Being a mercenary wasn't as cool Joseph had imagined it.

Sure he traveled around the world kicking ass, taking names, making boatloads of money, and sleeping with exotic women of varying level of attractiveness but that wasn't the norm. Most of his time had been spent, before joining Claw, behind the barrel of a sniper rifle. He didn't swear his allegiance to any one government. No, he fought for whoever could afford him. The Americans, the Russians, the Chinese, the Japanese, the Canadians…they weren't as easy going as they seemed. He didn't swear his allegiance to any one country…and that hadn't changed.

A country was just a collection of people living within a set of imaginary lines called borders.

The people in that border weren't even unified. Sure they paid taxes to the same government but that was about it. There was always this…massive….variation between languages and cultures and groups and ideas and wants and needs ad ideologies…it was amazing that the entire system hadn't imploded yet. People living together bound by nothing more than geography…it made no sense. He didn't care about countries. He only cared about the money.

And Claw had money to burn…literally.

"Listen, it's very simple. Just give up the kid and we'll let you be. Keep on lying to us and well….things are going to get a little complicated." Said Joseph as he lit the end of his cigarette. He let it glow pink. He didn't know why it glowed pink when he activated his powers. He didn't know why his powers only worked with cigarette smoke. He didn't even know why he had powers in the first place. None of that mattered. He wasn't a Claw scientist, his job wasn't to come up with the answers, his job was to deliver the asset.

Unfortunately the asset was nowhere to be found.

Nope. Nowhere to be seen. Gone, into thin air. The President would not be pleased with this development at all….and he'd been in the worst mood lately. Joseph had heard, through the grapevine, that he ran away from his family because the Scar Tsuchiya wanted him to take responsibility for his kid. There was a second, more disturbing, rumor that President Suzuki's daughter insisted that her sister-daughter, a word which Joseph never wanted to hear again in his life, rejoin the family and now President Suzuki, unable to deal with the shame of wat he'd done, had run away and was now taking it all out on the rest of Claw.

It really was none of Joseph's business why President Suzuki was on a warpath. He just didn't want to be involved with this in any way.

"We don't have him! He ran away!" said the man, Hanazawa Susumo. President of some multinational whatever. Husband to that terrified woman, Hanazawa Beate. Father of one Hanazawa Teruki. That was the important part. The son. The son that got away.

The son that Joseph could not lose.

He took a deep drag off of his cigarette and exhaled. The Hanazawa family just about pissed themselves in fear. He didn't blame them. The last thing they'd seen him have a smoke they'd wound up bound in steel. Well it wasn't exactly steel, it was just as hard though. There was some wiggle room. Enough to give them hope that they could get out but not enough that they actually could escape. No, that would not have been good at all. The last thing he needed was these people leaving before he could have a little chat with them.

A nice friendly little chat.

"You people honestly expect me to believe that you just let your twelve year old son waltz right out the door? I mean I know you Germans are big on independence or whatever but come on. Do I look stupid to you?" asked Joseph. He spoke English to get his point across. He didn't know enough German to be fluent and he didn't feel like getting out his phrase book. Japanese would have worked too but he…was not a fan. He could speak it, sure, but the intricacies of the language were not something that he felt like dealing with right now.

He just did not have the headspace for it.

He took another drag off of his cigarette and began to pace. Hanazawa and his wife were whispering amongst themselves now in German. He shook his head. Let them think that he was totally clueless….he heard the word train a few times. Train, rail station and…Romania? Well at least he had a lead…and he did not feel like going to Romania. He knew very little Romanian and he didn't feel like learning. Also the entire country looked, sounded, tasted, felt, and smelt like post-Soviet collapse misery. Why anyone would send their kid there was beyond him.

Well that was where Germans went to retire after all…heh. Twelve year old retiree.

Joseph smiles at the thought of a little twelve year od, presumably this blond kid from the photographs, with a little cane all hunched over going 'what?' over and over again with one of those old person ear horn things you saw in old cartoons. Of course, being half German the kid would have been going 'vhat' in that way that Germans did…seriously, learn the letter 'W' it's not that hard. Of course maybe the kid would have retired to somewhere in Japan, being half Japanese and all.

He decided at add 'Japan' to his list of places to search in…heading over to Japan would have been a hell of a lot better than traipsing around Romania.

