Hey what are friends for

[blueayes]

Ironwood watched as the fight continued, by all rights it should have been over by now, everything was over, he had failed and Salem had won.

He watched as Salem walked away with the relic of creation and the relic of knowledge and yet Atlas hadn't fallen.

He closed his eyes and listened to the rainfall, he could hear the sounds of the Grimm approaching, and he couldn't help but cry.

He could hear the explosions happening one after another, it was ver he had lost Humanity had lost.

"Get up!" he heard someone scream before he felt someone pull him to his feet.

When he opened his eyes he couldn't believe who it was, it was Jacques Schnee.

"We have to go, while we still have time!" Jacques said to him

"Sacred purification!" a woman screamed as a magic circle began to cover Atlas

"What's happening?" Ironwood asked Jacques

'Help finally came, that's what happened"

"There's only two of them but they're pushing the Grimm back" Jacques answered Ironwood.

They both ran up the stairs and felt their eyes widen as streams of power covered the sky and formed a massive sphere, they watched as the sphere fell upon the Grimm below.

As the sphere of energy fell, they could see the figures of the Grimm that couldn't fly out of the way being crushed underneath the power of the sphere.

They watched as the sphere made contact with the ground and were nearly blinded when it detonated.

"Schnee what's going on?!" Ironwood asked Jacques

'They're alive!" Jacques answered Ironwood

'Whos alive?" Ironwood asked Jacques

"Kazuma and Aqua, you know the two freeloaders that have been living in my house, now we have to get the engines running," Jacques said to Ironwood the desperation in his voice was clear

Ironwood looked at Jacques he was going to say something but he noticed the magic circle forming in the sky.

He watched as a waterfall suddenly poured from the magic circle forcing the Grimm that had gathered in Mantle back.

Ironwood felt his will slowly returning to him, they still had a fighting chance.

He was about to call Winter and asked her for any information she had when he noticed another stream of power gathering in the sky, the stream became a massive spear that flung itself into something that was too far to be seen by human eyes.

The explosion was nothing but a brief flash of light, then nothing everything was quiet.

"Winter answer me, what's going on?" Ironwood said to Winter, but there was no answer, he tried over and over and over again until finally, someone answered.

Ironwood let out a breath of relief when he heard Winter's voice.

"General, Kazuma, and Aqua are still fighting but they are pushing the Grimm back," Winter said to him

"What's happening?" Ironwood said to Winter

"I dot know, one moment we were being overwhelmed the next thing I know they two arrived and began" Winter stopped talking as video on her scroll suddenly became active and the two of them could see each other.

"See for yourself," Winter said to Ironwood as she turned her scroll and showed him what was happening in front of her.

Magic circles were being created in every direction and all sorts of light emerged from them, as Aqua destroyed any Grimms he could see.

Kazuma was a blur, one moment he was next to a soldier stealing dust from them the next he was using it off one or more Grimm.

Ironwood swore he saw the man absorbed the dust crystals power into himself before using the energy to attack the Grimm.

'Come on! we have to get the engines online" Jacques said to Ironwood as he pulled his arm

"We can't, there's not enough antigravity dust to keep us afloat, "Ironwood said to Jacques

'Not those engines the other ones" Jacques looked at Ironwood with eyes, and Ironwood could see the desperation the elder Schnee felt

"Kazuma used my company to build four different engines because I dared him to"

"He said that they were alternate sources of power other than dust, one was oil- another was wind and the last one was solar," Jacques said to him and ironwood began to realize what Jacques was trying to say.

'Listen, we just need to get the engines running again, there's not of stored up power so we can keep Atlas in the sky" Jacques said as he started pulling Ironwood again

All of a sudden both Ironwood and Jacques noticed several lights gathering in the distance.

"Winter what's going on?"Ironwood said to Winter

"I don't know" Winter answered Ironwood, her voice had lost all of its strength

She used the camera in her scroll and zoomed in and showed ironwood the figures of Kazuma and Aqua bathed in different lights charging towards something that shouldn't exist.

Ironwood took his eyes off his scroll and followed Jacques to the engines, he silently declared to himself that their sacrifice wouldn't be in vain.

Ironwood and Jacques had to separate as the engines were being kept in different locations, the only thing they had to do was press a button to turn the engines on.

They each managed to turn one engine on and they were alerted that the other two had been turned on by someone else, altho Jacques didn't say anything Ironwood knew who had turned the other two engines on.

However ironwood didn't say anything as he could feel Atla's stabilizing itself, as he stepped out of the building he was in, he watched as lightning bolts began to rain down from the sky, before a massive magic circle formed around Mantle and Atlas.

The invasion was over, both Mantle and Atlas had survived but at a heavy price.

"They're alive," Winter said as the image of Kazuma and Aqua could be seen through the scroll, as they struggled to walk back to Mantle, their injuries were clear and their exhaustion could be seen by everyone.

Yet the of them fell long before they could make it back.

Sometime in the past.

 

[blueayes]

Whitley walked into the streets of Mante it was his first time seeing the city alone, grated he shouldn't be here but he wouldn't let Winter be right.

He wasn't their father's puppet, but he wasn't like his sister either he did have his secrets one of them being the reason why he was in Mantle, to begin with, he was here to visit two people he called friends.

Kazuma and Aqua were or are two of the strangest people he had ever met, for more reasons than he cared to admit, Kazuma has been making a living by giving all sorts of machines that use dust and making them work by using other things.

For one he created a type of heater that worked by putting snow in one end while on the other end steam came out.

His machines had become popular, not just because anyone could use them, but because of how cheap they are and how user-friendly they are.

Aqua had become somewhat of a celebrity, she had a way of using dust to perform acts that looked like if she was using magic and she enjoyed passing the time performing for people, but she liked to drink so it wasn't unusual to see her passed out and seeing Kazuma carrying her home.

Whitley had met the two after accompanying his father on one of his business trips and seeing Aqua performing one of her magic tricks for a group of children, he watched as Kazuma arrived, and even if he couldn't hear the two and what they said to one another he had seen the two perform their act for the children and their parents.

It was then that he did something he never did before, he opened the door of the car and walked closer to get a closer look at the performance.

Ever since then he would go down to Mante and watch Aqua perform or watch Kazuma as he worked in his shop either building new machines or repurposing old Atlas technology and making something that shouldn't exist.

He never spoke to the two he just passed the time with them, until one day Kazuma spoke to him.

"Hey we're going to go kill some monsters, get your coat, your coming with us," Kazuma said to him

"I'm not a Huntsman or a soldier" Whitley answered Kazuma who just looked at him

"Yeah I know, but you're here, I'm here and Aqua is here so we have a team with the three of us, so you're coming with us" Kazuma answered him, as he walked out of the door and turned off the lights.

Kazuma and Aqua weren't that much older than his sister Weiss and honestly, Whitley didn't know why they wanted him to accompany them when he's never had any combat training.

"So what's your name?" Kazuma asked him, while Aqua happily hummed to herself s they walked.

"Whitley Schnee" he answerd Kazuma.

Whitley had to admit he was surprised that Kazuma didn't know who he was, considering that his grandpa was the founder of the dust company and his dad was the one running it now.

"CooL. I'm Kazuma and the blue one is Aqua" Kazuma said to him as Aqua continued to hum to herself.

"Look Aqua and I will keep you safe, but you're going to need a weapon and a lot of dust, try getting things your comfortable using, like a gun or a stick," Kazuma said to him as they crossed the street

"Try to get yourself some armor, and don't forget to buy a first aid kit, because there's a chance Aqua might not be around one day," Kazuma said to him as they arrived at the edge of Mantle.

Whitley was hesitant to go any further, this was the first time he had gone this far from home alone, and granted he was wearing warm clothes, but they were clothes suited for the environment that was inside the city, once he stepped out of the range of the heaters, his clothes wouldn't be enough.

"One step, all it takes is one step," Kazuma said to him as he walked out of the city

Whitley watched as Aqua followed Kazuma without a care in the world, he watched as they walked further and further away and stopped waling and waited for him.

"All it takes is one step" Kazuma's words repeated themselves in his head and before he knew what he was doing Whitley walked past the city and entered into the snow-covered lands.

He followed Aqua and Kazuma until they reached a cave, and he felt his eyes widen when Kazuma created a ball of light to light their way into the cave.

"So what are we doing here?" he asked Kazuma as they walked deeper into the cave

'The companies have all the dust under their control, but we found some they missed" Kazuma answered him before he stopped walking and printed to Whitley.

Whitley turned and saw that in a small corner of the cave were dozens of dust crystals, there were many in fact they were only enough to fill a small house but other than that they posed no threat to his father's company.

"You and Aqua keep an eye out for monsters, while I get those things out of the wall," Kazuma said t him

He spent the rest of the day listening to Kazum dig the crystals of the cave wall, before choosing to break the stone wall around the crystals and get them out that way.

When they finally went back to Mantle, Kazuma gave him a bag filled with crystals, he said that was his pay for the day, after that Whitley went back home, he didn't need the crystals, but for whatever reason, he couldn't help but take one or a few out and look at them while he laid in bed or sit at the table.

 

[blueayes]

The next day Whitley entered both Winter's and Weis's old rooms and began to search for anything that might give him an idea of what he might need when going out with the Huntsmen.

He didn't know why he was doing it, he only knew that even though the only thing he had done was stand around and keep watch, the time he had spent with Kazuma and Aqua was fun.

He opened Winters closet and unsurprisingly the eldest of his sisters had left behind all of the dresses she wore when she was younger, there were allsorts of colors in her closet.

Whitley wondered why Winter didn't bother wearing any of them anymore, granted they might be too small for her now, but she could buy new ones that did fit her.

It was in the back of her closet that he found an old Atlas trench coat, it was heavy because it was reinforced to be able to receive mid-level attacks from both Grimm and huntsmen alike.

Whitley didn't need an explanation as to why Winter had left it behind the trenchcoat didn't fit her anymore and the way the trenchcoat was designed meant that it was a coat for men not women.

Whitley took the trenchcoat and put it on, it was a little too big for him but nothing he couldn't grow into, it didn't hinder his movement nor did it restrain his hand when he lifted them.


He closed the closet and began to look around Winters room, and he found several unused dust bullets, he knew enough about dust to know that the reason the bullets hadn't been used was that they were weak.

The bullets could almost hurt a person that didn't have their Aura activate, other than that they could only annoy anything that they were used against.

So with nothing else to discover he went into Weiss room and found it-empty, there was nothing he could use, nothing except an old magazine that showed the different armors people wore in the past, the magazine was hidden underneath his elder sisters bed, she had probably hidden it from their father so that she didn't get any ideas about using armor that didn't fit the family image.

Whitley took the magazine, luckily for him the name of one of the stores that sold the armor was one he had walked past by several times, however as he was leaving his sister's room someone called out to him.

"You're going to need this" Nicholas Schneee said to him

Whitley had to admit he felt somewhat scared when he realized he had been caught sneaking into his s=istes rooms, but he was relieved to see it had been his grandfather who had seen him.

That relief quickly turned into shock as his grandfather's servant handed Whitley his grandfather's old armor and sword.

The armor was heavy and filled with scratches and dents, it was also too big for Witley.

The sword was something Whitley couldn't use, it was too big for him, as it was a large two-handed sword, both were meant to be used by a person that was either an adult or had their Aura unlocked.

Whitley watched as his grandfather's servant pushed his Nicholas wheelchair towards him and he felt his grandfather place his hand on his shoulder.

Whitley watched as his grandfather closed his eyes and began to chant.

"It is for those we love that we give our lives"
"It is for those we hate, that we continue to thrive"
"Let our sacrifice clear the path, for them to find a better life" his grandfather chanted and Whitley felt something deep inside him burst out and cover his body.

"I've awakened you Aura my boy, go do what you have to do," His grandfather said to him, before closing his eyes, and falling into a deep sleep.

Whitley watched as his grandfather's servant took out her scroll and called another servant to her side.

The man immediately walked up to Whiteley and took the coat- the armor and his grandfather's sword and walked out of the mansion, before waiting outside for Whitley to join him.

"He's been waiting for this day," the woman said to him

"He wanted to tell you that he's proud of you," the woman said to him before she leaned in and kissed Whitley on the forehead.

