The train ride to the city was uneventful.
For Pyrrha, it often edged itself between being awkward for herself and Jaune, or just as comfortable as they were training with one another, this all being determined through conversation.
Pyrrha herself knew that both she and Jaune weren't the most social people in the world, and trying to take the initiative to avoid making the situation uncomfortable for them, she decided to simply ask Jaune a large sum of questions, though her need to have more questions to ask by the time Jaune finished speaking made her feel, to her own ironic distress, more uncomfortable than when she sat down on the window side of the train seats.
Her brain had been fine-tuned by several years' worth of hard studying, to the point that trying to take in information was easier for her than trying to find ways to get more of it.
Usually she simply listened to other people when there was something wrong, so even though she was decent at conversation, as well as listening to people's problems, this was all for naught when it came to Jaune, who had the bad habit of locking up his problems for only his soul to know, with Pyrrha having to break through it in order to see the content of said problems.
In short, sitting on the train was not a pleasant experience for Pyrrha, this likely to be the case with or without Jaune being present.
She simply disliked the feeling that she was sitting idle when she could doing something more productive with her time.
Needless to say, as they walked out of the train and into the station, Pyrrha was relieved to at least be moving again.
As they exited the station, Pyrrha and Jaune showing their school IDs to let the conductor know to let them out, Jaune immediately told her something afterwards, "We'll be going to the docks to meet my sister."
"Okay." Pyrrha nodded her understanding, walking beside her partner, eyes set forward as they entered the bustling crowd of people.
With the snow suddenly coming in, the people wrapped up in heavy clothing made Pyrrha be somewhat reminded of Christmas.
That was actually a very fitting thing to compare this moment to, she thought with a smile as she looked through her surroundings.
The many stores she and Jaune passed held warm, welcoming glows within them, contrasting greatly with the merciless cold of the outside world at that moment.
Even as she walked towards the docks however, Pyrrha gradually felt something was off.
In her many years of training, Pyrrha could recognize when there was something watching her.
The feeling grew and faded, her aura becoming her sixth sense as she felt it working like an ocean wave, starting up slow and then growing to its crest, before slamming back down to its original place and starting over again.
She felt not one person watching her, but two.
This was assuming that her aura was warning her of things that watched her that weren't in groups.
She kept up a friendly facade to make it so that the people watching her wouldn't think she'd noticed their prying eyes, though Pyrrha was truthfully trying to pinpoint where the watchers were.
There was one on the rooftops above her to her right and another source behind her.
Knowing that she couldn't look behind herself without revealing she knew about the people behind her, Pyrrha decided to look up at the rooftops, her fighting through the winds to keep her eyes from watering up, absolutely straining her eye balls to turn enough so she could hopefully see whatever was following her, Pyrrha occasionally pretending to look into the stores they passed as to turn her head completely and look up at the rooftops, her still finding no one.
Jaune must've taken notice of this, as he said with a playful smile, "Am I being a little boring Pyrrha?"
Pyrrha, who was once again straining to look at the rooftops, snapped her gaze back towards Jaune, her eyes evidently surprised, before she smiled bashfully, "Oh, no, that's not it Jaune."
"You really haven't been saying much for a while now." Jaune pointed out, his hands entering his pockets, "You've been making these sounds but nothing comes out that makes sense."
Pyrrha sighed softly, "I'm sorry Jaune. It's just..."
Pyrrha didn't recreate the friendly facade she had held up minutes beforehand, and with her face and tone now serious, Pyrrha told Jaune about the people that were watching her.
When she finished speaking, Jaune looked slightly behind himself, Pyrrha hissing under her breath, "Don't let them know."
Reading her expression, Jaune looked forward without thinking, asking Pyrrha the question he wanted to ask, "How are you so sure that someone's watching you?"
"Do you remember what I told you before about what our auras let us do?" Jaune shook his head honestly, and Pyrrha explained it to him again, "It's no different than a defense mechanism we have. Anytime something is watching us, we should be able to detect it."
"Really? I don't feel anything though."
"It could be that you don't know how to use your aura all that well," Pyrrha said with a thoughtful expression, "It's either that, or someone's only watching me."