"Please…we have no idea where he is. He just left. He just packed a bag and left…that's all. He was last seen at the harbor in-" said Hanazawa Beate. Either she was lying to him or her English was crap. Joseph was inclined to believe either option.

"No, no, you see I just heard you and that husband of yours talking about the train station….so I'm inclined to think that the two of you must be lying to me….and I don't want to have to deal with a couple of liars. Really, these mission reports are long enough and I don't need any more paperwork to fill out." Said Joseph

"We're telling the truth! We have no idea where Teruki is!" said Hanazawa Susumo. Joseph finished his cigarette and let the end fall to the ground. He took his heel and dug what remained of his cigarette into what felt like a very expensive Persian rug. Both Hanazawa's grimaced. Honestly, these people. If they were upset about a rug then why would they think, truly believe in their minds, that Joseph would believe that they would let their only child just run away to parts unknown?

People were such idiots sometimes.

Himself included. God…this job was turning into such a nightmare. How hard could it have been to find one kid? He was twelve. He should have been hiding in the park or something. Kidnapping kids had never been this hard before…though it had never been this involved for him. No, usually he just researched assets and let someone deeper in the organization handle it…well not this one but the last one. He didn't really ask a lot of questions. He just did as he was told and then he kept on moving.

There was no point in going above and beyond unless he was getting paid above and beyond wages.

"Yeah, I don't believe you…but don't worry, it's your lucky day. I'm going to have to let you live for now, the boss was very clear on this being a clean job, but don't think you're out of the woods just yet. We'll be back. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but we will be back…and bear in mind that the next guy isn't going to be nearly as nice as I was." Said Joseph. Well this was a bust…Suzuki was not going to be pleased…but then again what else was new? Sometimes the guy could be halfway human, when his kid was near, but now…well now he was unrelenting….this was not going to be a fun phone call…

But one that he was going to have to make.

He saw himself out of the Hanazawa residence, some ultramodern thing in the middle of Berlin, and pulled out his phone. Those two would be fine. The smoke would dissipate eventually…in a few hours…so unless one of them really had to take a piss they'd be fine. They'd probably call the cops though, not that it would do them any good. This wasn't one of those area where Claw's fingers were deep in the local…everything…but their story was so absurd that nobody in their right mind would believe them. What, an American in a silver coat imprisoned them in cigarette smoke and tried to kidnap their esper son? They'd be fitted for straightjackets before they were even halfway through their story.

Which was good because the cops getting involved was even more paperwork that Joseph did not feel like doing.

As terrible as he knew this phone call was going to be h was glad that he didn't have to submit this in writing…yet. He wondered how many trees had to die to keep Claw going for just one year. Probably at least half a rainforest just in the mission reports alone. The Japanese sure did like their paperwork. It was like if it hadn't been submitted in triplicate then it didn't happen. He was so glad he didn't have to work for any particular branch of Claw….administration was such a bitch…even more so now that the President's right hand man had defected. Claw was…well not coming apart…not yet…but the seams were splitting…which sucked. They paid well and, really, he would rather work for his own people than some random government. He was an American but…well that didn't mean much. He was born within a particular set of borders…so what?

He'd rather work for people that were actually like him.

He would rather have worked for his own people. Sure he didn't have much in common with the President himself, that guy was….his own…whatever, but at least the people around him got it. What it was like to grow up feeling like you were on your own. What it was like growing up being able to do amazing things and everyone else thinking that you were a weird attention seeker at best and completely off your nut at worst. People here got it…well to a degree. Everyone had a story, a lot of them were a hell of a lot worse than being the son of a school nurse and a high school hockey coach from some middle of nowhere town in Minnesota, but at least their stories had one thing in common.

Being alone.

Though he was NEVER asking Shimazaki Ryou about his life again….that man….had all sorts of problems that he needed to work out with a professional….or a priest. God…that had been….intense. He was so fucking glad that their paths hadn't crossed since that one time in Bolivia….and he was so glad that their paths had no chance of crossing again. Word through the grapevine was that he was in Tokyo guarding the Suzuki kids…not that the oldest needed any guarding. Now that was a powerful esper right there…and a very powerful little girl….well less little girl. She was older now, not old enough…and he wasn't going anywhere near that family, she was old enough to apparently be trusted with the Vice Presidency of Claw…it was always a shit show when she was at the helm. A fun one, the parties were pretty great and he had enjoyed the substantial raise, but one that always left the organization reeling.

