The young man who landed lightly in front of the monster, his neatly groomed gray-white hair streaming, already had a long scythe in his hand.
His mouth curved in pleasant confidence, and the form with which he swung a scythe taller than himself was brisk and clean.
"Whoa......."
Though he was not an ability user, his form as he easily carved up a house-sized monster with nothing but bodily strength and technique was flashy.
The monster, by contrast, was now at the level where one ought to pray for its rest.
Blood sprayed from the mouth of the monster, which despite having dozens of teeth had not managed to chew a single lapel, and its four deformed, protruding arms rolled across the ground without doing their job.
"Ah, was that the dentistry-related Other Side?"
It was the monster that pulled out every tooth of the visitors who came and transplanted them into its own mouth, probably.
Goosebumps rose for no good reason and I rubbed my arm.
In the meantime the young man, who had swung the scythe wide and split the rampaging monster in half to physically put it to sleep, stood alone and elegant amid the wreckage.
Though the red blood that had poured down like rain made a mess of the street, not a single drop stained his pure white outfit.
He was the character whose setting made it impossible to tell whether his eyes were open or shut, a gently curved smiling squint suiting him very well.
One of the core members of the Ability Office across the road.
Excluding the Captain, the strongest member in terms of force.
Which is to say, his name.
"Ichi!"
The café owner called the name loudly and waved.
Ah, right, the two of them had a childhood-friends setting, didn't they.
Ichi swept back his slightly disheveled hair, checked in our direction, and erased the scythe from the air. He drew a deep breath and shouted toward the hotel.
"Mister Seo Mok, the cleanup, if you would!"
"I told you to wreck things in moderation, you damn bastard!"
The hotel window flew open and Seo Mok, half asleep, appeared and hurled a fluffy pillow. Ichi caught it lightly and came trotting over toward the café.
Seo Mok, jumping down from the window, belatedly spotted me and froze with a flinch, and I made do with a light nod of the eyes.
"Argh! Awagh! Aaagh!"
Seo Mok's scream at his failed landing rang out through the quieted street.
It was the mournful lament of Seo Mok, who had adamantly refused my offer to buy him coffee and said he was going to sleep, and who had in the end won a ticket to overtime without any sleep at all.
Ichi, apparently used to the situation behind him, cast a straight gaze at me and held out his hand. Likewise, not a drop of blood stained his pure white gloves.
"Hello. I have heard a great deal about you. My name is Ichi."
A soft mid-low voice.
Had one not known the situation of moments ago, he might as well have been a gentleman out for a stroll.
I smiled back, but did not take his hand. He has a cleanliness compulsion, you see.
"Mm, so you've heard about me. Whatever you heard, it's a misunderstanding."
"Ahahah, you are an amusing one. I am in favor."
"Of what?"
"Of your coming to work at our office?"
I looked into Ichi's curved eyes and ended up laughing an ahahah of my own.
Quick with the news, as befits a spy.
Ichi belonged to the Styx Company. His dispatch to the Ability Office had happened a few years ago, and no one except the Captain knew his true affiliation.
Well, even setting aside that peculiarity, Ichi was a character with a strong personality.
Among the readers who followed him, his nicknames included Slit-Eyes, Lunatichi, Madchi Bastard, and so on, not one of them ordinary.
A character whose attention you would give but never want to receive.
The prime example was Seo Mok, who took the full brunt of his attention and was forever tormented by it.
Even now, grumbling all the while, the one sorting the monster corpse by grade, controlling the area, contacting the police, and so on, the one doing the hard work, is Seo Mok.
If it is fun, everything is okay. It was team play in which cleaning up the incident was always Seo Mok.
In a word, I wanted to watch from a distance, not get stickily entangled.
Surely one Seo Mok is enough to be tormented by him.
"Thank you for the welcome."
"It is not quite a welcome yet, but if you insist, I shall have to push for a welcome party right away. I hear you have not had one?"
It feels like a flag has already been planted. Am I done for?
