Chapter 21: Volume 1, - 21: The Woman from the Dead Advertisement
Sunday morning was dry and bitterly cold. The gray drizzle of the previous day had given way to a high, icy wind that hummed through the gaps in the street-level security gate.
Tanida had opened the building at nine-thirty and made Ren sign for the Suite 302 key again. Ren had checked the small brass key twice after putting it in his coat pocket. He was about to interview someone for work, yet he still needed another man’s permission to unlock the door.
He sat behind the folding table at nine-forty-five, keeping his coat buttoned against the draft. He had prepared for two possibilities. Either the Sunday booking was a clerical mistake, or the applicant needed work badly enough to ignore the state of the room. He disliked the second possibility more. It would make the meeting easier, but it would also make it easier for him to take advantage of her without meaning to.
Keys rattled beyond the heavy stairwell door. Tanida appeared first, followed by a woman wearing a dark navy coat over a simple pressed suit. Her dark hair was pulled into a practical ponytail, and a worn black canvas bag hung from one shoulder; a white Anker phone charger and a packet of tissues were visible through the open top. In her hand, she carried a clear plastic document sleeve holding neatly organized papers.
"Visitor signed in," Tanida said, holding the heavy door open.
"Understood, Tanida-san," Ren said, standing up.
"Kisaragi-san?" the woman asked. Her voice was level and businesslike. She was not rude, but she showed no interest in making the meeting easier for him. Expressive brown eyes moved across the room, taking in the grimy window, the bare concrete, and the single lighted lamp before settling directly on Ren.
"Yes," Ren said. "Shindo-san?"
"Nanami Shindo," she said, stepping into the room. She looked like someone checking whether the floor was safe before putting down her bag. "The notice listed an exploratory pre-incorporation meeting at ten o’clock."
"Thank you for coming," Ren said, gesturing to the second steel folding chair across from his table.
Nanami did not sit down immediately. She stood in the center of the safe area near the breaker panel. She counted the four crossed-out outlets on the wall, checked the red isolation tag hanging from the panel latch, and glanced at the single surge protector running from the outlet below it.
"Only this wall has power?" she asked.
"Only the double outlet below the panel," Ren said.
She pulled out the second chair, sat down, and set her plastic file sleeve on the table. She removed her driver’s license and a printed copy of the appointment notice, placing both on the table before opening a lined Kokuyo notebook.
"Check the name," she said.
Ren compared the photograph and date of birth on the card against the appointment paper before returning it.
Nanami watched him return the card to her side of the table. "Good. At least you know not to collect documents you have no system to protect."
She took a black Pilot ballpoint pen from her bag. "I have questions before we talk about work."
She tapped her notebook. "Who employs me?"
"No one yet," Ren said. "The company has not been incorporated."
"Who pays me?"
"There is no wage reserve yet," Ren said directly. "The equipment here is funded by a restricted facility allowance managed through the estate office, but no commercial payroll account exists."
"What hours?"
"Not agreed," Ren said. "And no productive work can begin until there is a legal employer, written terms, and protected wages. Right now, this is only a meeting."
Nanami wrote one short line after each answer. Beside the question about conflicting authority, she underlined something twice. She did not look shocked or angry; she simply documented each response as a defect in the arrangement.
"The recruitment system sent an automated confirmation listing the Estate Administrative Office as coordinator," she said. "No employer was named. I came to see if that was a missing field or an empty business."
The words landed harder than Ren expected. He wanted to point at the printer, the steel cabinet, and the printed Wada route records as proof that something existed. The red estate tags on every object stopped him. Even the chair beneath Nanami belonged to someone else.
"At the moment, it is an empty business," Ren admitted. "I am reviewing route records and preparing an initial commercial proposal. I cannot promise permanent work, and I will not pretend this is more than one usable corner."
At ten-fifteen, Tanida returned down the corridor, escorting two women. "Two more visitors recorded," he said, stepping back into the hallway.
Aoi Tachibana walked in first, holding her battered black legal folder. "Aoi Tachibana. I’m here as paid counsel for the estate administration."
Behind her stood Mizuki Kanzaki, her dark bob neat above a conservative suit. Rimless glasses rested low on her nose, and she carried a hard-sided document case. "Mizuki Kanzaki. Senior administrator with Kanzaki Fiduciary Services, acting for the Kisaragi estate."
Aoi removed three documents from her folder: the temporary Suite 302 facility licence, the electrician’s restricted-use report, and the asset inventory Ren had signed on Saturday. "These establish lawful access to this corner and nothing more,".
Mizuki opened her hard-sided case and placed a printout of the recruitment-network record beside them. It named the estate office as interview coordinator and carried Saturday’s update timestamp. "This establishes who reopened the listing and who arranged today’s meeting," Mizuki said. "There is no employer registration, employment contract, or wage reservation attached."
Nanami looked from Aoi to Mizuki, her brown eyes moving from Aoi’s folder to Mizuki’s document case. "Did one of you reopen the 2020 listing?"
"The estate administrative office reopened the dormant listing yesterday through the verified predecessor account," Mizuki said, her tone precise and limited strictly to documented facts. "It updated the interview address and identified itself as coordinator."
Nanami wrote that down. "So someone reopened it, but nobody offered me a job."
"Correct," Mizuki said. "This meeting is the only thing currently authorized."
"The notice allows this meeting," Aoi added. "Nothing more."
Nanami closed her pen with a quiet click. "I’ve handled route logs and office records before. I’m looking for paid work, not an unpaid trial or vague equity."
She turned her notebook around on the table. Six phrases were written down the page in compact, precise handwriting:
Written duties. Fixed hours. Transport. Safe access. Stop-work authority. Protected wages.
"I would consider six paid days," Nanami said. "Consider, not accept."
She tapped the page with her index finger.
"I get those protections before I start," she said. "Not after something goes wrong. I want the duties and hours written down. I want my train fare covered."
She tapped the final line. "And the full wages need to be set aside before I start. Not promised. Set aside in a protected wage reserve where they cannot be spent on something else."
"Those points would need to be drafted," Aoi said, looking over the sheet. "Nothing is agreed today."
Mizuki looked at the current record in her case. "I can verify the facility and coordinator records. I cannot confirm wages that have not yet been reserved."
Aoi looked at Nanami’s six conditions but did not remove a contract from her folder. Mizuki closed her document case again. The only papers left on the table were Nanami’s notes and the current verification records.
Nanami gathered her driver’s license and appointment paper, slid her notebook into her canvas bag, and stood up. She looked past Ren at the dark, freezing back half of the room, then at the modest setup beneath the single LED lamp.
"You have one usable outlet, two chairs, and a file cabinet," Nanami said, leaning slightly over the table with calm detachment. "I could organise paperwork like this, Kisaragi-san. But let’s be entirely clear about where we stand."
She looked straight into his eyes.
"Where is the money that pays me if your estate stops tomorrow?"