002 • No. 458

I don't particularly like hunting down small small fry. The only reason why is because the pay grade is lazy, and oftentimes, the teeny tiny fry is just some burglar who pissed off a rich bastard, and in turn, there's a 3,000 Credit reward. That's probably enough to get me some TV food from the convenient store that'll last me a good day or two if I ration my food out well enough. 

I'm hiding on a roof casually while eyeing my target for a small fry bounty that's worth roughly 40,000 Credits. Now, I know I said earlier I don't like hunting down small fry. The pay is trash, yes, but this one? This little guy's worth 40,000 Credits. Small fry, sure, but not so small that I'd pass it up, enough for a decent steak, give or take. There are "big fish", and yeah, obviously worth much more. I've caught about a good handful in the past month or so, they usually take much more, so I'm on my feet a lot. Good for staying in shape, terrible if you like having a moment to breathe. This one? Somewhere in between, maybe even less. Either way, 40,000 Credits is 40,000 Credits. Work's been slow, and the bills aren't going to pay themselves. 

Aos', this guy is running around like a chicken on a stick... or a drunk one on a stick, I don't fucking know.

That analogy made no sense, but just run with it. My point is that this guy is supposed to be worth 10 times the average tiny fry, and he's acting like he has no idea where he's going. So much for the, "dead or alive" added comment on the bounty post. I almost feel bad for the guy. Poor dude's all jittery, darting between alleyways like a rat trapped in a maze. Baggy clothes, wild eyes. He's probably hopped up on something. Makes him unpredictable, but hey, unpredictability keeps things a bit more entertaining and fun for everyone.

All jokes aside, I keep an eye on him as he creeps through the alleyways, seemingly attempting to hide something. He's probably taken something relatively important, but even if he did take something important, I'm not too sure if it's worth the big 40k.

Oh whatever, I'm being paid to catch him, not question why he looks so suspicious.

He eventually runs into a corner, glancing around with an expression that screams, 'If I'm caught I'm dead'. He pulls out the object he was hiding and it seemed to look like some.... Chip of sorts...?? Raising a curious brow, I tap on the watch on my wrist, a faint beep emitting from it before tapping my earpiece.

"What is that?"

There's a quiet static silence for around two seconds until Sora's voice comes in.

"Seems to be some type of data chip... I don't know what's in it exactly since I haven't touched it yet but..." He pauses "..Whatever it is, it's apparently worth a lot."

A soft hum of acknowledgment leaves my lips as I ponder on what my next course of action should be. I mean, there's about three options that can happen from here. One, I confront him head on and chase him. Two, I knock him out, or three, I kill him.

I sit there, perched atop a building for several more seconds, pondering on my next course of action, and eventually settle on knocking him out. I make sure to quietly trail him for a little longer. But, as soon as I get within 10 feet of him, he somehow manages to hear me talking him and immediately whips around with a frightened yelp. I blink a bit at him, slightly taken aback on how he managed to catch my footsteps, but I'm not really offended by it, just surprised. 

"D—Don't come any closer!" He threatens, shoving the Data chip in his pocket and offering his fists to fight me. How cliche. I can't help but chuckle. 

"Right, and what'll you do about it?" I inquire with a mocking hum, watching him stiffen before charging recklessly at me, which cause me to cringe and dodge off to the side with a tilt of my head. I just kick his shins so he'd fall to the ground. He lands with a rather loud thud, as I sigh quietly. I squat down to the ground beside him, watching him grumble and struggle. I scan his person for a moment before noticing something odd about his neck, making me narrow my eye a little. I reached out to grab his neck to inspect further, but am promptly cut off with a very welcoming punch in the face. Usually punches don't hurt me as much, but for some reason, this one was visibly and physically able to move me.

I don't move from my spot for a while, processing what the fuck just happened, before my gaze then flickers over to the man who's squirming back away from me.

What is this guy actually on...?

