ZZZ/SL: Apex Predator

"That was worth waiting three nights.." Belle quietly said as she snuck into her room through her window.

She had been staking out a few suspicious places over the past few days. She had quite a few things she wanted to test out, but seeing Jane there limited her options. No killing (not that she was planning to), no using her very distinct weapons she planned to use later and definitely no acting as her usual self.

Belle sat on her bed and peeled off her bodysuit, layer by layer. Her hair shortening to its usual length.

"Now I'll have to come up with a new disguise..! Pubsec outfit? Off limits.. Siege and FeiXiao? Doesn't cover up much. Damn.." Belle blew a raspberry and kicked her boots off.

Then she remembered the very specific outfit she recently obtained. One made as a disguise because Cid wanted to be a 'super secret elite agent' as he described.

"No.. It's so chuuni." Belle denied, yet she still felt the inner fourteen year old within her yearn to put on the admittedly stylish outfit and act like a badass secret agent.

"No..! I'm not at a high enough skill level to act that way! It'd be so cringey." Belle shook her head and denied the alluring thoughts plaguing her.

In the end, she finally gave in and put on the suit and half mask before going to bed.

When morning rolled around, Belle had surprisingly woken up early. Though it was simply to see if any news about her raid on that warehouse had been covered. Sadly, it wasn't.

"What's wrong? You look a little defeated today." Wise brought over some instant ramen and handed a bowl to Belle.

"S'nothing.." Belle felt a little annoyed. That was a hunter she beat up after all. That should have been covered at least?

'Wait.. Not necessarily. Jane could have just quietly taken them in. I heard it involved the Scavenger guild so maybe it was kept hush-hush for that reason then?' Belle thought as she loudly slurped up her noodles.

Thinking like that, it all made sense. Belle stumbled upon something serious in her disguise.

'I'll have to go out more in that disguise. Something interesting's bound to happen. But maybe not every night..' Belle decided to keep up with her night routine.

"So, bruzzah! Do we have any new commissions coming in?" Belle gulped the broth down and asked the still eating Wise.

"Nope. Today I thought we could take it easy. Do some upkeep on our place while the Bangboos handle the store. Did you want to do something, Belle?" Wise, ever the considerate brother asked.

Belle thought it over and nodded. There was still the development of her ether powers and skills she had to do. As fun as punching, shooting and dicing stuff was, Hunters had specific mana related skills they had access to. Belle had to learn how to either replicate or acquire said skills.

It's just that doing so through mana seemed unfeasible right now. She hadn't felt the presence of mana within herself. But she certainly did Nicole, Billy and Anby. There were people who used Ether and mana internally. Almost always were they S class or National Hunters though. The secret to accessing both was what Belle aimed for.

'Buuuut- For now I need to properly use Ether! Maybe Thirens can help..? They can use some, having such a high tolerance yo it..' Belle then began writing herself a 'to do' list.

One, start to learn the limits of ether. Two, learn how combat capable Thirens use Ether. Three, flirt with Nicole more. Four, learn more martial skills for the weapons she has^

It was simple, but it suited Belle's short term goals. She then stood up and placed the plastic cup her ramen was previously in, in the recycling.

"Okay, I'm going to go practice somewhere. Send me a text if you need anything. See you later!" Belle pat Wise's shoulder before making her way out with a renewed excitement.

"Practice..? Well, she's proven capable. I just hope I don't hear any explosions or anything.." Wise murmured before getting on the computer.

'Boy I hope nothing blows up..' Belle thought to herself as she stopped in their parking lot.

Open space, but she needed some privacy too. One issue with living in New Eridu being how densely populated the city is. Nobody really gets that much privacy, even in their own homes. She learned that little fact in their last home, where she often heard their next door neighbors having loud sex late at night.

Having no true place to practice alone, Belle went over to Gentle House's office.

"Belle! Welcome. Anby and I were going to go see that new Marvell movie. Do you wanna come with?" Billy asked as Belle strolled into the office.

"Mn. The hero in question looks similar to Billy. There may be someone secretly recording him. I wanted to see if there was more similarities in the movie." Anby added.

'Wait that sounds like..' Belle raised her brow in surprise.

"Deadpool..?" Billy and Anby both looked at each other.

"No. It's called Deathwish." Anby corrected.

"Ahah.. Actually I wanna have some place to myself to train. Is Nicole around?" Anby shook her head.

"Nope. She went shopping in Lumina Square. She could take all day. Feel free to use the extra rooms though. This building was really way too big for just us four.. hehe~" Billy replied before bidding Belle farewell and leaving with Anby.

Belle picked out an empty office room and sat cross legged on the carpeted floor. Usually, in some Chinese novels, the protagonist does something like cultivation, where they circulate their Qi and do something with their dantian. Of course, Belle tried to circulate Ether in her body. That only seemed to affect the areas she brought her internal ether energy into.

Ether, after all, wasn't life force or some sort of mystical cultivator energy. It was an anomalous energy that created Hollows, Etherials, Thirens and caused some equipment to malfunction. But it was also a power source, once refined.

"It's very reactive.. It'll go anywhere I will it to in my body." Belle muttered, bringing it to her right fist, where she felt the sword of extermination laying within.

That was something else to figure out. The sword was Mahoraga's blade. It worked very well against cursed spirits due to its positive energy emission. But how does this carry over using Ether?

Belle tucked that question away for later and focused on her fists. Under the skin, they were brimming with ether energy. She struck out, immediately noticing the difference between striking out with a normal punch and adding ether to her hands.

"Reinforcement..?" Belle wondered out loud, gaining a few more ideas to test it out.

Her ether energy reminded her of the way Sorcerers used Cursed Energy.

'Is this simply due to the Mahoraga template? Does ether actually act like cursed energy? Or is it so moldable for me that I can make it act like cursed energy?' Belle clicked her tongue and started to note her questions and observations in her notebook.

Like that, she practiced her ether application theories for hours. Not even noticing a certain money oriented girl had came back and started watching her play with the multi-colored energy in her hands.

It must be said that Belle's serious face, added with the display made for a good view.

Not that Nicole would say it out loud..