He didn't work alone by choice. There had been substantial budget cuts these past two quarters.

Not so substantial that he wasn't getting paid. The minute that happened he was jumping ship. The Japanese government had given him a pretty good offer all things considered. Substantial…though it would have meant going up against one of the most powerful cults in the world….so not substantial enough. Joseph knew what happened when people betrayed Claw, hell he had been the one who saw to it, and he didn't much feel like getting hunted down like a dog. So he wasn't going to try anything….yet.

Anything besides getting through to President Suzuki.

"President Suzuki's phone, Hatori Nozomu speaking….I said it just like you wanted me to….yes I did." Said Hatori Nozomu, another one of Suzuki's secret kids. Either that or he was corn holing the kid. Joseph would have believed either. The way President Suzuki just let this kid in his close orbit…and that was a kid. Well a very young person who answered the phone like a five year old.

This wasn't any of Joseph's business. The grapevine would tell him if anything interesting was happening there.

"Joseph here. The asset is gone. I have leads though." said Joseph. Short, sweet, and to the point. He was walking down the busy public street. This was not the place to go into great detail about how the kid that he was supposed to kidnap had disappeared off the face of the fucking Earth and now the manhunt would have to continue unabated…or maybe it was. They didn't speak Japanese here, did they?

"Hang on I'll tell him…says he lost the kid….hey! I'm just the messenger!" said Hatori. God, he whined like a kid too. Maybe he wasn't Suzuki's kid after all. He could not see Suzuki letting any of his kids whine…though Joseph had only met the oldest girl. The chain smoking ten year old…of course being the Vice President of this shit show would have driven anyone to smoke….he shook his box of cigarettes as he walked.

He'd better get some more before he had to get back on the road….or ocean….or plane again.

"He says that your incompetence knows no bounds." Said Hatori. Joseph shook a cigarette out of the box and held it between his teeth. The Japanese sure did lay it on kind of harshly, didn't they? God, he wished that he could have switched to English but he was talking through this kid and, yeah, Suzuki spoke perfectly English but his kids were their own people….also if he wasn't answering his own phone then he was about ten different kinds of pissed off probably.

"Tell him that I didn't lose the kid, he was gone when I got there. According to his parents he ran away of his own accord. They said something about Romania….so maybe send someone there. Try Japan too. Hell, I volunteer for that posting." Said Joseph as he weaved his way through the crowd. He could feel other auras…ones he knew…sort of. Awakened? Soldiers, not the stupid ones…looking for the kid already? This must have been some asset.

Well he was a twelve year old kid.

Joseph had always been able to change smoke into, well whatever the steel like stuff was. Cigarette smoke was the best and there had been a hell of a lot of it. He was the tail end of the 'smoke in front of your kids' generation and there had been plenty of cigarette smoke around. Secondhand was alright but first hand was better….he thanked God that Claw had good insurance because he was well on his way to lung cancer.

That is if Suzuki didn't do him in before the two decades of smoking could catch up with him.

"He says that the kid was gone when he got there….uh-huh….Romania…I don't know….I really don't!" said Hatori. Joseph pressed the phone more closely to his ear…he could sort of hear Suzuki's voice.

"….want that man dead. I want his mother dead, I want his father dead. I want his cat dead. I want his dog dead." Said Suzuki. Well the joke was on him, lung cancer had done dad in years ago and mom had been on her last legs for the past ten years. Also he was allergic to animals so there.

"Wait…what comes after the cat?" asked Hatori. Playing dumb…or maybe just that dumb. Who the hell even knew and why did it even matter? He didn't care. Was he getting paid and did he have to go across the world again? Those were the questions to ask.

"I don't remember. Punish him as you see fit." Said Suzuki. Well then…now this was something. President Suzuki was….really not well. Time to water the grapevine. He always punished people, upper echelon people, personally. Something really was rotten in the Suzuki household…this did not bode well for the long term help of the world's biggest employer of espers, shady types, and shady espers.