I quickly recover from the unexpected strength of this guy and just end up bashing him in the face with my fist, which was surprisingly enough to knock him out.

Well that was weird—

I'm still curious as to what was on his neck, and after grabbing his shirt and tugging him towards me, I'm quick to realize what they were, White Veins...

"Titanium White."

I haven't seen nor heard of those as often as I should. That's probably because I'm not really into drugs, but still. Seeing people take stuff like this, and seeing them alter their body in someway shape or form has always piqued my interest. 

But still, I'm not willing to risk permanently altering my body to drugs that I don't know the full effect of. 

I whip my head around to the side and I'm greeted with Sora's familiar holographic feel, huffing softly from my nose.

"Why are you out," I utter, It's not a question. A soft chuckle is heard from the digital man as he shrugged.

"You didn't turn your device off."

Oh—

I don't say anything to incriminate myself more, so I just glance back down at the guy, fishing around in his pockets for the Data chip, and honestly, I'm curious to see if he has anything else on him, and lo and behold, I'm correct. A vial with a semi-familiar white liquid substance.

"So he is a Junkie... man, who really uses this stuff? I know it's cheap 'n all, but at what cost?" I mutter more to myself than Sora, whereas he just shrugs at me again to my hypothetical question.

"Humans are strange, they do things they know will harm them, all for the thrill of it,"

I hum softly in acknowledgment of his words while grabbing a cigarette from my pocket to light up. Placing it between my lips, I toss the vial of T. White beside the unconscious man and left the scene.

"Can you see what's in here?" I question while puffing out bits of smoke from my lips, gesturing the Data Chip towards Sora's hovering form. He just nods and touches the Data chip. I shove it in my pocket soon after and wait for him to scan what he just downloads to his database. The process itself is rather quick. 

"Oh shit." 

I raise a brow.

"Spit it out,"

"It's a whole entire list of High-Interest Bounty Hunters."

Now that catches my attention.

"Is Rune on there," I ask rather quickly. He doesn't respond for a moment before shaking his head.

"Ugh— there's just too many of them. I can't scan through them all right now. Besides, he's got far too many Aliases, so it'll take me some time to do some trial and error." He utters out while rubbing his temple.

I sigh faintly in irritation. Not at him, but at this situation.... I don't know who this Data chip actually belongs to. But whoever it dies belong to, I may need to have a little chat with them.

"Fine, take your time, I need to go meet with Sam anyways." I grumble out before clicking on my watch again, sending Sora away once more as I make plans to leap elsewhere…

The nice thing about having a Sponsor in this business, is that it comes with a certain level of anonymity, more than an average Bounty Hunter would have. You might think it's easy to just get some guy or gal to sponsor you and your endeavors, but from what I've heard around the System, it's more or less impossible. Yet somehow, I got lucky enough to run into a certain blondie one day. Considering how I usually get the losing hand in life, nabbing a Sponsor this time around is quite a useful tool to me. It's kinda like finding a shiny coin in a pile of dirt. 

It doesn't erase all the shit I've gone through, but it's a useful tool. I'm not dumb enough to think Sam's doing this out of the goodness of his heart, no, of course not. Nothing's ever free in this world, and he's no exception. There's no such thing as a 'favor' or 'gift' in this world. After all, that's just a fancy way of saying, 'I'll give you this for free, and in return you give me something back,'. Oftentimes, the price isn't worth the reward. But for now, I'm willing to play along. His resources, his intel, his discounts on the things I need to survive—they're a little too valuable to pass up. Besides, he owes me. 

I navigate my way through the bustling spaceship, at this point it's muscle memory as I wander my way ip towards his office at the top floor. I've been to many, many hovering spaceships in my career, but never have I ever been to one this big. This guy wasn't joking when he said he's wealthy, wealthy. Despite coming here more than once over the several long years that I've known my Sponsor, and the amount of times that I've been here before, it still baffles me whenever I materialize here.

