Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, RWBY or anything else I may reference

Magic and Remnant

Chapter 9

The Kingdom of Vacuo

If there was one way to describe the Kingdom of Vacuo Nat thought, then the word that came to mind was hot. He had only felt it for the briefest moment before his clothing's enchantments recognised the difference and got to work, cooling him down in the harsh morning g sun. He and Qrow had waited explicitly for the time in Vacuo to become daylight rather than apparating straight away and appearing when it was freezing.

Personally, he would say that he already disliked the Kingdom already, not because of the people since he hadn't met any yet he and Qrow had only just appeared in an alley. But rather he despised the geography of the place, large sun blasting sandy desserts. He had visited many countries around the world on Earth for his duelling tournaments; however, he could honestly say that he had never visited a nation that was located in either Africa or the Middle East. To his knowledge, the Middle East was considered the most hostile place in the world to wizards with all who were either born there moving as fast as they could or being killed due to how they were born. As for any wizard who visited the region, they always made sure to have some backup and be very prepared for encountering hostile muggles. The days of the ancient kingdoms were long since gone, as was the British Empire.

With the United Kingdom being one of only three countries where the muggles knew about magic it had been able to put in some safety for magical's who wanted to do research or live in the area as they knew the muggles would be able to keep the peace. However with the loss of the empire, magical's very quickly retreated from the area with only the bravest daring to venture into such hostile land. Africa was somewhat better for magical's, there were still communities living all over the continent but they weren't a very sizeable group, there was only one magical school in the entire continent. Even then though, most magical's were located in the only magical hotspot of the country which was Egypt.

The reason why this was important was that due to such a very small amount of magical's in either of the two areas, as well as incredibly hostile beliefs towards them, there was never any attempt to host such magical events just in case. In fact, 7/10 magical events were always organised or held in Europe with America's, Far East Asia consisting of Japan, China and Korea as well as either Australia or New Zealand occasionally hosting something. This meant that all of Nats time abroad had been in countries that were green in general; in fact, it was the first time he was seeing a place with so much sand in person, the only other time he had seen something like this was through pictures online.

Therefore as the first thing, he did after feeling the sun seemingly try to pierce his eyes and cook them alive, was to summon up a pair of sunglasses and fit them around his face allowing him to see properly and not cover the constantly. He then kept his face calm as he felt some grains of sand slip through his lips and lip into his throat. It was official he hated this place already and would ensure to spend as little time here before he could apparate back somewhere nicer, where there was green and water. Not some desolate place with no sense of order or civilization.

"I hate that" Qrow shook the sand grains off his shoulders as he came to his full height and began to quickly search around the alley for anyone who might try to rob them. While a person was accepted if they could survive in his place, it didn't mean that there weren't a large number of thieves to take peoples belongings since the number of recourses was scarce. He would have to make sure that he kept his Lien on him al tall time and under close guard, as well as ensure that the kid didn't get into any fights. Mistral may have the occasional one but that was more often or not in a bar, on contrast with Vacuo fights were seen as a symbol of strength in many things whether it be to purchase things or not. It made the Citizens of Vacuo more talented in average combat, not enough to take on a huntsman but between a fight of a regular Vacuo against a regular Vale person than the Vacuo person would win. "Come on this way, and try to stay out of trouble".

Nat nodded as he kept his hand close to the handle of his sword, there had been very few places that he had visited where he actively felt like he needed a weapon to feel safe. This was one of them; It only made his opinion of the kingdom drop even lower. Still the streets of Vacuo were unlike anything he had seen before in real life and reminded him far more of one of the games that his sister's fiancée use to play. Along the beaten down dirt paths were small wooden stalls, their wares were located on top. Occasionally, there was a stall which had some type of fabric that went above them which acted to block some of the suns ray's, in other places the mainly yellow buildings that had seemingly been built of sandstone had people leaning against them as they slept quietly.

Yet just as he had learned and seen in Qrows memories, the signs of a more brash people came to mind, weapons were located everywhere and the people had toughened faces that came with the harsh environment of this type of weather. What only enhanced the view of this country is like Africa or the Middle East, the only two places he could really say were anything like this place was the very light and thin clothing the people were wearing. T-shirts, shorts, skirts anything that allowed more skin to be revealed was readily apparent allowing the people to cool off easier. Something that made him stand out a bit even more as a foreigner.

British people were not known for their ability to tan, like him they were rather light-skinned something which came naturally with their foggy wet island located off the coast of France. So as one would expect, with his rather pale complexion that had no sight of tan on it and thicker clothing that was more suited to where he was from even with the magical enhancements, they began to take notice. Thankfully this notice only took the form of some amused but also slightly confused looks as he didn't seem to be struggling whatsoever with his dark clothing whereas Qrow, in contrast, was already starting to sweat slightly.

