“Are you really a woman?”
“You sure are persistant.”
It has been about two weeks since I started my job here. When it’s lunch time I’d always eat together with this man-like woman, sitting by the wall at our usual place. Well it’s more preferable than eating with greasy old dudes though, and no one mentioned this either so I’m not going to complain, but being treat like a woman everyday is a little bit annoying to be honest.
“I think it’s too late to say this now but, who are you exactly?” (Ryuusei)
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve never seen you at work. But since you’re always here it’s not like you’re not a part of this factory aren’t you.”
I said while munching on the sweet bread that I stole from Gotou’s room, and Akane looked happy for some reason.
“What?” (Ryuusei)
“That’s the first time you’ve ever asked me something about me.”
“Well I’m not particularly curious after all.”
“So now you’re curious.”
“It just bugged me.”
“Your way of speaking is not cute at all. Ryuusei you’re definitely a woman just as I thought.”
“Shut up, just answer my question already.”
“Yaーi, you got madー”
Akane poked my shoulder like a kid. While I lightly resists her by raising my elbow up, I picked up a plastic bottle of juice with my other hand. This is also something I stole from Gotou’s room as well. Well I said I stole it but I planned to give him back the money when I got my pay so I think there’s no problem here.
“Yaaーi yaaーi, you’re angryー”
That aside, just how long is she going to poke me. And now she’s even using both hands.
“Yaーi! You’re angry!”
“Stop it already are you a kid or something!?”
“Ahahaha, I’m still twelve after all.”
“Yeah you’re lying you idiot. There’s no way I can’t believe that a giant woman like you would be carrying a randoseru until just the last year isn’t it.” (Randoseru = elementary schooler backpack)
“But I’m telling you the truth. Just try asking someone after this.”
“Alright I’m going to go ask right now. If it turns out you’re lying then you have to stop blabbering such lies again you damn brat.”
Turned out, it was true.
“Don’t be skipping school you damn brat.”
“Ahahaha, sorry sorryー”
And so Akane is a kid with many mysteries behind her. And since every time I tried asking her any further she’d avoid the topic, so naturally I gave up asking.
Of course I’m doing my job properly. Apparently apart from welding parts it seems that they also manufactured parts as well, and my job is to make sure that the parts that flowed down the conveyor belt don’t have any faults. For the first week there was an old man who would be beside me acting as my supervisor, telling me incomprehensible theories on how to distinguish the faults in the parts.
As for the reason why I’m not working in welding department, it’s because “It’s not a job for a woman, got that kid?”. Well since this job is easy so I won’t complain but, uhh, not that I have one, in any case I had to accept being treated as a woman. It’s whatever actually, it’s not like I’m going to work at this factory for my whole life anyway.
Time is something that flies by fast, they still thought of me as a woman, and before I noticed it three months had already passed. As for the things that changed, it’s that I got some money and now able to afford more decent lunch.
My work is still checking the faults of the parts as usual, and at lunch I’d have to babysit the kid named Akane.
“Hey Ryuusei. Lately you’ve been treating me like a kid aren’t youー”
“You’re just imagining it Akane.”
And just like in the past, I still knew next to nothing about Akane.
Sometimes I’d see her talking friendlily with the old men in the factory, and once I even thought that she was an orphan making her living by taking care of their bottom part, but since whenever I told her a dirty joke she’d react exaggeratedly so that’s probably not the case.
“That’s a really bad way to put it you know. This is why I hate women.” (Akane)
“I already said that I’m a man. Shall I show you my manhood?”
“Ha-, haaahhhh!? Ar-, are you an idiot!?”
Whenever I told her dirty jokes, she’d scream out loudly like this while sending a straight right punch at my face, in which I’d calmly stop that punch. At first I talked to her as equals, but in the end she’s three years younger than me after all. Once I knew how to handle her there’s nothing to worry about anymore.
“Dammit, get your hand away you idiot! I hate it when you played a dirty joke on me Ryuusei!”
While my hand is still grabbing her thin wrist, I use my other hand to pick up a sweet bun bought from convenience store and put it in my mouth.
