"It was the wicked and wild wind,
Blew down the doors to let me in.
Shattered windows and the sound of drums,
People couldn't believe what I'd become."
Viva La Vida by Coldplay
IX
It was peaceful at Kaiba Corporation on October 25th. It had been since the early morning and even into the afternoon. The employees were busy, as they always were, working away. The chilly air wisped against the glass outside—the days had become colder as the hours of daylight shortened. The leaves were falling, the seasons were changing, and all was well with the world. Yes, it was calm in the office… that was until someone noted the time. Suddenly an employee stood up from his cubicle, disrupting the peace as he shouted, "It's nearly four o'clock! Take your places everyone!"
Those who had been standing in the lobby rushed back to their desks immediately. Others took several cups of water back with them in hopes that it would be enough to get them through the rest of the day. The halls had become deserted and bathroom breaks were taken in haste. The men in security scanned their surveillance cameras and left their station to tell the news. "He's here!" The office shrank in complete silent just as the elevator had opened.
"Nii-sama, I know how dead set you are on working every single business day there is, but don't you think you could take the day off, just this once?" Mokuba asked, trying his best to follow closely behind Seto's stomps as they approached his office.
"Nope, I don't take days off and you know that." Seto suddenly stopped in the middle of his angry walk and looked around. Everyone held their breath at the same time and pretended to be doing other things. "I know you people are watching me. The more attention you draw to yourself, the more likely I am to come after you. So it would be best if you just do your job, do it right, and get over the fact that I will fire you the instant you screw up." Seto continued his path towards his office. No one knew what caused such a foul mood, but the employees did know that on this day, every year, Seto Kaiba was the one man they had to avoid at all costs. Employees only approached him if absolutely necessary.
"Nii-sama, come on…" Seto stopped again and turned around.
"Mokuba, I know you want me to change my attitude, but that's not going to happen. I woke up this way, I've been this way all day, and I'm going to stay this way until today is over. Understand?" Seto spat, "The best you can do for yourself is stay in the lobby until it's time to go home, alright?" Mokuba glared at Seto and folded his arms. He hated how his brother was acting but he also realized there was nothing he could do about it.
"Fine… I'll be there if you need me," Mokuba mumbled, walking back to the elevator. Seto ignored his brother's anger by using his own to walk more briskly into his office, where he spotted something strange atop his usually barren desk. Seto's eyes went from the object to Kisara, sitting in the corner behind her computer. She looked up.
"Oh Mr. Kaiba, you're here! If you're wondering where the name plate came from, it's a gift from me. It's sort of a boss appreciation gift, I guess. You've been so kind to me ever since I started working here, so think of it as a thank you gift." Seto eyed the name plate more closely. Underneath a single purple bow, was a silver name plate that read, "Seto Kaiba—CEO." Seto gritted his teeth with annoyance as he turned his head back to Kisara.
"How did you find out about today?" Kisara's smile disappeared when she saw Seto's face. He looked beyond pissed. She had no idea what to say.
"I… don't know what you mean." Seto left his desk and walked over to her.
"I think you know exactly what I mean. I know what this gift is for and it's not a thank you. You knew it was my birthday today, didn't you?" Seto was standing right in front of her at that point, so close that she could practically smell his rage flowing out of him. Her knees begin to buckle beneath her.
"It was a lucky guess?" Seto's eyes narrowed.
"Never mention it to anyone! Got that?" Kisara nodded and turned back to her desk in a desperate attempt to somehow feel safe again. "Good." Kisara didn't want to take Seto's outrage personally. After all, it was her own fault for not listening to Mokuba's advice. She should've just called in sick today… Then there was a knock on the door and Kisara's heart stopped, fearing for the poor soul who dared to speak to Seto after the blow up that almost occurred moments earlier.
It was Mr. Katsu. The first question that popped into Kisara's mind was what Mr. Katsu was doing at Kaiba Corp. Since Kisara had suggested Mr. Katsu work from home to take care of his family, he hadn't set foot in the office, only leaving his home to attend mandatory meetings or meet with clients. The second question that came to her mind was why, of all days, he had picked today to come in. Clearly, Mr. Katsu wasn't aware of what day it was and what was worse was he looked like he had bad news.
"What the hell are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be having that meeting with the new hologram developers? I need you to meet with them now. Our newest product is set to be released in a couple months." Mr. Katsu looked down.
"I did meet with them… but it seems I was too late." Seto's eye twitched slightly.
"Explain yourself."
"They… told me they already signed with another company to develop their hologram technology. I was too late." That was it. That was all Seto needed to hear before something deep within his walls of sanity and collected calmness came bursting out of him like an atomic bomb.
