Page 8 of Pandion
“Ah, Satoru-kun.” Kagesawa pulled him aside. Speaking in a slightly lower voice, he continued, “Can you check the closet for me?”
Without waiting for the rest of that instruction, Harumine hurried to check said closet.
“Two months. That’s about 700, right? We’ll make it eight since it’s late. Is that all right?” Kagesawa appeased the landlord while flipping the contents of his frying pan a few more times and plating the mess next to heaps of rice.
Harumine stared into the dim closet. He looked back out and at Kagesawa, who merely nudged his shoulder to urge Harumineto hurry up. There weren’t enough expletives in the world to express accurately the complex onslaught of feelings brought on by what was in the closet. Harumine could easily spot dozens of credit chips lying in the back corner amidst a pile of assorted rubbish, clothes and other crap.
“Is there a problem?” Kagesawa asked, now right behind Harumine’s back. He reached past Harumine, poked around a bit, checked a few of the chips for a suitable one and, to Harumine’s ever-accumulating horror, handed it over to the landlord.
Now considerably calmer, the landlord patted Kagesawa’s back as if he hadn’t threatened to take the man’s life in several painful ways when he’d burst in through the door moments earlier.
“Pay it on time next time. Game night next Wednesday, are you still on?” the man asked as Kagesawa escorted him to the door.
“I don’t know yet; I’ll let you know.”
“Fine. But I’m making a flip-and-dip cheese plate, and there will be plenty of beer. It’s your loss if you don’t turn up. It’s for Nishimura since I can’t make it for his birthday.”
“Ah, right. I’ll see what I can do.”
Harumine watched Kagesawa wave the landlord goodbye and close the door. Then he took one more look at the closet to ensure he hadn’t hallucinated the scene that had unfolded before him.
At a glance, he counted twenty-six chips, and those were just the ones visible.
“The food’s ready.” Kagesawa offered a plate to Harumine, who stared at the plate of mostly unidentifiable something. What was this? What was it even made of?
Kagesawa sat down cross-legged on the sofa. He was about to open a can of beer but stopped and glanced at Harumine.
“No, go on right ahead.” Harumine was in shock. He sat next to Kagesawa and took a bite of what he’d been offered. It was palatable, which only made things seem even more unreal.
Where to even begin with this?
“You do realise— No.” Harumine frowned. “It’s one thing to— But you see, if you— Um.” He was stumped.
“Are you still worried about the landlord? He’s always like that. That’s just how he is.” Kagesawa smiled and took another bite.
“No, that’s not it, I… or well, yes sure, but more importantly, how do I put this…” Harumine rubbed his forehead. He was exhausted, and this whole thing was throwing him off in the worst possible way. “Are you sure you don’t needprofessional help?”
“What do you mean?” Kagesawa was casually enjoying his meal as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.
“You’re… how can you—? Don’t you—? Isn’t it—?”
“Are you having a seizure? Should I do something?”
“You’re storing credit chips on the floor, in a closet.” It was painful to even say it out loud. “Instead of handing them in. You know, to have the money deposited into your EA account and the credit added to your record.” Harumine was starting to feel like he might be getting a headache from trying to understand what this unfathomable idiocy could mean. “And you’re using your credit chips as currency to pay for the rent. Am I understanding this correctly?”
“Yes.”
“You’re aware that your record is essentially your only CV, and it affects the sort of work you’re offered, right?”
“Yes.”
“And you might have other perks stored on those chips besides just the pay?”
“Sure, but that stuff’s mostly useless to me—”
“You understand all this, so, the question I’m afraid to ask is…why?”
“Hmm.” Kagesawa paused to chew and think. “Well, I haven’t gotten around to it; it’s such a pain in the ass.” As he said this, he did look a tiny bit embarrassed and apologetic.