The Dark Knight of Chiba: Realm of Shadows
Hikigaya Hachiman Stared at the screen of his laptop, the darkness around him made the light of the screen disturbingly bright, but it didn't bother him, he was used to it, Hours and Hours in the Batcave would do that to anyone, using any artificial source of light is almost a foreign concept to him now, even back home in his own room with no one else around his guard was always up, Gotham taught him that the hard way,
"Onii-chan why are you still on your laptop we are leaving in thirty minutes" Komachi was one of the few people he trusted blindly but he also knew how unpredictable she can be.
"What are you talking about we aren't going anywhere"
"Yes we are the new Wayne enterprises Fund raiser it was your boss who invited us dummy I told you about it like hours ago" Komachi almost yelled that at him.
Great just when he thought he was done with these kinds of social gatherings, but taking a three-month internship at Wayne enterprises working directly under Bruce Wayne and visiting Gotham city well all these perks had to be balanced out somehow, thus came the press conferences fund raisers and dance parties oh god please don't let this be a dance party.
"Can't you just take dad I know he would love to spend time with his dear daughter"
"But they invited you and a plus one not dad besides you're the one who scored the dream internship of every teenager on this planet"
"So what you just I was sick and dad came in my stead"
Komachi scowls for a second then puts on her best ear to ear grin and Hachiman knows he needs to tread carefully now
"Oh so we just need one Hikigaya family member then right?" she was hinting at something that much was obvious.
"Yeah just one, but what are you getting at Komachi?" Hachiman gave her a stare but she only smiled back.
"Well maybe I should just take Taishi-Kun instead"
Did Komachi just play the siscon card? someone's been tutoring his sister while he was gone and there are few people who know him so well "screw you too Shizuka"
"Fine you made your point I'll get dressed but who's driving us?"
Komachi is already out the door as she answers "Hiratsuka-sensei is already here gomi-chan"
Hachiman will always hate these goddamn monkey suits, and no he isn't just embarrassed to look that good, cause there is nosuch thing as a good looking Hikigaya male and even his dad agrees to that "a family of creeps I tell ya" is what Komachi calls it he believes.
Shizuka makes the black knee high dress look ten times better than it actually is and then he wonders,
"Yo sensei how come your invited a Wayne enterprises fund raiser, you're not dating some over glorified accountant are you?"
He basically hears her scowl without having to see it in the car mirror "what? HELL NO Yukinoshita invited me besides I don't date anymore remember".
Yukinoshita the name makes his skin crawl, he hasn't seen or talked to either of the sisters since last year and he wasn't keen on meeting either of them now.
"What does Yukinoshita have to do with anything?" he asks with a hint of a groan somewhere at the beginning.
"You'll find out, now hush I need to call my cousin"
The rest of the car ride was relatively quiet and their arrival was the definition of uneventful, his sister and teacher immediately began socializing while he found a quiet seat in a quiet corner and hoped everyone would just ignore him for the rest of this hassle.
"ladies and gentlemen may I have your attention please" the man speaking was familiar to Hachiman he was Takashi Matsumoto the Branch manager of Wayne enterprises in Chiba
"We here in Wayne enterprises believe that every city in this world is capable of change and often enough that change leads to greatness, but change needs many things and one of them is forgiveness and compassion so today I am happy to inform that Wayne enterprises is partnering with the newly reformed Yukinoshita industries and with even greater pleasure allow me to introduce the newly announced CEO Yukinoshita Haruno"
Hachiman was only half surprised to see Haruno in a pristine red strapless dress walking towards the podium with her head held high, a farcry from the crying mess he saw last time "this has Bruce written all over it"
"Good evening ladies and gentlemen by now you all know who I am and are well informed on my family's situation and make no mistake I am not here to make excuses or apologies but my mother's actions are not my own, while she sought to build herself an empire with whatever means necessary I only seek to atone for what she has done and rebuild my family's name in the city and what better to do that than to rebuild this great city, so starting tomorrow Yukinoshita industries and Wayne enterprises will begin investing aggressively and immediately in Chiba's future, using our various domestic design firms alongside Wayne enterprises generous offers we've already set in motion an initiative to rebuild some of Chiba's most derelict industrial neighborhoods, from there we plan on moving boldly to expand and modernize Chiba's public transit system.
