Published at 16th of January 2020 8:45 pm

Chapter 34: Even If my Workload Increases

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Alright, right now, one problem appears.

This Ayako-chan doesn’t have a place to return to.

If I were to return home, I would undoubtedly be killed by the other me.

Aah, yeah, I thought so as well. Ayako-chan probably would do something like that.

…Do I perhaps have to take care of her for now?

This is a problem.

Mentally.

I don’t care where but I’d want some place to hide away and think about it for a while.

Also I’ve got to establish a split between my public and private life as a member of the society. I mean, I just cancelled my job at the last minute.

And with that, I left Ayako-chan in a net cafe for a while as I went to the TV station.

I was super late, but if I can apologize quickly, I might be able make sure that it won’t affect me too badly.

I really hope I won’t be fired just because of this, I thought as I got butterflies in my stomach.

I need money. I need a job.

That said, if I show off too much of my skills, I feel like it would turn into something weird.

What do you think would happen if I turned out to be far stronger than modern weapons?

I’d be used as a soldier. I might be asked to go and do stupid things by the big shots of a country.

And then when that happens the other countries would start falsely accusing Japan for having a nuclear weapon or some sort.

It sounds far too possible, so I don’t want that.

When I was in the other world, it was reasons like this that the goblins started invading humans, and in the end they ended up getting annihilated.

I don’t want that to happen with humans.

So I’m more interested in the current state of affairs in which no matter what I do, I made it to look like I was just doing a trick.

Be it breaking a baseball bat with my arse or jump for a dozen of meters, I just look like a magician.

As long as the media portrays me like that, I can stay as a magician.

It makes the bucks, and nobody would think I’m especially strong.

And that’s why, I want to be in good terms with people from the TV station. It’s for the peace of humankind.

With that scale of determination, I boarded the train.

I transited and walked for a while and arrived at my destination 3 hours later than planned.

It was a modern townscape made out of reclaimed lands.

In its center was a Form building with noticeable characteristics.

Sumire TV.

It’s a station which excels in variety shows, and it’s the station in which I appear in.

So I’m in their care.

And yet I stood them up for the recording session.

I apologized in my heart as I entered through the automatic doors.

I told the receptionist ladies about my name, and was told to stay and wait.

She used some sort of white phone nearby and contacted someone somewhere.

After several minutes,

Ding! rings the elevator nearby, and its door opened.

A man donning a grey suit came out from inside.

He was a plump man older than me. He’s about 40.

With a darkened skin, he truly looks like a businessperson.

The man made a beeline right at me.

“Nakamoto! I’ve been waiting for you!”

He really looks like a producer.

Even his name is Kurosawa.

It’s a weird coincidence, but in truth, he had the same last name as the store owner of the ramen store I worked at.

So I had an alarm going on within me at the start, but right now our relationships had gotten quite favorable.

“I really apologize, I got caught up in a passenger injury.”

I bowed my upper body to a perfect 90-degree angle.

“No it’s alright. I’ll bet it was troublesome”, said producer Kurosawa with a coaxing voice.

Somehow he’s in a good mood.

“I heard about it, you know? You saved a girl that jumped off the platform, didn’t you? Man, that was superb. I got the footage from some of the bystanders, you see. I could see that it’s clearly you. As long as we get the views, anything is fine, so we’re planning to do an interview after this. You don’t mind, right?”

“Eh? …haa…It’s alright.”

So after this, instead of doing comedic tricks, we can do heroic shows instead, huh? he said as he draws his greasy face closer.

“You’re famous with the people of the F2 and F3¹ demographics…but you probably don’t know what that means, huh. So basically housewives. Also, you see, you would probably appeal to the younger girls too when you get to the news. Don’t you think this is such a great chance?”

Seems like his head had switched into business mode already.

“I don’t really have a problem with it, but um…Are we fine with the part that we didn’t manage to finish today? Shouldn’t I go and apologize to the people concerned?”

“What are you talking about! If the views go up, then anything’s fine! Anything! That program is supposed to end in March, so missing an episode is nothing! We’ll take care of that troublesome stuff.”

“Wait, this is the first time I heard about it ending though.”

“Hahahah! Isn’t it fine if we can make a new regular program. You still have your spirit, so you’ll do just fine! Like we wish you could rescue people trying to kill themselves every day. Huh, I wonder if anyone’s gonna jump off tomorrow. Should I prepare a suicide candidate then perhaps? There’s some AD’s (Assistant Directors) that looks like they want to die anyways.”

This producer treats his subordinates as garbage, so it’s even scarier knowing that he might as well do that.

He approached a young AD nearby and wildly yelled “You’re gonna ruin the image of our whole department if you kill yourself now. If you want to die then at least resign yourself first and wait a couple of years.”

“I might digress a bit, but are you related with someone running a Ramen shop?”

“Hm…? My little brother owns a store called Akaryuudou. What of it?”

“As I thought, huh. No, it’s nothing.”

They are relatives.

But that probably doesn’t matter.

That saved the trouble.

In the worst case scenario, I would be fired and won’t be called again to record another program, but in reality I even got more work to do.

I guess I should say that that’s a load off my back.

“Alright, should we quickly make our preparations? We already prepared the studio, so we can immediately conduct our interview and record its reproduction into the VTR. Since it’s your appearance, it’s going to be so exciting.”

“Um…how are we supposed to reproduce the scene of me saving someone?”

“Don’t worry, don’t worry! The audience won’t mind the small details anyways! People who thought about things like that don’t watch TVs anymore! Hahaha!”

“……”

“If we make you wear clothes that emphasize your physique, we’ll get more views, right? Nakamoto-san, did you do sports in the past? You have a really good build, you know? Should we go with sleeveless shirts? That’ll get the housewives happy.”

“But it’s in the middle of winter though?”

“Don’t mind it, don’t mind it!”

As I was taken in by the flow, I was dragged into the studio.

In the end I refused the decision to reproduce the scene, but I had to compromise and give the interview with a sleeveless shirt.

Are there really people that would be happy with this?

After that I kept being manipulated and questioned by the news media for the entire day.

Either way, I was very busy. I was super busy.

I was just an ordinary person before, I don’t have a manager and I don’t even belong to an office.

So I had to deal with this all by myself.

Though I have the merit of hogging the appearance fee all for myself.

I realized as it turns out, my accounting skills is almost nonexistent, so I couldn’t even calculate the taxes involved in it at all.

Having bad thoughts like tax avoidance, tax evasion and undeclared income, I finished my work.

Night has fallen when I was released from the grasp of the producer.

I immediately checked my phone to confirm the time, and it was 5:01 PM.

I broke the promise I made with Angelica this morning.

That I would be home by 5. That I’ll eat something delicious together with her. I’ve neglected my daughter who’s been anxiously waiting at home.

“How should I tell her…”

I headed for the station as I walked under the veil of the night.

For now, I need to take Ayako-chan back from the net cafe.

All the while she was waiting there, she didn’t have anything proper to wear under the coat she’s wearing.

Since her clothes were torn apart, she was naked on her right side.

Do you think I could leave a seventeen year old in such condition?

Of course not, I’m no devil.

I must pick her up.

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