Chapter 26

The problems are just around the corner

Three days after New Year, Naoki and his family were in the living room, watching Kotoko do repeatedly hand movements, with different expressions on her face as a book of a red hardcover—which he didn't see the title—rested on her lap.

After observing countless times in the previous week, he had some idea of her purpose, but she didn't seem to make much progress. He had captured what she did, but Kotoko, with greater difficulty, hadn't advanced in her learning, even when she practiced constantly. At the time, he had already memorized more signs, without really knowing their meaning.

"Kotoko-chan?" The aforementioned rose her sight from her book, which again she put on her legs, and attended his mother, blinking.

"Hey?"

"What are you doing?"

She laughed briefly, shoulders down at the end, with a sigh.

"For the last trimester my sensei will evaluate me with the basic knowledge of sign language," she explained, making a pout at the end, "but I cannot learn it well."

"What does this mean?" His mother made a sign that she had been repeating in ten minutes, shaking hands, half-closed, from her chest to forward, then putting the right hand forward with a finger pointing to the front*.

Kotoko opened her eyes and mouth.

"How are you?" She confirmed in her book, nodding.

"All will learn?" asked her father.

She nodded. "Some will learn the language of deaf and others the one used by blind with hearing problems."

"A very good activity."

"Yes," said Kotoko. "The next course we'll continue, but I don't learn the principals."

"Oh, oh, we can help you learn these free days." Jumped his mother, clapping. "Right?" She looked for the acceptance of his brother, his father and her father before looking at him intently.

He rolled his eyes; then keep her eyes on the clear orbs of his mother, thinking it might be convenient for him to learn the signs properly. He just didn't want to give her the pleasure of admitting defeat so easily, because she'd think she could manipulate him anytime.

"Onii-chan," mouthed her, pleadingly.

"Oba-sama, is not so necessary." His mother turned to his girlfriend. He shifted slightly toward Kotoko with a sly smile and she gave him a questioning look.

His mother turned her eyes to him. "Onii-chan, it will be entertaining."

He shrugged, before sighing.

Noriko Irie clapped and he saw his girlfriend, laughing slightly; then she nodded, raising the book. Kotoko read them the initial instructions and the first sign that they would try, the greeting, which she showed them later; he was the first, so he the image for a second and checked the previous two pages, before nodding, getting the idea, although he had been watching earlier.

Others took a little longer seeing it and he watched, amused, the looks they put, except for his mother, who stared for a moment the sign and nodded. At least, he knew he would not be teaching a class, she looked at ease.

Then, everyone tried to make the sign, like Kotoko, who had already gone through it and made it more fluently. She continued with the one his mother did, though she did not put her arms in the angle she should, elbows half of her torso.

He leaned over and fixed her arms, making a nod when she looked asking for confirmation. Kotoko smiled when he gave it.

"Nothing better than having good family time!" Cried his mother, taking a picture, before concentrating to see the next sign of the book and imitate it, to help Kotoko.

[…]

Leaned with crossed arms in the wall next to the front door, Naoki waited for Kotoko to return with the mail, after hearing she whispered to herself that she would pick it. He knew that on this day would come the results of the school, so he wanted to receive his to put them in his documents, before they got lost.

He also waited the arrival of the medical journal to which he subscribed, whose volume was due to arrive this week.

He heard Kotoko's footsteps and then she came in, so attentive to the paper she read that she didn't notice his presence.

Interested in her notes, he watched over her head while she was changing shoes.

She had reached a minimum of sixty-seven and a maximum of eighty-four, getting an average of seventy-nine, not so bad case being Kotoko, she could do worse without counsel.

"Your notes?" he asked her a few seconds later.

Kotoko startled and papers flew out of her hands in different directions when she put her right hand to her chest. He took one in the air, by coincidence it was her result.

"Naoki-kun, you scared me!" Cried his girlfriend, turning and breathing heavily.

"Sorry." It had been fun, but frights like that were not good, he acknowledged. He pointed the paper in his hand. "So these are your results for the end of the second trimester?" he murmured, without seeing them.

She smiled and nodded, kneeling to gather the correspondence.

He saw the envelope containing his letter-size magazine and bowed down to it; she did the same, causing their hands to brush.

Kotoko smiled slightly, putting her hand away for another letter; she gave that one to him, as they were his notes.

