RWBY: Path of the Decade (Chapter 2)

"Oy newbie, dust those shelves at the top."

"Right!"

"Kid, make sure the books are organized alphabetically."

"Understood!"

"Hey careful! That's a classic right there! If it gets damaged it's coming out of your paycheck got me!?"

"Y-Yes sir!!'

It was not a pleasant day for one Yuusuke Onodera. The young male felt invisible tears fall down his cheeks as he tried to fix yet another problem in his place of work.

His boss, Mr. Tukson, was quite the slave driver on the poor boy and felt the need to point out each mistake his new employee made. From a miscount of the store money, to the tiniest mark created on any of the book covers, Yuusuke's boss made sure to drill the boy hard for his mistakes. It didn't help that he had only been at his new job for a little over two weeks now, and the load of pressure on the work hadn't seemed to lighten one bit.

Though that may also be due to the fact that he was the ONLY employee working under Mr. Tukson.

"What did I do to deserve this?" Yuusuke questioned out weakly as he carefully placed a series of books upon the shelves.

"Oy kid!" Tukson's voice called out causing Yuusuke to jump and nearly drop the books in hand. Turning his head he stared into the scruffy looking man with large muscled arms and a terrifying gaze that reminded him of an angry cat.

"Y-Yes sir?"

Tukson grunted and pointed to the clock, "Time for your break. You got thirty minutes."

Yuusuke sighed in relief as he placed the books down. Walking over to the front of the shop the young man took a seat near the store windows and leaned his head back and closed his eyes, as he slowly welcome the warm embrace of relaxation.

It had barley felt like a minute had passed before the sound of the store bell reached his ears.

Shooting up from his seat Yuusuke instantly went into the store greeting, "Welcome to Tukson's Book Trade! Home to every book under the sun! How may I-"

He paused however upon the sound of familiar giggling, "Well it's good to see you've integrated well into your job."

Turning his gaze Yuusuke took notice of a young beautiful woman with long brown hair and matching colored eyes. His face instantly took to a smile upon the sight, "Natsumi-chan! What are you doing here?"

Natsumi smiled and held up a paper bag, "I came to check up on how you were doing. You've been working really hard since you started this job, so I decided to come by and drop you some lunch."

Yuusuke could have cried out of joy right there and then, "Natsumi-chan..."

"But then I find you here," Natsumi suddenly frowned and crossed her arms, "lazying about and falling asleep. I thought you were better than that Yuusuke."

"Eh?" Yuusuke blinked.

Natsumi's eyes narrowed, "Don't tell me you're picking up Tsukasa-kun's bad habits?"

"Eh?!' Yuusuke paled at the sudden accusation. The idea that he was becoming like his other friend was a very terrifying thought, and one he prayed would never happen, "No no no I'm not I swear! I'm just took a break now is all and was resting my eyes! Honest!"

"Really?"

"Really really!"

Natsumi stared at the pleading face of her friend for a moment, before smiling, "Good. I can barley stand one Tsukasa-kun as it is. I don't need a repeat of the Worm incident again."

Yuusuke chuckled nervously at that statement, the memory of the incident briefly flickering through his mind. Pushing it aside he turned back to Natsumi as she took a seat beside him and handed the bag over. Reaching inside he quickly pulled out a black bento box and opened it, to reveal a large variety of delicious looking rice, pork, fish, and vegetables of all kinds, "Sugoi! This looks amazing! Arigatou Natsumi-chan!"

"Of course." she replied with a smile.

Yuusuke clapped his hands and grinned, "Idakatimastu!"

With those words the boy grabbed the pair of chopsticks in the box and began to dig into the home made meal. His face lit up in joy and happiness as he savored every bite and flavor he put into his mouth. If his work earlier could be considered hell, than this was pure heaven right now.

"By the way Yuusuke," Natsumi spoke up, "have you seen Tsukasa-kun around?"

Yuusuke broke from his eating as he turned to her confused, "Eh? He wasn't at the studio?"

Natsumi frowned and crossed her arms, "No. That jerk disappeared again without a word. Didn't even bother to leave a note or tell Ojii-chan where he was going."

Yuusuke mentally chuckled at his friends pouting face before going into thought, "Well maybe he just went out to take more pictures?"

"After all the ones he's taken already?"

"Yeah. It wouldn't surprise me. I mean the preparations for the Vytal Festival are still going on for the city, and a lot of the schools are still arriving for this tournament everyone's talking about. Knowing him, he probably thought he could find more things to photograph."

"Maybe..."

The sudden sound of concern emitting from his friends voice caught the boy by surprise as he looked at his friend confused, "Natsumi-chan?"

"It's just," Natsumi paused briefly before sighing, "How long have we been here Yuusuke?"

Yuusuke blinked, "Uh well, I've been here since this morning, and you jus-"

"I mean this world."

The statement cut through the air like a hot knife though butter. Yuusuke's previous thoughts were silenced as his expression turned serious, "You're thinking about that again huh?"

"Are you saying you haven't?" Natsumi questioned back.

"No, I just..."

"Just what? You can't tell me it doesn't concern you Yuusuke. I mean, why have we been stuck here for so long? Shouldn't we have finished whatever problems this place had and left already?"

"I don't know," the boy replied with a frown as he turned back to his food, "I'm not the expert on world hopping. Ask Tsukasa that sort of thing."

