Chapter 4

Sabotage

The alarm blared and woke Seto from his stupor. He yawned and stretched his stiff shoulders. When was the last time I slept in a bed? Cracking his neck, he looked over at the dirty soup bowl on the table and sighed. After Ana had left, he angrily worked on more projects until his stomach protested and begged him for more. He wondered what she put in the soup because he hadn't been able to stop eating it until the entire pot was empty.

Walking over to the pot, he scraped a finger on the bottom and stuck it in his mouth. Damn, it's good. His stomach growled at him demanding more sustenance and for the first time since he'd moved in, he opened his fridge. Pulling out some random ingredients, he went about preparing his food. Unbeknownst to everyone but his brother, he was actually a decent cook. It didn't take him long to prep an omelet and make a bento for his lunch. When he finished, he let out a loud groan. Even though he was good at it, he hated to cook; it used too much energy. He clicked his teeth, irritated that he was giving in to her demands, but he didn't want multiple people coming to his apartment just to drop off assignments. Seto flipped out his phone and dialed Mokuba.

"Hey Nii-san, you make any friends yet?" His brother's voice was irritatingly peppy.

"Mokuba shut up. Did you find anything out about what I asked?"

"Well... Not really. I can't seem to find the original contract for this job. I got the name of the person you're supposed to see. It's Negoa-san."

"That doesn't help me much since I can't even get in to see this 'Negoa-san'. I went to their office, but they snowballed me until I left."

"About that…" There was a pause. "There might be a way for you to run into Negoa-san. I'm not sure how thrilled you'll be about it though."

"Mokuba, it's work. Just tell me."

"Well, tonight there's a dinner with the bigwigs in town and you just so happened to be invited..."

"Ugh." Seto rubbed the bridge of his nose and felt a headache coming on.

"Told you! But you might find this Negoa-san there."

He sighed and gave in. "Fine. I'll search on that end. Make sure you keep digging for that contract."

"You got it. Have fun at school and try to make some—"

Seto hung up on him before he could finish the comment. After he finished getting ready, he headed out the door.

The usual whispers and glares came his way when he walked into the classroom. He didn't bother looking around, except to glance at the obnoxious girl's seat. She was out cold on her desk. Must be nice to be so damn carefree. Seto walked back to his desk, not attempting to stifle any noise. He even scraped his seat across the ground loudly, earning more glares, just to see if it would wake her up. She didn't stir.

Goda walked into the classroom, and everyone except her stood up to greet him. He noticed her asleep and ticked his tongue, but to Seto's annoyance he didn't wake her. Seto focused on his own work and pulled out his tablet. While he typed away, he would glance up now and then to see if she was still out. The girl hadn't moved a muscle. Is she dead? He was having trouble focusing through the first class because it pissed him off that she was out cold. Even after the class ended, she still didn't move. If it hadn't been for the fact her back was rising and falling slowly, he would have declared her dead.

Feeling frustrated, and unable to focus, he went to grab a drink from the vending machine. The class looked at him strangely when he stood up and came back from getting his canned coffee. What, is it so weird for me to get a drink? On his way back to his seat, he glanced at the girl and slowed down. She'd shifted in her sleep and one arm and half her head was dangling off the table. Ah, she'll fall. He glanced around; no one else had taken notice. I should just let her fall. Her head slowly slid off and Seto's heart sped up. He could imagine the cracking sound her head would make when she hit the floor or possibly the desk next to her. This is none of my business. I should let her fall! She slipped off right before he passed. Gritting his teeth, he caught her shoulder and gently shoved her back up onto the desk before sitting back down. She didn't wake.

Seto went back to working on his tablet, but felt eyes on him. He looked up and found the petite girl, with ink colored hair who sat next to the obnoxious one, staring at him open-mouthed. A couple others in the class were also in shock. It didn't last long. They quickly whispered among themselves. Pissed by their demeanors, and the distraction, Seto ignored them, trying to work on his report. The obnoxious girl slept through the next class, and finally the bell rang for lunch.

