[SS] A Certain Part-Time Job

July 10th

It was a bright and sunny day in Academy City and the crowds were out in force in the city's busy shopping district. With Summer vacation close enough to taste the students had little else on their mind other than enjoying themselves.

The jolly figure of a giant green frog stood outside the park, waving to the oblivious and uncaring pedestrians who passed him by, occasionally snatching a flyer from his outstretched hand. Gekota continued to smile his vacant smile as another group of girls passed by without even the slightest notice, almost as though there wasn't a six foot-frog man in their path.

"Ugh." Guy groaned to himself inside the costume. "This is humiliating..." He muttered under his breath. And not just humiliating, but hot and unpleasant as well. The heat would scarcely be bearable in his regular clothes. In this costume it was torturous. He couldn't even wipe the sweat from his eyes inside that enormous head. "Who would do this for a living?" Guy grumbled.

"Ahhhh~!" A gasp of adoration came from behind the boy and he turned to see a small boy pointing at him with a look of wonderment in his eyes. "Gekota! It's Gekota!" The boy tugged on his mother's sleeve before running over to the mascot. He hugged the thick, plush legs of the costume with childish enthusiasm.

"Excuse me, but could I take a picture of you with my son?" The boy's mother asked. "He really loves Gekota. It'd mean the world to him."

Guy nodded. He recalled his manager expressly forbidding him from speaking whilst 'in character'. Apparently it ruined the effect. Several times he had been forced to communicate in what amounted to a jolly dance. Guy stood beside the boy and placed a hand on his head as the woman readied the camera.

It could be worse, I guess. At least I haven't seen anyone I know.

(I can't believe I had to go back to the shopping district again. And why the hell is it so bloody hot?!)

The latter was somehow her fault, as her ability naturally granted her a higher body temperature than the norm and she couldn't exactly help that. The former however, was a result of her never going shopping when she needed and waiting until she really didn't have any choice but to do so.

Though she didn't get all she needed due to meeting one of her classmate who in result, starting to drag her all over the place. And it was frustrating her to no end as she'd have to return in the shopping district later in the week, or the following.

She sighed quietly and stopped in her tracks upon seeing the back of a big, green figure with what seemed to have a frog head.

(Isn't that Gekota...? Probably delivering flyers for kids. The person inside that costume must feel very stupid right now...)

As she saw the boy and his mother pass by, she heard a new, familiar voice. That familiar voice was yelling in joy, and the owner of that voice was nearly jumping up and down from excitement.

"Gekota! Gekota! Kyaaaa, It's Gekota!!!!!"

(Misaka...)

Upon seeing Mikoto jump into the Gekota figure's arms while yelling, Natsumi sighed. Was this really the famed Ace of Tokiwadai...?

The woman's phone clicked loudly as she took the photograph and she moved to take her child's hand. Guy patted the boy lightly on the head before handing something to the woman.

"What's this? Oh. A telephone number." She looked a little puzzled but waved a cheerful thank you nonetheless as she walked off. Guy mimed for her to call him as the pair disappeared into the crowd.

Worth a shot. Guy thought to himself, but he was interrupted by the loud squealing of a girl nearby.

"Gekota! Gekota! Kyaaaa, It's Gekota!!!!!"

He turned just in time to catch the girl in his arms and staggered backwards holding her. Looking down at the girl's head he noticed a familiar looking hairclip.

Biri-biri? He froze on the spot, standing rigid with his arms around her. After a moment recovering his wits he raised one hand to gently pat Mikoto on the head.

Natsumi pulled out her phone and made sure that she wouldn't be noticed by either the Gekota or Mikoto. After setting up the phone so that the picture taking wouldn't make any kind of sound and successfully taking a few pictures, she left the overjoyed Mikoto with Gekota.

Noticing earlier that the Gekota seemed to have handed something something to the mother of the little boy, she got a vague idea of what it could be and it had made her pretty curious about whether she was right or not. She quietly ran off after the boy and his mother and stopped right in front of them, slightly scaring the little boy in the process. After insisting, she finally obtained the note and walked off with it after reading it and putting it in her skirt pocket.

(I knew it. Did he seriously give her his number even though there was a child next to her? What a jerk..)

That had slightly pissed her off, but she quickly disregarded it as that Gekota probably wasn't anyone she knew, or cared about for that matter. After a few hours and after dropping off her bags back at her dorm, she found herself returning to the place where she had seen Gekota...

---

Just like a child, Mikoto was overjoyed after getting hugged back and pat by the Gekota. Unfortunately, she couldn't ask to take any pictures. If Kuroko were to find out about it, she would definitely make fun of her or lecture her about her unfitting taste for her age. After a few minutes, she finally separated herself from Gekota and waved goodbye at him, fully satisfied.

On the way back, she worried about whether anyone she knew had been there. She could have sworn to have seen long, brown hair, and the only person she knew with such hair was Natsumi. Though she quickly discarded the thought that Natsumi was the girl she saw as Natsumi was well-known for always refusing any invitations and avoiding altogether the shopping district. Her clothing wasn't Tokiwadai's uniform too, and she wasn't sure if she even close enough to Natsumi to be able to recognise her outside anyway.

Mikoto was better off thinking that way. Natsumi always ended up trolling her about her childish taste whenever they met ever since she learned about it back when Mikoto was in her first year. She strongly told herself that Natsumi wasn't the girl she saw, if it was her then she'd have even more things to troll her about and Mikoto was nowhere near willing to even consider that.

'Gekota' waved back at the cheerful Misaka Mikoto as she left.

That was close. Guy breathed a sigh of relief. He was thankful, for once, of the costume's enormous head, which at the very least made it difficult for anyone to identify him.

After a brief pause to consider his good luck Guy leapt in front of another group, flyers in hand...

***

The large stuffed animal looked rather sad draped over the park bench. Its bulbous head flopped over the backrest and its arms hung loosely by its sides. Had someone abandoned it? The sheer size of the thing would suggest it was too valuable for that. A few onlookers had stopped to stare at it while no less than six children clambered over it, tugging at its arms and legs and hugging it like a beloved teddy bear.

"It's definitely strange, right?" One of them muttered.

"Is it a fairground prize or something? Do you think someone forgot it?"

"As if you can forget something that size!"

The 'stuffed animal' Gekota moved suddenly, raising its hand to pass a flyer to the now mildly shocked onlookers. A few of them chuckled at the realisation that it was simply a costume, while others decided to back away and record the peculiar display on camera. The children playing seemed less than bothered.

"Whoa. It's still at it."

She didn't know herself why she had returned here, but figured that she might as well troll the Gekota with that note. Said note was pulled out of her pocket and checked again.

Moving aside a few of the children, Natsumi slightly bent over the bench with the opened note in hand.

"This Gekota is a jerk to children and mothers."

As she waved over the note in mockery, she then jumped back a few times just in case the Gekota would try to get the note back.

Guy groaned pitiably as Natsumi approached and he once again lifted his arm to half-heartedly pass her a flyer. It was only after a moment that he recognised her.

What was her name again? It definitely started with an N. Nagato? He quickly gave up trying to recall and slumped backwards.

"This Gekota is a jerk to children and mothers."

"What's she talking about?" Came a murmur from the crowd. All eyes were on Natsumi now as one child piped up.

"Stop being mean to Gekota!" The boy wrapped his arms around the frog costume's neck and hugged it defensively. One got the impression that the boy would give his life for his favourite mascot character if pushed.

"Yeah! You're a meanie!" A small girl pouted at Natsumi and joined the others in crowding around their beloved hero.

(...Shit. I forgot about those brats)

How did she? For as long as she could remember she always hated children with a flaming passion. Though she probably just ignored them just to get to 'Gekota'.

Her eyes rolled to the side as she put the note back in her skirt pocket. She moved forwards again and brushed a few of the children off before grabbing the Gekota by its neck.

"Running time."

She pulled him along as she ran with her usual iron grip, and only stopped around twenty minutes later when she was sure that there were no children around.

"H-" Guy was dragged from the bench before he could utter a word of protest and before he knew it he was half running, half stumbling after the crazed Tokiwadai student.

"Hey! She's stealing Gekota!" The children cried out in dismay, pointing and giving chase. But there was no hope of them keeping up with the older girl. "Give him back!" Their yells quickly faded into the distance along with Guy's hopes of rescue.

By the time they had come to a stop the boy was close to passing out. As Natsumi released him from her grip Guy floundered for the costume's head and tore it off with a gasp.

"Ah! Oh God..." He panted for breath, steam visibly rising from the inside of the costume. Guy braced himself against a tree and fanned himself. "W-what's wrong with you!?" He snapped over his shoulder.

(OOC Note: Forgot to mention in previous posts that she isn't wearing her uniform right now.)

Natsumi was at a horrible loss of words. She took her phone out, made sure that it did have a password on and took a few pictures of Guy. She then quickly proceeded to completely turn it off and put it back in her pocket to make sure he wouldn't try to get it. And right after...

"And how about you tell me what's wrong with you first!?"

She flipped and launched a kick that was originally aiming for Guy, but landed right next to him and gave the tree he was leaning on a good shake for a kick from a middle-schooler.

"...Hold on a second."

Natsumi breathed deeply, grabbed Guy's costume to ensure he wouldn't try to get away from her, and kicked lightly the tree for a moment while finally thinking calmly. At some point she came to a conclusion and returned to a normal standing pose.

"Okay, look. I'm guessing you're tired and being in that costume is hot as hell, right? Same for me thanks to you." There was an unnatural pause in the sentence, as what was going to follow was something she rarely ever said to anyone. "So I'm going to be nice and propose that we continue this somewhere more suitable to cool off. It should work out pretty well for you, too, unless you want me to snap at you right now."

Thanks to the earlier pictures she took she figured it could work out for her as well. Though she actually had wanted to return to Tokiwadai, as she had not eaten anything today and was getting tired. She ended up muttering to herself as a result.

"Thinking about it, I'm hungry and could use a rest right now..."

The tree-shuddering kick from Natsumi prompted the boy to turn and leave, but as fast as he was he didn't get far before she caught the scruff of the costume's neck, dragging him back to her.

"Okay, look. I'm guessing you're tired and being in that costume is hot as hell, right? Same for me thanks to you. So I'm going to be nice and propose that we continue this somewhere more suitable to cool off. It should work out pretty well for you, too, unless you want me to snap at you right now. Thinking about it, I'm hungry and could use a rest right now..."

"Thanks, but no thanks." Guy replied with a dry sarcasm as he replaced the head of the costume. "I've got work to do." He stated with the conviction of a war hero returning to the front lines. The effect of his words was lessened considerably by the fact that he was wearing a life-size frog costume, however. "And I'd appreciate it if you don't mention this to anyone. I'll make it worth your while..."

"Thanks, but no thanks. I've got work to do."

Was he really enjoying such a job? In this heat, and with such a childish outfit? Or was he just that desperate to have a part-time job? In any cases, even more questions were starting to form in Natsumi's mind, even though she was uncertain of whether she'd manage to get clear answers out of him.

"And I'd appreciate it if you don't mention this to anyone. I'll make it worth your while..."

"Oh? You'd sound more credible if you weren't wearing that thing, but I'm curious as to how you'll be doing that."

Curious as to how Guy would make it worth her while, she however still had a really hard time taking him seriously when he had that Gekota outfit on. She freed him from the iron grip she had on his Gekota costume as she sighed, having noticed someone was coming and looking around to see who it was.

"Hmm..." After recognising the girl who was heading their way, she was at first uncertain: Should she quickly leave before the girl notices her? Or should she just stay put where she is? She looked at Guy and whispered sarcastically to him before doing anything. "Damn. Guess who's back to see you."

"Oh? You'd sound more credible if you weren't wearing that thing, but I'm curious as to how you'll be doing that."

His reply would most likely have seen him scorched to cinders had it not been interrupted by Natsumi's observation.

"Hmm.." His eyes followed her gaze to the source of her attention. He felt his heart sink. "Guess who's back to see you."

"Not a word..." He whispered as the all too familiar girl approached them. His lips sealed tight as he dropped into his 'mute mascot' performance again. In this instance it was more than just his job that relied on him staying in character.

"Not a word..."

Natsumi's eyes rolled slightly to the side as she replied in a bored manner to Guy. She turned around, deciding on sticking around for some time.

"Yeah, I get it. Don't forget or try to get out of what you said."

She started walking towards the familiar girl after issuing the warning.

---

"Even though I came all this way..."

After noticing she forgot to take one of the flyers before leaving Gekota because she was too preoccupied by Gekota himself, and as a person who loved collecting Gekota-related items, she couldn't help but feel irritated at the fact that she may have missed something that could potentially catch her eye. So she ended up returning to the place where she had met Gekota only to be told by some child that Gekota had been dragged away by a mean girl, and she could only sigh as a result.

While she wondered who was the girl in question, due to her previous suspicions on Natsumi, she was even more irritated at having missed Gekota even though she had managed to obtain a flyer from the children. As such, she decided on strolling around a little more before returning to the dorm.

---

Her lowered head caused her to walk into another person.

"Oh, sorry..."

"You don't look good, Misaka."

Mikoto snapped her head upwards to see the owner of the voice she took some time to recognise. Much to her shock and despair, the person she bumped into turned out to be the one person she had not wanted to encounter today.

"H-Hujisaka-san?! W-What are you doing h-"

"None of your business."

She still couldn't get over the fact that she never managed to finish a sentence when talking to Natsumi. But as she worried, Mikoto noticed that Natsumi wasn't alone. One of the two reasons why she came here in the first place stood not so far from them, and Mikoto was unable to contain the excitement that was clearly visible in her eyes.

"Uwah! Gekota!"

Mikoto hurried towards Gekota, much to Natsumi's surprise as it looked like Mikoto had completely forgot about her. Uncertain of what to do, Natsumi decided to wait for Mikoto to realise her mistake.

"Uwah! Gekota!"

Guy braced himself for the worst. Somehow he doubted that he would be able to escape unscathed this time. The giant frog waved to her, somehow less enthusiastically than before it seemed. In fact, the mascot shrank away from her slightly. Almost as though it were hesitant to get too close.

Inside Gekota's head, Guy looked over to Natsumi, trying to anticipate her next move.

(At this rate she's going to crash into Guy...)

An awkwardly loud cough could be heard, and that cough caused the rushing Mikoto to come at a full stop, taking almost a minute to dare turn around and face Natsumi who was already smirking at her. Mikoto started waving her hands in denial, already feeling Natsumi's mockery.

"Wait, i-it's definitely not what you think! I definitely wasn't going to h-h-hug Gekota again, I just noticed something that caught my attention and it happened to be in his direction!"

This led Natsumi to look at Guy with a fairly confused expression. Was she an idiot, or did she seriously not realise the 'again' busted her whole excuse? In any cases, she had to find an idea to make Mikoto leave.

"W-what?"

"You're acting suspicious, but I guess you shouldn't waste time around here so we'll have to continue this later."

To Mikoto, she was the one acting suspicious. Usually she wouldn't let her off the hook so easily, and would harass her into admitting something. What was up with that?

"Why shouldn't I be wasting time around here? And we don't have anything to conti-"

"Looks like the dorm mistress wants to talk to you, so you should head back before breaking curfew or that talk will take twice as longer and will probably involve the corpse of that friend of yours."

"...I don't remember doing anything that would make the dorm mistress want to talk with me, but why would you care out of all people?"

That was a good question, but since they were talking about the dorm mistress, Natsumi already had an answer to that question going along with a genuinely frightened look on her face.

"...she'd twist my neck if I didn't warn you for her, wouldn't she?"

Mikoto slowly nodded with a scared expression after thinking about it. The only person who was never afraid of the dorm mistress was Sasha Kreutzev. Natsumi's reasons were absolutely justified even though she didn't know why the dorm mistress wanted to talk to her... Or so she thought.

"Aren't you head-"

"Don't ask me about that or I'm going to spread rumours about that Gekota over there."

"I get it, I get it, so please don't! Nothing happened!"

---

Natsumi returned to Guy's side after making sure that Mikoto really left. That girl really made big deals out of nothing, though that was the part of Mikoto's personality that amused Natsumi the most.

"She's going to kill me when she realises I lied about the dorm mistress..." She muttered, fairly worried that she'd have to find a way to escape Mikoto's wrath next time they met.

That lie would make Mikoto go through an unjustified lecture, added to the fact that she might break the curfew by even a second by the time she gets there. Natsumi shook her head after sighing, though it's not as if she wasn't used to Mikoto's wrath.

"What are you up to?" Guy asked with an almost despairing sigh. He could already feel himself being pulled into another ridiculous situation that would further compromise his dignity and his reputation.

That thought caused him to stop and take stock of his current position.

A young man dressed as a giant frog being escorted through a park by a teenage girl. He wondered if perhaps there was no way for him to lose any more dignity.

"What are you up to?"

"Is that any way to talk to someone who just spared you an hour of hugs with potential risk of electrocution at a fatal level?"

Natsumi sighed as well, but out of exasperation. Only a few minutes had passed yet she could still feel the incredible amount of motivation. Ironically speaking, of course. She also felt weariness as she noticed that it was getting late.

Having his phone number on the note and the option of telling Mikoto about who she was hugging any time, Natsumi couldn't imagine him trying to avoid her, so she figured it'd be wiser to stop here for now.

"In any cases, I'll have you live up to what you said. But we'll be continuing this tomorrow, Gekota, it's getting fairly late so I should go find somewhere to sleep."

With the last part of her sentence said in a much lower voice than the rest she walked off, waving with one hand and pulling out her phone with the other.

"Is that any way to talk to someone who just spared you an hour of hugs with potential risk of electrocution at a fatal level?"

Sparing me half an hour doesn't mean a thing if you've just got something worse in store for me... Guy kept his thoughts to himself for once.

"In any cases, I'll have you live up to what you said. But we'll be continuing this tomorrow, Gekota, it's getting fairly late so I should go find somewhere to sleep."

"Hey! Where are you going?" He called out after her but made no attempt to follow. Instead he simply trudged back to the cafe in that hot, uncomfortable costume. It was an oddly tragic sight to see the dejected looking mascot shamble through the streets of District 15 against the sunset.

"See you tomorrow, part-timer!" The cafe owner called out cheerfully behind Guy as he waved goodbye.

"Huh. Like this it doesn't seem too bad." He smiled, feeling the warmth of the Summer evening. Without the costume it was actually rather pleasant. He unbuttoned his shirt a little as he turned to walk home.

Sunday, 1:45 P.M, July 11th

「I need to buy something, so meet me near Seventh Mist. And just in case you get worried for your bank account, no, I won't do anything to it, your bank account will be fine.」

After finally escaping from Mikoto, she was finally able to sent the message to Guy. But it's not as if her anger was unjustified, she had received a pretty unfair lecture from the Dorm Mistress after all. Though to be fair she would've had it from being late anyway.

Natsumi took a deep breath and carefully headed for the well-known shopping mall.

In front of Seventh Mist a group of girls crowded around the green mascot, chattering excitably. A wave of giggles rippled through their group and they turned to leave, one blowing a flirtatious kiss back at the frog with a wink. He snatched it from the air playfully and waved goodbye.

Feeling the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end, Guy spun on the spot to face Natsumi, thrusting a pamphlet in her face with a flourish. A note was scribbled on the piece of paper in the teacher's distinctive handwriting. It read:

You're late.

"Oh excuse me, did you wanted me to come earlier and push you on that girl's lips?"

Confused as to why he was still wearing his Gekota costume, she tore the pamphlet out of his hand with dry sarcasm and obvious annoyance in her voice.

"When are you going to take that thing off? I didn't ask you to come with it and it's going to be suspicious if Misaka finds me with the Gekoman again, especially since she's probably looking all over for me right now."

He tossed the leaflet aside to reveal another, also bearing his scrawl.

I'm working. Some of us have jobs, you know? Before Natsumi had arrived Guy had taken the time to pre-empt their conversation and plan out his responses appropriately. His commitment to staying 'in-character' would be almost admirable, had it not been so smugly frustrating.

"Isn't your job being a teacher at Tokiwadai? In fact, what are you even advertising about?"

She sighed to relax and looked at him in a disapproving way while shaking her head.

"Some persons would kill you for such an uncaring attitude towards the fact that you're the only man allowed in the whole School Garden you know?"

After she said so, she started to push him from the back as she looked for a specific store instead of grabbing him, otherwise she'd have problems reading those pamphlets.

Read the damn flyers!

This note was underlined several times for emphasis. The flyer itself was for a small cafe on the edge of the School Garden that had opened recently. A western style bistro styled after those in Southern Italy. Its opening promotion was apparently a type of gingerbread pastry in the shape of Gekota.

Did he have a reply for everything?