To everyone else Haruno looked perfect, strong, ambitious, and beautiful but Hachiman noticed he noticed the slight twitches in her fingers, the shifting glances, and the wobbly stance.
Yukinoshita Haruno, the demoness who terrified Sobu High even after graduation, and the only Yukinoshita brave enough to do the right thing, was scared shitless, maybe it was fear of rejection or just the concept of failing looming over her, or it could the Idea of stepping into her shoes that terrified the young woman, but regardless she continued with her speech with practiced ease, still perfect in the eyes of many but not all.
"I cannot tell you how excited and hopeful I am about these plans. Much more will be revealed in the future, but for now, I ask you to do this….. look past what my mother did, what she was and imagine with me Chiba's future"
As she finished speaking a hologram of Chiba appeared in in front of the podium but it was a different Chiba, skyscrapers loomed over even the city's tallest towers and a suspended train system ran through it all.
Hachiman clapped along mindlessly watching Haruno's nervousness increase with every word of praise and complement she received "so it wasn't failure that scared her"
"Hikki is that you?" Hachiman recognized the voice immediately but he was still shocked to hear it "was everyone he knew invited to this damn party hopefully Grayson doesn't pop out of nowhere like he usually does.
"Yo" Hachiman greeting hadn't changed during his stay in Gotham if anything it was more encouraged there.
"It is you oh my god I don't believe it I thought you were in Gotham doing that internenshipi thingy"
"It's internship and I was, only got back to Chiba a week ago" The huntsman had arrived three weeks ago but Hachiman only arrived a week ago.
"A full week why didn't you call me you meanie" Yuigahama's light punches were still familiar even after all the not so soft punches he had received.
" sorry sorry I promise to make it up to you somehow sometime don't worry" Hachiman used the same mumbling style that he used to complement Komachi, and Yui glared at him showing that she was not convinced.
"anyways you left without saying goodbye to me or Yukinon and with everything that was happening back then she was…
Hachiman was no longer paying attention he was more interested in the phone call that one captain Yin etsudo was having behind him.
"What, what do you mean it didn't make it that truck had almost half the weapons we confiscated in the Yukinoshita case where the hell did it go, fuck okay okay I'll be there soon just let me get away from these fucking vultures first".
"So you think you can make it tomorrow?" Hachiman almost forgot Yui was even there.
"Sure just call me" Hachiman answered without thinking he was running on autopilot already planning excuses for leaving.
"Wait really, you will?" Yui was both happy and surprised with his answere, she just hoped he wasn't being sarcastic.
"Yeah totally just get my new number from Komachi she's right over there" Hachiman pointed out his sister and her bright pink dress made her easy to spot.
"Komachi-chan is here too what gives?"
"she's my plus one why don't you go say Hi I need to get some air"
Hachiman didn't even wait for a response he immediately made for the doors using his phone to signal Alfred on his way out.
The huntsman glided through Chiba's familiar Skyline, his armor absorbed what little light reached him, and the shifting liquid titanium plates hid all his weak points without sacrificing his agility, the display provided by his lenses told him exactly where to go, but something made him think that through with extra effort.
"why would someone hijack a truck of weapons without anyone even noticing but not even disable the police tracker onboard, and why weren't the police tracking it"
It didn't take the huntsman long to arrive at his destination, a warehouse by the docks, the truck was parked outside for everyone to see, and using his hunting vision he could see three armed goons moving about inside the warehouse.
"something isn't right here I need to be extra careful"
The huntsman entered the warehouse through the open skylight, he crouched on the support beams and watched the goons below, two were smoking near the middle of the building, while the third was using his flashlight at the back.
"His looking for the fuse box, I can use that"
Silently but quickly the huntsman dropped the floor and moved behind the armed criminal and proceeded to shove his into the very fuse box that he was looking for knocking him out, however the noise attracted the other two criminals in the building just as the huntsman wanted, he moved even quicker than before dropping into the grates, and using his hunting vision to track them he made his way beneath their feet, reaching through the wooden floor the huntsman grabbed one of them by the foot and violently dragged him into the darkness bellow, the other criminal started firing blindly into the floor hoping to hit something, but the huntsman was no longer beneath him, he was already behind him and he grabbed the goon by the back of the neck slamming his head into floor hard enough to crack it and knocking him out with a single hit.
