c4 (1/2)

After getting himself dressed, s.h.i.+zuru headed down the stairs to a room at the back of the first floor.

The condition of Black Maria’s third squad headquarters couldn’t be called extravagant to begin with.

It was enough to ward off the winds and rains but it was something someone who wanted a decent living would keep at a distance.

Which means, honestly speaking, it was falling apart. Luckily, since one of the inhabitants, s.h.i.+zuru, was methodical, it received frequent cleanings.

And that room inside the headquarters was falling apart especially hard.

‘That room’ should have been reworded ‘the room’s surroundings’.

As a place of living, it had the minimum of things covered, but at a glance, it was almost in ruins.

s.h.i.+zuru stood in front of the door made of boards patched together.

He was about to give the door a knock, but he stopped himself.

The hinge looked like it was going to come off. It was likely to break if he knocked.

So instead of knocking on the door, s.h.i.+zuru raised his voice a little louder.

Not to the point of yelling, but just louder than every other sound.

“Ca.s.sie. It’s morning, get up”

After the call, s.h.i.+zuru waited several seconds.

There was no response. To him, this was just as expected worth no particular feelings.

For there was really no instance of a response coming back after just one call.

“Ca.s.sie”

Second call. Sure enough, there was still no response.

Far from it, there wasn’t even a single sound.

“Ca.s.sie, Ca.s.sie, Ca.s.sie. Ca.s.sieCa.s.sieCa.s.sie …”

s.h.i.+zuru called out her name. Detachedly, like playing a random melody that came to mind.

This makes eight times. The record up until now was seven times.

Looks like they’re not breaking any records today.

“… Haah”

At the tenth call, s.h.i.+zuru cut off his calls for once, and sighed.

He thought he should rather go inside already, but to enter the room before she had woken up was a very dangerous act.

He had never forgotten how he almost died doing it in the past once.

As an aside, if he yelled out loud, he could get hit if his luck was bad.

She was relatively, mostly, or rather was almost certainly having a hangover every morning.

Loud voices would ring in her head. But unless he shouted loudly it won’t reach the sleeping person.

s.h.i.+zuru had spent considerable effort to learn the right amount.

“Will you please get up already, Ca.s.sie … if I kept on calling you out in front of your room like this they’re gonna think I’m a hopeless stalker or something, oy!”

Still no response, time pa.s.sed in vain.

s.h.i.+zuru himself was starting to lose count of how many times he called already.

It was only natural, since he wasn’t actually counting, but it would’ve been a great help if she would wake up while he still knew how many times he’d called without having to count.

s.h.i.+zuru nursed that thought every morning, and was betrayed as many times.

It was probably somewhere around the fiftieth call when a response finally came back.

“… mmmmmhh … hoaaaaaahhh …”

A mumble came back from behind the door.

Rather than a reply, it was more of a groan.

A voice that would confuse several people out of ten of whether she was sleeptalking or waking up.

s.h.i.+zuru made a small sigh and pushed the door with his finger.

The door with broken hinges creaked unsteadily as it easily opened.

Incidentally, the doork.n.o.b was already long gone due to the room’s owner being too violent.

s.h.i.+zuru repaired it four times and it would be broken again everytime, so he stopped trying to fix it.

“It’s morning already, Ca.s.sie”

The inside of the room was dark enought that one would doubt whether or not it was still nighttime.

Of course it was, since there were four layers of curtains to keep light from entering by any means.

It was practically a blackout curtain. With just the light from the open door, s.h.i.+zuru walked inside.

Even if he knew the room’s layout, she would randomly leave things laying around.

She would sometimes sleep on the bed properly, and other times sleep on the floor.

If he somehow stepped on her, what awaited him was a h.e.l.l of submission.

He would then have to spend useless effort to heal his own fractures and dislocations.

Which was why s.h.i.+zuru stepped carefully — and he finally found the woman sleeping on the bed.

Looks like she managed to find her way to bed today.

“Morning”