Empty Seats

«⟨ Empty Seats ⟩»

It was about the size of a classroom, with 5 long tables to the left and right. Each with 5 more seats each. And out of all of them–50 in total–only two seats were taken.

They both sat next to each other, in the first row of the left table near the center. Nearest to the edge was Hazel–the girl who gave him a hard time just now–and next to her was another girl with long silver hair.

Did something get stuck in his eyes? Or maybe the classroom wasn't lit enough? Surely the right wall–which pretty much consisted of windows to the outside–had illuminated the room more than enough for Chitose to see.

And yet…

“Uh… Is this all our staff? Just the two of you?...” Chitose asked, facing the two.

“..n–no…”

The one who answered was the girl in long silver hair. Her voice was barely heard. Like a little bird chirps. Thankfully Chitose was blessed with good ears to be able to hear even a speck of her voice. Maybe a shy one?...

She wore a white jacket like that of a winter expedition they used to wear up in the north. The one that's thick, had polyester insulation, and those random black tags to it. Isn't she hot wearing that here?...

Her round pure-black eyes seemed like it could burst into tears at any moment–pretty much the opposite to Hazel’s tiger eyes. Somehow, he felt the need to speak gently to her.

“Right…..”

Now that I think about it…

Looking at the backpack that sat beneath the silver girl’s seat, a bunch of stuff can be seen within. However, none of them was familiar to Chitose. But he could tell those must've been something like gadgets and stuff.

First a girl with a blade…

Now a girl with gadgets…

He already thought about it, but now that he had actually seen them directly, he could tell that,

“Excuse me if I'm asking something stupid here… But… are you guys actually the automatas?...”

The room fell silent for a bit, with only the humming of the fans above.

“...y-yeah…” the silver girl said.

“You got a problem with that?” Hazel was mildly annoyed.

“N-No, just thinking that's pretty cool… that's all…”

Then the room fell silent, yet again.

……

“Anyway, where are the others then?”

“...o-out somewhere….”

“I see….. So… is it normal to not have a rollcall… or?...”

…….

Silent, yet again…

This is getting nowhere…

Ugh… How frustrating…

Chitose sat down on the seat near the whiteboard, and opened up the note app within his phone. The two automatas didn't even bother to look at him, just minding their own business.

Let's factorize this…

[1] The automatas should be here, but only two came. One was pretty foul-mouthed, the other was timid. And both of them are giving me a hard time.

[2] The chief was a laidback guy. Zero management on my enrollment. And didn't give an official announcement to the staff in this branch–or did he?

[3] The facilities are……. let's not talk about it.

[4] A.P.S is a widely known department, and also a highly valued one at that. Always appears like a professional in the news. They wouldn't just turn a blind eye to mismanagement.

[5] A job offer with loose requirements. And only I even bothered with applying for it.

[Conclusion] The main problem was scaled down to the management within this particular branch. Not the A.P.S upper echelon.

[Theory] This branch has a problematic bunch of automatas, and the A.P.S couldn't just get rid of them. So they just kept on hiring people over and over lowering the requirements each time. And the chiefs are pretty much fed up with these guys to not even care anymore.

Well, at least that's how I would interpret this situation. There are some holes to it, but for now, this will do.

He saved the note inside a folder, before turning back to the girls. If just being a good guy wouldn't be enough to persuade these two, then how about the other automatas he hadn't met yet?

Slam!

The silence was broken by the sudden bang of the sliding door. Three girls walked in.

Oh? Maybe some late-participants?

“And then you know what she did!”

“LOL! That's soo like her!”

“And you know what's even funnier!”

The gang of girls just walked past, ignoring Chitose's existence as they went to the front table on the right side of the room.

As they were busy talking to each other, one of them reached out into the table's inner compartment, seemingly reaching onto something within.

When the girl had grabbed onto what she was looking for–a small sling bag–they walked back towards the door.

All in all, it was rude. Chitose thought about stopping them, but in the end decided not to. Thinking how obvious and clear they had made their intention on ignoring him, it might as well be their declaration that said, ‘Don’t talk to us.’

Clearly this place was messed up in one way or another. So his current best strategy was to at least grab himself an ally or two that could help him in re-establishing this place first before he could do any drastic changes.

Man… What a pain… But if he wanted to keep this work for time to come, then he needed to thread carefully around these coworkers of his–the automatas.

“Must be easy to laze around huh…”

All of the sudden, everyone's attention turned towards Hazel, who had just said those words. Even the girls who were about to leave the room stopped in their tracks.

Oh? What's this?

The room fell silent yet again…

Hazel's arms were folded, and she was wandering her eyes to the windows outside–as if she were chilling. But clearly, those words were meant to tick someone off.

I feel like a fight is going to break here…

The silver-haired girl seemed to try looking away from what's about to happen–somewhat scared of getting herself involved. While two of the girls who were in the group, eyed their–perhaps–honcho with a concerned look.

The honcho girl–with wavy purple hair that reached her waist–turned her head to look at Hazel. Her eyes peeked before her hair, giving a sting disgusting look to the nonchalant girl.

“Aww… Did someone wake up on the bad side today?” The honcho girl said.

Despite the smile on her face, a hint of sarcasm was clearly trying to set Hazel off.

MAN… WHAT A PAIIINNNNNN…