Katawa Shoujo - Akira Satou Route

Act 4-1 It's never just rain

A jingling sound rings through my head each time I take a step, its timbre giving off a strange and yet empowering feeling. My fingers grip the silver metal handle of a long cart, its top and bottom layer stacked with glassware and other lab tools.

Twenty-six keys hang from a keyring on my belt, each bit of dull brass glowing against the light. One master key for all of the supply closets, one master key for the bathrooms on the first, third, and fourth floor, four keys to get into all of the testing areas, and at least another dozen more whose labels are unintelligible.

Even with all of that, however, I don't have unlimited access to the building. I have a key to the front and back door, yes, but private offices are off limits. As such, the contents of said offices are not my responsibility, so I don't have to stomp on anyone's privacy in the name of cleanliness.

There's another two keys for the vending machines in the break room, but those are also not my responsibility. Apparently they're owned not by us, but by the company that provides them, so it's their duty to send someone in to re-stock and repair them. The only reason I have a key is in case something of value gets stuck inside.

Apparently incidents like that have not only happened, but happen quite often if Mr. Setou is to be believed.

I glance at a digital clock hanging on the wall and note a time of 8:34 P.M, a short while before my duty here is finished. I wish I could say something like 'I don't want it to end so soon,' but I'd be a liar if I said I wasn't already exhausted.

Sweeping floors. Mopping them. Having to mop them again because I used the wrong cleaning agent. Taking inventory of all the supply closets. Turning in a report to Mr. Setou. Getting chastised for doing it wrong. Doing it again and only receiving an approving nod before I'm told to go clean out the incubators. Having a researcher tell me not to worry about it. Running into the boss on the way out and being told that I, in fact, should worry about it. Trying to focus on my work and tune out the resulting argument...

And let's not forget sterilization.

At first I tried to keep a careful count of the number of pairs of latex gloves I'd gone through, but even on my first day I've already used and trashed at least ten sets. Grab some out of the maintenance closet, wear them for a single task, discard, wash hands, and repeat until the day is done. Maybe once I've gone through an entire box I'll know how close the day is to ending.

My arms hurt from wiping down the same tables a dozen times, my legs hurt from having to climb up and down the stairs over and over again, and my chest feels as though it could explode at any second. It's my job to pace myself, but pacing myself seems to interfere with getting my other job done, which is to make sure every single square millimeter of the building is properly kept.

I unclip the keyring from my belt and slide it into the bolt lock on the door to the fifth floor testing area. This is the major lab where most of the 'big name' experiments go on, although nothing 'exciting' has happened here today. I'm almost thankful for such a thing, as an explosion or the outbreak of a deadly virus would only create a bigger workload.

That's not to say I wouldn't enjoy a little excitement, but I'd be happy if it waited for a day where I wasn't already exhausted.

Is this how every career starts out; working your way up from the bottom rung? Was Akira always one of the head-honchos at her company, or did she have to start out as a basic paperwork drone and climb the corporate ladder?

Hired directly into a management position, or promoting through the ranks to get there in only a few years. Either way, she has to have some kind of inborn talent.

On the other hand, I don't see how talent can be related to a job like this. For some reason, part of me is a little underwhelmed - certainly I'm happy to be here, there's no way I can express how pleased I am to be working in this kind of a setting with these kinds of people; but I can't help but feel like there should be more to it than this.