With large sums of money deposited one after another, Chihaya was in high spirits.
Or more precisely — she was escaping into euphoria to avoid thinking about the grudge she’d bought.
“……o-okay”
Cap pulled low, mask on, Chihaya checks the time and steps out of the apartment.
Just past eight in the evening. Not a soul walking the street, just the back of a police officer pedaling past on a bicycle patrol.
A good time to avoid being seen.
Today, Chihaya is attempting her first time going out since arriving in the New Frontier Development Zone. This shut-in social catastrophe who gets even her groceries delivered online and has them left at the door without any human contact — this is an adventure of a lifetime.
For the record, Actors frequently hole up in their basement soundproofed rooms for extended jobs, so contactless delivery is standard practice.
Hands in pockets, Chihaya sets off along the edge of the road.
The New Frontier Development Zone is vast — comparable in area to the twenty-three wards of Tokyo.
Most of it, however, is restricted to the public: Actanoid research and development districts, weapons factories, Self-Defense Force training grounds, large-scale facilities for studying New Frontier flora and fauna.
Still, a bus service runs along dedicated roads as public transit, and entertainment districts have formed around the bus stops.
That’s where Chihaya is headed. She’s only eighteen, so alcohol is off the table — but she can still walk into a slightly fancy, slightly pricey restaurant.
“a p-private room, please. Non-smoking. A private room——”
She mutters the words to herself under her breath like a rehearsal, and laughs nervously.
She’d looked everything up online and already picked out the restaurant. She’d studied the menu carefully enough that the moment they hand her one, she could order by pointing without a moment’s hesitation.
She’d even checked the private room availability. Couldn’t bring herself to call ahead and make a reservation — social anxiety — but that’s fine.
I can do this, Chihaya thinks, utterly convinced she’s about to win dinner. No — triumph.
What could possibly stand between her and victory? Nothing.
“——hey, you alone? I know this place doing a couples discount, wanna come? This one.”
A guy — the type — shoulders a phone showing a restaurant website and tries to put an arm around her. Chihaya sidesteps neatly, and immediately turns her back on the entertainment district and runs.
“I can’t do this!”
Defeated by a pick-up artist — a creature of maximal social confidence — Chihaya’s adventure ends.
Incidentally, the restaurant on that guy’s phone was the exact place she’d had her eye on. There was no couples discount there — but if he eventually gets lucky and she runs into him there, that would be infinitely worse than not going.
“why……”
Why does this keep happening, she trudges home, and on the way she walks straight past a ramen shop she’d spotted. Even if it’s just ordering and paying, she doesn’t have it in her to talk to a server anymore.
Her stomach makes a small unhappy noise. She pushes down the hopelessness and ducks into a convenience store she finds.
Grabs a prosciutto salad and an instant pumpkin soup and brings them to the register, then realizes.
She hadn’t brought a bag, because she’d been planning to eat out.
“um, s-sorry. a bag……”
“Of course, I’ll add one. Would you like chopsticks?”
“please”
“I’ll put a pair in the bag.”
“th-thank you……”
She pays and makes a quick exit.
That clerk is definitely going to remember my face, she thinks, and feels worse, and walks home to her apartment.
Back in the living room, staring at a dinner nothing like what she’d planned, Chihaya picks up her phone.
At this point, she decides with an odd intensity, she’s going to email a private-room restaurant for a reservation and arrange a taxi pickup by email while she’s at it.
But the fully private-room restaurants are either membership-only or booked out a year in advance.
“……fine. I’ll let it go for today.”
She mutters it like a concession and opens Actors’ Quest.
It’s spite-fueled, partly — but she might as well take a job while she’s feeling reckless. She knows if she sleeps on it she’ll go back to agonizing endlessly.
But the job board kicks her while she’s down.
Combat jobs are flooding the page. And the ones highlighted in red with “Recommended for you!” are exclusively bounties on bandit Actanoids.
Even the app thinks she’s the Bomber at this point.
“wh-why……”
She just wants to work in peace, she thinks, head in her hands.
But if she keeps scrolling stubbornly downward, non-combat jobs eventually start appearing. One of them catches her eye.
The job: Photograph scenic locations in the New Frontier to create posters and calendars for attracting investment and recruiting personnel.
The required photography locations are even listed publicly. One of them is on the far side of the Wakagawa Upper Mountain Range — past where she’d taken down the Berlet.
What a peaceful, civilized job.
Surely spectacular New Frontier scenery is exactly what her battered spirit needs right now — the grandeur of untouched nature seeping into her soul and restoring some sense of calm.
And as a bonus, taking on cultural jobs like this should shift what the board shows her away from combat-only.
Alright, I’ll take it — Chihaya hits the accept button.
Then a prompt she’s never seen before appears: Would you like to make this a public acceptance?
Apparently, to avoid multiple Actors submitting the same photo for the poster, the job is set up for public acceptance. Whichever Actor submits photos first gets them selected.
Racing to the same location is a waste of time and effort. Chihaya selects public acceptance without hesitation.
——Having completely forgotten about the grudge she’d bought.