Chapter 2: Chapter 2

Jin’s POV

   Jin still hasn’t fully recovered from the shock of returning to this world so abruptly. Even so, he still has to work. The last thing he needs is having his pay being cut.

   He’s working at a convenience store, and he had been working at the same place for more than a few years now. Naturally, he’s more or less got used to working there. The only problem is that he probably needs to refresh his memory after (technically) skipping his work for at least one year.

   When he arrives at the convenience store, Amenori Jiro, a university student who is Jin’s senpai at both work and academy, is manning the counter.

   “Good evening, Amenori-senpai.” he greets Amenori politely.

   “Good evening, Minase-kun.” he greets back. “Are you ready to work another shift?”

   “Oh, that depends.” Jin replies while looking pointedly at the entrance which leads to the break room of the store.

   “I have good news and bad news for you.”

   “What’s the good news?”

   “Kawajira-san is on leave. Again.”

   That give Jin a complicated feeling. On one hand, he doesn’t have to see Kawajira’s face. At least until he returns from his so-called leave. On the other, it would mean that he’s alone on this shift, since Amenori will leave right after Jin clocks in.

   “Ah, screw it. I would rather be alone than seeing his mug for a single second.”

   “I could stay back and accompany you.” Amenori offers.

   “Please don’t do that, senpai. You-know-who would never acknowledge your overtime and pay you accordingly. Besides, you have an exam coming up, right? I’ll be fine by myself, so please go home and study.”

   “At least let me stay inside the break room. You can ask me for help if it ever gets busy.” Amenori insists.

   “Well, if you put it that way…”

   To be honest, Amenori is the sole reason Jin is still working at this awful place. The pay is terrible, it’s always understaffed, and the manager is an absolute pain in the behind. Amenori has shown Jin the ropes when he first started to work, and he had always been kind and patient. If Amenori ever quits, Jin will quit too without a single hesitation. Even if it would mean that he’ll be out of money until he finds a new job, it’s still worth it. He hates this one that much.

   Once Jin got changed into his work uniform, he heads behind the counter. Amenori, on the other hand, goes inside the break room to study and act as a backup in case it’s necessary. Jin spends the first new minutes walking around the store and refresh his memories on all the products sold here. He then heads back to the counter and refreshes his memory on how to operate it. He’s more or less glad that he still remembers everything.

   This convenience store doesn’t get a lot of customers, so Jin could do the shift all by himself without any help. Still, it’s reassuring to know that Amenori is always ready to help him out. Whenever the store is free from customers, Jin ended up thinking about his life back when he was at Ifezan. Sure, his chances of dying is much higher compared to this world, but at least he’s the Chosen One over there, even if-

   “I would like to buy this, please.” a male office worker tells Jin while holding a bento box.

   That snaps him back to reality. He takes the box and scans the bar code.

   “That would be 1,220 yen, please.”

   The man gave an exact change.

   “Thank you very much. Would you like me to heat it up for you?”

   “No, thank you. I would, however, like a plastic bag, please.”

   “Yes, sir.”

   Jin puts the bento box inside a plastic bag and hands it to the man. The man nods his thanks and leaves the convenience store with his dinner. Looking back at the man’s soulless expression, Jin figured that that will be his life soon. Just keep on working and working in order to get some meagre salary and going back home to a cold and empty house.

   Eventually, it’s the end of Jin’s shift. The full-timer who does the graveyard shift is a man called Akayashi. Jin doesn’t even know his given name as they barely spoke a word with each other.

   “Good job handling this place all by yourself. You can go back now.” Akayashi tells Jin the moment he comes in.

   “Thank you, Akayashi-san.”

   “Be careful on your way home.”

   “I will.”

   This is pretty much all they said to each other. Not that Jin cares. He heads to the break room where he finds Amenori still busy with his studies on computer programming.

   “Senpai, my shift is already over.” Jin tells him.

   Amemori looks up from his book.

   “Oh, you’re done already? Well, be safe when you go back.”

