White Fox
Before I knew it, Batori had made it to D-Class, and Saran was settling into a perfectly ordinary daily routine.
Two months had already gone by.
The timing may have differed a little between them, but looking at everything that had unfolded since I'd first met Batori and Saran, the results sat, by my estimation, firmly in the "genuinely solid" column. I'd been assigned quite a few heroes by this point, and it had been a long time since I'd had ones whose outcomes were this good — whose problems were actually getting resolved, and who showed this much room still to grow.
In Saran's case, it was more accurate to say her issues were gradually being worked through rather than that she was growing or developing, but still. Through the course of my busy days, the contents of my reports had been almost entirely positive. That was how well things were going for the two of them.
"...Team Leader."
"Not yet."
"...Come on. It's been about a month now. Shouldn't the higher-ups have signed off on Saran by this point?"
"Haha..."
There were a few things that didn't sit quite right with me. But it wasn't anything the Team Leader or Saran had done wrong, so I didn't hold it against either of them. It was just the renewed, faintly sour realization that the Association was, at the end of the day, a pretty shitty company.
...Well. Calling it a shitty company felt a little unfair, given how massive it was, and how wildly popular it remained in just about every respect.
"By the way, Charlotte, you haven't been shopping lately? You used to go whenever you got bored and then come show off your new clothes to me."
"Ah... I did, yeah. But I've been so busy lately. I can barely find the time to wander around looking at clothes."
Even so, my everyday routine hadn't changed all that much. On days that had nothing to do with Saran or Batori, I did my work as usual, chatted with the Team Leader, and slacked off whenever I could. It felt so natural that I sometimes wondered if this, more than anything else, was my real daily life.
"Hmm... I suppose you would be busy. This is the kid who used to go shopping every weekend and day off just to come brag about some new hat or coat. You've been awfully quiet lately."
"If you looked at my travel records right now, Team Leader, you'd understand immediately."
"I think I already have a pretty good idea without looking..."
"Exactly."
"You're out on assignment at least four times a week, basically. Sometimes it overlaps and drops to three, sure."
"I really am that busy."
If it were up to me, I'd have sprinted straight to the department store and tried on every new arrival in the building. But I genuinely didn't have the time or the energy, so I had no choice but to keep living diligently.
"Haaah..."
"Don't be like that. At least no extra work is coming in on top of what you've already got, right? Have a drink."
"I would love a drink, actually."
"Well. Tomorrow's a workday."
"......"
My world had just collapsed.
And it was still collapsing.
The Team Leader was right. No matter how much I wanted to rest, this company was not a place that let you rest. I had no choice but to start putting together materials for upload.
"Oh, by the way — that thing you mentioned before. I brought it up with the higher-ups."
"...The thing I mentioned?"
"You know. About getting high-ranking heroes to actually use the Welfare Bureau."
"Ah..."
"I just floated it once. The reaction was pretty decent, actually. At the very least, nobody was shaking their head and shooting it down."
"I see."
Is that so. Hmm. I didn't have any particular thoughts about it. What I'd said back then hadn't come from any especially deep consideration or elaborate thinking. I'd just talked because I'd been told to talk. I kept typing.
Just as the Team Leader had said a moment ago, I was starting to really want a drink. Nothing more, nothing less. If I could just gulp down a cold draft beer — gulp, gulp, gulp, gulp — and rest easy, I would have been genuinely happy. But tomorrow was a workday, and tomorrow I was meeting Batori, so that wasn't happening.
...Just one drink......
"......"
One drink would be fine, right? Not enough to get drunk. Just a light one. That should be okay.
I wasn't some elementary or middle schooler who couldn't manage their game time and got scolded at eleven o'clock. I wasn't some college kid who stayed up staring at their phone until they couldn't keep their eyes open through first period. I was, beyond any shadow of a doubt, an adult — even if I was under 150 centimeters — and a working professional well into my second year on the job.
"......Heheh."
And so, the moment I clocked out, I made a beeline for the little izakaya Saran and I had visited once before. I had to eat dinner anyway, and I wasn't the type to eat all that much. A modest plate of bar snacks, one half-liter beer, then home to shower and fall asleep in a good mood... wouldn't that be perfect?
"...Heheh!"
Just thinking about drinking was enough to put me in a good mood, and that shady little laugh slipped out on its own. Today, unlike usual, there was no Saran and no Batori. Even the Team Leader, who occasionally clung to me noisily about going out for drinks, had left early to discuss something with the higher-ups. I had, quite literally, entered a state of complete and utter freedom.
