I don't own solo leveling or Naruto
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-Party Massacre Minho on the loose-
[During the early hours of Wednesday morning C-rank hunter, Kyo Minho fled from the hospital killing two Association agents on his way. Sources say that he was recovering from overdosing on a recent hunter accelerant known as Eclipse. He was to be detained and interviewed as soon as he regained consciousness but it seemed fate had other plans.
The Hunters Association is currently scouring the streets in search of this awol Hunter. The Chairman of Hunters Association, Go Gun-hee, advises all hunters to approach this man with extreme caution as he is unpredictable and dangerous.]
"Well, as if I didn't need anything more on my plate." Jinchul commented with sarcasm dripping from his voice. He leaned back in his chair after switching off the TV standing in the corner of his office.
"You're not looking too good there, sir," Seorin commented with a slight smile playing on her thin red lips.
Seorin was the picture perfect representation of a cold beauty. Her flawless pale skin, silk-like black hair shaped into a nice pixie cut and scarlet eyes gave her the air of someone not to be messed with.
"Uh, Seorin? How many times must I tell my subordinates to knock?" He had an annoyed look on his face as she gracefully walked over to his desk. The sway of her hips capable of capturing and hypnotising any wandering eyes..
The woman's mouth quirked upwards into a coy smile, "Many times." She took a seat on Jinchul's desk and passed along the file she walked in with.
"What's this?"
"The report analysis of the Eclipse drug. The lab geeks downstairs just finished analyzing the drug in most of its entirety."
Jinchul actually seemed relieved at this news as his face relaxed and straightened in his chair. "That's excellent. Tell Lim Hanja that she's a blessing."
"I'll let her know." She tilted her head to the side, trying to peer into the file's contents. As a true professional she hadn't looked through it herself on the way to deliver it to her superior, but she was ultimately curious.
As he read through the file his mind couldn't help but think just where they would be without those 'lab geeks'.
The Assessment department of the Association is responsible for assessing the magic power of gates, cataloging the magic beasts that hunters have reported to encounter and appraising the value, effectiveness and powers of magic items, weapons and armour. They were essentially the backbone and held the brightest minds of the entire organization, helping active agents like Seorin and Taeshik on multiple occasions.
In this case, Lim Hanja's team was tasked with analyzing the Eclipse drug that one of field agents had procured from a freelance hunter about 2 days ago. The agent had reported that Eclipse came in a small pocket-sized jar that held 5 purple pills. The freelancer had given a statement that using more than 2 pills at a time was dangerous, where he had learnt such information remained to be seen. However, seeing as the drug wasn't outlawed and that they hadn't technically they had no grounds to detain him for further questioning.
'It didn't mean we couldn't take possession of the pills for 'appraisal', hehehe.' Sometimes he loved to abuse a little loophole.
However, it seemed that many other hunters that used this drug didn't get the same message as the freelancer because over the past 3 days there was an exponential increase in the number of hunters being admitted into hospital. It was both a pain for managing gates as more hunters in the hospital meant less hunters out there to close them. This meant that Guilds have been able to further expand their territories in the city due to this spike in hunters being off duty to help counteract the number of gates not being dealt with by the Association. In particular, guilds like the Courage and the Raindrop guilds were quick to spread their hunters out to close every unoccupied guild possible. As opportunistic as expected from guilds competing against multiple S-rank owned guilds like the Hunters, White Tiger and Fiend Guilds.
It wasn't all bad however, as from the multiple cases it seemed that Lim Hanja was able to deduce that Kyo Minho was likely an extreme case—an overdose as the file suggested. The eccentric and excitable scientist was able to work this out through observing how each case affected the body and how many pills were taken by the hunters being admitted into hospital.
The file detailed that the drug seemed to be a mass of concentrated magic, from an unknown source, that causes a violent change reaction within the hunters mana pool. From both the field and medical reports of about 20 cases that have uncovered popped up, the drug is forcing hunters to burn through their mana at a rapid rate and forcibly increase their magic, physicality and potential over a period of 5-10 minutes. It even noted that gaining beastial features were a common characteristic reported by observations of the drug in action, perhaps hinting at its origin.
