(A/N: Power stone goal met. Expect an extra chapter this saturday and an increased goal next week. Good work soldiers!)
XOXO
"You work for Spider?" Emerald whispered harshly, carefully peeking out of the alleyway she'd been waiting in to get a look at the bar I'd just come from, only to duck back the moment the guards out front so much as twitched. Despite the clear reluctance she'd stuck around long enough for me to come back so she wasn't backing out just yet.
"I'm more like a mercenary or contract worker really. I take jobs from them, mostly running deliveries beyond the city and sometimes around it." I explained. "Like I said, you'll be dealing with Grimm, nothing else."
Emerald peeked beyond the alleyway again before refocusing on me. She shared the kind of paranoia that Cinder always had, but she lacked that at times dangerous edge. She was willing to hear out someone like me despite how shady our initial meeting must've come off, and despite her circumstances, was no killer.
If I could keep her from ever becoming one, all the better.
"The job I got tonight is beyond the walls." I said while adjusting the bag of supplies hanging over my shoulder and walking past her, towards the alley's other exit. "So, coming with?"
Emerald quickly caught up with me, expression still twisted by uncertainty. "How much is this going to pay, exactly?"
I smiled.
If money was her primary motivator, she wasn't going to have any issues doing more work like this, I was sure.
XOXO
A head like that of a snake's, pitch black in color with the nearly glowing red gaze that all Grimm shared, surged forth at seemingly nothing, open mouth snapping shut around air.
Bang! Bang!
Sending off a barrage of shots, a lone bullet from Emerald's weapons reduced one of the eyes into a bloody mess, a wail released by the beast as it recoiled. The other head on the opposite side of its dual colored body, this one a contradicting white, coiled around, gaze set not on whatever illusion Emerald had conjured up but on us. Intent on repaying the damage to its other half, it shot at us, but I lowered my stance and readied my blade, handle held over my head and blade angled towards the ground.
Emerald fired off more shots, but they did little against the king taijitu's thick skin, it barreling down on us. Intercepting it, the right positioning and a bit of telekinesis threw off its charge, sending it crashing through the trees beside us. I rushed after it, blade raised above my head, and a single downward swing severed the head before it could rise up for another charge. Using it as a springboard, I jumped off the head, reaching the other as it began to coil back. Another slice sent the rest of the body and that head crashing into the ground, the remains and the blood covering my sword's bandages beginning to dissipate.
"Did you really need help with this kind of thing?" Emerald questioned as she stepped up beside me, reloading her guns as she looked the fading Grimm over, before doing the same to my sword as I returned it to my back. "You look just fine on your own to me."
"Not really. Like I said I just wanted to see your semblance in action." I answered honestly, or as honestly as I could. "And it's really something."
Up until now we'd managed to avoid combat entirely, Emerald able to conceal any signs of our presence from Grimm as we walked through their territory. It wasn't perfect though, likely due to inexperience on her part and the creature's natural pull towards negative emotion leading them towards us at times. She was able to keep her cool, but she was no Cinder, her thinly veiled anxiety when the Grimm drew close eventually exposing us, hence that battle with the king taijitu.
Her semblance wasn't the perfect tool to hide from Grimm like Ren's would be, but it had far more use cases.
Especially for me.
"Why haven't you tried to throw in with a group like Spider, anyway?" I asked as we continued trekking through the dense forest, pushing aside anything that was in our way. The specific resupply stash we were headed towards was a good distance from any trail, so out of the way, there wasn't much of a chance of anyone finding it. "That's a lot of lien you're leaving on the table."
"I've seen what those gangs do. I'd rather not get involved with thugs like them."
"Says the thief."
"I steal, that's it." Emerald insisted. She sounded earnest too, adhering to some line in the sand she must've drawn herself.
"You probably made the right choice. I doubt Spider or any group like it would just let someone with your abilities walk away once you started using it for them." I agreed. Her illusions, already good enough to fool people, would be any criminal group's dream come true. The things they could get away with would jump several times over.
"This coming from the guy apparently working for the biggest one."
"I pick and choose what jobs I take from them. That's it." I said, repeating her own sentiment. We all had to draw our lines somewhere after all. She hummed, entirely unconvinced, our walk carrying on in silence.
"This is really all you do?" Emerald broke it as we forced our way through another thicket.
"More or less." I said, casting a glance over my shoulder. "No one saw your face, so if you want to be done with this after you get paid, I won't stop you." I assured her.
She still didn't look convinced.
I couldn't blame her. An opportunity to make arguably easy lien despite the inherent risks that came with going beyond city walls just falling into her lap one day due to some stranger's curiosity? I wouldn't buy into that either.
