Chapter-4

Jason

"Your first assignment is to the village of Shion." Raven spoke standing in front of Jason's cage.

"Shion?" Jason spoke.

"It's a village northeast of our camp. Pretty old and filled with huntsmen."

Jason tilted his head in confusion.

What do these huntsmen hunt? He thought. Raven had offhandedly mentioned these 'huntsmen' before, and from what Jason could tell, they didn't seem to be just random people who hunt game in the woods.

"Do you have no idea what a huntsman is? You know, person with aura who fights against grimm?"

Jason slowly nodded as Raven sighed.

"How are you this clueless…Nevermind, just note that huntsmen are people you should be careful about. Anyways, stay there for 5-10 days and talk to the locals. Maybe you could take some assignments to hunt grimm."

"That's it?"

"Yep."

Okay, that's definitely not it. There's a catch, but Raven's not telling me. Jason thought.

"Okay, can I take Tempest?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Well, I'm not stupid. We both know you're being cooperative on very flimsy things. So just to make sure you don't break your agreement, we're keeping your steed here."

Jason sighed but conceded to Raven's point. Considering their 'alliance' was built on Jason's need for information and Raven's interest in Tempest, Jason didn't believe it would last beyond even one mission. Heck, Jason was himself planning to get whatever gaps in information he had filled in Shion before calling Tempest over and leaving the Branwen tribe.

"Alright. Anything else?"

"Take a regular horse."

"A regular horse. Aren't there any vehicles?"

"Not with us, no. Those are luxuries afforded in big cities like Mistral and Argus. Plus, the government of Mistral rarely bothers to develop Anima's roads to be fit for vehicles. So most people still use horses. I thought you knew this."

"I didn't see a single person while I was riding."

"Probably because you came through Shi road."

"Shi?"

" 'Death' in South Animan. It's because the Oniyuri and Kuroyuri are both located on that road. The road has been filled with grimm nests ever since Oniyuri and Kuroyuri's desolation and either convoys protected by huntsmen, really skilled huntsmen or complete idiots go through that road."

"So, I avoid it?"

"Unless you want to take your chances with a grimm horde, yeah. Shion's connected to Shi road, but due to its relative proximity to Mistral, it can be reached through other roads. I'll go get a map and a horse prepared." She spoke before walking off.

Tempest whinnied angrily as Jason looked at him.

"Calm down, buddy. She can't do anything to you so hold on. When I call you then come over." He spoke.

Tempest whinnied again.

"I'll be fine. Don't worry about me." Jason spoke as Raven came back with a map.

"Here's the map." She spoke as Jason took the map to see the locations of Shion and the branwen camp marked on the map.

"Are you ready?" She asked as Jason nodded.

"Excellent. Come on." She spoke opening Jason's cage before leading him towards the camp's gates where his horse stood.

Jason got onto the horse before Raven handed him some cash that had an L imprinted on it.

"Here's some lien for covering your expenses. Also, when you get to Shion, tell the guards you're from Northeast Anima."

"Why?"

"Northeast Anima is designated as a 'disjoint region', meaning Mistral's council cannot really administer the region and hence those living in disjoint regions won't be expected to produce documents issued by Mistral's human ministry to be given permission to enter the village."

"Got it."

"Good luck." Raven spoke as Jason looked at the sun's position in the sky to gauge his direction before spurring his horse to gallop in the northeast direction towards Shion

Raven nodded to Vernal who flew off in Jason's direction

Here we go. She thought. She knew Jason would not be cooperative for long, especially when she's given him the chance to gain information from more trustworthy people. The leverage of information was something to pull him into the tribe, but now she needed something else as leverage to ensure he stays.

Raven walked back to the cage to look at Tempest.

Tempest was a fascinating creature that opened up a world of possibilities. Possibilities of a completely different race of beasts existing besides the grimm. Such a thing would turn the tide of the war, and gods forbid if Ozpin or Salem got to know of this, because while their war has already spilled over to the spotlight, this could possibly turn it into a full-blown war that will cause immense bloodshed and destruction.

