“Yeah, all that fighting has to suck, but I never have seen a Samurai stare at a google excel spreadsheet for eight hours straight.”
Office worker- 2040
_________
Well, this was it. The only people that will be harder to tell I had just become a Samurai was my parents. These people were the closest things I had to friends, knew more about Samurai than just about anyone else, and me becoming a Samurai meant that I would not get to hang out with them as much. One, I would be losing this job for sure since I would have to focus on Samurai stuff and the fact I had enough money now I didn’t need to even work anymore.
The second part was we were in sales. We talked to Samurai, got their old shit, then sold it to the local military groups, contract companies, other Samurai wanting to diversify or try stuff out, and more for banks to help fund the Family.
Now that I was a Samurai all my old friends now had to treat me like a client rather than a co-worker or friend since there were pretty much no Samurai around. Granted we did business with the Samurai in some of the outposts and settlements nearby, but those places were far out there.
“Look…” I took a deep breath. “Y’all know about the new Samurai right? The Anachronist?” I looked around at my co-workers. “Welll… That’s me. I got picked after defending the vault when it didn’t close.”
My boss let out a swear then to my surprise I saw people smiling wide while others let out swears of their own before using their augs for something. “What’s up? I know we don’t have a ton of work recently so why are some of you so pissed off? We can still hang out sometimes?”
Karla, the girl that sat next to me, laughed hard. “Oh bitch please. Bets are being settled right now. We are not mad at you!”
The fuck?
“The fuck do you mean bets are being settled? You guys bet on me being the new Samurai!? How? Why?”
“There was nothing to do yesterday and suddenly we were lit up with news about a new ‘rai, so of course we watched what was going on.” Steve chimed in. “Mary cheered when Captain Carnage was reported dead. Never could stop him from sending her pics of his “Hammer.”-
This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.
“Never understood why he was so proud of it. More of a knife than a sword and from what Sally said the lazy bastard never could use it ri-” Mary cut Steve off only for Steve to grab the conversation back.
“-ANYWAY. A new Samurai pops up where you went as well, so we were watching the news to see if we could spot you. Instead we see a Samurai with a love for pre-anthesis history running around. I want you to name three other locals who know more about pre-anthesis history more than you who don’t work at the museums or teach.”
“Plus the new Sam’ was damn good at tactics and clearly knew their shit about Sam’ stuff.” Karla chimed in.
“Right! Well we connected the dots and some of us guessed it had to be you under that mask. Many said no since you were skinny now, but I pointed out a lil’ ‘rai tech would help you lose weight. Arguments broke out and we settled on making bets. Once you came in late and skinny as fuck most of us demanded to be paid out right then and there, but Bob-” Steve motioned to the boss. “-said if we were gonna bet on you like a sim race we had to wait until the news crossed the finish line.”
I stared at them for a long time before finally sighing and nodding along. “Yeah. Fair enough.” I looked up at all of them with a smile. Yeah, I was gunna miss these guys. “Hey Bob, tag.” I called out to my former boss.
“What do you mean ta-” He blinked before letting out a long groan of pain. “Of course you didn’t.”
“Nope! I wanted to let you guys know first after all! Besides, I didn’t want to deal with any of their pitches juuuust yet. You also get the honor of announcing I am staying in the family.”
“Some honor! Do you know how much paperwork it is going to be to announce you are a Samurai now!? I don’t have any fuckin’ idea since I haven’t even heard of another time a member of the family’s corporate becoming one! Plus, you were under my command! I am going to be answering questions for hours!” He hissed.
“Yeah, but maybe you will get a bonus. Plus you would get paid for the questioning.” I pointed out with a smug smile.
“I can’t help but feel like you are getting me back for something.” He let out a long, deep sigh from his very soul. “Fine.” He then looked at the others. “Get ready for questioning.” He warned the rest. “This is a rare chance for the family to get lots of information to help track down potential Vanguard candidates so you know they are going to come after us all. I’ll ease up on deadlines as well when they start dragging us to the fancy rooms since it is going to take awhile. Oh, and I will try to get a few company lunches out of this in order to ‘celebrate.’ I’ll tell em’ it’s to help encourage team building and to try to bribe you all for more info.” He explained with a smug smile to the crew that just cheered along.
I was going to miss working here for sure.
“By the way, Bob. I am going to need your help running a plan up the ladder. Sure I could strong arm it like most Samurai, but this plan probably will work better with the Family happily working alongside me rather than just because I told them to.”
Bob then froze and his smile faded. He walked up to me, patted my back, and motioned for me to follow. Naturally, I did.
“Hey. Anachronist.” He whispered to me. “Shit is more fucked than you might think.” He whispered softly. “It’s on a need to know basis and up until now you didn’t really need to know. Now that you are a Samurai, one with a… particular loadout, you will need to know. Get ready for a special meeting soon.” He warned.