"You were too late… you were too late? What did I tell you would happen? This is exactly what I predicted! You fool!" Seto directed his attention to Kisara, who shrunk in her seat, wishing she had a shield to protect herself, "You… I told you this would happen! You allowed this to occur! Get out of my office, both of you! Get out of my sight, get out of my office, and never come here again! You're FIRED!" Kisara couldn't breathe, she was so frightened. Mr. Katsu had the intelligence to run away but Kisara was completely frozen.
Seto wasn't finished, either. "Why are you still here? Are you waiting for something? Get out! GET OUT NOW!" Seto howled as he took up the name plate Kisara had given him and dumped it in the trash. That was only the beginning of his rampage… taking up the files Kisara had neatly stacked on his desk and throwing them in the air. He continued to toss and throw everything in sight; breaking his lamp, smashing the only picture on his desk, and throwing every loose object he could against the wall.
Kisara was petrified, but mostly for Seto. She was sure he didn't realize that his right arm was bleeding from the shard of glass that had flown at him when he smashed the framed picture on his desk and she was afraid the next thing he was going to break was the large window overlooking Domino City. He had to be stopped and Kisara had to stop him.
"Mr. Kaiba… Seto, please! Calm down! It's okay! We'll get new hologram developers, I'll get them. It'll be fine!" Kisara's yells were white noise to Seto. He couldn't hear her over his own thoughts. He had failed. The company had failed. Flashbacks from his childhood came back to him in five second scenes; his step father telling him he had failed, watching potential parents get in their cars and drive away from the orphanage, and his own self image as a child, wanting a better life for his younger brother.
Kisara concluded that Seto couldn't hear him within a couple minutes and stopped yelling. There had to be another way to reach Seto, and she only needed a second before she figured it out and ran back to her desk. Seto had destroyed or thrown everything on and around his desk, and now he was trying to flip his desk over. Kisara grabbed her computer and went back over to Seto. She clicked the spacebar and soft, classical music began playing.
At first, Seto didn't respond at all. His one track mind was focused only on flipping the empty desk in front of him which was much harder than he imagined. Seto wasn't in the state of mind to realize that he had used up much of his energy destroying everything he could grab but it was in his exhaustion, that the ringing began to soften as the music played. Seto let go of the desk and slowly stood up, looking to see where it came from.
Kisara was holding her computer out in front of her with her eyes closed shut, too afraid to see what he would do to her when he noticed the music she was playing. Maybe he would throw her out the window, or maybe he would batter her with the broken lamp, or maybe… She opened her eyes and saw Seto standing in front of her, staring blankly at the computer and then down at Kisara. Kisara lowered the computer as she began to notice something entirely different in Seto's expression.
She was positive that Seto was himself again, but it was like she was seeing him in a different light. Ever since Kisara had begun working at Kaiba Corp. she had noticed that Seto never really looked her in the eyes. Kisara wasn't sure how, but he had found a way to look around her, or to only make a few glances. It was like he had been afraid to really look at her, afraid of what he might see. Kisara had never questioned it but suddenly, there they were, looking at each other and seeing something they never saw before. Neither of them spoke, they only gazed as if really seeing each other for the first time.
So entranced they were in their gaze, they hadn't noticed the outsider standing in the doorway. Mokuba had come running there as fast as he could when one of the employees had told him that Seto was on a rampage. Mokuba could tell from the debris that that much was true… but he hadn't expected Seto and Kisara's interaction. He was amazed by what he saw. There was clearly some sort of connection between the two of them. Mokuba had to think twice before ruining the surprisingly intimate moment.
"Nii-sama, are you okay?" Seto snapped out of whatever trance he was in and reverted back to his normal self as he turned his head.
"I'm fine, and you?" Mokuba wanted to laugh.
"You're fine? Your office is a disaster area. What happened?" Mokuba took another look at him and noticed his arm, "Whoa, is your arm bleeding?" Seto looked down and saw the streaks of blood on his arm. He didn't say anything in response to what Mokuba said as he started waking towards the door.
"I think I'm going to take a break for the next few hours. Kisara, please cancel any appointments I have for the day and clean up this mess, thank you." Seto left the room and that was that. The minute Seto was gone Mokuba ran over to Kisara and stared at her in awe.
"What happened? What did you do to him?"
"What? That wasn't me! He hurt himself when he—"
"No, I mean… what did you do to calm him down? He's completely mellowed out." Kisara looked down at the laptop in her hand, still playing the same soft classical tune she had put on earlier. Mokuba's eyes widened. "That's how you did it? That's fantastic! How did you know that would work?" Kisara was just as bemused as Mokuba was, but she didn't have time to really think it through. It had been a long shot, but it had worked.
