New Best Day(?)
The door to Tukson's book trade swung open, and Tukson was busy packing up a box with books, he was intent on moving his book store to Vacuo after some recent White Fang activity had made him feel it not safe in town anymore.
"Be there in just a minute!" he called out while stacking one more box onto his pile and pushing the door open.
"Welcome to Tukson's book trade home to every-" he looked around and saw no one there. "That's-" before he had time to comment anymore, the handle of Hush hooked onto his leg and he was flung across his book shop and into a shelf, groaning as he hit it while Neo walked over, she saw that it was heavy enough to where it had to be held to the wall with ropes.
A smile formed on the woman's face as she swung Hush's blade at the rope holding one side of the shelf up, forcing Tukson to now lean his back on it to keep it from falling over, most of the books sliding off now.
She began walking around Tukson, examining the structure of the shelf.
It was definitely one of those stronger, and heavy metallic ones.
"W-Who sent you?!" he demanded to know, but no response came. "It was the White Fang, wasn't it?!"
A smile spread across Neo's face as she cut the rope on the other side.
Tukson screamed as the shelf fell on him, before nothing. Blood began to pool under the shelf as Neo silently skipped out of the book shop, but not before picking up a book that interested her near the entrance.
Another job done, this one at least helped Roman avoid a scolding from Cinder for not getting this done sooner.
Despite all the common hustle and bustle in Beacon's cafeteria, things were quiet at the table Teams RWBY and JNPR sat at.
Well, quiet was putting it lightly, Nora was still very much stuffing her face with food.
"So how do we know anything else we try to act on won't just be countered by Neo or even Cinder? How do we know she hasn't told Cinder all that we know?" Jaune asked.
"We don't have any solid evidence to believe Cinder's team knows our secret." Ruby reasoned. "Emerald at least sounded a bit clueless on the matter the few times I hung out with her over the break."
"I'm surprised you haven't driven her crazy yet." Weiss admitted while neatly finishing her tray of food.
"She's a really good actor. But I've been honest with her myself about how I feel. And I really feel like I'm getting through to her." Ruby assured. "At least I hope I am…"
"Be careful sis, you don't know if she's trying to lead you along into an actual trap." Yang set her carton of milk down at the table when the door into the cafeteria opened.
"Ladies~" the familiar voice of Neptune spoke up as he slicked his hair back and he winked.
Team RWBY… Was unfazed by his sudden arrival and immediately just returned to some other discussion.
"So I'm actually in advanced classes this semester." Yang began. "It kinda helps when you've taken a class once already-"
"Ahem." Neptune cleared his throat, earning everyone's stares back. "Ladies~"
The only response that came was a cough from Nora.
"Hey, you're um… Sun's teammate, right?" Jaune asked.
"So, what if I am?" Neptune tried really hard to seem cool.
"You don't gotta act cool around us dude. We're not the popular kids or anything." he scratched the back of his head.
"Don't you like have Pyrrha Nikos on your team, dude?" Neptune pointed at her.
"Hello again!" she waved at them politely.
"We do, but she doesn't like people trying to put up an act in front of her, same with Weiss. Word of advice, just be yourself." Jaune stated.
"Oh… Tough crowd, huh?" he glanced back at Sun who just shrugged his shoulders.
"Hey, these guys just led me around that one time thinking there was gonna be a big heist at the docks but it turned out to be a bust." Sun sat down right next to Blake. "How's it hangin'?"
Blake rolled her eyes and sighed. "Fine enough, we're just thinking about what we can do next." she admitted. "The patterns of the robberies haven't been anything we've been able to keep up with, and to make matters worse. We think they may be moving towards more ambitious operations."
"I've been meaning to ask… Where're you getting this intel? Seems pretty unreliable if you haven't been able to keep on top of stuff." Sun admitted.
Blake's eyes moved to avoid his. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."
"That just means I definitely would believe ya!" Sun grinned.
"Well I know you well enough to know you'd tell everyone you know." Blake narrowed her eyes at him and he raised his arms up defensively.
"Hey, I'm great with secrets!"
"He's really not." Neptune furrowed his eyebrows and sat at the table.
Standing up from the table, Ruby just took a deep breath. "Hey guys, I'm gonna head back to the dorm room. You're welcome to join me or something. I'm just prepping for class." She made eye contact with her teammates, clearly signifying something.
"Oh um. Sure thing!" Yang stood up as well.
