"Why are you so hell-bent on finding that albino anyways?" He asked the pale-skinned, long-haired man.
The said pale-skinned man let out a nonchalant "Hmm...", tilting his head to the side slightly. "He took something he shouldn't have. Something that should be mine." His blank eyes narrow slightly as his face twists upwards into a thin smile. "So I figured... If I find him and put him under my complete control, I could control it as well."
"A control freak, huh? Well, good luck with that." He scoffs, shoving his hands in the pockets of his coat.
His response was met by a low chuckle. "And you? As soon as I mentioned that girl (Y/N), you were so quick to make your decision." The pale-skinned man turned his head to face him. "Why is that, hmm?"
He shrugs. "Just another one of my prey."
_________________________________
You woke up the next day with an uneasy feeling, but you ignored it.
With the sun just starting to peek out from the horizon, you, Killua, and Alluka meet up with Ryu and Senka to continue your hunt for Sanguis.
As you all sat down on one of the outside tables of a local cafe, Ryu leaned back on his chair, letting out a tired yawn.
"See, Ryu? You should've slept when I told you to instead of digging through the Hunter Website the entire night!" Senka facepalmed, pushing her cup of coffee towards him. "Take this. We have a lot to do today."
"Hey, at least I found something," Ryu argued back, taking a sip of the coffee. "And something major at that. We're at least sure of something now."
Senka sighed as she rolled her eyes. "Yeah, okay."
You tilted your head. "Found something? What did you find, Ryu?"
"Some leaked CCTV footage of this city from two days ago. Sanguis was in it."
"Wait, what?!"
Senka nodded, pulling out her laptop. "Ryu saved the footage here." She turned it on and opened the video file, showing it to the three of you.
The camera quality wasn't that great as everything was pretty much black and white. At first glance, though, it seems like a normal video of one of the city's streets, with some people walking by.
"Hmm... I don't really see anything weird." Alluka squinted her eyes in an attempt to make out the details of the video.
You nodded. "I don't really see anything either. Ryu, are you sur–"
"Hey (Y/N)," Killua placed a hand on your shoulder, pausing the video and pointing to a person walking by. "Isn't that him?"
"Huh?" You leaned closer to the video, looking at the person Killua was pointing at. The familiar dark red of his coat wasn't there, but he had the exact same silhouette as before.
With furrowed brows, you pressed the play button, watching him walk by in that same leisurely manner as you remember.
"Y-Yeah... that is him." You found yourself tensing up. Noticing this, Killua gives your shoulder a light squeeze in an attempt to calm you down.
Ryu scoffs. "The moment I saw that silhouette, I knew it was him."
Senka takes the laptop back. "Not only that, but my Wandering Eyes caught something suspicious as well," she states. "I wish I had the ability to show you what I saw. Sadly, I'm not a Specialist, so you're just gonna have to trust what I say."
She plays the video again until Sanguis is almost out of frame. "See this spot here?" she points to a stone wall along the street in the video, just behind where Sanguis was. "I placed one of my Eyes right here."
Killua's eyes widened slightly. "Are you saying you saw him?"
"It was dark, but it was unmistakably him." Senka nods. "I placed one of my Eyes in this spot because the street here leads to the forest nearby."
"Ah!" You perked up. "Does that mean we know for sure he stays here and goes to the forest?"
Senka nods with a smile. "Yup! We need to start checking that place out as soon as possible."
Killua managed a small smile. "And you said it was incredibly hard to track him down."
"Well..." Senka gazes at Ryu with a reluctant expression. "This is usually how far we get to when tracking him down," she sighs. "It'll be a miracle if we can go any further."
You stand up. "I'm sure we can! You guys have us after all. We can help!"
Senka smiles. "Yeah, I hope so," she says.
_ _ _
As you were about to leave the cafe, a soft alert tone emitted from Senka's laptop.
"Huh?" Senka raises a brow in confusion as she checks the laptop once more. "...Ryu, check this out." She pulls on his arm.
Ryu looks at the laptop screen. "I thought we postponed all our other hunts?" He frowns.
"That's what I thought, too!"
Looking at the Bounty Hunters, Killua narrows his eyes. "Oi, oi. What's going on?"
"Uh, well..." Senka scratches her head. Suddenly, you hear a muffled, ringing sound coming from Ryu.
Ryu furrows his brows even more. "What the hell?" he mumbles, fishing his phone out of his pocket, which made the ringing sound louder and clearer.
"I'll answer that," Senka says, taking Ryu's phone and placing it against her ear. "Hello? Sorry, but we're not available at the moment–"
You and Killua exchange glances. You wore a confused look, while Killua merely shrugged, crossing his arms and watching Senka.