Jaune gave her a long look, seeing her trying to imagine a plan of action, before he sighed fitfully, as though he had been contemplating something and had finally reached a decision, "Pyrrha, there's something I should probably tell you."
"What is it Jaune?" Pyrrha asked curiously.
Jaune told her about the date heist plan as best as could remember from the details Oobleck had given him, and as Pyrrha's eyes slowly raised themselves in realization, they quickly started to harden when Jaune told her of Ruby and Blake's disguises, stopping dead in her tracks and turning quickly around, Pyrrha uncaring of the people around her as she tried to scan the crowd for any sign whatsoever of a red hood or a black bow.
"Come on Pyrrha, we'll end up being late if we stay here for too long." Jaune urged her verbally, watching Pyrrha's back as she eventually gave up, sighing heavily before turning to face Jaune again.
She turned away and walked past him, speaking all the while.
"I'm not going to let you pay for everything yourself Jaune. I'll help if it comes to that."
Jaune followed closely behind her, "Don't worry Pyrrha," walking right next to her now, he glanced at her with a smile, "I don't want you to be the one paying. I'm the one who asked you out."
Pyrrha smiled back at him, almost jokingly, "It's only fair that the guy be the one to pay for a date. But this isn't a date, is it?"
Jaune actually thought this over in his mind for a moment, then shrugged his shoulders, "If you don't want it to be. I wouldn't mind if we called this a date though."
Pyrrha only raised her eyebrow at this, her smile growing slightly, "Really?"
"Yes." Jaune admitted, "Why not say it for what everyone else thinks it is? It's not exactly the worst thing in the world to go on a date with a girl as pretty as you."
The smile she had turned somewhat playful then, "Aren't you supposed to say that I'm beautiful instead of pretty?"
Jaune's smile became somewhat pained as he recalled something in his past.
"I probably should, but from my last experience of going on a date that wasn't the best thing to do..." His body language changed, becoming a bit more huddled, as though he were trying to shield his body with his arms, Jaune not noticing this himself, for it was a reflex.
"Oh? You dated someone before?" Pyrrha felt her smile drop, her eyes flickering in curiosity.
"I'm not sure you could call it that, but yes, I went on one date before this. This is a heck of a lot better than that time was..." Jaune gave a nervous and forced chuckle now.
The same one he always gave when he didn't want to talk about something.
Deciding to let the subject drop, Pyrrha looked from Jaune to the direction they were walking towards, "Do you know how much farther until we reach the docks Jaune?"
Jaune looked forward as well at her question, then nodded after taking notice to his surroundings, "Yes, we shouldn't be too far from them now."
Pyrrha walked with a small amount of anxiety building up within her as she neared their destination now, her mind subconsciously wondering what Jaune's sister looked like.
As they crossed a street section to reach the docks' entrance, Pyrrha could see that Jaune walk with a notably quickened step down the stairs that led to the wooden structure that acted as a place for boats to port, having noticed the boat in the distance at the very end of the port.
As she carefully walked down the steps, Pyrrha took one last look across the sidewalk, searching for any sign of Ruby or Blake.
When she found neither of the two to be in her eyesight, Pyrrha sighed in a mixed sort of relief.
While she couldn't see Ruby or Blake anywhere, her aura still warned her of someone watching her, from the general direction she had just looked.
It was always possible that they were physically hiding from her, Pyrrha reasoned to herself.
Deciding to leave that matter to its own devices, Pyrrha's heels slightly hit the staircase as she walked down, looking at the boat and seeing it was a slightly small sized cruiser, the deck caked entirely in snow.
As she reached the bottom of the stairs, Pyrrha took notice of the fact that a tall figure, who seemed to be a man, had climbed down a rope ladder off the side of the boat, another figure with long flowing hair who seemed to be female leaning herself over the edge of the boat, the two figures looking at one another, seeming to be saying something to one another, before the man lifted his gloved hands up in the air, taking a few careful steps backwards.
The woman mirrored his actions, taking a few steps backwards before she ran towards the edge of the boat, jumping high over the edge of the boat, doing a single front flip forward before she righted herself, her knees tucked tightly together, her arms spread up over her head, her legs sliding slickly through the man's hands, before he tightly took a hold of her waist, the woman's arms still raised, the inertia from the fall making the man somewhat lose his balance, only for him to recover his footing a second later.
