Zap

"…Team Leader, I want to slack off today."

I said it quietly, leaning across the table. We were in the staff café on the first floor of the Association building, of all places — but whether anyone overheard us or not, I was well past the point of being able to keep that sentence in my mouth.

"You've finally lost it for real, haven't you?"

"But… but…! I'm exhausted! You have to admit the workload has gotten way heavier lately, right?!"

The look she gave me left me with no choice but to keep going. Because — come on!

"I still haven't even been officially assigned as their counselor, and I'm not getting any extra pay, either…!"

It wasn't that I was pathologically obsessed with money. That wasn't it at all. But it was a completely separate issue that my workload had been ballooning while the compensation stayed exactly the same. Any working adult would feel cheated.

I had a decent amount of loyalty to this place, and I wasn't without a sense of responsibility when ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it came to the job… but this was a little much, wasn't it?

Batori wasn't a problem on her own. Then Saran got added to the pile. Between the two of them, my days had been filling ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠up fast, and quite apart from the fact that I'd been the one to plan the mentoring in the first place, every session left me wiped out.

"Either get me formally registered as their counselor already, or cut my workload a little… just do something…"

"…Mm."

"You have to admit it's been a lot lately, right? I'm doing extra work meeting with heroes almost four times a week, and it's not like my vacation days have gone up to match."

"You're not wrong, but… Charlotte, I… look, I may be the Team Leader, but this isn't something I can just decide on my own. I've already submitted the paperwork upstairs and told them to get this sorted out as soon as possible, but…"

"…But?"

"The Association keeps shutting it down. They say it didn't go through official channels, that the hero never even filed a request, that the whole thing was arranged privately… and it's true Saran never put in a formal request, so…"

"……"

"It's probably going to take a little more time."

"……"

I could have cried. But I understood, in my own way, that there was nothing to be done about it — and that the Team Leader, being the Team Leader, was already pushing as hard as she could.

Fine. Maybe I'll settle for just the one bombing.

"Haa…"

"If I keep pestering them every day like I'm filing complaints, they might approve it just to get me off their backs."

"Yes…"

In the end, the conclusion didn't change. There was a process, and there was no reason for them to spend extra money signing off on work that had skipped that process entirely.

It had the Association's name on the door, but it was a corporation in all but name, and chasing a profit was only natural. Just because I was disappointed, sad, and exhausted didn't mean the Association needed to change how it did business.

"So I just have to keep going like this, then…"

"You've still got vacation days left, though, right? You barely used any this year."

"That's because I'm the kind of person who doesn't do anything special besides showing up to work every day… I never really needed to take time off. This is honestly the first time since I started here that things have gotten this busy."

"Now I feel kind of bad."

"Then please get it sorted out a little faster."

"Haha… I'll try."

The Team Leader said it with a wry smile. But I knew perfectly well that if things stayed as they were, this was going to drag on for a good long while.

It was sad, but… well. I was a working adult. I couldn't exactly expect everything to work out the way I wanted.

"Fwaaah…"

The meetings with Batori and Saran kept coming. Before I knew it, a full month had passed since I'd started seeing them both. Batori had been promoted to D-Class… and Saran was still just Saran.

Nothing particularly earth-shattering. Just the same stretch of ordinary days, except now I was drinking twice as much coffee.

"…Another ordinary day."

The city, as always, was generating incidents and accidents of every possible variety, and in the middle of all that, I was at the office again. For once, I had no meetings with Batori or Saran, so I was enjoying a relatively peaceful slacker stretch — not that "peaceful" meant comfortable.

"As I explained last week, the number of heroes filing problem-resolution requests with the Welfare Bureau has been climbing. Today's meeting is about how we ought to handle that."

"……Fwaah."

Of course today had to be a meeting day. If I'd been out in the field, I wouldn't have had to sit through this at all… It was exhausting, but even if I complained to the Team Leader, any employee who wasn't out on assignment was required to attend. No exceptions.

"Compared to six months ago, the number of heroes our Welfare Bureau is responsible for has gone up quite a bit, right? You all know that. But if you look at the actual numbers……"

I'd walked into the conference room maybe a minute late, and the Team Leader was already clicking through a slideshow, walking everyone through the data. It was a once-a-month meeting, so the discussion was bound to get fairly serious — not that I had any particular thoughts on the matter.

Even if we sat here talking about it… most of my work was face-to-face with heroes anyway, so nothing about my actual job was going to change. I was already handling Saran on top of everything else. There was no way the Team Leader was going to pile more onto me.

"I believe the increase in newly debuting heroes is a significant factor as well."

"And the majority of people requesting our services are stuck at E-Class or D-Class."

"It's always been the case that high-ranking heroes — A-Class, B-Class — mostly don't use Welfare Bureau services, but it's been unusually pronounced."

Was that so?

Listening to the other staff and the Team Leaders talk it over, a few thoughts did drift through my head. I'd been feeling for a long time that high-ranking heroes tended not to bother with Welfare Bureau services in the first place.

I'd been assigned hero after hero almost constantly since the day I joined, solving their problems one after another. None of this struck me as particularly new.

"Charlotte, what's on your mind? Want to share?"

"Mm…"

…Had it shown that clearly on my face? Or was it all the yawning?

The Team Leader was smiling at me, waiting, and I couldn't help feeling a little worried — but it wasn't as though I had nothing to say.

"Well… E-Class and D-Class heroes have made up most of our caseload since before I even started here, and high-ranking heroes not coming to the Welfare Bureau is just… how it is, I think."

"Hmm?"

"……"

The Team Leader's eyes told me to keep going. Pushed along by that look, I found myself talking.

