Chapter 14 - Fumio's Afternoon

Muscle Master Massage

"♫Hmmm… Hmmm… Cheers Baby! Yeah… with a paper cup♫ Ldadadidada… Why not, baby.. ♫"

Fumio is having a great afternoon and is in a great mood, even humming a Musume46 song as he refills the tea leaves in the cupboard of small pantry of the shop right behind the receptionist desk.

After Red confronted the four members of the Green Hand four days ago, he decided to make Fumio a full-time employee of Muscle Master Massage as he has nothing else for Fumio to do.

Fumio immediately made himself useful and suggested to Red to convert half of the unnecessarily spacious reception area, to a sort of a play area where the guests can either play board games and read old magazines while they wait for their turn for Red's massage.

Red liked the suggestion and he had Fumio purchase more sofas and coffee tables, some board games, and interesting magazines.

"♫Hmmm.. Yeah, baby… With a paper cup♫" Fumio's out of tune singing continues as he folds up the sleeves of his light brown kimono on his way to the lounge area to once more obsessively arrange the magazines on the coffee tables.

"BOSS! I just got a brilliant idea!" He suddenly says.

Red, seated at the reception desk, looks up from his phone.

"I worked for years at a fancy dessert bar just three blocks away. Why don't we make them our suppliers for the guests' snacks?" Fumio asks.

"More job for you?" Red smirks, but he likes the idea.

"Not much. I'll only order the frozen desserts so all I have to do is serve cake or ice cream, and collect the dishes after the guest is done." Fumio says.

"As long as you can handle it." Red shrugs.

"Nice… ♫Ohhh.. Y-" Fumio is about to continue singing but, "Hey… you've been humming the same songs for two hours now. Please, shut it." Red interrupts him, having had enough.

"Okay…" Fumio can only begrudgingly comply. "But boss… Don't you think our shop is too quiet? I can hear my ears ringing. Why don't you install a sound system?" He asks.

"I have a sound system. It's just when a customer comes that I turn it on." Red says.

"Really?" Fumio looks around to find speakers. "Where is it?" He asks, finding none.

Red, snaps his fingers, disguising his use of his spiritual energy to activate a formation, and the sound of soft rain immediately reverberate around the shop.

"*ooff*" Fumio, immediately puts a magazine on top of his head, finding the sound of the rain too realistic.

Suddenly, "♫… ♫… ♫…" A sound of slow and relaxing jazz piano music joins in.

Fumio slowly puts the magazine down and looks around once again. "What the hell?" He can only utter in confusion, finding no water falling, or a piano around.

"Boss… Is this some hi-tech sound system or something? It sounds really realistic." He says in awe. It is as if the music and the sound of rain is very close to his ears. They are not too loud however to drown out the sound of conversations.

"That's a secret. And don't bother looking for a speaker." Red says as he looks down at his phone once again, to continue his reading.

What Red just did is to activate some sort of a mortal-level sound formation. In his previous life, after becoming an immortal, he settled down in the realm of some True God to focus on his cultivation. That True God's realm however always had fair weather, which made him miss the natural sound of the rain and thunder. With his skills, he immediately made a simple fix which is now the formation that he is applied in his massage shop.

Unlike the other cleaning formations and security seals in his shop that he has to power using his own spiritual energy, the sound formation can run forever even with this world's thin atmospheric spiritual energy.

Fumio meanwhile, sits down in one of the sofas and enjoys the sound of rain and the piano. A minute or two later, he feels his eye lids become heavy. To fight the drowsiness, *slap* *slap* he softly slaps his cheeks making him sober again.

"Boss. It's too… relaxing.." He complains.

*snap* Red snaps his fingers again, and the formation is disabled, making everything quiet once again. "That's why I only turn it on when it's crowded." He says.

"I see. Well, you need more songs, as that song sounded too sad. And for the background, instead of the rain, make it the sound of the forest with birds chirping or something." Fumio suggests.

"I have that…" Red nods and *snap* he activates the sound formation once again.

Now, the shop is filled with soft sounds of leaves dancing gently on the breeze and birds chirping. The music also changes to a classical guitar piece, and while the song is still slow, is in the major scale and therefore sounds livelier.

"Wow…" Fumio closes his eyes, his senses getting tricked. He then exhales, expecting the smell of the forest, but the next moment, "Nope. No smell of leaves.", he says in disappointment.

'Mortals in this realm are difficult to satisfy.' Red shakes his head. 'But that makes them creative …' He then snaps his finger once more, and the ambient music is gone.

"Alright. You know what? Get out and talk to that dessert bar you were talking about. The members of Musume46 reserved the whole day tomorrow. They might enjoy sweet food." He tells Fumio.

"T-they're coming here?... Tomorrow?..." Fumio is stunned by the news.

"Yes. So, go. Arrange their snacks." Red shoos him.

"O-okay boss… Hehehehe." Fumio immediately gets on his feet excitedly and soon, he is gone, only the sound of his wooden slippers can be heard fading away to the distance.

"…" Red can only smile.