"We'll see you around more, Neptune. You seem like a pretty nice guy. Hope that's not an act." Weiss complimented. Turning away, she sighed. She could at least save herself the drama of trying to hook up with him here, since he clearly would always flirt with every girl he saw.
"They always this weird?" Neptune asked Sun who just shrugged his shoulders.
A tray of food came flying across the lunch hall just as Team RWBY stepped outside.
As it would turn out, Nora's attempted throw at the garbage can across the lunch hall, only ended up hitting Cardin Winchester directly.
Out of nervousness, Nora pointed at Neptune who awkwardly laughed before snatching Sun's tray away from him, resulting in him throwing the tray in Cardin's face as well.
"FOOD FIGHT!" Nora yelled out.
Jaune let out a sigh. Some things just didn't change.
As Neo skipped her way down the warehouse floor, she watched Roman looking at a map of the city, still trying to make sense of what it was he was getting himself involved with and what businesses he had yet to clear out of dust.
Almost as if on cue, he turned around and smiled at the sight of Neopolitan stopping in her tracks right behind him. "Glad you're back, Neo." he greeted her with a tip of his hat.
Neo's heart was filled with all kinds of emotions just from that smile alone, it was a smile she was certain about protecting this time at all costs.
"Hey, what gives?!" Emerald called out from across the room, earning both of their attention.
"What gives?" Roman raised an eyebrow.
"You told us you hadn't eliminated that book shop owner yet!" she crossed her arms while stopping now.
"We just walked into his shop and he was dead. Pretty freshly dead too, when did you have time to deal with that while robbing that last shop?!" Mercury asked in an annoyed tone.
"Well, you're lucky I was able to rob that shop on my own with our added muscle. Neo there, went about taking care of that business. Isn't that right?" Roman nodded at Neo's smiling response.
"I don't see what the problem here is." Cinder's voice spoke up from above them as she descended a lift.
"Hey Cinder!" Emerald greeted her with a polite wave, earning a nod from the woman. For some reason, ever since she started hanging around Ruby, she felt slightly less dependent on approval from Cinder, oh it was still absolutely the best feeling she got, but she was able to make due with the more minor affirmations, rather than the direct ones…
"Mercury, you and Emerald are supposed to lay low." she scolded.
"Yeah? Well we figured that we'd get some business done that Torchwick was slacking off on." Mercury scoffed, glaring in Roman's direction.
"Well he clearly wasn't if it was done before you entered the scene. You're lucky no cameras spotted you snooping around." Cinder shrugged her shoulders. "Also, I didn't pick you up to 'figure' things. I picked you up for a specific job you're needed for. Both you and Emerald. Your hands are to remain blood-free before it's our time." she glared. "And don't think about being smart with me." a flame formed in her hand.
Mercury took a few steps back. "Sorry. Yeesh, at least Em gets to have fun with some kids."
Roman silently laughed with Neo before Cinder turned to face him now.
"Our plan is shifting into its next phase." she explained.
"Which is…?"
"You'll understand in due time, dear Roman." Cinder cupped his cheek, looking him in the eye.
Neo internally wanted to gag at seeing this, she wished very hard that she could just stab this Cinder bitch and be done., but she knew that doing that would only anger the bigger lady in their dynamic, and the last thing Neo wanted was an immortal witch hunting her and Roman across Remnant for the rest of their lives.
"Once you've rallied the faunus of the city, bring them over to the coordinates I'm sending to your scroll now." Cinder instructed.
Oh right, the rally… The night where she first met those damn brats that sent her life into a downward spiral. She knew what to be on the lookout for at the very least.
With that simple command, Cinder began to walk away from the pair.
Roman fumbled around his pockets for his lighter after putting a cigar into his mouth. He couldn't find it for some reason, only to hear the click from it igniting right beside him.
Neo smiled cutely to him while holding the lighter up and letting him light up his cigar.
Her eyes narrowed at the departing trio. The memory of Cinder's betrayal still etched into her mind. This time she'd be the one doing the backstabbing… To Cinder and those annoying brats.
Commentary: Another pretty tame chapter all things considered. I don't really got a lot to talk about in the commentary here, other than the fact that Neo is definitely only really in it for Roman and no one else.
I could also talk about Roman Holiday, which I finished reading before I wrote this chapter out. I enjoyed it. It was fun enough, even if some of the names in it were a bit on the nose, but hey, that's just Remnant names in general. I'd absolutely recommend checking it out if you can. I wouldn't mind incorporating some elements from that book later on into this story.