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"Good morning."
Rubbing his aching head, Ishikawa Katori slowly walked out of the bedroom.
Uzuki, sitting behind the bar and drinking strawberry milk, looked up and suddenly said with an annoyed tone, "Ah, I really should quit drinking!"
Ishikawa Katori's mouth twitched, and the words that were about to come out were immediately swallowed back.
"You complain every morning, why don't you go beat up your past self who drank last night?" Uzuki slapped the ledger in her hand onto the bar with a 'thwack' and said with a dark expression, "You just earned two hundred thousand, and you, you bastard, spent nearly thirty thousand Kan on alcohol and snacks yesterday!?"
"What? Are you planning to spend it all within a week? Are you not going to pay me the two months' salary you owe me?"
Upon hearing this, Ishikawa Katori immediately showed a fawning smile: "How could that be? Even if I quit drinking, I would never default on Uzuki-daren's salary. Just take as much money as you need."
It wasn't easy to find a signboard girl, and Ishikawa Katori didn't want her to run away. Moreover, Ishikawa Katori didn't trust anyone else to help him look after his shop.
"By the way, did you get any work yesterday?"
Seeing Ishikawa Katori suddenly change the subject, Uzuki rolled her eyes at him, but still took out the work log: "You really accumulated a lot of commissions in the past month you were gone. As soon as people heard you were back, many came to commission work yesterday. However, except for three urgent ones, the others are not urgent, and most of them are house repairs before winter."
Uzuki paused in her words: "Speaking of which, shouldn't you raise your prices? Every year before winter, a large number of people come to you for house repairs, and the commission fees you earn are not even as expensive as the material costs."
"There are no material costs,"
Ishikawa Katori shook his head: "You can cut trees for free."
"…" Uzuki.
Transportation, processing… are these all free?
And normally, ordinary people would buy materials nearby for house repairs, not go up the mountain to cut them, right?
But upon closer thought, with Ishikawa Katori's strength, these things really didn't seem to take much effort for him.
Thinking of this, Uzuki said helplessly: "If you keep being this competitive for a few decades, the unemployment rate in Rukongai will definitely skyrocket."
Ishikawa Katori chuckled and said nothing.
He didn't care if the unemployment rate skyrocketed. Anyway, he wasn't entirely taking commissions in Rukongai just to make money. His main goal was to use this channel to meet more female customers and gain their favor with low-cost and high-quality services.
As for profitable commissions…
They had to be from big clients like Oyama, or by squeezing those students from Shin'ō Academy.
Unfortunately, big clients like Oyama weren't available every day, and Shin'ō Academy students only had one long holiday per school year, with other short breaks lasting only one or two days.
He really should develop some big clients. If Gotei 13 could commission work from his shop, then he really wouldn't have to worry about money anymore.
Of course, Ishikawa Katori was just thinking. Even if Gotei 13 really did commission work from his shop, Ishikawa Katori would have to carefully consider whether the commission was something he could complete, and whether there was any conspiracy involved… Leaving Gotei 13 aside for now, Ishikawa Katori had always been very wary of 'Central 46'.
Bang!
Suddenly, the shop door was violently slammed open, and a figure rolled directly to Ishikawa Katori's feet.
"…Why is your entrance always so unique?"
Ishikawa Katori glanced outside the shop. The door was completely ruined from the impact. Before working, he would have to repair his own door first.
Outside the door, the wild boAr named 'Boli' snorted proudly, meeting Ishikawa Katori's gaze, which made Ishikawa Katori have an urge to research wild boAr cooking methods.
The person who came was none other than Shiba Ganju.
"Haha~~"
Amidst a burst of wild laughter, Shiba Ganju stood up from the ground, pushed Ishikawa Katori aside, and said to Uzuki: "Uzuki, it's been a month, did you miss me? Did Ishikawa Katori bully you?"
"Respected customer, please compensate our shop for the repair costs first." Uzuki showed a professional smile: "Not much, just one hundred thousand Kan will do."
"Your shop owner is my best brother, why talk about money between us? It hurts our feelings."
Ishikawa Katori moved his chair aside and said with narrowed eyes, "Your brother was pushed aside as soon as you entered the door."
"Sir Ishikawa!"
Several more figures walked into the shop from outside. As soon as they entered, they uniformly bowed to Ishikawa Katori. They were Shiba Ganju's four little brothers.
