions, careful not to let anything set her semblance off. For that matter, why did she care so much? Ruby could take care of herself, after all. She knew how to fight, and it wasn’t like Yang had even known she had a younger sister for very long, so the two weren’t exactly close. Still, something tugged at her heart and made her want to give both of the random girls a piece of her mind. Jaune outpaced her while she was so wrapped up in her thoughts. He extended a hand to help Ruby, who had collapsed into a puddle of nerves and regret, to her feet.

“Aren’t you the guy who threw up on the ship?” Ruby asked, flinching in hesitation. She stared at their joined hands. Before she could hurl in an amount equal to Jaune’s earlier torrent, she saw Yang, and a smile bigger than she seemed capable of producing overtook her previous disgust. “Yang! Hey.”

“Hi,” Yang said, looking from Ruby to Jaune. She pulled out the half-sized brochure that someone handed to her as she stepped off of the airship and waved it through the air. “So, are we gonna head to the opening ceremony?”

“Yeah, sounds good,” Jaune said, breaking into a steady stride.

“Let’s go!” Ruby gave off far more enthusiasm than Yang felt was necessary as she trailed after their new companion.

In no time at all, it became abundantly clear that neither of the two overly cheerful students knew where they were going. Yang finally held up a hand to stop them, pulled a random student aside to ask for directions, and then led the way to the auditorium. She realized with amusement that Ruby truly did need her if she was going to survive at Beacon.

The auditorium was open and airy somehow, even as droves of students packed into the space and split off into their respective areas. Yang hung back, watching her fellow students with a detached curiosity. Ruby and Jaune seemed to be getting along well, briefly touching on Jaune’s vomit episode from earlier, and even chatting a bit about each other’s weapons. As it turned out, Taiyang hadn’t been lying when he spoke about Ruby’s obsession with the latter. Her cheeks took on a warmth Yang hadn’t seen before. Her eyes became twinkling stars as she gabbed about designing Crescent Rose.

Impressive. For all of her childlike innocence and far from intimidating presence, Ruby was an inventor as well. She explained to Jaune that she crafted her sniper rifle-scythe hybrid at Signal, which was apparently the standard for every student. Compared to her sister’s much smaller tantō, the thing looked unwieldy and not ideal for combat. Yang might have believed such an ignorant assumption, too, if not for the fact that she watched Ruby demonstrate the exact opposite back in Patch when she felled a tree like it was a stick of butter.

They finally reached the initiation hall, where students were streaming in and out like ants. Yang continued to watch Ruby and Jaune, but maintained a fair distance from the two, taking the time to look around at the elaborate, yet simply designed archways, door frames, and wall decor. The strange mixture of grays and browns somehow worked, painting a picture of elegance and order. Many large columns and tall windows were spread evenly throughout the room. A ring of seating looked down on the ground floor, giving Yang the impression that she’d just walked into a centuries-old church or colosseum. For all she knew, that’s what this place used to be. At least, before Ozpin turned it into a classroom for ignorant sheep headed to the slaughter.

Funny she should say that, because now she was one of the very sheep she once frowned upon - and still did, somewhat. Even so, she had to admit it wasn’t totally fair to blame them for being pulled into the allure of life as hunters. After all, even she, free-spirited and headstrong though she was according to everyone else in her life, found the potential for action and adventure in the life of a Huntress very appealing. While she, Ruby, and Jaune squeezed through a bottleneck between two streams of students, Yang secretly wondered whether she might have still ended up in this occupation in another life. It was useless to dwell on what-ifs, so she shoved the thought into the back of her mind and shouldered her way past a student wielding a large blade. The butt of the weapon was obnoxiously sticking out past her shoulder, preventing others from passing through.

“Geez,” Yang muttered. She scoffed at the girl, who stumbled forward and flashed her a dirty look.

“Hey!” Ruby said excitedly, disrupting Yang’s frustration. “Let’s try to get as close as we can. Looks like Professor Ozpin is about to speak.”

Oh boy.

Yang followed along reluctantly, delivering the hardest eyeroll of her life to no one.

