HA3 13.3 - Takeo's Experience
After Hide signed his contract with Nirvana, Driver Ren offered him one day free tour around downtown Nichiko, but he politely refused. He also managed to convince Driver Ren that he would be fine on his own. After using a public rest room to change his look back to the high school kid Uesugi Hidetada, Hide then went straight to Nichiko’s central station.
A day before his flight to Italica, he had ordered rolled-puff pastry that became Aida City’s specialty. Overall, it was pretty much puff pastry, being rolled into a thumb-size piece instead of being folded into triangle. The only different was the filling. It used heavy but smooth sweet potato cream as the base, and then being infused with fruit syrup, cheese, chocolate, coffee, and other flavor.
Once you chewed it in your mouth, you would find the light and crisp pastry was going really well with the heavy but smooth sweet potato cream. In his previous life, Hide often used this rolled-puff pastry as sweet souvenir for his colleagues in SDF, so he knew it well.
Then, after taking the rolled-puff pastry, he went straight to Tohru Ramen. Similar to his previous life, after an overseas trip, Hide wouldn’t be able to feel at home until he ate local food like ramen or curry rice.
Then, while having big smile in his face Oldman Tohru delivered Hide’s order. “One soy sauce ramen, one spicy fried rice, and one serving of gyoza.”
“Thank you, Oldman Tohru,” Hide happily said.
“Where is your sister?”
“She stays in her school until afternoon today.”
“That’s why you come here alone?”
“Yeah, and I just come back from a trip actually, and I can’t get my heart settle until I eat local food, so here I’m.”
“I see. You are like me. After a trip, my heart will also refuse to settle until I eat local food I used to eat.”
After a smile Hide said, “Glad to know that someone is like me, have heavy addiction to local food.”
“Yeah.” After returning Hide’s smile Oldman Tohru said, “Have a nice meal.”
Hide lightly nodded, and after Oldman Tohru went back to the kitchen, he immediately wolfed down his food. A moment later, Takeo entered the shop and went straight to Hide’s table. After placing an order similar to Hide, he turned his gaze to the big bag next to him.
“I thought you will go straight to your home,” Hide casually said.
“That’s my plan,” Takeo said while pouring a glass of water for himself. “Until I see you sit here.”
“I see.”
After gulping down a mouthful of water Takeo then turned his gaze to the big bag next to Hide. “Is that the rolled-puff pastry?”
“Yeah,” Hide casually replied. “Help me to bring the portion for our teachers.”
“Do we really will give our teachers a sweet souvenir? It’s a bit embarrassing honestly. It’s as if we are showing off.”
“Just tell them it’s an instruction from our parent.”
“I see.”
After a moment of silence Hide asked Takeo, “How is your company?”
“Very decent.”
“Tell me about it.”
Takeo nodded and immediately started his story.
---
Pretty similar like Hide, Takeo landed in Karita Airport, about one hour after Hide. After putting his luggage in one of lodges in third floor of Hikone, he then went to a law and financial consulting firm called The Begin. It was small firm located in an office building in downtown Nichiko, and only had one manager, two staffs, and one driver, but Takeo had been warned to not look down on this small firm.
“Welcome, Mr. Matteo Yuuto,” A middle-aged man offered his hand as Takeo entered his office. “My name is Akio Shiri, The Begin’s manager, and nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you too, Mr. Akio,” Takeo said as he shook Akio’s hand.
After giving his driver a signal he could leave, Akio pointed his hand at the chair before him. “Please have a seat.”
“Thanks.”
“I have coffee, black tea, green tea, and Belgium Choco, which one do you prefer?”
“Black tea with a bit of sugar.”
“Right away.”
“Honestly,” Akio said as he made two cups of black tea. “I’m a bit surprised when learning your certificate as software engineer is being issued by Blue Rock.”
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“It’s just level 2 software engineer. I still need to learn a lot.”
“You are too humble. I see lots of top IT student from top IT universities, failed to even get a Level 1 certificate from Blue Rock.”
“I heard that a few times,” Takeo casually said. “But honestly, I think I just have a better luck than them.”
“I see.” After sensing that Takeo was not comfortable with the talk about his certificate, Akio instantly decided he shouldn’t pressing the matter further. “In that case, let’s get to the point of our meeting.”
“Yeah.”
“And let’s do the talk while having a tea,” Akio said as he put the tea he just made in the table. One was in front of Takeo. Another one was in front of him, and a sugar cup in the middle. “In Nikko, the tax cut for foreigner is 21%, while my fee is 9%.
If you give me 100 thousand Ren, I will transfer 70 thousand Ren to your bank account as paycheck from IT Company you work as freelancer. The money is fully clean, taxed, and ready to use.”
“The IT Company is legit company, right?” Takeo curiously asked.
“Absolutely legit. I don’t use a paper company to laundry money.”
“I see.”
Akio gave his tea a sip before adding, “With a Level 2 certificate from Blue Rock, I also can get you a freelance programing job in a range of 40-80 Ren, 3-4 times a month.”
“I will gladly take two jobs a month.”
“Noted,” Akio happily said. “I will put you in the freelancer circulation starting next week.”
“What if I put untaxed income in my bank account?” Takeo curiously asked.
