(Crossover) The Kids Have Grown Up and Won't Stay with Dad

Che Ye was an ordinary assassin in the Black Organization. He didn't have Gin's silver hair, which stood out like a lightbulb at night, or Bourbon's disappearing act, which made him seem to vanish mysteriously whenever he stood in the shadows. The only things that set him apart from the crowd were an age not far from Vermouth's and a similarly youthful appearance.

Another odd but hardly extraordinary trait was that he liked to hang around women, and had even fathered several illegitimate children. Liking women wasn't unusual in the underworld. What was strange was an assassin leaving such an obvious liability out in the open.

The unremarkable Che Ye didn't care about his children. He had other things he cared about more.

Though Che Ye looked like a listless, world-weary young man who stayed up all night, he was the target of vendettas from quite a few organizations, marked in bright red as a high-priority threat. For example, the Squid.

But could you really blame an innocent assassin? He'd only taken a few jobs.

All he did was pierce the heart of a certain bandage-wearing guy, spend decades plotting to take out a certain strongest man's head, and send the Squid's Tenth Boss to the ICU for a few months as a friendly favor.

The black-haired young man smiled vaguely around his cigarette. "What's the big deal? I didn't actually kill them."

Of course, his habit of taking on insanely dangerous jobs, successful or not, had puzzled his companions.

"What do you think of them?"

"Who?" asked the assassin without looking up from cleaning his gun.

"Your assassination targets."

"What else?" The black-haired young man lit another cigarette, pushed the door open, slung the cello case over his shoulder, and grabbed the file on his new target. "They're rich idiots, the landlord's stupid sons."

This story is also known as "The Landlord's Stupid Sons: Who's the Landlord?"

"Is This Any Way to Be a Father?"

"Life Is Hard, an Assassin Sighs"

"How to Make Your Target Walk Right into a Trap"

Reader advisory:

1. Some writers' experiences appear in this story. They're completely made up.

2. Che-chan is the kind of old dad who's gloomy and dispirited. He has no hang-ups about what he does in bed, so don't read if that's not your thing.

Theme: Even when mired in the mud, don't forget to smile.