The next few houses were rather the same as the first three. The Iniri girl went in, physically inspected everyone, and took the girls she deemed suitable. Leaving the others behind. They were on the third to last house of the block when something new came up.

Kiru had settled on the floor. The household this time was a mother and her two daughters. Who were at the moment standing nude in front of the Iniri girl as she physically inspected their bodies. After a moment she stepped back, her face held a look of utter disappointment.

With a sigh she said, “I guess a little bad has to balance the good. It’s not often that I encounter a household where no one is suitable either.”

Kiru almost said something in reply to that. Instead she held her tongue. After a moment the Iniri girl said to the courier, “go fetch my terminal. I have a couple of calls to make.”

The courier nodded and ran off. As she left, the Iniri, seeming a bit sad, headed over to the sofa and sat down on it heavily. “Personally I hate it when this happens. Especially in a neighborhood, we have already selected. Unfortunately, we can’t let them stay here. They aren’t suitable. I’m going to have to arrange for them to be moved. Hopefully, we have an alternative available.”

This bit seemed interesting. Something about the neighborhood, and selected. Hopefully, she would shed more light as it might explain something more. Although she could infer that whatever she meant by selected likely plays into why they were inspecting every house on the block. From the sound of it they might be doing more than just this street. Perhaps the suburbs required more attention than they previously thought.

The courier came back with the terminal, and the Iniri girl quickly took it, and made a call. Another Iniri appeared on the screen seconds later. The first quickly relayed a few details, and then said, “I am afraid the residents here are completely unsuitable at the moment. That might change at a later date, but likely not before this neighborhood is ready. We will need to move the household.”

“Got that. Go ahead and start instructing them. I’ll start things moving here, and we can get them moving before the week is out.”

“Ah, so we have an alternate available right now!?”

The second Iniri nodded, “Yep. We do have an alternate available right now.”

“Great. You do that. I’ll get them started on preparing for a move. Then I will work on preparing an account for them.”

With that they closed the call, and she turned to the group barking instructions. They were not the normal ones. They were being instructed to prepare for a move. Leaving only what they absolutely need unpacked. Once that was done she sighed, “Now to make another account. At least I don’t have to arrange for the second truck to move them out.”

She turned back to her terminal, and started working. Once again she was clearly setting up another bank account. Kiru suspected that they were going to have her consolidate her accounts into one they control just like at the other house. It seemed to be something they eventually do with everyone. Moving them out seems to be another reason for them to speed that up apparently. Not that she was sure why they were doing it.

The process went much like last time, with several calls involved. However the girls were still packing when the Iniri stretched, having finally finished with setting up the move for them. She then made one last call before having her courier write out the new account stuff, and information. Turning to the head of the household she then relayed further instructions.

The instructions were mostly related to consolidating their accounts. Then once she was done with that. She told them, “Movers will be by in a couple of days to move your stuff to temporary storage. A courier will also arrive around then to purchase your place from you. Do not negotiate with her, simply sign the purchase agreement. We want you ready to move by the end of the week, a courier will be by to pick you up around then. She will take you to your new place.”

With that the Iniri girl headed for the door, and the courier followed. Naturally, they took nothing with them. Once outside the courier was sent to the next door, and knocked. After a moment a young woman answered. That house ended up going much like the others without anything interesting happening, and so did the next. Nothing else interesting happened until the end of the inspection.

Kiru stretched as they left the last house on the block. It was about time for her to really go, but she had a feeling that the Iniri wasn’t going to stay much longer. Her truck was getting rather full, and the girls she had taken were now a little packed.

The Iniri girl stretched, “Well that is the last house for the day. I’ll be back here tomorrow for the next block. If you decide to show up for that as well, maybe you will actually talk with me? It was nice having some company, but I wish you weren’t so shy. Well, I wish you a safe trip back to the city.”

With that she headed for the truck, and the courier helped her into her seat. The courier then hopped in and the truck gently rose into the air. Heading back towards the city center. Kiru watched it go for a moment, and when it was out of sight she started jogging in the same direction it went. Although for her a light jog was the same as a normal Neku making a full sprint.

