Chapter 22 - Full Business Day

The next morning.

A luxury sedan, leading two expensive-looking vans behind it, all stop at a parking lot in front of an old but wide five-story building. The building being surrounded and towered by modern apartment high rises makes it look like a well-maintained relic of the 1970s.

"Arina-chan… Are you sure we're in the right place?" A Japanese man in his 40s, taller than the average of his gender in his country, and fashioning a deceptively expensive plain black tuxedo, asks Arina right after stepping out of the luxury sedan.

"Shigeo-san, don't worry." Arina assures the president and co-owner of her talent agency.

"Although I did say that the building is shabby, now that I'm looking at it more closely, it looks charming." She adds.

"That's not my concern. I'm just reminded of my old high school because of the building's structure." Shigeo says.

"Oh…" Arina has nothing to say.

"Well. Alright then." Shigeo says as he waves at the two vans behind them.

The two van's doors suddenly open and from them, fifteen young ladies, all wearing casual clothes and having their faces covered with surgeon's masks, and the pant-suit wearing Miss Konno, filter out before all walking quickly towards the building.

Arina and Shigeo also soon follow.

A few moments later, the entire Musume46, Shigeo, and Miss Konno are now in the second floor veranda, in front of the closed doors of Muscle Masters.

"Why aren't they open yet?" Shigeo says in mild annoyance.

"President, uhh.. I think we're early?" Miss Konno says.

"7:58." Shigeo notes the time after looking at his watch.

"Well wh-" Before he can complain any further, the heavy wooden double doors of the shop opens inwards, with a creak, revealing Fumio, dressed in formal kimono, standing with arms outstretched, in the motion of pushing the doors to the side.

Arina and Miss Konno, although it is their second visit to the place, are caught off-guard as the man they previously met for a short while, looks very, very different.

While Fumio is average looking, his outfit, clean-shaven face, clean cut hair, confident body language, and subtle smile, immediately gives the guests a respectable impression for him and the shop.

"Welcome, guests. Please." Fumio then steps aside as he gestures the group inside with a shallow polite bow.

"Go ahead." Shigeo orders his employees, while observing Fumio.

The ladies meanwhile, immediately feel the refreshing cool temperature of the shop although they are only in the reception area. The sound of rain and piano in the background adds to the natural vibe of the shop.

"Ooohh… It looks even more homely than last time. Guys. Let's make ourselves comfortable." Arina says as she leads the group to the lounge area that was absent during her fist visit.

Meanwhile at the entrance, "Sir? Aren't you with them?" Fumio asks in confusion, noticing that Shigeo is still outside.

"You look very young for a business owner." Shigeo says to Fumio as he crosses the doorway.

"Ah. Sir. I am but the lone employee of this shop. The owner is inside, busy preparing things for the the guests' massage." Fumio says as he gestures Shigeo to walk further inside.

"I heard that he's a man? He's the only massage therapist around?" Shigeo asks.

"That's right, sir." Fumio says.

"Why?" Shigeo asks.

Fumio at this point, figures that Shigeo is probably some big executive that handles Musume46.

"Well. He's a master of his craft. That also makes his standards for massage therapists frustratingly high." Fumio says.

"… I see." Shigeo decides to accept the explanation for now.

As soon and him and Shigeo reach the lounge area, "Dear customers. It looks like you've all made yourselves comfortable.", Fumio sees the members of Musume46 already seated at the couches.

He notices however that only Arina and Miss Konno are the only ones who made themselves at home, lounging in ungraceful postures, while the rest of the members are self-conscious, and are looking around the shop out of curiosity while chatting with each other.

"Please, feel free to read our magazines and manga under those tables while you wait for your turns. If you all want some tea, and some sweet snacks, please just say so and I will serve you what is available in the shop." He instructs everyone to make the rest of the guests feel more at home.

"OKAY." Half of the members say, and half of them nod shyly.

"Mr. Fumio! Is the owner ready? I'm going in first." Arina, knowing her members are a bit anxious to their new massage therapist, volunteers to address their anxiety.

"Sure. Do you need directions?" Fumio asks.

"No." Arina refuses Fumio's offer as she stands up.

"Hang on, Arina." Shigeo stops her. "Mr. Fumio, right? I'll go first." He volunteers instead.

"…" The room is silenced by Shigeo's words.

"S- SUre!" Fumio almost expresses his happiness. He noticed that Shigeo is subtly eyeing him and by Shigeo going in first, it cuts the time the man's eyes will be on him.

"A moment please. Let me just…" He then snaps his wrists to the air, and the next moment, *sssssss* *fooommmm* the soft sound of falling raindrops and slow saxophone jazz music envelope the atmosphere of the shop.

In addition to the sound, a scent of a clay ground freshly hit by the rain, start emanating too.

"…" The guests are initially surprised by the ambient sound and scent, before immediately falling charm to it.

"Nice ability you have there." Shigeo nods in satisfaction, the sounds and scents making the atmosphere of the shop becoming fancier to him.

"Thank you, sir." Fumio says, while smirking inside.

Red gave him a bead bracelet that allows him to manipulate the ambience of the shop.

"Let's go." He leads Shigeo to the changing room.

.

A few minutes later, "Welcome, customer. I'm Kichorou, the masseur. Nice to meet you." Shigeo, wearing a fresh bathrobe, is greeted in the massage room by Red.

"Hello. I'm Shigeo Egusa. The president of Musume46's agency." He introduces himself too, but inside, he is more than startled.

'Peace', he almost sighs in awe at what he is feeling. It is the first time that his superioris ability is picking up such pure peaceful emotion in a person. He does not feel a tinge of worry, apprehension, or disturbance from Red.

