Maybe it was because they had already met, but being greeted by the manager that evening made Chiho far less nervous than she expected. Here they were now, one-on-one in the staff room, a place that had been off-limits to her just a day ago.
Mayumi Kisaki, manager of this MgRonald location, introduced herself to Chiho once again, using the same polite speech she applied to her customers.
“Let me take a few moments to look over your résumé,” she said as she took it from her hands. That was the trigger that finally made Chiho start to sweat. Were there any spelling errors? Anything weird that stood out too much?
“…All right,” the manager nodded after a few moments as she placed the paper on the desk. “Ms. Sasaki?”
“Y-yes?”
“You wrote in there that you wanted to build ‘experience in society’ through part-time work.”
“Uh, yeah… Is that a problem?”
“Oh, no. Not a problem, no.” Kisaki looked Chiho square in the eyes. “Is there some pressing need, perhaps, driving you to get this experience?”
“Um…a need?”
The unexpected question threw Chiho for a loop. She had written that, all right, and she’d even meant it. Kisaki, perhaps sensing her confusion, smiled a little.
“Oh, I was just wondering. I know Sasahata North is one of the better public schools in this neighborhood, and you’re in one of the sports clubs, too. I was just wondering why you want to build this kind of experience so badly that you’re willing to sacrifice your free time away from school to take a demanding part-time job.”
“Well…um…”
“Don’t worry. It’s just you and me in here, Ms. Sasaki. If you’re willing to tell me, I’d love to hear why.”
“…”
Kisaki turned toward Chiho, her office chair creaking under her weight as she brought her face a bit closer. Her eyes gave Chiho an inkling of what her question really meant.
“It’s, like, my future career…”
“Mmm?”
“I don’t really know what I want to do with myself.”
“Ah, your future? Whether you want to go to college or find a job out of high school?”
“Right. My friend was telling me about her job, and she told me about a lot of stuff that I never would’ve been able to learn about in school. I’ve been studying really hard since middle school, but it’s, like, the more I think about my future career path, the more it just totally confuses me. So then yesterday, when you came up to me…”
“When I did?”
“You talked about ‘creating an environment’ for people and it was like… I dunno, I used to just think of MgRonald as a place that sold burgers and fries to people, but the way you put it made it seem like work’s about a lot more than what you’d really see from the outside… It’s kind of hard to explain.”
Chiho knew that her words were just as jumbled up and inscrutable as her feelings on the subject. But Kisaki stood still and nodded, never trying to hurry her along.
“But anyway, I started thinking about what working was really like, and when you said I could get the same stuff again if I brought in my receipt, it was, like, wow, I’m getting even more value back than the burger I paid my money for. And then I, like, started thinking about money and stuff, and…”
She could feel the blood flowing into her skull. Her head was alive with thoughts about school, thoughts about her career, thoughts about her friends, her club activity, her family, and everything else on Earth. It made her lose sight of what was really important in her life.
“I just figured…if I knew what working for myself and earning money was like, then somehow—I don’t know how, but somehow that’d help me build some experience in society. So, you know, I just kind of…”
Chiho’s legs grew restless. Her voice ratcheted up in volume.
“I want to work so I can earn some money!”
“…Ah, I see.” For some reason, Kisaki was grinning at her. “Not to change the subject, but do you know what you’d want to use the money for?”
“What for…? Um, well, if I can save up enough money, I’d like to get a nicer bow for myself. That and some arrows.”
“Arrows? I don’t know very much about kyudo, but are those arrows single-use or something?”
“No, not exactly, but sometimes they break or get all bent up during practice, so you have to keep buying more of them. It’s a pretty expensive sport to get into in the first place, so I hate begging my parents for more money to keep it going, and plus, not all arrows are built the same way, so I figured if I had my own spending money, I could use it to find equipment that suited me a little better than the cheap stuff…”
The next few minutes evolved into a sort of newbie Q&A on kyudo, something that seemed less like a job interview and more like idle chatter at the coffee shop. The interview went on for about forty minutes all told.