"Um, what? They're in where now?" Senka's face twisted into a bewildered expression. "How– I mean, even if that's true, we can't right now. We're in the middle of something important..."
Another moment of silence passes. You can see Senka get more and more annoyed as the call goes on.
"Look, sir. We're going after someone else right now, you can't expect us to–"
Senka lets out an exasperated sigh as she taps her foot on the ground impatiently.
"Oh god," Ryu mumbles. "It'd be a real pain if she snaps in the middle of the call."
"Uhm, who is Senka talking to exactly?" You ask Ryu, making sure to keep your voice low.
Ryu watches as Senka tries to contain herself. "He hired us to hunt a group of criminals down. We postponed all our hunts for Sanguis, though, so I don't know why he's calling us," he sighs softly. "I might have to take over for Senka. She's starting to get really annoyed."
"Excuse me, what? You can't just do that!" Senka started raising her voice. "We already told you we're taking care of something urgent!"
Senka seemed to freeze for a bit as her eyes widened.
At this point, Ryu stepped in. "Senka, give me the phone."
Senka waves a hand dismissively as she turns away. "Look, you need to understand–" she pauses again, before letting out a deep sigh. "Alright, fine... If what you said was true, we should be able to take care of it by today."
After a few more words, Senka ends the call.
Ryu crosses his arms, his eyes looking more dead and tired than ever. "I'm guessing we have no choice but to finish the job?"
Senka gives the phone back to Ryu. "God, my head hurts..."
"Senka, are you okay?" Alluka runs over to her.
"If you guys need to take care of something else, we can start searching for Sanguis without you," Killua suggested.
"Don't!" Senka quickly declines. "Don't go ahead without us. It's too risky."
You raised an eyebrow. "I'm sure we can handle it. Especially Killua..."
Senka shook her head. "Even with Killua's abilities, it's too risky to go ahead without us." She sighs. "Don't underestimate Sanguis! There's a reason we haven't caught him all these years!"
You and Killua fell silent as you exchanged glances.
"For once in her life, Senka is right." Ryu steps in, frowning slightly. "Sadly, we have another hunt we have to take care of right now. It's best you wait here."
With that, Ryu went ahead, looking more tense and riled up than usual.
"Geez, he's probably more annoyed about this than I am." Senka facepalms. "Wait for me, Ryu!" She runs after him. It didn't take long before they turned a corner and disappeared.
"....Aaand they're gone. Being a single star Hunter must be tough." Killua sighs, while Alluka sulks back to his side.
You purse your lips, a deep frown forming on your face. "Are you sure we should really wait here? What if we just check out the place? Surely there's no harm in that, right?"
"Huuhh?!" Killua stared at you in bewilderment. "(Y/N)! Didn't you just hear what Senka said?"
You looked down. "Yeah, but–"
"Then stop being an idiot and wait for them. What if you get hurt?" He argues.
"But Killua..."
He let out an exasperated sigh as he averted his gaze. "Look, I know that you want to find that snake, but we can't be rash here." Killua takes your hand. "In the meantime, we can take a look around the city or something."
You look to the forest just by the city's outskirts, a worried frown on your face.
"Onee-chan, I think Onii-chan is right..." Alluka tugs on your sleeve.
Killua chuckles. "See, even Alluka says so."
"Ugh, fine..." you grumble, gripping Killua's hand back. "Okay then, where are we going?"
"Ah! Onii-chan, can I go ahead? I found a cute place I really wanna check out!" Alluka beams.
Killua's eyes widen. "Alluka, we're right in enemy territory. We can't separate!"
"Oh..." Alluka pouts, looking down as if her dreams had been crushed.
You chuckle. "It's fine, Alluka. We can go together!" You smile, taking Alluka's hand with your free one. "Can you lead us there?"
Alluka looks up, smiling at you with closed eyes. "Okay!"
____________________
"How much longer until we actually catch him?!"
Senka's eyes widened. "Ryu..?"
"It's been years since we've got our licenses and we've barely done anything!" Ryu rubs his temples in annoyance. "It's either something goes wrong, or we're forced to get sidetracked..."
Senka sighs. "I know... It's a miracle we haven't given up already."
Ryu shakes his head. "Even if we wanted to, we shouldn't. Not ever. And that's what's driving me nuts!" He looks at Senka. "After all–"
"Yeah, we can't let him roam free." Senka nods, before shrugging. "Guess I'll have to keep helping you out for a lot longer..."
Ryu rolls his eyes as he calms down a bit. "Let's get this damn thing over with so we can get back to Killua and the others," he says, a newfound determination lighting up within him.