17. Taking Stock In The Dead Of Night
To be honest, when I set out to achieve my dream, I didn’t expect to find my footing with such ease.
But running into my new friends, Haruki, Mayumi and later Hotaru and Chie was the best thing that could’ve happened to me. Gave me a leg up. They're great.
I got a good routine, and with it, I’m going to become A-rank and secure that restricted hunter’s gear, I can feel it.
I’ve been at it for a month now, ever since that first patrol with Haruki.
So my little regiment goes as follows, regular voice and sword training first, then most nights when the girls are busy—which is like constantly—I visit one of Mrs. Fujita’s acquaintances from her sheer endless well of acquaintances and friends, and friends of friends, and neighbors of friends.
There's so many of these stick-bug demons out there, it’s actually concerning.
One time it wasn’t a sick-bug tho, it was this super creepy tea kettle with eyes and spider legs. Easily dispensed with regardless—did it without making a mess, which got me lots of praise—but not what I had anticipated.
It was also when I learned that demons are former Yōkai that followed the whispers of the Demon Lord who gave them a gemstone heart and a hunger.
Why did nobody tell me before!? Yes I know common knowledge here, but come on, I'm new!
It was never mentioned in the light novel either, or maybe it was only later, or my memory is even worse than I thought.
The annoying thing is that the Demon Lord isn’t even a physical entity that can be fought or destroyed, he's just some formless force. Like even the S-class demons who are also these vague entities can be killed. It’s totally unfair that the same isn’t true for the Demon Lord.
Anyway.
My stick-bug and hostile tea kettle grinding may not be prestigious or nets any worthwhile income, but I always receive bags of food for my service. It's come so far that I stopped buying dinner all together. These old people in their gratitude are showering me with their home cooked delights.
I get so much I even shared some with Hikari at work, which had her all concerned again that I’m not eating enough, so I had to reassure her that the opposite is the case.
Hikari is the best!
One time in the past weeks I got a bit too comfortable because of my, at this point, chronic sleep deprivation, and told her all about Ammonoids and how awesome they are and how they developed so many different shell shapes and that despite their similar appearance Nautili are actually a different species, but also super cool. To my bafflement she didn’t call me a nerd or got super bored. Instead the next day she surprised me with a totally cute Nautilus plushie as a little gift and today with a little fossilized Ammonoid shell charm.
˙*☆ She is the best, I like her a lot! ☆*˙
She has me looking forward to work, which sounds super crazy, but that’s when I get to see her. Not every shift, but most of them.
It’s nice.
(.◜ᴗ◝.)
That I do all my nightly activities while crossdressed is getting overwhelming tho, because I never planed on interacting with people while I do it! But I ended up with this old people demon scouting network, so I have to talk to people and keep up the appearance that I’m a girl! And with every meal I get handed by another lovely elderly couple, happy that their miko helped them out, it gets harder and harder for me to ever tell them that I’m really a guy. There are so many people who know me as a girl now! And I keep digging myself deeper! I’m basically stuck at this point.
And its so freaking terrifying.
And stressful.
And terrifying.
Did I mention how terrifying it is!?
What if they notice?
My voice is far from perfect. It’s kinda deep and stuff—pitch is so hard!
And my body? I know the shrine maiden outfit hides it well enough, but still!!!
What if they can tell that I’m wearing a wig?
Or what if pretty boy’s genes decide it’s finally time for a beard tomorrow!?
Okay, the last one is not going to happen, the pills I’m taking make me feel good and Hotaru said they prevent that sort of stuff going forward. Also I’m pretty sure I smell better thanks to them. I’ve been taking them for a few weeks now. Seven? Eight? Something like that.
But regardless the whole girl-training complex is getting out of hand. I might be over doing it.
Maybe I should rethink it, or cut back on it?
My teammates aren't helping, more the opposite. They continue to do their weird thing, which makes it more overwhelming. They declared me… I don’t know… some kind of honorary girl, because of the things I said. It’s nice, I guess, that they treat me like that, and it has me thinking I’m going to ace being a girl once I get to be one, but it comes with some hefty side effects.