Hanja's conclusion was that the pill was basically 'supercharging' mana through a chain reaction; it had adverse effects on the body in a similar manner to a buff spell. A buff spell while much safer was exponentially insignificant as a boost compared to the drug — if field reports are to be believed. (Note that not all these field reports come from agents but also come from hunters that give statements to the Association after a raid.)
The report points out that C-rank hunters usually experience the boost for a longer period of time than D-rank hunters and even lower with E-rank hunters. The conclusion that she formed from this was that the drug's duration and effectiveness was dependent on how much mana that the hunter had.
That was one part of the report that stuck out to him due to a conversation he had with Uchiha Sasuke, the night Kyo Minho was admitted to the hospital.
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"I also observed something strange." Sasuke said. Jinchul was escorting him out of the building.
"Something strange? About what? Minho?" He questioned, trying to decipher the young teen's cryptic words.
"Hn." he nodded. "As you know my Sharingan can observe the flow of mana quite well."
The Chief inspector nodded, it was one of the first details they had ironed out when he was here for the skills assessment all those months ago.
"Well, Minho's mana… It was like it was on fire?" he explained, however his phrasing led him into thinking that his description wasn't quite accurate but it seemed he didn't know how else to describe it.
"Fire? As in like a skill?"
"Nuh-uh." he shook his head. "It reminded me of fire eating through wood as a fuel. His mana was like a blazing forest fire at first but as the battle dragged on it dimmed and dimmed until there was nothing left."
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He didn't know what to make of the information at first because he had never heard of a phenomenon such as 'mana being on fire' but after reading Lim Hanja's report it made much more sense to him.
"All in all it seems to be a powerful drug, but we need to stop the spread of it quickly. If only to curb the number of gates remaining unoccupied." Jinchul concluded, closing the file. For an organization like theirs the name of the game was control and so even if he would've liked the idea of Eclipse he couldn't let it run around unsupervised or unregulated like it was now.
"Sounds good to me. Although I will say, the number of hunters with access to this drug is suspicious." Seorin narrowed her ruby red eyes.
"Oh?" He tilted his head to the side. "You think Dal has his hands in Hunter society already?"
"Possibly." She put a finger on her lips in a gesture he would have found cute on anyone else. "You have to admit that him being able to spread this drug so fast wouldn't be possible if he didn't."
Jinchul had to give her props, he had not really given that angle much thought but it made sense from what he learned from Sook about him and how he operated.
"I'll let you look into it. You are pretty good at looking into these sort of things."
Seorin seemed to agree with his sentiment with a simple flick of her hair.
"What about Kyo Minho?"
"I'll deal with that situation, but for now I think a code 1 awareness strategy will be fine. He's a C-rank hunter after all. He shouldn't cause too much damage."
She seemed satisfied with his response and made her way out the office. While preparing the file for Chairman Go to read and see what their next course of action would be. He may be the Chief Inspector, but when the situation concerned the welfare of their hunters then it was something that should be brought up to the big man in charge.
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The rain fell down on the roof in a monotonous drone of applause that resonated with the stillness of his mind. He was blindly surfing the internet searching for something that would stave away his boredom. If only it wasn't raining he would have enjoyed a good day at the new water park that had recently opened up in the area. He had money for tickets and everything, although it would have been awkward to go there by himself — he didn't have that many friends.
"Aargh! How cares what everybody else thinks! They're missing out on hanging out with a cool guy like me!" Lee exclaimed with a sudden bout of energy and confidence that almost managed to convince even himself. He slumped back in his chair and continued to click away mindlessly.
