This is the fourth chapter of "The Ghost of Vale."

Blake opened her eyes. Moving her head to the side she could tell it was still the middle of the night. Looking back up at the ceiling she shuddered at the dream/memory she just woke up from. She didn't even understand why it affected her so much. She'd seen people die before…not by her hand though. Shuddering again she reminded herself that the situation at the time had been survival and that it had been an accident. Still the fact that she had knocked the Arc boy's body into the canyon accident or not still shocked itself into her mind. The nightmares were always the same, they were fighting the Deathstalker when she was smacked by Nora and fell backwards knocking Arc's body off the ledge, she would look at his body falling then save herself. The inability to save him and the empty look his eyes held as he fell haunted her. In her nightmares she could always hear a (girly cough) shrill scream of terror that echoed throughout the canyon and his eyes held blame.

She knew better than to put too much stock into dreams of this sort…still didn't help her sleep at night though. Sighing she flipped over face down on her pillow. She was honestly surprised no one blamed her for what happened. They all could see Ruby was upset but was putting on a brave face for her team. Blake did hear Ruby crying late at night. Wiess was disapproving of how they did things but decided to go easy on Ruby for now at least. Some first week. Heck it was only the third day and Blake felt exhausted, likely the sleepless nights…

"It's not your fault, it was accident." She whispered the words into her pillow. "It's not like he will come back and haunt me, well I guess in a sense he's already doing that…" Shrugging to herself she sighed. If this kept up it would be a long night….
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Greetings, beings that for one reason or another are reading this. You might wonder if only slightly what Jaune Arc saw in the mice's minds and how the good detective saw him. Well for a relatively short explanation the mice saw Torchwick robbing the dust shop. Not only that but some were present during his escape from Ruby the night she and Torchwick met. (Shocking I know). I'm sure that would have been obvious unless you're an absolute dim wit however to clarify Jaune did see most of the fight but the mice scared of the explosions ran away before the end of it. Now to Detective Goodman his case is a tad more complicated. You see oddly enough Jaune didn't notice him until he ran from the dust shop and that was only because he felt a tug of fear coming from the good detective. I won't say any more for now because…well it's time to continue the story.

Jaune floated around the city feeling confused, guilty, and a tad excited. The guilty feeling came from scaring the detective, and he knew the detective was scared. He could feel it at the time. That's what lead into his confused and excited feelings.

"Someone saw me! Someone heard me!"

This was an exciting new development, It seemed that he could in fact be seen and heard. But for how long? And what had the good detective heard? "If only I had read his mind…" But no, he resolved to save that test for Torchwick. If he could find him anyway. Otherwise he would test it on some random person. He came to the decision that he should learn a little more about his abilities before heading to Beacon. However, reaching Beacon was in itself an obstacle. The ever-changing winds of this time of year were causing him nonstop problems, and until he learned at least how to avoid getting blown into the sewers again he would experiment with his abilities in Vale.

"Besides, it's only been two days as long as I get there within the next day or two, I can spare some time looking for Torchwick…right?" Unknown to him at that moment beings from other worlds facepalmed.

"Let's see here Torchwick has been robbing dust shops. So, I'm going to go into each dust shop I can find and take a look around." Chuckling his voice echoed down the busy street. No one heard him but many would remember the laugh it would haunt their dreams for weeks.

Huntsman Brown wasn't sure what came over his friend but he decided that in order to figure this out a trip to the usual coffee bar was in order.

"So, let me get this straight, after everyone left the crime seen you went back to get the camera recordings." Detective Goodman nodded. "Then you saw a young man in armor on the camera, and after deciding you imagined it you heard creepy laughter…that then led you to seeing a phantom laughing about Torchwick robbing the dust store and you ran for it. That sound, about right?"

Goodman nodded again "Yes."

Brown rubbed his forehead with his hand. "Okay then. Are you sure that it all wasn't in your head."

Goodman cocked his head. "You think either I'm insane or having hallucinations. Right?"

Brown sighed again turning in his seat to face the coffee bar man "Hey Midoriya…mind if…?" The bar man nodded and went to get two cups. Turning back to Goodman Brown said. "Well there could be another explanation. I've never taken you as superstitious man, but since you're so confident in what you saw, it would only make sense." He reasonably stated.

Goodman considered this and nodded. "That's what I thought too, however there is one small thing. I asked one of my coworkers to check if I imagined it or not."

They were interrupted by the green hired bar man giving them their coffee.

Brown smiled "Thanks, you can put it on my tab."

The bar man smiled in return "Hai." Then he walked back behind the counter.

