By the Grace of the Gods (LN) - Volume 3 - Chapter SS1

Extra Story: The Ones Left Behind (Part 2)

The next day, as usual, I arrived at the office before the scheduled time. I went straight to go see Baba.

“Good morning.”

“Morning. Did you make it home all right yesterday? I was worried about you.”

“Yes, thanks for asking. Also, this is for you.”

“You brought the receipt for me? Thank you.”

“Wait, I thought you rode with me.”

“No, I had a bit of business to attend to, so I just got you in the taxi and paid the driver. Do you not remember?”

“I’m sorry, I have no memory of what happened before I got home. I had food from the convenience store that I don’t even remember buying.”

“I see. You did seem to be rather stupefied. We went to the convenience store after we left the office. By the way, Tabuchi, are you free tonight?”

“Why do you ask?”

“Baba said he wants to go out drinking tonight. Just between us.”

“I’m surprised to see you inviting us out for drinks, Baba.”

“I’m in the right mood for it. It’ll be a good chance to mourn Takebayashi, and there’s something I wanted to tell everyone. How about it?”

“The boss apparently won’t be coming to the office again. We should be able to leave on time.”

“Sounds good. We may as well take the opportunity to drink, then.”

Disregarding our work, we agreed to go out later that night.

■ ■ ■

“Cheers!”

Fifteen of us gathered at a bar we were trying for the first time. It was just about the only time we went drinking together without any problematic people present. Of course, we still found it somewhat hard to take it easy. I didn’t know what Baba suggested this outing for, and had to wonder what he wanted to discuss.

“Here you go, Tabuchi.”

“Thank you,” I muttered. I had a million questions, but Baba seemed to be waiting until everyone had their drinks.

“This stuff’s delicious!”

“Seriously, this food’s great.”

“Right? I’m the one who recommended the place. Be sure to keep it a secret from the boss.”

“So this is like your secret hideout, Baba?”

“Actually leaving work on time to go eat good food and drink good drinks? This is great!”

“We got to leave on time two days in a row. I think that’s a first for me.”

It was something that could normally never happen, but now there was nobody to stop us. I was excited by this precious opportunity, but I couldn’t truly enjoy it. An uneasy air filled the room.

“If only the chief were here,” said Hara, the youngest member of our department. Everyone else went quiet. “Oh, sorry!” the petite woman apologized, sensing that she said something rude. She bowed to everyone around her, almost bursting out of her tight clothes as she did.

“Don’t worry about it. We’re all thinking the same thing, right?”

“Pretty much.”

“Baba’s right, Hara.”

“Anyone could die at any time, but I never thought it’d happen to the chief.”

“Same.”

“Me neither.”

“I knew it was on everyone’s mind.”

“I don’t remember the chief ever taking a day off except on the weekends.”

“He even came in when he was supposed to get days off, actually.”

“But he never once seemed tired or sick.”

“Do you know how old he was, Tabuchi?”

“Thirty-nine.”

“What?! He was still in his thirties?!”

“That’s hard to believe.”

“Speaking of which, when did Takebayashi join the company?”

“I joined seven years ago, and he was already here at that point. If anyone knows, I guess Baba would.” Everyone’s eyes turned to Baba.

“I don’t know exactly when it was myself. I was reassigned to this department from the sales department.”

“I never knew that.”

“This was over a decade ago now. But he received a commendatory gift for fifteen years at the company last year, so I suppose he was on his sixteenth year.”

“Sixteen years at our company?”

“The guy couldn’t have been human.”

“But if he didn’t tolerate this company for sixteen years, maybe this wouldn’t have happened.” The room grew painfully silent.

“Oh, uh, what was it you wanted to talk about today?” I asked to try and change the subject. Baba thought for a moment.

“I wanted to talk about what’s next for us,” he said so solemnly that it made me tense. “What are everyone’s plans going forward?”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you want to keep working for this company?” he asked. Nobody answered. “Takebayashi is gone. It’s extremely unfortunate, but you have to think about your own futures too. You don’t have to answer this question, but do you think you can tolerate working at this company without Takebayashi? I’ll be honest, I took advantage of his kindness and let him do some of my work. I used him to reduce my workload. That’s how I survived to be this age despite the trials of working in this department. Now that he’s gone, I don’t think I can take it anymore,” he admitted and looked around at the rest of the group. Everyone he looked at turned away. They had all come to the same conclusion. “So I have a proposal. Why don’t we all quit?”

“All of us?”

“Were it only so easy.”

