There was a little extra spring in Mr. Yuan's step as he got his shop ready to open for the day. Yesterday's mishap had certainly taken care of the irritating young man his granddaughter was so infatuated with, and he couldn't even be blamed for causing it. Being exposed to large doses of all of those animal transformatives would have changed Raijin into some sort of twisted chimera by now. By the time Lily got back, he would surely never be seen again!
His happy thoughts were abruptly disturbed by a couple of booming knocks on the back door followed by a muffled apology and a few more regular knocks. This set off Mr. Yuan's dogs whose barking prolonged the disruption as he huffed over to the door.
"Who is it!? Who is there!?" Mr. Yuan spat as he looked through the peephole. He couldn't make out anything other than a large dark shape looming at the door that took up most of the view.
"It's me, Mr. Yuan. Raijin."
"WHAT!?" the old man blurted out in shock. His blood turned to ice water then quickly began to boil with rage. What was the boy doing here? How...? Why...?
"It's Raijin," he repeated a bit more loudly. "I'm feeling better today so I came to work."
"Oh... Yes. Sorry, boy. I couldn't hear well over the dogs barking," he replied in an artificially pleasant tone.
The old man bottled up his rage as he began to open the door. How could he be feeling better? Had those ointments really done nothing to the boy? Maybe he would still be deformed somehow? The sight that awaited him as he opened the door did anything but help his frustration. The young man stood before him somewhat sheepishly. He was half a foot taller than yesterday. He wore an athletic polo shirt that barely fit his broad, muscular torso and was belted tightly into a pair of khaki shorts that were nearly as packed with muscle. The size of his exposed arms and calves confirmed that he grown tremendously in musculature as well as height. Though his underwear helped moderate things, the bulge in his shorts showcased yet another improvement. Mr. Yuan's face wrinkled unpleasantly as he got a better look at Raijin's new eyes and hair as he came inside. Nothing seemed to be wrong with him! Quite the opposite, it seemed, much to his dismay.
"What happened to you, boy? What did my products do to you? I told you to be careful! That many things mixed together at once is dangerous!"
Raijin explained how he had grown after he left the store. He, of course, glossed right over the more pleasurable experiences he had. The near absence of pain, misery, humiliation, or other discomforts continued to anger Mr. Yuan. Surely the boy was paying the price somehow?
"Surely your body aches from growing so fast?" he questioned.
"Nope. I feel good!" Raijin's pecs twitched as he replied causing Mr. Yuan to grimace.
"It must be harder to move with all that muscle. How will you teach your karate if you aren't flexible?"
"It took some getting used to, but I think I've actually improved a little overall."
"Ah... But what about..." Mr. Yuan thought frantically. Something, ANYTHING, had to have changed for the worse! There had to be a negative he could find satisfaction in! "Ah... You know, ah, private... things?" He gestured vaguely toward Raijin's waist, disgusted with himself that THAT was what he came up with.
"Wha...? Oh! Um..." He blushed deeply. This gave Mr. Yuan a brief glimmer of hope until Raijin awkwardly replied, "It's... it's... good. Real... um... good..."
"Well your face is ugly now!" he concluded. It was a bit of an exaggeration, but at least the boy couldn't argue with personal taste. "You look like scary beast. Scare everyone away! Such a shame, boy. I'm so sorry for you."
"It's okay, Mr. Yuan. I kind of like how I look. It's different, but in a good way."
"Well, then! Time to get to work!" the old man sputtered. As he resumed getting things ready to open, he kept his anger contained as best he could. He just couldn't understand how the young man came out from the spill not only unharmed but seemingly improved. Could he have been exposed to all those concoctions in a perfect balance that maintained his humanity while granting him nothing but benefits? Underneath his carefree attitude, the boy must have the Devil's own luck, Yuan guessed.
The day progressed much like the day before. Mr. Yuan set Raijin about doing all the cleaning and manual labor. He found every opportunity to add as many tasks as he could no matter how insignificant or unreasonable they seemed. Through a combination of his new physical capability and a genuine effort to work more carefully, Raijin managed to complete everything asked of him with little trouble. Mr. Yuan even found himself nagging the boy a bit less today despite trying his best to nitpick everything he did. Obscure corners and the highest shelves were cleaned. The heaviest boxes of the least important products were moved and reorganized just for the sake of it. The old man also noticed that his customers seemed drawn to Raijin as he went about his work. Nearly all of them wanted to comment on his appearance. When some of them asked him how he got his hair that way or what his secret to getting so big was, he told them it was thanks to Mr. Yuan's products. He didn't feel like he needed to hide it like he had yesterday since the people were already shopping in the store. Nearly all the people he talked to bought something before they left, and Mr. Yuan noticed he had a fair amount of additional sales as a result. This was perhaps the only thing that cooled his seething disdain for the young man which had been at a steady boil all day. Watching him exceed expectations with his usual positive attitude had been an insult to the injury of seeing that he had not been taken care of in yesterday's accident. Still, he could not deny the fact that his store was in better shape than it had been in years and he had made more sales than usual. Before he realized it, the day had come to an end without incident.
"Okay, boy. Goo..." the old man nearly choked on an accidental compliment. "You worked hard today. See you tomorrow."
"Okay, Mr. Yuan! Bye!" Raijin said as he bounded out the door.
Mr. Yuan scowled as he locked the door behind him. A whole day went by with the "Golden Boy" slipping by unharmed. At least, he concluded, he got a lot of use out of the dumb ox. Besides, he still had the rest of the week to get rid of him.