Paige slept well for the rest of the day, not waking up until, after a three day long slumber, she heard… a new noise.

A voice, to be exact.

"Hi… You should probably not sleep on the floor."

Her eyes flashed open as soon as her brain recognised the sound of speech.

What's a kid doing in her room?

"Ah, good. You're up now."

Paige refused to respectfully stand to acknowledge this intruder, and just rolled towards them, moodily spinning until she bumped into them with an annoyed "ptump".

"Please go away," she groaned.

"Nope! I've just decided to help you get to your classes! It's not every day you can greatly improve someone's life in such a simple way!"

Paige heard the girl quietly murmur "wait. Now I need to find out what her classes are."

…

"What are your classes?"

Paige felt a glower was warranted, but didn't have enough energy to do it.

"Kid. I'm a full grown adult here for incredibly personal reasons."

"Hey. I'm not a kid."

…

Paige did not deem this child worthy of a response. She laid there, facing the floor at this girl's feet, and waited for her to leave.

…

…

"Why are you still here?"

"It's the weekend."

The girl started talking. Her voice filled the silence in an all encompassing ripple of hyperactive special interest rants.

…"-Never really saw you before. You look a bit like if the Headmaster had a kid! … Oh, you might not know who he is-"

…"-to be a huntress! Seems like you're one of the previous year's students-"

… "… You don't have a weapon. Why? How do you fight?"

She's not going to leave, is she?

…"I'm my team's leader! It's… pretty difficult, but I'm still going strong! Who was your team leader?"

…"Did you just… lose your weapon? I think you probably did if you were asleep. If you want I can help you with trying to make a replacement."

Paige was resisting the urge to silently get away from this girl.

It didn't work, and she quickly executed a dime turn, boosting her speed with little finger grasps on the floor. It was an absurd way to escape, yes, but Paige had a few good reasons for it:

1: If she escapes, she won't have to lay back down again.

2: Escaping your pursuer in such a ludicrous method draws attention to her plight. Then, she can get the girl away from her.

3 … was not thought of, as Paige rapidly realised the hall she was in was both massive, and completely empty. Also, the continued jostling of her head against her elbows started to annoy her further.

Instead of her rolling-escape, she deemed a change would be very effective to quietly escape this girl's annoying voice.

The voice was silent, and seemed briefly stymied at her unorthodox escape method. Paige stood, and her body grew a few inches in height, beginning to change.

...

This was one of her "soul-forms", a technique she used where a summoned creature was overlaid with herself, giving the use of their form and a magic adapted from some facet of the entity.

This change directly into a soul-form did use up some of the energy she had saved from her slaughtering, but this was currently better than having to become the Reaper, and then change into a soul-form. Paige was not in the mood to use it again, since it gave such a negative impression, and it would overload her with too much mental stimulation, a distraction she did not need.

Because she spent such a long period defeating Grimm, her soul forms were all even worse to do, since the hatred of Grimm is so omnipresent, anything similar would cause horrible problems. This only led to a small selection of souls she could use.

Paige's hair slowly turned a soft yellow, skin became slightly darker, since everything's darker than bone-white, and eyes turned to a dead grey. A significant region of her body was incised with scars and burns from literally countless injuries.

… If she had any other option, she would have gladly selected it, but Angeline was the most normal of everyone she faced. That wasn't saying she was not a horrible entity, and Paige bore no little hatred of her sister in law for her despicable childhood behaviour to her siblings and inhuman conduct towards nearly all mankind.

Wear the skin of a monster in human flesh, or be stuck with this unknown and tiring girl?

…

Angeline walked with purpose through the hall, noting some of the smells of nature coming through an open window.

"Excuse me!"

She turned to arch her eyebrows in confusion at the person running towards her.

The girl was wearing… what could have been classified as a school uniform. A brown vest, maroon blazer, some interesting gold accent on the blazer trim and vest buttons, white blouse, a tartan skirt, and…

… A red cloak. That was definitely not standard wear.

Appearance wise… she seemed close to Paige's old appearance with the black hair strewn around, and a Caucasian skin tone.

"Have you seen a grey haired girl run past here? I reeeally need help trying to find them."

"No, I did not, student…"

…

There was a long silence.

…

"It is polite to introduce oneself?"

"Ruby. Ruby Rose."

"Angeline Hardy."

…

"Can you help?"

"… Possibly."

"You're a… third year student? Who's your team?"

…

Angeline's face flickered slightly.

"No team."

Ruby made an echoing gasp of astonishment, then went on an explanation of her team. Through this, Angeline noted that teams were in groups of four, and began to think of her group's members. This was after learning far too much about a group of people she's never wanting to meet now.

Woods, I an overjoyed at your discomfort.

Paige had a plan to get this girl away. Have as dour and depressing a history as possible.

…

"I had a team."

Ruby turned to look at her, grey eyes squinting in laser focused intensity.

"Who are they? Our teams could meet at some poi-"

…

She was quietened by a look of sinister silence.

… The joy is sickening.

"They are dead."

…

"Oh."

"It included my sisters, and partner."

… They both reached the end of the hallway in silence. As soon as she left, Paige could drop her form and go back to the meeting room.

"I… also lost family, if it makes you feel any better. You're not completely alone in this."

What. Are. You. Doing?

Weird. How is this backfiring so badly?

Paige mentally gave a smirk.

You… Stop that. We are alone in an empty hallway. Silence her.

"What were their names?"

"Briar, Cassandra, and Branwen."

… It was a bit weird to change his name after the fact, but it was an unintended mistake to call Brandon the name of her interro-

"… Branwen? Like my uncle?"

…