On Astral Tides: From Humble Freelancer To Astral Emperor

“Thank you, oh thank you!” her neighbour, Tanaka-san, was bowing repeatedly, so low his head was almost touching his knees. “I won’t let you down, I promise!”

I’m so embarrassed. All I wanted to do was a favour for a neighbour down on his luck, like Akio-kun did for me… Forcing a smile, Karen nodded, backing up towards the door. “I’m sure you won’t.” she agreed. “I’ll transfer the advance of salary for the first month when I get back to the office. You can start tomorrow, once you’ve got everything in order and cleaned yourself up.”

“The office is at Shirohebizumi shrine, right?” Tanaka-san said, showing life in his dull eyes for the first time in weeks. “That’s quite a decent commute!”

“Yeah, it’s the office outbuilding on the back hill of the shrine. It’s the second building, the first is the home of our boss, so don’t go bothering him, all right?”

“You got it!” he started bowing again, tears and even some snot dripping from his face. Oh gods, this is awful. Seeing someone so much older than me acting so grateful to the extent that they’d even cry about it… Akio-kun owes me another bottle of whiskey.

“There’ll be some travel involved, to Osaka, Sapporo and a few other cities. When you need to go, I’ll arrange the tickets, and you’ll get expenses. I assume your work suits are still fine?”

“I might need to get them taken in a bit.” Tanaka-san chuckled, self-deprecatingly. “I… well I haven’t been eating properly these past few months.” Indeed, the older man did look gaunt, and his hairline had receded significantly, his remaining hair grey. “But I should be fine. Hotels, huh? Not the business I was in before, but I have some experience in Human Resources, so I should be fine.”

“You can always liaise with the HR department for the chain as well, if there are any problems. Here’s his card.” She passed over Fukuda-san’s contact details. “Still, we’d like to handle most matters in-house if possible, we deal with a lot of confidential matters and important clients, so…”

“You don’t need to say a word, I completely understand.” Tanaka-san was wiping at his face, trying unsuccessfully to clean the mess off. Wordlessly Karen handed him a handkerchief, and he took it gratefully, flushed with embarrassment. So not cute, seeing an older guy bawl and blush like a girl. Still, his emotions are a mess. I can sympathise. I remember when I was at rock bottom, before Akio-kun reached out a hand to me. It’s why I want to pay it forwards. Of course, I need the help too…

“I’ll have your company mobile and laptop ready for collection tomorrow.  There’ll also be a lot of research and information gathering, on a variety of strange subjects. How’s your IT skills?”

“Passable.” Tanaka-san admitted. “I don’t claim to be able to keep up with the younger generation, it’s… it’s one of the reasons I was let go, but I’m thorough and have work ethic! I’ll get the job done, whatever it is!”

Well, I like his enthusiasm anyway. “Great, well, I’ll let the boss know you’re hired on, and no doubt he’ll come and see you at some point, to welcome you to the team. Now all I need is another recruit and I can finally start to relax a bit.”

“I’m amazed to find out Oshiro-san was such a big-shot.” Tanaka-san mused. “He always struck me as a quiet, polite young man, keeping to himself.”

Yeah, I thought the same too, but look at him now. Two-timing a couple of beautiful girls, owning hotels, being fabulously wealthy… That wasn’t all. There were very intimidating security in plain clothes lurking about the shrine, and the other night, when she was working late, some remarkably expensive cars had driven up to the shrine, with some passengers who just radiated high-class getting out. Most of them were girls as well. Akio-kun really is a playboy. Well, can’t say I blame him. In his position I’d enjoy myself too… The uniforms the girls were wearing stood out to her, they looked pretty unique and old-fashioned, pure black sailor-suit style, with bright crimson ribbons and edging, but the skirts and sleeves were long and modest, ankle and wrist length, giving it a refined, tidy look. Being an expert researcher now after Akio-kun’s many strange requests, it didn’t take me too long to find out which school they were from, not that there was much information online. It was as if details about the school were restricted somehow, or regularly scrubbed from public view. Hanafubuki Private Academy. One of the few posts she managed to find talking about the school said it was probably called that as the girls attending the school were as beautiful and elegant as a cherry-blossom blizzard, and just as rare to see… seriously, Akio-kun is treading on dangerous ground if he’s messing with girls from that school. Apparently only the daughters of the most important and rich families in Japan go there…

“Uh, Watanabe-san, is everything all right?” Tanaka-san interjected nervously, seeing as she had gone silent.

