One of the 'employees' was doing a good job downstairs of taking up a vast amount of the rather battered couch, though there was no real intent to do so: Akemi's hair simply managed to take up the half that the maid-attired homunculus herself wasn't. In every other respect, however, the nearly emotionless girl seemed to be the picture of perfect elegance as she slowly read a book.

Of course, one look at the book itself ruined the illusion of a mature, elegant maid: the cartoonish image on the front was of a rather large pig sat in a comfy chair. Anyone fluent in English would be able to tell--both from the way the text was spaced inside, and reading the back cover--that the bodyguard was quite happily reading a children's book. On the table in front of her was another by the same author, resting atop the newest piece of clutter: today's newspaper.

Someone had taken the time to underline the weather forecast in red pen. Particularly the bit that mentioned a storm.