It had been about a week after their meeting at the docks. Cinder was in Kaneki's apartment, sitting on the living room sofa with delicious cup of coffee and a folder in her hands, while a metal case rested at her feet.
Yes, a week since she saw the...events that had lead up to the ghoul being in the forest. It still wasn't clear exactly how he ended up there. Or on Remnant for that matter. It did however, give her plenty of useful information. With what she now knew, decided to look more into the 'Rc cells' that seemed quite similar to a recent discovery in human and faunus cell biology, which the team had yet to name.
The scientists seemed proud of their discovery on the paper, but only gave vague possibilities as to how it could be implemented into, well, anything. They didn't even know how many could possibly in the body It seemed that they weren't quite sure what the cells could do yet. Cinder, however, knew what they were capable of. And she wanted to test something specific.
How exactly would dust effect these cells?
They're abilities could be seen in a ghoul's kagune, something else she had learnt about recently. Predatory organs that came in many shapes and sizes. Biological weapons, that was what the cells could be used for. However, the possibility of mixing these cells with dust intrigued her.
Normally, the use of raw dust would require aura in order for it to be used to it's full extent. But if it was possible for the Rc cells to absorb the dust, then it could hopefully use their properties. The idea of such power was too tempting to not investigate.
Hence why she was in Kaneki's apartment. And why she had the metal case with her.
The ghoul himself walked into the room at that moment, with his own cup of coffee. "Sorry for the wait." He said.
"It's fine." Cinder said distractedly, staring into her cup. It became uncomfortable, to say the least, to look at the ghoul. Looking through his memories wasn't the correct term for what had happened. The correct term would have been 'absorbing'. Every time she looked at him, she was reminded of exactly what he's gone through. It had been shocking at first, but now the memories we're more of a nuisance than anything, distracting her from important conversations. "I'm here because I have a job for you."
"Oh really?" The ghoul asked, his tone expressing some light boredom. "I haven't received a proper job yet."
"I needed to find something less essential, purely in order to test your ability. I hope you understand."
"I do." They both took a sip of their coffee. "So, what is it?"
Cinder put down her cup. "Two days ago, Roman Torchwick was in the middle of a routine store hold up when a huntress-in-training kicked one of the help out through the store window."
"That doesn't sound nice." Kaneki commented.
"Had I not made it there in time, Roman would have been behind bars." Cinder said.
"And that doesn't sound bad." Kaneki popped one of his fingers, making the woman shiver slightly.
"While Mr. Torchwick's opinions are less than desirable, he is necessary to the plan." The ghoul let out an exasperated sigh.
"Okay, what am I in all this?"
"We discovered that the child is a minor prodigy, recently invited to study at the prestigious Beacon Academy." Cinder handed him the folder in her hand. "These are the details you should know, including appearance, weaponry, etcetera." Kaneki set his own cup down and began perusing through the information. "I'll be going now. The contents of the case belong to you. It also contains the mission itself, and a simple request." Cinder stood leaving the room, and the apartment.
Kaneki picked up the surprisingly light case. The information in the folder was simple enough. Name: Ruby Rose, age: fifteen, yada yada. It contained a picture of her and her weapon; Something that seemed nightmarishly deadly. He made a few guesses as to what he was supposed to do, somewhat worried he was being sent to kill a child. He ignored the possibilities, and opened the case.
His eyes lit up at the site.
Setting the case down next to his coffee, he pulled out a grey, armoured version of his battle suit. It was reinforced with various thin, flexible sheets of metal covering the limbs and torso, making slashes and the like useless. Then there were the strange slots on the sides of the arms, with thin black strips leading to his lower back; Exactly where his kagune would appear. He wasn't sure what they did, but he was suspected something interesting.
He then pulled a simple black hoodie with pockets at the front. Putting it on quickly revealed that, for whatever reason, the area inside between the elbow and wrist was noticeably looser, making it look kind of puffy. It didn't look like it would be a hindrance though, and it was nice, in an odd sort of way. Taking it off, the ghoul checked the back, a minimalistic eye patch silhouette above what appeared to be the grin of a monster. Sharp teeth creating a crude semicircle.
He wasn't quite sure whether to be offended or honoured.
Putting the hood down. He looked into the case again, finding four packets with powder in them. Red, blue, gray and yellow. It was probably dust, and it looked like it would fit somewhere.
Then his mind came back to the slots on his new battle suit, and he knew exactly what the packets would do.
Grinning, he picked up the last thing in the case. A small piece of paper containing the details of his mission. He was going to be playing the role of spy, apparently. It basically came down to recording information on Ruby Rose's interactions with others and her abilities. It didn't sound too difficult. The school year was about to start, so she'd be going through initiation. That would occur in three days.
Turning to the other side of the paper, Kaneki read the request; use the dust packets at some point in the near future and report if they actually work or not. Seemed simple enough. He wouldn't need them on this mission if he was only spying. Checking his scroll revealed it would take two days to even get to Vale, and the next airship was in...an hour.
He packed his new gear and his mask, and left.
