The man Satoya recognized as Hayate faced down toward Satoya, who was now exposing himself out into the open, standing amidst the colorless road drenched in bullet holes. Hayate's face lit up, a face that can only be described and seen when one reunited with an old friend they hadn't talked to in years.
"Satoya? Satoya Murayama?!" Hayate exclaimed in disbelief, leaning forward onto the balcony fence. His eyes twitched to the side upon seeing faint movement, a single man holding a revolver, clenching onto his neck to stop the bleeding.
A fire rang out, but Hayate reacted too swiftly, deflecting the bullet, with the consequence of it breaking the dagger blade. Shards of the Regulator licensed dagger flew everywhere, fortunately the bullet spun into a stone pillar.
The man with the bleeding neck frantically tried reloading his revolver, but Hayate immediately charged and landed a left hook onto the man's cheek, punching him off the balcony.
Satoya was sure the speed at which Hayate moved was the same speed at which he saw Ludwig during his fight with Lauris. The way Hayate's agility was perceived was as if he was skating through an ice rink, as he quite literally slid through the ground, furthermore Satoya was surprised by how he was even able to perceive the speed.
Hayate leapt over the balcony fence, onto the bland colored road in front of Satoya. Upon closer inspection, Hayate still looked the same as Satoya remembered.
"How have you been? It's been nearly 6 years!" Hayate happily rejoiced, holding his hand out for a handshake in which Satoya accepted without hesitation.
Satoya eagerly shook his hand, "Good, how about you? How's Rieamaius? You moved from Okamura after 2nd grade of middle school!"
"It's pretty decent, I still liked living in Okamura however.." Hayate breathed, before speaking more, "oh right! Is Isaac doing good?"
Hayate or Hayate Seo, was one of Satoya's childhood friends during middle school, with him and Isaac also being good friends with each other. From Satoya's memory, Hayate was a proclaimed baseball rival of Shizune's older brother, Kohaku.
They walked into the mansion. The luxury inside was, to be honest, underwhelming. There was shattered glass riddled throughout the floor, champagne wasted on the walls, numerous books torn apart, the lights didn't even work, presumably because they were all broken, with one light bulb flickering in desperation. The furniture was mainly destroyed, an expensive chair that Rayna would surely die for, had a massive blood stain on the cushion where one would rest their back on.
Considering this belonged to some guy named Argoreas, someone potentially holding a considerable amount of power in the Jurisdiction Court, Satoya didn't find it amusing that the mansion itself was in chaos, in dire need of cleaning and fixing to be specific.
Hayate was still rambling, seemingly unbothered by the depressing sight. He laughed, "Isaac's still the same?! I'd love to see him again." He continued, smiling even more, "so how is Kohaku's younger sister doing? Is she still the same gremlin as I remember?"
Satoya made a chuckle, replying with "she's alright, I don't know why but she is currently using a crowbar as a weapon.." He imagined a small black haired girl flailing around a crowbar like a caveman. Hayate laughed, the same laughter Satoya remembered during middle school, he felt as if he was back in his math class during that time.
Hayate wiped a tear off of his face, looking down at the katana Satoya is holding by the sheath. He recognized the Regulator Licensed symbol inscribed onto the hilt. He asked in surprise, "since when did you join the RC? You were never the typa guy to do anything too rigorous."
Satoya blushed in embarrassment, glancing around the glass shards lying on the ground. In a sheepish voice, he answered, "just last week.." He added on, fearing possible teasing, "So.. I… Uhm, became a Truth Seeker last week, on the night before I joined the committee…"
To his surprise, he heard an obvious gasp, a loud one to say the least, followed by Hayate's jaw opening in awe, "WHAAAT?" He shook his head in denial. He knew he could by lying, due to the fact if Satoya was indeed a Truth Seeker, he would've been able to sense his Verity by now, however, he also took into consideration that there's this phenomenon called "Truth Seeking Mentality." Which is a harmless condition where someone gains an insurmountable amount of motivation to do something outside of their personality and behavior exactly after visiting their Elusive Solace.
"I ain't buying it, but I'll take your word.." Hayate spoke, he was grinning, but Satoya could tell his eyes were full of suspicion, he took out what's left of his dagger, tossing it down like trash. He mumbled, "I'm sadly not one, but I did just rank up to Semi Elite rank yesterday, so I should be getting paid a lot more, so I can afford a Merit Revelator finally.."
Merit Revelators cost almost half a fortune, considering it is also Rieamaius manufactured. Unlike countries in other Capitals, for example: Huangfu having the best Merit Revelator technology, Rieamaius is known to be the bottom in terms of the Tier list of how great the Merit Revelators are, Rieamaius usually manufactured more Merit Revelators, but the price of one, even the most outdated designs could cost up to 690 thousand Alikurs. The Semi Elite rank paycheck, which isn't a paycheck but instead a multiplier in payment from missions, Semi Elite ranks get a almost 400% bonus on their payment once completing a contract.
"Say.. Are you also here to confiscate the Wrehtched blood vial from the Jurisdiction Court?" Hayate asked, taking out his phone to see the contract details. Satoya nodded reluctantly, but is happy that the contract will be over much quickly.
"Great! It should be easy, since Wrehtched blood vials are usually found like the namesake, a vial!" Hayate's voice echoed, the mood was a lot better for Satoya, with a new person to accompany him to find this vial. Should be easy, due to him having the assumption of the vial looking EXACTLY like the ones he kept seeing in films Edward kept forcing the Satoya gang to watch.