His lips were chapped but at the same time he was sweating like crazy, the veins around his head looked crazy and stuck out so much they were ready to blow. His arms and hands were shaking but he kept them tightly around his stomach.
Joao didn't want to approach him but he also needed answers from him. Slowly Joao placed his hand on Phenyo's shoulder. Phenyo looked and saw Joao with his hand covering his mouth. "Do something," Joao shook him.
Phenyo nervously let his eyes wander trying to find something to help stabilize the man. A cough interrupted his search and he looked down to see the old man inhaling a large gulp of air before getting back to normal.
"Old man are you okay?" Phenyo asked.
"You need to get out of here," he slowly said in a raspy voice.
Phenyo ignored and glared at Kofi who put the old man in this position without a good reason. "Why did you do that?"
"Don't get righteous on me, we are trying to join a mafia, not the police force. Besides doesn't this old guy have enemy written all over his face."
"Just because the mafia doesn't follow the law it doesn't mean that they are breeding monsters."
"Hypocrite, why don't you quit now before it gets too hard for you to handle?"
Phenyo clenched his fists and furiously turned to Joao, "TELL…"
"We are running out of time, it's already past five. If this old man doesn't talk I'll also take the liberty to stomp on him myself." Joao said before Phenyo could finish his complaint on Kofi's behavior.
"Either you let us get answers from him or you do it yourself."
Phenyo stopped frowning looked at the old man as if he was about to cry, "grandpa can you please tell us what happened to you?"
The old man smiled, "you're a kind child and I wouldn't like for you to get involved in these things. But for your sake, I will tell you." The old man gave some exposition and after picking out the important bits Joao summarized that there were people in the building at the end of this street who wanted to collect weekly "tax" from the locals and claimed that it was for the Divinity family. Fortunately for them, this situation had only begun this week.
This means that apart from verbal threats and a constant reminder that Friday was approaching, nothing had really happened to the people. The three boys were currently making their way up to the building's management office. The elevator was out of commission and Joao wouldn't have wanted to take it even if it was up running.
Upon reaching the room in question, Kofi kicked the door open and Joao stood there entranced by his strength. When he got inside he noticed that the room was much darker than the hallway. Smoke from cigarettes filled the room and the guys inside were laughing oud out l, enjoying the music which drowned out the door being kicked in.
Kofi walked in, then Joao with Phenyo behind all three of them. The first person to notice them jumped from the table and ran to the radio by the window to switch it off. The others screamed and he pointed at the door.
"Aren't you guys from our neighboring school? Your boss is part of Divinity, what kind of bull is this then?" Kofi said.
"I'm pretty sure it's your fault. Haven't you had enough of me tossing you around?" Joao said to the boy standing by the stereo.
"Tossing me around? HA! That's rich," Tumi exclaimed. "For a second there I thought you were an actual threat seeing you with King, but now since he is not here, you look more like a fragile egg than you do a fighter."
"Do you know that girl Bronze?" The bulky guy sitting on the chair behind the only table in the room asked.
"First of all that's a boy, secondly don't ever call me that again, I love the name on my certificate, and lastly don't talk to me like we're friends," Tumi said without even turning to look at the guy.
In the room there were two others, they were also big and muscular, if it wasn't for the fact that they were in uniforms, Joao would've never guessed that they were in high school.
Judging by the space in the room, Joao thought that he might be at a disadvantage. It would only take Tumi four giant leaps to get to him, next to him however was a bookshelf with nothing in it.
The next pieces of furniture were the desk and the office chair, the sofa was the two other muscular boys were smoking. Finally, there was a mop and a bucket by Kofi who was on Joao's left.
Tumi noticed Joao look around the room and grinned, "it doesn't matter what you are thinking. I already know how you fight, so it will be impossible to beat me in here."
"DIsgusting," snarled the bulky boy as he looked at Joao.
"Well, it doesn't matter anyway because we didn't come here to fight."
"WHAT!?" Tumi, Kofi, Phenyo, and the other three boys exclaimed with the ones who were sitting standing in panic.
"It's all too convenient, the old man, the fake informant, and finally the nearly empty room where you are supposedly collecting tax. This was all a ploy set to lure in helpless members of Divinity, beat them into a pulp, and continuously do the same until you reach your goal.
"I'm going to leave here in one piece and tell Monkey about all of this to make sure he investigates until he finds out what your final goal is in our territory," Joao said this as he backed out of the door, as far as he was concerned Kofi and Phenyo could be against him. But he knew that once he gets the chance, no one will be fast enough to catch him.