Chapter 9: I return from my absence like nothing ever happened.

Despite himself, Ren was not at all surprised when he received several rapid-fire texts from his leader explaining the situation that he'd managed to get himself tangled up in. He knew there was no way Jaune had gotten Yang to go on a date. There had been absolutely no sort of chemistry between them before.

For the pair to suddenly and immediately develop feelings for each other out of the blue? Yeah, right. That sort of thing only happens in bad fanfictions.

Still, he seemed to be stuck on damage control duty (again, he might add) back in Beacon while Jaune, Sun, and Neptune did… whatever was going on down in Vale. And given Jaune had already come up with excuses for everyone else on JNPR, his options were extremely limited in what he could do with Nora and Pyrrha, without Jaune's absence being too problematic.

Oh sure, Pyrrha was "sick" right now so she could be left behind. Ha. Sure, and that lie lasts about as long as it takes for team RWBY to see Pyrrha perfectly healthy later today. Better that she was kept busy with himself and Nora now, to at least have some reason for them to not be with Jaune now.

He could sort out the slight discrepancies in the lies later on. Or Jaune could. That sounded better.

"Nora, Pyrrha? Are you in?" Ren announced while entering their dorm.

"I am! Pyrr's not though. I think she said something about studying in the library. Or maybe working out. Or maybe going to get some food. Or maybe she's going for a walk. Or maybe she's-"

Ren tuned out with a sigh while Nora continued listing every possibility of where Pyrrha might be. Pulling out his scroll, he instead sent the woman in question a quick message, then looked up to continue talking to Nora.

"-maybe going to a secret White Fang meeting to break up the thing single-handedly. Anyways, how are you Renny?"

Tuning back just in time, Ren responded "I'm fine. Jaune's gone out to Vale, so it's just the three of us today." Almost too quick to catch, a blur of emotions passed by his friends usually jubilant face. Only years of being with the girl allowed Ren to catch them, and even then he wasn't sure. It seemed like… disappointment, acceptance, and then, a bit of hope?

Either way, he pressed on "So I was thinking that while we had a free day, the three of us could do something together."

"Okay! Any ideas? Wait, don't we have that essay for Oobleck? Eh, that can be done later. Let's go find Pyrrha!" Nora's response came as one might've expected, but Ren noticed that throughout it all, the ginger girl's face was lit up by a large genuine smile.

Sun could just barely make out the sound of conversation happening around him. Not just in the immediate area, but also that general low thrum of background noise that's present anywhere crowded. Tail coming up to rub his eye, the faunus tried to force himself out of exhaustion and into attentiveness.

That was, until a wave of some sickly sweet scent sudden struck his sense of smell, doing the job for him.

Trying to discreetly take in his surroundings, the first thing Sun noticed was the people around him, namely Neptune who sat to his left at the head of some stainless steel table, with Jaune and team RWBY in the booths on either side. His subconscious tried to tell him there was something off about this scene, but Sun wasn't listening to it.

He was more wondering when he has left his dorm.

He definitely remembered going to bed in the temporary dorm at Beacon last night. He remembered since he and Neptune had stayed up, probably later than they should've, on the console they'd set up in there. They hadn't left the dorm after that either; they had food and drinks in the room and he couldn't think of another reason to leave. He hadn't even made any plans for today, since he and Neptune had been focused and Jaune and his date.

Ignoring the sense of wrongness that had suddenly popped up again, Sun kept trying to think back to why he might be here now, at a… Wait, where was this?

A more focused look around revealed that he seemed to be back in the 50's. Everything, from the music, the building, and even the food seemed to suggest it. And that's when it finally hit him. Where he was, why he couldn't remember how he got here. Why everything felt so wrong.

Discreetly, he leaned over to Neptune. "Play it cool man, but I think we've traveled back in time."

Neptune startled slightly at the sudden voice but quickly gave a short laugh. "Yeah, I know. This place is totally retro isn't it?" He whispered back. "Don't worry, I'm trying to work on getting us all to head out."

