THE 7TH

It was 6 o'clock in the afternoon. Just before the darkness of the night totally took over, Shinzo Mitsuya took off from his black service car — an old model, lessconsuming in fuel, durable, and above all, convenient to use due to its old control system. It only took him about fifteen minutes to arrive at the airport from the intelligence office.

The Tokyo International Airport appeared very crowded and busy as always. Like the whole metropolitan, It had an unlimited influx of people from all over the world.

Proximate to the congested waiting area, a westerner fatso guy, who was wearing blue jacket and sunglasses, approached Shinzo, who was also wearing a formal business suit with an expensive golden mechanical watch. The fatso exuded an overwhelming air of intimidation to somehow test if he had the balls to do the job. Later, he eventually realized that the guy was much scarier than him.

"I'm Joseph Johnson of the International Police based in England HQ. You are Shinzo Mitsuya, right? Here it is… Please, the Prime Minister asks you to complete the operation without failure. The government and the Interpol has its eyes on you tonight…" The big guy spoke in English ghastly while looking at him sharply from head to foot.

"Don't worry. You may not have known much about me, but I've never failed and disappointed a mission before. So, rest assured, this will be accomplished successfully." He retorted confidently while still wearing a face as hard as stone.

"Well, I heard much about you lately. It was just a reminder. I know you'd succeed, since the Prime Minister really left this to you… He must've trusted you this much."

The big guy crookedly smiled a bit. Though he looked fair due to his Austronesian skin tone and pointed nose, a grin that wide still looked evil in the eyes of Shinzo. But not that it disturbed him at all. Without further ado, he walked back and immersed himself again through the crowd, then disappeared.

'Wait. What the heck is wrong with that guy? Did he just mock me or something? I got a bad feeling about this. What the heck is this briefcase, anyway?

Jeez, I hope my fears don't come true…'

"A total scumbag in the Interpol…?" Without him noticing, Shiba just arrived with a small business bag. "I don't like the feeling of his grin. Shall I liquidate him?" "Nah, don't bother. We don't know much about that guy He just said the boss wants us to bring this item to The Hawks."

"In that case, let's go…"

"Yeah."

'Tsk. That fatso disappeared right away, huh? What a hassle! We're just going to hand this in to the specific address in Hiroshima as specified here in the paper'

He sighed deeply and looked at the dark blue sky, and then the two eventually walked towards the airport. It was 7:45 o'clock in the evening. The sky was clear. There was no hint for a turbulent air travel. Later, about five minutes after the passenger plane flew from the Haneda Airport to Hiroshima, Shiba fell asleep on his seat.

The passengers had already settled down. Some were even starting to talk with those at their sides. When it was already quiet, Shinzo, who was sitting on the middle part of the rows, also started to feel a mite sluggish. His mind flew afar. It was some morbid thought that he couldn't take away in his mind. Flashes of memories since childhood barraged him.

'I wonder… when did I start doing jobs like this? It's been 7 years already, I guess? Honestly, I'm starting to feel the risks of this work… I'm afraid the number of people throwing suspicion on us had increased a mite. Perhaps it's timely to quit…? Or maybe find some woman in the ally to hook myself with and build a family? What a drag! That Ms. Inoue in the police seems good. Maybe I'll ask her out when we come back…? No. She's good to go, but it's not that I particularly like her. Speaking of fancies, Ms. Hase should be the best option.'

Being both a government agent and a member of "The Punishers," his current job involved personally delivering high-value information and targeting high-class criminals. And, through time, he realized how much risk he had exposed himself into for years now. Their father wanted to see some grandchildren already. And it bugged him to the bone. But thinking about the level of peril, he still thought that Shiba's job was on another level. There was even a time when Shiba traded some newly invented illegal drugs a hundredfold more expensive than heroin in Italy.

They both started doing this type of job a few years ago after their family's small company went bankrupt. Their father, who became bedridden, had no source of income left. All other assets were also sold to support his treatment. The two, in response to that, were then left out of choice but to earn a huge sum somewhere to support the medication. Due to this extreme misfortune, their view and philosophical outlooks on worldly matters changed. This was how both of them became knotted to the world of the cockroaches.

Shiba became connected to the underworld because of his desperation for easy money. On the other hand, Shinzo worked as a dedicated public servant. This was the time when they met the Prime Minister who was then Defense Minister and training for skilled teens to become covert agents for the government. As the time flew, they began to get used to it. "The Punishers" became famous throughout Japan as the underground's uncontrollable beasts. In spite of their involvement to this bloody realm, they had been known by past acquaintances as kind and responsible people. On their father's knowledge, they were working on a lending company. None of them ever attempted on telling him about the truth because there had only been one thing that mattered to them — happiness of the family. Shinzo was particularly sure that their father would be saddened if he knew. Hence, they both kept everything with utmost secrecy. For them, family had been the only thing in life that they could not compromise. They loved their father very much, so even if they had to defeat a demon, it'd not be much of a concern to them.