Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Arubaito ❯ Impressions ( Chapter 2 )

Disclaimer: Characters, worlds, people, games, and everything else is owned by and copyrighted to Kazuki Takahashi. This is a non-for-profit fan work with no particular personal gain in mind. I own the writing and nothing else.

 

***

 

The letter had asked Katsuya to call them and confirm that he would work for the trial period, and that he would start on Saturday morning. It was Thursday evening, and he'd called them as soon as it hit 9 that morning. Then, after he'd gotten home from college, he'd spent a considerable amount of time looking for the newspaper and advert he'd seen the job in. However it seemed he had already thrown it out in his dismissal of ever getting such a qualified job.

That day, Honda had joked about the fact that, with him working in a professional environment he'd need a suit, and it only just occurred to Katsuya, as he scourged through every known crevice in his apartment for the job description, that he didn't own anything remotely buisnessy. So just what was he going to wear on his first day!?

He paused, since when did he worry about clothes?

Since you need the money, his brain wisely reminded him.

Oh, right.

He sat back on his knees, as he'd been kneeling in his wardrobe, and contemplated his options. He could go and buy some proper business-looking clothes, but that would require the money he didn't have and was hoping to get from said business venture. So that left option's b and c. Option b was go in whatever he had, which wasn't anything even slightly appropriate, he was sure, and option c was to go and beg Honda to borrow something. They were vaguely the same height… Well, he was closer to Honda's height than Yugi's in any case. So option c was looking pretty good in the end.

With a resigned sigh, knowing the incredible mocking he was going to receive upon asking for such help, he picked up his phone once again to call his best friend.

“Hello?” Honda's voice echoed through the receiver after a few rings.

Katsuya paused, then took a deep breath; “Honda, I need some clothes.”

 

Seto tapped his pen on the desk irritably. He'd just finally sorted out his meeting with Nobita Matsuno, the current CEO of Shichi Corporation. Unfortunately after announcing that he would deal with the issue swiftly to his management team yesterday, he had not realized how busy his schedule was for the next few weeks. With the kind of meetings and appointments it would do more harm than good to post-pone or reschedule. (Whether or not Nobita's schedule was equally as busy was inconsequential; people made time for him, not the other way around.)

So the meeting was to be held in two weeks. Seto just hoped during that time this clearly incompetent Nobita could hold his new branch of industry together.

Suddenly his mobile rang, and he placed the pen down on the desk to reach into his pocket and answer it.

“Hello?”

“Nii-sama!” Mokuba's voice chirped happily back to him. And all of a sudden Seto calmed down a little, he stopped being so annoyed about the delay and leaned back in his chair in the sort of posture that would have appeared relaxed to the untrained eye. Even though Mokuba was a reminder that he had to keep his company afloat for not only his own sake but for the sake of his only relative (that he had any care for, at any rate), he was also a reminder of something constant. Kaiba Corp.'s stocks rose and fell, they invested in new business and sold off unprofitable junk, managers were fired and hired, but Mokuba was always slightly separated from all that, and he was always happy and smiling and never failed to be there for Seto when he needed him, and Seto strove to reciprocate this.

Like himself, Mokuba used to be a lot meaner and a lot more competitive. All those years ago when Kaiba had constructed the simulation `Death-T' for Yugi and his friends, he had intended on taking the boy's life. And so had Mokuba. He had begged Seto for a chance to show Yugi up, to have a re-match with the teenager who had beaten him at his favourite game. Seto had allowed this, believing that his younger brother would fail. In the end Mokuba did lose to Yugi, but then Seto followed suit, and finally Yugi used ancient magic to destroy the evil in Seto's soul. This left Seto broken for a long while, although he recovered in time to save his younger brother from Pegasus. Many more things had happened since then, but it had been their twin defeats in their own tower that had started the change in both brothers.

Mokuba had changed the most, probably because he had been forced to watch his brother tear himself apart and come out defeated. He didn't want to thank Yugi openly for what he had done, but he did inside. It had been the hope that Mokuba needed to believe that things had a chance at going back to the way there were before that fateful chess game. And now he was happier, he was laughing all the time and annoying his brother and simply enjoying himself, whilst still maintaining his competitive spirit. He could even muster the infamous `Kaiba Death Glare' if the need arose. Seto, on the other hand, was still as ruthless and seemingly uncaring as ever, however Mokuba knew that he had changed, even if most other people couldn't see it. And he thought that if Kaiba had more people he trusted in his life, he would be able to change even more. He could become more relaxed and friendly, closer to how he used to be.

Well, one thing at a time.

“Can we have take away for dinner? Please please? Since the cook is sick today and everything…” Seto knew that if Mokuba had been standing in front of him he would be giving him the biggest puppy-dog eyes he could muster.

“You interrupted me to ask me that?” Seto replied, sounding agitated, although Mokuba knew him well enough to know that he wasn't. He would even go so far as to assume his brother actually appreciated his phone calls, and that they were a good distraction from his normally enormous work load.