"So… Smell of leaves huh… A good idea. Might as well add more olfactory illusions." He then gets to work around Fumio's idea.

~

"… So, that's that then." A man in his early 40s, says to Fumio.

The man, is Yusei, is the owner of the dessert bar that Fumio worked part-time for, for three years.

"We can do that, right?" Fumio asks again, just to be sure.

"Yes. But you also said that you won't be serving our desserts in their packaging, right?" Yusei asks.

"Yeah. I mean, a fancy desert in a plastic disposable container? It just doesn't look good." Fumio says.

"Okay…" Yusei rubs his chin. "But you should tell your customers that our store makes their snacks.", he says.

"That's no problem. But boss. Can you give us a discount, at least? For the old times' sake?" Fumio asks.

"Fine, fine." Yusei scoffs. "You were a good employee and didn't cost me anything while working for three years here." He says.

"Nice…" Fumio smiles. "I thank you too boss for taking me in when I needed it the most. Trust me boss, something will happen tomorrow that will increase your sales." He promises.

"Whatever. Instead, give me a discount if ever I go visit your massage shop." Yusei says.

"I'll… talk to my boss." Fumio almost winces at the request.

"Heheh… I guess you're still a scrub huh? Don't worry about it then." Yusei says, not expecting a free massage in the first place. Helping out a good acquaintance however is enough for him.

.

"♫Hmmm.. Yeah, baby… With a paper cup♫" Fumio is now walking back to Muscle Master, his mood improving once again that he is contributing to the shop.

"oohhh… Arina-chan enjoying the ice cream cake I'll serve her…" His mind is already running wild with imagination for tomorrow.

Suddenly, "Ooooh. Our Fumio looks like he's enjoying life~" Fumio is startled as a male voice reverberates too close to his ears for his comfort.

Finding the voice familiar, his heart drops and a burst of adrenaline courses through his veins. He bends his knees, pushes his right feet to the ground, his left foot making the same movement a split second after, making himself move forward in a speed an average sprint or hop cannot achieve.

"And it looks like you still use the footwork of our clan." The voice continues to follow next to his ears, however, telling Fumio that there is no use running.

Fumio can only hastily turn around to find the last acquaintance he wants to speak with. "H-haha… Hideki nii-san. Hello?" He says in anxious greeting.

"Huh… Don't look so scared, cousin. You don't want attention on us." Hideki says as he puts his arm around Fumio's shoulders.

With the 184 cm tall and buff Hideki being much larger than the 170 cm tall and slender Fumio, Fumio can only let Hideki drag him for a walk. Hideki, being also a class D physical enhanced superioris, helps in overwhelming the non-superioris Fumio.

"N-nii-san. W-what brings you here?" Fumio asks anxiously.

"I'm just here to see my little cousin… Oh. Why don't we speak somewhere more private?" Hideki says while he leads the way.

"…" Fumio starts shaking in fear after Hideki lead the way to a deserted building alley. He wants to run or scream for help, but he simply cannot risk angering Hideki.

"I didn't like it." Hideki starts as he pushes Fumio against a wall.

"… What do you mean?" Fumio asks.

Hideki's face slowly wears a sinister grin as he gets to Fumio's face. "You executing footwork 12. A useless fuck like you… making it look so useless." He says.

"I-it just happened, nii-san. What am I supposed to do?" Fumio says, trying to stop himself from dry heaving out of disgust from Hideki's terrible breath.

"Oh? You know how to talk back now. Finally growing some spine?" Hideki says as he gently slaps Fumio's face.

"…" Fumio goes silent.

"Heh… Spineless as ever." Hideki steps back from Fumio.

"Oohhh. Nice kimono. Where'd you get it? Does the family dress the useless members in nice clothes now?" He then grabs and caresses the fabric of Fumio's kimono. He then notices something amiss.

"You don't have your wakizashi… So, you really were kicked out of the clan, huh?" He smirks as he looks back up again at Fumio's eyes.

Fumio also notices that Hideki does not have his, making him realize that Hideki is still not accepted back in the clan. "I-I left. I wasn't kicked out." Fumio does not address his observations however but instead corrects Hideki.

"What did you say?" Hideki however is in disbelief of what he just heard.

"I said, left the clan on my own. I am no longer carry the Hasegawa name." Fumio clarifies himself.

"You left on your accord? You? HAHAHA!" Hideki cackles in anger and suddenly, he dashes forward, grabs Fumio's neck and pins Fumio against the wall.

"You think you're better than me?" He asks through gritted teeth.

"W-what?" Fumio, while confused, is feeling more frustrated and angrier at the unreasonable actions of his mad cousin.

"Who are you to leave the family?" Hideki says.

"I-I was no one." Fumio says, gathering his courage. "No one is missing me even among my blood. Me leaving has nothing to do with you."

"…" Hideki freezes at Fumio's words before a grin appears on his face once again.

"Well… You should have been kicked out." He says as he gives Fumio a punch in the gut.

"Ooof.." Air is knocked out of Fumio's lungs and he is forced to his knees.