As much as Raven no longer cared about what went on in the kingdoms, she did not enjoy total destruction, since her tribe did survive on the settlements established by the kingdoms.

So for Remnant's sake, Raven could not afford anyone to know of Tempest.

Tempest stared at her with intelligence no beast should be having before Raven's eyes lit up with red flames as she drew upon her maiden powers.

"Look, I know you'll want to join your master, so I'll say this once. I probably can't control you right now, but I can definitely keep you from leaving. So stay put and don't try to run. Because I can assure you you won't get far."

Tempest's eyes widened before the creature started sparking with lightning. Raven didn't back down as she stared at Tempest's glowing yellow eyes before the beast huffed and sat calmly, staring at Raven with defiance.

It's not afraid. But it doesn't seem like its going to attack. Raven thought before the flames died down.

"Good." She spoke before walking off.

Once Jason came back, she will learn from him about Tempest. Where he came from and whether there were more like him. Raven had then planned to convince him to join, but after observing him, Raven could tell he won't join.

So, once she learned all that she could about Jason and Tempest, he'll be of no more use to her.

4 days later:

Jason reached the gates of Shion in the morning. On the way, he'd found some small villages, but chose not to stay since they did not have huntsmen and were much smaller than Shion.

Shion itself had Japanese style buildings dotting the landscape, with a fortified structure in the center.

There was an outpost consisting of guards with rifles, swords and spears patrolling barbed wire fortifications away from the town's outskirts.

"Good morning, sir. Please produce your documents to enter Shion." One of the guards spoke, although Jason noticed the others casting suspicious looks on his armor, gladius and spear.

"I am from Northeast Anima." Jason replied as the guard nodded.

"A disjoint native? Alright, then we'll skip over the document process. But you'll still have to answer some questions."

Jason nodded.

"What is the purpose of your visit?"

"Transit for travelling back to my home."

"How long will you be staying in Shion?"

"5-10 days."

"Why are you carrying weapons?"

"I, uh, accidentally went down Shi road."

Another guard winced. "Shi Road? That's rough."

The guard questioning Jason glared at his colleague before clearing his throat.

"I'm sorry to hear that, sir. Are you alright?"

"Thankfully, yes."

"Alright. That's all."

"Just one question."

"Yes?"

"Is it possible to take up assignments for grimm?"

The guard's face brightened. "Oh yes, absolutely! We can use all the help we can get!"

Jason felt sad at that statement. The struggles faced by this world Remnant's people against the grimm were too similar to the struggles of demigods against monsters. He hoped these huntsmen did their job well to protect Shion from the grimm.

Entering Shion, Jason got off his horse and began walking. Many people walked in Japanese attire and many stared at him, some with curiosity, some with suspicion and even some with hostility.

They don't like foreigners. Jason thought before walking up to a woman.

"Excuse me?"

The woman looked at him with a pensive look. "Yes?"

"Could you please point me to the nearest inn?"

"Go straight and take the second right. You'll find Sakura Inn." She spoke with a weird accent before quickly walking off before Jason could thank her.

Jason sighed before following the woman's directions to find the inn. It was not too small, and there were stables. Jason put his horse in the stables before entering the inn.

Inside, a middle-aged man sat at the reception desk as Jason walked up. The man looked up with a neutral expression.

"Good morning, sir. Welcome to Sakura Inn." He spoke in a professional tone as Jason looked around. The reception seemed pretty neat and Jason could smell roses.

This might be expensive, but let's see. He thought.

"Good morning sir. I'm here to stay."

"Name?"

"Jason Grace?"

"Where do you come from?"

"Northeast Anima."

"Age?"

Jason pursed his lips. He was 16, and he really did not know if that would be good idea to say it.