“Don’t be eating so carefreely! Don’t ignore me!”
Akane tried pulling her hand that was grabbed with strong force. Seems like she doesn’t realize that she use her other hand or her legs to help pulling her hand out too.
“Dammit, you dare smile smugly at me like that……”
Akane’s face turns bright red and her body even shakes a little. And there’s one thing she doesn’t notice because she’s just a kid, but in actuality the old men have been watching us.
……Man I’m so glad. So Akane-chan is finally able to make a friend.
……Yeah, it’s a good thing that the girls got along so well.
And if you paid your ears close attention then you can hear them saying stuff like these. Usually I tried speaking in a small voice as to not be heard by them, but it’s not like there are conversations I didn’t want them to hear in the first place. As for the gender, well I’m used to that by now.
My work hasn’t changed much in these three months, but my relationship with other people changed quite a bit. I remembered the faces and names of seventeen old men, and I also felt like my distance with Akane has been getting closer from when we first met.
Gradually, I felt comfortable being here at this factory.
And one more month passed.
August. Those who attended high school are now on summer break, during this period it should be that we played together more often, but instead the frequency actually decreased. Apparently they prioritized their new friends over the old ones. About that I have no rights to say anything about it, not that I’m going to anyway. And right around the time winter came, we had lost all contact with each other.
And then.
Around the time when September started, there’s an incident happened in the factory. Actually it’s not that big of an incident, it’s just that an employee quits the job, but since this place is full of companionship so the incident sparked some arguments in this place.
At that time I watched them argued while thinking that if they want to quit they should’ve just quit, but then I heard that there’s a troublesome circumstance behind this. I’m not that interested about that, but seeing the people I liked arguing with each other like this isn’t pleasant to my eyes at all.
After he left the factory, the mood in the factory was bad.
Especially Akane whose mood was worse than anyone else.
“……”
For a period, Akane wouldn’t even utter a single word at all. She still came here everyday though, she’d hugged her knees next to me while sobbing, at that time I thought that she was going to annoy me again, but well at least that was better than staying inside the factory so I decided to continue having my lunch here.
“……Are you, not going to say anything?”
The voice that I haven’t heard in a while was clearly full of tears.
There’s no way I could speak anything jokingly at this moment, and I couldn’t even think of a good word to speak to her too. While I’m confused at what to say, I thought that if she ate something then she’d surely cheered up, so I pressed the sweet bread I had in my hand against Akane’s cheek.
“……What’s with you.”
Akane slightly looked up, staring at me with her red swollen eyes.
“Open your mouth.”
“……No I don’t want to, you just ate it.”
“It’s whatever just eat it already.”
I continue to forcefully pressed it against her, eventually Akane gave up and took a bite.
“……Water.”
I quietly handed a plastic bottle to her. Inside the bottle is tea.
After Akane took it, she opened the cap with the least movement possible and drank the tea which was more than half full in one go.
“Two hundred yen.” (Ryuusei)
“……You’re taking my money?”
“Just kidding. How are you feeling?”
“……It’s as you can see. I feel really bad.”
She said in a blurry voice as she pushed the out the plastic bottle to me. The bottle hit my head and made a pop sound. I tried to take it from her hand but she resisted for some reason.
“……Ryuusei, how long will you stay here?”
“I don’t know.”
I answered honestly, Akane relaxed her grasp on the bottle and went back to hugging her knees again.
Honestly I feel so fed up that I thought I’m going to take a day off from the factory tomorrow, but then I said to Akane from her side.
“Is that guy quitting such a huge shock to you?”
Well I could clearly see that it’s a huge shock by looking at her face, but I couldn’t think up of anything else to speak to her.
Akane slightly nodded but didn’t say anything.
And silence once again.
I let out a deep sigh as I can’t stand this heavy atmosphere anymore.
What the hell is this situation, how did I get entangled with this mess? And why do I even have to care about this. This is stupid.
“I’ll have to tell you this beforehand but I’m not going to comfort you.”
