Well I certainly had fun writing this chapter. Enjoy!
This is squad leader here, everything clear from here, over," reported a voice into a Scroll, the silhouette of a body watching the streets from the shadows of the window.
"Black cat, all clear," replied another voice in the shadow of an alleyway.
"Firecracker doesn't see any trouble, over. Ice Queen, you got anything?" said another voice.
"Why am I code-named Ice Queen!" raged Weiss from Jaune's apartment rooftop.
Team RWBY was currently watching over Jaune's clinic from several different points of view. Ruby was in the rented apartment, looking through the window at Jaune's clinic. Blake was in the alley behind the clinic, Yang was sitting at a cafe near Jaune's place, and Weiss drew the straw to actually be in the building itself.
"Cause you said you didn't care what we named you," grinned Yang, sipping on her drink, "So you can't complain."
"I demand to be renamed," demanded Weiss.
"Sorry Ice Queen, not until we finish the assignment for today," chirped in Ruby.
"This is so unfair," muttered Weiss, huffing as she sat down on a chair that Jaune had provided her.
"Just deal with it. Each of our positions is suitable for our skills. Ruby with her sharp eyes and skills as the sniper of the team is in a higher position to scout for enemies. I'm more suitable for working in the shadows, Yang is more sociable and able to gather information from others, and you….. stick out like a sore thumb, like it or not. So at least with your presence as Elysium Oasis, you can at least help Jaune generate some revenue," explained Blake.
Weiss huffed at that logic, but couldn't disagree. Though she felt like she could've easily swapped spots with Yang, as she wasn't even doing much.
Still, she would be vigilant in her job! She was given an assignment, a position, and she would do her best to accept it even if she had to endur-
"I hope you're a little hungry, I whipped this up for lunch and thought you could use some food, since you can't really leave your position," said Jaune as he suddenly appeared next to her, placing down a plate and a cup of water, "Melanie and Miltia gave me some more exotic ingredients I wouldn't usually buy due to how expensive they are. They told me that their uncle overstocked on this stuff and needed to get rid of it. Instead of throwing it away or using it up themselves, they gave it to me as a 'get better' gift basket."
Weiss looked down to see a sub sandwich, originally giving it a look of disdain at such a plebian dish when her ears picked up Jaune's words. Her sharp eyes quickly picked up the ingredients as she gasped at the sight.
Southern Vale black pork from one of the best livestock on the continent of Saunus, topped with Atlesian caviar, foie gras from northern Vacuo, and truffle from Mistral. One of the best ingredients all to make a sandwich… to which she certainly wasn't complaining.
"Why thank you," thanked Weiss, picking up the sandwich, "I shall certainly enjoy this."
'Perhaps this position had its benefits,' thought Weiss to herself as she smirked, making eye contact with each one of her teammates. All of them were certainly glaring at her showcasing the sandwich before taking a bite out of it.
Thinking about it, all those expensive ingredients on bread shouldn't have really worked out too well. All the different strong flavors should've clashed against each other. However, when Weiss took a bite of it, she was overwhelmed at the burst of umami that she tasted. The salty caviar, the slightly sweet pork, the unique taste of foie gras, the savory truffle, all mixed with the bread being the one to hold them all together.
"Oh wow, this is really good," complimented Weiss as she took another bite, her face shining in happiness that her teammates could see her face.
"Weiss, you're going to share some of that with us, right?" growled Yang from her seat.
Weiss happily ignored her as she continued to eat, though she did leave a quarter for Ruby. They were partners, after all, and she wasn't that heartless.
Blake huffed but chose to suffer in silence. After all, she had already been given a Jaune-cooked meal before.
Smiling at his completed task, Jaune went back down, preparing for his next patients for the Aura massage. It was apparently Sun's teammates, Scarlet David and Sage Ayana, who came due to Sun's recommendation. Scarlet was a bit easier to massage as he had a slimmer frame than Sage, and soon fell asleep when Jaune finished up.
"Damn, that feels good," grunted Sage as Jaune pressed down on his arms.
"Your biceps seem stiff. Do you use a large weapon?" asked Jaune as his palms pressed down onto the muscle and began to rotate it, "Your shoulder and rotator cuff should be sore."
"Yea, two-handed broadsword," murmured Sage, "Always do 1000 practice swings in the morning, right when I wake up before I do anything else as a warm-up."
"1000 swings huh," murmured Jaune to himself, "I should do something similar to that."
