Ch 8: Welcome to Beacon (1)
The airship finally arrived at the academy, setting down on landing pads hanging over the cliff's edge alongside many other airships from all over Sanus, the continent that the kingdoms of Vale and Vacuo resided within. The new students all filed out in a hurry, with 'Vomit Boy' taking the lead, rushing straight towards the nearest trash can. Ruby, Yang, and Ray walked out of the airship, admiring the beauty of Beacon Academy from up close.
"Wow…" the three siblings marveled at the sight.
"The view from Vale's got nothing on this!" Yang proclaimed.
"Nice. Very nice." Ray agreed.
It was beautiful. A broad avenue led from the air docks to the academy's center, where they could see the imposing doorway of the main entrance on the opposite side of a massive courtyard. The avenue was lined with lamp posts from which hung the flags of all the primary combat schools that had sent students to Beacon this year. The courtyard, surrounded by a series of towering white connected archways, was filled with trees and had small streamlets running through it in intricate patterns from the moat that encircled it with another circle of taller archways surrounding that. In the center of the courtyard was a statue of a Huntsman and Huntress standing on a rock, brandishing their weapons, while a Beowolf prowled around below them. The most prominent sight was the giant tower that stretched high up into the clouds topped by a signal light. That was Beacon Tower, the tallest building in Sanus and where Beacon Academy got its name.
Beacon Academy was far more extensive and majestic than RoosterTeeth had been able to portray in Monty Oum's animated series, RWBY. Though many Japanese otakus would argue that, since it was created by an American studio rather than a Japanese studio, it should be considered a cartoon instead of an anime, even as they continue to fall further in love with it. But we digress.
Ray just stood there for a moment drinking in the sight and letting his memories for all the fun times they were going to experience here wash over him. He could feel the excitement and anticipation building within him. Unfortunately, that moment was cut short all too soon by the high pitched squeals of his twin sister.
"Ohmygosh, bro! That kid's got a collapsible staff! And she's got a fire sword! Sis! Sis! Look! That guy's got mechanical wings! OOooh, and he's got a giant fan! *Squeee* is that an assassin's blade! Is he an assassin!? AaaaH a fuma shuriken! He's got a fuma shuriken!" Ruby was so excited she had turned into a 2-D Ruby Chibi and was floating between her siblings with stars replacing her eyes. (A/N: Shout out to team KAZE. Your weapons are awesome.)
[Anime logic. Go figure.] Ray thought to himself at the sight of Ruby's chibi transformation while watching his crazy little red riding hood with a smile. Seeing that Ruby was about to float away and start stalking their new classmate's weapons, Yang reached out and pulled Ruby back down to reality, and her usual 3-D self, by her hood.
"Ow! Ooww!" Ruby whined.
"Easy there, little sister. They're just weapons!" Yang said, trying to calm Ruby down. It didn't work.
"'Just weapons'!? They're an extension of ourselves! They're part of us! Oh, they're so cool!" As a weapon fanatic, Ruby found her older sister's careless remark highly offensive.
"Well, why can't you swoon over your own weapon? Aren't you happy with it?"
"Of course, I'm happy with Crescent Rose!" Ruby said, taking it out from where it was clipped to the back of her belt in its compact box form and unfurling it into scythe mode to cradle it. "I just really like seeing new ones. It's like meeting new people, but better…"
"Ruby, come on, why don't you go try and make some friends of your own?" Yang laughed and playfully tugged down her sister's hood over her face.
"But… why would I need friends when I have you and Ray." Ruby asked innocently as she pushed her hood back.
"Well…" In a flash, a group of boys surrounded Yang. "Actually, my friends are here. Gotta go catch up. 'Kay, see ya, bye!" Yang called out as she was whisked away in a cloud of dust. Ray narrowed his eyes at the guys shooting them a silent reminder to behave. He had made things very clear to them while they were all still attending Signal. Any parasites that tried to latch onto his big sister would be removed, quietly and permanently. The boys increased the pace of their retreat as they felt Ray's stare boring into their backs.
Their quick departure left Ruby spinning around in their wake.
"Wait, where are you going!? Are we supposed to go to our dorms? Where are our dorms? Do we have dorms?" Ruby stopped for a moment, still reeling before... "I don't know what I'm doing…" dizzy and confused, she collapsed backward into a passing luggage cart, sending cases flying.
"Are you ok, Ruby?" Ray asked, reaching out to help her up.
"Yeah." Ruby sighed, letting him pull her back up.
"What are you doing?!" A voice shouted behind Ray.
"Helping my sister up." Ray replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm as he turned around. He was not at all impressed by the deep-seated arrogance and assumed authority the rude voice held. Once he got a look at the speaker, however, he stopped dead in his tracks as his teenage brain hiccuped at the sight of her.
[Damn Weiss...] was the only thing he could think of for several seconds. Ray thought he had developed resistance towards beauty after living with Ruby and Yang for so long. However, all that training only amounted to keeping him from making a fool out of himself in the face of the furious angel that had descended before him.
There stood a 5'3" paragon of delicate beauty, though four inches of that came from those wedge heeled boots she wore that reached halfway up her calves. They were a vivid red on the inside, had pure white soles and the toe tips, and we're greyish-white everywhere else with a small silver decoration across the top of her shoes separating the white and grey. Her skin was as fair as freshly fallen snow, and her facial features, just as delicate. Her eyebrows were thin defiant lines, her nose slightly upturned, and her chin noble, yet fragile. The crooked scar that ran through her left glacial blue eye did little to distract from her beauty and instead enhanced it by giving her celestial beauty a touch of mortality. Her white hair was pulled back into an off-center bun tail, pinned in place by a silver icicle tiara, and hung down behind her right shoulder to just below her waist.
She wore a thigh-length strapless dress with a small piece of black lace sitting in the front center of her neckline, blocking any view of any cleavage her A-cups might have had. Under her skirt were layers of white tulle protecting her dignity from any lucky pervert moments during battle. Over her dress, she wore a bell-sleeved bolero with a ruffled collar and vivid red lining on the inside. Both her dress and bolero were white at the top and had a soft color gradation into a pale blue at the hems, which were scalloped and stitched to resemble snowflakes. A thin white sash, tied in front, with a silver pouch attached at the back and a simple silver pendant necklace and dangling earrings complete her outfit.
On the back of her bolero, her emblem, which was also her Schnee family's crest, a geometric six sided snowflake, could be seen in pure white. Her weapon, Myrtenaster, hung from the left side of her waist. A Multi Action Dust Rapier, it was silver-grey with four prongs encasing a six-slot revolver chamber loaded with dust vials around the ricasso with a hammer in the base and a trigger incorporated into the top of the grip. By turning the chamber, she could choose from six different types of Dust and then pull the trigger to imbue the attributes of that Dust into her rapier.