CHAPTER FIVE(D)
White Team Fight!
.
D.
This is Kaoru, Mitsukuni, Kyouya.
The White Team.
Observant, calculating, patient, manipulative.
Masters of psychological tactics.
Contradictions in terms.
"Hello, Kaoru-san," Hacker-san's voice greets him amidst the crunch of ajitsuke-nori, eyes glued to the huge ass screen.
Kaoru pauses at the entrance of her apartment on this fine Wednesday after school, and stares.
An unknown contraption that resembles a short, tiny table with arms rolls by insouciantly.
He is silent for so long that she turns to investigate.
"Ah, you can sit there, Kaoru-san." She points to a plush armchair raised on a dais. "From there you will be able to see everything in the room. Sorry, it's still messy; please watch your step."
He makes an odd, choking sound that's somewhere between incredulity and horrified amusement.
About a week ago, he'd installed Hacker-san in this apartment along with two cheques: one for her salary for the first three months in advance for her to get herself settled in, as well as another to fix a budget for her to build their base of operations. At first she had been suspicious about it and tried to look for the catch, then as she began to construct her paradise in her head she became more and more rapturous about it, to the point where a silly cloud-nine grin is perpetually stuck on her face.
Their headquarters is also Hacker-san's new living space – during her employment with Kaoru's father, she had provided her real address and owing to her corporate theft, that flat had been seized to 'repay' the company. The top floor of the apartment is hers and the bottom floor is theirs.
This is the result: a wide expanse without dividing walls, save for the walls of the bathroom. Thick, western-style carpeting rather than tatami mats. Ample adjustable lighting to reduce eye strain. Three flat-screen high-definition plasma TVs mounted side-by-side with a good distance apart, each attached to a game console (PS3, Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii) with a complete surround sound home theatre. A projector hanging from the ceiling. There is a mini studio that is obviously meant for him – a large worktable, empty bookshelves and a computer with 2 monitor screens and a customised CPU with no casing, revealing its glorious intricate innards. This studio is bordered by the dais – Kaoru lowers himself into the armchair and is promptly eaten up by the marshmallow-soft upholstery, yet it is curiously firm enough to support the spine.
Somewhat dazed, Kaoru studies the pièce de résistance situated beside his open-concept studio: a nine-screen behemoth that boggles his mind just to be in its shadow.
"Hot chocolate, Kaoru-san?" Hacker-san offers generously. The table with arms whizzes to him and holds out a mug.
Kaoru takes the commoners' beverage and sips it, still speechless.
Very enthusiastically, she says, "Doesn't it look awesome now? I made the workers do overtime to get most of it done so quickly! Do you think a snack bar will be useful? Work always makes me hungry – actually I wonder if we can get some daybeds too, Kaoru-san! We can put them against the – "
"Hacker-san," Kaoru interrupts, "where are the invoices?"
She fetches them, a clump of papers on the worktable. He peruses them, pleased to find that she keeps good records and that even though he had chosen not to expressly warn her against it just to give her some leeway, she'd had the integrity to use her own salary for her luxuries and her home.
"This is all?" Kaoru questions, only to find that she has vanished from his side to return to her PS3 game.
"Mmh," she mumbles distractedly as she picks the lock of a treasure chest to obtain a rune.
Uncertainly, Kaoru navigates around the various boxes scattered all over, peering into them to check out their contents – an obscene amount of gadgetry and hardware, sci-fi and fantasy books and movies, a shockingly large collection of graphic novels and manga, and an entire library of games.
With a droning hum, the table machine puts his mug on a stand with a tealight contained within in order to keep the beverage warm. Gingerly, Kaoru nudges the device with his toe.
"What is this thing?"
Hacker-san briefly glances at him. "It's my PAIS-LE bot."
"Paisley?"
"Personalised Artificial Intelligence Service dash Learned Efficiency. I designed the software for it as a pet project while I was working for Kaoru-san's father, but unfortunately poor PAIS-LE kind of sucks because I don't have the expert engineering skills to integrate my software into a proper mechanical household aide. I'm still tinkering with it."
"In other words, it does your chores for you? And I thought you couldn't get more sedentary, Hacker-san."
"Necessity is the mother of invention, Kaoru-san. The visual and voice recognition software I was creating for Kaoru-san's father was so good, I had to trial it in other fields. Version 1 of PAIS bots was rejected by that company anyway – they said it was an irrelevant invention. Kaoru-san can try ordering it to do something – it recognises your voice."
Kaoru bends over to poke at PAIS-LE. "What's Version 1? PAIS-LE, bring me my hot chocolate!"
"Dubbed 'Obtained Efficiency' post-mortem. That was a mistake because all the knowledge and commands had to be directly programmed into the bot, hence, 'obtained' from humans and it was very inflexible. 'Learned efficiency' operates more like children growing up – it tracks the instructions it is given and builds its database of knowledge from that, which means that it becomes more efficient with each repetition of the same task. For example, the first time Kaoru-san asks it to make tea, you have to stand beside it and guide it step-by-step – that is the equivalent of inputting your instructions. The next time, it will recall the information from its database when it hears Kaoru-san's voice, therefore Kaoru-san and I can issue the same set of instructions, "Make tea!" but it will make two different types of tea according to how we like it."
PAIS-LE retrieves the mug, scans the room for his location and zooms to him. Kaoru laughs in delight. "How is this irrelevant?! If I have my own PAIS-LE unit, I can teach it to assist me in the atelier!"
"To be frank, the prototypal PAIS model was awful," admits Hacker-san. "But who's a good bot now, who's a good bot?"
Kaoru watches as she coos over her mechanical pet. "Your seclusion is making you nutty as fruitcake, isn't it, Hacker-san? Wait, you were like that from the start. Please don't labour under any assumptions that I am imprisoning you here – I encourage you to go out once in a while."
"You said, 'be on call 24/7' but what do you expect me to do when you don't have tasks for me? I'm a programmer, I live to create programs! Ars longa, vita brevis, Kaoru-san."
"Experimentum periculosum, Hacker-san," he ripostes.
She actually laughs, a creaky, cawing noise. "Excellent, Kaoru-san! Not to worry, I've resisted dismantling the hardware I bought with your money. In this house, that includes the TVs and some of the furniture – we agreed on that cutting-edge computer together, remember? The consoles and your computer are mine, so they're fair game."
Sure enough, when Kaoru examines 'his' computer closely, he notes that the keys on the keyboard have the sheen of prolonged use, though it appears remarkably well-cared for. Hacker-san drops her controller and joins him, switching the computer on.
"It's not new but it's really fast and the image resolution is very high," Hacker-san says hesitantly, loading the movie trailer of Inception to substantiate her claims. "If you don't mind using it, I can help you to fix up your graphics tablet. You use Wacom, right? Intuos or Cintiq?"
The resolution is, in fact, professional-grade and better than the one he has in the atelier at home, though he doesn't tell her that.
"I don't mind." He smiles. "I have both."
She snorts, like she should have guessed.
"You managed to do all of the renovations and get all of these on the existing budget?"
Instantly upset, she glares at him. "Are you implying that I got them using the proceeds of shady activities?!"
"What? No!"
"You know I'm poor! Where else would the money come from if not you?!"
"Hacker-san, it was an innocent question, honestly," Kaoru says, attempting to pacify her. "I'm just amazed at how you've stretched the budget. Is this a commoner's innate skill?"
"Well, the snack bar and the daybeds would have broken the budget, that's why I haven't ordered them," she explains sullenly. "Like I said, quite a lot of the stuff here was already mine, and the worktable and bookshelves are actually yours, or don't you recognise them?"
"What?!" Kaoru snaps his head to the mentioned objects.
"They're from your – "
"I know where they're from! The question is how you stole them from the fourth study!"
