Chapter 08 - The Terror of Part-Time Jobs

"Toh, teh, yaa! A healthy mind comes with a healthy body!" Kazuko exclaimed as she's leading the group now.

She's currently getting excited from the battle earlier as she walks in front of the group while shadowboxing.

"It's too bad that I can't make a bet out of Momo-senpai's battle because she's too strong." Shōichi whines dejectedly.

"Yōta, do you want to go to our base today?" Miyako suddenly asked as she's peering on Yōta's face from his side.

Yōta hummed in response, "Sure."

"Yōta, can you let me borrow the CD you bought the day before yesterday?"

"Sure."

"Yōta, will you go out with me?"

"That was too random!" Yōta retorts as he playfully smacks Miyako's shoulder with the back of his hand.

Momoyo snorts and comes to Miyako's side as she tousles the archer's hair in comfort manner, "It's meaningless to trick him into saying it. The only you'll get is a straight-man routine."

"I'm dumped again." Miyako sobs over Momoyo's big boobs.

"I didn't dump you! And stop that crocodile tears!"

Miyako pouts before she peels her body away from Momoyo's hug, "He saw through me. 2009, Spring."

"You're so heartless, Yōta." Momoyo shakes her head, "How about you forget this heartless man and play around with me, Miyako?"

Gakuto whistled at that, "Wow, she's trying to steal her away."

Miyako stares Momoyo dead in the eyes, "You're attractive, Momo-senpai. You're as attractive as Mt. Fuji."

"Yeah. It's the Japanese symbol."

"But Yōta's more attractive, and his attractiveness is an Everest." Miyako smiles shyly as she covers her cheeks with her hands and leans in on Yōta's shoulder, basking in his attractiveness.

"... From now on, your nickname is Everest." Momoyo pointed a finger at Yōta who narrows his eyes in response.

"Shut up, Mt. Fuji."

"You shut up."

Momoyo suddenly throws her straight fist with breakneck speed but Yōta is quick in response as he swiftly moves in front of Miyako to cover her and draws his bokutō.

Yōta was succeeded on stopping the punch from the Goddess of War with ease, but even so, he can still feels his left arm is slightly trembling because the force from Momoyo's punch.

"Hey, that was uncalled for!"

Momoyo narrows her eyes and in fluid motion, she turns around and throws a perfect roundhouse kick.

Yōta response the attack by fully drawing his wooden sword out from the belt and swings it sideways, striking Momoyo's instep to disrupt the momentum of her kick.

He then pushes his wooden sword and performs a spin that brings his shoulder and arm to touch Momoyo's leg.

He subtly pushes the pressure point on her leg to disrupt the flow of her Ki before he completely pushes the leg away from him by using his entire weight.

Momoyo raised her eyebrows when she feels her Ki was disrupted by something and she can't properly collects the strength to push Yōta back.

It resulted in her kick get deflected away from the swordsman, but even if the flow of her Ki was disrupted, the kick is still strong enough to creates a gust of wind that easily clears the sky above.

The Goddess of War stumbles for a bit before she finally balances herself, and you can see a big smile starts forming on her beautiful face.

She's quite serious when she delivered that roundhouse kick, but this man easily deflected them like it's nothing, simply using a simple technique.

She knows that she's really gonna enjoy the fight between them in the future.

"Sheesh, this woman is crazy. That kick is strong enough to kill this poor me, you know." Yōta sighs tiredly as he slides his bokutō back to his side. He can feels his left is slightly numb right now.

Seriously, that kick was no joke at all.

"But you still successfully deflected them. Good job." Momoyo laughed as she smacks Yōta's back in joy.

"I'll be dead meat if I'm not deflecting them!"

The group is slightly slack-jawed by that, the exchange between both of them is too fast for the group to react.

Just as they watched Miyako starts her antics, and before they know it Yōta and Momoyo suddenly exchanged a blow in blinding speed.