The only things that could stop me now were the law, the police, heroes, and so on.
"...One draft beer and five chicken skewers, please!"
I called it out the moment I walked in. None of my order had even arrived yet, but I was already in a great mood.
"Hehehe...!"
I sat down, set my little handbag on the empty chair beside me, pulled out my phone, and started browsing the hero fan community for pictures. It still wasn't the kind of place where photos of Batori or Saran got posted much. That didn't mean other heroes weren't being uploaded, though, and a famous one like Baekyeou always had plenty of pictures up. My eyes were already having such a good time that I started wondering if the photos themselves counted as bar snacks.
"Ahhhhh......"
The beer arrived first, and I took a sip. That distinctive, slightly bitter coolness washed over me, and I was so happy the corners of my mouth lifted. The chicken skewers hadn't come out yet, so I couldn't just keep drinking, and I'd planned to take it easy tonight anyway, so I had to pause after that first sip. But good things were still good things.
"Haaah..."
Was this just what it meant to be a working adult? A beer after clocking out. I had plenty of liquor at home, but I was starting to think I should really keep a few cans of beer stocked. They were reasonably cheap, and that distinctive beer foam was the kind of thing a simple highball just couldn't replicate.
"Haaaah......"
I was swaying happily in my seat, waiting for my chicken skewers, when a voice came from behind me — not the kind of voice that made the world go dark, but the kind that made it collapse, split apart, catch fire, and start ending. It was a voice I felt like I'd heard somewhere before. I did my best to ignore it.
I just wanted to rest a little, okay? If I'd been at my usual energy level and physical condition, maybe it would have been different. But I was hitting that time of day when the fatigue started setting in, and this was after hours, wasn't it?
"Haaah... I'm..."
"......"
Working outside of work hours was probably a bad thing. Spending time with Batori or Saran after clocking out technically counted as that too, though.
"I'm... exhausted too... A-Class heroes get tired too, you know. Fatigue, weariness, that heavy worn-out feeling — all of that exists... The body is a consumable. Stamina needs to be constantly replenished......"
"......"
Because of whoever was sitting back there, sighing and muttering in a way that felt uncomfortably familiar, I could feel my heart starting to lean. I even had the passing thought that I was almost too well-suited for this job. At the same time, I figured getting involved with a hero outside of Welfare Bureau work probably wasn't a great idea.
Just as Saran had told me before — if a hero hadn't asked for help themselves, wasn't it a little strange for me to suddenly walk up, start asking questions, and strike up a conversation?
All kinds of thoughts crossed my mind. And then...
"...What is it?"
"...Ah."
"Who are you, and why did you just come over to my table...? What... ah. An autograph..."
...And just like that, I found myself standing at the table of an A-Class hero. Baekyeou. I'd just gone and done it. It was a sight I absolutely couldn't walk past, and she was muttering all of that to herself in a voice that sounded genuinely exhausted, so I felt like I really had to help.
On top of that, I remembered what the chairman had said earlier today. High-ranking heroes couldn't exactly stroll into the Hero Association and ask the Welfare Bureau for help. That was probably why she was sitting here like this, alone. I'd only overheard her because I happened to be in the seat directly behind hers. Anyone else in the place probably wouldn't have heard a thing.
There had to be a reason she was doing this by herself. And the fact that she was sitting in a little bar out in the open, venting about her situation... she probably wanted someone to hear it. That was why she was here.
"...I usually only do autographs during the day, but I'll make an exception. Do you have paper, or a pen, or..."
"That's not why I'm here, Baekyeou."
"......"
"I happened to overhear what you were saying just now, from behind you... and I think I might be able to help a little, with that. Would it be all right if I sat down for a moment?"
I handed a business card to Baekyeou, who was looking at me with a puzzled expression. Just the ordinary kind I normally used. I put on my best recruitment smile and said it all very lightly, and maybe she could tell I wasn't after anything material — that I genuinely just wanted to help.
"...Sit down, then. I'd rather not draw any more attention."
"Yes, thank you."
And so I was able to sit down beside her. Ah — there was a bit of a process involved. Moving seats, transferring the food that had been brought out, and so on. Anyway.
"......"
"...So. What did you want to say?"
Snow-white hair. A chest so lavishly full it was practically bursting. Blue eyes. And though they were hidden under a hat right now, if she took that hat off, a pair of snow-white fox ears would surely be revealed, along with nine tails concealed by some means or another.
"...Heheh."
Before we even started the counseling, I wanted to touch them. How strange.