Taming the Dragon: How Kyouya Met His Match

Kyouya, against every pillar he's ever stood up for, falls for a commoner with no heritage and a radical, free-spirited way of doing business. Here's the story of how. [Set after graduation, Kyouya/OC]

It all started at Stanford. It was that damned lecture – the lecture that changed Kyouya's life, for better or for worse (for better, as his wife likes to say).

It had been any old day in class at the Stanford Graduate School of Business - or so Kyouya had thought. He'd originally come to the university after his undergraduate stint at Harvard in Boston – Haruhi had completed her degree the year after and Kyouya left the East Coast as Tamaki's visits became more frequent. Best friends or not, it was still important to keep one's personal space, especially when one had a Japanese-Frenchman flying in every weekend to crash on Kyouya's couch, in order to visit his girlfriend.

In any event, Kyouya's studies in Asia-Pacific business led him westward, where he found himself the rising star at the Stanford Business Magazine. At the top of his class (naturally), he was destined for success. But he knew that – weren't his Ouran years played out in the same fashion? He continued networking and expanding his capabilities, knowing his father would notice.

However.

She happened. She was also looking over his shoulder just as he was typing this part of their story out – and she said to make sure Kyouya took proper account of their tale and removed his bias. Kyouya told her he'd try.

Anyway…

As mentioned before, that morning during his second year of business school was, as to be expected, business as usual. He knew precisely that his business model course was having yet another prolific guest lecturer today: a certain venture capitalist from the Silicon Valley, who'd had a hand in all the leading search, social network, and technology companies at the top of the pyramid today. He had been expecting middle-aged, brown-haired man.

The minute before the class began should have alerted Kyouya. Usually, with guest lecturers, the resident professor and his visiting colleagues would already be situated in the front of the lecture hall, conversing with each other and catching up. And knowing the professor, this was always at least five minutes before lecture really began – precisely why Kyouya always showed up 10 minutes early.

One couldn't miss a networking opportunity, right?

But today, the lecture hall was virtually empty, save for a few of his like-minded but far subordinate classmates.

Three minutes passed after the official class start time.

Kyouya glanced down at his watch. No, the time was right – but the lecturer wasn't.

And then the door banged open, with a breathless, bright-eyed twenty-something running in. He scoffed. A student he'd never seen had the nerve to come late to a class she'd never shown up in before? Well, she certainly picked the right day to do it. There wasn't a lecture anyway….

Kyouya's critical thoughts petered off as he saw the girl pull out a slim, top-of-the-line laptop and put it on top of the lecture podium.

"Sorry I'm late!" chirped the brunette, obviously-half-Asian woman. She seemed to be about 5 foot 8, lean from fitness and presumably the Californian organic diet, and had long (almost unkempt) wavy hair. She was wearing somewhat respectable clothing – khaki capris and a relaxed blouse with the sleeves rolled up – but she was also wearing flip-flops. "I know you were expecting a big fancy venture capitalist, but I was called this morning by your professor to give an emergency lecture! Turns out the other guy had an emergency flight out to New York last night."

The lecture hall stayed silent. This was partially because they knew who she was, and partially because they couldn't be sure until she introduced herself.

The girl swept the lecture hall with her eyes. She was obviously very energetic and bright – but perhaps not so much! It took her a few minutes before she blinked, surprised, and laughed. "Oh! Sorry. I don't suppose I've introduced myself yet." She grinned, jumping down from the lecture hall's stage and sitting on the edge of it, to be closer to the students. "I'm Alex Mirai Tomoya, short for Alexandra" (she pulled a face) "and I'm founder and CEO of DataBank – I'm here today as your guest lecturer because today's topic is on Successful Startups: Recipe for Riches, right?"

Her audience nodded.

"Cool! Let's get started, then."

Kyouya pursed his lips, then like a diligent student, he began taking notes.

Much to his disdain, this Alex girl was a visionary. She'd seen the need for a bridge between corporations and consumers where others had tried and failed – DataBank was essentially an encryption service that served two ends of the client spectrum: B2B and B2C. It served as a secure digital highway for consumer information – even hi-risk information like bank account numbers, passport information, and permanent address histories – to be given to companies without any identifiers that would jeopardize the consumer. It gave the companies the information they needed to make informed marketing strategies, but also gave consumers a single platform for them to upload their information. The encryption was military-grade, as far as anyone knew, and was in the talks of being used on a large-scale overseas.