“If the tax’s authority finds it and they most likely will find it, they will cut the tax from it, along with a big chunk of penalty.”
After a moment of silence Takeo said, “Honestly, I never imagined there is a firm who do money laundry in personal level.”
“After the end of cold war, thousands of people who previously were part of the war effort, suddenly wanted to put everything behind and start new life. However, these people brought secret that couldn’t become public knowledge no matter what. Their very own country will even kill them to prevent the leak.” Akio gave his tea a sip before continuing, “And so, a service to address this complexity is born, and for some reason the demand for this service remains high until this very moment.”
“I see.” After lightly nodding his head a few times Takeo put 5000 Dillar in the table. “Please process this money for me.”
After counting the money and gave Takeo a receipt Akio said, “You will receive it in your bank account in two week, along with the paycheck slip and tax slip in your email.”
“Got it.”
“Mr. Yuuto, please answer me honestly,” Akio said in a drop dead serious tone. “Is this your first time in Nikko?”
“This is my first overseas trip,” Takeo casually replied.
“I see.” After a short pause Akio continued, “May I give you an advice?”
“Please.”
After taking a deep breath Akio said, “People in Nikko is very quiet and some are full of smiles, but they are not permissive. Please pay attention to local customs and rule as best as you can and don’t break it.”
“Got it,” Takeo firmly replied.
It was a bit weird to hear someone describe people of Nikko as customs and rules jerks, but after he gave it a deep thought, Takeo couldn’t really argue about it. Lots of people in Nikko really loved customs and rules.
“Second, most people in Nikko have a really unique disposition. A friend of mine, an Americ who married a Nikko’s woman describes it as, an allergic to anything that not made in Nikko. How high the level of this allergy, it depends on lots of factor, and people with very high level allergy is the folk that we called right wing bastard.” As his expression turned serious Akio added, “Please avoid the right wing bastard as much as you can. They will take your presence as insult even when you are doing nothing wrong.”
“That pretty disheartened,” Takeo warily said.
“Unfortunately, that’s the reality,” Akio said in low voice. “Fortunately, people of Nikko are just human like us?”
Question mark instantly popped up in Takeo’s forehead. “Human like us?”
“It means they have heart, and if you touch their heart correctly, they will become your friend.”
“I don’t think it will be easy.”
“Correct.” After a smile Akio added, “But at least, let me give you a story about foreigner who manage to gain local acceptance.”
“Please, I’m all ears,” Takeo eagerly said.
Wasting no time, Akio told a story about a botanist from Eisrel. He married with Nikko’s woman and lived in a small rural town in Yamagata, where he did a research for various food crops. Lots of local made a weird gossip about him because he was an Eisrel. It was pretty standard anti-Semitic gossip and some were very vile, but he just ignored it.
Then, one day, he invited his colleagues to have dinner in his house, and they all were very surprised when after the dinner, he helped his wife to clean the table and did the dish while kept chatting with his colleagues. It couldn’t be help. Most of his colleagues and neighbors treated their wife like a housemaid. That was the customs in the area for the last hundreds of years. And so, another series of weird gossip about him started to circulate after that dinner.
After he had his first daughter, people would also often see him fed her daughter or played with her in nearby park every weekend, and like his habit to help his wife clean the dining table and did the dish, his habit of feeding and playing with her daughter also became source of weird gossips.
One day, when his daughter just entered the 4th grade, his neighbor’s son said to her, “Your father is spineless coward and can’t put his wife at her place.”
However, it didn’t make her daughter angry. In casual tone, she replied the boy using the answer her mother taught her, “You are just jealous because your father never feed you, bath you, play with you, cook for you, or read you bedtime story.”
The boy instantly cried, went home, and in front of his parent he protested, “Why does his father never feed him, bath him, play with him, cook with him, or read him bedtime story? Is he just an adoption kid and not his real son?”
At first, the father wanted to scold his son and smacked his butt as hard as he could. However, after seeing his son so pitifully cried in front of him, he had no heart to scold or punish him.
After that, the area experienced a subtle change. If you went to nearby park at weekend, you would find a father or two accompany their kids playing, or some just sat in the bench while their toddler tightly clung to them like baby koala.
“Moral of the story, don’t try to lecture the locals, just be kind, be gentle, and be genuine, and some locals will definitely accept you,” Akio happily closed his story.
“That’s a great story,” Takeo genuinely said.
“Indeed.”
“Is the Eisrel botanist your friend, Mr. Akio?”
“He is my grandfather,” Akio proudly said.
“I see.”
“Well, if nothing else, let me say,” Akio happily said, “Welcome to Nikko, Mr. Yuuto, may good fortune embrace you.”
“Thanks,” Takeo firmly replied.
“I will do my best to help you maintain your working visa. It is part of the service from your fee so don’t be too courteous about it. Most of all, if you have problem with local, don’t hesitate to come to me as fast as you can,” Akio firmly said. “We will figure out the best exit together.”
“Got it.”
After shaking Akio’s hand, Takeo then left. Akio offered him his driver to take him on a tour around Nichiko, but he politely refused. After using a public toilet to change his look back to Takeo, he then went home using subway.
*****