Her friend walked over to her and shook her awake shouting, "Lunch time!"

She popped up and rubbed her eyes, letting out a loud yawn. So, she'll wake up to eat. You're the one who had me come to school. You should at least stay awake! Seto pulled out his lunch, but continued typing one handed.

"Eh. Well, I guess you won't pass out from hunger again at least." The obnoxious girl pointed out while taking out her own lunch.

Seto ignored her as he multi-tasked between eating and typing.

"Kaiba-san, would you like to eat lunch with us?"

Seto looked up and found a chipper boy with bright red hair that stuck out at funny angles, and golden yellow eyes, smiling down at him. His tiny nose scrunched up when he smiled.

"Huh?"

"Do you want to eat lunch with us?" He gestured over to a group of guys on the other side of the room.

"Why?"

"Why? To welcome you to the class?" He scratched his head, a little confused.

"I will only be here for a month at most, just pretend I'm not here or something." Seto went back to his food and work.

"E-even if you're only here for a month—"

"Let me make this clearer, buzz off," Seto snapped.

The guy flinched, then stuck his hands in his pockets, and slunk back over to his friends. Why won't people just frickin' let me be? A recent report came through on his tablet and he opened it to read it.

"So Amin-chan, I'm still waiting to see the ten percent you're not an a—"

"Frickin shit!" Seto slammed his chopsticks so hard into his food they snapped in half. Half the classroom jumped and the obnoxious girl frowned at him. Picking up his tablet, he furiously scrolled through the email he'd received from the company they were partnering with. He'd asked for their full concrete plans in a PDF format. When he'd opened it there were no designs, plans or testing dates for the Alpha, let alone the Beta stages. The only thing was a marketing strategy. Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit.

"Amin-chan you look like your about to barf, please don't do that again."

Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit. His phone rang, and he picked it up immediately. It was Mokuba.

"Nii-san, so... I found the original contract."

"Spit it out."

"Well... We thought we were partnering with Sansa Tech company, right? Well... They're not a tech company, their actual name is Sansa Marketing. They're a marketing company, only. Seto... They're promoting the tech as designed and sold by Kaiba corp."

Seto dropped his phone. It crashed to the floor, and the screen cracked.

"Kind of hard on tech, aren't you, Amin-chan?"

I've been railroaded. I'm going to kill whoever made this blasted contract. There's no way I can design, built and test this device and put it into production in three months. And this just had to fall around the time the board is cracking down on... Oh, I will kill this prick. This ass realizes that if I fail to deliver this, the board will have plenty of dirt to convince our shareholders to pull me as CEO.

"Um, Amin-chan... You don't look so good."

Seto looked up at her then back down at his tablet. He quietly slid the tablet back into his bag and picked at his lunch with the rest of his chopsticks. When lunch was over, he stared at the board, his mind numb. When the teachers tried to call on him, he stared at them blankly. After a bit, they seemed to feel so uncomfortable; they moved onto someone else. When the last bell rang, he packed up his stuff and quietly went home.

The rest of the day he sat in his apartment until his phone reminder went off. Oh, right. I have that dinner tonight. Not that I need to go... But maybe Negoa-san knows who initiated the contract. If I'm going down, I'm bringing that shit hole with me. Seto mindlessly got ready. He didn't enjoy wearing a suit and tie but put it on, anyway. Someday, I'll make long coats and leather pants formal dinner attire appropriate. How much do I have to pay to make that a fashion trend?

Seto called a taxi to take him to the address Mokuba gave him. When he got out, he walked up to the modern house through the rock garden. Let's get this over with. He rang the doorbell. Talking and laughter met him when the door opened.

"Welcome—Amin-chan?"

He looked down. The obnoxious girl from school stood before him. She was wearing a long red evening dress, and a bright red hair pin held up her hair in a loose bun. Kill me now.