Even as Seo Mok finally seized him by the scruff and dragged him off, Ichi did not lose his smiling squint, as though giving me a firm answer.
***
Ichi's drive, backed by Sophia's fervent support, pushed the welcome party plan through without a hitch.
Even with two of the five absent, their will did not bend.
Watching that, Seo Mok gave up on stopping them, and I ended up forcibly attending the welcome party as though swept along by a tidal wave.
'Even if I tried not to be suspicious, I couldn't help it.'
In what way is this a place that hated taking in new hires so much that it turned away even the protagonist?
The welcome party, carried out by renting the entire eatery on the Ability Office's first floor, was raucous despite there being only four of us.
"Tsk, tsk, the Captain's away so it's a party from broad daylight."
Seo Mok, who had complained the whole time and yet had come and was holding his seat, clicked his tongue in displeasure.
That is right.
It was only one in the afternoon. They had dragged me in under the pretext of simply taking care of lunch.
I looked at the liquor set in front of me, the sort that looked at a glance like it would have you drinking alone until you died alone, and let out a sigh.
"If you can't drink, just have some cola. Nobody here can clean up after you."
"Mm......, haha."
It was the opposite, and that was what I was worried about.
Perhaps because of the ability, alcohol did not take in my body. Whatever came in was broken down at once, so I did not get drunk. And at gatherings like this, the one who stays sober is usually the one who ends up exhausted.
"Hmm?"
Ichi, who had been gushing drink into Sophia's glass, saw how Seo Mok was treating me and tugged up the corner of his mouth.
"Mister Seo Mok, your brow is creased. Did you not sleep?"
"Is that something you get to say right now? It's because of you."
"It is not because of me. Mister Seo Mok has severe insomnia to begin with."
"If not for you I'd have slept two hours more. How are you going to compensate me for two hours of my lifeblood?"
"Dear me......, with delusion?"
"Hey!"
Seo Mok, incensed, tipped his whole glass back at once and shrank off into a corner, huffing.
Having dispatched one person that way, the next target Ichi took was me.
"I hear young Do Hae resolved the hotel matter?"
= You look feeble, so how did you manage it?
"Ah......, I nearly died."
= I put my life on the line, so are you trying to take it for free?
"Dear me......, had I been there, it would never have gone that far."
= You risked your life over something like that? It would not take me a single day.
"The entrance test was rather extreme."
= Which is why you people could not solve it and made the new hire do it.
Facing Ichi's beaming mug, I ran my mouth politely. Judging by the slight twitch of his eyebrow, he had understood exactly what I was saying.
Ichi clinked the glass he had lightly raised against mine, then finally laughed loudly and slapped me on the back.
"Ahaha, Ms. Sophia tends to torment the people she likes especially more."
"Ahaha, you're not doing that too, are you?"
Having safely repelled Ichi, I sank comfortably into my chair and observed the three of them pouring and drinking.
It was a sight I had often seen in the original work as well.
Their work was the kind that kept the nerves on edge, so the accumulated stress had to be released, and because of that they deliberately brushed things off lightly with bright behavior.
Well, Sophia truly did like this sort of thing.
"By the way, are we leaving that as it is?"
I shook Seo Mok, who was holed up in the corner lecturing to himself about how aggrieved a man is when he wants to sleep and cannot, and pointed outside.
The monster Ichi had hacked apart last night was still occupying the road in front of the office.
It was so large to begin with that transporting it was difficult, and there was normally a separate facility that dealt with such things.
Seo Mok looked indifferently at the scene outside, where only the blood had been roughly washed away, and waved a hand.
"They'll come to collect the corpse. I contacted the Styx Company yesterday."
"Ah, I wondered what you were doing yesterday. So you handled that too?"
"That's right. While you and Ichi were busy trashing me, I was working. Without any sleep....... Makes me want to curse, sh*t. This is all because that little shit said he was curious about you—!"
Seo Mok, drunk off one glass with his face flushed red, suddenly shot to his feet.
