The Head of Otherworldly Monitoring

“So, you’re applying for this because…?”

I take a deep breath. “I just got fired from my part-time job and my parents won’t give me the time of day,” I let out in one gasp. “So, I just want a job. Even if it’s paranormal.”

The interviewer, who I have noticed a few minutes ago has fox ears and a tail, heaves a sigh before reading my resume. “Kurokawa Manami, am I right?”

“Yes, miss.” I smile tiredly.

“You’re pretty young, Kurokawa-san,” the interviewer says, flipping the pages of my resume. “Not even in high school and already applying for a full-time job? Don’t you worry about your education?”

“I’ve already finished high school,” I say bluntly. When the interviewer raises an eyebrow, I explain, “I skipped three grades in elementary school. Graduated just recently,” I add.

“A genius, then.” I can tell by her expression she’s impressed, even though slightly. The stakes must be high for a job like this. “Well, you have no idea how many candidates I’ve had to go through, Kurokawa-san, and I don’t recall ever seeing someone who’s finished high school at age 14. Well then,” she finally says, standing up, “you can go home now. The results will arrive in a few days or so, but don’t be very confident. This job has karma, you know.”

“Yes, yes, I know,” I say, smiling as I stand up. “Thank you, miss…”

“Sakuragami,” she says, leading me out. “Sakuragami Kitsune. Pleased to meet you, Kurokawa Manami.”

And with this final note, she shuts the door on my face.

***

“So you actually applied for a full-timer, Kurokawa-chan?” Hori-san, the convenience store cashier and my former coworker, smiles at me as she sips coffee out of her little monochrome mug. “What job is it?”

“Uh, to be honest? I don’t know all the details. But apparently it’s a job as the assistant of the ‘Head of Otherworldly Monitoring’, whatever that’s supposed to be,” I reply. “I applied because it might use well my social skills and… well… I might meet my soulmate there.”

“Oh, riiight. I forgot about that.” She waves her hand dismissively, her wedding ring gleaming in her ring finger. “Ever since I met Izumi, I almost forgot what it was like to not see color.”

In our world, people are born seeing no color except for the color of their soulmate’s eyes. They start seeing the rest of the colors after meeting said soulmate, and sometimes, if you squint hard, you can see your soulstring, red and fluttering, connecting you to someone that can be halfway across the world.

“How long have you been married again? Five years?”

“Seven actually,” Hori-san says, smiling. “Seven years since I became Hori Chiaki. Much easier to write than Mushanokōji Chiaki, right?”

“Totally,” I reply, smiling as I recall her complaints about her maiden name, Mushanokōji. After she married Hori Izumi, our night-shift convenience store cashier, she adopted his surname and now delights in having a one-kanji name instead of a four-kanji one.

Hori-san smirks at me. “What color can you see, Kurokawa-chan?”

I pause for a moment. “Garnet,” I say, after a moment. “But it’s closer to the black specter than the red one,” I add.

“Someone with garnet eyes, huh?” Hori-san sighs, after thinking for a moment. “Yup, a hard one. I don’t remember ever seeing someone with garnet eyes in my life, and you know that I see many people,” she says after sighing. “But you know, I’ve seen a bunch of guys your age walking around the store because they want to talk to you. You’ve got a bunch of admirers, Kurokawa-chan.”

“Eh, I don’t think I’m that much,” I say, waving a hand dismissively. “But I hope this new job might help me find my soulmate.”

“I’m rooting for you, Kurokawa-chan!” Hori-san says, smiling.

“Thank you, Hori-san,” I reply. Suddenly my phone buzzes. “It’s Mom,” I gasp, stunned. Why would she call me at this hour? “Wait a moment, Hori-san.”

I answer the call and put my phone to my ear. “Hi, Mom,” I say. “What is it?”

“A letter from someone named Sakuragami Kitsune arrived for you, Manami,” Mom says.

My breath catches in my throat. “That’s the woman who interviewed me for my new job,” I gasp. “What does it say?”

“That… you got the job.”

I almost drop my phone. “Really?” I choke out, struggling to keep my phone on my hand. Mom hums as if nodding and then continues, “You passed out of three hundred candidates. Congratulations, Manami!”

For the first time in weeks she’s not giving me the cold shoulder, and suddenly I’m about to cry. “Thanks, Mom,” I say, tears in my eyes. “I promise I’ll do my best at this job.”

“I know you will, Manami.” I can tell by her tone that Mom is proud of me, even though she doesn’t say it. “And one more thing… if you don’t come back with your soulmate after the three-year trial I’ll disown you!”

I start laughing. “Mom!”

“Kidding. But I’m really worried, Manami,” Mom says. “Soulstrings start fraying when someone turns thirty without having found their soulmate, and you’re already halfway there, so I’m worried.”

