A few days passed after that.
Shirou woke up around 5:30 every morning and stayed busy until about 2 a.m. before finally going to bed.
Those working hours were something that made Exusiai quite impressed.
If a large portion of that time had not been spent on Shirou's own personal matters, the Boss might have been moved to tears upon seeing it.
As expected of me, I have a good eye for people! Working continuously for a month and still capable of high-intensity overtime! This is exactly the kind of employee every boss dreams of!
The only issue was that he took on a bit too much personal work but the Boss did not really mind.
These days, who does not have a few private hobbies? As long as his main duties were completed, it did not matter.
Besides, compared to other people's hobbies, what Shirou was doing was far more normal. Steadily continuing like this was actually quite good.
There was no expectation for this to make money. Building connections was already valuable enough.
After all, in the intelligence business, having more connections and knowing more people could save a lot of trouble.
That was the kind of thinking only a capitalist like the Boss would have. Shirou's thoughts were much simpler.
If someone needed help and was willing to accept it, then he would help.
The shop had taken in two more people, both of whom had been driven out of their homes after becoming infected with Oripathy and had nowhere else to go.
Given their current scale, Shirou did not expand further.
They were lacking in money, space and people to manage more people. The decision not to keep expanding had been discussed together. Human ability has limits. Forcing further expansion might make it impossible to even maintain what they already had so Shirou suppressed that idea.
The ones they took in now were all people the children already knew so they could integrate well into the group.
As for the nighttime investigation, there had been a bit of progress over the past few days.
However, Shirou felt that he was being targeted. Every time he appeared, he would be chased by that hooded person from before.
He had switched back to his red coat. No matter what he wore, he would be pursued anyway so there was no need to waste effort modifying projected outfits.
Thanks to that, he also discovered a faster way to gather information.
Find a high place, stand there and look down. It was much quicker and there was no need to worry about being chased.
Although there were some blind spots as long as he noticed suspicious individuals he could have Yith investigate and they would still be found.
This was a division of labor.
The reason it was called only "some progress" was because Shirou had assisted that hooded person in catching someone.
He did not do much, he just fired a few arrows from a long distance to trap the target.
After all, he did not know whether the person was truly the culprit so instead of directly injuring them he chose a slightly more troublesome method.
Yes, just slightly more troublesome.
He simply used arrows from four kilometers away to precisely trap the person in place.
When Yith's drone flew over, it could see the target crying miserably, snot and tears everywhere.
It was truly pitiful.
When Chen, who had been chasing the suspect saw those arrows turn into blue particles and disappear she only frowned slightly.
Of course, all of this was relayed to Shirou through Yith's verbal report.
Watching one of their own completely overpower others was quite stress-relieving.
However, Shirou still did not know the true identity of the hooded person. As long as they were not a bad person, there was no need to deliberately find out who they were.
Just focus on doing his own work, without disturbing the other party or being disturbed by them.
"Shirou? Shirou! You zoned out again!"
Exusiai waved her hand in front of him repeatedly, finally pulling him back from his memories of the past few days.
After several days like this, he could still endure it but the side effect was that he would occasionally zone out.
Fortunately, he did not have classes. Otherwise, he would definitely have been called out by a teacher and made to stand in the hallway.
"What is it?"
Coming back to his senses, Shirou looked at the dining table. It was filled with dishes and tableware and nothing seemed to be missing.
Except for one person.
Besides him, only Croissant, Exusiai and Texas were there.
Sora was probably still at rehearsal.
"I was trying to tell you that all the fillings in your burger fell out."
Exusiai pointed at the burger in Shirou's hand.
"Oh, you are right."
Shirou looked at it. Indeed, the fillings had slipped out the back.
Since it was small and meant to be eaten immediately, he had not used anything to hold it together.
It was not a big problem anyway. A burger was junk food. Once taken apart, it was just bread, meat and vegetables, basically a healthy meal. At worst, he could just use utensils to eat it.
It just lacked the satisfaction of taking a big bite.