   “Are you going to stay back even longer?”

   “Yup. Since I’ve started, I might as well continue until I’m done.”

   “...Well, please don’t push yourself.”

   After Jin got back to his apartment, he ate a simple dinner of rice, two chicken sausages and some lettuce. He microwaved everything inside a microwave after putting them on a plate. As he eats, he watches some random programs on his television. He kept on switching channels until he’s watching the news. They usually shows some boring stuff, but not tonight.

   “-is clearly not something done by a human, or even a wild animal.” an unseen reporter is saying.

   The screen is showing a live-feed of a pulverized metallic gate. The gate is at least ten inches thick, but it was all bashed up like it’s made of card board. Next, the screen shows a reporter interviewing an unkempt middle-aged man who’s wearing very torn clothes. A homeless, perhaps. He looks very traumatized. It’s like he saw a ghost or something.

   “Is it true that you saw whoever or whatever that did this?” the reporter asks him.

   “That’s right! It was tall, and it had lots of muscles on its body! Its skin was a shade of green like someone puked on its entire body. And it’s a female too. I mean, it had boobs and all.” the homeless confirms.

   Tall. Muscular. Green-skinned. If the homeless didn’t eat any weird shrooms for his dinner, he definitely saw a female troll. Jin could tell from the description alone since he fought and killed lots of those when he was back at Ifezan.

   Jin shrugs. Even if a troll is roaming around the city, it has nothing to do with him. He has no obligation whatsoever to find and kill the troll. Unless the troll wants to kill him. That reminds him.

   He reaches out his left hand and concentrate. Felfarthen appears in his hand in an instant. So he could still use his magic even if he isn’t in Ifezan. Interesting. He has zero intention of fooling around with his new discovery, however. The last thing he wants is being put into the Government’s watch list or worse, being labeled as a dangerous potential criminal/terrorist. He puts his sword away before continuing his sad excuse of a dinner.

Chinatsu’s POV

   “It’s got to be an UMA! Probably a Sasquatch, or even a Yeti.” the newbie Date exclaims.

   “What’s an UMA?” Chinatsu asks.

   “Don’t you know, senpai? It stands for Unidentified Mysterious Animal.”

   “What about the Sasquatch and Yeti or whatever?”

   “Both of them are UMA that looks like giant furry gorillas. Neither of them have green skins, though.”

   “Then I guess it wasn’t a Sasquatch or a Yeti.”

   Date hangs his head. “I, I guess not.”

   Detective Sergeant Wakaba Chinatsu, age 25, has been a police detective for 5 years. She had been in charge of hundreds of cases so far and managed to solve majority of them. This one is by far one of the most baffling one, and she doesn’t think that it can be solved anytime soon. Unless the homeless was lying.

   “I’m telling ya, I saw the thing with ma very own eyes!” he insists.

   “Are you sure that you didn’t blame it on something that doesn’t exist after doing it yourself?” Date accuses him cynically.

   “What? Are ya mind clogged with seaweeds or somethin’? I can’t even crack open an acorn without the help of a nutcracker, much less…that!” the homeless shouts angrily while pointing at the destroyed gate.

   “No offense to him, but he’s right Date-kun. There’s no way he could have done this all by himself.” Chinatsu joins in the conversation.

   “Then it’s decided. It’s definitely an UMA.”

   “Are you still talking about that?”

   “I’m telling you, senpai. That’s the only possible explanation!”

   Just as the two of them are still arguing, one of their colleagues from the regular police department comes over.

   “Sergeant. We have another case at the 5 Chome.” he tells Chinatsu.

   “Is it another destroyed gate?” Chinatsu asks.

   “No. A factory that contains lots of frozen meat has been ransacked. The security cameras caught some footage involving several tiny humanoids.”

   Date gasps. “It could be leprechauns! We have to check out the footage right away!”

   “Please leave this site to us and head there instead. At least there’s some solid evidence over there.” the policeman tells them.

