Chapter 31 — Work / Play

"If you could sign and date here, please. And here."

Yomotsu's hand went where Craig let it. His ability to write out his new name in English letters had improved steadily, although when he printed "Hiro of Rai Chestnuts," to others it might have looked like a child's writing. There were big spaces between the bigger letters.

"Pardon me, but what is today's date?"

Yomotsu had his pain on the spot and waited.

"Uhh… It's the 28th."

April 28th. "Ah, thank you!" Yomotsu finished writing the date and then placed the pen back on the counter. He heard Rocco, who was right behind him, make small talk while he picked up the pen and signed.

Yomotsu sat down in the front row, between Mercy, who was already there, and Yuri, who had yet to walk in the room.

"Hey, how are holding up?"

He felt his butt begin to warm the cold, metal seat. Yomotsu folded his hands over his lap and closed his eyes. In his mind, he surveyed the room: a line of employees coming in from the right, going up to Craig and signing in, all in Yum Yums green polos. His arm was next to Mercy's, and he could feel the warmth.

"Feeling better already," Yomotsu said, smiling. "Although, I do wonder how long this will continue going back and forth."

She was also smiling, in his mind, and had her blue eyes were carefully examining the emotions on his face. She was leaning toward him, with her chin resting in her palm and her blue-painted fingernails on her cheek.

"It's been close to three weeks, right?"

"Something like that."

"But you don't even have the same symptoms."

"That might be the most peculiar aspect of all this."

"You have a runny nose and sneeze all the time, and he just has headaches and a sore throat."

"Thankfully I have not had to deal with sensitivity to sound like he has… That would be rather detrimental."

"Yeah. Oh, Yuri is coming. QUICKLY SHHHHHHH STOP TALKING ABOUT HIM HERE HE COMES"

Yuri brushed past Yomotsu and paused in front of his seat. "Ha. Ha." He took his place to Yomotsu's left. "I hardly imagine that a conversation between you two could ever be about a topic that interesting."

Yuri no longer sounded like a creature from a lagoon. Just a few days ago, his voice had a guttural quality, a certain coarse quality. While he sounded like that, he also talked about hardly anything but his brutal headaches. He would always mutter about how he hated life and spent most of his time in the basement, lying in his bed.

Aware of a wet coldness trailing down from his nose, Yomotsu reached for the handkerchief in his pocket. He pulled it out and dabbed above his lip. He took in a deep breath, sucking in all of the goodness, and exhaled from his lips.

"Is that seat taken?"

Yomotsu turned his head toward the voice, but Mercy answered back. "No, no—go on ahead!"

Meilag squeezed past the three of them and established himself next to Yuri. Yomotsu adjusted the picture in his mind, making room for the ghoulish man with the greasy black hair. He pictured Meilag having his arms crossed over his chest like the Count rising from the crypt. His head was down, while his eyes glaring forward.

"Well… I think that's everyone who matters—everyone who is going to be here, I mean. Ha, ha, ha. Anyway. I'm Craig."

The crowd was silent. Everyone met Craig in their first week of employment, and most of the people in the room had been working at Yum Yums for more than a year.

"I'd like to thank everyone for coming to today's meeting. It's pretty short notice, and I'm guessing you're all curious why I've called you out from your busy schedules. Well, because I can! Ha, ha, ha."

Rocco whispered something to Meilag, and Meilag hissed.

"Well, it's come to the attention of our management staff that lately there's been a lot of unfortunate… Absences from the company lately. You're all aware, I'm sure, of the benefit we're having for Ray's family. And just this week, Vanessa in our bakery department became aware of her past life and has decided to go back to India… And at this time, it is safe to announce that Luke has been terminated from the company. We have been unable to make any contact with him since the 1st of this month, and we can't keep anyone in the company who appears to have just dropped off the face of the earth, especially someone who was on his way of becoming a FEMALE."

There were some audible gasps—of course, everyone had heard about Vanessa and had already presumed that Luke would not come back, but this news about Luke becoming a revolutionary was a downright revelation. A FEMALE—a Front End Manager and Lane Expert—was the highest non-management position at Yum Yums. There were rumors about what Craig might have had in mind with Light, but this was extraordinary.

"Our current FEMALE, Quincy, is retiring at the end of May. Originally we were going to train Luke for the position, but as he cannot be accounted for, we have had to make the difficult choice of deciding who will be the store's next FEMALE. In addition, someone will have to step up and replace Light's role as a front end supervisor."