He already knew where the Huntsman wanted to take him, apparently, the man wanted to take him to a blacksmith he knew, it was to get him some actual weapons as Qrow had said. Nat only wondered why he could have taken him to one of the Weaponsmiths in Mistral as he knew a lot of them since when a huntsman travelled the globe, they had a tendency to make contacts of which were blacksmiths to help repair their weapons. Nat only hoped that the friend Qrow had in mind was a person who could actually do their job well, he didn't want some piece of crap and he certainly didn't wasn't some type of complex sword gun combo thing. It placed too many eggs in one basket and with his lack of training with an actual weapon, it meant he had to go for things that would be easier to train to use and had a good amount of range.

Still, in all honesty, he would like a few courses on firearms; he had heard the word's like Calibre, thrown around when he had heard his sister fiancé talk but he didn't understand any of it. Had he read the man's mind then perhaps, but he didn't in respect for his sister, then again firearms wasn't a basic thing taught in education unless one was in nations armed services or had parents who lived with such weapons at home. All the info he knew was incredibly basic and if someone asked him what was a 50 calibre rifle that he couldn't give any sort of answer besides maybe it was powerful as it ad a big number. Weaponry really wasn't his thing, the magic he excelled as he was a prodigy and had graduated early but weaponry was something he had a feeling that he would never be the best huntsman or huntress in the world like that of Qrow or his sister Raven. Perhaps he might become better than average for a huntsman, but it just wasn't his thing to fight directly with weaponry.

Still, as he continued to walk over the beaten dark sand pathways his eyes constantly scanning around him to try and pick out and possible pickpockets, he recognised that he would have to get into a proper fight with weaponry eventually. The odd piece of magic could be used occasionally in public, but he would have to limit it. Sooner or later one of Salem's spies would take notice of Qrow and by extension him as he would be following the man, any mention of him being an apprentice to the man, would likely mean that Salem of one of her goons could possibly try to kidnap him as a hostage. Not that it would work, the apparition was rather a useful thing allowing him to escape any scenario that he found himself in, with his immediate future fighting Grimm, bandit, Salem and likely other things, having a way out of conflict would likely save his life. But that didn't mean it was unbeatable, Raven had a very limited form of apparition but as it was linked to certain people that he had to ensure that he wasn't marked by the woman less he is constantly tracked.

While all this occurred though, he shot occasional glances at Shade academy, standing proud and tall the structure seeming cast a shadow onto all of its local surroundings. It appeared to be a mix of multiple old Mayan temple's backs on Earth, each creating a new level while also being guarded like a castle with its battlements alongside the occasional pieces of greenery such as palm trees and flowers. Now that he thought about it a little more his analysis changed slightly, the building seemed far more like an even older type of building one of old myth where many people tried to locate. It was similar to how he imagined the Hanging Gardens of Babylon to look. Compared to the rest of this sand torn kingdom, Shade Academy was the one somewhat impressive if not out of place building with all its splendour, compared to the cracked broken sandstone hovels of structures that the residents of this place called home.

It was certainly a place he would be avoiding in the future and definitely not the kingdom he would choose to defend if he had an option of doing so. His mind went back to attention as he looked at the sights going on in vacuo, there were people arguing over something in a very loud and brash way making what would have been a disturbance either back home or in any of the other kingdoms. But not here, not in this kingdom, respect came from surviving in the environment. It wasn't something he would ever get, nor did he care. If he used magic to keep himself cool to ensure that he could do normal things rather than endure the heat than so be it, he wasn't a fool and afraid to use his power. And neither would he get involved in a fight with someone just because of a few words or because the heat was affecting them.

Soon though after a bit of a silent walk between him and the Huntsman, they approached the building where Qrow's friend was located. It was easy to find with the great big chimney stuck out the front allowing the grey smoke to come out of what was sure to be a hot building, Qrow didn't hesitate the open the slightly battered wooden door and walked inside followed by him.

The inside of the shop was exactly like how he had imagined it to be, multiple sets of mainly light looking armour were located around the edges of the room mainly consisting of shoulder guards, greaves, and chainmail. With the intense heat, heavy armour would be more of a hindrance than a help as it would warm the body up ridiculously quickly. Next to the armour, however, were weapons of multiple types and designs all of which likely had different purposes.

Most of these weapons had dust already located in their structures, fire and wind seemed the most favourite, however from what he had gathered about Remnant, Fire dust as the most popular and used for its many purposes. Whether it was for the actual ignition of ammunition, or to be the payload of the bullet., Fire dust was used a lot in combat not to mention in other things such as vehicles, cooking, machines or other. The people of Remnant used to dust for everything, something that made perfect sense as it had been what was in plenty of abundances. The material was what had allowed this world to have such incredible leaps in technological prowess in such short timeframes.