"Huh? All calls made to this place are automatically recorded," she notifies him belatedly, gesturing to the phone on the floor and the whirring machine beside it. "I thought obocchamas like to use their own things, so I cut up pieces of your dialogue and pasted them together to order your servants to send some of your furniture to this address."
When he doesn't reply, she adds helpfully, "They delivered them while you were at your friend's house."
Kaoru takes a deep, calming breath. "Don't do anything like this again without informing me."
"It was meant to be a surprise!"
"Oh, I am surprised," Kaoru mutters.
"You said 'our headquarters'! I thought you'd like to have your own territory!"
He blinks at her.
Her fists are clenched in frustration, spots of colour dotting the apples of her cheeks. She's more cantankerous than usual today, and that's really saying something.
Right, of course. Kaoru resists the urge to smack his forehead. I'm an idiot.
She'd made a space for him, let him have her computer – probably her most precious thing –
"You're welcome, Hacker-san." He'd tried to restrain himself from sounding too compassionate, too understanding, but even to his ears he has not succeeded.
"Yeah, um, well." She looks away in embarrassment.
"Are we all set?" he continues, pretending not to notice.
She nods, starting to bubble with euphoria. "I love this place, Kaoru-san! Living in the heart of Akiba is my dream! And the house is massive! Enormous! I've never seen a house this big before, much less lived in one!"
Kaoru has to laugh. "Actually, I worried the house might have been a bit small."
"Small?! Small?!" she shrieks, nearly biting his head off. "A two-storey apartment in Akihabara?! All to myself without needing to pay rent?!"
"It's not a big deal," Kaoru says offhandedly. "My grandmother randomly bought it one day as an investment, and we hardly use it."
She goggles at him, lower jaw almost detaching from her face.
"I want to see how much work still needs to be done," Kaoru requests, heading up the stairs to view the rest of the house. "Otherwise, great job, Hacker-san. Did you leave some money for yourself to eat? Or did you go on a spree and spent it all on your technology fetish?"
"Spent it all," she answers, trudging along behind him. "Who needs to eat when you have Demon's Souls and Guild Wars?"
"That's why you're a walking skeleton, Kanon-san," Kaoru sasses, and she freezes.
"You!" she accuses furiously when she recovers. "You stalker! You don't trust me at all! I can't believe you hunted me to such a degree that you have to get my father involved!"
"What?!" Kaoru whirls around. "It was a complete coincidence! I wasn't stalking you! I was visiting with a friend! And you're one to talk about trust, Sadamoto Akemi of the fake identities and the false information!"
She gasps. "I trust you! How was I supposed to react when you were sitting beside my father like nothing could possibly be wrong?! Just because I don't want to give you my real name doesn't mean I will be disloyal!"
"It does," Kaoru counters flatly.
Hacker-san sucks in a breath to argue more, and Kaoru cuts her off. "It does mean you are that much more likely to be disloyal. In this case, it is less a reflection on your overall character and more a reflection of your fear. From that fear, you will run away or turn on me to protect yourself. It's not that you're treacherous, more that you're cowardly. Don't bother correcting me, I've been there, done that."
At a loss, she fumes silently.
"And because I've been that wounded coward before, I knew not to corner you or you'd feel threatened. Hacker-san, listen to me: I was as shocked as you were. Did you stop to consider that I had – have – reason to be afraid, especially since I found you in an Ootori hospital? If you happen to be one of Yuuichi-san's people, or maybe even Ootori-sama's underlings, do you know how much I stand to lose?"
"No!" she bursts out indignantly. "I'm not working for one of those Ootoris or any other person apart from you at this moment! That's not fair, Kaoru-san, why don't you think about it from my perspective?! Your family is so powerful while I'm basically alone in this world and I have only my skills to rely on if I need to escape! You, a Hitachiin, do you understand powerlessness? Does Kaoru-san know what it means to be only as good as what you can do, without connections and money and a hotshot name?!"
"No, I don't," Kaoru admits truthfully. "I am talented in design, but I have never had to rely on myself and myself alone. A year ago, I made the first commoner friend of my life and discovered that she used to hide under tables or inside cupboards by herself whenever there was a thunderstorm because she was afraid and there was no one there for her."
Hacker-san gazes at him evenly, a frown across her brow.
"So, no, Hacker-san, I can't understand fully as I've never experienced it. I used to think I knew what it was to be alone… until I realised that I've always had my twin brother, which is one more than what a lot of other people have. Now, I have a lot more than Hikaru in my life. I'm trying desperately to protect them, and I'm learning what powerlessness really feels like," he chuckles sadly. "Although I didn't know it then, the person who initially reached out to me and changed me was hurting inside, too – but that's why his priorities were exactly right. You see, he was reaching out to people so that everyone could stop being lonely, and that is what I'm trying to do for you, Hacker-san."
Her eyes are fixed on her makeshift pantry – a brown cardboard box resting on top of a low plastic stool that is filled with more ajitsuke-nori snacks. She swallows once, hard, and says nothing.
"I believe you?" Kaoru offers, heading back downstairs. "When you say you have no alliance with any Ootori, I believe you. I'm a very instinctual person, like my mother, and I can't put my finger on what makes me believe you, but I do. Perhaps because you're such a mess, Hacker-san."
"You are too!" she retorts defensively, without thinking.
He laughs and falls into his armchair. "No, it's not an insult; it's the reason I believe you! Because Ootoris cannot handle messes – they either have to clean it up or they avoid it zealously. There are some things I have to – actually, a lot of things I have to discuss with you: firstly, how are you paying your father's hospital – "
Abruptly, and all in a rush, she states, "My real full name is Iseya Kanon. I'm 23 years old and my birthday is on 9 January. I attended Ryuri Academy and went to Todai for my degree. The degree type is right but the transcript is faked – I graduated as the top-ranking graduate of my class with an almost perfect score but because of my looks and my hatred for public speaking, I was not the valedictorian speaker of my year, which made it even easier to cover my tracks. My mother was a horrible, criminal woman who abandoned my father and I when I was eleven; my father was a pool cleaner in several of the Ootoris' health spas and recreation centres until he developed this incurable disease; I have an onee-chan who takes after my mother while I take after my father; there is a significant age gap between me and her and I don't like talking about her because she left us too."
Slightly taken aback, Kaoru takes his time to process her words.
Hacker-san sighs and sinks to the carpet to wait, slouching ungracefully.
"… Ryuri Academy is privately owned and rather prestigious," Kaoru remarks.
"I told you my mother was a criminal," Hacker-san says. "Onee-chan followed right in her footsteps."
"They stole money?" Kaoru asks. "Were they the ones who paid for your education?"
She nods. "Only for Ryuri – I paid my way through Todai myself. They did more than steal money – Mum and onee-chan were so skilled at being professional thieves and burglars – they stole art, antiques, jewels… anything valuable, and occasionally they became employees in companies to embezzle large funds."
"What? That's cool!" Kaoru grins. "I had an onee-chan – well, not biological – who was a master thief, too! She was so totally cool! I looked up to her so much!"
"It is not cool!" snaps Hacker-san, stewing in turmoil. "Thieves are selfish people, Kaoru-san. Anyway, why would Kaoru-san like a thief? To a thief, Kaoru-san would be target number one!"
"Ah, yeah, heh heh… my onee-chan broke my heart."
Quietly, Hacker-san says, "So did mine."
They smile, feeling a great deal of affinity for each other.
"Where are they now, your mother and your onee-chan?"
Hacker-san's expression shutters close. "Dead."
"I'm sorry," Kaoru tells her.
"Don't be," she says emotionlessly. "My Mum died a long time ago and onee-chan had it coming. Last I heard, she stole too much and double-crossed the wrong sort of people – they caught up to her in Ukraine and killed her."
"I'm sorry," Kaoru repeats, mildly disturbed.