Sun blinked for a second. Was he trying to fit in so that it didn't seem suspicious? While not a bad idea, they really should've been working on a way back.

"D'you know how we got here? Was there some freak electrical accident? Someone lost control of their semblance?"

This time, Neptune spared an odd look for his partner. "No… we walked. You aight bro?"

Now, you could accuse Sun of being many things, but slow was not one of them. After the briefest of pauses, Sun chuckled quietly. "Yeah, just continuing the joke. Guess it was already dead." Neptune's concern disappeared, and with a shake of his head and a smile, he turned back to the group.

It was obvious: Sun hadn't just gone back in time, but also to some different reality. That's why everyone was acting like this was all normal: because to them, it was. Of course, that made everything much more complicated for the faunus. He now had to find out what happened, figure out his way back, and avoid arousing suspicion, all by himself. Certainly, it was asking a lot, but if anyone could do it, Sun knew he could.

Now, to use this time while nobody was bothering him to plan.

It was about this point in Jaune's life that he came to the realization that he had been put on this Remnant for one reason, and one reason only; to provide comedy to some divine being.

That really could be the only explanation to the situation he was in, as he sat at a table with Neptune, who was still arguing with team RWBY about going to a bar at noon on Sunday, and Sun sat there muttering to himself, on what was supposed to be a date.

He briefly considered the idea that this was karma for lying to his friends about what he and Ren were doing, but really, this seemed way too much of a retaliation for what he'd done. He supposed that he should try to fix this situation in some way, or at least salvage it so it wasn't a complete trainwreck, but honestly, that seemed like way too much effort for something that would invariably just go wrong again, with his luck.

Instead, he contented himself with motioning for the waitress and asking for another milkshake. Milkshakes were simple. Milkshakes he could understand. Milkshakes wouldn't try to ruin his life in twelve different ways. Maybe that's why Ruby liked them so much.

While everything continued to crash and burn around him, Jaune decided to send Ren a quick message to see what he was doing, with the hope that at least one of them would be having a productive day.

Stowing his scroll away with a sigh, and noticing that no progress was being made between the others, Jaune decided that he had to end his moping after all and finally joined in the conversation.

"Why don't we go see a movie?" There, that was a good idea. It would kill off some time, and theoretically, they'd all stop bickering once they got into the theatre. At least it would mean the day wasn't a complete was-

"Nah, there's nothing good in theatres. I checked." Or Yang would just reject the idea out of hand. Okay, that's fine too.

Trying not to be offended, Jaune took another sip of his milkshake and tried to think of something else to do in Vale. They'd (him, Ren Sun and Neptune that was), had been down shopping last weekend, and Jaune felt no need to go again right away. Of course, they could check out the Vytal festival fairgrounds, but they still weren't quite finished, and it would probably be packed. What else could they even do? Jaune wasn't even from Vale, and he'd spent basically all his time here up at Beacon! How was he supposed to know what there was for teenagers?

"Laser-Tag?"

"Ooohh, that's a great idea! Yang, Weiss, Blake? Can we go?" Well, at least Ruby seemed to like his suggestion.

Looking back, Jaune honestly wasn't exactly sure why he had thought that going laser-tagging with a group of people who, for the most part, use guns almost every day of their lives to fight massive creatures, was a good idea. He quickly ducked behind one of the blocks randomly scattered around the area, firing a few unaimed shots over his shoulder at for good measure.

It hadn't helped that the people who ran the place had taken one look at the group, had recognized them as students at Beacon, and had put them into their own personal game.

Sure, it made sense not to lump Hunters in with civilian children, but on a selfish note, Jaune disliked the idea. He was fairly certain he had the ability to shoot kids, at least.

And that was definitely something he should never think again.

