The sun streams through glass windows onto exhausted Beacon students. Sleeping bags are crumpled, with late risers sprawled in odd positions.
In one room, a ginger storm of inexhaustible energy is currently passing through. The storm shouts and hops from one place to another as they announce in a sing-song voice, "It's morning! It's moooorning! It's mooooorniiiing!"
Azraq awakens to the loud voice, gray hair wild as if shocked. Groaning, he sits up and sees the ginger-haired culprit beside an equally exhausted boy.
The ginger-haired girl and the boy appear to know each other, as his sigh resonates with the sound of someone all too accustomed to the girl's chaos. As the boy rises to his feet and heads off to get ready, Azraq follows, his unsteady gait and constant yawning raising sympathetic looks from other students.
Azraq continues to follow the pair throughout the day's activities with an amused smile, exhibiting slight schadenfreude at the boy's suffering. It's when he reaches the cafeteria that Azraq finally spots some familiar faces.
Seated in a corner, with his head swaying precariously over a tray of food, sits Jaune Arc. Azraq quickly joins him with his own plate, snagging a significantly smaller portion in preparation for the trials to come.
Upon noticing the deep bags beneath Jaune's eyes and the general blank look, Azraq comments, "You look like you had a hell of a night. Couldn't get to sleep in time?"
Jaune is startled back awake with his words as he yawns and answers, "Couldn't get to sleep at all. I ended up messing around with my aura all night, and when I finally called it, I could see the sun out the windows."
Jaune then indicates his tray packed with food as a tired smile crosses his face, "Managed to grab the earliest meal though. Well, second-earliest meal. Still can't believe anyone would wake up that early…"
Azraq raises an eyebrow in curiosity, "Someone beat you to breakfast? Seems like everyone's pretty serious about this, huh."
"Yeah, it was this red-headed girl. She was so hot, but also a little scary."
"Scary? Why, Jaune, how are you going to accomplish your goals if you get intimidated before the first word?"
"Hardy, har, har. It doesn't matter anyway. Did you see that white-haired girl at the entrance ceremony? She was so beautiful."
Azraq feels his eyebrow twitch as he recalls the irritated screeching that preceded his meeting with the girl. He silently mourns his friend, 'Jaune, my friend, all I can say is good luck and goodbye.'
Aloud, he instead comments on Jaune's mostly full plate, "So what happened to your breakfast of champions. Nerves start kickin' in?"
"Yeah…Azraq, what am I going to do? I barely got the shield stance down yesterday! And I still don't know how to do anything with my aura but turn it all on!"
"Well, look on the bright side, considering the amount of aura you have, you'll survive getting chewed on for a while before someone rescues you."
Jaune's head collapses into the table, a depressed sigh leaving his mouth as he contemplates whether it's too late to back out now.
Azraq interrupts Jaune's contemplation as he stands up, tray in hand, "C'mon. If you're not going to eat anymore, we should start getting ready. We need to retrieve our weapons from the lockers."
Jaune follows Azraq out of the cafeteria, the pair walking into the locker room. Right as they enter, both hear two familiar voices in the midst of an argument. One seems worried and animated, while the other voice is annoyed yet slightly reluctant.
Yang spots Azraq right as he spots her and Ruby. She takes advantage of their entrance to end her argument with her sister. With a loud, teasing tone, she waves to the pair, "Hey, Pretty Boy, Vomit Boy! The Spectacular Duo graces us with its presence!"
Two very different reactions follow from Azraq and Jaune. Azraq, confused but polite, responds with a wave, meanwhile Jaune seems to sink in as he's once again reminded of his earlier blunder, "Pretty Boy? Anyways, Mornin' Yang, Ruby. Nice to see someone else so jolly this early in the morning."
"Vomit Boy? No one's ever going to forget that, are they…"
Ruby responds with a shy wave and greeting before huffing at Yang and walking away, "Hey, Azraq, Jaune. See you two later!"
"Ruby! Ruuuby." Yang smiles apologetically before walking off after Ruby.
Azraq shrugs and drags Jaune, who stands still, entranced by Yang's alluring choice of clothing, away. The two happen upon another conversation, one between a familiar white-haired girl and a redheaded girl whom Azraq fails to recognize.
He walks past them, not bothering to interact when Jaune slips out of his grip and approaches the white-haired girl. Azraq palms his face immediately upon hearing his opening line.
"Hey there, snow angel, I couldn't help but overhear your conversation and would like to offer you the deal of a lifetime." Jaune attempts to put on what Azraq assumes is his idea of a charming smile, all while he bats his eyelashes.