Hacker-san shakes her head dismissively. "Although my father's job didn't bring in as much money as my mother's and sister's activities, his work was decent and he's a good man and… I've still got him, so…"
"He worked for the Ootoris, huh? Interesting. I didn't think the Ootoris gave such good employee benefits – I thought Ootori Private would be out of your price range, especially with long-term stay. What's this disease?"
"No, no," she contradicts, "Ootori Group employees are only able to stay in the lowest level wards for a maximum of one week per year at subsidised rates if they need to be hospitalised. My father isn't even an employee anymore, but Ootori Medical is the leading authority on the disease that he suffers from and they have been trying to find a cure for it – when my father tendered his resignation, they invited him to join their research studies for Meoloitis-YPL, which would heavily discount his medical fees on the condition that we waive all of our rights."
"That's dangerous, Hacker-san!" Kaoru exclaims, appalled. "Essentially it means the doctors have zero liability and can experiment on your father however they like!"
"Win some, lose some, Kaoru-san," she smiles grimly. "Without treatment, my father wouldn't survive past a year and they know we know it. It's an acute form of Meoloitis that has progressed to the paralytic stage because the YPL virus has infected the central nervous system. Actually, it's almost a miracle already, the way the doctors have sustained my father in this relatively healthy state. That's why… that's why when Kaoru-san and I first met, remember that you asked me to track down Ootori Fuyumi? It made me want to help... I thought if I could find some Ootori family secrets, I could gain some leverage over them in case anything happens to my father."
"Oh!" he says, startled. "I see, I see!"
Slowly, he contemplates everything she has said, combining this new information with the questions he'd came here with.
"Okay… Yes, I do see," he says musingly. "Hacker-san, we have some very serious problems. I was worried that the Ootoris have power over someone so close to you – now it's worse, 'cos if they find out that you're with me, they can hold your father to ransom. Or, wait, we should start from the beginning – is there a possibility that they already know you're with me?"
She looks at him dubiously. "I joined Kaoru-san of my own free will."
"I think I hired you of my own free will, too, and I don't think you're a spy meant to infiltrate my ranks."
"It doesn't seem possible… If anyone intended for us to meet, this person would have to know the both of us equally well, Kaoru-san – not many people know me and I am close to no one but my father. Even if they held my father hostage, and even though I love my father, if it comes down to that, I would pick Kaoru-san. Probably. Ninety-nine percent. That's also why I didn't say anything to Kaoru-san."
"… We have to get rid of that habit of yours of not telling me things."
She splutters. "But! I thought that way before today! If Kaoru-san is a good employer, it's not logical to pick my dad over you and I, is it? My dad is old and dying and there's no cure whereas we are young and gifted! In that sort of situation, Kaoru-san, my father definitely knows me well enough to know which I would pick. It's honouring his wishes at the same time, you know – he just wants me to succeed."
Kaoru whistles. "That's cold."
"It's not, really," she says, opening a packet of ajitsuke-nori. "My father would gladly exchange his life for me to be happy. If he were put in a situation where he is being used against me to stop me from moving forward, he'd likely commit suicide the first chance he gets. Knowing that, why would I waste his sacrifice? Therefore, I already knew that if they threatened to stop his treatment to make me stop working with Kaoru-san, the single logical choice is to pick Kaoru-san. Any other option would result in a complete loss – no more Kaoru-san, no job and no more Dad."
"I get it," he agrees. "If I were terminally ill and someone tried to use me to prevent Hikaru from a bright future, I'd kill myself, too; but if Hikaru was the one who was sick, I don't know if I'll have the strength to pick my future over his life."
"Even if Hikaru-san was terminally ill? Even if all Hikaru-san would like is for Kaoru-san to succeed?" Hacker-san says knowingly. "My father and I have lived with this for years, long enough to be rational about it. Anyway, I prefer to make reasoned choices, Kaoru-san. When I make emotional choices I always regret them – like what I did to your father's company – I panicked badly when the hospital told me that they were going to raise the fees and I thought the specs plus my skills could help me get a higher-paid job somewhere else, and I was sick of my colleagues acting like they were better because they've been doing it longer… so, you see, thankfully I don't make those often."
Kaoru sniggers. "Uh huh. Right, first things first: Hacker-san, tell me things. I don't care if you think they're unimportant or if you've made up your mind – tell me. Maybe one day you'll be able to differentiate between the things that I need to be informed about and the things that I don't, but today is not the day."
"Hey! I can exercise my judgement!"
Kaoru gives her a dull look. "Nah."
"It's not like Kaoru-san has that much free time to – "
"I'll make the time for you," he interjects. "Two: since Hacker-san is sure, and on your current salary you can afford the higher fees, right? Then I guess we don't need to change your father's hospital. Three: I need proper documents from you this time and I can lock it up in the family safe if you're insecure about it – oh, this reminds me, how many languages do you know?"
"Eleven," she says. "I didn't lie about that, and I'm learning more each day!"
"Really." Kaoru arches an eyebrow.
She nods guilelessly.
"Which eleven?" he asks, still sceptical.
"Japanese, English, C, C#, C++, Python, Ruby on Rails, Lisp, Haskell, Java – "
"Stop!" Kaoru commands, rolling his eyes. "Actual human languages only!"
Blankly, she stares at him.
"Excluding programming languages," he sighs.
"Two. Japanese and English."
Kaoru buries his face in his hands and laughs.
"Fine," he wheezes. "Next: find out about Haninozuka Mitsukuni's shareholdings in foreign and local automotive companies. Start from Volkswagen AG – I don't know if he is operating under another name or if he is buying the shares through his parents or someone else."
"Got it."
"Four – no, Five: collect as much information on Princess Michelle of Monale as possible for me. Six: since you have a vested interest in the Ootoris, and also to consolidate your knowledge, see how much you can dig up about – "
"I already have, Kaoru-san."
Hacker-san rises to her feet to head over to a panel of buttons situated on the left arm of the desk that hosts her computer. When Kaoru attempts to tag along, she squawks excitedly, "Stay there, stay there!"
The projector flickers to life and displays a giant replica of her game on the wall that Kaoru's chair is facing.
"Ta-daa!"
"Wow. This makes me feel incredibly lazy," he drawls. "Is this how it feels like to be a boss? I could get used to it."
She gives him a dirty look, as he'd known she would. The impact is decreased by the pride that is oozing out of her. "And again, ta-daa!"
The game is swapped for the Inception video on YouTube.
Hacker-san lifts the panel from its groove in the table and brings it around to him, launching into teaching mode. "This is screen A. Kaoru-san's computer screens are recorded in the system as 'A' and 'B'. If Kaoru-san wants the projector to show both screens, you push button 'C', otherwise it will display only 'A' or 'B'."
Kaoru tests it out accordingly. "This must be your idea of heaven."
"It's useful!" she rambles on. "Suitable for group conferences! Ah, the numbered buttons are mine. The system reads my computer as '1', '2', '3' all the way up to '9'. To display all of my screens simultaneously, you press '10'. The coloured buttons are for the TV screens – red for PS3, yellow for Wii, blue for Xbox, green for all three. The small purple arrows control the volume; the white and black arrows are for the lights on the whole of this floor – white makes them brighter, black makes them dimmer."
"And so you decided to use your expensive, advanced equipment and technology to play games," he deadpans.
Pityingly, Hacker-san shakes her head. "Expensive equipment is to make and play games, Kaoru-san."
Kaoru snorts.
"Besides, the TVs have a purpose. I've hacked the broadcasters so we have cable TV and access to worldwide news channels. That way, we can watch any breaking news and find out about current affairs if we aren't fast enough to know about it before it happens."
"Great," he praises. "Meanwhile, I get to perch on a throne and supervise everything. How luxurious."