"You both are really a monster." Yamato voiced his thought out loud, making everyone beside him nods their heads in agreement.

"The real monster in here is only Momo-senpai!" Yōta complains as he points a finger at Momoyo who simply shrugs her shoulders.

She doesn't mind being called monster. It's quite a praise for her. Monster is strong after all.

"Just for your information, a person who could easily deflects that monster's attack is monster themselves in my book."

""Yeah, what he said.""

"GAH!"

While the groups are bantering like usual, 30 meters behind the group, there was a person, which actually Yukie, watching the eight students talk happily.

"Haa... They look so happy." Yukie mutters to herself, "They're interesting people, Matsukaze." She said to the black horse cell phone strap on her palm.

"They're interesting and weird. I can't tell which word describes them better." The strap, or Matsukaze, replied, "But then again, I'm surprised by that Nagakura-boy's movement. He was moving so fluidly and efficiently to deflects that Goddess of War's kick. That's not easy thing to do."

"Yes, I saw that. The way he positioned himself and how he pivoted his entire body to add momentum back then was amazing. He used that momentum to push and redirects Goddess of War's rising shockwave in her leg to the sky so it won't hurt people behind him."

"As expected from the man that's successfully one-upped you in the duel." Matsukaze teased Yukie and it brings the desired result as the girl suddenly turns bright red.

"M-M-Matsukaze!!!" Yukie whispers loudly as she chokes Matsukaze and shakes him up and down frantically.

The Bridge of Weirdoes is filled with weirdoes today like always.

-Scene Change-

The morning homeroom in 2-S commences under a slow and light atmosphere like usual.

Kyojin was currently slouching behind the teacher's desk as he casually drops his elbow to support his body, so he won't fall to the desk because he's too lazy to stand up right now.

He feels like he could fall asleep at any moment by now.

Only because someone's cough enter his ears that the teacher finally regaining some of his focus to starts the homeroom.

"Right, homeroom... Damn, I'm so sleepy." Kyojin yawned openly in front of his students.

"You look so tired right now, Beard-sensei." Yōta curiously said as he spins the pen masterfully between his fingers, "I remember Gen-san also looks sleepy this morning too."

"Yeah, last night job is so hard and takes long, so I'm not sleeping enough. Well, enough about me..." Kyojin yawned once more before he tries to stand straight but still failed as you can see he's slightly slouching down, "I have an interesting piece of news for you people."

Interesting news?

Upon hearing that, the class starts to pay heed to the homeroom as they start sit straight.

"In Friday, there will be a transfer student coming to this school. They're from Kawakami's sister city, Lübeck, Germany."

The class starts chatter around, and Kyojin doesn't have any energy to stop them, so he simply let them chattering with each other.

"I wonder if is it a girl?" Touma mutters to himself as he smiles sweetly at the thought, making the girls swooned at his smile.

"I would like it if it's a girl with small frame." Jun added his cents as he smiles in very amicably way, there's even light surrounding the man, showing how pure his thought is when he said that.

"That's just weird, Jun~" Koyuki chimed in from the side as she sways her body from side-to-side. "I wonder if they are fun? Would they like to have some marshmallow?"

"If the one who give the marshmallow is as cute as you, of course they would like to have some, Yuki-san." Yōta chuckles at Koyuki as he planted his chin on his palm.

Koyuki brigthened up at the compliment as she giggles and raised her arms high, "Then I'll give them a bunch of marshmallow!"

Miyako on the other side doesn't look that interested in the news of transfer student. She just continues to read her philosophy book.

"Lübeck, huh..." Kokoro hummed behind the kimono sleeves, "That's stylish place to come from. It's a northern port on the Baltic and the town was declared a World Heritage Site too."

"You seem know a lot about the place, Kokoro-san." Yōta said as he looks at the girl in front of him.