From where she was, at the end of the dock, Pyrrha faintly heard the exclaim of joy from a voice that was obviously the woman's, her raised hands tightening into fists, which shook violently as she reveled in her achievement of the strange stunt the man participated in.
Though she stared somewhat at the spectacle, Pyrrha glanced at Jaune and saw he looked a bit bemused at it instead of surprised.
Looking back towards the pair, the man setting the woman down on her feet, Pyrrha wondered for a moment if the woman was Jaune's sister.
Judging from the fact that Jaune's warm smile seemed to grow for every several steps they came closer to the pair next to the boat, with the blonde seeming to walk faster and faster in order to hasten their walk, this seemed rather likely.
As the woman noticed them, she started walking towards them quickly, and when they came within clear ear-shot, the woman spoke, a smile in her voice, "Long time no see Jaune."
"Same to you Sedeqe." Jaune and the woman, Sedeqe, had closed the distance between them now, embracing each other tightly.
Pyrrha looked at the pair with something of an odd look on her face.
Assuming this was Jaune's sister, the show of affection was of no surprise to her, quite the contrary in actuality.
The reason for Pyrrha's odd look was because of Jaune's lack thereof as a reaction to Sedeqe's appearance.
While it was obvious that she had blonde hair, it being a few shades brighter than Jaune's, reaching to her middle back while being wavy near the ends of her locks and straight towards the top of her head, the mask she wore over her face was of much greater conspicuity.
It was a mask that's colors were bisected down the middle, one side, Sedeqe's right, being black, a thin veil under the hole for the right side of the mask's mouth, it curling up into a smile. The other side, Sedeqe's left, was a bright yellow in color, the smile the left side of the mask held curling downwards into a frown. The eyes in the mask held two equally spaced crescents, which did nothing to hide her now closed eyes, one being a crescent that had its pointy edges cast upwards, it being on the right side of the face, and the other crescent an upside down version of its right counterpart, the edges pointed downwards.
Sedeqe and Jaune's embrace ended as Pyrrha took in these details about Sedeqe's strange mask, the holes that revealed her ocean blue eyes seeming to beam at Jaune.
"I'm really glad to see you." Sedeqe said.
"Same here." Jaune said, and Sedeqe looked at Pyrrha then.
"May I assume you're the friend of Jaune's I've heard about?" She walked to stand in front of Pyrrha, the few inches Sedeqe had over her head making Pyrrha feel somewhat small, Sedeqe looking slightly down at her.
"Yes." Pyrrha spoke somewhat uncertainly, a tinge of hesitance in her expression, "Would it be safe to assume that you're Jaune's sister?"
"Yes, my name's Sedeqe." The older woman held her hand out for Pyrrha to shake, and Pyrrha took it graciously, "It's nice to meet you."
"Likewise."
The man who accompanied Sedeqe had walked behind her, Pyrrha quickly taking notice to the fact that he wore a mask exactly like Sedeqe's, only the colors were swapped, the happy looking side of his mask being a bright yellow and the sad looking side being the black side of it.
His eyes were not as warm as Sedeqe's, but were instead observant of Pyrrha, his deep voice catching her attention immediately, "It's good to see you again Jaune."
"Same here." Jaune smiled all the more at the man, who much more quickly put his full attention towards Pyrrha.
"It's nice to finally meet you, Ms. Nikos." Sedeqe had already taken her hand away from Pyrrha's, Shem reaching forward so he could shake her hand as well.
She smiled and shook his hand, "It's nice to meet you as well, Mr..."
Pyrrha's smile dropped, her trailing off as she realized she didn't know the man's last name.
He must have realized it too, for he shook his head, "While I most certainly enjoy a person with formality, if Jaune hasn't already told you who I am, then I'd prefer to keep it from you. You may simply call me Shem, Ms. Nikos."
Though she felt somewhat weird about calling someone by their first name when the person in question called her by her last name, she nodded all the same.
It didn't occur to Pyrrha to ask how Shem knew her last name when she hadn't even properly introduced herself until later on, her simply assuming they'd heard of her somehow at that moment.
When Pyrrha heard Shem speaking about how Jaune hadn't told her about him, she looked over at Jaune a moment, almost in questioning, before looking back to the people who she had so recently met.
