- Mikey! - Takeomi barged into Mikey's office without even knocking, eyes wide and face pale as if he's just seen a ghost.
Mikey just shot him a disinterested look over his shoulder. - What's wrong? - he spoke flatly and quitely, through the bite of taiyaki never leaving his mouth.
- Mikey, we're in deep shit here, our stock shares have rapidly dropped down on several markets!
- How? - Mikey's eyes narrowed with seriousness. - Haven't we made the detailed investment plan at the executive meeting the other day?
- No idea! Both Haitanis just complained one after another that their cards got declined, and 'cause they apparently couldn't get thru to Kokonoi, they had to bother me. Anyway, I went on and checked with our banks, it seems we have already gone bankrupt in two.
- Do you think the feds could have sniffed out something?
- Nah, Mocchi's doing his job properly. But it seems the planned investments haven't been ma-...
- Summon Kokonoi here at once.
Takeomi was about to say: "But, no one has even seen him since the meeting", but instead just gave a small breathless nod, and rushed to Koko's office, hoping to get at least some clues about whatever was going on.
He found Koko sleeping in there, a sight no one in Bonten had ever seen before. It was a source of many a rumor among the executives and lower members alike, about Kokonoi's superhuman, alien nature, that did not require any sleep. Many have made bets about what drugs he was on, but never got to find out, as nobody dared to ask him, nor anyone from the financial department, directly, and Sanzu refused to give out any info, never confirming nor negating the fact that Koko was on something to begin with.
But one thing was undeniably certain - he never slept. He'd spend the whole days in his office, working out the numbers, and whenever he'd be called up for an emergency meeting, or a mission, or anything else, he'd be instantly ready! He was never late, and was always prepared for anything, with at least two backup plans.
Call him at 3 in the morning for a report about the last month's expenses, it's already emailed to you by 3:03. Call him at 5 AM to forge the invoices for whatever money-laundering scheme the organization was working on at the moment, it's all done and sorted out by the time you have your first morning coffee. Barge into his office at any time during the day, or night, and he's always at his desk, coffee mug by his side, typing frantically on his laptop.
Therefore, finding him sprawled across the leather couch, one arm shielding his face from the afternoon sun hitting the office through the glass wall, the other hanging off the edge, almost touching the wooden floor, his fine China style clothes disheveled, laptop off, and papers scattered all around the room that reeked of cheap alcohol... it was way out of character, to say at the very least.
- Oi! Kokonoi! - Takeomi tried shaking him awake, the tiniest bit of panic creeping up his mind when the younger man didn't react to being called by name several times. He couldn't have kicked the bucket on us, could he? - What the hell have you even been doing?! Hey, come on! Wake up!
- Ungh... None o' yer business, Akashi... - Koko groaned, stretching the sleep away from his long limbs. - And stop slapping my face, I'm not into that shit.
- Cut the nasty jokes, it is very much my business! Actually, Bonten's business! While you're peacefully rotting in here, we're losing money, and losing it fast! Mikey's pissed and wants you in his office. Immediately.
Koko all but jumped up from the couch at those words, rushing after Takeomi, almost tripping over the empty beer cans scattered on the floor on his way out.
- Jesus, fuck, first go wash your face at least, you stink!
- You're the last person I wanna hear that from, furnace breath.
- Go fuck yourself...
The rest of the elevator ride to Mikey's office was full of awkwardly silent tension. Koko was too spent for witty comebacks, and Takeomi was too preoccupied with the actual problems.
Once they reached the top floor, Takeomi got out first and made his way straight to the office, sitting down next to Mikey on the big corner sofa. Koko took a short toilet break, and followed right after him.
- Boss...? You called for me?
- Care to explain? - Mikey stayed as expressionless as ever, only motioning to Takeomi to pass the reports to their financial executive. He reluctantly approached them and took the papers.
- This is...?
- The sum of what we've lost while you were drunk and passed out. - Takeomi mumbled through a cigarette stuck between his lips, struggling to crack his lighter.
Mikey made eye contact with Koko and he quickly averted his gaze down to the papers, skimming through them. His eyes widened in shock, then narrowed in a concerned frown.
- I'm sorry. - he sighed, pinching the base of his nose. - I accept full responsibility for this, but it will take me at least 3-4 business days to fix the damage...
- Three days?! - Takeomi snapped. - You seriously want me to believe you can get us back on track by next week?!
- Well, I said "at least". Making up for the lost profit will take longer, tho, maybe a couple of weeks. But I could get us back to positive zero in three days, give or take.
- Nonsense! Have you seen all the shit we've lost? And keep losing? How in the hell do you imagine to pull that off?!
- Secrets of the trade, Akashi. I cannot disclose that.
Takeomi scoffed. His lighter finally cooperated, letting him light another cigarette. - You're being way too cocky for your own good. - he exhaled a big puff of smoke, and Mikey almost winced at the unpleasant smell, but kept the stoic face.
