IX. Ara Decides to Manage a Pub

Modern Earth, 20xx+3

“Ah by the way Landlady Ingrid.”

“Yes, what is it?”

“Any news about Fred?”

“Ah, yeah he’s about to go home tomorrow.”

“Okay then. Uhm… About the thing we talked about…”

“It’s fine, really. Of course he would be shock. But as long as he understands your situation then he’ll be able to accept it. That’s why you need a day with him, right?”

“Yes… Thank you very much Landlady Ingrid.”

“You don’t need to be so formal about it. If you insist then just cook for the afternoon this weekend the whole apartment complex body.”

After a little bit more of talking, Ara dropped the call. The one active on her that moment was aneki.

It had been more than a week since Seria abducted Fred and locked him up somewhere and wouldn’t even let them contact him. During the time that the two assistants weren’t able to work with Fred, Old man and Seria arranged things within just the two of them so that they could still work under Anemone.

And for Ara, that’s only the list of her activities for the day. Before it becomes too late to travel during the afternoons, Ara excuses herself so she could make it in time for her training with her previous manager.

Well I guess tomorrow’s the day. I need to let imouto rest. She’ll feel more exhausted tomorrow than how I felt this previous week.

Ara(aneki) put back her phone at her locker and closed it. She then looked down on her body and let out a long sigh. She just finished changing. The usual loose shirt she could wear comfortably when working with Fred looked way to childish compared to the medium fit dress she was wearing.

She approached the mirror and looked at herself.

“God, what are you doing, me… I remember I swore never to look like this again…”

The dress she wore looked very well on her. Her very deadly asset: her body curves, immediately went visible as soon as she went out of her way to put on a dress like that. She was ready to seduce a thousand of men once she went out of the locker room and make her way to the floor area.

“You are the clothes you wear… huh?”

“Hmmm. For your case yeah, but for the other you, not really. Not even an inch”

The manager was at the door.

“I told you to knock.”

“What’s the purpose of the master key if I couldn’t do stuff like these?”

“Shut up. If you’re just a normal male, then I’d given you a roundhouse kick already.”

“Oho, you knew my preferences well. This is your fifth day training already. It’s about time you get used to that manager attire.”

Ara blushed a bit.

“But why did you ask me to wear this all of a sudden? The previous days it was just like a manager’s suit like yours.”

“But doesn’t it feel nostalgic? Also, this would be just a sudden favor since you’ve pretty much completed my training and would be ready to manage my establishment. Why don’t you go out there and do some floor tasks for a while?”

“Eh—EEEEH???!!!”

It was unnatural for Ara(aneki) to get surprised like that. Even back at Fred’s studio, her solid composure was like an impenetrable wall even for Kyrie. That moment she let out an apparently cute and vulnerable side of her that only the manager knew.

“I felt like I won’t be seeing that precious expression from my sweet pea for a long time. So for tonight, I want you to do some floor tasks. Don’t worry, just do your usual thing. It’s been a routine for you already anyways. And maybe when it gets less busy, I’ll be introducing you later to our regulars as the next manager.”

Ara held her left cheek with her hard and think for a while.

“Hmmm, sounds fair.”

“Okay. I’ll return to my office for a while to do some paperwork, so just hit me up there if in case something happens, alright?”

“Yeah.”

The manager just came to remind her of that night’s activities. Afterwards she became all alone again.

“Nostalgic, huh?”

That dress she was wearing reminded her of her state two years ago before she started working under Fred.

She was once a known girl at the red lights. But that was not in a good way. She was really good at escorting customers, but was never really booked for a room. The regulars at their establishment were not really that pushy on booking for girls. But there were really some rough instances where the manager covered up for her at times.

She remembered something she didn’t want to. She shook her head in attempt to brush them off.

“Ugh!! Cringe!!”

She slapped both of her cheeks.

“Ara, Ara, Ara!! It was to keep this girl’s purity. You’ve done it for imouto. Everything you’ve done was for imouto. Always remember that. Life could have been better if you just threw away your virginity here but remember: you have to. You needed to protect that smile.”