I didn’t know what I was supposed to do then. I’d be out of a job, and it was hard to find a new one. We all tripped over each other voicing our objections, and he calmly accepted them all.

“Your concerns are understandable, but I actually found a new workplace already. For all of us,” he said, to our shock. “Like I said, I used to be in sales. I gave some old clients a visit, some I hadn’t been in contact with for ages, but they still remembered me. They were surprisingly easy to talk to.”

It was hard to believe, but Baba showed us a list of company names and contact information, as well as related business cards. He even had documents from some of the companies. I checked them once they were passed around to me, and if he was lying, he put a lot of effort into it.

“Of course, it would be impossible to get us all working in the same place, but plenty of them are happy to accept experienced engineers. I checked their conditions, and if they think you’re good enough, they’ll even consider paying better salaries and offering future promotions. Either way, you won’t end up in a worse position than you are right now. I think all these jobs should be tolerable. Best of all, you’ll never have to work during vacations unless absolutely necessary. You’ll get paid overtime. Their rules about this are better than our current company.”

“Seriously? I’ve heard of this company.”

“They’ve been performing pretty well recently, haven’t they?”

“I know about them too! They’re supposed to have a gym and a nap room at the office, aren’t they? And they make employee benefits a priority.”

“These other companies have their good points too.”

“What if they’re just trying to make themselves look good?”

“I understand your suspicions, but regardless, it couldn’t be worse than continuing to work at this company could it?”

“Well, I guess not.”

Unable to believe how favorable these conditions were, Kumatani voiced his dissenting opinion, but later went silent. Everyone else was the same way. We were already at rock bottom, so there was nowhere to go but up. A chance for a better workplace and a better life had come before us. But I still didn’t know what to do.

“Baba, may I ask something?”

“What, Tabuchi?”

“Why wait until now to do this?”

I knew Baba was busy at work too, and if he wanted to change jobs, he could have simply searched for himself. Maybe he just happened to find these jobs now, but I didn’t see why Baba would look for jobs for all of us in the first place.

“It’s hard to explain, but I suppose I feel like there’s something to gain from this,” he said. Everyone looked at him, somewhat confused. Baba looked down, his voice strained.

“Takebayashi asked me to take care of the rest of the department if anything happens to him.”

“The chief said that?”

“A long time ago, but yes. I forgot about it until the other day. I hated Takebayashi.”

That stirred everyone up even more. As far as I knew, they had always gotten along.

“It was only back then that I disliked him. Back when I was in the sales department, the upper brass went about some secret dealings, like looking after the child of an executive from one of our clients in exchange for work. I disapproved of their methods, so they transferred me to another department,” Baba said self-derisively. “Takebayashi was the one who taught me everything I needed to know for my new job. My generation is all about seniority, so I took issue with working under a man younger than I was. I was ashamed, to be honest. I only paid attention to the bad things about him, so I grew to hate him even more. All my frustration over my demotion was directed toward him. I never said so, but I think he noticed.

“Still, he persisted in teaching me. Some ten years after I learned to do the job on my own, I finally changed my mind. We were working overtime and I was frustrated, so I started lecturing Takebayashi, saying he didn’t know how to handle business and that’s why work always got pushed on him. When I think about it now, I was awfully cruel. But then he told me it was fine, that he knew everyone was busy, and that he had enough stamina to deal with it. He vaguely smiled, and no matter what I said, I couldn’t make him mad. Then I just said that it would hurt us all if he worked himself to death, trying to end the conversation.

“Then I said that as long as he was around, everything would work out. I expected him to retaliate after everything I said, but he just laughed. I could never get mad at him again after that.”

“The chief was never one to hold a grudge.”

“Even when you bugged him, yeah.”

“I was worried it would be the opposite. I thought he might actually be angry.”

“I can see why. He wasn’t always the best at communicating.”

We went silent for a while, but it was a more peaceful silence than before.

“I’m sure he forgot what he told me, but I still wanted to do what I could.”

Thinking about it logically, it was nearly impossible to improve the company. That was why Baba went as far as finding new workplaces for all of us and suggesting that we quit.

“I want everyone to consider it. Do you want the company to keep abusing you, or do you want to take a risk with a new workplace? I won’t make you do anything. Make a choice that you won’t regret, but I at least wanted to provide you with a chance,” Baba said, then stood up and bowed. He came across like someone on an apology tour, but I understood how he felt. At the same time, hope for the future was in sight.

“Thank you, Baba!”

“A toast to Baba and the chief!”

It wasn’t long before everyone applauded and cheered.