Ch. 16 Assignments

"What do you mean Derek is dead?!" Veronica shouts and jumps to her feet. Her eyes wide and her brows are furrowed. She plants her feet on the floor a few feet in front of the couch while Junior stands around 20 feet away near the glass wall.

Anza's shoulders slump. She looks at Lavi and just by her friends expression she can tell that Junior is speaking the truth. "No…" She whispers and tears well up at the corners of her eyes.

Junior turns around and faces the girls. He puts his arms behind his back, his expression stays neutral and he gazes at Veronica. "I mean that Derek died. Late last night, or early this morning, he drew his last breath. There are a few reasons why I'm calling everyone outside Vale back. One of them is for the various funerals that will be held. Roughly 72 Xiong family members have died that I know of so far. One of those being Derek. The culprits behind the Vale bombing have been… taken care of. Me and Derek went and fought a member of Spider that was responsible for the bombings and Derek lost his life. All that's left is to hold some funerals and get rid of the Spiders in Vale" He then looks at Lavi, he won't tell anyone that Derek was her father unless she wants to tell them.

Veronica's fists shake at her sides but then she opens them and sits back down and rests her elbows on her knees as she blankly stares at the floor. "How…?"

Junior takes a deep breath. "How? I already explained it. Me and Derek went to deal with this alone. But if you need more, so be it. We were outnumbered, 2 to 5. And these 5 were more monster than man. There was a girl leading them, she was the one that orchestrated all this. But she had lots of help from Spider. In the end I am the only one still breathing and walking around"

Lavi understands what this means. And she isn't sure how to feel about it. She knows Junior was fine before he entered the room of the girl, so when he exited with a hurt hand…

"Now do you want to sit around or do you want to clear out the rest of Spider from Vale?" Junior narrows his eyes.

Veronica looks at her palms, her mind racing. But she already has her answer.

Anza stands up and looks at Junior through her watery eyes. "What are your orders?"

Veronica clenches her fists, but this time with determination, and stands up next to Anza. "You already have a plan right?"

Lavi stands up as well, not wanting to be the only one sitting.

Junior gives a small smirk. "By tomorrow night Vale will be Spider free. Tell me, do you know if any other upper family members are back in Vale and haven't told me?"

Veronica shakes her head, her earrings moving with her hair. "None that we know of"

"Good" Junior walks over to his desk. "Because now I only have to punish you two for not reporting in. But that can wait until after Spider is booted out of my city"

The girls watch as Junior sits down and takes out some papers from inside his suit jacket. "I've got some names to start with. We will have some of the cleaners help out as well, but that doesn't mean you can make a mess of this. If you need help contact Cooper or Samone. I want this done swiftly and discreetly. Any exceptionally hidden targets will be left for Lavi to move once she is ready tomorrow. That means you two will be working the night shift. The list isn't long, but a few will be hard to find in such a short amount of time. I want this done so they don't become aware of what we are doing. Once you two are ready I should have the names of your targets and where you can drop them. Again, keep the mess to a minimum. I don't want more trouble with Spider than I already have, keep the targets breathing"

"We will be ready in 15 Boss" Veronica says.

Anza nods her head and tries wiping the tears away, but more continue to silently fall.

"Good, then go get ready" Junior lifts his chin towards the door.

Veronica walks out the door with Anza, who bows before leaving, behind her. After the door closes Junior and Lavi are left alone once again.

Junior begins going through the papers more in depth than his brief glance through them previously.

"Why can't I do anything now?" Lavi asks in a shaky tone as she walks up to his desk with short steps.

Without looking up Junior responds. "In your current state you wouldn't be able to activate your semblance with enough accuracy. And I'm unsure if you will even be ready tomorrow. I know how focused you need to be in order to teleport, and that's without you bringing another person with you. So take the rest of today and tonight to get yourself sorted. I'll be right here if you need me. I've got some other things to do than chase names around Vale. Lay down and enjoy the music" He waves over towards the couch.

Lavi frowns and walks over to the glass wall next to Junior's desk. She watches as Veronica and Anza walk into the back rooms without talking to any of the other people in suits. She backs up and puts her arms behind her on the corners of the desk, she jumps and tries to sit on the end of the desk.

Junior looks at Lavi from the corner of his eyes and sees her try to get on his desk. He watches as she fails to bring herself up. She nearly bashes the back of her head on his desk, but her swiftly puts his left hand beneath her falling head.