“Yes?” Mokuba replied, probably blinking innocently.

Seto made a show of sighing loudly, “If you must, I suppose. Although I won't be home for another hour, so you had better be studying during that time. We can eat then.”

Seto could practically see the smile breaking across his little brother's face, “Thankyou Nii-sama!” He allowed himself his own small smile before hanging up the phone. If he had to wait to fire the inept CEO Nobita, so be it. No point in worrying about it any longer.

 

***

 

As expected, Honda had made the biggest show possible of taunting and paying Katsuya out about not having anything half-decent to wear to his first day of work. All in good humour, of course. Katsuya took it all in his stride, extremely grateful that Honda had anything to lend him and was willing to do it. He'd ended up wearing some black pants, which were slightly too big seeing as Katsuya had lost some weight lately owing to his new dietary habits (and if Honda had noticed this he thankfully did not mention anything), a blue shirt, and although it was suggested he out rightly refused to wear a tie. He wasn't sure if he'd cleaned up very well or not. To him, he still looked like the same disheveled misfit, only this time wearing slightly cleaner clothes.

He'd managed to take the two trains across town and even managed to find the right building. He'd walked in, gotten a clearly confused look from the receptionist, and eventually been sent up to the 8th floor. Now all he had to do was find the correct office, right?

What had Katsuya still a little edgy was that he wasn't exactly sure what the job entailed. He'd thrown away the job description and couldn't really remember what it said. He was pretty sure it was just some sort of filing job. Although to be honest he thought he'd be better at the kind of job that just had you running around trying to find the right coffee for people for hours on end. He'd only skrew up the entire system if they let him near a filing cabinet.

The elevator stopped on the eighth floor and as the doors opened with a loud `ding', his stomach tightened involuntarily. Damned nerves. He took a moment to compose himself, however his calming mantra was interrupted by another slightly confused voice;

“Excuse me, can I help you?” The woman was barely able to disguise her distaste at the sight of Katsuya, who, even with the help of Honda's `formal' clothes, looked incredibly out of place.

Just how many receptionists did this place need anyway!? Katsuya thought, turning to face the woman behind the desk. She stared at him none-too-politely as she waited for his answer. Her dark eyebrows were furrowed and her mouth curved into a slight frown, her equally dark hair was pulled back away from her face and he was sure he'd never seen cleaner clothes. He wondered if they were brand new.

“I'm uh… uh, looking for Nobita Matsuno?” He stuttered, taking a few steps towards her.

She didn't even move, “Why do you want to talk to him? He's a very busy man.” She clearly didn't want to let such a bedraggled being within two feet of her boss.

Katsuya was irked by her tone and the way she clearly disapproved of him, but although his temper could usually flare and erupt quickly, he knew that for this job at least he would have to try to keep it under control as best he could. The money was too important to him to be fired over simply losing his temper.

So he looked her squarely in the eye and said; “I'm his new assistant.” Unfortunately, he couldn't be one hundred percent sure that this was true. The woman certainly looked like she didn't believe him.

To his luck, the reception desk's phone decided to pick that moment to ring. She narrowed her eyes even further then finally resigned to let him past, her boss could deal with him if he was lying after all.

“Down the hall on the end to the right,” She pointed vaguely with one hand and picked up the receiver with the other.

He muttered his thanks, and started off in the direction she had pointed. The office seemed very… well, like an office he supposed. Katsuya had honestly not spent much time around them, and he'd certainly never worked in one before. Or really knew anyone who had. He did know that most offices consisted of lots of little cubicles people were confined to for long periods of time. Which, he supposed, is where people got the jail comparison. There were some of those here, but there seemed to be more offices and rooms with doors on them than he had imagined. Putting two and two together he realized that this must be the floor where the higher-ups worked. All of the people doing all the hard work in their tiny cubicles must be situated elsewhere.

Another thing Katsuya noticed was that it was very clean. Although, compared to his apartment, the sidewalk was clean. It was almost clinical, and it made him want to shudder, but he knew that was probably a stupid reaction. There was the odd pot plant and he noted a few copy machines and printers. One had a piece of paper sticky taped to it which had “out of order” printed in block letters against the white background.

Not everyone bothered to look at him as he walked by, but those who did definitely had a confused expression on their face. He figured that either no one but the usual staff generally came through here, or, like the receptionists, were simply confused that someone as clearly lower class than them was in their presence.

Walking down the hall he passed numerous doors, some with names on them, and finally reaching the end he remembered the receptionist's advice and turned right. He was faced with Nobita Matsuno's door.

He reached out a hand to turn the door knob then reconsidered and knocked. There was a pause in which his stomach decided to remind him that he was nervous, and finally a voice called “Come in.”

Swallowing, he grasped the door knob and entered the office.

Having no experience with offices hitherto, he assumed it was big. Certainly it was bigger than the other office's he'd stolen glances into on his way past. Eyes taking it all in, they finally settled on the desk in front of him. He suppressed a gasp when he read the name plate, which announced to him that this man was the CEO of the entire company. No wonder his office was big, no wonder there were very few tiny cubicles outside, no wonder the receptionist didn't want to let him in…

“Can I help you?” The man, Nobita, asked pointedly, not uncaringly, but with enough distain to imply that Katsuya was disrupting the process of working.