The 1st year at highschool hadn't gone as planned for the 15 year old. It was supposed to be a new start for him after moving to another more safer part of Seoul in a safer district that his parents had always been aiming for. He looked out the window again and saw that the White Tiger guild headquarters was basically walking distance from his own house. He sighed once more as he let his imagination wonder about all the cool things that he could do if he awakened and became a hunter. Just imagining all that power at his fingertips was enough to fill him with childish glee at the thought of being the superhero type figure he always watched on TV as a kid — before the gates.
"Well, for one, I wouldn't be bored out of my mind." He muttered to himself bitterly. He clicked off his laptop and lethargically strolled over to his baby blue bed sheets.
"Well, a hunter shouldn't be scared of being this close, even a wannabe like yourself."
He grumbled everytime he thought back to his stoic, and frankly rude, classmates' words or were they friends? He could hardly tell with the guy half the time, he felt like they got along fine though. As he stared at the ceiling he couldn't help but visualize that giant blue portal right in front of him and how much his heart pounded in his ears. He didn't know what it was at the time. Fear? Excitement or anticipation for what would come out. 'He walked in without hesitation.' He recalled. His onyx eyes were cold and steadfast, expression calm and collected and he had the air of someone who had done this a thousand times.
He gripped his chest and closed his eyes. Lee really thought that Uchiha Sasuke was like a real-life superhero at that moment. He wanted to be just like him then, but could barely move an inch unlike in all of his fantasies. He didn't make a mistake and he knew that, he did the right thing. However, would the ideal hunter in his mind freeze up at the possibility of what was beyond that gate?
"Even a wannabe, huh? What's the difference between you and me, Sasuke?"
Suddenly he heard a knock on his window that made him spring up from his bed. "Huh? What?" His eyes frantically drifted to the window to find the topic of his thoughts sitting pretty on the ledge.
Sasuke gestured for him to open up the window for him, but his brain short circuited a bit as he tried to process just what the hell he was doing there. Sasuke, not one with very good patience, frantically tapped on the window and mouthed for him to get the window open.
"Oh, right, sorry!" He jumped out of bed and opened the window for the 14 year old. Lee shivered as the cold wind raced into his room and then immediately shut the window once Sasuke was inside.
"Took you long enough." Sasuke muttered quietly, in a not so hidden veil of annoyance.
"Um, what's up man? How do you know where I live?" Lee asked, confusion written all over his face.
Sasuke dusted himself off and answered, "School records and then I used the GPS on my phone."
"The school just gave you my address?" He raised a brow.
"Well, no…" If he were anybody else he would've thought Sasuke looked sheepish, but given that it was him, his expression looked decidedly contemplative.
"Forget I asked." He waved his hand dismissively, "Why are you here?"
"I need your help."
"With what?"
Sasuke responded by taking out a bunch of papers from his backpack. "You heard about Kyo Minho? The hunter on the loose."
"Uh, yeah."
"I need your help to find him," he said firmly.
"What? Why?" Lee looked at him a little skeptically, wondering why he would want to do such a thing.
"I've got a few questions I need him to answer." Sasuke said simply. He then handed him the papers that he had taken out and gave them to him. He looked them over and was surprised to find the insignia of the Hunters Guild on every single one of them.
'Are these official?'
"The Hunters Guild didn't have much on the guy since they never considered him a recruit, however, before the Association locked up his records they were able to snag just a little bit of his raid history. I was thinking of using it to pinpoint an-." Sasuke tried explaining but Lee wasn't really paying attention to his words.
"Woah, woah, hold up! Where'd you get all this stuff?" Lee interrupted him, a little too overwhelmed with all the things Sasuke was presenting him with. 'What the hell is he on? The Hunters Guild? 'That' Hunters Guild? And he wants my help tracking down a criminal hunter?' He was starting to wonder if his, maybe, friend really was crazy.
"I got it from Hunters guild headquarters. So let's be quick about this as I don't want Choi catching on to my business so quickly." He answered very irritably.
"Choi? Do you mean Choi Jong-In? Like in the 'Ultimate Weapon' Choi Jong-In?"