Jaune usually did his workout at lunch and after work, but he felt like it wasn't enough. So perhaps adding those practice swings in the morning could help him out, so he thought.
'Not to mention Pyrrha did mention to always practice the basics whenever I get the chance,' hummed Jaune to himself as he took Sage's arm, and with a swift motion, jerked it up then down, resulting in a loud crack at the shoulder area.
"Holy, I didn't even know about that, but damn that felt good," groaned Sage, "Mind doing that to my other arm?"
A second later, another loud crack could be heard.
"Well, that's all done," grinned Jaune as the last patient of the day walked out. Quickly pulling up his music playlist, he began to clean up the clinic a bit. Having finally decided, he chose to only do the after-hours Aura massage on Mondays, Wednesday, Friday, and alternating Saturdays.
As he was cleaning, he heard his Scroll begin to ring.
"Hello," said Jaune, picking it up without looking at who was calling.
"Jauney, my boy! I heard what happened! Are you alright? Do I need to send Neo on the hunt? Ah what am I talking about, she's already on the hunt ever since Junior told us about that incident! We wanted to come earlier to visit you, but we got busy," said Roman through the phone.
Truth be told, they wanted to visit earlier, but they spotted team RWBY on the lookout. Although the four girls tried their best to blend in with the crowd or hide in sight, the two were professional thieves, meaning it was easy for them to pick them out. So they opted to not visit for now despite Neo's complaints saying that she wasn't the one with the wanted poster, so it was safe for her.
It took four gallons of Neapolitan ice cream to convince her to not visit for now, but instead, she took that time to prowl around and hunt for the people who hurt her masseur. Not that Roman stopped her on that, he was looking into that himself.
"I'm alright. I got checked at the hospital and the Beacon infirmary, and they all said I was alright thanks to my large Aura reserves. Managed to take a beating before it finally shattered, and by that point, Miltia and Melanie managed to rescue me, along with my grandfather," replied Jaune, "Your job keeping you busy from visiting?"
"Yea, got a lot of dust I've been inspecting," claimed Roman. It was true, he had been robbing a lot of dust stores that the amount could fill up a full warehouse and supply an army. Not that he knew why it was needed, though, but it wasn't information he needed, though he would love to have, "Anyways, need to get going, got lots to inspect before the head bitch comes back."
Roman wasn't going to lie about Cinder, but he wasn't stupid about saying it to her face. So he ranted to Jaune, who was essentially an outlier that Cinder had no way of finding out what he said about her. He certainly couldn't do it if the two brats she had left him with were around, as they told her everything.
"Speaking of which, where are those brats?" questioned Roman as he hung up the Scroll.
"... And so, that's why you're here!" cheered Ruby.
It was Sunday night, and instead of relaxing at home as he had originally planned, he somehow found himself inside Beacon's kitchen by some convoluted plan made by Ruby and Nora. After having a bite of the sub sandwich Jaune had made from Weiss, she decided she wanted a full Jaune meal. It wasn't fair that their sister team, team PLN, had a full Jaune cooked meal, along with Blake and now Weiss, while she and Yang had to suffer cafeteria quality food. Yang didn't really know how to cook as Taiyang, their dad, did all the cooking. The only thing the two girls knew was how to bake cookies, if Ruby didn't end up eating all the chocolate chips before putting them on the actual cookie dough itself. Nora joined in on the plan merely for fun.
Jaune still didn't know how he ended up here anyways. It was all a blur, really, but he was in Beacon that Ruby had managed to convince him to come by some sort of magic (aka puppy eyes and other means), and sitting at the cafeteria table was not only team RWBY, but team PLN, Aureville, and the relevant Beacon staff members, aka the ones with Aura, cooks and other auxiliary staff not included.
"When we heard that you were treating team RWBY and PLN to a dinner cooked by you, we couldn't help but join," coughed Ozpin, "We've heard tales of your cooking, and are interested in trying it out ourselves. Your grandfather reinforced the idea that you were a good cook."
"He is!" insisted Aureville, "I can still remember his clam chowder soup! It was delicious. Those chunky potatoes, the crunchy bacon, the smooth clams, and everything else! Thick soup that slides down the throat with ease."
Those attending Beacon winced when they remembered the day the cafeteria served their version of clam chowder. It was the equivalent of salted water that was colored white and pathetic-looking clams.