Even the Shinto priests and maidens, even the knights from the Knights of Order that he has met before, the people who he has seen high levels of serenity in, still have tinges of troubles in them. Red exuding the epitome of tranquility is enough for him to feel trustful towards Red.

Red meanwhile, becomes curious and almost apprehensive. 'Psionic Superioris?' He cannot help but think, as he feels Shigeo's ability brush on him, noticing the similar feeling to when Kaoru activated her own poltergeist ability the day after he healed her tumor.

He lowers his guard soon however, as the man retrieves his ability.

"Sir. Please take off your robe and lie prone on the table, please." He instructs Shigeo.

"I'll be in your care." Having already dropped his apprehension, Shigeo is now entirely curious as to why Arina had changed her group's massage therapist.

Meanwhile, at the lounge area.

"*sigh*…" Fumio sighs as he takes a seat at the common table located beside his receptionist table, choosing the chair that faces the lounge area.

He just locked the door of the shop to prevent anyone from walking in on the members of Musume46. The girls of Musume46 meanwhile, have now all fallen asleep.

Miss Konno, the only one who is still awake, and is fighting to stay awake by busying herself on her tablet PC, is giving him cautious glances everyone once in a while as if guarding the girls from him.

"Ugh.." He can only sit bored as the girls did not even order anything because they fell asleep not even five minutes after they entered the shop. The shop too is spotless, so he cannot even simple chores are unavailable for him to busy himself with.

"What did boss put in that tea?" He mutters as he suddenly realizes something.

An hour ago, Red gave served Fumio a cup of tea which Red claimed to help in dealing with anxiety and excitement in meeting the girls of Musume46. Red also claimed that the tea will help Fumio focus better on the tasks of the job.

Now however, Fumio just feels peaceful and his mind very clear. Too peaceful that he cannot even enjoy the feeling of being in the same room as sixteen beautiful ladies as that feeling did not even register in him.

"Miss Konno." He then calls out, helping Miss Konno in her battle against drowsiness.

"Shall I turn off the music?" He asks.

"No." Miss Konno refuses.

"Well. Join me?" Fumio offers with a gesture of his hand to one of the wooden chairs across the table from him. "If you want to stay awake, it's better if you do your work sitting on a hard chair..." He adds.

Miss Konno, realizing that she cannot even focus on her work, decides to take Fumio's offer and she joins Fumio.

"Heh. So, this is the real them, huh." Fumio chuckles.

"What? You're disappointed?" Miss Konno chuckles too. "I noticed you don't look as excited seeing Arina-chan than last time." She adds.

"Nah. Just disillusioned." Fumio says.

"Hah. I'm a bit embarrassed looking at them looking like that at a place like this. You being overdressed for your job is not helping either." Miss Konno confesses as she takes a closer look at Fumio's haori.

"Haha. I don't know why boss insists me wearing this." Fumio shakes his head, getting self-conscious from Miss Konno's eyes on his clothes.

"Anyways, I don't care if they're casually dressed, or are drooling while sleeping." He says. His words almost making Miss Konno blush in second-hand embarrassment.

"In their videos online, they always look happy, cheerful. I never realized that in the end of the day, it's still a job." He continues as he looks at the sleeping girls.

Miss Konno nods in appreciation at Fumio's observation.

"They have their third album coming up and they are exhausted practicing their choreography and singing. They're stressed too, so even though they're tired, they cannot fall asleep." Miss Konno says as she looks at the girls in sympathy.

"So. Thank you. Your ability must have helped them to relax. It looks like they're deeply asleep too." She adds.

"It's the best I can do." Fumio says.

He can only swallow the guilt of taking credit. After all, it is a part of his one-sided promise and self-obligation to Red to keep Red's abilities and oddities that he observes, to himself.

"So. The last time, if I remember correctly, you weren't working here." Miss Konno changes the subject.

"Well, I guess boss needed me here more than somewhere else." Fumio says.

"Good for you." Miss Konno nods.

"That means your customers increased?" She asks.

"Yes. But just enough to keep the shop running." Fumio says, but internally, he is surprised by how smoothly he lied.

'What the hell was in that tea?'

"Oh… No wonder it's too quiet." The two are interrupted by Shigeo who just walked out of the dressing area, having just finished his massage.

"CEO. How was it?" Miss Konno asks as she stands up.

"Stay seated." Shigeo orders as he joins Fumio and Miss Konno at the table.

"Now I get why Arina-chan wanted to be here so bad despite the prices. I've never felt this good in years." He says as he takes a seat.

"I'm glad our service satisfied you, customer." Fumio says, relieved that Shigeo is in a better mood and seems satisfied with Red's massage.

"By the way, Fumio-san. Did you drug our girls? They're knocked out." Shigeo says in a brighter, mildly more cheerful tone compared to his tone before his massage.

"How can I when they didn't even have our shop's exclusive tea?" Fumio says with a polite smile.

"…" Miss Konno on the other hand is stunned. "C-CEO… Did you just tell a joke?" She asks.

"Hm? And you find that surprising?" Shigeo feels Miss Konno's emotions with his ability.

"Yes. You carry yourself professionally to the point where everything you say only has something to do with work." Miss Konno says.

"Oh. Huh. Was I that tensed? Was Mr. Kichirou not referring just to my body?" Shigeo asks himself.

"Ah…" Miss Konno nods in understanding. "Come to think of it, I was unusually talkative during my massage last time." She says.

"Well. Boss is a bit disarming." Fumio cuts in the conversation, to move things forward.

"So… uh… Who'll go in next?" He asks, worried because Red tends to follow time strictly.