The atmosphere was heavy as the students followed the headmaster out of the cafeteria. A good chunk straight up refused to follow, taking Sky’s advice to leave. On the walk towards the bullheads, a few had changed their minds and turned around to leave. By the time they reached the landing platform where the large, rectangular airships were, there were less than half of the students who rode up here on the platforms. 

The headmaster and Sky stood near the two bullheads, looking over the crowd. A brief conversation cropped up between the headmaster and Sky, but Haru was too far to hear it. Eventually, Professor Lionheart stepped forward to address the crowd. He gave a brief thanks for staying, and told the remaining students to board the bullheads as they prepared to go to the next part of the initiation. 

Haru got on the one on the left. She was joined by a number of other students, and then Sky boarded as well, walking towards the front of the craft just behind the pilots, and gripping a handle on the ceiling. Strangely, there were no seatbelts on the seats, something nobody questioned. As the doors closed, a few hushed conversations cropped up between the students. Some kept their eyes on Sky, expecting him to silence them or yell again, but it seems their fears were unfounded. Sky simply stared out of the window, watching Haven shrink beneath and water replace it. Haru, for her part, did the same. Her seat neighbor, a person in a teal coat, orange vest, and brown fedora, thankfully didn’t feel the need to start conversation either. 

The din grew a bit louder, until eventually, someone directly asked Sky why the academy thought it’d be a good idea to throw Grimm at the students in the cafeteria no less. They wondered if it wasn’t dangerous to keep that many Grimm at the academy instead of just killing them, and questioned the ethics of risking the student’s lives. Everyone fell silent to listen to the answer.

Sky considered the student for a while, before giving their answer. 

“Life isn’t easy, and being a huntsman is even harder. That’s the first lesson drilled into you at Shade Academy, and they’re right. The desert is harsh, unforgiving, deadly, and so is Shade. That’s how it should be, and it’s why Shade produces the best huntsmen in Remnant. Haven’s coddled its students and people for too long, and I’m here to whip you people into shape. Every Shade student is stronger and better than you are now. By the end of the year, I’ll make sure you’re better than they are. Hell, by the time I’m done with you, you’ll be better than the Grim Reaper.”

“Who’s the Grim Reaper?” Haru asked, curious about the name she hadn’t heard before. 

“Best huntswoman in history,” Sky replied, yawning. “She came out of Mistral, though the academies were in their infancy back then. She’s a legend, I’m surprised you don’t know about her, given she’s from your country. Hell, we’ve heard of her all the way in Vacuo.”

“Why are you here if you’re a Shade graduate?” someone else asked. 

“Transfer. Apparently that old head thinks I need to ‘diversify myself’ and ‘learn to teach all kinds of people’ before I can become a professor, so I’m here for a while.”

The one thing Haru picked up on was that Sky was a professor in training. 

Just then, the intercoms kicked on. Professor Lionheart came on the mic and began explaining the rest of the initiation to them. Apparently, they would be dropped off on the small island in the middle of Lake Matsu, the lake in the middle of the continent of Anima. There, they would have to find banners scattered throughout the island, find the person with the matching banner, and combine the attached key pieces. There are boats stationed on the westernmost part of the island; each boat needs two keys to power, but all the keys are the same and work on all the boats. They’ll have to cross the small channel separating the mainland from the island, and then their initiation will be over. 

“That seems… A little complex,” Haru said. 

Sky shrugged. “It’s how it is.” He reached towards the wall separating the pilots from the interior and strapped something to his belts. Then, he gripped a handle on the ceiling. Strangely, it was the only one. “We’re almost at our destination. You heard Lionheart. Any last questions?”

Someone asked where they’re going to be dropped off at.

“That’s up to you, but you better figure it out quick. Not much time to prepare your landing strategy,” Sky replied. 

“Landing strategy?” someone asked.

Sky grinned. The rear doors of the bullhead opened up. They could feel the wind slapping their faces and the students in the rear shimmied further in. 

“We’re landing, right?” someone asked the thought everyone had. “We have to be, right?? The doors opened because we’re landing, right??”

“Nope,” Sky replied.

The bullhead suddenly pitched upwards. The students tumbled out of the back like cargo dumped from a ship. Most of them screamed, some out of fear, some out of joy.

For her part, Haru managed to grip one of the seats as the bullhead pitched. She gripped it with her life, pleading with Sky to pull her up. She was the only one left in the cabin. He was still standing on the floor, which had become the wall now. Sky offered her an apologetic shrug, pulled out his key blade, and fired a single shot at her hands. 

A heartbeat later, Haru was tumbling through the sky without a parachute. Somewhere in the depths of her mind, she recalled Sky’s words about a landing strategy. 

