//------------------------------//
// Initiation 1.2 
// Story: SNST 
// by Jninja15 
//------------------------------//

Sunset, Ruby, Peter, and the pink-haired boy, whose name they learned was Natsu, arrived at the auditorium with Jaune following shortly behind them, panting desperately for breath. There were a lot of people in the room, all very colorful too. The five teenagers scanned the hall to take in how many potential students came in the hopes of being accepted into Beacon. In the crowd, Sunset saw Yang waving at her and Ruby.
“Ruby! Sunset! Over here!”
“Oh! I see Yang.” Ruby exclaimed. “Thanks, you guys, for helping us get here on time,” Ruby said as she jumped off to go to her sister, Sunset following nervously.
“No problem,” said Natsu, giving Ruby a thumbs up. “Hope to see ya later.” He waved goodbye and walked in the opposite direction.
Jaune raised a hand to try and stop the rose and sun-colored teens but gave up rather quickly. “Great. Where am I going to find a nice quirky girl to talk to?”
Peter blinked and looked a little offended. “Could you talk to me instead?”
Jaune looked at Peter. “To be honest, I don’t like you that much.”
“Rude. Just for that, I’m not inviting you to hang with me in my favorite spot for places like this.” Peter thwips a web to the ceiling and vaults himself upward into the scaffolding of the building.
Jaune looked up at the spider-boy. “Show-off.” and hung his head in sadness as he walked past a girl with scarlet red hair and bronze armor.

“You ditched me!” Ruby exclaimed.
“Yeah, sorry about that, Rubes, Sunset.”
“To be fair, I wandered off on my own,” Sunset said sheepishly.
“And I exploded!” Ruby continued.
“Oo, a meltdown already?” Yang said.
“No, I literally exploded a hole in front of the school! There was fire, ice, rocks, and I’m pretty sure I tasted A flat over high C.”
“That was you?” Sunset exclaimed.
“Yes! There was this crabby girl, I tripped on her stuff, she yelled at me, I sneezed, then I exploded, and she yelled at me some more, and I feel really- really bad and I just wanna-”
A girl in a white dress with white hair tied in a sideways ponytail slowly peered out from behind Ruby as she talked before she exclaimed, “You again!”
Ruby jumped into Yang’s arms. “Oh gods, it’s happening again!”
“You nearly got us killed!” The white-haired girl exclaimed.
Yang stood still with wide eyes staring at, who Sunset recognized as heiress of the Schnee Dust Company, Weiss Schnee, “Oh my gods, you really did explode.”
“Look, I’m sorry, ok?” Ruby said as Yang lowered her sister to the ground.
Sunset wanted to say something but was intimidated by Wiess’s attitude when she presented Ruby with a pamphlet titled “Dust for Dummies and other inadequate individuals.” She then recited a legal addendum that went over both of their heads.
“Uh...” Ruby said after Weiss was finished.
“Do you really want to make it up to me?” Weiss asked.
Ruby shrunk back and plastered a smile onto her face. “Absolutely?”
Weiss shoved the pamphlet into Ruby’s hands. “Read this, and don’t ever speak to me again.”
“Uh, look,” Yang said, obviously trying to diffuse the situation. “It sounds like you two just got off on the wrong foot. Why don’t we start over?”
“Great idea, Yang!” Ruby said as she turned to the heiress and held out a hand to shake. “Hello Weiss, I’m Ruby. Wanna hang out?”
“Oh, yes!” Weiss said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “We could paint our nails and talk about cute boys, like tall, blonde, and scraggly over there.” she pointed a thumb at a random boy in the crowd that happened to be Jaune, who seemed to take notice that someone was talking about him.
“Really?!” Ruby said, not catching the sarcasm.
Sunset leaned in to explain Weiss’ sarcasm discreetly, but Weiss beat her to the punch with a harsh and blunt, “No!”
Feedback rang through the auditorium speakers as the headmaster of Beacon, Professor Ozpin, was onstage and began to speak. “I’ll... keep this brief.” he began. “Many of you have come to this school in search of knowledge... but all I see here is wasted potential.”
Sunset’s heart sank at that sentence, but she took a moment to look at her hand and thought back on her training with Celestia. She closed her fist and told herself, ‘It’s only the beginning of the semester. I may have improved a lot in the past ten months, but I still have a ways to go before I become a great huntress, and that’s why I’m here, to learn.’ Sunset pulled herself from her thoughts to listen to the rest of Ozpin’s speech. He sounded... distant. It was like he wasn’t really there.
Ozpin walked offstage, clicking his cane casually with every step, as Glynda came up to the microphone. “You will gather in the ballroom tonight. Tomorrow, your initiation begins. Be ready.”
A man dressed in black with the longest dull grey scarf Sunset had ever seen wrapped around his neck so many times. It looked like it would be very uncomfortable to wear even during springtime. He had long, messy black hair, a tired look on his face. In an equally tired voice, he said, “And whoever is leaving webs all over campus, please clean up after yourselves.” and simply walked offstage.
Sunset and Ruby looked at each other and sniggered.
“Looks like Peter got in trouble~,” Ruby said softly.
Yang leaned in and said in an equally soft voice, “Who’s Peter? Was he one of the guys you came in with? *gasp* Do you already have a boyfriend~?”
Sunset blushed slightly.
“Ew, Yang! No!” Ruby spat with child-like disgust.
Yang increasingly began to intrude on Ruby’s personal space. “Is he cute? Come on, you can tell me?”
Sunset snickered as Yang picked on her younger sister, the two almost beginning to wrestle. She was disturbed from her enjoyment of a classic example of older-younger sibling interaction when someone harshly bumped into her, nearly sending her toppling to the floor. She turned to see who it was. A cold chill ran down her spine as she saw Bakugou glaring back at her as he was walking away. Izuku gave her a look of apology before he briefly waved to Sunset with a weak smile before immediately following Bakugou. Sunset straightened herself and glanced at Ruby and Yang, thankful that the two didn’t seem to notice. She stared at Bakugou and Izuku, disappearing into the crowd as she thought back on her last encounter with Bakugou before taking an airship to Beacon.

