Health Inspection or Man(ticore)hunt?

The agents stood outside Sokoro's incredibly... rustic apartment building, dressed as health inspectors. Lucia has her hair tied into a bun and Giorgio wore sunglasses.

"Your plan sucks" Giorgio stated.

"Your plan is the reason we're in this mess," Lucia retorted, before gesturing at the building, 

"This building has been getting complaints from tenants for months. We can go in, check every room, find the manticore and neutralise it."

"Every room?"

She narrowed her eyes, "Yes, every room. We're not rushing into things again."

He gave a loud exasperated sigh, "This is never going to work."

"Not with that attitude,"

"Not with you being a terrible actress."

"I am not."

"Mm-hmm." He muttered before stepping inside. She frowned and followed him inside.

Sitting at the front desk was a short, balding old black man in a tank top, green pants and flip-flops. He was doing a crossword puzzle and paid the agents no mind. After taking a moment to examine the... personality of the establishment, Lucia cleared her throat.

The old man continued his crossword. She tried again, louder this time. He continued his crossword.

"E-Excuse me." She said. He continued his crossword.

"Hello?"

He continued his crossword. She looked to Giorgio for help. He rolled his eyes under his glasses and knocked on the desk repeatedly. He kept doing this until the old man had enough.

"What do you want?!" He snapped, "Can't you see I'm busy?"

"Good morning," Giorgio spoke pleasantly, "We would like to talk to the manager of this... establishment."

"You're looking at him. The hell do you want?"

Giorgio held up his badge, "We're from the Health Inspector's Office. We're here because we've been receiving multiple complaints from your tenants regarding the conditions of this building."

"I haven't been getting complaints."

Giorgio leaned forward with a smug smile that didn't reach his eyes, "Then I'm sure you won't mind us talking to you tenants."

The old man stood up and glared at him, "Now you listen here. No one told me you were coming, so you aren't talking to anyone until I get proper notice. So why don't you take your fancy suits and makeup-wearing face out of my building."

"You're wearing makeup?" Lucia asked,

"Now you listen," Giorgio pointed his finger at the old man to bring the subject back, "You're lucky we don't bulldoze this place and have you taken out in handcuffs after the complaints we've received."

"Get your hand out of my face, Boy."

"Get your breath out of mine, Old Man."

Giorgio's real self was slipping through his disguise. Lucia tried to step

"Okay, why don't we calm down? We can-"

"Stay out of it!" The two men snapped at her before continuing their argument. At this point, Lucia's real self pushed past her disguise and she joined the fight, escalating the situation further, ignoring the door opening and footsteps approaching the reception area.

-Sokoro

(Sniffing and drying tears) I’m so sorry, Asuka. I wish I didn’t have to, may you find peace in the body pillow afterlife. *Sigh* There will be time to mourn later, I’ve got so much to do. I just need to get time from that grumpy old meiser who owns this place. I swear it’s all I can do not to talk to him. Once I know what time it is, I’ll be able to properly go about my day.

"Uh... hey, sorry. Mr Thuli, could I get the ti…"

What is going on here? Who are those people? They look governemnt-y. You know what? I’m just going to check the time with my laptop. I wanted to avoid that because it takes 5000 years to open a browser, let alone switch on, but I think it would be best to go back. Plus Kāma might start getting ideas. I’m just going sneak past and-

“Hey, you!” (Thuli)

And he saw me… or maybe he didn’t. If I just pretend I didn’t hear him and keep going…

“Are you deaf, Boy? I’m talking to you.”

Guh… Why me?

“Yes?” (Sokoro)

“What’s your name again? Socceru?”

I should be hurt by that, but I’m not.

“Sokoro Abdi.”

“These two clowns are health inspectors and they’re saying that they’ve been getting complaints.” (Leans forward menacingly) “Do you have any complaints?”

Health inspectors? Oh no. No, this is horrible. If they’re as competent as they look, this place is getting demolished and I’ll have to move back in with my parents. I would just let Kāma eat me, but I know for a fact that my problems wouldn’t end in the afterlife. *sigh* Today is really not my day.

“Nope, I love it here. Moving in was the best decision I ever made.” (Sokoro said with a forced smile) If you’re not arrested and this place isn’t getting bulldozed, you owe me big time, Uncle. Why are they looking at me, like that? Like they know me? It would just be luck to have accidentally ended up on some kind of watchlist. Ugh, the things I do for piracy.

“See?” (Thuli) “No complaints. Now get-”

“Hold on!” (Giorgio) “One tenant out of fifty doesn’t prove anything and I’m not sure he’s telling the truth. Are you Mr Abdi?”

Who the hell does this guy think he is?

“Am I under arrest?”

“Well, no. We’re not the police.”

“Then I’ll be going now.”

I can hear Thuli laughing. I got a little heated there, guess the mounting frustration.“You heard him. You’re not cops and you don’t have any notice to inspect my property, now get-”

*Ring ring*

Whatever that is, it’s not my business.

“I believe that is what you were looking for.” (Lucia to Thuli)

Huh? What does she mean by that?

“Y-you can’t-” (Thuli)

“We can now do as we please.” (Lucia)

Dammit, walk faster!

“Mr… Abdi, was it?” (Giorgio)

Dammit! Dammit! DAMMIT!

“Perhaps, you would like to give us a tour of the building?”

No. No, I really wouldn’t.

(Giorgio places a hand on Sokoro’s shoulder)“After all, as you said you have no complaints about your living conditions and if everyone else agrees, then we won’t be long.”

“Well, unfortunately, I have an assignment that I urgently need to work on so… (Removes Giorgio’s hand) …you’re going to have to find your own way.”

Sokoro then proceeded to walk briskly to the elevator and enter it.

“So be it,” Giorgio said ominously, before approaching the stairway and beginning the ascent

Lucia came next to him and spoke quietly, “He’s in room 10C. That’s on the top floor.”

“We’re still going with your room-by-room plan?”

“That notification was for the real health inspectors, so no. We’ll need to hurry. He’s clearly hiding something.” 

 

"He and the old man must have struck some kind of deal with the manticore