Kokumi_Shouka

There’s something off about Kokumi.

You wouldn’t know it to watch her work. Ever since Akame died, she's been the most experienced maid on staff, and she shows it; she services the room like a pro, effortlessly picking up fans amongst the regulars. Nor would you know it from talking to her: she’s perfectly pleasant to speak with, if ever-so-slightly haughty in a way that exudes the “popular, pretty, rich girl” aura. But manners and competency will only go so far at a place like Maru’s, where a maid needs to know their coworkers will have their back — and the others can’t help but feel that, if any of them were to find themselves sliding down someone’s throat, Kokumi would enjoy it.

It’s the little things. The subtle glint in her eye when Akame let her guard down after hours and waxed nostalgic about less fortunate maids gone by (until the day she herself became one). The way she always seems to be watching — but never helping — when the other maids get in trouble with a dangerous-looking customer. And, when those encounters do end badly, it’s how eagerly she runs to “calm down” the newly-stuffed guest while all the other maids pull back in terror, using a technique which — while undeniably effective — invariably seems to involve rubbing the still-squirming stomach bulge made by her former coworker.

She’ll deny it, of course, and she’s perfected her crocodile tears — enough so that even the more veteran maids sometimes wonder if their suspicions are unfounded. It’s only a coincidence, she'll insist, that getting put on a shift with her drastically reduces a maid’s life expectancy.

But is it also a coincidence, one wonders, that she needs to change her panties every time one of those poor maids gets gurgled away?