Systematic Hunter - Chapter 5.1

"…What do you mean?" Emerald found herself asking, and almost cursed herself as Thiefs Respite lowered lightly in her grasp.

She hated how pathetic she was that she wanted to hear more. Hated the flush that came to her cheeks at his words.

"Again, exactly what I said," the kid gestured at her with his hand, "You look a bit gaunt, and could do with a bath for sure, but you're gorgeous, and you've got an incredible semblance. Illusions right?"

Gorgeous? Her?

She felt her heart beat harshly in her chest and her grip become shaky, "…Yeah…" she replied, practically having to force it out.

"Like I thought, an incredible semblance, not to mention you're pretty damn fast, without my own semblance you're way faster than me, and not to brag but I'm pretty much one of the best at Signal, maybe thee best now that a couple top years graduated," the shook his head and said, and came to a stop standing right in front of her, smiling at her with bright blue eyes, "I'm Daiki, you?" he asked, even though he was practically standing in point blank range of her weapons.

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She hesitated for a moment, looking completely conflicted to Daiki's gaze, before replying, "…Emerald." she said, softly.

'I'm playing with fire here.' Daiki thought, even as he grinned at her, "Emerald huh? That fits. With the pretty hair, how beautiful you are and that incredible semblance, what else could you be likened to except a precious gem?"

He was hamming it up. Well, he more or less meant his words and what he said. She really was incredibly pretty, and while her cheeks were a bit gaunt and she looked like she hadn't ate a full meal in weeks, her curves were very apparent. Full thighs, thick thighs, large breasts. And her semblance was crazy useful for sure as well.

Honestly, it was probably only thanks to the healing properties of aura she wasn't pure skin and bones though.

Either way, he was definitely playing with fire here. But then, it might not have been that nice to say or think, but Emerald was so starved for affection and someone to care for her, that she fell in line with Cinder and became a fanatic for her, just because she outright told her she had uses and she wouldn't need to go hungry again.

Cinder wasn't exactly charisma incarnate, or even good at talking really. She was kind of dumb as fuck actually.

…Not to toot his own horn, but Daiki liked to think he was at least a better person than Cinder. Sure, getting to Emerald as he was right now was still skeevy as fuck, but it was still better than Cinder.

And Mercury.

And Adam.

Fuck Adam by the way. He was so gonna kill that guy. In fact, if he had Emerald on his side killing that cuck loser would be easy peasy.

Fucking barn animal.

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…Like a precious gem?

Her?

A tingle ran down Emerald's spine, and she felt her cheeks heat up even more. She even found herself having trouble maintaining eye contact.

"Me?" Emerald asked.

And the kid, Daiki just grinned, "Yup, honestly if I had you by my side and helping me out, I could achieve most of my goals pretty easily," he bragged, "If I could, I'd snatch you up for myself right here and now."

"…You would?" she swallowed heavily and feeling her heart beat begin to race, beating a mile a minute.

"If I could, assuming you'd let me," he grinned, before his eyes filled with mischief, "Then again, a girl like you? I might just grab you and steal you away anyway, fuck everyone else."

She should be disgusted by such a statement, a normal woman would be at least. Yet, all she felt was a flutter in her stomach.

"And…what would you need me for?" she hedged, and she saw his eyes flicker to her cleavage displayed in her crop top, before flickering back to her own, if she wasn't paying her full focus to him she would have missed it, "Beyond the obvious."

She wasn't that dumb, him thinking she was beautiful was one of the reasons he'd mentioned already. Multiple times.

He shrugged, grinning, "You seem decently tough, and you've got an awesome semblance…" he trailed off for a moment, leaving her in suspense before abruptly shrugging, "Well honestly right now until my plans come into fruition I couldn't even afford to have a girl as amazing as you on my payroll. unless you wanna be my live in maid, until I can afford full time assistant."

"….A maid?" Emerald blinked.

"Well I do need one, but it's really more me thinking you'd look really hot in one," Daiki just laughed, then held his hand out towards her, "What do you say? I can't promise you everything right now, but I can at least promise you a place where you won't ever need to worry about going hungry again, and somewhere warm and safe….well relatively safe."

He shrugged, "I'm assuming you can deal with the odd beowolf here and there without issue at least going by what I've saw."

Emerald couldn't help but gape at the boy, her mind a whirl of thoughts. This was crazy, so out of the blue. She'd never expected anything like this in a million years. Just some random guy, kid, whatever struck by her looks and seeing a worth in her nobody else ever had.

What were the chances? It almost didn't seem real.

She wanted it to be though.

He, Daiki was the only one who'd ever saw anything of worth in her at all, in her entire life.

"What….about your parents?" she asked, feebly.

"I doubt they'll mind," he shrugged, hand still held out, "They're dead, been dead for more than half of my life. I live alone in a pretty big place all to myself. It gets kind of lonely, and hard to clean up. Also partly the reason why I need a maid."

Oh?

Was it conscious thought? Or was it instinct? Emerald couldn't even tell what one it was herself as she reached out.

