Chapter 11 – Food for Thought
As he walked, he reached inside the inner breast pocket on his kimono and checked if he took the signed job contract that the elder gave him.
"Alright, I have it…" he muttered to himself. "Now just calm down, introduce yourself politely and listen to whatever the boss says and you should do just fine…"
He stopped just a meter away from the bookstore and nervously stared at the door for about ten seconds. He didn't know himself what he was so stressed up about, but it was always like that every time he started a new part-time job.
"Okay… Easy money, here I come."
He opened the door and found himself inside a bookstore, larger than it looked from the outside. The shelves in the shop were stacked up with enough books to rival an average library. Behind the counter, he could see the shop's owner – a short, middle-aged man with his long dark hair starting to turn grey. His face was slightly marked with wrinkles and he was a bit plump in figure. He was wearing a white kimono top with yellow bamboo leaf patterns and a dark-brown hakama similar to Kyouichi's. At the moment, he was sitting in a chair and diligently reading one of the books.
"Umm, excuse me…" sounded Kyouichi shyly to get the man's attention.
"Oh, good afternoon~!" greeted the man in a surprisingly cheerful tone. "You've come to buy a book? Just say the title or the author and if it's in this shop, I'll find it right away…"
"Actually, I'm…"
"Oh, I get it, I get it…" continued the man without letting Kyouichi finish the sentence. He talked fast and accompanied it with wild, frantic gesticulation. "You haven't decided yet. That's why I'm here to help you! Just tell me what genre you're looking for. Is it adventure, drama, poetry, thriller, or maybe… some romance? Hm? Or perhaps you're a more practical type of person, right? For someone like you, the Starlight Glyph offers a wide selection of scientific books and journals dealing with history, mathematics, physics, astronomy, occultism, alchemy and many, many more. And if you're a do-it-yourself kind of person, no problem. We boast the best selection of various how-to related pieces of literature in the entire village! Should you ever decide to build your own house, or craft your own armor or brew your own beer, these tomes of wisdom will help you pick up the skills you need. We even have a discount on cookbooks…"
"No, I haven't come to buy anything." said Kyouichi. "I'm here to…"
"Oh, you've just come to browse… Well then, take your time."
"Nooo! Will you PLEASE let me finish?!" he shouted. "I'm here for the part-time job… My name's Ishimaru and I'll be helping you in this shop from now on."
"Huh? So you're my new assistant then?"
"So it seems." nodded Kyouichi and passed him the contract he got from elder Fukukane. "Look, this is the contract…"
The shopkeeper carefully read the contract and then measured Kyouichi up with his eyes.
"I see… Sorry about that sales hype rant of mine. I thought you were a regular customer." he explained. "I didn't expect that someone would take that job offer so soon."
"But here I am…" said Kyouichi while shrugging.
"Well then, allow me to introduce myself. I am Daisuke Shimizu, the owner of this shop. I've been writing, transcribing, translating, selling and sometimes even illustrating books ever since year 96."
"Impressive. What sort of books do you write?" asked Kyouichi.
"Stories mostly. And poetry. But I transcribe and translate just about anything else…"
"And what do you expect me to do as your new part-time employee?"
"Ah, straight to the point…" said the shopkeeper while opening a drawer under his counter. "You'll be basically doing what my usual assistant did - helping with transcriptions, helping with sales and keeping the place clean. It's as simple as that."
"Here." he gave him a piece of paper that looked like a layout of the bookstore with each section divided and marked by a different number. "This will be useful to you at least until you memorize which section contains which books. Shouldn't take you longer than a week, you'll see. It's not that complicated."
Kyouichi briefly glanced at the chart and then asked another question: "What happened to your usual assistant?"
Daisuke's expression suddenly turned to slightly angered and concerned and so did his tone.
"That young one is a fool, let me tell you. He's not a bad assistant; he just… keeps getting into trouble."
"Such as…?"
"Well, the other day one customer came looking for a grimoire that dealt with elemental magic, but since I'm no specialist in magic, I told him that we'd have to preorder the requested book transcription from the Scarlet Devil Mansion. I've trusted the preorder task to my assistant. He was supposed to send a request using the Fairy Post Office, but that idiot thought it would be much faster and cheaper if he went there himself. I told him not to do anything stupid. I didn't really take what he said seriously… He must have thought that he's some hotshot youkai hunter and that nothing can happen to him. The poor kid didn't even make it halfway to the mansion when he saw a youkai and provoked her into battle. He's damn lucky that he made it out only with a broken arm."
"What's that Scarlet Mansion… thing?" wondered Kyouichi.
"You don't know? The Scarlet Devil Mansion is a dangerous place for humans by itself and the road there is none the safer." explained Daisuke, still with his typical gesticulation. "It lies on an island in the middle of the Misty Lake and is a home to vampires."
"Vampires?" asked Kyouichi unbelievingly. "You're dealing with vampires?!"
