I didn't answer him. Instead, I merely stood there, silent and wary. Of all the people I could've run into today, it's him, and it's not even because I dislike or fear him. It's more so that he's... too much for me to handle. Mentally.

Sakuno suddenly ran over and threw his arm around my shoulder.

"I said, how's it going?!" he shouted with a massive grin.

Despite my obvious displeasure and attempts to release myself, his grip only strengthened.

"Let go of me, Sakuno," I grumbled.

"What, man? We haven't seen each other in months, and that's how you greet me? I'm hurt, you know. And here I was thinking we could finally catch up."

"I'm on a mission right now. Let... Go."

"Sheesh, fine, fine. Stuck-up prick."

"What did you just say?"

"Nothing, haha! Nothing at all."

He picked up a glass of wine on the table and took a sip. Looks like his avid thirst for alcohol still hasn't gone away.

"Ah!" he grinned. "Strawberry. Not bad."

"Where have you been?" I asked.

"Come on, now. Is there a need to interrogate-"

The moment we heard a faint knock, the two of us lifted our guns and pushed our backs against each other.

"It wasn't just me, right?" he asked.

My eyes scanned every shadowed corner, but there was nothing. Since Sakuno had heard it too, I knew it wasn’t just my imagination. Someone—or something—had made that knock.

A few seconds later, the sound came again. Sakuno and I exchanged a look. I pointed at myself with my thumb and made a gun sign, signaling that I’d take the lead. Sakuno gave a quick nod.

We moved cautiously into the hallway behind the dancefloor. My hand reached out to the wall, and I knocked once. To my surprise, a knock came back in response.

"Stragglers?" Sakuno whispered.

"Unlikely. I made sure to check every corner."

"Clearly, you didn't, since that guy from before almost got your ass."

"Shut up. I'll take point. Let's move."

Down the hall stood a vault door. I edged closer, with Sakuno covering my back. I knocked again, and the response echoed back.

Sakuno moved to the other side, pistol drawn and ready. Our eyes met, and we shared a quick nod of understanding.

I holstered my own pistol and grasped the massive spindle. With a forceful push, it began to turn. I twisted it further and further to the left until the vault door creaked open.

Sakuno’s gaze was steely, ready for action, but as soon as he caught sight of what lay beyond the door, his hand slowly lowered. Seeing the look of confusion on his face, I cautiously peered past the opening.

Scattered across the ground were a couple of young women in bondage. Their hands and ankles were tied together while their mouths were covered by a piece of tape.

"Hostages, huh?" Sakuno scoffed. "Looks like you took out a real societal menace, bud."

I didn't even realize that my fists were harshly clenched. After seeing this, I wish I had done more. He deserved much worse than the swift death I granted him.

I knelt down next to one of the women and peeled off the tape as gently as possible.

"Oh!" she cried after taking a deep breath. "Thank you... Thank you so much!"

"Are any of you hurt?" I asked.

"N-no, I don't think so. That man... He said... He said was going to..."

I rested my hand on her shoulder.

"It's alright now. The one you're talking about is dead now."

Sakuno helped me release all the girls from their bondages. They showered us with praise and joyful tears.

"If I may be so... 'inquisitive,' beautiful ladies, would you mind doing us a favor?" Sakuno asked with a bow. "The police will be here any second now. If they ask who saved you, kindly tell them that you don't know, hm? It'll be a problem if they decide to look for us while we're out saving whoever else needs us."

"Yes, we'll do that," one of them said. "Thank you infinitely."

"Heh, no problem! Now, if you don't mind, my friend and I need to bounce before they show up. Hasta la vista!"

Despite my protest, Sakuno forcefully pulled me by the arm until we escaped through the back door. Just in time, a collection of sirens could be heard coming from the nightclub entrance.

"Follow me," Sakuno said.

Reluctantly, I did as he asked. We made our way through the narrow alleyways, climbing up a ladder that rose to the top of a nearby hotel.

As Sakuno embraced the chilly winds of the night, he sat down at the edge of the building with a smile that told me to join him.

"Tokyo seems so peaceful nowadays," he chuckled as I sat down. "I remember back then, we had jobs coming in one right after the other. So many expired candles that needed to be snuffed. Now look at us. We even have time to chill and relax without Watcher calling us in for a new gig."

"Do you think that's a bad thing?" I asked.

"Hm... I guess it can go both ways. The streets are cleaner, people are safer, and all those evil folks are gone for good. That's great, but... I can't help but think about us. Widely feared and infamous in the underworld, the 'Agents of the Hunt.' What do we do once the world doesn't need us anymore?"

So even Sakuno has thought about this. I admit it's a relief that I'm not the only one, but it's still sad.

"The only thing we can do is move forward," I said. "If the world wants to move on, then what choice do we have but to follow it?"

"That's the shitty part, though. We're the same, you and I. We grew up with the Hunt. Whatever life we had before, or what it could've been, doesn't exist anymore. We were trained to kill at the snap of a finger. Do you think people like us can adjust to the normal world? Do we... even have the right to?"

"I don't know about that. However, at the end of the day, we're just a pair of humans. We breathe the same air and bleed the same blood. We killed so that the average person wouldn't suffer, and it worked, didn't it? Like you said, we're not out there hunting all the time anymore. As much as it sucks for us, I'd call that mission accomplished."

"...Hah. I hate that you're right. At least we're both still here, alive and well. Who knows. Maybe I'm overreacting. Maybe we'll find something else worthwhile to occupy our time."

We sat there for a moment, soaking in the scenery: the chill of the night breeze, the distant hum of traffic below, and, most importantly, the simple pleasure of good company.

Sakuno is the only person I can sit with in silence and not feel a hint of awkwardness. We've been through more than a decade together, and I can honestly say that there’s no one else I’d trust to have my back. Not even Watcher himself.

"Son, you there?" Watcher suddenly said through the comms.

Speak of the devil. I reached for my earpiece and began speaking.

"I'm here, sir. The job is done. Mitsuki is dead."

"Good, good. Well? Anything to say about this guy?"

"Nothing, sir."

"Tch... Come on, son. I suppose at the very least, he won't be giving nobody any trouble ever again. Ain't that right?"

"Agreed, sir. On a side note, Sakuno is here with me."

"Come again? Did you say Sakuno?"

"Yes, sir."

"Hand him the earpiece."

I pulled the earpiece from my ear and handed it over to Sakuno, who took it without question.

"What up, boss?" he grinned.

"WHERE THE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN, KID?!"

Watcher's voice was so long that I heard it blasting through that tiny earpiece.

"Whoa, chill out, boss," Sakuno said nervously.

"Don't you fucking tell me to chill out. You disappear for months without saying a single word, then I find you butting in on an operation?! The hell were you doing, busting a nut in every corner of Tokyo?! How many women did you get pregnant?!"

"Eh?! Who do you take me for?! I would never!"

Their constant back and forth went on for a while, but the sound of their voices eventually became lost with the downtown nightlife.

Their endless banter drifted away, swallowed up by the lively pulse of downtown nightlife.

Sakuno’s right. The peace now is a far cry from the chaos of our past. Watcher used to reach out to us for missions constantly, keeping us on edge every waking moment. It’s a relief he’s eased up a bit, but it leaves us with a different kind of silence—one that is almost too quiet.

That's right... In a world that has moved on without us, the only thing we can do is follow it.