Overtime Work And Family

Alliance Office Japan, Akasaka Press Center, Minato, Tokyo.
May 25

I couldn't believe that it had been almost 3 months since the New York attack. The news was still going on every day about it, and had even overshadowed a lot of other important news like the upcoming Japanese government elections, or how the US defense minister had been replaced by the confrontation between his wife and the President over the phone that fateful day. It didn't help that the whole Alliance was still stuck in an endless loop of paperwork, but at least I was beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I had to work a lot of overtime because the cafeteria orders were also behind schedule, but thanks to everyone's help I managed to get by. While I was working I heard a TV on.

"The President of the United States confirmed this afternoon that he will visit Japan despite the emergency in New York because, in his own words, "It is a great nation with great relations with the American people and discuss issues for better future security cooperation between the two countries"
"President John Smith will meet with the current Prime Minister as well as some of the politicians of the main political parties"
"He also intends to visit the U.S. military base in Toyko, which just three months ago was attacked by a radical opposition faction and where three soldiers lost their lives"
"The citizens of Japan have grown dissatisfied with this installation in recent years because they believe that a permanent Army presence could have created the country's capital as a target of the Empire, as happened with Norway, an almost neutral country that was attacked last year without any warning, where its capital was captured and the country was under control for 6 long months"
"Caroline's report from the White House"

"Wilson, can you turn off the TV?"
"I'm already too busy with my work to listen to it in the background anymore" I said to my assistant.

However, Wilson did not do as I asked, he was still sitting at his desk, looking at something on his smartphone.

"Wilson?"

The man began to cry as he continued to watch something with the device in his hands, it seemed that he was remembering something that made him sad because his look was quite similar to the one Cesar had from time to time.

"Wilson?"
"What happened? Everything ok?"

"!!!!"
"I'm so sorry ma'am"
"I didn't mean to disturb you, I'll get going right away!"
"...."
"Excuse me, can you repeat what it was?"

"Is everything okay Wilson?"
"Nothing you want to talk about?"
"You look like you need to"

"No ma'am"
"I am fine"

"Come on, there's no problem at all"
"You can say it, I'm not going to laugh or get upset"
"If it is something that is affecting your day-to-day life it is best to talk about it with others and see what can be done"

"...."
"Sorry Ma'am"
"...."
"It was just my friend, Big-T"
"His son called me yesterday, he told me Big T died in the attack on New York"
"...."
"He was a good friend of mine, from the neighborhood"
"He and his brother took care of me from The Yellow Cobras, the ones who were looking to take over the neighborhood"
"The older one died trying to get me out of a problem with them"
"...."
"And Big-T was the one who got me out of the neighborhood by helping me join the army."
"He was the one who lied for me on my exam so that I could get out of there"
"...."
"It looks like he was one of the four hundred of the resistance"
"He died while trying to take over the airport, trying to rescue several civilians"
"...."
"If it wasn't for him or his brother I would probably still be on the street"

"Oh my gosh."
"I'm so sorry, if only I would have done a better job than day maybe"

"Don't worry Ma'am"
"I know very well what you did that day"
"If it hadn't been for you it probably would have been your son too."
"..."
"I'm sure Big-T is grateful to you for saving his family"
"The boy is going to go live with his mother."
"Big-T took the boy to get him out of the neighborhood too"
"His mother still lives there, so I'm looking for a way to get the boy out"
"...."
"I owe it to Big-T after all"

"Ok, I agree."
"If you need any help or ideas I'd like to hear them."
"After all, the Army also owes it to one of the four hundred heroes"

"Thank you very much Mrs. Adelis"

"Mrs. Adelis?"
"May I have a second of your time?"

"What do you need Xi'an?" I said as I continued writing.

"...."
"Yesterday when you left I received a call, a bit peculiar"
"It is the Japanese national Onmyoji association"
"They would like to have a meeting with you, so they asked if they could arrange a day for such a meeting"

"Onmyoji?"
"And what is that?"