Hearing the four men's address, Ishikawa Katori felt a pang of toothache: "…You guys should just call me Ishikawa or Katori."
"How can we do that? If it weren't for your life-saving rescue, we might have died in District 79 back then." Haruka, the leader, said, and the other three also nodded in agreement: "And Ganju-nii also said that this is the most suitable address for you."
"That's right."
Shiba Ganju turned his head, patted Ishikawa Katori's shoulder, and said with a solemn expression: "You are truly worthy of this title!"
Ishikawa Katori sighed. He was really too lazy to argue with them about whether the address sounded good or not. He then asked curiously, "Why did Kukaku-dajie suddenly let you out?"
"What do you mean 'let out'!"
Shiba Ganju proudly tilted his head back: "All ten arenas have been turned into sand by me."
"That fast?"
Ishikawa Katori was stunned. He knew that when he was released, Ganju was still struggling with the fifth arena. He didn't expect that in just two days, he would have destroyed the remaining five arenas.
"Uzuki, in the past few days I wasn't here, did this kid Ishikawa Katori bully you?" Shiba Ganju rolled up his sleeve and showed off his muscles, saying: "If he bullied you, just tell me. I've been diligently training this past month and can completely punch him to death!"
"…"
Ishikawa Katori looked at Ganju, who kept glancing at him cautiously, and vaguely understood why this guy suddenly had a burst of power after he left…
"Give me those urgent commission forms."
Shaking his head, Ishikawa Katori said to Uzuki behind the bar: "Let's try to finish these urgent orders today, and then, starting tomorrow, we'll work on house repairs, aiming to get them all done before winter… Wait, let's start the day after tomorrow. Tomorrow, I'll go to Districts 43, 58, and 64 first."
Since winter was approaching, he might as well repair the houses in those orphan gathering places. He could also gain some favorability from those children.
Uzuki nodded and handed over copies of several urgent commission forms to Ishikawa Katori.
Ishikawa Katori took them and looked them over. One was to find a lost pet, one was to harvest a rice field, and one was to deliver goods to West 1 District. None of them were complicated jobs.
Tucking the forms into his embrace, Ishikawa Katori said to the people in the shop: "You guys stay here, I'm going to work."
"Go on! Go on!"
Ganju waved his hand as if shooing flies, making it seem as if this were his shop.
"Sir Ishikawa, is there anything we can help you with?"
Haruka and the other four eagerly approached, their fawning expressions making Ishikawa Katori feel uncomfortable. He said, "You guys can just be like before, no need to be so polite with me…"
Before Ishikawa Katori could finish speaking, several more people walked into the shop.
Seeing people coming, Haruka and the other four, who were blocking the doorway, instinctively moved aside. But when they saw who it was, their faces instantly turned pale. Haruka asked in a panicked tone, "What… what are you doing here!?"
Shiba Ganju looked over upon hearing the voice, and when he saw the newcomers, his expression also changed, but it wasn't fear, but anger: "I didn't go looking for trouble with you guys, and you still dare to come to me!?"
Smack!
With a crisp sound, Uzuki behind the bar slapped Ganju on the back of the head and shouted, "Why are you shouting? If you scare away our customers, are you going to pay us?"
Shiba Ganju thought Uzuki didn't recognize them and hurriedly said, "Uzuki, listen to me, they are…"
"Customers!"
"No…"
"Customers!"
Ganju blinked, vaguely starting to understand, and tentatively asked, "Did they come here in the two days I was gone?"
Uzuki nodded.
Ganju was stunned, but before he could ask again, he heard the newcomers uniformly and not-so-uniformly bow to Ishikawa Katori: "Big Bro Ishikawa!"
"…"
Ganju and Haruka's four men looked at each other, all with confused expressions.
What exactly happened in the past few days they weren't here?
Why were these dangerous guys suddenly so respectful to Ishikawa Katori?
The newcomers were Oyama and the others. After greeting Ishikawa Katori, they turned and bowed to Ganju: "Ganju Boss, we offended you some days ago because of that bastard Daimaru, but seeing as Daimaru is already dead, we hope you can forgive us."
After Oyama spoke, he stood there somewhat anxiously. If he had known that this little ancestor of the Shiba family was here, he wouldn't have come…
If this person was still resentful of them, then with Boss Ishikawa Katori's personality, he definitely wouldn't mind keeping them here.
