**
'Huh...' Vonn thought, stunned, his gaze fixed on the figure before him. The man in the tattered gown had just pushed aside a large rock, revealing a girl beneath. His face, thickly adorned with a mix of black and white hair, was etched with deep wrinkles, reminiscent of a weary beggar.
Yet, Vonn was certain that face was the face of someone he knew. After all, he had always had to glance at a person only once to have their faces glued to his memory. This has always been a gift he could brag about, and now Vonn could bet his balls, if he still had them, that this hairy old man was Uta, his orphanage sibling from his previous life.
This man was Kazami Uta, the golden child of the guardian angels orphanage.
**
Uta Kazami...
That was his name!
Uta –the hairy man– stood, unsure of how to react to the situation, as he kept his calm watching the strange figure close the distance between them, his grip tightening on his gun.
'Woah' Vonn suddenly stopped, staring into his palms in bewilderment. He flexed his fingers, causing the hard sand and tufts to start breaking off from them, and underneath were extremely skinny dirty fingers which now represented the perfect shape of the bones.
He stretched his arms back and forth,
"Was sure they were shattered, though." He uttered, and suddenly a realisation struck him,
"Hmm... could I speak all these while?" He said.
He had spoken earlier too without thinking of it. He never knew he could speak. Last he remembered, his vocal tube was torn and all he could do was let out ominous sounding screams and cries.
"Still..err feels err bit stiff though.. errr" He uttered as he massaged his neck.
'What the hell's going on?' Vonn pondered raising his leg.
He was sure his leg bones had been shattered to crisps the last time he remembered to use them, but they seemed perfectly alright now.
He hopped up a few times, and even marched at a spot, playfully, but instead of pain, it felt better than he ever remembered. His legs felt so strong and light.
'Do humans normally heal so perfectly overtime though?'
Having gotten impatient from watching the creature which had just asked him a question now lost cluelessly on its own thoughts, disgust grew into the man's face.
Of course, a question was asked, and he was expected to answer, but the asker's attention is also necessary to complete the exchange.
Plus, it's attention is even more needed, seeing as it came out of nowhere, casually spewing confidential info. After all, people who knew the real names assassins were either their close relatives, highly influential figures in the underworld, people sent to claim their lives, or people already burning in hell.
'Those bastards?.... No it can't be them.' Uta pondered looking at the creature.
'The fact he's asking means he ain't hundred percent certain. That definitely won't be the case if those guys had sent him after me. Fuckers probably knows down to how many hairs in my asshole, after all. Someone they sent won't be this clueless. Who is it? Who sent you, then?'
Uta, who never took his gaze away from Vonn right from the moment he made his appearance here, was beginning to see that he was just a human being, after all. The sand and dirt that obscured his appearance before had mostly crumbled off, and although it was still hard to tell what age, it was clearly a male person.
His age was hard to tell, not just because he looked extremely bony and rough and the dirt still covered some of his body, but while the figure had the bony face of an old man and the body size of a skinny little kid, his exposed masculine gem was at a size that made the man slightly lose confidence in himself.
Uta understood that the manhood he was currently seeing was neither that of a old man, or those of a little boy.
'Can he really walk around freely in those?' The man thought it looked exactly like those of a reknowned healthy black skinned pornography actor residing in the North, Sohnny Jins.
Although he really tried to stop thinking of another man's kingdom as it was unacceptable by the brotherhood code for straight men.
"How strange." Uta finally broke the silence, reaching into a small pocket of his gown to retrieve a pack of cigarettes and a lighter.
His words immediately captured Vonn's attention, drawing his gaze away from his bony palms and toward Uta's tall figure.
Amongst the other miracles concerning Vonn's mysterious good health, the usually empty eye socket that he had once concealed beneath an eyepatch now held something within it. The very eyeball he had sold off in the past had returned, its bright yellowish hue mirroring the other.
Vonn watched intently as Uta extracted a cigarette from the pack and placed it between his blackened lips. With a swift flick of the lighter, he ignited it and took a deep drag, exhaling the smoke in a chaotic cloud. "You're asking if the person you mentioned was me, right?" Uta added.
"Huh? Weird. I can hear myself clearly, though. Are my words not so precise, after all? Is it only sounding right in my head?" Vonn mused, his confusion evident.
"Ah, that's not it. See, that name you just mentioned—Huta Akito, was it? I have no idea who that is. Sorry, go pester—err, I mean, 'ask' someone else. It ain't me."