- Am I being treathened, Advisor? - the tone of his voice and the way he emphasised his position made Takeomi sit upright and shoot him a death glare, but Mikey joined in the conversation before he got to reply to the provocation.
- I trust you, Koko.
Takeomi mumbled under his breath something about it being a bad decision, but Mikey paid him no attention.
- Whatever you do, don't betray me. Don't betray Bonten.
He flinched at those words, knowing damn well what Mikey meant by it. He was only being kept alive for his usefulness in making Bonten richer day by day. He was just an asset, a tool, means to an end. The moment they stop making more profit is the day he dies. He wasn't particularly fond of his life the way it was, that was for sure, but not exactly suicidal either. Somewhere deep inside him there was still some lingering hope that some day, things would change for the better, that he would see Inupi again, and find people who would accept him for who he was, not what he could do. But he would never admit those things, not even to himself, first and foremost, because he wasn't even consciously aware of them.
- You can count on me, Mikey. - with a small bow, Koko made his exit, almost bumping into Sanzu who just gave his uncharacteristically messy appearance a weird and confused look, as he made his way through the door.
- What's going on? - Sanzu frowned, sensing the trouble from the atmosphere in the office.
- We lost almost $300M in stock shares, basically overnight, because Kokonoi's been slacking off. - Takeomi was unamused.
- Wha... 300 million? Overnight?! - Sanzu's eyes went wide in surprise.
- And don't even get me started on how that affected a whole other bunch of our businesses... It's like a fucking domino effect! - he took a long smoke and let out a deep, annoyed sigh, tapping of the ash of his quickly disappearing cigarette into the ashtray.
Mikey reached for another fish shaped pastry, not even looking at Sanzu. - Yeah. But we've just warned him about his performance. He'll do something about it. More importantly, how did your mission go?
- Right, well... - he proceeded to give his King and his disowned brother a full mission report.
Meanwhile, Koko slammed the door shut behind him in his office, and informed his assistant that he should not be disturbed in the next 72 hours, no matter what. Not even in the case of emergency and immediate danger.
The poor guy knew what was coming, so he made sure that food, change of clothes, and the amount of coffee equal to the gross yearly produce of Brazil be regularly delivered to his eccentric boss' office over the next three days.
He had been like that quite often in recent months. He would occasionally shut himself in in his office for days on end, only attending executive meetings or answering to Mikey directly. His underlings would get strict and detailed instructions on what needs to be done in the meantime, and not to disturb him, and the executives never exactly had a habit of checking up on each other anyway, so no one really knew what he was exactly up to during those episodes.
However, even after a week had passed, and financial crisis was long averted, with profits starting to go up once again, Kokonoi did not leave his office at all. He only had one reporting session with Mikey, just to briefly inform him that the lost money was restored, after the promised three days period, and that was all human interaction he had in over a week. He did not answer his phone, he did not answer the emails, and he most definitely did not open the office door to anyone. Not that anyone in the gang really cared about it tho, as long as the money was flowing as it was supposed to.
Sanzu did bring up Kokonoi's absence in the executives' meeting, finding it strange that the most serious and professional one among them would be slacking off, but didn't really bother to pry any deeper, as even Mikey shrugged it off, saying that he already reported to him directly what needed to be reported. After all, that's all that mattered, they weren't paid to stick their noses in each other's business, as long as the results were achieved, anything was allowed and accepted.
Still, the one person who knew all of Kokonoi's quirks all to well, and was probably the closest thing to a friend he had in his current life, was his assistant. Maeda Osamu, former Vice-Captain of 10th Generation Black Dragon Elite Guards, knew very well, ever since they were teenagers, that his boss had a habit of being a workaholic to the point of burnout, and then of fighting fire with making himself burn even more.
Back then he still had Inui-kun by his side... - Maeda would think, remembering what a thoughtful and caring division captain Koko used to be, even if he was unpredictable and seemingly only money-driven. Maeda knew firsthand there was a golden heart underneath it all. That's why he never questioned his decision to leave Black Dragon and join Toman, or go to Tenjiku. But when Koko invited him to join Kanto Manji Gang, he had absolutely no doubt or second thoughts about it, and swore to follow him for life!
However, seeing what Kanto Manji had grown into over the years and how it all laid on the foundation of extreme efforts and endeavors of his boss alone, how every other executive enjoyed their easy life of sex, drugs, luxury, and violence, only thanks to the fact that Koko worked 24/7 for them all, without a pause, without a break, without even so much as private life, constantly putting his health on the line for the cause he personally didn't even care about... it made Maeda boil inside every single time he witnessed it or thought about it!