“All right. Thanks a lot for stopping by today, Ms. Sasaki. I’ll give you a call with my decision within two or three days.”
“Certainly. Thank you very much for taking the time to see me.”
Chiho stood up, bowed, and stepped toward the staff room door. She noticed her legs were quivering a little as she stepped outside.
“Oh, hello there.” Maou, the employee who helped Chiho yesterday, nodded at her as he passed by. “I certainly wasn’t expecting you to apply for a position the very next day!”
His smile was completely benign. He was practically welcoming her to the crew already.
“Oh, uh, thanks…”
But Chiho, drained of all tension now that the interview was over, could manage little more than a broken greeting.
“See you soon. Hope you get the job!”
She barely managed a bow in reply.
Her legs were still a little uneasy on the way out. Once the MgRonald was out of sight, she veered to one edge of the sidewalk and crouched down.
“I so blew it…”
“I want to earn money”? Seriously? That whole time, she kept blabbing on about all this extraneous nonsense instead of saying what actually needed to be said. Her mind was filled with regret. Being so frank about the salary aspect of it was so incredibly self-serving—it had to have made a terrible impression on that manager. She tried her best to be polite and upbeat, but in front of a real grown-up like that, she doubted she looked like much more than a teenager out of her comfort zone.
“Ugh… I’m gonna have to find somewhere else to hang out for a while…”
No way she had the guts to frequent a business that turned her down for a job. She’d have to suggest another stop to Kaori starting tomorrow. This, and many other negative thoughts, swirled around in her head as she staggered home in the darkening evening.
Kisaki was in noticeably higher spirits after the teenaged job interviewee left the MgRonald by Hatagaya station.
“Marko?” she said to Maou, currently working the front counter.
“Yes?”
“I’m gonna have you train that girl just now.”
“Whoa! You’re hiring her already?”
“Yep. I wasn’t expecting a lot ’cause her résumé was pretty much copied out of a book, but she’s actually got a lot of spirit in her. I like that.”
Kisaki was all smiles, but Maou winced at the mention of her documents.
“Geez, don’t remind me about my interview…”
“Oh, I’ll remind you all I want, Marko. You think I’m gonna forget someone who wrote ‘I wanna eat good stuff’ as their goal in their résumé?”
“Heh-heh…eesh.” Maou was crestfallen but still curious about the new hire. She’d looked like just another girl when she passed him by. “But if her résumé didn’t impress you, I guess the interview did?”
“Mm-hmm. I think we’ve got a student who’ll actually stick to a constant shift schedule for a change. Try to go easy on her, okay?”
“Wow! I don’t think you’ve told me to ‘go easy’ on anything.”
Coming from her, this was high praise.
“Well,” Kisaki explained, “she’s a pretty serious girl, you know? Plus, the way she fielded my questions, there’s no point being hard on her.”
“Man, you really love her.”
“Yep! Pretty much. She didn’t try to fancy up her motives or anything. She kept it as straight as I do. So have fun with her starting tomorrow, okay?”
Kisaki turned around, practically humming to herself as she left. Maou groaned. “Geez,” he mumbled to the cash register in front of him, “I only wrote that because I figured she’d kick me out if I wrote ‘I want to conquer the world’ in there…”
“So how’d day two go?”
“Ugggh, I think my legs are gonna fall off…”
The full force of Chiho’s groan came across loud and clear over the phone from her bedroom to Kaori. She had figured her legs and feet could put up with it, considering how much of a workout archery could be, but they were already impossibly sore. Her toes, her calves, her thighs, even her heels had fatigue draped over them in ways she never experienced before. She had given them a thorough massage in the bath, but they still didn’t feel at all better.
“Yeah, I guess you’re standing up the whole time, huh? Don’t they give you any breaks?”
