She stood up as she adjusted her tinted glasses, examining our papers, giving each of us a quizzical look after each read. Her office was... gold, pure, cold, and especially hard gold. Nothing looked comfortable, but all looked expensive.
"So, you two believe that you have the right to work at my club, do you?" The manager walked back and forth, her silver, slicked-back hair pulled into a bun, glistening from overuse of gel.
"Not the right, but I do believe that we would be a great asset." Responded Vesta calmly. "I have had plenty of experience working in clubs on cruise ships, and back in Greece, I had a job as a waitress at a hotel."
"I see." She said as she flashed eight golden fangs at us like a hungry wolf. Her red lips curled into a slight smile, "and you, dear. You fancy yourself a bartender, you look no older than my own youngling."
"I haven't worked in the industry before, but I'm smart enough to keep up when needed. This is my only opportunity to make enough money to get through school, so please consider us."
She sat down on her throne, adjusting her suit as she looked over our recommendations, Liam gave us. "Tell me, how did a couple of runts like you two get a main branch member to stamp you with a recommendation? I wish they had included their name so that I could ask them myself, bastards know they owe me after what I've done to keep this place running. Well, that's life. Alright, I see no reason to turn you away. Your uniforms are in the staff room on the second floor. Make your way down there and prove yourselves."
"We are starting immediately?" I asked quickly.
"Problem?" Her eyebrow rose just above her glasses.
"No ma'am, what she meant to say was thank you for the opportunity."
She smiled at us warmly, and for a moment, I forgot that she's a cold-hearted killer. "You're welcome, my love. Please, do your best out there, or else. Markus, show these ladies to the staffroom and kitchen." A tall Arabian, black haired man with a thinly cut beard stepped up.
"YES, MA'AM!" he said quickly whilst saluting. It looked like he hurt himself doing so.
We walked down the corridor to the elevator, riding down to the staff room.
"Damn, she's crazy," I whispered.
"Well, she's a gang leader who earned enough respect to work in the main city. Of course, she's messed up in the head. But that doesn't matter, as long as we are careful and get Liam that info on the door, we will have done our job. Let's get our uniforms and start our day."
We walked to the staff room and grabbed our uniforms. A tailored suit with a bow tie and white rose embroidery patterns down the arm.
"Who the hell are you two, and what are you doing in my team's uniform?" A gruff old man stood before us. He was about 6'7 with a similar uniform to use, but where we had a vest, he had a blazer with a much more extravagant rose pattern.
"We are the new bartenders, sir. We just started today, so we wanted to get a bit of background information on how this place works. Greetings, my name is Vesta Mochi."
"Like the food?" He asked, confused.
"Parents liked food." She said cheerfully.
"Well, alright, and you?"
"Hidaka Shitarin."
"The hell does that surname even mean?"
"Donno, you'd have to ask my brother."
"The boss already gave them the okay, sir." Chirped in Markus.
"Well, fine, it's not like I can argue with HER anyway, just don't ruin the workflow and I won't have you skinned alive. Markus, show these ladies to their work stations.
"Sir."
He walked us to the club's dance circle. A magenta carpet was laid across the floor with golden stripes making diamond shapes all over. In the centre was a large round bar, thirty metres in diameter. It had a desk going all the way around with a glowing barstool that looked like it was made of marshmallow. A neon strip ran just underneath the table top, and in the centre of the bar was a tower of drinks ordered from least expensive at the bottom to the most expensive at the top. Then the large tower is split into groups of alcohol, beer, brandy, whisky, Champagne and so on.
"You won't need to worry about running out, see." He walked into the bar area and pulled out a bottle of Blue Lagoon. As the bottle left the stand, a new one was slotted in by a mechanical arm almost immediately.
"We aren't allowed to start the day with a used bottle, so any bottles that don't get emptied, you can take them home."
"But some of these bottles could go for ten thousand yen, wouldn't people just start multiple bottles and then sell them at home?"
"Each table has a microphone." Beeped the intercom. It was Lady Sif, the boss lady.
"You could hear us?"
"Everything from when you entered the room. The microphones are pretty high quality, so even through the music, I can hear everything."
(I see, so no talking about the plan when we are at work, damn.)
"Anyway, I'll show you guys how to make a few basic drinks, then I'll be on my way."
We spent a few hours learning how to make cocktails and good drink combos. Before long, the DJ walked in, and it was Juliana.
"Julz?"
