Okay, gotta say that I'm very sorry for going AWOL. My brother came back from Italy, I've had lots of home chores to attend to, I had to request an extension for my translation work because my editor had trouble and hadn't been able to even look at the file yet, and I've had an incredible case of writer's block on this. But now, now I have changed the plot and I have renewed energies! I hope you will enjoy this chapter.

"I ordered a steak."

The waiter stiffened as Yang spoke up, but she wasn't done. Glaring down at her plate, the blonde grabbed the man's head and forced it down to her level. "I ordered a steak, not a cutlet. FIX THIS IMMEDIATELY!"

The poor male grabbed another plate and ran off, trying to put as much distance as he could between him and the raging blonde. For his trouble, he got a bottle of SchneeCola hitting his back with enough strength to burst and make him stumble, his dress now soaked in the liquid. "And hurry up!"

Meanwhile, another waiter was having just as much difficulty pleasing Weiss, who was looking at him in pure, unadulterated disgust. "This omelette tastes like ash. I do not wish to be food-poisoned by your cuisine. Shall you fail me again, I will be forced to take action," she threatened with her coldest glare possible.

"More cookies!" exclaimed Ruby, slamming her hand down onto the table in an adorable manner.

"I ordered salmon, and you brought me trout," Blake seethed, glaring -although she was slightly drooling- at the fish fillet she had been served. "I. Want. Salmon."

"O-Of course!" stammered the poor waiter, dashing away with a scared expression.

"This pancakes have too little syrup!" protested Nora, showing her food. The syrup was so thick on the pancakes, that all they could do was to guess there were any pancakes underneath. "Bring me more!"

Jaune sighed as he looked at his friends and teammates. "Guys, seriously, just give them a break, will you?" He glanced with pity at the four members of Team CRDS, who were forced to act as their butlers for the day. "They don't deserve this."

"Let's agree to disagree," replied Yang, picking at her cutlet. "You may be this forgiving, but they tried to seriously harm you, Lil' Brother. They deserve anything we can throw at them."

"And Ms Goodwitch did say to make their punishment harsh after Ozpin forbade her from chaining them into the dungeons and forget about them," added Blake, clearly amused by her position of punisher. "We might as well make it count."

"That's true, and surely this is better than what Auntie would've done to them, but still I believe we're being a little bit too vengeful toward them." Jaune winced at seeing Russel hurry back with Yang's steak. "I mean, they don't even know how to cook properly…"

Russel flushed, but seriously there was no other way of putting it. Even their best attempts were poorly done. Jaune was sure even Pyrrha could cook better than them – and Pyrrha had, last time she tried, set the kitchen on fire. Apparently training for fighting your whole life made you far worse in other fields of expertise.

"I can second that," agreed Sky, pushing his plate of pasta away from him. "That's just nasty…"

The Mohawk-haired boy deflated before he hurried off back into the kitchens. Jaune sighed. "Sure, they suck at cooking, but this is just plain cruel. Besides, I'd like for them not to have a grudge against us, thank you."

"Hey, they were the one in the wrong, not us," Yang defended herself. "Not my fault if they got what they deserve!"

"However, Jaune might be right, we are being exceptionally mean to them," noted Blake, looking in disgusts at the plate of what should have been salmon before her. She pushed it away. "This might come to bite us in the ass very soon. I suggest we just leave them be."

"I vote for leaving them be," said Jaune.

"I vote against," replied Yang, and Weiss echoed her words.

"I side with Blake and Jaune," added Pyrrha, and Ruby nodded vigorously.

"And I say we up their punishment!" exclaimed Nora. Four whimpers could be heard from the kitchen.

Ren and Sky exchanged glances before just shrugging. "Honestly, we are not going to take sides in this," stated the greyish blue haired boy. "I'm fine with either choice, just let's not get in trouble."

"But if we do not punish them, what will we do?!" Nora despaired dramatically, already crying rivers of tears. "We won't have anything to do, and then we will have to get bored, and then we will die of boredom because the Boredom Monster will eat us!"

Ren placed a calming hand on her shoulder while the others ignored her drama. "We'll just find something else to do, Nora… I'm pretty sure your homework would be the perfect start." Ignoring her exaggerated whimper, Ren looked at the others. "Though, Nora is right. Today is just too quiet. Anyone has any idea?"

"Why don't we go to Vale?" proposed Yang with a cheeky grin. "Seriously it's been forever since we last went there. Plus Jaune here must get a new outfit. I mean, he can't use his new weapon in jeans and hoodie, it'd be far too un-cool!"

"Thank you," snorted the boy.