"Gotta find Yang! Gotta find Yang, gotta find Yang, gotta find..." Ruby had been running for a while now in search of her sister. Thankfully, she hadn't bumped into anyone else so there was some hope. "Yang! Yaaaang!" She called out. She started worrying. 'Oh, this is bad, this is really bad... What if I can't find her? What if someone finds her first? Well, there's always-'
She thought she saw someone briefly before they disappeared from her view. She was pretty sure they hadn't gotten eye-contact , fortunately, so she kept running. Her thoughts went to running into someone she didn't know for a few brief moments, before returning to who she knew. 'Okay... Who do I know in this school? There's Yang, Jaune, Blake, aaaand...'
And then she bumped into the one person she knew was gonna be difficult.
That was a bit too close for the ghoul's liking. But he now knew who the Rose girl was partnered up with.
Weiss Schnee. Heiress to the Schnee dust company; one of the largest producers and exporters of dust in the entirety of Remnant. It was also the most shady by a long way, with it's controversial labour forces. Cinder had actually shown him images and videos of the conditions that the faunus 'employees' went through. He wasn't a fan.
The heiress quickly turned on her heel after a few seconds, walking away from the hooded girl who made and gave up on a feeble attempt to follow her. They probably didn't have the best relationship. Around half a minute later she came back, pulled the smaller girl by the cloak in the opposite direction and left to do whatever they were supposed to do. He wasn't sure.
So they walked around for a bit, the Rose girl trying to be friendly, and show she was capable by sprinting off into the distance, for some reason. Leaving the Schnee girl by herself. She didn't seem happy about it. Rustling could be heard in the bushes, which the ghoul picked up easily enough. The heiress however took a moment to realise what was happening.
Beowolves, quite a few too. Well, if she was going to be working with the Rose girl, Kaneki might as well take note of her capability. Taking a stance the Schnee girl prepared to fight. Just as she charged, the Rose girl suddenly appeared, killing the heiress' target. In an attempt not to impale her, the Schnee redirects her blow and sends a trail of dust fire to the tree the ghoul was hiding in.
Thinking quickly, he jumped out of tree and into a not so close one. As he landed,he watched his previous hiding spot explode into flames. It was a good thing he was fast enough.
He noticed the two leaving, and a few minutes later he finds them arguing about how that should have been easy and it the other person's fault. In the ghouls mind, sarcastic clapping could be heard. He looks at the tree their next to, finding a giant bird grimm roosting. A tree that the rose girl promptly cut, unknowing of what was above.
His internal clapping intensified, drowning the sound of him thinking something along the lines of 'Why am I even bothering?'
The ghoul now found himself chasing the giant shadow bird. Mostly because it may have grabbed onto his target, and by 'may' he meant 'had'.
He was becoming more and more irritated as time went on. He was also coming to the conclusion that teenage hunters were the worst possible type of teenager. He was glad he had brought coffee with him, otherwise this entire day would have become unbearable. And then the Rose girl jumped.
The enthusiastic applause did not help his headache in the slightest.
Kaneki found himself at the edge of a clearing. In said clearing was what appeared to be an abandoned temple. Turning to the sky, he looked up just in time to watch the cloaked girl collide mid-air with some unfortunate student. The ghoul took out his coffee Thermos, unzipped his mask and took a sip.
…
…
What was in the Thermos may have been hot chocolate. However, now it wasn't in the Thermos. It was splattered across the tree next to him.
It was there that he remembered, his Thermos wasn't green.
After watching a decent fight between two giant grimm and eight students, one of which being his target, the ghoul had found his way to the above cat walks of auditorium. Was that how it was pronounced? He hoped so, he was way too annoyed to correct himself even if he was wrong. A bunch of people had been put into teams all of which he didn't about with the exception of those coming on stage now.
"And finally," An old man, presumably the headmaster, ushered the four onto the stage. "Blake Belladonna. Ruby Rose. Weiss Schnee. Yang Xiao Long." The ghoul began writing on his scroll. "The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team RWBY." Wait. "Led by...Ruby Rose!"
The ghoul almost dropped his scroll into the crowd below.
He was done for the day. It could not have been more emotionally draining in any way. He was sitting on the edge of a landing pad at the front of the main avenue, watching as the sun began to set. It was quickly checking his notes and writing a draft for his report. I was the only thing he could really do. It was surprising how tired he actually was. He could find a motel when he got to vale, which would only take a few hours to travel to.
"Ahem."
Kaneki closed his scroll and slid it into his pockets. Standing up, but not turning towards the woman who was obviously behind him. "Would you care to explain what you are doing here?"
"Hmm." The ghoul mock-pondered. "Yes. Yes I would mind."
"Would you care to back off of the landing pad so we can settle this peacefully?"
"No."
"You're being very difficult."
"I know." He turned to get a look of the woman. A blonde lady with green eyes, pointing a riding crop at him. He'd laugh, but he knew it could probably blow up his head.
"And what exactly do you plan to do now?" The woman asked. The ghoul raised his arms at his sides.
And then he fell backward.
A/N: Finally!
So yeah, we are in season 1. Mid season 1 as well. It won't last long, but I feel like this is as good a place to start as any.
Any questions you want to ask (Preferably ones that don't ask what happens next) send a PM and I'll answer you.
Well, see you guys next time.
