A beautiful house...A loving family...A sick brother...A field of white snow...A snow ball fight...A pleasant memory...Suddenly...It was all gone in less than a second...Aki Hayakawa awoke from his reoccurring nightmare, a constant reminder of how he became the person he is today, a constant reminder of why he still lives, and a constant reminder of why he hunts the Gun Devil.He's got a couple of hours before work so no better time to start the morning.Aki's morning routine is simple.Hop out of bed and head to his balcony, open the balcony door and take in the air for a minute. It's late August so the heat is somewhat annoying usually but at this time there was a nice cool breeze.He heads to his kitchen and lights the stove where he then places a kettle to boil some water. While waiting for the water to boil Aki heads to the bathroom to wash his face with some cold water. He always makes makes sure to brush his teeth for two minutes a day.He grounds up some coffee beans and pours his boiling water inside of a coffee pot through a coffee filter. And after a little bit of waiting, fresh coffee to start his morning.He heads over to his balcony with his coffee and tablet in hand and before he sits down he places a pack of cigarettes on the table that he'll begin to smoke after he drinks his coffee. Taking a sip of his coffee, the bitter taste is enough to wake him up from early morning drowsiness as he unlocks his tablet to go read the news. Another dust robbery in Vale? What a suprise it was by the Roman Torchwick guy too, how many robberies did this guy pull and he still isn't caught? He doesn't even take any money, just the dust, the hell would someone even need that much dust for? All he knows is that the SDC is gonna jack up their dust prices, that's always fun now isn't it?He'd go hunt for the man himself but it's not in Aki's jurisdiction, that's the police's job to deal with Torchwick not his. He's not even a official huntsman, he's only meant to take small jobs or patrol as a civilian huntsman but Aki is well trusted and has proved his mettle more than enough times to be paid and treated like a full on Public Safety Huntsman. But still, public safety huntsmen are really only meant to take on devil hunting jobs and the occasional grimm that sneak into the city so unless Roman Torchwick shows up during his patrols or magically comes across him then there's not much he could do.Aki exited the news app he reading for news of Torchwick and ended up on his email app where he scrolls through the mass of emails. Nothing interesting that required his attention except for a few business emails he needed to reply to but overall nothing serious. That was until his work scroll started to ring in the living room so he knew it was something important, or a call from Ms.Makima. Setting his coffee and tablet down he walked towards the table he kept his work scroll on and saw it was from his longtime partner Himeno. He swiped his phone to pick up the call and put his scroll to his ear "Hayakawa speaking.""Yo Aki! We got another movement from the Gun Devil flesh! Some Ursa ate it and transformed into some super Ursa the size of a house, it's sleeping by Forever Fall and I know how much you like handling these!" Himeno said excitedly over the phone."I'll be there right away, send me the coordinates and I'll deal with it immediately." Aki told Himeno in his usual monotone voice."Wha? You should wait up on me Aki, just gimme an hour so this hangover can go away and I'll be with right with ya!""No waiting, cords now. I can handle a big Ursa."Himeno sighed over the scroll, Aki can already picture her pinching the bridge of her nose. "Fine, whatever. Just, don't die okay? Please?""I won't, send those cords.""You got it Aki."Himeno hung up and not too long later the cords of the last sighting of the gun enhanced grimm.Aki went to his wardrobe closet and picked out one of many matching black suits as even in combat he wishes to look formal and professional. Something about not fighting in a suit also just felt wrong to him either way. On his dresser were two sheathed blades, one was a mechanical sword that folded for easier storage, the other was locked inside a case with a ten digit code needed to unlock it. Aki has memorized the combination due to how many times he's done it, once he placed the code in he opened the case and he could immediately feel the air shift in the room as he took a good look at the sheathed sword in front of him.He's only meant to use this sword in an absolute emergency so he has only used this sword a handful of times in his life. He only hopes he doesn't have to use it again today.He strapped the sheathe over his shoulder and on top of his dresser he grabbed a hair band. Pulling his hair back he tied the hairband to the back of his head forming a topknot.Aki was ready for the day.It took an hour to get to Forever Fall, it was really hard to miss the eternally red leaf trees that made Forever Fall ever so famous. But the public wasn't allowed inside due to the frequency of Grimm and Devils inside of said forest.Using Himeno's coordinates she sent over of the last known location of the Ursa who ate a piece of the Gun Devil, Aki was lucky enough to find the beast taking a nap deep in the Forever Fall Forest just as Himeno said.He had all the opportunity to make the first move but what would he do? Attempt to get in close to deliver a kill shot? Or use one of his contracts to kill the Grimm? He'd want to end this fight as quickly as possible as this monster going on a rampage would speak a number of problems. Not to mention even with aura, one hit from this thing would almost certainly kill him, gun pieces are extremely dangerous and any devil or grimm that swallow them can become kingdom level threats.Deducing his options in his mind he came up with his plan, first step was to use a contract. He wasn't sure that this was going to kill the grimm but he certainly could hope. He brought his hand over his eye, his middle and ring finger pressed against his thumb as he called forth one of his contracts."Kon."A giant white fox head bursts from the ground and caught the giant grimm in its teeth. It's multiple red and white eyes began to squinch after chewing on the Grimm for a few moments before spitting the monster back out. "Aki, you know how I feel about Grimm.""I apologize, I promise to feed you some extra skin. I just needed you to weaken it, Kon." Aki told the Fox Devil."Water under the bridge, handsome." The Fox devil disappeared into the floor as Aki drew his mechanical blade. The giant Grimm got