It was at that moment that Pyrrha realized she didn't know what to say in that moment, yet thankfully, Shem turned to Sedeqe and Jaune, asking them a question, "Was there any place that you'd like to go to eat?"
"Hm..." Sedeqe's posture fixed itself into a thoughtful position, her holding her chin up while holding her elbow, her eyes closing behind her mask, "I believe there should still be that aquatic restaurant."
"You mean the Messo Merma?" Jaune asked curiously to his sister, Sedeqe nodding greatly.
"Yes, that's the one!"
"Alright." Shem crossed his arms as he bowed his head in thought, "Would it be safe to assume that Jaune and I will be paying for it?"
"If you wouldn't mind." Sedeqe said, in a voice that implied that she wouldn't mind paying herself.
"We'll do that then. Is that okay with you Jaune?"
Shem must have noticed Jaune's expression growing a bit wary at this plan of action, but he nodded his head all the same, "Yes, I'm okay with that."
"Are you sure? I don't want to impede if it'll put too much of a dent in your savings."
"No, don't worry Shem, it's not that, it's something else that I'm a bit worried about."
As Jaune said this, Pyrrha was reminded of the fact that her aura was still telling her someone was looking at her, and she turned to look behind herself, the feeling lessening greatly when she did this.
"We should get moving then," Sedeqe crossed her arms, "I don't want to freeze out here."
Pyrrha couldn't help feeling as though Sedeqe had been looking at Shem as she said this, but didn't think too deeply about it, for the woman walked forward, Shem looking back towards the boat and waving his hand so the men who had exited the inside of it could see, them seeing the signal and jumping off the side of the boat, landing hard on the wooden walkway of the docks.
Sedeqe wrapped her arm around Pyrrha's, leaning in close to her, her looking at Pyrrha with an unseen smile in reaction to Pyrrha's puzzled look, "It's best if we bunch together like this, isn't it? It's too cold out here not to."
Pyrrha wasn't given the chance to give a rebuttal of any kind, as Sedeqe pulled their locked elbows towards the exits of the docks a bit forcibly.
She mentally questioned her actions, but Pyrrha found no reason to dwell on her thoughts about them, simply looking behind herself to see that Jaune and Shem followed them, not following Sedeqe's example for achieving warmth.
As the two women walked up the stairs, Pyrrha felt herself looking back towards the docks, seeing five men behind Shem and Jaune, following suit, Pyrrha's heels clicking lightly against the stairs as Sedeqe's regular shoes simply made a low thud against them with each step, Pyrrha having a slight amount of difficulty going up the stairs at Sedeqe's pace with the high heels she wore, but managed to get to the top without slipping at all.
As they walked forward, onto the sidewalk, Pyrrha felt her aura once more warn her of someone watching her.
She looked behind herself as she walked, and the feeling lessened just as suddenly as it grew.
She furrowed her eyebrows somewhat at this.
Why were Ruby and Blake so determined to try carrying out a plan as long-winded as this?
"Hey, Pyrrha?" Sedeqe's voice broke the girl from her thoughts, her looking back at the older woman.
"Yes?"
"How did you meet Jaune? I'm a bit curious."
Having realized that Sedeqe wearing a mask made it hard to read her emotions, Pyrrha could only assume she was telling the truth (this wasn't to say she didn't believe Sedeqe, but it just made it feel as though she was hiding something with that mask on).
"I met him the day we were supposed to make our teams." Pyrrha replied.
"How did you get on his team then?"
Pyrrha looked curious now under Sedeqe's knowing gaze.
"How did you know we were on the same team?"
"Jaune told me. He talks a lot about you."
"Really?"
"Well, I assume he's talking about you. He didn't mention you by name until a few days ago. He said something about a red-headed person nailing him to something twice in one day before they became his partner. I had to force it out of him to tell me you were a girl though."
Pyrrha smiled a bit sheepishly at that, "I can't deny that I did do those things."
"Thank you for saving my little brother from certain death. I don't think my team making exam was like that when I was going to school." Sedeqe laughed lightly.
"You're a huntress?" Pyrrha asked without thinking.
"Yup. Though I didn't go to Beacon. I went to an academy in Atlas instead."