But some things had a way of overriding caution and suspicion.
XOXO
"This isn't some joke, is it?"
"If you don't want it, I can always-"
"No." Emerald said sharply, stack of lien yanked away from my nearing hand. I couldn't help but chuckle as I leaned against one of the walls of the darkened alley we stood in. I'd mentioned that I was working with someone and got a simple warning from the twins. Any fuck up of theirs would be a fuck up of mine as Melanie so eloquently put it, and I'd have to answer to their mother for it.
Not a problem if it meant keeping a variable like Emerald around.
"I mean, this…this is a lot of lien." Emerald muttered, once again counting the stack of cards before looking up at me. "All we did was walk around and drop some stuff off. Why are they paying so much?"
I shook my head. "You're thinking about it from our perspective. With our semblances we can get around the wilds without much trouble." After giving her chance to flex her semblance on our way to the drop off point, I'd showed a little more of what mine was capable of with a bit of sword surfing, Grimm outmaneuvered and travel time cut down. "Even if they learn to use aura, most people never develop semblances and when they do, they typically aren't that versatile."
"You saw how many Grimm we passed by. Others would have no choice but to face all that or waste time figuring out a way around them." Honestly, even if she was being far bolder than I would've in her position, it made sense why Miss Malachite was showing me a certain amount of favor. I may not be directly fighting alongside them, but I'd taken over deliveries her best fighters used to handle, effectively taking on their risk and freeing them up for other work.
And with whatever she was planning, the more hands on deck, the better for her. If lien was what I was after, I might just be in a good position to shake more out of her, but her favor and resources were worth far more than simple money.
Emerald nodded to herself. "Yeah…I guess you're right." She said, coming around to my way of thinking. But that didn't mean her doubts were gone.
"So, what do you think? It varies a little but that should more or less be your cut on every job you join me on."
"I still don't get why you're offering this to me. It looked like you could handle yourself just fine out there by yourself. Why bother with me?" She question, still unsure of what to make of me.
"I like studying the semblances of others." What wasn't to like about getting the chance to see the abilities I'd soon be making extensive use of in action? If it ever evolved, a rare phenomenon that no one person had any explanation for, it'd be yet another improvement to my arsenal. "And one like yours can save a life or two out there. A little lien to have it as backup is worth the trade."
She held her stare, brow scrunched as if it were hard to believe my words.
Her illusions might not have been perfect, but she should have had far more confidence in what she was bringing to the table. Even if I didn't have the Sharingan to make her ability my own, she would still be worth her cut and more. A semblance like hers was just that valuable on either side of the law.
"Alright." She finally said, pocketing the lien. "I'll join you on these jobs of yours but I'm keeping you to your word. I don't want to get involved in everything those guys have going on."
"You and me both." I said while nodding and extending a hand to her. "Talon."
She glanced down before reaching out, her colder hand shaking mine. "Emerald."
Still a bit unconventional but a far more normal way to come to an agreement than how things went with Cinder.
"Make sure to get yourself a scroll, and maybe something to cover up your face if you don't want to be connected to Spider. It probably won't stop them from figuring out who you are if they really want to but anyone else will have a harder time." I advised while walking past her. "I'll drop by later to give you my contact info."
"You can't just decide you're going to show up at my home."
"Is it really yours though?"
Waving, I left the alley behind, Emerald's huff just barely reaching me.
I should probably warn her about Cinder beforehand too. Hopefully the two got along with one another. With any luck, another girl that was more or less the same age as her would have an easier time shifting Cinder's focus away from satisfying her obsession with strength. Or at least creating other interests to coexist with it.
The more she found to enjoy in life, the less likely she'd ever throw in with someone like Salem.
From planning to kill to…what would this even be called? By the ear therapy? Things just kept getting more ironic.
XOXO
Powerstone Goal = 400 (Met)
(A/N: Emerald's illusions will get a more in depth explanation during her time with the group and, naturally, when Talon starts testing it for himself. As JokerJay75 pointed out in the comments of the previous chapter, its 100% one of the semblances that will actually complete his Sharingan you could say. I briefly considered early on letting him use illusions but given genjutsu is pretty reliant on how charkra works which aura isn't really anything like, I just scrapped that plan. Being both able to see aura and perfectly control it might allow him to do things others can't but I still wanted aura to feel like aura so I won't make drastic changes with how it works even for Talon.
As always, the link for those who want to read ahead:
patreon .com/ thirdratewriter
See you all in that extra chapter tomorrow!