There standing at the front of the mirror she remembered something from a week ago.

~~~

“Are you really fine with this?”

“Yes. If I was the one out there right now I felt like she’d be forcing her way out and beat the pathetic me like how I’ve always been hard on her.”

“But she may be reaching her limit already. Why are you doing this to her? I’d really force my way out if I felt that the situation will just do harm to her, you hear me?”

“Don’t worry. I’d be the one to do it if that happens. For now, I put my trust on her overcoming this. She need to. Manager was right. Keeping her out from the truth will just make her weak and weaker the longer we keep it from her…

…But I couldn’t be the one to do it. That’s why I’ll make sure to apologize to her later. And whatever her decision would be, we’re going to be fine with it. I suppose you’re fine with that, right?”

“And when did I ever said no to the both of you anyways?”

“Thanks.”

~~~

That was the scene from a week ago at their shared room of consciousness when imouto and the manager were talking.

Remembering that scene made her stand still for a long while. She didn’t notice that she had been staring at the mirror for too long. That triggered another trait within them which she had yet to overcome: her narcissistic trait.

“Hue…huehehehe…”

Crap crap crap!! I don’t have time for this.

Before matters get worse and she got infatuated to her self-image again, she immediately rushed out the locker room and towards the floor area.

---

The night was rough. It was one of the most eventful ones she had for a while since Fred was abducted by Seria. Their establishment closes at 4am. Without a tiny bit of rest, she helped the manager at a few more housekeeping before she was finally able to call it a day.

It was a busy weekday at the city so she ended up finding herself within the wave of people getting to their work during rush hour. But working at night shift is quite different. You get to go home the same time as others just need to get to their work. As the train she went on got further away from the city, the lesser the number of people inside the train went. That way she was able to rest a bit more before her target station.

She was able to get back at the apartment complex around 8am.

There she saw Seria’s car parked.

Seria was checking the trunk for any more luggage after dropping Fred. Any tool that wouldn’t be returned to him might affect the target deadlines so she was really careful to check them. At the back door of the car was Ingrid, dragging the comfortably sleepy Fred out of the car.

Ingrid noticed Ara as she got near and shouted at her.

“Oh Ara, you just got back. Good work for today.”

It was not usually her nature to greet Ara when she got back from work. But seeing Ara work the hardest for the past week, while juggling her imouto-aneki-third in and out, with a very little amount of rest made her give Ara a compensation for 24/7 of hard work.

Ara at her aneki mode, thanked Ingrid with a bow.

She then approached the car to help Ingrid extract Fred out. She knew that Fred was just acting childishly scared due to the amount of sermon he would get from Ingrid as she got out of the car and dragged towards her unit.

“Come on Fred, man up. I’ll help you get dragged out of here so Landlady Ingrid would be able to scold you properly, real-hard. I won’t be able to help you this time.”

“That doesn’t sound very reassuring for somebody who offers help!! NOOOOOO DON’T DRAG ME OUT NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!”

Then a flying Harisen (+10 boomerang mode) hit his head really hard and knocked him out. That equipment had a 100% critical on Fred so again, his soul went out of his mouth again and the two were able to finally drag him out on Seria’s car.

The two dragging out Fred’s corpse from the car looked back at the non-other than unit-8’s veranda where Kyrie was standing, annoyed from having her slumber interrupted due to the ruckus they’re causing.

Ara then looked at Ingrid and she just gave a sigh in response.

“That’s odd. Are you out on an early morning shopping district stroll?”

Seria, unaware of her current situation, asked her why she was out and just got back at that time of the day. She should be expecting her to come out of the apartment complex just like Kyrie did.

“Ah. Yes. Sorry for coming out of nowhere, but I had to run some personal errands from my previous work, which Fred and I will be filling you in with the details later.”

“Hmmm… I got the gist of the situation. And to be honest, I’m more worried about him. He just got out of his slump. Will he be okay with you gone?”

Ara got surprised. There was really never an instance that would have led to Seria getting an idea about her current situation. Nevertheless, just a little bit of a slip gave Seria all the information she needed to fully understand the situation.

“Ah… About that, I was just about to ask Fred about it.”

“Take your time. Just tell him to contact me if in case he need me to request for your replacement.”