Pyrrha looked at Sedeqe in a small bout of surprise then.
Someone trained in the militaristic region that was Atlas who came out with this carefree a personality?
It was almost a foreign idea to the younger girl.
As though reading her thoughts, Sedeqe said in a pouty kind of voice, "Atlas isn't as bad as people make it out to be. It's just not for everyone."
Pyrrha smiled lightly at that, "You could be right."
There it was again, she thought, her gaze turning to look behind herself again, trying to find Blake and Ruby, only for Sedeqe's voice to take her attention again, "Can I ask you something?"
Pyrrha turned to look at her, "Yes, what?"
"Why do you keep looking around like that?"
Pyrrha didn't respond for a moment, then answered honestly, "I keep sensing someone watching me."
She glanced behind herself through the corner of her eye once more, seeing Jaune and Shem behind her, the five men who were with them at the docks out of sight.
It was at this point in time that she noticed something rather peculiar behind the two.
There, walking a fair distance behind Jaune and Shem, was a person with a red hood over their head, a moustache that curled itself up at the ends being on the person's face despite how feminine their facial structure and hair were, wearing what looked like a suit despite the person wearing a hood.
Next to her was a taller woman with black hair wrapped in cloth, as though she were a gypsy, with sunglasses on, wearing a conservative dress as she walked besides the person who wore a business suit and fake moustache.
Turning her head to look fully behind her, to affirm she was in fact seeing what she was seeing, Pyrrha gave an incredulous look, Jaune and Shem looking behind them a moment later to see what she was looking at.
Did they really think they were hiding themselves well, being dressed like that?
For Blake, her appearance was at least altered enough to say she looked like a different person, but for Ruby it was so obvious it almost hurt.
"Hm." Sedeqe looked down despite Pyrrha's look, whispering, "It seems we've been found out already."
Vaguely hearing the woman's words, Pyrrha looked back at Sedeqe, "What?"
The rumble of a motorcycle caught her attention the next moment, and Pyrrha looked back at see a person riding the yellow painted Bumblebee motorcycle, and she mentally sighed as she realized what was happening.
Sedeqe unhooked their elbows in that moment, turning herself away from the path she'd wanted to take, speaking clearly to Pyrrha, in a voice that left no room for argument, "Meet Shem and I at the Messo Merma. Jaune will be able to take you there."
Though Pyrrha looked at the back of Sedeqe's head quizzically, Sedeqe walked to Jaune and Shem, the motorcycle driver having stopped besides them.
The rider pulled her helmet off, shaking her head slightly to loosen her hair, before she spoke, "Hey Jaune, fancy meeting you here!"
Though Shem stopped to glance at the blonde who greeted Jaune, Jaune himself ignored her completely, walking past her as though she'd said absolutely nothing to him.
Yang persisted, driving her motorcycle forward at the walking pace Jaune had, speaking up again, unabated by him ignoring her, "Hey Jaune, what's wrong buddy? I just wanted to remind you of the promise you made me."
"Please do, because I don't remember ever doing that." Jaune closed his eyes as he walked forward, determined not to look at Yang's smiling face, "In fact, I'm pretty sure I never promised you anything."
Sedeqe passed him in that moment, grasping him by his right shoulder, leaning into his ear and whispering, "Let me handle this."
Yang had stopped her motorcycle completely, crossing her arms over the steering knobs, "You said that you'd be treating us to -"
Sedeqe had been walking to Yang's side swiftly, and when Yang realized that Sedeqe was coming too close, it was already too late.
She lifted her hand, concentrating as it readied itself for a karate chop, then slammed itself into Yang's neck, the air whipping at the speed of the chop, the built up aura Sedeqe had flowing through Yang's spinal cord.
The girl's body stiffened greatly, and not wasting a second, Sedeqe walked behind Yang, wrapping her arms around her stomach and lifting her up, Yang's feet dragging themselves on the ground, Sedeqe setting her in a sitting up position against the wall of a building, her uncaring of the looks passerby gave her, the woman walking back to find Shem beside the motorcycle to throw her the helmet Yang had worn, Sedeqe catching it and setting the helmet on Yang's lap, before finally walking to Bumblebee, sitting herself down on the motorcycle as though she'd done nothing wrong, Shem getting on the motorcycle and wrapping his arms around her stomach, Sedeqe giving him a moment to adjust before she drove back onto the road again, the motorcycle speeding away with a roar, until it took a sudden right turn, going past the corner and going out of everyone's sight.