“I.. oh!” Katsuya snapped back into focus. Make a good first impression, he reminded himself. Although, he'd probably already lost the opportunity for one of those.

“I'm Jonouchi Katsuya, I spoke to you on the phone on Thursday; you asked me to come in today…” He trailed off, leaving the rest to the other man to put together.

Recognition dawned on the older man's face, “Oh! Of course! Welcome to the office, nice to meet you.” He got up from his seat and shook Katsuya's hand, while Katsuya returned the compliment. He felt himself relax a little.

“I'm glad you could make it,” Nobita continued, walking back to his seat, although Katsuya thought his demeanor implied that he didn't really care, “Since this is your first day just try to relax and take it all in, get to know the place and find out the ropes.”

It sounded rehearsed. His tone, Katsuya found, was kind of dull; this must have been all very routine for him.

Nobita Matsuno was an older man in his late forties, slightly portly and was losing his hair. When Katsuya had seen the acronym announcing his position on the man's name plate, another reminder image of Kaiba Seto had flashed to his mind. It was hard not to unconsciously compare the two, from his memories of Kaiba they were completely different men. This Nobita, although initially somewhat uninteresting, seemed like he would be a much nicer boss than Kaiba would be.

And Kaiba… He was just, well, pure evil…

Katsuya subconsciously skrewed up his face in a frown. Nobita paused in his monochromatic introduction to look questioningly at him for a moment then continued with his conclusion; “If you need any help with anything, most people will be happy to answer your questions. Although, a number of our staff do not work on the weekend so it is a little quieter around here.”

Katsuya had been dutifully nodding when he considered appropriate and murmuring `yes's' and `uh-huh's' along the way, although in reality he felt like he'd just dived off a pier. His over-stepping brain immediately told him that this was too much for him and it was all too hard. He had to mentally slap himself to regain his focus.

Nobita wasn't saying anything anymore, so Katsuya decided to take a little initiative; “So, uh, where should I start?” He smiled widely to prove to this CEO (and to himself) that he was happy to do just that.

Nobita either didn't notice or couldn't be bothered returning the smile, “Very well, to start with get Sasaki to show you how the filing works, I'm going to need you to take care of some of these papers for me after lunch.” He motioned briefly to the work spread out on his desk.

Katsuya almost gulped. “Uh.. Sasaki-san?”

Was he expected to know who this person was?

Nobita blinked, “The receptionist, as you came in…”

“Oh!” Damn, he'd have to work with her? But he bowed politely and muttered a respectful goodbye then exited the office once again.

This time he walked back down the hall slowly, not really desperate to get to the reception desk and find out how thrilled Sasaki would be to hear that she had to spend her morning helping show this new stunted employee around the office.

 

By the end of the day Katsuya had had so much new information thrown at him that he felt his head would explode with so many facts.

As a result he'd forgotten most of it already.

It was just so hard to keep up; one minute he was being shown how the printer settings worked, the next he was being lectured on the right order to file invoices, which pushed colour combinations and upside-down printer cartridges right out of his mind. It wasn't that he was dumb, but the way things were being explained to him made everything sound as individually important as the next thing and as a result all possible office facts were vying for a place inside his head that they hoped he would remember them in.

This is going to take awhile, he thought, there's no way anyone would get all this shit on the first day, right?

Feeling mentally drained, and extremely happy that the clock was reading five to five, he entered Nobita's office for, hopefully, the last time that day. It hadn't been an altogether bad experience, his brain tried to cheer him up, just a little overwhelming. It wasn't hard exactly, just a lot to take in all at once.

“Ah, Jonouchi, thanks for all your hard work today.” Katsuya really hoped he meant that, “Would you mind just checking with Sasaki if there is any mail or anything for me to pick up before you leave for the end of the day?”

“No problem,” Katsuya smiled, happy to hear that his days work was almost finished. He'd earnt money! Money! It had only just dawned on him that this was the case. He was thrilled.

Sasaki, now only slightly less appalled with him than her first impressions, rifled through what he took to be some sort of `In-box', and eventually came out with a few letters and what appeared to be a long metal triangle. Katsuya accepted the items but threw her a questioning look when she placed the last one in his hands.

“Nobita-san's new desk plate.” She explained without enthusiasm, re-seating herself and continuing to pack up her things for the end of the day.

Katsuya shrugged his thanks and headed back down the hall to deliver the letters. Curious as to why his boss would need a new name plate, he turned over the cool object and glanced at it.

And almost dropped it.

He had to stop moving just to re-read it and make sure he wasn't hallucinating. It still read: “Nobita Matsuno, CEO” but now printed next to all that, was the all-too-familiar logo of Kaiba Corp. Katsuya didn't realize he was gaping open-mouthed at the letters.

What the hell?