“Billing note, billing note, insurance claim, refund request, medical bill… Jeez it just doesn't end.” Tyran sighed leaning back in his chair. He sat at his desk in the middle of his office, one which was surprisingly bare bones. It had some sports memorabilia and a Tube TV next to some chairs in the corner but other than that it was nothing other than rows and stacks of filing cabinets and boxes filled with Financial papers.

On his desk were stacks of papers standing nearly as tall as a child and on the floor were yellow pages stacked to the height of a full grown man. He had a trash can full of dried pens next to his seat which was withered from age and long hours spent sitting in it.

Knock, Knock…

There was a soft yet firm knock on the door followed by a voice.

“Yo, Tyran, can I come in?” The voice asked.

“Of course.” Tyran sighed, knocking on his desk.

The door opened and a young man with ebony black skin walked into the room. He was rather tall standing two meters high with thin yet muscular limbs and a head of medium length dreadlocks. One side was dyed blonde while the other was black. An interesting hairstyle that blended rather well.

“I brought some food from the cafeteria, you didn’t come down there so I figured you were too busy.” He said, handing a brown bag to Tyran.

“Oh, thanks Josiah I’m starving up here. I owe you one.” Tyran said with a smile, taking the bag from the young man and pulling a burger out of it.

“I made sure to get extra Ketchup and double patties.” Josiah said as Tyran undid the foil around the burger.

Tyran took a bite out of the burger and chewed it slowly before swallowing. “Tastes great.” He laughed. “Wanna drink?” He asked, reaching under his desk.

“Sure.” Josiah said, catching the bottle of clear soda Tyran threw to him.

“I really appreciate it Josiah, sorry I haven't made it to any meetings lately. Were backed all the way up to last year here.” Tyran said, taking a sip of his own drink.

“I can help you out ya know, I’m not great at the big stuff but I can do the easy parts for you.” Josiah argued.

“No, you already have enough work to do.” Tyran sighed.

“I already finished it all earlier, It doesn't take me that long to organize papers.”

“Did you double check the signatures and dates?”

“Of course, three times too! I feel like you’re underestimating me here man.” Josiah said, sinking into his seat.

“It’s not that I’m underestimating you, I just don't want to drag you down further.”

“What do ya mean? Look at Eugene he does tons of work.”

“Don’t compare me to Jin, he’s a bum and poor Eugene should replace him.” Tyran grunted.

“I didn’t mean it like that, I just feel that as your vice captain I should be doing more than organizing papers. The people below me are doing more work!”

“You’ve got passion Josiah, that’s good. But you should put that passion into what you want to do, not this stuff here.”

“...” Josiah didn’t respond; he only put his chin in his hand and sighed.

“Any labels reach out to you?” Tyran asked.

“Na, not a single damn one. It’s frustrating.”

“I see… Josiah, did I ever tell you why I got into finances?”

“No sir, I don't think so at least.”

“Well, growing up I was poor, dirt poor. I lived in a studio apartment in the slums of a large city with not even a loaf of bread in my pantry. The only ones who lived there were me, my older brother and our father. Despite our living situation my Father was rather wealthy, in fact he made nearly six figures.” Tyran said.

“Then why the hell were you living like that?” Josiah asked, raising his brow.

“Two main reasons: Drugs and gambling. My father, while a smart man with a good job, was a horrible person and even worse with his finances. He would blow his money on extravagant clothes for himself and go on drug binges gambling away all of his money. After three days of not seeing him he’d have not even a penny to his name and he’d slink back to our apartment where he’d beat my and my brother in frustration.”

“That’s fucked up…”

“Yeah it really was, he’d whip us with his crocodile skin gold buckled belt when we asked to eat. A belt that cost him five grand was used to beat me because I asked him to buy food. It was as if he was making fun of us. My older brother who was sick of living the way we were living joined a local gang and began to make a bit of money. He didn’t do anything major for them, just passed stuff along or did deliveries. With that little money he’d buy food and clothes for us. Thanks to him I didn’t have to wear the same stained and torn shirt I’d been wearing every day for years. One stained with blood and tears. But this change was short-lived. Once my father found out he was furious and kicked my brother out, he said he didn’t want a criminal in his house.”

This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

“...”

“The same night my brother got kicked out he got killed in a drive by. The gang he joined had shot one of their rival members in a drive by so this was revenge for that. We couldn’t even afford to cremate him. His body was sent to God knows where and all my father could say was that it served him right…”

“I’m sorry…” Josiah frowned, he sat in the awkwardness of the room while Tyran picked at his desk quietly.

“Well, time passed and I got a job at a local corner store, my father demanded I pay him half of my income as rent and while I did so I invested the other half with help from my manager. Eventually I got enough money to move out and get my own place. A small shack in the middle of the neighboring slums but I was happy enough to have my own bed and food in the fridge. My father after decades of failure finally hit it big and won a million bucks in a gamble. He didn’t say a word to me or give me a penny when he won. He just disappeared, I never heard from or about him again until a few years later I got a knock at my door from the police saying he’d been found dead in a ditch among some other bodies. He’d skipped out on some people who he owed money to and they ended up tracking him down and killing him along with his buddies he’d shacked up with… long story short that upbringing is the reason I got into finances. I swore to myself that I’d never be hungry again and that I'd always have a full stomach. To make sure of that I got into managing money and well… Now I’m here.”

