Vigilante Slimming Scanner – Chapter 2

REGISTERS

“Shhhh! Here he comes. Do you see that? He’s buying those frozen meals, and those freeze-dried ramen, and…”

“Give it a rest. The man’s just trying to eat.”

“The man has a name — Toro — and he’s eating the worst food in the store.”

“I don’t understand why we suddenly care what he does. We let that mom buy candy for her kids the other day.”

“Stop. That was a rare thing. She almost never buys candy for her kids.”

“How would you know?”

“I’m a god just like you.”

“Will the two of you please stop bickering? It’s annoying,” the clerk says, dragging a package of crackers over my scanner and ringing up the latest salaryman picking up food for dinner. She turns to the clerk working with the register in the next aisle over. “Your register is much nicer than mine.”

“I don’t know how I got so lucky.” The other clerk rolls her eyes and laughs.

I train my thoughts on the guy across the store currently browsing the cookies. This is the one we were warned about this morning. The convenience store registers described him perfectly: late-twenties, hair coiffed into place, graphite suit, belly hanging over the belt buckle. He’s on a bender at work, spending more than seventy hours in the office, drinking almost every night, and eating the most wretched food he can find.

Amazingly enough, he’s still alive. Yeah, I know. Most people can live on a junk food diet, no problem. But he’s different because he doesn’t know his family history. He’s adopted. In fact, I remember his birth mother quite well. She cried over the chocolate and ice cream she bought, and the clerks patted her hand and told her everything would be okay. Her husband was already dead by the time she was six months pregnant. We see everything.

With his basket full of an ersatz dinner, Toro approaches the checkout line and waits his turn.

“What should I do?”

“Shhh.” The clerk purses her lips at me and shakes her head before smiling at the woman she’s currently ringing up. She’s pretending she can’t hear me since most people can’t.

“If you feel so strongly about teaching him a lesson, then just do it,” the other register whispers.

“Don’t you dare,” the clerk mumbles at me as she bends over to retrieve a piece of paper that fell to the floor. She straightens and Toro is standing next, waiting for her to ring up the groceries.

“Did you find everything you were looking for, sir?” she chimes, dragging the box of frozen dumplings over my scanner. I promptly shut it off before I can ring up anything. Concentrating hard on my circuits, I take the whole system offline. The clerk sighs and rolls her eyes.

“What happened?” Toro asks, his face blanching to a violent white.

“I’m sorry, sir.” She bows to him, kicking my station at the same time. “It appears my system has gone offline.”

“See? I told you!” Toro turns to a man behind him. Oh! He brought a friend shopping. Hmmm. This gives me an idea.

“You’re right. All these places seem to be reacting to you.” The man nods and folds his arms over his chest.

“It’s ridiculous,” Toro says, sighing. He appeals to the clerk. “I have no food at home. I need you to ring these up by hand.”

“Don’t do it!” I shout, and everyone in line but an old woman the next aisle over jumps. “If you want to kill yourself with this junk food, you’ll do it somewhere else, but I refuse to be a part of it.”

The other man’s eyes widen, and he leans forward. “Did the cash register just talk to us?”

The clerk sighs again, in her best annoyed-teenager voice. “It seems to have a mind of its own. I’m not sure if someone programmed it to be that way or…”

“No. I come with the store.” If I had shoulders I would draw them up and nod my head. “Listen. We’re not going to let you purchase junk food. Buy meat, vegetables, rice, whatever, and make your own meal, but that’s it.”

“Why?” Toro slams his basket down on my top. I groan from the impact, and my attitude plummets.

“Have you looked in the mirror lately?”

“Hey!” Toro and his friend exclaim, both drawing back and eyeing one another.

“I understand it’s hard to hear, but this is tough love. Start eating healthy foods, stay away from the junk, and go to the gym. Or you’ll regret it.”

I shut down all the power to my station, leaving the screen blank, and the clerk fumbling for the phone so she can call her manager.

“I’m almost afraid to walk down the street now,” Toro says to his friend as they both leave their baskets of food with the clerk.

“Come on, Toro-kun. Risa said she’d be late and wouldn’t need dinner tonight. Let’s get beers and udon.”

As the two step out the door, I raise my voice, “And quit drinking too while you’re at it!”

The clerk kicks me when I power back up. “You need to stop being so nosey. That’s just not done around here.”

“I’m done being polite, and I’ve got a mission for him. Trust me. He’ll thank me for this someday.”