Earth had always had to use different materials for all sorts of things during the years, in the beginning, ti had been things like coal for heating, it was abundant and acted as a good fuel source. Yet despite this, it couldn't solve every problem such as being used for weaponry. Unlike fire dust which had always had explosive capabilities, Earth had to wait until some Chinese alchemists who were planning on creating an immortality potion accidentally created a blasting powder. Then the Mongols used it and brought it to the west, who with some time perfected the art of explosives and then used it against its original creators. Something that was incredibly ironic, The East was the ones who have the West the power it needed to rule the world for so long. That didn't mean that the west wouldn't have eventually figured out how to make gunpowder, but it wouldn't have been on the search for immortality. The alchemists there had a bit more of an idea what was needed in that field.

Remnant, however, didn't have to use different materials for all sorts of uses and, learn how to make them even more efficient, they had always had dust to do their purposes for them. If they needed a material that was powerful enough to act as gunpowder than simply turn fire dust into powder. It was an advantage allowing the civilizations to develop quicker as essentially they had a material that could do so many purposes, yet it was an incredible weakness. Already the entire Kingdom of Atlas had run out of dust forcing them to look overseas for the material, destroying everything they needed to.

Earth had the same problems too, but there were many differences, Earth did not rely on a single finite material for every single thing in their lives. Oil was valuable but so was natural gas, but solar, wind, water and nuclear energy had also been developed. Earth would run out of resources with its massive population, yet it also showed the fact that despite the huge disparity in population sizes Earth was more sustainable in recourses than Remnant. But when the dust ran out something by the sound of was going to happen by the lack of resources left in vacuo, then there would be even more conflict over what few remaining dust supplies there were. And currently in such a war Atlas who was by far the most dust using people in the nation would win.

It was why he still believed the current politicians of this world besides Atlas to be incredibly foolish with their lack of defence spending. The kingdoms didn't need any type of military to the scale of the United States where they could fight all around the world at a moment's notice, but they had to be able to defend themselves from not only Grimm but also from war. Even if the kingdoms moved to brand new recourses like oil and natural gas, there would be a large amount of time before they could effectively modify equipment, and whoever owed those new resources would have Atlas's military on their doorstep.

"Qrow" Nat was aware of the people at the counter as he thought about the current situation of things, he had a tendency to do it as his sister said, apparently, he could go entirely off the track onto different subjects. For now, though he focused on the person who had just called out the bird mans name.

The blacksmith was likely in her mid-thirties, incredibly tanned skin and powerful muscles that matched those of a person who was in her profession. She wore a stained white apron over mostly dark clothes with one of those spark helmet things attached to her face. Her dark black hair was tied in a ponytail, while her brown eyes seemed to have some kind of amusement as she saw Qrow before turning to him turning slightly to both curiosity and amusement. "Qrow, you seemed to have one of those pale Atlas fuckers following you" With his relatively pale skin, Nat knew he did look like he came from the northern kingdom especially as he didn't seem to possess the graceful movements of those who came from Mistral and people who came from Vale had a slightly darker shade to them, which to his knowledge was that more similar to that of Spain, Italy or Greece.

"Really?" With the man's playful tone, it was obvious that he meant exactly what the woman meant, yet he still seemed to turn around so that he was facing the wizard before chuckling. "Nah Angie this kid's from Vytal." Upon hearing the name of the central island located on the world map, the blacksmith nodded slightly, she still wasn't entirely too sure that the kid wasn't some Atlas fucker here to try and take advantage of her or other people in vacuo. They had enough problems with the terrain that Atlas had screwed up than to start a full-on fight with what could potentially be some cry-baby from her northern nation who might get sympathy from his people getting their council to sanction vacuo.

"I can assure you that I am from nowhere near Atlas, nor do I have any decent from them, I was just naturally born a little paler than most people" Angie seemed to accept this information slightly, yet the sort of professional way he spoke didn't settle her entirely. Still, se returned her attention the veteran huntsman who was smirking slightly at the scene before taking a sip of some of the alcohol he had in his flask.

"Okay Qrow why is there a pipsqueak following you." Again there was a small chuckle from Qrow as he watched the strong woman rake her eyes all over his young apprentice, sizing him up and seeing what he was capable of doing. Finally, her eyes landed on the two visible weapons that he had on him, the sabre and the pistol both of which she gave a slight look of disgust too as she noted the supposed quality of the weapons. "And why on earth does the pipsqueak have weapons made of such shit. I mean the pistol's old enough as it is, it created just after the Great War and that sabre of his, who the hell made it, some backwater blacksmith why didn't even know their craft, ha pathetic. Here kid put your weapons down and let me have a proper look at those piles of shit you call weapons"

Nat decided to follow the woman's instructions and place them in front of the woman laying them gently on the desk before she snatched them up starting with the pistol first.