   “Understood. Thank you for you hard work.”

   Chinatsu sighs. This is going to be a long night. And it has to be now. Just when she was desperate to find out more about the cousin that she didn’t knew she had.

Jin’s POV

   It’s been five days ever since Jin saw the news about the troll. It’s been the talk of the town ever since, and his classmates wouldn’t shut up about it. They’ve been talking about it on every break time, so much so that he was very close to snapping. It’s also not helping that the troll is not the only creature that somehow arrived at this world. There are often news on television about mysterious creatures destroying properties and causing harms. To be honest, Jin is surprised that he hasn’t seen a single one of them so far. He thought he would cross path with one right about now.

   “I’m so scared. What if we ever get attacked?” he hears a girl asks.

   “No need to worry, I bet Yoshii-kun will protect us all!” another exclaims.

   “That’s right, I’ll protect all of you!” Yoshii assures them.

   “Kyaa~! You’re so cool, Yoshii-kun!”

   Jin rolls his eyes. Dude just raised a death flag without realizing it. Rather, Yoshii looks like someone who can’t brawl. He’ll just get thrashed if he ever gets into a fight. Well, whatever. It has nothing to do with him anyway. More importantly, he has to restock his pitiable food supply before he go to his part time work.

   With his ultra-limited budget, he couldn’t even get anything decent. His motto is quantity over quality. Bean sprouts, cabbages, lettuces, and sausages are his top choices, or rather the only ones if he wants to save money. Oh right, he needs to get some detergent too. His shopping trip never takes more than ten minutes. It’s not like he has a lot of things to buy. Even his plastic bags he got are never full.

   “Oh, hello there Minase-kun.”

   Jin turns to look at the person who spoke. It’s Wakaba Chifuyu from his class. Like him, she’s also holding a plastic bag on her hand.

   “Um, you’re Wakaba…san, right? Fancy seeing you here.” he says.

   “I’m here to buy groceries. Our house is short on some food, you see.”

   Unlike his plastic bag however, hers is filled to the brim with food. Must be nice to be able to afford so many things to fill your stomach.

   “There’s another mouth to feed lately, so the food starts to disappear quicker than ever. Well, she’s a bright girl, so at least the house got more cheerful.” she continues to say.

   “I, I see…”

   Well this is awkward. It’s like listening to a housewife who goes on and on about her family.

   “Say, would you like an apple? I managed to get them cheap, so I could spare two.” she suddenly offers.

   “Um, that’s okay. There’s no need for you to give me free food.”

   “Come on, don’t say that. Here, take them.” she says as she takes two apples out of the bag.

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   “Well, if you insist…”

   It’s kind of sad to accept food from a classmate, but Jin can’t really help it. He needs to conserve as much money as possible so that he can last until the end of the month.

   “Now then, see you tomorrow.”

   “Yeah. Thank you for the apples.”

   Previously, Jin would definitely be elated if a girl as pretty as Wakaba spoke to him. Now, he realizes that he doesn’t feel a thing. He wonders why. Anyway, no time to lose. He needs to store his groceries and head to work soon.

Estyshana’s POV
   “Mama Kana, can we have our dinner already?” Esty asks impatiently for the sixth time in a row.

   “No, not yet. We have to wait for Chinatsu to come back, remember?”

   “Aww, but I’m hungry~!” Esty whines.

   Chifuyu giggles.

   “Why don’t you just be honest, Esty? Rather than the meal, you just wanted to eat the apple pie that mother made, right?” she points out.

   Esty flinches and averts her eyes.

   “I-I-I have no idea what you’re talking about…” she stutters.

   Chifuyu giggles again. “You’re bad at lying, as usual.”

   Ordinarily, Esty would be blood-boiling mad if she heard that. Her Bloodline Magic, the Enticing Whisper, earned her the title of the Whisperer of Deceit. Earning a title is one of the biggest honor a demon could ever get. She had been working really, really hard in order to polish and improve it so that she could prove to all the demons out there that she’s more than the Daughter of the Demon Lord. And proved it to them she did. No one, inhuman or otherwise, is ever allowed to accuse her of bad at lying.