"Actually, it's so that Kaoru-san will not be annoying when I have to work. If you can see everything from there, you won't have to walk about or breathe down my neck," she rebuffs him dispassionately, walking back to her computer and running her hands along the edge of one of the nine screens, caressing it lovingly.
"You – it is like you pulled the rug out from under me."
Her eyes bug out. "That's – that's not what I – when I was working at Kaoru-san's father's company, the other people in the office wouldn't stop chatting and they always tried to peek at my work like they didn't think I could do it! I – I just need space, I'm not stopping Kaoru-san from moving around!"
"Yes, yes," he says. "Show me what you've got on the Ootoris."
She sits down and rapidly brings up a couple of files in a few clicks. Kaoru observes the screens she places the documents in and presses the corresponding buttons to read her research.
After ten minutes, he leans back, fingers tapping thoughtfully on his armrest.
"This is very well done," he says finally. "100% accuracy. Normally it is difficult enough to uncover substantial information about that family, much less get it right."
Hacker-san beams, displaying her crooked teeth.
"What do you think?" Kaoru turns to her.
"What 'what do I think'?" she replies, baffled.
"These are all facts or history. Our goal is to analyse their motivations and predict their movements. I'm on Kyouya-senpai's side, by now you should know this – his protection and progress is key. Have you extrapolated anything from these facts? Can we spot any weaknesses? What do they want?"
"How should I know?" Hacker-san asks sourly. "People want what they want."
"For example, there: the course of Akito-san's life is exactly identical to Yuuichi-san's. What does it mean to you?"
She thinks for several moments, then shrugs.
"Or, here: Kiyomi-san was originally engaged to marry someone else, and she broke it off to choose Yuuichi-san," he points. "What does that tell us about Kiyomi-san and Yuuichi-san?"
Hacker-san ponders over it… and shrugs. "That they fell in love?"
Amused, Kaoru frowns at her. "Hacker-san, you don't have much social awareness and interpersonal skill, do you?"
"Huh? You hired me for my technological genius! Why do I suddenly have to have EQ?!" she retorts, inordinately touchy – clearly a sore topic for her.
"Don't worry," he says soothingly, standing up. "I suspected I might have to find a Hotta for you."
From his schoolbag, he withdraws a folder and hands it to her. "This is one of two major things we have to discuss today – recruitment."
"Ugh," she partially stifles a groan. "What is a 'Hotta'? Ootori Kyouya's servant, that Hotta?"
"Yes. Someone who can interpret the facts that you gather – give it emotional context, cultural bases and social understanding."
Reluctantly, she flips through the papers. "Can't Kaoru-san be my Hotta? I thought Kaoru-san has high EQ."
He smiles. "Emotions are open to a range of interpretations, Hacker-san. I need someone to bounce off opinions with, and in an emergency I might need fully considered advice instead of filling in the gaps myself – it's easy to miss some critical dimensions under pressure."
Hacker-san closes the folder. "I could get the information to Kaoru-san in plenty of time."
"You can't guarantee that," he says. "It won't be terrible. It's lonely to work alone all the time."
"No it isn't," she insists. "I could… learn some social skill or… something."
"After twenty-three years? Come on, Hacker-san. Like you said, I hired you for a certain metiér – you don't have to do everything."
She switches her attention to the folder once more, radiating unwillingness.
"Is it because you don't want to share this house?" Kaoru asks dryly. "I'm sure other people have their own homes."
"I'll booby trap the staircase," she grouses.
"So, that's a list of some of the top psychologists and counsellors in the country. A few are doing very well for themselves, but others are earning a middling or average income despite their talent. I thought we could interview a handful of them that we both like – read their profiles and see if you have any preferences?"
She says nothing.
Kaoru suppresses a sigh. This is a classic illustration of how difficult prodigious people can be – his grandmother and his mother are like that, and many of the fashion designers who are at the pinnacle of their profession are way more diva than this, yet what can one –
Mentally berating himself, he says, "Hacker-san, if you don't work well with that person – whoever he or she is – then I drop that person, not you."
Hacker-san raises her head.
"Okay? I need a team – that's non-negotiable. You're part of it, they aren't; they have to fit you and not the other way round. I'm not going to kick you out of your beloved Akiba apartment, all right? So, give it a try," he nods at the document emphatically.
She does, which tells Kaoru that he'd hit the nail on its head.
Patiently, he wanders into the bathroom to inspect it. It's been left untouched – Hacker-san evidently doesn't much care for facilities to beautify herself.
A loud gasp is heard.
"What?" Kaoru asks anxiously, sticking his head out and nearly crashing straight into Hacker-san.
"This one!" she yells, brandishing a page at him. "This person! I want this person! Kaoru-san, we have to have this person!"
He rescues the paper from her haphazardly windmilling grip. "Associate Professor Yukina Yumeji?"
"Yes!" she roars rabidly.
"… Dare I ask why?"
"Yukina-sama is – "
"How come this person is a 'sama' while – "
" – one of the creators and Game Masters of – "
" – I, your employer, am not?"
" – Alchemy Academy!"
"Woah! Seriously?!" Kaoru looks at the profile like it should have revealed this to him. "I love that game!"
"Me too! It's super – "
" – Intelligent!" he finishes for her. "Difficult as hell to get the potions right, but sooooo rewarding."
"Sooooo rewarding," echoes Hacker-san with a drugged-out grin. "I didn't know Kaoru-san played."
"I should have known you played," he snorts. "Which of the four houses are you in?"
"Veridier."
"No way! So am I! Is your level high enough to join the House Wars?"
"High enough?" she scoffs. "My username is 'airborne'."
"Oh god, that's you?! You're 'airborne'?"
"Yeah," she confirms smugly. "I can log in to prove it."
"Do that! I wanna try playing at that sort of level, god, you must be crazy powerful – the forums say that you solo tanked against 6 players to guard the Elixir of Life for twelve whole minutes before anyone else could regenerate and come to your help, is that true?"
"Yeah – it was a near thing, I barely kept my HP up; I never want to do that again," she shudders.
"Unbelievable!" Kaoru gapes. "But! Eh, wait wait wait! No, wait, we got sidetracked! Important business first! Are you sure Yukina Yumeji is a creator of that game? I didn't find anything like that."
"Yes. Yukina-sama is not officially credited but her husband is, and I follow their web presence. Yukina-sama's husband and brother are game developers and fanatics, and in one of the interviews, her husband said that she was a driving force in the creation of the complex player-to-player interactions of Alchemy Academy. Maybe I should just put it this way since Kaoru-san is familiar with the game: Yukina Yumeji-sama's username is 'Certifiable'."
"No!" he hoots. "Oh no! That sadistic GM is her?!"
"It's her," Hacker-san croaks a laugh. "She teaches psychology at the University of Tokyo, doesn't she? It's worse because she has GM powers, so she has special potions that no one else has and she drops them in the middle of the battlefields to see how gamers will react. Her husband says she can't help conducting psychological and sociological experiments on people, and games are a ready-made platform for her."
"And everyone slaughters everyone else, of course. You want someone like that in our team? You sure?"
"Now that Kaoru-san knows her in-game identity, what does Kaoru-san think of her understanding of human nature and behaviour?"
"… Insanely brilliant, obviously. No, brilliantly insane. Right, I take your point. Tomorrow after school, we'll crash one of her lectures at Todai and possibly talk to her later. I'll pick you up at 4-4:15 in a disguise."
"Okay," she says. "I'll prepare information on Yukina-sama for Kaoru-san."
"Great, thanks." Kaoru checks his watch – he's expected at Honey's in the evening for their scheduled Cake Night. "Second major thing I need from you today – wow, now I'm really grateful you read up on the Ootoris yourself – find out the new players to the Japanese technological sector in the past one year – something related to software, games and – "
"Kaoru-san, that's broad and generic and totally unhelpful."