"Oh, yeah, that is what they call him don't they?" Sasuke replied as if it was no big deal at all.
"Why are you acting as if that's not amazingly amazing!? Dude, you know Choi Jong-In! That's totally freaking cool!" Lee exclaimed with barely contained fan boyish energy.
"Yeah, yeah, I know Choi Jong-In can we move on?" Sasuke said very dismissively and annoyed.
Lee sensing that his excitement wasn't being reciprocated calmed down, if only a little.
"Okay, okay. So, how can I help you exactly?" Lee asked, not really sure what his role was in all of this.
"You know this city better than I do and you know the hunter system inside and out. I think if we use his raid history we could pinpoint an area where people most likely knew him." he explained.
"Oh, okay." Lee nodded, understanding his thought process. "It seems like a pretty analog way to do things to be honest. I mean I can just hack into the Association mainframe and get the info you're looking for."
"Exactl- wait what? You can do that?" Sasuke asked incredulously. Over the past couple of months in this world he'd come to understand how computers work and could operate them proficiently so he understood what the term 'hacking' meant.
"Yeah, it's pretty easy. I've got a backdoor in the system. I can access whatever information I want at any time. I actually tried looking into you one time, back when my cousin told me that you registered as a hunter. I couldn't really find anything other than your name, rank and email address, no home address or nothing. It's like you didn't exist." Lee explained, going on a bit of a tangent.
However, he didn't realize that he was close to the truth, it was a mixture of the fact that Sasuke really didn't exist in this world up until that point but that was also largely due to Choi censoring as much information about him that could get out there.
It was why Sasuke had no officially listed home address, no officially listed guardians, little to no medical records, and even his school records were difficult to track.
"Hn." He grunted, signaling him to get on with it.
Lee's fingers raced across the laptop as he accessed the backdoor into the Association's system with relative ease. "We're in! So, what should we be looking at first?" he asked.
"An address. His address or those of his relatives."
"No problem. Do you wanna have a look at his skills too, since I don't think he'd be easiest to chat to at a time like this." Lee asked.
"No need. I already have a good idea about his abilities and even the drug he used."
"What, really? You make it sound like you fought him or something." Lee shook his head while laughing.
"I'm the one who brought him in." Sasuke deadpanned.
"What? You're serious?" Lee looked at him incredulously.
"Yeah, I'm not weak."
"I never said you were! It's just that guy is more than twice your age and has a lot of experience."
Sasuke didn't dignify his words with a response and instead focused on the screen. "It looks like you got an address. Is it his?"
"Uh, yeah, it's on the outskirts of Goru-gu." Lee said typing away at an even faster pace. (Note: -gu is a district in Korea.) "It looks like he also has a sister that's suffering from Eternal Slumber. Something that he caused, apparently. That's a tough break." Lee added, feeling pity for the guy for being the reason his sister was in a coma.
"Alright, keep me posted. I'll be heading out to check his place." Sasuke said by the window. He opened it and jumped out before Lee could get even a squeak out. The cold wind and rain blew into his room at a fast rate making him rise from his chair to quickly close the open window.
"Dammit! You could've at least warned me before doing something like that asshole." Lee muttered under his breath.
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It was a risky move but Minho was glad that he took by going back to his apartment, because he was able to get a hold of his backup armor plates and battle axe. Although it would be difficult to remain inconspicuous especially with the battle axe sheathed on his back, it was worth it for the extra firepower he would need.
"Now I need to find a way to get a hold of that new drug." He muttered to himself. He knew that he was a C-rank and wouldn't stand a chance against Taeshik, a B-rank, without it.
He watched from around the corner as a group of people wearing suits walked past. They were Association agents patrolling the streets in search of him. His name and face was all over the news so he would probably have to watch out for even regular hunters. It was almost like there was a city-wide manhunt for him.
Taeshik had made it very clear that if he wanted to keep his little nephew safe then he would have to play his role of the villain and play it well. That didn't mean however that he couldn't get information on his whereabouts while he was at it.
