Chapter 64: Admitting a Mistake

Kuuigawa Town.

Located in the south-central part of the city's west side, its commercial center was crowded with towering skyscrapers that clustered like mountain ranges amidst a vast sea of neon lights.

At the edge of this prosperous district, on the bustling streets of Shinsaibashi West 6th Street, a row of street food stalls—yatai—was neatly lined up against the greenbelt.

These stalls were not permanent shops, but mobile setups like bicycles, motorcycles, and old small delivery trucks.

A circle of canvas tents served as the roofing for each stall.

Instead of traditional fabric curtains, the fronts featured slowly rotating holographic projections displaying the names of the establishments, along with menus and prices.

Every stall was thriving with business, packed to capacity with corporate white-collar workers who had just finished their shifts.

In the open-kitchen setups, small pots steamed intensely, boiling ramen, oden, offal, and yakitori, while adjacent iron griddles sizzled with squid, takoyaki, okonomiyaki, and more.

The aromas of the food blended with the sweltering summer heat, dissolving into the crisp, bubbling foam of cold beer.

"Ah~~, I'm alive again! Having a cold beer right after getting off work every day is practically a rebirth!" A potbellied white-collar worker loosened the tie around his neck and chugged the cold beer in his hand in a single gulp.

On the table in front of him sat a small bowl containing daikon radish, shiitake mushrooms, beef balls, and a few pieces of tenderly boiled beef tendon, drizzled with a secret dipping sauce.

"Little bro, drinking alone this late at night—could it be that your heart got broken?" The corporate slave patted the young person beside him on the shoulder, reeking of alcohol.

"Heart broken?" Wakaba set down her ramen bowl and shook her head. "No, I'm just having a midnight snack after finishing work."

"Oh? I wouldn't have guessed a young guy like you is already working!" The corporate slave looked somewhat surprised.

However, he didn't bother asking what kind of job Wakaba did.

After all, someone working at Wakaba's age certainly wasn't in a respectable profession.

The potbellied white-collar worker changed the subject. "Since you're out making it on your own at such a young age, you must still be a virgin, right?"

"This... well." Wakaba opened her mouth, then nodded.

She hadn't even realized that until the man pointed it out.

"Hahaha~~, I could tell from your innocent look. You're definitely a virgin who hasn't touched a woman yet," the potbellied man teased, patting Wakaba's shoulder.

"Who says I haven't? I've touched plenty! I touch them whenever I want!" Wakaba puckered her lips in a retort.

This remark elicited a wave of laughter from the surrounding middle-aged white-collar workers.

"Little bro, come on—as a man, admitting you're a virgin is nothing to be ashamed of," the potbellied white-collar worker finished another beer and began offering earnest guidance. "Who hasn't been young..."

He started explaining the distribution and cost-effectiveness of the local girls in the surrounding area, introducing all sorts of bizarre services.

Wakaba listened in profound shock, as if she had discovered a whole new world.

She had never imagined things could be done this way, that way, omega-way, star-way...

Other nearby office workers joined the conversation, and the topics grew increasingly explicit.

As Wakaba listened, her cheeks flushed slightly.

"Ah~! Stop talking already! I don't need any girls, you guys are so perverted!" she cried out in embarrassment and indignation.

"Hahaha~~, the kid's blushing! He's at least half as pure as I was back in the day!" a clean-looking, bespectacled white-collar worker patted Wakaba's shoulder.

"Yeah, I was just as innocent back then. Hard to believe over twenty years have flashed by already~~~," another middle-aged white-collar worker with a square face sighed.

"Little bro, while you're still young, seize the opportunity to experience the delights of a woman. Don't wait until you reach our age—sigh—when the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." The potbellied middle-aged white-collar worker patted Wakaba's shoulder, implying a world of tears behind those words.

Just then, they noticed the surrounding noise dying down and turned around in confusion.

An exceptionally pretty young girl came running over, completely out of breath.

The beautiful young girl's forehead was covered in sweat, one hand clutching an injured arm. Her slip dress hugged her youthful chest, rising and falling with her panting—a sight both pitiful and heart-stirring...

"So pretty!" x n

To put it bluntly, the surrounding white-collar workers were ordinary company employees; where had they ever seen a beauty of this caliber? They stared in a daze.

Under everyone's gaze, the girl approached Wakaba. "Senior, I... am back."

"Did you finish all the quotas?"

"No." Chihaya Saio bit her lip. "I finished one."

"One?" Wakaba set down her chopsticks, her voice rising as she stared sharply at her. "It took you a whole hour to complete just one? That's not how you acted when I first met you. Speak up—were you slacking off?"

"The work was hard, there were too many people, and I had to wait for the right moment..." Chihaya Saio said, looking utterly aggrieved.

After Shiratori Kiyoshi obtained the files for ten assassination assignments, he completed one himself and handed the rest over to her.

Then he sat here eating ramen by himself, telling her this was an opportunity for her to learn and grow.

"Was it harder than the quota I completed?"

"No."

"Then why did I only take twenty minutes while you couldn't? Did you not try hard enough?"

