Chapter 72: Chapter Sixty-Three Clues in Collection

May made her way down the corridor. It was early in the morning, it wasn’t even five yet. The others were asleep. Yesterday had actually been rather uneventful. At least from what she heard.  Qelu had slept in late, curled up with Kiru, and then they had gone off on another inspection. Now those two were back, and Qelu was curled up next to Kiru again. It seemed she had grown rather attached to the older Neku girl, it was honestly very cute.

As for Zalla, much to Qei’s relief. She hadn’t been able to continue her conversation like she wanted to. Unfortunately, it was just a postponement.

In any case, at the moment she was heading to the first-floor apartment that the pregnant woman Riku was leasing. Today was the day that she was scheduled to be picked up by a courier. From the sounds of things, she was going to be disappeared. May had also actually caught the second call, when she reported things taken care of. It hadn’t been all that eventful. They had thanked her for cooperating and then they mostly reiterated her instructions for being ready for a pick-up today, at this awfully early hour. Honestly, she wanted to be in bed, even though she had deliberately gone to bed early yesterday. Good thing she didn’t have a job. Thanks to the improved cloak, she had a feeling she could follow this woman safely. That means today would likely yield clues that previously were out of their reach. 

As she approached the door to the apartment, she noted that Riku was already standing in front of it. Her pregnant body was completely nude, and the door was wide open. May wasn’t worried about Riku or the courier seeing her at the moment though. She was currently cloaked, since she had taken the opportunity to cloak earlier. Afterall, May knew she would need it. Bringing up the time in her hud, she found she still had a few minutes before five. So she poked her head in the apartment, to find it hadn’t changed from before. The furniture was exactly where it had been previously, photos and ornaments were still on display. A quick search through the kitchen and bedrooms found nothing at all had been packed. May wasn’t entirely surprised, Riku had been told that she wasn’t coming back, but no instructions to pack had been given.

She rejoined Riku near the door with time to spare. May could guess by the state of the apartment that Riku wasn’t going to pack the place up. Obviously a courier was going to do that. It certainly wasn’t going to be an Iniri, she knew that much. They clearly preferred to make others do the menial work for them. 

It was not long before the courier arrived. She was naked, like they always were. Well with the typical exception of a belt, and she had a clipboard with her. She approached Riku, and smiled, “Ready to leave for your extended stay with us?”

Riku nodded, “I am.”

The courier nodded, and extended the clipboard. She pointed at a line on the page. It was a document, one that May quickly looked over. Clearly a legal agreement, “If you would sign here please. This is simply your agreement for using the Iniri Courier Services, packing and storage service. It indicates your understanding that items will be missing when we return your boxes, and that we reserve the right to alter and sell your possessions while they are in our care. You will be informed about anything we do sell and receive a small cut of the proceeds, after expenses. In most cases, this will at most be ten percent of the proceeds. These expenses include your storage fees and other services including those from your stay with us. We may replace some of your sold items at a later date, and you will be informed if we do. Due to the above, we will also be doing a complete inventory of your belongings, including items that might be considered private. In addition, our reserved right to alter or sell your possessions will be extended to those private items, and for the duration of this agreement they will not be considered private items.”

May, having read it, noted that it did say all that. There was more to it then just that as well. It was the most blatantly predatory agreement she had seen the Iniri put forth. The other such items at least tried to look fair on the surface anyway. The document also mentioned where they would be putting her cut of the proceeds. It was in her new black account, the one she wasn’t allowed to touch, only put money into. So, in other words, it really didn’t matter if they gave her ten, fifty, or ninety, in the end, it was effectively zero. There was also a line that stated that she agreed not to think of her stuff until instructed otherwise, and to know it was in good hands. There was also a blank line about when she would be informed about what they were doing with her stuff.

The woman signed, and then the courier smiled before tapping the blank line about when she was to be informed, “Please fill in this line. We recommend choosing to be informed only when we return your stuff.”

Riku nodded, “That makes sense.” she then filled in that as her choice. Rather than a more immediate timing. May figured it must be some of their brainwashing that led to her so readily agreeing to that.

The courier smiled, “Great. Now the movers will be here in a few minutes to start packing up your stuff. We don’t need to be here for that, so if you would, follow me and leave your door open. We can get going to the facility.”

Riku nodded, and May sent a text to Qei. While also deploying a small cloaked drone to keep an eye on the apartment. Just so that they could observe the packing up process. The courier turned towards the exit, and Riku followed. May hovered nearby, as they headed out of the building. A truck was waiting outside, and Riku was asked to board. May slipped onto the vehicle with her, while the courier headed to the cockpit to drive the vehicle.