“Oh sorry, was just thinking about the boss. Yeah, he’s a good kid for sure. He gave me a chance when I was staring into the abyss, and I took it. I’m expecting you to do the same, got it?”

As he assured her that he would grasp the chance firmly and not disappoint her or Akio-kun, she smiled and said her farewells, stepping out of the dingy (and none too clean) apartment, taking a deep breath of the crisp air, a faint chill heralding the end of summer clearing her lungs. Yeah, it smelt of despair and sorrow in there. Still… suddenly she blushed, remembering her apartment in an even worse state when Akio-kun visited. Damn, I had even left my used underwear lying around. I guess Tanaka-san isn’t so bad in comparison. Still, it was a risk taking him on, so to start with she wouldn’t give him any critical jobs, or ones that required strange secrecy. Yeah, I’m not stupid. Something VERY strange is happening at that shrine. I’m not in a position to ask though. I daresay I’ll find out in due course… huh?

An unusual sight was sitting a few doors down from Tanaka-san’s apartment, a schoolgirl, by the looks of it. That’s gyaru fashion, right? Karen had been a bit of a gal in her younger days, wearing her skirts short, her shirt a little too unbuttoned, and her make-up heavy, but she had never gone down the gyaru route, the look being rather too extreme for her. Besides, I wanted to be cute and liked, not gossiped about. She was sure that most gyaru weren’t promiscuous like the stereotype, but even so…

The girl was heavily tanned, and her hair was bleached a messy blonde. Her make-up was heavy too, dark eyeshadow and heavy lipstick on her face. She was wearing an unfamiliar school uniform, not one Karen recognised from the local schools, and her skirt was so short Karen could see up it as she crouched in front of an apartment, arms around her legs, face downcast. That’s Hashimoto-san’s door, right? He did say he had a daughter in school, but what is she doing here in the middle of the day? Is she playing truant? If so… why here?

The girl looked up as Karen scrutinised her, but after a moment she looked down again, ignoring her. Shaking her head, Karen decided to intervene. “Excuse me, are you all right? Not at school today?”

The girl looked up once more. “No… not today. I’m… yeah, I’m totes sick, all right? But my dad’s at work, so I’m locked out. Sucks, but what can I do?” she looked away guiltily.

“So, are you Hashimoto-san’s girl? If so, he probably won’t be back until pretty late. He’s working way too much overtime recently.”

At mention of Hashimoto-san, her face twisted into an annoyed expression, but she nodded. “Yeah, I’m like… Hashimoto Sana. Nice to meet you or something?”

Don’t sound like you aren’t sure… “I’m Watanabe Karen. Nice to meet you, Sana-san. I can call you that, right?” she asked, trying to be friendly. “I’m a neighbour of your father.”

“Uh, sure, don’t mind, I guess.” She twizzled some of her blonde hair with a couple of fingers, looking a bit self-conscious. “So dad’s not back for a while… ugh, this sucks.” At that moment her stomach rumbled loudly, and she blushed, looking away.

Damn, I can’t leave her here all alone I guess. “I’m heading back to work now. It’s only a kilometre or so, up on the hill, so why not come along and wait there? I’ve some food in the fridge, I’m pretty sure.”

At the mention of food she perked up. “For reals? You can do that? I totes wouldn’t have thought your boss or co-workers would be happy.”

