otherwise. We were sitting across from each other in the ferry’s restaurant. The guy in the red shirt was eating a deluxe lunch, while I’d been concentrating on the restaurant’s background music in an attempt to take my mind off my empty stomach. I’d offered to buy him a meal as thanks for saving me, but this whole time I’d been thinking that picking the most expensive item on the menu (1,200 yen) had been uncalled for. Weren’t adults supposed to be a little more discreet in situations like this? I’d decided to allow myself a maximum of five hundred yen a day for food, and thanks to this, I was badly in the red on the very first day. But even as the thoughts ran through my head, I tried to respond politely. “No, no, no need to feel bad! You really saved my butt out there, and—” “Yeah, no kidding.” Red Shirt practically talked over me, pointing his chopsticks at me. “That really could have gotten nasty back there, kid… Oh.” Red Shirt stared into space, mulling something over with a rather complicated look on his face. Slowly, he broke into a broad grin. “Hey, come to think of it, that’s the first time I’ve ever saved somebody’s life!” “…Oh.” I had a bad feeling about this. “And did I see beer on the menu here, too?” “…Shall I go buy you one?” Giving up on everything, I got to my feet. The black-tailed gulls were all mewling at once, circling comfortably at a distance so close I might have touched them if I reached out. I watched them absently from the ferry’s corridor deck while I nibbled at the Calorie-Mate nutrition bar I was having for dinner, making it last. “I can’t believe I got an adult sponging off me…” Draft beer had been a jaw-dropping 980 yen. Give me a break already, I thought. That’s so overpriced it’s unreal. I’d left home only that day, and I’d already used up four days’ worth of my food budget on some old guy I didn’t even know. “Tokyo is terrifying,” I muttered, and I meant it. I stuffed the empty CalorieMate wrapper into my pocket and pulled out my smartphone, opened Yahoo! Answers again, and posted the question I’d entered earlier. I was going to need that part-time job, no matter what. C’mon, Best Answer. Page 11 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com