A Slave to Better Days: Absolute Zero | Male Reader x Raven Branwen

Part 1

Breath In

Breath Out

That's all that was going through the young man's mind as he aimed his rifle at the target; a middle-aged male cat faunus wearing a charcoal suit with matching shoes and a striped tie. He is sitting with a female faunus at a restaurant on a balcony. He's smiling at her with a look of affection that a man would have for his wife on their honeymoon. It took the young man an impressive amount of willpower to not pull the trigger right this very moment. He had been hunting this man for almost two years and here he was in the crosshairs of his scope. Now all he had to do was wait for the man to stand from his seat and take the shot so he would not hit civilians. After patient waiting, his chance finally came. The faunas rose from his seat and so did the woman. Now there was no chance anyone else would get hurt. The sniper held his breath, lined the faunas' head in the crosshairs, bit his tongue, and pulled the trigger. He only heard a small pop as the bullet left the barrel and the sound of the shell bouncing on the ground. The faunas falls limp to the floor and everyone turned their heads to see what caused the thud. The woman falls to her knees to aid him the best she could. It was done. The only thing left to do was to leave the rooftop and blend in with a crowd. The young man admired the sight of the dead faunas for a second before he folded his rifle into a cylinder, which he placed on his back and jumped down from the roof onto the street below. The mask he wore hid the features of his face while the hood over his head hid his mask. From a far, he looked like a person that was heading home after a long day at work. Before he left the area, he could hear sirens of emergency vehicles.

When the sniper gets to his home, an old, rundown apartment just outside of Vacuo, he immediately collapses on the couch. Now that the faunas was dead, he didn't know what to do. All he did was look for him the past two years. After a few moments, he fell asleep.

You're probably wondering who this man is, and why he killed the faunus, aren't you?  His name is (Y/N) Rose (L/N). He is infamous throughout Remnant because of an incident that happened three years ago. Team (team name) was dispatched to an area near Vale to locate and rescue a team of Atlas soldiers that when missing on a mission in Vale a week previously. They picked up a trail and followed it for six hours until they hit a small town near the border. The team was puzzled when their trail led to a laundromat. Entering the back room, the team triggered an explosion that also set off other explosives set in other nearby buildings, killing everyone inside. By some extreme luck, (Y/N) survived, leaving a burn scar on the right side of his face stopping right at the edge of his eye socket going down to the bottom of his neck. Log story short, Vale thought Atlas set off the bomb, so the leaders of Atlas forged evidence against (Y/N) to pin it on him. Nearly everyone bought this facade Atlas was putting on. Everyone he loved either pushed him away or alienated him, his friends, his family, and his girlfriend. Eventually, Vale put a bounty on his head, causing him to leave everything he knew behind. But a year later, new leaders were elected in Vale. They examined the evidence presented by Atlas more carefully, finding it to be forged. The bounty placed an (Y/N) was called off, and a real investigation began to see who really placed the bombs. They found who did it; A faunus who tried to frame Atlas. But he lived in Mistral. There was nothing Vale could do. But a certain someone tipped (Y/N) off about the Faunus' whereabouts. Ever since then, (Y/N)'s been out for blood.

A ringing caused (Y/N) to wake from his nap. After a few moments of remembering where he is, he reached for the scroll on the coffee table in front of him. He holds it up to his face to see someone calling him. Usually it was a member of his family trying to contact him, but this time the name said 'Raven'. He presses the reject button then and tosses it back on the table, not wanting to speak to anyone. He goes into the bathroom and lifts his shirt to look at the black spot on the right side of his upper torso that was the size of a baseball. "Dammit." He whispers to himself. "It won't stop spreading." He had no idea what the spot was. It just appeared one day and started growing.

As the days went on, (Y/N) felt more distant from humanity. Shortly after killing the faunas, he started taking mercenary contracts. He thought since he tracked down and killed the faunas, he would be good at hunting bounties. He was good at it. Some would think he's too good, saying he was more machine than human. He barely slept to the point where his sliver eyes were always bloodshot, which are more gray than silver now.

Tensions within the kingdoms grew now that everyone was questioning what else Atlas lied about to keep their reputation. Atlas' stocks went down and the kingdom struggled for a year, but quickly regained its status and wealth with its advancement in technology.

(Y/N)'s family tried desperately to find him to make sure he was safe, but he had been ignoring their calls and avoiding them if he saw them in the same area. The families of his deceased team also began a search for him and others from Beacon pitched in to help. What they didn't know was that (Y/N) knew that they were looking for him. It could have been very easy to start a new, simple life as a hunter. But he couldn't do it. Just the thought of going back to Vale made his hands shake with fear. Besides, now that he was a killer of many, he couldn't face anyone from his past life. Imagine what they would say if they knew he was a mercenary.

(Y/N) wasn't an ordinary mercenary. Some would disagree, but he wouldn't any assassination contract if they had immoral reasons behind them. He needed a good reason to kill them. For example: If they were a corrupt politician. A drug lord. Or a murderer that managed to work his/her way past the courtroom. Many praised his work, but (Y/N) never saw himself as a hero. To him, he was just a weapon for rent. He wasn't a hero or a villain; he is just a man.