Disclaimer: Excel Saga, sadly, does not belong to me. It belongs to the great Koshi Rikudo. Please don't sue me, because I have nothing you want.
Chapter Four: In which Excel is Angry
Excel was confused, shocked, and angry all at the same time.
Lord Ilpalazzo looked at her as if he didn't know her. "Please, call me Lee. It would look rather strange if you were to keep calling me Lord Ilpalazzo."
"Lord- I mean, Lee. Um.. Lee...what are you doing here?"
"I am here because I will be assisting you with this mission."
Excel growled, "We don't—" she was about to say 'We don't need your help!' but then she realized that they had never actually succeeded in completing a mission. Maybe help wouldn't be such a bad idea. It would be better to leave ACROSS with a successful mission.
Lord Ilpalazzo smirked, "Is that all? If you're done interrogating me, then we need to get to work. Follow me."
A cheerful Hyatt and a reluctant Excel followed behind Lord Ilpalazzo as he guided them down more confusing hallways. Excel was angry, as expected. She had just told the man that he was the reason for her problems, and all she wanted to do was get away from him, and what did he do? He went and joined the mission, making it impossible for her to be anywhere but near him.
Men, she snorted. I'll never understand them.
Lord Ilpalazzo eventually lead them into a deserted room at the end of the hallway. "This," He explained," Will be your office for the time being."
Excel was about to comment on the lack of, well, everything in the office, when the door flew open and a man with weird looking hair flew in.
"Oh, my apologies. I didn't know anyone was in here." said Kabapu.
"Not at all, I was just showing the new recruits to their office."
"Ah," Kabapu nodded. Kabapu looked strangely up at Lord Ilpalazzo, examining him. "You look familiar. Might I know you from somewhere?"
Lord Ilpalazzo tenses ever so slightly at his question. "No, I don't think so. My name is Le, I am the new manager."
Kabapu laughed. "Ah, of course. I must be getting senile in my old age." He smiled and began to leave, "It was nice meeting you all, I suppose I will be seeing you later at the meeting." and with that, he left.
Lord Ilpalazzo let out a sigh of relief when Kabapu left.
"Who was that?" Excel questioned.
"Kabapu, the man who is behind out failed missions."
"But, how do you—"
"We'll talk later, Excel. At the moment, you two need to get down to the meeting. It wouldn't be wise to be late on your first day.
- - -
Excel cursed under her breath. It would have been great if Lord Ilpalazzo had actually told them WHERE the meeting was being held. She and Hyatt had been wondering around aimlessly for the past ten minutes, trying to find the said meeting.
"Hatt-Chan, I think we are lost."
"I agree, Senior. Maybe we should—"
"Miss Ayasugi?" Watanabe had been running late to the weekly meeting, again. He was running down the hallways as fast as he could, when he was stopped by the sight of his Miss Ayasugi.
Hyatt turned around and smiled warmly at him, "Ah, Mr. Watanabe. What are you doing here?"
"I..uh..I-"
"Yes?"
"Er, I mean..I work here."
"Oh, I had no idea. Watanabe, would you be kind enough to show me and my friend here to the meeting?" Hyatt questioned.
Watanabe blushed, "Sure thing Miss Ayasugi!" All Watanabe did was turn to the door on his left and opened it. "Here we are!" he stated.
Excel smacked her hand to her forehead. Of course it was the one door that she hadn't checked.
As the door opened, all of the occupants of the room turned to look at them. Everyone was seated around a lard round table. Excel could see Lord Ilpalazzo sitting beside Mr. Kabapu, and she briefly wondered how he had gotten there so fast without her seeing him.
"Watanabe, you're late again," Iwata said.
"Mr. Watanabe was just showing our new members to the meeting. Isn't that right, Mr. Watanabe?" Lord Ilpalazzo interrupted.
"Um, yes sir..." Watanabe said, not really knowing who the man with the silver hair was.
Kabapu sat up from his seat and cleared his throat, "IF you three will take your seats, we can start the meeting."
All three of them blushed, and took their seats. Watanabe took his seat next to Misaki, and Hyatt took a seat next to him. That left Excel with the only empty seat, that was right next to Lord Ilpalazzo.
With a sour look on her face, Excel slumped down into her chair.
Kabapu smiled and began his meeting. "Before we start, I would like to introduce to you the new Manager, Mr. Lee Ilpala, and our new members, Ms. Hyatt Ayasugi, and Ms. Excel..."
"Just Excel," Excel replied.
Lord Ilpalazzo shot her a look that clearly told her to act more politely before she blew the mission, but Excel just turned her head the other way and nonchalantly ignored him.
"..Er, Ms. Excel. Now, on to business."
- - -
A/N: I am so, so, so incredibly sorry that it took so long to update. I was going to update sooner, really I was, but then NaNoWriMo snuck up on me. Then I spent the rest of December trying to edit up my NaNo story (I went from 50,000 words to 35,000 words in less than two hours.) Just know that I will finish this fic, even if it kills me! There are not enough Excel fics out there, which is why I decided to write this.
I want to thank everyone for all of the reviews, they were great. Every time I got one, it pushed me to write a little bit more of this story. Hopefully you'll enjoy chapter four.
p.s. If you have any suggestions on what should happen next, It would be much appreciated. Hopefully the next chapter will be a little bit longer.