I really meant it when I said that. Sure I’ve been babysitting Akane for nearly half a year now, but if you asked me if that made me empathize her, then I’d say no. I didn’t even know such a feeling existed in the first place.
I don’t care if the mood in the factory is bad, it’s just annoying to me.
I don’t care if Akane’s sobbing next to me, it’s just annoying to me.
Me at that time was nothing more than a brat who only experienced a physical growth but not a mental one. I didn’t know what things are bad and what are good, psychology and anything related to other people’s mind is out of the question. Instead, I could only understand something simple such as liking something and disliking something.
I don’t want to do troublesome things, I only wanted to do things that are fun.
The boy named Tendou Ryuusei has a mental level equal to that of an infant, and is as cold as a machine.
“However, if you had anything you want to say then I’ll at least hear it out.”
If it’s just listening to what people had to say then I can do that.
When I was in junior high, many people were satisfied with just me listening to their stories. I remembered that so I said the same line to Akane. I really didn’t mean anything else.
I waited in silence for a while, waiting for Akane to speak out.
If she won’t say anything, then I’ll just take a day off without saying anything either.
If she’s going to say something, then I’ll hear that for her and take a day off.
That was the plan.
The time waiting for her to respond strangely feels really long.
It was hot and I sweat even though I’m under a tree shade, and while Akane is crying but the sky is not crying at all. I stare at the sky wishing that it’d be at least a bit cooler than this, and just then when dark clouds starts to block the sun.
“……My dad, when he was still alive.”
Eventually, small drops of rain began to fall.
“When my dad was still alive, the factory had more people. My dad who raised me on his own was really cool, and his friends liked him as well. Thanks to that, everyone treated me like their own daughter.”
Finally, Akane speaks.
“But then my dad was sick, he didn’t get better at all…… after that, everyone who was getting along well with each other started arguing everyday, and gradually the number of people decreased…… It was really scary.”
It was Akane’s story. She started telling me the things that she won’t told me even when I asked her many times before.
It’s a story that you can find anywhere, the organization loses its head figure and it ceases to function and eventually collapsed, moreover it seems like there’s an huge fight over Akane’s father’s inheritance. Akane had no relatives, and her mother had passed away early.
In the end it was decided that all of the inheritance including the factory will be managed by the remaining employees until Moriya Akane came of age. The number of remaining employees at that time were a little over thirteen people, originally there were more than fifty people.
Five years passed after that, some people joined and some quitted, but only those people never quitted. They’re truly like a family.
And then one of the said people left the factory.
It seems like because of that it reminded Akane of her past.
“I thought we’d always be together…… But I was wrong.”
Akane said, sadly.
“When I’m an adult I’m going to be a great leader just like my dad…… I’m going to make this factory the best there is in Japan, or so that’s what I thought. But…… when I’m finally an adult, there might be no one left anymore. Even the factory my dad left for me, I might even lose that too.”
As her story came to an end, the rain got stronger.
However the rain only takes our body temperature away, not washing anything else on us.
I felt the sense of acceptance from Akane’s words. Even though she’s just a kid, no perhaps it’s exactly because she’s still just a kid that she is able to vividly imagine what’s going to happen next. She might’ve even realized already that things won’t be the same anymore. However I could feel her painful emotions coming from her hands that are grasping so tightly that it’s trembling.
No, I don’t want to give up. I want to do something.
But I couldn’t do anything. It’s frustrating.
I could feel such straightforward thoughts coming from her.
As for me,
“Not bad.”
I honestly said what I had in my mind.
“Then I’ll tell you one thing too.”
I stood up, looking at Akane from up above and said.
“I never give a single thought about my future. But, now I’ve decided.”
I forcefully pulled Akane’s arm and make her stand up.
“What’re you doing, that hurts.”
Although Akane resisted, but I’m not so weak that a kid much younger than me, and a woman at that, would be able to shake off my grasp even if she went all out. I pulled her to the inside of the factory just like that before releasing the grasp.
Inside the factory, the air is as damp as ever.
No one is looking at each other, each one of them just ate their own food.
The rain gradually got stronger, covering the entire factory in annoying zaー zaー sound.
