Tokyoites don't have martial virtue

His workplace is Kamurocho in Shinjuku Ward, which is known as a "sex hotspot in Tokyo".

Kamurocho, one of Tokyo's busiest and most chaotic neighborhoods, is home to a large number of sex workers. Even today, after the implementation of the Organized Crime Control Law, many yakuza groups still operate there.

Before it even got dark, the streets were already filled with the lively atmosphere of a night market.

Neon signs flashed and crisscrossed, a constant stream of passersby searched for bars and brothels, rows of pretty girls in maid outfits stood handing out flyers, tourists speaking foreign languages ​​came on a pilgrimage, while insiders scoured the area with goblin-like greed for easy prey, and at the street corner, a college student busked, playing and singing a Japanese version of "Fireworks Fade Easily" on his guitar...

Makoto Kyushu wandered through Kamurocho, turning this way and that, until he stopped in front of a shop with a brightly lit sign:

【Tokyo Gensokyo ~Tokyo☆ondend! 】

Seeing the wall covered with photos of handsome men at the entrance tells you that this is a bar offering escort services.

Of course, Kyushu Makoto's job had nothing to do with ***; he was just a bartender who did odd jobs and ran errands.

After Makoto Kyushu's parents died, gangsters came to his door to collect debts. However, after seeing the boy's pitiful and wretched appearance, they felt pity for him and recommended him for a job here.

This is what is known as "when a dog sees you like this, it cries all night and cooks you four dishes and a soup".

The store manager here is quite generous, paying him 1,500 yen per hour, while the average hourly wage for part-time work in Tokyo is only 1,200 yen.

Not only that, the store manager made Kyushu Makoto work until very late every day before going home, and paid him by the hour, seemingly to make him work overtime on purpose.

However, this would violate school rules, so it cannot be registered with the school.

Kyushu Makoto only chose this job out of necessity. If he were to work at a convenience store that paid 1,000 yen per hour, and was required to work no more than 30 hours per week, he would eventually have to choose between "starving to death" and "dropping out of school".

After all, most students work part-time to make a living, but he works part-time to survive.

Upon entering the store, Makoto Kyushu greeted his colleagues, changed into his waiter's uniform, and began working.

His daily work consisted of cleaning, running errands, distributing flyers, and serving tea, water, and wine to customers.

In truth, Kyushu Makoto himself knew that the store manager had only put him to work out of pity. This job wasn't indispensable, nor did it warrant such a high salary.

Before there were many guests, Kyushu Makoto took out his cleaning tools, mopped the floor, and wiped each table.

Just as he was diligently cleaning, a young woman with a "Claude" hairstyle shouted at him, "Hey, help me store this bottle of wine in the wine cellar!"

Before Kyushu Makoto could react, that woman tossed him a bottle of red wine from a distance.

Before Kyushu Makoto could catch it, the wine bottle smashed to the ground, shards of glass and red juice splattering all over the floor and staining his uniform.

"Couldn't you have handed it to me properly?" Kyushu Makoto wiped the red stain from his shirt with his hand and stared at him, demanding, "You did this on purpose, didn't you!"

"It was an accident~ Luckily, this bottle of wine is very cheap, you can handle it yourself~ I have to go now!" The woman offered a half-hearted apology and turned to attend to her guests.

Kyushu Makoto stared at the man's retreating figure with displeasure, gripping the broom handle tightly.

According to the original owner's memories, he had been bullied in the workplace at this bar before, and the woman just now was one of the perpetrators.

This is also one of the reasons why Makoto Kyushu committed suicide.

The reason he was bullied was simple: jealousy from his peers.

All the waitresses in the shop are working themselves to the bone to serve customers and earn money, spending 24 hours a day thinking about how to seduce the girls. Moreover, most of them only earn around 800 yen per hour, their main income coming from commissions and tips. Why is it that Kyushu Makoto can earn 1500 yen per hour as a waitress, with a base salary higher than these long-serving core employees?

