This was one of the oddest missions to which Hayato had so far been assigned, and definitely the shadiest. He was to go to a park, sit on a bench, look casual, and wait for an unknown person to deliver an unknown package to him at an undisclosed time. Then he was to transport the package to the address on the package, all without raising suspicion or betraying the identity of the final recipient, of whom he knew nothing other than that they would trade the package for a blue and red poker chip... Yeah, definitely the shadiest mission to date. He didn't really care how shady it was though, yen was yen. He sat on the park bench, his head tipped back so that he gazed at the sky with half-lidded eyes. He had nearly fallen asleep when a man in ordinary clothes sat on the opposite end of the bench. He had a duffel-bag slung across his back, which he took off with a groan and set on the ground near his feet. After settling down, he assumed the same posture as Hayato, the only difference being that the newcomer appeared to have fallen all the way into sleep. Some time passed before the man woke up, bleary-eyed and looking confused, he looked at his watch and all but jumped out of his skin, leaping to his feet and jogging out of the park. A couple of the parks visitors took notice and laughed at the man's panicked rush to be somewhere else. Hayato never looked over at the bag the man had left until several minutes after everyone's attention had returned to what they had been doing before the interruption. He casually stood and stretched before reaching down to grab the bag and sling it over his shoulder. It was heavier than he had expected from the way the other man had handled it, shrugging it into place he headed out of the park. When he was a good distance away, he looked more closely at the bag and found what he'd been looking for – an address. He headed off in the direction of the address on the bag, it was on the other side of town and would take most people the better part of three hours to get there, but he knew all the shortcuts. Even with the shortcuts, it took him longer than he would've liked, he had to backtrack and take lots of detours to make sure that he wasn't followed – he wasn't – his client had been worried over nothing it would seem. Upon arriving at the rendezvous point, Hayato stopped at a small tea cart and ordered a cup of hot ginseng tea, night had fallen and it was getting chilly. After paying the old woman who ran the cart, she passed him a steaming cup of tea, and he took it with a grateful smile and began to turn away, breathing in the fragrant steam. As he did, he felt something on the bottom of his cup. He stopped and pulled what felt like a wooden coin from the bottom of his cup, in the light from one of the street lamps, he could see a blue and red pattern stamped into the sides of the small wooden disk. His eyebrows lifted for a fraction of a second before he shrugged and pocketed the poker chip, and sat down on another bench a few feet away from the cart, letting the bag settle at his feet. After finishing the tea, he thanked the old woman and headed home, shaking his head at the absurdity of the whole mission.
[WC: 607]
[WC: 607]