The Enter key on my work computer is broken

Pachiko's job is that of a QA engineer. Quality assurance—in other words, her job is to constantly check for bugs in apps and systems developed in-house.
Most of her seniors are older engineers; they aren't quite like my dad's old microcomputer, but they are people who have been doing this kind of work forever.
For example, back during the Y2K problem, Pachiko could have just been working a part-time job at the post office while worrying about her own homepage, but they were already working and seriously facing the Y2K problem.

Because of that, everyone has their own mysterious obsessions when it comes to computers and peripherals.

Unfortunately, Pachiko doesn't have any particular obsession with computers themselves.
If possible, she wants a machine that moves quickly just as she tells it to, but in the end, it's a company-issued device—a Surface Laptop given to QA—so it lacks horsepower. If you bully it a little, it freezes right away.
By the way, QA is looked down upon, and it seems they think a computer with lower specs than the ones for development is fine, but she thinks it's the opposite. If anything, she wants them to issue her two or three high-performance machines. She also wants about three more displays.
She wants to run tests one after another at high speed. She wants to run as much as she can automatically, and she needs horsepower to do that. But, in the end, it's company-issued, so it can't be helped. She has to be happy that it works.

That was when the Enter key on Pachiko's computer broke. It happened at the beginning of this year.
It had been acting strange since around the end of last year. Sometimes, it wouldn't register the Enter command. She had no choice but to coax it along, but one day, it finally stopped responding altogether.

This was quite a problem.
The Enter key is the one she uses the most. Well, that's why it broke, but maybe she hit it too hard? Was it because she would elegantly smack it? Was it because she would mash it for one reason or another?
Above all, the stress is immense. The stress of not being able to elegantly press the Enter key is immense. That movement is what killed the Enter key, but anyway, the stress is immense.
Most Enter commands can be substituted with a mouse click. However, it's a pain to have to switch to the mouse and move the cursor every single time.
What cannot be substituted is the line break.
Pachiko uses three screens. The main Surface Laptop body, a display that was already on the desk, and a display she received from a senior sitting next to her right after joining the company. The main screen is a touch panel. This is quite convenient, and sometimes touching the screen is faster than clicking with a mouse. However, it is not suitable for line breaks. Because it doesn't break the line with a single touch.
She had no choice but to change the settings to display the keyboard panel when she touches the screen. She can make line breaks with this, but it takes two touches. It's too much of a hassle. Moreover, touching the cursor position precisely with a finger is a difficult task.
What's even more troublesome are the other two screens. For some reason, Pachiko writes code on the side screen. When she writes 'for some reason' and thinks about the reason now, it was simple. It's more convenient to write on the side to execute it on the main screen. She can't change this now.
She had no choice but to copy and paste line breaks. It's a fine line between being an idiot and a fool. Since a line break is, so to speak, a fine line, it's just right.

In any case, the stress built up, and she had no choice but to consult with her manager at the weekly meeting. From Pachiko's perspective, she was dissatisfied with the lack of a numeric keypad, which she had used in a previous job, so she was thinking of getting an external one. The good thing about a numeric keypad is that you can punch in numbers quickly with just your left hand.
However, the other person made a strange face at that request. They suggested that if she wanted a numeric keypad, she should just buy a keyboard itself. But... Pachiko hesitated here. Why? Because the purchase request process is a pain. Is it really necessary to go that far? Only one key is broken.
The hassle won out.
Pachiko chose to relocate the Enter key.

After thinking about where to relocate it, she decided to use the 'Muhenkan' (non-conversion) key next to the space bar. She had long struggled to understand what it was for, so it was just right.
At home, she uses a MacBook and an iPad, so there's no harm if she hits it by mistake.
On top of that, keyboard operation with her left hand became much easier. It was a pain to press Enter with her left hand while operating the mouse. Moving her left hand all the way to the right edge across the keyboard after copying and pasting is a real chore, and in the winter, her sleeves get caught on notebooks and pens, which is annoying.
In that respect, with the Muhenkan key, she can press Enter without much load from the copy-paste action. It's perfect for a lazy Pachiko who doesn't want to do anything troublesome and only wants to move the bare minimum. That's also what she meant by wanting a numeric keypad.

And so, a year passed.
At first, there were times when she would press Enter by mistake and feel sad. There were times when she would go home and press the Kana key and feel sad.
Now, she uses both properly, and there is no hindrance at all.
That was one such day.

The code she received from her senior wouldn't work on Pachiko's computer. The senior engineer, who really wanted to solve it, said he definitely wanted to find the cause directly on that computer. She understands the feeling, and it's a great chance to steal the senior's techniques. They press mysterious shortcut keys or bring out mysterious gadgets, but since they usually work individually, she can't just stick around and ask.
Thus, the senior sat in front of Pachiko's computer. Pachiko was only worried that the mouse would be too small. Pachiko has hands as small as an elementary school student's.
For example, if you look at the photo of Mt. Rainier she took in the summer, you can see it looks bigger than other people's Mt. Rainier. If that were actually the case, she would be gaining an advantage, but it's her hands that are small. (She does not accept the opinion that her stomach is also small, so she is gaining an advantage over others.)
Since a normal-sized mouse is too big, she uses a portable one... which is probably toy-sized if an adult man looks at it. If the mouse is big, she has to open her hand as wide as possible, which makes her shoulders stiff. But for someone with large hands, it would conversely be difficult to use.
After a while, the senior tilted his head.

"Huh? That's strange, it's not working..."

It really is, Pachiko said as she looked at the screen too.

"Why is that... why is that..."

The senior was getting a little impatient. Pachiko thought of a witty remark to offer a helping hand. And then, she realized.

The senior is pressing the Enter key.

Do you understand? How Pachiko felt when she was about to speak after this. It was no time for witty remarks. She had to state the truth plainly.

"Um... the Enter key is... over here..."

"……Huh?"

"Um... the Enter key... i-it's broken."

"What!? Huh!?"

"Um, so... if you could just press... t-this, the non-convert key."

My senior looked at Pachiko with eyes that clearly saw her as completely insane. She was used to being looked at that way. She had been looked at like that for most of her life.
That was exactly why.
For the two years since she joined the company, Pachiko had lived by suppressing her true self. She had lived with the utmost care to avoid being thought of as a weirdo.
Moreover, Pachiko remembered. He had an extraordinary obsession with keyboards.

"……If it's broken, you should just get them to buy you a new keyboard."

My senior said this while pressing the non-convert key. Pachiko gave an indecisive reply, saying, "Oh, uh, but..."

"Don't tell me, is there no USB port?"

"Ah, uh."

"There is one, right there."

"Oh, there is, but... I was told to buy one, but... I thought this might be more convenient..."

My senior looked at Pachiko with eyes that saw her as a pitiful creature once again, and returned to his work.

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