The Reincarnated Hitman

’So this is what it feels like fighting yourself.’

Was the thought present in Zero’s head as he looked at the ongoing fight between Rose and his clone.

Rose’s body seemed a bit stiff when executing some movements, but it was undeniable that she currently looked like an assassin trained for years.

"Your skills...." Rose muttered as she stopped a distance away from her opponent, "they’re truly beautiful."

It currently felt as though, for the first time in as long as she could remember, she had complete control over every part of her body.

It felt....freeing.

Zero, on the other hand, smiled as he looked at her movements from two different angles; he finally understood why most claimed he was a pain to fight.

The fight lasted for a couple of minutes longer since Zero was deliberately giving her a hard time.

But she soon took advantage of the openings created from Liam controlling three bodies at once.

A couple of seconds later, Liam’s clone suddenly fell to the floor, and the connection between them was abruptly severed.

The hitman felt his Pragma being disconnected from it, a sign that it was now dead and a couple of seconds later, it disappeared.

Rose stood over it with a small satisfied grin on her face as she looked at her hands. She then turned towards Zero and asked, "How did I do?"

"That was quite impressive," the hitman replied honestly.

She then stared at him with an unsettling smile on her face.

"So," she suddenly said, "can I drink your blood again?"

"No."

Rose’s expression immediately fell.

"I wouldn’t want someone running around with my skills and causing a massacre," Zero explained.

"B-but I have a lot of self-control," Rose defended.

"I highly doubt that," the hitman responded, "after all, you bit me without permission."

Rose immediately started sulking, but the hitman simply chuckled and added, "But I could let you drink more of it if you work for me instead."

That was his goal in the first place: acquiring someone with such a useful Factor, and that was for two reasons.

One, she’d make a great experi—erm, training partner, especially since he’d use her to find out his weaknesses.

And two, given that her Factor could copy a skill that someone had spent years perfecting in a single second, he was sure she’d make a fantastic asset.

She would basically be an all-in-one helper if she could somehow figure out a way to copy Factors too.

"Ah," Rose seemed a bit excited at first, but then her mood turned dark again as she said, "The cleaners are basically my family at this point; I can’t just abandon them."

"Who said anything about abandoning them?" The hitman asked.

Rose looked at him with confusion, "Huh?"

"You can continue working with the cleaners," Zero explained, "I’m not asking you to leave your family."

"You can just think of working for me as a second job."

"I-Is that so?" She let out a sigh as she placed a hand on her chin and thought for a while.

Rose truly did admire Zero’s killing skills, and it was what she needed to resolve that, so working for him sounded like the perfect opportunity to copy his way of killing.

"Alright!" she suddenly exclaimed, her eyes lighting up, "I’ll work for you!"

Zero raised an eyebrow at how quickly she had agreed, "Don’t you need to ask your boss first?"

"He’ll be fine with it," the other cleaner who had come with them said, "since we can even quit if we want to."

"I see," Zero nodded before turning back to Rose and saying, "I look forward to working with you."

"Me too," she nodded her head with a grin on her face, "can I drink your blood now?"

"No," the hitman responded with a blank expression.

"B-but you said—"

"I’ll only give you my blood when it’s necessary," Zero explained, "not every single time you request it."

"Fine," Rose said, but it was obvious enough that she wasn’t going to give up on using every chance to get his blood.

"Now then," Zero turned towards the exit, "shall we head back?"

Sable’s secretary, who had been quiet all this while, nodded and led them towards the exit again.

***

The day went by quickly, mostly with Zero recovering his Pragma again, but soon enough, it was nightfall,

The time for his meeting with the Senior Investigator.

Sable had ensured that the meeting place was one that didn’t allow Michael to set any form of traps for his agent.

Especially given that they suspected Zero for Torque’s death.

The Senior Investigator was the first to reach the meeting spot, a private underground parking facility beneath one of the older commercial districts in Sterling City.

Michael stepped out of his car and quietly looked around, noticing that there was almost no one else here.

The entire floor had been cleared for the meeting, and even the security cameras had been disabled.

He glanced towards the vehicle parked a few meters away.

"They’re quite thorough," he muttered.

Sable had made it very clear that he didn’t trust the HA enough to allow them to monitor the meeting.

Michael couldn’t blame him.

After all, if the grey market had survived this long, paranoia was probably one of the reasons why... well, that and the fact that both the HA and Villains needed the grey market.

Michael looked at his watch and noticed that he was early, but this was a deliberate choice since this gave him enough time to scan his surroundings.

A couple of seconds later, the sound of shoes was heard from within the darkness, and soon enough, a man walked out of the darkness.

He had on a black formal suit, white hair and a pair of bright grey eyes.

The man had both his hands in his pockets, and he seemed completely carefree, but Michael could tell that was far from the case.

"It’s nice to finally meet you," Michael said with a smile of his own, "Zero."