"I'm not sure. I just knew, I suppose." Kisara's mind was a little too preoccupied to answer Mokuba's questions. She kept thinking back to the moment she and Seto had shared and what it meant. Kisara desperately wanted to know what was going through Seto's head because if she didn't know any better, she would've thought that he…
"Well, I'm impressed, but you better get back to cleaning up this office. I'm going to go find Nii-sama and make sure he's okay, see you later!" Mokuba smiled and then left. Kisara shrugged and looked around at the mess that surrounded her on the floor. It was going to be a long day, but cleaning up the office was just the labor intensive job to keep her nerves at bay as she pondered what was going on with Seto.
It had nearly taken the whole day but it was finally done. The office had been cleaned, the files had been organized, and the broken equipment had been replaced. It had been hours since the end of her shift and the office was dark and desolate. Kisara was tired but content with the job she had done. Mostly she had focused on making the office look exactly like it did before Seto had trashed it, knowing that was what Seto wanted even though he hadn't asked.
She was just coming back after throwing away the excess trash when she saw the new lamp was turned on in Seto's office. There was a single piece of paper that was placed on his desk under the light. Kisara looked around, a little hesitant to go forward and take a look. She didn't know whether Seto had gone home or not, and despite the feeling that this broke some sort of privacy agreement, she inched forward and picked up the piece of paper. It was a newspaper article that had been written two years earlier. It talked about the changes in business at Kaiba Corp. A good portion of the article was about Seto and how he was the new CEO, taking over for his step father.
"I'm sorry about what you saw earlier today." Kisara's heart nearly stopped beating as she twisted around to see Seto standing in the doorway. He looked concerned, "Oh, I didn't mean to scare you."
"No, it's alright. What are you still doing here? I thought you went home." Seto shook his head.
"I decided to stick around. I had Isono take Mokuba home a couple hours ago. I wanted to make sure you cleaned up my office right…" Seto paused, "And I wanted to apologize properly. There is no excuse for my behavior earlier today." Kisara looked down at the paper in her hand and then back up at Seto.
"Apology accepted. I just have one question for you… what issue do you have with your birthday?" Seto's eyes looked down at the paper in her hand.
"Look at the date." Kisara scanned the article and realized it had been written exactly two years ago on that day, October 25th. Kisara still wasn't able to make the connection between the article and Seto's birthday. "You don't know me, Kisara, and you're not the only one. Many people don't know me. I like it that way and I keep it that way. It's no surprise that I wanted to be CEO of this company ever since I was adopted by my step father, Gozaburo." Seto paused.
"Still, truth be told, I'm not sure whether taking over this company was the right thing to do. It's true that I became the man I am today to give my brother a better life. And when I did, I made this company into something it wasn't, something it had never been, mostly because I was determined to never become the man my step father was. I did give my brother a better life, yes, but at what cost?" Seto walked over and took the newspaper clipping from Kisara's hand, staring deeply into the portrait of his father that was displayed in the article, "I've never really been sure whether I became a man worthy of running this company only to lose who I once was to get there."
Seto looked up at Kisara, "You never met my step father, but I can assure you he wasn't a noble human being." Kisara nodded and looked up at him. The darkness of the room hid most of her figure, but even in the low light, Seto was able to see her perfect blue eyes staring up at him.
"I know, I've read about him. I don't think you need to worry, though, because you're not like him. I may not know a lot about you, but I've seen more of you as your assistant than most people, so I get to see a fair amount of who you really are. You're a good person, and that's the only thing you'll ever need to know to understand that you are not and will never be the man your step father was." Seto's eyes widened. He had never heard anyone other than his brother say a nice thing about him before. He had to take a few moments to remember what he was supposed to say in response to being given a compliment.
"Thank… you." Seto felt those strange feelings again rising up inside of him as he saw her smile.
"You're welcome." At first, he thought he was feeling strange because it was the first time he had ever said 'thank you' to anyone before. He knew that wasn't it when he watched her turn and walk away. It was in watching her do this that Seto realized something he hadn't before.
He didn't want her to leave… he had wanted her to stay. It was in realizing this that another epiphany struck him. Seto didn't want Kisara to leave because he liked being around her… and in that moment, he finally understood what was going on with him. He liked being around her because Seto liked Kisara, in that way that people only do when they're interested in someone, romantically.
Seto was so dumbfounded by this fact that when he finally snapped out of his thoughts and rushed to offer Kisara a ride home, she had already taken a taxi. The only thing to figure out next was how he was going to deal with this, and what he was going to do to make these feelings go away.
A/N: Hey there, Kari here in the new year! Happy 2012, everyone! I know I said I would get this chapter up BY the new year but that just didn't end up happening. It got too crazy and quite frankly, rushing it was just making my work poor quality. Thankfully, it did make me write more than half the chapter by the time new years came around so that's how this came to be four days later. I hope you enjoyed it! I'm starting to really get excited because as I'm sure you can guess, it's about to get REAL interesting really soon. For now, thanks for reading and thanks for your reviews!