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"Hey kid, pass me another one, would ya!"
"Old man, it’s 12:26; we closed an hour ago, go home!"
Shaking his head, the drunkard, with a red face and squinted eyes, started complaining once again for the umpteenth time that night.
"Kids these days, not respecting their elders.
Where's that kindness you showed me earlier?"
Sneering, Ken replied, "Same place as your money—gone!"
Done with the banter, Ken, who was acting as a waiter, turned around and brought back the empty glasses he had collected from the tables he had just cleaned to the counter.
"Here, Naia, that's the last of it."
Turning around to face Ken, the boy saw the blue beauty flash him a smile.
Sigh
'If this were my previous life, I'd have been a blushing mess around her, Ashnah, and Reiki, but with this body...'
Looking himself over, Ken couldn’t help but internally sigh again; he just didn’t feel the same.
He assumed it was some kind of thing puberty would fix, but still, having what he wanted in front of him but having no desire to pursue it was really cruel.
Coming out of his thoughts, he tuned back in with the world.
"Thanks, Ken. You've adapted these past few months. I also want to thank you for taking some extra shifts to help with our Valentine's Day rush."
"No problem, it’s fine."
Though he said that, Ken's fists were clenched just out of sight under the oak countertop.
In the month of February, where love is high, Ken had nothing planned, but being asked to take over for Seneca’s missing shifts without the man having a definite return date would annoy anyone.
At first, he gave his unreliable boss the benefit of the doubt, but after an entire two weeks of no contact, Ken was starting to get peeved off.
Luckily, the customers weren’t bad; maybe they were arrogant, but Ken didn’t have to deal with that too much.
The place had a reputation for not tolerating rudeness, disrespectful behavior, or refusing to comply with ordinary requests.
Such behavior would be met with physical violence, giving Ken the title of Little Devil due to his ruthless nature.
Not many who came here knew how to fight properly, so most were merely arrogant thugs.
Plus, with his recent ‘training,’ which consisted of him being beaten to a pulp by the boss, Ken could take down most.
If they were too strong for him, he could call on the other members to assist, but no such people had arrived during his short stay.
Unfortunately, if he were to do that, he would also be forfeiting the rewards (looting the victim) from doing so.
This was a dog-eat-dog place; the stronger you were, the more you got in terms of loot.
Ken had been on a few smaller-scale missions these past months, taking down a crime boss, and fighting some heroes, but mainly assassinations.
Though he barely got to participate, watching allowed him to gain experience, so Ken wasn’t too dissatisfied.
Unfortunately for him, the doctor usually took the bodies, meaning Ken could only request a hand or arm, stating it was for his personal research.
Jingle-Jingle
Jingle-Jingle
As Ken was thinking about that, the door opened, and in came a lethargic Seneca and a motivated boss.
Sigh
"Nice to be back."
The happy expression on the boss’s face contrasted with Seneca’s body, which radiated tiredness.
"Ken, just the man I need. Go downstairs and grab Reiki and Ashnah for me."
Grumbling, Ken accepted and left the other three to their own devices.
He walked down the steep stairway, opened the curtain, and saw the familiar sight of 12 black monitors turned off and... Ashnah reading.
'WAIT, SHE'S TAKING A BREAK!'
Over the past few months, Ken has pegged her as a workaholic kind of person, someone whose entire life revolved around her job.
She was training practically every time he saw her, or she was in the bar extracting information from the customers.
Sensing his presence, she turned to her left on the leathery couch against the wall and looked into his eyes with an inquiring expression.
Clearing his throat, Ken said, “Boss wants everyone upstairs.”
She then nodded and placed her book down before leaving, leaving Ken alone in the room.
Curiosity got the better of the boy, so he looked over at her book. [101 Best Ways to Fluctuate Someone’s Ego]
‘I should’ve expected as much. It’s just, more training. Does she ever rest? I mean, when she’s not training her body, which is rare, is she reading things like this all the time?’
Ken didn’t know how his coworker did it. Surely she must get bored.
Besides the fact that she works, did she not have any hobbies?
Shaking his head, Ken walked to the door, which was to the right of the computer system.
He’d never passed through it, as this was the quarter of everyone who stayed here.
Apparently, their extra room was filled to the top with miscellaneous items, so Ken opted to just stay in the break room whenever he needed to crash here, as it was less of a hassle.
Opening the door, Ken saw a long hallway with five doors.
Four were spread out on the wall in front of him, and one was to his left, all the way at the end of the corridor.
He expected... something.
They were criminals, outcasts of society, who ran a super-secret mercenary organization.
So he was kind of let down when he saw everyone's names on their door.
‘How plain.’
He complained. Still, he walked to the one with Reiki’s name on it and knocked....No answer.
Ken repeated the process about five times before testing the doorknob. Lo and behold, the door opened easily.
Grumbling about how he wasted 20 seconds, Ken knocked once more before walking in.
Once inside, the sparse green light that came from a few lights above scattered across the room made the scenery all the more creepy.
Of course, the racks littered throughout the room didn’t help, nor did the body parts suspended in blue liquid kept inside jars on the racks.
Ken got goosebumps just looking inside, so, steeling his resolve to quickly find her and relay his message, he quickly went inside.
Shuffling through the path created by the absence of racks, Ken arrived at a desk with a lamp on it to the right of the room.
Finally seeing the bare gray wall, Ken was happy before his eyes registered the lack of Reiki.
He looked at the papers on the desk that mostly talked about Experiment # and its results.
Ahead, he saw her bed, which was ruffled, showing she had been in there prior.
There were stacks of papers to its right and a TV at its end. ‘Where is she—’
"Ahem."
Hearing the clearing of someone's throat, Ken spun around, shifting his weight to his left foot, which stood on its toes, while at the same time, he tilted his body to its left, raising his right foot to stretch out.
But all of these processes were stopped when he registered the voice and appearance and saw Reiki, the one he was looking for.
Stopping his combat position designed to deal power without his quirk, he awkwardly looked into her silent eyes.
“The boss wants everyone upstairs, so—”
“So you barged into my room uninvited.”
“W-Well, you weren’t in here—”
“What? A lady can’t use the bathroom in peace. Besides, didn’t the unlocked door give you a clue as to where I was?” Ken stood silent at that.
He was wondering why the door was unlocked when he came in, but the place creeped him out so much that he only focused on finding her.
“S-sorry—”
“No need. The matter's been dealt with. You said he needs us in the shop?”
Nodding his head, Ken followed her out as he thought,
‘This woman has a penchant for cutting people off, huh.’
As the medical specialist, she didn’t come on a whole lot of missions, often choosing to stay and do research, so Ken didn’t get to know her much over these past months.
Not liking the awkward silence, Ken started a conversation as they passed through the light curtain.
“That was a lot of research for one person to do.”
“Indeed, it is quite the amount. Speaking of, where do you do your own research since it’s not here?”
“Uhhh—”
“No need to answer if it’s too complicated.”
“I-It’s not that I don’t want to tell you—”
“That your quirk involves using a person’s body to change yours.”