I breathed in deeply taking in as much air as I can, then shouted out as loud as possible.
“LISTEN UP!! ALL OF YOU GOOD-FOR-NOTHING BASTARDS!!”
The old men who hadn’t even noticed us when we entered the factory turned to our direction to see what’s going on.
“HOW LONG ARE YOU GUYS GOING TO ACT LIKE A SULKY LOSERS!? ENOUGH OF THIS ALREADY!!”
My voice echoed throughout the entire factory many times, it eventually dissipates away into the air.
Immediately after, one of the old men stood up looking at us, his face really pissed off.
“Don’t fucking get cocky you’re just a shitty kid who knew nothing!!”
I could tell that he’s furious even from a distance. He’s running straight at me. Few of the old men tried to stand up to stop him, but they won’t make it in time.
I calmly saw through the not-adult-like old man’s movement, I grabbed his right wrist that was coming to grab my chest and threw it behind me.
The old men who were watching the scene froze, their eyes staring in shock. The old man who came at me probably had a more stupid face than others.
“Akane, she just wants to make this factory the best in Japan, together with you guys.”
I think there’s need to shout anymore at this point.
“So help her. If you don’t want to then fuck off. If you want to get in the way, then over my dead body.”
This is just a nonsense from a kid who knew nothing but how to fight. And the reason my words reached those old men’s heart was probably because Akane is there with me. Everyone look at her with complex expression on their faces.
And then,
“Everyone! Please!” (Akane)
Akane delivered the final blow.
In the next day, the factory is back to its usual liveliness. I was treated harshly by the old men because I had said some cheeky things yesterday. But it’s not like they’re malicious or anything, rather there’s a warmth in those harshness that’s as if they’re trying to discipline thier own kid, I didn’t mind that.
It’s just that there’s one thing I misunderstand greatly.
The success this time is all because Akane is there with me.
Because in the middle of the bonds in this factory is Akane.
It’s not because what I said at all.
And yet, I misunderstood it.
I got cocky and thought that all of this is thanks to me, and with my power I can do anything.
“Are you really a woman?”
“You sure are persistant.”
It has been about two weeks since I started my job here. When it’s lunch time I’d always eat together with this man-like woman, sitting by the wall at our usual place. Well it’s more preferable than eating with greasy old dudes though, and no one mentioned this either so I’m not going to complain, but being treat like a woman everyday is a little bit annoying to be honest.
“I think it’s too late to say this now but, who are you exactly?” (Ryuusei)
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve never seen you at work. But since you’re always here it’s not like you’re not a part of this factory aren’t you.”
I said while munching on the sweet bread that I stole from Gotou’s room, and Akane looked happy for some reason.
“What?” (Ryuusei)
“That’s the first time you’ve ever asked me something about me.”
“Well I’m not particularly curious after all.”
“So now you’re curious.”
“It just bugged me.”
“Your way of speaking is not cute at all. Ryuusei you’re definitely a woman just as I thought.”
“Shut up, just answer my question already.”
“Yaーi, you got madー”
Akane poked my shoulder like a kid. While I lightly resists her by raising my elbow up, I picked up a plastic bottle of juice with my other hand. This is also something I stole from Gotou’s room as well. Well I said I stole it but I planned to give him back the money when I got my pay so I think there’s no problem here.
“Yaaーi yaaーi, you’re angryー”
That aside, just how long is she going to poke me. And now she’s even using both hands.
“Yaーi! You’re angry!”
“Stop it already are you a kid or something!?”
“Ahahaha, I’m still twelve after all.”
“Yeah you’re lying you idiot. There’s no way I can’t believe that a giant woman like you would be carrying a randoseru until just the last year isn’t it.” (Randoseru = elementary schooler backpack)
“But I’m telling you the truth. Just try asking someone after this.”
“Alright I’m going to go ask right now. If it turns out you’re lying then you have to stop blabbering such lies again you damn brat.”
Turned out, it was true.
“Don’t be skipping school you damn brat.”
“Ahahaha, sorry sorryー”
And so Akane is a kid with many mysteries behind her. And since every time I tried asking her any further she’d avoid the topic, so naturally I gave up asking.