"You're welcome, Lil' Brother. After all, I can't let you parade around with… those… what kind of sister would I be?" Yang lit up as an idea zapped through her brain. "And I know just the person we need. Ever heard of Coco Adel, Velvet Scarlatina's team leader?"

"Whose team leader?"

"Velvet Scarlatina. Rabbit Faunus, brown hair, brown eyes, lithe, masochist, the one you saved from Cardin with your railgun?" He nodded slowly. "That's the girl. Coco is her team leader, I'm sure she'll be happy to repay the guy who helped her teammate out… or at least tried to. You couldn't have known of Velvet's… peculiarity." Yang cleared her throat as everyone looked kinda embarrassed. "Anyway, I've heard that Coco is, like, an expert in the fashion field, so yeah if we have her help we might get you a nice outfit."

"But… do you know her?" asked the boy.

"Well, no, but ramming into someone is the best way to make friends," shrugged Yang, earning disbelieving looks from everyone else. "What? It surely does get the conversation started, and that's all you need."

"I have no idea who told you that, but that's obviously false," replied Blake, rolling her eyes. "If anything that is a good way of making enemies."

"And what would you do? Stay silent with your book and try to pretend they don't exist?"

"Well, it does get me what I want."

"But it's a horrible way of making friends!"

"Before this degenerates into an argument," Sky butted in. "Let me say that while Coco's help might be handy, we don't need her to find some decent clothes. As far as I know, you all have clothes, and I doubt Coco was there to handpick everyone of them. We can do without her. I myself might try to find some casual clothes. Y'know, not armour."

"Bah! My combat clothes and my casual clothes are the same!" exclaimed Yang, snorting. "I mean, they both have the same goal -to make me look fantastic- so why should I have 'casual' clothes? I mean, having multiple outfits is cool and all, but I would never go around with baggy clothes! And if it's not baggy, it's combat clothing. So really, I don't need this trip."

"What did she say?" asked Sky, confused.

"She said that her combat outfit doubles as casual clothes, since her combat outfit does not include armour," Weiss explained with a sigh. The boy made a sound of realization. "I can't say I need clothes, plus I can just purchase them online, so I fear you'll have to do without me."

"Nora and I have no need for extra clothes, either," Ren spoke up quietly, and immediately fell silent again. Nora was too busy eating her non-CRDS-cooked pancakes to speak.

"I am so not coming!" exclaimed Ruby, as if horrified by the mere idea. "Shopping trips with Yang always end up lasting hours, a few times the shops had to kick us out because they were closing!" Jaune paled as she went on, pointing an accusing finger at her sister. "You force everyone to try on thousands of clothes, even if you already know that nine tenths of those clothes will be discarded! And you take forever to choose your own clothes! I am so not coming!"

"Fine, it can be me, Lil' Brother and Sky. Let it never be said I can be intimidated by something as frivolous as disapproval!" Yang clamped a vice-like hand on Jaune's arm and grinned. "Now, Jauney, we must catch a Bullhead and quickly. Our shopping trip has just begun. Sky, feel free to catch up with us at any time."

"Will do."

"No, w-wait, do I get a say in this?!" panicked the boy.

"Nope."

/-/

"So~… How is being 'linked' with someone?"

Ruby raised her eyes from the textbook she was -vainly- trying to study on, and blinked at one Nora Valkyrie who was standing right in front of her. "Er…" After she had uttered her extremely intelligent and profoundly clever reply, she actually thought about her answer. Finally, she reached a conclusion. "Uhm…"

No one ever said her conclusion would've been an intelligent one.

"Nora, you still have your homework!" Ren called from Team PWVR's study table, but the gingerhead apparently ignored him, even though Ruby noticed her eyes glancing at him for a brief instant.

"Come on~" Nora encouraged her, or at least tried to encourage her. "Does it feel any different than… before? You know, your first life?"

First life. Those two words should've been absurd, placed in that order, and yet they made perfect sense. First life. It sounded like something from a videogame 'You died. Would you like to use your second life and respawn?'

She shook her head to clear it from any unwanted thought. Her life was not a videogame, no matter how much easier it would be if it were. "Well… it's… hard to explain…" She focused on the word 'think' written on the textbook, ignoring the rest of the sentence. "It's… kinda the same. Just that sometimes I can easily read Jaune's mood, and apparently sometimes we can use each other's Aura."

"Cool, but not what I meant!" chirped Nora, plopping down on the chair beside her. "How are you handling this between you and Jaune?"

"What do you mean?" asked Ruby, confused. "We… kind of aren't handling it. We're just going on with our lives."

