Chapter 4 - Headquarters and Bounty Hunters

Creed screamed as he woke up from his sleep. He had a bad dream about that night he went to assassinate Vitali. The people around him looked at him, baffled on why he screamed. He was approached by one of them and said.

"What's wrong Creed? Are you alright?" She asked him. She was a girl at her late teens, she had long blonde hair and was slightly shorter than Creed. The woman had a bow and arrow strapped on her back and she was wearing modern clothes. Her name was Jade.

"Nothing's wrong. I'm sorry if I caused trouble. I just had a bad dream that's all" Creed replied to her.

"That's the third night you've had a bad dream. Are you sure you're alright?" Jade continued to ask.

"Yeah I'm okay, this is nothing." Creed said as he smiled at Jade.

"Maybe it's because you've been smoking too much cigarettes." A man said to Creed. He had spiky maroon hair and had piercings all over his ears. He was a man of tall stature but he was also lean in body shape. He had metal knuckles equipped in both hands suggesting that he is an experienced hand to hand combatant. He is known as Jephtah.

"I have only smoked two sticks of Mild Sevens in the past week. Don't tell me that's too much because you're the one who finished my previous pack." Creed replied. 

"Well two is still many." Jephtah replied as he took out a pack of Mild Seven Lights cigarettes, got one stick, lit it and then started smoking the cig.

"Is that my current pack??" Creed asked him with curiosity.

"Uhhhh.. No man!! I bought this with my own money man!!" Jephtah said as he looked away from Creed and continued smoking.

"He's lying." Another woman said. She looked that of a desk clerk because she always wore formal clothes inside the headquarters. She is known as Tanri and she was in charge of relaying information of criminals with huge bounties on their heads to the team of Creed, Jephtah and Jade. 

"He stole the pack from you while you were sleeping." Tanri added as she went back to her desk to check on updates on the criminal list.

Creed, Jade and Jephtah were only one of the teams of Bounty Hunters present in the RFI Company (Response Force of Innovation). They were in charge of capturing high-end criminals in exchange for money. The price of the criminal depended on how grave and notorious his/her crimes are. As of the moment, Creed held the record of capturing the most expensive criminal whose price was Z900,000 (900k zeni). A man called Grahm came in second who captured a criminal worth Z750000 (750k zeni). Lastly Jephtah came in third by recently capturing a criminal worth Z400000 (400k zeni).

"Damn you Jeph. Go buy your own cigs." Creed said to him irritantly.

"I'm sorry man but getting free stuff is so much better." Jephtah replied smugly.

"I don't get it why you guys love smoking cigarettes, don't you know that those things kill you?" Jade replied to both of them.

"Damn Jade you always ruin the fun." Jephtah replied to her.

"Guys I'm sorry to interrupt, but we have updates now." Tanri said to them as they gathered around on her desk to see the mission briefing.