Two small notebooks hit a small wooden desk with a sharp slap.

'Ms. Sutcliff," said the stoic reaper whose hand lay on top of said ledgers. "Where is he. You must know."

A fiery-haired reaper looked up at her boss with a tired expression. "Sir, I do. Not. Know."

"You must. You have always spent the most time with him. Do not think I have not noticed. You two leave work together. Socialise. You must know of his whereabouts."

"Mr. Spears, I do not-"

I do not have time for your foolishness Cezánne Sutcliff. This is the third time that I have learned of a spontaneous death and I am sure that Grell Sutcliff is behind them. I do not appreciate the incessant paperwork and overtime behind the workings of Mr. Sutcliff and I demand you put an end to this. This is the third woman in two weeks that should not have died. Each extraneous murder of his causes me more paperwork and each day he is gone causes me more effort. This is the end of the third month that he has shirked his responsibilities and remained absent from work. Tell. Me. Where. He. Is."

"…"

"Ce-"

"With all due respect, Mr. Spears," sneered the woman as she glared her golden and yellow eyes are her superior, "even if I did know where Grell was, why are you asking? Can not one of your position find him on your own? Why must you ask such a lowly employee? Are you truly this incapable? It makes you seem low."

"Sutcli-"

"Almost as low as a demon perhaps."

"Sutcliff! You will learn your place while you are under my authority do you understand?"

"Yes, sir!" she smirked.

"Get to work. I will find him myself."

"You do that Mr. Spears."

He sent a glare in her direction before leaving the small space of the woman's cubicle.

Cezánne sighed and stared daggers at the two ledgers on her desk. She flipped through them, then picked them up and stormed out of her cubicle. "William! William!"

The door of the office of William T. Spears opened with a small bang. "That is Mr. Spears to you Cezánne. Learn to respect your superiors."

She glared at him indignantly. "Well, Mr. Spears, you should learn not to overwork your employees. I cannot possibly do all of these reapings! They're to close in time and too far apart in distance! And-"

Miss Sutcliff. I am sure you will be fine."

"-Why do I have two To- Die Lists? Two is too much!"

"One is yours, the other is Grell Sutcliff's."

"That isn't fair, why do I have to do his work too?"

"Someone must do it and we are severely understaffed, if you have not noticed."

"Well… Can't you-"

"I can take a couple reapings for you Cezánne-senpai," interrupted a smiling Ronald Knox.

The fiery woman smiled. "oh thank you Ronnie, I would really app-"

"You will o no such thing Ronald Knox."

"oh…" said the young reaper meekly. "Hello Spears-senpai."

"Hello Knox."

Cezánne sighed. "William, why can't he help? He's just trying to be h=nice. I know its hard to understand since you don't know how to be kind but give the kid a break! You don't have to be so harsh!"

"He has his work and you have yours. Get to it."

Ronald pouted and leaned his head on Cezánne's shoulder. "I'm sorry Senpai. I have to go. I've got a reaping in a few minutes. Maybe we can hang out after work today? I wish we could hang out with Grell-senpai too but…. Well anyway I'll see you later!"

The female nodded and kissed the young man's forehead before he transported into the human realm, leaving behind a fading curl of pink smoke.

Cezánne watched her superior's retreating back for a couple seconds. "William."

The man huffed inaudibly. "Yes, Miss Sutcliff?"

"This is too much work. I can't do it."

"You will be fine Miss Sutcliff. You can teleport between the reapings. Stop complaining and get to work."

"But teleporting make me dizzy!"

"If something so simple as teleporting, which is embedded into you genetic code, causes you so much trouble, then you should be working in glasses of HR, not out in the field reaping, If you are truly this incompetent then I do not need you in my employment. Get to work." At that, the dark- haired reaper disappeared in a crackle of black smoke.

The woman stood in the empty hallway and sighed angrily. "Yes, sir…."

"Ugh! He is so frustrating!" complained the female reaper to her friend in the minutes before her first reaping of the day.