Like after the latest sparring session with Haruki, where she did the honorary girl thing again. When I undressed to shower afterwards, I caught my reflection in the mirror and it made feel all distant and I couldn’t stop crying. So that’s not good.
I might have to tell them to stop treating me like that even if I like it.
Probably the way to go.
And maybe stop it with the crossdressing.
Yeah I should do that.
I can wear girl clothes later, when I’m a girl.
The second part of my routine is sparing with Haruki on my days off and that totally helps. She taught me how speed isn’t the key to evasion. Even a slow fighter can dodge every blow directed at them if they pay enough attention to their opponent. It’s about reading and anticipating your opponent’s movements. Awareness of yourself, your surroundings and your enemy is paramount. You have to keep track of how they attack, what their tells are, and what, if any, kind of wind-up exists before they strike.
I have much to learn.
During our sparring, Haruki inquired about my dancing skills, and I told her that I took lessons when I was very young, but stopped as I got older. As a boy they don’t let you do the girl parts or those dances reserved for girls when you’re no longer little, so I didn’t care for it anymore. I haven’t actually danced for quite a while.
For our training we usually meet at the tennis court right behind her apartment block. It’s shaded and secluded, a row of trees surrounds it on three sides and the remaining one has the high residential building towering above.
It's a good place.
Afterwards we like to sit on the benches to talk a bit and recuperate.
It’s where I noticed last time, that I smelled differently and a lot less, because I’m usually drenched in sweat and totally exhausted after a sparing session. I don’t own any work-out clothes—should probably invest in some tho.
Currently I train in the skirt and top I bought with Hotaru, which is far from ideal, but if I keep fighting in a skirt I should also do my training in a skirt. It’s only logical.
My conversations with Haruki showed me that she's as determined as I am in becoming a full time demon-hunter. She says she wants to do her part. I admire her, she seems so strong and not only physically.
I also asked her about Mayumi, but Mayumi and hunting appears to be some kind of sore spot at the moment.
I didn’t see Chie the past weeks, sadly. She was swamped at work, something about a minor update causing a cascade of errors.
We write sometimes tho and she let me know that bringing in all those low class critters isn’t really helping with my numbers but with the two C-class hearts linked to my license, it’s at least enough to put me at the threshold. So what remains for a rank-up is a demonstration that I can take down a D-class demon all on my own—no other hunter signatures allowed in the vicinity when I kill it.
That’s rather daunting.
（／_＼）
D-class means actual danger, not just bites, cuts and bruises but the possibility of serious injuries or month long hospital stays if I fuck up.
So I think I want to go on more hunts with the girls before taking that plunge. Though Hotaru said she could help out, camp not too far away with her motor scooter and swoop in and rescue me if the D-class is too much or something goes wrong. She said as our resident healer she’d never let me end up in the hospital.
The others already did their solo D-class kill.
Okay, not Hotaru, the Guild automatically put her in C-rank because she’s a proven spellcaster, they won’t rank you any lower if you are.
But the rest of the girls did, so I'm going to succeed too and then it’s bye bye newbie, and hello real demon-hunter!
But all that has to wait. For the next week I have to do night shift. So no minor demon clean up for the elderly, or hunting with the gang, or much training.
It’s my price for the “family emergency” that had me leave early when Haruki and Mayumi got captured by that fear demon.
So for tonight it’s just me and Mr. Le the night shift super and he has the enthusiasm and general demeanor of a dry-wall.
There was no pep talk, no phrases to repeat, no company motto.
Dripping over with listless boredom, his eyes half draped, all he said was, “You take the till” and that was it.
So here I am with hours to kill while I watch Mr. Le clean the aisles so slowly he looks as if he’s sleep walking.
A konbini at night has its own strange liminal rhythm. In the beginning there are lone stragglers and then people buying alcohol and then it drifts into an unbound void. The passage of time becomes unmoored, unless you check a display.
An hour, a minute, a couple of seconds, everything becomes the same.