"Ah ah ah!" Nora wagged a finger at her, as if scolding her for her answer. "That's bad, that's really bad. I mean, have you even thought about what would happen if you were to live your lives, each on their own? You are 'linked', so you'd probably have to stick together!"

"But nothing happens even when we are separated," Ruby pointed out. After all, Jaune was in Vale at the current moment, being tortured by Yang, and she didn't feel any different. Maybe a tad guilty, but not even much. "So why would we worry about not sticking together? I mean, I do want to keep in touch with him, he's my best friend! It's just that I don't think anything would happen if we were to be separated."

Nora sighed and shook her head. "Ruby, you are so innocent. You have this wonderful opportunity, and you are wasting it." She leaned in with a conspirational look and whispered in her ear, "What if another girl gets him while you're not there?"

Heat crept up the redhead's cheeks at that last remark. "W-What?! We're not together!"

Nora nodded soberly. "I know, Ren and I are the same. That's why I am constantly beside him. If we were together-together, I would trust him not to be ensnared by some harpy, but right now he's defenceless without me. I have to protect him from any… foul beast." She clapped her back with a grin, the force behind it enough to make her choke out a lung. "That's why you have to either make your move and get Jauney, or stay around him. What if he meets a girl at the mall and she ensnares him?"

Ruby squeaked, now fully red, at the implications. "Nora, I do not have a crush on Jaune!"

"Your words, not mine," she grinned without a hint of regret in her voice. "What if that wench has a D-cup and tries to smother him in her tits? I've seen that done many times, I've even used it on Ren! But don't tell him!" Nora leaned closer. "What if she's got a very nice ass? Round and firm? What if she's as tall as he is, and not barely over five feet? What if she's got long, shapely legs, with barely any cloth covering them? Jaune could be caught in her web of charms, and you'd lose your chance!"

"N-N-Nora, I-I told y-y-you I'm no-ot c-c-c-crush-i-ing on J-Jaune!" stammered Ruby, her blush almost steaming from the sheer amount of blood rushing to her face.

"I know. But if he gets caught, you lose your chance to see if you two might've been something more than just friends," replied Nora, tapping her on the nose. "To see if you two could boop. If you two give it a shot, and it doesn't work out, fine: let him get ensnared by a girl like the one I described earlier. But don't let a damn harpy take your man before you can even get the chance to find out whether you like him or not!"

"I don't see him that way!" Ruby whisper-yelled back.

Nora's grin would've scared a Grimm. "We'll see on that," she replied eerily. "Tell me, what do you think of him? After all, I can't give you advice on what to do if I don't know anything about your feelings."

"I said I don't have a crush on Jaune!" Ruby tried to diffuse the situation before it could degenerated too much, but only Ren could stop Nora, and Ren was busy studying. "Nora, please, just stop."

"Okay, let's tone it down," snorted Nora, clearly amused by her denial. 'Heh, once I too went through a similar phase. I couldn't stop denying to myself that I loved Renny. Not the best period of my life, honestly. It is much better to know what my heart tries to tell me, and of course to know that I have to break the legs of every person who tries to flirt with my Renny!' "What do you think of Jaune?"

Ruby took a few minutes to let her blush die down, and then a few more seconds to think of the answer. "Well, he's… nice? Yeah, nice, I guess. I mean, he's friendly and funny at times, even though he isn't always funny on purpose. He doesn't know much about some stuff, but you'd be surprised by how much he knows on the strangest topics. Like, he is not really up to date with the news, but he can tell you the history of many important places like he did with Fort Castle in Oobleck's class." She tried to remember anything else about the blond. "Oh, he's also a good smith, and he knows lots of dead languages and dialects from his family's travels around the world, even though he told me he can hold only a simple conversation in those languages. So yeah, he's… nice. Kinda the odd one out here, but nice."

Nora racked her mind to try and find something in her speech to use against her, and grinned. "Wait, you said he's a smith, have you seen him forging? Shouldn't Cauchemar be a mechashift weapon?"

"I've seen him forge, yes, and yes Cauchemar is a wonderful mechashift weapon, but we still had to forge the custom pieces," Ruby pointed out with a smile, finally in her element. "And he assisted me when we had to forge them. I'll admit, I used harder metals because I had him to help me, he's much stronger than I am, but in my defence he wanted to learn how to forge mechashift."

"I've seen him forge too, when he was forging whatever-its-name-was to resurrect you," nodded Nora. "Did you enjoy the view? I'm sure you wouldn't be the first. Blakey looked like she wanted to jump him right then and there… must be all her books. Pyrrha told me she kept all kinds of dirty books hidden under her bed."