"Well the kids my apprentice, was doing a mission for his village when bandits came in and killed everyone. The kid here at the time was showing me where to go, when we got back I thought I'd take him with me for a bit at least until he can defend himself" It was a practised excuse, one that Nat and Qrow had practised a few times to ensured that they had a concurrent story that would explain the kids lack of skill's at least in the beginning anyway. Not to mention if they both got interviewed and gave different stories then it would look very bad.

"I see, then this is the crap that you had with you. This thing couldn't kill a Beowulf if you tried let alone a bandit. The guns not been taken care of well and the ammunition is shoddy. As for your sword, it's in better shape but the craftsmanship is terrible, some useless blacksmith who just picked up a hammer for the first time I bet. Still, it hs a somewhat sharp edge and is of more use to you than the gun. However, personally, I would throw these pieces of crap away and get a real weapon especially if you're going to become a hunter". Angie smiled suddenly as she glanced towards Qrow and then towards the things that his apprentice had brought in and then towards the apprentice himself a smile on her lips.

"I was hoping that you could outfit the kid with some better weaponry" Upon hearing that Angie's eyes lit up with a small amount of excitement as she stepped out from behind the counter and walked straight over to the kid looking at him even more closely as she tried to figure out everything that she could. The kid from what she could tell had definitely seen battle before, and he was muscled enough to know martial arts but she could tell that he defiantly did not have much experience with firearms and his swords skills while acceptable weren't as good as they should be. She was able to tell this by the shape of his arms, they had some muscle to them, not to the level of a blacksmith like her, or to that of a well-trained fighter like Qrow or people in the huntsman academies yet they were still refined, more likely use to a lighter weapon.

"So tell me what you want kid, a sword spear and pistol combination, or perhaps a lance mixed in with a rifle. Anything you want I can make for you, of course, though considering your body type I would suggest for something less heavy like a sword rather than a mace.". Upon looking at the woman Nat began to start his order, which compared to what a normal person would spend, was a very large order.

"Multiple actually"Angie's eyes brightened even further and Qrow began to already feel his wallet getting lighter, it was a good job that they had already picked up the reward from the job the previous day in Mistral and that the kid could give him infinite booze.

"First, two sabres like that I gave you except for the guard to be symmetrical on both sides as well as the symbol to be replaced with my own. After that, I would like an assault rifle" Despite his calm tone, Angie who having seen the boy's previous armament had an idea that the kid didn't know much about firearms and would, therefore, have to ask many questions about how he wanted his weapon to be.

"Okay first a few points, do you want the rifle to be traditional or Bullpup, How many types of fire patterns, what calibre, what types of scope, as well as what types of attachment and what types of ammunition do you think you're going to use?" Upon not having an immediate answer, Angie began to explain what each thing meant starting with the bullpup and the advantages and disadvantages that it had. After that came the talk on fire patterns, such as one shot, three shots or fully automatic, Then there were talks about different types of scope and how far they could zoom in onto a target, after that was the talks about attachments such as lasers grenade launcher attachments and torches before finally discussing how different types of ammunition could affect the guns performance. As for Calibre that essentially was the size of the bullet from what he had gathered. Briefly, he thought about trying to use an image of a gun from back home before realising it would be useless so he gave his answer.

"I guess bullpup, the most powerful calibre, both a short and a long range scope if possible, single triple and fully automatic types of fire. A torch, laser, grenade launcher, foregrip, flash hider, silencer, information screen, and all the ammunition types that you have". As he spoke, Angie could just feel the pain and misery emanating from Qrow, custom built weapons from blacksmiths were expensive especially when they were firearms due to the amount of complex work that was needed. A regular assault rifle would cost far less, but a weapon made for Huntsman were of far higher quality and far more power due to the jobs that they needed to do.

"IS there anything else you would like" Nat nodded as he began to give out the other things he wanted to order, of which there were quite a few weapons he needed to get. This included a set of two more powerful pistols which also had attachments, a set of two daggers just in case, some grenades, as well as a utility belt to hold everything in and some holsters for his new pistols that would go on his side. Besides that though, he had his symbol added to each one before leaving a detailed set of strange symbols that the blacksmith had never seen before to be engraved into the weapons, with different weapons having different thing. These engravings could be done by any muggle but would need magic to activate making the weapons even stronger such as not overheating, or never running out of ammo.

"Come on kid it's time to leave" Qrow was in a slight downer mood after the sheer amount he had to fork over for the weapons to be produced, it had been a rather expensive day, yet he allowed the expensive purpose, because ultimately the kid was the one who had allowed him to get the reward in the first place. And if he was stuck with an untrained kid who he had to teach for the foreseeable future, then he would rather the kid have decent weapons to defend himself.

