cursed 49: The Bookseller III: A House in Tokyo

 

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Chapter 49: The Bookseller III: A House in Tokyo

The house of Honzuki-san’s friend and customer, Yutaka Mori-san, is actually on the outskirts of Tokyo.

It’s not unreasonable to assume that the (self-proclaimed) number one grimoire seller in Japan has contacts all over the country, not to mention Tokyo, but the problem is that, for some reason, I’m included in the list of investigators for Honzuki-san’s work order.

Why?!

Haa…

Anyway, thanks to that, Honoka and I had to take the first train to get to Tokyo by 10 AM and meet with the other two members of our group.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Kousei Ishikawa, the staff from Happy Life Work, and this is Honoka.”

“Nice to meet you~. My name is Sue Hanamori~.”

“I’m Yasu Jakuchi. Nice working with you.”

“By the way, we’re dating~”

“Yes, please tell her we should hurry up and get married already.”

“Eh~ but I like my last name~.”

“You can keep your last name, I just want you to be my wife!”

“Eh~…What should I do~.”

I feel like vomiting sugar.

Not to mention, even though they’re like this, the two people sitting across the table from me look like a mori girl witch and a tall, semi-goth man with crows on his shoulders.

They’re really nice, outgoing people who don’t match any of the stereotypes that come with their appearances.

It’s just… raijuus should go explode.

“But that Nagi’s such a slavedriver. I just barely returned from a job in Okinawa, and she assigns me to a job in Tokyo!”

Ah, Jakuchi-san lives in Sendai, after all.

Sue Hanamori doesn’t live that close to Tokyo either, although not quite so far as Sendai.

Since Happy Life Work has an online service, it’s not uncommon for free-lancers on THIS side to live all over the country.

That said, the online service used to be somewhat unreliable, since Suzu-chan can’t do much with it, and it was up to Kei-san to update it.

With me being hired, the unreliability seems to have been essentially eliminated, and many free-lancers were pleased to be able to avoid making the journey to Tsunatou to drop in to the office when they needed to look for another job.

Tsunatou seems to be somewhat of a hub of activity, almost like a capital city for people unaffiliated with clans, on THIS side, even though it doesn’t appear that way normally.

At the very least, it looks like it’s smaller than Tokyo or Kyoto, but that’s because most of the free-lancers don’t stay in one place for very long.

In order to work, expand their own abilities, and avoid attracting too much trouble, they often move about the country, and even parts of East Asia.

Um… maybe instead of a capital city, it’s more of something of a trader’s hub, with people moving in and out as often as is convenient to trade goods, news, and solicit people.

And so, despite Jakuch-san’s nominal home address being in Sendai and Hanamori-san’s being in Nikko, it’s not that unusual for them to travel all over the country, and even throughout eastern Asia, for work.

What is unusual is …

“That’s true~ Even though I’m happy to get more work, I was wondering why Nagi-san made this request a designated work order~. An investigation like this is pretty standard, so normally anyone should be able to take it~.”

“I was wondering that myself.”

Jakuchi-san crosses his arms and furrows his brows, as if thinking deeply over the matter.

“Geez~, Yasu, you haven’t figured it out yet? It’s that, that.”

Hanamori-san laughed, lightly hitting Jakuchi-san on the shoulder.

“That?”

“Nagi-san is having us train her newbie~!”

“Ah-! So that’s it!”

Hanamori-san doesn’t have any ill-intentions with her words, but I still feel like I have to apologize to both of them.

“… Sorry about my boss…”

“Hahaha, there’s nothing you can do about it, right~?”

“It’s Nagi-san, after all.”

It seems rumors about Boss Nagi’s reputation are widespread … and accurate.

Honoka chuckles delicately into her hand.

Even though she’s just a cheeky kitsune at home, she acts like she’s a refined and lofty being when meeting people for the first time.

It’s 100% a scam.

Hanamori-san laughs.

“Don’t worry, don’t worry~ teaching a newbie on the job is a common situation. For free-lancers like us, it’s just getting a little extra pay for taking a rookie on the job~.”

“In the first place, Sue was studying to be a gradeschool teacher, you know?”

Jakuchi-san looks as proud as if he was talking about himself, but gradeschool teacher?

I’d like to think I won’t be that difficult to teach.

Although, Hanamori-san DOES seem like she could be a kindergarten teacher or something.

After a bit more chitchat, Hanamori-san and Jakuchi-san got down to business.

At this point, Hanamori-san stops using her sing-song voice and speaks seriously.

“So the first thing we do when we work with people we don’t know very well is to introduce ourselves with what our abilities are.”

Jakuchi-san follows up with,

“Naturally you don’t want to give away all your secrets, but it’s important for everyone to know what you can do in order to cooperate well. Well, you should use your best judgment to determine what you should tell about yourself and what you shouldn’t.”