"I only follow his orders," she said to him, but Whitley couldn't help but smile at the silver fox Fanus woman that looked at him with a warm smile.

She had served his grandfather since Whitley could remember and was the one that spoke for his grandfather when he was unable to.

'go" she said to him before turning his grandfather's wheelchair and leaving Whitley alone.

He listened to the sound of his grandfather's wheelchair becoming more and more distant until the sound of a door opening and closing reached his ears, it was only when the door closed that Whitley began to move.

Whitley walked down the hallway and the stairs it was on the bottom of the stairs that he found his mother holding not one but four bottles of whisky.

"Youll need them, it kept your grandfather warm, and it helps people relax," his mother said to him

"Why?" Whitley asked his mother after all he wasn't going to leave home, he was just going to go out and have some fun with the people he was starting to call friends.

He could see the pain in his mother's eyes, but she never answered hi, she just walked up to him and began to put the bottles into his pants and coat.

'This is where you want them if you don't want them to break" she said to him.

She didn't say anything else after that, and so Whitley made his way to Mantle and soon found himself in front of an old store, it was rundown and the sign outside only had two words with lights still working.

His servant raised an eyebrow at the sight of the store but still went into the store with him.

The man working the counter was shocked to see Whitley, who wore what were expensive Atlas clothing, and his servant that wore a completely black suit, walking towards him carrying his grandfather's armor.

"Can you make these into something I can wear?" Whitley asked the old man as his servant placed everything in front of the old man.

The old man looked at the worn-out armor and shook his head.

'My boy, this armor is useless, and anyone that says that they can fix it, si sending you out to die."

The man said as he brought a magnifying glass and showed Whitley what he was talking about.

The armor was covered in cracks so mall a person's eyes couldn't see them, the old man then showed Whitley his grandfather's sword and Whitley saw that it was in the same condition.

Then the old man looked at the coat and raised an eyebrow, before immediately removing some pins Whitley hadn't noticed before and revealing what was a completely white suit.

"Tell you what give me a couple of hours and I can make you something good, but bring plenty of dust," the old man said to Whitley.

"Already ahead of you," his servant said as he walked back into the store, carrying the bag of dust that Kazuma had given Whitley the day before.

The old man immediately began to work and with nothing else to do both Whitley and his servant looked around the store, Whitleys eyes immediately caught sight of a pair of guns.

The guns were old models, but from what his servant said they could use almost any kind of ammunition, including a couple of highly dangerous explosive rounds.

Whitley immediately decided he wanted them before turning to his servant and asking him what he wanted.

The man chose a pair of white gloves and ankle guards that could have dust crystals installed into them

"My body is my weapon sir," his servant said to him s the old man came back out carrying with him a white suit.

'I did the best I could, go on try it on" he said to Whitley.

"I know you Atlas you always want to show off who you are so I kept most of your suits designs, I just made it your size and added the armors into every part of the suit

"It's both light and can resist up to upper-level Grimm attacks."

"I had to make your sword shorter and it's slightly heavier, considering I had to mix both the armor and the sword's metals to make it useful again" the old man continued to explain.

Whitley listened to the old man's explanation as he changed clothes, there were no changing rooms inside the store so he changed in front of the old man and his servant.

"No, I used the dust you gave me to both reinforced your sword and the suit"

"Just put dust into the small gap inside your sword's handle and activate it by breaking the crystal, you can break the crystal by squeezing the handle"

"The same goes for the suit, you see just place dust in your pocket and break it, it will immediately cover your suit and help you when you're without a weapon and are forced to only defend yourself.

"There's a lot of dust left, I see you took a liking to those uns do you want me to make you some ammo," the old man said to them

"Old man can you make these black" Rud asked the old man as he placed the two guns and the gloves with the ankle guards on the counter.

"Sure, before that do you want the ammo?" the old man asked them

"Yes," Whitley answered the old man.

After receiving the ammunition for the bullets and the gloves with the ankle guards now black so that they resembled his servant's uniform, Witley watched as Rud paid the old man for his labor and gave him some extra money to keep secret the fact that Whitley had gone to his store.

Unlike the other times, when he would just drive to the Kazumas shop or he would have his driver drive the car around until they found Aqua performing for the children of Mantle this time, Whitley walked down the streets of Mantle in his new armored white suit.

Rud his servant wore a black suit similar to the one Whitley was wearing only difference between what rud was wearing and what he was wearing was their colors.

Rud's suit was black and Whitley's suit was white, both of them wore a gray shirt underneath, while a white dress shirt or black dress shirt covered it.

On top of that was either a black coat that Rud wore or the white trenchcoat that Whitley wore, their pants were black for Rud and white for Whitley, both were reinforced so that they could absorb any attacks that might hit their legs, on his hips.

Whitley carried the two guns he had just bought, while on his back was his grandfather's sword.

Rud dint carry anything except dust crystals that he placed on the sides of his ankles and on of his globs.

Whitley was certain that the man had dust in his pockets, in case he needed them.

They soon arrived at Kazuma's shop and the moment both Kazuma and Aqua laid eyes on Whitley they began to laugh.

"Come on, I'll show you what you did wrong," Kazuma immediately said to him as he graved a fist full of dirt he had cleaned out of one of the machines and placed it on Whitley's coat.

Rud was about to push Kazuma away, but Whitley raised his hand and understood what Kazuma was showing him.

Whit was something he shouldn't have chosen, it could get dirty fast, and maintaining the color was going to be a huge problem, that is, if the dust crystals the old man had already placed in the coat didn't activate and cleanse the coat for Whitley.

Kazuma raised an eyebrow and nodded.

'Well forget what I said, so what did you come here for all dressed up?" Kazuma asked him

 

[blueayes]

 

[blueayes]

[ Before I continue I would like to say that I will be using a lot of original characters or characters that come from games or animes, just to justify all of the Fanus and Humans. ]

 

[blueayes]

 

[blueayes]

"I want to be a huntsman," Whitley said to Kazuma but the man didn't say anything he just looked at Whitley and then at Rude.

'Really, good for you, so why are you telling me that?" Kazuma said to him

"I want to learn from you and Aqua," Whitley said to Kazuma hoping that the man understood what he was trying to say.

Kazuma began to look around his shop as if he was looking for something, however, he didn't say anything he just kept n searching until he found a large briefcase.

"We're not Huntsmen, Whitley, Aqua, and I are just people that do random jobs to pay the bills"

'Sometimes we do things that get us in trouble with the police sometimes, like yesterday, we go out and get things that no one knows about, and yeah sometimes we kill monsters" Kazuma said to him as he opened the briefcase and.

Kazuma took out a green cape and a sad smile formed on his lips, it was as if the man was remembering something that was now a distant memory.

Whitley turned to look at Aqua who began to show a toothy grin, it was as if she knew what Kazuma was thinking.

"Why don't you just go back to Atlas and study in their school?" Kazuma said to Whitley as he took out a brown belt that had several crystals still attached to them.

"Both my sisters went to combat school, but I'm not them, I'm not my grandfather and I'm not my father. I'm just me" Whitley said to Kazuma

"Oh yeah and who are you?" Kazuma asked him

"I...I don't know, I just know that whenever I'm with you two it feels as if I can be me" Whitley answered Kazuma

An awkward silence soon settled in and no one said anything, for a long time not even as Kazuma took out a staff that had a large pink flower at the end.

Kazuma threw the staff to Aqua who caught it with one hand.

"Atlas controls all of the Huntsmen, so we can't work like that, but it's a good thing that Aqua and I are adventurers"

"The rules are simple you listen to me and Aqua..... you know what just listen to me" "hey," Kazuma said to Whitley as Aqua protested.

"And what are adventurers?" Rude asked Kazuma

"The same as Huntsmen, the only difference is that neither Atlas nor Mantle controls us" Kazuma answered Rude.

"......I'm in," Whitley said to Kazuma

"Okay, first thing is first do you know how to fight?" Kazuma asked Whitley who immediately shook his head unlike his sisters he hadn't been trained in combat yet

"Okay, what can you do?" Kazuma asked him

Whitley took out one of the dust bullets and placed it inside one of his guns, and fired at a pile of junk that was placed on a nearby table.

'I can hit things if they aren't moving, my mom taught me how to use a gun" he answered Kazuma.

'Good but what happens if the things your shooting at are moving?" Kazuma asked him, before pointing at the sword Whitley had on his back

"From what you just said that means you don't know how to use that thing," Kazuma said to him, however, Whitley didn't answer this time

"Don't worry kid I've worked with worse" Kazuma said to him before taking out a pair of long brown boots.

Kazuma took off his shirt and put on a white t-shirt before immediately putting on a patted light green long-leave shirt.

It was obvious that the long sleeve shirt was made to keep Kazuma safe from both the cold and it was reinforced to keep him safe from any attacks from low-level monsters.

On top of that he immediately put on the green cape that covered the top part of his body, Rude was about to move in front of Whitley when Kazuma took off his pants before putting on dark green pants that were just as reinforced as the cape and long sleeve shirt.

Before they left the shop Kazuma put on both the brown belt and brown boots before took out a short sword from the briefcase and putting it on his belt.

Aqua wore her usual blue miniskirt, sleeveless blue shirt, her hands were covered with white long sleeves, while her legs were covered with long white knee socks.

Her feet were protected by a pair of white boots, however, she now wore a long white coat, to protect herself from the cold, while on her head he wore a fluffy white ushanka.

She carried with her the staff that Kazuma had handed her earlier.

It was strange walking down the streets of Mantle and Whitley wondered why no one stopped to take pictures of them or why people didn't point at them and called them a bunch of weirdos.

Here they were two men dressed in all black and all-white suits, next to a man that was wearing a mixture of green and brown, next to a woman wearing clothes that weren't enough to keep him safe from the cold. climate.

Then as they continued to walk, Whitley understood why he had forgotten a very important piece of information.

The huntsmen dressed in ways that didn't make sense because of their Aura, their aura helped to keep them safe from the cold climate, meaning that a lot of them dressed in ways that ordinary people wouldn't dare to.

They soon arrived at a bar that had loud music playing in it, Whitley immediately noticed that everyone's eyes were on them.

As they walked up to the counter Kazuma asked for a drink but the bartender didn't move to get it he just leaned close to Kazuma and said something Whitley couldn't hear.

"They're with Kazima" the bartender announced

There was a complete shift in the people's mood and the tense atmosphere that had once been present was gone.

Kazuma signaled to Whitley and Rude to sit next to him as the bartender brought up several sheets of paper and placed them in front of them.

"Well, which one do you want?' Kazuma asked Whitley

Whitley didn't say anything he just looked at the papers in front of him, on the sheets of paper he could see the pictures of Grimm, plants, and houses.

"What ?" Whitley began to asked

"Adventures have to go up the ranks to get better jobs that pay moe, for example, you are at the bottom, so you have to finish two jobs to go up, from there the more jobs you do the more you get paid" Kazuma explained to him

"So what do you want to do, kill some low-level monsters, help fix a house, or do you want to look for some plants out there in the snow?" Kazuma asked Whitley
][][][]
[ Present ]

Rude walked up to Whitley and they both watched as Kazuma and Aqua were carried back to Mantle, it had been one close call after another, and they had nearly lost both kingdoms.

The Turks as the Adventures called his servants had managed to get two of the four engines on, but it had been a close call, just to get to them.

"It kind of feels like when you started, boss"

"Rude said to him and Whitley turned to look at his servant

'What I mean I..." Rude struggled to find the words

'I know, we nearly died" Whitley said to Rude

'Whitley" Whitley heard his older sister's voice and he found Weiss looking at him, she stood next to one of her friends while she held her sword in her hand.

Whitley could see the fear and desperation on her face.

"I'm okay," Whitley said to Weissas his servants ran up to him and helped him to his feet, they all wore the same back suit as Rude did.

Rude had said that it was a uniform that showed people that they worked for Whitley instead of his father.

'Sir, the adventurers are keeping Kazuma and Aqua safe, but I suggest" one of the Turks tried to say something to Whitley but he stopped the man as he walked up to his sister.

The two of them looked at each other, neither of them had ever tried to get close to the other, no that wasn't true.

Whitley had tried to get close to his sisters in the past, but it had always been Winter and Weiss there was never room for him, but perhaps now there was a small gap that he could fit in their lives.