“As it happens my boss is a pretty chill guy.” Karen smiled, thinking that Akio-kun was way too generous for his own good, really. “And while I’ve just recruited a colleague, he doesn’t start until tomorrow. And since the boss and his girlfriend told me they’d be busy all day today, I can’t see there being a problem. Besides, my boss knows your dad anyway, he wouldn’t like it if I left you loitering here all alone. There was a whole big thing with yakuza attacks around here recently, so it’s not entirely safe.”

“Oh wow yeah, I think I heard something along those lines online, yeah.” Her stomach protested noisily again, so she stood, stretching. “Uh, sure, I could eat. Lead on, err… Karen-chan, right?”

“Sure, that’s fine.” Yeah, I’m amazed a stuffy man like Hashimoto-san managed to have such a… forthright… daughter…

********

“Totes nice place you got here, Karen-chan.” Sana-san observed, sitting down on the comfortable couch, slurping away at some cup ramen. “Oh, this is totes good, I was wasting away. Stupid dad, not being home… he’s always useless.”

Ouch. I feel bad for Hashimoto-san, hearing her trash-talk him like that. Still, girls can be trouble at that age. Not that I was too bad…

“Yeah, it’s a pretty great job compared to my last one. The wages are decent, overtime is only occasional, and I even get well paid for it, and the boss is pretty thoughtful.” She showed off the half-drunk bottle of whiskey she was left one day. “Sometimes I find presents like this lying around. You are probably too young to know, but this brand is really good and pretty expensive.”

“Cool, I get ya, he’s treating you right. So… why are you still living in that crappy apartment that stinks of failure, like my no-good dad?”

Ouch. That cuts me to the quick. And now I feel guilty for thinking the same about Tanaka-san’s place. “Well, I only started a couple of weeks ago. But with the project completion bonuses and my upcoming pay rise, I’ll probably move somewhere nice soon enough.”

“Sounds great. Wish my old man had half the motivation you do. He’s so embarrassing. Still, maybe he’s a little better than…” at that she clammed up, concentrating fixedly on her ramen.

Trouble at home, maybe? Still, best I don’t interfere. Family matters are for family to resolve. “There’s a break room there.” She pointed. “It has a TV, games console, Blu-ray, whatever you need to relax. Akio-kun… I mean the boss, he believes in making sure his employees aren’t too stressed at work.”

“He sounds totes cool for a manager.” Sana-san muttered, finishing up her ramen and burping noisily. “Cool. I get ya. Still, seems to me you really like the guy. Too bad he has a girlfriend, huh?”

Karen froze, her mind going blank. Wait, me? Liking Akio-kun? Nah, no way. He’s fun to tease, but… “I think you have the wrong idea, Sana-chan. Sure, I’m pretty damn grateful to him for giving me a shot when I thought my life was over, but… besides, he doesn’t just have one girlfriend, he’s juggling two cuties at once!” And I have my suspicions about the daughter of this shrine too. The way she looks at him when she’s lost in thought…

“Two? Wow, what a jerk. Still, I guess if he’s loaded, he’s gonna catch a few girls, ya feel me? There’s totes girls at my school who wouldn’t care about that so long as he’s buying them the latest fashion and treating them like princesses. Pretty shallow if ya ask me, but what do I know, right?”

“Hard though it is to believe, apparently the girls decided to share him.” She shrugged. “He sounds really pathetic when he whines about feeling bad about cheating.” Karen giggled, remembering his complaints over a few drinks while she was filling him in on some data she had been asked to gather. “If he’s going to be a jerk, he should do it proudly. Still… I think any man would go for it. Here.” Karen pulled out her phone and brought up one of the many pictures Shaeula spammed her constantly.

“Oh wow, he’s a looker all right. I’d certainly totes think about it if he asked me out.” She looked at Shaeula and Eri too. “They really are pretty. Young though. I guess your boss likes schoolgirls. I’d better avoid him.” She giggled.

