Linksshifter II

The Bridge to Nowhere

If there was something worse than being in Utoro, out at literally the end of the world (or, well, the very coldest and farthest ass end of Japan, that was for damn certain), it was being at work in Utoro and having to stand behind the counter of a SeicoMart while other people were soaking in the hot springs. And if there was something worse than that, it was standing at the counter of a SeicoMart in Utoro in the low season, at seriously six thirty in the goddamn morning, as the cold rain beat on the windows and some giant foreigner was dripping water off his rainsuit all over the floor in front of the beer case, looking for god knows what in there. Don't stare. Don't do anything weird. Remember your English, just in case. Don't freak out about why the hell is he holding the door open so long, what can he possibly be looking for, why in the stupid is he getting – two, three – three beers at six thirty in the morning?

Jun bit down on their lip, waiting, trying not to say anything, hoping that the guy would just put the beers back and go away and then nobody would come in for two hours and they could play another couple rounds of Pazudora on their phone when Micchi was smoking out back and didn't need them to restock anything, but eventually the foreigner decided that whatever he had in his paws was enough or right or whatnot and came up to the counter, two onigiri and a hot can-coffee and three random beers, including that Suntory Kaoru thing nobody bought ever. Scan everything, 1160 yen, good he's got exact change, so far so good. Jun pulled out the opener from under the counter, and reached for the Kaoru, the only one of the guy's beers that didn't have a pull ring on it for some reason. "Do you need open?"

He raised a hand and shook his head, flashing some kind of keychain widget in a splash of raindrops onto the floormat. "Iranai. Motterundes'kara." He smiled, and started shoving his various groceries into the pockets of his jacket and pants. Jun shook their head to get their bearings. Well, it made sense: you didn't come this far into the boonies of this country without knowing the language, and when you had a foreigner buying beer at six thirty in the morning at the end of the world in this kind of downpour, that they could speak Japanese was probably the least weird thing about it.

As the guy was picking up his pack from by the umbrella stand and heading out the door, Micchi leaned in around the frame of the door to the stockroom and hissed at Jun. "Hey! Hey! Nakagawa! What did that guy take?"

Jun blinked, then looked around for the register slip – he'd helpfully left it on the spike on the counter, so they didn't have to print out another one – and pulled it off the stack. "Two onigiri, one salmon roe one tuna mayonnaise, a Boss Black –"

"No, stupid, the beer, get to the beer! Which beers?"

There was no reason for Micchi to be this abusive at this hour of the morning, and Jun had been just about to get to that, but this was something that you had to grit your teeth through if you didn't want to get fired. "A Grand Kirin, an Abashiri Blue, and that Suntory Kaoru. I was just getting to that."

"The Kaoru – shit, what are you still standing there for? Get on your bike!"

Jun squinted hard, trying to process. "What? Boss, I don't understand. What's with the Kaoru?"

"It's on promotion, you idiot – didn't you read the news posting in the locker room? So we have to have it for the special the next two weeks, and some dumbass didn't note that the last case was out when it was posted up, so nobody ordered it in. I'll call... shit, Rausu, they ought to have some and that Okada owes me a favor if he's on shift, you go pick it up once we can find a case."

Jun bit down on their lip. This morning was just getting worse and worse – if there was something worse than being at work in Utoro under these conditions, it was driving a moped over the two-meter-wide, hairpin-filled, frequently-covered-in fallen-branches mountain road between here and the other side of the peninsula because their boss had screwed up the stock management and run out of an unpopular beer that nobody wanted in the first place. "Boss, can't it wait and we'll put it in the next restock? Nobody drinks that anyway – I think that was the last beer from the last case in the initial promotion from when they launched it in the spring."