Unfortunately for his sisters, their roles had already been filled by two others.

"Get any help you can get to Kazuma and Aqua" he ordered his servants, it was time he kept his promise.

Whitley walked past his sister, the same sister that had abandoned him long before she left the mansion.
][Sometime in the past ]

 

[blueayes]

Again they had to walk out of Mantle, the job Withley had chosen was to search for some plants, he had never done any physical labor before so he didn't know how to fix a house and he didn't know how to fight Grimm so he chose the safest option, looking for plants in a land covered in snow.

He thought that the area around Mantle would be empty, after all, there was no reason for people to be outside of the city limits, and he didn't see anyone the day before.

Yet even after walking outside of Mantle there were still meeting people, some of the people turned to look their way others just ignored them and kept doing whatever they were doing.

'Kazuma, why are so many people out here?" Whitley asked Kazuma as he led the way towards the plants they were looking for.

"They need to pay the bills and put food on the table" Kazuma answered him

"Some of them are huntsmen that are coming back from helping one of the villages out there the rest are just people trying to live" Kazuma continued to explain

Whitley wanted to say something but he soon heard the sounds of children laughing and he found a group of Faunus children playing in the snow, with another group of human children.

Rude immediately clicked his tung at the sight.

'Don't like Humans and Faunus being friends big guy?" Kazma asked Rude who didn't answer

"People do what they need to do to survive, Mantle is no different than Atlas, the people in the center of the city are better of than the one at the edge"

"Those kids live on the edge of the city, so they do what they have to do to survive, and that means making friends with each other if they have to," Kazuma said to Rude as they continued to walk.

No one of them said anything after that, the only sound they could hear, for what felt like hours was the sound of the crunching snow beneath their feet as they walked.

After what felt like hours Kazuma and Aqua finally stopped walking, unfortunately, they stopped walking in the middle of nowhere.

"Okay, Aqua and I will keep watch, you two go look for those plants," Kazuma said to Whitley and Rude.

"....How are we supposed to find the plants?" Rude asked Kazuma who just hummed to himself.

"I don't even remember how the picture looks like," Whitley said to Kazuma but Aqua interrupted him when she threw a snowball at Kazuma, the two of them began to play in the snow and ignore both Rude and Whitley.

'Hey!" Rude yelled at the two and immediately both Kazuma and Aqua lost their playfulness.

"Look there are a lot of lessons you need to learn and the two of you are old, so you need to learn fast"

"I'll be nice and help you, but if you want to be adventurers your going to have to stand on your own two feet"

"Lesson one, always ask for the picture of the thing you're looking for"
"Lesson one part two, don't just assume people will help you, ask them to and remember people don't help for free" Kazuma said to them, before becoming quiet again.

All of a sudden the serious guy that had been present a second ago was gone and he was replaced with the usual smiling man that Whitley had come to know.

"Look underneath your shoes," Kazuma said to them, both Rud and Whitley did what he told them and they found several plans crushed underneath them

'Aqua and I come here from time to time, the plants can be used to make home remedies to cure a cold and bring down high temperatures" Kazuma said to them before he graved a handful of snow and began to pat it together before throwing it at Aqua.

Whitley wanted to protest, but he remembered that this was his job, he was the one that had chosen the picture, so he began to dig more and more snow and he soon found the plants he was looking for.

Unfortunately for him, snow is always cold so his fingers were freezing, he needed to remember to wear gloves next time.

He soon noticed a small glow cover his hands and he noticed that his fingers weren't cold anymore.

Maybe it was his aura maybe it was something else, but Whitley didn't care the only thing he cared about was finishing the job he could get back inside and get warmed up.

"Boss!" Whitley heard Rude scream before the man ran past him and attacked something giant

Whitley barely registered how close the creature was, he would have died had Rude not been there.

Whitley was about to turn around and run when Kazuma walked in front of him.

"Tell your boy to get back, he's not going to beat that thing using his hands," Kazuma said to him

"But" Whitley began to protest

"It's okay leave it to me and Kazuma will kill it," Aqua said to him.

Rude get back!" Whitley ordered Rude who barely had time to turn back before the dragon Grimm tried to freeze him with ts breath.

"Buff!" Aqua screamed and Whitley couldn't believe his eyes, one moment Rude was about to die the next he was standing next to Aqua and being held by Kazuma by his coat.

"Aqua!" Kazuma yelled and Aqua immediately graved Kazumas hand

Whitley watched as the two began to glow with green and blue light

"Create fire!" Kazuma screamed as his hands let out enough fire that it melted the snow and the dragon Grimm at the same time.

After that neither Rude nor Whitley said anything, they just graved the plants they had gathered and returned to the bar before going back to Atlas.

Neither of them could believe what had happened, they were completely outmatched in every way, Rud didn't stand a chance against the dragon, he knew that had the Grimms attack landed he would have died and Whitley realized just how useless he was.

The moment they returned to the mansion, Whitley didn't bother acknowledging the maid, no he had something important he had to do, but he knew that he couldn't ask his grandfather for it.

He soon found his mom sitting on the porch drinking.

Whitley suddenly felt himself lose all of his strength, but at the same time, he felt that if he didn't say what he needed to say, then he wouldn't be able to do it again.

"Mom," he said to his mother but she didn't answer she just kept on drinking

"I want to learn how to fight' he said to her, yet again his mother didn't say anything she just kept looking at nothing.

"The training room is open, but your not ready to fight against anything in there you are going to need people to train you," His mother said to her

"Why can't you?" He began to ask his mother but he saw her pour wine into another cup, but instead of drinking it she shoved it slightly

"I helped train both your sisters and look at what happened."

"I'guideuid you whenever you need me guide you, but I cant lose you too" she said to him before standing up and handing him the glass of wine.

Whitley looked at the glass and instinctively took a brink and he was surprised to find that it was just grape juice.

"Boss" Whitley heard rude say to him as he turned around he found his grandfather's assistant standing next to Rude, however rather than her usual uniform she was now wearing a long white dress with a back vest.

"I shall train you with my feet," Silver Fox said to him

"I'll show you how to use your hands boss," Rude said to Whitley
[[Present]

Silver fox grit her teeth as she aimed her gun at Winter, the woman may have been her boss's granddaughter, but at the moment she was nothing more than an Atlas soldier.

The Atlas military had taken Kazuma and Aqua and refused to tell anyone what they were going to do with them.

That was something she couldn't allow, so she used what little authority she had left to gather a small team and retrieve the two fallen adventurers.

She knew her adopted, no her boss, no Nicholas would have ordered someone to save them, so why couldn't that someone be her.

Everything had gone right, they had managed to intercept the hospital ship and get to the two unconscious adventurers, but what they didn't expect was the military response.

"Put your gun down Silver!" Winter ordered her

Silver just looked at Winter, the two of them were nearly the same age, but while Winter had the freedom to chose her life, Silver had her life chosen for her.

It wasn't a bad life, but she knew what the woman in front of her had gone through growing up, unfortunately, Winter never bothered to look in her direction while she lived in the mansion.

Perhaps it was her hard life, perhaps it was the all too common disgust humans had for Faunus.

Regardless of the reason, Silver didn't have any problems pulling the trigger if she had to.

"Silver put the gun down, all of you put your gun down" Whitley ordered them

"Where are you taking them, Winter?" Whitley asked his sister

"That's confidential," Winter said to her brother

"...." the two of them looked at each other

"Get Kazuma and Aqua, we can look after them in the mansion," Whitley said to his men, who immediately began to walk towards the beds where the two adventurers laid.

"Whitley order your Turks too, " Winer said to her brother

'Or you'll shoot me, your own brother" Whitley said to winter
before walking up to her and standing in front of her

Winter toward over her brother, but the boy dint back down

'You saw what those two did out there, imagine what they will do if they think you did something to either of them" he said to Winter
[Sometime in the past]

 

[blueayes]

Willow watched as her son and Silver walked back into the mansion and headed towards the direction of the training room, she waited for the two of them to be out of sight before she began to talk.

"you know I have to admit that you someone my father chose to protect my son needs help training him," she said to Rude.

Rude dint react to her words instead he took out his scroll and began to play the events that opened during the day, Willow watched as the snow came to life, and out of nowhere was a dragon-like Grimm.

"Mam, if I have to fight another person, then there is no way that I will lose"

'However, against Grimm" he said to Willow but she raised his hand and stopped him from saying anything else.

"Then you should get people that know how to deal with them to help in both your training and my son's training" Willow said to Rude

In the training room Silver looked at Whitley she didn't know what exactly she could say to her boss's grandson but she chose to do something to help him trust her.

"Sir as a way to build trust between us, you may do one thing to me today that I would normally never allow you to do"

"However please remember that it's only for today and it'll only be once," she said to Whitley

Whitley looked at the silver fox Faunus and he couldn't help but be drawn to her ears- hair and tail, so he said what he felt was right.

'I want to touch your ears- tail, and hair"

Silver immediately looked at him with wide eyes, she shook in full display.

'Sir!" she said to Whitley not believing what she had just heard

Unbeknownst to either of the two Nicholas Schnee laughed in his room as he watched the two interacting with one another through the video of his security cameras.

He had to give it to his grandson, he knew what he liked and he went for it.

"Just my ears and tail, okay," Silver said to Whitley as she bowed for him so that he could reach her head.

She felt how his warm fingers touched the tip of her ears before gently moving down and then he felt her young boss move to her head and place her hair between his fingers.

The two of them soon found themselves lost in their world that when they heard Rude cough they both fell on their backs as they tried to deny anything happened between the two of them.

Rude smirked as he watched the reaction of the two but t was time for Whitley's training.

The truth was that after Whitley had gone off to Mantle more than once his grandfather had decided to investigate what he was doing in the city.

When he found out about Kazuma and Aqua when he found that they called themselves adventurers instead of huntsmen he decided that he would encourage his grandson's chosen path.

Granted there was no chosen path and all it truly was, was nothing more than a child's curiosity, but the old man insisted that from a spark an entire forest could be set ablaze.

Normally Schnees would train under specific conditions, special tools made to make their inherited semblance work better, or something regular people cant use.

Whitley, however, would be the odd one out, he would train just like his grandfather did, meaning he would have to learn everything the hard way.

He watched as Silver moved out of the way before he formed a fist, if the boy was ready or not, that wasn't his problem, Kazuma had been right about one thing.

Whitley needed to learn fast, the poor kid never knew when Rudes fist connected with his face.

"Ow," Whitley said he rubbed his cheek

"Your Aura will keep you safe, now boss you learn by doing"

"So your first lesson is learning how to dodge and if possible block my attacks" Rude said to Whitley there was no need for anymore more words right now the only thing the boy needed to learn was how to use his survival instinct to his advantage

More than once Whitley tried to copy Rudes's fighting style but the man was both larger and had more experience than he did, so every time the two began to fight it ended with a single punch and Whitleys but on the floor.

Halfway through their training, the only thing Whitley did was run away, unfortunately for him, he was locked inside a room with someone faster than him, and again his but was on the floor.

[Present Point of View change ]]
Weiss Schnee couldn't believe her eyes the airship she was in had been ordered to land and use its communications equipment as a makeshift antenna so that both Atlas and Mantle could communicate with anyone they could.

It had been hours but since they saw the evacuation ships arriving.

Her and her friends were returning to Atlas, to meet with the Winter Maiden, but they were forced to leave the city ahead of time when the evacuation ships began to arrive.

They had no choice but to land when flying became impossible, there were Grimm everywhere and the Atlas military was being overwhelmed.

The airship she was on had to fight its way down, but that was just the beginning.

The ground itself was hell.

In every direction, her and her friends turned Atlas defense drones were fighting Grimm and losing because of the Grimms numbers.

It was completely overwhelming, it was only the sound of someone screaming that brought her out of her confusion and horror.

"Come on!" a man yelled as Huntsmen tried to evacuate some people nearby.

Not knowing what to do, she and her friends followed the group and were soon on several military trucks driving at full speed towards Mantle, running away wasn't an option anymore, that became abundantly clear when the soldiers driving handed everyone a gun and told them that if they wanted to live then they had to fight.