The two friends sipped their coffee in comfortable silence. "So, what is this, 'evidence?'" Brown asked.

After having a sip from his cup Goodman explained "The camera footage. I don't know if this…. thing…. will appear, but if it does then I might not have imagined it."

Brown frowned "Didn't you say it disappeared when you looked away?"

Goodman nodded. "Yes. However, the frame in which I saw him, he might be visible."

Brown looked thoughtful. "…And if it turns out to all have been in your head?"

Goodman smiled. "Then I'll be counting on you to keep me grounded in reality." Raising his cup in a salute Goodman took a big gulp.

Grinning in return Brown looked over to the door as two more people entered the bar. Recognizing them he called "Johnsen? Davis? What are you two doing here again?"

Smirking the shorter of the two grinned "Davis can't go without his vanilla milkshake, plus they make good curry."

Goodman rolled his eyes. "Why do you two even come here if you don't drink coffee?"

Davis the taller of the two replied. "The vanilla milkshake…and curry, I believe that's what Johnsen said." Turning to the bar man Davis called "Hey Deku think you could get me my shake?"

The green haired bar man grinned. "Mondainai."

Suddenly Goodman's scroll started buzzing. Reaching for it he looked at the notification. Suddenly standing he looked at Brown. "A dust shop robbery…In broad daylight?"

Brown stood as well. "Where!"

"Knightstreet!" Goodman supplied.

Rushing out the door Brown called "I'll go ahead!"

Goodman not far behind him agreed "I meet you there!"

Watching the two friends rush out the door Johnsen smirked. This was going to get good once they realized tha- "Hey Johnsen the curry!" Davis called.

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Jaune had been floating through dust shop after dust shop for several hours wondering if he was just wasting time (most likely). When he noticed a magazine on a shelf referencing old hero's relics. The front being…

"Crocea Mors…" He'd almost forgotten. Being a ghost had made him think about other things… "My sword I-I need to return it to my family. Somehow…maybe I can tell someone?" "Heh good luck with that the only person who's seen me ran away out of fear…it might be possible…but I have to figure out how to appear in front of people…or at least communicate." Lost in thought. He pondered his new problem.

Only to be cut off as an explosion shook the building.

"Huh?!" Looking around in surprise he flew into the ceiling in shock. "Real slick. I'm a ghost and I ran from an explosion." Floating back down he stopped. "Well, well guess my good luck is starting to kick in." For before him was none other than Roman Torchwick.

"Grab the dust quickly!" One of his men called.

Well it was time to test what happened when he entered a human being.

When Brown arrived, he landed on top of what appeared to be a getaway truck pulling out a collapsible staff he fondly called "Linus." He jumped down he looked up to see white Fang members coming out. They all stopped when they saw him. "Surrender now!" he called. They all raised their guns. "Oh, good grief." Was the last thing he said before they started fighting.

A few minutes later…

Detective Goodman drove in with a squad of police. Rushing out of his car he gave orders to the officers all of which promptly obeyed. Walking over to Huntsman Brown he noticed the bodies surrounding them. "White Fang. A decoy, there was no dust in the truck, so they must have left another way." Brown explained to Goodman.

"Ok, let's take a look around then."

Two hours later…

"I'm sending the footage to H.Q immediately after we look at it ok."

"Sure, no problem."

Nodding Goodman looked around. "Footage from the street shows Torchwick escaping by Bullhead."

Grumbling Brown muttered "Why even have a decoy truck?"

Goodman shook his head "Actually, his men we captured told us he was going to be the decoy, but he got spooked by something and ran for it."

Brown looked interested "Spooked? What? Was it the ghost that scared you?" he joked.

"Ha. Ha. Very funny. However, even if it was we have no real way of knowing until we watch the recordings. So lets go."

As they turned, they stopped from a flash of light. A bunny Faunus girl holding a camera paused. "Oh, uh sorry it's just I kinda wanted to take a picture of you Mr. Huntsman.

Blinking Brown stared at her then laughed. "Ok sure but please don't take pictures of the crime seen yet." Nodding she raised her camera and took a pic. "Ok thank you!" She then turned and left.

Strutting over to Goodman he said. "Let's go review the tapes Detective! We've got ourselves a job to do!" Goodman rolled his eyes in amusement.
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In the back of the shop they watched the recording. And Goodman felt a cold fist close around a pit in his stomach.

"W-what was that?" They had been watching the recording and it was looking just like any other Torchwick robbery, when suddenly something seemed to flicker around Torchwick. He gave a cry of surprise and told his men that he was leaving. But what bugged the detective was the flicker of light around Torchwick it looked like…like… "Can you freeze the frame for when he runs away? Brown nodded.

