Volume 1, Chapter 2: The Price of Skipping Four Hours
8:12 the next morning.
Shuichi was woken by someone pounding on his door.
THUD!
THUD THUD!
By the third blow, he'd pulled the blanket over his head.
"Not dead."
Half a second of quiet outside.
Then Yusei's voice came through.
"I didn't ask whether you were dead."
"Then stop knocking."
"Get up."
"I don't have a shift today."
"You do."
Shuichi opened his eyes.
The bedroom curtains weren't fully closed, and a glaring strip of sunlight fell right across the foot of the bed.
He stared at the ceiling for a few seconds.
His brain slowly booted up.
Yesterday.
Saturday.
No-show.
The manager.
...
Shuichi closed his eyes again.
"Then I'd rather be dead."
"You've got three minutes."
"No."
"I have a key."
"Come in and I'm calling the cops."
"You ate my beef yesterday."
"You made too much."
"Two minutes forty seconds left."
Shuichi rolled over.
A countdown started outside the door.
"Two thirty-nine."
"Two thirty-eight."
"..."
Shuichi shot upright.
"You're sick in the head!"
Ten minutes later.
The two of them went downstairs.
Shuichi still had yesterday's not-quite-awake look, except he'd changed into a baggy white T-shirt with no jacket over it, and was still in sweatpants.
He'd wet his hair and patted it down a bit.
It hadn't done much.
Those few black strands over his forehead still stuck up.
Yusei had clearly made an effort. His short black hair was neat and tidy, and he'd changed into the supermarket's standard-issue light-blue short-sleeved work shirt, with a white name badge pinned to his chest.
—Yusei.
The name was printed neat and square.
Shuichi glanced down at his own clothes.
"Where's my uniform?"
Yusei stopped walking.
He slowly turned his head.
"You're asking me?"
"I think it's at the store."
"It better be."
The two of them lived in a fairly old apartment building.
Six floors.
No elevator.
The outer walls had probably been repainted once, but after a few years of wind and rain, big gray-black water stains had spread near the drainpipes.
Two reasonably well-trimmed little trees grew by the ground-floor entrance, with a few dusty bicycles parked beneath them.
The morning air was already warming up.
The breakfast shop downstairs had put up its awning, and white steam puffed out of its steamer baskets in waves.
Past that was the exit of the residential complex.
This was exactly when the most people in the neighborhood headed out.
Students in school uniforms.
Old folks carrying grocery baskets.
Office workers hurrying past on their phones.
And a middle-aged auntie squatting by a flower bed, feeding a cat.
Everything was the same as usual.
Yesterday's attack on Xin'an Commercial Street didn't seem to have left much of a mark.
At most, a few people by the road were chatting about it over their phones.
When something happens often enough, people get used to it.
As long as a calamity beast didn't land on your own head, you still had to go to work the next day.
That was probably humanity's greatest strength.
Shuichi walked on, yawning.
Yusei suddenly clamped a hand on his shoulder.
"Breakfast."
"Not eating."
"You only ate half a bowl of rice last night."
"Couldn't eat more."
"Then buy a steamed bun."
"Don't want one."
Yusei stared at him.
Shuichi stared back.
Two seconds later.
Shuichi turned toward the breakfast shop.
"Boss, one meat bun."
Yusei was satisfied.
"And a soy milk."
Shuichi frowned.
"Don't push your luck."
"My treat."
"With sugar."
"..."
It suddenly occurred to Yusei that maybe he should never have gotten involved with this guy in the first place.
The supermarket where they both worked part-time wasn't far from the apartment.
About a ten-minute walk.
It occupied the ground floor of a mixed residential-commercial building. It wasn't very big, but people from several nearby complexes came there for groceries and daily necessities, so business had always been good.
A red-and-white sale banner hung over the entrance.
The automatic doors kept sliding open and shut.
Cold air spilled out from inside.
The moment they stepped in, Shuichi heard someone call out from the direction of the registers.
"Well, well."
"The dead have risen?"
Shuichi's steps faltered.
The speaker was a middle-aged man in his forties.
Not tall, a little chubby, with a hairline that had started to retreat, but full of energy.
Right now he stood by the service counter with his arms crossed.
The name badge on his chest read—
Manager, Tanaka Makoto.
Shuichi weighed the odds of turning around and making a run for it.
Tanaka Makoto seemed to read his mind in advance.
