Monster Musume: Monster Girls on the Job!

Monster Musume: Monster Girls on the Job! (モンスター娘のいる日常 もんすたーがーる・はろーわーく (lit Monster Musume: Everyday Life with Monster Girls Hello Work!) is a light novel written by Yoshino Origuchi (Monster Girl Doctor) and illustrated by mangaka Okayado (Monster Musume: Everyday Life with Monster Girls).

The novel was released in Japan on August 29th, 2020. On November 30th, 2020, Seven Seas Entertainment announced their acquisition of the license to produce an English version of the light novel, which was released on 26th August, 2021.

Synopsis
Ordinary twenty-something Kurusu Kimihito thought living with a bunch of monster girls was complicated enough, but there’s a new directive sent down from the government: get a job! Now Lamia Miia, Centaur Centoria, and all your favourites have to join the working world, leading to sexy uniforms, on-the-job shenanigans, and all-new hilarity!

Prologue: Let's Work
Kuroko Smith employs the girls at Kimihito Kurusu's household to work part time at different companies so that their examples can be used as representative subjects for another part of the Interspecies Cultural Exchange where liminals can work together with humans in workplace environments and/or start their own businesses in human populations. Smith also assigns the four MON members as backup, which they don't generally agree with until Smith adds that the government would compensate any participants with an additional wage on top of whatever wage they would earn at their workplace. After a moment's thought, the girls from Kimihito's household agree to Smith's request and Smith adds that Kimihito would have to accompany the girl's to each job as well.

Chapter 1: Bartender
Rachnera, Miia and Zombina begin working at Bar Zetto N; a "liminal friendly" bar located in one of Tokyo's red light districts. Miia mistakes the term "service" for a cabaret club and attempts to lounge with Kimihito and seduce him into buying drinks until Rachnera stops her. Zombina starts drinking the alcohol behind the bar. Kimihito is enlisted for food prep behind the bar. Miia and Rachnera served as bar tenders while Zombina worked the floor as a waitress. Rachnera spent the evening attending to her orders while also making sure Miia didn't screw up hers. She secretly wanted to "restore her reputation" after Kimihito had seen her get drunk off of coffee. Lilith comes in after being sent mountain climbing with Polt as punishment for staying out without permission. A punk gang member enters the bar and starts hitting on Miia like it was a cabaret club. Miia challenges him to a drinking game and drinks him into unconsciousness due to her species' tolerance for alcohol.

Chapter 2: Idol
Papi, Meroune and Tionishia take jobs as Pop Idols performing at the green room of the Tomas Theater near Tokyo. Set to performing as an opening act for ANM48, Tio and Papi were dubbed "Powerful ✰ Voice", while Meroune would go simply by "M" as Meroune was not allowed to perform due to her mother not giving her permission to do so, however, she was allowed to sing if she could keep her identity secret. Performing a dance routine first, when Tio and Papi enacted their "special move": which involved Tio launching Papi into the air with her outstretched arm, the stage lights interfered with Papi's vision, effectively blinding her. Noticing this, Kimihito whistled when the music stopped so that she could use her ears to home in on where to land. Following the routine, Meroune performed a song from behind a curtain that only revealed her silhouette. However, part way through the song her gills began drying out due to the stage lights once again and she began risking injury as she continued singing despite this. Noticing that her voice had changed (even though the change was miniscule) Kimihito deduced what was happening and turned on the stage's water sprinklers, making it "rain" as Meroune sung and effectively moistening her gills again to avert injury and continue the song.

Chapter 3: Maid
Centorea, Manako and Kimihito are to work at a maid cafe in Akihabara called Cafe Masha and they encounter Ren Kunanzuki, who had taken employment at the cafe to better her people skills following their last meeting. While Ren instructs Centorea and Manako on how to work as a maid, Manako is supported by Salmon and Dubtwo, who had come specifically to support Manako with her shyness. After practising the maid cafe staple "Moe Moe Kyun!" chant and the Omurice, Centorea exhibited trouble in performing such servile tasks until Kimihito suggested that she portray herself as a chivalrous "Knight Maid"; allowing her to act as her normal "knightly" self while serving customers instead of as a servile maid.