Having just been momentarily paralyzed, Yang could not do anything as her motorcycle was stolen from her.
Ruby and Blake were of no help, even as they kneeled down to see what was wrong with their close friend.
Jaune's reaction was one that had been instilled within him after many times of this sort of thing happening.
He turned away from Yang and walked to Pyrrha, patting her on the shoulder to get her attention before speaking, "We should go."
But even Pyrrha was shocked and appalled at Sedeqe's actions.
"But Jaune, Yang is -"
"She'll be fine. She'll only lie still for another thirty seconds. Let's go while we have the chance." Jaune walked forward as he said this, Pyrrha hearing the calmness in his tone and looking at the form of Yang, remembering being abducted and forcibly changed, before being stalked for the better part of an hour by two of the most poorly disguised people she'd ever seen.
Staring as Yang started to move again, Pyrrha remembered the plan Jaune had described to her, and seeing that three of the most vital parts of the plan were gathered into a pile of evidence, the small idea she had of it being something Jaune made up dissipated completely.
Realizing Jaune telling her they only had a small amount of time to get away, she walked after the blonde, following closely behind him, never turning to look back at Ruby and company.
The Messo Merma hadn't been very far from where Sedeqe had stolen Yang's motorcycle, it having been a few blocks away from where Pyrrha had left everyone else.
Walking inside the restaurant, Pyrrha said a small thank you to Jaune, who held the door for her as he kept a wary eye out for any followers, and walked inside to find Sedeqe and Shem standing behind a few people, who were trying to get to their tables.
When Pyrrha was about to walk to them, the time came for the duo to plan a table, and the woman behind the podium like structure asked them a very understandable question, "Would you mind taking your masks off?"
"We'd prefer it if we kept them on." Shem replied to the women, "Does it bother you?"
"Not really," the woman was obviously lying about this, "It's just, I'm not sure any other customers feel fine with you keeping them on."
Shem walked around the podium, standing beside the woman, "Would you mind if I showed you something?"
"What?"
"You'll need to crouch down for a moment." Shem crouched down himself as he said this, getting on one knee, "Come on, I can't show it to you if you're standing up."
The woman stared down at the man, who looked like he was trying to propose to her in his position, yet reluctantly crouched down as well, getting on her knees.
The conversation that followed came in the form of whispers, Pyrrha unable to hear any of it, the woman giving a large gasp before she stood up immediately, Shem standing up in front of her, "Do you know why I wanted to keep my mask on now?"
"Y-Yes." The woman was visibly more flustered than before, taking up the needed number of menus before walking towards the table area, "Follow me."
"Thank you." Shem replied, walking behind the woman, Sedeqe having noticed Pyrrha and Jaune and walking beside them.
"Do you often do that?" Pyrrha asked Sedeqe, referring to her stealing Yang's motorcycle.
"No. Only when I need to." Sedeqe lifted up the keys to the motorcycle, twirling them around on her finger as she walked.
"Would you mind it if I were to give that motorcycle back to its owner?" Pyrrha said in a bit of an uneasy tone.
Sedeqe nodded, tossing the keys up for Pyrrha to catch despite them being a foot apart, her catching them easily, "Please do. It'd save me the trouble of trying to give it back."
"Thank you." Pyrrha said in surprise.
As they reached their large booth, Pyrrha questioned the two adults in front of her about the thing that had been bugging her for the past several minutes, "Would you mind me asking why you're wearing those masks?"
The woman who led them to the table walked away, the look she gave to Pyrrha not going unnoticed by the huntress in training.
Sedeqe shared a look with Shem, and they looked back at Pyrrha, Sedeqe crossing her arms, "We'll tell you soon. Let's order first though, yeah?"
Without waiting for an answer, Sedeqe sat down, Shem sitting down next to her, Pyrrha seeing Jaune gesturing for her to sit and taking the unspoken offer, scooting herself to her left to give Jaune room to sit, which he took.