That makes sense; if no one understands what anyone else can do, the efficiency goes down by a lot.

Not to mention that you don’t want to be learning what your companions can do when you’re already in the middle of a dangerous situation.

“So in this case, once again, hi~, I’m Sue Hanamori~! I’m a forest witch, and my specialties are witchcraft, especially charms, curses, and enchantments. I’ll be in your care~.”

“Oooh-.”

clapclapclap.

Jakuchi-san plays along and claps at Hanamori’s second self-introduction before introducing himself.

“Ahem. I am Yasu Jakuchi, and I specialize in various abilities for investigation and tracking, like Mystic Sight. Pleasure to work with you.”

I wonder what the difference between Mystic Sight and Mystic Eyes is.

But I see, even when discussing abilities, it’s possible to keep your actual Blessings a secret while conveying what you can do.

I clap along with Hanamori-san after Jakuchi-san’s introduction.

… I’m about 85% sure that the clapping is unnecessary, but I don’t hate cheery people like this.

“Now, it’s hard because we put you on the spot, but why don’t you reintroduce yourself?”

Hanamori-san directs her attention to me.

“Ah… yes. Let me think for a bit … Um, I’m Kousei Ichikawa, an employee at Happy Life Work. I specialize in … I guess sensing curses?”

The only thing that pops into my head is Honzuki-san and his damn grimoires.

Wait, I guess that IS actually my specialty. What.

Oh, I guess I’m also known for …

“And this is Honoka, my familiar. Do I need to talk about her specialties?”

“Normally you should at least tell us what kind of familiar she is, but … hahaha, the two of you are kind of famous. Even if we don’t know what your abilities are at all.”

“Eh…”

Hanamori-san laughs, but I’m still uncomfortable with the fact that I have a six-tailed kitsune as a familiar has become so widespread.

There’s definitely going to be trouble in the future.

Hanamori-san continues,

“For your first introduction in this line of work, that was pretty good. Especially mentioning you’re an employee of Happy Life Work – it’s good to employ some casual intimidation like that.”

“That wasn’t my intention though!?”

Hanamori-san and Jakuchi-san laughed, saying, “Ooh, nice tsukkomi,” but… no, really, that…

Boss Nagi is becoming even more of an unidentified being the more I learn about her.

“Well, now that we’ve finished our introductions, let’s talk about the details of the request as we head over to the house. Yasu, you sent a scout ahead, right?”

“Yup. But since Ichikawa-kun is an employee of Happy Life Work, he should know quite a bit of the details as well.”

“… Well, I’m the one who took down the request, after all…”

As we traveled to Yutaka Mori-san’s house, I told them about what I knew.

“I see, so it’s a request that’s prioritizing the missing person rather than an investigation of the house,”

Jakuchi-san mused.

Eh? Was it hard to understand?

“Was the description misleading? Sorry about that.”

Wait a sec, Suzu-chan’s the one who writes the descriptions of the requests.

Well, an employee shouldn’t hesitate to apologize for a mistake by the company, and I AM the one who typed it up.

“The description is probably fine; we’re only being paid for investigating the house after all. If the description included trying to determine the missing person’s investigation as well, the price would be greatly increased after all. But well, the two of us are busybodies and naturally curious~.”

Hanamori-san quickly assured me.

Hm… no wonder they won’t let me write the request descriptions yet.

Seems like there’s a bit of a methodology to it.

Hanamori-san folded her arms, saying,

“Well, with a witchcraft expert, an investigator-seer, and someone who can sense curses, we should be able to determine if there are any strange things or anomalies in the house. My only concern is that if there is any danger, this lineup’s combat power is pretty low…”

Hrm… Hanamori-san groaned as she crossed her arms.

“Sue, Sue, you’re forgetting someone.”

Jakuchi-san playfully tapped on her shoulder as he gave Honoka some side glances.

“…Ah-! I see~! As expected of Nagi-san, she’s as attentive as she’s pushy!”

“Hahaha… somehow, I still feel like apologizing.”

My boss is so troublesome…

“Fufu, well, I hope that I am enough to reassure you.”

Honoka chuckled as Hanamori-san remembered that my kitsune familiar was indeed with us.

It can’t be helped; Honoka was being very quiet and walking behind us, not to mention she counts as my combat strength, technically, so it’s not impossible for Hanamori-san to forget about her, but…

How does one forget about having a six-tailed kitsune on your side?

I guess Hanamori-san doesn’t just sound like an airhead, although it might be a bit impolite to say of someone older than me.

“In that case, we can all focus on investigating. Yasu, you and I will split up, and I’ll have Kousei-kun tagalong with me, okay? See, Yasu has some secret techniques, and witchcraft is a lot easier to explain for beginners to this kind of work.”

“I see… I’m still inexperienced, so feel free to direct me as needed.”