"Aiko, actually, I'm filling in for Julz today. Thing is, I've got this boring brand launch for crocks coming up, and I didn't feel like doing it, so I'm cosplaying her, and she's cosplaying me."
"Well, best of luck."
"Thank you, but I don't need luck. Good day, Shitarin."
"Isn't she a peach?" Said Vesta sarcastically.
"She's alright once you get to know her."
"Well, do you know her?"
"No..."
"Uha."
Before long, the club was packed with people partying like crazy. Though I hate to admit it, Aiko made a pretty good Julz; the songs she played got everyone pumped, even me. The night when on well for the most part until in the middle someone came to my table. A Korean lady in a lavish dress stumbled toward me, her boyfriend next to her. "Hey, we need more drinks. Get it quick, please." The lady looked up at me, she looked dayzed, like she's been drinking all night.
"I don't think that's a good idea; the lady over there doesn't look so well."
"It's our last drink before I take her back to her house, please, just one more?"
"Alright, sure, what would you like?" I asked.
"Whisky on the rocks." The lady looked up at me, "Angel shot, please."
"Angel...shot? I don't think we have that, but I'll look in the back." I walked to Vesta, "Hey Vesta, I'm worried about the lady over there, imma call security and see if they can keep an eye on her. Also, do you know what an angel shot is?"
She turned around quickly, "Who asked for one?" I point at the lady. "Okay, I'll take care of it, you just watch over the table."
She walked over to them and told the lady to stay at the bar, and walked off with her boyfriend. (That's... weird) eventually she came back and took the lady to the kitchen, then returned.
"Vesta, your hand is bleeding."
She looked down at the cut on her wrist as she sealed it up with her miso, "What was that all about?"
"Angel shot, poor girl was drugged."
"In a place like this?"
"Male or female, you can't let your guard down anymore. It's truly sad to be honest."
Other than that, the day went alright. Eventually, we began cleaning up the bar as Lady Sif walked to us.
"So how was your first day?"
"Pretty alright. Can't complain."
"Lovely, oh and Julz dear."
"Yes, ma'am", Aiko responded in a cutesy voice, imitating her sister perfectly.
"Please make sure to actually come this time. You are good, Aiko, but I hired Julz, not you."
"Aaaag, damn it. Alright, I'll pass on the message. Sorry, Auntie Sif." She walked up to Aiko and kissed her cheek roughly.
"It's okay, now run along home, sweetheart." Aiko walked off, and Sif turned to us again.
"Also, I heard about the angel shot, good work, Vesta, you passed with flying colours. You can come out now." The drugged lady walked out, and so did the man claiming to be her boyfriend; he looked like he had been put through a meat grinder.
"So it was staged?"
"Yes, I don't care too much about the legitimacy of your skills as a bartender, but any bartender worth their liquor should always, ALWAYS, look after their clients. Hidaka, you saw that she wasn't okay and tried to point that out; you were also willing to get security to keep an eye on her. That's very commendable. Vesta, you knew what an angel shot was and took action as quickly as possible, disposing of the scumbag and calling the police, but most importantly, you checked to make sure that he was guilty by searching for contraband before attacking him. Well done."
"Sorry about roughing you up, but you did cut my hand." She said softly.
"It's okay, I did sign up for this, damn you are strong though. Didn't expect to be fighting a ninja."
"Anyone who would take advantage of another is scum in my eyes, and scum should be dealt with accordingly. We at the Vermont Delores take no prisoners when it comes to our foes. We may be assassins and soldiers no more, but mark my words, every last one of us can wield a blade. Stand proud, children. Now you work amongst the elites in the entertainment industry! THIS IS A GENUINE SALUTE, SOLDIER!" She saluted us with so much gusto that it awakened something within Vesta and me.
"YES, MA'AM!" we both yelled back, as we saluted our new commander. (Damn it, now I'm doing it too.)
The clean-up was actually kind of fun. I met the rest of the staff, and it was a blast talking to them. A lot of them are far older than me, but they have very interesting war stories, many of them war heroes from the Battle of Red Snow. Once we finished Vesta and I asked to see the art gallery since we normally would be too poor to pay for visitation tickets, and we got a free pass from the chef, who seems he's nicer than I thought. We walked down the corridors, looking at the paintings, taking pictures with our pen cams that Liam bought for us. We could see multiple high-quality paintings that would actually get us a pretty penny and definitely would get the attention of the police. Vesta was flirting with a guard down the hallway, seemed to be working like a charm. I walked to the bathroom to wash the exhaustion off my face. I walked to the mirror to check myself out...(damn it, life's not fair). Eventually, Vesta caught up with me, and we walked home together.