“Nope. My shifts haven’t been long enough yet.”
“Ohhh. You gotta work at least an eight-hour shift, right?”
“Yeah, I think that was part of my first-day orientation…”
Apparently the law in Japan stated that high school students weren’t allowed to work past ten in the evening. After discussing it, they agreed that she’d work no more than four hours on the weekdays, between school and the magic hour, and four to six hours on the weekends.
Chiho reflected on her first day as the conversation went on. After that disaster of an interview, she never thought she’d be hired in a million years.
Kisaki told her to fully clip her nails, so she took some extra time to take care of that before walking into the store, far more nervous than she was for the interview. The manager greeted her with a work contract and a uniform fitted for her size. It was designed for comfort, the chest area neither too tight nor too loose on her; she breathed a sigh of relief over that. When she looked into the staff room mirror after changing, the sight of herself in the MgRonald uniform she had seen a hundred times as a customer seemed incredibly out of place.
“All right,” Kisaki said as she gave her a poke in the back. “To start out, we’re gonna go around the restaurant so I can show you where everything is and what kind of work you’ll be doing in each area. This isn’t too large of a location, but there’s a fair amount you’ll need to remember…”
Kaori’s words rang in Chiho’s mind. For a moment, the image of getting yelled at for forgetting something made her anxious, but…
“There’s no way you’re going to remember it all on the first shot, so for now, just try to get a mental picture of what kind of work you’ll generally be asked to do. You can take notes, too, if you like. That’s gonna be your first job—learn all this stuff and get up to speed on how it all works around here.”
“O-okay…”
“Right. First off, always wash your hands before going out into the dining space. I need to show you how, so let’s hit the bathroom first.”
They made the rounds, Kisaki guiding Chiho through the names of the assorted machines and work positions, the floor-map setup, and the work responsibilities at every area of the place. The memo paper she brought along with her was quickly filled to the brim with hastily written text. After all the times she stopped by here, there were still so many new names, new customs, and unfamiliar machines and areas to explore. It took an hour and a half just to go through the whole place. Between that and the subsequent training on things like how to greet customers, Chiho’s first three hours as an employee passed by in a heartbeat.
“Hey, Marko?” Kisaki shouted at one of the crewmembers (calling the employees “crewmembers” was also something Chiho found novel about the place). Surprisingly, the call was answered by Maou, the crewmember who helped her out earlier.
“Oh, it’s you!”
Apparently he remembered her. He removed his hat and gave her a warm smile.
“I, uh, today’s my first job…I mean, my first day on the job! My name is Chiho Sasaki! It’s great to be working with you!”
She stammered her way through her very first work introduction. Her face reddened with embarrassment, but Maou paid it no mind. “Sadao Maou,” he said, the perfect picture of politeness. “Good to meet you, Ms. Sasaki.”
Between his English ability and the way he carried himself, Chiho assumed he was quite a bit older than she—but face-to-face like this, he seemed surprisingly young. A student in college, maybe?
“I won’t be here tomorrow, Sasaki, so he’ll be taking care of you on your next shift.” Kisaki placed a hand on Maou’s shoulder. “He knows pretty much everything about this place, so go ahead and pepper him with all the questions you want.”
“Wow, way to put the pressure on…” Maou flashed an uneasy smile and put his hat back on.
“Don’t give her any wrong info, or else I’ll make sure you pay for it, all right?”
Whether she was serious about it or not, the words had an obvious effect on Maou’s demeanor. He chuckled nervously.
“No problem, boss. This is nothing compared to leading an army of half a million.”
“Huh?”
Chiho raised an eyebrow. Half a million?
Kisaki shrugged. “If it wasn’t for his tendency to lapse into grandiose metaphors like that, I’d have no complaints with Marko.”
It didn’t sound all that grandiose to Chiho. Just odd.
