Shinichi sighed. At this moment, leaning all his weight on a broomstick, Shinichi yet again contemplated his life decisions.

His dear friend, Bobu… damn bastard scammed him!!

… though not exactly a scam, more so he left out important information that would have changed Shinichi's entire decision making had he known.

"Bastard Bobu. Of all the jobs he could give me..!" Shinichi gripped the broomstick tightly, feeling it almost give.

He was now in the school's arena room. Some rowdy kids had decided to use it as their playroom and made a mess out of everything. Those students were carried away on a gurney earlier. A few weapons were broken, fragments of it scattered across the room.

"Oh my god, what is that?" Someone had pointed out some thick substance gathered at the corner.

"Must be piss..."

"It's brown!"

"Well... shit."

Shinichi had vomitted at the smell alone.

Moreover, blood had littered the floor. Its red colour marked the wooden tiles, imprinting itself forever. Shinichi had wiped at it furiously to no avail. The blood of a mana consumer was a stubborn thing.

He's only been employed for a few days but he's already getting sick of students causing chaos everywhere.

Shinichi gritted his teeth and scrubbed the dust filled floor violently.

He recalled the events days ago.

Irish had stayed behind to recover and to set up a new treehouse for them (not like he'd be able to enter the village with his burnt appearance and the putrid stench he exuded). It's been days since they've last spoken and Irish has yet to contact him. Irish was a bit unresponsive during the whole discussion and that sounded the warning bells inside Shinichi's head. The dazed look he had in his eyes was definitely not from getting beaten up. The bastard liked fire too much. Shinichi shuddered from just thinking about it.

As for that Hoshina chick… they hadn't heard anything about her after blowing her face up.

"I didn't expect you'd actually use it," murmured Irish. His eyes shimmered in sympathy. "I would have incapacitated her with my flames before long. Plus, your promise--"

"Don't worry, it was necessary," answered Shinichi. He flicked his hand on Irish. "We don't know what exactly her ability is, better be cautious than not."

Thus, they parted ways and Shinichi entered Enero Village safely.

It wasn't difficult to find the nearest MMA Academy. It wasn't difficult to call for his friend there as well. His friend, Bobu, was renowned for being part of a distinguished research guild years ago. Many questioned why he now dedicated his time to teaching yet that didn't stop him from pursuing his goal. Shinichi had once accompanied him to one of his expeditions and that had meant going deeper into the danger zone. In other words, the man practically owed his life to Shinichi.

So it was now time for that repayment. No interview, no background checks, none of that formality to obtain a full time job. Ah, nepotism sure is great!

"Of all things, a janitor! This is an MMA school, you know?" Shinichi clutched his head as horrible memories rained down his mind. "Gods, the ungodly amount of work the janitors did back in our day…"

Bobu had the decency to look chagrined. "Well, that's true, but…"

"Being a janitor here is worse than any job imaginable. I could easily teach devourer theory to these little gremlins!" cried Shinichi.

"I feel like you'd end up murdering them before they could learn anything," murmured Bobu.

"Hell, why not let me become a guard or something?"

"Sorry, Shinichi." Bobu sighed, his hands neatly folded on his lap. "It's too risky. I know you drank a concealing vial to hide your identity but some of the students here have already started consuming mana stones. We don't want them seeing through the potion and identifying you--"

"Not like any of them keep up with the news, much less of a different country…"

"--and you need to be a licensed hunter to be a security guard. The other guards would no doubt question your legitimacy. It's best that you keep a low profile while working here. No one will bat an eye on a janitor."

Shinichi clicked his tongue. Why did this guy have to make so much sense? Still, Shinichi yelled at the guy until he got kicked out. The job was already his though.

And so here he was now.

"Hey, newbie, stop it! You're building up dust everywhere!"

Shinichi slowed his sweeping and turned to the female manager, giving her a sheepish smile. "I'm sorry. I'm not very familiar with this work."

"You're just swinging a broom around, how can you fuck that up? Move somewhere else if you're gonna be a nuisance."

He didn't know why the manager was bullying him. Like, he's been very kind so far. Not to mention he had a charming smile and a handsome face. Why hadn't she fallen for him yet? Either way, Shinichi still needed the job and he's gonna do a damn good job on it.

He followed his manager's order and moved away from the arena. He made sure to sweep away any speckle of dirt in sight, checked that all trash was recycled correctly, and even paid special attention to the restroom cleanliness (no funny substances discovered so far). A fine day for a newly employed employee!