The FEMALE was ultimately the boss of the front end supervisors: Light, Mercy, Imani, and Marcus.

"I am going to announce now who is the new FEMALE and who is the new supervisor, since we have met with the candidates and they have both accepted the promotion." Craig cleared his throat. "It gives me great goosepimples to announce that Hiro of Rai Chestnuts will be stepping into the position of a front end supervisor to replace Luke… And Rocco will be joining him as a supervisor, replacing Mercy—who is our store's new FEMALE."

There was a round of congratulations for the three. "I am confident that Hiro and Rocco will be perfect for their roles and will be shining stars needed to guide Yum Yums into the future of customer service."

Craig chuckled.

"It might be a bit before your time, but have any of you heard the song by… I think it was Earth, Wind, and Fire… You know, 'You're a shining star, no matter who you are / Shining bright to be, all that you can be'? Something like that?"

Everyone assumed it was a rhetorical question, but after a long enough silence, Imani cleared her throat and said, "It is something like that, yes."

"Well, not that it matters—but that is kind of what I think of you guys. Especially you, Hiro… You're like a son to me, almost. I never did get to have kids."

Yomotsu shuffled in his seat. He quickly inhaled through his nose, before more snot could drip out.

"Are you crying, over there? I hear you sniffling—now, now, be a man! Be the man I would've raised you to be, if you were truly my son!"

Yomotsu blew his nose into the handkerchief and nodded.

The rest of the meeting focused on changes in certain store policies and general safety concerns that had been brought up within each department. Yomotsu patiently sat through the meeting and did his best to listen, but he had trouble keeping his thoughts focused.

There was still no sign of Light from their vantage point, either. Kira enthusiasts were divided. Some were saying that Kira was waiting for an opportune moment to return and bring justice to the world, and others admitted that he might be currently unable to do his work. Few dared to seriously propose that he was locked up somewhere, but the possibility of him being captured had to be on all of their minds. A few pro-Kira communities were starting to proclaim that they had contact with Kira, but Yuri's investigating indicated that they were all hoaxes. Some were coming forward as actually being Kira, but of course, none of them were.

Because Kira had still not resurfaced, criminals were once again acting boldly. By some estimations, the forces of evil were acting out more drastically than even before Kira. Graceville was in danger on two fronts: outside NEXTs and assassins with resources were coming to Graceville to try to eliminate the 12th and Lunatic, and criminals latent within the town were roused into foul activity.

The 12th and Lunatic have had to appear more often, and not just at night. Now evildoers were striking at day, and hardly a week went by without an attempted bank robbery or act of local terrorism. So far, there had been no severe losses, but the two heroes had to deal with the guilt of 9 deaths this month. While they were not the ones putting the public in danger, every injury or casualty reflected on their ability to protect Graceville.

Mercy wanted to keep joining them from the sidelines, but she understood their insistence that she stay. She agreed to stay away, if only perhaps because she knew that if she was captured, she could be used against her friends as a hostage. While Mercy watched everything anxiously on JusTV, Anemone had begun to frequently appear and aid the heroes.

The same woman who Mercy met on an Internet forum, who helped defeat Little Caesar, was mysteriously allying herself with the 12th and Lunatic. She would always run off before they could ask her anything, so she remained an almost complete mystery. With each appearance, she always wore her familiar costume: a full-body blue vinyl outfit, green boots and gloves, a green cape, and a sparkling red ballroom mask.

Light's appearance and Anemone's disappearance occupied Yomotsu's mind during the meeting—and he could hardly think of those two realities without feeling sad about Olivia being gone. She was now the god of space and time, and that meant she was not part of the human world any longer. She was also apparently too busy to visit them in a dream or vision, but they presumed that transitioning into godhood was not a simple task.

The most aggravating consequence of Olivia's departure from the mortal realm was not only that her house became vacant, but that it was already being filled. Just the other day, Yuri noticed that someone was already moving into Olivia's residence. Strangely enough, none of them were aware that Olivia's old stuff had even been moved out yet.

When they went to go greet their new neighbor, they were left speechless—at Olivia's door was Anemone, in full costume. They still greeted her as Yomotsu and Yuri, remarking only casually how they liked her outfit, but when they got home they immediately called Mercy.