Nothing seems real. Even the customers meld into one another. You see someone with a red shirt at the counter you’d swear was wearing a white one when they entered. You see salarymen whose skin looks rubbery and kinda off, who smile in a way that’s simply not right. You begin thinking you’re dreaming.
Thinking that the past months where only an odd dream and you’re still someone else, tall and shabby and rotting away in a one room apartment, a different one room apartment than your current one, in a different world, one without demons or a [※MAGICAL SEX-CHANGE DEVICE 3000※].
Isn’t it super weird to be reincarnated into a fictional world?
Doesn’t it sound like the ravings of a mad person?
A customer approaches me and I mumble my phrase.
I usually say it with the mandatory enthusiasm, but it’s somewhere past midnight and I’m not myself currently—not really.
“They're wasting your good looks.”
I blink and actually take in who is standing before me, broad build, taller than me, a round familiar face with a juvenile smirk; Yukio!
“Sorry… I totally dosed off… I think.”
“Yeah, no shit, konbini boy. Are you joining us night owls? Doesn’t seem to suit you.”
“Only for the week. And I do hunt at night.”
“Yeah, but it’s past your regular bedtime, isn’t it?”
I groan, “It is.”
I'm about to scan the two cans and the cup ramen he put down as he waves his hands over them as to signal ‘not yet’.
“So did you score? Saw you getting picked up by that hot goth chick.”
Is he talking about Mayumi?
“Oh, that. Wasn’t a date. Mayumi and I are friends. We hunt together.”
And she drags me as a honorary girl to lesbian bars run by demons. Totally normal being friends with a girl stuff.
“Casually friends with hot chicks? Yeah, no, sure, that tracks. Fucking hell you know how to make a guy feel inferior Katsumi. Care to share your secrets, how do you get hot chicks to be your friend?”
Crossdress, get embarrassed and tell them how you wished you were a girl.
“I don’t know… be yourself?”
He snorts a loud chuckle, “Got that from your last fortune telling? Didn’t know you were that corny konbini boy.”
I eye him over. Wait, he totally doesn’t know how to talk to girls.
“I mean it. Don’t be an ass and talk to them all normal and stuff. And don’t talk like you only want to get into their pants. Girls can totally tell if you do.”
“But I want to get in their pants. What else is there?” A big smirk is plastered across his face.
(¬`‸´¬)
“Do you want friends or a sex doll?” I snap. I’m too tired for this shit.
“Chill dude, what’s your problem?”
That you are just like any other guy?
And I let myself get deluded into thinking that you were better, because you weren’t like Shiro or the boys from my high school, but I guess that was my mistake.
I start scanning his shit.
He holds himself as if he’s unsure what to do, as if he somehow misplaced his own body.
Welcome to the club, that’s how I always feel.
I try to hand him his bag.
“It’s not that serious man,” he argues instead of taking it.
“You asked me. If you want a girlfriend you need to become actual friends with a girl, you know? And you don’t do that by saying shit like that. Don’t be a creep and just talk to them normally. I don’t know, talk to them like you did with me.”
“Hu?”
“Yeah, you know girls usually want to have an actual conversation. I mean you can flirt but there has to be a conversation too.”
His eyes go wide as if he suddenly realized something.
“Dude, how many girlfriends did you have?”
None, I just listened.
“None of your business.”
“Fuck, you were the prince of your high school. The boy all the girls flocked to. That makes total sense. Don’t be all modest and shit. No wonder you know so much about girls.”
He finally takes his bag.
I see his gears turning, “So just talk to them?”
“Yeah, a normal conversation. Talk about something you like.”
“I should talk about old motorcycles?”
“You told me about it?”
“But you’re a guy.”
“And? Just make it interesting and show real interest in the things they like in return, okay?”
“Got it.”
He does an absent minded nod and saunters off.
It's like teaching basic interaction to cavemen out here.
I need to become a girl asap and stop engaging with men all together, before I go insane.
But first I need a bed.
Mr. Le gives me a glance while he mutters something under his breath in his mother tongue that I can't understand.
Yeah, whatever you say old man.
Five more nights and then I'm free off this shit.
A ping in the group chat.
A lead.
Finally.
Five nights, I'll make it.