Systematic Hunter - Chapter 4.2 (Patreon)

All things considered, it actually didn't take Daiki all that long to fill up all twenty grade one lightning dust crystals.

He didn't really have anything he could do with them right now though, so he just stacked the cardboard containers up in the storage closet. They'd do for an already prepared stock for powering his home, they would last a good few months at least.

And pretty much just saved him two hundred lien.

'Stonks be rising, stonks be rising.' he snorted to himself as he left his home behind. It was time to get proactive.

And what better way-

Than to go hit up the huntsmen student mission boards. At the end of the day, he wasn't quite as stupid as Xiao Long as to walk right into a gang affiliated and owned bar.

Or well, it was closer to a mafia really.

But stronger than any of them or not, and confident he could crush them even easier than Xiao Long herself did, didn't mean it was something he should just waltz into without thinking or preparing for a possible fall out.

Just because they didn't have the strength to beat him, didn't mean they didn't have the money to put a hit out on him, and Xiao Long probably already had one on her in the other timeline, it just never came to anything because Vale got fucked over by Cinder and her posse.

"Nor can I just expect anything immediate if I go hit up from Dust Till Dawn." Daiki hummed to himself as he made his way to his destination.

He might be lucky and it could, but he wasn't the type to rely on luck, so that really left only one option for him.

Doing some student huntsmen missions, It was the most stable and immediate of things he could take part in. And the combat experience from them, was something he needed as well.

The more the better really.

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There was another little thing about his semblance that was neat. It wasn't all that incredibly useful, or a super powerful effect or something.

But it was still helpful.

Even when not using his semblance, his bodies bio electricity was a little bit stronger than normal peoples. And constantly, he emitted a small field of it in the immediate vicinity of his body.

It was no more than half his forearm in length from his body in all directions, but allowed him to generally feel electro magnetic waves.

It was specifically why he could actually change the charge of his semblance, otherwise it would have been total guess work. He hadn't thought much of it before beyond that-

But it did come with a nifty little benefit.

He could feel the bio electricity of others bodies when they were in very close range to him.

…Like reaching into his back pocket where his wallet was contained.

Even when he couldn't see or hear anyone in his general vicinity.

His hand whipped back, wrapping around a thin dainty wrist and his head whipped around, and saw nothing, "Nice try." he smirked, feeling them tugging, but failing to pull away as he tightened his grip.

…Well now, this couldn't be who Daiki thought it would be, could it? He couldn't be this lucky, could he?

Even though he couldn't see anything, he felt as a limber leg rose up and shot straight for his head, a roundhouse aimed straight at his temple.

His other arm rose up and he caught it on his forearm, and he almost winced at the impact, there was quite a bit of force behind it.

It wasn't raw strength or anything though, it was the speed they kicked it, or rather going by the body build he could feel.

She could kick at.

Her arm against her legs, and her wrist caught with his other hand, Daiki's smirk widened. And his semblance blazed to life, crackling lightning covering his body, and running straight into her.

"Gah!" a distinctly female voice cried out, and before his eyes the air seemed to shimmer and a girl appeared in view.

Tall for a girl, and pretty with mint green air, ruby red eyes and dusky caramel skin.

Emerald Sustrai scowled at him, "How did you know?" she huffed, green aura hovering over her protectively as she dragged her foot back, and he let her.

She hadn't taken any damage from his semblance, but she definitely took a hit to her aura.

She was trying to distract him, obviously even as people in the street around them yelped or shouted and distanced themselves from the sudden fight.

It wasn't quite the Emerald Sustrai he was expecting though. Her hair was shorter than he was expecting, less full. And her outfit while similar, lacked the white of when she was with Cinder, and was worn and torn.

"Wouldn't you like to know," he snorted, "That's a nifty semblance you have their, would worked on anyone else too. But it isn't gonna do you much good from a jail cell I don't think."

Her eyes widened, and before narrowing.

A whistle sounded in his ears, and Daiki frowned, 'I heard it this time, how did she catch me with it before?' he wondered.

And completely ignored the massive form of an alpha beowolf leaping over the older girl towards him, claws outstretched and a snarl on its lips.

And went right through him.

Because it was an illusion.

If he didn't know it was an illusion beforehand however, he definitely would have been shocked and let her go.

Emerald growled, her other hand whipping to behind her and pulling free a ruddy brown gun, it was definitely her weapon from the other timeline, but the colour was all off.

…Had she not even met Cinder yet?

The gun was levelled at him in the blink of an eye, and a few rounds exploded outwards forcing him to let go of Emerald and juke to the side to avoid them.

And immediately she didn't waste any time in turning around and sprinting away at top speed.

She was fast, really fast, he noted.