"Any luck?" I asked.
"I couldn't find anything too useful just by looking. We may have to go again on Monday."
"And the guard?"
"Oh, that, I figured that if there was a massive hidden tunnel somewhere in this building, it would need a massive vent, so I asked if there were any weird air currents in the building since I have allergy issues. Apparently, the chef's office is always cold and has air drafts despite only having one window, so that's probably where we should look."
"Nice, okay then. I'll see you Monday, then?"
"Ya. Hey, are you okay?"
"Ya, getting by."
"And...and Sweet? He hasn't messaged me in a while now."
(When did they even trade numbers?)
"He's kinda been ignoring me lately, honestly, I'm not sure if we will ever be like we used to." I looked down solemnly. Vesta walked up to me and hugged me tightly, "Hey, I know things are hard now, but we'll always be here for you, okay. If you ever feel alone, feel free to come over to our place and stay the night. The kids are rowdy, but they are a sweet bunch."
"Thank you, Vesta, truly." She patted my head and walked off home, disappearing into the night. As I reached home, the camera spotted me and opened the gate. As I walked in, I could hear rap music playing in the background. I reached the front hangar door and saw Sweet destroying a punching bag. He had a few bruises on his stomach, probably from a job gone wrong.
"You okay?"
He simply looked at me, surprised, then his face turned to hurt as he continued to demolish the punching bag. A burning sensation flushed through my eyes as I asked, "Are you planning on ignoring me forever?"
"What do you want me to say, Hida?"
"I...I don't know."
"Quit the dragons, they don't care about you as I do."
"They do Sweet, through thick and thin, they've watched out for me. You have to believe me on that."
"Oh, I'm sure they watched your back. What I mean is, if they cared about you as I do, they wouldn't ask you to risk your future like this. You are an ace student, smart as a whip and destined for greatness, yet they ask you to risk it all so that you can what, rob some poor convenience store owner? Beat up a few cops, break into a jewellery store. What have you actually gotten from them that helped you better yourself?"
"Freedom."
"What?"
"With them, I don't have to be the ace student or the perfect sister. I just have to be me. Even if I weren't a fighter, they wouldn't shun me. In this world, my only value is that of a scholar, a useful cog in a corrupt machine; nobody cares who Hida is."
"I care. I don't want to see what happened to mom and dad happen to you."
"What happened to them?"
He removed his gloves and sat on the couch facing the TV. He patted next to him as I walked by and sat down.
"As you already know, they were Yakuza leaders, the Hellhounds. They are the progenitors of the Headhunters. What you don't know is that they operate mostly in the snowy mountains of Osaka, training the next henchmen to run clubs in the city of Tokyo. Their operations would mostly be drugs, trafficking and assassination. Our mother is the current leader."
"She's still alive?"
"It's a guess, but an educated one."
"What makes you think she's alive?"
"For one, every time a new head is appointed, they are either removed, killed or resign within a week. The other thing is who we are dealing with. Her power is so great that even the Kara-no-gokis avoid her. They were ruthless killers all of them, our siblings included."
"Siblings?"
"There are about twelve of us total. But now I'd say we are probably four. When we are born, our parents put us through horrific training. And if we fail, we are left in the woods with wolves hunting us. If we survive, we are forgiven; if we fail well, 'we can just make another one' is our father's favourite line. When I was born, I was...a failure, I was offered to the wolves a total of sixteen times, yet I was only seven, my brother and sister each fell one by one as the years went on, only my two older brothers, and now you are left. When you turned five, you were given a knife and told to kill someone. Some poor reporter went digging into our lives, so as punishment, she would have to watch her daughter get killed by our mother's daughter in an arena. You refused, and well. Mother shot them both and sent you to the wolves. I doubt you even remember all this. I couldn't stand there and watch you die, so I ran after you. Grabbed you and sprinted for my life. The saddest part is that they were very kind when they were young. High school sweethearts, even. But when they sank their teeth into organised crime, they lost their humanity. I don't want to see you become them. Please...stop." A tear rolled down his cheek. I leaned in and hugged him tightly, "I-I promise, I'll walk out. But I have to help my friends first. One last job, then we can do what you want." He pushed me back and looked me in the eyes.
"Damn it, Hida, alright then. Tomorrow you come with me to work, I'll show you what's coming."