The cloaked man had been growing warry at the lack of reports on his target. While the target was an adventurer meaning they were forced to take upon the emergency quest, the majority of surviving adventurers had long since returned. He was about to decide to head back and report the target dead or missing from the quest when one of his informants came into his room.

She was a barmaid that both granted him information and received information from his other informants. The cloaked man being the prominent fixer for hire he was, had a large interconnected web of informants as well as ways for them to communicate with him. The information they gathered was paramount in completing jobs, without them, he would have to take on a lot more footwork himself.

The timid young woman knocked before entering and stood before him waiting for his response.

"Yes?" asked the cloaked man.

She cleared her throat and answered, "Heartwell has reported the presence of the target, he is staying there with a wounded comrade. He is apparently to stay there for four days so I am told."

The cloaked man stroked his chin for a moment before nodding. He produced 3 silver pieces for her work before gesturing that she leave.

The man smiled maliciously happy that the target was still breathing. He would've been disappointed if this target he'd been told about had been killed by a lowly quest. The man was determined to kill the target personally.

The man decided to set out in the morning and head to Heartwell.

~~~

Hisoka remained with Misumi until Misumi insisted he leave to get rest. He sulked for a moment not wishing to leave her side but followed her wish and left. He had been by her side the entire day as he had promised, keeping her company or just being there to be sure she was ok. The sky had become a dark star-filled canvas easily seen due to the lack of excessive modern lighting.

He breathed in the cool night air, the fresh scent of an unpolluted world, it was a wonderful feeling to merely walk around in the cool starry night. Heartwell was a town that had little to no nightlife, people would attend the tavern but that was the extent of it. That made for a peaceful atmosphere to enjoy a stroll. Or it would have if he hadn't had the sense of being observed from afar.

His sense of serenity and peace was shattered by the primal instinctual sense of being watched. He didn't have any warriors sixth sense for danger or anything of that level, but the prickly feeling set him on edge. He lowered his hand to his holster instinctually. He wasn't openly carrying a long gun at that point in time but there were various weapons stored in his bag if shit really flew south. He pulled a maneuver he'd often seen in media from his last world, pulling into a back ally around a corner out of view of whoever was following him.

He stealthily slipped into the alleyway drawing the MK23 at his hip into a comfortable grip. He held it at the ready. He had noticed a complete lack of civilian presence in this area, making his chance of a good ambush without collateral better. He kept the beads until he saw a figure in black walking sneakily cover to cover. The figure drew close to the entrance to the alleyway, and Hisoka struck.

Hisoka grabbed the person from behind covering their mouth and resting the barrel against their skull. He forcefully pulled the struggling figure deeper into the alleyway. He clocked the person hard to the side of the head with the heavy pistol, causing them to stumble and fall to the ground. Seeing as he would have to use the loud handgun if things got nasty, he said fuck it to the stealth approach. He once again closed the distance, stuffing the barrel under the person's chin and holding their neck.

He was correct in his use of force, as the person was armed with a dagger, and more concerningly notes on his route. Hisoka furrowed his brow reading the notes.

"Well, what the fuck do we have here?" Hisoka asked to no one in particular.

Hisoka pointed the handgun at the person who instantly shuddered in fear. Hisoka raised an eyebrow seeing the person react properly to a firearm, unlike prior opponents. Either his achievements and weapon use was spreading or this person had been briefed on him, judging by the stalking and notetaking, probably the latter.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Hisoka sighed as he looked down on the person backing themselves even farther into the corner. Hisoka looked on in disgust. He ripped the face coverings off of the stalker and revealed a blue-eyed woman. The fact that the enemy was deathly afraid of his weapon was most certainly an asset in this exchange. He made a big and grandiose show of racking the slide (careful to catch the bullet that was ejected) and pointed the muzzle her direction.

"So, I don't think there is a damn thing that will let you escape or talk your way out of this, but I will give you a single chance to try and explain it," he said fully intending to execute the spy no matter what came out of her mouth.