Moreover, the former Kyushu Makoto was young and weak, never retaliating when insulted or hit, practically wearing the words "bad kid" on his face, the kind of person most suitable to be bullied.

Fortunately, these thugs were all adults, so they were very careful in their actions. Their so-called "bullying" was nothing more than deliberately tripping him up or gossiping about him behind his back and saying some unpleasant things.

Compared to school, Makoto Kyushu preferred the time he spent working at the shop.

Of course, "Chen Jiuzhou" couldn't tolerate these petty people in the workplace at all.

Fortunately, the store manager had been kind to him, and he was essentially living under his roof. If it weren't for the manager's sake, he would have already taken off his shirt and given all his colleagues a good talking-to.

"I'll just have to bear with it for now... It's working hours, and it wouldn't be good to cause trouble." Kyushu Makoto muttered to himself as he continued cleaning.

As night deepened, the shop became more crowded. The air was filled with a decadent, glittering atmosphere, and the colorful lights and melodious dance music seemed to transport people back to that glittering, prosperous era.

However, none of this mattered to Kyushu Makoto. His job was simply to clean between various tables and private rooms, while being ordered around by the thugs.

"Hey, Xiaochun! Come here for a second!" Suddenly, a girl with a hedgehog-like hairstyle shouted loudly to Kyushu Makoto.

To protect employee privacy, all staff at *** bar use nicknames, including the waiters. Makoto Kyushu's nickname is "Harukaa," and his colleagues call him "Haruka-chan."

"Coming, senior!" Kyushu Makoto quickly put down the mop and ran to the *** table.

The spiky-haired woman was serving a young woman. She looked to be around twenty-five years old, with her long hair neatly tied up at the back of her head, and wearing a simple dress.

For some reason, the woman was sobbing uncontrollably, her shoulders hunched over, and she had left a whole table full of tissues. Her eyes were swollen from wiping them.

"Senior, why did you make her cry?" Kyushu Makoto asked in surprise.

Public relations bars are places where people come to relax and have fun. The job of the prostitutes is to bring pleasure to the guests, even resorting to lies and alcohol to numb them.

In the world of pornography, making a guest cry is a heinous crime.

“Oh...this customer is difficult to deal with…” The spiky-haired woman fiddled with the horns on her head, revealing an innocent look: “It’s probably because we accidentally talked about her husband, so she just keeps crying and nothing we do can comfort her.”

"Huh? A married woman?" Kyushu Makoto raised his eyebrows in surprise.

In other words... does this count as cheating?

Immediately afterwards, the spiky-haired girl slapped Kyushu Makoto's shoulder hard and said to the young woman, "Excuse me, Emi-chan~ I have something urgent to attend to and have to leave. Could Koharu accompany you from now on?"

"Hey! I haven't agreed yet!" Just as Kyushu Makoto was about to complain, the spiky-haired guy ran off in a few quick steps.

"Ugh, you're so irresponsible!" Kyushu Makoto cursed helplessly as he stared at his retreating figure.

Clearly, *** realized that this customer was both difficult to deal with and wouldn't bring him any profit, so he used Kyushu Makoto as a shield while he himself slipped away to find other easy prey.

This is also a form of "workplace bullying," and it has happened more than once. In Kyushu Makoto's memory, his colleagues would often deliberately push poor and troublesome customers onto him. In his previous life, Kyushu Makoto happened to be a gloomy, socially awkward man who was not good at speaking, and he was always driven crazy by this, so anxious that he wanted to smash his head against a wall and die.

Besides, he was just a waiter, and by rights he shouldn't be serving guests.

Kyushu Makoto suddenly felt that he still needed to talk to his colleagues and teach them how to respect and care for their junior colleagues.

But before that, he couldn't abandon the weeping woman.

"Um...may I ask your name?" After a moment of eye contact with the young woman, Kyushu Makoto mustered his courage and asked.