"...."
"They are a group of Shinto priests"
"..."
"It's like saying the equivalent of the Catholic church but for Japanese"
"They are in charge of taking care of the temples and blessing things and breaking curses"

"A religious group?"
"...."
"But we are a military base, what the fuck do we have anything to do with them?"

"That's exactly what I told them"
"But they insisted that it was important and they wanted to meet with you specifically"
"It seems they want to talk about something important"

"...."
"If it is for our soldiers most of them are Christians and we have a church with a priest near here"
"Our people go there every Sunday"
"Now if it is for something like publicity for the Japanese neighbors tell them to contact the base relations department, give them the number"
"I'm sure they would like to do something to lower the tension with the neighbors"

"That's what I told them!"
"But they really want to meet with you, Mrs. Adelis"

"Xi'an"
"Right now I am working on the New York reconstruction plan"
"The President is coming to visit us and has put me personally in charge of security for his trip"
"Commander Phillips has been recalled to America because he is being replaced"
"Every day some Japanese senator calls me asking for help with his political campaign for re-election"
"The President of Russia has asked me to keep a close eye on a new insurgent group"
"Germany is waiting for investment from international banks to start producing again"
"And when I get back to the cafeteria I have to prepare a birthday party for a client who paid me in advance"
"Do you think I have time to meet with anything less than a prime minister?"
"Tell them if they want preferential treatment first build a World Superpower and then call me, otherwise the waiting list is 3 years"

"So it's a no?"

"Exactly"
"Unless you want to end up in a preschool nursery school"

"Agreed!"
"I'm so sorry to bother you"

As it sounded, the rest of the day was just as stressful as it sounded. I had to continue writing various supply requisitions, budget sheets, and begin to organize with the Secret Service the various branches that would be present for the security of the President's visit. All non-critical work had been put on hold until further notice, which included requests from other smaller spices and some technology companies that were hoping to receive money to continue their research and development. I don't think my work will affect them anyway, after all, there is already an established command, I'm just a shortcut for them and I see to it that the most important work gets done first. Something like a new tank model can surely wait another 6 months, unlike the families in New York who were left homeless on the day of the invasion,  and now sleep in tents under bridges.

Even at lunchtime, I was still working with my laptop in hand. One of the androids, Kazumi, could use my computer from home, so I just talk and she fills in the boring parts. They helped me speed up my work a lot, but I still had to supervise it. During lunch Cedric came again, you could see on his face that he was coming to ask me for a favor again.

"Mrs. Adelis?"

"How much money?"

"!!!!"
"But I haven't spoken yet!"

"Not today"
"These last two weeks yes"
"Did you fight with your father again?"

"It was the banks"
"They are still asking for money, but summer is just beginning"
"We haven't finished planting the seeds yet and it will be months before the harvest"
"We can't make any money before then, my sister is working day and night to calm them down a bit"
"But my parents still refuse to sell the farm!"
"I tried to intervene but they need me to come personally, but my work here is the only thing keeping them at bay!"
"..."
"It's an endless cycle!"

"Cedric, my dear"
"You already have the medal of honor, believe me, the banks have already been quite permissive with your family"
"But the loan your father took out to buy more land was a really bad idea, even though we all warned him about it"
"What the farm needed was more workers, not more land, he just made the problem worse"
"The same thing happened to my father once."
"I know you hold me in high esteem but I can't do much in your case if the solution is so simple, just sell the land they bought"

"My father flatly refuses"
"The only part they want to buy is the one where the house is."
"For him, it's a matter of pride!"

"And at this rate pride is going to kill you all from exhaustion at work."
"If just one of you falls, the bank takes everything"

"Let's go! Please!"
"There must be something you can do!"
"...."
"An advance pay!"
"Let me take my next month's salary in advance!"
"I can survive on instant noodles and walking to work!"

"Cedric, you've been doing that already!"
"You already have a month's pay in advance right now!"

