Tanimaki Works a Shift at a Haunted House (Part 6)

Tanimaki and the others finished their work for the day without any trouble. The three of them happily accepted their pay.

“Thank you so much for today. All three of you did a great job.”

Mon thanked them, but for some reason, Kitaro looked troubled.

The three left the office and were about to head back to the inn.

Just then, Kitaro came running after them.

“Is something wrong, Kitaro?” Mayutan asked as he stopped.

Tanimaki and Debiru stopped as well.

“Actually, there’s something I’d like to ask you about.”

“Ask us?”

One of Mayutan’s eyebrows twitched. It was a habit of his whenever something caught his interest.

“The truth is... our haunted house has been losing money for a long time. Mon and I spend every night trying to come up with ideas to turn things around, but we just can’t find a solution. You’ve traveled a lot, and you seem like flexible thinkers, so could you lend us a hand? Even just a little. We could use some fresh ideas from the outside world.”

Seeing the serious look on Kitaro’s face, Mayutan could not bring himself to say no.

“All right. Let’s go back to the office and figure out why this haunted house isn’t attracting more customers.”

The four returned to the office and decided to hold a strategy meeting with Mon.

“We already know the problem,” Mon admitted. “Our place feels too much like every other haunted house. But figuring out how to make it different—that’s the hard part.”

“That is something every business owner struggles with,” Mayutan said. “Let’s all put our heads together and come up with some ideas.”

Mayutan took charge of the meeting.

Everyone offered suggestions, but none of them seemed particularly promising.

Then, without warning, Tanimaki spoke up.

“Instead of a haunted house, why don’t we make it a Human House, meow? The ghosts can be the customers, and the humans can do the scaring. We’ll reverse their roles, meow!”