But he was just an executive assistant, there was no way he could say anything to the top echleon, not even to the no. 3, Kakucho, who seemed the most reasonable and down to earth of them all, let alone to Akashi, or god forbid, Mikey! Hell, if he even dared to speak against Mikey's will at all, Sanzu would have put a bullet thru his head way before the end of the sentence! And even if he'd survive that, Koko would no doubt fire him for humiliating him in such a way. So he could only silently watch, hoping that whatever little he could do to help make his boss' day to day life easier actually helped improve his circumstance even the tiniest bit.
With that in mind, he eventually made his way to Kokonoi's office, bringing him a bento lunch.
- Kokonoi-san? Excuse the intrusion...
Koko slowly peeled his strained, reddened eyes off the screen to shoot daggers at his most reliable subordinate, but said nothing.
- You haven't contacted me in almost a week, I was getting worried, so I took the liberty of using the spare key. Are you alright? - he put the bento box on Koko's desk. - I suppose you haven't eaten much, so I brought you a snack. But, this isn't healthy, please take care of yo-...
- How much. - Maeda's monologue was coldly interrupted.
- Huh...
- How much do you want?!
- Uhm... Boss, what ar-...
- Just state your fucking price! I got no time to entertain your playing dumb! How. fucking. much. do you want?! HUH?! - his bloodshot eyes narrowed down on his assistant's face in an unsteady gaze. It was as if he wasn't looking at him, but thru him. His porcelain white skin turned red with anger, jaw clenched as he hissed through his teeth, and a thick green vein popped on the side of his neck. He looked legitimately scary.
There was not even a trace left of that cold, cynical smirk he always wore, none of that sly, calculated concentration, and the aura he was emannating sure didn't make it easy to believe he was at all capable of being kind and gentle. There was just pure blazing anger in his eyes, on his face, as if his whole being transformed into the raw, untamed emotion. The fury seething at the poor Maeda at that moment was not his boss and friend, Kokonoi Hajime. No. It was a demon.
His hostile demeanor, sudden treathening stance, and uncomfortable proximity made the guy shudder involuntarily. He averted his eyes from Koko, trying to take a step back, and just run away from him, but he pressed on.
- Will you state your fucking price already?! - he seethed, hovering intimidatingly close over his assistant's shocked and scared face. - How much will it do for you to get off my fucking case, stop playing my nanny, and leave me the fuck alone?! Huh?!
His voice sounded uncharacteristically low, somewhere at the back of his mind, Maeda made a small mental note about it. That sudden growling baritone didn't fit his boss' frail, almost feminine looks at all. He couldn't even imagine Koko would be physically able to sound like that. Just a reminder of how little he actually knew about him, even after all those years. Does that also mean that the polite but sarcastic, tongue-lolling, mean-eyed, quick witted persona is just a mask, too? There was no time nor place to ponder. The right hand man quickly shifted his train of thoughts back in track.
- I... Kokonoi-san, no, I don't want any money from you. - Maeda spoke softly as if to calm him down, as he finally managed to move away from Koko's treatheningly heaving chest, quickly making his way to the door. - I'm sorry, I... apologize for disturbing you while you're working, sir. - he gulped and half-wispered while excusing himself from the office as incospicuously as possible.
Hajime just stood there still for a good minute, hands curled into tight fists by his side, nostrils flaring with fast, loud, shallow breaths. His mind went completely blank with rage, he didn't even know if it was what his assitant's nagging attitude, or the fact that he refused his money that pissed him off more.
Once he managed to regain a bit of composure from the shock of what had just happened, he just slowly sat down at this desk, and midlessly closed the laptop, fixating his eyes onto nothing on the opposite wall.
The fact that someone refused his offer of money baffled him, perplexed him, tortured his mind. It made absolutely no sense! That guy couldn't have been serious just now! People only care about money. Everyone has ever wanted him only because of money. Bonten keeps him around because he brings them money. All the gangs he had been previously engaged with wanted him for his financial skill, women wanted him only as a sugar daddy, and not even the men he tried dating were any better either, and anyone who approached him with a friendly narrative with whatever excuse, ultimately only ever wanted one thing from him.
Money, of course.
He was only as worthy as his proverbial pocket was deep. So how come his direct subordinate said he didn't want it from him? All people who worked for him only stuck around because he paid them well, didn't they?! Was Maeda insulting him? Saying that he's worthless in his assistant's eyes?
Before he even realized what he was doing, loud clanks and clatters followed by rustling snapped him back from his enraged daze.
- Fuck! - he groaned loudly, slamming both fists on his now empty table. He felt his vision getting blurrier and his eyelids starting to burn with stinging liquids. His forehead hit the cool wooden surface, white locks of hair falling over and hiding his face entirely, as he remained still for a while, with only his back twitcing lightly a few times. He was unbothered even by his favorite coffee mug lying broken on the floor next to him, while spilled stale coffee was soaking up the papers he had been working on earlier that day.