Sunset had her back slammed against a wall as a small explosion rang next to her ear. She carefully opened her eyes to see Bakugou glaring at her, veins throbbing on his forehead and neck. His lip was curled up in a vicious snarl, and his breathing came out as low guttural growls. His face only two inches away from hers as he pressed her against the wall with a balled fist bunching her shirt at the shoulder and his other hand against the wall where he left a scorch mark.
A moment of silence passed between the two before Bakugou finally said, “I thought I told you not to apply to Beacon Academy.”
Sunset had been training with Celestia for about a month now, so she could convince herself to muster enough strength to talk back. “You said no such thing,” she said quietly but boldly.
Bakugou must have heard as he let out a small “Urk.” he backed away a little bit, his sneer losing its intensity.
Sunset noticed this and pressed on. “No matter what you do,” she said, leaning forward, “I refuse to be discouraged from becoming a huntress.”
Bakugou physically took a step back.
“My actions that day, about a month ago, proved to myself that I can be a hero.” Sunset took a step forward. “Because someone told me that they believed in me, and that is enough for me to reach out for my destiny and seize it with my own two hands.” Sunset glared at Bakugou long and hard.
Bakugou’s sneer returned in full force as he backed away and let Sunset go. “Just who the hell do you think you are?”
Sunset said nothing as she walked away.

“Just who the hell do you think I am?” Sunset instinctively whispered as she glared at the space Bakugou occupied before disappearing from sight. Something roiled in her stomach and in her heart as she said those words.
“You say something, Sunset?” Ruby’s words broke Sunset’s staring contest with empty space as she shook her head to clear her thoughts.
“N-no, it was nothing,” Sunset replied.
Ruby stepped closer, concern showing on her face. “Are you ok?”
“Y-yeah, I’m fine.”
“Great!” Yang said with enthusiasm as she ushered her sister and their new friend in the same direction as all the other students. “Let’s get to that ballroom. Oh, man, it’s going to be like a big slumber party!”
Ruby followed Yang. “I don’t think dad would approve of all the boys.”
“I know I do.” Yang purred.
Sunset blushed.