A flick of a cigarette lit up the wrinkled face of an old man as the sun’s light vanished behind the building before him. He puffed the cigarette and exhaled the smoke as he walked down the street, turning to look at a store as he passed. Two boys jumped back and forth at one another, one with a broom and one with a mop, and both dressed in aprons. They were workers. “Damn it!” he said, throwing the cigarette and stomping on it as he made his way to the building.

“You’re pretty good, Tachibana! I guess those kendo stories weren’t lies after all!” Takeda said as he lunged for Tsuna with a broomstick.

Tsuna parried the attack with the mop in his hands, pushing Takeda back. “Here’s another trick I learned!” Tsuna swept the mop across the ground, releasing the water within it across the floor, then tossed a paper towel roll at Takeda. Careful of the slippery floor, Takeda stepped back and deflected the paper towel into the air. Tsuna rushed him, sliding across the water. Takeda jumped onto the store counter to avoid the attack and back down to strike from above. Tsuna raised his mop in defense and stopped the attack in time. The attack’s strength pressed Tsuna against the shelf, tipping it over and causing the contents to fall on the floor. A thundering voice filled the room.

“Quit slacking off, you disobedient imbeciles!”

The sweaty boys turned toward the door and looked at the old man who they recognized as their boss. Both dropped their cleaning tools.

“Is this what I deserve for hiring the likes of you two? Goofing off, ruining my store behind my back. People told me not to hire two delinquents, and I’m an idiot for not listening to them! Clean this mess now or both of your jobs will pay for these damages!”

Tsuna’s gut twisted, sweat quickly forming on his head. He leaned forward, snapping his hands to his side. “Sorry, Mr. Amagi!”

Takeda followed his lead. “Sorry, Mr. Amagi!”

Amagi placed his thumb and index finger between on the stem of his nose, then left the building again.

***

Time passed, the moon rose, and the two finished cleaning the store while Mr. Amagi checked out a customer. “Thank you for shopping with us. Be sure to return if there is anything else you need.” The man gazed around the store with a pleasant smile on their face. They leaned in close to him.

“You have those two working here? And they’re actually working? I have to say sir, there’s something special about you if you can turn two delinquents into functioning members of society.”

Mr. Amagi’s eyebrows furrowed, the look on his face almost appearing angry. “Those kids work hard, and they deserve every cent they make. Despite their reputations, they’re good people when you get to know them.”

“The dark one. That’s Detective Satsuki’s son? The same one who’d been stealing from locals a few years ago?”

A reluctant nod came from Mr. Amagi, followed by him crossing his arms and his attention turned to Tsuna.

“Pity, a woman as esteemed as her has a child like that. I’d disown him if he were my son.”

“Get out.”

“Excuse me?”

“Get out of my store, don’t come back either!”

Disgusted, the man left the store. Mr. Amagi’s expression remained unchanged, his eyes drifting over to his two workers who were hard at work. “Tachibana.” frustration came from his voice while he walked out of the door. “Come outside.”

Tsuna looked up from the shelves, blood leaving his cheeks as his heart sank into his stomach. “Yes, sir!” Placing an item on the shelf before he rushed outside the door. To his left, the smell of a cigarette loomed over him. Mr. Amagi already had a cigarette in his mouth, tying his fading black hair into a ponytail. In a blur, his fist flew towards Tsuna, stopping next to his cheek. Was he trying to hit me? Tsuna stood frozen as his eyes locked onto Mr. Amagi’s. Slowly, the elder pulled his fist back.

“It’s like I told them. You’ve become a changed man. At the moment you realized that punch missed, you could’ve dropped me. The old Tsuna would’ve. You grew up, saw your flaws, wanted to adapt, and despite your attempts, the people still reject you. The self-awareness you have is beyond your years, so I am sure you’ve pondered this or even came to one of two conclusions. Your skin color, your past, both.”

Tsuna’s confusion left as quickly as it came. He took a balanced stance and folded his arms. “The people will hate me, regardless. They don’t take explanation, everything is an excuse for them. Shame is their weapon of choice, and the people of Yanagawa have beaten me down for years. Skin I was born with, something I had no control over, was the reason they hated me.”

A deep huff of smoke escaped Mr. Amagi’s lips as he pumped his arms. “No, no! You became selfish. Instead of taking their hate and using it to overcome them, you stole from them, fought them. Why would they not hate you?”

“I don’t need them to. I’m fine on my own.”

“That’s a lie, Tsuna. You know you couldn’t live without that girlfriend of yours. When she came into your life, you turned around. Admitted your mistakes and sought redemption amongst the people who shamed you. Understand shame is the reason people keep along the right path.”

