Chapter 1: The beginning of the End.

What felt like an eternity, a middle-aged lady walks through the door with a seemingly strict face. Well, not that I can blame her after all. Times have been tough for the homeless.

"I'm guessing you're not here to tell me that I'm free to go? I would like to stay in the warmth a little while longer." I lightly chuckle to give ease at her tension. Though, I only received a crop slapping the table quite hard.

"Please, don't continue playing this game you did with the officers. I'll like for you to tell the story word for word." Her tone matched her looks, that's for sure. "Lady, I told the officers the play by play already. If you keep asking me this, I might as well give you my whole day from waking up as the starting point."

She nods her head in acceptance of that. I shake my head and sigh loudly. "I was only joking. Look, I don't know if you're part of some special force or something but I'm done here. Just release me already." She also gives her own sigh back to me, touche. "If that's truly what happened, I want you to understand that it was necessary but to damage private property is a serious offense. Even if you did save that kid's life."

"Don't talk about the kid part. Anyone would do the same, I was just quick enough to do it first. I understand the consequences about the property damage but that gang is up to no good. Taking all that dust is bad news, no matter who you are." Her eyes seem to widen, if only for a brief moment when the mention of dust was made. "Did this gang only take dust? Nothing else?" Tilting my head, I answer in skepticism. "Yeah, the company truck was being robbed of all the dust it had. From your tone, this gang isn't just some small thing either?"

She noticed my wording and avoided my trap. "For a gang to take only dust shows future problem. Thank you for giving me at least that." Her smile was definitely annoying but I only return it back. After all, she didn't answer my question which means this isn't the first time this gang stole dust.

Before we could continue our chat, a man enters the room. "Glynda, that'll be enough for now. I wish to speak with him alone." Without a word, she follows his order and leaves the room to us. He takes the chair in front of him and sits across from me. "I must say, I've never seen such a fighting style like yours. Quite unique I must say." His tone was calm, almost even sounding like he cares. "I learned from a great teacher. He didn't teach me all my tricks but gave the basis to work on."

Something about this guy was putting me somewhat on edge. I couldn't explain or pinpoint to why but I felt like doing something. "Now, please calm down. I only wish to have small talk with you regarding the situation." He's definitely different than the others, there's no way getting out of this one. "Okay, I'll play along then. What's in that mind of yours?" He chuckles the blunt tone I gave but returned to his calm persona. "Now, now. No need to be so sharp, I had only one thing to ask of you. After reviewing the footage I seen of the robbery and that fighting style of yours, I only ask if you would like to join my school."

School? Does he mean some sort of jail or probation area? "I'm...not sure I'm following here." He brings both his hands up on the table to rest his chin. "I asked if you would like to join my school; Beacon Academy. I would like if someone of your type would join." I couldn't even respond back to him. If he asked me to join his school then... "You're the HeadMaster of Beacon Academy? To think, HeadMaster Ozpin came to recruit me." I raised my left hand to my forehand and shook my head in some mixed feelings.

"I'm glad to see you know me by name. Well? my offer is real and stands as of right now. You'll be taken in without question and will be given a free home to live in so to speak. I understand your current situation and wish to help. In turn, you'll study and become a student there to become a Hunter." He gives a soft smile and wink as well. "I'll even bend the rules a little to ensure you'll be enrolled like any other student."

This whole deal is off, he even gave the catch without an issue. "Sorry HeadMaster, I'm not one interested in enrolling at an academy. The academic life isn't for me so I'll decline." Saying this was probably the biggest mistake of my night. Before I knew it, we were playing this sort of mental chess game.

In the end, we both reached to a sort of draw. It was obvious he wanted me to join his school but I also made my point that I won't. Though, I couldn't help but get second thoughts as I watched him leave the room. Did I miss out on something that would've changed my life for good? "You're free to go. The HeadMaster has made sure to fix any damages you caused. Leave these sort of things to the authorities next time kid." I look up to see one of the officers holding the door open for me.

I get up from my chair and gave him a nod before leaving the room. He escorts me through the building until I reached the front doors. After that, I was left alone in front of the station, I didn't have any place to call home so I wasn't in any rush to go...anywhere really. I simply picked a direction and walked through the empty night streets of Vale. I must admit, with the calming and quiet atmosphere, I had a lot of time to process what the HeadMaster said. I can only imagine the regret I'll feel tomorrow from waking up in an alley soon.

