Cinder, Emerald and Mercury stood among the crowd of Haven students which over the course of awhile had gathered into the assembly hall. Chatter among the students filled the room, giving it a rather lively feeling.

Cinder on the other hand scanned around for any sign of a certain short girl with multicolored hair. Undoubtedly Neo had ceased following them before they had entered the building. Her straying from their path wasn't much of a problem this particular time. However...

Did she say she could walk off and run amok without permission?

Certainly not.

"Where is she?" Cinder muttered aloud, giving her two associates a glance.

"I dunno," Mercury replied, his attention caught by a certain teacher walking up onto the stage and over to the microphone stand. "But speech is about to begin."

Emerald scoffed, crossing her arms. "What did we expect? I seriously wonder how Roman puts u-"

A tap on her shoulder.

Emerald's eyes widened in surprise. Instinctively she stepped forward, turning around to face whoever had made contact with her.

Lo and behold, it was Neo. Curiously and innocently she smiled at Emerald, her head tilted to the side a bit to further add to the innocent and curious look.

Realizing it was only her, Emerald let herself relax. "Where did you-?!" She tried to ask but Cinder cut her off.

"Where have you been?" Cinder spoke, her tone sounding rather dangerous at the end.

Despite her tone, Neo was fixiated on something else behind Cinder.

"Neo." Cinder hissed, her irises becoming fiery once more as her temper flared. "Are you listening to me-"

Neo quickly raised a finger to cut Cinder off, much to both Emerald and Mercury's surprise.

The girl had some guts, that's for sure.

Cinder's lips curled into a scowl as Neo slipped by her, moving behind her so she had a better view of the stage. Standing on the tips of her toes, she was at least somewhat able to see what was about to begin.

"Welcome, students of Haven, to Beacon Academy." The light blonde haired professor began, speaking into the microphone stand set up. The room fell relatively silent, all eyes on her. "My name is Professor Glynda Goodwitch." The professor's eyes scanned the crowd before her as she introduced herself to the exchange students. "I, along with the other teachers of this prestigious academy, will be helping to see to it that your time here will be a successful one." She paused, taking a moment to push her glasses a bit farther up the bridge of her nose. "As such, it is in all your best interests to behave yourselves during your time here. You are among future Huntsmen and Huntresses, much like yourselves; therefor you are expected to treat them as so."

As Glynda droned on with her speech, Neo tuned it out a bit. She could hear Mercury and Emerald whispering to each other behind her. What they were whispering about exactly, she couldn't tell. She couldn't hear Cinder either- no doubt she was glaring daggers at the back of her head right now.

She'd probably end up being dragged into a 'talk' with Cinder after this.

As if she cared.

Mercury and Emerald exited the dormroom, keeping the chatter between themselves. They were now in their regular attire, having finally headed back after Glynda had dismissed all the Haven students from the assembly. It was at this point that they had the rest of the late afternoon and the evening to spend however they wished. More or less, anyways.

Following the two out of the exchange student dormroom was Neo. She was also back in her regular attire, much to her relief. It was good to be back in her own clothes.

Pulling her right shirt sleeve down a bit farther then it already was, Neo glanced over her shoulder just as the dorm door shut with a quiet thud.

That woman meant business; it came as no surprise. She was devious, cunning, controlling. She wanted obedience, and she would find a way to drill it into her head, she was pretty sure. Or at least, she could try.

Letting out a "hmmph" of distaste for the woman, Neo turned her head to watch Emerald and Mercury walk off and round the corner out of sight. To the Void with them. She'd find something to do to waste away the hours by herself.

Beginning to walk again with no real purpose away from the dormroom, Neo began to think over her options yet again. What kinda things to do or see would they have here?

A library was the first to came to mind. Too boring, honestly.

Training facility? Unnecessary to her, but potentially an interesting passtime.

Delving deeper into thought, Neo's mind was drawing up blanks on what possibly else there was to do here. Attempting to mingle with some others was a possible choice, but on its own it sounded so... boring.

She was brought out of her thoughts by a sudden female voice that pierced the relative silence. Snapping back to reality, Neo brought herself to a halt of curiosity as a orange haired girl skipped along with a black haired Asian boy following behind.

"I tooold you this was a shortcut!~" The girl chirped, gaining no real response from the boy. He paid Neo no mind as they passed, but the girl on the other hand let out an "Oh!" and stopped skipping. Quickly turning on her heels, the girl with short orange hair hurried back over to Neo.

Neo smiled at the slightly taller girl.

What did she want?

"I haven't seen you around here!" The girl bent down slightly, just enough to be right at eye level with her. She eyed her with glee, as if taking in all her features.

"She's probably an exchange student, Nora." The boy said next, sounding much more calm then his partner. An interesting pair indeed.

"Ooh, an exchange student?" Nora stood back up straight. "Where are you from?" She suddenly put a finger on her chin in thought. "Atlas? What about Vacuo?"

Neo shrugged. This Nora girl sounded like she asked a lot of questions. Not exactly feeling like attempting to answer any of them, she simply gave her a dismissive wave of her hand and began to walk away. That was easy.

For a moment Nora stood in silence, watching the shorter girl just walk away with such confidence!

"The mysterious type..." In an instant Nora's face lit up with enthusiasm. "I like it!" She looked to her partner, giving him a poke on the chest and causing him to blink a few times in both mild surprise and exasperation. "Come on Ren, let's go!" Without waiting for any response of any sort, she once again began to skip away towards their previous destination.

Ren sighed and shook his head, beginning to follow the enthusiastic girl once more.

FULL COVER IMAGE CREDIT TO いえすぱ ON PIXIV ( member_ ?mode=medium&illust_id=46300044 )