He accepted it with a nod, standing to go to his room, opening the envelope of the magazine.

"Remarkable result," he said placing the open magazine on one hand as he ascended.

"Hey!? Thank you, Naoki-kun!"

He smiled listening to her celebration.

[…]

Naoki suppressed a yawn while listening to Funatsu in one of his boring speeches. He was making him easy questions about Pharmacology, a course for next year; he responded by reflex, just to silence his classmate's voice, because after much insistence Funatsu became a bother.

He expected that in the second year he gained some maturity and stopped that annoyance to, at least, be able to debate on some issues with a classmate who had a high level.

"Naoki-kun, Funatsu-san," greeted Kotoko, placing her tray on the table, next to him, something that, from midway through the second trimester, she had not done.

He preferred that she was there than the one following him.

"Are you going to take the exam for Todai?" asked his girlfriend to his classmate, who seemed puzzled by the question. Neither did he understand why he would do that.

"Why would I apply?"

"Naoki-kun said you were the young man to whom I almost crashed last year… I thought I cause you a delay."

Funatsu pierced at her behind his glasses and stood, leaving with arms crossed. Naoki refused, snorting, he did not believe that a delay was the reason for not being in Todai.

"What did I say?"

As if waiting for an opportunity to approach, Matsumoto, followed by Sudou, occupied the empty places at the table.

"Hello, Sudou-san," said cheerfully Kotoko, "Matsumoto-san," she muttered.

The woman rolled her eyes.

"There aren't free tables, and I have dignity, Aihara," said Matsumoto in petulant voice.

"And she'll give me a chance," Sudou added, being watched annoyed by the dark-haired.

"That, I won't," said Matsumoto. "But I have the answer to your question," she continued, picking up her chopsticks with a delicate gesture. "Funatsu did not take the examination of Todai knowing that Irie would not take it; he had second place in the national tests and did not take it very well, so he decided that he would prove to be better than Irie and to do it he enrolled at this university, in the same department."

"And how do you know?"

"There are those who know him in my department," explained Matsumoto, bringing some rice to her mouth.

Naoki denied to himself, solving the riddle of Funatsu. Now he thought irritated that he wouldn't change his purpose of being behind him and make questions to find ways to win.

He looked at the dark-haired eating gracefully, telling himself that she had the same reason when she decided on the university; but at least she did seem to have left it behind.

He looked toward the kitchen; he expected someone else to do so. That alone would make him free of something stuck in his chest. Moments ago, when he met with Ikezawa, this had said that his purpose of the year was to show his true form and to finally open Kotoko's eyes… that the best person was someone who loved her and showed that he cared for her.

They were just tall tales, she had enough with him, he had her on good consideration and he could give her an irreproachable future… also, they get along comfortably.

He didn't need to be more.

Right?

[…]

Drinking water in the kitchen, before bed, Naoki heard a noise in another room, which he attributed to his girlfriend and denied knowing that she tended to have accidents at home, dropping something with her carelessness, surprisingly, never hurting her or someone.

"Naoki-kun!" Kotoko's cry froze his blood so he put the glass on the table and rushed out of the kitchen to go to the room where she was. "Oba-sama! Naoki-kun! The living room!"

He walked faster knowing where to go, telling himself that she must have really hurt herself to make that call.

He stopped for a second in the entrance hall and put on automatic pilot when he saw his father on the floor. His face was pale and he had one hand on his chest; he was almost face down next to one of the fallen broken lamps.

Naoki knelt beside him, in the space vacated by Kotoko, and handed her the phone, devoting himself entirely to his father.

"Call for an ambulance." He indicated.

"Dad!" He heard yelling of his mother and brother seconds later.

He did not lose concentration, using the medical first aid learned until then, taking his signs and gathering information through observation and questioning, making all that, in his impotence, he could do.

Paramedics arrived moments later.

Then, Pandora's Box opened.

[…]

Naoki's eyelids fell a moment and he nodded off, but he stood up rubbing his eyes, meeting his mother's face across the waiting room of General Hospital, where they had taken his father in emergency. It was the middle of the night and they were assisting him and performing studies.

She approached him, sitting beside him and holding his hand.

"You should go home, onii-chan; tomorrow you have to go to college. I'll stay."