Still, he took a quick second to prepare, then as quickly as he could, made a dash to the ramp that would lead him to an upper level of the arena. Trying to keep behind cover as much as he could on the way, he zig-zagged forward, hearing the electronic beeps that meant people were firing. Of course, that didn't mean much without projectiles, as you couldn't exactly tell if the shots were aimed at you, and there was always at least one person shooting, but still.

Even with his, dare he say excellent, evasive maneuvers, Jaune still heard the distinctive sound of his vest being hit, along with the quick flash of color that let him know that he hadn't quite made it across the open space in time. It had probably been Ruby or Neptune, those two being absolute monsters in this game due to their weapons, even more so that the others. Blake, Yang, and Sun all had what would probably be described as close-range weapons, so were slightly, and Jaune meant slightly, less likely to hit you at range. Weiss, of course, was probably on a level more comparable to himself, but surprisingly Jaune took little comfort in that when he was constantly getting shot anyways.

Hearing footsteps approach, Jaune quickly tore himself out of his head and prepared for someone to turn the corner. Small victories he supposed; in a 7-person free-for-all, even he and Weiss could sometimes catch someone unaware.

As the first flash of movement appeared around the corner, Jaune started to fire. It was only after he had shot the person, in fact, that he realized they had come around with their hands up.

"Hey, hey. Chill. I'm here to talk."

"Sorry, automatic reactions." Jaune apologized to Neptune as the blue-haired boy crouched beside him in cover.

"Yeah, all good. Just thought he should decide on what the plan if after this. Not gonna lie, it'll be basically impossible to make you look manly here. Any situation we could fabricate would be a bit too unrealistic. No offense."

"Yeah, fair enough," Jaune conceded, not bothering to be insulted. "I was mostly just trying to think of anything to get us out of that place. And not going to a bar." He quickly added when Neptune opened his mouth to respond. "This was the first idea that came to my head."

"Yeah, well, regardless of what some people might wrongly think are bad ideas, we still need to think of something for after this." He quickly reached over and fired some blind shots around the corner mindlessly.

"Does Sun have any ideas?"

"Honestly, I'm sure he has any brains right now. He keeps muttering about 'needing to get back' and looking around like he expects to get attacked. Honestly, I think I might've hit his head while dragging him into Vale."

"Well, can't we go back to Beacon after this?"

"What? Of course not. That would mean the day was wasted. He can't come back from this empty-handed. Sure, this isn't the date we were hoping for, but that doesn't mean we can use it."

"But-"

"No buts. Sorry Jaune, this is for your benefit, even if it doesn't feel it."

"Fine, but you need to come up with an idea, then. I have no ideas on what we could do."

"Don't you worry about that." Neptune looked over at him with a smirk. "When has your bro Neptune ever steered you wrong?" And with that, Neptune stood up, fired off 3 shots in rapid succession, and dashed back into the fray.

Still, Jaune supposed he was right. Ren had responded to his earlier message to say he was keeping Nora and Pyrrha occupied and happy for the day, but they still didn't want to head back to Beacon too early. If possible, it would be best to keep RWBY away from the girls of JNPR for the rest of the day, just in case they figured out something they shouldn't.

And besides, Neptune was right. Every idea he'd had so far had been great. Surely, this would just be one more cunning plan.

Y'know, to be completely honest, the main reason I'm updating this is because there's still been a steady stream of people who have been following it even though I had basically stopped writing this. I did try to start again a few times, I promise. It just became hard for a few reasons, like the start of university for one. Another might be that, while I assume I knew where this story was going 11 months ago when I started it, or maybe even 5 months ago at the last update, I have absolutely no idea where it's going now. Jaune and I are literally deciding what to do in unison, that is to say while I write.

So while I'd love to say I'm going to start updating at least semi-regularly again, I don't want to lie to you. I have somewhere around no idea if I'll be continuing this within the next couple weeks or next couple years. Or at all. Tbh, I'm basically a passenger in my life right now anyway.

But yeah, hope you enjoyed, lots of love, yadda yadda:

-Dunkacoke-