back up and now severely injured with much of its bone armor crumbled to dust or severely cracked. Aki could even see the brain of the monster in its cracked mask as it let out an ear piercing roar, the giant Ursa ran towards its attacker but Aki's aura control allowed him to put his aura into his legs to gain greater distance as the Ursa swung wildly. It's arms strong enough to destroy the very ground they were standing on. Aki slid under one of the Ursa's swipes and run between its legs, using his blade he delivered many slashes in rapid succession against the back of the Grimm's knees. The Ursa due to Kon's attack was suffering from being in a dazed state so it couldn't properly form an attack against the ever so quick Aki who targets it's legs to topple the beast.At this point it didn't even know where Aki was so the giant grimm began to constantly stomp and smash its fists against the ground and it's feet began preform powerful stomps that shook Aki to his core, at which point he needed to back off. Aki got a safe distance away but the Ursa was still wildly attacking in a blind panic, he pointed his fingers at the Ursa and spoke to his contracts once more. "Nail shot, 1 2 3 4 5." As for a contract with the fingernail devil, Aki can shoot his nails like bullets that move and strike with the same Power as armor piercing bullets. The nails pierced right through the Ursa's chest and caused the beast to tumble over. Aki's hand began to bleed which caused him to wince from the pain but his nails were growing back at an increased rate so he would not bleed for long. With one hand he began to run up the body of the devil while swinging his sword to make sure the Ursa is too hurt to stand up. Upon getting to its head the beast roared at Aki but he did not waver as Aki called upon one more contract "Muscle Devil, 2 seconds."Aki's arms began to bulge against his suit as he stabbed his blade right through the Ursa's skull. Aki with the muscle devil contract was able to strike with enough power to stab through the damaged Ursa's skull like butter, and destroy the land under it causing the land around Aki to shake. And in return Aki's arm began to cramp up for a few seconds due to the draw backs of the contract as Aki held his cramped arm in pain while taking some deep breaths.This is why Aki Hayakawa was treated like a public after huntsman, he had multiple contracts with multiple different devils along with his combat skills being on par with actual huntsmen. In total he had 9 different contracts, which for someone at the age of 18 was unheard of but it's all due to his semblance.Demon Negotiation.His semblance allows him to be seen in a more positive life by devils and there for he's able to bargin for their power better than most and at not nearly as much of a cost. Muscle devil drawbacks can last for minutes with most huntsmen, but with Aki's semblance and bargaining skills he was able to reduce it down to only a few seconds.It has been the biggest factor in why he's one of the most trusted individuals of Vale Public Safety according to the second head, Miss Makima."Hey Aki!" A woman's voice grabbed his attention. Turning his head it was none other than his old partner Himeno waving at him while holding a suit case he could recognize that voice from anywhere, even though Himeno isn't the type to blend in the crowd since she's always wearing an eyepatch and she never changes her haircut. "You beat this one fast Aki! I could feel my insides with how loud that thing roared, shame we almost never get to fight together since how fast you tend to kill these things. At this point they should just give you a huntsmen license, you practically are one of the best in Remnant."Aki began to dig through the dissolving Ursa, searching for the piece of the gun "As much as I'd like that I would prefer not to cheat my way to a license. Plus it would be less illegal for me to take these kinds of jobs since I am still a civilian huntsman.""That's so lame though, you already qualify so why waste the next four years of your life on crap you already know or will never use.""Found it." Aki pulled out a grotesque looking bullet from the dissolving remains as Himeno opened the suitcase so the pieces of the Gun Devil's flesh may reattach. "And just for your information, not everything they teach is just about school subjects. There's more valuable things to learn from Beacon then just how to kill monsters.""Pfft, whatever nerd." Himeno shut the suit case and locked it tight "I'm hungry, let's get brunch.""Fine. You got a cigarette on you Himeno?""You ran out? You hopeless addict." Himeno teased Aki while jabbing her elbow against him teasingly."No I just forgot them at home. Just give one.""Alright alright, no need to cry about it." Pulling out her pack of Marlboro blues she passed a cigarette to Aki while also giving him a light. Aki let out a big puff of smoke as he felt his body begin to relax."Man I remember when you got assigned to me 2 years ago saying you'd never smoke and here you are as a big strong man with as much as a taste for these cancer sticks as me." Himeno reminisced on old memories, Aki was such a brat back then and he's still kind of one now."Huntsmen and Huntresses die every day so it's not likeybthese things will be the death of me compared to fighting devils and grimm on the daily. You gotta have something to take off the edge and I'd prefer not to be constantly drunk like Kishibe or Qrow.""Aw come on, don't say that kind of stuff Aki! I believe you'll live long enough to make a woman very happy someday." Totally not referring to herself, ha ha ha."I have no interest in the su-" In the middle of his sentence Aki's work scroll went off. He pulled it out if his pocket and saw Makima was calling. What could she possibly want?"Is it the big M?" Himeno asked."Yup." Aki slid his finger to answer the call "Good morning Miss Makima, what can I do for you?""Good morning Hayakawa, I'd like for you to come to HQ as soon as possible. There's something important Ozpin and I would like to have you a part of. Be there as soon as you can Hayakawa.""I'll be there right away Miss Makima.""Wonderful." Makima hung up."Makima's calling me in Himeno so you'll have to eat brunch alone." Aki put his work scroll back in his pocket.Himeno puffed her cheeks and pouted at the cancelation of their plans "Again?! Aw whatever, can't say no to Makima anyways. At least drop me off back in Vale?""Fine."The two walked back to Aki's car.
Little did Aki know this would be the final time he would ever have a peaceful morning like this one again.