"Walk out and you can kiss this month's bonus goodbye."
Shuichi stopped.
"I don't get a bonus anyway."
"Then I'll dock your pay."
"Good morning, Manager!"
His attitude corrected itself instantly.
Yusei was cracking up beside him.
"Aren't you good at reading the room?"
Shuichi ignored him.
Tanaka Makoto glared at Shuichi.
"Where's your phone?"
"Got it."
"Then why couldn't I get through yesterday?"
"It was dead."
"Why were you a no-show?"
"Overslept."
"Overslept until one in the afternoon?"
Shuichi thought about it.
"I went to bed kind of late the night before."
"What time?"
"Seven in the morning."
Tanaka Makoto fell silent.
Yusei turned his face away.
Obviously holding back a laugh.
Tanaka Makoto took a deep breath.
"Shuichi."
"Yeah."
"You're only twenty-one."
"Yeah."
"With a sleep schedule like that, are you planning to retire before I do?"
"No."
"Then could you try to be a little more human?"
Shuichi considered it.
"I'll try."
"That's what you said last month."
"Which proves I'm still trying."
"..."
Tanaka Makoto pointed at the staff corridor.
"Get lost and go change."
"You got it."
Shuichi turned and left.
"Wait."
He looked back.
Tanaka Makoto added one more thing.
"Somebody covered your shift yesterday."
"Who?"
Tanaka Makoto didn't answer.
He just jerked his chin instead.
Shuichi followed his gaze.
Just in time to see a girl step out from the far end of an aisle.
She was carrying a cardboard box.
She looked about twenty, maybe 1.66 meters tall, well-proportioned, and wore the same light-blue supermarket uniform as Yusei.
A dark-blue apron was tied at her waist.
Black slacks fell straight down her legs, and she wore a pair of white sneakers made for moving around.
She was very pretty.
Not the especially striking or glamorous type.
A small face, fair clear skin, a slightly upturned nose, very pale lips.
But her eyes were exceptionally clear and bright, their outer corners tilting up a little; when she looked at someone quietly, she came across as very serious, even a bit unapproachable.
The most noticeable thing was her hair.
A very deep black.
Nearly the color of ink.
It fell just past her shoulders, tied into a low ponytail with an ordinary black hair tie.
A few loose strands hung by her ears.
From hauling boxes, a light sweat had broken out on her forehead.
Shuichi looked at her for two seconds.
Didn't know her. Didn't ring a bell.
The girl saw him too.
And stopped.
"You're Shuichi?"
"Should be."
"Should be?"
"Haven't changed my name yet, anyway."
The girl didn't take the joke.
She just carried the box over and set it on a nearby cart.
"Yesterday, one to five was your shift."
"Yeah."
"I covered it for you."
Shuichi paused.
"Thanks."
"And I had my own shift after six."
"..."
Shuichi looked at Tanaka Makoto.
Tanaka Makoto nodded.
"She worked from one to nine yesterday."
Shuichi turned back to the girl.
"I'm sorry."
He sounded a lot more sincere this time.
The girl didn't press him any further.
"It's fine."
"The manager counts it as overtime anyway."
Tanaka Makoto corrected her immediately.
"It's paid in accordance with the law."
"Is there a difference?"
"It sounds nicer."
The girl ignored him and pulled a can of coffee from her apron pocket.
Shuichi assumed she was going to drink it herself.
Instead, the can was held out right in front of him.
"Here."
"For me?"
"Yusei said you most likely hadn't eaten breakfast today."
Shuichi turned his head.
Yusei: "?"
"I literally watched you buy a bun."
The girl's hand paused.
"You ate?"
"I ate."
"Never mind, then."
She went to take it back without a moment's hesitation.
Shuichi reached out and took the coffee.
"I can save it for lunch."
The girl looked at her empty hand.
Then at him.
"You're pretty thick-skinned."
"Thanks."
"That wasn't a compliment."
"I've been hearing that a lot lately."
The girl finally couldn't help it; the corners of her mouth twitched.
Barely.
But it was definitely a smile.
"Asakawa Mio."
She pointed at her name badge.
"I just transferred here recently."
Shuichi glanced down at it.
Asakawa Mio.
"Shuichi."
"I know."
"Oh."
And that was it.
Asakawa Mio apparently hadn't expected this guy to actually kill a first-meeting introduction dead. After two seconds of silence, she simply pushed the cart off toward the food section.
Yusei had been watching the whole time.
