She drifted through the streets of the city, mingling among its many residents and listening in on the choice bits of gossip that could be plucked from the dull roar of the crowds.
True, most of it lacked the personal investment that made the castle gossip so endlessly entertaining, but the sheer variety made up for it in some respects, as did the novelty of the new surroundings.
Of course, she wasn't listening to people for the pleasure of it. She was getting no enjoyment out of this at all, it was all purely in case some tidbit surfaced that would require Master Jaune's attention.
She paused as she passed another clothing store. Not quite on par with the fashions back home, but reasonably priced for what it offered.
Which was all still far above what Master Jaune had ordered her to get.
Not that worded it that way. He was never one for orders, even with the lowliest of servants. He always asked for favors, or for help, instead. She couldn't exactly refuse those, either; he was nobility and she was merely a commoner after all, but it did make him much more personable than his sisters, or even the Queen herself.
His looks didn't hurt matters either, even outside the frilly dresses his sisters would sometimes force him into. Not that she'd ever dream of acting on it. Even if she did still have a body, the scandal would be unimaginable.
She turned away from the storefront and continued to drift down the street. She didn't bother to weave through the crowd, instead just simply floating through them. A few may have felt the occasional chill her passing left behind, but most continued on, oblivious to the ghost in their midst.
It was nice to be away from the academy, too. Sure, it was a grand institution with remarkable architecture, but it was too open for her tastes and more of a palace than any sort of defensive fortification. Defending the place would be a nightmare and a half against any determined attacker, and the whole place had too many places to hide and skulk.
When she stopped to think, the place reminded her of that rat bastard Logarius and his pet executioners. She felt a surge of aggression pump through her senses as she remembered that dreadful night, but she fought it down. It was easier now, centuries removed from the events and her last intake of blood.
She still missed feeling the warmth of the sun and the tickle of the wind on her skin.
She paused before another shop, this one a bit worse off than many and filled with cheap, mass produced rags civilized folk would barely call clothes.
Some of the pants were even torn already.
Savages.
She drifted through the doors and glanced around. One of the tellers rubbed his eyes and glanced to the door, but his gaze passed through her and on to the street.
She flipped through one of the racks nearby, looking for something nondescript, but concealing. There were a few candidates that fit the bill, though she'd hesitate to purchase any of them under normal circumstances; they positively reeked of animals.
She was roused from her scornful contemplation by an argument behind her.
"She said we had to do it today, not that we had to do it now."
"She wanted it done as soon as possible. What if the guy leaves before we get there?"
"Then we steal the book-"
"Cinder said-"
"Cinder's crazy. Dunno how, but having half of that shit is driving her nuts. Even if we stole the book, nothing would link it to us."
What sort of idiots- She turned to them and found a young, grey-haired man and… some sort of prostitute? She couldn't think of any other reason to bare so much skin. She was about to turn away when their argument caught her ear again.
"-She's got us on a literal ghost hunt, what are the odds of that going well?"
"Cinder has a plan, Merc. She's also loaded, so if you're really getting cold feet you could just ask for a raise."
Now that was worrying. She had no idea who these people were, but from the sound of it there was someone in town who knew about her and her fellows up at the Academy. That also meant they probably knew about Master Jaune as well, and who could say what such lowlifes might try.
Still, the Queen had forbidden them from killing unless Master Jaune's life was in immediate danger. Master Jaune would never outright order a murder, but if she explained the situation she was reasonably certain he would say something she could… creatively interpret.
Of course, that would require going back to the academy to talk to him, which meant she'd need some way of tracking the two. It wasn't among her skills, but gargoyles were reasonably competent trackers if they had a sample of the target's blood to work off.
She drew her blade, a short, razor-edged fascine, as she slid gently towards them. Would it be better to go for the girl, or the young man. The young man was the only one that had outright mentioned theft, but the baggy clothes he wore would make getting a decent sample unnoticed tricky. The girl, on the other hand, had plenty of exposed skin.
She edged closer, whispering a minor incantation that would slip the blade through any aura the girl might possess. She paused as the girl shivered and the boy cast a furtive glance around the shop. Subtle, but definitely a reaction to the arcane energies she was channeling. Another worrying sign.
The girl leaned closer to the boy, almost hissing at him as her arms cut short, emphatic gestures to emphasize whatever point she was making. Carefully, she slid the blade just along the rack, waiting for the girl reach out…
The girl hissed as her gesturing slid her forearm across the edge of the unseen blade.
"Aaah, dammit. Stupid store doesn't even dull their racks."
"Well, this is a place for the edgy."
"No, don't even start. Stay here if you like, but I am leaving to get this done. You can come with, or I'll tell Cinder you're slacking off again."
The pair left the store, still griping to each other as she stared at the blade. There wasn't much there, only a few droplets of blood.
She could vaguely recall how the blood made her feel, back in the past. When she'd still had a body, and in the hectic few weeks after she hadn't. The power it granted her, the unmatched speed and aggression.
She brought the blade closer, examining the red nectar. Really, she only needed a little for the gargoyles to track with. Maybe not even that much. It was tempting, oh so very tempting.
Maybe… Maybe just a taste.
To take the edge off.
/\/\/\/\
"I don't care if he's the teacher, he's wrong."
Pyrrha glanced at Jaune as they left the lecture hall.
"I… don't suppose you could be more specific?"
He waved vaguely.
"I mean all that stuff about old legends. He got the gist sure, but all the details were wrong."
Pyrrha felt herself smile a bit at Jaune's enthusiasm. He had opened up somewhat over the last few weeks, but by and large he was still pretty reserved. Which made these moments of boyish enthusiasm all the more endearing.