Jaune sighed, seeing that he wasn't going to be escaping from cooking for them tonight, so he trudged into the kitchen. Taking a look at the ingredients, he was relieved that the storage room was at least clean, with the ingredients clearly marked and properly stocked. Any raw food was clearly stocked away from any cooked food to prevent cross-contamination.
"If you're wondering, we have a special team that organizes the pantry and refrigerator. At the very least, we provide the freshest and non-tainted ingredients for the cooks," called out Ozpin.
"Doesn't help that our board supplied cooks can't utilize it to its best potential," muttered Glynda.
Humming to himself, Jaune started a mental list of what he could do at short notice when he noticed Ren, Dove, and Yang entering the kitchen.
"We thought we should help out," gestured Ren as Sky joined the others on the table, "It wouldn't be fair for you to do all the cooking."
"We got a little experience with cooking," nodded Dove, "I'm usually the one who ends up cooking for my old team if we didn't want cafeteria food."
"I helped dad chop up ingredients and stuff. Not much help, but I can at least do something," shrugged Yang.
Jaune eyed the ingredients once more before a few dishes began to form in his mind. Especially a new one that he had seen online while he was working out.
"Yang, I'm putting you on mashing duty. Dove, chopping duty. Ren, I've seen you cook food for Nora, so you're my sous chef," order Jaune as he began to swiftly pull ingredients down, "Yang, I want you to get started with making the dough. Dove, you start chopping these ingredients, julienne if you can. Ren, we're going to start cooking these tomatoes."
Ruby had managed to bring her board game Remnant: The Game, and started a match with Nora, Sky, and Doctor Oobleck, who joined in only for the chance to lecture about the history of each location, though he kept it in moderation. Pyrrha and Weiss were talking with Aureville, who was telling them tales of his adventures, including one when he teamed up with Weiss's own grandfather, Nicholas Schnee. Ivy, Glynda, and Ozpin were looking over the budget for the next semester as well as what they might need for the incoming students, with Port adding comments every now and then.
All conversation halted when the smell of food began to waft in the air. They couldn't help but look at the kitchen area to see Jaune frying something in the pan while Ren peered into the oven to make sure whatever they were cooking wasn't burning. Sky was at another station slowly swirling a ladle inside a giant pot while Yang was cleaning up the dishes. Soon enough, the 'torturous' wait was over as Jaune finished plating the food while Ren pulled out his from the oven.
"All right, since I didn't really have time to plan this all out, I decided to go something a little more simple. For soup, we have miso soup with tofu, as it's simple to make. Then we have a home-made pepperoni pizza with a thick stuffed crust and a side of ranch dressing for dipping sauce, and finally, a new dish that I've been wanting to test out since I saw it, cheese-feathered hanetsuki gyoza," explained Jaune as he pointed out to each dish.
While the diners were familiar with the first two, the last one puzzled them. As far as they knew, gyoza was mainly pork wrapped up in wheat flour, but from what they saw, it was a chicken wing covered with parmesan cheese and sauce.
"Did you actually put pork inside the chicken?" asked Weiss, slightly disgusted at that thought, "The flavors would clash, creating a train wreck! What caused you to make this… this monstrosity?"
"Now, now, I'm sure it'll be a unique experience," said Pyrrha quickly, though also unsure about the dish. Cheese with chicken and pork? That didn't sound like a combination that should've worked. Weiss, having dined in gourmet restaurants, wanted to immediately refuse on that dish, causing the others to also hesitate.
The only one who didn't hesitate was Aureville, who dove straight in for one of the gyoza wings and took a bite. The others watched Aureville's reaction, hoping to gauge just how good it tasted from his reaction when they watched in amazement as Aureville swallowed and took another bite.
"If you lot don't want this, I'll be happy to take it for myself," grinned Aureville as he made a show of pulling the whole plate towards him.
Pyrrha and Glynda instantly cast aside their doubts and took a piece for themselves, biting into it without hesitation.
"Oh my," said Glynda in surprise, "I was expecting the flavor to clash, but instead, they seem to be working together seamlessly."
"This is actually pretty good," smiled Pyrrha, already heading over to grab a second piece.
The rest of the group followed, and soon were enjoying the meal.
"Wow, I love this!" squealed Ruby as she held a piece of pizza in her hand.
"You can thank Yang for that. She had the muscle power to squash the tomatoes into sauce and helped make the dough. Her internal body temperature, especially on her hands, is a little higher than regular people, and so she was able to mold the dough a lot better," complimented Jaune, causing Yang to blush a little before saying all she did was follow Jaune's directions.