"Come back in three days, it's going to take me some time to create these weapons" Nat would admit that he knew very little when it came to the art of weapon-smithing, yet the idea of the woman being able to produce so many weapons seemed quickly was strange. Then again, what he considered normal was based on Earth where only magic could achieve such a feat, who was to say that the woman would not be able to create so many weapons in such a short time period. For now, though his concerns lay beyond the sandstone walls of the blacksmith and back into the busy crowded streets of vacuo.

Their next stop on their list was at a nearby tavern, as it seemed likely that they would be staying in vacuo until his weapons were made, that meant that Qrow would wish to pursue the small amount of information he had managed to work out from the days previous. It wasn't much and would take him more time to work out the rest of the info, he had to rely on some very fine magic to sort his problems out as he didn't have the necessary IT skills to start hacking equipment. Either way though, he had managed to find some sort of mention of an Atlas spy in Vacuo who was providing some useful information to the White Fang.

"So kid what do you have?" Nat sat down on one of the beds as he pulled out his scroll and began to look through the information he was searching for, then bringing it up so that Qrow could see a potential target. Their target was a woman from Atlas, like most of the natural inhabitants of the northern frozen tundra, her skin was rather pale matching her eyes and hair as she possessed a slightly icy yellow to each. Of course though now that she was located in Vacuo which was the complete opposite of Atlas she seemed rather out of place even with her Atlas robot guard dogs.

"Miss Alisha Honey, she's an informant for the White Fang, she passes info on dust convoys to the terrorists. Also from time to time, she gives out free dust handouts to the White Fang, uses poor children as scapegoats so if they caught the kids get arrested in her place" Turning his eyes towards the holographic image, Qrow began to list some of ht other facts that were stated about the woman although one defiantly caught his attention.

"She's human? Last time I checked kid Atlas hate's the White Fang" It was definitely true, from what Nat had managed to gather about the four kingdoms, Atlas was considered the most racist towards Faunus then followed by Mistral than by Vale and then by Vacuo. In contrast, Menagerie would be considered the most racist towards human, and while the current rulers of that island had long since left the group before it became violent, there was more than likely a strong anti-human sentiment. "I don't see anyone putting a possible sympathiser in such a position".

"According to the White Fang reports, She has a son. She didn't want him to live in Atlas due to how it is there and she couldn't risk just leaving him alone in some nursery on a different continent so she gave the kid to the White Fang for protection in return for information. According to this, the White Fang occasionally send pictures to her of her son to ensure that not only she continues to work, but also to use her as a possible case study for anyone else who might want to work with the Fang". The rest of the information on the woman indicated that besides her secret little affair with a Faunus that she had met, the woman was considered one of the best Alas agents in Vacuo. Able to raise the amount of dust harvested and generally respected as a woman due to her firm but fair treatment of her staff. As for what her real views were on the situation, he didn't know.

"They've set up a job, a lot of Grimm appearing around one of the lesser mines. She's offering a job to anyone who will clear them out if we do the job than we might get an audience with the young woman" Nat wouldn't say that the woman was exactly young, she was in her mid-thirties and had a child. Yet Qrow was looking at the woman's holographic figure with a look of approval indicating what he would like to do with her if events had been different.

"Or, you could fly around scout out the area from above, come back and give me the memories where I use my magic to bypass every single security device and get a p[personal meeting with the woman. We would save time as well as the possible risk of having the bounty stolen out from under us". A small grin crept along Qrows face as he hard that, normally the routine was to gain the trust of people since he had to be subtle in his approaches, doing jobs and spend weeks looking aimlessly for things or even interrogating people. With the wizard though, everything was shortened into a condensed timeline. Scout out the area teleport inside and have their meeting and then wipe the woman's memories if they wished.

"Then let's do it that, but can we do it tomorrow, I'm feeling a little thirsty after making that order and did you see some of the girls down there." Nat rolled his eyes internally, but he knew what was unspoken. He and Qrow had just arrived from Mistral which was the other side of the world far quicker than it should have been possible, as such if there were any of Salem's spies than they would be incredibly concerned with what just happened. Not to mention, they had escaped from Raven in that cave where they had gotten the information from. There was no way to know if the woman would pursue them or not, He had a feeling that the woman would want to, but with the woman likely suspecting that there was someone else involved with Qrow than she might be more cautious in her approach. Although Qrow now knew about the spring maiden and therefore in hopes of stopping him from reporting to Ozpin might head towards Vale in hopes of ambushing him with the spring maiden and the clan.