“Heh-heh… Really, though, Sasaki, if you think you’ll want to work here a while, don’t be afraid to ask me, or Ms. Kisaki, or anybody else around here if you have any questions. If you don’t remember it the first time—or the second time, for that matter—then please, just ask again. Nobody on the crew’s gonna yell at you for forgetting something.”
“A-all right…”
“Yeah, and if someone does, tell me about it, okay? Because if they do”—Kisaki’s face took on a suddenly twisted, demonic snarl—“I’ll show them hell itself.”
“Agh!” Chiho couldn’t help but yelp at the half-crazed smile.
“If I can translate for Ms. Kisaki,” Maou said in a half chuckle, “if you’re going to disappoint a customer after messing something up because you winged it and got it wrong, it’s a lot better for everyone to take the time to ask someone instead. So really, don’t be afraid to bother anyone. That’s how all of us learned how to do our jobs, so pretty much everyone should be able to answer your questions.”
“…Okay. I’ll try my best to.”
She had already experienced the credo Kisaki and Maou brought to their work as a customer. If that was how they put it, the rest of the crew must be equally as talented. And even with how nice they were to her, Chiho resolved to work as hard as she could to not be too much of a drag on them.
“Oh, maaaan. You sure you didn’t die and go to heaven or something?” Kaori, listening to the story, sounded supremely jealous over the phone. “’Cause, like, whenever I asked a question, it was always like ‘Didn’t someone show it to you already?’”
“Ha-ha-ha…”
“So if that was yesterday, what was today like?”
“Well…”
Day one, after the intros, was pretty much nothing but studying. Today, on her second day, she was finally assigned something resembling work.
“I still didn’t get to cook or anything, but I spent the whole shift on cleaning duty, pretty much.”
“Cleaning duty?”
“Uh-huh. I wiped up all the trays with this disinfected cloth, and then I wiped down the tables so I could learn all the numbers associated with them. After that, I restocked the shelves with stuff like napkins and straws and to-go b
ags from storage. I had to clean those shelves, too…”
“Did you take out the garbage and stuff, too?”
“No, they didn’t let me do that yet.”
“No?”
“Yeah. They’re, like, superstrict on separating all the garbage, so I gotta learn how all that works. Plus, you know how the Mag’s garbage area’s near the entrance, right? I still haven’t learned how to guide customers around and answer their questions, so that’s probably not gonna happen for a little while.”
“…Wow, the grass really is greener, huh?”
“Maybe, but…oooh, staying on my feet for four hours in a row is just killing me. And you were right, Kao—this one customer asked me, like, this impossible question. I had this huge IN TRAINING button on and everything.”
“Ooh, that fast, huh? How’d it go?”
“Well, that Maou crewmember was with me pretty much the whole time except when we were really busy, so he handled the whole thing.”
“Can I, like, have your job, Sasachi?” Kaori sounded fairly serious about the offer. “’Cause it sounds really great. I wanna see you in action sometime! I promise I won’t embarrass you like Yoshiya will, too.”
“…Go easy on me, okay?”
After the conversation meandered elsewhere and Chiho hung up the phone, she recalled the “impossible question” she was asked. It came from a man in his fifties or so, asking if the Hatagaya MgRonald location had any birthday cakes. She had never heard of it. Why would a burger joint be selling cakes? Nobody told her about that so far.
She was about to give that answer when Maou intervened. “I apologize, sir,” he said, “but this location doesn’t accept reservations for birthday parties, so I’m afraid we don’t have any cakes in stock.”
The quick explanation made Chiho’s eyes prick upward. She had never connected MgRonald with birthday parties before. The thought had never even occurred to her.
“Within central Tokyo,” Maou continued next to the deer-in-headlights Chiho, “there’s one location in Meguro and one in Suginami that accept party reservations. The Suginami restaurant is gonna be the closer one, since it’s on the Keio rail line. Let me grab you the phone number real quick.”
The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, Vol. 7 Page 15