Kokoro laughed bashfully, still covering her mouth with the sleeve of her kimono, "Not really. I know about the place because my family sometimes went there to buy seafood cousine because it was pretty famous."

"Ah, I see. Was it delicious?"

"It is. There's a lot delicious seafood restaurant in the Lübeck." Kokoro nods excitedly like a child, and Yōta couldn't helped himself but to chuckles at the sight. "W-What? Why are you laughing, Yōta?"

"I'm just thinking how cute you are right now. The way you excitedly saying that is just cute."

*HYUUUUU*

Kokoro suddenly lets out loud sound of whitle-like as her whole body flushed red and a steams coming out from the girl's ears.

Her eyes are swirling in panic and embarrassment as she's swaying her body without control and fainted all of sudden.

"Wha— Kokoro-san!!!" Yōta yelled in panic as he catches Kokoro's body fast before the girl could hit the floor. "What happened!?"

The class is simply looking at both with wry expression on their faces. That glasses seriously don't know how destructive his sincere words are, especially to the girl who obviously crushing on him.

"Fufu, Yōta is really good at working his magic as usual." Touma commented from the side as he chuckles fondly at the sight.

He knew how good Yōta is when it comes to make a girl happy with his words.

The way he sincerely saying a compliment without any hidden motive is a strong blow to a lot of girls, because the man is simply saying what he thought about them out loud.

He doesn't throws flattery or anything. For a man like Touma who loves sugar-coating his words to manipulate someone, he knew when someone is trying to scheme in front of him by lying or sugar-coating their words.

But, Yōta never did that. Rather than he doesn't do it, it's more like he doesn't know how to do it.

Every word he spouts always true, he simply states the fact. If he told you that you are cute, then it means he seriously thinks you are cute.

"Fuhaha! My friend, Yōta, you should be careful with your words! Your power in words is even stronger than Kyougoku-senpai!" Hideo just laugh boisterously as usual at the sight.

"I wish I could have that kind of power!" Azumi chimed in from her seat.

"Nagakura, stop freaking out like that, and bring her to infirmary or somewhere." Kyojin said as he shuts his eyes off, he can't sleep if that glasses is freaking out like that.

"Right, infirmary!" Yōta slips his hands fluidly behind Kokoro's soft thighs and back before he runs out of the classroom in hurry.

Koyuki was giggling at the silly sight of Yōta's freaking out like that meanwhile Miyako simply shakes her head in fond manner at the commotion caused by Yōta.

"Haaa..." Kyojin sighs exaggeratedly and force himself to stand up, "Just look forward to Friday. This ends our homeroom..."

-Scene Change-

It's lunch break.

"Hey, Jun-san, let's go to the cafetaria." Yōta waved his hand in Jun's direction.

There's a reason why he asked Jun to join him in the cafetaria instead going to his usual group.

First one, he doesn't bring his usual lunch box so he can't join the group in 2-F. Two, Miyako and Koyuki are already gone somewhere he doesn't know. Three, Kokoro is still in the infirmary, he will visits her again later. Four, Touma is together with Hideo, of course with Azumi's following her master.

So, you can say, Jun is his last option to ask to join him in the battlefield called cafetaria.

"Sorry, I gotta pass for today." Jun said apologetically in half-prayer motion with one hand.

"What's the occassion?"

"I'm gonna try using the back gate so I can sneak out and go to a convenience store without getting caught." Jun replied, "If there's anything you want, I wouldn't mind getting it for you. Of course that's only if there's something in it for me too."

"I'll take some crispy-fried chicken and a bottle of melon soda then."

"Uh-huh. I can get you that, but it'll cost a smuggler's fee of 300 ye—"

"KOJIMA-SENSEI!!! JUN-SAN!!! JUN-SAN WANTS TO SNEAK OUT OF SCHOOL TO GO TO A CONVENIENCE STORE!!!"

"OOOOIIIIIII!!! Okay, I won't charge you! I got it, so shut your mouth!" Jun was quick in response as he drags Yōta back and covers his mouth.

