Part-Time-kun seemed to lick Touka-chan’s breasts and hips with his eyes while saying, “Oh, arentcha a cutie. Whatcha doin’ this late at night? It’s dangerous an’ all, you know? Want me to escort you home?”
“I can get back just fine.”
Paying no attention to Touka-chan’s cold refusal, Part-Time-kun continued to press. “Hah? That’s no way to act toward someone offerin’ a helpin’ hand an’ all, yeah? Just come with me already.”
“Stay away.” Touka-chan made a swipe with the khakkhara that she still had in her hands in an attempt at intimidation.
Part-Time-kun took a step back, then stuck a hand inside his chest pocket irritatedly. Good, good, you’re doing a great job acting like a hoodlum. As expected of a member of a university theater group.
“Stop yer strugglin’! Whaddaya think you can do with that stupid stick... staff... eh, why do you have a staff?” However, even this great master of the theater faltered upon noticing the khakkhara that Touka-chan was holding up. He accidentally dropped his facade and reverted to his normal self in bewilderment.
Before his eyes was a girl wearing a tracksuit out at night as if she had just made a trip to the nearest convenience store. But in her hands was a silver-colored khakkhara. These two facts made for an extremely bizarre combination. I understand how you feel, but hang in there just a little bit longer!
“This isn’t a staff. It’s a khakkhara.”
“Oh really? So that’s what they’re called. I’ve seen them before in manga—like hell that matters! Do as I say if you don’t wanna see a world o’ hurt!” Part-Time-kun somehow managed to get back on track, reaching into his chest pocket to take out a knife PSI drive and activate it. The flames that sprang up caused Touka-chan’s eyes to widen in surprise.
There was a strict ban on the distribution of PSI drives. The only people that should be holding one were either Amaterasu members or, only very rarely, a Kaneyama Tech researcher. By no means was it something that should be in the hands of a hoodlum out at night.
Part-Time-kun made a lecherous face that looked very convincing. “How’s this? You wouldn’t want that pretty face o’ yers to get a burn on it, wouldya? Drop yer khakkhara and git over here.”
“Where did you get that?” asked Touka-chan in turn, not faltering in the least at his threat. Even though there was a burning knife pointed at her face, she was acting so confidently that it was as if she was saying, “You’re the one being threatened by me.”
It was extremely uncanny. A normal girl would be either screaming, quivering like a deer caught in headlights, or fearfully doing as he ordered. However, the willpower and aura of someone who had experienced numerous real-life battles (against World Shadows) was conversely threatening to overwhelm Part-Time-kun.
“Sh-Shut up! Listen to what I say or I’ll killya!”
“Answer me. It’s important.”
“Shut the fuck up, you bitch! Just g—oof?!”
Without a scrap of hesitation, Touka-chan jabbed the butt of her khakkhara into the solar plexus of the Part-Time-kun who was totally getting cold feet. As he cried out and crumpled to his knees, Touka-chan wrested the flaming knife from his hand, and examined it closely under the light of the street lamps. It was not a modified cylinder, nor was it a fancy lighter. It was a genuine, authentic PSI drive.
Touka-chan asked once again, slowly enunciating her words and taking the tone that someone would adopt against a disobedient child. “Where... did... you... get... this?”
“I-I don’t know!”
“How could you not know? You lose merit every time you lie, all right?”
“Wha—‘merit’......?”
“Answer me. Or do you want to be turned into a sokushinbutsu?”
Part-Time-kun had no idea that she was referring to a Buddhist monk mummy, but he got the gist that he was being threatened with something really bad. He confessed while shivering in fear, “A w-weird guy gave it to me. He p-paid me a lot of money and told me to st-stab you with it.”
“A weird guy? What kind of person was he?”
“He—”
In the middle of his line, I called Part-Time-kun’s phone again. The two rings prompted him to leap to his feet and dash off. Touka-chan was about to chase after him, but right then, a tentacle punch flew out of nowhere in a surprise attack. She managed to sense it and evade it only in the nick of time.
“?! Why now......!”
A normal World Shadow, the slime-like version in indeterminate form, crawled out from the gutter at the side of the road to say “hi.” Touka-chan shot several looks between the back of the fleeing Part-Time-kun and the writhing World Shadow in indecision, but eventually turned fully toward the Shadow. Cue her second battle of the night.
Having successfully gotten away from Touka-chan, Part-Time-kun dashed into the family restaurant that we had agreed on as the rendezvous point while gasping for breath. I called out to him, fully disguised in sunglasses and a fake beard. “Over here, over here. Thanks for your help. Have this parfait, I ordered it for you. Oh, and a cup of coffee. Do you drink coffee?”
Part-Time-kun nodded, threw himself roughly into the seat across from me, then gulped down the coffee in one swig. After catching his breath, he said in a tired voice, “I did everything you asked for. I let her take that fancy lighter from me, and also made sure to hint at the existence of a mastermind. But seriously, what was up with that girl? She has a cute face but she’s freaking scary! And she was saying incomprehensible nonsense too.”
“I have no idea either. I was asked to arrange this by a friend too. He mentioned something about a movie shoot? Honestly, it sounded a bit fishy to me, but hey, what do I know, yeah?”
Part-Time-kun shivered once, during which I responded while playing innocent. When I hired him for this role, I had given him only a bland, harmless spiel, without sharing anything at all about World Shadows or Amaterasu or superpowers. This was a one-time-only part time job for this young man with great acting skills and a tight mouth. However, even though it was only a part time job, I had still taken measures to ensure his safety. Shouta-kun might be different, but Touka-chan was strictly against killing, and she could be trusted to not use more force than necessary or use her superpower thoughtlessly. Seeing as how even the jab that she delivered to Part-Time-kun’s solar plexus wouldn’t even leave a bruise, I had clearly made the right choice in terms of personnel.
For fear of saying something that I shouldn’t, I quickly moved the conversation along by passing Part-Time-kun an envelope filled with the reward that I had promised him. Fifty thousand yen, in cash, for an hour of work. Even in spite of the fishiness of the whole affair, it was still a very enticing deal. I had also included a bit more to ensure that he kept his mouth shut.
Part-Time-kun confirmed the number of bills several times while licking his lips, murmuring quietly about how he would be able to buy something pretty good with all that money. Out of curiosity, I asked him what it was that he intended to buy. I hope it’s not illegal drugs or anything of the sort......
“The day after tomorrow is my mom’s birthday, so I’m thinking of buying a dishwasher for her. One that also includes the drying function.”
“Well that’s very admirable of you!” I found myself slightly impressed as Part-Time-kun scratched his cheek in slight embarrassment. What a great young man he is! There’s no need to be embarrassed about it. Throw your chest out, this is definitely something that you can be proud of! Which reminds me, I haven’t gone to visit my own parents for quite a while. At least not after I quit my previous job. Come to think of it, I haven’t even given them a call to tell them that I had found a new job. Guess maybe I’ll pop in when I have some time.
Then the night passed, and the next day arrived. After school let out, Touka-chan rushed to Ama-no-Iwato to report on last night’s happenings to Kaburagi-san. Incidentally, Shouta-kun was at home re-dyeing his hair red after having temporarily reverted it to black for his high school interviews. Ig was in her nest box taking an afternoon nap.