"I can't provide any precision and I don't know what I'm looking for!" he huffs exasperatedly. "I only know I'll know it when I see it!"
Hacker-san scratches her scalp; a sprinkle of dry whitish flakes falls out.
"Let's try this," Kaoru suggests, "I'll give you the individual components to my deduction and you can see if that narrows it down for you. This new player came onto the scene somewhere during the past year or so. There will be something to do with electronic toys or computer and console games. Probably software too – the existence of this new player will not escape my father and his company. This new player has either made moves towards Ichijo Okiko-sama's family business or is manoeuvring into a position that will allow a takeover of – "
"Q.E.D., Inc.?"
"Yes!" he cries fervently, on tenterhooks. "What is this company? Show me, quickly! How do you know, Hacker-san?"
Obligingly, she opens her web browser and types in the search terms. "Of course I know, Kaoru-san. I have to keep track of news in this industry to know about the latest hardware and software – also, this is my profession and technology is the love of my life, or has Kaoru-san forgotten in his panic?"
"… Just call up the information."
"Can you go and sit in your chair?"
"Can't. Too jumpy."
"You're cramping me."
"I'll go away when I get my info."
"I can't work unless you goes away."
"Argh!" Kaoru stomps to his chair. "Not limiting my movement, my arse!"
"As soon as you went away, the page loaded," Hacker-san tells him.
"As soon as I go away, you're getting a pay cut."
"I have enough for one meal every two days, but if I receive a pay cut, it might become one meal per week."
"You chose your games over food!"
"You don't want the neighbours to find a body in the house, Kaoru-san. Very bad publicity."
"You ingrate! Who gave you that computer, I ask you?"
"See, you could have waited, Kaoru-san – the information's on the wall now but you aren't paying any attention to it."
Kaoru inhales, counts to ten, and exhales. The murderous feeling does not pass. "You've just convinced me that I absolutely need more team members. Start talking about Q.E.D. before I decide to ring Hotta to dispose of you."
"It's all there," Hacker-san says, referring to the official website and other nerd blogs that she no doubt frequents. "Q.E.D. is an American company, incorporated within the time frame that Kaoru-san had set. Quite low profile but successful, they've taken over a few established smaller companies and mostly encouraged innovation for their marketable products. Importantly, they fulfil the other criteria of making moves towards Eon Corporation, or I-on Kabushiki-Gaisha."
"So, Eon is not theirs yet?"
"Q.E.D. has acquired a portion of Eon's shares, about 2%, that seems to be the extent of it. As I'm sure Kaoru-san already knows, Eon hasn't been doing very well even though it used to be such an electronics mega-giant – that move was puzzling, until Q.E.D. used it as a springboard to nab those smaller companies I mentioned earlier. It was cheaper and more convenient to buy Eon shares, I suppose, since it is listed on the stock exchange. Then, Q.E.D. apparently built connections with a number of subsidiaries and privately-owned businesses and either seized those shares or those personnel away from the main operating branch of Eon. It's clever in hindsight but people laughed at them at first, I think."
This sounds more and more like them. Go in for Eon, pretend to go off and circle back again after amassing resources.
"I think that Q.E.D is run by three of my seniors, does Hacker-san have any way to verify that?"
"Which three?" She opens a number of other programs.
"Ootori Kyouya, Haninozuka Mitsukuni, Morinozuka Takashi. I especially want to know what Mori-senpai has been up to. It makes sense – they get themselves incorporated in the US to gain legal personality, which would allow them to transact in Japan in the name of the company despite none of them being of age. Hiding behind the corporate veil – totally Kyouya-senpai's style; he uses our club to get up to all sorts of things all the time. And that name! Quod erat demonstrandum! Hilarious!"
"The board of Q.E.D consists of three directors and shareholders," Hacker-san reports. "Western names, three males, the initials of their surnames form the company name."
"Is one of them the company secretary? Focus on him; that's probably Mori-senpai."
"There is, but there isn't much about him. Other officers of the company represent it – the directors and secretary themselves limit themselves to board duties. I have tagged the chief executive and will trace him as of now, Kaoru-san. His name is Harvey Atherton."
He gives her the thumbs-up.
"The guy is based in California, graduate of Caltech, CMS department, married to a Japanese woman, no kids, travels a fair bit – travels with her… she must be his translator! Wow, Kaoru-san, you'll like her, she knows about 6 or 7 actual human languages!"
"I can't figure out if that was meant to be sarcastic."
"Huh?"
"Never mind."
"… Ohh, no wonder. Harvey Atherton's wife is one of those privileged – you know, like you, Kaoru-san! Spent her childhood visiting foreign countries and learning their languages with her father and uncle when they were making deals for the importation of food into Japan – she was her uncle's favoured niece, her uncle is that guy who died from canc – hey!"
Kaoru had leapt up at 'importation of food' and raced to Hacker-san's side, crowding her in order to see the screen. "Tomimeshi! Is it Tomimeshi?!"
"You could have flicked to screen 4 if you wanted to – "
"Hacker-san, Hacker-san, it's them! It's them, what the hell, it really is them! Emily Atherton is Noda Emiri!"
"How does that – "
"Ahh! We did it! We did it!" Kaoru dances on the carpeted floor ecstatically.
Nonplussed, Hacker-san lets him work it out of his system.
"Hacker-san, I'll treat you to dinner tonight as a reward!"
"Really?" she goes with the flow. "There's this place I love – actually I love all of Akiba – but I usually can't afford to eat there!"
"Today you can," Kaoru declares happily. "This has given me a couple more ideas – you! You, Hacker-san, the consummate techie! I need some things from you, we'll hash them out over food! Let's go!"
.
.
"Honey-senpai!" Kaoru chirps sweetly, wheeling his luggage in behind him.
"Kao-chan!" Honey adopts the same tone, blossoms twinkling.
"Honey-senpai, have I told you lately that you're brilliant?"
Genuinely caught off guard, Honey blinks once, that pair of pellucid caramel brown eyes going wide.
He giggles. "Kao-chan, have I told you lately that you're wonderful?"
Flat against the wall and sweating profusely, Yasuchika creeps by. He looks askance at Kaoru, unnerved by Kaoru's syrupy exchange with his alien elder brother and slinks off hurriedly.
Kaoru deposits his things in his senior's room and accompanies Honey to the main living hall, where the family is lounging before bedtime.
"Yorihisa-sama! Tsukishi-sama!"
"Ah, Kaoru-kun, you're here."
Kaoru bows. "Thank you for having me. I'm sorry for the inconvenience."
"Not at all, not at all," Honey's mother says hospitably. "Kaoru-kun has been working hard, updating my husband and I every week about the fun activities that you children are involved in – being able to chat face-to-face with Kaoru-kun is good."
"A glass of umeshu, Kaoru-kun?" Honey's father asks from behind a hefty tome of literature.
"Yes, please," Kaoru grins. To the servant, he says, "On the rocks."
Tsukishi-sama engages them in a low voice – it's warm and comfortable, almost like being home, and Kaoru reflects on the unending benefits of having strong ties with his friends' parents. Honey never does any homework or readings past 7:30 PM because it affects his restful sleep, yet he invariably tops his class and level – the first time the club members were alerted to this fact, they'd reacted with uniform astonishment and admiration bordering on veneration. It's a struggle to finish their homework by a respectable time everyday – being the educational institution for the leaders of tomorrow and the children of the elite, Ouran inundates its students with a deluge of work to maintain its high academic standards. Everything else is negligible to the wealthy and powerful parents; this is the sole exception. Even Tamaki has had to push his bedtime to 11 PM every so often – most ordinary people are already in awe of his and Mori-senpai's ability to complete revision by 9 PM, and during exam periods it's customary for everyone to conclude only in the wee hours.