Of course I’m doing my job properly. Apparently apart from welding parts it seems that they also manufactured parts as well, and my job is to make sure that the parts that flowed down the conveyor belt don’t have any faults. For the first week there was an old man who would be beside me acting as my supervisor, telling me incomprehensible theories on how to distinguish the faults in the parts.
As for the reason why I’m not working in welding department, it’s because “It’s not a job for a woman, got that kid?”. Well since this job is easy so I won’t complain but, uhh, not that I have one, in any case I had to accept being treated as a woman. It’s whatever actually, it’s not like I’m going to work at this factory for my whole life anyway.
Time is something that flies by fast, they still thought of me as a woman, and before I noticed it three months had already passed. As for the things that changed, it’s that I got some money and now able to afford more decent lunch.
My work is still checking the faults of the parts as usual, and at lunch I’d have to babysit the kid named Akane.
“Hey Ryuusei. Lately you’ve been treating me like a kid aren’t youー”
“You’re just imagining it Akane.”
And just like in the past, I still knew next to nothing about Akane.
Sometimes I’d see her talking friendlily with the old men in the factory, and once I even thought that she was an orphan making her living by taking care of their bottom part, but since whenever I told her a dirty joke she’d react exaggeratedly so that’s probably not the case.
“That’s a really bad way to put it you know. This is why I hate women.” (Akane)
“I already said that I’m a man. Shall I show you my manhood?”
“Ha-, haaahhhh!? Ar-, are you an idiot!?”
Whenever I told her dirty jokes, she’d scream out loudly like this while sending a straight right punch at my face, in which I’d calmly stop that punch. At first I talked to her as equals, but in the end she’s three years younger than me after all. Once I knew how to handle her there’s nothing to worry about anymore.
“Dammit, get your hand away you idiot! I hate it when you played a dirty joke on me Ryuusei!”
While my hand is still grabbing her thin wrist, I use my other hand to pick up a sweet bun bought from convenience store and put it in my mouth.
“Don’t be eating so carefreely! Don’t ignore me!”
Akane tried pulling her hand that was grabbed with strong force. Seems like she doesn’t realize that she use her other hand or her legs to help pulling her hand out too.
“Dammit, you dare smile smugly at me like that……”
Akane’s face turns bright red and her body even shakes a little. And there’s one thing she doesn’t notice because she’s just a kid, but in actuality the old men have been watching us.
……Man I’m so glad. So Akane-chan is finally able to make a friend.
……Yeah, it’s a good thing that the girls got along so well.
And if you paid your ears close attention then you can hear them saying stuff like these. Usually I tried speaking in a small voice as to not be heard by them, but it’s not like there are conversations I didn’t want them to hear in the first place. As for the gender, well I’m used to that by now.
My work hasn’t changed much in these three months, but my relationship with other people changed quite a bit. I remembered the faces and names of seventeen old men, and I also felt like my distance with Akane has been getting closer from when we first met.
Gradually, I felt comfortable being here at this factory.
And one more month passed.
August. Those who attended high school are now on summer break, during this period it should be that we played together more often, but instead the frequency actually decreased. Apparently they prioritized their new friends over the old ones. About that I have no rights to say anything about it, not that I’m going to anyway. And right around the time winter came, we had lost all contact with each other.
And then.
Around the time when September started, there’s an incident happened in the factory. Actually it’s not that big of an incident, it’s just that an employee quits the job, but since this place is full of companionship so the incident sparked some arguments in this place.
At that time I watched them argued while thinking that if they want to quit they should’ve just quit, but then I heard that there’s a troublesome circumstance behind this. I’m not that interested about that, but seeing the people I liked arguing with each other like this isn’t pleasant to my eyes at all.
After he left the factory, the mood in the factory was bad.
Especially Akane whose mood was worse than anyone else.
“……”
For a period, Akane wouldn’t even utter a single word at all. She still came here everyday though, she’d hugged her knees next to me while sobbing, at that time I thought that she was going to annoy me again, but well at least that was better than staying inside the factory so I decided to continue having my lunch here.
