Chapter Text
A custom-made Audi R8 sat patiently at the intersection of Kaiba-Corp Blvd. and Domino Ave. as the scarlet hue of the traffic signal illuminated the motionless CEO in his driver’s seat. Overcome with exhaustion, the weary young man closed his eyes a brief reprieve before being alerted awake by the flash of green that skimmed across his heavy lids.
As the car accelerated, his younger brother, Mokuba, began to recite the summary report of an incident that occurred today in the licensing department.
"You'll need to sign off on the incident report by noon tomorrow, the corporate lawyers want your approval on the litigation fees before proceeding forward with the case, and..."
Seto Kaiba struggled to listen as Mokuba droned on and on, adding even more tasks to his already overflowing work agenda.
Expecting nothing less than extraordinary from all of Kaiba Corp’s employees, Seto, as their leader, strove to achieve the impossible as well.
The success of Kaiba Corp had nothing to do luck, he reminded himself, but was the result of his backbreaking labor and avid determination.
As Mokuba concluded the last few details of the report, Seto redirected his attention to the time display on his dashboard.
[2:34AM]
'Four and a half hours,'
That’s all the sleep he’s going to get after a 21-hour workday.
Running his fingers through his chestnut colored locks, Seto eased his Audi onto his expansive driveway as he shook his little brother awake.
Suddenly, a wave of adrenaline coursed through Seto's body as he stepped from his car into the frigid night air; the invigorating feeling jolted his senses awake as he reminisced on the excitement of finding the last Blue Eyes White Dragon card; the bitterness of losing a duel for the first time; and the joy of being pitted against a worthy adversary.
‘Stop it.’ Seto warned, pressing his fingers firmly to his aching temple.
Feeling empty and dejected, Seto paused for a moment to clear his head of these thoughts as he stepped into the front foyer of his enormous mansion.
“Mr. Kaiba, this came in for you this evening.” His head maid informed sleepily as she handed him a folder.
‘Two and a half hours.’ Seto sighed to himself as he dragged himself to his home office, staring at the folder of work he now has to complete.
As Seto carried on throughout the night, on the opposite side of the world, 23-year-old Ana Nikolaev sat quietly to herself, eyes half open, as she waited for her departure to Tokyo. Looking out the window as the plane glided through the misty runway, Ana sighed, unsure of the new adventure that awaited her on the other side of the globe.
Seto settled in his office for the morning and adjusted his chair, shifting away from the window to avoid the blinding morning sun.
“The profiles of the new research interns, Mr. Kaiba,” Roland said, handing the somnolent young man a small tablet. “The HR department requests that you personally vet the candidates before they proceed on to the final selection process.”
Seto begrudgingly sipped on a cup of black coffee as he absentmindedly scanned through the list of applicants. Normally, some light cardio workouts would have been enough to fully wake him in the morning, but not today; today he really needed that extra boost from the caffeine.
Scrolling through the tablet, Seto groaned in his head, disappointed by the obvious similarities between this crop of applicants and the previous pool of interns.
…Adisa Mmeremikwu – Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Computer Engineering;
Amir Al-Aswad – King Abdulaziz University, Aerodynamic Systems;
Hanshi Li – Beijing University, Organic Chemistry;
Joseph Warren – Harvard, Political Science;
Landon Brighton – Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Robotics;
Priyanka Laghari – Harvard, Biomedical Engineering;
Sophia Perez – University of São Paulo, Neurophysiology;
William Evans – Cambridge, Cor…
"Mr. Kaiba." Executive secretary Hiroka's chirpy voice rang in Seto’s earpiece "Vice President Howard from U.S. EnGen is on his way for the merger negotiations; he is expected to arrive around 8:30 this morning."
'Ugh, I don't have time for this nonsense, I’ve got more important things to deal with.' Seto fumed, unable to trudge through the rest of the candidates with more pressing matters on hand.
Thankful for the interruption, Seto shoved the tablet back into Roland's waiting hands as he barked into the microphone of his earpiece. "Hiroka, tell Howard he better be here at 8:30AM or else I'm canceling." He ordered. "And Roland, give this to Mokuba." Seto instructed as he pointed to the tablet. "He should be waking up soon, if not, make sure he's up by 10:00."
Mokuba has earned a few more hours of rest, Seto reasoned, knowing his little brother went to bed late last night because of him.
And with a tilt of his chin toward the door, Seto dismissed Roland.
As Seto busied himself with the tasks ahead, Ana arrived at her apartment in the heart of Tokyo. While she enjoyed her previous trips to this city, she's not overly fond of the crowdedness that comes with it. Bustling cities are great for the occasional visit but ideally, Ana would have preferred a more idyllic living situation for her extended stay. Disobeying the exchange student policy, Ana got herself an apartment, loathing the idea of having to share her personal space with a roommate.