He denied, squeezing his mother's hand. That was his place at the time and he could not sleep quietly until he know exactly the situation. He could swear that his father was about to suffer a heart attack, which led him to wonder what might have led to have it, of the multiple causes that could cause the blockage of blood vessels.

Naoki expected to be wrong, that it was something related to the lungs or trachea, or anything else. That it was not a condition that claimed millions of lives per year and represented the first leading cause of death in the world.

He brought his free hand to his head, until, at the time, someone called his father's family to inform them of his current situation, which prompted to stand with his mother.

He nodded listening to the state of his father and the favorable response of attending him before. His father would be kept under observation for the next few hours, after which the procedure would be decided, although he would have to remain hospitalized for control, and receive indications when he had to leave the medical center.

While attending the doctor, he could not help wondering the cause of the event.

He mulled over it, unable to reach a conclusion; but most likely it was the lifestyle of his father, to which Naoki already thought about and insinuated should modify, though his father didn't do it. It required iron fist to make an older person change his habits, sometimes even those who had wake-up calls ignored them, with the excuse that his time was near or "anyway going to die", to highlight the common ones.

Nevertheless, he thought there was something else.

Unfortunately, he wished he had some mistakes and that everything was due to the current lifestyle of his father.

But some answers, unwanted, came without being asked.

[…]

The next day, the cause of his father's estate had become clear to Naoki.

He gave a long sigh in front of the door of his otou-san, with his secretary's words making sense after he wanted to know the status of his boss.

Naoki had called to notify him of the absence of his father, but he had appeared a while later with consternation and he could know the mystery about what caused his father on the verge of a heart attack.

Pandai.

The company was making losses, many, and was going through a bad economic situation that year, in which the sales of the products had declined because of competition and the investors were making demands. The pressure of the situation was the cause of his father's estate.

The work of his life was in danger.

"There situations to solve, decisions to make, and Irie-sama hospitalized is a major obstacle."

"The same caused him to be in a hospital bed," he snapped, rubbing his temples, feeling that the restless night in an uncomfortable chair was catching up to him, along with all the problems.

The secretary had the decency to look contrite, but he knew that the other was right worrying, his work and those of everyone in the company could be jeopardized if everything got worse or Pandai went bankrupt.

"Is it necessary that my father is who handles the affairs?" he asked in even tone.

The other hesitated. "He is the one who takes most of the management of the company, he had intended to delegate this year, but he did not start after the problems perceived in the graphs of sales balances in early January."

"Does it have to be my father?"

"If there is someone else who can make conscious choices, who have the absolute confidence of Irie-sama."

Naoki cursed in his mind.

"Has my father chosen the people to delegate?" The man nodded. "Can they meet?" Another nod. "Will there be issues undesignated?"

"Yes, but the work of others must be supervised."

"How many years have you been with my father, Sato-san?"

"Fifteen."

"Then you and I have work to do," he replied, standing up. The other opened his mouth.

"Your father always wanted you to succeed, but with you studying medicine…"

"That's why you will help me, you could solve my doubts after I read my father's archives," he said, with the goal in mind of helping the company. He wasn't very worried, because his abilities had to help, along with Mr. Sato's experience.

"Naoki-kun." He turned in the direction where Kotoko came, stopping at him. "How is oji-san?"

"Stable," replied plainly, nodding to his father's secretary. "I have to go."

"Where?" she asked him with eyes open wide.

"Pandai, do not tell my parents," he demanded, following to the secretary.

[…]

Making a sneer that failed to change his state of mind, Naoki lowered the cup and swallowed the nasty coffee that someone had served him, and that only served to irritate him more and increase the state of uneasiness he felt inside, seeing the balances costs and sales company. He also took into account the budgets of income and expenses, behind a lot of paperwork in the last twenty hours.

He didn't know why he was seeing again the graphics if he didn't need it, but having tangible proof in his hands and before his eyes, served for something.

The company was declining in profits, compared to the previous two years, and was putting its existence in danger, because some of the major investors were gradually offering their shares to retire, and the number of minority shareholders increased. It was not so important, considering that, if the company kept going like that, in a couple of years there wouldn't be more Pandai… Leaving many unemployed…

…and the dream of his father and brother adrift.

His father's work would be lost.

His father had not seemed any different in all that time, or at least Naoki had not noticed any apparent change in him. The threat of a sudden heart attack had been what served to draw attention to it.