Kiru managed to make it back a little before her shift. She stopped by the apartment to change, and make a quick report. Her mind was mostly considering the implications of the inspection. She wasn’t sure if she should go back to keep an eye on the next block. Then again she still wasn’t entirely sure what they were up to with that neighborhood. What had it even been selected for? What was their goal? 

More questions rebounded around what criteria were they using for ‘suitable’ and how that led to being abducted. She wasn’t even sure why they were uprooting a whole household just because it was unsuitable. That seemed a bit much in her mind. Then again there was so much she didn’t know. Much of that mere observation wasn’t going to answer. She could make theories all she wanted, but it wasn’t going to answer her questions.

With a mind full of questions, she headed off for her shift. It wasn’t much of a job, merely waiting tables at one of the nicer restaurants in the area, and it was an easy walk from her apartment. Still it got her some credits to spend, and occasionally she overheard something interesting. Although usually nothing of particular interest. Well, nothing to do with Iniri actions in the city anyway. The locals didn’t really pay them any attention, and practically ignored anything they did. Although sometimes she did hear things that were interesting, and occasionally they got visitors from the strange clinic as they weren’t too far from it either. Unfortunately, those patrons rarely had something valuable to say. It didn’t help that they never remembered their appointments. Worse, they, much like she used to before Megumi undid her brainwashing, thought it was normal.

Kiru made it to her part-time work about five minutes before her shift was to begin. As was usual at the hour it wasn’t particularly busy, but that was going to change soon enough. It would get busier in a few minutes.

She simply reported to the boss, and then went right to work. It was easy enough work. Nothing that really occupied the mind, so she felt free to open a line to Megumi. Who responded after a moment.

After greetings and a question, Megumi said, “Yes I have read your report. Something on your mind about it?”

“Quite a few things actually. I’m not really sure how I feel about what I just watched happening in mass, nor do I really understand what they are doing at all.”

Megumi sighed, “Well we have a rather incomplete picture on that. It doesn’t help that at this stage all we can do is observe.”

“No, it doesn’t. That one Iniri said a few things, but without context I can’t really be sure what she meant.”

Megumi nodded, “Context is needed alright. I do have some good news. We’ve made some progress on creating an extraction route. I’ll let you know when it is ready. In the meantime you can start making plans to capture a live subject if you haven’t already.”

Kiru agreed that was good news. A live Iniri really would be invaluable. A successful interrogation would do much to shed light on what was happening in the city. There was no end to the new questions they had. It would be a major step in the right direction. Maybe then she would be able to actually do something about what the Iniri were up to. There were several questions they’ve had that observation simply had not been able to answer. The biggest and most obvious being where are all the men? Answering that one seemed important. Although the locals didn’t seem to be questioning the total lack of a male populace in the city. She had an idea of why. They even seem to have cleared out anything that would make the locals question where the men were as she had not seen any photos that featured them either, despite visiting multiple homes.

Then Kiru shifted the subject. “So what do you think is up with them displacing that family they deemed ‘unsuitable?”

Megumi sighed, “I’m not sure. I have a few ideas, but I need more information to know for certain.”

“That seems to always be the problem. Every time we answer one question ten more pop up and all we end up with is uncertainties.”

“Don’t be frustrated, we only just got here.”

“I know, but I want to actually do something and not just watch. It’s irking watching all these families get torn apart like that.”

“I understand, but honestly these Irini seem mild compared to some of the shit the Empire has dealt with in the past.”

That was about when things started getting busy, so she was forced to end that chat rather than continue. It was now the busiest part of her shift, and she got lost in orders and tables.

As the evening was coming to a close, and the bulk of the patrons had left Kiru found herself polishing a table by the entrance. There were only a handful of people left eating, and it would not be long before closing. She had made some good tips as well during the busy hour, and heard something that piqued her interest. It seemed a new ‘fertility’ clinic was opening on the north side of the city. A few of the patrons were discussing it. Trying to decide if they wanted to check it out or not. Remembering what happened to her, Kiru was wondering if it was really a fertility clinic, or something else. It seemed more likely to be something other than what the locals thought with some nefarious purpose to her.

Suddenly the entry door chimed. Someone was coming in. She didn’t glance at the door as it wasn’t her job to greet the patrons, but a moment later she was wishing she had. As she was suddenly caught quite off guard by a familiar voice. One that didn’t belong to any of her friends.