"One more!"
"Please!"

....

....

"Hell, for a war hero to be begging for money doesn't look good at all"
"The newspapers will laugh at us because of your father"
"...."
"Tell me who's coming to replace Commander Phillips and I'll put you on my restaurant staff"
"A Part time job"
"You'll get the salary and you'll only have to show up occasionally on days when there's an event"

"All that for just giving away that old man"
"Sure! It's easy"
"He already told me about it in fact"
"His replacement is going to be Commander Mark"
"The same guy from the aircraft carrier Essex!"

"Mark!?"
"Really?"

"Correct"
"It seems that the new Minister of Defense assigned him personally to take charge of this base"
"Since you worked together it should make things a lot easier for him"
"Or that's the idea"
"...."
"I don't doubt Mark's ability as a leader"
"..."
"But that's why I find it odd to appoint Mark as the commander of this facility."
"Someone like him would surely do better in a more important position"
"The entire government applauded the fact that he made it back to New York on the day of the attack with his aircraft carrier"
"...."
"From what I hear, it looks like the carrier is coming with him too, but for what?"

"Well, the aircraft carrier USS Cherokee is also old, so it would not be unusual for it to be decommissioned now that it is no longer needed"
"But the USS Essex is a different matter altogether"
"Why?"
"I'd like to ask but for now I just don't have the time."
"!!!!"
"In fact, I should get back to my office!"
"See you later!"

I had to return to my desk and continue working with my team. Both Xi'an, Wilson, as well as Kazumi from home to try to get all the necessary documents done as soon as possible. But it was really exhausting all that had to be done. It even got to the point where I felt sick, so I stopped for a moment to go to the bathroom, but just as I entered I felt my thoughts fail me. However, a helping hand surprisingly grabbed me and prevented me from falling.

"Lisa!"
"What are you doing here!"
"Didn't I ask you not to follow me to work these days?"
"I need you in the White Moon"

"Well, Darling is worried about you so he asked me to keep an eye on you"
"He ordered me not to disturb you at work so I just went into your shadow and kept quiet"
"He also asked me to check the security of the place"
"I'm glad I can report to you how much it has improved"

"Are you even able to keep quiet?"

"Well, as I said before it was an order"
"I couldn't really talk no matter how hard I tried"
"But since I helped you first it means I can talk again!"

"Well, I'd like to ask you to keep quiet until we get back to the coffee shop"

Just when I finished talking my cell phone started ringing, since I wasn't doing much right now I decided to answer it at once. Whoever spoke on the other end had a clear, deep, masculine voice.

"Hello, Mrs. Adelis"
"It's me again, how are you?"

"Hello again Inspector Yamamoto"
"I'm fine, what's the reason for your call this time?"

"Well, it seems that it happened again today"
"So I was wondering if there was no problem if Haru could go to the cafeteria again and be there so that I can go pick her up again?"

"No of course not, it's never a problem"
"Well, she and Ces..."
"I mean she and Elise can go together when she gets out of school so it's safe"
"...."
"But again?"
"I don't want to get into your work, but don't you think you're working too hard lately?"
"Remember that you are not at the age to work non-stop anymore"
"It seems like your workload has increased a lot recently"

"Well, the truth is that yes"
"..."
"Lately more remains have been appearing in the mountains."
"The last of them was a mountaineer..."
"..."
"As the body was found it looked like a bear attack, but it's the third one in just a week"
"Even a hungry bear would have stopped"
"...."
"I have a suspicion that it might be Jiro Iwasaki, who came out of his hideout again"

"Okay, but please take it easy"
"Haru still needs his grandfather"
"Please take it into consideration"

The rest of the day managed to continue without many more surprises. After work, I immediately went to the store to prepare for the birthday party to be held in the evening. My son and Haru also helped me. The celebration was a success as Tamamo had the idea to complement it with magic tricks, or rather real magic. Together with Levia's show, it made everyone happy enough to attend.