Seeing that both the adults sitting opposite of her were reading through their menus, Pyrrha looked at Jaune, who saw her look and smiled reassuringly at her before shrugging, opening his own menu.
Pyrrha took special notice of the fact that Jaune made a few glances towards the entrance of the restaurant, and as she thought of how persistent the members of team RWBY could be, she decided that, in the event that Yang, Ruby and Blake somehow found their way inside of the restaurant, she would simply bask in this moment, pretending this was still a simple friendly outing, that she hadn't been forcibly kidnapped by her friends and dragged to her dorm room, being changed without a choice in the matter, and stalked for an hour by people who were trying to take advantage of her best friend, with one of the ring leaders of said people getting her motorcycle stolen by a person who did it so smoothly that it looked like something out a video game where a character could steal anyone's vehicle.
Opening her menu, Pyrrha forced a smile onto her face, the strain lessening with each passing second.
Her smile dropped when she noticed Jaune's expression turning sour.
"What's wrong?" Pyrrha asked with a glance to him.
He seemed to hide himself behind his menu, whispering while glancing at her, "They're here."
Pyrrha didn't hearken for further details from him, nor did she need to, her copying Jaune's actions.
While the moment hadn't lasted for very long – barely ten seconds, if that – Pyrrha simply believed that if she and Jaune hid well enough, that the Stalker Three wouldn't notice them.
She held the menu over her face for a moment, staring at it but not reading it, only to mentally sigh.
What was she even hoping for?
Even if the Stalker Three didn't notice her and Jaune at a glance, if the trio was to pass by, Shem and Sedeqe's masks would've gotten the job done, if nothing else would.
As she realized this, Pyrrha lowered her menu, glancing to Jaune, "Jaune?"
"Yes?" Jaune said in small voice, him visibly nervous now.
"Where are they now?" She spoke in a calm voice.
"I don't want to look." Jaune whimpered almost.
"You're the one on that side, so I can't do it myself without making it too obvious." Pyrrha replied in a deadpan tone.
His posture entered a sulk-like state, but Jaune nodded his understanding all the same, him reluctantly leaning his head ever so slightly out into the aisle.
The sight that greeted him made him freeze instantly, and he hid himself behind his menu again.
"Where are they Jaune?" Pyrrha asked this with a tinge of foreboding in her tone.
"Ruby's there. She saw me." Jaune said this in anything but a calm voice.
"Calm down." Pyrrha grasped his wrist supportively, "It'll be okay."
Jaune looked at her, then took a deep breath, nodding a small bit.
"Yeah, you're right." He breathed again, then smiled a bit, "Thank you Pyrrha."
She returned his smile, only for Sedeqe's voice to bring the partners' attention to her.
"What's going on with you two?"
She had laid her menu down a few moments ago, staring at the exchange between Pyrrha and Jaune.
"Did you screw something up again?" Shem had noticed as well, him asking Jaune this with a strong amount of certainty in his gaze.
Jaune's eyes widened, but he recovered from his surprise after a second, speaking a bit louder then.
"No, it's just that there's someone at the entrance - !"
Jaune's eyes widened greatly when he saw Shem immediately lean his head into the aisle, looking down to see Ruby looking back towards them with a hesitance in her gaze.
He gazed at the young girl for a long moment, then glanced at her companions, seeing the conservative gypsy standing next to a blonde woman who spoke to the waitress.
His gaze remained on the blonde woman for a long moment.
Taking in her facial features, his eyes narrowed themselves.
So the girl riding the motorcycle had been Xiao Long after all…
Realizing Yang's identity, it became easy to identify the "he"-girl, if he could even call the girl that, as Ruby Rose.
How convenient, he thought mirthlessly.
With it being clear in his mind that the girls he had spent several days wishing he could have a strong word with, he called out to them, "Xiao Long, Rose!"
Both girls looked up at the sound of their names, and Jaune spoke hesitantly, "Uh… Shem?"
Shem cared nothing for his brother in law's voice, which carried the implication of a warning, and kept speaking when he realized that the girls were in fact the ones he thought them to be, he waved them down in a gesture for them to come to him, "If you're going to eat here, I'll cover the costs. Come over here."
"Shem, what are you doing?"
"I only want to have a talk with the person who we stole a motorcycle from." Shem said calmly, "I might as well compensate her for her damages."