And took his hand.

"…I've never had to clean a house before, but I could try." her lips twitched up.

So did his, mirroring her own, "How are you with pleated skirts and thigh highs?" he asked in return.

Emerald blinked, "…I couldn't tell you, I've never been in the position where I could afford nice clothes like that."

"That is so tragic," Daiki gave her a pitiful look, his hand wrapping around her own, and Emerald blinked as she found the boy tugging her along as he turned around, "Alright come on then, I'll show you my place where we can live totally in sin."

And the flirting was back.

…Emerald found she was actually quite liking it and his attention.

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On the way to wherever the kid was leading her, he didn't let go of Emerald's hand at all, as if she would disappear the moment she did.

…To be fair, if her nerves did get the better of her, she might have. As it was though, the close contact and the way he casually talked to her, let her soothe her own nerves a bit and get rid of the fluttery nervousness that was besotting her.

It was quite a long walk to be honest, towards the very edge of Vale, just outside the protective range. Towards the kind of place where only huntsmen and huntress trained or the desperate tended live.

For a moment she actually thought he had been lying about everything and felt a brief sense of panic, but finally his home did come into view.

And quite the home it was.  Which he happily pointed out.

Large and spacious with a lot of free land around it. It wasn't quite a mansion, but Emerald wouldn't say it was far off either.

…Then again what did she know about houses? She'd never even lived in a proper one herself.

It looked like a cottage, but simply far too big to be one, and as she followed him towards the home, Emerald noted that the wide semi circular viewing terrace let her see into a downstairs kitchen and what appeared to be a living room up stairs.

Even being out on the outskirts where only the combat ready tended to live, Emerald figured the place cost a pretty penny.

'…What the hell am I even doing?' Emerald huffed to herself internally, eyeing her hand clasped in the boys own as he led her by it. She really was pathetic, wasn't she?

Letting some kid she just met take her home, just because he praised her? Just because he claimed to see her worth?

…She hadn't even asked what he was trying to accomplish. Though, it didn't really matter she supposed. He could have done anything he wanted to her before, nobody would have saw or stopped him back in that alley, and with that absurdly powerful looking semblance of his own, she didn't stand a chance against him.

And…naive it may have been. But, deep inside her the little girl that had never had anyone care for her before, wanted to believe him. And she thought she'd outgrown such naive crap.

'Which is why I'm utterly pathetic.' Emerald rolled her eyes as the boy, Daiki opened up the door to the place and led her into a wide sweeping hallway with a large shaggy white fur rug in the middle of it and a hanging rack beside the entrance door. Rich laminate flooring, sweeping archways leading into two different rooms with no doors on the sides of hallway, a large and grand staircase, and just below the arching stair ways was two doors, one thinner than the other, she assumed the bigger lead to the basement.

She wasn't sure about the other.

"So this is my place," the kid finally let go of her hand and turned to her with a grin, "Pretty sweet right?"

"….Yeah, lucky you." Emerald replied on instinct, before realising what she did and mortification spread through her. She sounded so ungrateful when the kid was inviting her to her place the only one who saw worth in her and-

He laughed, "Yeah, I won't lie, my parents might have croaked but at the very least they didn't leave me hanging."

She grimaced, "…Sorry…I didn't mean to say it like that and sound so bitchy and jeal-"

Daiki just continued laughing, "Don't worry about it," he waved her apology off, "Come on, I'll show you the kitchen and we can grab a bite to eat, you probably haven't had a good proper meal in ages." he said, turning on his heel and beckoning her to follower her through the left archway.

What?

Emerald blinked slowly. Just like that? Mouthy little shits usually got a backhand for mouthing off even for little things like that from her experience.

Was he simply that naive? Or just too forgiving?

Putting it out of mind for the moment, Emerald followed after him and found herself stepping into quite a large kitchen. White marble flooring, stainless marble countertops, and incredibly high tech looking gadgets and such all around, some she hadn't even seen before in her life.

And his fridge…it was massive!

Emerald stood awkwardly beside one of the marble counters with a couple sitting stools at it and watched as the younger boy opened up the fridge and began rifling through it, "What are you up for for?" Daiki asked, without looking back at her, "Something hot? Something cold? Maybe a shake or two?"

"….Eh…." Emerald just stared, "Whatever you're having I guess?"

He paused rifling in the fridge and pulled his head out to look over his shoulder and give her a deadpan look, "What a typical girl response," he snorted, "And you don't need to stand around like a lemming, take a seat, relax."

…Was that supposed to be an insult or something? She wasn't even sure what normal girls tended to be like beyond naive and giggly and annoying, all happy all the time.

But Emerald didn't say anything and just sat down on one of the stools.

"I'll make some sandwiches and chicken then, I made this nice roast the other day, full of all the vital proteins anyone on the grind needs," he hummed aloud, "What's your poison by the way? Vanilla? Strawberry? Chocolate? Banana?"

"…What?" Emerald was once again, lost.

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Here, have an Emerald I gen'd.

And a Nora I guess.