"W-What?! N-No, of course not!" Ruby sputtered out, straight into Nora's trap.

"And that settles it, you're at the very least crushing on him, even if not much," she grinned triumphantly. "I mean, I was enjoying the view too! Denying you were either makes you asexual, not interested in guys, plain weird, oooooor~ in denial!"

Ruby whimpered and hid her face into her hands.

"Come on, is it really that bad?" Nora lost her cheeky grin and nudged her with her elbow. "Honestly now. Would it really be that bad if you were to like-like Jaune? I mean, you said it yourself, he's nice, he's kind, and he's cute. I'm not saying you have to, just… would it really be a bad thing to have a crush on him?"

"I-I don't have a crush on him!"

"Come on, stop being a child and look at me." Ruby did so, and Nora's face was devoid of her usual oddness. A sober expression had now settled on her features. "He's a good guy. Not the best, not the worst. Kinda average in some stuff, pretty good in others, pretty bad in yet others. All in all, he's not some green alien with three heads and one foot. And you are a teenager, and as such you have hormones. There is no shame in admitting you might like him. Seriously, think about it. Would you like if there was something more between you?"

Ruby looked down and bit her lip. She had to think about it. She had entertained the thought a couple of times, sure, but she had always discarded it. 'I wouldn't mind… but that doesn't mean I'm in love with him… ugh, what does this mean?' She turned to look at her fellow short redhead, and shrugged helplessly. "Maybe?"

"That's all I ask for." Nora regained her usual mad grin. "So… Nora Matchmaker Company offers their services. All you need is to say yes."

Ruby peered at her from between her fingers, not seeing how it could've gone wrong. Worst case scenario, she would've ended up realizing that she did not like Jaune that way, or realizing that she did but Jaune didn't return her feelings. Best case scenario, she'd end up with a boyfriend. The thought made her blush. All in all, she didn't feel like she had anything to lose. "Okay."

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"I said you need to say yes, not 'okay'."

"Oh, sorry. Yes."

/-/

"What about this?"

Yang caressed her chin as she took in Jaune's current outfit. He had chosen to follow his weapon's colour theme with dark blue clothing. The nightsky blue pants were tucked into the black combat boots, and a simple silver belt could be seen under the dark blue coat he wore over an electric blue shirt. Blue gloves completed the outfit. It was nice, she had to admit it, but she couldn't help but shake her head.

"Nope, this is not gonna work. Come on, try the next one."

"Well…" Jaune awkwardly rubbed the back of his head. "The next is more or less like this one, just with a vest instead of a coat. Most of the outfits I picked follow this colour theme."

Yang shrugged. "I don't see the problem. Most people in Beacon follow personal colour themes. Me included, even though I'm a bit more… varied in the colours I wear. Like brown for my jacket and boots even though my colour theme is yellow."

Jaune glared at the pile of clothes he still had to try on and sighed. "It's gonna take forever to find an outfit that satisfies you, Yang. We picked all the dark blue clothes this shop has…" 'Dark blue… but why dark blue? Why not just blue? After all, my eyes are blue. Well, were, now they are…' A lightbulb could be seen lighting up over his head, and he hurried to return all the clothes to their original places, ignoring Yang's protests. "Of course, that's what was wrong! We were trying to follow Cauchemar's colour theme, but my colour theme is double!"

"Jaune, what you just said makes no sense," Yang deadpanned at him. "How can a colour be two colours?"

"A colour cannot be two colours, but a colour theme can contain two colours," Jaune grinned triumphantly, pointing at his left eye, that sparkled brightly. "Blue, and silver. That's why we were wrong. We should pick both blue and silver clothing. I wouldn't normally care about clothes so much since I used to wear armour over it, but now that my new weapon has so many forms, armour would only hinder me. So, without armour, I have to be careful with what I wear! As sure as Oum I'm not going to fight in jeans and hoodie!"

"Since when you have such a good fashion sense?" Yang asked, suspicion thick in her voice.

Jaune waved her off. "I have seven sisters, Yang. Well, nine if you have really adopted me. Anyway, I picked up a lot of skills from them. I always cared more for the practicalness of an outfit rather than it's fashionableness, but now… Well, I'm sure you understand."

"I don't understand how your mother can be even alive after having had eight children, but yes the rest I can understand," snorted the female blond, glancing at the pile of clothes he was gathering. "So, gonna put them on, or should I return to play Epic Grimm Fantasy 17 on my Scroll? I'm fighting the area six's boss."

"I'm gonna put them now, but do play if you want," replied the boy. "Oh, and as for the game, what characters do you use?"