"Who~ my dear~? Sang the Undertaker.

"My boss, William."

"Ah~ yes. I know the man. He can be quite annoying."

"He keeps putting down Grell and overworking me! This is the fourth time this week that I've had more work than anyone else! This time I have two whole lists! It's just not fair. And it's never been this bad! Today they're all over the place and the times aren't spaced out at all!"

"You really despise this fellow so much, my lady?"

"Yes! I do! I wish he had never gotten promoted. He's gone crazy ever since it happened! He's like a dictator, nota boss, He won't even listen to anyone other that his superiors, He thinks he's better than us and He's not! I mean Grell had triple A's when we were in academy! He could've been promoted. All three of us… we used to be…. Well not friends but we could get along. Now we can't. I can't stand William and he cannot stand me. He's made that much clear several times. He thinks he knows me but he doesn't!"

The Undertaker giggled. "oh, you're so entertaining to listen to my dear. Would you have me to have a little chat with the man? He he he."

"Mm… you don't sound as though you would talk with words Undertaker." The woman shook her head. "I don't want him hurt, I just want him to act more like a civil shinigami than an uppity one. Maybe if I hadn't known him before, it would be okay, but it just irks me that one thing as small as a promotion could make such a big difference in one person! And Grell... I haven't seen him in months! I miss him a lot. Alan his the Thorns of Death… There's demons lurking everywhere… The London Branch is just so messed up. I hate it here. it's so gloomy. I wish I could just forget everything that's happened and move to a different unit!"

The bells tolled to the tune of 10 o'clock that morning and the woman sighed as Undertaker chuckled. "You~ need to relax~ a little my little lady. W wouldn't want you to get in trouble would we? Those kinds of things can get you into great trouble in the Society. What if you get demoted to… Death forbid! HR!"

"Tch. I have to go Undertaker. Take care of yourself." She rose and opened the door to leave the Undertaker's small ship. "And if I could forget everything that man has put me through, I wouldn't give a damn which department I was in. I hate William T. Spears." With that, the woman shut the Undertaker's door with a slam and teleported away to the first destination on her list, leaving behind a 2-second puff of shimmery gold smoke.

The Undertaker giggled his maniacal giggle before shaking his head a returning to his humanly job. "She's a fiery one, that girl."

Before he clocked out for the night, Ronald Knox approached his senpai's closed office and knocked on the door.

"Enter."

Ronald could practically feel the aggravation in William's stern voice. He opened the door and closed it behind him. "William-senpai? Shift's over, it's time to go. Do you want to come to the club with Eric and me? And some girls from HR of course." He smiled as he thought about the beautiful girls he would be going out with later that night.

"I do not have time to waste on such things Ronald Knox." The older man pinched the bridge of his nose before looking up at the young half-blonde. "I'll expect your paperwork to be finished and on my desk on Monday morning do you understand? Or else you'll be staying here for overtime instead of going on another one of your group dates."

Ronald saluted half seriously half playfully, "Yes, Sir!" He began to leace his boss' isolated office when he turned back to face the dark-haired reaper. "Um… Senpai? Did Cezzánne come back yet? I was gong to take her with me to hang out…"

"She hasn't returned yet. I am sure she is just completing her duties, as she should be. Carry on. I am sure she will join you another time. She will be quite busy tonight. She'll be back soon enough."

"Yes, Sir." The young reaper left William's office disappointed.

She didn't come back. This aggravated William T. Spears very much. For an entire week, he had been understaffed even more than before because of Cezánne Sutcliffe's absence. William wanted her to come back soon so he could give her a piece of his mind. Just because she had been given extra work was no reason for her to skip work for this long! And he still hadn't found Grell Sutcliff. For all he knew, Cezánne had joined him and was helping him create mischief.

His thoughts were interrupted when Ronald knocked on his door.

"Enter."

He did. "William-senpai?"

"Yes, Ronald Knox?"

