He sighed, grabbing it along with the paper and sat at a small desk to complete it, then took a very out-of-place-looking horizontal elevator. A red weasel sat on a high shelf. Shinji showed the wooden sign and the weasel pressed Northern wing without question. Not that it could talk anyway. It wasn’t a shape-shifter, but one of the many trained animals here at the Onmyoryo.
The elevator stopped at the Northern wing and Shinji crossed the corridor to a vertical elevator, taking it to the second floor. The one thing Shinji hated about the Onmyoryo was the unnecessarily complex bureaucracy. It wasn’t enough that he had to deal with piles of papers at his police job, he had to deal with it here as well. Walking from office to office was not his idea of fun on a Saturday.
Knocking on the door of room 223, Shinji entered a room full of ghostly familiars. These used to be supernaturals during their lifetime and elected to not cross over and instead remained in the employment of the Onmyoryo for indeterminate time. Shinji found the idea of working even after death horrifying as if it wasn’t enough that he had to work his ass off while still alive.
The ghosts were passing each other documents through the air and Shinji had to dodge a few times to avoid any disastrous paper cuts.
“Good afternoon,” he said to the ghost of an old man behind a desk, then pushed the document forward.
The ghost invited Shinji to sit, then read through the document and stamped it. He scribbled something on a parchment, rolled it, and gave it to a white cat who appeared from under the desk. The cat left the room with the parchment in its mouth, and Shinji covered a snort with a cough. If only Teruo were here to see all of this. Right after that thought his mood shifted from amused to sad knowing he couldn’t share this with Teruo. Not now, at least.
Minutes later, the cat returned with a different parchment and the ghost read it, nodding to himself. “You can go to your appointment in room 458.” He gave Shinji a different wooden sign with akanjiletter for ‘pass’. “Keep it on you at all times,” the ghost said. “You’ll have to show it thrice on the fourth floor. Have a great day.”
Yeah, I sure am having a great day.
Shinji bowed and left for the elevator, heading to the fourth floor. All this paperwork was becoming tiresome. The Hiroshima HQ wasn’t so complicated.
Finally reaching room 458, Shinji knocked and slid the door open. The room had only one person inside, the administrative official, a middle-aged woman in a flowery kimono and a simple hair-do.This one looks alive.
She gestured toward a chair and Shinji bowed then settled in front of her.
The office was a mix of old and new, just like the entire castle. Parchments and writing brushes lay next to smart phones and tablets. The official tapped fast on the computer’s keyboard before turning to Shinji.
“I see this meeting was a special request.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“You come from our HQ in Hiroshima.”
“Yes. I worked there for nine years as a part-time Shinigami and moved here on Monday.”
“Do you intend to continue your work as a Shinigami in Tokyo as well?”
“Yes, ma’am. I’ve made the request for this meeting because I have a peculiar situation at work. I’m a police sergeant in the homicide department of TMPD,” he explained, “and I needed to link myreiryokuto three ghosts belonging to the victims of the latest case. Because of the seal, I couldn’t and I lost them.”
She pursed her lips. “I see.”
“I have a few suspicions about what happened,” Shinji continued. “I don’t think the ghosts drifted off. Could you check and see if their souls have been sent to the afterlife? I know for certain that at least one ghost has been called by a fellow Shinigami.”
While he couldn’t be sure about Yamato Daichi and Ozawa Fumiko, he’d seen the moment Ishida Hideaki’s spirit was called. Now he would find out if he’d been helped to cross over or not.
The administrating official checked the document and tapped on the keyboard again. “None of these three ghosts appear to have been harvested. They didn’t cross over.”
“What if the Shinigami isn’t an Onmyoryo registered one?” Shinji asked. “Would it still appear in your records?”
“Not the process of harvesting, but the ghosts’ names would be registered by our officials on the other side.”
“And since they haven’t…” Shinji trailed off.
“The ghosts are here among the living,” the woman completed his sentence. “You’re suspecting a rogue, correct?”
Shinji nodded.
“We’ll alert our field teams to look for any unregistered Shinigami. Is this person tied to the murders too or is it just a coincidence?” she asked.
“I’m suspecting the Shinigami and the murderer could be the same person or at least working as a team. I don’t have any proof to back my claim, though. It’s pure speculation. Right now, the focus of the investigation is on the list of the victims’ former classmates from high school.”
“Send us the list. We’ll check and see which ones are supernaturals and which aren’t and we’ll keep in touch through Superintendent Yoshida Goro, is that all right?”