Vigilante Slimming Scanner – Chapter 3

TORO

I feel even bigger today than I did yesterday. Since Mitsuo and I hardly ever go out to dinner together, we had udon and takoyaki afterward, along with a few pitchers of beer. He told me about his wife’s crazy family in Nagoya, and I lamented that my parents expect me to come visit them every weekend, though I don’t mind it. It was good fun, but we both barely caught the last train home.

“It’s time for a break,” Mitsuo says, glancing at the clock on his monitor. It’s after 6:30pm again. “Let’s go downstairs and grab a snack. I’m out of food.”

Oh no. My trips to the stores didn’t go so well yesterday, and today, I made sure to pack a lunch of rice and tuna, just to avoid the shaming from the cash registers. I grab my wallet from my back pocket.

“Can you pick me up a few things at the store while I go to the ATM on the corner?” I pull a few hundred yen notes out and hand them to Mitsuo. “I need to get out and stretch my legs.”

Mitsuo’s eyebrows draw together, and he frowns at the money. “Are you avoiding the convenience store?”

“No, no.” I wave my hand as I grab my sunglasses from the desk. “Just buy me a bag of potato chips and a protein bar, one of the green tea ones, and I’ll meet you in the lobby.”

“Fine,” he says, sighing and shoving the bills in his pocket. “But you shouldn’t avoid the convenience store because of one little incident. This is just like the gym.”

“What? It is not.”

“Yes it is. Remember? You went twice but couldn’t figure out the machines so you never went back.”

“I never went back because I have no time.” A little white lie. It’s true I couldn’t figure out the machines, but it’s also true that work has taken over my life.

“My workouts take half an hour every day. You just don’t want to commit to the schedule.”

“Right. Let’s go.” It’s better if I agree with him, so we can leave. Mitsuo is like a dog wrestling with a bone. He doesn’t give up until submission.

We take the elevator downstairs, and I continue on my side of the street to the bank while watching Mitsuo cross at the crosswalk and enter the convenience store. My mind tumbles when I remember the scanners yesterday. “I will not let Toro continue to kill himself with junk food.” Am I really killing myself with junk food? I have a belly and I could stand to lose about a dozen kilos, but I’m not in awful shape. I do walk from the subway to work every day. It’s a whole five blocks! But that doesn’t negate the endless nights of drinking and dinners out.

I enter the vestibule at the bank and wait in line. When was the last time I went to the doctor for a physical? Maybe three years ago? Four? I can always get by with the clinic when I have an infection, but it’s been ages since I last saw a general physician. The man behind me clears his throat and I jump forward, so lost in my own thoughts I hadn’t noticed the person in front of me had their cash and was out the door.

Once I withdraw money, I’m back on the sidewalk and heading for my office building. I had been looking to lose some weight and take better care of myself. But I am not capitulating to a bunch of machines that don’t understand how hard it is to diet and exercise. They can switch off for all I care.

Mitsuo stands with his back against the wall when I enter the lobby. “No dice. I couldn’t buy anything for you.”

“What?” I remove my sunglasses and peer out the door at the convenience store. It looks the same as it always does, people coming and going, the clerk scanning drinks at the register.

“It’s true. I set my energy drink and nuts on the counter and paid, no problem. Then I went to buy your chips and protein bar, and the scanner said, ‘You’re buying those for Toro, right? Tell him he gets no more junk food and should come and see me.’” He shakes his head and shrugs his shoulders. “I’ve never known cash registers to be so forceful. Usually I never think of them.”

My stomach shrinks to the size of a golf ball, rage squeezing it tight. I’m an adult now, and I make decisions for me. No one else! If I want potato chips, I’m gonna have them.

“Come and see it? Okay. Fine.” I slam my way through the door, the glass shaking so hard Mitsuo yells after me to be careful. I stalk across the street and stomp into the convenience store. The clerk lets out a timid “meep!” before scowling at the register.

“I told you this was trouble,” she whispers at it.

“What? What’s trouble?” I look straight at the clerk. “Isn’t my business good here? Haven’t I always been polite?”

“Y-y-y-yes, sir.” She presses her lips shut for a moment. “I swear, this is not my idea.”

“It must be. Did you program it to be rude or something?”

“Me?” She pulls her hands to her chest and gasps. “I barely know how to work my phone. It kind of has a mind of its own, this register. I’ve seen it give people things for free, refuse service, or change prices. You’re not the first person it’s given attitude to.”

“What do I have to do to get my purchasing privileges back? I obviously can’t lose weight in a day, and I still need to eat and work. There must be something…” I glance between the clerk and the machine sitting silent and damning.

“Well… There is something. I can help you, if you help me.”

I swear under my breath. This is ridiculous. I should just buy snacks on the internet and have them shipped to me. What if I buy snacks in my own neighborhood and bring them here?

“I know what you’re thinking, and it won’t work. I’ve got gods everywhere, even on the internet.”

“Fine!” I slap my hand on the counter and startle the clerk. “Sorry. Fine. What do you need?”

“I need you to check on a young woman who lives a few blocks from here. If you help her, I’ll help you.”

“What is this? A charity?” My blood pressure rises and my forehead breaks into a sweat.

“No. I’ll provide what you need. Be here tomorrow morning before you go to work.”

The register boots up and beeps at the cashier. “Protein bars and water, that’s all you get.”

“I’ll take it.”