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While most of the other students on-board the vessel had already got up, moved around and chatted with one another, Xinyue Cao Tang remained seated for the duration of the vessel's time in the air, her sorrowing gaze transfixed on the outside world on the opposing side of the window next to her. It was more or less all same; more grasslands upon more grasslands upon more grasslands. While she had to admit there were [i]some[/i] beautiful sceneries that Vale had to offer, Xinyue was not all that impressed overall. And yet she still found herself looking at the far yonder below regardless, unwilling to tear herself away from it all for even a moment.

A lot of that came down to the fact that, to an extent at least, Vale's outskirts reminded Xinyue of her true region of birth; Vacuo. While the desert region could been seen as little more than an abhorring overgrown sandbox to some people, it had more of a rustic feeling that Vale couldn't compare to. And seeing that made Xinyue reminisce about her time Angel Celeste, the nun who raised her while her birth mother was nowhere to be found at the time. These memories in turn spurred more, this time consisting of her brief tenure at Mirage Academy.

...

One would think that Xinyue wouldn't have such a great time at Mirage Academy, specifically because of all the human students around her. Incidentally, a human was known to do one of two things to a faunus in Mirage Academy; either A.) they'd jeer and make fun of them, occasionally pulling and tugging at the specific body part that made up their animal trait, or B.) they'd leave them alone from a physical standpoint, but spread rumors about them to each other behind their backs, some investing more effort into preventing the "topic of discussion" from overhearing said rumors than others. Xinyue of course fell into the second category due to her naturally intimidating nature... which was only presentable because of her likeness to her birth mother, whose crimes had led her to be incarcerated inside the Vacuo Correctional Facility. However, while she quickly tired of the rumors being spread about her, she wasn't about to let them get to her. Right at that first year, Xinyue stood out from all of Mirage Academy's students, being the first to unlock her Aura, and even managing to squeeze out an activation of her Semblance within the later stages of the year.

Unfortunately, her prowess only put a target on Xinyue's back, as known White Fang members had been trying to recruit her for their nefarious deeds. They had a tremendous gall in attempt to recruit her straight out of Mirage Academy like they did, but apparently they did their homework; they'd noted that Mirage Academy was understaffed in the teacher department, and that was a weakness that they took advantage of. Feeling an unholy sense about them, Xinyue denied the White Fang members of her servitude, but they [i]would not[/i] take no for an answer, and their persistence was beginning to aggravate her. In the end, after being made aware of the situation, the headmaster decided that the best course of action was to have Xinyue transferred to Signal Academy.

...

Now, after graduating Signal Academy, Xinyue found herself on this vessel, which was to fly all the way to Beacon Academy and still had yet to reach its destination. And out of everyone that was also on the vessel, Xinyue could find herself stuck with any three of them. This worried Xinyue, as she spent all that time in Mirage [i]and[/i] Signal Academies focusing on improving her own capabilities... and she was never a people person to begin with. However, there was only so much that even someone of Xinyue's capabilities could do on their own, and having others to fight with was just as integral to being a Huntress as having others to fight [i]for[/i]. And besides that, there was still the rare possibility that the role of leadership could fall on her lap, and in the event that should happen, that prospect alone could be worth the trouble of being stuck with people that she may or may not wind up despising.

Xinyue remained in her seat for now. If someone wanted to go out of their way to talk to her, then fine; who was [i]she[/i] to deny them an interaction with her? But she would rather have gone into her designated teammate assignment blind. After all, trying to gauge who was likable and who wasn't could always risk setting one up for disappointment in the long run.