This Was Not in Job Description

When Haruka went into her work, Monday morning, and did her early work routine, everything started to click in its place. She liked the early mornings, she could focus on work, do some creative stuff and check the progress of different projects without any disturbances. Tea, quiet thocking of a keyboard, and the little sounds, before a busy day came in. Morning warmth that melted all the distractions inside her. Last week was, to say the least, bizarre, at most just pure chaos, and now everything will come back to longly awaited norm.

Or not.

Because earlier than normal, the Prime Minister barged in, almost screaming "So where is our hero? We need to get him a job at the ministry!"

Haruka blinked twice in disbelief. How is this a grown man?

"What do you mean sir, a hero?" she asked, doing her best to sound perfectly professional, and actually succeeding, because it was not her first absurd situation with the Prime Minister. "He is just some Danish consultant."

"What?! Danish consultant?!" The Prime Minister was shocked.

"I printed for you all the info about him, it's on your desk. I think he's just a victim of circumstances."

"No way he would just be some Danish man, we did the ritual, and all the stuff…" he muttered in disbelief and made his way to his office. "Oh and please arrange for me call to Mr CEO for I think eleven?"

During the week both men had many meetings and events where they could not be disturbed, but it was the job of secretaries to make a gap so that they could contact each other. She was close to the secretaries of Mr CEO, as most of his secretaries were close to the secretaries of the Prime Minister. It was a beneficial relationship for both groups.

During the day, the Prime Minister read the report about what happened this weekend, and who was this man they summoned. He was really disappointed to see that he was, in fact, a perfectly traceable man from Denmark, who was learning Japanese in one of the schools. He read which schools he had gone to, his employment history, how well he was working in the school. There was even some note about the viral toktok video he was the main character of. In summary, nothing that suggested he was from another world, or from Japanese history. And it simply could not be! After all, they did the ritual, and all the stuff. So when he was talking about this to Mr CEO, he said:

"There is only one possible option- he must be a reincarnated hero. Like Oda Nobunaga."

"I hope it's Tokugawa Ieyasu though," Prime minister sighed.

"Oh, what made you change your heart? Is Oda Nobunaga too much of a wildcard?"

"Yes. But why would they want to reincarnate in Denmark though?", worried the Prime Minister.

"I don't know. Maybe everyone's paying high taxes and everyone follows rules?" 

"This seems nice. And, oh, lego is good."

"Oh yea, lego."

"So, what should I do with this man? I can't put a foreigner in a ministry willy-nilly like that. I thought of making a press conference, where I would tell the press that we successfully summoned a hero to solve all our Japan problems…" Mr CEO took sharp breath in. "But, I ran this idea through Haruka, and she noticed that the public could not see this kind of conference… In a way we see it", the Prime Minister furrowed his brows. Mr CEO let out his breath with big relief. "Nice one, Haruka!" he thought. His friend was always an idealistic dreamer, who had hard times with letting go of things or people he set his eyes on, no matter if it was a girl who became his wife, or the job of Prime Minister. At the same time, he noticed that in the last few years he became much more wishy-washy and if reality didn't match his ideas – well, tough luck for reality.

 The Prime Minister sighed. "If only he had some kind of achievements here…"

"Oh, maybe I can help, I can give him a job as a foreign consultant? Just let him help some normally working department for a year, give him some award, badabim-badaboom and you can take him back."

"Ooooh this is a great idea, Mr CEO!" 

Prime minister started almost jumping happily while talking, with a new pep in his step. 

"This is what friends are for", smiled Mr CEO. "He can start next Monday, with the rest of the new people. I'll figure out the rest".

"Miss Haruka, please call after this man who we successfully summoned", Prime Minister rushed into the room as he found her eating lunch near her table.

She hoped that he called Jens Soerensen to apologise to him, or something like that. She hoped to finish this, and for things to go back to normal.

Jens was released from the hospital. The Doctor said that the fact that he did not break any limb when crashing through the roof or floor, or anything he crashed through was quite a miracle. Jens just regretted that the power of miracle was not enough to save him from the great hangover, which he had all Sunday, and even this Monday he felt like someone chewed him up and spat him out. When he saw people in black suits and sunglasses inviting him to a black car, he did not have any energy to be taken-aback nor to protest his predicament. They took him to the Nagatacho government district. In comparison to other districts in Tokyo, it felt elegant, and he felt even more out of place with his casual clothing.

He had no idea what he was doing here and why.

The woman he met before, Miss Haruka, when she told him she was a government official, he thought that meant she was a detective, or someone from the police, or something like that. He would be worried that he got into some trouble, but he figured that with how those men invited him, and that he had not been in a jail-like hospital, that he probably wasn't in big trouble. He was thankful for his tiredness in a way, as he could not panic, and instead he chose to be curious. Did he offend someone important? He probably did not hurt anyone important, but maybe they were taking him to apologise to someone for destroying their place? So many possibilities.

So, when he came into the pretty nice office, with mostly women working on their laptops, he saw one familiar face and he smiled at her. But she didn't smile back, all serious and professional. She greeted him, and the guys in suits who escorted him to this place went to the corners of the office, taking their places and waiting for next orders.