"17?" He spoke and was surprised when the person showed no reaction.

"Days and nights?"

"10 days and 9 nights."

"Alright. The rates are less for those of the disjoint regions. Just wait while I get your room ready."

"Okay, thank you. Are there any nearby taverns?"

The man stroked his beard. "There's Shimura's three buildings down the road. Lots of people go there. Any other questions?"

"No that is all." Jason spoke before sitting on the couch. After some time, the man handed him the key.

"Enjoy your stay."

Jason went to his room and crashed onto his bed. Jason couldn't even remember the last time he had laid down on such a comfy bed. The ones in Edgarton's dorms were too hard and ever since coming to Remnant, Jason had been sleeping on nothing but ground.

Jason took off his armor and weapons before laying back down to take some rest.

He spent most of the day relaxing, buying fresh clothes and books to get him started, where he found out about the four kingdoms, the huntsmen and huntresses, aura, semblances and the huntsmen academies that trained huntsmen, which sounded a lot like training in the Camps.

In the evening, Jason headed to Shimura's Tavern. Entering the tavern, he noticed several drunk men on tables talking to each other and an old bald man serving drinks. He ignored the suspicious gazes and walked up to the old man, who he assumed was Mr. Shimura.

Shimura raised an eyebrow. "You look young kiddo. You one of those snowflakes who wants to try booze for the first time?"

"Uh…no. I'm new here, so I just want to…"

"Get some info? Alright then. I can understand your confusion with the stuff going on here. But a warning kid, most of the people here have been giving the cold shoulder to strangers lately. Few are there who would be willing to give their time to talk to you?"

"Do you know why that is?"

"…You don't know what happened?"

"I'm not from the kingdoms. So, I'm not really aware."

"Ah, then let me explain. You know of the huntsman academies, right?"

Jason nodded.

"Well, the one at Vale, Beacon Academy, fell to the grimm months back."

Jason's jaw clenched. From what he read about the huntsman academies, they were like second homes to their students. How many times had Camp Jupiter almost fallen, almost depriving demigods like himself of a home and leave them completely at the mercy of monsters? Even now, he remember Caligula's plan to attack the Camp and had been praying that Frank and Reyna see the camp through victory.

But for the students of Beacon, Jason felt sympathy. They'd lost a home as well as friends to the grimm.

"I see." He spoke in a somber tone.

"Yeah, happened during the Vytal festival. But the big problem is that before things went to shit, it was broadcasted that Atlesian soldiers were killing students."

Jason's eyes widened. He'd read that Atlas' army mostly composed of robots, but they were still being controlled and operated by humans. Why would Atlas give the order to kill students in the middle of what clearly was an invasion by monsters.

"Why would they do that?"

"Dunno. But now everyone's mad at Atlas. People have been attacking anything related to Atlas across the kingdoms. Of course, it's not that bad here in the towns and villages, but the suspicion and hostility is there, mostly because the folks are afraid some foreigners will come over and stab them in the back like Atlas did to the Beacon students."

"And their fear turned to hostility." Jason spoke. "Are you…?"

"Oh I'm scared and suspicious too. But I keep a hold of it. After all, get too angry and you're asking for grimm. Its sad the idiots in the cities don't realize that. You're not from Atlas, are you?"

"No."

"Good. You won't have as much trouble then. But still watch out, kid."

Jason nodded. "I understand. Thank you." He spoke turning to go.

"Hold on, kid. You still take a drink with you."

"…Do I have to?"

"Well, you came to my tavern, I think you could at least show me some respect by buying some drinks after I answered your questions despite you being a stranger."

"Fair enough. Do you have any non-alcoholic drinks?"

"We do. We're not like the taverns in Vale and Atlas. There's stuff for those who don't drink as well."

"I'll take a lemon juice."

"Got it." He spoke before bringing up a glass of Lemon juice. Jason paid for the drink before walking off to sit at the corner.