The pure disgust in the white-haired girl's voice as she responds quickly informs Azraq of what he suspected: Jaune has absolutely no idea how to talk to women, "Ugh, you again! Can't you see I'm speaking to Pyrrha?"
With an eager smile, the redheaded woman who had been so far ignored hops in and introduces herself, "Hi, I'm Pyrrha."
To which Jaune simply dismisses her greeting and continues addressing the white-haired girl, "Yeah, yeah. So snow angel, I would like to offer you a place on…wait for it, wait for it…My team. Yes, you heard that right, a place on Jaune Arc's team."
The white-haired girl scoffs as she flicks her ponytail, "As if I would ever consider…"
At the same time, Azraq finishes retrieving his weapons, Remus and Romulus secured to his waist and back as he walks over to the redhead.
Feeling bad about her being constantly sidelined, he introduces himself, "Hello, sorry about Jaune. He tends to be…single-minded in his pursuits. Though he really is a stand-up guy…most of the time. I'm Azraq Akulov. It's a pleasure to meet you."
The girl seems to beam as she turns to Azraq, her eyes glinting with something he can't recognize as she returns the greeting, "Hello! I'm Pyrrha, it's nice to meet you! Do you…"
Their conversation is interrupted as Jaune steps over to them and wraps his arm around Azraq's shoulder, "Say, don't you think this is fate! There are four people here and we each need a partner for our teams…"
"Actually, I believe the teams are comprised of four people." Pyrrha then interjects, patiently explaining to Jaune, who smiles even wider.
He then turns his head to wink at Azraq, who stares blankly at his idiotic friend, "Well, that's even better, isn't it! What do you say, Pyrrha, wanna hop onto Team Jaune!"
Pyrrha smiles widely and begins to respond, "I would lo…"
When the white-haired girl interrupts and stands between Pyrrha and Azraq with her arms out, as if to block all interaction. She then straightens up and begins her tirade, "Do you even know who you two are speaking to?"
Only to fall flat as both Azraq and Jaune respond negatively, "Nope", "Not at all, snow angel."
She regains her composure and continues, "This is Pyrrha."
Pyrrha quickly greets the pair once more, "Hello again!" as the white haired girl continues unabashed,
"Pyrrha graduated top of her class at Sanctum."
Jaune turns over to whisper a question to Azraq, "What's Sanctum?"
Azraq tilts his head as he struggles to come up with an answer, "I think it's one of the academies...either that or some temple, maybe a monastery? Anyways, why is this white-haired chick so snappy?"
However, neither is very far, so their words are easily caught by the white-haired girl, who scoffs once more, "Ugh, and for the record, my name is Weiss. Weiss Schnee. As for Pyrrha, she's won the Mistral Regional tournament four years in a row. A new record."
Upon seeing the utterly unaware faces of both Azraq and Jaune, Weiss scowls and swings her arms around as she shouts with an irritated tone, "She's on the back of every Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes Box!"
As Jaune gasps in surprise, recognition finally dawning, Azraq leans over to whisper a question of his own, "What's Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes Box?"
All three other people present turn to look at Azraq, pity flashing across their faces as they see confusion on his own. Upon seeing this, it's Azraq's turn to scowl as he turns his head away, muttering, "Stupid pumpkin cube, never liked squashes anyway."
Weiss refocuses as she reaches her main point. She crosses her arms and condescendingly asks, "So, considering all this, do you really think you're in a position to be asking her to be on your team?"
Jaune wilts as he responds, "You're probably right."
But Azraq's blunt remark cuts through the scathing remark, "Sure, why not. She's just a beacon student like the rest of us."
Jaune immediately brightens up as he recovers. He shoots up with a loud shout, "You're right. We're all just students, snow angel."
Weiss simply scoffs again and begins dragging Pyrrha away behind her, "As if, clearly you're unaware of your place. Let's go, Pyrrha. We should leave these country bumpkins to their own devices."
Pyrrha remains silent, eyes unflinchingly staring at a silver-haired figure. Azraq notices the look and turns to face her before immediately shivering as he sees something terrifying in her eyes.
Azraq quickly turns away as he faces Jaune. He then asks curiously, "So has your…sweet talking…ever worked?"
"No, but like my dad always says…"
"Yeah, yeah, you told me that, but if I'm being honest. I think you should start treading lightly unless you want to get speared by one of these women's weapons. Don't want to find out you got killed for invading personal boundaries."
Jaune sighs as he stares at the sky mournfully, "What did I do wrong, Dad?"
"Grab your gear, we should hurry up before we end up late."
Azraq then begins walking out the door as a panicked Jaune scrambles to grab Crocea Mors.