Yang snorted. "Gaia, Chrono and Hades, of course. Oh, and I have Ares as backup. Gaia has the Hammer of Earth level eighteen, Chrono has the Lance of Thunder level sixteen -still trying to find a Core of Lightning dammit-, Hades has a Staff of Magic level eighteen, and Ares has a Missile Launcher of Doom level fifteen."

Jaune snorted. "Earth, lightning and magic damage. The boss, Centurion, is immune to magic damage, immune to negative status effects, and has fifty percent resistance against earth. Lightning deals double damage though. I suggest you buff your characters' defences and only use Chrono to attack. Keep his MP always high. Use the other two for buff-ups and healing."

Now it was Yang's turn to snort. "Sure. Boy, I don't know how much you've played this game, but I've won Epic Grimm Fantasy 16 with these characters. Don't tell me what I need to do."

He just shrugged. "Fine. When you die, don't come crying."

After entering the changing room, he quickly pulled off his clothes. Then he replaced them with the new ones, and took a minute or two to look at himself in the mirror.

He was now wearing deep blue baggy trousers that were tucked into silver combat boots, and the belt had disappeared. Now, tied at his waist there was a silver sash whose loose ends dangled from his left hip, the same side as his silver eye, one a few inches longer than the other. Instead of the plain blue shirt, he was now wearing a much better shirt. Its lower half was dark blue, but as it went higher the colour faded to a bright silver around the collar and over the shoulders. Over the shirt he wore a deep blue jacket that, like the shirt, faded to silver. However, the jacket was the opposite: instead of having the silver focused on the upper half, it was focused on the lower hem, and on the sleeves' forearms. He had decided against gloves, but instead he had chosen to tied a dark blue cloth around his forehead, as if to keep his hair back. The dark colour contrasted nicely with his fair skin and golden hair, and of course his red-tipped black locks.

That could do. That would do. Since he wouldn't have to wear any armour over it, he could leave use that outfit without worrying about the armour ruining the jacket. Speaking of which, he tried zipping up the jacket, and smiled at the result. He liked the outfit with the jacket closed too. At least he wouldn't have to worry about being un-cool when he was cold. Especially not after all the effort he put into finding the right outfit.

The blue of his outfit wasn't like the dark blue of his weapon, Cauchemar, but more like the deep blue of his right eye. It wasn't exactly a ninja-like outfit, even if it surely felt like it, but after all neither Blake's nor Ren's outfits were ninja-like, either. He was trash at being furtive and at stealth, so the most important thing to him was that his new outfit was comfortable, and looked nice. He'd have to buy several spares of it, since it was apparent that everyone in Beacon only had one outfit – two if they were lucky, three if one counted the uniform.

Falling into a rudimental unarmed stance, he tried launching a few punches at the air, finding that the clothes didn't hinder him at all, and he got the same result when he tried kicking. Not willing to risk hitting the walls, he decided to finally get Yang's opinion. Exiting from the stall with confidence in his step and a smile on his face, he walked up to the blonde beauty and waited for her to acknowledge him.

When she did, she looked him up and down before she grumbled, "Can work. At least it looks like Hunter gear and not civilian clothing."

Jaune grinned at her, and then at the Scroll she was clutching tightly in her hands. "Did you lose?"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"So~?"

"…ninety-six thousands hit points was just overkill," Yang finally blurted out. "And that's without counting the ten thousands damages it did at every hit. Oh, and also the ninety percent chance of instant death. Plus it called four Deathstalkers level thirty-seven at the beginning of every round."

Jaune laughed at her grief and his day, suddenly, was utterly perfect.

Props to who guess what 'Epic Grimm Fantasy' really is. Cue: it's a game I've been playing in the past three days when I was too uninspired to write. And some bosses were just overkill, like: my characters have 2000 HP average, and the boss has over 10k HP, and summons foes at every turn. WTF?!

Anyway, let's move on. Yay, Jaune got a new outfit, let's move on.

Nora. Ah, Nora, how can she be so wise, and at the same time so weird? It's one of her charms. Still not sure whether to make her a Yandere or not, honestly, but probably not. I just have a hard time writing that, and I absolutely loathe reading Yandere stuff.

Final comment: I often read, especially when 'meeting' Coco, of her just bumbing into the main character, and suddenly dragging them off to shopping, and becoming friends with them like that. Or, like, having the main character's outgoing friend asking her to help, and accepting without a second thought, and that has always irked me a lot. Feels very fake to just meet someone and go out shopping with them. It might be me, but to me it feels fake. Forced.

Again, I might just be too antisocial to even entertain the idea.

Until next time,

Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh