Chapter 11: Generously Greedy【P3】

Sora

“W-what!? What do you mean ‘used up a hundred percent’!?” My raised fist shakes in the air.

The girl behind the register presses a hand to her mouth, failing to hide her giggle. “I’m sorry, but your bank declined the payment. That usually means you used up your entire budget for the week. I can’t help you.”

“B-but…” My raised fist freezes, hanging in the air like a broken claw machine crane.

“You’re a first-year, right?”

“And what if I am!?” I point a finger directly toward her nose.

“Well, it’s quite impressive that you already burned through your week budget on day two. How many things did you already buy, an entire lobster buffet or something?” She lets out a soft snicker.

I begin tallying my recent purchases on my fingers, only to yank them back when I realize I need a second hand. “That is none of your business! Can’t I just pay later?”

“No can do, sorry.” She gives me an unapologetic shrug.

Grumbling, I filter out the worst of my silent curses and only let a few muttered ones slip through.

“Fine!” I brandish the failed purchase in the air like a weapon. “I didn’t want it anyway, for your information!”

Giving the inflated pool duck a goodbye kiss, I hurl it back — smacking her square in the face with it.

“Oof. T-thank you?”

I storm out of the shop, making sure she hears my every step.

“Ah! Sor—” Shin’s smile freezes as we make eye contact.

He frantically sprints off in the opposite direction without looking back.

“Did you find anything, Sora?” Masaki asks, a half-melted ice cream bar dangling from his mouth.

“Don’t!” I thrust a flat palm toward him. “Talk. About. It.” He glances over at Daiki with widened eyes.

Side-stepping them both, I break into a hurried march and whip out my phone to open the map.

Bank… Bank… Oros Bank, huh?

Zephyr Bank!

“Shin!” Masaki calls out to him from behind me. “Wrong way! We’re going this way! Apparently...”

“Wow, where are you going?” Daiki jogs to catch up with me. “First you insist we stop at this shop like it’s some life-threatening situation, and now you just waltz right past us like we’re street performers. What gives??”

“Don’t,” I mumble, keeping my rapid pace steady while staring intently at the navigation map. “I just need to fix this quickly so I don’t have to spend my days living like a—”

Sayoko

“...street dog desperately seeking shelter during a once-in-a-century blizzard.” My voice pitches up. “Or a baby rabbit pressed inside the mouth of a wolf, waiting to be put out of its misery after an exhausting chase. A humpback whale that—”

“Yes, yes. I think I understood you at the first… example.” He looks down at his side, takes a long breath, then turns back.

“But Taiga, the humpback whale is really clarifying.”

“Don’t worry about all that, this is not some sort of prison. You will always have access to the bare minimum at all times. Just not...”

His words trail off as his attention goes back to the tablet, leaving the sentence hanging between us.

He pinches the bridge of his nose. “It is very simple actually. As you may have noticed—”

“I have not, Tanaka.”

He widens his eyes, intensifying his stare on the tablet.

“—THAT this school has a wide variety of products and services! It has a quite generous budget, all of course made possible by our efficient system, saving the government a respectable thirty billion yen. Naturally, that wealth flows back into the island itself.”

He holds a hand over his chest, his posture straightening. “And, of course, every single item is meticulously ranked by supply and demand—and logged by the bank, yours truthfully—”

“Taro.”

He flinches to attention, snapping his head toward me. “Y-yes? I-I mean—”

“I think we are going to be great friends, Tetsuro.”

His expression stays frozen before melting back down again.

“Right. That is… Great.”

He rubs his chin, breaking eye contact as his fingers swipe across his screen. “Let’s take your profile as an example.” He mumbles to himself, “Ah, already a member with our bank… good, good… let’s see...”

“I-I do not think that is necess—”

“Ah, Sayoko was it?” He nods to the tablet. “Let’s see… for example you made a…”

His jaw slightly lowers as his head tilts to the side. “Um…” “Hm?”

“Y-you made… a purchase for… an entire Glacia-9 Prima bottle, yesterday?”

I shrug. “What can I say? I am a thirsty g—”

He clears his throat with an abrupt, hacking cough.

“W-well. Anyway, such items are ranked a ten, for example.”

“Out of?”

“Ten.”

Kirishima….

I will make her choke up every last—

“But as I said,” he waves his hand with a nervous laugh, “nothing to worry about. You can live just fine on items ranked three and lower! You just won’t be able to make any… other purchases…”

I press my hand against the arm of the chair, slowly pushing myself up while catching the umbrella from my lap.

“Um. W-where are you going? We are not finished yet.”

His arm reaches toward me as I sidestep out of the suffocating lounge area.

“Taka—“

“Taro—” He blurts out in between my words.

“—shi.” I finish, continuing my dash to the exit. “You have such wonderful… things”

“W-what.”

“Yes, yes, you should really—” I ram my weight against the door twice before realizing it is a pull, frantically switching my grip. “—do something with that in life.”

“I will not forget you,” I say, quickly slipping my body through the closing threshold, “or the hard work you did for me here today, Tetsuro.”

“B-but—”

Click.

It opens up as I scan the signs for the exit and make my way down to the lobby.

A chaotic mix of firemen and students in similar matching clothing search around me, scanning all over the place with thermal imaging guns.

“Clear here!” one shouts, entirely too close to me.

The confusion in the lobby blurs past as I hop out into the fresh air.

I may… need to change banks later…

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Discover what happens next in: Chapter 12: Frozen Rhythm【P1】

Written by Limited_Infinity. Extras, official publishing platforms and updates are publicly available only on the Patreon page “_Limited_Infinity_”

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