There was no sense in waiting around. So, before I started relaxing, I spun the wheel.
'Imperceptible, Infinitesimal, Imperceptible, Imperceptible, Miniscule, Miniscule.' It was mostly small boosts. Until—
Minor Boon of the Assassin Obtained.
—a change. Upon obtaining the Minor Boon, I felt an actual, tangible change to myself. My senses, I couldn't quite describe it, but they were better for sure, and my body felt looser? Less tense? And there was something else. Something that appeared in my mind.
Not quite knowledge, but something more akin to instinct? I just knew how to walk quietly all of a sudden.
I let out the breath that I didn't know I was holding in. Minor Boons were… intense.
But nice. Really nice. I continued spinning. 'Imperceptible, Infinitesimal, Minute, Infinitesimal, Miniscule.'
While there was nothing as good as a Minor Boon, everything helped. I doubted I could suddenly fight a Grimm, but there might now be a chance, however slim, for me to run away. Which was better than I could say previously.
'I doubt I could hide from Grimm though.' They were attracted to negative emotions, and with Aura, I was basically like a bonfire to them.
'No use thinking about it now,' I thought. With all that done, I put on my headphones. As I did so, outside sounds became muffled.
"Connected," it said as it linked to my phone. I then tapped into my music app and scrolled through my playlist.
'1306 songs. Playtime 78 hours and 14 minutes.' It took around half a minute to scroll all the way to the bottom. Thankfully, I could choose to show only the songs I had downloaded.
Which itself had 319. I sat there for a minute or two as I determined which song I wanted to listen to. More specifically, what kind of mood was I in?
'I'm feeling like… I need some motivation. But not intense motivation.' And there were actually quite a few choices for that. I just decided to pick the most recent one added onto the playlist.
I put on "Heaven" by Shihoko Hirata. A song from the Persona 4 soundtrack. I closed my eyes and leaned my head back against the wall. With music in my ears, I could nearly forget I was in a room with a hundred or more people.
*****
I didn't quite know how long I sat listening to different songs, but it must've been at least a while. As there were way more people than there had been previously, dressed in different, more comfortable clothes.
As my stomach rumbled, I checked the time. It was 5. 'I should probably eat.'
I didn't feel like getting up though… with a deep sigh, I forced myself to my feet. Not because I particularly wanted to, but because I had to. It wouldn't be a good idea to starve myself, considering initiation was tomorrow. I would most likely need all the energy I could get.
Listening to music as I walked, it felt like it took no time at all for me to get to the cafeteria, or dining hall. Whatever it was called. Taking off my headphones as I went up to the food stations, I looked at the wide variety of options before me.
There was… a lot of food. Soups, ribs, sushi, breakfast foods, and more. It was extravagant, but I supposed it was a given, considering Beacon's reputation as the best.
There were so many options that I just stuck with what I was familiar with. Cheeseburgers, oranges, some vegetables, and gulped down as much warm(bleugh) water as I could before I felt sick.
It probably wasn't anything close to resembling a healthy dinner. But considering it was only for today, and that from tomorrow onwards I would either have teammates to help me with dietary advice or not, it would do.
I paused eating for a moment.
'Right. I might have teammates after tomorrow.' The thought of sharing a dorm with three other people was unappealing, but something I would have to get used to if I was actually going to be a Huntsman. Which, I may as well, right?
I was already here and I didn't have much experience with other jobs, aside from washing dishes, but fighting monsters felt a hell of a lot more interesting to me than sitting at a desk. I couldn't imagine that or customer service for me. Then again, I didn't imagine myself to be particularly cut out for that either, fighting monsters, that is.
'I guess I'll just have to see.' But the Roulette gave me a bit of confidence that I'd at least be able to stick it out, if nothing else. But maybe I'd end up surprising myself.
*****
As I was walking back to the ballroom, I stopped as I passed the showers.
'Should I shower?' I probably should. I really, really should. Honestly though? I also really didn't feel like it.
But it was then that I remembered what one of my Uncles said when my family went down to visit them. That the only reason he had gotten with my mom's sister, was due to hygiene. He said you could not have many things in a relationship, but hygiene wasn't one of them.
I had, unfortunately, never really followed his advice that well. Every time I remembered his words, which was any time I struggled with hygiene, it always just made me feel worse about myself. Probably not the intended outcome he wanted with telling me that, but words usually never really had the intended effect when it came to me.
But, maybe…
'Alright, fine, Jesus!' My conscience won. A rare occurrence when it came to things that affected me.
Letting out a long-suffering groan, my head hung limply as I forced myself to walk into the showers.
As I walked past the mirrors, I had to do a double take. I gazed into the unfamiliar figure reflected back on me in shock, it took me a moment to realize, oh, right.
That was me. The new me. The me that I had spent hours customizing like I was playing a game that had character creation.
But it was so different from the me that I was used to, that I just remained in that weird state of shock.
Because gone was everything that said, "me."
When I had been customizing my new self, I didn't have any particular idea of what I wanted to look like. Other than the simple fact that it was "me" and I disliked it.
But looking at the person in the mirror now, I knew I had achieved exactly that.
