Taiyang Xiao Long seriously craved a stiff drink as he held his head in his arms.
"Qrow. What. The. Hell?"
In response, his brother-in-law smiled cheekily.
"It was a standard Grimm invasion opp, Tai. Nothing to worry about."
"Then how did it lead to you kidnapping a kid from Mistral!??"
The roar made Qrow lean back into his chair while Taiyang continued fuming.
The father of two was not worried that the boy outside would hear their conversation, thanks to the soundproofing done to all staffrooms in Signal Academy for precisely this kind of situation.
....Well, not exactly the same situation, but similar ones which usually involved parents and teachers.
Qrow winced and picked his ears with a pinky.
"First of all, this is not kidnapping. The kid came along of his own will. Given what I've seen, I doubt I'd have managed to even get to the bullhead without a fight if he did not want to come with."
"As for why? Because the kid's got potential."
Taiyang gave the man a serious stare.
"Everyone has potential, Qrow, that does not mean we simply pick them off the streets and put them in a school without permission! Especially with how he is a Mistralian citizen-"
"He is not. A Mistralian citizen, I mean."
"....Huh? Then what was he....oh."
Qrow smiled at Taiyang's realization.
"Yup. The kid is an unregistered orphan, which means, technically, he does not exist. Which means, technically, there is no kid to kidnap here."
Taiyan sighed heavily at those words.
"Even then, to throw someone in his circumstances into the dangerous environment of a Prep School for Huntsmen-"
"Don't worry about it. He is far more dangerous than any of the kids here, including most of the graduating class."
"....What?"
Qrow smirked at Taiyan's confusion before speaking slowly, making sure his brother-in-law understood the gravity of what he was about to say.
"The kid is Blooded. The Mistralian kind. And when I first met him during the invasion, he was physically holding back a Goliath juvenile while also fighting a swarm of Grimm to a standstill. Name one student not from the cream of the crop that can achieve the same results, especially when they were 12."
That statement left Taiyang dumbfounded as Qrow took a swing from his flask.
While the blond man hated to admit it, his brother-in-law was right. There was simply no one in the boy's age group, and even in the current graduation class, who could pull something like that off, even with their Semblances.
The closest person he could think of who can come close to such raw power is his own daughter, Yang, but even she can't possibly hold back a Goliath, even with her Semblance working to its limit at her current age.
He remained silent as Qrow sighed, this time speaking more softly.
"That aside, I think this kid could use some direction."
"Hm?"
Qrow's gaze became distant as he started to speak.
"That kid, he looks like he has been through a lot. It's already bad enough that he has killed before at his age. But more importantly, I think there is something....broken about him."
He sat forward and stared at his brother-in-law.
"I saw it myself. During that fight? Protecting the civilians? There was this determination in his gaze. Like he would rather die than let the Grimm through."
"But later in the morning? In the aftermath? His gaze was terrifyingly cold as he looked at the severely injured and maimed civilians being transported to field medics and the recovered dead bodies being loaded up into the bullheads, as if that determination from the night before was all an act."
"It feels like he wants to be good and wants to be just like how a kid his age should be. With friends and family surrounding him and leading a happy life, but he seems to have already resigned himself to never having any of that in this lifetime."
"Frankly, it's unnerving to see a child in such a situation, and I simply could not accept that kind of thing. I just can't."
"That is why I brought him here."
Taiyang fell silent at those words, knowing that Qrow was not just talking about the kid, but maybe even projecting his own past onto the boy.
Qrow and his sister, Raven, Taiyang's first wife, were originally children born into a tribe of bandits.
It took a lot of twists and turns before they arrived at Beacon and became a part of something bigger, something that they never thought they would ever have.
A family.
Him, Qrow, Raven, and Summer. They were all that they had.
Then, things changed after Raven left and became even worse after Summer died, but that is a different matter altogether.
From what Taiyang was seeing, it was clear to him that Qrow was projecting the thoughts that he used to have before coming to Beacon onto the boy.
Either that, or the boy really did hold a similar ambition to what Qrow used to have back then.
Whatever the truth might be, Qrow did have a point in that Taiyang could not let go of a kid in need so coldly.
So, with a sigh, the blond man slumped into his chair.
"Fine. I'll talk to the Headmaster and arrange for the kid's enrollment when the term starts. But-!"
He stopped Qrow from celebrating beforehand.
"You need to arrange all the official documentation required for his enrollment. Given that he is basically a ghost to the four kingdoms, you will need to apply for the Frontier Human Resource Program to get the kid scholarship and stipend required for the four years of study and stay on Patch. Not to mention the money needed for his personal weapon-"
Qrow waved his hand at his brother-in-law.
"I'll handle the documents. They are not all that difficult to get if you know the right people, which I do. As for money? The kid won't need the charity and debt from the kingdom."
"...Right. Mercenary in Mistral, Blooded at that. Forgot about that part."
Taiyang sighed once again as Qrow was like a whirlwind, disappearing out of the door.
Before the door closed, Taiyand managed to hear the tail end of the conversation between the adult and the kid which involved suspecious words like 'alcohol' 'police' and 'substance abuse' but the blond man let it go, filling in the context that the kid was probably berating his brother-in-law for his excessive excitement and question if he was 'clean' so to speak.
Looking out the window, Taiyan could not help but smile a bit.
"I look forward to teaching you, kid. Hopefully, we can help you overcome whatever the hell Mistral did to you."