I raise my left hand over the piece of cloth covering my left eye and sighed. "Better off this way. Who knows what kind of trouble I would've caused to that school." I drop my hand back to the side and continued my walk until two guys walked out of a dust shop. It didn't take a genius to realize what was happening at all, I mean, it's closing hours after all.

The two immediately held their weapons up to me. I only sighed and raised both my hands up in defeat, the cop did say leave it to the authorities. The one with a sword-like weapon came closer to me with his weapon still up. He slowly came around and started patting me down while the other kept lookout. It also didn't take long to realize that these two are wearing the same outfit like the others did in that incident. Today was definitely my lucky day then.

He finishes the body check behind me and comes around to check the front now. As he gets lower, I could only smile at the plan I had for these two. Once he got to my knees, I quickly grabbed his head and smashed his face in with my knee. He quickly got to his feet while covering the bloody nose with his only free hand. I grabbed the weapon and slammed my shoulder into his chest, freeing it from him as he fell hard. Now with a sword in my possession, his friend tries to attack me but I blocked it. I spun around the attacker and kicked the side of his right knee, bringing him down in pain before slamming his face onto the ground.

It was quick and brutal but very effective. Though, I turned to see more of these gang members come out the dust shop but not as I expected. They were being thrown out with a red blur as well, she slowly stood with her weapon being revealed and showed off her moves before slamming the tip end into the ground. To color me surprised didn't fit the bill at all but watching her beat down every gang member without even trying really did.

A man in white stepped outside, I figured he's the leader of this gang from his confidence showing against the girl. What caught me off guard from it all was him aiming his cane at her, the tip end popped off with a scope appearing. He fired an explosive shot at her, I flinched from the quick bright light. Regaining my vision, I saw the man was gone but found the girl looking up towards a nearby building. She made her way and used her weapon's shot recoil to basically shoot herself up to the top.

Words couldn't even begin to form but I didn't have time to think about it now. I quickly latched onto the ladder and made my way up to the top. From there, I saw the girl with the man inside his escape ride. In his hand was a dust crystal that he stole and simply threw it to the girl, before I could tell to her, he shot again from his gun to her but she was pulled away suddenly. That's when Glynda appeared and used her semblance to attack back against the man, specifically his only escape ride.

As the aircraft tried to regain control, a new figure appeared where the man once stood and attacked back at Glynda. She easily blocked it until fiery circles appeared under her, which she easily dodged as pillars made of fire appeared. With the burnt shrapnel of the roof, she created a large pillar size spiked stick that launched at the aircraft, the mysterious lady tried to break it down with her attacks but Glynda only repaired it with ease. The Aircraft lowered itself to lift the attack along the wings, only scratching the top until it broke into three smaller versions of itself that came circling back.

I had figured by this point I wasn't necessary until the shrapnel in the air was burnt to compete ash from the lady. I had also noticed more fire appeared under Glynda but also under the non-expecting girl. I have to make a move and it needed to be now as I raised my left hand over my covered left eye.

To everyone's surprise, I had the girl in my arms away from the fire. Glynda was quick enough to move away from the attack but the aircraft at this point made its escape. We all watched in silence until the girl broke it by fangirling over Glynda being a Huntress.

Now I was back inside that blasted room again, I had already dreaded every second as I waited for someone to enter. "Didn't expect to be interrogated twice in one night." I laughed at myself for being this unlucky. Shortly after some more self-made jokes, the HeadMaster entered the room. "HeadMaster Ozpin! Welcome back to my lair, I hope you have taken care of yourself these..." I look down to my right wrist, pretending a watch was there. "...past hours!" It wasn't actually been that long, I wanted to add a bit of flair to my joke.

He quietly laughs at it and takes the seat in front of me. "I must say, twice in a single night. You seem to find trouble quite easily. First the dust incident and now I hear about this aircraft escaping from the city." I only shrug and responded back. "Wrong place, wrong time I say. I was only taking a stroll when I ran into the ordeal." He shakes his head, going along with the joke still but takes a heavy cough.

