There's a Maid girl in my apartment!?

Emiri kept anxiously checking the clock, waiting for it to finally strike five. Her back was aching after hours spent bent over her desk, fine tuning the same goddamn graphic over and over until her supervisor approved it.

She did not spend four years at art school for this.

She could hear others starting to get up, and when she checked her wristwatch, she saw that it was already 5:01.

Finally, it was the weekend.

“Emiri-san! Wanna come with us to get some drinks?”

Aki, her coworker, gave her a sly grin. She had no idea how he stayed so chipper in such a dull enviroment. You would think that working at a toy company would be fun, but Emiri had to learn the hard way how boring it was. She was pretty sure the bright, exciting colors were so burned into her retinas that she was going colorblind.

“No,” she said, unable to hide the exhaustion in her voice. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to go out and celebrate the weekend with her coworkers, but she was so tired that she couldn’t even bring herself to walk the three block distance from the office to the local bar.

“You’re such a loser, Emiri-san,” he teased, nudging her slightly. A smile tugged at her lips. She had to admit, his enthusiasm was infectious. Though, still not enough to get her to go with them.

She left the office building, making her way to the closest subway station. She was used to this by now, after three years of working for the same company. The endless monotony was almost comforting.

The company she worked for was in collaboration with an anime studio that produced popular a magical girl anime series, with the character designs made with dolls in mind. Emiri worked in designing packaging and other marketing materials. To coincide with the fifteenth aniversary of the first season of the anime, they were rerunning some of the older dolls in a special anniversary set. The studio kept trying to meddle with the designs, constantly asking her supervisor to ask for changes.

Emiri had always wanted to work for the company, ever since she saw the first season at the age of eleven. She had several of the dolls in her small, messy apartment, lying around somewhere. The dolls were old, their hair completely messed up. She tried to take care of them to the best of her ability, but she didn’t have much time for that anymore. Work had completely swallowed her enthusiasm for the series.

When she got off the train, she made a quick stop at the convenience store to grab dinner. She grabbed her favorite spicy cup noodles and a drink. She stopped for a moment to contemplate buying candy, but decided against it. She couldn’t treat herself every Friday.

Her apartment was just a minute’s walk from the store, but her feet still dragged. When she did finally make it, she saw that the elevator was down for matinence. She groaned. Her apartment was on the fifth floor.

As she made her way up the stairs, she wondered if some god would take pity on her and make her fall down the stairs, where she would split her head open and be reborn in another world. Perhaps it wasn’t the nicest fantasy, but it sure as hell sounded better than going to work on Monday.

But, unfortunately, she didn’t fall down the stairs, and made it to her apartment safe and sound. She opened the door.

The first thing that hit her was how clean her apartment was. It smelled like fresh linen, and the living room area was surprisingly without mess.

Strange, I didn’t leave it like this.

When she stepped inside, she saw her bed, made up perfectly. Above it were shelves, her dolls neatly placed on them, the newer ones with bendable knees sitting down on the lower shelf.

She could hear the sound of running water. She went further in to the apartment, looking into the kitchen.

She screamed.

There was a young woman in the kitchen, washing dishes, wearing a maid outfit of all things. When she heard her scream, she dropped the plate, and it fell to the floor with a crash.

She turned to her, bowing deeply. She looked flustered.

“Tanaka-sama, I didn’t expect you home so early,” she said, still bowed down.

“S-sama?” she stuttered. “Who the hell are you?”

“I’m your maid!” she said cheerfully. “And you’re my mistress.”

“I’m not-” she started. “How did you get into my apartment?”

“Your door was unlocked,” she said. “I locked it for you.”

I knew I was forgetting something this morning.

“Did you clean everything up?” she asked.

“Your apartment was in dire need of cleaning. It was quite possibly the most difficult job I’ve had in a while, but it was worth it to see your face when you came home.”

“Listen, thanks for the deep clean, but you really need to leave,” she said, trying to push her out. She dug her heels into the carpet, seizing up.

“I’m afraid I can’t do that, Tanaka-sama,” she said. “I can’t leave until you’re happy.”

“I am happy, now go,” she said.

“But you’re not truly happy, are you?” She said.

“Huh?”

“You have a dead-end job working for a company that treats you like crap. I can lighten the load a little bit,” she said. “I’m your maid now, and I’m not going to leave.”

“How much is this going to cost me?”

“Nothing,” she said. “You can call me Miharu.”

“Okay,” she said. “Just cut it out with this whole Mistress crap. Call me Emiri.”

She bowed. “Yes, Emiri-sama.”

Emiri sighed.

“Would you like some tea?” she asked.

“I’d prefer some coffee,” she said, sitting down on her comfortable couch, practically sinking into it.

“Very well then, I’ll get on it right away,” she said.

Oh god, why couldn’t you have just sent me to another world?