Way faster than him, at least without his semblance. Hell, she could give Ruby a run for her money in pure speed.

For a moment, he was tempted to let her get away. Getting involved with her, or any of the villains from the series, or other timeline or whatever was a bad idea at the point where he was now, he needed to focus on himself and achieve his goals first and get strong enough before he wanted to deal with any of them.

….But Emerald was Cinder's greatest ace in the hole and the whole reason she even accomplished what she managed in the first place. And if he was right, and Emerald hadn't met her yet, then he could cut one of the biggest problems off here and now.

'In fact...this could be a real big benefit to me.' he thought, if he played it right at least.

His semblance crackled to life once more, and Daiki shot after her at blurring speeds, tearing down the street.

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Who the hell was this kid!?

How did he catch her? How did he see through her semblance? She glanced over he shoulder and almost spat a curse when she saw him, freaking electricity crackling around his body as he tore down the freaking street after her!

'Give me a break fucking damnit!' Emerald howled in her head. She'd only picked this kid because he looked loaded, those weapons he was toting around on his back were bonafide atelsian steel! They had to have been worth at least ten grand or more!

And he had such an oblivious look on his face, she figured he was an easy mark. So she waited until he was crossing the road, with the beep of the traffic lights and disguised the use of her semblance with it so he wouldn't notice the whistle sound it made for targets it hit.

…Except nothing went to plan.

Heart beating in her chest, Emerald quickly juked down an alley and planned on losing him-

Only to skid to a halt and her eyes widening in horror when she found a massive wide wall at the other end, "Are you fucking serious right now!?" she growled.

Alley walls like this were usually small in Vale, trust her luck for her to run into one of the few that wasn't! Some rich bastard must have paid for it on the other side or something for privacy or whatever.

Bastards!

She whipped around, just in time to see the kid chasing her turn into the alley as well, and scowled deeply even as a deep fear filled her, she knew what happened to people like her that ended up in caught, she wasn't an idiot, she'd grown up on the street.

Her hands went to Thief's Respite, a pair of pistols that could mecha shift into chain kama's. They weren't hers, never had been, they were stolen. From the corpse of a bastard. A drop out from Signal that took to gang life and beat her down years ago before she had full control over her semblance. She'd had to sleep with him to get her life spared by him, giving up her virginity in the process, and then he planned to pimp her out.

She killed him in his sleep, like the idiot he was and took the weapons for herself.

"Buzz off kid, leave me alone unless you want a bullet in your head." she threatened, aiming her pistols at him.

"You're the one that stole from me you know." the kid just laughed, and he was definitely a kid, the crackling electricity around his body fading away and he didn't even bother to draw his weapons.

It was the slight bit of rounded baby fat in his cheeks that clued her in, making him look a bit baby faced compared to the rest of him.

The kid was tall, really tall, easily being six feet and he was built like a brick shit house, his biceps were absolutely massive and his shoulders were incredibly broad and rounded. But despite that, despite how finely cut his hair was into short wild black spikes and the gleaming black earring hanging from his left ear, she could tell he was a boy still.

She pegged him for around fifteen, maybe sixteen?

Lucky little bastard, the expensive weapons on his back, his clothing, the earring and his finely cut hair told her he'd never needed to worry about anything at all, not his next meal, how he'd survive to the next month, nothing.

"Yeah, well I failed didn't I?" she bit back, unable to hide her annoyance, "Not like you're gonna let it go with a sorry."

In response, the kid just laughed.

Laughed!

"Usually no, anyone else that tried that would get their face busted in with my fist," he continued laughing, "Not everyone is as cute as you though, or has such an interesting semblance. It's making me curious what a girl like you is doing being a petty thief."

It wasn't like it was her first choice.

This kids face and attitude was annoying her. He was handsome, for his age she supposed. And he had an incredible build, the same kind she used to long for in a big strong father figure in her dreams to come save her from the cold, lonely scary nights.

Give it a few years and he'd probably be an absolute behemoth. He'd probably make some lucky girl feel all safe and protected in the near future. Good for her she supposed.

And he was cocky as well, practically flirting with her there a bit.

"What's it to you?" Emerald bit out, shaking one of her pistols pointedly at him to remind him the situation they were in right now.

"Just that," he shrugged, and began walking towards her, completely unfazed by her weapons and, it made a spike of fear run through her. If he was that unfazed after her seeing her semblance, and now her weapons, then he must have been incredibly strong, and- "It seems like such a waste of such an incredible girl."

Emerald froze.

She'd been called a lot of things. Whore, slut, street rat, waste of space, leech, the works. She'd been beaten, stolen from, extorted, threatened with all manners of things ranging from being murdered to raped.

Nobody had ever called her incredible though.

Well, incredibly bitchy probably didn't count.