Honkai: Man(Sludge) From Future

So, what was he up to now, you ask? Our very own Hachiman Hikigaya: Academy City's top bureaucratic figurehead, the City Guard's number one stooge, and purveyor of strange and cynical remarks.

He was currently sitting in his office, gazing out the window at the sky.

And now, Hachiman Hikigaya even had a subordinate assigned to him as a secretary.

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka.

He was a boy they'd unexpectedly pulled out of one of Academy City's training facilities. As the new High Priest of the Holy Mother Cult, Hachiman had been personally appointed by Kiana to be their new leader.

It was all because Kiana had grown tired of trying to stamp out the cultists, who were as resilient as weeds in a field. She wasn't one for killing, and after she'd purged the extremists who caused chaos in the city, the remaining members—cowardly and greedy, but lacking any real ambition—seemed far more... manageable.

Nakamura Shin, the previous leader, had just been looking for a scapegoat for the cult. He never imagined he was the cicada being stalked by a mantis, completely unaware of the oriole waiting behind him.

Someone else had been eyeing his position, planning to stir up trouble for Academy City. He found his scapegoat, all right, but that scapegoat instantly transformed into the legitimate successor.

After the chaos, the remnants of this defeated cult came knocking on Hachiman's door. What choice did he have? He dutifully reported the trouble to Bronya.

As luck would have it, Kiana was sitting right there beside her.

The "Holy Mother" herself suddenly realized she needed a subordinate to control this chaotic flock.

So, she asked Bronya to have Hachiman take on the part-time job of "priest," with the mission to purge the remaining radicals and leave only the small-timers who were greedy for money but lacked any real ambition.

And so, "Brother Hachi" took office, and the weight on his shoulders multiplied once again.

He now had to serve not only the common people of Academy City but also the Crown Princess by keeping her chaotic believers in line.

If it were anyone else, they'd probably be overcome with excitement.

But this was Brother Hachi. After accepting the job with the trepidation of a man walking on thin ice, he moved swiftly to purge the disobedient extremists, using the pretext that the new "priest" needed to assert control over his unruly church.

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka was one of the people he rescued during this time. Why the cultists had targeted an innocent middle schooler was anyone's guess.

After being rescued, Ayanokoji's outstanding skills landed him a position by Hachiman's side as his "tool" of a secretary.

Every time Hachiman sat in his high-rise office overlooking Academy City, he couldn't help but wonder how on earth he had ended up here.

He hadn't done a single good deed, yet he had somehow become the public face of the City Guard. His words now determined the fate of tens of thousands of its members.

'I'm just a high school kid,' he'd think, 'how did I become the guardian of millions of people? Aren't they worried I'll screw everything up by putting such a heavy burden on me?'

The sense of security Hachiman craved remained elusive. Instead, the closer he skirted the edge of danger, the higher his rank became. Countless people were surely green with envy.

The internet was already flooded with bizarre rumors about him: that he was the director's illegitimate son, or that he was being kept by a wealthy high-society lady.

All sorts of strange stories were flying around.

But the real boss of the City Guard was Bronya Zaychik, who managed the network and public information security. She was the one who truly held the power of discourse, and the pipsqueak was even younger than him.

Her usual job was to send him strange speeches to deliver and give him orders over the phone. There was also a particularly fast girl named Wendy, who was responsible for delivering top-secret paper documents.

"Ayanokoji, my whole life has been like walking on thin ice. Do you think I'll ever make it to the other side?"

Hachiman had taken to making such grand, philosophical statements since becoming a leader, much to Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's constant confusion.

He found it hard to understand why his boss seemed so... abnormal.

He had a handsome face, but he'd managed to train himself to have the "dead fish eyes" of a cynic—a remarkable achievement in mechanical history, in a way.

'Walking on thin ice?' Ayanokoji thought. 'Countless people would kill for the chance to walk on such thin ice. How about you let me try?'

Who was he to argue? The guy was his boss.

"I must remind you, the meeting is about to start," Ayanokoji said. "Are your documents ready? I still have no idea what this meeting is even about..."

Ayanokoji was, indeed, responsible for the duties of a secretary, but this particular job often left him baffled. Hachiman's methods were completely unpredictable; you never knew what his next move would be.

"Oh, the meeting content... Oh, you can just write whatever for that, can't you?"

Hachiman figured that stuff was useless anyway. The work they actually did was, if not completely unrelated, then only tangentially connected to what was said in the big meetings.

Most of the real work was done by convening small task forces for specific projects. The large meetings were mostly for emphasizing safety protocols, fire inspections, public opinion surveys, and then bragging about their recent contributions.

"..."

Ayanokoji fell silent for a moment, forced to admit that Hachiman was right.

"The small group meetings are what really matter," Hachiman advised. "Just find a recent case and talk about it."

"I did find a case..." Ayanokoji didn't bother with formalities like addressing a superior.

Academy City was a completely new place, and concepts like "senpai" and "kohai" in the workplace were basically nonexistent.

The young people had all suffered under such systems, so Bronya had abolished those titles.

"You actually found one!"

Hachiman was stunned. He took the file from Ayanokoji.

He glanced at the title and his heart skipped a beat.

[Regarding Unresolved Issues with Sinners and the Introduction of a Lawyer Coordination Mechanism]

"Why do we need lawyers? What are they planning?"

Ayanokoji stated flatly, "They are the most knowledgeable about Academy City's new legal agreements. Also, many disputes have arisen over the trading of genetic information, so we have to take the enforcement of this civil law seriously. Ultimately, we need to confirm which statutes our City Guard can and cannot enforce."

Hachiman asked cautiously, "And if we can't enforce them?"

Ayanokoji looked at him as if he were an idiot.

"Then we don't let the statutes pass, of course. No law, no enforcement responsibility for us. Besides, we also need to discuss this with the people from the Kengan Association."

Hachiman said, aghast, "We have to talk to those muscleheads? Won't they smash up the conference room?"

Ayanokoji shook his head. "No, they won't. The representative they're sending is from the Stigma-armored Valkyrie reserve team."

"What's her name?"

"Yukino Yukinoshita."