× Arc 2: Friends in High Places ×
"Aqua, huh?"
"Yep. You recognize that name don't you?"
Of course I do. Shes the girl who accidentally castrated a guy and toppled an entire construction site.
"Well, that recent report you covered seems to have pushed her over the edge. She sent in a personal request for help."
A-chan looked out of the office window while smiling.
"It's not often that she seeks the council of others. Her being a natural loner, on top of the fact that she hates causing trouble for others, leaves her quite lonely a lot of the time."
At that, she looks at me with warm and caring eyes.
"So the fact that she reached out by herself is a massive improvement in my eyes. She can be real stubborn about doing things alone, and I can tell it affects her more than she lets on."
"A-chan, you..."
"Hm? What?"
"Nah, nevermind."
I feel like she'd get mad if I said it out loud, but for someone who shit talks the hotel residents however she wants, she seems to care more than she lets on.
Hmm... Tsundere?
"Are you thinking something rude?"
"Of course not. What makes you think that?"
"Your face is unsettling."
How are you gonna accuse me of thinking something rude, and then say some heinous shit like that?
Either way, she clocked me.
"Are you sure that's not because of the curse? You've been making eye contact for a while now."
"Ah... Is that what that is...?"
She looked away while blushing, embarrassed at making such a mistake.
An irritating smirk uncontrollably spreads across my face.
Gaslight successful.
"You're definitely thinking something rude!"
"What are you, the thought police?"
"$672,000 a year."
"Yes ma'am. Sorry ma'am. I'll get to work."
"Heh..."
A-chan revealed a similarly irritating smirk, as she reveled in her superiority.
I avoided looking at her as I tidied up my station for the day.
But even so, I could tell she didn't drop the smug face even after I gathered my belongings and left.
It's time to work.
==================
"...pft."
A-chan sat in the room alone, giggling to herself after that storm-like man passed through.
"It's been a while since I've been that entertained by someone."
A-chan spends most of her time in this room, and the rest of the time, shes fixing problems caused by people who give her headaches just by hearing their names.
So being around someone who's somewhat normal, caused her to let her guard down faster than she meant to.
A-chan considers herself a good judge of character. Being around such volatile people for so long gave her a sort of sixth sense in social settings. Which is why she knew.
"Someone like that is bound to get along with the others."
If it's him, he'll solve this first request effortlessly.
"Aqua is in good hands."
At that, A-chan looked back at her computer and began to work.
"...wait."
She paused, before looking over at his desk.
"Did he make sure to take the company debit card?"
.....
....
...
..
.
"That's a little embarrassing..."
To forget the experience of being called back after forgetting something important, I reviewed the request one more time.
==================
Requester Name: Minato Aqua
Select the type of trouble you have encountered. You may select more than one:
Physical [ ]
Financial [ ✓ ]
Spiritual [ ]
Existential [ ]
Universe Ending [ ]
Describe the problem in detail:
Um, it's a little embarrassing to write it down like this, but I don't suppose there's a better way for a cowardly loner like me to open up, right?
I've been having a lot of trouble finding a stable job recently. Due to my clumsiness, I end up not being able to perform most tasks very well at all. I even cause catastrophic events occasionally. ;-;
A nice old lady lets me work as a maid, and I'm eternally grateful for her patience, but I hate cleaning and housework!!! I'd rather lift bricks til my back gives in!! But I can't even do that right!?!
Please help me find a job that fits me, I don't wanna be a maid forever!!
Ah, sorry, I rambled didn't I? Ahhh, I wrote this in pen so I cant erase it! I'm so sorry!!
===================
I'm not sure how she managed it, but I can tell just by her writing how much of a wreck this girl is.
It'd almost be sad, if it weren't so godamn comedic.
Oh, and don't worry, I saw the... Diverse range of problems as well. I'm just as confused as you are.
While going over what I knew about her, I arrived in front of her room in the hotel.
Taking a deep breath, I knocked on the door.
"..."
No one answered.
I knocked again, a little louder this time.
"..."
Again, nothing.
"Is she not here? That makes things a little complicated."
If I wanna find her, i'd have to go back to A-chan to find out Aqua's recently visited areas, which is a bit of an invasion of privacy.
And, uh, I don't really want to do that.
While I thought on my next move, the door finally cracked open ever so slightly, and I could see a small woman with purple hair and an oversized white hoodie peeking at me.
We briefly made eye contact.
"..."
*BANG*
I get that the curse is still active, even through the glasses, but slamming the door on me is a little rude, don't you think?
But now I know she's here.
"Miss Minato, can we talk for second please?"
"I'm sorry!! I didn't mean to cause trouble!!!" She screamed through the door.
Oh geez...
"I'm not here for trouble Miss Minato."
"That's what they all say! But then they make me sign all sorts of scary documents!"
What kind of documents are they making you sign...? If it's you, it's probably stuff about the damage you caused... No, that's not important right now.
"You did submit a request today, didn't you?I'm with the hotel, I'm here to help you."
At that, the door went silent. And as if ruminating upon my words, she stood there for a couple minutes. I could hear her pacing back and forth from the other side.
Finally, the pacing stopped, and just as I was running out of patience, the door cracked open again. She stuck her face out and nervously asked.
"... W-why... Are you here... Instead of A-chan...? N-not that I don't want you here!"
I hummed at the question, which made her flinch for some reason.
"If I had to guess, the reasons are twofold. One is probably to get you more used to being around strangers, and two, is to push you."
"P-push me?"
"Yep. Believe it or not, A-chan was really happy when you sent in that request for help. It looked like she was gonna come find you regardless, but then you reached a hand out first."
She looked like a proud mom, it was kind of cute.
"Really...?"