It's a feat of unimaginable proportions to accomplish Honey's results on such a study routine. Were it not for Kyouya's propensity to tend to his business affairs before homework, he might be able to match this record. It's another one of those things that Kaoru had known but not truly known – how organised and outstanding his seniors have been for years.
When the Haninozuka parents decide to retire for the night, Honey takes one of Kaoru's hands and leads him to the side dining room that is suffused with candlelight, where cakes have been laid out for them.
Kaoru selects the chocolate rose cake and serves a slice for himself, prattling away with his senior about the daily trivialities in their lives. There's a sense of peace and intimacy in the air, a contentment that was once synonymous with Hikaru. Honey feeds him and he feeds Honey – in this place they are safe and free, and Kaoru reaches for his senior.
"Thank you," he whispers, not sure what he's referring to.
Honey knows. Softly, "You're welcome, Kao-chan."
.
.
"… Another minute… " Kaoru scrunches up underneath the blankets, clutching Usa-chan to himself.
"No, no more minutes! Kao-chan's going to be late for school!"
Someone squeezes into the space beside Kaoru.
"Kao-chan," Honey singsongs, wrapping himself around him and kissing his brow. "Good morning!"
"Uuuhhh… Alarm… hasn't…"
"There isn't going to be an alarm, Kao-chan. I don't need one to wake up, and I thought I would be Kao-chan's alarm."
Kaoru pries his eyes open and is confronted by strands of blond hair. Honey is fully dressed but back in his half of the bed, his head propped by an elbow that's prodding into Kaoru's pillow.
"Did you know you move quite a bit when you sleep, Kao-chan? I'm surprised Kyou-chan lets you sleep in his bed."
Kaoru gazes at him blearily.
"I fetched extra layers of blankets to weigh Kao-chan down, and it worked. Now, Kao-chan, up."
With a yawn, Kaoru sits up and moves no further, sagging like a rag doll. "Sorry, senpai. Maybe because senpai is a light sleeper, but, yeah, if something is pressing down on me, I stop. Kyouya-senpai sleeps under, what, four, five layers?"
"And Kyou-chan sleeps like the dead anyway," Honey concurs, tugging Kaoru to his feet and pushing him in the direction of the bathroom.
After his regular ablutions, Kaoru is halfway into his school uniform when he realises that Honey has woken him up at a much earlier time than he would have chosen himself. Argh, these healthy lifestyle people! Kyouya always lets him sleep till the last minute.
"Honey-senpai!" he wails, flinging open the door and marching into the bedroom while buttoning his shirt. "It's early!"
"Ehh? It's not early! It's just right for Kao-chan and I to have a nice breakfast!"
Aggrieved, Kaoru complains all the way to the main dining hall; Honey smiles wryly and doesn't register any of it.
"Any later and the servants will have cleared the table, Mitsukuni," Yorihisa says flippantly, exiting with his wife as Kaoru and Honey pass through the same entrance.
… The entire family is not only up and about, they're done with their morning meal. As usual for this household, then.
He folds into his chair, shaking his head. "From Kyouya-senpai's house to your house, Honey-senpai, the transition is too huge. I have culture shock."
"I have to remember to tell Kyou-chan's staff the night before that I require breakfast at an earlier hour," Honey discloses. "I think I scared them that first morning."
Kaoru laughs into his rice. "Poor things! Kyouya-senpai's people don't scare easily. Speaking of this subject, Honey-senpai, I didn't know you had German lessons with Kyouya-senpai! Can I join you for English next time?"
Honey jerks his head upwards, shrewdness in his eyes.
"Sure, Kao-chan."
"Really?" he cheers. "Yay!"
"Did Kyou-chan tell you?"
"Yeah," Kaoru replies unthinkingly and backtracks hastily. "Oh! Um, Kyouya-senpai was very secretive, Honey-senpai! I guessed part of it myself! He wouldn't have told me anything that Honey-senpai had entrusted to him in confidence!"
Honey beams brightly. "No, no, it's fine. I just thought it was intriguing that Kyou-chan brought it up with Kao-chan."
"… Why?" he asks tentatively.
"Hee hee. Don't know. Just… thought it was intriguing."
Irritably, Kaoru snags a piece of egg with his chopsticks. "Could you be any more vague, Honey-senpai?"
"Kao-chan, you know… when one sacrifices oneself to help another, it could actually be painful to the person being helped, especially when that sacrificed person is of importance to them."
"Wha – where is that coming from, senpai?"
"A reminder," Honey asserts, "that I'm afraid Kyou-chan won't know to say to you until it's too late."
"Huh? Honey-senpai?"
"The problem with intense concentration, Kao-chan, is that – Kao-chan is a photographer, yes? Which two factors determine depth of field?"
"The distance between the camera and the subject, and the speed of the lens taking the photo," Kaoru recites dutifully.
"Yes, and without adjusting the zoom, the closer you are to a subject…?"
"The less of the image will appear in focus."
Honey nods. "The mind of a person who is absorbed in his or her plans is as a camera that constantly captures selective focus bokeh images, where the subject is seen in detail but everything else surrounding it fades to a blur. The person may think of certain actions as being advantageous at the time of the action, a component of the overall strategy, only to realise in the future that the need to focus on one thing has come at the expense of something else, and in blurring the rims of the photograph, that 'something else' has slipped past the cracks."
Kaoru makes a sound at the back of his throat. "Honey-senpai, really, this – "
"Mere food for thought, Kao-chan."
Annoyed, Kaoru sets down his bowl on the table. "Why does everyone seem to think I am or will be in danger?! How come Tono doesn't get this from all of you?! Am I that much weaker? Am I that defenceless?"
"No, Kao-chan! No! It's because Tama-chan wants everyone to be happy, Tama-chan wants everyone to be together! No matter how much Tama-chan loves Kyou-chan, he would prioritise our collective wellbeing over Kyou-chan's ambitions! He would never use himself as a bartering chip as though he's worthless, but Kao-chan would!"
Kaoru recoils a little, and Honey deflates.
"T-Tono traded himself in for his mother."
"Because that was the way for everyone to live."
"I don't get it, senpai! I also want everybody to be happy!" he cries, frustrated. "Why is it that when Tono does it, it's right, but when I do it, it's wrong?"
"Kao-chan!" snaps an authoritative voice.
Kaoru blanches and goes quiet.
"Stop comparing yourself to Tama-chan. You're different people."
"I'm not," Kaoru denies, thinking 'Different, or lesser?' and feeling an ache that is threaded through with an almost intolerable empathy.
The irony does not escape him.
Kaoru hates irony.
"Different."
He looks at his senior.
"Different, not lesser," pronounces Honey.
"Why? How does Honey-senpai know? Is – is it the same for Kyouya-senpai and his father, too?"
"Kao-chan should not be concerned with that."
"I knew you'd know the answer!" Kaoru protests. "Honey-senpai, tell me!"
"No. Eat up, Kao-chan, we leave in ten minutes."
Kaoru calls his senior's name again and again, determinedly harassing him.
"You said!" he deplores. "Honey-senpai said that if I didn't understand things, I could list them out to you! You promised!"
Honey takes hold of his hand. "Not if I think it will harm you, Kao-chan. I do not think it is wise for Kao-chan to know so much about Ootori Yoshio-sama, and Kyou-chan is not ready for the answer."
The ramifications of those words – the overtones and undertones stored within them are bursting at the seams.
Kaoru can't help but push. "Why would – "
"There is something that neither Kao-chan nor Kyou-chan understands: knowing too much about other people puts you in their power, they have a claim on you, you are forced to understand their reasons for doing things and then you are weakened."
"Senpai, please – "
"Kao-chan, please."
Kaoru slumps in defeat.
Keeping the sulk at bay, he calls for his limousine, gathers his things and crawls in with Honey, who will be dropped off at the university after Ouran. His senior permits him to rest his head in his lap – Kaoru is experiencing that combination of fatigue and restlessness, thoughts churning away in spite of his efforts.