"Now that we find ourselves here again, I want to ask if you thought about the deal." I look up to the ceiling, thinking back to it. I said no before and would say no again but I also had my own doubts and felt like I missed out on something. Being in school wasn't the interesting part but more so having a roof over my head and food on the table. I could hear my own stomach growl at that idea and eventually let my head fall back. "I did put some thoughts to it. I'll take it and become a student at Beacon Academy but only for the food and warm bed." He doesn't respond immediately and only took what I said to its value. "Well then, welcome to Beacon Academy..." The pause told me enough what he wanted. "Kiano, my name is Kiano HeadMaster." And from there, my life changed for the better or worse I can only guess that night. It wasn't long until morning came after sleeping in some alleyway.

Now, I wasn't exactly doing this only for the food and warm bed. I mean, sure it was main reason but a part of me felt...excited during the fight. Either way, I'll get more benefits in the end so I might as well start heading to the Academy. "To think I'll be accepted at the Academy's enrollment at the last minute. That's the power of the HeadMaster after all." I shake my head before heading off.

The trip there was quite boring as I board the aircraft. Plenty of other students were already inside, besides a blonde hair kid who didn't have a healthy shade of green on his face. We didn't even start flying yet! I decide to ignore it all and take my spot against the wall.

Looking around, I noticed two things. Everyone had already made some friends or came with friends to this school. Suffice to say I'm going to be alone here, as usual in these things. That was until I saw a familiar red girl next to a yellow hair girl. I fought against the idea of talking to her but curiosity started clawing its way at the back of my head. It wasn't until the red blur was in front of me that snapped me out of it.

"You're the guy who was with me last night!" Her cheery voice was quite nice. I smile back and back off the wall. "And also who saved you from that fire trick. Glad to see you're doing alright." I took my hand forward for her to look down at it. "From my planet, it's called a handshake, people do it to greet others sometimes." She chuckles in embarrassment for a second before taking my hand. "The name's Kiano if you were wondering." I saw the same yellow hair girl make her over to us as the girl responded back. "And I'm Ruby Rose! Glad to meet you Kiano!" The yellow hair grabbed Ruby around her neck and pulled her into a hug. "My baby sister is already making her first friend at Beacon! I knew you could do it!" Before I knew it, Ruby was trying to break away from her sister's grasp until a voice came on.

Looking to my left, I saw it was the news announcement for today. What was more surprising was seeing the man in white from yesterday being a wanted criminal of course. To think I ran into him yesterday, the world is a small place or something like that. Right after the news ended, Glynda came on to give us students an entry speech about providing us the tools and training to become Hunters and Huntresses. Glynda soon disappeared and now I saw Beacon Academy in its full beauty. I couldn't help myself but stare in awe at it with the girls, if only some vomit boy didn't ruin the moment a couple seconds later.

We finally landed at the docking zone for Beacon. With vomit boy being the first to go, we move past him to see Beacon once again but much closer this time. "I'll never get bored looking at this." I say aloud to no one particular. Seeing that Ruby and her sister were moving up ahead, I figured to move about on my own. It wasn't for five seconds until I heard an explosion behind me, I decided in my right decision to ignore the cause and keep moving forward. It wasn't long until I found the opening ceremony area, didn't expect such a large student count for a prestigious school but I can't really talk since I was given special treatment from the HeadMaster himself.

Looking amongst the crowd, I saw a few interesting individuals but found Ruby's sister. Shrugging my shoulders, I figured to at least catch her name since we'll be students together. She saw me and smiled as my made my way to her, I took my hand out and she shook with a very strong grip. "Nice grip, could break my hand with that force. I...hope you really don't." She laughs but shakes her head. "Don't be silly! I'm Yang, you know I'm Ruby's older sister." Now, I haven't mentioned before but them being sisters wasn't believable as they were completely different in looks. Doesn't mean I was going to ask of course, I'm not stepping into any family business that may or may not involve related issues.