"Honest. And you're already asking for help on your own, why not see how far your courage goes? In a way, it seems like shes testing you."
A-chan is basically asking whether this is just a one time thing, or if her bravery can grow into something greater. If so, she's on the fast track to becoming a functioning member of society.
Which is the end goal.
Aqua looked up at me, and then down at the floor, deep in thought.
"... You said you'd help me find a job...?"
"I'll do my best."
"T-then! I'll try! If it's to make A-chan happy!"
Thank god. If she still refused, I have no idea what I would've done.
"Alright. Can I come in?"
The moment I asked that, Aqua froze.
"Um... Come inside my room...?"
"Yeah. You aren't gonna make me stand outside while we talk, right?"
"... Oh..."
Aqua looked at me, then looked back at her room, then looked back at me, and color drained from her face.
"W-wait a minute mister!! Isn't that too advanced for a girl like me!? That's a little too embarrassing!!"
"?"
What the hell are you talking about?
"What's so embarrassing about letting me inside? Is your room dirty? Trust me, I'm probably a bigger slob than you are."
"That's not it!!"
"??"
"That... It's that...! Y'know..!?"
No, I don't know, that's why I'm asking.
"When a boy... and a girl... enter a room together... Usually, t-that happens! You know, 'THAT'!?!?"
...
"Sigh..."
I mean, I guess there's sense to be made here. A guy entering a girl's room on the first meeting is a little strange. I certainly wouldn't invite someone I just met to my house.
But still, isn't that a little too degenerate? Lay off the doujins pal.
And as if realizing that herself, Aqua's face went bright red in embarrassment.
"Ah..."
She opened her mouth, as if to speak in defense of herself, or perhaps to retract her statement, but that would take another 2-3 paragraphs, and I've been standing here for too long already.
"I didn't-"
"You're right."
"Huh...?"
"It is a little odd to invite someone in on your first meeting, I may have been a little too forward."
"N-no, that's-"
"How about this instead. Let's take this discussion to the main lobby, and we can work our way from there."
"... Okay..."
As if submitting to my dominance over the conversation, she simply agreed, before stepping out of her room.
It was then that I finally got a full view of her.
The first thing I noticed about her was the design on the large white hoodie she wore. It had cat ears on top and blue trims here and there.
The second thing I noticed was that she was short, like, abysmally short. If I was around 6 feet tall, she must have been about 4'10".
That's about 145 cm for everyone that isn't an American.
That legally makes her a dwarf. I don't think I've ever seen one of those IRL before.
"Uhm, is something wrong?"
I must have been staring for too long, I should get a move on.
...
Hmm...
"Could you guide me to the main lobby?"
Is now a good time to mention that I'm terrible with directions?
"???"
Aqua seemed confused that a staff member didn't know his way around the building, but it's not my fault! I've only been here for a day!
.....
....
...
..
.
After many twists and turns, we finally made it back to the front desk.
It turns out aqua is bad with directions too, so it took longer than expected.
We both sat down at a table and finally began discussing her situation.
"So tell me, what kind of job are you looking for again?"
"Anything that I can perform without messing up!"
"That's quite the wide search area?"
At that, aqua looked down at the table in despair.
"No, it's actually... Narrower than you think..."
That bad huh?
"Well, what have you tried so far?"
She began to list off the jobs she had before, and holy shit, what has this girl been through?
She's worked in an office, construction, brick laying, IT, catering, cleaning, bartending, dance, kitchen aid, and even retail.
She got fired from all of them.
Every last one.
The reasoning was the same everytime, she got clumsy and made a catastrophic mistake.
After hearing about all that, it just made me want to help her even more, so I got to thinking.
"A job with a low barrier to entry, and high mistake tolerance..."
I whipped out my phone and scoured the Internet, and requested aqua do the same.
"Let's see... How about dishwashing?"
Aqua shook her head, "I'm not allowed to touch dishes, I always break them..."
Always?
You know what, let's just move on.
"Fast food?"
At that, aqua shook her head rapidly.
"NO!! ABSOLUTELY NO HUMAN INTERACTION!!!"
Gotcha.
That actually narrows the search quite a bit.
"What about warehouse work? No customer contact, with minimal coworker interaction. Not very complex either, just putting stuff in boxes and taping it shut."
Of course, I've never worked a warehouse job, so reality may differ.
The onion seemed to think about that one carefully, before slowly nodding her head.
"Alright! Lets apply for Amazon right away!!"
I'm sure the warehouse will treat you well!
"Amazon...? You mean Holozon?"
...
You know what, sure. I meant Holozon.
We looked up the application website and began filling one out expeditiously.
And man, she was fast. Aqua's hand movements were so swift I almost didn't even get to read her resume.
In the brief moment I got to see it, I saw it filled with all sorts of jobs and positions, and realized on the spot why she seemed so good at filling out applications. There's no way this was her first or second time doing this.
Fortunately, aqua didn't seem to feel my pitying gaze from the side. Or perhaps she did notice, but chose to ignore it.
Either way, the job was done very quickly.
"Alright, now let's look for another one."
"Huh? Didn't we just apply?"
"Fool!"
"Eek!"
How could she be so naive about the ways of the world? Especially when she's applied to so many jobs...
Every job seeker knows you don't just fill out one application at a time and pray for a reply.
Most of the time you don't even get a reply, or worse, the listing for the job is fake/dead.
It's better to extend your reach and apply for multiple jobs at a time so you aren't wasting time waiting for just one.
The moment I finished my spiel, aqua tilted her head in confusion.
"But they're already calling me in for an interview?"
?
"They say they want to meet me an hour from now..."
???
Is the job market in this world perhaps...
Not fucked beyond repair?
×Chapter 9: Job Seeking×