"How…. how does this work?" whispered Weiss to herself as she took a bite of the gyoza and found it delicious.
"Ah, who cares how it works, all that matters is that it's delicious!" cheered Nora.
"I believe the key that binds them all together is the sauce," hummed Ozpin, "Without it, it would taste too oily and strong."
Glynda was enjoying the pizza with guilt, but knowing that Huntresses and Huntsman burned through calories easily, she ate without too much hesitation.
Soon, the pizza and the gyoza were demolished, and with the miso soup to finish, they all sat down satisfied.
"Jaune, if you ever decide to become a cook instead, I am willing to hire you as head chef of our cafeteria," offered Ozpin with a serious voice.
"Seconded," added the rest of the Beacon staff.
"That's a nice offer, but I'll stick to my clinic for now," blushed Jaune, causing the others to pout, "Speaking of, I really should get going back."
"I'll take you back there," volunteered Aurivelle, "I can just crash over there with you."
"We can go, too," added Pyrrha, pointing to herself and her team, "It'll be time for our shift anyways."
"Na, just sleep here for tonight. The bed here is bound to be better than the rented apartment," waived off Aurivelle as he guided Jaune out of the cafeteria, "Especially since you still have classes tomorrow still. See you lot later."
At the reminder of their break ending, the students collapsed onto the floor in depression at that reminder.
Roman hummed as he was overseeing the transport of dust that he had 'liberated' to 'inspect' from some more stores. He winced when one of them pushed a crate full of dust down the ramp with the Faunus at the bottom doing nothing to receive it. The crate hit the ground with a thump, having no real damage, but that wasn't the point.
"You idiot animals, don't do that!" lectured Roman loudly, "Do you want to blow us all up? Don't you remember what you're pushing down! That's raw dust in there! It doesn't matter if it's in a secure case, you don't let it jostle around like that. One wrong hit, and you risk detonating the dust inside it. And considering we're in a warehouse full of Dust, I don't want to be here for the chain reaction!"
While the White Fang members looked angry at such treatment from a human, they had to hand it to Roman that they should've been more careful. It didn't stop them from giving him a dirty glare, though.
As the transportation of dust continued, Roman turned to look at the map of Vale before noticing Emerald and Mercury waltzing into the warehouse.
"Oh look, she sent the kids again," said Roman with undisguised sarcasm as he approached the two, "This is turning out just like the divorce."
Without hesitation, Roman 'hugged' the two, pulling their heads near his chest. The two shuddered as they pushed Roman off, never noticing where Roman's hands wandered as they were focused on getting away from him.
"Spare us the thought of procreating," huffed Emerald as Roman began to walk away.
"That was a joke," replied Roman before lifting up a piece of paper and several business cards, "And this just might tell me where you two have been all day, if not all week."
Emerald and Mercury looked down in their pockets in shock, never having noticed that Roman had just pick-pocketed them.
"I'm a professional sweetheart. Pay attention, and maybe you'll learn something," scoffed Roman before focusing on the paper.
On it, was the address of a possible White Fang defector that he was supposed to have taken care of. Roman mentally shrugged as he had been planning on doing so if it wasn't for the fact he had been busy stealing every speck of Dust in the kingdom.
Just as he had been ready to ask about why they had this specific address, his eyes caught a particular color on the business cards that Mercury had, one of which he had personally designed. Quickly shuffling through it, he found Jaune's business card.
Roman's mind began to race through, shuffling through the other cards while noticing each one of them were locations of shops that had been hit that he had no hand in. Quickly gathering the information, he immediately clued in on what Mercury and Emerald had been doing. Targeting Tukson only would lead to suspicion just why he was targeted, so the two brats targeted other places to throw off the trail. Seeing the first letter of each store, he could easily piece out that it spelled Remnant. The only problem was the m letter, and just exactly who they decided to target. But he had to be sure.
"Why do you have this address?" asked Roman in a low tone while tapping his cane on the floor in a very specific manner, two taps, then five more, then one, all while seemingly focused on Mercury and Emerald.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" scoffed Emerald.
"Yea, I would. Now, where have you been all week," questioned Roman, his eyes narrowing in displeasure.
"Cleaning up your problems. One of them at least," shot back Mercury with a smug while pointing to the paper with Tukson's address.
"Yea, don't care about this one," replied Roman, tossing the paper away, surprising Mercury and Emerald, before holding up Jaune's business card, "I meant this one."