They had no choice, even if they missed nearly every shot they fired they were forced to keep the trucks safe, it was only when they were about to reach the edge of Mantle when they saw the massive gathering of Glymphs and the army of summons charging towards the Grimm, that she understood things had changed forever.

 

[blueayes]

[ Sometime in the past [what Kazuma and Aqua were doing] ]
Kazuma and Aqua were drinking a cup of hot milk mixed with just the right amount of honey.

The two of them had just gotten off work and were glad to see that more orders....quests had come in.

The world of Remnant was a combination of Earth and the world Eris ruled over, meaning that it had both technology and monsters that tried to kill people.

The truth was that when they first came to this neither of them knew what to do, they felt as if they were at the beginning of the story again.

No money, weapons, and the only things they had on them were the clothes and tools they had brought from Eris world.

That feeling of helplessness lasted about as long as it took for them to realize that Adventurers existed in this world too.

The problem is that in Mantle and Atlas the government controls the Adventurers because it was the government or specifically the school in Atlas that trained the Huntsmen, \ Adventurers.

Then there was the issue that neither Kazuman nor Aqua were willing to listen to anyone that just wanted to order them around, so they decided to do something that might just get them in trouble.

So they found the cleanest bar they could find and Kauma worked his charm.

"Hey, look I can I put this sign here?" Kazuma asked the bartender who just looked at him and stretched out his hand signaling to Kazuma that he wanted to see what Kazuma wanted to put on his window first.

The man immediately raised an eyebrow before he began to spoke.

"I want more," he said to Kazuma

'What do you mean you want more, I already made sure to give you your cut, plus any expenses" the man lifted the piece of paper and showed Kazuma his mistake.

"You forgot the license bill, when word gets out about your business I will get in trouble" he said to Kazuma

the two of them immediately began to argue with one another and somehow Kazuma managed to get the man to agree to start an adventurers guild in his bar.

That first night both Aqua and Kazuma spent the time just looking at the stars and listening to all of the machines that kept Mantle warm.

The poster Kazuma placed on the window of the bar was an ad that said that if people needed him to fix something for them, he could do it, but he needed them to find the parts first.

There was a reason he placed that advertisement on the bar because he knew that eventually, someone would ask him to do something that they thought was impossible.

During the day Aqua would make water portraits using her magic to melt the snow around her, change it into different colors and make it so that it didn't just evaporate when people took the things home.

At first, people brought them heaters things everyone used like heaters, old washing machines, or asked the two to fix an old car for them.

It helped pay the bills and kept the two of them fed and they both soon found themselves living in a garage, one big enough for them both to work in.

It wasn't anything near the mansion they once lived in but it was home, it was their home.

Hell, that night both Aqua and Kazuma drank themselves to sleep, they were happy to have a place to call their own and not have to pay the bartender for letting them sleep in the bar at night after he closed.

So with a place to call their own, they both knew that with what little they earned wasn't going to be enough to pay the bills and the rent.

So they began to explore both the inside and the outside of the city to see what they could do and neither of them liked what they found.

Mantle was the place where everyone left behind lived in other words it was the place where no one rich lived, while atlas was the place everyone that was anyone lived in.

But they didn't care about that after all neither Aqua nor Kazuma had ever seen Atlas before at least not up close so they didn't care about it or the people that lived in it.

No the things they found were things that could easily make them money, unfortunately, they were also things that were dangerous and would make people's heads turn in their direction.

In the main streets, the cities heaters were working perfectly, unfortunately in the back alleys, they were breaking down, some had already broken down after being forgotten for so long.

That was just one problem.

Another problem was the cold spreading amongst the people, in the worse areas of the city.

Then there were all of the old buildings that needed to be repaired, just fixing one would have taken a normal group of people months.

It was a good thing that the two of them didn't have a problem with charging people for fixing their problems.

n the outside of the city they found a cold place that had barely any plants in it, at best they could find some grass here and there if they followed any animal tracks they found.

So Aqua decided to o something no one else could do, she reached into her sleave and pulled out a couple of pf plants that could survive in the cold climate.

According to her, if the plants were taken anywhere else on the planet and it wasn't a cold place they would die, but the cold snow-covered lands were perfect for them.

So Kazuma began to go door to door asking people if they had things that needed to be fixed or if their houses needed some repairs, some people thought about it and looked at him before showing him a machine they were going to throw away.

Others just closed the door on his face, some showed him the cracks that their house had and others told him that he needed to their landlord.

Oddly enough with all of the experience aqua and Kazuma had fixed all of the walls around Axel and a couple of other walls and cities that were destroyed in the other world, fixing people's houses was the easiest thing they did.

After a couple of weeks, the plants Aqua had planted had covered a large patch of land and she began to make home remedies, she sold them cheap, and soon enough the plague that had started as a common cold was nothing more than a memory.

So for a time, things were good and neither of them had to worry about paying for anything.

Then word started spreading about how the two of them made their living and all of a sudden the bar had a lot more customers.

At first, it was okay just a couple of kids that were looking for a way to make money showed up at the bar and the bartender did everything Kazuma had taught him, he took the kids names and checked to see if any of them knew how to fight, they didn't, so he gave them an extremely low-level job.

Then a couple of Huntsmen that had decided they didn't want to work under Atlas control showed up and because both Kazuma and Aqua had ignored the quests \ jobs to kill monsters because they didn't want to attract too much attention yet, there were a lot of those quests\ jobs.

It didn't take long for men and women that just needed to find work to find their way to the bar, and some of them joined the huntsmen despite not having any experience in killing monsters.

A lot of them returned to Mantle either shaken by their experience and either gave up trying to accompany the adventurers\ huntsmen or bought themselves something to defend themselves with and began to train themselves.

All of a sudden another divide between Atlas and Mantle had happened, while Atlas trained their Huntsmen in a school, Mantle bred its Adventurers on the field.

During all of this, both Kazuma and Aqua had been so busy working in the city that they never knew about the divide that had happened despite being the ones to set things in motion.

So as the weeks turned to months Aqua began to perform at the bar, she also began to perform in the streets, Kazuma accompanied her for a while just to make sure she didn't get into too much trouble.

It was a slow life, but not a bad life, after all this time they didn't have a demon king to defeat or any major story to play, no this time they get to enjoy their lives.

After a while a boy began to follow Aqua around, a rich kid from Atlas, the boy didn't say anything, he just followed Aqua and sometimes Kazuma.

Neither of them had any reason to make the kid go away, but if he wanted to follow them around, then they would test him to see what he was made of.

Before they knew it, Whitley stood inside their garage\ house and said to them.

"I want to be a huntsman"

"Okay so why are you telling me" Kazuma answered him

 

[blueayes]

Kazuma had to admit it was strange being on the other end of the deal, Aqua and him, had always been the ones asking for help or looking to others for to teach them how to do things.

So he decided to humor the kid, they had long ago changed their clothes from the ones they had arrived with to ones suitable for living in Mantle, but that didn't mean that they couldn't mix the two if they were going to go on a miny adventurer.

So he mixed his old tracksuit with the clothes he wore when he used to go on adventurers.

When he was in the other world he had made it so that both sets of clothes were capable of keeping him safe from the climate, meaning that if it was too hot or too cold he would be okay, however, there was a limit to what they could do.

There are two other reasons why he and Aqua hardly leave Mantle.

For whatever reason the Grimm are attracted to Aqua, it's as if she is a magnet for them just like she was for the undead in the other world the Grimm target her and only her, but unlike the undead, they want to kill her.

They learned that the hard way and had it not been for Aqua's ability to purify the Grimm they both would have died that day.

The other reason is that despite being able to perform more powerful spells, that were locked away before Aquas powers were blocked differently in this world.

Now if she wanted to use anything beyond her God Blow, she needs to hold hands with me and in a situation where they are being attacked by monsters or people, that puts them in a bad spot and makes them easy targets.

Kazuma let out a small breath as he thought about his own weakness, he once had someone with a strong defense to keep the enemy occupied and not die and he had someone with a powerful finishing move that meant certain death for the enemy regardless of who they were.

Now both Darkness and Meguming are in another world and impossible for either Aqua or him to reach.

That just meant that if he was going to kill any monsters or be able to resist any of the Grimm's attacks, he either needed to absorb power from something or hold onto Aqua.

It didn't take long for Grimm to start to gather near them, they had taken Whitley and his bodyguard to the same spot where Aqua had planted the plants, and almost immediately the Grimm began to show up.

Aqua and he had managed to play it off as them trying to get the kid to learn fast because he was already too old t just be starting in being an adventurer, but the truth was they were keeping an eye out for Grimm.

Fortunately or unfortunately the Grimm that showed up was a single dragon that could control snow and it was thanks to Aqua who let him absorb some of her power that he managed to kill it without any trouble.

As for the kid and his bodyguard, they were shaken by their experience and Kazuma didn't expect to see either of them anymore.

"Hey Kazuma," Aqua said to him

"Yeah" Kazuma answered Aqua as he worked on the old golem he found the other day.

"I was thinking, I know we worked hard to get this house, but" she began to say something but Kazuma already knew what she was trying to say before she said it.

'You want to go on another adventurer like we use to" he said to her as he picked up the old combustion golem.

"Not a big one, I mean Meguming isn't here, but one that takes us outside of Mantle, you know visit a town"

Kazuma didn't say anything he knew how Aqua felt, she liked to perform for the people of Mantle and hear their praise, but they had been so focused on just trying to survive that they hardly had any time to relax.

Even now despite nat having gone outside all day, Kazuma was still working, not because he wanted to but because he had to.

Kazuma wanted to tell her that it was too dangerous, that the Grimm would be drawn to her like moths to a fire, but...Aqua was the only one he had left and seeing her sad expression was something he couldn't bear.

There's a difference between seeing Aqua crying or panicking from something she brought on herself, to her being hurt from something she couldn't control or had anything to do with.

It was just something he couldn't accept.

"Of you want to go see some of the towns, how about we go to the bar and see if there are some jobs out there, that way we can get paid and we can go around visiting the towns," he said to Aqua

Kazuma watched as she rose from the counter and sat up straight, all of a sudden Aqua had a bright on her face one that he hadn't seen in a while.

He turned around and placed a small fire dust crystal inside the golem and instantly the golem came to life as the crystal shattered inside it, the thing only managed to give two steps before dying.

Kazuma turned to Aqua and they both looked at each other before they graved anything they could find lying around that could be burned and putting it inside the golem's stomach.

Then Kazuma created a small flame and watched as the fire grew, the moment the fire was hot enough, the golem began to walk.

Kazuma and Aqua watched as the machine walked up to the front door opened it and walked out of the shop\ house.

They would have chased after it, but it would run out of power anyway, so it would most likely stop working when the fire inside its stomach burned out.

The golem was one of several that Kazuma had found when he was exploring Mantle, there was a giant pile of them just laying around and he had started to repair them just to pass the time when there wasn't enough work or it became too cold to be outside.

He had fixed more golems before and they all ended up doing the same thing, the moment they had a fire burning in their stomachs they just walked out of the door, where they went no one knew.

In all honesty, Kazuma had no idea how many he had fixed by now, he just knew that they were a lot of them, sometimes he wondered where they went, but no one in the city seemed to be telling stories about seeing robots or roks that look like men walking around so he assumed they stopped working somewhere.

"Okay let's go," he said to Aqua, as they both headed to the bar.
][][
[Present ]

Weiss walked into her mother's room and to her surprise, a giant dog was laying on the bed, the animal let out a small grow as it tried and failed to intimidate her.

She watched as her mother gently patted it on the head calming it down.

"Mother, whose dog is that?" Weiss asked her mother but the woman just stayed quiet.

Neither of them said anything and Weiss watched as her mother patted the creature as it struggled to breathe.

"Are you okay?" she asked her mother.

"Yur grandfathers...he's gone," her mother said to her with a weak trembling voice, Weiss could tell that her mother was doing everything in her power to control herself.

"I saw it" Weiss answered her mother before she began to walk closer to her.

"Mom what happened when I was."

"When I was returning to Atlas, the airship I was on was ordered to stay where it was so communications could stay up, but" Weiss began to say to her mother.

"So that was you," Willow said to her daughter

"A lot of things have happened since you left, your brother is Adventurer now, and he's now the head of a small company"

"He buys things that Kazuma sells to him and then he mass produces them for everyone in Mantle," Willow said to her daughter.