After showing my ID pass about a grand total of seven times I finally make it to his damn office space. Before I even knock on the door to signal my presence, it's already slightly ajar. I narrow my eye in slight suspicion, but I think nothing of it quickly afterwards and just waltz right in without much of a word whatsoever. 

"Pspsps, guess who's here," I declare lackadaisically. His eyes were quick to meet mine, his expression morphing from a faintly pensive one to a laid-back smile.

"Well, if it isn't my favorite sponsee!"

"More like your only sponsee," I throw right back without any hesitation, walking up to his desk while fishing into my pocket for the Data chip I swiped from the junkie earlier. Though, before I handed it to him, I held onto it a bit tighter.

"I want a name. Or names, if there're multiple,"

A knowing sigh is heard from him before he yanks a bit tighter on the chip, which I finally let him have. 

"Hao Zhang." He answers surprisingly easily. However, after hearing the name I furrow my brows slightly. 

"From the Fú Yùn Sector?" I question, the place itself isn't too difficult to get to technically speaking. But where Hao Zhang resides in, is bit far into the Galanos System, I think. It's also bit pricey to get there, from the last time I tried getting in to catch a bounty. It didn't end up being worth it, considering all the paperwork and all. It out weighed the price of the bounty and— wait....

I glance down at my ID card and kinda show it to him while I speak.

"Can I get in with this?" I ask with persistence.

He stares at me like I'd just said something a little dumb, before simply chuckling at me with a look of amusement on his face. 

"My dear, when I said your Identification clearance can get you practically anywhere on our first day of business, I meant it. It'd be strange if you're only able to travel around the edges of this System."

My expression brightens a little with a knowing look on my face as glance down at the card in my hand, flipping to the back of it with his signature on it. 

"That signature can get you anywhere, so long as the renewal date is still valid," He reminds me, to which I scoff at his words dismissively.

"Right, right, I remember that part..." I mumble begrudgingly. In response he shrugs playfully with a teasing tone in his voice.

"Just making sure~" He cooes in a sing-song manner, earning another grumble from me. I remain silent for a while, glancing back up at him while shoving my ID card into my front inner jacket pocket. 

"...Say, do you know what's in that Data Chip?" I question, testing to see if he knows anything. He and I hold eye contact for what feels like hours before he turns away to look out his window. 

"With that look on your face, and your question earlier, I feel like you already know."

"..."

I keep my mouth shut for a hot minute, my eye slowly darting on the floor before taking several steps towards him as he stands by the large window, peering out towards the familiar sight of outer-space, as well as other flying crafts orbiting his ship. 

"...why do you think Zhang would have something like that..?" I ask a bit calmer, to which he just shook his head.

"Truthfully, I have no idea, but if I had to guess, knowing the guy he is, he's got his reasons." 

I can feel his peering gaze on me, but I don't turn to look at him, keeping my own gaze staring outside the window. There's a lingering silence for a minute or two, until I eventually gesture my hand towards him, an audible sigh was heard from him before he gently took hold of my wrist and tapped a card against my watch. A quiet beep echoes through the room, a small holographic screen showing, 'Transaction Success!' Pops up for about a second before fading away.

"You should... take a break some time, Izana, join me for dinner?" He questions with a much lighter tone of voice, the usual teasing in his attitude lessens notably — at least to me, but it's still lingers a little. I shake my head lightly, still keeping my gaze away from his, and out elsewhere.

"I'm fine, I have things to do," I reply with the same, blunt manner, but it's not as harsh as I'd like it to be right now. 

He always says stuff like that. "Come eat with me", "Let me treat you", "Here, I think this'll look good on you", silly shit like that. And above all else, I can't stand that stupid smile of his that he always wears! If he wants something from me, he should just say it as it is already, and stop beating around the damn bushes. 

After all, there's no such thing as a 'free' gift in this damn forsaken universe...