"And the name's Kiano. Nice to finally get your name." It wasn't before long until Ruby found us and looked a little mad. Being an idiot, I decided to open that can of mistakes first. "Hey Ruby, things go smoothly getting here?" Oh boy, if only I knew the worst of it. "Since you mean when you two ditched me and exploded?" Yang was the first one to respond back. "Yikes, meltdown already?" Ruby raised her right hand and her tone grew a little more. "No, I literally exploded a hole in front of the school and there was some fire and I think some ice?" I was quite honestly at a lost for words. Either that this really happened or Ruby is blowing the whole thing out of proportion. I mean, who casually stands there and say they blew a hole at school? "You messing with us Ruby?" I then suddenly felt a presence near us, quite a cold one in fact. "I wish! I tripped over some crabby girl's luggage and then she yelled at me. Then I sneezed and exploded then she yelled even more and I felt really, really bad and I just wanted it to stop!" If I hadn't stepped out of the way beforehand, Ruby would have crashed into me as she jumped into Yang's arms as the random girl yelled behind her.

"Oh god it's happening again!" Was all Ruby could muster from fear of the girl yelling at her. "You're lucky we weren't blown off from the side of the cliff!" To say surprised would be a understatment to me and Yang. "You were serious about it?!" I managed to say to Ruby. "It was an accident, it was an accident!" Ruby said as Yang lowered her back to the ground. It wasn't until the girl gave Ruby a small piece of paper. It also wasn't until I lose interest in this and zoned out, the only thing that knocked me to my senses was hearing Ozpin checking the microphone.

"I'll keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge. To hone your craft and aquire new skills and when you finish, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction. 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."

Ozpin was soon replaced by Glynda. "You'll gather in the ballroom tonight. Tomorrow, your initiation begins. Be ready, you are dismissed." Everyone started to leave as I stood, staring where Ozpin stood moments ago. "If only they understood that as well as I did." I whispered to myself in a depressing tone. I couldn't help but shake off some cold feeling on me, as if that speech meant more to me but I didn't know how or why.

With everyone now in the ballroom, I sat by an open window and watched the shattered moon. I couldn't help but think about what Ozpin said, the feeling hasn't left and I couldn't do anything about it. That was until my stomach started growling. "A quick bite wouldn't hurt, hopefully I can find the cafeteria." I left the ballroom right after that and wandered through the halls.

It felt like I walked around this damn school twice now! This school is too damn big! "If I have to walk around this school one more time I'm going to-" As I turned the corner, I ran into someone and saw it was a girl. "Crap! My bad, I didn't-" As I reached my hand out, she took it and pulled me onto the floor. I felt her knee dig into my back right after and sighed. "I'm pretty sure this isn't how people accept another's help." I felt her knee dig in a little deeper with her scoffing. "And who's the one responsible for this?" I was growing rather tired quickly and moved my hand to my covered eye until another female voice spoke up.

"Pandora, leave the poor boy alone and let him go." Seconds passed by, assuming she was thinking about it until I felt her get off. I slowly got off the floor and dusted myself off, looking at the two girls in front of me. The one who was wrestling me was a short girl, her hair was white and in pigtails while her eyes was a more darker brown. As for the other girl, her features were more...exotic. Her hair was free but was truly something else with it being red mainly but her tips becoming orange. Her eyes were also captivating with a scarlet red coloring that felt hypnotizing.

"As...I was saying. Sorry about running into you, finding the cafeteria was more harder than it looked." I weakly chuckled to get the mood going but neither one seemed to care. "If you wanted to get closer to The Scarlet Fighter, then don't lie about it! At least be honest when you're caught!" The girl named Pandora spoke in anger which caught me off guard. "Scarlet Fighter? Don't tell me that's you small kid." Before I knew it, the other girl was trying to stop Pandora from reaching me, guessing her height was a sensitive subject... interesting. "Don't you dare make fun of my height! I'll kill you right here where you stand!" She screamed at me with all her might. I could only cover my mouth and hold in my laugher. "I understand if you want to talk but insulting my friend is off the table!" Now the other girl grew mad, great. "Look, I don't know you or your friend or whoever is this Scarlet Fighter. I'm just trying to get some food before hitting the sack! If you won't tell me where the cafeteria is then I'll be continuing my search." I made a quick retreat around the corner from where I came and just decided to give up on eating. "Yeah! Run away you coward!" The voice of Pandora carried throughout the halls as I made it back to the ballroom.

I was exhausted and just wanted to call it a day before things somehow got worse. In so, my first day at Beacon was quite something to say the least. Hopefully this initiation will be better than that shorty's attitude...