Since everything had fallen onto the plate, he was not about to pick it up with his hands. He stood up and went to the kitchen to get utensils.
"With Sora not here, Shirou has been zoning out more often. Do those two have something going on?"
Watching Shirou leave, Exusiai nudged Texas lightly with her elbow and whispered.
Sora had gone to rehearsal a few days ago. Since then, apart from occasional video calls with everyone, there had been little contact.
The same went for Shirou. Over the past two days, he had been zoning out more and more frequently.
Exusiai simply did not believe there was no connection between the two.
What she was really curious about was when exactly the two of them had gotten together. She was with them every day so there should not have been any time for that, right?
Or could it be that Shirou was actually a master of time management?
"You are overthinking it. Shirou has been like this for a month already. If anything, his current condition is closer to overfatigue."
Faced with her teammate's curiosity and desire for gossip, Texas mercilessly shut it down.
Shirou's condition had clear signs and combined with the dark circles under his eyes, she was more inclined to believe that he had other things keeping him busy outside.
Just like Sora and Croissant, who had other jobs besides their work at Penguin Logistics.
It was unclear what exactly someone who had just arrived in Lungmen and even had his identity arranged by Penguin Logistics was so busy with.
…Thinking about it felt troublesome. It was better to drop it.
Deciding it was getting more and more bothersome, Texas gave up thinking about it.
"Overfatigue… or excessive indulgence?"
Croissant muttered softly from the side.
Having learned her lesson before, she knew to keep her voice down when discussing things related to Shirou.
Even so, her mind was still full of inappropriate thoughts.
Hearing Croissant's words, Texas shot her a cold look and at the same time stopped Exusiai from speaking.
Since Shirou could not conveniently intervene, she would do it herself.
In an instant, Texas physically silenced the two of them.
One with a glare, the other with an elbow.
"What are you two doing?"
Carrying utensils back, Shirou saw Texas calmly eating her burger, while Croissant beside her was sweating nervously.
As for Exusiai? She was already completely slumped over on the table.
"N-No! Nothing! Nothing at all!"
Terrified, Croissant hurriedly insisted that nothing had happened.
Shirou clearly did not believe her but after thinking it over, he ultimately chalked it up to some kind of private interaction between them.
Without Sora around, Penguin Logistics seemed a bit more violent.
"If there is nothing, hurry up and finish eating and head out. It is getting a bit late."
Not pursuing the topic further, Shirou checked the time and reminded them.
Today's burgers had been a bit more complicated to make so they were served later than usual.
He had also prepared their lunch and afternoon snacks in advance, both as sandwiches.
There was no helping it. Convenience was the priority. He did not have many options besides things like sandwiches and rice balls that could last long and be easily eaten.
So he put extra effort into the ingredients instead, frequently changing the type of bread and rotating the fillings.
He had even specially made a fruit sandwich for Exusiai.
When it came to everyone's meals, Shirou put in a great deal of effort. After all, this was his main job.
"Oh no, it is already this late! Texas, let us go!"
Seeing the time on the clock, Exusiai stuffed the remaining burger into her mouth in one go and grabbed Texas, ready to leave.
"I will pack it for you. Do not forget to take your things."
Seeing how rushed Exusiai was and how reluctant Texas looked at the remaining breakfast on the table, Shirou smiled lightly and took a bag to pack it for her.
As for Exusiai's portion, it was still in her mouth, impossible to deal with.
After taking her things, Texas was promptly dragged away by Exusiai.
Croissant only let out a sigh of relief after Texas left. Then she picked up the small lunchbox Shirou had prepared for her and headed out as well.
With Sora not around, she only needed to complete today's sales target before going off to handle her own matters.
"It feels like sending kids off to school."
After seeing them off, Shirou turned back to look at the messy dining table and sighed.
Even so, his hands moved quickly. In no time, he had cleaned up the living room, washed the dishes until they were spotless and set them aside to dry.
He picked up several extra sandwiches he had made. These were to be delivered along the way to others, including Phal and Rope.
Placing the food into the basket of his bicycle, Shirou slung his bag over his shoulder, dressed in a short-sleeved shirt and long pants and left the dormitory.
