First of all, I really want to thank you guys for reading and reviewing the first chapter. I really didn't expect that I'll have 10+ reviews for the Prologue. I'm sooooo damn happy! Thanks a whole lot for the supports, I hope you guys will enjoy this second chapter! :)
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'Maid sama' = Speaking in English
Disclaimer: Nope, I still do not own Maid-Sama!
-The Deal-
Takumi was walking boringly towards the gate of Seika High. Unlike usual, he was walking alone. He didn't accompany Misaki to Maid Latte that day because she was having a day off. It was two days before their school's graduation ceremony, and Misaki was helping the student council to carry out the preparation for the big day. Although she wasn't the president anymore since she handed the position down to Kanou during her third year, she was still helping the student council whenever she could.
He was being sent home by Misaki because his appearance distracted a lot of the female students from doing the preparation activities. Although all of the students of Seika knew their relationship, but it didn't stop the girls from cheering and blushing whenever he was around. Not that he had problems with it, but Misaki found it annoying as less work was done because the girls were too busy looking at him that some of them forgot what they should be doing. Moreover, the inconvenient feelings she had when she looked at their enthusiasms towards her boyfriend made her difficult to concentrate on doing her own work. She wouldn't admit it, but Takumi surely knew it right away.
So when she asked him 'nicely' to just go home without her, he agreed without further complaints. Well, apart from asking her to kiss him before he went home, which earned him an extra punch on the head before she finally kissed him in the end. He chuckled when he remembered her cute expression when she addressed him as a perverted outer space alien, a nickname she came up with to describe his perverseness and inhuman abilities, after he took the chance to drag her to a more intimate kiss when he kissed her back.
But his thought about her was interrupted when he was halfway through the front gate. His expression suddenly hardened and he stopped walking when he noticed that someone was waiting for him.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Takumi." A man in black suit was bowing politely towards Takumi. He was holding open the door of a piano black limo which was parked near the gate. The man looked like a foreigner and judging from the way he talked, he wasn't familiar with Japanese language.
"What business brings you here, Edward?" Takumi answered him fluently. He seemed to know the guy, but not in a friendly way.
"I was assigned to escort you to the Walker house this evening. Please step inside the car, Mr. Takumi." He answered him in a very formal way and his movement was flawlessly polite.
Takumi was trying to figure out what was the purpose of his sudden appearance, although he didn't show it in his face. He knew although that man was the senior personal assistant slash head of bodyguards of the Walkers, there's no way that he would be informed about the reason why he was assigned to do anything. That's how it worked in their family, and Takumi knew it perfectly well that it's useless to try to drag any information out of him. The only way to find out about it was to follow him to the house.
"Very well then." Takumi said while walking towards the limo without saying anything more.
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Takumi was standing in front of a huge mahogany door inside the Walker house. His eyes lingered for a moment on the unusual size of the door. From its appearance, he knew that it led to a private room that he had never seen before. It was located on the top-most floor and it seemed to be in a restricted area of the house. Edward was standing beside him, knocking the door. A few seconds later, the pair of double doors swung open. A tall, brown-haired man in black suit stood there. He looked slightly younger than Edward and as he recognized Takumi, he greeted him while holding the door open and moved aside to allow them to enter the room.
They were looking at a big and luxurious room filled with restored Victorian furniture and a huge desk located at the other end of the room. Takumi noticed someone was sitting on a leather chair that was facing its back to them behind the desk.
"He is here, sir." Edward talked to the man behind the desk while placing a pile of documents on the desk.
The man raised his hand and waved without turning to them. With that, Edward and the other man bowed to him and walked out the door. By the time they closed the door behind them, silence immediately filled the spacious room. Takumi didn't make any sound, waiting for any kind of movement from the man in front of him.
A few moments later, the man finally turned around and subsequently two pairs of emerald green eyes met.
"It's been a long time, Takumi." The old man behind the desk spoke to Takumi with a firm voice as his eyes observing the young man closely. His green eyes were like Takumi's, but they had none of Takumi's warmth. They were cold and empty, made you think of dark tunnels. His mere sight alone was enough to send shivers to anyone he was facing. He had a gift of keeping the people whom he talked to silent without effort.
