Chapter 6 : First customer

Tokyo Exorcist office.

Eiji and Dewa were sitting behind his desk and Eiji on the couch.

Both were sitting with a soulless look on their faces as if the end of the world was near.

"Not a single customer in a week."

"We're ruined."

"We'll die of idleness before this business is profitable."

Dewa spoke to himself with his head down before getting up from his chair, took off his belt and tied it around his neck, then climbed up on his desk and hung his belt from the ceiling fan.

"Dewa what are you doing?!"

Eiji ran to Dewa and tried to get him off the desk.

"Leave me alone, I want to die! This undertaking is a failure! My wife and daughter will not forgive! I don't have a penny left in my account! I want to die!"

"Wait, Dewa! If you want to kill yourself, don't do it in this office, or I won't be able to collect your bail after you die."

Suddenly the office door was opened and a young woman in her twenties with short black hair wearing a red jacket and skirt and a blue handbag entered.

"Hello..."

But as soon as the woman saw an old man trying to hang himself with the help of a young man, she immediately closed the door.

"Wait, miss, don't go away!" Dewa shouted as he unfastened the belt around his neck and ran to the door.

. . . . . . .

In the room, Dewa looked at the young woman sitting on the couch in front of him with a dignified and serious expression.

If the young woman had not seen the scene earlier, she would swear that the man in front of her was a respectable person.

"Miss how our company can help you."

The young woman, hearing Dewa's question, remained silent for a moment before saying.

"Yesterday, I saw one of your flyers fall to the ground. On your flyers it said: we solve all your supernatural problems. So I have to ask you if this is true, because if you're crooks, getting involved in my business could cost you your life."

Dewa smiled at the girl's question and then said in a proud and serious tone, pointing to Eiji who was sitting on the desk.

"I'm a normal person, but my partner here is the most powerful exorcist I've ever seen."

The young woman then nodded her head and stared at Eiji before opening her purse and taking out some documents which she handed to Dewa.

"If you take these documents I will consider that you accept my case with full knowledge of risk and I will not feel guilty even if you die."

Dewa, always smiling, took the document from the woman's hands and began a quick but thorough reading.

About ten minutes later, he placed the documents on the table and looked at the young woman in front of him.

"Suicide cases aren't really cases we deal with here, we can't bring dead people back to life."

The woman suddenly stood up and hit the table.

"It was not suicide, I forbid you to say such words, my brother was killed! He was a boy who liked to live like nobody else, he would never do that!"

"Calm down, miss, tell me why you're here. I've read the autopsy and the information you just gave me, but nothing indicates murder."

The young woman finally sat down with Dewa's attempts to calm her emotions.

Eiji, who was observing all this, didn't say a word; he just observed the young woman's actions.

As for Dewa, he secretly wiped the sweat from his forehead, praying that their first client wouldn't run away, before asking the young woman to recount the events that troubled her.

"My name is Mawatari Tomiju, I'm the eldest daughter of the Tomiju family."

Dewa hearing this got up from his chair almost losing his temper.

"You're the heiress of the Tomiju family!"

Mawatari nodded slightly in response to Dewa, who sat on the couch and let Mawatari continue her story.

"Almost a month ago, my younger brother Iwamoto died jumping from a building south of Nakano Broadway."

She took a handkerchief from her bag and wiped the tears from her eyes.

"The police obviously concluded it was suicide after the autopsies, but I know my brother well, he was one of the best students in his class, he was athletic and very popular throughout his school."

"He had no reason to end his life, but the strangest thing was that a week before he died, my brother refused to be driven by the driver.

He started skipping classes regularly and didn't come home until late at night, I reprimanded him several times and the same punished him by telling his bodyguards not to let him leave our house.

"But he inexplicably managed to escape from the house several times without even appearing on the surveillance cameras"

Mawatari's hands began to shake and even her calm gaze changed.

"The day before his suicide, in anger, I asked one of my faithful bodyguards to follow him, but this bodyguard was found stiffly dead the same evening, he apparently committed suicide by deliberately breaking his neck."

"Upon hearing the news, I immediately ran to my brother's room to make sure he had nothing to do with the bodyguard's suicide, but what I saw made my blood run cold."

Her whole body shivered as her pupils dilated and even Eiji sitting further away could see the terror in her eyes.

"I ... I saw my brother with an empty look standing in the middle of his room with a morbid air, while several voices whispered incomprehensible words in the room, when my gaze and that of my brother met, he gave me a smile, a cold smile full of wickedness that coupled with his empty gaze paralyzed me."

"The darkness of the room like a living being moved towards me as if to devour me, I was at the height of fear at that moment, my mind emptied, I felt all the warmth of my body abandon me but it was then that a maid who came to serve my brother his meal, seeing me frozen in front of the door, unconsciously called my name".

"This had the effect of giving me back control of my body, I instinctively stepped back before closing the door of the room."

"I fainted immediately after that, waking up the next day to learn that my brother had committed suicide."