"I..." She desperately wanted to retort: That's because when you fight, you have absolute disregard for your own life, completely fearless in a hail of bullets... you're basically a fanatical killing machine.

Yet the words stopped at her lips as a sudden realization hit her: Wouldn't that mean Senior's reprimand was entirely correct? She truly hadn't tried hard enough.

"You what? Looking for excuses again?"

"I'm not, I wasn't trying to make excuses." Chihaya Saio bit her lip.

"Then why is your efficiency so low?"

The question looped right back around to Wakaba's original point, leaving Chihaya Saio's head spinning.

"Senior is right! I—I didn't work hard enough!" The skin around her eyes turned red.

"What are you crying for?!" Wakaba snapped coldly. "Your talent is already inferior to mine, yet you don't even know how to work hard and only know how to make excuses. How can you ever grow with an attitude like that? How can the company and I ever feel at ease leaving things to you in the future?"

"But I already did my best!" Chihaya Saio's eye rims grew even redder as she stubbornly protested.

"What kind of tone is that? Is this your attitude when admitting a mistake?" Wakaba flared up in anger, flicking a pair of chopsticks against the girl's dress. "Do you hold a grudge against me? Do you resent the company?"

"I don't... I don't harbor any resentment toward the high-risk powder!" She spoke so hastily her voice cracked.

At the same time, she reminded herself that everything was for the sake of completing the organization's mission.

Suddenly, however, her expression froze.

'Wait, assassination missions are the organization's missions too! So what I'm doing right now—isn't that fulfilling the organization's mission?'

'Therefore, my reluctance and unwillingness actually mean: in order to complete one mission for the organization, I was shirking another mission for the organization?'

'Doesn't that prove Senior was right—that I was indeed slacking off on the organization's mission and harboring dissatisfaction toward the organization?'

'But I'm obviously fiercely loyal to the organization!'

'Yet Senior isn't wrong either, so...'

She shuddered in shock, a chill shooting straight from the soles of her feet up to the crown of her head.

'Could it be that I'm actually not all that loyal to the organization? At least not as loyal as Senior?'

'Yet I am the organization's adjudicator, tasked with testing Senior's loyalty to the organization on its behalf. And yet, I'm not even as loyal to the organization as Senior is...'

Ah—

Her mind felt so chaotic, so painful, so bursting at the seams...

"Sigh!" Wakaba sighed, scanning her with a disappointed look. "To think I stayed here to accompany you through your work, and not only do you show no gratitude, but you resent me instead?

Just go. The very fact that I had expectations for you was a huge mistake to begin with."

"Senior, I was wrong, I know I was wrong~~" Under Wakaba's relentless psychological barrage, tears streamed from her reddened eyes, her face a mask of deep self-reproach.

The surrounding workers had long since put down their chopsticks and beer mugs, dumbfounded.

They had thought it was a lovers' quarrel, only to realize it was a superior mentoring a subordinate.

"Wrong about what?"

"I slacked off, I didn't work hard enough, and I let down the expectations Senior and the company had for me!" she sobbed.

"Louder!" Wakaba shouted sharply.

"I slacked off, I didn't work hard enough, I let down—" Chihaya Saio roared with all her might.

Clap, clap, clap...!

The middle-aged white-collar workers around them burst into applause, comforting Chihaya Saio:

"The young lady is still young. Being able to recognize and correct a mistake is a good thing, it's no big deal."

"Yeah, we went through the exact same thing when we were young. Just fix it and you'll be fine."

"It's good that you know your mistake now. Back then, our supervisors weren't nearly as patient as this young man; if we messed up, we got fired on the spot."

Encouraged by those around her, Chihaya Saio felt the remorse and self-blame on her face ease slightly.

Only then did Wakaba nod with satisfaction, seeing that her repentance was genuine. "Since you can admit your mistakes and correct them, you're not beyond saving. Remember: when you encounter difficulties, look for reasons within yourself first. Did you work hard enough? Did you dedicate all your time and full energy to your job? Don't always think about making excuses, blaming your superiors, or blaming the company..."

"Yes, yes..." Chihaya Saio nodded earnestly as she listened.

"I've applied for five more quotas for you. Finish them tonight."

"Ah—! Five more? Then when am I going to sleep..."

"With talent as poor as yours, you still have the mood to sleep?" Wakaba rebuked. "Was your repentance just an act for me to see?"

"No, it wasn't. I'll finish the quotas for sure!"

"Tomorrow, write a three-thousand-word report for me, highlighting your insights on work and the things I told you today. Remember, it must be handwritten, and there must be no typos."

Chihaya Saio opened her mouth as if to say something else, but meeting Wakaba's stern gaze, she obediently nodded with a wronged expression.

"You have to believe in yourself. The first time I saw you, I knew your potential wasn't limited to this," Wakaba said in a profound, earnest tone, patting her shoulder now that the lesson was drawing to a close.

"Besides, don't worry. Keep working hard by my side; once I get promoted to a leadership position, I won't treat you unfairly."

Having painted her picture of a bright future, Wakaba turned to leave.

"Hey—customer, you haven't paid yet!" the yatai owner called out, stopping Wakaba in her tracks.