Morning Inventory (Morning-Part time Job)

Life in Endymion wasn't glamorous even by comparison to the rest of the world. Even though his time in Seven Stars College was just starting, Akuma sort of dreaded going to it. It was one of the few stable places in the world that society was still functioning, even including Japan since the Eternal Divine.

Even now, he hated the fact in a few hours, he would have to go to class. It didn’t feel like a day he wanted to go there. The stigma of his past followed him like the stench of a sewer, and one no one wanted to associate with. He laid there in bed for a bit, resting as he saw the clock blink 9: Am.

“AKUMA!!” A voice shouted from downstairs. “Get your butt down here now. I’m not running a fucking bed and breakfast, you know.”

Akuma sighed as he pulled himself up in his single bed, pressed in the corner. His stuff was still in boxes as he had not had the time to unpack most yet. His room had a desk, a mini-fridge, a bookshelf and a small tv/dvd player. Beyond that, it was just bare bones. Even the Seven Star Dorms probably had better digs than this, but he was only able to attend via being enrolled as a commuter student.

Leaving out of his fading-wallpaper room, he marched down the steps that led to the second floor-- the housing area of the building-- and finally down the last pair of steps that led to the shop below.

Below he exited the stairs to be in the back room of a kind of workshop, with a series of guns, daggers and other tools of weaponry. Such shops had no place in Endymion as against the laws of the city-- however, a good majority of these items were props, decorations or hunting utility items.

As he left the back room, he entered a narrow shop space with a series of the fake rifles and other cuttery on the walls in display.The shop was roughly 3 meters in width, with 12 meters in depth, but a good third of it was buried in boxes along the walls. Near the front entrance, was a large man in statue-- almost as tall as Akuma was, but with a more noticeable amount of muscle mass. He had a bald head with a scar along the side-- and wore a pair of sunglasses as he lifted boxes from the floor to the glass counter. Inside the counter, were a variety of objects from classic weapons, to airsoft ammo.

“Yeah, Daigo,” Akuma groaned half-sleepily, as he ducked under the small arch of the opening in the desk. “What’s up?”

Daigo was Akuma’s guardian, technically. Only reason that his father could send him to the city was because one of his ex-clan members had a shop there. Though no longer involved with the life, for personal reasons, he agreed to keep in touch with Akuma’s father and help him out from time to time. Nothing to do with anything illegal-- or so Akuma figured. After all, an airsoft gun shop could easily still carry guns that were modified. Besides, the man offered room and board to him.

“I got a fresh order of hunting knives and MK 20 models in,” the older man said as he lifted one of the boxes. “Think you can give me a hand opening and sorting em out.?”  

“Am I getting a choice?” he said in a careless tone of voice. “I do got class to get to.”

“Yeah, later this afternoon,” Daigo countered, casting a glare at Akuma. “Don’t try to con a con man. I’m not asking for much-- unless this is how you show gratitude for free room and board. Boss’ kid or not you gotta respect your elders.”

“Alright, alright… sorry,” Akuma replied with a rub of his head and proceeded to the boxes. “Just got alot on my mind. I just gotta sort em out, right?”

“Yeah,” Daigo said, cracking a small smirk. “Just put em on the counter, then we can put them up on the shelf.”

“What shelf?” Akuma said as he reached into his pocket. He glanced around at the upper shelves, seeing stuff stocked and excess boxes along the further wall. “You got so much shit here there is hardly room for anything else new.”

“Hey all of these things are valuable” the man said as he put another box on the counter. “They all have their place.”

Akuma rolled his eyes and drew out a pocket knife from his pocket. With a flick of the blade, he cut into the cardboard box and proceeded to open it, finding smaller colored boxes that contained the knives and hunting gear. Since each box had their own sets of the same object, it was easy for him to stack them on top of each other into individual piles. Slicing the box further apart, he found twenty of each item and picked up a couple at a time to the counter.

A half hour later, he finished with three of the boxes while Daigo finished the other three he had. Akuma was starting to feel the need for a smoke as he stacked the rest up in order. “Alright, done with these. Anything else you need?” he asked, “I really should get going, or I won’t be able to get to my class in time.”

The older man paused for a moment as he put the last of his products on the counter. “Fine… Guess I can’t blame you for wanting to be punctual,” he replied and turned to his work. “You know, you’re old man wants me to keep tabs on you. Just asking you help out every now and again. Hell, I am paying you for helping me too… it's not like I needed to take care for you.”

Akuma rose up and pocketed his knife. “I’m going to get my things. When I get back, I’ll help you with the shop.” he said, a somewhat indirect way of saying ‘thank you’.

A chuckle escaped Daigo. “Smartass… just like your father,”

AKuma stopped mid way up the steps as he glanced back at him. He tried not to react but the stare back spoke volume.

He hated the idea of being compared to his father.


(Job post . Word count--1062)