“So much for never getting hungry huh?” Josiah sighed with a smile.

“Yeah, so much for that.” Tyran chuckled, throwing his burger wrapper and bag in the pen riddled trash. “Well now it’s your turn to tell me why you like music.”

“Oh, well It’s not as big a story as yours… My dad listened to Rap and Country a lot so I grew up listening to them. I started writing my own music so now here I am…”

“Your dad sure did like to listen to country, it killed me when he’d come in with his headphones blaring lyrics about driving tractors and herding cattle.”

“Hey, those are the best kind!” Josiah laughed.

“Well, even If I don't like the music you and he do, I think you should still pursue it. Of course don’t quit this job until you’ve made enough to keep yourself stable but don't give up on your music either. As long as I’m the Captain I’ll make sure you can both afford to live and work on your music at the same time.” Tyran said with a smile. “Now get outta here so I can finish this pile I was working on. I’m down to September now.”

“Alright, alright I’ll get outta here. Least you’re also most done though.” Josiah said, rising to his feet.

“Not even close, February and March are gonna kill me.”

“What happened in February and Mar- Oh…” Remembering Azhar's destruction Josiah bit his tongue.

“Yeah, I swear to god It’ll take me till next year to sort those out. The amount of insurance claims and medical bills from the Saharis branch's family members is driving me up the wall.” Tyran grumbled crumpling the paper he’d been working on in his hand and throwing it in the trash behind him.

# # #

Four men sat in a room, it was a small room with tatami mat floors and piles of swords, guns and other weapons stacked upon each other in a great heap.

In the middle of the pile the four men took their time maintaining and cleaning these weapons, applying oil and wiping away any smudges.

Two of these men were Julius Phoenicia and his Vice Captain Sairo Aslakin. Sairo was of average height with a muscular build and short black hair. His eyes were focused on the rifle in front of him which he inspected the knicks on.

“I think this one is pretty banged up…” Sairo said, showing the rifle to Julius.

“Put it into the [not sure] pile, we’ll test it out later.” Julius said motioning behind him with his head.

Across from Julius and Sairo were Pompeii and his own Vice Captain Kuro Kelheim. Kuro was also of average height but on the thinner side with long legs. He wore all black clothes which matched his naturally oily and flat black hair.

“When you said you had a job for us I was expecting something more fun…” Pompeii signed unsheathing his next sword.

“It’s your fault for saying yes without letting me finish.” Julius argued.

“You used my good nature against me! Knowing I’d never turn my best friend down… the thought just makes me sick to my stomach! To think you betrayed me! I shall henceforth name you Brutus!” Pompeii cried dramatically, placing the back of his hand against his forehead.

“I don't think Brutus Cascina would like that.” Julius responded, continuing to work on the katana in his lap.

“Cascina?” Pompeii asked, tilting his head to the side.

“The three star in our division.” Kuro muttered, nudging Pompeii. His voice was low and raspy like a radio signal disrupted by static.

“Ah! Yeah him, alright I get that joke now!” Pompeii laughed nervously.

“Ugh, I don’t even want to imagine his face when I tell him about what you just said…” Julius sighed, shaking his head.

“Wait Julius please don't! It’s just that I have a lot of names in my head! Think about it! Every single ant out of the trillions I have in my lab is named! Don’t you understand how confusing that gets!? I only have so much memory space in my brain ya know! Kuro vouch for me here!”

“He’s right Julius, for some reason he named every single ant.” Kuro agreed.

“He’s just messing with you Pompeii…” Sairo muttered, sitting down again.

“Julius messing with me? No way! This guy has no sense of humor! That’s why we work so well together! I’m the brain and he’s the brawn! And- Ow!” Pompeii was silenced from a whack to the head by the Katanas sheathe that Julius was working on.

“Shut up and work, you’ve been on that same broad sword for ten minutes already.” Julius growled with a vein appearing on his forehead.

“No I’m not, I just switched it out with this one!” Pompeii argued, grabbing the last sword he’d worked on and showing it to Julius.

“You missed a spot.” Julius said without looking up.

“What no I didn’t! How would you know if you didn’t look!?”

“Under the guard on the right side.”

“Under the guard and on the right side my ass - Oh wow there really is a smudge of dirt…” Pompeii gasped quickly, wiping it away with his rag.

“Sairo can you please double check all of Pompeii's pile and clean what’s left?” Julius sighed.

“Sure.” Sairo answered, crawling over to Pompeii's pile and starting to check them all.

“See this is why you shouldn’t have had me doing this in the first place! I’m not good at non-living things.” Pompeii grumbled.

“Feel free to leave if you don’t want to help anymore.” Julius said, moving onto his next Katana.

“Really? Great! You hear that Kuro we can ditch this place!” Pompeii laughed, jumping to his feet.

“No thank you, I’m gonna stay here and help out.” Kuro replied.

“What, why?” Pompeii groaned with an exaggerated frown.

“I find this rather relaxing, I’d like to continue doing it.” Kuro answered.

“Alright… fine.” Pompeii sighed sitting back down. “Can you at least show me how to do this the right way?” Pompeii asked.

“Sure.” Julius said with a small grin.