So for now, they would wait a bit of time, at least until they waited to see if Raven would pursue them immediately, something which would hamper their upcoming mission. After all having a crazy barbarian woman appear out of nowhere in what was likely to be a secured Atlas Facility would take away the meaning of subtle and raise alarms. Not to mention, Qrow was supposed to be being as silent as possible with his investigations, as such, they couldn't do anything too major that would draw attention. Added to this, there was an unspoken arrangement between them, with his ability to reads minds, he could easily scout put any possible spies something which would become incredibly handy for the Huntsman as it could prevent information being leaked back to the Queen of Grimm. As for the girls and booze though, well he wasn't interested in the slightest and would allow the man to have it all so long as he got time to finish his book.

"Do you want to but food or should I cook again " Qrow grinned happily at him instantly telling the wizard that he expected him to continue cooking their meals. With the help of magic, Nat didn't need any sort of tools as magic could do everything to the food and since it was also done by magic the food had a far better taste to it than average food. Although, handmade food, if done by masters, would taste better, still it was better than what Qrow as used to and cheaper as magic meant he only had to buy limited ingredients.

"Hey, kid I actually have someone I need to talk to here, So go do your own thing, and if you run into any trouble, kick their ass". Nat made an instant note to promptly ignore that comment if he was to get into trouble than violence would be his last answer, even if violence was common in Vacuo a fight was bound to draw attention, something he wasn't too fond of getting. "Oh yeah, and kid, once you finish, come back here and enjoy yourself, maybe even call that girlfriend of yours" And of course he went back to bloody Pyrrha again.

"She isn't my girlfriend Qrow" The response he was given back, was to as expected as one would guess, a large smirk on his face like he was actually embarrassing the wizard like a parent did to their child. Of course, he was wrong, besides the time he had first met Qrow, he had never once spoken to the man about Mistral's champion. Instead, when he received the phone call from her every day he would find somewhere quiet and have the phone conversation with the girl as he was doing on a ridiculous basis.

Ring

Speaking of the devil, picking up his scroll he saw Qrows grin grow even wider when he saw the callers id and then walked off while mentioning that he should say hello on the huntsman's behalf. As for him though, he answered the phone and went to the nearest empty alleyway he could find before then appearing back to the safety of the hotel room so he could hear more about how the girl was doing.

"Hello Pyrrha, how are you doing" According to his knowledge, Pyrrha would still be over Mistral. This was due to the fact that unlike, Atlas or Vale which used more modern machines to transport people through the air, Mistral still used its propeller wooden zeppelin things. Still, nothing beat a plane, unless the trip was really long distance such as London to Canberra, then most trips would only be a few hours. Even then though for a trip the same length as London to Canberra, it would take weeks before they arrived. It was the reason for such the long trip, Pyrrha would have to take the ridiculously long Mistral air travel to the edge of the continent before she could hop on a ride with a faster Vale transport. It was all about protectionist politics, Mistral didn't want to harm their own air transport business as they didn't have the ability to seriously upgrade yet.

"Oh just fine, it's a little boring seeing sky for so often, but it is a nice view though. How are you doing" He could hear the pleasant tone of Pyrrha as she replied. She was always like this, excited to have a friend to talk to as she made her way over to her new school all the while, he had arrived in Vacuo not even an hour ago although it was getting close.

"Well, we're still in Mistral, stopped by a small town on our way to pick up supplies as for now though we're moving north apparently some beowolves are causing a scene". There was no way of knowing what type of information could be tracked through the wireless systems of the Cross Continental transmit system, however, if Salem or one of her cronies was listening in, then it would be best if he gave out false information to confuse them. With the ability to teleport, it gave him and Qrow some extra time to get things done if anyone tracking them tried first in Mistral going by their last known position when they were actually half the world away in Vacuo.

"That's good, be careful though."There was some silence as Pyrrha said that likely imagining how he would do against such creatures in his new apprenticeship under a man he had called Henry Grass, it was a codename, but considering the importance of their missions, they couldn't exactly go around spouting their names just in case they did run into any of Salem's goons.

"I will be Pyrrha, and as you've said in three years I will arrive at Beacon and you can give me help as the older student" There was a slight chuckle at Pyrrha's end as she just imagined her looking far older in her twenties to come across an older Nathanael to had likely spent three years in the wilderness fighting Grimm. Of course what was far more likely, was that in a few months when Qrow eventually had to report back in person to Ozpin is that he would run into the girl and her team.

"Well make sure you get better than, with how you were you need to improve if you want we could always share videos with each other to help with your training" It wouldn't entirely be a bad idea, Nat thought. Pyrrha was a great warrior and when she arrived at Beacon she would more than likely improve drastically yet Qrow was an incredibly experienced Huntsman and before that, he was a bandit and therefore had killed people, as such he had more experience in fighting for his life. Plus if he tries some stuff that Pyrrha would teach him during possible training than Qrow would likely call it tripe stating that it was stuff only novices to actual combat did.