“Yeah, well, actually the blonde is an adult. She’s just petite.” Karen said, surprising Sana-san. “Besides, I’ve caught him checking me out before.” She declared, a little proud of that.

“Well, ya don’t look so bad for an older woman.” Sana-san agreed, annoying Karen a little.

Older? I’m only just in my thirties, thank you! Besides, I’ve been told I can pass for late twenties, easy! Refuting her internally, Karen left Sana-san to the restroom and its amenities, while she scratched her head, puzzled by the data she had managed to gather. I’ve wasted enough time on a good deed. Anyway, these figures make no sense. Suicides up 1200%, missing persons 1600%, other crimes up by even more… how can one city have such a massive spike in high-level criminality? And worse, why isn’t anyone else noticing?

 ********

“Hey dad.” Sana-san said nervously, peeking out from behind Karen. After Karen finished work she brought Sana-san to her own apartment, not willing to have her wait outside. On the return of her father, they went and knocked on the door, leading to this awkward scene.

Hashimoto-san blinked, surprised. “Sana, why are you here? And why are you with Watanabe-san?”

“it’s a long story. But maybe you should take it inside. I’ll leave you to it, now my good deed is done.”

“Like, you should totes come in. Dad owes you a drink or something for today, right?” Sana-san said desperately. “And… ugh… well…” she struggled to come up with a reason, but on seeing how intent she was on not being alone with her father, Karen nodded.

“Sure, I can come in for a bit. After all, I did spend most of the day with you, right Sana-san?”

“What? You skipped school? Does your mother know?” Hashimoto-san said wearily, letting them come in, clearly confused. “And why are you here? You hate visiting me. Is… is there something wrong?”

Hashimoto-san dug out some beers and a juice for his daughter, before telling them to take a seat. The apartment was shabby but decently tidy, a few framed pictures of Sana-san lying around. None of his wife though. I did hear the split was hardly amicable.

“I just needed a break. Mom’s moved in her boyfriend, and he has a daughter too, and she’s totes a bitch, ya feel me? I hate the stuck-up cow. And mom always sides with her, so as not to upset him. So I hopped on the subway and here I am. I’m penniless now though. Lucky Karen-chan here fed me, or I’d be totes wasting away!”

“So… she’s finally moved in my replacement huh?” he muttered, forlorn, before realising the implications. “Wait, does your mother know you are here? You ran away from home? Damn, Sana, this is going to be trouble!”

“Uh, I guess I ran away? But is it really running away when I’m with my dad? Besides, if I’d have told my mom, she’d have totes flipped. She says you have no ambition and are never going to amount to nothing. I mean, look around. I can see why mom gets so pissed with you, dad.”

“Young lady, watch your language!” he scolded her. “It isn’t like I don’t have ambition, but… the real world isn’t so easy. Times are tough all around, the jobs market is tough.”

“Well, Karen-chan here managed to score a sweet gig, right?” Sana-san pressed him. “If you don’t try, you’ll never do it, ya feel me? You think I want to have a loser for a dad and a mom that thinks she’s my age, clinging all over her boyfriend like she’s a schoolgirl? Ugh, my life sucks, it’s totes not fair!”

“Sana!” Hashimoto-san scolded her, but she continued to barrage him with complaints. In the end, Karen was just a passive listener, sipping at her beer as he rang his ex-wife and argued with his daughter. Yeah, I know good deeds are supposed to be their own reward, but this is NOT fair at all…

 ********

“I’m very sorry about this.” Hashimoto-san bowed, offering her another beer. Karen had half a mind to leave, but her years of working with her shitty ex-boss left her strong to discomfort, so she managed to stick it out.

As he opened his own beer and swigged at it, exhaustion writ over his features, he continued. “I’m sorry you had to hear me argue with my ex-wife. Still, it’s hardly my fault Sana turned up here. At least she was reasonable enough to let her stay the night. Sending her home this late isn’t wise.”