As bad luck would have it, they found an open spot at the front of the crowd, just a few feet from the dais taking up the majority of space in the room. A metal pole with a ring attached on top stood at its center, reaching barely above chest height. Yang couldn’t exactly figure out what it was for, but she knew it must be some sort of advanced technology. Overhearing her sister going on about something, she tuned into Ruby’s conversation with Jaune.

“Hang on,” Yang said, her forehead crinkling into a deep dimple. “Did you just say you...exploded?”

“Yeah!” Ruby gestured widely with one arm, turning away from Jaune, who’d been listening intently to every word. “I literally exploded a hole in front of the school, and there was some fire, and...I think some ice?”

Ruby’s signature panicked rambling faded from Yang’s attention as she watched the girl in white from earlier approaching from Ruby’s left side. Oblivious to this, the red-haired girl continued her long-winded rant. Jaune knew the moment he saw the scathing look the new girl was aiming squarely at the back of Ruby’s head that this was a situation he didn’t want to be in the middle of, made abundantly clear by how fast he tip-toed backward out of the impending crossfire.

“I tripped over some crabby girl’s luggage, and then she yelled at me, and then I sneezed, and then I EXPLODED!” Icy blue orbs bored into Ruby with a glare that Yang almost feared might have the power to do her physical harm. Yang was about to warn her sister, but by the time she raised a hand to get her attention, it was too late. “...and then she yelled again, and I felt really, really bad, and I just wanted her to stop yelling at me-”

“You!” cried the blue-eyed girl.

Ruby jumped backward and let out a frightened few words. “Oh God, it’s happening again!” Her high-pitched squeal drew the attention of a few students, but that wasn’t the most surprising thing about the next few seconds.

Yang was completely unprepared as Ruby almost toppled her over, ending up in her arms in a very awkward, tangled embrace. Once she’d figure out which arms were whose, Yang carefully pried Ruby free and supported her as she stumbled before rising to full height again.

Aiming a piercing stare at the two of them, the third girl leaned forward, hands on her hips, and spat, “You’re lucky we weren’t blown off the side of the cliff!”

Although Yang didn’t fully understand what was going on here, she didn’t need much more of the picture. She knew a bully when she saw one.

“It was an accident,” Ruby cried, staring back at the girl with pleading eyes. “It was an accident!”

The girl whipped out some kind of brochure and held it at eye level in front of Ruby, but gasped when it flew from her hand just as quickly as it had been unveiled. Snapping her focus off of Ruby and onto Yang, she saw that her pamphlet had been snatched away and stabbed clean through the center by Yang’s shortsword, around which its remains now formed a small paper skirt. Glaring at the girl eye-to-eye, Yang swept the destroyed paper off of her weapon and watched it drift to the floor.

“What in the world?” the girl asked, mouth agape.

“She apologized,” Yang stated plainly, matching the entitled brat’s fierceness with her own barely subdued rage. “Leave her alone, or else you’ll have to deal with me. Got it?”

“Do you know who I am?” The girl in white pouted and folded her arms. Ruby was now a thing of the past, and her eyes locked solely onto Yang.

“Don’t care all that much,” Yang shot back, turning towards the stage to indicate the conversation was over. Ozpin and the woman from the hologram stepped up to speak at what she now realized was a microphone stand. She’d heard of them at some point in her life, but never seen one in person.

Refusing to be forgotten, Yang’s newfound nuisance shrieked, “I’m Wei-”

Cutting her off before her tirade could even begin, Ozpin cleared his throat into the mic. The sound carried as the entire room full of students fell silent and snapped to attention.

“I’ll...keep this brief.” Ozpin pushed up his glasses and gazed out at the faces in the crowd, stopping on Yang for a second that felt longer than the rest. “You have traveled here today in search of knowledge. To hone your craft and acquire new skills, and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people.”

Ruby smiled widely at Yang and the bratty girl, as if she’d completely forgotten the events of only moments ago. Her thoughts on the resident prick aside, Yang’s heart broke for her little sister, who clearly wanted to be a Huntress so badly, it was all she could think about. Worst of all, she wasn’t the only one. Most of the other students in the room probably felt the same anxiety and excitement that Ruby did about a job that was doomed to get them killed as pawns in a war they didn’t even know was being fought. Left with nothing to do but grit her teeth and pretend to smile back, Yang clenched her fists.