07. Criminal Law Diviner

“Emi…Hinata Emi,” the young woman replied in a tearful voice.

"Miss Hinata, why are you crying so hard?" Kyushu Makoto's tone was very stiff as he tried to comfort her. Although he had lived two lives, he had almost no experience in deep relationships with women and didn't know how to use sweet words to please them.

"..." Hinata lowered her head, her lips slightly pursed, as if she was too shy to speak.

Sensing that the other party was hiding something, Kyushu Makoto also began to think.

That senior colleague said she has a husband, and she cries uncontrollably whenever her husband is mentioned... Could it be that her husband has passed away?

Although he had a guess in mind, Kyushu Makoto didn't intend to say it outright, lest he be wrong and upset his guest. So he devised a plan and said in a friendly manner, "To be honest, I've learned a little about the divination techniques of the Yanhuang people. May I ask you to extend your hand?"

"Fortune telling?" Hinata-san curiously stretched out her right hand.

“Yes, I’ll read your palm.” Kyushu Makoto placed one hand on the other’s palm and the other on the wrist’s pulse, then closed his eyes and silently sensed it.

"Hmm, I can sense that you're troubled. You've encountered a major hurdle in your life, and it's man-made..." Kyushu Makoto said mysteriously while feeling the other person's palm and pulse.

In his past life, a senior brother who had been a fortune teller taught him the art of mind reading.

When a person has a strong psychological reaction, the muscles in their palms will twitch uncontrollably, and their pulse will beat noticeably faster. Fortune tellers will hold a customer's hand under the guise of "taking their pulse and reading their palms," and then take the opportunity to ask a few personal questions, judging the customer's reaction by observing the palm muscles and pulse.

Kyushu Makoto intends to use this method to try and uncover the young woman's inner thoughts.

"I heard you cried because of your husband, is that right?" Kyushu Makoto gently pressed Hinata's palm and pulse, asking softly.

Sure enough, Hinata's palm twitched slightly, indicating that her prediction had come true.

Kyushu Makoto pushed the conversation forward, asking, "Could it be that your husband... recently had an accident?"

However, the next moment, Makoto Kyushu was surprised to find that Hinata's palm did not move and her pulse did not change.

—What's going on? Did I say something wrong?

Kyushu was greatly alarmed. He looked up at Miss Hinata and realized that she showed no intention of agreeing.

—It's related to my husband, causing him emotional trauma, but it wasn't because of an accident involving him, and I'm ashamed to talk about it...

Makoto Kyushu's gaze inadvertently fell on Hinata's collarbone, where he noticed a small scar that looked like a burn.

Suddenly, a new possibility surfaced in Kyushu Makoto's mind, and he tentatively asked:

"Could it be... that your husband did something terrible to you?"

As soon as she finished speaking, Hinata's entire arm twitched, indicating a rather violent reaction.

"Did I guess right?" Kyushu Makoto frowned, looking at Hinata-san seriously. "Could it be... that your husband has been violent towards you?"

"..." After a long pause, Ms. Hinata reluctantly nodded, and said sadly, "That's right... my husband hit me again, and he even burned me with a cigarette butt..."

In Wano Country, women have always had an extremely divided status.

On the one hand, the society and laws of Wano Country promote women's legitimate rights to an almost pathological degree, to the point of overcorrection. For example, if a woman accuses a man of indecent assault in public, even if the man stands three meters away with his hands raised above his head the whole time, he will most likely be convicted of sexual harassment by the judge, and will even face social humiliation.

On the other hand, many women still face discrimination in both the workplace and at home. For example, the public has a very high tolerance for domestic violence, and even believes that women should silently endure domestic violence and that suing their husbands is a shameful act.

Therefore, Makoto Kyushu can understand why Hinata-san is hesitant to tell others about her feelings.

"So that's why you secretly came to our shop to relieve your boredom, without telling your husband?" Kyushu Makoto handed Hinata a glass of water, his eyes filled with concern.

"Have some water, and could you tell me the details?"