Sana-san was watching TV in the corner, some sort of idol programme by the looks of it, a trio of older girls dancing around in pretty uniforms. She had also argued with her mother, and it had degenerated into a shouting match until Sana-san finally threw down the phone and started sulking.

Maybe it’s a good job I never got married and had kids… “Well, I remember what it was like to be a rebellious young girl. She’ll grow out of it.” Maybe. Her skills as a salarywoman were kicking in, and she started making small-talk. “So, how’s work? You seem awfully busy recently.”

As his face fell at her words she realised she had said the wrong thing. He glanced at his daughter, and seeing she was engrossed in the idol show, he lowered his voice, perhaps happy to have someone to complain to. “Not so good. I think our company is going under. That’s why there is so much overtime. But it’s just busywork, it isn’t bringing in orders.” He sighed, a long, bitter exhalation. “I’ve no idea what I’m going to do when the company folds. I’m too old to get more than part-time work in a supermarket or something of that ilk. I really will be the failure my ex-wife and daughter think I am then.”

His face was red from a mixture of the alcohol and stress, and Karen had the horrible feeling he was going to cry. Seriously, I had enough of that with Tanaka-san. Still… was it co-incidence Sana-san was waiting out there today, or fate? “Can I ask a pretty personal question?” she asked, and he nodded, surprised.

“You can. After all, I owe you for your help with Sana today.”

“How much are you on at your company, and what are the perks like?”

“Perks?” he scoffed bitterly. “If you count unpaid overtime as a perk, my job is great. Otherwise…” he quoted a figure,  clearly embarrassed.

“I see. Yeah, that’s rough.” Poor bastard, he was on even less than I was! “So, you do much work on computers and the internet?”

“Spreadsheets, databases, yeah, I do some.” He admitted, confused by the strange turn the conversation was taking.

In that case… After all, I did need a second recruit. Karen put on her most enticing smile. “In that case, I have an offer for you, one you should think about seriously…”

********

Hashimoto-san had listened incredulously as I told him I had hired on Tanaka-san, and was still looking for another assistant. Incredulity had given way to interest as I outlined the benefits package and wages, and it quickly became hope.

After a hushed discussion we shook hands on the deal, and Hashimoto-san, well, Noboru-san, as he was now insisting she call him, called out excitedly to his daughter, eager to share the news.

“What? Can’t ya see I’m watching this? This group is hot right now, so missing this would suck. I’d totes have nothing to talk about at school when I’m next there.”

“I’ve got a new job!” he declared, and it was as if a weight had lifted from his shoulders. “Maybe you can be a little bit nicer to your dear old dad now, Sana?”

At that she did look over doubtfully. “Uh, Karen-chan, are ya really sure you want to hire that deadbeat? He’s getting on a bit. You were nice, so I don’t want my dad to let you down.”

At that Karen laughed. “Well, you did want him to have more ambition, right? Look at me, I’ve had two pay rises in only a couple of weeks on the job, and now I’m managing staff. If Noboru-san works hard, maybe he can rise up the ladder too. Anyway, my work here is done. You two play nice, all right, and I’ll see you whenever you take care of your prior employment, Noboru-san.”

“I won’t forget this.” He promised. “I dare say they’ll let me leave to cut costs. They think I’m just an old relic anyway.”

“Great. Anyway, it’s been nice meeting you, Sana-san.”

“You too, Karen-chan.” She waved her hand. “Say hi to your hot boss for me. And maybe wear your skirt a bit shorter? And pop a few buttons, show off your best assets. That’s totes the best way to grab a guy, right?”

Karen flushed. Damn, she sure is cheeky. As Noboru-san started telling off Sana-san, who fired back loudly, she let herself out. Well, I’ve recruited my staff, maybe they won’t be the best, but their loyalty should be ours. Still, what a rough day. That bottle of whiskey has my name on it…