Hey, if you go to my profile, there is a newly edited version of this book, hopefully making it easier to read. Thank you very much!

Li woke up slowly, as he always does, clenching his fists and pushing the dreams out of his mind and snapping back to reality. The light snuck its way past his curtains and illuminated his small room. His room only had the bare essentials, a bed, a wardrobe and a desk just large enough for a laptop or his notebook, but never both. The day had come. He will soon start his second year at Beacon. He was, however, not excited. For him it signalled the start of another difficult year. He rose groggily from his tiny single bed. Li noticed the sweet smell of pancakes, making his mouth water in anticipation. He sat relishing the anticipation that he may soon taste them himself. He quickly snapped back from his stupor upon realising that the pancakes were coming from the apartment across the narrow alley, which his box window overlooked. He stood, and lumbered over to the door; he took a moment before opening the door, to collect his thoughts. He snapped up his towel from the back of the chair and headed out the door to the bathroom.

Once in, and thankful he had no run-ins with his mother before he had fully awoken, he picked up with toothbrush and started his morning routine but not before staring into his own deep brown eyes and trying to prepare himself for the coming year. After he dried himself off from his shower, he was well and truly awake. The smell of pancakes once again filled his nostrils when he returned to his room to change. He came out with his casual clothing on, a deep orange beanie covering his dark brown messy hair. The weather seemed in good spirits today, so he wore his long sleeve orange shirt with black t-shirt over the top today, rather than his favoured academy hoodie. Simple dark grey jeans and black and orange shoes adorned his lower half. Li did not look by any sense of the word, fashionable, however he chose his clothing based on comfort and nothing else.

He walked out to the kitchen to make himself some cereal and hopefully forget about the pancakes plaguing his mind. He found the room empty, and cold. The fridge was left slightly open, and a note left on the table. Li's mother had clearly left early and in a hurry, once again; working in the centre of Vale kept her very busy. Li opened the fridge, noticed the water collecting on the shelves and noted that his mother must have left very early, or he had awoken very late. He quickly checked his tablet to see the time. 10:24. Yes. Yes he had woken up very late. He quickly grabbed a snack bar from the cupboard and, after adorning his weapons to his lower back, walked out the door, making sure to leave the house in some semblance of order. Double checking that he closed the fridge. Behind him he dragged a large suitcase. Even though he was over an hour late for his first day, he did not rush, instead he chose to stay calm and move methodically. The walk to beacon was a long one, Li preferred to walk to his destinations, public transport was unnecessary in his opinion, but that also meant he didn't arrive at Beacon until about 11:00. He was 2 hours late. But he knew it didn't matter, today was all about the freshmen (and freshwomen). All the years are asked to attend the day so that the first years can interact and feel more welcomed, and Li knew he wouldn't be a welcoming student, even if he wanted to try.

Li moved up to the front gates, hearing the thrum of quiet conversation occurring in the main courtyard. Fortunately he noticed the large crater nestled near the front of the academy before tripping into it. He didn't care much, and assumed it was some freshman showing off. Li cared little and less for other people, especially ones who may try to interact with him. He learnt quickly at combat school that he never got along with people. Li didn't know why it was, it seemed that it maybe that people didn't trust Li, but he could never be sure. Li sauntered over to the dorms, and quickly found his room; pausing for a moment to collect his thoughts, he prepared himself to see his team after the 6 week break from them.

He slowly opened the door, expecting stern untrusting eyes to be fixed on him, luckily, he found the room empty, and he could avoid an awkward conversation for at least another few minutes. He had no doubt his other teammates will be at the meet and greet for the first years, he had known since being put on team PLYM, pronounced plum, that he did not belong with them. All three of them were sociable and fun people, with friends throughout the academy, Peter Yii was the leader of team PLYM, and Li had no misgivings about him, Li even felt glad that their leader was such a stout and caring individual, however this did not mean anything good for Li. Peter was caring towards those he deemed his friends, and Li was certainly not within that circle. Li was grateful at least that regardless of Peter's feelings towards him, he never let it show in combat. The twins Yu and Michelle Lei were both lovely people and even tried to be friends with Li. Li, however, knew what that may lead to for the girls, considering all their friends opinions of him, so he shut them out, and had even on a few occasions intentionally, and rudely, pushed them as far away from him as possible

Li was reminiscing all about his previous year while unpacking and sorting out his area in the corner of the room, as closed off as possible. While storing his empty suitcase neatly under his large bed, he heard the door open, and a wave of laughter wash through the room. He quickly heard the laughter dissipate into hushes and whispering. He turned slowly to see his team looking at him, with blank stares, he rose and placed one hand clenched in front of his chest and the other mirrored on his back. Li stood straighter and emphasized his salute, while speaking sternly and respectfully, "Good day teammates, it has been too long. I am glad to be here to spend another year with you." The words came ringing out with little emotion and only a sense of respect, the words fell upon deaf ears, his teammates were use to Li's form of greeting, and were no longer confused by it. There was a time that the rest of team PLYM even found his greeting funny, however even that soon became a dead joke. Li only noticed the uproar of laughter once he finished saluting and went back to stuffing his suitcase under the bed, he knew it wasn't his teammates as they had stopped laughing at him a long time ago, Li believing it was because they detested him now, or they pitied him. Li hoped they only detested him, he could not stand people pitying him, he could barely get by with his own self-pity. Li turned to see a group of five people gathered by the door, behind team PLYM, all but one toppling over laughing at Li. Li saw 4 guys and 2 girls. One of the guys was the only one not laughing quite as hard as the others. Li could not tell what the four laughing freshmen looked like, as they seemed to be a blur of rolling and roiling bodies, however the boy looking over at him, his eye filled with what Li assumed was pity, digging at Li's soul more than all the laughs and the blank stares he was receiving from the other peers. The boy had short brown/blonde hair and cloudy blue eyes, he was clearly a fearsome warrior, with a large build and even when slouched, a seemingly daunting stature. Li did not know him, and knew he never would, but the boy reminded Li of someone; too much to continue staring and not break down. Li quickly finished shoving his suitcase under his bed and double timed it away to his favoured spot in Beacon.