Slacker

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"Why don't you stay for a drink, and we can talk it over?"

"Nah, I've got work to do. Harrier work."

A wall appeared, locking him in. "That wasn't exactly a suggestion."

Koki Kariya knew at a glance that if he wanted to, he could break through that wall. …Too much effort. He sighed. "Aight, whatever you say."

&&&

"Where were you?" Uzuki asked as Koki arrived on the roof of 104 and sat down next to her.

"Just a little business I had to take care of. Did I miss all the fun?"

"Yeah, some little squirt cleared the mission in a half-hour. I barely got a chance to take down anyone."

"But you did get someone?" Koki guessed. Uzuki was the only person he knew who smirked with her whole body.

"Two someones. That decora pair we spotted yesterday."

"Pff. Those two? Anyone could have taken them down." Only luck had saved them yesterday, when the mission had been cleared right before he'd been about to erase them.

"So what? I'm still the one who did it, so guess who's buying the ramen tonight!" Uzuki sang.

Koki sighed. "Do I have to?"

"Of course you do! That's what you get for ditching on work days."

He didn't bother to correct her misconception.

&&&

He'd never been in the officers' lounge before. It struck him as some sort of idealized bachelor pad, albeit one belonging to a rather eccentric bachelor. The in-floor aquarium was all kinds of bizarre. But at least the fish gave him something to watch as the officers droned on about the statistics from the previous Game. He tuned them out until Mitsuki Konishi called his name.

"…Koki Kariya."

"Mmhmm?" He looked up, but didn't bother straightening his posture.

"You are hereby promoted to officer."

He hid a grimace and said, "What, don't I get a choice?"

"A choice?" Konishi fixed her unimpressed, ice-blue eyes on him. "As the most promising Harrier, of course you are our natural decision for promotion—"

"I don't want to be promoted."

"You don't?" Of course, the idea was foreign to her. She'd put herself on a fast-track to promotion the day she became a Reaper, blowing past others or beating them down as necessary.

"Nope." He rose to his feet. "Can I go?"

"Wait." Megumi Kitaniji, leaning on the foosball table, interrupted him. "You would prefer to waste your talents as a Harrier?"

"You got it," Koki smirked, not pausing as he headed for the door.

Konishi got in front of him, sneering. "When your Conductor tells you to wait, you wait," she said coolly. "Sit back down."

Koki didn't reply, only held up his middle finger for her to look at as he brushed past.

"How dare you…!" she gasped, grabbing his arm. "I will not stand for such disresp—"

"That's enough," Kitaniji interrupted. Both Reapers turned to look at him. "This meeting is adjourned. You may all go."

The rest of the officers couldn't get out fast enough, but Konishi stayed, eying Koki with dislike.

"Konishi, you are dismissed," Kitaniji said in a way that indicated that it was an order. With a scornful sniff, Konishi stalked out. Koki saluted Kitaniji, not altogether sincerely, and went to follow her out, but—

"Kariya. Why don't you stay for a drink, and we can talk it over?"

&&&

"Hey, did you hear?"

Uzuki had ordered the most expensive ramen on the menu, something she only did when Koki was paying. At least she looked happy with it, slurping away and talking between bites.

"Some Player erased Officer Hoshimoto during the last Game."

"Ahh." No, he hadn't heard. They'd probably mentioned it at the meeting, but he must've been admiring the fish at the time. Still… "So that explains it."

"Huh? Explains what?"

"Nothing. Don't worry about it. Someone erased Hoshimoto, huh?"

"Yeah, and you know what that means—one lucky Reaper's getting a promotion this week!" Uzuki's eyes sparkled greedily.

Koki chuckled. "You'd better work extra hard to catch the higher-ups' eye, then."

&&&

"If you need someone to promote…"

"Do you have a suggestion?"

"Uzuki Yashiro might be your man. …Er, woman."

But Kitaniji's face was blank, puzzled. "Yashiro…?"

"Female Harrier? Bright pink hair? Purple lipstick you can see a mile away?"

Kitaniji cocked his head. "Are you referring to the Reaper you frequently work with?"

"That's her."

"Ah. Well… I'd have to ask the Composer."

Koki knew that meant Uzuki's chances were slim.

&&&

"Hey, but what about you?"

"Me?" Koki asked with ramen halfway to his mouth. "What about me?"

"Aren't you due for a promotion soon? I mean, you've been around longer than I have, and you're at least as good as me." She giggled.

"Me? An officer?" He responded as if it was a new idea. "Huh, I wonder what that'd be like. You think I'd make a good one?"

"Only if you got off your lazy butt once in a while."

"Oh, zing." Koki rolled his eyes. "Sounds like way too much work to me."

Uzuki pointed her chopsticks at him. "See! That attitude is exactly why you haven't been promoted yet!"

Wrong, Koki thought.

&&&

"What do you want?" Kitaniji asked, indicating the rather lavish bar.

"Just a beer's fine."

Kitaniji snorted.

"What?" Koki asked. "It's not like I'm here on a willing social call."

"Then leave." He waved to the door behind him as he readied a martini for himself. "That wall can't stop someone of your caliber, and you know it."

Koki shrugged, grabbed himself a bottle, and sat.

In a moment, Kitaniji sat down beside him. "You know, the recommendation to promote you came from the Composer Himself."

"Is he going to be terribly offended now?" Koki asked sardonically.

Kitaniji smirked over his glass. "If I say yes, will you accept the promotion?"

"Doubtful."

"He's a hard man to offend."

Koki chuckled. "A good quality in a leader."

Kitaniji nodded gravely. Then he asked, "Why don't you want to be promoted?"

"Too much work," Koki shrugged. "What can I say? I'm a lazy bastard."

"I find that hard to believe."

There was a superior certainty in Kitaniji's voice that made Koki wary. "What do you mean?"

"It may not be physical work, but your efforts to fly under the radar surely take quite a bit of scheming… isn't that right?"

Koki didn't respond.

"The Composer made His recommendation a month ago. Since then, we've been monitoring your performance closely. You're willing to exert effort in Player erasure, but you do the minimum required to preserve your own life, and you'd rather goad others into erasing Players than appear to take any serious effort yourself."

…It was true. Most of Koki's time was spent carefully being exactly average, neither lazy enough to be reprimanded nor good enough to stand out. He worked hard—there was no other way to describe it, really—not to catch attention. Clearly that had failed.

"I like the field," he said at last. "I like working where you can feel the city around you."

"Hmm." Kitaniji seemed to consider Koki's answer. "Admirable. For all the good it will do, let me extend my opinion that we could use more officers like you."

"Sorry to disappoint." Though he wasn't really.

Kitaniji shrugged. "The wall's down. You may leave when you wish."

At once, Koki hopped off the stool, taking his beer with him. Maybe he'd still have time to pick off a Player or two before the day's end. But then he paused. "If you need someone to promote…"

&&&

"Kariya?"

"Mmhmm?"

They were back on the roof of 104 to watch the sunset. As colors faded from the sky, they were replaced by vibrant neon lights on buildings and billboards. Shibuya was never dark.

"I worry about you sometimes, you know that?" Uzuki said seriously.

"What?" Koki raised an eyebrow at his friend. "What's there to worry about?"

"I really think you hold yourself back. You should stop slacking off so much."

Koki chuckled. "Oh, that. Well, I'm not too worried about that."

"You should be!" Uzuki insisted. "You'll never advance if you don't make some sort of effort. Do you want to be stuck as a Harrier forever?!"

Again, he laughed. "Ahh, maybe you're right."

He could think of nothing more ideal.