Just as an extra insult to the corporation I returned to the city by striking Arasaka tower and moving through it's electrical network before eventually popping out back in David's hideout.
"And that's how it's done." I say as I wiped off the non-existent dust on my robe.
"Damn choom, you were like a lightning god or something out there! Just showed up and wiped out all those corpo rats like nothing." Jackie said all grin.
With a loud "POP!" Grindelwald also showed up after apparating back.
"While you are here I happen to have a list of items I'd like you to procure for me. Not for free of course." Grindelwald said with a casual up tilt of his mouths corners.
"Seriously? Would it not be wiser to lay low for a while?" I asked exasperated after only dealing with him for at most a few minutes at most.
"Progress waits for no one. Now that i've gotten a feel for the way the muggles of this worlds leadership will act I am already planning out my next moves. That little display was both a message and a test after all." he said relaxed as he took a casual seat on the couch.
"Of course you'd do something like that just to see what would happen." I said rubbing my nose bridge as a headache bloomed "Why didn't you just pull your usual seer stuff instead?" I asked eventually.
He sighed "Since coming to this world my sight has been..... scrambled I suppose is a good way to explain it. Fate and time in this world are in chaos. It's like each person here has dozens of different paths all at once and none are set in stone. The chaotic overlap is proving difficult to peer through." he said softly.
"Right, yeah that tracks. I forgot that this world had a weird personal choice based pathing system in place. Are you familiar with tarot cards?" I asked with a groan as I knew exactly what he was talking about.
"I have dabbled in the art of card reading yes. It's rarely accurate." he said with an intrigued look.
"That makes things easier to explain then. In this world that system of divination when properly performed is always accurate, for the most part anyways. I imagine the multiple paths you are seeing are this template being enforced on a universal scale here. To most the paths are unknowable without the cards guidance but to you who can actually peer into time and fate it's a visible thing. If you figure out how to apply the proper reading method of those cards to your sight things should become clear again." I explained frankly.
He closed his eyes and his expression scrunched up in effort but soon a thin smile appeared on his face as his eyes snapped open with a deep glimmer in them.
"It works. What a fascinating structure. I'll need some time to decipher the structure to understand the future as before but now I at least have a starting point. Thank you." he said with an appreciative nod.
"Hold up, you can see the future!?" Jackie exclaimed.
"To a degree. There's no such thing as absolute divination, all prophecies can be broken." Grindelwald said calmly.
"Right, you all can discuss this to your hearts content AFTER I leave. Unlike you all my absence for an overly long period will draw questions I'd rather not have to answer back in my own world. Right now i'm fine but that window is rapidly closing." I said impatiently.
"Relax choom i've got you. Preem quality language chips as requested." David said retrieving the small plastic box from his neon jacket and handed it over.
"Before you go here's my own list of items." Grindelwald said casually retrieving a chip of his own from his coat pocket.
"You actually used muggle tech?" I asked stupefied.
He smiled lightly and gave a small helpless shrug "Paper and ink are unreasonably expensive in this world, I had to make concessions." he said with an edge of bitterness.
"Huh? Maybe this world might actually be doing you some good." I muttered as I felt the world reject me now that my "trade" was complete.
Once back in my own world I quickly elementalized and returned to the castle. I was only gone for at most thirty minutes so I didn't cross the time limit that would draw suspicions. At most Dumbledore would think I'd forgotten something or other and rushed over to deal with it. The funny thing is that I knew he was trying to figure out a way to prevent my elementalization within the bounds of Hogwarts wards but was failing.-
Any changes he wanted to implement wouldn't work since the method I was using was internal and had no external influences for him to shut down unlike with apparition. The standard wizarding travel method worked by basically forcing the space around the one using it to turn into a rejection tunnel with an end point elsewhere. That was where the loud popping sound came from. It was literally space itself puncturing and repairing itself in a split second. Cancelling the magic was a simple matter of making the space too sturdy to puncture. As a result any attempt to apparate into or out of Hogwarts caused minor ripples in space before failing.-
What I did instead was become literal pure energy and then follow the charges in the air to reach wherever I wanted to go. Honestly it was one part magic and one part physics and thus not so simple to cancel. My elementalization probably couldn't be forcibly stopped without direct methods anyways due to it's internal nature. Don't get me wrong I was absolutely positive a spell with that effect could be made but the spell would have to hit me first. Rather difficult to do when I'm constantly observing my surroundings and could react just as fast as I could think.