What does it mean, that Kyouya is not ready to hear it? Is it really that Ootori-sama is better? More steadfast than Kyouya? Kaoru knows that his inability to meet Kyouya's questions that day had been due to his lack of insight towards Ootori-sama as he has not had the opportunity to interact with him; for the duration of those lessons, Honey must have seen something – grasped the complex nuances of this family. Why can't Kaoru know it too? His damnable 'artistic soul'? What's so harmful about having him understand Ootori-sama's reasons and motivations? Wouldn't it be nice for Ootori-sama to be human, or at least less inhuman than he is now? Who's to say Kaoru'll end up like Ootori Okiko? Having superior sensitivity doesn't mean that –
Kaoru gasps, mind blown.
"There is no difference," he breathes.
Honey's body goes rigid, proving him right.
Carefully, Kaoru levers himself into an upright position. "Isn't it? The only conclusion."
His senior responds with a deep sigh, letting his chin fall on Usa-chan's ears.
"Say something, senpai," Kaoru pleads. "Say something?"
"What led Kao-chan to this theory?" he asks calmly.
"If Kyouya-senpai shouldn't know it," Kaoru begins haltingly, his speculations in a jumble, "then the answer can't be good, that is, that Ootori-sama is the stronger businessman between them. But then I thought: apart from the natural differences from human to human, the Ootori kids are very similar to their father in terms of core personality… and children always say something about how the parents are like. I've never believed that Kyouya-senpai is deficient in any way – it's just that Kyouya-senpai's attachments are discernible while Ootori-sama's are not, and – and if Kyouya-senpai could be moved, if Yuuichi-san and Fuyumi-san sincerely love their spouses… Kyouya-senpai comes across as frightening to the people who don't know him, I wonder if that's why Ootori-sama feels so unapproachable to me? Something that Honey-senpai said really struck me – I mean, why is Honey-senpai unwilling to have me understand Ootori-sama? Is it me in particular or it is everyone? Isn't it implicit in that statement that I will be able to understand Ootori-sama if I tried? I merged it with some other knowledge I already had – that, um, apparently my vision and aesthetic might have been shared by Okiko-sama and we know that those traits didn't serve her well in that household… If it is possible for me to understand Ootori-sama, it follows that it was possible for Okiko-sama to understand as well – further, Okiko-sama was in a position to observe him and connect with him! Well, Ootori-sama was young once, wasn't he? If he's anything like his children, he must have been emotionally susceptible to some degree at some point of his life… It was a shot in the dark – if Okiko-sama was Ootori-sama's special person, then Ootori-sama's coldness and detachment is not because he has never experienced happiness, but that he had lost that happiness, and that indicates that Ootori Yoshio-sama is the version of Kyouya-senpai that had failed to protect his version of Tono, which translates to… there is no material difference in capability, only in their personal histories."
Honey gazes at him, eyes sparkling with mirth. "I don't know whether to be angry or proud, Kao-chan."
Stunned, Kaoru crashes back against the leather of his seat with an arm across his face. My god. I'm correct, it's true!
"Not a word to Kyou-chan, do you understand? I was careless, I didn't know Kao-chan had such knowledge of Okiko-sama. My mother says that Okiko-sama lived her life like a candle in the wind, and those who knew her also knew that she was too fragile to last under her parents-in-law. Regardless of whether any or all of the children know about how their father felt – feels – towards their mother, it remains unknown if Ootori Yoshio-sama let his wife down. They necessarily have a unique view of their parents, and it is not Kao-chan's place to interfere."
Dumbly, Kaoru nods his assent.
"Why was Kao-chan prying into the differences between Kyou-chan and his father?"
"Kyouya-senpai and I were talking about who would influence who in a match-up between Ootori-sama and Tono, and I picked Ootori-sama to win without a solid reason to back it up."
A tinkling, crystal-glass giggle. "I see, I see. My choice is the same as Kao-chan's. That's how I first formed my hypotheses about Kyou-chan's father – if nobody can touch his heart anymore, and he doesn't feel pride for anything except his children's accomplishments, it must mean his heart is gone. Given away to someone else. Kao-chan, you know, I think my parents love each other? I think Takashi's parents love each other too, but they only had two children. Kyou-chan's parents had four."
"Honey-senpai!" Kaoru screeches, scandalised and grossed out.
"On top of that, Kyou-chan's father has never remarried and never found anyone new, just buries himself in work all day long or devotes his effort to cultivating his children. That family is driven to succeed, but no one loves work this much. Has Kao-chan noticed that Akito-san's workload is crushing him?"
"Huh? Is it?"
"Yes, Kao-chan. As Kao-chan said, both parents and children are put on display through their bond – depend upon it that Kyou-chan and his siblings have inherited something of their mother. Akito-san is the only one without a pillar of strength, and already he's walking in his father's path."
Kaoru gawks at his senior. "I never thought of it that way!"
Honey smiles sadly at him.
"Now I feel doubly sorry for him! The odds are stacked against Akito-san, aren't they?"
"Akito-san will reject most – if not all – people who come to him, and he himself will never seek out other people. If it is to happen for him, it must be a bolt out of the blue, as it was for Kyou-chan. The greatest cunning is to have none at all."
Kaoru cackles. "I'd like front row seats for that!"
"Kao-chan," Honey warns sternly, "don't forget the advice I've given you today."
"But Honey-senpai still won't tell me why Tono is better," he says plaintively.
"Does Kao-chan think that I can be manipulated into continuing this damaging comparison exercise by your deliberate misunderstanding?"
He pouts, foiled by his senior's supremacy.
"If Kao-chan wants everyone to be happy, then in the forefront of your mind, always store a picture of that happiness. Everything else is extraneous."
"What, my own kotatsu dream?"
"If you like," Honey allows. "Describe it to me?"
"You can't be serious."
"It will put me at ease," cajoles Honey, using Usa-chan as a weapon of persuasion by making it dance around cutely in Kaoru's sphere of vision.
Feeling moderately silly, Kaoru hems and haws. "Um. My family and all of you. Uhh, yeah."
"Where is everyone seated? Is there food on the table?"
"Honey-sen – "
"Kao-chan."
Nettled, Kaoru demands, "You want me to say stuff like, 'We're going to have a hexagon kotatsu, blah blah, and I'm going to put food in my Haruhi's bowl, blah blah blah, and I'm going to tell jokes to my parents and listen to my grandmother's divine knowledge about historical dramas, blabbity blabbity blah'?"
"That was classic Hika-chan," Honey says with palpable humour, and Kaoru can't refrain from cracking up. "But I know that Kao-chan can be very mean with his words, too."
Somewhat abashed, Kaoru throws his hands up in surrender. "Uugh, fine! Honey-senpai is eating strawberry cheesecake with Usa-chan in your arms, Mori-senpai is reading a book and drinking tea, Kyouya- senpai is attempting world domination with his laptop, Haruhi is on her third helping of food, Hikaru is making Tono's life hell, my parents are making eyes at one another, both my grandfathers and one of my grandmothers are chatting like normal people, that flower-headed demon lady is being a nuisance to her new grandchild, who I kind of hope turns out to be a girl, and my sister will loudly announce to the table the ugliness of Grandmother's hairstyle. Ahh… that'll be the day; three versus one!"
The car comes to a pause in the designated student drop-off porch.
"Satisfied, Honey-senpai?" Kaoru asks with a mock-corny grin.
Honey's grin is the spitting image of his.
Kaoru leans over to peck his senior's cheek before scrambling out. "See you tomorrow at – "
Immediately, he is glomped without ceremony. "Kaoru, I missed you so much! The whole night, I tossed and turned, I – "
" – club! Yes, Hikaru, I was dying from my yearning for you – "
" – wondered if my Kaoru was awake and thinking of me or if you'd been seduced by Honey-senpai's wily charms – "
" – Uh huh."
