Raidou had clambered up a wall and walked across the ceiling. He crouched inverted, feet anchored to a wooden beam, prodding a board with the point of a kunai. Sodden sawdust sprinkled down over the floor below. “You’ve got dry-rot,” he said, as if he were making pleasant conversation. “Joists are still good, but everything else needs to be replaced. Might be able to save the nails.”

It looked a lot more like wet rot to Genma’s untrained eyes. “Everything? The whole entire floor?” Because that was going to be far more lumber than just the little patch job Genma’d anticipated. It’d eat up even the free rent in no time.

Watanuki-san looked pained, too. “It is an older building,” she said.

“At least this section.” Raidou indicated a broad area around the hole where the wood looked dark.

“We already have the lumber for that,” Watanuki said. “It’s stacked upstairs. “We knew that needed replacing. But if it’s the rest of it, I just don’t know.”

Genma sighed. “Can you check the rest of it from there?” he called.

“I need light,” Raidou answered. “Do the electrics work?”

Watanuki took a few steps and flicked an industrial-looking switch on the wall. Electric lights flickered and came to life, bare bulbs shining in rows down every aisle.

Raidou started down one of the joists, walking a few upside-down paces, stopping to poke the boards at his feet with his kunai, and repeating. Watanuki went back to writing out the new lease.

There was a thump from overhead, and a crashing sound. “Watch out,” Ryouma called. Dust cascaded down through the hole, and a broken piece of tile followed it, shattering on the cement floor.

When Raidou got back with the immensely relieving news that the worst of the rot was all in that area near the front, Genma signed the new lease. He also promised they’d move the bolts below the hole out of harm’s way before they got started in earnest.

A few bows later, and Team Six was alone again. Two in the raging storm on the roof, two standing amongst stacks of silk cloth worth millions of ryou. Genma and Raidou shoved broken boards into a pile, moved the spoiled bolts to a corner outside Watanuki’s office, and tossed fresh canvas over the remaining inventory.

The electric lights flickered, dimmed, brightened, and settled. Genma gave them a dubious look. “Think water is getting on the wires?”

Raidou didn’t wait to see if it was a lightning strike on the transmission line or a short in the building; he snapped the switch off.

Thunder rattled the walls.

“Maybe it was just the storm. Lighting hit a power pole nearby.”

“Maybe,” Raidou said, without any conviction.

“You’re right. We should shut off the mains.” Genma sighed. “I don’t want my new apartment to burn down, too. Especially before I’ve even moved in. I think the fuse box is around back.”