"Not directly… You see, the mansion's very own library has the largest collection of books in all of Gensokyo. They have many magic-oriented books and grimoires at their disposal, and like us, they also make copies to sell. Sure the vampires are dangerous, but sometimes they can be reasoned with. However, only the bravest and most capable of humans dare to go there personally. My idiot of an assistant aspires to join the Ryuuken, but his self confidence greatly outmatches his skill. Perhaps it was good that he didn't make it to the mansion, because I'm afraid that he'd provoke the vampires into killing him."
"So when this assistant of yours recovers from his injury, you won't need me anymore, right?"
Daisuke paused himself and seriously thought about it. "I… I don' know… After what he did I've seriously considered firing him, but… I just don't know… On one hand he's a great help in the shop, but at the same time, he risks his life on almost daily basis. Maybe now he finally learned some lesson in humility, but as I know him, he's probably already planning revenge against the youkai who broke his arm."
"Well, we'll see after a month or so…" said Kyouichi in hope that Daisuke's assistant recovers until then.
"Yeah… Okay, then, let me give you some work to begin with." said the shopkeeper and gestured to Kyouichi to follow him. He went through a door behind the counter to a smaller room with some large unknown device. It looked like some sort of printer, but Kyouichi had never seen anything like it before. It was all made of metal and it even had wheels so it could be transported. On one side of this device there were switches, buttons and levers that controlled all its functions. It even had a brand name printed above the control panel – Nitori.
"Is that what I think it is?" asked Kyouichi after a while of admiring the strange device.
"What? You're familiar with the kappa technology?"
"So this was made by the kappa, eh?"
"Of course it was made by the kappa." responded Daisuke bluntly. "You keep asking really silly questions."
"It does resemble a printing machine…" muttered Kyouichi thoughtfully, still looking at the intriguing contraption.
"And where in Gensokyo have you seen a printing machine before, young one?"
"Well I don't know about Gensokyo, but back in the outside world, I saw a couple of printers…"
Daisuke's eyes widened with surprise. "Wait… You're an outsider?"
"Well, yeah… Didn't you know?"
"I was wondering when you asked what the Scarlet Devil Mansion is… No, I didn't know that you're from the outside. When someone takes the job offer, the elder just sends a notice with the name of the new employee, but no other details."
"I see. Still, you'll need to explain to me how this printer works."
"Oh, that's quite simple. Look, this here button…" Daisuke led a long monologue, instructing Kyouichi into the basic functions of the kappa printing machine. Despite him saying it was simple, for Kyouichi it was quite confusing. When the shopkeeper finally explained everything, he tasked Kyouichi to make copies of the book that he had already put into a large slot on the printer's front side. Kyouichi mistrustfully looked at the machine's controls for a while and shrugged.
"Here goes…" he pushed the red button which immediately turned green and the machine started making a silenced humming sound. Kyouichi could only wonder what source powered the machine, since the people in Gensokyo haven't even heard of electricity. Apparently, this interesting example of kappa technology was driven by its own inner source; probably a battery or some other form of generator. Once the printer was activated, he loaded it with blank sheets of paper and pulled one of the levers. The machine responded with some weird mechanic clunking sounds and louder humming. After a short while a first copied page of the book came out from another slot and after each 10 seconds another one.
"Cool!" uttered Kyouichi with a smile and admiration. "This thing works all by itself. All I have to do is to keep it supplied with paper and ink. I wonder how it scans those books, before it copies them."
"Just don't get shocked when it breaks down again, young one." said Daisuke as he looked at the machine with even greater distrust than Kyouichi before he turned it on. "It's already an old hunk and I had to have it fixed almost more times than the number of books I've managed to copy with it."
"It seems to be working fine so far..."
"Let's just pray it keeps it up… I'm already fed up with its constant malfunctioning." complained Daisuke and showed Kyouichi to follow him again.
"While the book's being copied, I'll give you another task."
He took a large and heavy looking box from under the counter.
"Here you go…" he suddenly put the box full of books into Kyouichi's hands. "These are the completed transcriptions and copies. Sort these up and put them in the respective sections according to that little chart I gave you."
"Umpf… Whatever you say, Shimizu-san." panted Kyouichi as the heavy box almost slipped out of his grip.
"And try not to damage them, while you're at it." added the boss as he saw Kyouichi almost drop the box.
During his normal life, Kyouichi had experienced many different part-time jobs and the physically exhausting ones were no exception. However, when he figured that he could earn the same wage even with much easier jobs, he stopped taking the hard ones for good. He preferred his life easy and rather than toiling somewhere on the construction site or helping unloading trucks, he chose to do jobs like washing up in a restaurant or mopping the floor in a supermarket or his most recent – sticking the warranty certificates on the boxes of various electronic goods in a warehouse. Taking the easier jobs sure is convenient, but as a result, Kyouichi gradually fell out of shape. He never got fat or anything, but his strength which he was once proud of diminished greatly and his former good stamina was now quite pitiful.
As he was recalling the dim flashbacks from the time he was in top condition, he put the heavy box filled with new books on the counter and opened it. He then took the first book on top and looked at its title – The Evening Rain. It was a short romance novel written by Daisuke Shimizu himself.
