A Staff Member of a Yokohama Organization Wants to Go on Strike

(This is my first novel! It has plenty of flaws, but I love it!)

(Scroll down to see the original blurb for the neighboring novel, The Clear Water of Shinichi.)

Hiyori (hiyori) leaves the orphanage where he has lived for over ten years for personal reasons and arrives in downtown Yokohama.

Through his own efforts, he manages to get himself caught up in an unlawful organization.

He really likes the people here. Everyone treats him well--

It's just that sometimes, for no apparent reason, they seem to target him, which leaves him very confused.

A certain bandage-wrapped freak excitedly shows everyone his abstract self-portrait.

Hiyori: ...Actually, you drew pretty well. This portrait looks way better than the real you.

Not long after, the bandage freak makes his debut as the organization's laughingstock.

The executive-in-training is always cold, and when winter comes, he doesn't even want to go outside.

Hiyori ponders this for a long time and figures it might be a problem with his temperature perception.

Hiyori: Maybe you should get your head checked?

An hour later, he gets beaten black and blue in the executive-in-training's martial arts class.

The boss is always busy with work, and the documents on his desk are piled up like a mountain.

Hiyori: Mr. Mori, look! I did my hair just like yours! Why doesn't it look quite the same?

The boss rubs his increasingly receding hairline.

After that, Hiyori never gets another day off.

After witnessing his superior get picked on yet again, a subordinate quietly reminds him: Lord Hiyori, have you considered improving your relationships with your coworkers?

Hiyori: ?

Hiyori: Why? I'm super popular.

(There are if-story sections interspersed with the main story. The paywall kicks in at 60%, so be sure to check the title before buying, and skip around if you're not interested!)

Mostly first-person narration, with some third-person sections.

No romance, just friendship and family bonds with the whole cast.

Content warning: Hiyori spent several years under Mori's care. I won't say much about what the kids he raised usually end up like.

Check out my upcoming novel, The Forum Says I'm the Villain (retitled).

Blurb:

One day when he is thirteen, Shimizu Shinichi gets smacked in the face by a blank sheet of paper on his way home from school.

He is about to throw the scrap away.

But the paper quivers, and black words appear on it:

"Don't throw me away QAQ"

Shimizu Shinichi stares at the words for a long time.

Then he pulls a pen from his little backpack and adds a period after QAQ.

Shimizu Shinichi: "You're not being precise."

The pages are annoying, Shinichi thinks.

But the pages tell him stories.

They even draw little paw prints in the blank spaces to use as bookmarks.

...So it should be fine to keep them, right?

The pages tell Shimizu Shinichi that the characters in the stories are real.

Wanting to confirm that ability users really exist, they board a train from Tokyo to Yokohama.

One day later, the pages keep him trapped in Yokohama.

Shimizu Shinichi: "I'm such an idiot. Really."

"I knew bad people could deceive you about love. I didn't know a sheet of paper could, too."

"But haven't you been curious about supernatural abilities for ages?"

The pages offer a highly tempting solution.

"You can see all sorts of things here that will overturn your worldview (∩▽∩). Didn't you resolve to become a proper researcher and keep pursuing the truth?"

"..." Oh no, he's kind of tempted.

If an ordinary person without supernatural abilities can't leave Yokohama, what's the best choice?

Shimizu Shinichi: (immediately) Join the Armed Detective Agency, or hire them.

Things go fairly smoothly, with just one little problem--

Whenever his coworkers first hear his name, they always give him an expression he can't quite understand.

At the same time Shimizu Shinichi steps into Yokohama, an otherworldly forum of unknown origin that can't be deleted aggressively takes up a corner of the Armed Detective Agency members' phone screens.

"A crossover?"

"Honestly, I'd be worried if anyone else got sent into a crossover, but if it's Smith Washing Machine, it'll be fine :)"

"After all, he's the kind of person who could plan a case like that. He split the Black Organization into two factions all by himself: the Booze Factory and himself."

"Will he go after the others, too...? Please don't hurt my detective agency!"

The Armed Detective Agency: ?

Wait, what's a crossover? Who's Smith Washing Machine? What's the Booze Factory? Who's going after the agency?

Content warning: This is an upcoming novel, and details may change.

The author's type is beautiful, powerful, and tragic characters, so I tend to start serving up angst without realizing it.

The protagonist is not a bad person. Please believe me, he really isn't qwq.

Theme: Finding the value of life.