   However, she doesn’t mind if it’s Chifuyu, or one of her family members for that matter. She likes them a lot. All of them are surprisingly warm for a bunch of humans, and they had been taking good care of her even though they have no reason to. Chifuyu taught her a lot of things about this world and never made fun of her ignorance. Mama Kana (the nickname ‘Aunt’ Kana wanted Esty to use instead of Aunt) cooks amazingly delicious food, and she often spoils Esty rotten. Uncle Shun, a quiet but diligent man, listens patiently as Esty tells him her past glory, even though he doesn’t understand more than half of what she’s saying. Chinatsu, well-

   “I’m home.”

   “Welcome home, onee-chan.”

   “Welcome home, Chinatsu.”

   “Welcome home, dear.”

   “Finally, about time!”

   As usual, Chinatsu’s expression slightly stiffens when she saw Esty. Esty is more than certain that the Enticing Deceit worked on Chinatsu, but she suspects that the eldest daughter of the Wakaba family isn’t that affected by it. Esty isn’t upset by this fact. She understands that there is no such thing as a perfect spell, and some creatures have resistance or even immunity to it.

   “Now that Chinatsu is back, let’s have dinner. Can you be a dear and get me some rice bowls, Esty?” Mama Kana requests.

   “Of course, Mama Kana! Right away!”

   While she’s helping, she notices that Chinatsu’s eyes is following her everywhere she goes. Esty has heard from Chifuyu that her elder sister works as a ‘police detective’, which is akin to the human Magistrates at Ifezan, minus the power to judge those who did wrongs. Chinatsu is probably suspecting Esty of planning something, but chose not to expose her of it. Instead, she decided to observe her with every chance she got. Esty is grateful for that. She doesn’t want to kill Chinatsu if she could help it.

   Right before eating, Esty does the usual thing taught by Chifuyu along with everyone else.

   “Itadakimasu~!”

   For today’s dinner, Mama Kana made teriyaki chicken, tomato salad, egg rolls, and the staple miso soup. Of course, there are white rice too. Esty prefers human souls over all these human food, but the cooking by Mama Kana is so good she doesn’t mind eating them.

   Esty notices that Chifuyu is not touching her share of tomato salad. She seems to remember that Chifuyu dislikes those red fruits.

   “Say Chifuyu. I would like some more tomatoes. Can you give me yours?” Esty asks Chifuyu nonchalantly.

   Chifuyu’s expression brightens up immediately.

   “Of course! Here you go!”

   She’s more than happy to give her share to Esty.

   “You really have to stop being picky, Chifuyu.” Mama Kana chides Chitose.

   “I can’t help it~! I really can’t stand their taste!” Chifuyu whines.

   Mama Kana sighs in defeat. Uncle Shun, on the other hand, chuckles.

   “How times have changed. I still remember that Chifuyu used to beg Chinatsu to eat her tomatoes.” he says.

   “I was always too soft on her and end up doing it.” Chinatsu adds while looking tired.

   Esty looks smugly at Chinatsu.

   “Looks like someone has lost her duty to be the Tomato Disposer.” she cackles.

   “What even is that? Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t you always shoved your share of natto at my bowl whenever you think I wasn’t watching?”

   “What? How did you know?”

   “I knew it. It really was you.”

   Esty gasps loudly and covers her mouth with both her hands. Now it’s Chinatsu’s turn to look smug.

   “I just love it when a criminal confesses her crime without being coaxed. You’re too early to be fooling the detective of this household, little girl.” she smiles.

   “Little? You mean those little things hanging by your chest?” Esty fires back.

   Mama Kana, Uncles Shun and Chifuyu exhales sharply. All of them look nervously at Chinatsu. She’s putting on a scary smile right now. Esty remembers that smile from her mother who used to have the same smile before she was about to get into huge trouble. However, Esty isn’t fazed at all. She lifts up her somewhat voluptuous breasts with her hands.