Recently, Shirou had three commonly worn outfits.
One was his casual clothes for going out, such as to the Fuyuki shop. Another was the Penguin Logistics uniform jacket. The last was the hooded coat he wore at night in the slums.
Each outfit was used depending on the situation but compared to the others at Penguin Logistics, Shirou more often wore ordinary clothes.
After all, there have not been many missions lately. However, the Boss had mentioned that for Sora's concert all of them would need to participate in a few days of security work.
It would not be difficult, they were just serving as additional insurance. The management company would also hire professional security personnel.
The others had done similar jobs before but for Shirou this would be his first time.
There was still plenty of time before that so he was not in a hurry.
For now, his main task at Penguin Logistics was still gathering intelligence at night.
"I wonder if Yith has managed to fish out any useful information."
While on the road, Shirou's thoughts began to drift again.
He really did use the word "fish out." Back then, Yith had confidently declared that he would find a way to extract useful intel from the other party so Shirou would not need to meet them directly.
If there was information, Shirou would not have to spend every night climbing tall buildings and scouting from above.
Recently, he had also started to feel like someone was watching him. Every time he tried to locate the source of that gaze, it would disappear.
He did not know whether that was a good or bad thing. When he told Yith about it, he simply said it was nothing.
What else could he do? He could only trust him.
Riding his bicycle, Shirou first stopped by a seafood stall run by Jaye. After greeting him, he handed over his portion of the food.
After that, he went to the Fuyuki Shop and parked his bicycle.
"You are early today."
Seeing Shirou push the door open and walk in, Rope looked up to greet him and then lowered her head again to continue working.
"Am I not here at about the same time every day? Or did you forget to do your homework and are rushing it now?"
Shirou replied irritably.
He clearly came at the same time every day.
But after seeing Rope's behavior, Shirou understood what she meant.
She had simply not finished her homework and was rushing it, sincerely hoping that Shirou who checked it would arrive a little later.
"Cough… some of the kids did not sleep well yesterday so I went to take care of them."
Caught red-handed, Rope looked a bit embarrassed.
She had just forgotten.
And really, what was with Shirou assigning homework? Saying they should at least learn to read and do arithmetic.
Was she, Rope, the kind of person who could not read or do math?
At the very least, she could handle addition and subtraction.
"Right, right. Homework is not urgent. Eat first. You need energy after eating. I will give you a few extra problems later."
Shirou did not believe a word she said.
In this regard, Rope could be quite mischievous.
But that was fine. It made her feel more like a child.
Capital punishment can be avoided but minor punishments were unavoidable. After eating, Shirou planned to give her a few extra questions.
He was stricter with Rope because she helped manage the shop. He could not be careless about that.
"Ugh… Shirou, you have changed. Where did that gentle, kind and generous Shirou from before go?"
Hearing the first half of Shirou's words, Rope had been deeply moved.
The last sentence, however, was unnecessary.
When had this all started?
Probably when Phal brought over a large stack of books.
He said he wanted to teach everyone how to read and write and even convinced Shirou to tutor her personally.
This was all Phal's fault.
"It is just homework. It is not like I am forcing you to do anything strange."
Shirou was already used to this kind of odd verbal attack after being around the people of Penguin Logistics.
He could even counterattack now.
"Sigh, how tragic."
"Then do not eat. I will give it to Phal instead."
"Hey! No! I will finish eating and start writing right away. It is just a few questions. How hard could it be?"
After Shirou's "friendly" persuasion, Rope quickly surrendered and took a big bite of her sandwich.
Just as she was enjoying this final moment of happiness, the door made a clicking sound as it opened, signaling the arrival of a customer.
"You keep eating. I will handle this."
Shirou waved his hand, telling Rope to continue her breakfast while he went to attend to the customer.
"So this is the place… Hm? Why is someone from Penguin Logistics here?!"
A person with blue hair, red eyes, a pair of horns on their head and dressed in a Lungmen Guard Department uniform pointed at Shirou in shock.