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Qei stepped off the lift with a bit of a yawn. May’s message had woken her up. This was quite the early hour to be up, but unfortunately she needed to be up to observe what they were doing while May followed the primary target. Reaching a nice spot, she cloaked and then made her way towards the apartment in question.

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She arrived to find it standing wide open, and no one in sight. A quick check with the monitoring drone found that no one had gone in, or walked by it. Not yet at least. She settled near the door to wait. Having been to the storage facilities, she had a rough idea of how things would go already. It wasn’t too long before a group of couriers arrived with boxes and grav-pallets. She counted eight couriers dressed in their usual uniform. 

The group filed into the apartment, and she followed them to watch. One of them opened a data pad she pulled off her belt, and started a file. While the others started looking through the apartment. What quickly followed was them taking an inventory. Images were taken of each object, and a description was made as well. Then it was added to the inventory.

Then boxes were set up, and they began packing the apartment up. Before anything was backed each box was either labeled as for sale or for storage. Clothing without fail was always packed into the for sale box, and that wasn’t a surprise. Most items did end up going into the “for storage” box. It seemed they were just doing what the Iniri normally made the resident do, with the exception of the item inventory. May had mentioned in her message about what she had seen, but so far the only missing items were the normal ones.

When they reached the kitchen, however, they created a third label. They also brought in a special box. Her food was packed into two boxes, dry stuff that required nothing special was placed into a standard box, while the other stuff was placed in a refrigerated box. Both boxes were labeled for donation. Predictably leftovers that were not finished yet were simply tossed. The containers were cleaned, and packed. Then they got to her plates and silverware, which were wordlessly packed into a box for sale. One of them made a note in her inventory, saying that her plates and silverware did not meet standard and would need to be replaced. Then they moved on.

Qei noted that when they got to her terminal, someone plugged a device into it. Immediately it booted up, and opened to the operating system. Automatically logging in for them as well. They quickly ran a program on it, and plugged a second stick into it when prompted. After a couple of minutes they removed it. The stick was then plugged into the datapad, and the inventory updated itself to include a complete copy of her data drive. Then the copied stick was promptly packed, while another girl proceeded to wipe her entire drive on the terminal. She looked up from the screen, and then informed the others that it was ready to be packed. They unplugged their device, and shut the wiped terminal down before packing it into a for sale box. 

By this point the sun was already up, and the apartment was more boxes than things. The girls were packing them up and loading them on the grav-pallet, while another checked something. Then they started on the furniture, it was clear that none of it came with the apartment. They folded up the pieces, labeled them and readied them for transit. Qei watched as everything was rapidly taken out and loaded into a waiting truck. She saw little that provided much insight into what they were doing, but questions were raised nonetheless.

---

May stepped off the vehicle while still cloaked. The ride had proved to be rather uneventful, and Riku was the only passenger this courier was picking up. They had not gone to the nearby clinic though, but had instead gone to a large facility on the city’s outskirts. It looked to be a complex with several unmarked and marked buildings in close proximity to each other. It was built right next to the beach, with privacy fencing placed around the building. Nude bathers could be seen, either playing in the water or relaxing on the beach. She spotted quite a few Irini scattered around that beach as well, but most of the people there were Neku. 

The courier led Riku through the gate, and down a path towards a larger building in the resort. It was unmarked, and didn’t seem all that special. A few people could be seen coming and going from the building. Still, May was curious about it.

They ended up going right up to the doors, and walking into a reception room. The courier brought Riku up to the receptionist. A completely naked Neku woman, who smiled as they approached. The courier informed the receptionist, “This is Riku. She is here for her admission exam.”

The woman nodded, and said, “One moment... Alright, I have one Riku listed here, and the images match, so no need for last name.” She pointed to a door on the left. “Head through there, and take a seat. The doctor will collect you when she is ready to see you.”

Riku nodded, and headed for the door. The courier exchanged a few more words with the receptionist and then walked off. May caught them, but didn’t think those words to be worth noting. Regardless of that, she did add them to a file already full of notes, and kept close to Riku. Beyond the door was, quite naturally, a waiting room, where a number of Neku sat doing nothing but waiting. It was a rather boring sight, and she took up a position near Riku to wait. She had a feeling that today was going to test the adjustments Megumi had made to their cloaks.

 

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