"Yes… Grandfather." Takumi said. No element of surprise in his tone when he finally came across the most influential man in the Walker's family.
"I see now… You are not surprised to see me… Then I guess you know what I am here for?" He folded his arms on the desk, leaning a little bit forward to listen to Takumi's answer.
"Is it to properly inform me about what they did lately?" Takumi said firmly, implying to the intense 'investigations' over him for the past few months.
"And why would I do that?"
"…Because you knew that I need a reason before agreeing to any terms that you are about to tell me."
The edges of the old man's lips deepened, satisfied by Takumi's answer. "So I heard that you're some kind of a genius, I guess they aren't exaggerating."
Takumi said nothing. His expression didn't change despite of the flattering words that were surprisingly come out from his mouth because he knew better that it wasn't that genuine.
"Then I'll leave out the unnecessary talk and go straight to the main point. Are you aware of the situation you are in right now?" The grandfather's voice sent silent daggers toward Takumi. The air got intense immediately.
"I'm fully aware that I am not in the path that you and the family decided for me recently. But I failed to understand why the sudden change of plan."
"Which is exactly why you are here now. I am going to make everything clear once and for all."
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"For starter, do you know why I gave you permission to enter a public high school?" He asked Takumi while gesturing him to sit on the chair in front of him.
Takumi sat on the appointed chair and looked straight at his grandfather while answering. "…Because I asked for that as a means for preparing me to enter the world of the commoner and live on my own."
"That part was true, but you're missing the other part."
Takumi gave him a slightly startled look, but he brushed it off immediately. His mind was thinking hard, but nonetheless, he felt like he wasn't going to find the answer without any extra information. "So there was another part of it… I guess I wasn't informed about that one too."
"It's necessary to make it work. The main intention was to let you experience the difference between our world and their world with your own eyes, and ending your childish dream to cut your ties with us forever."
For the first time since he entered the door of the house, he felt clueless. He didn't expect his family would prepare such a dirty plan by manipulating his wish to live a plain and normal life. Suddenly it all made sense. Why they didn't allow him to do part time jobs and continued to provide support for his daily needs. It was then in that very moment that he realized, they had no intention to let him go from the very beginning. It was all lies. He started to laugh at his own naivety for believing those thoughts even though he realized that something was utterly wrong when they agreed to his request to leave the house so easily. But he tried to keep calm and undisturbed as he spoke.
"So you think that after I realized that I won't fit into that world, I'll desperately come back to the house on my own decision?"
"Naturally, yes. Since you were restricted from telling anyone about your circumstances, it's obvious that you won't be making friends that easily, and considering the fact that your abilities exceeded their finest in every aspect, certainly you will feel bored by the lack of challenges. So everything went according to the plan, and it's only a matter of time until you realized that you were wasting your time here. Until something came across and ruined everything." He stopped, and his expression darkened as he was smothering his anger.
"That little girl of yours." He added, purposely emphasizing the last part.
Takumi's upper body jerked upright on the chair, his hands tightened his grip on the armrest, and his expression stiffened as he heard him mentioning her. He couldn't help but feeling the silent threat towards Misaki in his grandfather's tone.
It didn't go unnoticed. A mysterious smile gradually appeared on the old man's wrinkled but gracious face, as if expecting Takumi's reaction. "Well… Well… Well… For the first time, I saw emotions coming from you. How interesting. Then it's true… That girl is important to you."
Takumi didn't say anything. He knew that it's useless to deny it. He must have known everything from his reaction just now.
"Now that I'm certain about it, we can get down to business."
Takumi looked at him, confused. He really couldn't predict his grandfather's intention on him and Misaki. "What do you mean?"
"I'll offer you a deal." He said calmly.
Takumi gave him a cold look. He knew that something like that should come out eventually sooner or later. His grandfather was a solid leader in the business world. To him, everything in this world could be seen as business transactions, in which he was an expert for winning every single one of it. However, considering their current situation, Takumi had no choice but to listen to his offer.
"You should perfectly understand by now about my animosity towards your mere existence." He paused, staring at Takumi, as if expecting some reaction from him. But when he saw that Takumi was as calm as his usual self, he then continued.