"Oh, just exploring what the city had to offer," said Mercury whimsically, avoiding eye contact with that business card. How could he forget, he got his butt handed to him because of that.
"Mmm, and I suppose you know what this place offers?" asked Roman as he flipped the card back into his hand so they couldn't see the details.
"Ummm…," stuttered Emerald, trying to remember in detail what the place looked like. She wanted to say a doctor's office, but the title seemed too flashy for such a place.
"A…. vet shop?" volunteered Mercury. He originally wanted to say an underground brothel due to the name, but even he knew that no brothel would so blatantly be open in that location unless they were really confident in hiding the truth.
"Wrong, but that's not the point. I've noticed each of these shops on these business cards are places that have been attacked. It's easy to see you were planning to make a series of robberies and murders to cover up why Tukson was targeted, to make it seem like a crazed serial killer. My point is, why is this specific one on your list?" clarified Roman once more.
"What does it matter? It's just a random place that was targeted," scoffed Mercury before his expression turned dark, "Though I'll be sure to finish what I started."
"No, you won't," rejected Roman instantly, causing Mercury to growl, "That place is a valuable asset. You're lucky you failed, but don't even try to mess with that kid. Not only did you brats horn in on one of my side businesses, but you even got caught messing around on Junior's turf and by a Huntsman from what I've heard. You're going to leave that place alone, period."
"And what if we don't?" asked Emerald, standing up to Roman, "We're not afraid of you."
"Oh you should be," chuckled Roman darkly, "But it's not me that you have to be worried about right now."
Before Emerald and Mercury could decipher what that meant, their instincts blared for them to move, which they followed. A second later, two knives passed right through where their heads had been a moment before.
Both teens immediately tried to locate the source of the attack, only to notice Neo suddenly appearing behind them. With a hiss, Neo slammed her parasol into Emerald's knee while her foot slammed into Mercury's fake knee.
Both teenagers fell to the floor before quickly rolling away from Neo, using the momentum from her attack. Emerald immediately tried to use her Semblance on Neo, only to fail as she needed visual confirmation for her Semblance to work. The moment she activated when she saw Neo, Neo shattered into pieces.
'Damn it, she's the worst sort of opponent for me,' thought Emerald as she tried to locate her.
"Stop," rang out a voice, just as Neo's blade suddenly appeared around Emerald's neck, ready to slice it open.
Cinder stood on top of a lift before letting it descend to floor level.
"What is going on here?" questioned Cinder with her eyes narrowed.
"Just taking care of something personal," shrugged Roman, signaling Neo to let go of Emerald.
Neo huffed and obeyed, though not before kicking Emerald and Mercury into the ground in front of Cinder once more.
Cinder surveyed the situation, her eyes flashing dangerously at this blatant disrespect from Roman and Neo, but there had to be a reason for this.
"He's upset that we took care of Tukson for him," commented Mercury, trying to throw Roman under the bus.
"I thought I made it clear that you were to eliminate the would-be runaway," demanded Cinder, turning to Roman.
"Would've, but that's not why Neo's upset," shrugged Roman fearlessly, "Turns out, your little brats had a hand in the series of attacks not related to dust, including the massage clinic, Elysium Oasis. The owner and masseur there is Neo's favorite masseur, as well Junior and gang. It's right in their turf, too."
"I see," said Cinder, her eyes narrowed, "We'll talk more about the runaway later."
Cinder grabbed Mercury and Emerald by their arms, pulling them up viciously. Before the two could say anything, though, they felt their arms getting hotter and hotter, realizing it was coming from Cinder's hands.
"And you two. Did I not specifically instruct you two to keep your hands clean in Vale?" demanded Cinder.
"I just thought-" babbled Emerald, only to wince when Cinder's hands got even hotter.
"Don't think. Obey. Now listen carefully to my order. You two are to not to approach that place nor harass the owner or its employees. You know what will happen if you fail to follow these simple orders, right?" commanded Cinder.
Emerald and Mercury quickly nodded while Cinder held on for just a bit longer before letting them go.
Ever since that massage, she had found the maiden's power to flow more easily within her than relying on the parasite. Not to mention she had really enjoyed it, too. There wasn't another person who could do what Jaune could do right now, so he was a valuable resource to exploit in the future.
'Speaking of which, I should book another appointment soon,' hummed Cinder as she left.
Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! Reminder, I have a pat reon, look up azndrgn making fanfic. Donators get perks!