Once she was far enough away, he sidled over.
"Pretty, right?"
Shuichi popped the tab on the coffee.
"She's all right."
"All right?"
"What do you want me to say?"
"A normal guy seeing her for the first time shouldn't react like that, should he?"
Shuichi took a sip.
It was so bitter he winced.
"No sugar."
"Who asked about the coffee?"
"Then what are you asking about?"
Yusei stared at him for two seconds.
Then shook his head.
"Forget it."
"You might honestly be hopeless for life."
Shuichi had no objection to that.
***
The morning's work was ordinary.
Restocking.
Straightening shelves.
Finding things for customers.
Now and then getting grabbed by Tanaka Makoto to haul a few cases of drinks.
Shuichi usually looked lazy, but when he actually worked, he wasn't slow.
Mostly because he hated redoing things.
If something could be done in one go, he usually couldn't be bothered to do it twice.
Toward noon, the flow of customers thinned out.
Shuichi had just pushed a case of bottled water into the stockroom when his lower back started to ache faintly.
He stopped.
He stood for a few seconds with one palm braced against a shelf.
His breathing was a little quick.
A familiar exhaustion welled up from deep inside his body.
Not tiredness.
More like some invisible layer weighing down inside his bones.
Shuichi kept his eyes lowered.
Waiting for the feeling to slowly pass.
"Are you okay?"
A voice came suddenly from behind him.
Shuichi turned around.
Asakawa Mio was standing in the stockroom doorway.
She held a stack of freshly printed price tags.
Her eyes were on Shuichi's hand braced against the shelf.
"You look terrible."
"Born this way."
"You looked like you could barely stay on your feet just now."
"My leg fell asleep."
Asakawa Mio clearly didn't believe him.
Shuichi let go of the shelf.
Stood up straight like normal.
"See."
"Still alive."
"..."
Asakawa Mio looked at him for two seconds.
"Is something wrong with you?"
"Yusei asks me that a lot too."
"I mean physically."
"Oh."
Shuichi paused.
"No."
The answer came out naturally.
Asakawa Mio didn't press.
"Good."
She turned to go.
But Shuichi suddenly noticed a faint red mark on her left wrist.
As if something had just been cinched tight around it.
An odd place for it.
It ran from her cuff all the way up inside her sleeve.
He glanced at it.
Then quickly looked away.
Didn't ask.
Asakawa Mio seemed to notice his gaze too, and instinctively tugged her cuff down a little.
Neither of them said anything.
She left the stockroom.
Shuichi went back to hauling stock.
As if nothing had happened.
***
Lunch break.
The staff break room wasn't big.
A few tables lined the walls, and in the corner stood a water dispenser, a microwave, and a smallish TV.
Normally nobody watched the TV.
Today, for once, it was on.
Because the news was still replaying yesterday's attack.
"As for the mysterious female hero who appeared on Xin'an Commercial Street yesterday, the internet is currently calling her 'Blue Lance'..."
On the screen.
The girl with long pale-blue hair dropped from midair.
Her lance swept the monster aside.
Blue light burst.
Several employees in the break room watched while they ate.
"That's way too cool."
"Isn't this outfit nicer than that red one before?"
"Are you watching the hero or the clothes?"
"Can't I watch both?"
Yusei sat next to Shuichi with his boxed lunch.
Watching the TV quite intently.
Shuichi, meanwhile, was slumped over the table.
Two rice balls sat in front of him.
Unopened for ages.
"Not eating?"
Yusei asked.
"Not hungry."
"You only ate half your bun this morning."
"The coffee's filling."
"That was black coffee."
"So it keeps me full longer."
Yusei reached to take one of the rice balls.
Shuichi's hand slammed down on it.
"What are you doing?"
"Weren't you not eating?"
"I'm eating it this afternoon."
"Fast enough guarding your food."
The TV happened to replay a close-up of the Blue Lance girl.
Yusei watched for a while.
Then, out of nowhere, he spoke up.
"Isn't she really pretty?"
Shuichi didn't even open his eyes.
"You already asked that yesterday."
"Yesterday it was through the TV. Today there's HD."
"Is there a difference?"
"Of course there is."
Yusei analyzed it earnestly.
"Look at that face."
"And the eyes."
"And her legs are seriously long."
Shuichi opened his eyes.
"You sound like a pervert."
"How is admiring a hero perverted?"
"You're mostly admiring the legs."
