Day 91:
7:00 am
Kichi walked in with a sweep of nostalgia. The doors were still unlocked and she took the elevator up. After making sure the maintenance people fixed the lettering on the door, she recleaned the desk black to its onyx gleam, resynched her laptop and pulled up the progress reports of the time that she wasn't there. Her model was thrown off, unhappy and the company was out of sync with the trajectory it had been on.
"How could they do so much damage in 3 days?" She asked almost breathlessly. She peaked over the edge of the desk to see a stack of papers that needed to be reviewed and dealt with. Oh dear.
"Why have you done this to yourself, Rasei?" She asked softly reaching over the edge to lift the stack of paper onto her desk just as the door opened.
Seto Kaiba had never been one to hope, or to have hope. But what he did do was wish and he wished more than anything that Kichi was sitting in the desk in front of his office and maybe just maybe his wreck of a company could be brought back from dying completely.
What he saw was her bending over the edge of the desk to retrieve the stack of papers in the inaccessible part of the room. The sleek black skirt she wore rode up just a little bit to give a peak at toned, well defined, stocking covered thighs. He almost drooled but then she was standing up straight with the papers in her hands and her hair settled back around her shoulders. She looked over at him with that polite smile she always wore before taking a seat and settling the papers on her desk.
"Good morning, Mr. Kaiba."
He swallowed, "You're here early."
"I figured I'd have to get a head start to catch up. A lot happens in three days time."
Inwardly he winced but he marched to his office door and slipped inside without another word. Damnit.
By nine o'clock she was knocking on his door and walking in with another stack of papers for him to sign, but he was fading off with a burning joint in his hand and her eyes narrowed with understanding. A drug addiction would explain the sudden downturn of the company and his appearance. For such a tall man, he was skinny. Much skinnier than she remembered seeing him on TV years ago, she guessed that his spiral down had taken Mokuba with him because they were both very skinny, emaciated even though Kaiba had the advantage of the muscle ready to burn in lieu of food.
"I have these for you to sign," she said before turning to leave the office.
"A pen-"
"In your drawer, sir."
She closed the door behind her as he noticed the Kaiba Corp. seal standing proudly and shinning on his desk. When he opened his drawer, the small case of executive looking pens were there and he could have smiled. She really did have a way with making his life easier, less stressful. Then again, so did a good mix of angel dust and weed.
I'm hungry...
"Alright people, as you all know I am back as your secretary and today we're going to create a Marketing department."
They all regarded her more as a Vice President or Assistant C.E.O. but who cared about titles?
"We're going to start with the people that have artistic and marketing experience. We need you all on the streets looking for what the next big thing. "
She opened her file and read off a list of names, "The people on this list have been drafted for the Marketing positions."
There were only four of them. After they were called up, she had them sit aside as she gave the update to the group. Rei was still in charge of taking care of the auditing call and then she set them up in another section of the seventh floor where the computer were up to date with the latest word processing and graphic programs. She could only hope they knew what they were doing.
"What! A drug addiction!?" Rei cried out.
The staff cafeteria was well versed in Rei's outbursts and payed no heed to Kichi's relief. The last thing she needed was for this to get out amongst employees. Not so much that she was worried about them telling anyone else, but they didn't employees dealing to their boss within corporate walls. Of course Kichi was a little shocked at Rei's outburst. How could they not know? She'd been there for only a few months and almost immediately picked up on it, the episode earlier had only solidified it as a symptom of stress... Yet they had no idea?
"How could you two, the most competent workers, before I got here, not know this?"
Hikaru shrugged his shoulders at her question as if the answer was obvious, "Well, Sis', unlike you, we can only go in Kaiba's office when he calls us in. If we have something to give to him, we either give it to you, or we knock and wait for him to give us the okay to walk in. At what point would we have seen him finishing up a joint?"
"You didn't smell it on his clothes? Notice he was extremely skinny? He gets hungry and doesn't eat? How about the twitching?"
Hikaru shrugged. It was Kaiba corp, he'd twitch too if he owned it and had so many incompetent and otherwise insane people to help run the company. Hikaru always thought it was just stress. But now that she shared the information with him, he could see it. The smell of drugs lingered on everyone that lived in the city, but it had been somewat stronger on Seto's clothing.
