Death's Love-Child: Chapter 3

A knock sounded on Mr. Spear’s office door in the middle of the afternoon. Moments later, his red-headed assistant stepped inside.

“Is this a good time, Mr. Spears?” She inquired tentatively. A stack of papers was gripped in her hands.

The handsome, stern man sighed and adjusted his glasses. In the week that Giana had been his assistant, she had handled all of her duties well. So well, in fact, that William had decided to give her some of the more difficult case files that morning. Now it seemed that it might’ve perhaps been too much for her.

Like father, like daughter, I suppose, he thought grimly. 

“Well, seeing as how my concentration is already broken, I suppose it is as good a time as any,” he responded stiffly, not bothering to get up. “Have you come across an obstacle in your paperwork?”

“Not quite,” she answered, setting them down on his desk. “I’ve finished all the reports.”

With a raised eyebrow, he regarded her skeptically.

“That can’t be,” he stated blandly. “You must have neglected something. Check your work again.” He pushed the papers toward her with a gloved hand, obviously irritated that his own work had been interrupted. “I have my own reports to do.”

With a slightly affronted expression, she moved the reports back towards her senpai with an almost stubborn confidence.

“No, I’m positive they’re correct,” she stated boldly. “If you please, check them yourself.”

The manager flashed her a sharp look and his eyes seemed to warn her of the dangerous ground she was treading. With another sigh and a rather disappointed expression, he picked up the papers and set his eyes to them.

Then, the most surprising thing in all of Giana’s career as a shinigami occurred: Mr. Spears gasped. The stern, un-impressible William T. Spears looked utterly taken aback.

“This… this is…” He almost stuttered as he began to flip through her reports. She anxiously awaited his appraisal. “Are all of them like this? What I mean is, did you complete all of the reports in the same way?”

“Yes,” she answered nervously. “Why?”

“These are perfect!” Suddenly, his gaze flew back up to the woman standing before him and his green eyes narrowed accusingly. “Sit,” he ordered. She obeyed. “Did you complete these without assistance?”

“Y-yes, sir.”

“Within your own natural capabilities?”

She was puzzled by this.

“Opposed to what, Mr. Spears?”

“Magic, supernatural assistance, a contracted demon’s aid? The single use of any of these things will have you fired from this office, do you understand me?” His voice was adamant and his eyes were far more vicious than Giana had ever seen before.

She nodded her head rapidly.

“I do! And I swear, I haven’t used any of those things!” She told him.

The suited man was silent for a moment as he inspected her, his stare still slightly suspicious. Extracting several papers from his own pile, he placed them in front of her and slid her a pencil.

“Show me,” he commanded.

With a nervous gulp, the girl pushed her dainty glasses up the ridge of her nose and spread all the papers out before her. Then, her brow furrowing in concentration, she set about her task.

It was a single post-reaping case file. The picture of the deceased depicted a Caucasian male in his late forties, his cheeks covered in scruff, and bruises around his neck. A whiskey bottle in his left hand and a cigarette lay beside his right. He lay on dirty and damp cobblestones.

After her general assessment, she moved to the report sheet and wrote down all the provided information given to her on another paper. She recorded things such as name of the attending reaper, name of the deceased, the name of the place the deceased was found, etc.. Then she proceeded to the more specified part of the report procedure.

DISCRIPTION OF DECEASED: MODERATELY SHORT, BROWN, UNKEPT HAIR, SEVERAL DAY’S GROWTH OF FACIAL HAIR, TWO MISSING TEETH (UPPER LEFT CANINE AND LOWER RIGHT MOLAR), THREE-INCH LONG SCAR ON RIGHT WRIST, AND ONE-INCH LONG SCAR ACROSS RIGHT COLLARBONE.

Studying both the description of the man she had been given and the picture of the deceased thoroughly, she eventually marked the “Verification of Appearance” box as “matched.” Under “Suspected Cause of Death”, she wrote “strangulation.”

Now, there were only a few more things she needed to verify…

All this she did completely unaware of Mr. Spears’ intense scrutiny. He watched her very carefully, waiting for any sign that she had been lying about the way her reports were completed. He saw none.

When she finished and returned the finished case file to him, he stood and paced the office, studying her work. His expression was unreadable. It took him several inspections, but finally, he turned back to the girl before him. He looked completely calm, but slightly perplexed. Returning to his seat, he paused. Then he met her eyes again.

“Giana,” he used her first name. “I apologize for my initial suspicion towards your work. I see now that your methods are one-hundred-percent authentic.” He leaned forward and gazed intensely into her eyes. “The reason for my concern was simply that your work has surpassed my expectations generously.” A smile began to grow on the girl’s face. “You must understand, it has been years since a graduate has shown such competence. You have excellent intuition and logic and your attention to detail is unmatched by anyone in this branch, excepting mine.”

“Really?” She asked, her cheeks growing pink at all this unexpected praise.

“Yes,” he responded. 

Though his words were flattering and praising, his tone and expression remained quite stern and serious.

“You have great potential, in the management field, at least. It is a relief to finally work with someone who takes nearly as much precision as I when doing their job.”

“That is very kind of your, Mr. Spears,” she beamed. “You honor me.”

“Well then, since your assigned duties are already complete, you may now serve as my assistant in helping me finish these reports as well.”

He placed a stack of papers on the desk, which must’ve stood at least six inches high. Giana lost her chipper mood and composure for a moment as she gaped at it.

“I need to do all those?!” She asked.

“No, I need to have completed all of them by the end of the day. You, however, will assist me by doing some yourself,” he told her.

“O-oh, I see. How many would you like me to take back to my desk?” She inquired, reaching out to the pile.

“None,” he stopped her, placing a restricting hand on her wrist. “You will work where you are. I prefer to keep such important objects close.”

She nodded, but wondered at this odd statement. Was he referring to the papers or…? She shook the distraction from her mind.

“Very well, Mr. Spears,” she responded. “I’ll get started right away then.”

As she began working on the top case file, William watched her for a moment, a ghost of a smile hidden in the corner of his mouth. He had made an exciting and completely unexpected discovery in this girl. 

Originally, he had become the girl’s senpai in the hope that he could break any similarities the girl had to her father’s undisciplined character. As it would seem, however, she had done a more than satisfactory job of that herself. Now, he was quite pleased with his choice of underling. She was talented, respectful, an expedient worker, and took her job very seriously. Better yet, he could keep her all to himself. Finally, someone he could work in peace with.