"Can I clock out? It's Friday. I'm tired. And I've been working overtime all week because of the extra reapings you've given me. I really need to go home and rest. I don't feel so good."

William looked at his clock and massaged one of his temples. "You have an hour left Ronald. Surely you have some kind of paperwork that needs completing? Stop making excuses. You're beginning to sound similar to Miss Sutcliff."

Ronald's eyes lit up at the mention of his favourite senpai. "Oh! Yeah… I guess I don't mean to… if it's a negative thing… but she's a really good reaper!... Anyway… have you found out anything about her? It has been a week you know… Or maybe located Grell-senpai? He's been gone for a very long time."

The older reaper looked up at Ronnie before shaking his hand and looking back to his work. "You are free to go Ronald. I will see you on Monday."

"But, sir! You never answered my que-"

"Leave."

"…Yes, sir." Ronald left the office, slamming it shut loud enough to show his annoyance, but quiet enough not to anger William.

William sighed and shook his heads, preparing for another long night of overtime.

That same night, in the human realm, a well-dressed crimson man walked down a road in the East End of London after killing his mistress Madam Red, and escaping her nephew and his demon butler. He now wore her long vermillion coat on his elbows. It would not fit over his shoulders. He adored the colour red, loved it with a passion that could only rival that of two lovers, He had painted many women with red; splashed them with their own blood, with the use of his modified chainsaw death scythe, and made them oh, so pretty. They had carelessly thrown away what he could never have, so he killed them. They were whores after all.

The man's long red crimson hair trailed behind him, swaying as he switched his hips side to side during his stroll. Everyone was inside their homes for the night so he had no fears about slinging his scythe over sis shoulder, relishing its beauty in the moonlight.

His red high-heeled ankle boots clacked hollowly on the uneven road.

In the almost silence, he heard a cough, and looked around him. Seeing on one, he continued to walk, but upon hearing more coughs, he could tell he was getting closer to the source of the sickly sounds, "Tch," he muttered disapprovingly, assuming it was just another prostitute dying on the poor streets of East End.

Son, his yellow-green eyes fell on a small, shivering body, curled up on the doorstep of a townhouse. He grinned a sharp, shark-toothed grin and released a sadistic chuckle. "Another whore for me to paint in pretty, pretty red?" He playfully pursed his lips and put a finger to his chin, pretending to think. "I suppose I have time!"

He approached to body and looked the woman over. She appeared to be sleeping, and had a ghostly palour about her face and hands.

"Hm," said the reaper, confused. "This is odd." He trailed his hands over the woman's clothes. They were full of holes, ragged and dirty, but he could see that they were not the clothes of a poor woman. They had once been a beautiful suit, ruffled and tailored to the woman's body. What was once red velvet was now mucky brown and tattered.

Suddenly, the woman's eyes flashed open, and golden and yellow orbs looked through broken pink glasses at the man hovering over her. Her confused expression told him all he needed to know. "Don't you know who I am?"

Suddenly, a long sharp, pruning pole of a scythe pierced the bricks next t the man's feet an both parties looked up to see its owner. "Grell Sutcliff," spoke the stern voice of William T. Spears. "You have broken several rules of the Shinigami Dispatch Society."

His voice faded away in Grell's mind, which had now clouded with worry. "Nononononono!" He frantically uncovered the sick woman's head from under a small blanket and could instantly see the red of her hair, even under the mud and grime.

It matched his own.

"Sutcliff!" boomed William as he effortlessly jumped from a rooftop to the doorstep. "Are you listening?"

"No!"

"Well that is incredibly ru-"

"Cezzánne!" cried out the crimson reaper, gathering the woman in his arms.

She coughed into his shoulder.

She never spoke.

"Cezzánne!" cried the man frantically, "My name is Grell Sutcliff! I'm your brother!"

"…"

"Cezzánne please!"

"She stared at him blankly, blinking slowly. She did not know who he was.