"I can do that." Yōta nods his head, "But it'll cost you a hushing fee of 3,000 yen."

"Fuck you man!!" Jun whines out loud as he slumps his shoulders down before he heads out of the classroom.

Yōta grinned at that, it means he'll gets his hands on some melon soda, which makes him little happy.

Since there's nothing he can do in classroom right now while waiting for Jun to come back, he decides to head back to his desk to do his homework.

But when he was about to sit, he could clearly hear someone not far away from him saying "Maybe I should find a job."

Yōta's head snaps so fast toward the direction of a young man with black hair and dark blue eyes, "C-Can you repeat that!? Have you gone nuts, dude!?"

The young man's name is Sugisaki. Yōta's classmate.

"Huh!? What?? Why are you so stunned?" He jolts in surprise.

Yōta smacks his desk with passion for some reason, "It should be pretty obvious! I mean, THE national representative for all of Japan's ELITE shut-ins—You!—Just suddenly said he wanted to work."

Sugisaki does attend school regularly now, but his attendance record for last year was quite the pitiful sight, to say the least.

It's really surprising why this man is still in S class with that kind of record.

He'd refuse to come to school for the most mundane of reasons, such as 'feeling sleepy', 'not being able to play at school', or 'wanting to watch TV'.

And that would happen quite often.

So eventually when his attendance record got into the danger zone, Kyojin would came to Yōta and Hideo, and basically get them to drag Sugisaki to school.

"What's gotten into you?" Yōta asked seriously as he sits on the seat in front of Sugisaki, "Aren't you the kinda guy who hates working and jobs so much that you actively make fun of people that do have them?"

"Yeah, but I realized I have to change my ways whether I like it or not." Sugisaki sighed, "There's so many games coming out this month that I want. And ten plus manga volumes." He continued as he shakes his head before he snaps his fingers, "Oh, and you can't forget all the pay-to-win online games. Those costs really add up..."

"Hey, Sugisaki, dude, how much money do your parents give you a month for allowance?"

"Huh? 250,000 yen."

"WHAT THE FUCK!?" Yōta yells out loud as he smacks the desk so hard that it gathers so much attention, "Do you have a GOD damned BRAIN, man!? How can anyone get THAT MUCH money a month and somehow find a way to blow it all!?!?"

"Eeep, I-I'm sorry!"

But like, what the hell? What does he spend all that money on?

And then Yōta remembers that this fucker have all kind of lizards as pets. Factoring in pet food and all the other stuff they need, he guesses it isn't too unimaginable.

Yōta sighs tiredly as he slumps back onto the chair, "I could help you find a job if you wanna do part-time. What kinda place are you looking at?"

Sugisaki taps his cheek with index finger thoughtfully before he smiles innocently, "Whatever's the easiest. That's what I want."

...

"Want me to shank you, you little shit?"

"EEEP!"

This sheltered boy here is being a little too naïve.

Well, he guesses it is a good opportunity for Sugisaki to get an actual job. Experience like that is necessary to teach kids like him how harsh and rocky the real world can be.

"Yo, Sugasaki. Heard you were looking for a part-time job?" Kyojin suddenly appeared out of nowhere and approaches Yōta and Sugisaki.

"Ah, hello, Sensei." Sugisaki greets the teacher in proper manner, "Do you happen to know of any place I could get a job at and do some easy-peasy, mindless work?"

"Beard-sensei, this guy thinks life is a cakewalk." Yōta commented from the side, "Recommended him the most hardest and back-breaking job you can think of."

"Let's see..."

"Ah, I don't mind being a cashier at a convenience store. Of course, I don't know what it's actually like since I've never worked as one, but it seems pretty easy."

"A convenience store cashier, huh..." Yōta taps the desk rhythmically, "Well, depending on where the store's located, it might be a snoozer at night..."