"....but that's not what you want to know is it"

The sound of the front door slamming open and the familiar voices of the Turks that had used her home as a base filled the mansion

"Quickly get him to any room available!" Silver ordered the Turks

"Mom!" Whitley called out to Willow and Weiss watched as her mother's posture slightly straightened.

"I'm here!" her mother called out to Whitley and the dog immediately began to whimper as it tried and failed to get off the bed

Weiss listened to her brother run up the stairs and she watched as he entered the room.

"No," he said as he looked at the large dog

''How bad?" he began to ask

"His spine and both front and back legs are broken" her mother answered her brother

"...."
"...."

"Father managed to turn one of the engines and considering Atlas hasn't crashed into Mantle I'm guessing we bought some time," he said to Willow as he tried to search for the right words to say to his mother, but as he failed to do so, he decided to just say what he knew.

"Winter has Aqua, I managed to get her to let Kazuma go, but once he wakes up and realizes Aqua is under the militaries control" Whitley sid to his mother

Weiss watched as her mother quickly stood up and looked at her brother with wide eyes filled with fear, and Weiss could see her mother was at the edge of panic.

"Didn't she see what those two did?"

"I know, but as long as Kazuma is here I can calm him down."

"The military won't do anything to Aqua" Withley began to say to his mother but Weiss interrupted their conversation.

"Can someone tell me what's going on?" she asked her mother and brother.

She watched as her mother and brother turned to look at each other.

"A lot of things happened" Whitley answered her, as he walked past his mother and tried to pet his dog.

The animal let out a small whimper and it shook with pain as it felt Whitles hands touch its fur.

Weiss could tell that the conversation was over, so she walked out of the room and she immediately noticed several men and women wearing black suits walking around the mansion.

The strangers moved aside as she walked past them but she could see the dirty looks they gave her as she walked past them.

She noticed that one of the rooms was guarded by several of the strangers and she tried to see what was inside.

The men opened the door for her but refused to let her in.

On the bed was a man not that much older than herself sleeping, there were guards all over the room keeping an eye on him.

Weiss knew that the position the guards were in, wasn't a position meant to keep the man safe, no it was so that they could retrain him if he tried to do anything.

"So you must be the boss older sister"

"Someone said to her

Weiss turned around and found a man with short red hair kept in a spiky form standing behind her.

'Sorry miss, but you can't go in there, believe it or not, but once that guy wakes up, it's going to take all of us, plus the boss, and maybe you to just slow that guy down"

"Who is he?" Weiss said to the man

"He's the reason things in Mantle and the towns were getting better and why the boss is who he is now," the man said to her

"Oh sorry my name is Reno" Reno introduced himself to her

 

[blueayes]

Who is he?" Weiss asked Reno

"That little missy is the reason the boss began to help fix Mantle," Reno said to Weiss before he noticed the looks the guards were giving them, or be precise Weiss.

"Better if we talk about this somewhere else," he said to her as he turned around and began to lead her downstairs where the rest of her team was waiting for her.

"Before anything else, what do you know about the boss and what he's been up to?"Reno asked Weiss, but as he waited for her to answer he noticed the confused expression she had.

"You see that right there is the reason no one here likes you, you claim you're from here but have no idea what's been going on"

"Alright, I don't know all of the details but for me, it all started when Rude offered me a job to me and that job becoming an Adventurer, ah a Huntsmen"

"Reno don't say more than you have to!" Silver said to Reno as she walked down the stairs

Weiss watched as her grandfather's assistant walked up to the man before removing his bandana revealing his red fox ears.

Weiss was immediately taken back as the only Faunus that had ever been given this much freedom in the Schnee house was Silver and that was only because her grandfather had taken a liking to her.

'Silver what's going on?" Weiss asked silver but the fox woman ignored her before letting out a frustrated breath

"This is your home so I'm forced to answer you" Silver answered Weiss

"After you left, your brother and your sister had a fight, this caused your brother to go to Mantle to prove to your sister that she was wrong about him"

'And that caused him to meet a pair of trouble makers, that changed his life" Silver answered Weis, but the tone of the woman's voice was harsh, perhaps it was because of everything that had happened but Weiss felt as the woman didn't want to talk to her.

"Please tell me what's wrong?" Weiss asked Silver, she kept her voice low hoping that the woman would tell her why the man sleeping in the room was so important.

"Winter separated Kazuma from Aqua, that's what's wrong" Silver answered her as she took a seat on the couch

In the past, the woman wouldn't have dared to so much as thinking about sitting on anything in the Schnee household, and seeing her and Reno do so showed Weiss that a lot had happened since she left home.

She watched as Silver placed her hand on her forehead and for a brief moment, the young woman looked considerably older.

Weiss turned to look at her teammates who just waited for Reno or Silver to tell them what was wrong.

"The military is calling Aqua the Blue maiden and they are completely dismissing Kazuma's existence, those fools don't understand that there is no Aqua without Kazuma, and there is no Kazuma without Aqua"

"When that man wakes up, we are going to have another war and I'm not sure we can win," Silver said to her

"Silver" Weiss began to say but the woman began to speak

"Your grandfather is dead, he was Mantles, last knight," Silver said to Wess as tears began to all from her eyes

"His last words to me were to give you this" silver said to Weiss s she handed her a small silver box that had a tape recorder in it

'I already gave Winter hers and your mother has hers as well, the only ones left are your brother and your father" she said to Weiss, before looking up and staring at the ceiling.

"I ran into his room when we realized that all of the militaries- Adventurers and Huntsmen were occupied fighting the first waves of Grimm"

And there was your grandfather drinking the potions Aqua had given him

"I'll die as I was supposed to, in the heat of battle just like those that gave their lives for me when we sought the dust this family built its name on" Silver smiled as she remembered the old man wearing his spare set of armor and holding his spare sword, he had them both repaired.

Yet her smile lost its joy and filed itself with pain as she remembered how he drank one potion after another regaining his youth and walking past her and willow, who had stood behind her the entire time.

'silver remembered how the man hugged Willow and her before saying.

"Goodbye my daughters," he said to them before walking out of the mansion and heading towards the incoming Grimm horde.

"Kazuma and Aqua were, no are fresh the fresh breaths that Mantle and maybe even the surrounding towns needed"
[Sometime in the past]

Whitley Rude and Silver knocked on the door, unfortunately, the lights were off and the door was locked meaning that both Kazuma and Aqua could be anywhere.

Unfortunately, they hadn't found them when they drove around Mantle, and considering the door was locked that just meant they were either fixing someone's house or they had left the city.

Silver wore a long white coat that covered her from her head and nearly reached the bottom of her feet, when she had her hood off, the fur that lined the hood acted as a makeshift scarf, underneath it she wore a long black dress, that was made for the cold climate, while her feet were protected by a pair of while long boots.

Witley turned to look at Rude hoping that he might have some ideas and Rude not thinking about the consequences said.

"I guess we can just head to the bar and get a job from there,"

Silver didn't say anything, she didn't like leaving Nicholas alone but the man had ordered her to help Rude search for anyone that could prove useful for his grandson and to trust her gut instinct.

As they walked down the old streets of Mantle Silver began to notice certain changes to the city.

There were old street lamps that kind that had long since been discontinued working again, only that instead of having a fire dust crystal in them there was a sign that had was handwritten by someone that said please refill the oil if the fire goes out and please start the fire again.

Old houses had new coats of paint, while others looked as if they had recently been repaired, and some looked as if they had both things done to them

there were even old discontinued guard golems patrolling the city looking for Grimm and judging by how the golems were acting they had already found a few.

yet these weren't the only differences she noticed.

Small children wore some sort of defensive or offensive weapon, but they weren't the only ones, several adults were walking around wearing the same things.

The city was changing and Silver didn't know if it was for the better.

Strangely enough, there were men and women were cleaning the streets removing as much snow as they could, yet as the snow started to fall again she began to see the old heating systems working once again.

Mantle was a city being reborn, it was becoming a city where the past met the present while the future which was Atlas flew above it.

Yet there was an odd tension in the air as their group walked deeper into the city.

No, that wasn't right Silver noticed, the tension wasn't because of Whitley or Rudeat her companions, it was because of her.

It was no mystery that both Mantle and Atlas didn't like the Faunus and she began to worry for her own safety, there was no reason for Rude and Whitley to help her if someone decided that they didn't like the fact that she was even walking around in this part of the city.

She continued to walk until they arrived at a bar.

"We're looking for Kazuma and Aqua," Rude said to the bartender who just glared at Silver

'She's with us" Whitley said to the man

'Hey we're trying to make a team:" He said to the bartender

'You know the rules, no mission no team" the bartender said to Whitley

"So why don't you just tell us where they went and we can" Rude said to the bartender who raided his hand and stopped him from talking.

"Don't ask questions about other adventurers" the bartender said to Rude before looking at Silver

'Especially if you have someone that isn't one of us" he said to Rude

'What do you mean?" Whitley asked the bartender

The man exhaled and poured the two a drink, then he paused for a moment before pouring one for her.

"Believe it or not, but Mantle is starting to separate itself from Atlas, you Adventurer are raised in here and are trained by each other"

"The way I hear it, is we take care of each other, we don't need any special school, because our school is the real world or something like that," the man said to them as he poured them another drink.

"I'm only going to do this once so don't bother asking another time"

"Those two left the city for a while and no I don't know when they'll be back," the bartender said to them as the door to the bar opened and several huntsmen walked in, each one carrying different weapons on them

'Hey old man is there anything to eat yet!" reno said to the bartender as he put a sheet of paper on the table.

The bartender looked at the paper and began to read the names on it.

"What's that?" Whitley asked Reno who turned and smiled at him before noticing Silver and leaning on the counter while trying to make himself look good for her.

Silver for her part ignored the red fox Faunus and kept her a lookout for any real danger.

"That kid is proof that I did my job, every name written on that paper is the head or representative of a village or town," Reno said to Whitley

"Unlike the Huntsmen, we don't rely on technology to keep track f everything so we have to do things the old fashion way," the bartender said to them before pointing at a small antenna.

"However that won't last long either" headed before picking up a telephone and dialing a number

"What's that?".Silver asked and Reno just laughed

"You guys really don't know anything do you," he said to them

"That's a telephone, it's not as advanced as a scroll, but you can use it to call people, unfortunately, you cant use it to see people," he said to them.

"So what brings you three to a place like this"Reno asked them

"I want to make a team" Whitley immediately answered him and Reo began to laugh

"Hey the kid says he wants to make a team!' reno announced to the entire bar and immediately the entire bar began to laugh

"You don't make a team you idiot, teams make themselves," Reno said to Whitley, with a wide smile on his face

"Look I'll explain it to you so no one takes advantage of you"

"Look, we're out here risking our lives, and let's be honest no one wants to work with anyone they don't like because the guy could get you killed."

"So once you like working with someone you stick to them, we know it, this guy knows it," he said as he pointed to the bartender

"And Kazuma and Aqua know it, that's why you can't find them without each other Reno said to them as the bartender handed him a small stack of money.

"I already took the guilds fee," the bartender said to Reno, as Reno took his pay and walked back to his team

The bartender turned to look t Whitley and then he looked at Silver.

"There's only one job left, if she is going to be one of us, she needs to pass her initiation first," he said to them as he placed a set of paper on the table

"There's a town not too far away from here, all that you have to do is take some medicine to them," the bartender said to them.

"We're going to need a copy of the paper," Whitley said to the bartender as he remembered Kazuma's lesson.

The man nodded and handed Whitley the paper he had placed on the counter.

"The name and address is written on it, just have then written their name down as proof that they received the medicine," the bartender said to them

Looking back now, Silver was sure that the bartender had been given that job because Kazuma and Aqua were headed to that same town

"Oh, and girl a word of advice," the bartender said to Silver, before locking eyes with her.

"Hide your ears, us Adventurers don't care if you are a Faunus, that doesn't mean other people feel the same way," he said to her as he signaled to her to look around

Silver looked around the bar and noticed that the people inside it were a mixture of Faunus and Humans.

As they left the bar silver heard the bartender say to everyone.

Spread the word, there's a silver-haired Faunus girl from Atlas amongst us, she's one of us now" the bartender said to the adventurers who didn't answer, they just slammed their cups on the tables.