"But I recognize talent when I see one. Ever since you were a child, I've seen something in you, the things that I expected to be seen in Gerard. That's why although I made it look like we're ditching you when you were sent to the Usui's, I provided you with the best educations anyone can get. And you didn't disappoint me either."
Takumi listened silently to everything his grandfather said without changing his expression. That information was new to him. He could finally understand why he received English education although he had been adopted by the Usui family. He began to wonder how many more secrets his grandfather held from him, so he decided to go along with the current state while thinking of any possible reasons behind his sudden revelation.
"The only problem was your constant resistance to follow orders, although you always succeed to get away by deceiving my people with your convincing act. So I decided to make use of your sole inclination to sever any kind of connection you have with us and shattered it into pieces right before your eyes."
Takumi's anger started to explode from inside of him, but he wasn't planning to show it to that old man. He knew that he needed to win this battle. And it included restraining any kind of emotions that would make things easier for his grandfather. So Takumi continued to show his composed face, as if unaffected by those assaulting words.
His grandfather seemed a bit annoyed by Takumi's lack of reaction, but silently amazed by his ability to control his emotions. It made him more interested to win him over. It had been a long time since he encountered such an exciting opponent. He then continued his elaboration while watching him closely.
"But then I received unpleasant news that you were involved with that low-class girl from that cunning heir of Igarashi family. They stated clearly that they knew who you are and offered us help to set you two apart by transferring you to his school. He paused to make a sarcastic laugh.
"But I knew better what kind of people are they. I saw it as a future threat if you are to be kept within their grasp, but in the mean time, I need their service. So I agreed to their offer while at the right moment, interjecting my own plan."
The last part of his grandfather's explanation startled him. He secretly impressed by his distinguished vision of the whole situation even without being there. Although he knew that his grandfather didn't become the most feared opponent in the whole business world without reason, still he wouldn't have understood it to that extent if he didn't experience it himself. Then for the first time in the last fifteen minutes of their talk, he spoke.
"I'm glad that I'm not the only one who had seen through Igarashi's ill intention. So is that why you didn't simply force me to transfer, but instead you let them do it their way?"
"Indeed. And I am absolutely sure that they won't succeed. Believe it or not, boy, I knew your character. The more you're forced to do something, the more you'll counter it back, and my plan won't work out if you don't come to us willingly."
"So I'm guessing that's where you sent your pawns?" Takumi said with sarcastic tone.
The old man laughed coldly all of a sudden when he heard Takumi's words. He was evidently impressed by Takumi's quick reasoning. "I have expected that you'll notice it. That's right. I sent Gerard to see you and ordered him to bring you back with him, but I forbid him from doing anything reckless, which he usually did during important moments, that boy…" He sighed, a slight disappointment in his tone, but he brushed it away quickly. "As you can see, it didn't work out the way I want it, so I have no choice but to settle the deal myself."
"I've got it so far, but there's one more thing that I need to clarify…" Takumi looked at his grandfather, waiting for his consent, and as he nodded in approval, Takumi continued speaking. "As one of the largest and influential company in the world, Walker Corp already has a lot of talented people, but why do you bother to take that much effort just to claim me?"
Takumi's grandfather sat still. It was the core question which he knew that young man was eager to know. An unpleasant silence immediately filled the air as he didn't momentarily reply to Takumi's question. The old man leaned backwards to the chair and moved his gaze to the ceiling, devising his answer carefully.
Takumi didn't bother to disturb him, so he waited patiently for his answer. Looking at the old man at that moment, Takumi felt something different. The grandfather he knew was always cold and strong, like nothing would ever tear him down. But tonight, the old man looked somehow almost vulnerable, which didn't make any sense to him.
"Well, I guess you should know the truth." Suddenly Takumi's grandfather broke the silence. "I was bothered about the future of the company, and our family name. I won't be around forever to take care of the business, but before I hand it down, I need to be assured that someone competent will take over it. Ironically, I can't seem to find the suitable person in the current family line. Although I refused to admit it before, but the way I see it now, your ability exceeded every potential people I came across."
Takumi tried to say something but was stopped by his grandfather's outstretched hand. He then continued his speech. "I know you will say something like… You are an illegitimate child, why am I willing to risk tainting the family's reputation and such. Is that right?"