He rubbed his eyes, Sato-san had said that his father had recently considered making use of his personal monetary assets to support the company, but the man said that it would have been a desperate measure that would have left him in a precarious position, without the right strategy to direct the company. In addition to the breakdown of the company, he would have been bankrupt himself.

It was needed a good contingency plan to move forward, but also monetary support for viable solutions.

At the time, he could not think what it might be. His head, after two days with no real rest, saw only numbers, and red ones, which was worse.

As fresh blood.

He sighed, running a hand through his hair.

He wanted to go back to a week ago, with no problems, concentrating on his preparation and future as a physician. Things were calm and nothing serious happened, his father was healthy and not a possible drop in the company was expected, things with his family showed calm, he enjoyed going to college and learn more about the human body and medical practice.

He had a sense of unease, feeling a sensation in his chest… He thought that, in the current situation, he would have to abandon his dream of becoming a doctor and devote himself entirely to help his father, changing his career to work for Pandai. He owed much to him and a good way of giving it back would be supporting his dream.

He did not want the company to sank, nor every effort of his life to waste, but his dream was to become a doctor and… he did not know what to do.

He gritted his teeth, looking in another folder for more information about the situation. Neither was time to think about it, just two days not attending college had made him consider the matter—as well as the papers he had been reading.

How he wished to wake up in his bed and it was just a nightmare.

[…]

On the third day of not moving, practically, from Pandai, Naoki, with very few hours of sleep, wanted to scurry away halfway through the day without having to see the worried faces of the employees of his father, or the repetitive look of Mr. Sato put on him, while the other made numerous annotations.

He recalled that, to just calling his mother, he had not gone to see his father, and had to approach the hospital. His father was better, but was still at the hospital and he knew his absence would generate suspicion in him, because he was no fool. Also, he should go talk to him, so he would not brooding on the matter of Pandai and prevented his recovery, since his mother had said that the heart rate and blood pressure were the doctor concerns.

They would not drop if he was still thinking of his company.

The office door of presidency opened and he was angry because they did not call, but also thinking it could be due to some bad news that prevented remembering education. Which was worse.

"Naoki-kun."

He raised his head, hoping that it wasn't a serious matter with his father to make Kotoko be there. His phone was somewhere beneath the papers, and he knew he had enough battery, although it could be that he did not pay attention, immersed in what he was.

"I brought lunch." He looked at the package she was carrying in her hand and sighed, he wasn't in the mood to support one of the failed culinary attempts of his girlfriend, now that his mother was in the hospital. "I went to my father's restaurant," she explained, as if she understood the reason for his sighed.

"And your classes?" he asked, pushing the papers from the table to make room.

The truth was that he wanted a good meal after too much coffee and days without eating decent food. Somehow, she was a source of encouragement.

"It's time for clubs," she said, shrugging, placing the bento box on the desk. "Will you again be home late at night today?"

"I do not know," he muttered with another sigh. He needed to think.

"What is it, Naoki-kun?" she asked in a worried voice. "Does oji-san's company have too many problems? Is that why he became ill?"

He ran his hand over his face, before nodding, opening his eyes.

She swallowed. "I wish I could do something to help."

Even he knew if he was very capable. That was not his field and he was involved in the basics, from what he had read previously, the common sense and the contributions of Sato-san.

There must be something he could do, but he had the head a bit tired after so much information and stress of concern for his father, sleepless nights, and own indecision to contend… So finding a solution, at the time, was difficult for him.

If his father, who was the expert, had not done much, what could he do?

Tension rose on his shoulders. "Naoki-kun, what's exactly the work of your father's company?" Asked Kotoko as he began to eat.

"Initially to the development of toys, but they diversified to video games, which has become the main objective," he replied, after swallowing.

She pulled a bottle of water from her purse and gave it to him.

"All the men and women that I found out there work in video games?"

He denied, though… they were actually very few young people in the creative and developer team of Pandai; he saw their ages in a report from payroll department of HR, in the brief time he wanted to know the total number of employees who would be affected.

"Oh, and did they make interesting games for girls?" She kept on, hitting a ball on the Newton's cradle on the desktop, which began to swing the others. "Because they always make the best for boys… or those who are for boys and girls do not have characters that girls like. When I was a child I complained to Dad and he laughed, but when I played at the holidays of the end of school year… Naoki-kun?"

