Gang of Yuusha

During the early morning Shouji calls out to the men kicking b.a.l.l.s at a goal in a decayed public park.

They talk about the weather, smoke tobacco, inform about their physical condition… and also talk about how their work has gone recently.

There is the guy who has been unemployed since he quit as a coal miner because he could not handle the mine life. There is the guy who deals in the contraband the navy smuggles. And there is the guy who makes a living hunting rats in the sewers.

When he shows them the perfect potion, they ask him what organization he is from.

Shouji answers with the name of an organization, he had just now picked that one at random out of the many.

His salesmanship begins.

Those who do not drink potions are overdiligent fools, or cowards with no self-respect. Such exaggerations freely leave his mouth.

He speaks of the easily obtainable pleasure, of how easily you can separate yourself from reality, of this singular tiny ticket to Utopia.

He strongly a.s.serts that the side effects are basically non-existent. But the truth is that he actually does not know. There might not be side effects, but there sure as h.e.l.l is drug dependence.

His first sales pitch was fairly successful. As long as they sample the product rumors will spread. An increase in demand is inevitable.

During the daytime he stands on the edge of the restaurant district, calling out to the cigarette smoking prost.i.tutes.

Shouji was greatly surprised at all off his customers" sly personalities. Without bearing their standing in mind, all of them wanted to set the price according to their own appraisals.

I will pay you back later. I will pay you with my body. I will pay after I have downed it.

He did not lend his ear to these statements. The inferior quality of his customers brought him despair.

Shouji was constantly refusing with a gentle expression. With the language of a gentleman he was giving both the carrot and the stick in verbal form. Sadly with this quality of customers his sales were unfavorable.

It was becoming possible that supply and demand would be mismatched.

He decided to rein in his expectations for this crowd.

"… Guess I"ll go grab a bite."

Dealing his perfect potions while standing and walking around was annoying.

By nature, business talk was not the boorish Shouji"s strong suit. He was only doing it because he had no choice.

He had in the past trained in the etiquette of the upper cla.s.ses, but without the ability to merge that with manners of the streets, it was useless.

His legs aimlessly pointed him in the direction of a restaurant serving the cuisine of a remote region, the restaurant’s main ingredient was black pig.

He sat down at the counter and opened the menu as soon as he entered the restaurant.

Thinking about ordering a cop of coffee, now that he had settled down he realized that he was utterly starving.

Pork leg, boiled pork, roast pork and the ingenuity of the sauce were explained in overly long paragraphs.

According to the explanation the black pigs that they were so proud of were fed with barley.

Their lives were apparently ended by humane methods and their entrails very carefully removed.

Wanting to make his order he looked for a waitress. At that moment, from the kitchen could be heard a yell.

"Hey you! What the h.e.l.l kind of way are you cutting that? Do it over immediately."

"So, so, soso, sorry. I, I will get right on it!"

Shouji"s eyes turned towards the opening to the kitchen. Through there could be seen a fat cook getting yelled at. While stuttering the cook went to work enthusiastically, but it was obvious that he was feeling down.

His knife-work was slow and unsteady.

He appeared to be an apprentice, visible by the shortness of his cook"s hat. His presentation of the cooked food was as poor as his knife-work.

Recognizing that childish face, Shouji called out.

"Hey, if it isn"t Doldo. You"ve already gotten released, huh?"

"Eh, ah, Qu, Quik… He, hey, it"s been a while."

The man, Doldo, who turned around and walked up to Shouji, was a very shy man that he had done time with in prison.

His timid and gentle personality could be understood at a glance from the honest eyes he possessed.

"Do, do you want a meal?"

"Hehe, it"s as you can see. When do you get off work? Let"s drink."

Doldo fleetingly glanced at the wall clock, and smiled in apology.

"Sorry. It"ll be around three."

Shouji quickly checked the time on the wall clock. It was only just after noon. He nodded generously.

"I"ll wait. Any way, does this establishment sell liquor? I"ll order some."

"Aa, my bad. Be, besides…"

"Quickly get back to work you laggard!"

The yell comes from behind Doldo"s back. The restaurant manager appeared to be a vigorously energetic man, and Doldo twitcheed a bit as he left Shouji"s side quickly.

Doldo appeared with an overshadowed expression from the restaurant"s backdoor.

"What"s up?"

"It"s not worth mentioning."