She became flustered and stuttered, "I was hired to get information on you, I was promised good money and care for my ill sister in exchange. I only did it out of necessity!" she pleaded to him.

"So you openly admit you were spying on me. Tell me who hired you immediately." he coldly demanded.

"He never gave his name, and told me he was only a middle man; a courier. I don't know anything about him other than where to leave the information," she said to him.

Hisoka was quickly losing his very thin patience, "And this place is where exactly?"

She pointed to a name on the notes, the name of a potion store. Hisoka nodded, stepping back and going over his options. With no suppressor, he couldn't kill her with the handgun due to noise. That left his knife or the 6.8. Getting his hands covered in blood and walking into the inn wasn't ideal, and people around here hadn't heard a suppressed weapon compared to a normal rifle, so maybe they wouldn't connect the dots.

She knew screaming would likely shorten her lifespan, but it seemed she was dead either way. She began to call for help but Hisoka shot her before she could utter more than a distressed squeak cleanly through the head painting the ground red. Even though the weapon was quieter by a good degree than an unsuppressed weapon, he didn't stick around. He put the weapon in his bag and casually walked away seeing the empty streets. Luckily for him, people were either sleeping in their homes or at the tavern; him having shot her in between two closed shops.

He made his way to the inn he had stayed at his last time in town. He entered and the lovely receptionist from the first time he'd stayed here greeted him warmly. She gave him the key to his room and he headed upstairs to his room. Once again his room was next to Aki's he noted.

He entered his room and laid down on the bed deciding to spend his ability and MP. First he repacked what he could, filling 2 magazines and leaving 10 loose 6.8s to spare. He used 36 MP to summon 60 12 gauge rounds to refill his neglected 9 empty magazines, leaving 6 extra rounds. He then summoned 300 rounds for the Spear, leaving 90 left when all was said and done. He handled Misumi's repacking for her. Lastly, he finished off his MP by summoning 50 rounds of 6.5 to give to Misumi, though it wasn't quite enough to repack all of those.

Moving on to the summons, he used two to summon to M110s for their ammunition, giving her 6 more full magazines to replace the empties he couldn't refill at the moment. Adding to that 2 M240L MMGs for their 6 boxes, along with one M141.

He spent a moment gazing at the beauty of the machinegun's before him, before properly storing them and heading off to sleep. Unfortunately for him, the walls were very thin. From the room right next to his, he heard soft feminine moaning. He furrowed his eyebrows and covered his ears with a pillow before he realized that was Aki's room. He blushed and covered his ears with the pillow, but a creeping sense of curiosity got the better of him.

He slowly and carefully walked next to the wall without making any noise, before pressing his ear up against the wall. He heard her soft voice as she tried her best to hold back her moans, but often failed to do so. He also was able to hear her mumbling to herself as she did whatever it was she was doing.

"I shouldn't be doing this..." she stopped mid-sentence to let out a moan. "I don't understand... This ache, oh I don't understand this..." she moaned softly a few times.

Hisoka realized he shouldn't be listening to such things, especially from his companions, but the sense of curiosity kept hold of him.

"Whenever I think about him, oh my heart aches... Is this love? I don't understand this at all," she suddenly let out a louder moan than before, "Hisoka... I don't know what to do about this feeling..."

She became quiet leaving Hisoka there feeling stunned and a little uneasy. He crept back to his bed before laying down with his mind buzzing about.

[Did she forget that my room is next to hers? Maybe she hadn't figured I'd returned yet, or maybe...] he shook off that train of thought. [There clearly is some misunderstanding here. Besides even if it isn't I have Misumi, and I wouldn't betray her.]

His thoughts began to fuck with him after overhearing something he most certainly wasn't meant to. He had a hard time getting to sleep with his mind in such a state of disarray, yet he managed to fall asleep at some point in the night as he awoke the next morning.

He felt troubled about facing Aki after the previous night but he couldn't just ignore her forever after all. Besides, at the very least he would have to deliver her ammunition. He didn't really want to face her and would have far preferred to go enjoy Misumi's company, but he had to get up and face the day, including his duties to his group.

~~~