"Alright, cool. President Suzuki is pissed at you….what? I can't say pissed? Fine. He's not happy with you and you're getting punished so…I don't know. I'll have someone dump sand on you." Said Hatori. Joseph pulled the phone away from his ear and checked the connection. Sand? Ok….his Japanese wasn't the best….but….sand?

"Sand?" he heard Suzuki ask…huh. So he knew other tones besides bored with the world.

"It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere.…also Mob doesn't like violence so….yeah." said Hatori. Joseph…he'd heard the somewhere…but where….and that was a thing. The kid had just said a thing….but what thing….God, this was going to drive him crazy….

"Hatori…did you just quote Star Wars?" asked Suzuki. Huh. So he could sound surprised too. Well that was something…also, finally, he knew what that was from…and….Star Wars? Of all the things…

"You know Star Wars?" asked Hatori. Joseph made a note of how familiar they were too each other. He wasn't sure if he was team secret kid or secret lover yet…he was leaning more towards kid, though, since he couldn't imagine anyone wanting anything to do with Suzuki like that. He was kind of dilfy but also not really…not that Joseph was about to stand there and rate his boss's attractiveness or anything like that.

"Who hasn't seen Star Wars?" asked Suzuki

"I didn't think you were into Star Was." Said Hatori

"I'm not. Tadashi is. He made me see all six movies with him." said Suzuki

"Only the first three and the prequels? What about the new ones?" asked Hatori

"They made more of those movies?" asked Suzuki

"Yeah, they made-" said Hatori

"Am I still getting paid and so I have to move again?" asked Joseph. As good as that would be, for grapevine gossip, he did have a life to get back to. After this he was getting a drink and then getting to the exotic women portion of this job. Or men…but that was a hell of a lot more work for him to do.

"He wants to know…well if you could hear me the whole time then why am I the one on the phone…uh-huh….well if I don't have someone dump a bucket of sand on him then can I release his entire search history?" asked Hatori. Ok…that kid was going to get it if he even thought…there were some lines a man did not cross! That little….Joseph still knew how to shoot and he wasn't above taking out some snot nosed little-

"Is there anything there worth releasing?" asked Suzuki

"It's no worse than yours but…it's a search history." Said Hatori. Joseph….had no idea how Hatori knew…and he had no idea what the hell kind of search history President Suzuki had…and…nope. He'd go and do hard labor on a building group. He'd be the guy who cleaned out the blood traps in the Awakening Labs. Hell, he'd work in the laundry room before he let that snot nosed, whiny, little-

"…do the sand thing…and stay out of my search history…and there's nothing in my search history….I don't have a search history….I don't even know what a search history is…." Said Suzuki. Joseph…well he wasn't one to think too hard about what other people were into…but now he was curious. He had always thought that Suzuki would have been into some freak shit, most powerful men were, and there were a HELL of a lot of rumors about him and his daughter….but this was not his business.

Was he getting paid? Was he going to have to move again? That was what mattered.

"Am I getting paid and do I have to move?" asked Joseph cutting through…whatever the hell that weird shit was.

"Yeah, you're getting….Suzuki says you're getting paid for your time and that's it…and we're moving you but we don't know where yet…also be on the lookout. Someone's going to be dumping a bucket of sand on you really soon. Later." Said Hatori. Then the line went dead…alright then. His phone vibrated…half of what he was owed went into his bank account…fucking Claw. That was NOT his fault! Maybe if people knew how to budget then someone could have been on this kid and then-

-something coarse and rough and irritating got dumped over his head…and went everywhere.

That….ok. So they had people on standby with BUCKETS of SAND but they couldn't keep eyes on one twelve year old kid!? He turned around….a crowd had formed…and someone was running away and laughing. This fucking…his phone vibrated. A message….from an unknown number…and an attachment….

A picture of him…the second the sand had been dumped on him.

'Been waiting to do that to someone for a long time XD nothing person there's just a really mopey kid that needed cheering up XD' Joseph…kept on walking and did not draw any more attention to himself. That fucking….Claw….this just….Claw was staffed by and run by kids! When Joseph had started this life, when he'd first been recruited into this, he had never imagined that he would have wound up walking down the street covered in sand….it was making it's way under his clothes now….but this was the life he led…and if it was going to keep on…like this…then he was out…President Suzuki was slipping and he was leaving kids in charge more and more often….

Maybe Joseph would take the Japanese government up on their offer…