When Lavi's head touches Junior's hand she stops falling. Junior slides his hand down to her neck and moves her up and onto his desk.

Lavi was so surprised she fell that she forgot to shout. Her heart skipped a beat and was trying to catch up. And she was surprised when she felt Junior's hand on her head which stopped her fall. After she was sat on the desk and her brain began to start working again she turns toward Junior who is studying the contents of the paper intently. She doesn't know how he does things. "And you said it wasn't magic…" She mutters beneath her breath.

As Junior reads the list of information he wasn't surprised there wasn't much new information. Just some updates to where the targets are located and what they do within Vale. Nothing is too important so they can all be removed. He figures that Lil' Miss Malachite didn't want them to stick out too much. Because having them take an integral position in Vale would be seen as a direct threat to the Xiong family. Perhaps she wanted this to be more discreet. It's unlike the woman to be so cautious, especially since she believes the Xiong family to be so far below her and her group. Perhaps the Xiong family scares her more than she lets on. But that's just based on information he has read. Both in his last life and in Junior's father's notes. Junior can't know for sure until he meets the woman in person.

Lavi looks at Junior's serious expression as he slowly goes through the papers. Her heartbeat goes back to normal as she feels her eyelids grow heavy and her eyes sting. She takes her tail and hugs it as she lays down on the desk. She lays on her side facing Junior, her head barely missing the papers Junior sets down after reading. Each time she blinks it gets harder to open her eyes. She uses her hood as a makeshift pillow and isn't bothered by the hard wooden surface, even after these 2 years she remembers how she lived with her mom. Just having Junior next to her makes the desk more comfortable than the entire small shack house she used to live in.

After a minute of Lavi laying down Junior puts down another piece of paper filled with neatly written words. He glances at Lavi and sees her already passed out holding her tail. Her mouth slightly open and her cheeks slightly stained with her tears. Her red hair falls over her forehead or behind her neck.

Time passes as Junior looks at the small girl and he gets lost in thought. He needs Lavi to train her semblance more. She's currently a priceless asset to him, but if she can evolve her semblance she would skyrocket in value. If she's eventually able to travel between kingdoms it would make his plans much smoother. Or even if she is able to travel larger distances with more people it would be better.

Junior moves some of Lavi's hair out of her face. He remembers the first time Lavi awakened her semblance. She was so scared she did it unconsciously. Junior himself was asleep in the middle of the night after studying and training for an ungodly amount of hours. He was sleeping in his new bedroom that used to be his father's. The all of a sudden he was woken up by something clinging to his chest. The weight of something just randomly appeared on his chest and when his eyes shot open the room was pitch black, no lights were on nor was the door open. As he woke up more he heard sobs and felt small hands clinging onto him. He looked down and could faintly make an outline of a small girl. He mostly had to feel around with his hands. It was a dead giveaway it was Lavi by the sounds of her sobs and the almost incomprehensible words she was muttering. He was able to find her tail and her back. It took a while for her to calm down and when she did she was passed out. It wasn't until morning that Junior was able to talk with her and they found out she had awakened her semblance due to a particularly frightening nightmare.

He takes his hand away from Lavi and picks the papers up as he gets back to sorting through the information. He mentally sorts the names into lists based on how difficult they would be to evict from Vale. One for Lavi or himself, one for Veronica, a similar list to Veronica's is for Anza, and one for the cleaners. Cooper's job isn't just for cleaning up bloody messes, just like how Samone isn't just a barber. Samone can make people disappear, but his method is a bit more permanent unless instructed otherwise. There's also a few other people he can call on to get this job done as well.

He begins writing the lists down onto separate pieces of paper with the required information. He makes the lists for Veronica and Anza first.

*Knock* *Knock*

Junior looks up from his desk and over towards the door. He takes the lists he just finished writing and goes to the door. He opens it and sees Veronica and Anza dressed in the Xiong family black suit and red tie. He doesn't know why, but the women all decided that they also wanted to wear suits, he didn't and doesn't care so he let them. Regarding clothes, the upper family is special in this case in that they can wear what they want most of the time. Only rarely wearing their suits unless taking a mission directly from Junior. And their initials are stitched in red just above where their left breast pocket would be.

He holds out the folded pieces of paper to the respective person. "You will find a list of names and locations inside along with any relevant extra info. You also will find where to bring the targets. If anything goes wrong contact Cooper or if shit really hits the fan contact me personally. When you finish the lists come back here and let me know"

Both Veronica and Anza take the piece of paper.

