Lookism: What Am I Even Doing?

Chapter 70

(Daniel's POV)

The man was bit on the shorter and leader side. He wore an expensive black suit with a white button down shirt and something golden embroidered into his sleeve. From this distance it was hard to tell what it was but there was a flash of recognition in my brain.

Other than those details, there was very little that I could say about him other than he wore a mask. It was actually by his mask that I knew he didn't work for Hostel. I'm sure Jace would know if they did have some sort of weird circus uniform. The mask is half white, half red and gold. Split into a vibrant checkered pattern with golden plumes around the eyes. Too elegant for Hostel.

That's when I remembered Purple and Diamond talking about someone coming by later to put in an order. But put in an order for what? Was this person helping them distribute their legging and spit business? Or was this...my hands curled into fists...the people who buy kids from their "families" like Hilarious said.

"Red mask. Just on time. Now it's a 3 vs. 2," Purple smiled, "Look who has the advantage now."

Zack and I took a step back from the duo, the man in the suit unmoving from his position near the warehouse door. This wasn't good. Zack and I barely found our rhythm from fighting with these two. I'm not sure how we could deal with another experienced fighter. There's also something about that masked man that tells me he's quite strong.

"Ah, very sorry but I can't. You see, my boss said we don't want to do business anymore. He said you will be very messy soon and it would be best to stay away." His speech was broken like a foreigners'. "Today I come in kindness to say we do not need your services."

Both Purple and Diamond faces feel into both shock and anger, "What do you mean you won't do business with us anymore! Your boss and our Big Daddy have a deal!"

Diamond took a step forward, "Do you know what will happen to you when Big Daddy finds out about this?! He hates unloyal people! You damn Masks!"

The suited man tucked his hands together behind his back and tilted his head to the side, "There is no loyalty, only contract. And in contract you said the kids you give us are all over 19. But why do we get younger than that? It's a shame we had to get rid of such good product. So by viol-viola-tsk. How difficult. By not following rules of contract my boss says we can choose to not do business anymore with Hostel A."

Zack grabbed me by the arm, "The fuck? So is he with them or not?"

I shrugged, growing more nervous by the second, "I-I'm not sure."

Diamond scowled, "You damn Birds can't decide that by yourselves!"

The masked figure slowly slipped off his coat, "Yes. My Boss said Hostel will be angry at us for leaving Haruki so help them. He said to help for one minute. One minute is good?"

I pressed my back against Zack's as we watched the Masked man take a step forward. He took out his phone then put on a timer. He showed us the timer on his phone then started it before tossing his phone to the side. His thick phone case would never be mistaken for the other phones littering the ground around us.

Diamond hissed, "You bastards. But-"

Purple finished, "We'll take what we can get."

Blinking takes between 0.1 and 0.4 seconds by estimate. And I only blinked twice before my body went weightless. The first time, the figure disappeared from his place near the door and only a couple feet away from me. In my second blink, he had his hand captured on the belt of my pants. It took, at most, 0.8 of a second for me to realize that we were never going to win this fight.