Chapter Text
Senku
| u gonna stay there til Byakuya gets launched?
You
| Nah, talker to him alr
|I'll be back a day before his launch
Senku replied to Senku
| dont forget
You
|oh hush go to bed
You shut your phone before Senku could even reply, looking around as you smoked your cigarrete. You were in the good ol' U.S. of A, not out of vacation or the mystery work you've eluded out of Senku's logical mind, no you had one goal;
Check out a bounty.
Usually, bounties you went after were small timers, revenge for a murderer on the loose, creeps, the type of things systems fail to fix. Senku would argue you were wasting your time, but you could never gain the guts to tell him of all people that you hunted and killed people. Sometimes the money isn't good but you got good in staking out which ones are worth checking and what to avoid.
This one, well, was more for curiousity sakes.
Its not everyday a brilliant scientist like Xeno Wingfield would get a bounty.
You knew from the get go the moment the name and face was plastered on those forums, this want some jealousy type of thing nor the spiteful bounty type. You've read a few amount of psych books and could still hear Senku rambling about human psyche to know scientists were essentially a breed of humans that constantly thought logically or curiosly.
Xeno was a mere scientist, brilliant one at that with his notable achievements and portfolio but nothing ticked the box tgat said this was your usual bounties.
It was the kind you should've avoided.
One you should've left for other to snatch but instead here you were, a car's ride away from NASA enjoying some coffee by the cafe. Clothes casual, but you had different chemichals, devices and knicknacks that allowed you to take anyone out— in an offensive or defensive way— and a warm decaf of your usual coffee.
You didn't need the caffeine, you had to check out Xeno after all. He always came by the cafe every thursday afternoon, likely an extended break on his schedule with no body guard. Always ordering a simple black coffee and a cheesecake before scrolling on his phone, reading his book, or doing some calculations.
But today, he was running late than usual. You haven't receive news of there any being some form of emergency, and if there were you'd probably end up calling Byakuya about it, and you've already checked the night before his paperwork and desk were clean and done.
So why was he late—
"You staking out in daylight?" A voice speaks, it nearly made you flinch had you not heard the man screech the chair behind you. The smell of coffee stronger now, undoubtedly his, with the faint air of cigarretes too.
Fuck, you're gonna have to pull one out too later
You don't speaking, even though you can tell he was speaking to you, you merely shuffled more comfortably on you chair as you sipped your coffee.
"(Codename), experienced hunter, your reviews say you could take anyone out like it was an accident."
A click leaves your lips and he chuckles. Your eyes finally caught a familiar white bob, sitting down at his usual chair not too far from you, he smiles at you and you watched as someone accidentally bumps into his chair amidst their haste. You nearly chuckled yourself seeing him almost getting launched off the chair but you stay stern.
"Stanley Snyder." You quip. Picking up your coffee. "No older than 28, 180cm, 72kg, blood type B. Specialized in aviation and stealth."
Silence follows your eyes doesn't look back up to know both parties have yet to drop their gaze on you, so you placed your coffee down, cracking your neck. "Let me guess." You hummed, closing your eyes in thought, recalling the book Senku gave you about logical deduction. "Either Xeno or you placed the bounty, either out of some sick curiosity or Xeno wants to kill himself."
Stan laughs, as he does you pull your own cigarette out nearly dropping it as his hand comes up to offer his lighter. Finally, he moves hi chair to face you, to actually sit beside you though that brought no comfort as your eyes fell on to the small gun on his other hand. Subtle enough for you to notice, but not the public.
You let him light your cigarette, both brands mixing through the air as he spoke. "Congratulations, you passed."
"Pass."
"Oh?"
Stan tils his head, and damn, pictures did no justice to this guy. You refuse to believe he was close to pushing 30, not with that emaculate eyeliner.
"I got othee business to attend to."
"In Japan, I presume? You go back there a lot."
You freeze.
"Ah, but I guess it's accurate to say you go home there, no?"
You always kept a clean trace, your persona as a hunter always seperated your personal life, specifically the one where you're Senku's long time babysitter and psuedo older sibling. From making the lies only Senku believed to literally reconstructing all your work devices to becoming untraceable.
Yet Stanley, some soldier, knew you had business in Japan, hell, knew you lived there.
And you weren't planning on getting Senku tangled in your business. Not after Byakuya has done for you and the bond you had with the scrawny teen.
"What do you want?" You did your best to hide any emotion, but the words were spit out like a hiss. "Recruitement." Stanly stated woth a shrug, spitting out his now burnt cigarrete. "Xeno over there has his plans and believes anyone who took that bounty was worth adding."
You pondered for a moment, no doubt the guy was the reason you got traced. A scientist at NASA could probably- no- definetly do that with all the tech there is.
So you weighed the pros;
1.) Financial stability. While Byakuya is up in space, you could afford to splurge for yourself and Senku's sake.
2.) No more lying. Less lying, less guilty conscious and less money to spend to avoid Senku's suspicious gaze.
Of course, there were cons;
1.) This could be a sting. You haven't stated you were here to kill Xeno, at best you could be charged for stalking.
2.) Ulterior planning. Whatever Xeno's plans are, you had no interest in signing a contract with blotted information.
3.) You were no one's dog. Stanley clearly gave of lap dog vibes for Xeno, maybe his right hand man, but you worked for no one.
"Pass." You say once more, picking up your bag.
"Now, hold on."
"Oh, and what you said is true, Sir Snyder." You smiled, taking out a small note card from your pocket. It was nothing special, something you got from those wandering sales people, it simply had a particular perfume like chemichal to it.
With no warning, you practically sped out the area,making sure to slip the card to fall right into Xeno's table, you don't stay to watch Stanley immeadietly jump towards his sides as the man begins to bleed from the nose.
You were initally going to plant two other chemicals, but that should throw both parties off. They wouldn't trace it back to you, the chemical on the card would've evaporated once it reached labs and the man that bumped into him was long gone.
Along with the first chemical, of course.
You pulled out your phone as you steal a taxi, muttering to head to the airport, watching as Stanley stared with wide eyes. There was practically murder in them, but Xeno?
The man was smiling, probably knew the chemical compostion you were planning to incite such a reaction, as he held his bleeding nose.
Yeah, you were lucky to pass that, now its time to head home.
You
| omw to the airport, make me pancakes
Senku
| no