She finally understood the adventurers had their own way of doing things and she would need to learn what they were

 

[blueayes]

Silver called Nicholas about the job she had been given and her boss told her to do it, after all this was his grandson's future.

She followed Whitley to a nearby house that had the medicine, they needed and after picking it up, she turned to Whitley to lead the way, after all this was his idea.

Unbeknownst to her Whitley had begun to feel his mind move, he had never left Atlas as he had done so recently and now he was about to leave Mantle behind, granted it was for something he wanted, but he had never had this much freedom before.

He briefly thought about calling for one of his families vehicles or getting one of the unmanned airships, but he knew that if he did that neither the Adventurers nor Aqua and Kazuma would respect him for it

So he decided to get to the town the same way the adventurers did.

Meaning that he would have to walk.

He remembered Kazuma's lessons, always think ahead, and remember that there are other people with you.

So with the money he had in his pocket, he began to lead both Rude and Silver around Mantle buying what he hoped would help them in their journey.

it was nothing special, just a couple of backpacks and some food and a few dust crystals, that were expensive but nothing he couldn't afford.

He soon stood at the edge of Mantle and noticed that several children were playing in the snow, however, he didn't have experience huntsmen with him this time, so he was a lot more hesitant about leaving the city, but this was his journey and so he gave the first step.

He listened to the snow being crushed underneath his shoes and he began his journey to completing Silvers job.

Unbeknownst to any of them, however, Kazuma and Aqua had begun to make a name for themselves as they headed towards the nearby town, as townspeople - huntsmen and soldiers alike, watched as the pair killed one pack of Grimm after another.

Kazuma had spent nearly all of his saving on dust crystals hoping he could use their magic to keep himself and Aqua alive.

Unfortunately, he had long since used them all up as the moment that the two of them were far enough away from Mantle the Grimm began to gather.

At first, the number of Grimm was something manageable, and all qua had to do was use her purification magic to make them go away.

However, the Grimm had begun to gather in bigger and bigger numbers and soon Kazuma had to interfere.

They were no longer the pair of screw-ups from the other world now they were experienced adventurers and the creatures around them were monsters that needed to die.

To the eyewitnesses, it must have been a spectacle to be seen, as the pair held hands and began to cast one massive spell after another.

Kazuma combined blast magic with this ability to create golems and made them charge at the Grimm.

The golems killed as many of the Grimm as they could before they were overwhelmed only to explode and kill even more Grimm, by either their explosions or broken body parts that pierced the Grimms bodies.

Aqua used several magic circles and unmade the Grimm, erasing their presence from the world.

As the people watched they could see the colors of the two glow, Aqua was a bright blue, while Kazuma was a dark green.

Soon the waves of Grimm were gone and only the oldest most powerful Grimm remained.

These creatures looked at the pair and retreated as if knowing that challenging them now was certain death.

The truth of this was different, however, both Kazuma and Aqua were terrified, neither of them bothered screaming, not because they didn't want to attack more Grimm towards them, but because they didn't want to lose face in front of the people around them.

Aqua launched one attack after another hoping to purify or unmake the gathering Grimm while Kazuma tried to remember the strongest skills he had.

It was pure dumb luck that they managed to beat the Grimm and make it to town.

"Thank you," the mayor of the town said to them as he eagerly greeted Kazuma and Aqua

"Don't worry about it, but can you please don't tell anyone about what you saw," Kazuma said to the man and he looked past the man and looked at the townspeople.

'Sorry but can everyone not tell people about what you saw, we don't want t to attract unwanted attention" Kazuma said to the townspeople who immediately agreed to his request.

Unfortunately for him, both the Huntsmen and soldiers recorded what they had seen and had already sent videos of it by using their scrolls.

"Anyway, here's your delivery," Kazuma said to the man as Aqua handed him a box filled with empty jars.

'The mayor's face immediately brightened when he saw what they brought with them.

"Thank you, the town makes its money by selling maple syrup, and we were running out of jars for it," he said to the two.

"Gather around everyone, I the great Goddess Aqua have arrived and have brought to you the gift of entertainment," Aqua loudly said to the townspeople as she opened her hands wide and several birds flew out of her sleaves.

the children looked to their parents who immediately nodded and approached Aqua with their kids.

Kazuma handed the mayor one of the sheets of paper and he watched as the mayor signed it.

When the mayor handed him the sheet of paper he looked for a quiet place and sat down and watched as Aqua performed her party tricks for everyone.

She made flowers come out of the ground and grow tiny legs before walking to a nearby woman and gathering in a bunch, before losing their legs and becoming ordinary flowers again.

The woman carefully picked up the bouquet and her eyes widened as she smelled the sweet scent of spring, which was hardly ever-present in this part of the world.

He watched as Aqua used her power over water to melt the snow around her, before making an ice slide that she immediately got on before sliding on it, the children immediately followed her example.

Kazuma smiled as he watched all of this, and he closed his eyes and listened to the children's laughter.

When he opened his eyes he found a woman standing over him, in her arms she had four jars of syrup, she handed Kazuma the jars and sad they were the best ones the town made.

He was tempted to stay in the town for a little bit longer, but the longer they stayed in the town the greater the threat of the Grimm attacking became.

So they left the town behind, they would eventually return to Mantle but only after they finished their deliveries, luckily for them, the towns weren't too far away from each other.

Before they left Kazuma remembered to give the town's people one of his antennas.

The antennas weren't anything special, after all, Kazuma had made them out of some spare parts he had.

They were meant for the towns to use in case they ever needed help and Atlas was unable t send its Huntsmen foto help the town.

He had found an old telephone and found how it could send and receive signals before copying what worked and making more of it.

He never expected them to replace the scrolls, after all, the scrolls were cellphones while his antennas and telephones were outdated technology.

As they walked he placed another antenna on top of a tree in a spot where it would be hard to find he had done this before but then the Grimm began to attack so he was forced to stop.

He listened as Aqua happily hummed to herself as they walked before he jumped onto another tree and placed another antenna.

The truth was he didn't know how far the antenna's signal went he just knew it wasn't very far.

Luckily for the two of them, no Grimm had attacked them in their journey so they reached the small towns.

The locals were friendly and gave them something hot to drink after Kazuma had given them their supply of socks and mittens.

It didn't seem like much but in a place like this where a person has to keep their fingers and toes warm to keep them from sub coming to frostbite, socks and mittens were something that could mean the difference between life and death.

Again Aqua began performing for the people.
[present]

Winter watched as aqua who was now referred to as the Blue Maiden was taken to a room for her safety, she knew that what her brother had told her was true, but she had her orders.

And those orders were to bring the Blue Maiden, that was it, so keeping her partner around wasn't necessary, she hoped that her decision wouldn't come back and hurt everyone.

She briefly remembered her first encounter with the two.

It was back when Mantle was regaining its past glory, back when the devive between Mantle and Atlas had suddenly grown greater than it ever had been.

The people of Mantle had begun to start their version of part-time workers but called them Adventurers and had begun to fix the old city.

At the edges of the city, the old buildings that remained from Mantle's past had suddenly come back to life, long gone were their old decrepit states, that informed any onlooker that the buildings needed to be torn down.

While closer to the center of the city the apartment buildings towered over the old outdated building of the past, before being left behind by the more advanced buildings that were in the center of the city.

The city's technology seemed to be becoming a mixture of present-day technology and long since outdated technology.

It seemed as if almost overnight it seemed the city had suddenly gone back in time in some areas, while in others it had seemingly become somewhat cleaner, while in other areas the ones closer to Atlas, it had somehow begun to catch up to Atlases in appearance.

"How is she," General Ironwood said to her before turning to look at Aqua who was still sleeping on the bed

"I heard that she brought back several people who were dead," he said to Winter

"General half our army was gone and she brought them all back," Winter said to Ironwood

"I know you're worried that by keeping her here we're putting her in even more danger," he said to her

"No, I'm worried about what her partner will do when he finds out she been taken by us," Winter said to Ironwood

"I know, from what the reports said they never been too far from each other, meaning that for whatever reason they can't be too far away from one another," he said to her before closing his eyes.

"You did the right thing, her guardian or partner trusts your brother, so Whitley should be able to calm him down long enough for us to be able to talk to her"

ironwood said to Winter as Aqua began o open her eyes.

Aqua looked around and noticed the doctors around her she closed her eyes and took a deep breath before opening her mouth.

Even before she made a sound both Ironwood and Winter as well as the doctors knew what was going to happen next.

The doctors ran to try and stop Aqua but ironwood ran to open the door to Aqua's room and try to order the doctors not to touch her but it was too late.

The doctors graved Aquas hands and Aqua screamed

"Kazuma! Kazuma! Kazuma!"

"Help!"

In the Schnee mansion Kazuma opened his eyes and looked around, he saw the Turks suddenly tens up, he didn't attack them, but he looked around and he listened to Aquas vice calling for him

'Where!" he screamed

'Calm down" one of the Turks said to him but Kazuma teleported out of the door before any of the guards could stop him

He could hear the [panick in Aqua's voice as he called for him and his eyes began to glow red as he noticed all of the guards approaching him.

There was no reason for them to fight, so he used his enemy detection skill and his escape skill to pass by everyone before running out of the front door.

Silver- Reno Weiss and all of her friends watched Kazuma escape and when Weiss was bout to say something she heard her brother order the Turks to calm down.

There was no point in trying to stop Kazuma now, the man was a force of nature, when he became like this, the best they could do was follow him and the chances of that happening were slim.

Luckily they knew where he was going.

Whitley took out his scroll and called Winter

"Winter answered her scroll as Ironwood pulled the doctors away from Aqua and her eyes widened as she heard her brothers message

'He's awake and he's going to find her"

"Kazuma! Kazuma!" Aqua screamed as Ironwood tried to talk to her

'Sir he's coming! Winter said to Ironwood as the base shook and Kazuma walked into the building through a hole he made in the wall, his eyes glowing a fierce red

"Kazuma," Aqua said to her partner as Kazuma walked up to her and stood protectively between her and general Ironwood.

Winter reached for her sword but general Ironwood ordered her to stand down as he took off his guns and placed them on the ground.

"Look we didn't hurt her, we just want to talk," he said to them

"Kazuma," Aqua said to her partner and Winter watched as the man's eyes lost their red glow

"We're going home, if you still want to talk we can do it there," Kazuma said to them before Aqua hugged him and they both teleported out of the hospital

 

[blueayes]

General ironwood exhaled, he had felt his blood run cold when Kazuma had stood between him and the Blue Maiden.

"Winter from now on Kazuma is to be called the Green Guardian," he said to Winter as he picked up his guns.

What had stood before him was an enraged beast that was ready to kill him and everyone present if he didn't like what he saw, but the glow his eyes gave signaled a hidden power that was just beneath the surface.

"Winter we're leaving" Winter heard ironwood say to her as he walked past the doctors and out of the room

"General" Winter said to Ironwood

"We're going to pay a visit to your brother and after convincing him to help us, we will be going to speak with the Maiden and her guardian," Ironwood said to her

As they walked out of the hospital Winter could see the old oil streetlights of mantle doing what they could to drive back the darkness of the night, with them were the few surviving golems whose specks could be seen moving around beneath Atlas.

Everything had changed now and there was no turning back.

"Excuse me for a moment," Ironwood said to Winter as he wrote something in his scroll before sending it to someone and then writing something else and sending it to whoever was on the other side.

In the other kingdoms both Humans and Faunus alike paid close attention to their radios, televisions computers or scrolls, for any information about what was going on.

After all Atlas and Mantle were the world's strongest military and if they fell, what chances did they have?

On their screens however appears two simple messages, there was no sound to accompany them, they were just something to inform the people.

Atlas Stands and immediately after Mantle Lives

In the Schnee mansion, whitey took a seat next to Silver.

Have they found grandpas?' he asked her but Silver shook her head

Whitley turned to look at his mother, but she just closed her eye and it was clear that she knew her father knew that the chances of anything being left of him would be a miracle.

"Remember when we finally made it to town," Whitley said to Silver and Rude as he began to tell his side of the story Silver had been telling.

Whitley began to laugh, now I remember that was the time Kazuma made you let him pet you, and" Whitley said to Silver before she graved the finger he was using to point at her with and tightened her grip on it.

