Recently, I've been seeing a certain baldy quite often these days. Sometimes, he would come late on the special sales on Saturdays, sometimes he would miss it out and come on Sundays.

"So your total will come up to... Five thousand yen please." I said, getting ready to print out the receipt.

"What? How is it five thousand? Aren't the beef tendons sold at a discounted price today?" the baldy complained, holding up a paper ad of our supermarket.

"Uh. Nope. That thing's outdated. It says over here that the offer expires on the 25th of September. Today is the 26th." I broke it to him.

"What? You're kidding me right?" he muttered, dropping his shoulders.

"Saitama sensei, what's the matter?" a young man appeared from behind the baldy.

I recognized him. He was that guy who became an S rank hero upon entrance, the cyborg prince, Genos.

"Sir, is it fine if we buy these at yesterday's price? It is a matter of life and death for my sensei." Genos asked me.

Come to think about it, my sister had been fangirling this past month about this Genos person.

Genos-kun, my cyborg prince. I love you so much. Your cold demeanor, I am sure, hides a warm heart. Come to think about it, once again, I couldn't pass a single day without hearing these sentences uttered at least once per meal time.

"Uh, you're Genos-san, right?" I asked to confirm.

"Yes." he answered in a voice that made it hard to believe that his whole body was mechanical.

"Please use this pen to sign over here and I'll give you the deal."

The cyborg agreed and took my pen, signing the sheet. While he did that, I took a selfie of myself with him for proof.

And then, as promised, I cut the price to its previous state yesterday and they bought their items for four thousand yen.

"Thanks a lot! I owe you one!" the baldy smiled and walked away with Genos.

Come to think about it, Genos was calling him "sensei". Eventually, I shrugged off the thought and took my leave an hour later. After all, I couldn't stay working for too long, since I'm still just a part-timer and a full-time university student at Z city.

#

I came back around 6 o'clock and announced the news to my sister.

"What?! You got Genos-sama's autograph?" her voice echoed through the walls when I told her about the news.

"Uh. Yeah. Here it is. No lies, the guy came to our supermarket and bought some products, so I asked for an autograph along the way." I declared.

It was her birthday, and I was pretty short on money, not to mention that the landlady was about to kick me out. As such, Genos' appearance at the supermarket was rather timely.

"HITOYOSHI, WHEN ARE YOU GONNA PAY THE RENT?!"

Speak of the devil… She knocked on the door. She was there, the terrible, most annoying landlady one could ever have.

"DON'T COME UP TO MY APARTMENT EVERY SINGLE DAY DAMN IT. I AM GETTING PAID BY THE END OF THIS MONTH! PATIENCE, OLD HAG."

"THIS APARTMENT SOON WON'T BE YOURS ANYMORE IF I DON'T GET THE FIVE MONTHS-WORTH OF RENT MONEY!"

Once she walked away, my sister and I had supper.

"Say, say, where is the autograph?" she asked, eager to see it.

I took it out as if whipping out a ten thousand yen bill and brandished my cellphone to show her a picture as proof.
"Here it is. So now here's your birthday gift."

Her eyes sparkled. "W-when am I eligible to apply for a job at your store?"

Ah, I see, I thought, so she wanted a chance to meet Genos.

"In two years." I answered, handing the signed sheet to my sister who obsessively sniffed at the paper.

Sometimes, she creeps me out.

#

It was a Saturday, just like any other.

Well. Maybe not.

"HAHAHAHA, FEAR ME! I AM NOW GOING TO RAZE THIS ENTIRE CITY IN ONE BLOW! I AM HAMMER HEAD MK-II!" a bald villain suddenly burst out of nowhere.

He was no monster. Rather, it was an armoured human equipped with heavy machinery.

I looked out of the shop and saw the guy taking care of some random C-ranked hero on bicycle.

If I had to evaluate the danger for the hero agency, I'd say it would be rather low. Like, a Tiger-level threat.

And so, I did what would be the most logical thing to do: close the automatic doors and stay low.

Eventually, the guy broke into supermarket.

"I AM THIRSTY! SOMEBODY BRING ME A DRINK OR I WILL DESTROY THIS SUPERMARKET!" he yelled.

I looked around.

Damn it, my manager had already made the run for it. My colleagues all had better hiding places than mine.

It was early in the morning, so there weren't many customers. As such, there was only I who could bring the drink, knowing the location of the beverages.

Lead by my instincts, I rose up and told the man that I'd go fetch a drink.

He nodded and stared at me from afar.
And so, I brought him the new algae and strawberry beverage (the most expensive one, of course).

"So, this comes up to a total of… Five hundred yen." I calculated the money he owed to the supermarket.

"What? That's damned expensive! Don't you have cheaper ones?!" he complained, taking out a purse (I believe that was a purse).

"Eh. I do, but this one is a new product, so I think it would be worth trying. They are normally seven hundred yen each."

"Ugh. Fine. I have a one thousand yen bill. Do you have change for it?" he asked.

"Yup. Certainly." I answered.

And then he frowned.

"Wait, what am doing?" he threw his purse away upon realization, "I AM HAMMER HEAD MK-II, I WILL CREATE A SOCIETY IN WHICH THE ONES WHO WANT TO WORK WILL WORK AND THE ONES WHO DON'T CAN STOP WORKING!"

Suddenly, he flinched and crashed to the ground.

Behind him was a caped baldy whose average looks were even more average than the hero suit he wore.

"Yeah, ok. This fulfills my weekly quota of villains." he said, pulling the Hammerhead guy away.

"Wait!" I said, stopping the baldy.

He turned around. "Huh?"

I handed him the newly received beverage.

"Here it is as a thanks for saving the shop." I said.

He looked at it for a moment and glanced at me. "How much will it be?"

I frowned. Since this man saved the shop and prevented the damage that would cost us dearly…

"It's on the house. Giving it to you for free. It's also said to be able to make hair grow back." I answered.
"Really?!" he widened his eyes at the "hair" part.

"Uh, yeah." I answered.

"I'll buy nine of these. Do you have change for fifty thousand yen?" he asked.

"I'll give you a discount of 20% then, Mr. Hero. And yes, I always have change at the front cash."

That pretty much summarized the day.

Words circulated that I, a simple cashier, along with a caped baldy, stopped a villain which was about to destroy the whole supermarket. As a result, the manager gave me a pay raise and handed me half of my monthly salary in advance plus an extra bonus.

Now that I think about it, I thought, didn't that caped baldy look similar to the baldy who came by sometimes on Saturdays?

"Yeah. Maybe I should start sleeping a bit more than just four hours a night." I told myself.

#

Around the time I came back home, the landlady stood there waiting.

"OH, THERE YOU ARE, HITOYOSHI! I AM HERE TO WARN YOU THAT IF YOU DON'T PAY-" she began yelling.

She shut up at the sight of the twenty bills I took out of my pocket.
I handed them to her and walked past her.
"There is six months' worth rent money. Don't come bugging me every day from now on, old hag." I said, stepping back into the building.