"Ah, they're coming today....... I'm screwed."
No, hold on. There is a visitor scheduled for today, and they have been partying since broad daylight and are all drunk out of their minds?
Is there anyone sound here.......
Seo Mok had curled back into his chair, reciting every curse there was and amplifying the unease; Sophia had been drinking since the start and was on her tenth bottle alone; and Ichi, who had at least looked sound, was nowhere to be seen at some point.
"......He's gone. Gone."
Is this really all right?
***
I brought out tea cooled to a suitable temperature and put on a business smile.
Damn Ability Office lunatics.
In the end, I alone had to receive Charon, head of the Other Side Disposal Team, visiting from the Styx Company.
Had I known the person coming was this man, I could at least have acted drunk.
"You are someone I have not seen before."
"I'm the new hire, Do Hae. Third day."
"Ah....... And where have the rest gone?"
"Busy, I would imagine?"
They are downstairs, blackout drunk and dead to the world.
I kept my smile as I dealt with him. This sort of thing was not my specialty, but it could not be helped. This is, so to speak, survival instinct?
My gaze kept going to the long scar on his left temple and the square glasses he wore to hide it. For someone who knew that story, even a single sigh of his made me flinch.
'Why has the Styx number two come in person?'
Well, I just have to avoid mistakes.
There was nothing to lose by making a good impression on the Styx Company anyway. If I diligently laid the groundwork for later, a use for it would turn up.
"Hm, third day or not, you will have grasped how things work."
"Of course."
Let us trust my fan career, mastered through the original work.
Normally, when an Other Side monster went on a rampage, there were not many ways to respond.
Monsters bursting outside were rare, but it was also because those who faced monsters were mainly ability users or, like Ichi, people of outstanding physical force.
So you either run or beat it down.
There were only two options.
Once the monster was beaten down, the corpse was collected by a contracted designated company.
The Ability Office was in a contractual relationship with the Styx Company, and Team Head Charon coming in person this time was surely because of Ichi.
"The costs for disposal byproducts proceed as per the contract. It will be reported to the government side automatically, and you know that the tax benefits and disposal documents and so forth can be filled out by proxy?"
"I don't think we'll need the proxy filing. It seems better to ask my seniors and make certain."
"Well, as you like."
All of that later becomes grounds for disputes, with every single item turned into an issue.
Team Head Charon regarded the Ability Office as a thorn in his eye and picked fights over every little thing. He was a man who had mastered the art of manufacturing complaints that had never existed and scraping at them.
When dealing with a man like this, my position as a new hire was unexpectedly not bad.
"By the way......."
Team Head Charon, having wrapped everything up, stood and asked while tugging his creased suit straight.
"A new team member at this time is unexpected."
"Ah, that! I suppose they found my situation pitiful, with nowhere to go, and took me in."
"I heard you came from outside."
"Is that a problem?"
"How could it be? This is a city where even lawbreakers are free. Do show your gratitude to the Captain."
Wow, he is strong.
I tried the "I know nothing" routine, and it did not work. Along with a threat aimed at the Captain, who is away from home.
Well, that is presumably how he rose all the way to team head here.
Come to think of it, Team Head Charon had maintained a blank expression the entire time since he came in.
Once I realized that, the smile I had been straining to keep was meaningless. He was a man with no need to bother wearing a mask.
Seeing me like that, he let out a short laugh and held out the documents he had brought.
"Tell Ichi to send these by tomorrow."
Watching the team head disappear at his leisure, a certain hypothesis suddenly came to me, and I burst into a hollow laugh.
Whether Sophia, Seo Mok, and Ichi had all deliberately drunk and pretended to be drunk because they did not want to deal with that team head.
Sure enough, when I went down to the first floor, I was met with the three of them enjoying themselves in perfectly sound posture.
"Uhaha, did your new hire initiation go well?"
"Just as Sophia said, he really is a good child."
"Are you two having fun teasing a kid? Give it a rest."
Ah, these people and their personalities.