"That never happened and you won't tell anyone about something that didn't happen' Silver said to Whitley

The sound of glass being swept by the Turks near where they were seated made the mood darken slightly as everyone tried to forget the recent events.

"We had walked out of mantle and passed two other towns to reach where we needed to go," Rude said to everyone

"And we nearly got lost and would have gotten lost if it hadn't been for a weak signal that we used our scrolls to guide us with."

"It was there that we found the pair," Rude said to everyone before becoming quiet

Whitley leaned his head back and Silver let go of his finger as they both remembered that night, that now felt so long ago.

The town was a or perhaps it was a village regardless of whatever it was it had been attacked because when they found it, several houses were burning and people were either cowering together in the center of the settlement as they watched a Kazuma and Aqua fight.

[Sometime in the past ]
Rude covered Whitley's mouth and pulled him behind a tree, the men and women that surrounded the town were wearing the uniforms of the White fang a terrorist organization led by Faunus.

He knew the reason why the Faunus hadn't noticed them when they approached the town, despite the loud noise they made when they crushed the snow underneath their boots.

He looked in front of him and found silver hiding behind another tree and the three of them carefully looked to see what was happening.

Several of the Faunus were tied by wires or ropes and were laying on the ground, while a green blur either struck the White Fang Soldiers or blocked attacks directed towards Aqua who stood still holding her staff.

"Buff"!" Aqua screamed and almost immediately the blur moved even faster sending one of the soldiers flying past them he only stopped when he hit a tree and falling unconscious.

they watched as a woman that had a chain as a weapon ran towards Aqua only to be met with the green blur, who stopped moving and they all saw it was Kazuma.

The two opponents locked eyes and Whitley would have screamed to Aqua that the rest of the Faunus were heading for her, but Rude still had his hand covering Whitley's mouth preventing him from doing so.

Then it happened Kazuma suddenly vanished and all of the white fang members' bodies lew into the air struck by an invisible force.

They couldn't see what was going on, because a couple of bodies blocked their sight, but when they fell, they saw that Kazuma stod in front of Aqua, he seemed like an impenetrable wall or some sort of beast that kept his master safe.

Soon only the woman with the chains was left standing

Whitley could feel his eyes widen, what was happening in front of him was just like in the movies he watched when he had some free time, only that what was happening right now was real.

The woman placed several miniature blades on the chain all of them were different colors then she charged at Kazuma.

Whitley could see Aqua wrap her hands around Kazumas waist and in an instant, they were both gone, the woman looked around waiting for Kazuma or Aqua to attack but after a moment she smirked and turned her attention towards the townspeople.

Rude coved Whitley's eyes so he couldn't see what was about to happen.

"What the hell!" the woman screamed and Whitley felt when Rude removed his hands from his eyes

The snow around the town was melting rapidly but at the same time, it dragging the woman away from the people, while it was gathering in front of Aqua.

Aqua looked like a blue star surrounded by a forest covered in white snow, while in front of her was a river of water that was gathering in the palm of her hand.

Then they all noticed when Aqua's eyes met with the woman's before she closed her hand and fired all of the water at her.

The Faunus woman barely managed to dodge Aquas attack, but she had let herself open and it was then that Kazuma attacked.

Unfortunately, the woman recovered before Kazuma could reach her and she swung her chain at him.

Kazuma used his short sword to block the woman's attack and Whitley along with his companions watched as Kazuma was hit with the different effects of the dust blades the woman had used.

One moment his hand was covered in ice, the next it was covered in fire, the ext it was nearly crushed by rocks and.

"Incredible" Silver said as she watched the ongoing fight.

"What do you mean?" Whitley asked Silver but it was Rude who answered him.

"It might be hard for you to see it boss, but that guy is avoiding that woman's blades at the last possible moment"

"I don't know how he's timing it, or how it's even posable but it's happening"

He's somehow moving fast enough to break her blades and made the dust in them activate, while at the same time somehow avoiding the effects of the dust those blades are made of" Rude explained to Whitley.

"No way," Whitley said as he watched the impossible happening in front of him Kazuma was dodging the woman's attacks.

He watched as Kazuma managed to grave the woman's hand before screaming

"Drain touch!"

The woman screamed until she fell unconscious, it was over.

Snow began to fall quietly around them, the only sound that could be heard was that of the fires that were still burning and the crying of women and children.

Kazuma quickly but carefully walked back to Aquas's side and the two began to tie any of the Faunus that laid unconscious.

With the snow melted every step they made sounded like water splashing on a dirty floor.

They watched as Kazuma handed his short-sword to Aqua and she immediately used it to cut the ropes of the men, the men immediately rant towards the women and children before hugging them.

"They're coming," Kazuma said to Aqua and it was then that Whitley felt Rude picked him up, before running into the town.

Whitley didn't understand what was happening, he only knew that he had just been carried past Kazuma and that Aqua walked back to the Kazumas side.

He watched as she stood next to Kazuma before holding his hand, he watched as the pair began to glow before a blue Glyph formed below them.

The Glyph grew in size until it surrounded the town, he watched even as the people ran towards the houses that weren't broken for protection.

And he watched as the door was slammed shut.

Then he listened to the hellish growls and roars of the Grimm.

[Present ]
"We haven't changed have we?" Whitley said to everyone as he turns his head and sees snow begins to fall outside of the window.

'I haven't changed have I?" he said to himself this time

"I'm still that kid from back then, I don't understand what's going on, I'm in way over my head and Not only did I drag you guys into all of this, but I can't even"

Whitley wasn't able to finish what he wanted to say as Silver suddenly rose to her feet ad slapped him forcing him to keep his mouth shut.

Silver glared at Whitley, as she grinded her teeth, she knew exactly how he felt, no she understood it better than anyone else could, she had been trained to be able to defend herself against both Humans and Grimm and she had been useless both back them and these past few days.

"I don't ever want to hear you talk like that again," she said to Whitley

"Your men, no, we could have turned our backs on you at any moment, but we chose to follow you," she said to him, as she tried to drive away any doubts that Whitley might have

Right now, Whitley needed to be at his strongest, even if it was nothing but a farse, but he needed to look his strongest for his men to keep going.

The cold wind blew into the mansion as the Turks began to drag a cabinet and placed it in front of the window to help keep the cold wind outside.

The door opened and Winter walked in.

 

[blueayes]

"What's going on?" Winter said to everyone as she noticed the heavy atmosphere.

"Nothing, your brother and Silver are having a disagreement" Willow answered Winter, as she watched General Ironwood walk in.

"Mrs. Schnee, I'm pleased to see your safe" Ironwood said to Willow, before turning his attention to Whitley.

"If this is about Kazuma and Aqua whatever you're planning won't work," Willow said to Ironwood, who in turn just looked at her.

"Can someone tell me what's going on!" Weiss said to everyone in the living room as she was unable to take being kept in the dark any longer.

"Weiss a lot of things have happened since you have been gone," Winter said to her sister, her voice was soft and lacked the cold yet warm tone it had.

"Fine I'll tell you then you"

"I became an adventurer, I made my own company and I know we have had our own set of adventures," Whitley said to Weiss

Weiss looked at her brother and couldn't understand why his eyes held so much resentment.

His words held no malice, in fact, they carried no feelings whatsoever and that scared her.

"Whitley" Silver said to him but Whitley ignored her

"See, I left you behind, just like you and Winter left me, but unlike the two of you I didn't abandon Mother or Grandfather"

Whitley said to his sister before rising to his feet and looking at Weiss and then turning to look at Winter.

"I met a pair of amazing people, no I met a big brother and an older sister"

"Sure they're a pair of oddballs but they have been there for me and not just me but for mother and..."

"Sir that's enough!" Rude said to Whitley

"No, she wants to know! So I'm going to tell her!"

"They're the ones that killed the giant whales that led the Grimm here"

"And I'm sure that they're the ones that created the giant ball that of power and whatever destroyed the remaining Grimm"

Whitley said to his sister as his strength began to leave him, as his tears began to fall, as he was unable to ignore his grandfather's death anymore.

As the realizations that everything had changed and he was expected to lead his men during the hard times ahead.

"And knowing them, they're going to leave, because the two of you want to lock them away," he said to Winter and Ironwood.

"Whitley we just want to keep them safe" Ironwood said to Whitley but before he could continue Winter walked towards Whitley.

As she approached him both Rude and Silver stood protectively in front of Whitley.

"Silver, Rude" Willow said to the pair, this was something that her children had to deal with on their own.

Reluctantly both Silver and Rued moved out of Winter's way.

Winter tried to put her hand on her brother's shoulder but Whitley shoved her away.

"Whitley," Weiss said to her brother as she tried to get near him, her heart pounding in her chest as she realized the pain she had caused him.

The two sisters watched as their brother's eyes turned cold and he wiped the tears from his eyes.

"So what you'll always have Aqua and Me" Kazuma's words repeated themselves in his head

"Mother I'm going out, your daughters are here to visit you"

"I'm going to Kazuma's house," Whitley said to Willow as he walked past his sisters and walked past Ironwood

As he walked out of the mansion the only thing Winter- Weiss, and Willow could do was watch him leave.

Most of the Turks inside the mansion just watched the events unfold but none of them followed Whitley except for Silver - Rude and Reno.

Ironwood waited for a few moments before locking eyes with Winter and closing the door behind him as he left, it was obvious that the sisters had a lot to talk about with their mother.

At the same time as these events unfold several young women smile as they watched the videos of what happened in Mantle and Atlas.

"Kazuma!" "Aqua!" They screamed as they let their magic into the world alerting both Kazuma and Aqua of their presence

"Kazuma," Aqua said to her partner as she hears her friends calling out

"I hear them" Kazuma answered Aqua as they begin to smile at each other

Neither of them stops to think about their next move, they immediately begin to pack their things for the journey ahead

 

[blueayes]

Okay I need some help for when I finish this first part
Jaune- Pyrrha - ?
Winter- Qrow- ?
Kazuma- Aqua -?
Salem-? -?
The options are
Summer Rose - Raven - Roman Torchwick - Neo
Any of the girls from Konosuba

 

[blueayes]

Ironwood looked at Whitley as they are driven to Kazuma's house, neither of them say anything but before long Whitley began to talk.

"You know I didn't like you for a long time, my older sister left because of you," Whitley said to Ironwood, but as the man was about to say something Whitley raised his hand and stopped him from saying anything.

'You know I later learned that it was Winters choice, so just like she left me, I left her" Whitley said to ironwood.

Ironwood looked at the young man in front of him, he wasn't the boy he had gotten used to seeing whenever he visited his father anymore, no his experiences as an adventurer had changed him and no doubt being around a maiden had helped shape him in some ways neither of them could ever truly understand.

'Whitley your sister,...Winter didn't abandon you' ironwood said to Whitley, but before he could say anything else Whitley cut him off

'Yes she did, whenever she went to visit our house, she visited grandfather and Weiss, that was it."

'She never said hello to me or mother she....It was like if I never existed in her life" Whitley said to Ironwood as his voice lost all of its strength

Ironwood understood that the man Whitley pretended to be was gone now and all that remained was the boy he truly is.

"Can you tell me about" Ironwood began to ask but he didn't get too far

"I remember walking into Kzumas house\ shop and finding him working on the satellites or antennas" Whitley began to tell Ironwood
[Sometime in the past ]

It had been over a month since his first real mission, he hadn't seen any of the fights but he had heard it when it was all over and the townspeople exited their house they had found that all of the Faunus were gone.

When they asked Kazuma about them, he had simply said that they needed help fighting so they let them go.

At first, the townspeople were angry at him, but after a moment they realized that Kazuma had made the right decision.

After delivering the medicine and getting the mayor or representative of the town they said their goodbyes to the townspeople and headed back home.

Kazuma and Aqua stayed behind to help repair all of the houses that were destroyed during their fight with the members of the White Fang.

So after showing the bartender that they had completed their first job as a team the bartender said that Silver was an Adventurer now.

Whitley briefly noticed that Silver had a faint smile when the man said that before showing them several papers that had jobs that needed to be done.

These were different than the ones they had seen before, one was helping to train a group of children and adults another was to help repair a bunch of old airships that had been discontinued and get them back in working condition.