It made absolutely no sense – this overly casual girl couldn't be more than 25 (Kyouya's age), and yet she now sat atop the digital privacy throne. Kyouya took great notes, but also seethed through the whole lecture. It was impossible, and he was damned if he didn't get to the bottom of this.

"Bye! Yeah, thanks for being a great participant! No, I totally welcome questions. Oh, unfortunately I can't give you my personal email thanks to the weird stuff that comes with sudden success, but you can call my office and have a chat!" Alex wrapped up questions, interacting with each student on their way out the door.

One student lingered. As she turned to pack up her things, she noticed Kyouya standing before her. "Oh! Hi," she grinned, extending a hand. "Kyouya, right?"

Kyouya was briefly stunned – how had she known who we was? Wait, no. He had begun to gain popularity in Japan as the new "economic prince" – one who the business media was clamoring to take over the Ootori throne. His brothers now felt the pressure he'd always had to deal with. The heir apparent to Ootori power was now no longer apparent.

So, he simply smiled and shook her hand. "Correct. I'm delighted to meet you; it was certainly an interesting lecture."

"I'm glad you think so!" Alex heaved a sigh of relief. "You know, business school attracts so many people who've been in the workforce for a few years, so it was really great to see a friendly, younger face in the audience!" She paused, as if to collect her thoughts. "You're Harvard 2012, right? I'm Cambridge 2011! Same year."

Kyouya hid his surprise. He'd read about her in the papers (vaguely – he'd initially dismissed her as a one-hit-wonder, but after her lecture it seemed that DataBank had even greater potential than it currently showed) but never imagined her to be around same age as him – and lecturing about business strategy.

"Oh?" He said. So she was older than him. Perhaps the one year was her advantage – damn him for being born one year too late! "You're 26? Rather impressive portfolio for someone so young."

Alex simply laughed. "Nope! I'm 24! I took some easy credits at the local community college while I was still in high school – then my IB credits transferred over. So I started at Cambridge a year early – and once I started figuring out a project that became DataBank, I was so inspired that I took more classes over the summer so to graduate in 3 years. I guess that…" she frowned a little, doing the math. "…that makes it two years? Since I compiled the founding team of programmers? Yup, two years."

Kyouya smiled wanly. She was the impossible girl. How could she have done all that? She'd briefly mentioned that her degree was in something flippant, like Philosophy, and that she grew up in a middle-class, suburban family. "What a great story. And a great lecture!" He did his best to keep his elegant poise.

Oddly enough, Alex rolled her eyes at him. "Sure, whatever. But tell me about you! I mean, your story's amazing. You're up in the running to inherit your family's giant business, right? I know enough about Japanese culture to know that's an impressive mark for a third son, even though I'm third-generation American-born. You're all over Japanese papers!"

Kyouya raised his eyebrows. "Am I? I'm curious – how did you find out about me? You seem to know quite a lot."

A nervous giggle left Alex's lips. "I don't think that's important… but suffice it to say, you're gaining a lot of public support from the biz world. Congrats!" She smiled.

"Is that so? How interesting. At any rate, I came up to ask you more about your rise to success at such a young age. I'm assuming you know the layout of Stanford's campus – walk with me to the café?" Right now, Alex was a big variable. A big mess, thrown into his life. She unsettled him in a way that made Kyouya uncomfortable – how could she be so successful already? In fewer years than he – he hadn't even achieved his summit yet!

And whenever Kyouya became conscious of a threat, of the unknown…. Well, it was his mission to find out more. Knowledge was key to his triumph – and he needed to know more about here.

Was she an asset? A foe to be defeated? He stole a glance at her out of the corner of his eye as they walked along the gorgeous paths. At her height, she certainly was a formidable opponent. DataBank's potential wasn't a threat to the Ootori Group – but it was highly likely that an early deal would benefit their healthcare data supply immensely.

He had always loved a good challenge – but this time, he began to be unsure that he'd come out on top.

Who was Alex Tomoya? For Kyouya, she was a complete and utter mystery.