“Mom, I’m 14,” I sigh, in exasperation. “You talk like I’m twenty-nine and a half. I already told you, you don’t have to worry about this.”

She sighs. “It’s your call,” she tells me. “But don’t come crying if you’re still color-blind at twenty-nine and a half.”

I laugh. “I won’t. Don’t worry.”

“Won’t what? Come crying to me or be color-blind and twenty-nine and a half?”

“Both!” I exclaim in exasperation.

Finally she laughs along. “Okay, Manami,” she says. “Have a nice day. Bye!”

“Bye!” I exclaim, and then the call cuts off.

“What’s she said to get you so upbeat?” Hori-san says as I return to my seat at our table. “You getting a little brother?”

“No,” I say. “Better. Sakuragami-san’s letter has arrived through the mail, and I got the job.”

“Congrats, Kurokawa-chan!” Hori-san exclaims, almost knocking over her colorless coffee as she leans over the table to hug me. “I’m rooting for you!”

“Thanks, Hori-san,” I say, smiling. “You’ve been great. Ever since I was fired for some dumb reason, you’ve been my ever-present moral support.”

“Yeah. Dunno why they fired you, you just accidentally spilled some detergent on the chocolates the owner was going to give to his mistress,” Hori-san says, chuckling slightly at the memory of the incident. “Kurokawa-chan, you’re always so hardworking, but you’re clumsy at the worst hours possible.”

“Indeed,” I sigh. “After all, I AM 14 years old.”

“Sometimes I forget that. You’re so mature for your age, being fourteen with a high school diploma and a legal emancipation from your parents after all.”

“Yeah.” I finally finish my coffee and stand up. “Well then, I guess I should be going. It’s getting late.”

“Let’s have some coffee again one of these days,” Hori-san suggests. “Then you tell me about your new job.”

“I’ll do that,” I promise. “Bye, Hori-san!”

“Bye, Kurokawa-chan!”

***

When I finally arrive in my cozy apartment, the sweet smell of cherry greets me. On the table, a cherry pie sits with a note under it, reading:

Manami,

I’ve made this pie for you as congratulation for your new job. I’m sorry me and your father cannot celebrate with you, but hopefully your friends are doing that for us.

I hope you have a nice time!

Mom ❤️

“Awww, Mom!” I exclaim. “Thank you! Cherry pies are my favorites!” I take a whiff of the smell again, and it reminds me so much of home I feel a pit on my stomach. “I’ll eat just a slice, then save the rest for after dinner! Itadakimasu!”

I cut a slice from the pie and then stick a part of it in my mouth. The taste blossoms in my mouth, and by the time I swallow my taste buds are flooded with cherry. Mom really knows her way around the kitchen, and particularly her desserts are simply divine.

As I munch on the rest of the slice, I keep thinking about my new job as ‘assistant to the Head of Otherworldly Monitoring’. What does it mean to be the ‘Head of Otherworldly Monitoring’? What does this person even do? So many questions still unanswered. I sigh and stand up from the table, ready to make a few phone calls. And maybe do some ranting. Probably.

***

The first person to pick up is Hanamura Kei, my best friend, and the moment I hear her voice over the phone I start blasting her with information. By the time I finally hear her saying “Okay, breathe, woman, breathe!” I stop.

“Sorry, Kei-chan,” I whisper, my voice reduced to a croak by the amount of speaking I’ve done. “It’s just… I’m so excited. I mean, what if I find my soulmate there?”

“That would be fortunate,” Kei says, calm, but I detect a hint of something in her voice. A laugh she’s trying to hold? “I mean, you’re all a girl would want to be, Manami-chan—smart, pretty, social… Hopefully your soulmate will be someone fitting.”

“Yeah.” I sigh. “But… garnet? Why a color so rare? I don’t want to spend my whole life probing 8 billion people to check for their eye color. At this rate, my soulstring will fray before I find them.”

“Them?”

“I dunno if it’s the opposite gender 100% of the time. I’ve heard that Hara-san from middle school’s soulmate is also a girl and they’re OK with it.”

“Yeah, could be.” That something in Kei’s voice spikes slightly. Then her tone changes. “You know, Manami-chan, there is something I’d like to talk to you about.”

There it is. Serious Kei has taken over. Buddy Kei is gone for now. She takes a deep breath.

“You do remember Kagami-kun, don’t you?”

Her voice is muffled and odd when she says the name, but only for a second, then the rest of the phrase comes out.

“Kei-chan?” I gasp. “Um, what did you say?”

“You didn’t hear?” She’s confused. “Weird, I thought I’d been as clear as possible. I said… Kagami-kun. Kagami Ai-kun. Don’t you remember?”

There it is again. The strikethrough of sound over whatever Kei is trying to pronounce. I can’t hear it, whoever’s name she’s trying to pronounce.