"..."
Yusei set his chopsticks down on his lunch box.
"Fine."
"Then you tell me, is she strong or not?"
"She's strong."
This time Shuichi answered quickly.
That actually threw Yusei.
"You can tell?"
"The monster was gone in three hits."
"Anyone could tell."
"Then why ask me?"
Yusei choked on that.
Shuichi closed his eyes again.
Just then.
There was a sudden "clack" from across the table.
A disposable chopstick had fallen on the floor.
Shuichi looked up.
Asakawa Mio was sitting diagonally across from him.
Her lunch today was simple.
One sandwich.
One carton of milk.
Right now she was bending down to pick up the dropped chopstick.
The employee next to her teased her.
"Mio, are you hooked too?"
"No."
"Then how'd your chopstick fall?"
"It slipped."
"What do you think of Blue Lance?"
Asakawa Mio picked up the chopstick and tossed it in the trash.
"She's pretty good."
"Just pretty good?"
"Mm."
Her answer was very calm.
Then she looked up.
And her eyes met Shuichi's.
Shuichi looked at her for one second.
Then slumped back down.
Asakawa Mio didn't react much either.
Only, when she reached for her milk, she moved a little slower than before.
The news played on.
The anchor began analyzing what type of weapon the Blue Lance girl might be using.
The break room was abuzz with debate.
Shuichi found it noisy.
So he just buried his face in his arms.
And went to sleep.
***
3:00 p.m.
A flurry of phone alerts suddenly went off in the supermarket.
Lots of them.
Shoppers pulled out their phones one after another.
Shuichi felt his pants pocket buzz too.
He took his phone out.
A city emergency alert had popped up at the top of the screen.
【Linjiang City Disaster Warning Center: An abnormal energy reading has been detected to the southeast. Residents near Jiangbin Road and Changze Road should temporarily avoid open areas. Await further notice for details.】
People started talking.
"Again?"
"Wasn't there just one yesterday?"
"Jiangbin Road is pretty far from here."
"We should be fine."
Shuichi skimmed it.
And went to dismiss it.
Then he heard something fall nearby.
CLATTER.
A can had rolled off a shelf.
Asakawa Mio was standing on the other side of the shelf.
She had her phone out too.
Her screen obviously showed the same thing as everyone else's.
But her expression had changed.
Very slightly.
Her brows drew together a fraction.
Her eyes were no longer as relaxed as usual.
Only for an instant.
Then she was back to normal.
She slipped the phone into her pocket.
And turned toward the staff corridor.
Tanaka Makoto happened to be coming over from the registers.
"Asakawa?"
"Manager."
"What's wrong?"
"Stomachache."
Asakawa Mio said it with a straight face.
"I need to use the restroom."
"Is it bad?"
"Not too bad."
"Go ahead."
"Thanks."
She hurried off.
Shuichi stayed where he was.
Still holding a bag of chips he'd been about to shelve.
He looked in the direction Asakawa Mio had disappeared.
Then down at the disaster alert on his phone.
Two seconds.
"Shuichi!"
Tanaka Makoto called him.
"What are you spacing out for?"
"Coming."
Shuichi put his phone away.
And went back to restocking.
***
Three minutes later.
In the staff restroom.
Asakawa Mio locked the stall door.
She didn't touch her uniform.
Instead, she quickly took out her phone.
The screen had switched to a different interface.
A black background.
In the center, a map of Linjiang City.
Jiangbin Road was flashing red over and over.
【Calamity beast reading confirmed.】
【Count: 3】
【Energy level of one individual continues to rise.】
Asakawa Mio stared at the screen.
Her face darkened little by little.
Three.
She'd only just finished one yesterday.
This was way too frequent.
She raised her left hand.
On her wrist, the red mark Shuichi had seen earlier was more pronounced than before.
Asakawa Mio was silent for a moment.
In the end, she clenched her fingers anyway.
An extremely faint blue glow seeped out between them.
At the same moment.
In front of a supermarket shelf.
Shuichi was bent over, stocking chips on the bottom shelf.
He suddenly paused.
He looked up.
As if he'd sensed something.
His gaze went past row after row of shelves.
Toward the staff corridor.
Blue.
Very faint.
A flash, then gone.
Shuichi watched quietly for a few seconds.
Then lowered his head again.
And pushed the last bag of chips onto the shelf.
"..."
Just his imagination, probably.
He figured.