"Ok, let's see…" muttered Kyouichi as he looked at the sections chart, trying to figure where to put it. "Section B – 5… fiction/romance…"
He took the book and looked for the respective section. It wasn't a problem to find, since there were signs with the sections' names written on the side of each shelf. Once he found the right section and the right shelf, he quickly raced through the names of other titles so he could put the book among others while maintaining the alphabetical order.
"Alright, I guess I'll put you here then…" whispered Kyouichi while making some room for the book between some other two romance novels.
"That wasn't so hard… Hopefully the other books will be as easily sortable as this one."
He returned to the counter and took another book out of the box. This one was titled – Basics of Herbal Medicine by Eirin Yagokoro.
"This one looks like it belongs to the "Journals and How to" section... Ok, let's take a couple of more books."
Kyouichi took some more books at once, so that he wouldn't have to return to the counter every time. Among the other titles there were: Fusing the Elements, Familiar Summoning and The Power of Gems – all written by the same author, Patchouli Knowledge. Then there were a few copies of the early edition of the Gensokyo Chronicle, and finally, a few printouts of the book he saw in the shop's window – The Legacy of Ryuuken by Makoto Yoshida.
It took him about 15 minutes to find a place in the shelves for all the books in the box, but it wasn't very hard. As he was working, he noticed that a few customers entered the shop and Daisuke immediately welcomed them with his exaggerated cheerful attitude. They said they just wanted to browse, so he left them alone for a while.
Kyouichi then came to report that he was finished with his task and asked the shopkeeper what he should do next.
"I see you're getting the hang of it, young one." said Daisuke in a hushed voice and praisingly tapped Kyouichi on the shoulder. "Go and check how the printer is doing and then come back to me."
"Will do…"
Kyouichi entered the printing room behind the counter and contently nodded as he saw the machine still working without any complications. It was supplied with enough paper and the ink tank gauge showed that there's no need for refill yet.
"The printer's still working fine… so far. What should I do now?"
"Take this duster and clean all the shelves. That should keep you busy for some time."
Daisuke gave him a piece of cloth and told him to clean the shelves properly.
"Well, I guess it's still better than working on a rice field. I certainly wouldn't want to be in Daniel's shoes right now." thought Kyouichi and proceeded to do the thorough cleaning of all the bookshelves in the shop. It was a simple, but very lengthy task. Kyouichi hummed melodies of some of his favorite songs to entertain his mind a bit during the monotonous wiping. As hours slowly passed by, Kyouichi began to feel the first signs of fatigue in his right wrist, shoulders and back. When he was finally done, he saw Daisuke peek out of the printing room and waving at him.
"Congratulations young one! You've just managed to make your first copy and what's more, the printer still works!"
"That's good to hear, Shimizu-san!" responded Kyouichi from the other side of the shop, slowly walking towards the counter.
"Alright then, I've got one last task for you and we can call it a day."
"Really? But its still 3 hours until closing time…" objected Kyouichi, because he wasn't sure if his payment wouldn't be reduced if he ended his shift earlier.
"Don't worry, I used to let my regular assistant go home a bit earlier without deducting from his pay." Daisuke comforted. "You did well for your first day so far. Now I just want you to mop the floor and your today's shift will be over."
Kyouichi exhaled lightly. "So, swab the ship's decks, eh? Aye-aye, Cap'n!" he jestingly blurted out in English with a pirate accent and even saluted before he started with the cleaning.
Daisuke, whose job consisted of translating the books had no difficulties with understanding that. He let out a silent chuckle and returned to what he was doing – binding the copied pages into a hardback cover. Kyouichi was now happy that he managed to get a job that wasn't too difficult and he was permitted to go home a bit earlier than normal. The pay wasn't bad either, but it wasn't going to buy him a new house any time soon. Furthermore, he wasn't even certain if they'll need him at the bookstore once Daisuke's assistant recovers from his fracture.
"Come on… you've always managed to find some job before." he cheered himself up while recalling the situations from the previous years. "Even if they won't need me here anymore, I'm sure to find some other job if I ask around."
Indeed, one of Kyouichi's favorite creeds was: "Where there's will, there's a way." And he strongly believed that it will also apply for his will to return home to Tokyo. However, it was still too early to back up those beliefs with some results. Only time will tell if his dream to return will become true or dissolve as the morning mist over a river. With his mind again focused somewhere else than the present reality, he didn't even notice that he already managed to clean the shop's floor completely.
"Alright, Ishimaru, that was a good start of your new part-time job." Daisuke praised him. "Keep it up and we'll be getting along really well. Oh, and don't tell anyone that I'm paying you full wage even when I'm letting you go home earlier, okay?"
"Understood."
"Good. Well then… I guess I'll see you tomorrow again. Have a nice day."
"You too, Shimizu-san." replied Kyouichi and bowed to his employer. "Goodbye."
As Kyouichi left the Starlight Glyph and slowly walked down the path back to the marketplace, a growling of his stomach reminded him that he only had soup for his lunch and was now quite hungry. The sun was getting lower and Kyouichi didn't have any other goal now than the Saitou residence.