Appointed Position

After the employment notice had arrived, a few months had gone by. Naturally enough, Neito had spent them quite restlessly. He tried loitering around the insides of his house, suddenly took up weight training as he watched anime, and thought to tell one of his few acquaintances about his employment, but the latter was a bit too great a hurdle. It was an evil organization, after all.

Come to think of it, what would I even be doing at work? Probably something like planning out and drafting criminal acts.

Right after I had gotten the acceptance letter, I had sent in a positive reply at the prospects of employment, but looking back, I never really confirmed the specifics of my duties, or my standing or anything like that.

Let’s look over the doc.u.ments again. No, perhaps muscle training first? And so he spent his time, and eventually the day of his formal entry came upon him.

The designated location was a building in the same district as the interview hall. Perhaps this was their public guise. Is it a separate enterprise Metallica made as a dummy?

The receptionist was the same large-breasted woman from the interview. I was too nervous back then to pay much attention, but looking closely, she’s quite something. Waved chestnut hair, and kind eyes. An older sister character.

Does it feel good here? Oh, me?  I could imagine the words from her mouth.

“Welcome to Metallica. Please make your way to the conference room♪. You will be undergoing guidance there today.”

Her voice was quite comforting on the ears. Maybe it would be best if she wasn’t a.s.signed to receptionist work, and was transferred to honey trap some influential politician. Or so Neito began to boorishly fantasize.

This goes without saying, but there were new hires apart from him. It’s not like he was skilled at dealing with people, and he didn’t have fond memories of his cla.s.smates, or peers. So what he was really hoping for at the moment, was that his fellow new recruits were nice people.

Due to the peculiar nature of the company, he knew he was praying for a contradiction. Come to think of it, was Maki there? The though crossed his mind.

“Ah.”

But when he entered the room, the one there wasn’t Maki. A slender and tall figure, of refined features, in an expensive suit.

It’s that guy. The one who was with him in the interview. The high-spec handsome one.

“Um~…”

The handsome man also sent him a glance.

“Huh? So you were accepted?”

It was a tone that spoke lengths in itself of how surprised he was. But Neito himself felt the same, so he could understand the sentiment.

“Eh, ah, yeah.”

The man stared at him intently.

He had mentally told him to die a few times in the interview, but they were going to be working together from here on. If possible, Neito wanted to be able to get along.

“… Hmm~. Well. Good for you, I guess. Regular? General?”

Metallica’s employees were largely divided into regular posts, and general posts.

“Yes, general for me.”

“Ah~ yes, yes. I see. That’s nice.”

The wage prospects of the two were quite a ways apart. They were just about as separated as a pilot and a taxi driver.

The air turned a little uncomfortable.

And with that timing, the door opened.

“Good day… Ah! Neito-kun! You were accepted! That’s great~!”

The one who entered was Maki. Her hair had grown a little since he’d last seen her at the interview, and its flaxen sheen made it look even more appealing. The tension of the room somehow cleared a bit.

“T-thank you, so you also got in Maki-s”

“Oh, so you were hired as well. I was sure you would be.”

The handsome face was the faster of the two to call out to her.

“Thank you, u~m, likewise, Hotokeno-san!”

“I’m Ikeno.”

Halleluiah. She totally remembered me. Neito rejoiced inside, but didn’t show it on the surface.

That aside, it looked to be that the three gathered were the only ones who made it. After a while, the same receptionist from before entered with a man who looked to be an official.

“Everyone’s gathered. Then we will be moving on to announcing a.s.signments, and guidance.”

Neito hadn’t found employment since he graduated. Of course, it was the first time he would have his a.s.signment decided for him.

The fact he was employed to begin with means they had evaluated some ability of his, and they were sure to send him to a job suited for that. He himself hadn’t the slightest idea what he could do, but still, he couldn’t contain his excitement. The official man started listing off in a low voice.

“Ikeno Reiji. You have been a.s.signed to the planning department’s first planning division.”

“Yes.”

Oh~. So he had a name like Reiji? What did the planning department do again? He does look quite smart after all. Amazing~.

Is it that? Does he plan the a.s.sa.s.sination of VIPs, and the strategic points to blow up?

“Mayuzumi Maki. You have been a.s.signed to the General Affairs Department’s General Affairs Division.”

“Yes!”

“By the way, I’m also on general affairs. I’ll be sure to guide you kindly.”

So Maki-san’s in general affairs? She said she wanted to improve the mysterious buildings, so I think she wanted to be in the R&D department. But still, for her to be in the same branch as the receptionist… Isn’t that just perfect? General affairs~. Is it a place the pretties are deployed to? Maybe it’s the place I’m supposed to drop by to turn in a receipt.

Now then, it was Neito’s turn next. From what he could remember, it had been quite a while since his heart had danced so much.

“Komori Neito. You have been a.s.signed to the General Affair’s Department’s affiliate Misc. Division.”

“Y-yes.”

?? Miscellaneous? What’s that supposed to be again? Neito tried to recall all the company doc.u.ments he had read through.

He got the feeling they were written of in the smallest corner of a page.

“That is all. Ikeno, Mayuzumi, proceed to the new employee training course at once!”

“Yes!”

?? Training course? It’s been bothering me for a while, but Ikeno and Maki both had trunk cases with them. Large ones at that, as if they were going off on a trip.

“While your destination may be Hawaii, please remember that your purpose is training. Don’t get too lively.”

Hawaii? To Neito, it was a bolt from the blue. He hadn’t prepared for that at all. And wait, he didn’t even have a pa.s.sport. Was anything like that in the pamphlet? c.r.a.p, a huge mistake right off the bat? Before he could fly into a panic, he decided to be upfront about it.

“Um… my preparations… are…”

The official showed off a questioning expression as he continued.

“Its standard for the Misc. Division to proceed straight to the work site.”

“Hah?”

“Do you understand the Miscellaneous Division’s purpose?”

“… No. I’m sorry.”

“Well, to be direct, they’re combatants. Though they’re in charge of handling odd jobs as well. Haven’t you ever seen them on TV?”

Yep. I sure have. Those ones wearing black-ish clothes and peculiar masks, those guys. They appear alongside the mysterious beings, and get beaten black and blue by the Hero, those guys. Those guys that more often than not take on the police.

Those guys that make the children burst into tears. So those were normal people doing that?

Well d.a.m.n. This is quite bad. Neito’s tension dropped off all at once.

I don’t mean to brag, but I don’t have any fighting experience. Being sent off to the work site without any training at all? For realz?

“Ah, I see. You have it rough. You general workers. Well, have at it. Mayuzumi-san, shall we be off?”

Ikeno no longer seemed to think anything of young Neito.

Maki nervously called out.

“D-don’t worry about it! Neito-kun! Well… um… they say that work is experience over theory, don’t they!”

This girl reminds me a bit of a loyal dog. Or so an irrelevant thought flew across his mind.

“Komori. Your post will be…”

The contents weren’t entering his head.

Komori Neito

Metallica LLC, Miscellaneous Division General Worker (Monthly Salary 135,000¥)