I’m not just being polite as the ‘kouhai’ on scene; I really have no idea what to do.

As for Honoka, it was decided that she would remain on alert against dangers and allowed to wander through the house as she pleases.

Apparently most familiars have to be told directly what to do, but familiars of Honoka’s level are a lot more trustworthy.

Or in other words, most familiars are low-level and aren’t very intelligent, but it’s not something I have to worry about.

By the time we discussed how to divide our tasks up, we arrived in front of the house of Yutaka Mori, the missing grimoire collector.

It’s in one of Tokyo’s quieter districts, about thirty odd minutes from the city center, but we started from a cafe in the train station nearby so it only took us 10-15 minutes to arrive.

I’ve gotta say, his house is a lot grander than I thought it would be.

I mean, I did see the picture Honzuki-san submitted, and we included the Maps satellite view in the request as well, but seeing it in person makes it a lot more impressive.

No wonder Hanamori-san immediately suggested Jakuchi-san and her to split up; we’d be here all day if we went around as a single group.

Honestly, despite the presence of more single home residences in this district, Yutaka Mori-san’s house is still an oddity.

It looks like a majestic western style mansion – barely squeezed into its tiny plot of land.

Despite its impressive grandeur, there’s practically no yard or garden, so it looks a little comical.

As she pressed the buzzer, Hanamori-san turned to Jakuchi-san.

“Yasu, how does it look.”

Jakuchi-san looked up in a certain direction, and when I followed his line of sight, I saw another big black crow perched on the roof.

… So I take it that’s not just a wild crow, huh? That’s Jakuchi-san’s?

“There aren’t any apparent signs of anybody within the house, and at first glance it appears that there hasn’t been anyone living in it for at least a week.”

“Mori-san lives by himself, after all, but there should have been a housekeeper?”

I asked, going back through the information I’d gotten from Honzuki-san while I was taking his request down.

“Hm… perhaps he doesn’t allow her to enter if he’s not here? We can check in with the neighbors or find out from the housekeeping company afterwards.”

Hanamori-san, that’s a very logical reaction, but I’m amazed at how normally you’re pushing open the gate and entering the premises.

This is… technically trespassing, right?

I mean, sure, that just comes with the territory of this type of thing, but for her to be so casual about it feels uncomfortable.

… Hey, I was a law-abiding citizen just a few minutes ago!

All joking aside, if we don’t want to get the police called on us …

“… I’m going to talk with the neighbors first.”

“? I usually do that later, but okay?”

Hanamori-san tilted her head curiously.

“Well, while you do that, I’ll be bypassing the security system.”

Jakuchi-san raised his hands like a surgeon after they’ve been cleaned, a glint in his eyes.

… People on THIS side are so far removed from the common sense on the other side, sometimes.

“Mori-san… come to think of it, I haven’t seen him about recently. He usually drives his vintage car around the block at least once a week, too… How long ago? Um… maybe since a month ago? I don’t really remember…”

“Aah, that’s right, that’s right! He hasn’t even let Hana-san in these past few days – ah, Hana-san is the lady from the homekeeping company, but really, how can one woman keep such a large house clean all by herself? I doubt that Mori-san would help her, it’s far more likely that his house is mostly a dust museum except for the few rooms he lives in. Ah, what did Hana-san do about it? Well, she rang the buzzer and called him, but just went home. He collects things, you know, that Mori-san, so I think I can understand why he wouldn’t want her to come in alone; I bet some of it’s dangerous, too! I’ve heard explosions every once in a while, so I wonder if he collects old firearms or something – or else he’s trying to cook himself, -pukukuku!”

“Ma, stop talking the boy’s ear off! Jeez. Sorry about that. By the way, who are you guys? I was wondering if someone was breaking in, although it’s unlikely if you’re going through the front gate in broad daylight, I suppose. Oh, Mori-san’s friend was worried about him and asked you to take a look since you’re going to be in Tokyo? ”

… Sounds like at least one neighbor was thinking about calling the cops.

Even if there’s some way people from THIS side can throw off the police, I think it would be much more considerate to avoid wasting the police’s time in the first place.

For the police’s sake.

“Fufu, good work.”

When I went back to Yutaka Mori-san’s mansion, Honoka greeted me while sitting on the stone fence.

“Haha… I made it in time; the neighbors decided we’re just nosy do-gooders. Also, it seems like Mori-san’s only really been missing for about a month, and he’s known for being a bit eccentric, but he doesn’t seem to be particularly hated or beloved. Well, I only asked two houses, though. By the way… what happened here?”

There’s a scorch mark on the patio.

“Ahaha~ I totally overlooked the magical security system! Geez, we’re in Japan, you know, what’s the use of a double system~?”

Hanamori-san…

Well, no one looks hurt, so maybe I should just overlook this for my ‘senpais’ sakes.

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