“……Are you, not going to say anything?”
The voice that I haven’t heard in a while was clearly full of tears.
There’s no way I could speak anything jokingly at this moment, and I couldn’t even think of a good word to speak to her too. While I’m confused at what to say, I thought that if she ate something then she’d surely cheered up, so I pressed the sweet bread I had in my hand against Akane’s cheek.
“……What’s with you.”
Akane slightly looked up, staring at me with her red swollen eyes.
“Open your mouth.”
“……No I don’t want to, you just ate it.”
“It’s whatever just eat it already.”
I continue to forcefully pressed it against her, eventually Akane gave up and took a bite.
“……Water.”
I quietly handed a plastic bottle to her. Inside the bottle is tea.
After Akane took it, she opened the cap with the least movement possible and drank the tea which was more than half full in one go.
“Two hundred yen.” (Ryuusei)
“……You’re taking my money?”
“Just kidding. How are you feeling?”
“……It’s as you can see. I feel really bad.”
She said in a blurry voice as she pushed the out the plastic bottle to me. The bottle hit my head and made a pop sound. I tried to take it from her hand but she resisted for some reason.
“……Ryuusei, how long will you stay here?”
“I don’t know.”
I answered honestly, Akane relaxed her grasp on the bottle and went back to hugging her knees again.
Honestly I feel so fed up that I thought I’m going to take a day off from the factory tomorrow, but then I said to Akane from her side.
“Is that guy quitting such a huge shock to you?”
Well I could clearly see that it’s a huge shock by looking at her face, but I couldn’t think up of anything else to speak to her.
Akane slightly nodded but didn’t say anything.
And silence once again.
I let out a deep sigh as I can’t stand this heavy atmosphere anymore.
What the hell is this situation, how did I get entangled with this mess? And why do I even have to care about this. This is stupid.
“I’ll have to tell you this beforehand but I’m not going to comfort you.”
I really meant it when I said that. Sure I’ve been babysitting Akane for nearly half a year now, but if you asked me if that made me empathize her, then I’d say no. I didn’t even know such a feeling existed in the first place.
I don’t care if the mood in the factory is bad, it’s just annoying to me.
I don’t care if Akane’s sobbing next to me, it’s just annoying to me.
Me at that time was nothing more than a brat who only experienced a physical growth but not a mental one. I didn’t know what things are bad and what are good, psychology and anything related to other people’s mind is out of the question. Instead, I could only understand something simple such as liking something and disliking something.
I don’t want to do troublesome things, I only wanted to do things that are fun.
The boy named Tendou Ryuusei has a mental level equal to that of an infant, and is as cold as a machine.
“However, if you had anything you want to say then I’ll at least hear it out.”
If it’s just listening to what people had to say then I can do that.
When I was in junior high, many people were satisfied with just me listening to their stories. I remembered that so I said the same line to Akane. I really didn’t mean anything else.
I waited in silence for a while, waiting for Akane to speak out.
If she won’t say anything, then I’ll just take a day off without saying anything either.
If she’s going to say something, then I’ll hear that for her and take a day off.
That was the plan.
The time waiting for her to respond strangely feels really long.
It was hot and I sweat even though I’m under a tree shade, and while Akane is crying but the sky is not crying at all. I stare at the sky wishing that it’d be at least a bit cooler than this, and just then when dark clouds starts to block the sun.
“……My dad, when he was still alive.”
Eventually, small drops of rain began to fall.
“When my dad was still alive, the factory had more people. My dad who raised me on his own was really cool, and his friends liked him as well. Thanks to that, everyone treated me like their own daughter.”
Finally, Akane speaks.
“But then my dad was sick, he didn’t get better at all…… after that, everyone who was getting along well with each other started arguing everyday, and gradually the number of people decreased…… It was really scary.”
It was Akane’s story. She started telling me the things that she won’t told me even when I asked her many times before.
It’s a story that you can find anywhere, the organization loses its head figure and it ceases to function and eventually collapsed, moreover it seems like there’s an huge fight over Akane’s father’s inheritance. Akane had no relatives, and her mother had passed away early.