Chapter 4: Dealer
Hearing that Kimihito was helping out in the Liminal Employment Pilot Program, Polt asks him to help her develop a "liminal-run" casino that her company had been contracted to build by the Japanese government, as she was having trouble coming to terms morally with running a casino. After a brief encounter with Draco, who had agreed to work at the casino as a bunny girl after hearing that Kimihito was coming, as she assumed that Miia would come with him only to discover that Miia was indeed not with him, Kimihito first opted to test out the card tables, encountering Kii sitting at the poker tables as a dealer. While they played Kii revealed that despite the discomfort she experienced being in an urban environment, she found that she enjoyed watching people destroy themselves through gambling and so was considering working at the casino full time to continue watching humans destroy themselves. After discovering Lilith sneaking a smoking break amongst some slot machines, he tried his hand at roulette only to continue losing. After deciding to stop gambling for the night, Draco was forced to demonstrate a Reverse Bunny Girl Suit, causing Kimihito to get a nose bleed and collapse. As Kimihito recovers in the employee lounge with Kii's aid, Polt goes over the night's notes and comes to the conclusion that they must remove all alcohol, smoking, bunny-girl outfits, make the games easier and "friendlier" to play, and make a more health-conscious casino. Needless to say the concept was not accepted by the client.

Chapter 5: Nurse
While visiting Suu, Doppel and Lala as they worked as nurses at the hospital, Kimihito get's "captured" by the girls so that liminal specialists could examine him due to his survival of being frequently attacked by liminal girls with no lasting side-effects. While the examiners could not find anything in his tests that would indicate that he was anything but human, they recommended he rested due to showing signs of fatigue. Conveniently, due to the three not possessing any qualifications to work at the hospital, Lala, Doppel and Suu could be assigned to look after him while he rested at the hospital. After being massaged by Suu, who wanted to copy a massage chair, Doppel took him to a bath, which Kimihito than escaped from only to encounter Lala, who took him to the Sanzu River to "relax his soul".

Bonus Short Story: I Guess I Can Wear a White Coat...?
A short story of Doppel trying, and failing, to get used to wearing a doctor's coat instead of a nurse's outfit.

Trivia

 * Various stores released unique limited edition "SS papers", drawn by Okayado, to go with purchases of this light novel :
 * Animate "Love and Shine Mon Musume Live" (Papi & Mero & Tionishia)
 * Gamers "Drinking tips" (Mia & Rachnera & Zombina)
 * COMIC ZIN (Smith)
 * Toranoana "Does Dragonewt wear bunny girl clothes?" (Draco & Polt) Shosen
 * Horindo "Plant work" (Kii & Lilith)
 * Melon Books "Used work clothes" (Centorea & Manako)
 * E-book version "You can wear white clothes ...? ] (Suu & Lala & Doppel)
 * Additionally, Melon Books released a "limited edition" purchase which included a limited edition tapestry image with each purchase.
 * In chapter 1, Kimihito remembers his experience at the Sno Ball Hot Spring Resort, which confirms that the events of the light novel are chronologically between Volume 16 and Volume 17.
 * Papi and Suu are said to be the youngest members of Kimihito's household, but at least in Papi's case, that isn't true. Despite her childlike appearance, Papi is as old as Miia, as Ms Smith explains in Chapter 3 of the main series.
 * Manako's and Doppel's species are referred to as Cyclops and Doppelganger, but that is imprecise. Manako is a Monoeye and Cyclops are a subspecies of the Monoeyes. Doppel describes herself as a Doppelganger, but actually she is a Shapeshifter (if she were really a Doppelganger, the person she was transformed into would die in an encounter with her, as revealed in Doppel's secrets).
 * Lilith is referred to as a "demon" several times. This is probably due to the fact that the Japanese word "akuma" translated can mean both "devil" and "demon".