Well, I guess I didn't need to spend too much time. Jason thought. After all, he wasn't coming back to the Branwen Tribe now.

But the thing was, now he knew the background, what should he do? He wasn't staying with the Branwen tribe since they were, well, bandits.

Look for more information. He thought. This world looked normal in some ways, but with the grimm, Jason was sure Remnant had its own mythological side. If he could find a way to access those elements of Remnant, he could possibly find a way to get back home.

But Hades would be waiting for me. Jason thought. Even then, he still had to know if he had a chance of going home. He was happy to stay, as long as he could somehow have Hades convinced to spare him.

We'll see about that later. We still have some things to do. Jason thought before noticing some new people come into the tavern.

They were wearing metal chestplates over their clothing carrying weapons that also looked like they had guns in them. Their piercing gazes swept across the tavern and everyone looked at them.

I assume these are huntsman? Jason thought as the huntsmen entered, before one of the drunkards got up and stood in their way.

A brown-haired huntsman sighed. "Please step aside. We're not looking for trouble." He spoke as the drunkard scoffed.

"Not looking for trouble my ass. Were you also NOT looking for trouble at Beacon, you Atlesian pricks!"

The huntsman's eyes narrowed. "We are not affiliated with the Atlesian army, even if we are Atlesian huntsman. We chose to stay here since your own huntsmen are disappearing and grimm attacks are increasing."

"Bullshit! I know you came here because the demand for huntsmen shot up so that you pieces of shit could make a great buck out of this!" The drunkard spat.

"Midori, calm down!" Another person got up. "Now's not the…"

"You stay out of this! My daughter was in Vale when Beacon fell! And these pieces of shit turned on their own while she was getting ripped apart by grimm!" Midori yelled picking up a bottle as Jason sighed.

This is bad. It's just like Rome and Greece. He thought as the brown-haired huntsman looked at the bottle.

"Last warning." He stated.

"Fuck you I'm not stepping away, assholes! You're going to pay for my daughter's life!" Midori spoke charging at the huntsman who punched him in the face as Midori crumpled to the ground.

"Shit, his daughter died at the Fall?" one of the huntsman's colleagues spoke as he sighed. "So he was just grieving for his daughter. But we're here to do our job, not try to focus on the personal things of the locals." He spoke as the people carried Midori away. A bunch of other people were getting up as well with hostility as Jason's eyes widened.

I should get out of here. He thought as he went to get up…

"If any of you start a fight in my tavern, I'm calling in the guards!" Mr. Shimura snapped as the people looked at him before sitting down.

Shimura looked at the huntsmen. "Order quickly before my tavern becomes the site of a brawl." He grumbled as the huntsman walked up.

As they ordered, Jason caught a few words.

"The Nuckelavee's moving towards Kuroyuri. People's saying it's eyeing up Shion."

"Shit, has anyone gone after it?"

"Gone after it? Are you insane? Who's going to risk their life for that when there's easier bounties that can make a lot of lien. We'll inform Mistral of this and they can send a lot more backup."

"Criminals? Yeah, criminals are way easier."

Jason's grip on his glass tightened.

What did they just say? Jason thought. He was pretty sure the Nuckelavee isn't the demon from Orcadian legends but a grimm that looks like it. So if such a dangerous grimm was nearby and could possibly attack, these huntsmen were being cowards because of money?

Jason could understand them punching Midori because it was self-defence, he was irritated when the huntsman acted so coldly towards the people they chose to protect, but to know that they were in the end actually here for money like Midori accused them of soured his image of huntsmen really badly.

If these were the ones meant to defend humanity from the grimm, then I am really disappointed. Jason thought.

Jason decided he wasn't going to leave behind Shion so quickly. He'll first go and deal with this grimm before it attacks Shion.

"So, we still have a long way to go before Shion?" Ruby asked as Jaune nodded. Ren and Nora were walking in front of them. There were storm clouds gathering, so they should look for shelter.