In the end it was decided that all of the inheritance including the factory will be managed by the remaining employees until Moriya Akane came of age. The number of remaining employees at that time were a little over thirteen people, originally there were more than fifty people.
Five years passed after that, some people joined and some quitted, but only those people never quitted. They’re truly like a family.
And then one of the said people left the factory.
It seems like because of that it reminded Akane of her past.
“I thought we’d always be together…… But I was wrong.”
Akane said, sadly.
“When I’m an adult I’m going to be a great leader just like my dad…… I’m going to make this factory the best there is in Japan, or so that’s what I thought. But…… when I’m finally an adult, there might be no one left anymore. Even the factory my dad left for me, I might even lose that too.”
As her story came to an end, the rain got stronger.
However the rain only takes our body temperature away, not washing anything else on us.
I felt the sense of acceptance from Akane’s words. Even though she’s just a kid, no perhaps it’s exactly because she’s still just a kid that she is able to vividly imagine what’s going to happen next. She might’ve even realized already that things won’t be the same anymore. However I could feel her painful emotions coming from her hands that are grasping so tightly that it’s trembling.
No, I don’t want to give up. I want to do something.
But I couldn’t do anything. It’s frustrating.
I could feel such straightforward thoughts coming from her.
As for me,
“Not bad.”
I honestly said what I had in my mind.
“Then I’ll tell you one thing too.”
I stood up, looking at Akane from up above and said.
“I never give a single thought about my future. But, now I’ve decided.”
I forcefully pulled Akane’s arm and make her stand up.
“What’re you doing, that hurts.”
Although Akane resisted, but I’m not so weak that a kid much younger than me, and a woman at that, would be able to shake off my grasp even if she went all out. I pulled her to the inside of the factory just like that before releasing the grasp.
Inside the factory, the air is as damp as ever.
No one is looking at each other, each one of them just ate their own food.
The rain gradually got stronger, covering the entire factory in annoying zaー zaー sound.
I breathed in deeply taking in as much air as I can, then shouted out as loud as possible.
“LISTEN UP!! ALL OF YOU GOOD-FOR-NOTHING BASTARDS!!”
The old men who hadn’t even noticed us when we entered the factory turned to our direction to see what’s going on.
“HOW LONG ARE YOU GUYS GOING TO ACT LIKE A SULKY LOSERS!? ENOUGH OF THIS ALREADY!!”
My voice echoed throughout the entire factory many times, it eventually dissipates away into the air.
Immediately after, one of the old men stood up looking at us, his face really pissed off.
“Don’t fucking get cocky you’re just a shitty kid who knew nothing!!”
I could tell that he’s furious even from a distance. He’s running straight at me. Few of the old men tried to stand up to stop him, but they won’t make it in time.
I calmly saw through the not-adult-like old man’s movement, I grabbed his right wrist that was coming to grab my chest and threw it behind me.
The old men who were watching the scene froze, their eyes staring in shock. The old man who came at me probably had a more stupid face than others.
“Akane, she just wants to make this factory the best in Japan, together with you guys.”
I think there’s need to shout anymore at this point.
“So help her. If you don’t want to then fuck off. If you want to get in the way, then over my dead body.”
This is just a nonsense from a kid who knew nothing but how to fight. And the reason my words reached those old men’s heart was probably because Akane is there with me. Everyone look at her with complex expression on their faces.
And then,
“Everyone! Please!” (Akane)
Akane delivered the final blow.
In the next day, the factory is back to its usual liveliness. I was treated harshly by the old men because I had said some cheeky things yesterday. But it’s not like they’re malicious or anything, rather there’s a warmth in those harshness that’s as if they’re trying to discipline thier own kid, I didn’t mind that.
It’s just that there’s one thing I misunderstand greatly.
The success this time is all because Akane is there with me.
Because in the middle of the bonds in this factory is Akane.
It’s not because what I said at all.
And yet, I misunderstood it.
I got cocky and thought that all of this is thanks to me, and with my power I can do anything.