"Is that so, Hika-chan? Yesterday when we rang Hika-chan, you seemed to be having lots of fun staying over at Tama-chan's house, so much so that you and Tama-chan were inseparable even during bathtime!"
A number of girls hanging around the porch to wait for their friends light up with something fiendish.
Kaoru shakes with inaudible laughter as Hikaru flushes pink.
"H-Honey-senpai! That was – ! It was easier that way!"
Honey assumes an aura of naïveté that never bodes well. He's going to say something along the lines of, "Easier to do what, Hika-chan?", Kaoru can just tell.
Dragging his brother into the school building and waving as he goes, he calls out, "Have a great day at uni, Honey-senpai!"
Honey waves back – Kaoru sees that.
What he doesn't see is a blond head drooping against the wound-down window with yet another sigh, deeper than the one earlier. "Like I thought… around Kao-chan's kotatsu, there is no Kao-chan."
.
.
Notes
(a) Ajitsuke-nori is a type of seaweed snack – flavoured and sold in little packets, eaten by themselves and curiously addictive. Nori by itself is the seaweed that is wrapped around sushi, usually less flavoured because the rice and ingredients of the sushi is enough.
(b) "Ars longa, vita brevis, occasio praeceps, experimentum periculosum, iudicium difficile." = "Life is short, the art (craft/skill) long, opportunity fleeting, experiment treacherous, judgement difficult."
A significant part of the programming community subscribes to the 'ars longa, vita brevis' philosophy – really, any skill that takes a long time to master will understand the meaning of those words and the dedication that goes into perfecting one's craft. Kaoru has isolated the 'experimentum periculosum' bit as a comeback – his own craft will also take a lifetime to master.
(c) Akihabara Electric Town (秋葉原電気街 Akihabara Denki Gai), also known as Akiba, is Tokyo's electronics district. Super otaku town.
(d) 'Todai' is the Japanese shorthand for the University of Tokyo – 'Tokyo Daigaku'.
(e) Quod erat demonstrandum actually is quite funny (to me) in relation to Mitsukuni and Kyouya, especially – it means '(something) which was to be proved; which was to be demonstrated'. The phrase is traditionally placed in its abbreviated form (Q.E.D.) at the end of a mathematical proof or philosophical argument when what was specified in the enunciation — and in the setting-out — has been exactly restated as the conclusion of the demonstration. The abbreviation thus signals the completion of the proof.
Kyouya habitually does this – usually, the only time the rest finds out about his actions are at the conclusion, by which time there is nothing to be done. Mitsukuni and Takashi have done this at least once, too, when they prepared everything for university quietly and sprang it on the others suddenly, as well as preparing to come back to the club as alumni. So it's kind of like, their ability to do something will be proved in the doing itself, full stop.
Which is what is happening now – the company QED Inc is the completion of their proof that they are as amazing as they know they are. There's something very matter-of-fact in their certainty in themselves, and that's very, very cool. Consistent with my interpretation of either of them, too.
(f) The corporate veil is this beautiful (evil) thing that many directors use to get away with personal liability. Companies have what is known as 'separate legal personality', which is why they can sue and be sued in their own name, as well as own property. This means that, unless exceptional circumstances exist, the debts of a company cannot be traced to the directors even though the directors are the ones who incurred the losses – directors and shareholders have limited personal liability for the debts of a company. It's the sort of thing that Kyouya loves – that is why my take on Kyouya in the previous chapters is that he views himself as an 'employee/officer' of the host club – he would never claim to be the club nor does he want to be; the artificial distinction between the corporate entity and the officers who run it clearly benefits the officers.
(g) Haninozuka Tsukishi (埴之塚 · 月詩), first name meaning 'moon poem'.
(h) Yes, I know Yorihisa-sama just served alcohol to a minor, and said minor accepted the alcohol in an un-minorly way. Does it surprise you? No.
(i) This: "when one sacrifices oneself to help another, it could actually be painful to the person being helped [...]" comes from xxxHOLiC, from the supremely wise Ichihara Yuuko.
(j) This: "knowing too much about other people puts you in their power [...]" comes from Cat's Eye, by Margaret Atwood.
(k) The concept of parents and children revealing things about each other comes from general knowledge and Sherlock Holmes in The Adventure of the Copper Beeches: "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid? I have frequently gained my first real insight into the character of parents by studying their children."
(l) "The greatest cunning is to have none at all." – Carl Sandburg.
(m) Let's test your Honey-level knowledge – what makes Tamaki and Kaoru different, and why was Honey reluctant to say anything more about the topic to Kaoru?
Answer: Tamaki always thinks of himself at the centre of his kotatsu. When he pictures happiness, he puts himself at the centre of it – that is the great advantage of his narcissism, that he thinks of himself as the source or an integral part of other people's happiness. To Kaoru, however, happiness means having the people he loves be happy – so he imagines them being happy from an angle of him sitting there observing them. It does not occur to him that part of their happiness is due to the fact that he is sitting there. Through his physical eyes, he cannot see himself when he sees that happiness, hence his mind eliminates himself from the picture.
As such, even though we see that Tamaki is capable of a great deal of sacrifice in canon, he wouldn't go to the extremes that Kaoru would. In this respect, he actually has way more self-awareness than Kaoru does – he wouldn't give more than what he can handle, and nothing that is devastatingly irreversible. Tamaki is the sort of fool – "fool" – who wants everyone to live and be together; Kaoru is the sort of fool – real fool, haha – who would give up everything for the people he loves to be happy, even at high personal cost, i.e. giving more than what he can handle.
Honey can't say anything more about it to Kaoru because it is a Catch-22 situation – to end the comparison (by telling his Kao-chan what makes him different from Tamaki), Honey would have to compare them... possibly opening cans and cans of worms, or worse, having Kaoru not believe him and reject it flat out. By which I mean, Kaoru will appear to consider it but his whole heart is basically rebelling against it. Have I mentioned that, of the twins, I think (have always thought) that Kaoru is the more, um, 'difficult' one? Kaoru brought it up with Honey at the end of Chapter 5A. Once Hikaru accepts people into his life, he accepts people into his life; there is a wonderful straightforwardness about it. He is honest with them and he stops testing them (he was forthright with Tamaki and Haruhi), whereas Kaoru is always testing people and is chronically dishonest.
I actually think a large part of the twins' self-contradictory nature is down to Kaoru's influence over their relationship, that's why my Kaoru is the one who imitates Hikaru and not the other way around, nor is it a mutual imitation thing. You know, 'which one is Hikaru-kun game' and all that jazz: look at the name of the game, it's as if Kaoru doesn't care to be found, but if a person knows who Hikaru is, then the person will also have found Kaoru isn't it? It's just, Kaoru can't admit to wanting to be found. He wants things but he wants to make you do it. He arranges it so that you can do it, then feels disappointed that you couldn't have done it on your own. Classic passive-aggression, and all signs of searching for someone to match him.
This is why the club is important: all of the club members except one person know (to different degrees) how to shut Kaoru down when he goes into one of those circular, nebulous spirals. Funnily enough, Hikaru is the only one who sucks at it. He can, sometimes, but rarely – in fact he often goes along with Kaoru's plans. Unsurprising, since Kaoru's technique was honed using him. It's very exhausting to be with people like that (passive-aggressive, indirect people) and Kaoru definitely knows it, knows that he's being unrealistically demanding, considering that he does indeed have very high emotional intelligence, that's why he backs off and thinks of himself as a burden, but at the same time he can't help himself and he wants and he hopes... he keeps testing people because he wants to stop testing them. For him to stop testing them, first they must pass all his tests. He really is kind of a mess, and somewhat sadistic-masochistic and his team is going to reflect the different facets of him just as Kyouya's represents him.