"Still, a drug addiction." Rei pondered for a moment. "That would explain all of Kaiba's fits."
"Fits?" Kichi raised an eyebrow in curiosity. Rei sighed and leaned back in her seat.
The nightmares of secretary's gone past were swept aside to isolate the strange little occurrences surrounding and of Seto Kaiba. Now that she thought about it, she was beginning to wonder if Kaiba Corp was making her that insane that she couldn't recognize the signs of a drug addict. It might have been because he never followed the symptoms of just one drug.
"There were days when he'd kind of just stare out into space, even as we were giving presentation that he asked for then kind of wig out. He twitches a lot too and when he's kind of stressed he'll start scratching his neck."
"Are you telling me that Seto Kaiba is a 'I'll-suck-your-dick,' scratching for no reason drug addict?"
Hikaru winced, "I don't know about that but I think so. Though I'm sure he had enough money not to resort to sucking for drugs."
"Let's hope," Rei muttered. "I'd like him to be straight enough to get with Kichi, and still sane enough to redeem."
Kichi blinked and hoped she'd misheard Rei. She didn't bother to ask the any questions as she opened her Kaiba Corp handbook. There had to be a clause about the C.E.O.'s health or something? When she found it, she was almost positive that either his mother or Mokuba placed the paragraph under her jurisdiction.
"Rasei," he called. "I'm leaving the building for a moment. Try not to let them blow it up in my absence. I'm sure you're competent enough for that."
He left before she could say anything and she grinned.
"I can't believe you let that slide."
"I haven't," she said standing. "Come on. Set someone on alert. Tell them to let me know the second he gets back? Rei come with me."
For some reason she didn't like how this was going. The first order of business was to set up cameras around the office to keep an eye on him.
"So tell me Rei," Kichi turned to her with a serious look on her face. "You said that Kaiba would wig out sometimes right?"
Rei shuddered at that comment as the memories started flooding back.
"Yeah he would just burst out of his office in a rage and start breaking stuff."
"Half the stuff that was broken when you got here, that was all Kaiba."
Kichi shook her head at this news."Did anyone try to at least calm him down, or sedate him?"
"Well two people tried to stop him..." Rei looked off to the side, avoiding eye contact.
"So,what happened?"
"They were hospitalized."
"Well that doesn't sound so-"
"They got out last week, this happened 5 months ago."
A sigh escaped Kichi's lips. She knew Kaiba was a problem, but this was not what was expected.
"The cops were not called because~?"Rei started to laugh, but stopped when she saw Kichi's expression."Kichi money talks big here and it says 'Kaiba is the big guy in charge, and anyone who tries to stop him is guaranteed to disappear, and fast with no questions asked'"
"The way I see it the only police officer I know that doesn't give two shits about Kaiba's money or his threats is your uncle Kirou."
Kichi nodded in agreement."That is true."
Rei then crossed her arms and closed her eyes deep in thought."It's really a shame though. If Kaiba was arrested for a blow out while hyped on drugs,he might get put into rehab or therapy. While Mokuba could stay with someone and get cared for properly..."
All of a sudden a light went off in Kichi's head. It was perfect, if she could be any more brilliant, she'd be afraid for the world. What better way to scare Kaiba into straightening up than taking what he cares for most as hostage? As soon as she was sure that they'd removed every drug and questionable substance from the office, she set them on fire and called up her uncle Kirou.
"Every time you call me, there's a good reason. What's up?"
She grinned, "Hey Uncle Kirou...I'm going to run a scenario by you and see what you think."
He sighed a little, sat back in his chair, and poured himself a shot. Choking it back and relaxing into his chair, he asked his commander to come in, the father of her Uncle Yuuji, and told her to begin. After she was done, Reign, Kirou's commander, laughed and Kirou couldn't help but laugh as well. She was a devious thing wasn't she?
"Is that all you ask of us?"
"Of course, keep it quiet, it doesn't have to be too flashy. Just enough to scare the crap out of him."
"We'll swing by tomorrow."
