Just to be clear, this is a rewrite of the story I used to have up on Wattpad before I gave up on it.
Empty souls tend to fill themselves with trivial items, hoping to get some sort of feeling of accomplishment from it. Some buy their items, some find or build them. But most, as immoral as it is, take them from unsuspecting victims.
Joseph Chess was no different. He was born a Faunus, a position nobody wanted to be in, especially in Vale. The White Fang took him in and taught him how to steal at an early age. He gre to be one of the best, rivaling Emerald herself. The only problem he did have with being part of the White Fang, was having to work for humans. But the chance to spark a revolution was to great to pass up. Especially when every undisclosed Schnee wherehouse was given to you by Roman Torchwick himself.
"Seriously Schnee, your guards should get their shit together. Fuckin' morons." He had gotten his hands on a box full of scrolls created by the Schnee corporation that would not be released for another month, and he was happier than anything at the moment. His small celebration was cut short as he ran into, what he could have described at the moment, a ghost man. His grip on the box loosened and they fell to the ground, breaking the screens to a small percentage of the Scrolls. The boy stood almost taller than him, but he had appeared so silently.
"Dammit! Look what you did, ya dust head!"
"Do I have your attention, Mr. Chess?" The ghost man's calm voice angered Joseph more than he already was, and snapped him out of his startled stupor.
"Attention!? Man, you scared the crap out of me! You just cost me a whole lot of lien pal... I think you better cough up some cash." The boy ignored his threat and continued.
"Shelby The Giant said you know of Adam Taurus..." Joseph pulled out a small pocket knife, his patience growing thinner by the second.
"Give me your fucking money kid!" The boy continued, un-phased by the small threat.
"Emerald Sustrai... Cinder Fall... Roman Torchwick... Mercury black..."
"That's it! You're done!" The blade of the pocket knife buried itself into Jaune's right shoulder. Silence filled the empty street for a moment before Joseph spoke up.
"You must be on something crazy too not feel that kid..." Jaune looked at his shoulder, watching as blood began to fall down his mother's trench coat. He reached up and grabbed the handle of the knife, while looking straight at the man who stabbed him. He slowly pulled it out, not feeling a single thing as he did.
"Pain? I know pain at the molecular level. It pulls at my atoms, sings to me in an alphabet of fear. I am the Boiling Man, come to break the bones of your sins, meat puppet." He licked some of the blood off of the knife, smiling darkly at the, now frightened criminal, standing before him before handing him back the stained weapon.
"Try again?" He ignored the small trail of blood going down his chin, knowing well that it served the purpose of scaring the man.
"I-I think I'll pass..." Jaune's face grew frighteningly serious and his eyes bore into the trembling criminal.
"Taurus and the others, where are they? Shelby The Giant didn't know. He said you would." Joseph felt cold sweat running down his forehead and temples.
"Shelby wouldn't give me out like than, man." He took a step back as Jaune reached into his coat's pockets, pulling out a pair of big scissors with stained blades.
"Oh, he told. It took four digits... But he told... I would have brought the fingers as documentation, but he was feeling hungry..." Joseph felt the his back meet a brick wall behind him and he began to slide down as his legs gave out on him.
"Y-you're lying..." A sinister smile came to Jaune's face as he held up the scissors.
"Fingers or toes?"
"OKOKOK! I haven't heard from Adam or Mercury in weeks! But Emerald always hangs out by Juniors club! I think she lives on a floor above or something. Cinder has a place in Downtown in fourteenth street. Roman's out of Vale until Cinder tells him to... Please don't kill me..." Jaune looked at the man. He stared on as he held his head, sweating and sobbing.
"Why Mr. Chess, I already count you among the dead." The light coming above him caught his attention and he looked up, sighing as a memory came to him.
"Look! It's a full moon..." Joseph chuckled quietly.
"That's a street light Ghost Man..."
"It was a full moon that night too..."
"You're crazy, man." Jaune's hands took hold of Joseph's head as he leaned in close, sneering.
"Tell them I'm coming, Mr. Chess." He stood straight before turning around and walking away slowly. He felt the hole in the coat and saw how far his blood had fallen. He would have to remind himself to clean, and patch it up later.
"Mr. Chess?"
"Y-yes, sir...?"
"Are there spots in a Leopard's eyes, also?"