“O-okay… Thanks for bringing him back today.”

“No need to thank me. It was all his effort. He just needed a call from somebody. Really. If you’re going to thank me, thank your landlady instead.”

“Fu fu fu. Seems like I’ve got another favor to repay.”

Ara teased and smirked at Ingrid who immediately looked away while blushing. She then followed with a thumbs up.

After fully the placed Fred’s unconscious body at front of Ingrid’s unit, the three of them ladies at Ingrid’s apartment complex saw Seria off.

---

“Urgh… Urrrhm… GASPS!! NOOOOOOOOO!! DOOOOOOON’T!!!”

THUD!

“Stop it, you’re out of the car already. Quit being too noisy because it’s still early in the morning.

But the one that woke up Fred that moment was Ara.

“Huh? Ara? Why?”

“The way you make it sound like waking up with us by your side is an extremely rare case pisses me off.”

“Of course it is!! I should wake up alone! That’s my normal mornings!”

Fred checked the surroundings. He didn’t wake up at either: his unit or his studio. But rather, he found himself to another unfamiliar room. And that was Ara’s living room. He was laid down at her small length couch while Ara was at the dining table, having a cup of coffee.

“Relax. It’s just my unit.”

“But why?! Is this another form of abduction?!! I just barely managed to escape Seria’s cabin and now I’m being confined again at another room?!!! NOOOOOO!!!”

“I told you to relax. I’ve got Landlady Ingrid’s consent to borrow you for a day. Trust me it’ll be just a day. We’ll continue to work on the chapter tomorrow. For today, please accompany me at some place.”

It was just Fred’s accumulated stress that made him act like that. But now after being able to recollect his proper thoughts, he was able to assess the situation properly. What Ara had been talking about was the long-awaited answer he needed from Ara about the situation from her previous work.

“I see. It’s about that thing with your previous manager. So you’re finally taking a choice, huh?”

After being agitated for a while, Fred now looed calm and prepared.

“By the way. What about Aneki? Is she resting? Is she good with your decision too? What about the other one?”

“Eh—What? Bu-but why?”

The one Fred was talking to was the imouto. And she was supposed to play the role of aneki. Just when she thought she had portrayed a perfect impersonation, Fred still saw through her.

“Come on, how many times you think you have switched back and forth on me. Do you really think aneki would say ‘please’ on me? She would rather order me around. Like a boss.”

“Uwaaaaah—I told you aneki this won’t wooooork!!”

“Why, are you being forced to doing this?”

“Ah no! Don’t get me wrong. This thing is all on me. Though the decision about the matter with aneki’s previous work, it’s a decision by the three of us.”

Fred looked at her and smiled.

“Then that’s better.”

But Ara thought it was already over. In fact, Fred was just getting started.

“But look how long it took you to arrive at a decision. Don’t you know how hard the other two of you worked to keep you from getting involved in this? If you would get yourself involved, then you should’ve done so at the very first place. If I am to compare you to a manga character you’ve been a beta for too long! If you already know the situation with your aneki then you should have initiated a talk with her. She might have been waiting for a flag and you’re supposed to be the one that set that. We’ve always worked on with chapters like these. There wouldn’t be any progress and the story will keep on circling on same events if no one would take initiative. Besides—”

“Stop-stop-STOOOOOOP!! I get it, I get it already… Uwaaaah why am I the one getting scolded.”

For the very first time Ara(imouto) managed to voice out to somebody and that alone made Fred stop by surprise.

“Jeez… And here I am, doing my very best here. I still don’t get any praise.”

“Sigh..”

Fred stood up and patted the dejected pouting Ara’s head while looking away from embarrassment.

“Sorry. You did a great job.”

That alone was able to completely cheer her up.

“Hmp. That alone won’t please me. Treat me some food later.”

“Yes, yes. So, what have the three of you decided?”

It had been weeks since Fred confronted Ara(aneki) about the same issue and told her to take her time to think about it and now it’s time to hear her answer.

“But before all of that. I want you to accompany me to some place.”

“Huh?”

“Yes. And three places at that. I borrowed you from Landlady Ingrid this whole day.”

“Come again?”