"Thanks for the offer Pyrrha, but you need to focus on your studies and making friends. Beacon is likely to be harder than the past school not to mention, you're bound to find someone you like and if you keep giving me lessons they're bound to get jealous, so just enjoy your time there while you can and if I'm ever in Vale we can meet up and talk" Nat seriously hoped he didn't end up in Vale anytime soon, having to talk to the girl every day as she had no one else to speak too was becoming a chore but one he ultimately did as it could give important information on how things were going in that kingdom. With Ozpin being the headmaster of the school there was bound to be some kind of action that went on at the school that could be relayed to Qrow, something that was important.

Although, there was a good chance that later on he would have to stop his calls to the girl, since when he was eventually recognised as Qrow's companion by Salem and the others than they would try to wiretap him for any information. In that case, though, he had already managed to place some detection magic into the device to warn him if he was being tracked or listened to. It was also for that reason why he was not being as adventurous as Qrow was in the city.

He could use as many illusion charms as he wished, but eventually, someone would realise that the man had a companion with him and report that to the relevant people. Instead, if he stayed entirely out of sight by staying away from the man in public such as what he was doing now by staying in the hotel room than he gained less attention. Invisibility was another option, but with things like different types of semblance, there was no way of knowing if there was anyone who could see through it. Or he could always bump into him and have it revealed, if that happened then there would be even more suspicious about a teenager sneaking around highly populated areas entirely invisible. Plus there was the more important and relevant fact that he just plain didn't like Vacuo,

He was looking forward more to visiting either Vale or Atlas, the first one because it seemed the most like home like most western European countries, minus the centuries of bloody warfare, occupation, religious zealots and far more. As for Atlas, it made him think of Scandinavia mixed with upper-class U.S.A and either South Korea or Japan for their reliance on robots to do their dirty work. Plus it had the only active military and he was curious to see how it acted and behaved compared to Earths military although considering what little he had learned from Qrow about Ironwood it seemed far stricter in terms of regulation. He was no expert on military protocol but he was pretty sure that Western Militaries didn't execute their soldiers for mistakes in the modern era.

There were a few tales from ex Atlas soldiers about how their fellows had been executed for not following a direct order, this had come from being too tired to follow it or for some other reason. Nothing that put men's lives at risk or anything too major but still to be executed was something he thought would happen and certainly not something that would ever happen in the U.K. Capital punishment had been made illegal for decades, nobody was given execution as punishment yet alone soldiers who while they might face serious jail time, would never face a firing squad. Something that was slightly ironic as he was a person in favour of bringing capital punishment back, but only for the most serious crimes like treason, definitely not for refusing to follow a direct order.

If there was one thing about this world, their peace came at a surprisingly high cost of their current social issues, racism definitely did exist still in modern day but it certainly wasn't to the point that Faunus were treated. It made him think of the U.S before the civil rights music. Although, he wasn't too informed on the subject as it had only been a very small amount of the work he had to do for his exams. Still, he knew the basics of the time and according to Qrow, there was still segregation in places like Atlas,

If Faunus came to earth then they were bound to still experience racism, but in western nations, it would likely be far less than they did now. Not to mention certain people would very much enjoy having Faunus around due to their weird fetishes. He was still very new to the community but he had managed to pick up on some things, and people with cat ears would likely find themselves with many humans stalking them due to their extra appendages. And if they had existed on Earth since the beginning, then the cat Faunus likely would have been hailed as gods to the ancient Egyptians.

He personally didn't have a problem with Faunus, from what he had seen they were exactly like humans besides the extra appendage, the people he despised were those who came from the Abrahamic religions, goblins and other certain creatures. Not to mention Faunus did have the advantage of night vision as well as other enhanced senses depending on their extra anatomy. Thos who had an extra pair of ears could likely hear more frequencies of noise, as well as hear better whereas a person with wings could fly. Not to mention the fact that he also wasn't human, wizards' and witches whatever way a person looked at it, were physically superior to humans due to their magic. Enhanced physical attributes as well as longer lives, the ability to see things that muggle's couldn't, immune to disease, the ability to actually use magic and other things. Here though on Remnant, he was simply another human who happened to look like he was from Atlas and therefore should stay away from, more populated Faunus locations as not to draw attention to himself of Qrow.

"Do you actually think, I'll make friends there" Back onto the subject of the girl's phone call, Nat tried to give some encouragement to the girl. With any luck, if the girl did make friends at Beacon, then he wouldn't have to have the constant phone calls that came every day. Once every few days were fine to keep him up to date with the information he needed, but every day and it was becoming a hassle.

