Meri Kurisumasu

Chapter 9: Trunks

While the songs and voices of partygoers rang through the halls of Capsule Corp., there were some who did not hear it. High up within the compound, to the point where no sounds reached them, and they were at peace. The only noise to be heard was the clacking of the keyboard or hum of a computer monitor as they worked alone.

Trunks worked diligently into the night, pouring over statistics and spreadsheets, hoping to accomplish enough to be ahead in his work come morning. Not another soul was working in the building; they had all been given most of the day off, so there was little to distract him.

'I can't believe we could spend so much money on coffee. The increase since the late shift began in engineering is completely ridiculous. The late shift isn't bringing in nearly enough money to make up for the costs either. I'll have to tell 'kasaan I'm gonna shut it down, and move those people to other areas of the company…'

Trunks took another sip of his coffee, then looked at the cup and laughed. 'I guess I really can't blame them, working so late, but still…'

Trunks had always been a kindhearted person, which was why he hated his job. Being forced to make budget cuts and lay people off made each day at work miserable. And all the mail he received; so many of it complaints about what he did that was 'the best for the company'. He had to read so many letters and take so many calls from the people whose lives he'd ruined. One woman actually came into the office crying for her husbands job back and he had wanted more than anything to run away then, but that would make him a coward then, something his father would never have, nor his mother. In fact, Bulma had been there that day, and she was the one who took her aside and explained that it was nothing personal and that nothing could be done, while Trunks stood back uncomfortably.

Everyone assumed he left his office so often because he was lazy, that it was too hard for him. Ha. The work was not the problem; he was the son of Bulma Briefs after all and the only thing that made the work itself frustrating was the sheer amount of it. Piles and piles of papers to be filled out and recalculated. Each one individually was no problem, but put together, it took a tremendous amount of time.

Trunks finished the engineering budget report, then opened his drawer and pulled out employee applications to go through. Fortunately, these people didn't mean quite as much to him, because they weren't full dependant on him like his employees were. A job at Capsule wasn't something applicants were expecting to have for life, unlike those who had worked there for half their lives if not more.

He began sorting the papers, doing everything methodically as he always did. He separated men from women, then broke those up by age, and those smaller groups were separated by education level. This way, he knew the people in each stack were similar and he could view them as such. It was hard to judge between people's applications when one is a 17-year-old high school student, and one was a 35-year-old with a Masters Degree.

He picked up the first stack; female high school students. He didn't favor one sex over the other though; it just split the piles further, making it easier for him. There were also times when the CC demographic was too high in males or females, so had to be favorable for 'the companies sake'.

"So, Nuriko Kanzaki. Senior in high school. High honors, club activities. Looks pretty good. She's a maybe." He put the page on his desk, then picked up another. "Goru China. Also a senior in high school. C average. Football team. Why he wants to work here: To get money for babes?! Definitely not." He crumpled the paper and tossed it into the wastebasket with ease.

Before he could pick up another application form, his cell phone rang.

"Hello, Trunks Briefs Vegeta, how can I help you?"

"Enjoying Christmas so far?"

"Huh? Who is this?"

"Geez, don't flip out on me Trunks, it's Pan. I just wanted to see how you were doing."

"Oh, I'm fine, why wouldn't I be."

"It's just, with every other person in that building partying, I thought it might be a little hard to work."

"Well, it's not like I can hear them or anything."

"I know."

"Huh?"

"Nothing. So you're sure you aren't going to the party?"

"Yeah… hang on a second, I think I'm getting some interference from the computer, I'm gonna go into the hall."

Trunks spun around on his chair, then screamed in shock. "AHHHHH! Pan! What are you doing here?! I mean, you were, when I was and… what the hell are you doing here?!" Pan started laughing hysterically while Trunks stuttered and pointed to his phone. "Relax Trunks-kun. I just came to make sure you were really alright."

Trunks smiled and nodded for Pan to come over. "Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks for coming though. It's kinda nice to not be alone, y'know?"

"Yeah. Well we're still alone here, so let's change that eh?"