Rei didn't like the idea of it as Kaiba came back smelling of blueberry smoke and looking a little more delirious than usual. He marched up to the elevator and Kichi only smiled at him as he walked in and into his deodorized office. She left a few moments later as she heard his drawers open. She had things to take care of and while he was riding out his high, she would be sure to have him sign everything she needed him to sign.
"Mr. Kaiba?" She called, knocking on the door.
"Come in," he rasped and she opened the door with another rolling stack of papers to sign and for him to look over.
"Here are the documents that we need to you look over. Advertisements, the Marketing sections that sort of thing."
He nodded and she turned to leave.
"Wait," he said and she turned.
He beckoned her to sit down in the chair across from him as he started with the first pages on the stack.
"We have a marketing department?" He asked.
"We do now."
He frowned at the list of names, "Henning? Calloway? Satsuki? Are you trying to make a fool of me?"
She smiled, "Despite their less than perfect performance in the accounting division, they have a talent for marketing and advertisement. Their drawing up a new commercial as we speak-"
"What was wrong with our old ones?"
She held onto the smile to keep from laughing, "No offense, but they were terrible. They stopped running after the first run. The promotional posters are terrible and no one even attends the promotions because they are...for lack of a better word...bloody 'orrible."
He raised an eyebrow at her and continued to look through the portfolio.
"And you think those three can do a better job?"
"Actually, they've already done a better job-"
There was a beeping from her watch and she looked down, excusing herself from the conversation for just a moment as Katherine Henning's voice came through the tiny speaker.
"Ms. Rasei?"
"Yes, is there something wrong?"
"No, actually we've finished the first draft of the poster you asked for and we're wondering if you could come down and take a look."
Seto looked at her as if she was crazy. At what point did his staff start reporting to Kichi and not to him?
"We'll be down as soon as we can."
"We?" She asked timidly.
"Mr. Kaiba and I of course."
"O-oh...okay."
The call disconnected and he scoffed, "I bet she's terrified that she really will lose her job this time. They were all incompetent after all."
Kichi shook her head, "I think they were in the wrong department, but I suppose we should go down and take a look. You to approve and me to calm the nerves."
He glared at her but stood nonetheless. If he could have a chance at proving her wrong, then he'd take it. He followed her out and down the elevator to the floor that used to be all marketing and advertisements. He'd only been to the ninth floor once in his entire time...and that was to fire the entire floor.
"Ms. Rasei, over here."
They turned towards the circle of light and the three people looking cheerfully at Kichi who was the first to see the poster and marker stained hands of the trio.
"Wow," she grinned. "I didn't expect it to be so good in such a short amount of time."
He was not one to compliment but even he had to admit that this poster was much more epic, even if it was marker-ed in and still showed the signs of tedious planning with guiding marks and pencil marks, than any that proceeded it. He looked at Kichi was was asking Katherine and Hiro Satuki a few question about the color choice while John Calloway dug for another colored pencil and got ready to take notes of Kichi's critique.
He registered that she was talking about darkening something and lightening something else but the world was swimming and he was sure it was just the fact that he was coming down off his high.
"...think, ?"
He looked at her dazedly, "What?"
"I asked what did you think? About darkening the background so the foreground looks closer?"
"Yeah...sure, I guess."
To tell the truth he was fairly color-don't give a damn. He wasn't an artsy person, he could draw but he learned it as a science of replication instead of expression. Kichi had taken up a pencil to sketch a miniature version and highlighted the points she spoke about.
"I'll find a graphic designer and see if we can get you all started on the commercials. In the meantime, good work and get some people up here to straighten up the floor. "
"It's fine, we can do it." John said, "I'm a graphic designer in another life."
She nodded remembering the stint in game design on his dossier.
"I meant one of the system's designers to help set up the graphic interface over there."
Kaiba left as she finished up and came out, "Well?"
"Keep them, it seems like they actually have a clue when given a paintbrush instead of a computer mouse."
She smiled a little smugly at his tone. He was impressed, even if he didn't realize it yet. She set Hikaru up to help them out and got a 30 second preview of the new commercial before she clocked out. It paid to tap into people's creativity sometimes.