Takumi was speechless by his grandfather's sharp appraisal. He didn't manage to say a single word, so he nodded instead.
"If you are aware of the current situation, you will understand why I choose to tell this to you right now. It seems that the Igarashi group is planning to make some arrangement with my business rival to jeopardize my company's reputation regarding your existence. I am not the type of person who concedes defeat over that kind of threat!" The old man abruptly lost his cool as anger took over him. His face reddened and his right hand clenched to a fist as he stood up.
"I have decided to announce it in my own way before they even have the chance to make any kind of move. But before that, I need to settle things with you. Although I saw a huge potential in you, I will need your total dedication before I proceed with the plan. So here is the deal. You will come with me to England and learn to be my apprentice for three years. If within that period you can show me that you have the real competence, then I will appoint you to be my heir."
Takumi stood up. "You made that arrangement without even bothering whether I want it or not. To be honest, I don't care about any of that! With all due respect, I don't want to be your apprentice and your heir. Now, please excuse me." He turned around and headed to the door.
"Oh really? Do you think you can ignore this? If you still think about you and your girl's future, don't you dare walk out that door!" His grandfather's voice echoed in that spacious room and Takumi stopped his movement immediately.
The voice continued. "Do you think you can survive without us? Do you even think that you can protect that girl and give her a decent life by turning your back on us? No. You don't even have the power to protect yourself! What will you gain by going against us? Only endless sufferings and you will drag down the girl that you love with you, along with her entire family. On the other hand, if you decided to be smart and accept the deal, you will soon have the power that you need to make everything possible. I only give you this one chance. This is the best offer you are ever going to get. Think about it wisely."
His grandfather then walked to him and handed him the documents that was lying on the desk before. "This contains everything you need to prepare before going to England, including your ticket. I'll meet you at the airport three days from now. If you don't show up, I'll assume that you decided to turn the deal down and you are ready for everything that will come after that. And one more thing, if you decided to come with me, do not tell anything to that girl and I won't allow any kind of communication between you two. In return, I'll make things easier for her and her family."
Takumi scanned the document he had on his hands. He honestly didn't know what to do at the moment, but he knew that his grandfather only gave him that kind of proposal because he needed him, and considering his usual way of doing things, that deal was rather generous. He was going to bet on it.
"As much as your offer seems very alluring, but I see no point in agreeing to it. You don't understand me at all, grandfather. She is the only one that I won't give up for anything. Do you think I don't know that you are only trying to separate us under the disguise of such a deal?"
The grandfather felt his blood boiling, hearing his illegitimate grandson insulting him. "How dare you question my intention, you filthy little boy! I will never think of something such sickening as considering you to be the heir of the Walkers if it's not because of his—" He stopped momentarily as he realized that he was spilling unnecessary fact that would ruin everything once and for all. He then tried to cover it by clearing his throat and trying to act like nothing happened.
Takumi secretly expected that kind of reaction as it was his intention from the start. He finally saw a glimpse of truth behind their long talk just now. He actually didn't think that his grandfather would reveal it that soon, but he knew that even if that old man was the most brilliant person in the world, the likelihood of losing something most important to him would definitely shake him up and corrupt his brilliant mind eventually, depending on how he was lured.
"So I guess, there is something more about this deal too, I suppose, Grandfather?" He paused to hear what his grandfather had to say about his sarcastic question. As the old man shot him a disgusting look without saying anything, Takumi knew that he hit the right spot.
"I could care less of the details, but it doesn't change the fact that whatever that is, either you tell it to me now or I'll figure it out soon, it was in a state of urgency. So now that both of us are aware of it, it won't be hard to acknowledge its influence to the deal you offered just now." Takumi said coldly.
The old man straightened up, moving his hands to the back while clenching it tightly behind him. For the first time, he felt like being pushed to a corner, which made him mad. "What do you have in your slithery mind, boy?"
"A second deal." Takumi simply said.
To be continued….
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Yupz! That's a wrap for The Deal!
I hope it's long enough to make you guys satisfied and short enough to not make you guys bored :)
So what do you guys think? Please leave me your reviews, I'll be very happy to read your opinions about my story ^^
The next chapter is titled "The Second Deal – Revelation"
I hope this chapter will still make you guys want to read more!
See you all around!
-Fin-