"You're naïve. Far too naïve, Sugisaki..." Kyojin chuckles in response before he puts a serious face, "I will teach you firsthand just how hard it is working at a convenience store...!"

"Huh?" Everyone in the room suddenly perked their ears to pay heed to what Kyojin would like to say.

As the man who works at the company who do 'Odd Jobs', he's pretty much have more experience in this kind of thing.

"Let me guess, you're under the impression that the only thing you'd be doing there is fiddling around with a cash register, am I right?"

"Well, when it comes to convenience store workers, they're on average treated a lot more shitty than other workers in other businesses."

"To make things worse, you gotta handle BOTH the stocking of shit AND the register, at the same time! Plus, you're gonna get a hell of a lot dumb complaints when your store is busy."

"And in the first place, working a register ain't what you'd think it entails. Nowadays, convenience stores offer a whole host of different services."

"When the store gets super packed and crowded, you'll have some cutomers come up to you wanting to mail shit. That sound like fun? You wanna listen to all those irate customers while going about your work?"

"Ugh..." Sugisaki whimpers and his face turns green.

"Oh, and if you thought THAT as bad, you also have to do the formalities for the mandatory vehicle liability insurance for scooters or motorbikes, and if you then happen to have a lot of smaller companies in the vicinity..."

"You get a couple hundred thousand yen just dumped in your hands right about lunchtime, and gotta handle their public utility charge payments as well."

"And naturally you can't afford to make even the tiniest of fuck-ups when you're dealing with such a large sum of money. You'd have to enter those numbers as meticulous as all hell."

"That leads to the line backing up at the register, but the other cashier you have went to restock drinks, has been gone for fuck knows how long and just doesn't come back no matter how often you shout for them. It happens all the time."

"And while you're up there having the goddamn time of your life, some bitchy old lady shows up to complain about the restroom being dirty! So, you go and check, and lo and behold some ASSHAT SMEARED THE WALL WITH THEIR SHIT...!!!"

"And at the same time as you're doing this, you also got a car accident out in the store parking lot, both of them want to borrow your phone, want you to be their witness, all that shit!! It's a God damned circus!!!"

"Oh, and of course when shit's going down, that's when the store ATM has to stop working! And the copier is out of paper too! PLUS, some little brats who think they're cool try and steal porn mags, hairspray, and God knows what else—!"

"No, never, not in a million years! I can't possibly handle a job like that!" Sugisaki shouted with green face, cutting Kyojin off from his rambling.

"Oh, but the cherry on top is if you make ONE single mistake the owner or manager instantly loses it and starts bitching at you like crazy." Kyojin continued anyway before he leans back to the chair he sat on, "Heh, I was also young and naïve back then... In retrospect, I should have gone with an easier job."

...

The spectators are slack-jawed right now. They've never worked at a convenience store themselves before and they gotta say...

'Holy hell what a scary place to work at...'

That's the whole thought of people who heard Kyojin's ramble about working at convenience store.

And most of them stop in the place fairly often too, so that only makes the terror feel all the more real to them.

"Convenience stores are serious shit. I never knew what they were really like until now. No wonder Capt never applied for any jobs related to convenience store..." Yōta mutters under his breath.

"Sensei! Please! Is there really nothing simpler!? Having to multitask is too much even for me!!" Sugisaki cried out in panic.

"Something simple, you say?" Kyojin hummed thoughtfully before he shakes his head, "Guess that knocks out anything like working at a family diner."

"No, no way." Sugisaki shakes his head frantically, "I'd never work at one of those! I'm generally super afraid of adults I don't know!"

Yōta never knew that. The more you learn, he guesses.

Kyojin crosses his legs and casually hangs his arm on the chair, "If you're really after something mindless and simple, I'd say look for a warehouse. They're all short on hands and looking to hire."

"A warehouse?"

"Yep. Personally, I'd recommend going to a beverage warehouse in summer. They ship in a large amount of soda and juice to convenience stores and supermarkets within the area."

