"What did the bastard who took my little brother look like? Do you know which way he went?"
Hozuki Mangetsu involuntarily took two steps forward.
Shinji glanced from side to side, strongly suspecting he had found another brother obsessive.
"Well..."
"As long as I can find Suigetsu, money is no object."
Seeing Shinji's expression, Hozuki Mangetsu instinctively assumed he wanted to seize this opportunity to make some money.
He was a Rogue Ninja, after all. It was understandable.
To rescue his little brother as quickly as possible, Hozuki Mangetsu did not care about money at all.
But he had still taken things too simply.
"I don't want money. I want... you!"
Hozuki Mangetsu's eyes instantly widened in disbelief, and then he abruptly retreated five quick little steps!
"Th-that's out of the question! You disgusting bastard!"
"???"
Before Shinji realized just how ambiguous his words had been, he saw the other man drawing his gun... no, drawing his weapon.
"Don't worry, I won't kill you. I'll just beat you senseless, then force you to tell me where my brother is."
"Huh? Wait, isn't there some kind of misunderstanding here?"
Having already made up his mind, Hozuki Mangetsu stopped listening to Shinji altogether and swung Hiramekarei at him.
Shinji instinctively drew the Kubikiribōchō and caught the blow with a steady clang.
As the strips of cloth wrapped around the blade slipped away, surprise flashed in Hozuki Mangetsu's eyes.
"Why do you have the Kubikiribōchō? Did you kill Zabuza?"
Oh boy, things were suddenly getting more and more troublesome!
"More or less, but he's actually still alive... what I mean is... fuck!"
Shinji suddenly realized that explaining this would be rather complicated, so he decided to throw caution to the wind. Whatever happened, happened. That was that!
In his irritation, he heaved and