"These days the cities are so loud with heroes and villains, and so many people get caught in the crossfire, that things like psychiatric treatment and counseling have become pretty normal. But there was a time — not that long ago — when just saying you went to a mental hospital was enough to get you treated like a complete freak, right?"

It hadn't mattered whether you were a student or a working adult. The mere fact that a modern person was struggling mentally was treated as proof that they were some kind of social failure, someone who couldn't adapt. That kind of stigma had all but disappeared for ordinary people in this world — but my previous life had been set squarely in that era, and I'd lived through it. I could say this with some confidence.

On top of that, the fact that public authority couldn't solve problems on its own, and that a special form of private enforcement called "heroes" had developed to fill the gap, was itself proof of a society in chaos. The parallel growth of psychiatry and welfare programs was only natural.

The problem was…

"The heroes themselves. Heroes are turning into a kind of public figure — entertainers, idols, celebrities. Especially from C-Class up, right?"

The way heroes were treated was changing by the day. They weren't just the cool people who protected the city. They protected the city and they were all over the media, showing up on broadcasts, and lately there were even attempts to turn good-looking Awakened into full-blown celebrities.

"So what happens if some high-ranking hero suddenly walks into the Welfare Bureau and says, 'I've been having a really hard time lately'? Are ordinary citizens still going to look at that person and think, 'what a cool hero'? They're going to feel scared that their safety is in the hands of someone like that, and that hero's standing as a public figure is going to shrink. The public wants a hero who's perfect — personality, health, ability, looks, all of it. There's a huge difference in how people treat a regular citizen walking into a counseling office versus a hero walking into the Welfare Bureau."

"So what you're saying is, high-ranking heroes stay away because of the damage to their image?"

"Yes, more or less. Most high-ranking heroes have photos of them hitting the community boards whenever they're bored, and they've got reporters tailing them like paparazzi. If someone even snapped a picture of a hero visiting the Association — visiting the Welfare Bureau — just to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠talk about something… that alone would cost them."

A hero I'd been assigned last year, around this time, had told me as much. I'd dressed it up and added a few things of my own, of course. But from the perspective of a hero being treated like a celebrity, it was better to just shut up, do the work, and drink alone in your own apartment at dawn.

"Hmm…"

"It's true that whenever we ask B-Class heroes, a lot of them say they have no problems at all — that everything's perfect."

"And if you think about how many months it's been since a B-Class last came in even for a consultation…"

"I see. That's actually… no, that's a pretty good point. The original topic was the increase in heroes coming to the Welfare Bureau, but… it looks like we need to address this problem sooner rather than later, too. Thank you."

"Of course."

…Right. Now that I thought about it, I'd wandered pretty far from the actual agenda. E-Class and D-Class heroes really were showing up at the Association more often.

They'd probably put out a job posting soon enough. Most E-Class heroes' problems weren't anything on Batori's level, and they weren't usually that serious to begin with.

More talk went back and forth among the staff and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the Team Leaders, and then, eventually, the meeting was over.

"Fwaaah…"

I'd been busy — relentlessly busy — for a while now. But today, at least, I was getting off on time. I even had the feeling I'd slipped out about five minutes early, which put me in a decent mood. If I went home and threw myself onto the bed just like this… that actually sounded pretty good.

"…Of course it's raining."

I wouldn't have thought that if the rain hadn't been waiting for me the moment I stepped out of the Association building. I'd left in high spirits, and what I walked into was an evening sky just starting to come down in earnest, rain falling in long, steady threads.

Fortunately I always carried an umbrella, so it wasn't a practical problem… but it did mean I'd failed to end the day on a happy note, which was a little disappointing.

I headed home at an unhurried pace, listening to the rain tap, tap, tap against the umbrella.

I usually took the subway, but on days like this the wet umbrella always soaked my clothes, and I hated getting my poor coat dirty for no reason. I also hated the subway when it smelled like rain.

"Haaahm…"

I could feel the fatigue sitting in my bones. Tomorrow I was supposed to meet Saran…

Where should I take her?

I was turning that over, walking, thinking, when I turned into the alley that led toward home.

"……"

Step. Step.

About halfway down the alley, I started to hear footsteps. They kept a perfectly even rhythm, matching my own stride with almost unnatural precision, as if someone were walking right behind me.

"……"

Step, step.

I walked calmly out of the alley.

Step, step.

The footsteps were still there. I slipped a hand into my pocket, found my phone, and kept walking… then turned into another alley.

Just in case, I opened the phone app. If this person really was following me, I was going to call Saran immediately. She was the closest hero I knew, and the strongest. Batori still wasn't used to real combat, and she lived a bit far from here besides.

I stepped into a convenience store tucked inside the alley.

Ding. The bell on the door rang again behind me.

…Staying calm, I picked out the kind of things a person living alone might buy — a fish-cake skewer, a cup of ramyeon — and pulled up Saran's number, one tap away from calling. Then I hit it.

"…What are you doing right now?"

"…If you're free right now, could you come out for a bit?"

We were in the same convenience store, and even though they were browsing a different aisle… they were definitely still following me. Every time I moved to the next row, they closed the gap by one. It was far too obvious. I had no choice but to tell Saran where I was, among other things.

"Mm… it's not that. I think I need you to come. Can you head out right now?"

"Then take the car… I'm near the Association building right now… ah, it's 49-2 Hero Road. The conveni—"

…I'd wanted to keep playing it normal, to ask Saran for help as casually as if nothing were wrong. I couldn't do that anymore.

I turned my head, just for a second, and—

"…I think I'm about to get kidnapped, so could you hurry?"

The person following me was standing right beside me. And then—

Current licked across my skin, and just like that the strength went out of my whole body. My mind went with it.