That is why they were surprised that Anemone had not suddenly appeared at Yum Yums, but the recent hires consisted only of teenage boys and Katherine, a much older woman coming back from retirement. Work remained the only area of their lives where Anemone could not be found, because even when the three hung out, Yuri or Mercy would occasionally mention seeing something bright green or blue within a crowd or within the bushes.

Yum Yums must have had an anti-Anemone force field, Yomotsu was now speculating. With these recent turn of events, work was starting to become a welcomed break from the unease that came with their real job of fighting crime. When the meeting ended, Yomotsu left the weight of his thoughts in the room, even if just for a moment.

Yomotsu and Mercy were scheduled only for the meeting, so as soon as they were in the parking lot, he gave her an excited hi-five and a quick kiss.

"THIS IS STUPENDOUS," Yomotsu exclaimed, grinning.

"A TRULY WONDERFUL TURN OF EVENTS!" Mercy was jumping up and down, her hands on his shoulders.

"We should celebrate—Hot chocolate for me and coffee for you, on the house!"

"Sounds divine, although I don't know if I need the caffeine. I think I have enough energy in me as it is—after all, I am now your FEMALE."

"I suppose this means you are my boss, yes…"

"I will exploit this—as your boss, I can give you whatever order I want! For example… I order you to give me a ride on your Righteous Tsunami!"

"B-but, what if I should refuse?"

"I will fire you. I will use my FEMALE fire-power to terminate your butt out of my store."

"But we're in the parking lot and not clocked in!"

"I never said I wouldn't abuse my powers."

"Ah, you are cruel, Mercy!"

Yomotsu, pretending to be angry, hopped onto the motorcycle and fired it up, shooting a stern look Mercy's way. "But now the coffee isn't on the house."

"Oh?" Mercy joined Yomotsu on the motorcycle, sitting down behind him.

"Now it's going to cost you a high price!"

"What's that?" She wrapped her arms around his waist and nestled her head against the back of his neck.

"It's going to cost you a game of Scrabble!"

Mercy chuckled. "That sounds more like punishment for you, because I hardly think you would enjoy losing to your boss and your girlfriend at the same time…"

The motorcycle took off toward the street. "How mistaken you are, my lady! You see, my righteousness always wins—!"

"… I lost!"

Yomotsu threw his hands up in the air and stepped away from the stand.

"He's so dramatic when he loses, sometimes," Mercy said with subtle candor.

Yomotsu's hands were digging into his scalp, as he clasped his head and announced, "But in this brief defeat, a greater victory awaits—the way of justice is patient and eventually triumphant!"

He forked out more money from his pocket and shoved it on the counter. The man behind the stand pushed it off the edge of the counter and into his open hand, with a smile. "That's the spirit," he said, handing Yomotsu another three foam balls.

Today Yomotsu wore a white short-sleeved v-neck shirt and breathable blue shorts. Even Yuri was in sandals. It was a hot day, and Yuri had to make sacrifices with his wardrobe. He felt he was barely passable in his light pink polo and lavender-colored cropped pants. Mercy, standing to Yuri's right, was wearing a black sleeveless blouse and a yellow-and-black striped skirt.

Yomotsu wound up to take another shot—and his throw fell flat. After previously whipping it past the hollow pin, he took the approach of a softer throw, but now the ball fell helplessly to the ground before it could reach the pin. The man behind the stand eyed Yomotsu with a pleasant expression and gave him encouraging words.

Yuri peaked over his shoulder and noticed there was a line of children and parents behind them. "Come on, Yomotsu," he whispered. "Win your teddy bear so we can get out of here…"

Mercy, once she stopped chewing her gum, lifted herself onto her tip-toes and shouted, "COME ON YOMOTSU, DO IT FOR THE BOYS BACK HOME!"

She then relaxed onto her heels and watched as Yomotsu accidently hit the man running the stand with the foam ball.

"After a while, you have to admit that blindness is a weakness," Yuri quietly muttered. "You can do a lot of great things, but you can't seriously expect to win at a game like this…"

"I hear you over there, Yuri!" Yomotsu cried out. "And your challenge to my abilities has renewed my dedication. I will continue until justice has prevailed—even if it takes days! Justice never surrenders!"

Again, the man behind the counter was enthusiastic. "Yeah! Justice!"

