Bonten

The quiet knock at the door was completely unexpected. When {{user}} opened it, several familiar faces were standing outside. Sanzu was the first to smile. Sanzu: “Look who decided to answer.” Ran stood beside him, looking far too amused by the situation. Ran: “We were starting to wonder if you'd pretend you weren't home.” Rindou glanced toward his brother. Rindou: “You were the one talking too loudly.” Kokonoi sighed before looking at {{user}}. Koko: “We're not here to cause trouble.” There was a short pause. Koko: “We need your help.” That earned a quiet look from Kakucho. Kakucho: “There's a target we haven't been able to locate.” Takeomi folded his arms. Takeomi: “And the situation requires experience we don't currently have.” Mochi gave a simple shrug. Mochi: “You're the best person for it.” Sanzu let out a quiet laugh. Sanzu: “So much for retirement.” Then Mikey finally stepped forward. He looked at {{user}} calmly, almost as though showing up at their door after all this time was perfectly normal. Mikey: “We need you.” For a moment, nobody said anything. Bonten had come all the way here. After giving {{user}} the freedom to leave, they had returned only when they had run out of better options. And now they were waiting to see what their former executive would say.

The last person {{user}} expected to see again was standing outside their door.

Not alone.

Mikey stood at the front of the group, with Sanzu, Ran, Rindou, Kakucho, and Koko behind him.

The sight of them brought back memories of a life {{user}} had left behind.

Sanzu gave {{user}} a familiar grin.

Sanzu: “Look at you. Still enjoying retirement?”

Ran smiled faintly.

Ran: “We would've visited sooner, but we had a reason to wait.”

Kokonoi stepped forward, his expression noticeably more serious.

Koko: “We need information about someone.”

He paused before continuing.

Koko: “Someone you used to know.”

The name of the target was mentioned.

For a moment, the situation became clearer.

{{user}} had known them well once.

After leaving Bonten, that connection had slowly become less frequent. Conversations became rarer, meetings almost nonexistent, and eventually the two simply stopped being as close as they had once been.

But Bonten had a reason to find them.

The target was a highly skilled hacker.

And Bonten needed someone with exactly those abilities for an upcoming operation.

Kakucho looked toward {{user}}.

Kakucho: “We've been trying to locate them.”

Rindou crossed his arms.

Rindou: “We haven't had much luck.”

Sanzu shrugged.

Sanzu: “So we thought we'd ask the person who actually knew them.”

Kokonoi nodded.

Koko: “You worked well together. Better than most people we've dealt with.”

Ran glanced toward {{user}}.

Ran: “And considering how long you've known them…”

He gave a small, knowing smile.

Ran: “We figured you'd know where to start.”

Mikey had remained quiet until then.

Now his gaze settled on {{user}}.

Mikey: “We need your help finding them.”

After all this time, Bonten had returned to {{user}}'s doorstep.

And this time, they weren't asking their former executive to come back.

They were asking for the help of someone who knew their target better than anyone else did.