"Now before you leave…" Junior folds his arms. "I don't care about your personal lives, but I'm not just going to ignore certain things"

Anza looks down and to the side as she blushes a little bit. It's not as much as it normally would be due to the unfortunate news of Derek's passing.

Veronica pockets the paper and rests her left hand on her hip. "What can't you ignore?"

Junior exhales through his nose and closes his eyes. "I can't ignore the fact that you two are in a relationship. Mainly due to the conflicting personalities. Veronica" He looks at the woman. "You have a very strong personality at times. It's not a bad thing but you tend to be a bit extreme at points. And Anza" He looks down at the small blue haired girl. "You tend to be a bit passive and let others do as they please. Which again, isn't necessarily bad as long as they don't take advantage of you. Now is Veronica forcing you to do something? And what is the extent of your relationship?"

Veronica frowns. "What are you insinuating? I wouldn't force-"

Junior glares at Veronica. "I know you wouldn't. But I can't ignore this possibility. You both work for me so I can't just have half the picture. I need the full picture so I can get what needs doing done. You both are part of the upper family that I rely on, it's imperative that I get the full picture. If your relationship doesn't hinder your jobs then that's great, but as soon as it does-"

"It won't!" Anza blurts out. She covers her mouth with both hands and bows her head. "I-I mean it hasn't and it won't sir!"

Junior shifts his glare to Anza. "What exactly do you mean by 'it' Anza?"

"W-what I mean is…" She glances to her side and sees Veronica nod. "We are dating"

"Lovely" Junior rubs his forehead. "I'm not going to say anything on this. I've watched you both recover from dark places. As long as you two don't make eachother miserable I'll stay out of it. BUT…" He glares at the two women. "If I find that it hinders your effectiveness and begins leading you two down a bad path I will not hesitate to cut things off"

Both Veronica and Anza flinch at this.

"It won't come to that" Veronica firmly states. It has been a while since she has seen Junior so scarily and deadly serious.

"E-exactly" Anza backs Veronica up.

Junior looks between the two girls. "I'm happy for you both" His tone softening. "But others won't be as understanding. And I don't think your age difference will matter, but there will always be those people. I know you two can handle certain things, but if there is a point when you think it might be too much you can come to me. I look forward to seeing your future together blossom" He gives a small smile.

Junior just needed to make sure the two were serious about what they are doing. It isn't bad to be in a gay relationship, but in certain places in Remnant it is taboo due to the declining population thanks to Grimm attacks. Or just general homophobia. And then there is the fact that Veronica is 22 and Anza is 17 right now. Again, it shouldn't be a problem but there are always going to be someone that draws attention to it. But that problem should end in a year.

"It shouldn't come to that Boss" Veronica says and straightens up her posture.

Anza bows her head. "I pray it won't"

"We can hope for the best" Junior says and then turns around and opens the office door. "But we prepare for the worst"

Veronica and Anza watch as Junior goes back into his office. After a few seconds go by Veronica turns around.

"Let's get to work" Veronica doesn't know what else to do. At least this way she is somewhat avenging Derek's death. Otherwise she would just be sitting around this place twiddling her thumbs with nothing to do.

Anza has to run a little to catch up to Veronica. She opens her piece of paper and reads what's on it. "It looks like Mr. Xiong has made the list in order"

"In order?" Veronica questions as she pulls hers back out.

Anza rereads the information. "Yes. He listed the targets based on location of where they should be. He even wrote that he will send us the targets pictures soon. If it wasn't organized like this it would probably take twice or three times as long"

Veronica looks at her list. The locations do seem to line up. "Guess he's still thinking a few steps ahead"

——————

After Junior sends the two off he goes back to his desk. He still has to send out the other lists. Then he's gotta check what assets Lavi will be getting. Check the process of the funds given out for the damages of Vale and the funerals and medical bills. And he has no idea when the cops will show up with the paperwork he's supposed to fill out.

Then there is whatever has been hiding under his desk in his official office.

With a long and heavy sigh Junior sits back down. He looks down at his left hand as he stretches his fingers and rolls his wrist. Overusing his semblance is not going to be an option, and he needs to keep his emotions more in check. He definitely overdid it, but he wasn't sure how much force was needed to cause a one-shot through aura. He got the desired result, but it could have been from the fact the girl had a small amount of aura to begin with.

Junior taps a button under his desk and a holographic computer screen quickly flickers to life along with a keyboard. Lavi barely doesn't obstruct the computer or keyboard.

And so Junior gets working.