“There is something weird. I can’t hear the name. Every time you say it, it’s like there’s white noise muffling it.” I gulp. “Is someone wiretapping this call?”

Suddenly I hear a crashing noise through the phone, something falling down, most likely behind Kei.

“Shit!” She exclaims. Then the call turns off.

“Kei-chan?” I gasp. “Kei-chan! Kei-chan!”

But the call doesn’t come back, and when I try to call again, I hit voicemail.

***

“Hello?” I knock on the door of the address Sakuragami-san sent me, a tall building with an old, cranky neon sign reading something in English I barely recognize the last letters as …Machina Monitoring. “Hello???”

Someone opens the door—Sakuragami-san, her fox ears perked up and her tail drawing a graceful A behind her back. “Kurokawa-san?”

“Yes.”

“Please come in.”

I follow the woman—most likely a half-kitsune, I realize—up an enormous set of stairs that leaves me breathless by the time we get to the top. Sakuragami-san, on the other hand, in her ocean-blue tailleur and black high heels, looks unfazed by the amount of stairs we’ve climbed.

“Hoshinomiya-senpai,” she calls. “Your assistant is here. Come right this instant!”

A girl around my age appears, her long auburn-red hair messy and light eyes with dark circles beneath them. “Sakuragami,” she says, tiredly, “thank you. For bringing me an assistant, not for waking me up during a much-deserved nap,” she adds.

“Hoshinomiya-senpai, you know napping is not allowed,” Sakuragami-san states, calmly. Wait, this girl is my age. Why is Sakuragami-san, who seems to be thirty years old tops, calling her senpai? “For this, you could use the sleep-sucking devices available at any moment.”

“Yeah, I just don’t know how to use them, for f*ck’s sake,” the girl says, and her dirty mouth catches me off guard. “Who’s she, by the way? She looks my age.”

“This is Kurokawa Manami, Hoshinomiya-senpai,” Sakuragami-san says, pointing at me. “Kurokawa-san, this is Hoshinomiya Kino. She is, as of now, the Head of Otherworldly Monitoring in substitution to our boss while he’s out.”

“N-nice to meet you!” I hurriedly exclaim, bowing to my new superior—who is oddly my age?—.

Hoshinomiya Kino eyes me oddly for a moment, then says, “How old are you?”

“I’m 14,” I reply. “Advanced three years in elementary school, graduated from high school just recently. Fired once from a part-time job at a convenience store for spilling detergent on the chocolates the owner was going to give to his mistress.”

She bursts into laughter. Somewhat surprised, I turn around to look at Sakuragami-san, who’s covering her face in second-hand embarrassment.

“S-sorry, I just… couldn’t help myself,” Hoshinomiya-senpai says when she finally regains her composure. “Nice to meet you too, Kurokawa-san. Please come with me.” She turns slightly on her heel to look at Sakuragami-san. “If you’ll excuse us.”

“Of course,” the half-yōkai says, having regained her composure as well, and bows to us as we leave.

***

“So, Hoshinomiya-senpai,” I begin, as we traverse long corridors and climb several sets of stairs through the building, “what does being the Head of Otherworldly Monitoring entail?”

“First, please just call me Kino,” my superior says, as she leads me through the endless building. “And second, this isn’t an easy job. I hope you know what you’ve signed up for.”

“Okay… Kino,” I say, hesitantly. She turns and grins at me.

“Good. This job will keep us together for a long time, so we should already cut with the formalities.” Hoshinomiya-senpai—Kino—finally stops at the start of a particularly long stairway, then turns around to face me.

“Have you told your whole family where you’re going?”

“Yes,” I say, confused. “Why?”

“From this point on, you will be up there in the office with me until the actual Head of Otherworldly Monitoring returns from his sabbatical,” Kino says, her eyes filled to the brim with seriousness. “If you’ll don’t think you can make it, just call Sakuragami-san with the intercom behind you and she’ll escort you out, but you won’t remember any of this.” She takes a deep breath. “Kurokawa Manami, are you ready for this?”

I gulp. If I accept, I may not see my family for actual years, but if I refuse, my mother won’t forgive me, and I won’t know how to apologize—literally. Both possibilities entail sacrificing something important: either my normal life or my bonds with my family.

But… I know that this might help me find what I’m looking for—not just my soulmate, but my purpose. If I come along with Hoshinomiya Kino and become the assistant of the Head of Otherworldly Monitoring, I might just discover what is this odd feeling that something is about to happen and nobody seems to notice.

I take a deep breath.

“I’ll go with you, Kino,” I say. “Let’s do this.”

Kino grins. “I knew you would say this from the start,” she says. “I saw that fire in your eyes.”

She steps on the stairway and outstretches her hand towards me. “C’mon, Manami!”

I steel my resolve, grab her hand, and start climbing the stairway that oddly feels disconnected of this world.

***