"Sure, just remember to stand up for yourself, Most people will already know you and form their opinions of that info, there's not much you can do about that. You're best bet, is when you introduce yourself to do so like you were speaking to me, walk up to say hello in a normal non-nervous way and began to speak about normal things like the weather or food. If a person recognises you and asks questions, answer quickly with short responses as well as try to direct the conversation away, if it doesn't work than pretend you have a phone call or something and walk away". Why was he giving advice on how to make friends to a girl, he had never once had a friend in his life, the only thing he was going off was the teaching his father had given him to enter conversation with a person if needed or do what his sister had told him. He wasn't exactly the person to give friendship advice.

"Thanks, hopefully, it goes well" Nat doubted that the girl wouldn't find friends, unlike him who had no desire for friends she, in fact, did and with her being older she was bound to find someone who she could spend her time with. Plus there was the fact that he had seen how Ozpin did student training, something which required sticking the students in permanent teams all through their school life. If Pyrrha didn't make friends with her future teammates than she would be in for a very hard time at the school.

However it still made him wonder just how close Ozpin wanted the teammates to be, he was placing multiple teenagers into a single room that depending on the team layout could be mixed sex. Having been in Ravenclaw, he was used to a private bedroom, the sheer idea of sharing a bedroom with other people his age with no sense of privacy that even the Gryffindor's had with the curtains that went around their beds didn't sit right with him. With Qrow's memories to guide him, he knew that teammates generally would know what one another looked like beneath their clothes forcing a sense of trust. Yet there was bound to be a lot of awkwardness between partners in the beginning days. As such whoever, the girl was partnered with could possibly start having romantic feelings with Pyrrha if not more lustful thoughts.

The conversation between the two of them lasted for about half an hour until Pyrrha was called away to handle something, as for him he continued to type incredibly quickly the rest of his book. Remnant's history was nowhere near as bloody as Earths and their major battles in the Great War was nothing compared to something like Stalingrad, D-Day or Okinawa. If he ever did publish the books, then it would be interesting to see how the world would react. Then again, there was also a possible disaster if he stated exactly how Japan came to surrender.

If his books gave people inspiration to see if they could actually create an atomic bomb that he might as well sign the entire planet away and be responsible for its utter destruction. There was no nuclear war on Earth because each side knew that as soon as one was used, that the entire world was fucked and everybody would die. However Salem wanted that exactly, what would she care if millions of Grimm died, according to Ozpin her only goal was to destroy humanity in its entirety, all that was stopping her was the lack of powerful enough weapons to do so.

He was very much walking a tightrope being on this planet, he didn't have the knowledge on how to create nuclear weapons, but he did know that they could be created and therefore somebody could use the very basic information he had on certain technologies to try and replicate them on Remnant. Nuclear bombs were the most dangerous things he could think off, but there were also Intercontinental ballistic missiles, whether they had a nuclear bomb attached to it or not if a kingdom had the capacity to strike other kingdoms without fear of retribution than it would shift the balance of power yet again.

Things like nukes in his opinion did help keep the peace between major nations but only if both sides had them if only Russia had nuclear weapons than it could use them whenever they wanted as nobody would be able to stop them. As for disarmament it also wouldn't work because when a war broke out what was to stop a nation trying to build nukes to get an advantage over another. Agreements between nations on wartime rules could easily be ignored, there had been agreement not use gas in the first world war, or to limit the power of battleships between the two wars which was also ignored.

Regulating nations was far harder than citizens of a nation and the reason for it, was that there had to be a power stronger than them that would be both feared and respected that could force certain things. Gun control in his home country could be enforced because not only was there a general agreement between people that the average citizen had no need for a firearm but also because there was a police force that could handle anyone who disobeyed the law.

But to do something like that to a nation just couldn't happen, The U.S was the most powerful nation on the planet currently, while other nations were also powerful as well there was no nation which could truly threaten the actual land of its citizens without nuclear weapons which were pointless since if that happened than anyone lost. The U.N didn't have the power in any way imaginable to enforce any rules on the U.S and the only way the U.S would be any major trouble would be if the rest of the world would turn against them, something that wouldn't happen unless something drastic happened.

The same thing would happen on Remnant, if Atlas got a hold of nukes then with their current leadership, there was no chance that they would allow any other nation to gain the same amount of power as it could threaten them. And if Salem got her hands on nukes then the war was already lost with no way to fight against them.

If there was one thing he had to do on this world, it was to ensure that nuclear weapons or other such weapons weren't developed and therefore could not be used against the citizens of this planet. As for right now though, he would wait until Qrow had finished his task of gathering some information with a friend at some other bar. Although knowing that man, he wouldn't be surprised if the Hunter tried to find someone to sleep with while he was there. The man would be considered attractive enough and with being a hunter it made him seem dangerous, as for him an apprentice would likely ruin his reputation and stop that from happening. So long as he allowed the man to do what he wanted than he could continue his book while he waited for the drunk bird to come flapping its wings back home.