"Damn I should've kept one awake to interrogate that was a rookie mistake I should be better than that"
The huntsman recognized his mistake but he didn't plan to leave empty handed, he noticed that the goons had only taken one box out of the truck and approached it.
Huntsman kicked the box open with his foot and immediately his brain recognized the C4 attached to a timed fuse he needed to move NOW.
He barely made it through the wooden door of the warehouse before an explosion lit up the sky and threw him an extra 5 feet into the air, he landed in the dirt his body aching but undamaged.
"I see you got my invitation"
The huntsman looked up to find the source of the voice and there it was, on top of the containers stood an armored figure in orange and black his one eyed helmet giving his identity away.
"Deathstroke what are you doing in Chiba" the huntsman talked with authority, he showed no fear, he had prepared for something like this, hours and hours of training in a dark cave, getting his ass handed to him by Bruce dozens of times a day, he was ready for this.
"That doesn't matter it's just you and me so come on"
Huntsman threw three batarangs but the mercenary avoided them by jumping onto a lower container and jumping across to the next, the huntsman gave chase and fired his grappling gun ahead of the sprinting mercenary, pulling himself into a collision course with the older man huntsman prepared for a mid-air tackle but Deathstroke twirled around releasing his bo-staff and smacking it into the huntsman's face sending him sliding across a container and landing on his back, huntsman didn't have time to catch his breath barely moving his head in time to dodge the bo-staff that crashed into the containers roof where he was laying, he drew his escrima sticks just in time to block two quick jabs from his opponent, he tried moving behind the mercenary while blocking the staff but the more experienced fighter immediately disengaged while unleashing a lighting quick round house kick which the huntsman blocked but it was still enough to shove him into the container behind them which unbalanced it and brought it crashing down forcing Deathstroke to jump back, the huntsman used the distraction and attacked nailing the mercenary with a kick to the face and throwing him off the container however Deathstroke jammed his staff between two lower containers and used it to throw himself feet first into his opponent's chest throwing the huntsman on his back again and landing on top off him, Deathstroke was quickly shoved off the younger man with a kick and both men stood staring each other off Deathstroke drew a katana from his back, and the huntsman connected his own bo-staff and prepared to engage.
The two fighters were interrupted by a hail of gunfire from street level forcing them both into cover.
"goddamn it now the cops arrive and of course they are still shooting me at sight"
The gunfire causes multiple hanging containers to drop creating a cover of smoke and steel, the huntsman activated his hunting vision and tried to find Deathstroke but his opponent had completely disappeared and the cops were moving in force, he fired his grappling gun and reeled himself to a roof top behind the advancing police force, confirming the safety of the location huntsman activated his communicator.
"Alfred you there"
"Master Hikigaya is everything alright?" Alfred asked with concern he had already noticed the wincing in the young man's voice.
"I'm fine but I just had a run in with Deathstroke he baited me into the docks and attacked me without stating his purpose"
"Oh my goodness did you manage to take him down?"
"No the police interrupted us and he got away but something bigger is going here Deathstroke is a mercenary so who hired him and why come after me?"
"I can answer those questions check your phone" batman's voice suddenly came through the communicator and Hachiman immediately drew his phone from his belt and saw the encrypted email he had received, using his security code he accessed the email and his eyes widened at what he saw.
"50 million dollars to kill the hunter of Chiba bring his head to the Tokyo tower to claim your reward
Singed: the order of phoenix".
Author notes:
so this my first story it's a sort of sequel to the Dark Knight of Chiba by 502nickster and yes I did get his permission to write this however this is an AU and has nothing to do with anything he decides to publish regarding the huntsman (seriously go read his stuff he's a million times the writer I am) think of it like the comics multiple people write batman comics and each has his own style and direction but batman is still batman and it's the same thing here anyways please feel free to point out any mistakes (english is not my native tongue) and give any tips you got for a fresh new writer I will appreciate any advice no matter how harsh and thank you all for reading my sub-par attempt at a storry.
oh and I don't own batman or oregairu so please don't sue me.