Chapter 6: The Dorm

The next day Misaki sent Emi to the dorm with a list.

Three outfits, a hairbrush, a pink pillow, a stuffed rabbit and a folder of lyric sheets.

"She can't go," Misaki said. "I'm at the agency until six. Tell the guard you're her stepsister. You are."

"Is that going to be a problem?"

"It's going to be the best cover you could have."

The dorm was a gray six-story building near the Shibuya line, with a bright blue door and a camera over it.

Inside, a security guard sat behind a glass window with a sign-in sheet.

He looked at Emi's face for a long second.

"Name and time," he said.

"Emi Yoshida. Ten forty-five. I'm here for Kokone Arai's things."

"Relationship?"

"Stepsister."

He wrote that down with no change in his expression.

Then he slid a visitor pass under the glass and pointed at an elevator.

"Fifth floor, room 503. You have fifteen minutes."

"Or there's a fine?"

"Or there's me," he said.

Room 503 had bunk beds, one on each side, and a window full of laundry.

One bed was neat, with a stuffed rabbit's twin on the pillow.

The other bunk was a hurricane of band merchandise, hair ties and cups.

On it sat a girl with a chin-length black bob with blue tips, in a sports jacket, eating cereal out of a mug.

"You're the stepsister," she said.

"Emi."

"I'm Rina Tsuji. I've been told not to tell anyone where she is. I haven't. Does she eat?"

"She eats."

"Does she sleep?"

"A lot."

"Good." Rina put the mug down, hard. "Because she hasn't slept properly in years. Is she crying?"

"A bit. Once. She does it where she thinks nobody sees."

"That's her." Rina jumped off the bunk. "Tell me what she needs."

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