"Why bother when we know how pointless that is?"

"It's just a suggestion."

"Well it's not a good one!"

Yuusuke looked at his friend surprised by her increased tone, as she also came to realize how she sounded. The two friends fell into a tense silence, the only sound being the clock ticking in the background.

"Gomen," Natsumi spoke calmer, "I didn't mean to get mad at you."

"No, it's alright," Yuusuke replied as he scratched the back of his head, "I should have been more serious about it."

The topic was one that had been brought up before many times, and it only seemed to cause more worry and stress the more time passed. It wasn't like either of them meant to get frustrated or angry, it was just a sore subject that they tried to avoid.

"It's just," Natsumi continued, "I can't help but be worried something's going to happen."

"Did you have another dream?" Yuusuke asked.

"No. But it's just a feeling. Like whatever is keeping us here is doing so for a reason we don't understand. And when it does happen, it'll be something we won't be prepared for."

Yuusuke frowned as he looked over his friends worried face. He could understand where she was coming from, as he too had been feeling the same way for some time. Even Tsukasa, who was the calmest and most eccentric of the trio, had been oddly quietly lately. It was as if all three could feel something on the horizon, but had no idea when or if it would even show up.

Regardless, the current atmosphere wasn't something he wished for any of his friends. Letting out a nervous sigh the young man rubbed the back of his head and looked to the side, "But at the same time, is it really so bad?"

"Eh?" Natsumi looked up at him as he continued.

"I mean don't get me wrong, I'm just as concerned as you over the situation. But really is it so bad? I mean look at where we are now. We're living in a nice little town that hasn't had any real trouble it couldn't handle itself. The people here are really nice, if not a bit weird. There's a festival around the corner that's bound to be fun and exciting to check out when it's ready. And for the first time in a long time, we aren't in some sort of big event or struggle for our lives. We're just being...normal for a change."

"Yuusuke..."

"I want to figure things out too, and I want to know what's going on and what will happen as much as you do. But until we find an answer, I'm just going to try and enjoy this "normal" life to the best I can for as long as possible. Even if it means working for an insanely strict, terrifying, and evil boss figure like Tukson-san. And you should do the same for yourself Natsumi-chan, just like Tsukasa is doing for himself."

Silence emitted once more between the two, as Yuusuke calmly waited for his friend's response.

"Yuusuke..."

He didn't expect it to be a hard smack on the head.

"Gah! What was that for!?"

"For saying such things about Tukson-san," Natsumi replied with a disappointed face, "He's only tough on you because of how lazy you are here."

"That's not my fault I swear!"

"Doesn't mean you should be so rude."

"He's a demon in human skin!"

"Yuusuke."

The boy paled as Natsumi held up her right thumb threateningly. He nervously held up his hands in surrender as he leaned away from both his friends thumb and gaze. After a moment of stillness though between the two, Natsumi smiled and lowered her hand.

"You're right though."

"Eh?" Yuusuke blinked as he looked at his friend.

"Worrying about it won't solve anything. We'll just have to wait it out until something happens. But till then, I'll just continue to do what I've been doing and enjoy it to the best I can."

Yuusuke nodded happily, "Right. And when whatever happens does happen, we'll face it together like always."

Natsumi nodded back and smiled. Both friends felt a wave of relief flow over them as the tenseness from earlier faded and a calm mood filled the air.

"KID!!!"

It was instantly shattered by the loud angry voice of Tukson.

Yuusuke leaped up from his seat as he spotted his boss walking over, his face filled with frustration and anger, "T-Tukson-san! Wha-"

"First, stop with the "san" thing. I told you I don't get your weird language thing and neither do the customers," Tukson interrupted as he stood in front of his employee, "Second, why are you not back in for break!?"

"Eh?" Yuusuke blinked confused, "But it's only be-"

It was then the young man took note of the clocks time and paled. He had been on break for a solid forty-five minutes.

"It's only been WHAT exactly?" Tukson questioned as he glared at his nervous worker.

"Ah..that's..uh..."

"It was my fault," Natsumi said as she stood behind Yuusuke and bowed slightly, "He was busy talking with me and didn't realize the time. Don't get mad at him for my mistake."

Tukson looked over to her surprised, "Oh, Miss Natsumi. Didn't see you there. You're saying he was caught up with you huh?"

"Y-Yeah," Yuusuke spoke nervously, "She was just-"

"Don't make excuses!" Tukson interrupted causing the duo to jump, "Doesn't matter the reason or cause, but you never make excuses for tardiness."

"R-Right bu-" Yuusuke tried to speak.

"Even if your friend came in to spend some time with you, it's still YOUR responsibility to keep track of the time and work around you even off the clock. What if a customer had come in here while you were still off the clock and needed help huh? And what if I wasn't available for some reason? Who would have had to deal with all the issues and problems that YOU are supposed to be handling?"

As if on cue, the bell to the store door rang causing the trio to turn their heads towards the noise. They were then met with the sight of four uniquely colored females entering the store and looking around. The tiniest one then noticed the trio and addressed them.

"Oh. Uhhh, hi. Sorry to interrupt whatever you're doing but, is this Tukson's Book Trade?"

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RWBY: PATH OF THE DECADE

Chapter 2

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