Unfortunately for her, the only thoughts in her head was: oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit.

Eyes wide, she stared at the ground rapidly flying at her, the pounding of her heart in her ears. In her peripherals, she could see the other students falling through the air, many of them already firing their weapons to the ground and preparing for landing. Haru flailed, trying to change the ammo in her swords while they were in the sheath, and failing. 

“Come on, come on, fuck, come on!” she screamed desperately. Finally, she managed to unsheathe the sword, changed the ammo with a swiftness she never demonstrated before, and pointed them at the ground. 

She dumped both her magazines into the ground only twenty feet from it, blowing a crater into the dirt below her. Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to kill all her momentum. She slammed into the ground, her aura immediately flickering as all the air left her lungs. A sharp pain blossomed from her chest; she thought she might have a broken rib. 

She crawled out of the crater, face contorted with pain, and looked up at the bullhead flying away. Her head spun suddenly, and she turned to the ground and threw up, clutching a tree and whispering obscenities at herself. Eventually, she collapsed and laid against the tree, trying with the last of her mental faculties to avoid the vomit on the ground. She had no idea what happened. Before, she didn’t have a problem with heights; she’s flown in bullheads and stood at the top of a mountain before. Nothing. But that. She swore to herself she would never let anyone else toss her out into the sky. 

With shaky hands, she checked her aura level on her scroll. Like she thought, it was in the red.

“We just started,” she complained, staring up at the sky.

Or rather, at the Grimm staring down at her from the tree top. 

A strange, simian creature was staring down at her with blood red eyes. Its arms were abnormally long, and its tail slung around a thick branch, holding it steady. White plates of bone covered its chest and shoulders, and a thick plate covered the crown of its head. 

Haru stared into its eyes for a moment. It stared back, and then it grinned. White, sharp, teeth filled its mouth like spikes, and a drop of Grimm slime leaked out and slapped Haru on the face. 

“Fuck!” 

She jumped to her feet, rolling away just in time. One of its long arms slapped the ground where she was just sitting with an audible thud. She tumbled into the crater, and then crawled up the other side. She sprinted for the trees but tripped over a rock. She felt something whoosh through the air over her head, and when she glanced upwards, she saw the simian hanging from a tree branch above her, its tail holding it up. It made some loud screeching noises in a strange rhythm, and for a brief moment, Haru wondered if it was calling more Grimm. She wouldn’t wait around to find out. She took off through the forest, the sound of the simian swinging through the vines and branches above her sending shivers down her spine. With her semblance off to conserve aura, she had no idea where the next blow might come from, or if she was surrounded, or where she was even going. Instead, she just ran. 

Time passed. Haru’s mad scramble through the forest turned into a mad scramble over the hill side, still being chased, though this time by other Grimm. Without a moment’s rest, she managed to evade a few more Grimm and duck into a cave carved into the face of a cliff. She half expected to find even more Grimm, judging by the way this day was turning out. She was right on that part, but the giant Ursa laying dead on the ground was of little consequence. Another student must have taken it down, or perhaps a group of students, probably very recently. Heaving hot breaths, Haru crawled past it, watching the Grimm’s body disappear into ash as she sat on the cold hard stone floor of the cave. Her side felt stitched, her head spun and black spots filled her vision. For a moment, she wondered why she had been running so much. Wasn’t she a huntress? She should be facing down these Grimm without fear. Except, the landing had been particularly rough on her. She blamed that, along with the lack of rest to recover her aura. It  certainly had nothing to do with her skill as a huntress. She just needed a few moments, and then she’ll be on her way. With weary eyes, she scanned the rest of the cave, spotting a small strip of cloth in the far back, near where the cave ended, tucked between two rocks. She squinted at it, then stood and walked over in halting steps. She reached up and pulled the cloth free. 

Half of a key rolled out. 

Haru stared at it for a while. Then she sighed. Luck was a form of skill, she guessed, but she couldn’t help but feel like she robbed whoever’s banner this was supposed to be, since they did the killing. She shrugged. All’s fair in love and war, she guessed, and pocketed the key and the banner. She stretched out a bit, and prepared to leave the cave. Her aura hasn’t fully recovered yet, but the time she spent in the cave was enough for her to catch her breath and recuperate somewhat. She performed a cursory check of her health; it seemed her rib was merely bruised, not broken, which she was rather thankful for. It still hurt like a bitch and a half, but a bruise she could push through. Broken ribs would put her out of commission for a while. 

Haru took a sip from a small water bottle she mercifully brought with her into the bullhead, then stepped out of the cave, shielding her eyes to the sunlight. She gave a glance around, and, finding no one and more importantly no Grimm, she set out to find the other half of her banner.