Verde

The target is easy to find, even through the tear gas and flashbangs.

The science convention (mafia specific) went for five days every three years, situated in a huge building with lecture halls and buffets and the brightest minds mingling together to create something even more horrific than what the mafia already has.

Storm flames were a big topic this year, with how they could dissolve the very atoms of whatever target they were pointed at. The other big interest seemed to be space travel, which was quite fascinating to the hitman, not that anyone would know he was a hitman.

It wouldn't have been a problem if Reborn came without a disguise, in fact most of the more famous scientists or famiglia-aligned ones had bodyguards. A couple of regular mafiosi were hanging around as well, to absorb as much information as they could before the scientists disappeared again.

However, Reborn was here as an invited guest, not as a low intellect second-class mafioso who had to pay to get inside the building. Wearing his fedora and suit would have given a bad impression since Reborn the hitman wasn't well known in the academic community.

He was scheduled to present two lectures with his mathematician persona, not as a hired killer, and so he came as a badly dressed recluse to blend in. He technically didn't have to lecture or even show up, but he took a certain delight in creating and solving equations that teach people how to kill quicker and more efficiently.

Reborn wasn't normally one to join these conventions, because the scientists tended to be introverted geniuses who didn't know how to communicate outside of their chosen field, or worse, arrogant pricks.

He attended this year, partly due to the hit, but it was mostly because Reborn just finished a twenty-page calculation on the differences between 'fire sniping' with various flame types, and he really wanted to brag about it.

He had spent the first day of the convention roving the city since he didn't want to socialise and the second day he had the first presentation. After he was done he wandered around and found himself stumbling into a heated argument between a chemistry based biomolecular scientist and a biology based biochemist.

He paused to watch the entertainment, only really understanding half the dispute. A scoff of derision made Reborn turn, and he found a man with a shock of green hair, glasses, and a pristine lab coat. Reborn was going to wait until the last few days to track down his target but apparently the universe loved him.

The hitman decided to keep the scientist close and slid towards the man, opening conversation with an insult towards the two fighting academics. Verde practically lunged at Reborn, desperate for anything else except the boring academics around him.

The argument heated up with the addition of a pharmacologist, and Reborn just spent the whole time mocking them quietly with Verde.

Reborn had then followed the green haired man to his lecture and sat for three hours as Verde went over a sixty-three-step synthesis of a chemical that could suppress brain cancer cells. Then it took another ten minutes for Verde to outline a three-step synthesis that could create brain cancer.

The scientist got a standing ovation for the latter.

Reborn ended up spending the rest of the convention with Verde at his side, making fun of the others and maybe spiking a few drinks as well.

Reborn had been wavering before, because the scientist was actually quite interesting, and finally decided to just call the hit off around the time Verde chucked his shoe at a presenter and called them 'as useless as thionyl chloride for a halohydrin product'.

And now here Reborn is, on the last day, ducking out of sight from the SWAT team currently raiding the building.

Reborn adjusts his ponytail, his hair lengthened to help with his disguise, and fits the gas mask better over his face. It's an old model, actually stolen from one of the demonstration booths, so the hitman looks quite terrifying with his face entirely covered.

He snaps his wrist to signal and Leon drops out of his sleeve and into his hand, already set into knife mode. The hitman slices off a good chunk of his lengthened hair, the black locks then spiking up in his usual style.

Reborn strips the loose hoodie off him and smooths down the button-up shirt and black vest that's hidden underneath. He's not satisfied with the cheap black slacks, nor the scuffed lace-up boots, but he isn't exactly prepared for a wardrobe change.

The hitman moves swiftly through the building, climbing a floor and then pacing across the large cafeteria, taking out any armour-clad men and women he sees. The tear gas appears to be mixed with something else because the panicking scientists start going down, only unconscious.

Reborn rounds a large table, quite a few people face down in their food, and finds Verde slumped against the wall, the scientist's eyes half closed.

The hitman walks over and drops to sit back on his calves, balanced on the balls of his feet with his elbows braced on his thighs. He smirks at Verde through the gas mask even though the man can't see.

"Here to kill me?" Verde slurs from the gas, only seeing curly sideburns and the iconic Leon gun.

"Worse," Reborn chuckles. "I'm here to save you."