'I'm not interested in clearing my name anymore. I just want to make sure that kid is safe and sound.' Minho thought.
This area was high in the concentration of agents probably because it was still near his apartment building so he had to be careful and sneak around very silently which really wasn't his specialty as a tank.
He wasn't able to get past a few more city blocks until he spotted by another group of agents that had just finished assessing a gate that popped up in the office building in next to him.
"Hey! It's him!"
"What? Minho?"
"Yeah, he's getting away!"
Minho immediately bolted once he realized that he'd been got. He leaped into traffic causing havoc as several cars spiraled into each other or veered and off into lamp posts.
'Shit, they're going to catch up with me!' He grunted. Judging from their speed they had to have been at least C-rank and that would be troublesome if he had to stay and fight with them.
He hopped over some steel railing all the way into a secluded construction zone where the renovations of a gas station were being erected.
He used his battle axe to easily cleave through one of the 3 metre thick steel beams holding up the roof of the station. It collapsed almost instantaneously creating a barrier of metal and rubble between him and his pursuers.
"Dammit! He's getting away!"
"Come on!"
"Use your skill to break through this!"
Minho wasted no time in breaking through a wall to reach into more traffic. He ran at speeds impossible for any normal human and reached a high-rise parking area that was out of sight.
He sighed once the heat died down, "Damn that was close." He continued to walk down through the lot until he heard a voice call out to him.
"It's been some time dear cousin."
Minho's heart raced as he worked on processing the words that reached his ears. He thought he had lost those goons but apparently he was wrong. He turned around with his axe drawn ready to make a stand.
"My, my, how hostile. I'm not here to harm you, dear cousin." The man shrouded in darkness said. It was impressive how featureless this stranger was just by standing in the midday shadows.
He didn't sense any intent to attack from the man in the shadows and relaxed a little trying to decipher where he had last heard that voice. "Who ar-" he cut himself off as the voice clicked and registered with a name and a face from his past. "You're, you're Min-jae. It's been 3 years."
Min-jae stepped out from the shadows pulling down his hood to reveal his face to his bewildered looking cousin. "What's wrong? It's like you've seen a ghost." He commented wryly.
"You went missing right after you graduated from college. I tried looking for you for months but I never found you. It's like you didn't exist anymore. I thought you were dead."
"Well, you're wrong about me being dead."
"Clearly." Minho quipped.
"But you are right about me not existing anymore and it's time you started to vanish from the face of the Earth."
"What are you talking about?" Minho asked, confused as he sensed a deep foreboding just from his cousin's words.
"Worry not little cousin of mine. If you accept my offer you won't have to worry about being hunted anymore." Min-jae gave his hand out for his cousin to accept. "You'll have power to fight against the powers that be. An existence that will eclipse your previous." He showed his cousin a small glass vial filled with 5 purple pills.
"Join me cousin mine. This offer only lasts for a limited time," he glanced behind as if trying to sense something. "The goons will be here in about a minute. It seems one of them has a skill that is locked onto your signature."
"What happened to you? You're a totally different person."
"Should you really be asking that? I don't think you have that luxury."
Just as he said that the 5 Association goons jumped into the fray and confronted the two.
"Hold it right there scumbag!"
"You're not getting away this time!"
"Surrender or we will be forced to use extreme measures to take you in." The captain of the agents said calmly.
"I surrender." Min-jae said casually. He raised his hands in the air while discreetly slipping the vile under his sleeves.
"Uh, What? Min-jae!?" Minho grit his teeth as he pulled out his axe.
"This man abused his power as a hunter over me. He's more than a criminal, he's a villain." Min-jae declared to the agents.
"As if you couldn't get more despicable after killing your own teammates!" One of them shouted out.
'Oh, you've done it now!' Minjae thought as a vicious smirk crossed his features.
"Min-jae… Hand me that vial." Minho growled.
"I'd rather not."
"Huh? What do you mean?" Minho started angrily slamming his older cousin against a wall.
