Prologue

Reed held his staff ready, facing down a group of intermediate students across the mat, each of which held a staff to match his own. His five juniors looked nervous, but also determined as they fanned out to surround him. Taking a deep breath, he activated his semblance.

The group seemed to slow, careful movements suddenly looking exaggerated and foolish. Two exited his peripheral vision, but Reed tracked them by sound as they moved to take up positions behind him. This would have been difficult normally, but with time moving at half speed his brain had all the time it needed to make sense of the small noises.

A squeak came from behind, the sound of a foot twisting on the mat as its owner struck. Reed swung his staff in a vertical arc across his back, knocking the staff aside and sending its wielder stumbling in front of him. The boy almost regain his feet before Reed's staff lashed out, catching him behind one knee and sending him flying through the air towards his compatriots.

The students on either side spun out of the way, but the airborne student caught the one in the middle, and the pair fell in a tangle of limbs to the mat. Reed took two quick steps back so the three on their feet were all in front of him.

The three advanced in unison, attacking with a simultaneous attack to either side and down the middle. Reed stepped to the left, extending his staff to catch the blow coming to that side and directing it to clash with the middle opponent. His foot lashed out, slamming into the unfortunate students side with a flash of breaking aura.

"Murasaki, out."

His teacher's calm statement caused his opponents' faces to twist in anger and frustration. The pair began a flurry of attacks, which Reed redirected harmlessly into the space around him. He didn't move any faster with his semblance, but the time let him identify where each blow would land well before it approached him.

The girl on the left brought her staff down in a reckless overhand swing. Reed swayed to the side and extended in one movement, the end of his staff catching her square in the chest. She stumbled, and he spun to slam his staff into her partner's shoulder. He caught the boy's weak retaliatory swing in one hand, pulling the boy forward and slamming his knee into the boy's stomach.

"Glas, out."

Before Reed could finish the girl a grunt from behind brought his attention back to the first pair he had struck. They stood two paces behind, one swinging from low left and the other from high right. Reed pushed his staff into the mat and vaulted into the air. The blows struck his vertical staff, sending him spinning to the left. Reed turned into the momentum, bringing the short side of his staff around and into the girl's collar bone.

Landing with one foot behind the girl, Reed slid his staff into the inlet of her arm and twisted his upper body. She tripped over his extended leg and hit the mat hard with a flash of light.

"Melyn, out."

Reed turned and blocked a series of jabs from the remaining boy. His attacks were quick and weak, a distraction to buy time as the girl got to her feet. She ran the handful of paces towards them, adding stronger blows in an attempt to break his guard.

He waited until she presented an opening, a wide underhanded swing intended to knock his staff into the air. Swaying back, he caught her staff with his own and adjusted its trajectory so that it hit the boy across the face. With a tight spin, his staff lashed out like a whip to stop a hairs breadth from her temple.

"Sloven, Rouge, out. Victory goes to Reed."

"Sir, my aura hasn't broken yet," Rouge said through clenched teeth, hard eyes never wavering from Reed's.

His teacher sighed. "If that last blow had landed you would have had a concussion on top of a broken aura. Return to your exercises, the match is over."

Rogue looked like she wanted to argue but instead gave Reed a short bow, just enough to avoid getting assigned push-ups for disrespect. His teacher approached as the students began their daily drills.

"You did well, I'm sure you will have no problem with the Beacon entrance exam."

Reed smiled at his teacher. The elderly man had long, gray hair in a neat ponytail, the deep lines around his eyes and between his brows giving him a permanent look of kind consternation.

"To be fair, they only started last year. Rouge really is talented, she just lets her temper take control too easily." Reed looked at the staff in his hands, then let out a small sigh as he placed it back in a rack on the wall.

"So you say, but you were obviously expecting more of a challenge."

Reed shrugged. "Learning to fight a larger number of opponents is more practical at this point. The school tournaments and sparring have prepared me for one-on-one fighting, but I also want to be prepared if they have us fight Grimm."

Tanaka frowned. "I would like to say that they wouldn't set kids against a horde of Grimm, but I honestly can't. They change the exam every year, but it is always an intense trial designed to test strength, endurance, and problem solving. Have you been keeping up with your studies?"

"Yeah. I can identify the twenty most common variety of Grimm, their weaknesses, and their attack patterns. But I doubt even Beacon would set anything worse than an Ursa on untested students, even if most of them attended Haven."

A hint of bitterness must have crept into Reed's voice at the mention of the fighting prep school. His teacher grabbed him by the shoulders, meeting his gaze with a proud smile.

"The true definition of character is how one handles adversary, Reed. You may have been rejected by Haven, but you refused to take the easy path. You are no longer the spoiled brat that thought everything he wanted would be handed to him. You have worked with diligence since that day, becoming one of the finest pupils I have had the privilege of teaching. Hold your head high, the time for that effort to be rewarded is at hand."

Reed smiled and nodded. "Thank you, Tanaka. It would not have been possible without your guidance."

The sun was low on the horizon as Reed left the training hall. The single story building was surrounded by a bamboo garden, at the end of a peaceful cul-de-sac. A white hover-car glided down the street, pulling to a stop next to the curb in front of him. Printed in black on the car's side was an angular, many sided snowflake.

The door closest to Reed opened, revealing a man with slicked back hair and a wide, goofy grin. "Come on son, we are gonna be late! Those teachers at Beacon aren't gonna get their minds blown with you just standing there!"

"You're the one who is late, Dad," Reed said with a smile, climbing into the back seat and closing the door. "How was your trip?"

"It was excellent!" he exclaimed. "I told those damn aristocrats back in Atlas that the market for dust in the outlying villages of Vale was an untapped gem! I've already sold almost as much dust to them in the last three months as Beacon buys in a year! And at only a marginally higher shipping cost. Honestly, they think that just because the villages are small they don't matter, but I knew..."

His father's hands gestured wildly as he continued into the details of shipping patterns, contracts, and meetings. Reed smiled as he watched the city pass outside the window. His father may be an executive in a company with an elitist reputation, but he had made a name for himself making smart business decisions that also helped those normally under the company's radar.

The car pulled into the warehouse district, and Reed gave his father a questioning look. "Weren't we going to the air field?"

His father gave him a sheepish grin. "I was in such a hurry to come pick you up I forgot the tickets in my office."

"Of course you did," Reed said with a sigh, his head shaking in resignation. "I told you I could go on my own, I know your busy..."

His dad opened the door, stepping out and taking a key card from his back pocket.

"And miss my only son become a bad ass, monster fighting, savior of humanity? No chance! This will only take a minute, just stay in the car."

His father ran to the door, sliding the key into a slot next to the door. The door opened a crack, before the entire front of the building exploded into the street.