Earlier that day, Sato leaned back in his chair and sighed, taking off his glasses for a moment. He wasn’t disappointed with his results. They had been more difficult to obtain over time than he expected, but with his research skills and carefully set up experiments he had been able to observe her abilities. On average, she didn’t activate them much, perhaps once or twice a day that he saw. There was a chance it was more often, but he was reasonably certain it wasn’t more than four times a day. He had nearly written everything off because her eyes glowed so faintly. It was only when she was working in the dark that he even noticed. They were so faint he had thought for a moment, on the day of the storm, it was the reflection of a flashlight before he realized it wasn’t on yet. As for why this hadn’t been caught sooner, well, when something lucky happens no one is really looking in the face of the person causing it are they? From the times he caught it, he determined the glow lasted a total of 45 seconds on average. If she was frustrated and rubbing her eyes, you would easily miss it. This was also when it happens the most often, a possible trigger for her.

Now he had to do the part he hadn’t thought about. Over the time in the apartment he had started to realize how much she had lost, from her point of view, because of the ‘mislabeling’. Once he saw that, he looked to the security footage from when she first arrived. Sure enough, the eye glow matched the time of the first phone call canceling Mr. Collins meetings. This led to one of his bigger questions, why did her luck fail so soon after? Luck users only had to worry about natural fallout from a lucky event, but in her case it failed so hard that it was as if she had not used her abilities at all.

He had paid attention and noted every time the eye glow occurred. Sure enough a pattern emerged. Eye glow, event happened, then an opposite event happens. He had originally listed as good luck then bad luck until the day she was in line with him and she was convinced the beef looked off. Sure enough, she became quite ill and went home early… along with everyone else who ate from that tray in the cafeteria. Apparently on the way home, she found a small scratch off that was unused. She had Blake scratch it off since she was concerned about using it. Blake told Sato how she was terrified of being arrested because of this. They found out it was a winner for $50, enough to cover her co pay to the doctor. As a result Blake promised to cash it if she let him pay for the visit.

It was just like a pendulum. This was very odd for luck based, but not impossible. She was a first generation obviously, so her abilities weren’t that strong yet. So it was quite possible it only did minor things and she had no proper control over it. The sad truth was she might never get control over it, and he’d need to convince her to take the needed medications. Sato had already looked over the paperwork Greer had freely given him, about 65% of the report matched the pattern. He figured a margin of error of maybe 5% either way. That was still more than enough proof, and meant that the agent sent was technically in the right for determining her eligibility.

So, the big question was length of time. How long could she keep up a lucky trend without it falling on her. What happened at her job, after researching it, he found did not make sense if she had been using it that long. She would have gotten more than a simply threat and a forced dismissal. No, if she had really done that, somehow police would have been involved, possibly bodily injury. Instead, she was simply told to leave after someone, who he found one was one of the major report submitters, had their car wrecked with no injury to them. He needed more data points.

Thankfully Greer had given him permission to contact her parents about this matter. She had done so hoping he’d prove her right. It was a shame he wasn’t doing that, but perhaps if he dug more there might be something that could cause her comfort.

An older gentleman’s voice came on- gruff from years of smoking it sounded. “Smith Family Garage, no dent too small. Can I help you?”

Sato cleared his throat. “Ah yes, this is Dr Holmes from Powers-“

The man quickly interrupted. “She got a meeting with y’all?! That’s great! It got all cleared up then?”

Sato sighed. “No… we are currently investigating her powers after a dismissal from her prior job.”

There was a pause before the man, full of joy in his voice a moment ago spoke up more softly, carefully. “L-look… whatever happened… I don’t think she MEANT to… ya know? She…. She needs a job… can’t y'all.. maybe… look the other way or something? She’s a good girl…”

Sato had made note Greer had not even attempted to contact her family since she arrived. Obviously, she had some sort of falling out here with her family. She had mentioned they signed the release paperwork without talking to her at all, but not much else.

Instead of giving him false hope, he simply kept his voice calm and even. “Sir I cannot break the law for your daughter, but right now it’s just an investigation. I noticed your view on these reports was not mentioned so I wished to simply gain your viewpoint on the matter.”

The man sounded a little relieved about that. “Uh yeah sure no problem… but um… if I sign anything again can I have a lawyer? That agent just had us sign everything so quick. We didn’t realize what we were signing…” he trailed off, a hint of guilt in his voice.

Sato sighed and began the long conversation. Part of him wished he could smack that agent in the back of the head. Sadly, they had since retired.

When it was all done, the father had not really gleaned anything useful, other than a few additional details. Sato was about to give up when. “Really, Dr. Holmes… The town grew a lot as my daughter grew up. I think the folks my age just didn’t really notice and didn’t realize that was why my business kept growing. More people… more clients. Not to mention we got 2 new main roads that lead right into the town for folks traveling, so if they had a tire problem or whatever they could stop by easy. ” His voice perked up a bit. “Really, sometimes I liked those quiet days. She’d be home and ask if I thought she could help or learn something on the dropped off cars and I’d see her eyes shining. Course I’d tell her until we had customers. The next day we’d be busy of course, natural flow of things. Get a slow day everyone shows up the next…”

Sato was paying attention now. “Did her eyes ever shine when you got business?”

Mr. Smith sounded a bit confused. “Well, no. She liked watching but she knew she wasn’t allowed out on the floor. You think her luck is triggered by hope or somethin’? I mean, we don’t get this power stuff a whole lot. We assumed when we signed that paperwork she’d be getting a teacher or something. It’s the main reason we signed it.”

Sato sighed again, he lost count of how many oversights he wanted to yell at someone about in the last few hours. “No sir. Normally the family trains or the person learns on their own.”

There was a pause. “That’s a load of bullshit.”

Sato found himself nodding along. “I couldn’t agree more but with luck powers particularly we wouldn’t be helpful. Thank you, I’ve gained some valuable insight. Good day to you.”

“Wait!” Sato paused. “Look, if you’re talking to her…. Tell…. Tell her I’m sorry… I’m sorry I told her to stay away until this was settled… that we still love her… we just…” he went quiet for a moment. “She was worried I think we’d kick her out and… wife and I thought maybe it’d be best… someplace where no one knew her. Ya know? Don’t think she took it that way… We helped set her up with a temporary job and then she found a new job so quick… she’s a talented girl… Just… tell her we’re sorry…”

“I will. Good day, Mr Smith.” He hung up. Well there was a data point for her own bad luck going to good. It would have been horrible for her to have gone through being abandoned by her parents.

He got a text from Dewi about then. Sato looked at his phone, wondering if it was yet another picture of the ‘money shrine’. Instead it was a group text. It read:

‘Greer is asleep, leave her be. She’s being a pain but I found out she can’t go home for some reason. Got a mumble about her parents not letting her. Also, she ate the officiate and had to marry Mr. Pepper and Mrs. Salt. The honey moon may be doomed!’

Sato watched as a small conversation brewed up about taking down the ‘damn money shrine’ and to just stick it in her bag. After a moment he sent a message to Blake, asking him to simply distract Greer when she woke up with the gym and where the talisman was. A few moments later he called up his boyfriend.

“Luce… I think we need to talk about the money.”

Luce was annoyed and sounding a bit harsh. “The money thing? It’s her being a stubborn brat Shi-shi.”

Well he wasn’t too mad if he was calling him that name at least. “Luce… we need to just use the money for something else alright? We will be stressing her out soon enough as it is.”

“WHAT I can’t believe you are-“

“Luce, she can’t control her abilities and it looks like she DOES have them….”

That got Luce’s attention. “…ok… go over everything with me. Carefully.”