The Saint of Shirahime ✅

Chapter Ten 🔥

"Inaba-san?"

I looked up from the cup of coffee I hadn't touched. Tsukumo was standing over me. "Inaba-san, could you come with me please?"

I flushed, wondering what I had done wrong but not wanting to argue. As I leaned down to collect my bag, I caught sight of my watch and saw the time. I had been sitting in Happy Lucky aimlessly for three hours.

"Don't forget your cup of coffee," Tsukumo said softly as he turned to walk away.

Eh? He's not kicking me out? I grabbed my cup and saucer and followed him.

I quickly realized that Tsukumo wasn't throwing me out of the restaurant but taking me towards a back corridor in the northwest. There were three private "party rooms" down this hallway. I had never used any of them, but I saw that the first room looked like a tatami room, the second room looked like a karaoke room, and the third resembled an European sitting room. Tsukumo took me inside this room. "The other two rooms have reservations this afternoon," he told me. "This one is free until this evening."

I nodded without saying a word. The room itself reminded me of tea rooms I had seen in Auckland. Two tables were on either side of the door, and two were directly in front of the two large windows in the room. Tsukumo directed me to sit at one of the tables in front of the window and then he sat across from me.

"I'm sorry, Tsukumo-san," I said before he could start. "I-I know I was just sitting around not buying anything and taking up a table—"

Tsukumo held up a hand to silence me. "That's not why I ask you to come back here, Inaba-san."

I stared at him in confusion. "It's an early Wednesday afternoon and you're here, Inaba-san," he pointed out. "I know it's none of my business, but...is everything all right?"

His compassion moved me greatly, and I felt tears sting my eyes once more. I leaned my elbows on the table, hiding my face in my hands. "...I may have lost my job," I murmured.

"What?" Tsukumo sounded genuinely shocked. "What happened?!"

I very quickly recapped my morning to him. I was speaking so fast that I wasn't sure he could understand me, but I couldn't bring myself to slow down. Even after I finished I couldn't look up to face him.

I heard Tsukumo inhale, and then exhale sharply. "So, that troublesome girl still causes trouble."

I looked up then. He was holding a handkerchief out to me and I accepted it. "I know it's not proper to speak ill of the dead, but I remember her," he said. "And I remember that she was awful. Not just with you—she treated the staff horribly here. One of my coworkers actually quit on the spot after she waited on that girl. That day when she literally chased you in here...I had had enough of her." He smiled wryly. "I thought I would be fired, chasing after a group of high school girls with a broom, but I ended up being promoted to a manager's position. If you want me to testify on your behalf, I'll do it."

"What?" I stared at him in shock.

"You shouldn't lose your job just because of your dead high school bully," he told me. "I'll go to that school myself and tell them everything I remember her doing while she was in uniform. Her death was a tragedy, yes. There is absolutely no denying it. But facts are facts, she was a monster. And I'm not going to watch you lose your job because of a monster. Especially over nonsense that happened well over five years ago!"

I wiped my eyes, unable to believe what I'm hearing. "T-Tsukumo-san...you would really do that?"

"Of course I would," he responded. "Do you doubt me, Inaba-san?"