He blinked; he had been engrossed listening, with a possible way of many that would be needed to get out of that rough patch.

In the market, there were more games designed for men, or for both genres, or the ones for women weren't made without something pink or a poor protagonist. They needed good heroines or a videogame based on something famous at the time to stick in the public.

He had to bring it out, they need to do market analysis to develop potential games that appealed to different users, also female members; with the considerable difference population between men and women, it would serve to look at them, and because, not like before, they began to be more interested in video games, or so he thought. Ironically, he had never liked videos, although his father worked on it.

"What were you saying?" He watched carefully to Kotoko, with an idea forming in his head… a famous heroine in that moment.

Kotorin.

Could it be? Or was it just that now the only person he had in his head was she, who had given him a path with her chatter and movement of her hands.

The signs.

A public not taken into account.

They could not just make them read; at least, the weak hearing people would be able to get involved.

Enough of getting distracted; he should pay attention because her speech was not useless.

She smiled slightly. "I said that I got bored in the holidays at the end of the school year, with games that they sold…"

"When did they launch the games onto the market?" He asked aloud, remembering that the last developed was designed to mid-March, two weeks after the end of classes.

"I do not know… but on vacation."

Because they had the idea that children would be entertained with them between courses. He should check that because, as he suspected, if they launched the games a week after school, as a whole, those interested would find multiple options; however, if the first day of spring break they found out a unique game that caught their attention.

Another possible audience could be the one who had too much mental agility, like him, people who needed a really tough game for them, one to which they didn't lose interest easily.

"I have business to attend to, go home," he said, standing up. She frowned.

"But… you have not finished." He did not need to eat; he was interested in things more important. She could have just offered him the alternatives he needed; she had come to enlighten him.

"Go home, Kotoko," he requested, walking toward the exit.

[…]

Naoki listened to Sato-san; they had just presented viable proposals, so far, to the team, which was mainly willing—but also had doubts—about having everything ready for the launch of the Spring game a week and a half before, to stay ahead of competitors and break the normal scheme of the country. He hoped it was a success, although it looked very possible, but they said that other companies do not bet for that and preferred the traditional… just that in Pandai needed break it and take on challenges and risks…

Someone knocked on the door and he allowed access. Looking up he met the dubiously face of Kotoko, looking in between the crack.

It could be lunch again. Honestly, if it were not for her, he'd forget to eat; the many office workers who insisted on taking him office tea or coffee, didn't think about the nutrients that food could provide; Kotoko, however, yes.

He invited her to go in with a nod and she hugged the food to her chest, going to sit in an armchair.

Sato-san did not take much notice, still immersed in the documents he held in his hands, with the development of potential ideas.

"Really it's a shame that you aren't the successor of Irie-sama, if everything works. They really are very good ideas, Naoki, that can be successful by themselves."

However, the problem was on the money, said the other at the same time he thought of it. They needed to discuss the matter.

"Is there any entrepreneur who can do business relationship instead of going to banks for loans?" he asked, leaning slightly back in his swivel chair, with a pen in his right hand.

"Actually, there's Oizumi-sama, the most convenient, an important businessman," said the man, a thoughtful look. "He's the president of his corporation. However… since recent times, he has a greater concern than partnering with other companies, unless it can be persuaded, though it does not seem possible… or do something that secured his most valuable asset."

"What are you talking about, Sato-san?"

"She has a granddaughter, almost the same age as you, and he wants to secure her future." Naoki dropped the pen he was holding and closed his eyes, feeling his blood run cold. "If we offer a deal as a marriage interview."

Kotoko gasped, breaking the words of Sato-san. He was speechless, and watched her, seeing her white face with a closed expression.

"Is that the only way he can give the money to the company of Irie-san?" she asked somberly.

Naoki hated to see the assent of Sato-san. That was… it let him… No… He scanned the expression of the man, looking for any sign of doubt, but he was sure of his answer.

The hand that was on the armrest of the chair, clenched, as he felt an invisible force mantle fell on his head, sinking him.

"Naoki-kun…" He moved his gaze to Kotoko, who was near the door. "If that will help oji-san… I… I think you should…"

He, like a spring, stood. She shook her head, going out without looking back.

* From American Sign Language, which influenced others. I didn't find the Japanese ones.