"Huh?" Ganju looked at Ishikawa Katori with a confused expression.
Ishikawa Katori ignored him and nodded at Oyama.
See, this is what you call knowing how to talk.
He should really make Haruka and the other four learn. What's with calling him Sir Ishikawa? This is how it should be called.
Seeing that Ishikawa Katori ignored him, Ganju looked at Uzuki behind the bar, but Uzuki didn't answer him either, only looking at Ishikawa Katori with an inquiring gaze.
Although Ishikawa Katori didn't explicitly say so, any commissions not recorded were not to be disclosed to others, not even to acquaintances.
"There's nothing to hide."
Ishikawa Katori replied, then ignored the two of them and asked Oyama: "Why did you guys come? Did Himura bring people again?"
"No, no…"
Oyama said with a fawning smile: "I was just thinking that Boss Ishikawa Katori helped us so much, so I wanted to ask if there's anything you need help with…"
Ishikawa Katori didn't speak, merely dropping the smile from his face.
Seeing this, Oyama's heart immediately jumped, and he hurriedly said: "We're scared!"
He couldn't help but be scared. Before they fought the villains of West 80th District, they still had the courage to stay in District 79 and fight those people, but after realizing the gap between themselves and those guys from West 80th District, they couldn't even sleep soundly last night, fearing that people from West 80th District would come to kill them in the middle of the night.
After all, Boss Ishikawa Katori didn't kill Himura, but he didn't dare to tell Ishikawa Katori that the commission wasn't completed…
Finally, everyone gathered and discussed, deciding to scatter and hide in various western districts, and then return after some time, once they confirmed that no one from West 80th District would come.
Scattering was fine for others; as long as they didn't cause trouble, they could hide in an area, and no one would know where they came from, after all, Himura couldn't recognize all District 79 residents.
But Oyama, as the leader, was different. Himura had directly targeted him yesterday.
So after some ideological struggle, Oyama brought a few people here. Although Ishikawa Katori was equally terrifying in his eyes, compared to the people from West 80th District, Ishikawa Katori was clearly easier to communicate with.
Ishikawa Katori was stunned for a moment upon hearing this, then reacted and said with a wry smile: "Didn't you guys say you'd rather die in District 79?"
Oyama chuckled: "Potentially dying and definitely dying are two different things."
"There's nothing here I need your help with… Hmm?" Ishikawa Katori was about to dismiss them, but then as if he thought of something, he turned to Uzuki behind the bar and said: "Uzuki, give me those house repair forms."
Uzuki, who was explaining to Ganju, subconsciously pulled out the copies of the commissions: "Are we starting work today?"
"Just doing some preparatory work."
Ishikawa Katori took the forms, looked them over carefully, wrote numbers on them with a pen, and then handed them to Oyama: "Since you want to help, then go cut trees on Li Fu Mountain. I've written down how much is needed. After you've cut them… Hmm, just leave them at the foot of the mountain."
His original idea was to have them cut the trees and deliver them directly to the clients' homes, but after glancing at the people Oyama brought, he decisively abandoned that idea.
Every single one of these people had a fierce, fleshy face, and their exposed skin was covered with various scars. They practically had the words 'villain' carved on their faces.
If he sent them to the clients' homes, the clients would very likely be so scared they'd abandon their homes.
You know…
Most of these orders were from female clients.
"Huh?"
Oyama stared blankly at the forms in his hand. Cutting trees?
Although he really wanted to yell at Ishikawa Katori, 'I only know how to cut people, not trees,' thinking about the consequences of yelling that, Oyama could only pat his chest and say, "Boss Ishikawa Katori, don't worry, cutting trees is what we're best at!"
As long as they could get Ishikawa Katori's protection, whether it was cutting people or cutting trees, they were willing to do it. After all, they both involved using a knife to cut!
On the other side, Ganju also learned what had happened from Uzuki. His gaze towards the group became less hostile and more curious.
Because…
The way these people looked at Ishikawa Katori wasn't the gratitude of those who had received help, but a mixture of fear and respect.
What exactly did Ishikawa Katori do yesterday? How did helping them scare this group into such a state?
To this point, Haruka and his four men on the side found it quite normal, because a month ago, they too were so scared by 'their own people' that they had nightmares for several days.
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