   “Now these are breasts! Your sad, tiny bowls are nothing compared to mine!” she taunts. “Seriously, what in the Evil Gods’ names are those pathetic lumps? Even Chifuyu has bigger ones than yours!”

   “Please don’t get me involved, Esty.” Chifuyu pleads from the corner of her mouth.

   “...You, me. Street Brawler 6 after dinner.” Chinatsu challenges.

   “You’re on! I’ll make sure to thrash you this time! Don’t think my skill is still the same when I first played it!”

   “Keep bragging. I’ll make you eat your words soon enough.”

   “Girls, can we just eat our dinner peacefully?” Mama Kana intervenes before things got uglier.

   “So, how was work today?” Uncle Shun asks Chinatsu as they eat.

   “There are more cases of mysterious creatures randomly destroying properties. Some are targeting places that store food too.” she replies while putting up a stressed expression. “There’s even three cases where civilians got hurt.”

   “It’s getting really dangerous out there, isn’t it? Remember to be careful.” Mama Kana tells her daughter.

   “Don’t worry, mother. I most definitely will.”

   “Can you at least identify some of the culprits?” Chifuyu asks.

   “The best lead we got so far is a video footage from a factory. There were a group of short humanoids that resemble babies, but they have sharp nose, pointy ears and shark-like teeth. Also, they have green skin.”

   Esty’s body twitches instinctively at the description. Chinatsu must be talking about goblins.

   “They sound, well, nasty.” Chifuyu shudders.

   “No kidding. They looked absolutely repulsive. Who knows where they are right now. I hope they’re not out there hurting people.”

   “What about those people who got hurt? They could at least remember what their assailant look like, right?” Uncle Shun asks.

   “I thought so too, but all of them were so traumatized by the incident that they refused to talk about it.”

   “Oh my. I hope they can recover from the painful memory.” Mama Kana says.

   After dinner is finished, it’s finally time for the main event: Esty’s favorite apple pie. Ever since Esty arrived, the pie could never be distributed evenly. Uncle Shun and Chifuyu always sacrifice the second piece of their share so that Esty could get to eat two pieces. At times, Mama Kana and even Chinatsu gave her their share. The best part is that they’re doing it even though she didn’t use her magic. Humans are so weird. What could they possibly get in return for doing this?

   Esty feels pure ecstasy as she takes a bite out of the pie. Never in her wildest dream that she would thought a dessert made by a human could make her feel this way.

   “How’s the pie, Esty-chan?” Mama Kana asks her.

   “It’s as delicious as always, Mama Kana.” Esty says while being completely mesmerized by the taste of the pie.

   “I’m glad that you enjoy it.”

   “There’s just one thing, though.”

   “What is it?”

   “There’s less apples in them than usual.”

   “I think I have to apologize to you for that, Esty. I gave two apples to a classmate I bumped into at the supermarket.” Chifuyu answers.

   “Did he or she exchanged something with you in return?”

   “No.”

   “Then why did you gave them away for free?”

   “Well, he looked pretty hungry. I figured that he’s short on money or something.”

   “Huh.”

   Esty didn’t bother to argue any further. Compassion is one of the human emotion that she always fail to understand.

   “That said, fancy meeting Minase-kun like that.”

   “...What did you say his name was?”

   “Minase-kun.”

   “Do you know his full name?”

   “Um, I think it’s Minase Jin.”

   “Say, Mama Kana. I think I want to go to school now.”

   “Really? That’s great to hear! I was waiting for you to say that, so I was already done with the registration and other tedious stuff. I even got you a uniform. You can transfer to Yokosuka Hish School where Chifuyu studies tomorrow.”

   “That was fast. I really appreciate it, though. Thank you, Mama Kana.”

   “No need to think me. After all, young girls should experience youth as much as possible.”

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