"You spend the whole damn day running around that warehouse with a super huge cart that's got wheels attached to it. They call 'em a roll cage."

"Did you say 'running'?"

"I think it's a good job. I can basically train my legs and gets money too at the same time, I'll be killing two birds with one stone." Yōta chimed in thoughtfully.

"That's what YOU think, kiddo, but here's how it REALLY is. First, you get to the starting position with an empty roll cage. Work begins at 8:00 AM sharp."

"You'll then start out getting the receipt of an order that came in from a store and proceed to stack up several whole cardboard boxes of beverages."

"D-Did you say, 'stack up'?" Sugisaki asked once again. Every time he asked a question, his face getting green and more green.

"Sure, did. Here, let me give you guys an example." Kyojin straigthen up his posture and stares at his students seriously, "Let's say an order for juice and soda came in from the Kawakami Kyojin Store."

"First thing we got is twelve boxes of cola. Then we got eight boxes of mineral water, six boxes of orange juice, and eight boxes of other carbonated drinks."

"..." Everyone completely turn silent at that.

"Generally speaking, you have about three seconds to load one cardboard box onto the roll cage. It ain't a problem at all in the beginning, but when your stamina starts dropping later on, it gets real tough."

"As a rule, when you stack up more than ten boxes, you end up falling over because it's simply too heavy, so you gotta switch the roll cage then."

"So, with the height limit being ten, about forty cardboard boxes of plastic bottle beverages will fit on a roll cage."

"Each cardboard box weighs about thirteen kilos, and you got forty of them..."

"You get what I'm saying?"

"No, never, never in million years!! I'd die trying to do that!!" Sugisaki once again shakes his head and hands frantically.

"It's about 520 kilos when you load them to the brim. Even if you aren't pushing the limit, thirty cardboard boxes come out to about 390 kilos."

"And you, kiddo..." Kyojin points a finger at Sugisaki, "You're the one pushing around that weight as you load yet another cardboard onto it within three seconds and keep moving about the storehouse, only thinking of the next beverage and nothing else."

"What makes things even worse, the warehouse is gonna have a minimum quota in place. The warehouse chief monitors you and measures the time you need to load the order of one store."

"If you can't load about 140 cardboard boxes per hour, they fire your ass." Kyojin shakes his head and plants his bearded chin on the top of his palm, "When you first get in, you do fine, but as afternoon comes around, you'll see a lot of your older coworkers collapse with stress fractures."

"A-Ahaha, I don't think I'm gonna get a job now!" Sugisaki laughed anxiously in response. Like hell he would get a job if his life is on stake!

Yōta on the other side considers to take the job if they're still hiring. That kind of job is sure gonna help him in training his leg muscles.

"Uh, Sensei, is there a single job out there that isn't full of constant fear and worry?" One of the students that's listening in asked.

"Then what about a freezer warehouse that stores ice?" Kyojin raised his eyebrows at the student who asked him, "You really win out there, since two outta your eight hours working are break time."

"Oh, that sounds like it'd be easy going." Yōta commented from the side, "But why do you get such long breaks...?"

"Well, you gotta remember, you're working in a -20° Celcius environment out there. You're liable to die if you don't take frequent, longish breaks."

"Don't take the cold seriously and ohh, you might regret it." Kyojin suddenly got shivers all over his body when the memories of him working at that kind of place flashed before his mind, "If you've got eye drops in your pocket, those things'll freeze solid..."

"And if you use styling gel on your hair, that shit'll shatter like glass, and in the next instant, you're bald!"

"EEEEEEP!!" Most of the students shrieked out while covering their heads, they couldn't helped to imagine that happen to them.

"Hahahaha!!" Kyojin barks a laughter at the reaction of his students. After having terrorized Sugisaki and a lot of students adequately, he takes his leave like nothing happened.

Seriously, what has that old man been through?