Replacing my curly brown hair and plain brown eyes was short straight black hair and golden irises. Where once was a thick full beard that I had grown too lazy to shave or maintain was just pale smooth skin on a round face. I had shrunken from 5'9 all the way to 5'0 feet flat.
And the clothes I wore were simple. A loose fitting unzipped midnight blue hoodie with golden accents, an even darker blue, almost black, shirt that had golden designs on it, and black pants with midnight blue stripes running down along the sides.
I looked like… I looked like an eleven year old instead of the eighteen year old in a fifteen year old's body that I was. Which wasn't at all a confusing thought.
In short… It was perfect.
Except for one small detail. The expression on my face had stayed the same.
The slight downward dip of my lips, and eyes that always looked sleepy. I tried smiling and opened my eyes wide. It looked as insincere and weird as it felt, so after a few moments, once my cheeks started shaking from the strain, I stopped and my face reverted to its natural state.
"I'm Azure," I stated, voice as monotone as usual.
A different name and even a different body, yet I still felt like the same person. Because I was. Changing all that didn't suddenly make me better or less pathetic.
'Still, this could be a start.' I didn't know the first thing about how to change, but wasn't I here to find out? I suppose seeing my, "new," self actually made that sink into my thick skull. The same skull that managed to endure a bulky TV falling on it when I was just a toddler.
'Maybe that was the start of all my problems,' I thought in amusement.
Still, there was only one reason I had this chance. Or rather, a person.
'Can a God even be considered a person?' Not that it really mattered.
I bowed my head and clasped my hands together and in a mock prayer, thought, 'Thanks God. Amen.' Once that was done, I stopped stalling and took a shower.
*****
Having eaten and showered, I wouldn't say I was tired, but I was certainly getting there. Conversations were slowly dying down as well.
I laid in my corner, eyes closed, snuggled in the sleeping bag given to me by staff, listening to music, utterly zoned out to the world beyond myself. And I probably would've stayed like that, if it weren't for the world behind my closed eyelids suddenly darkening.
Opening my eyes, I saw Ruby with her hands on her knees, bent over, face above mine, blocking out the ceiling lights. She was in her pajamas.
I took off my headphones and sat up. I wasn't as annoyed compared to this morning. Mostly due to the fact that I've calmed down from everything that's happened and have gotten more or less used to being in this world. Plus, I was kind of bored. This would at least be an interesting, if exhausting, conversation.
"Hey Ruby." Not to mention I felt less self conscious considering I now knew for a fact that I wasn't my previous self. And while I wouldn't call myself cute or handsome, I wasn't terrible to look at now.
Though if you compared me to people like Ruby, Yang, Blake, or Weiss, I was practically a squid next to them. I mean, seriously, if I knew the average person here would be so handsome I would've let loose a bit more in character creation!
"Uh, Ruby?"
Her lips pursed and she averted her gaze. She stood straight and smoothed out the wrinkles on her pants.
"Is what Yang said true?"
"What did she say?" If Yang said something stupid I would smack her. I wouldn't actually, but it felt nice to think the thought.
"She said that you didn't have Aura, or any training. Or a weapon." Oh, that.
"Yeah, it's true."
"What, that's…"
"..." I really didn't know what to say either, so I stayed silent and waited for her next words.
"You should have told me! It's, well, it's dangerous! You could've died, mister!" It was clear to me that she was trying to be stern, but it really wasn't working.
'Well, if little miss, 'let's be the youngest huntresses to take out a terrorist organization,' is telling me off, then I must really be something special.'
"Sorry," was all I said.
"No, I don't want you to apologize! I just wanted to know why you didn't tell me. I would've helped you! Somehow. Because we-we're friends, right?"
To be honest, I didn't think of Ruby as my friend. I mean, we literally just met this morning. I barely knew anything about her aside from some things from fanfics and surfing the wiki, and who knew how accurate that information would be?
And her first impression wasn't the greatest, honestly.
But I couldn't say no. Not to someone so genuinely seeking reassurance. Though it was also because I asked myself something. Did making a friend really need to be that complicated?
A lot of times I told myself it was different from when I was a child. But was it? Making friends was so easy back then…
Maybe it wasn't the process that grew more complicated but the people instead. Or maybe it was just me complicating it?
"Sure, I mean, yeah, we're friends."
She smiled that big wide smile again. The one that made me feel like I made the right decision.
"As for why I didn't tell you, well, I didn't think about it. And you didn't ask."
"That's it…?" Since we were now friends, I decided to give her a tip on how to deal with me.
"Yeah. I'm, uh, not somebody to really volunteer information unless it's either important or you just ask me directly." And even then it was like trying to pull teeth.
"You didn't think having Aura was important?" She gave me a flat stare.
"As I said, it just wasn't on my mind." A small lie. Because it was on my mind. I just really didn't want to have to talk to anyone about it.
Luckily, it worked out somehow. Which, now that I thought of it, that explained a lot of my life. I didn't know what that said about me.
After talking for a little while more, Ruby wandered back to her sister. Strangely, I didn't get any spins for talking to her.
But I didn't think about it too much. The machinations of a God were beyond mere mortals like me.
So with that in mind, I went on my phone and started reading some stories. Night eventually came in full.
That ended my first day in a new world.