"Yep, that's what it says on the ma…oof!" Jaune spoke before he crashed into Ren's back.

"Oh, sorry Ren!" Jaune apologized before noticing Ren wasn't responding. "Ren?" He asked.

"What…happened…?" Ren spoke in shock as Ruby and Jaune looked where he was looking and gasped.

In front of them was nothing but debris of wood and rocks as smokes rose. They could see the remains of a wall which had been almost completely demolished.

"We need to look for survivors!" Jaune exclaimed as the four ran towards the ruins.

As they got closer, they could see nothing but debris and fires burning.

"Did the grimm…get them?" Ruby asked with sadness in her voice.

"…It seems so." Ren spoke as Ruby looked down in silence for all those who had been killed.

Nora looked around before her eyes widened. "Hey, guys! Look!" She spoke pointing at a piled of debris as the others looked in her direction.

"Is that…lightning?" Jaune spoke in confusion as Ruby suddenly noticed sparks of lightning on the debris, seemingly going on without stopping even when there wasn't much metal to conduct it.

"But…there shouldn't be any grimm around that can use lightning, is there?" Ren question as Ruby looked at the sparks of lightning with her eyes narrowing.

"No…but whatever it is, we should be careful. Whatever, or whoever, did this to this place is powerful. But also dangerous."

"So what should we do?" Jaune asked as Ruby looked at him with a serious look on her face.

Raindrops fell, drenching Ruby and the others. In the rain, Ruby's eyes narrowed.

"We find out what happened, of course."

A/N: And here we go. Jason now knows the normal side of things on Remnant. However, he still has to reach the rabbit hole of Relics, Ozma, Salem bla, bla, bla. I had to heavily edit this chapter because some of the earlier ideas I implemented would make Jason look like a complete moron and narrow-minded asshole. But those ideas would have made it less likely for me to write myself into a corner, so now I'm really going to have to thread the needle on in future chapters.

Anyways, Now that Jason's in Shion, I think a little elaboration on Beacon's fall is in order. While the show does show Atlas closing its borders and the disappearance of Cross-continental communication as an effect of the Fall, I think it misses out on how it would affect the people. So, I put in general distrust for foreigners, especially Atlesians as well as a little sour opinion on atlesian huntsman because y'know, casualties in the fall.

Finally, RNJR reach Oniyuri to discover what Jason has done to it and also set up their eventual meeting.

Hope you guys enjoyed and constructive criticism is appreciated!

Response to Reviews:

Guest: Hey, man. Jason's no Superman, but being a demigod doesn't mean he has little morals. Jason wouldn't try to just cause harm and destruction so suddenly, especially when he hasn't really seen just how messed up the Branwen tribe is. There isn't any reason for him to be so brutal, especially when he's just working with what he thinks are petty bandits and not monsters.

Crankymcgranky: Of course, of course. Jason not getting aura is just to make sure that the RWBY villains have some chance against him in a fight. But even without aura, Jason wouldn't really be fragile. With the shit Percy's survived, Jason won't collapse and nearly die from a few wounds by guns or swords. It'll take a fatal wound or lots and lots of wounds to bring him down.

But yes, I agree that Jason should get some defenses since he would have to experiment with his powers to adapt to the things I'm going to throw at him in the story. I already have a lot in mind, which would just protect him and not make him stronger than he already is like aura would do.

rl15435: Yes. That is what Riordan does in the books. Gods like Poseidon do speak of Zeus in a negative light and point out his terrible qualities, but in the end, they acknowledge his immense power and authority (Even if Poseidon does act defiant sometimes).

Also, there's a different reason why Jason couldn't have his aura unlocked. It's not because he'll shock whoever tries to unlock his aura, so actually no one on Remnant can actually unlock his aura.

hawko2632: Thanks for the suggestion, but I rely more on science, mythology and the lore of the source materials themselves for deciding what powers my characters should have.