Not that she would ever try to draw them out.
"It probably doesn't matter, Jaune. He'll likely only test us on the big picture anyways."
Jaune shrugged as the team wandered ever close to the dining hall.
"Maybe, but still, so much of that was just… wrong!"
He paused to open the doors, allowing his team to step through before entering himself.
"Like that bit about skin walkers. No one has ever really believed they were grimm. It's just, uh, slang for people who use animal pelts to hide from grimm. Cowards."
Pyrrha heard Nora snort behind her.
"Woow, Jaune. All that info and respect. Keep talking and we might start thinking you're one of 'em."
Jaune chuckled at that as they sat at one of the long tables.
"Ha, I wouldn't worry about that."
They ate in silence for a few minutes before Ren broke the silence.
"It is rather odd. It's not hard to verify those stories if you bother to look into them. It's not like Professor Oobleck to preach faulty information."
Jaune shrugged in response.
"Well, it's not like the kingdom's hunters go out to the border kingdoms very often. Too many grimm too close to home to spare anyone for fact-finding."
That was another thing Pyrrha had gotten used to. Back in Mistral, such stories would have been considered legends at best, but her team seemed to take their existence as a matter of course. From the way Jaune spoke, she was inclined to believe that he, at least, thought they were true, but Ren always seemed to have just a slight touch of skepticism. Nora rarely commented, but Pyrrha was inclined to think that was more because she only cared whether or not she could hit them with Magnhild rather than any lack of knowledge.
They continued to chat for a bit, using lunch to unwind and relax before they trudged back to their dorm to work on the veritable mountains of work that awaited them.
"-and after the rescue, Ren and I have been together ever since. Well, not togeth-"
"That is not at all how we met."
"Ren! Where is your sense of high drama?"
Pyrrha stifled a small chuckle. So far, she'd heard 3 variations of how Nora and Ren had met. Ren hadn't confirmed a single one, to Nora's growing annoyance.
She took another bite of her meal as Nora launched another half-hearted assault on Ren, who steadfastedly ignored her in favor of his meal. She turned to Jaune.
"So, how about you? Any interesting stories from the frontier?"
It wasn't the most subtle way of getting information, but her father hadn't raised a politician.
"There's, uh, not really a whole lot to tell. Hunter family on the border lands, a lot of sisters. It was, uh, pretty uneventful."
And just like that, the walls snapped back up and Jaune was once again keeping his metaphorical distance. She supposed she couldn't really blame him, the team had been together for only a few weeks. They still had a few years together at Beacon, but she couldn't help but feel a little disappointment. Nora had been open, in her enthusiastic, borderline insane, way that made up for Ren's quiet nature. Her own history was practically a matter of public record, for all the good and ill that brought her.
She just couldn't figure out why Jaune was so evasive. True, he lacked a family name, but that sort of thing was pretty common in border kingdoms. He didn't seem to be on bad terms with his family, writing and receiving letters fairly regularly, so he probably hadn't been disowned. As far as she could see, he had nothing to hide.
Any further attempts to pry were cut short as team RWBY entered the hall. Pyrrha waved them over, not that they needed to when only a handful of people were present.
"So, Jaune, Weiss says you guys need a little help?" Ruby asked, sitting next to the boy in question.
His gaze flicked to Pyrrha briefly. He hadn't particularly liked the idea of bringing team RWBY in to help, but he hadn't rejected them either. If anything, he'd seemed more irritated Pyrrha hadn't asked him.
"Yeah. So, it turns out the school doesn't actually have people doing our laundry for us."
Ruby blinked in confusion as her teammates shared an unreadable glance.
"Uh, yeah? Pretty sure they mentioned that during orientation."
Jaune coughed, looking almost-but-not-quite sheepish, "Yeah, well, uh, none of us paid attention-"
Pyrrha could have sworn she heard Ren snort quietly at that.
"-so we just sort of left the dirty clothes out, and, uh, someone has been doing them for us."
Weiss almost choked in anger. "Wait, so while I've been dumping everything in the wash, you've been getting-"
"Have they taken anything?" Blake interrupted, as Weiss continued to mutter to herself.
"No, which is what makes it weird," Pyrrha chimed in. "As near as we can tell, they take our clothes, wash them, iron them, and return them."
Now Ruby just looked confused. "So… what's the problem?"
"It's creepy," Weiss explained. "Like if they were stealing Pyrrha's panties to sell online, it would at least be understandable."
Jaune coughed, getting everyone's attention once more "Right, so the idea is to ambush whoever's doing this, maybe try to chase them somewhere and, uh, make sure they don't do it again. There's an unused classroom near the laundry room that would work, no windows and only one exit. It's just a matter of chasing them there."
They spent the next half hour hashing out a rough plan as they stared at a basic floor plan of the dorm building. The coming weekend was a minor holiday, which meant most of the students would be partying in town during the day. Nora would start the chase and the rest would keep the target from escaping. Once they'd hemmed him into the room, they would have a little chat.
Ideally, the perpetrator would leave the room alive and mostly intact.
It seemed like a good plan to Pyrrha, even if it was pretty vague on the details. Ruby and Weiss seemed to want something a bit more concrete, but Jaune was more focused on keeping the plan flexible. They relented, eventually, but Blake pointed out another concern.
"Right there, that area's a mess of blind corners. We could lose them pretty quickly."
Jaune shrugged. He didn't seem at all concerned about that.
"Eh, it's close to my area, and it'll be between you and Ruby. You two are probably the quickest ones here, and I'm pretty good at thinking on my feet."
He glanced over his shoulder for the upteenth time, probably making sure no one was eavesdropping.
"I mean, what's the worst that could happen?"