"Hey! Back away from the civilian, you villian!" The captain shouted although he didn't move an inch as he didn't want to aggravate the situation even more.
"Does this mean you accept my offer?" Minjae asked nonchalantly, not really caring that he was being held up against a wall.
"What do you think, huh?"
"Then our escape is assured." He said much to Minho's befuddlement.
"Echo!" Minjae screamed out.
Suddenly the door of the security booth next to them was kicked open with the door crashing into a car at mach speed.
"What in the world?" The captain muttered.
"Eh?" Minho squeaked out, equally confused.
"Oh man finally! I was starting to fall asleep waiting in that hot booth." Seven yawned as he stretched his arms over his head.
"What the? Identify yourself, stranger!" One of the agents shouted out.
"Hey, doc. These are the guys that should be dealt with, right?" Seven asked, jabbing his thumb at the 5 agents.
"You'd be correct, Seven."
"Cool." He turned his lazy gaze towards the agents. "I don't want to seem like a pain but could you guys leave as I don't want to expend more energy than I need to."
"What? What're you saying kid! You can't expect us to do that!"
Seven sighed, "Yeah, I figured as much."
[Smoking Barricade]
Seven stretched out his arm and launched a plume of smoke right at the agents. It was the perfect skill for an assassin type like him as he swiftly withdrew his dagger from its sneath.
"Bothersome." He grumbled, holding the dagger in a reverse grip and sprinting forward into the heavy cloud of smoke.
The agents were stunned by the smoke judging by their coughing fits and cries of surprise. Seven took critical advantage of this and jumped into the smoke and started to slash through each and every one of them with unbelievable speed.
When the smoke cleared all that could be seen was Seven standing in his signature slouch with the bodies of the agents slayed out on the floor dead.
'He took out that many in an instant. How strong is this guy?' Minho gulped in fear of the lazy figure.
"Sorry cousin mine but it seems your reputation will get worse after this." Min-jae laughed sheepishly.
"He could have tried not to kill them…" Minho muttered bitterly.
"Like I said, bothersome." Seven reached their side in no time. "Doc, the car is round back we should probably get going now."
"Right you are, Seven mine!" Min-jae said a bit of a peppy tone.
'Seven mine?' The assassin class awakener raised his brow. 'He's always been a strange one.'
"Let's go cousin mine. Lest you lose your nerve and back away. In which case we'll have to kill you." Min-jae told the younger of the Kyo family cousins.
"Uh, that won't be necessary." Minho said a little pale in the face. Despite his bright tone the cold eyes of his cousin was something so unnatural that it very much frightened him.
After that Minho followed his cousin Min-Jae and Seven to their car around the back just as Seven had said. However, before the car took off Seven looked up into the direction of the adjacent buildings.
"What is it?" Min-Jae asked, noting his contemplative expression.
"Nothing. It's just a weird feeling." Seven answered softly, before climbing into the car.
As the car drove off into the distance at the top of the adjacent buildings the air seemed to shift and blow away to reveal a man with spiky purple hair.
"Man, this just got a whole lot more interesting!" Taeshik smirked to himself.
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That's it for this chapter. I hope you enjoyed it!
This chapter took longer to come out than I thought, mostly because I had multiple drafts for how I wanted the Lee and Sasuke section to play out. (I actually had the idea to make Lee and Taeshik cousins as well but eventually scrapped that in the drafts. Might've been too convoluted.)
I also wanted to add consistency to the section of Sasuke's identity being super secret and unknown to the public eye and even the rest of the Hunter world. Only people from the Hunters Guild and Association really know who he is and even then he only really hangs with Choi and Cha.
Anyway I really like what's going on with Minjae and Minho and how that all played out. That's the one thing that I had set in mind to play out exactly as was in my head. Taeshik has been sneaking around a lot using stealth, hasn't he? Makes me wonder what's in that head of his. (I know I'm writing both of them lol :-)
I'm sorry for getting this out late.