I tried the fixer-upper thing with that apartment on Zero Street. It wasn't a well-liked idea, but that may be because it was me.

Chiaki isn't quite successful enough to start giving away money, but she does seem to have a winning formula for rehabilitating underutilized property.





That works too. The point is to have it become self-sufficient so it doesn't drain money from other things.





And that's exactly the kind of thing Chiaki specializes in. She can usually get rid of the legal red tape in a day or two. She knows how to form a developer shell company, take over management of the properties, and probably even get tax breaks for it to boot. She learned a lot about, ironically, legitimate business, from working for Akiko.

But like I said before, the kind of help Jay would request would be limited by his desire to do things without any help. He might want to avoid asking Chiaki because it would feel like he's falling back on old habits and not really learning anything.

Then again, if he *tells* Chiaki he would rather do it himself but he's backed into a corner...she might teach him how instead of doing things herself.





It's going to be tough keeping the gangs out without help, though. Jay can't really be there and awake 24/7, and if he tries he'll burn out. Unless that's the point - he'll try at first, but then end up painted into a corner.





Chiaki would be the better kind of help, then. Klein has nothing at all to threaten her with - and if she tries, Chiaki is clever enough to fax every reporter in GMY a transcript of how unfriendly the mayor is to real estate investors.