“But I look amongst you…” Ozpin sighed. “...and all I see is wasted energy...in need of purpose - direction.”

Yang’s eyes turned to slits. She tensed up, finding the headmaster’s lofty persona an insult to everyone here. He was setting all of these students on a path toward their witless destruction, and yet he didn’t seem to feel any guilt.

Ozpin went on, his voice measured and calm. “You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step.”

His lies of omission were laughable, but Yang held back her temptation to scoff. Knowledge could only carry the students so far, that much was for sure.

But if the most important knowledge of all is being withheld from them, how can they make a fair choice?

Glynda took Professor Ozpin’s place at the mic.

“You will gather in the ballroom tonight,” she said. “Tomorrow, your initiation begins. Be ready.”

Ruby’s expression gave way to a thoughtful frown as Ozpin walked away. “Did you think he seemed a little, I don’t know...off?”

Yang nodded. “I guess so.”

“It’s almost like he wasn’t even there.”

Ruby had no idea how right she was, and Ozpin, for all of his supposed wisdom, wasn’t being very subtle. He was so obvious that even their uninvited third companion, the girl with the attitude, seemed to have noticed something. She stopped talking long enough to pay attention to Ruby’s words and give a thoughtful nod, interrupted only by the sight of Jaune approaching as everyone was dismissed. Yang let the awkward silence hang, not wanting to give away what she knew. She’d come to protect Ruby, not to stir up issues for her and Taiyang.

“Hey,” Jaune said, waving to Ruby and Yang. He let out a nervous chuckle. “Do either of you happen to, uh, know which way the ballroom is exactly?”

The girl in white put a hand to her forehead and sighed heavily before looking up at Jaune. “Did you even read your pamphlet?” she asked, retrieving hers from a pocket in her dress. She held it open and pointed. He stared, dumbfounded, for a moment, before collecting himself in time to register the agitated scowl painted across her face.

“Not exactly,” he admitted, averting his eyes. “Anyway, thanks.”

“Let’s go, Ruby, Jaune,” Yang said, making sure to be loud enough to send the message that she wanted the new girl gone. She ignored her arrogant huff, leading the way with a hard stare that couldn’t have been further from how she felt inside.

This was really happening. Tomorrow, Yang would participate in the second half of her examination phase to enroll into Beacon Academy, a place where she never thought she would end up. Least of all, with her newfound half-sister. To say she was feeling a little anxious didn’t begin to scratch the surface of the truth.

“Whoa!” Jaune whispered excitedly, “do you two have any idea who that was back there?!”

Ruby and Jaune trailed behind Yang, launching into a discussion about a certain “Weiss Schnee.” Apparently, she was the girl Yang just pissed off, which, while unexpected, didn’t worry her. Money and status or not, she could take the girl, if it came to that.

When Ruby and Jaune finally caught up, they walked on either side of her. Their conversation gradually shifted into idle chit-chat about their hopes for the first day of school. Nothing they said pierced the fog of her overwhelming jumble of thoughts. She could see through one of the tall, narrow windows that the sky was taking on a dusky orange hue. Somewhere, under that same darkening sky, her mother and tribemates were settling in for another night of rest. Vernal was probably on first rotation for the night patrol, Shay was most likely playing dice with the guys or drinking himself into a stupor, and at about this time, someone would be filling in for Yang’s usual task of sharpening the used blades dulled by another day’s work.

Strange as it was to accept, Yang knew that this path she was walking meant she would no longer have a place in the Branwen Tribe. Not after tomorrow. Soon, she would be a full-fledged Huntress, and then there was no turning back.

Of course, this meant time was running out. She would have no choice but to tell Ruby the truth. To reveal her identity. The mere thought of doing so made her shudder, but there was no way around it anymore. She’d allow herself a pass this time. She could tell Ruby tomorrow morning. They already had enough to deal with this evening, so she didn’t know if she had the energy for handling that whole beast of a conversation just yet anyway.

Yeah…

Yang grimaced, hiding a frown behind her thick blonde hair.

Tomorrow.