“What did you call me for?”

The look on Tsuna’s face tensed, his fist tightening. Mr. Amagi removed the cigarette from his mouth, tossed it on the ground, and stepped on it. “It was a few weeks ago. I overheard you speaking to your mother on the phone about moving out because you saw yourself as a burden on her. Now, I normally wouldn’t get into the business of my employees, but after the few years of work you’ve done for me, I stuck my toe in. Your change made me do it. Becoming a part of our functioning society, so I did you a favor. I looked around the area to find a place for your girlfriend that has proven very difficult. They ask who the place is for, I tell them, and they deny it. Your past decisions have set you up to be someone who will lose this game we call life, but I’m on your side.”

Tension in Tsuna’s face eased as he fought back the emotions that clustered in his throat. “Mr. Amagi... I appreciate it. But, I can do this myself. I have to.”

Mr. Amagi shook his head. “No, you can’t. I’ve had an eye on you since you and your mother moved here. You’ve had your back pressed against the wall time and time again. From the way things are here, you’ve never had a real chance, and the odds kept stacking against you as you got older. That dark skin, you being fatherless, you’d become a target in a place where there aren’t too many like yourself. I’ve known you, or rather I’ve known about you, before we even met. The trouble you caused earned you a reputation. You soon became ‘that’ troublemaker that couldn’t escape because you were the only lily in a rose field, so to speak. I learned of all the things you had been doing and hope you too weren’t hurting your mother’s heart, poor Satsuki. Once you began working for me, though, I saw they were all wrong. I think it’s time that you also show them.”

A brief huff escaped Tsuna’s lips before he inhaled it back through his nose. His eyes fixed on the older, shorter man as he asked him a question. “Do you pity me?” It was silent, only loud enough for himself to hear. He said it again. “Do you pity me!?” This time with more heart. “People have pitied me all my life, and I’ve proven all of them who have wrong. I’m planning, taking time to map my future so that it’s better than anyone expected from me! My classmates, my worthless father, I’ll be a better person than all of them!” Out of breath, his shoulders relaxed as his head tilted further down towards the concrete.

Mr. Amagi grinned, laughing at first to himself, then out loud. “How long has it been since you’ve been that honest with yourself? I see it now and this is the clearest I’ve ever seen you. Looking too far into the future will cause you nothing but stress and anxiety. Living in the past will keep you there. Live for the now, Tsuna. Take advantage of this job that I offered you. You can choose a path that is maybe not a successful one in society’s eyes, but how it looks in your own eyes matters. Take it from a man who own’s a convenience store and is damn proud of it even though my peers had higher expectations. It’s all up to how you present yourself. And I hope you be that change so that you can be happy with your wife.”

Tsuna’s pulse doubled. “Wife?” He was like a deer in headlights.

“You’ve picked up a lot of the other workers’ shifts, yet you always seem to be out of money. Now this could be some addictive habit you picked up, or you could save up for something for that inseparable partner of yours.”

“What gave it away?”

He stroked his beard. “An educated guess. Remember that I was young too. For your sake, I’ll consider today a minor slip up. You’re twenty-one, still young, but it’s about time you mature into the man you would want to be.” A lashing cough came from Mr. Amagi, Tsuna patting his back.

“You should take some of that advice and ease up on the cigarette smoking, Mr. Amagi.”

“I don’t need that shit from you. I’m a grown man! I need a smoke because of my employees driving me up the wall. Breaking my shit, ruining my store, but I’m ranting now. I am glad you could listen to everything I had to say. Little by little, you’re maturing already and that makes what I do worth it.”

“What you do?” Suddenly, it clicked. “You’re not hiring us to rehabilitate us, are you!?”

He pressed his index finger against his lips in a slow gesture. “I think you’ve worked enough today. It’s about 23:00, so you should get yourself home. Ryunosuke should be on his way to help with the rest.”

“But-. “

“No, buts! Shoo! I expect you back tomorrow afternoon. Same time as usual.” He pointed at the apron Tsuna was wearing and held his hand open. “Look into some community service, cleaning one of the local shrines, maybe. If word gets out of you doing good deeds then, I might have a gentleman who’d be willing to sell you a suitable home you’d be interested in. I should have the details tomorrow.”

A smile stretched across Tsuna’s face as he removed the apron and placed it in the elders’ hands. “Thank you for everything, Mr. Amagi.”

Mr. Amagi waved his hand and proceeding back into the store. As he opened and closed the door, Tsuna heard him yell,

“Takeda, you disrespectful shit!”