She knocked on the door, and said something, too quiet for him to hear. And with one swift move, she dodged, when the door opened loudly and some older person barged in with zest in his step.

"Welcome!" he greeted him jovially. "Nice to meet you, Jens Soerensen. Or should I say…" he came closer and he whispered, almost theatrically "Oda Nobunaga? Or Tokugawa Ieyasu ?"

"What the…", thought Jens. When he wanted to clarify "Tokugawa I…?"

"Aaaaah, don't mind, don't mind!" - Prime Minister smiled broadly, interrupting Jens. "Come, you must learn everything."

He came into the office. Jens didn't notice when, but Haruka somehow slipped in, like a ninja, and started to make some tea for him. After she served him, and he tried to focus on what Prime Minister was saying, he somehow was able to interrupt and ask a question:

"I'm sorry, but what am I actually doing here?"

The Prime minister laughed like he heard a great joke. He seemed extremely relaxed.

"You tell me! What do you want to do here Jens-san, or should I say… Tokugawa-dono?"

"I think there could be some kind of mistake, but it's okay, we can figure it out," said Jens cautiously.

"Oh no, don't worry, we have it under control. We summoned you to be a hero for our nation, and we're so grateful that you decided to come back." The Prime Minister bowed with respect, but at the same time with a big smile. 

"We have a plan, you just need to wait a year, and the nation will be yours to lead, Shogun."

Jens looked at Haruka pleading with his eyes. She just looked away holding her tablet closer to herself. 

The phone rang, and for a while, Jens was hoping for a rescue. Nope.

"Aaah, Mr CEO! I just told our heeero", the Prime Minister looked at Jens and… Winked?! What do you even do when the Prime Minister of another nation winks at you like a good old grandpa? 

"About whole clever plan we come up with and we were just finalizing all of this"

"Great, great," said Mr CEO. "Did you find out?"

"Tokugawa," smiled the Prime Minister.

"Thank goodness, we are probably not flamboyant enough for his style"

Jens cleared his throat. He felt like he needed to stop this before it got out of control. 

"Well it's… Simply delightful that you keep me in such high regard. But I think I need to go, and I'm simply flying back home like… In one and half months. So I would be honored, truly, but I just have different plans."

Little did he know, It was out of his control already.

The Prime Minister's smile disappeared from his face as his eyes narrowed. Suddenly, there was no more of the good old grandpa. With sharp voice he simply commanded:

"Haruka. Make him take the job."

Jens relaxed. This outburst of the Prime Minister was scary, but surely they can't make him work and stay in Japan like that?

"Well, Mr Jens," started Haruka. "Of course we can't make you take the job and stay here, if you have other plans, of course. We're a civilized country. We will ask you just not to leave the country for the duration of the investigation."

"Investigation?" asked Jens cautiously.

"We have reason to think you may be a spy. So there would be espionage allegations."

"Espionage?" Jens voice was getting weaker and weaker.

"Yes, and there is a slight possibility of assasination, but in this case we would need to take you into custody. But don't worry, I firmly believe the most we will find is trespassing. So in this case you would only need to reimburse the hotel for this kind of… accident. Here's a rough estimate" she put a piece of paper with a neatly organised table before him. "I took the liberty of changing the prices to Danish Krone for your convenience."

Jens looked at the first page.

"150 thousand DKK… Not that bad" he said.

"Oh, that's just an estimate of taking out all the rubble. Rest is on the second page," she made the gesture of turning a sheet of paper over. Jens did that and he turned visibly pale.

"I will take the job, thank you" said Jens with a defeated voice. He needed to do this for a year and find a way to go back to Denmark, to try and not get trapped in Japan for the rest of his life.

"Perfect!" The Prime Minister clapped his hands. "I believe you start next Monday in our greatest Mr CEO's company"

"Yes, we're getting everything ready."

"What about the language school? And Who should I contact to get onboarded? I don't even know where Mr CEO's company is or what it is called", Jens started to ask questions, as he figured out the faster he will move from espionage and assasination allegations the better.

"Oh that's true. Somebody will need to guide him" said Mr. CEO.

"I feel generous today, " said the Prime Minister, as happy as a cat that got its paws on some butter with no one to stop him. "So he will take Haruka with him"

"What?!", asked Haruka and Jens together. Prime Minister was shocked, his whole career he did not have seen Haruka lose her professional demeanor like that.

"Yes, one person or two people, does not matter. See you Monday" said Mr CEO and hung up.

"But Prime Minister, I'm sure there would be…" she appraised Jens for a second. "Better candidates to guide Jens. I can recommend some to you…"

Jens looked at her with sympathy.

The Prime Minister started to massage his temples as he sighed deeply.

"I have no idea what is happening with you, Miss Haruka. I said this, so this will happen and not be the topic of discussion. Look," his gaze got softer a little "try to look at that as I'm doing it because you are the assistant who I can trust the most with this task.

Jens noticed that Haruka's lower lip trembled like she was about to cry. But she quickly calmed herself and said:

"Of course, Prime Minister"

But Jens noticed the life behind her eyes was gone.