It was the last two jobs that caught their attention, on was to help explore the surrounding area, but they wouldn't be looking for dust, no they would be looking for coal.

The last one was to help build a fan that wouldn't just freeze over when left outside away from Mantle.

"Do you have any more beginner jobs, we aren't ready for any of these" Silver said to the bartender who just smirked at her.

"People are usually in a rush to move up, but yeah I have a few' he answered her.

So for a month, after he was done with school, they would run around doing simple deliveries to shops or people's houses, their clothes made them stick out and they did have people staring at them but for the most part, people just ignored them and went about their day.

When they were done Rud and Silver would train him and each other.

["Looking back now, I think that's why people started to trust us, We started from the bottom just like everyone else," Whitley said to Ironwood who listened to his every word ]

Then one day they noticed that the lights in Kazuma's house were on and without thinking Whitley immediately walked in.

'Kayuma Aqua I saw your lights on and I came to visit" Whitley said to them but no one answered

"Greate your here kid" Kazuma said to him before throwing him an empty backpack.

[Winter ]
"I met them during an investigation"

"We were told about a possible threat to Mantle"

"We now know that they were just adventurers training each other" Winter said to everyone

"Can anyone of you tell me what existed before Huntsmen? you don't need to answer because Adventurers are just that a group of people that operate within their group"

'Sorry, let me explain it to you in a simpler way, a guild is a group where several adventurers gather, but each one of those adventurers has their own teams, regardless of the size each team has certain skills that they want to keep to themselves"

"The problem is that it doesn't stop with kills alone, weapons, medicins, technology and so on is unique within every team"

'So dealing with a guild is extremely difficult"

"To them, Huntsmen are just another rival group one that has everything they were denied"

'I was infiltrating the Bar at the time and it was there that I saw Whitley and his two guards walk in with the maiden and her partner."

 

[blueayes]

"So Blue, Green what are you two doing with Black and White or is it White and Black," the bartender said to Kazuma and Aqua but his last words were directed to Whitley and his team

"We need a lot of people, both to fight and to help us dig," Kazuma said to the bartender

The bartender raised his eyebrows at Kazuma's words.

"If you're looking for dust forget it, all of the duat left around here belongs to Atlas and the Schnee family," the bartender said to Kazuma

"Good, because we're looking for coal," Kazuma said to the bartender

As Winter listened to the men talk she couldn't help but shake her head, it was true that coal could burn and it could be used to keep people's houses warm, but it also let out too much smoke.

The smoke itself was dangerous to people's health not to mention that just a single ember could start a house fire that would quickly spread throughout Mantle.

"Okay just fill out the paperwork and I'll put the word out, but without a good reward don't expect anyone to join you and those friends of yours in this little trip," the bartender said to Kazuma as Kazuma wrote down what he needed.

[Pesent}
Winter placed her hand on her head as she remembered seeing the bartender make copies of the information Kazuma had given him.

"The man just wrote down that he needed people to help him mine coal and their reward would be half of the coal that they dug up"

"Considering the appliances they started to sell when they came back I think they got a better deal than most people do these days," Willow said as she looked at the barbeque rill that was outside of her house

"What do you mean?" Weiss asked her mother

"You see because Kazuma and Aqua aren't citizens of Mantle or Atlas they couldn't exactly sell things legally, so your brother offered to do it for them"

"I don't know what happened out there" "Mam if I may" Wilow began but one of the Turks stopped her

"We hadn't met the boss yet and like the rest of the adventurers in Mantle, we considered him nothing more than another Atlas dog"

"Ah no offense maam," he said to Willow who just wave it off

"No one took the poster seriously, I mean think about it, we would have to leave the city and risk our lives for something as useless as coal," the Turk said as he let out a regretful breath

"Well by then we all knew that if Blue and Green were involved then they were planning something, so most of us sighed up hoping to be a part of what they were planning"

The boss used an old airship to get us as close as he could to that mountain over there" The Turk as he pointed at a mountain in the distance

"So we avoided a lot of the dangers along the way"
[Past]
As they walked they could feel the cold wind on their faces it felt like razors cutting their skin, every time the wind blew, but they couldn't stop walking their destination was just up ahead.

They found themselves standing at the entrance of a cave and as everyone walked Whiteley shared the bottles of whisky he had with everyone.

One by one everyone took a drink and passed the bottle to the next person.

"o how are we going to get to the stuff, I mean isn't coal supposed to be deep underground" Reno said to Aqua and Kazuma

"Normally yes but this cave was once a mine for dust, they threw out all of the coal because they thought it was useless and they took all of the dust," Kazuma said to Rude

Aqua began to walk around the cave and she soon stood in front of a large pile of snow, her arms began to glow and soon all of the snow had melted off the rocks around them.

"Kazuma look!" Aqua said to Kazuma

"And it looks like the only thing that we have to do is break it ad take it home," Kazuma said to Rude before walking up to Aqua and patting her on the head.

"Hehehe" Aqua immediately began to laugh
[]
[Present]
"We worked for weeks and because we didn't have any more airships we had to leave most of the coal behind, either way, the job was done," he said to them

"I know it doesn't seem like much but trust me as seeing how the boss struggled to pike up the pick and break those roks apart only to end up with a brand new black suit for his trouble"

"Everyone including Rude and Silver laughed at him and anyone else that ended up doing something dumb like that."

"I can't put it into words, but back then he wasn't the boss. Back then he was one of us"

"An adventurer," he said to them with a regretful voice

 

[blueayes]

[ Whitley ]

While this conversation was going on Whitley was telling Ironwood the same story.

Whitley said as he remembered watching Kazuma hand everyone sacks filled with coal and how every one of the adventurers frowned when he gave it to them.

"You know he told everyone to wait before he went inside his shop and started to bring out different things," Witley said before he started to grin as he forgot about the present and focused on the past.

"They started to bring out things everyone already had, but they were slightly different, grill for barbequing- heaters, they were small things that everyone already had," Whitley said to Ironwood

Ironwood listened closely, he had read Winters report about that day and how the first alternative appliances entered Mantle.

"Cant afford Dust, then why not use Coal. He said to everyone" Whitley repeated before one of the Turks interrupted him

"Sir you might want to take a look at this"
[Schnee manor]

As the Turk finished telling the story a news report came on and Silver remembered the events that happened earlier that day.

Willow was still shaken by the attack that had managed to reach the Schnee manor and almost all of the Turks were either fighting or desperately trying to reach one location or another.

Silver waked into Nicolas Schnee's room to check up on the man that had taken her in when she was still just a girl, she found him drinking the glowing blue potions that Aqua had given him.

She watched him as he finished putting on his spare set of armor and received the letters he would entrust her for his granddaughters and grandson, before hugging both her and Willow who was standing behind her the entire time.

"Is everyone watching? "the person on the news said as he held off the news crew with a gun

"This is for the Last Knight of Mantle, this is so your story is told," the man said as he placed a scroll in front of the camera
[The past ]

Nicholas walked towards a nearby airship and activated its autopilot, as the airship took off and began to fly own he remembered his friends who traveled with him searching for dust, how they laughed and cried together.

He remembered all of the grim and how frightening they were when they nearly overwhelmed them either by sheer numbers or just by how powerful they were.

As the airship landed and Nicholas Scnhee stepped out onto what was left of the city he helped build, he kept his eyes focused even s the desperate people of the city stole his airship to try and escape the city, he kept focused on the task ahead.

He stood alone as what looked like a wave of grim began to spread all over the city.

For a brief moment, he remembered, his daughter- his wife and his grandchildren

As the people of Mantle who hid where ever they could watch as a single knight stood alone, his gray almost white beards along with his silver armor that nearly made him invisible when he stood amongst the snow-covered streets.

They silently prayed for a miracle as the sounds of the charging grim grew closer, it was then that Nicholas drew his swords.

"For Maante! for Atlas!"

"Knights of Mantle charge!" Nicholas Schnee roared as a pair of Glypsh appeared behind him followed by four more, the glyphs kept on multiplying until they covered everything around Nicholas

As the people watched, they couldn't believe their eyes as the lone knight charged at the wave of grim

Yet their breaths left their lungs when fro all of they glyphs waves upon waves of Huntsmen and Grymm alike changed at the invading grim.

The grim were so caught off guard by the sudden appearance of an army made of white and blue light that they were unable to stop the wave of defenders from slicing through their numbers.

Where ever a person turned they found themselves looking at Grimm either fighting their counterparts or what looked like huntsmen that were made of the same white and blue light.

The fighting only grew as a red light that seemed to be far away only grew closer, it was only after a few minutes that everyone saw something that should have been impossible.

The golems that had been released into the city had done exactly what everyone expected them to do and wondered away looking for grim to destroy.

However, in their search for enemies, they uncovered more of their kind and relight the flames that had long since burned out.

The armies of ancient golems charged at the grim and began to fill the snow-covered lands with a sea of flames helping the army of light.

The grim were slowly being pushed out of the city and almost by instinct what was left of the people of Mantle began to pick up any weapon they could find and began to help the defenders of the city fight.

It was only when the army of light managed to push the grim back beyond the edge of the city that Nicholas Schnee fall to his knees.

Despite regaining his youth, his body was still weaker than it had been, yet as the man sat down to regain his breath, he found himself once again standing or sitting amongst the very people he once found himself at home with.

Each one of them turned to look at him for guidance, just like all of those years ago, it was then that he took out the largest of the potion bottles that Aqua had given him and after taking a drink he ordered everyone to drink from it and pass it down to next person.

There wasn't enough potion for everyone, but there was enough for them to be able to at least stand a chance.

They couldn't afford to hide anymore, if the kingdom was going to survive then they would have to fight.

He didn't expect anyone to follow him, he just expected them to hide behind the buildings but as Nicholas Shnee left his hiding spot and ran towards the next wave of grim he found that amongst his summoned were the faces of the people of Mantle.

 

[blueayes]

Nicholas felt his mind drift between the past, before his eyes his sword became a shovel, a bucket, a spear, a gun, and even a simple rock.

As he jumped into the air and used his last two ice cartridges to kill a massive gorilla, Grimm, before resurrecting it and ordering it to attack its kin, he remembered the men and women who fought alongside him.

Nicholas felt his mind drift again as a cold feeling spread through him, he looked down and found that his chest had been pierced by a stinger.

Yet he couldn't help but smile as the people of his kingdom fired at the Grimm killing it.

As the men and women that he cherished stood protectively over him, Nicholas remembered his daughter, his grandchildren, and his wife.

He could feel the strength in his body and soul leaving him, but he would be dammed if he didn't do one last thing.

So he concentrated and created one last summon.

The people of Mantle watched in amazement as Nicholas rose from his own body, his form was now a mixture of blue and white light, he spoke no words but his orders were heard by everyone present.

And so the people of Mantl followed the Last of Mantles Knights and fought alongside him and the people that had once protected them.

So brutal was the fight, that when the blast of purifying light covered the battlefield none of them had noticed that Nicholas and his summons were gone.

"Thank you sir" the man lowered his gun as everyone including the reporter was left silent, as no words could describe what they had just seen.

"Whitley." Ironwood said.

"Don't, he died like he was supposed to."

"A hero, hits what he deserved, he didn't deserve to die sic on some bed." Whittley said to Ironwood as he felt the airship lowering to the ground.

As the Turk opened the door Whitley noticed that a blond man wearing heavily damaged armor was walking into Kazuma's house.

He doesn't say anything he can just feel his mind drifting to the past as he remembers what happened after they came back from the mountain.

"So what do you think?" Kazuma asks him.

'About what?" Whitley asked Kazuma.

'How long do you think it will take for people to hear about my appliances and put you out of business?" Kazuma said to him with an arrogant smile on his face

"Forget it they wont sell." he answers Kazuma.

"Oh and why not?" Kazuma asks him.

"Because you are not a citizen and if these things start showing up everywhere, you'll go to jail." he says to Kazuma who just waes him off.

"Simple, how about we make a deal, I make the appliances and you sell and mass produce them."

"It's a win-win for the both of us," Kazuma said to him as he remembered the deal that he made with Vanir and hoped to make the same one with Whitley.

Whitley smirked and listened to what Kazuma had to say before he agreed to it, he never expected Kazuma's plan to work, but it did.