The Reincarnated Hitman

Like a kid about to be punished, Titan stood in front of their leader with his head down.

It was hard to tell if the man before him was angry since his facial expression couldn’t be seen behind that ghost mask, but the aura he released was all the answer Titan needed.

"Explain," the leader of the Splinters said in a calm voice.

"We got information on the location of Zero’s agent, so we decided to try and capture him so we can use him as leverage against Zero," Titan explained, keeping his head lowered.

The man remained silent for a while, but the next second,

"Agggh!" Titan let out a gasp as he fell to his knees and gripped the stump that had been created when his entire arm was suddenly turned into a cube and torn off.

"I believe I explicitly ordered the Splinters to lay low for a while, no?" The man said as he looked at Titan, who was struggling to breathe.

"Y-yes."

They had hired bounty hunters in the first place because the Splinters needed to be careful of their movements.

Especially after their leader had broken out members of the villain group twice in a single month.

The HA would be given no choice but to act, which meant that higher-ranked heroes would be sent against them.

The leader then stood up, walked towards Titan and crouched slightly, bringing his masked face level with Titan’s.

"I have spent the last three weeks proving to the Ring that the Splinters are now their own group," he calmly said, "a task that was already hard enough, and you just had to go and make it harder."

"I-I’m sorry," Titan managed to let out despite the pain they felt.

"Are you?" It wasn’t really a question. "Then tell me, when I said lay low, did you understand that to mean ’unless a convenient target presents itself’? Or did you simply decide your judgment superseded mine?"

Titan said nothing in response. After all, there was nothing he could say right now that would be a safe response.

The leader simply stood up, turned around, and walked back to his chair before resting his elbows on the armrests and leaning the side of his head against his fist.

"This is the last act of disobedience I’ll allow," he spoke up again.

Titan nodded in appreciation before slowly standing back up, his other hand now completely bloody.

"Get his arm treated," the leader said to no one in particular, but the next second a maid suddenly appeared.

"This way," she said, guiding Titan out of the room and toward the base’s medical ward.

The leader was left completely alone as he stared at the closed door for a while.

He had delegated the task of dealing with Zero to the mercenaries because he wanted the Splinters to lie low, but there was another reason behind his decision.

It was also a way for him to avoid feeling inferior to the Ring.

The Ring had given them an order, and he had chosen to handle it in his own way. That had allowed him to maintain the illusion that he was still in control.

But then two of his own members had suddenly tried to complete the task themselves.

To him, it felt like a slap to the face.

They had disregarded his orders, challenged his decision, and, whether they intended to or not, reminded him of the very inferiority he had been trying to escape.

His fingers slowly tightened around the armrest.

"Fools..."

***

"Hm?"

Was the first thing Liam let out as his consciousness slowly returned. Strangely, he seemed to be lying on something quite soft instead of the ground where he had previously passed out.

He slowly opened his eyes, and he was greeted by a pair of brown eyes looking down at him. "Welcome back."

Liam seemed confused, trying to figure out how he had passed out in front of Sable’s base and somehow woken up on Olivia’s lap.

"What happened?" He asked after thinking for a while.

"You passed out during the party, and Detective Riley brought you in here since she didn’t want Lea and Eli to worry," Olivia explained, "but since she had something else to do, she asked me to take care of you."

"I see," Liam muttered.

It seemed the clone had also passed out after its Pragma supply was suddenly cut off and had disappeared after Riley brought him in here, which meant Sable also had him delivered back to the apartment then.

"I’m not complaining, but," Liam looked up at her with a smile on his face, "but why am I lying on your lap?"

A blush immediately appeared on Olivia’s face as she quickly explained, "w-well, you seemed to be uncomfortable when I came in, s-so I tried a bunch of things, and we somehow ended up like this."

"A bunch of things?" Liam let out.

"To get you comfortable!" She immediately defended, "I promise I didn’t do anything weird."

He smiled, seeing her flustered expression, before saying, "Thank you."

"It’s the least I can do," She answered with a smile, "b-but if you’re okay now, can you get up...this is a bit embarrassing."

"Sorry," Liam said with a chuckle as he got up.

He then looked around for a while before asking, "How long was I unconscious?"

"An hour," Olivia said as she stood up, "but you should probably rest a bit more."

"It’s fine," Liam responded, "if I’m missing for too long, Lea will start to worry."

Olivia hesitated for a moment before nodding.

"You’re probably right."

Liam stretched his arms above his head, wincing slightly when he felt the lingering exhaustion in his body.

Using too much mana truly was an annoying feeling.

"Although..." Olivia’s gaze lingered on him. "Are you really okay?"

"Yeah," he nodded, "I was just exhausted."

"I see," she also nodded before walking towards the door and turning back to him, "then I’ll see you down there."

"Alright," Liam answered as he watched the door close behind her.

He then sat back down on the couch, folded both his feet above it and closed his eyes. After a long while of just staying still, he smiled and opened his eyes,

"I guess it’s time to stop playing prey."

It was time for him to become the hunter instead; after all, he just found out where the Splinters’ base was.

But before that, he had a birthday party to attend.

***

Unfortunately for him, he had to put his plans on hold for a while since another obstacle just appeared.

"Good morning, Mr. Bennett. May I come in?"

A few days after Lea’s birthday, Liam received quite the unexpected visitor,

Senior Investigator Michael Owens.

He looked at the man standing before him and asked, "May I know who you are?"

"Where are my manners?" Michael took out his badge and showed it to Liam. "I am Senior Investigator Michael Owens, and I have a couple of questions if you don’t mind."

Liam continued looking at him for a while before letting out a sigh and allowing the man in. He expected this would happen, so it wasn’t too much of a surprise.

"Quite the upgrade from your previous apartment, wouldn’t you say?" Michael said as he looked around the living room.

"Thanks to the HA," Liam answered with a smile, closing the door before walking towards the kitchen. "May I get you something to drink?"

"I’m fine," the Senior Investigator shook his head, "I won’t be staying long anyway."

"Alright then," Liam nodded as he walked back to the living room, "you said you had some questions?"

"Indeed," the investigator said with a nod, "I believe you heard about the incident that happened in Westfield High, right?"

"I heard about that, after all, my siblings were involved in it," Liam said, "but Volt handled it, didn’t he?"

"That’s the official story," Michael agreed, "but then I did a bit of digging and turns out, the hero met all the Splinters unconscious the moment he arrived."

"Is that so?" Liam’s expression remained unchanged.

"Hmm," the Senior Investigator nodded, "of course they still don’t know who had gotten there before the hero."

He then leaned slightly forward and looked directly into the hitman’s eyes before saying, "But the security cameras caught sight of someone with white hair."

Liam looked at Michael for a while, almost as if he was waiting for the man to continue; however, no words were exchanged for almost a minute.

"And you’re telling me this because?" The hitman finally asked, knowing exactly what the investigator was doing.

The man was prodding for a reaction, but the hitman wasn’t about to give him any, so Michael went straight to the point,

"I have reasons to believe that you might be Zero."