Vonn stared at Uta's face, curiosity etched across his features. "But you definitely look like him, though?"
"Tch. It ain't me, man. I'm Eren Jeager, scram already. Go get yourself some clothes or something."
"Huh?" Vonn processed this, only then realizing his own nakedness. The sight of his own manhood hanging before him caught him off guard. He stared at it in disbelief for a moment before suddenly shooting both hands down to cover himself.
Seeing that Vonn made no attempt to leave, Uta continued, "See, a gun and a katana. I'm a hitman, a real-life fucking assassin, alright? If you don't want to get hurt, you bett–"
"–Hey, okay, man, calm down," Vonn interjected with a nonchalant shrug. "I already knew that. In fact, I was sent here as a middleman to present a five million shell contract. It's a job for the hitman named Kazami Uta."
"What? Seriously?"
"Huh, y-yeah, I swear. I don't know all the details, but I think he wants to get back at some guy who raped him and his mom. Wants to give him the most painful possible death. But honestly, there's no need to go any further since you aren't Uta, right?" With that, Vonn turned to leave.
"Bye then, sir Eren," he added, walking away in a peculiar manner, his hands still shielding his gem. "Although our encounter was brief, sir Eren, I can tell you're an interesting guy, Sir Eren. Don't mind me, Sir Eren, and just carry on with that little chick."
Fifty hundred nuc, roughly about seven hundred thousand USD back when currencies were still mostly rated in US dollars, when the USA was still a nation of its own.
As Uta watched Vonn's figure disappear, he couldn't shake the disbelief at what he had just heard. Unlike that impressive sum, the current mission he was on—not even worth half of it—had him running for his life. It was simply too enticing to ignore.
Uta knew he wasn't connected to anyone of such wealth, yet he understood he wasnt in a position to let this opportunity slip away.
The underworld was filled with mysteries and dark rumours, but he was confident that this little guy before him posed no real threat. Despite Vonn's earlier display of stealth that managed to fool even him, Uta had keenly observed his movements so far, and it was evident he was a complete amateur.
While it's common knowledge that no one from the underworld should ever be underestimated, Uta believed it was just a matter of skill. A truly strong man should at least be capable of differentiating between what's a threat and what's not.
Even if the man was quite poor, he was still counted amongst the few 'red might' hitmen in the northern region.
Red might hitmen are those who have completed fifty or more missions without a single failure, and they carry the largest bounties on their heads.
Uta was one of them, which made it less surprising to have such a lucrative client seeking him out. Yet, it was still peculiar considering he had only recently earned his bounty, unlike other seasoned red might hitmen known for decades.
He was a skilled man, regardless.
"Hey..." Uta finally spoke after deep contemplation, causing Vonn—who was aimlessly wandering—to stop in his tracks.
Without turning around, Vonn smirked, a shadow cast over his face.
"I am he," Uta declared.
"Huh?"
"I said I am him. I am Kazami Uta, the assassin you were sent to—pfft!" Vonn's loud chuckle abruptly interrupted him.
Uta's brows furrowed as he watched Vonn break into laughter.
"You're still so naive, man. You're him? Of course you are. Think anyone would buy the Eren Jeager crap? Assassins are cool and all, but a guy named Eren should look cooler than this, you know?" Vonn turned and added, "Your face might be hidden under all that hair, and you may even look uglier than me now, but I've never mistaken a face in my life."
With a deep sigh and a bright smile, he concluded, "It's been a while, hasn't it? Uta, my brother. Ah, I recall you became against me calling you that. But we're no longer those kids, are we?"
At this, veins bulged on Uta's forehead. Struggling to contain his rage, he exhaled a cloud of smoke, slightly bowing his head.
He pressed the pistol to his forehead, rubbing it with a twisted grimace. Uta took another drag from his cigarette, the smoke filling his lungs as he realized he'd been played.
"You..." he muttered, smoke slipping from his lips, cold and biting.
With his other hand, he lifted the cigarette to his mouth, then sheathed his katana in one smooth motion.
He raised his pistol, and pulled out it's mag. After a lengthened glance on the mag, he shook his head smearing his finger on the gold writing inscription–MOM'S HAVEN.
He then slipped it into his coat and retrieved another mag. He clicked the mag into place, pulled the back hammer of his gun, and exhaled, cracking his neck as he glared up at Vonn without raising his head.
"What the hell are you?" he asked, his voice flat and distant.