What they saw caused Goodman to sweat. "Is this some kind of prank?!"

Brown looked at Goodman surprised. "Is something the matter?"

"Yes! Yes, something is the matter." Pointing at the screen he said. "Look there! You see that light around Torchwick? Well it's the same thing I saw last night! I sweat it's the same bloody thing!"

Brown looked at the screen eyes narrowed "You sure?"

Goodman Nodded. "Positive."

"Hmmmmm...Well, it doesn't look like a person to me. Ok." Taking out the recording he turned to Goodman. "You Take this to H.Q. I think a visit to Beacon is in order."

Goodman looked at his friend. "You don't see it?"

Brown shrugged "I see the light and I can see how it looks like a person. How about we look at the footage of the dust shop from last night before jumping to conclusions." He looked Goodman in the eyes "I doubt it's a ghost, or something like that, it could just be a semblance or something. I do however think that it is something worth looking into. However I'll leave that to you. Tomorrow I'm going to visit the headmaster." Goodman shifted uncomfortably then nodded. "What you're saying makes sense I guess. All right advice from a pro would help." Sighing he looked around. He felt like someone was listening. Probably just feeling jumpy he decided. "See you tomorrow then to show you the footage." Brown nodded.

Velvet smiled. She had taken a total of seven pics today! She could build up her arsenal with these. Humming happily, she entered her dorm.

"Looks like someone had a good day." Her team leader Coco Adel said.

Grinning Velvet raised her cam "Got some new pics to add to the collection."

"Well that's good then. How was the trip?" Coco inquired.

Velvet sat down at her desk as she answered. "It was mostly really good. There was a sale at your favorite clothing store that's going on all week." She gave Coco a pointed look.

Coco nodded her thanks at the info. "Anything else?"

"Well there was a dust robbery that's how I got a few of my pics. Some Huntsmen were there to investigate."

Coco frowned "Well, that's not good. If dust robberies continue like this dust prices will continue to rise. Ugh what pain. This'll totally put a dent in my shopping finances." Grimacing she shook her head. "So what pics did you get?"

With a small grin Velvet started looking over her pictures. "…." Stopping at one she frowned.

"Vel? Is something up?" Walking over she looked over Velvet's shoulder and stared in surprise. "Um. Who's that?"

Velvet shook her head. "I don't know I don't remember seeing anybody like this." Looking down the two of them both considered the picture.

"He looks like he's up to no good who ever he is." Coco decided shuddering slightly.

Velvet nodded in agreement. "I find it odd that I didn't see him though…Unless he's the ultimate photobomber…" staring down she gasped. "This isn't a ghost is it?!"

Coco stared at her for a moment before she burst out laughing. "Vel. That's got to be one of the silliest ideas I've heard from you. I'll admit he does look…kinda, freaky, but a ghost?" Shaking her head Coco gave the pic a critical look. "Maybe it is a ghost and it's decided to haunt bunny faunus as petty revenge for taking a pictures of it!"

Velvet's ears raised nervously causing Coco to laugh again. "T-That's not funny!" Velvet turned back looking at the figure behind the huntsman she had taken a picture of.

A lit-up figure grinning in a self-satisfied manner looking straight at the camera his eyes aglow seemingly misty around the edges.

For whatever reason Velvet felt a shiver up her spine.

Brown sighed. It'd been a long day and he needed a rest. He'd called Headmaster Ozpin to inform him that the tapes would be brought to him the following day.

After arriving back at his apartment he finished getting ready for bed. He stared at his reflection in the mirror, thinking. Goodman poor bloke. Sounded like he was on the receiving end of a bad prank. "Ah well." He blinked. "What-" spinning around he looked around. "For a moment there I thought…? Eh…just a trick of the light." Turning the lights off he got into bed. After a few minutes he fell asleep.

.

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I did it.

.

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I know how to get to Beacon as well.

.

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Finally!

Huntsman eyes snapped open. The sound of bone chilling laughter still in his ears. Laughter that echoed through his mind, even though he could swear he'd never ever heard it before…Looking over at his mirror his heart went into his mouth as in it he could make out the form a white young knight.

His scream of terror was loud enough to wake the dead, and though he didn't know it that was almost in a sense what happened.

Thank for reading the Fourth chapter of "The Ghost of Vale" I hope you enjoyed it. This was actually two chapters put into one but eh who cares? Thank you to those who have supported the story so far. If you want to give constructive feedback please feel free.

-Lord Johnsen the 18th

Yes, do give constructive feedback please. -DavisIceElf.