"I doubt we caused any damage." Sedeqe said, looking at Shem, "We only drove half a block."
"Even so." Shem watched as Yang, Ruby and the unnamed girl who accompanied them walked to the booth's side, looking up at them and holding his menu out for them, "You might want to order before our waitress comes."
They looked at this display of hospitality with a sort of confusion that festered in their expressions.
"Take it," Shem said, reaching it towards Yang, "I only like to eat a few things from this marine restaurant anyways."
Yang took the menu with a large deal of surprise, but nodded silently after a moment and taking it.
Sensing her hesitance, Shem rested his head on his fist, eyes looking up at Yang, "Would you mind sitting? I'd rather avoid attracting unnecessary attention."
Yang looked down at the large amount of emptiness the seats held, then sat down somewhat awkwardly next to Shem.
The lack of her extroverted mannerisms did not go unnoticed by Pyrrha, who scooted herself further down at Shem's behest, Jaune following suit, yet this was something she understood.
Even Pyrrha wouldn't act herself when a person who had stolen her motorcycle had offered to pay for a meal at a restaurant less than ten minutes later.
When Ruby and Blake sat themselves beside Jaune and Yang respectively, Shem gestured for them to choose their food of choice, their waiter arriving and taking everyone's orders for food.
After this had happened, Sedeqe leaned over the table to look at Yang, "Sorry about paralyzing you."
"It's… okay." Yang said in an unconvincing tone.
"May I ask you a question?"
Yang looked at Sedeqe for a moment, but nodded, "Sure, ask away."
"You wouldn't be Taiyang's daughter, would you?"
Yang blinked slightly, but looked a bit warily at Sedeqe, "Yes, how do you know?"
"No need to go into details about it. I'm just asking out of curiosity." Sedeqe looked at Ruby then, staring a long time at the girl, who awkwardly stared back.
It was hard to discern who looked more ridiculous: Ruby, with her cartoonish moustache, or Sedeqe, with her strange mask.
"I'm actually happy that I was able to get the chance to speak with you two." Shem said, in a voice more calm than enthusiastic, much less happy.
"Why is that?" Ruby asked, breaking eye contact with Sedeqe.
"I can finally confront about the trouble you've been causing me at work." Shem said, looking at Ruby.
"Hm?" She tilted her head in confusion, "How did we do that?"
"By leaving a path of destruction wherever you go once a month." Shem replied, his eyes narrowing, "The Council hasn't been happy about that, and neither have I."
"The Council?" Pyrrha asked, her confusion growing.
"Oh," Shem spoke with a note of realization, then took up the menus at the table, him reaching over Yang and building a type of wall with them, everyone staring curiously at his actions.
When his labor was finished, Shem looked at Yang, "It'd probably be easier to understand if I told you who I was."
Leaning forward, Shem hid himself behind his makeshift menu fort, grasping his mask and pulling it off for the members of the table to see.
All people present with the exception of Jaune, Sedeqe and Blake gasped, with the faunus looking with a strongly taken aback expression despite this.
Pyrrha stared for a long moment at Shem's sweaty face, eyes wide and mouth agape.
"You mean… you're that Shem?" Pyrrha asked incredulously.
The man sitting directly opposite of her in her booth was a man she immediately recognized.
Shem's last name was Hemispha, she realized.
Sitting before was Shem Hemispha, a member of the ruling council of the Kingdom of Vale.
One of the most powerful political figures in all of the nation…
… was sitting in a restaurant booth, wearing a weird mask.
A/N: Kudos to anyone who manages to figure out what the restaurant "Messo Merma" is a reference to. I put only a few hints as to what it alludes to in this chapter.
Also, if you haven't figured it out, Shem is based off of the first/second son of Noah in Christian mythology, with Sedeqe herself being a reference to the mythical Shem's wife, who's name was "Sedeqetelebab", me shortening her name to simply be "Sedeqe".
Do you want to know more about this person? I'll assume you say yes, though I have fair reason to believe the answer is no.
Sedeqe's personality is based heavily off of Koko Hekmatyar, from the anime "Jormungand".
Don't know who Koko is? Then you're S.O.L.
Don't know what S.O.L. stands for? Then you're even more S.O.L.