"There"s no way that"s true. Spill it quickly, buddy."

Having drunk straight whisky to his heart"s content, Shouji released an alcohol smelling breath as he urged on Doldo, who was scratching the back of his head.

"I got fired. From my cooking job."

"If I burn down this establishment, will your troubles go away?"

"They won"t. Quik, it"s ok. Thanks. Therefore, you don"t have to gather dry paper."

Shouji gathered a bunch of paper from the nearby trash. He poured the whisky from his bottle onto the papers and struck his flint to ignite it.

Since most whisky had high alcohol content the fire was easily started. Bright red flames began to flicker. The newly born small fire was by caught the wind just like that and flared up.

Sparks spread the fire to a round bag, and then further on to some abandoned waste oil. The fire"s momentum kept rising. The restaurant"s overhanging roof was starting to get scorched by the blaze. The fire seemed overjoyed at the readily available dry wood.

"Quik. This, won"t it turn out really bad?"

"Don"t worry about it. Hey, Doldo. Right now I am in the business of selling potions. Won"t you join me?"

As if astonished, Doldo lifted and dropped his shoulders. The expression on his face was far from sunny.

The tongue of the h.e.l.lfire cracked the rear entrance"s window. The infuriated manager jumped out screaming "You f.u.c.king b.a.s.t.a.r.ds."

Shouji gave him no time before he planted his fist deep in his guts, sending him flying straight back from whence he came.

In the same beat the door was closed again.

The conflagration became ever stronger.

Red colors increased and the flames spread.

"If I do potions my mother will be sad. I can"t do it. Potions were the reason I was thrown in the locker in the first place. I"ve decided to do proper work."

"It"d be fine if you just sold them in the intervals between your other jobs. I need a dealer. And connections. You"re a great guy after all, you"ve got lots of acquaintances, right?"

"Quik…"

"Please come to my aid, Doldo. I beg you. We"re buddies, right?"

Silence descended upon the s.p.a.ce between the two.

It wasn"t just that they had stopped speaking. Through Doldo"s head ran shared memories.

How he had been used as a lowly underling by a small-time yakuza. While he had been dealing for that guy, he had been caught by the garrison"s sting operation.

Thrown into prison, his rationed meals were stolen from him because of his corpulent physique.

Numerous times Shouji had gotten it back for him.

It was not from a sense of justice.

He just did it for whatever reason. Simply killing time. It also gave him an excuse to strike people… There was no profound significance at all.

That friendship was born was also by chance. They both understood this perfectly, but friendship was friendship.

The customers fled the restaurant.

The burnt black smoke broke through the roof and stretched towards the sky.

"More to the point, a cook apprenticeship isn"t gonna make you any money. Getting used by some nasty guy, working your a.s.s off, always bowing your head. That"s all you"d get. In truth the discontent must have risen in you. I will pay you precisely for each lot you sell. Trust in me, buddy."

"… Nn."

"Can I take that as consent?"

"Yeah. However, if we"re going to be a.s.sociates I"m gonna have to make sure of the taste of the potions."

Tightly containing his playfulness Doldo smiled.

Shouji clapped Doldo"s shoulders.

"That"s the way things should be… Let"s celebrate. a.s.semble our prison fellows. We"re holding a potion party."

"Gotcha!"

The fire brigade came rushing to the restaurant to deal with the fire. The inhabitants came running with water filled buckets. There was no measurable effect. The houses were all burnt black by the blaze.

Maybe some flammable material had caught fire, because a loud explosion shook the air. The curious onlookers shrieked.

The fire brigade noticed that there was someone inside, with do-or-die spirit they prepares to enter together. Their faces covered in pitch black soot they formed a circle.

They shared jokes to encourage each other. Someone gathered his courage and jumped in. The blast blew him away. He landed on the gravel road in the shape of a dried up frog. n.o.body inside could be saved.

As if to call the curtain fall on the matter, the restaurant"s sign fell to the ground with a loud bang.

Doldo and Shouji left with their backs turned, chatting idly.

Translator note: This one was a bit shorter so I decided to do it between the matches of The International 7. Hope you enjoyed getting 3 new chapters of this story in the same day (at least it was a single day for me)

Also, don’t ask me about the t.i.tle it was [Furendo Futto] in katakana. Doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me.

Edit: I was tired as h.e.l.l when I published this chapter and it was full of grammatical errors, I have fixed those now.