Randy Connor of Connor Holdings, Ltd.

"Hello, Noah!" Theresa's voice echoed from Noah's smartwatch as soon as he got out of the office of the President. "It's just going to be a surveillance mission so we decided to not let you come. Your health is still not good enough so you might need to rest some more."

"No, I don't need to rest. Please find me a target to neutralize." Noah knew that the hellhounds had drained their extra energy, and so he needed to feed them again.

If they would be draining their energy at every fight, not having enough assassination missions would be a problem for them.

Then again, it was only because Noah almost died twice in a row.

"Assassination mission? Hm, let me see if we actually get things like that. Most likely it would be neutralizing someone, like cripple not kill." Theresa went through their job requests. "I don't think SCC was inclined to killing high-value targets."

"Hehe, a high-value target should be good enough. His guards will undoubtedly die for him."

"Erm, okay. Here, I found one. It's in New York City though. Do you think you can make it before nightfall?"

"New York City, huh… okay." Noah only sighed. It was too early for him to come back to where he last lived, but that one year was already long enough for him. He might as well just return with glazed eyes.

He ended the call after getting the details for the mission. Apparently, he had to come see someone who would fully explain the mission to him. SCC branches were all over the country, and he had to meet with someone from their NYC branch for this.

Even if it was rather an awkward mission for him, he knew he needed to feed Caliga and the others. They would burn their consumption very fast every time he fights with those high-tier calamity-grade witches.

He should stock up on their energy before another opportunity would present itself to either party.

"Noah!"

Luca called out from the corner as Noah got off of the elevator. He then walked with him. "I heard from Theresa. You're heading back to New York? Let's go together."

The witch only smiled softly at him. "I'm not going to be long. A mission like this to me would only take a night."

"I know, but the witches of Satan will be wary of your presence. If they ambushed you on your way, you'd need someone to help you." Luca walked in front of Noah and blocked his path, his hand on his chest. "Let ME help you."

"You're too enthusiastic. Ask Theresa if you can be deployed to where I'm going." Noah only chuckled as he side-stepped to walk past Luca. "If the answer is 'yes', then wait for me in the parking lot. I still need to see Rosanna."

"Okay, I'll see you there!" Luca nodded and was about to jog away when he realized something. He then turned and looked at Noah's back. "N-Noah, we're still heading in the same direction. I mean, my things are still in that guest room."

"Oh, are they?" Noah stopped walking and stayed there until Luca realized he was waiting for him to catch up.

The two just walked together to the guest room to meet with Rosanna. She grew grouchy when she heard that Noah and Luca would be leaving for another place, and she couldn't come with them. However, she just accepted it when Noah promised her that Mephy would come see her instead.

After some more preparations, the two made their way to the parking lot.

Noah then spotted the black motorbike that he didn't take with him last night. He reached out and caressed its head, noticing the specks of dust on its shiny exterior. He then frowned. "Did someone use my bike when I was out?"

"T-That was me. It started calling me." Luca remembered the events last night prior to the fight. "That's… a familiar, right? It could travel through shadows, too. I can barely hold onto it last night… it makes me a little happy it was holding onto me instead."

"I think so." Noah hummed, uncaring of the fact that he was not holding an inanimate object. He then got on it and weaved a helmet from the tendrils that extended to his head. "Want to catch a ride?"

"I feel like I would be left behind if I take my car." Luca glanced at his normal car and hoped that his uncle could wind up giving him a saint tech car instead of a normal one due to the nature of his environment. The bike from Bomberman's first attack was destroyed without any parts left to recover.

"Okay." Noah let him get on and revved the engine before blasting into the shadowed walls of the building.

If Luca hadn't gotten on that bike just yet, he would be screaming at Noah about what he was doing. However, since he had known how this bike could traverse through the shadows, he just held onto Noah's waist tightly as the speed was nothing a normal bike could handle. He even wondered how Noah could resist this kind of wind on his face.

He must have forgotten that Noah Rocco was a speedster, traversing space even faster than this motorbike could. The only plus side of having this bike was that he could bring another person with him, instead of losing speed if he carried them manually.

…

The nights in New York City were still the same as they both remembered. Since they were already in the city proper, they were only traversing the streets, Luca relying on his compass to find the building where the SCC branch was supposed to be.

When they stopped at a red light, Noah looked up to see the familiar skyline… only that his old workplace was missing in those towers on the horizon.

"Do you think there are still witches in this area?" Luca asked, but he was ignored by Noah. "Noah, it's green."

"Hm?" Noah twitched halfway, but the motorbike had already driven ahead. "Sorry."

"It's okay, we can talk about it later if you want." Luca smiled underneath his helmet, but his eyes still curved even if Noah wouldn't be able to see it. "For now, let's locate the branch. There should be a small motel nearby. Look!"

"I see it." Noah nodded as he took a turn to pull up in front of the motel. "Let's find 307."

Based on their job request, the informant would be waiting in Room 307. When they got to the door, Noah noticed how Caliga phased through the door and checked the room beforehand. That was why he didn't knock or enter even after standing in front of the door.

Soon, Noah took a step back, the door flinging open on its own.

What showed up in front of them was a fear-stricken young woman who had her messy hair in a bun. Her brown skin didn't seem to be artificial, but the stark green in her eyes made people think otherwise.

Her orange lips then smiled as she retreated and warily looked at her side where the totality of the room was.

"H-Hi, what can I do for you?" she whispered as she kept on glancing at her side.

"Don't worry, it's not a ghost. That's my familiar checking if you're home." Noah didn't smile, but he didn't intrude either. "Miss Nichols?"

"Oh, you know me?" She gasped before realizing that they must be the people she was waiting for. "Gosh, I'm so sorry! Please, please enter!"

She ushered them inside and was forced to clean up as if they couldn't see her kicking things off of the floor and covering things that shouldn't be seen. "I'm sorry, I only came here hours ago. Yes, just hours ago!"

Luca's eyes flickered, but Noah was acting rather normal. He didn't sit down before the woman asked them to make themselves comfortable. She then sat down on the couch opposite them.

"I didn't mean to be caught off-guard. It's just that Theresa told me that Main is sending people today. They always say that, but those people arrive days later." The woman then smiled at them. "I'm Rebecca Nichols. I'm an agent of SCC, and I look forward to working with you two."

She reached down the couch and retrieved a few folders. Among the bulk of the paper, she took out a piece… and then three more from different places. She then placed it on the table. "This is our target. His name is Randy Connor, CEO of Connor Holdings, Ltd. If you were watching the news, he's making headlines ever since last year.

Apparently, he's running a syndicate under the business that he ran on the surface. He hides his illegal dealing with the underground through dummy clients encoded in his company. As they are classified as regular clients with normal and not-so-outstanding titles, none of the detectives would look into these.

"However, behind these names were millions of dollars flowing into the streets in the form of crystal meth."

Luca took a page or two about the particular dealings and nodded at the proof shown to him in paper. However, Noah only picked up the first page and had a very bitter smile on his face.

That face… it's been a year since he last saw the face of his old company's CEO!