Yomotsu took another shot, and the foam ball knocked over one pin. He would need to get a strike and knock out all the pins in order to win a prize, and it had taken six throws to even knock down one. More money was put on the counter, and Yomotsu resumed his struggle.

Yuri's eyes wandered around the park. This was one of the few places of purposeless leisure in Graceville, and it was insignificant compared with what Yuri was familiar with in Sternbild. As far as entertainment went, it was fine only for those familiar only with the mundane and simple. Many of the attractions were decades old and at the very least in need of new paint, but that was not to say that the park had not kept itself relevant to modern times.

The successes of Yuri and the 12th gave the park an opportunity to entertain tourists and local fans. There was always someone during park hours walking around dressed as the 12th giving autographs, and on a separate but occasionally intersecting route was another employee in a Lunatic costume. Both were crude imitations. The fake 12th's eyeball mask was pathetic, small and wrinkled. His Transformation Belt looked cheap and plastic. The Lunatic was even worse—the mask was quickly painted to imitate the real thing, but the whole outfit lacked the aesthetic beauty the actual suit possessed in such great quantity.

In addition, some rides were beginning to receive a makeover. Far from taking the time to repair certain issues or in any way improve the rides, the ownership of the park decided to rename its rides and adorn them with 12th-themed decorum. The former "Rock Mountain Roller Coaster," the only roller coaster in the park, became "Justice Mountain Roller Coaster," and a 12th head was attached to the front of the cart. Even the stand where Yomotsu was striving for victory had been changed; the little foam balls now looked like 12th masks, and the pins were painted over to look like the infamous Wi-Fi Man.

The only ride that bore Lunatic's likeness was a children's train ride, which went around a small portion of the park. When Yuri glanced toward the ride, he frowned at how no one was in line for it. He noticed a child running toward it, but the mother grabbed him by the arm. Even without super-hearing, Yuri could hear the mother's words clearly, "Don't go near that Lunatic ride! He is creepy and will give you nightmares! Let's go on that cute 12th ride instead, Johnny."

Yuri sighed. "I am going to go sit down on the bench. This could take a while…"

Mercy nodded, but her attention was clearly focused on Yomotsu, as his ninth attempt managed to knock down all but two of the pins. Yomotsu exclaimed, "Now that I have listened to the pins fall, judging by the echo of the sound waves, I can accurately estimate their precise location! This reign of terror shall be struck down!"

Yuri sat down a short distance away. The line was still growing behind Yomotsu and Mercy, but they appeared too absorbed in his imminent victory to notice. Yuri could not help but notice how much fun Mercy and Yomotsu had together, even just on their own. He could barely add to their happiness, he felt and began to reason. He was just there to enjoy events near them, more lately as an observer than as a participant. The closer they became, the less he felt like the three of them were a singular unit. His friendship with Mercy continued to grow, and his friendship with Yomotsu grew still, but when both of them were near each other, he felt only a distance growing between him and them.

He heard a noise to his left, and he turned his head to the sound of someone sitting next to him on the bench. It was the Lunatic impersonator. The poor imitation mask was looking toward him. He silently acknowledged the stranger with a head nod, but when the figure did not cease glaring at him through the mask, the situation quickly became rather weird.

"Do you hear the voice of Thanatos?"

The impersonator must have had some weird voice changer in the mask, for the words came out in this ridiculously dramatic, threatening voice. He hardly felt like it was an accurate representation of the real Lunatic. He did not know how to respond, so he merely shrugged. He redirected his eyes back toward the line.

"They look really happy together, don't they?"

Yomotsu apparently won, because he threw his hands in the air. A small teddy bear was passed over the counter to Yomotsu, who then turned and presented it to Mercy. She smiled at it and took it into her arms. Her eyes were on Yomotsu's face when she spoke, presumably thanking him. They both started laughing about something as they stepped to the side of the line.

"Just like you and Vidalia, right? Or maybe… Maybe that was different?"

Yuri turned suddenly to his left, and the Lunatic impersonator was gone.

"Yuri, look what Yomotsu won for me!"

Mercy displayed the teddy bear with glee.

"…Very nice…" Yuri looked at them, then back at the empty spot to his left.

"And who was that you were talking to? Were you talking to yourself again, Yuri?"

Yomotsu chuckled at his own words, but Yuri only nodded uncertainly.

"Yeah… I almost thought it was real."