Thinking back, Ana regretted her decision to enroll in the prestigious exchange program at her university; a 1 years stay at the University of Tokyo (UT) for only 20 credit hours, totally not worth it.
But unfortunately, as one of the higher achieving students at MIT, the institution took notice of her absence amongst the list of applicants and strongly 'encouraged' her to sign up for the program; going as far as to offer extra incentives like waiving certain graduation requirements.
Unloading her luggage as soon as she reached the front door of her apartment in Ginza, Ana bolted to the bathroom for a much-needed shower. Though much higher in terms of pedestrian traffic because of its luxury boutiques and Michelin starred restaurants, Ana didn't mind her living arrangements since the district of Ginza was only about a 20-minute drive to UT and considerably much more private than any place near center city or college town.
“Disgusting.” Thinking back to the flatulence was released in her flight cabin earlier by someone seated ahead, Ana whined as she scrubbed her body furiously.
Annoyed for not being able to charter herself a private jet; albeit her own fault for waiting until literally the very last minute, Ana was still very grateful for everything she has. Very few people, let alone students, can afford their own fully furnished two-story apartment in the center of Japan’s premier, in other words, expensive-as-hell, shopping district.
The next morning, a brand-new Aston Martin One-77 sat waiting for Ana on the front curb of her apartment, a gift from her older brother, Mikhail, no doubt. A little excessive perhaps but trying to convince him otherwise would take more effort than she was willing to invest. Eager to avoid Tokyo’s infamous rush-hour stampede, Ana happily hopped into her new car and drove carefully as to avoid being caught without a valid driving license.
Walking to her first class, Ana noticed some curious stares that were tossed in her direction.
'Was it the car?' she wondered
nah, the car was deliberately parked out-of-view;
'My clothes?'
can't be, unless skinny jeans are suddenly head-turning worthy;
'Maybe it's because I'm not Japanese?'
not exactly, there are lots of foreigner on campus.
Unable to come-up with an answer to her satisfaction, Ana shook off the thoughts and continued on.
"Nii-sama," Mokuba smiled as Seto stepped off the elevator onto the main basement corridor. Ignoring his little brother's greeting, Seto marched straight to Lab B-8, where he spotted an unfinished optics tracker.
"Where is Ishida?" he inquired sharply, looking around the room.
"Um, don't know bro, I think he left for lunch about 20 minutes ago."
... wrong answer.
Sensing danger, Mokuba attempted a hasty distraction. "Hey! Have you seen the updated card reader system yet Seto? The software recognition speed had doubled since you last saw it!" He shouted, trying to drag Seto away from the lab.
"Why else would I ever bother coming down here?" Seto scoffed, continuing to inspect the tracker, albeit a little calmer than he was before.
The ferocious young man was well aware of the effect he has on people, his sheer presence alone was usually enough to intimidate most into submission; a menacing trait he inherited from his late stepfather Gozoborou, a trait Seto both valued and despised.
Just then, a middle aged man with neatly combed hair burst through the lab doors, and with one look from the weary CEO, Ishida knew he was in for an epic ass-chewing. Although it was only a momentary absence, Ishida was aware that any excuse or apology made to Seto will be made in vain. As the nervous program director stepped closer, Seto noticed Ishida's lab coat was peppered with the spilled contents of his half-eaten lunch, dropping his soup out of panic no doubt.
'What an useless idiot,' Seto scorned.
“I-”
"Save it!" Seto snapped, cutting short whatever Ishida's pathetic attempt at an apology was going to be. The whole room halted to a standstill at the sound of Seto’s booming voice. Ishida trembled, cringing as if he was expecting a blow to his face.
"The mock-up lenses from Germany were delivered yesterday, so tell me, Ishida, why is it sitting on the counter!?" Seto bellowed, crushing the tracker in his hands.
"I..I.. we thought the trackers had to be...be.. disassembled before the installation, so...so... we thought..." Ishida stammered.
Irritated with this delay, no, this EASILY avoidable delay, Seto narrowed his eyes.
"DR. Ishida," he emphasized, "Do you know how to read? Do you know how to follow simple directions?" He scolded, pointing to the unopened, still shrink-wrapped protocol manual. "I paid extra for those custom lenses just so you DON'T have to do any disassembling," Seto shouted as he glared at the cowering man. “You should be fired for his.” He threatened.
Looking around at his stunned employees, Seto frowned at their lack of progress. "You simpletons better have these trackers reassembled and operational by 9:00AM tomorrow, if not, you'll live to regret it!" He threatened the room at large.
"Yes Sir!"
As he prepared to leave, a bewildered Seto wondered how these supposedly top-of-the-line employees manage to consistently fuck up the easiest of tasks.
'These incompetent buffoons certainly have a common gift of making simple things complicated.' He fumed. If this is the level of talent available at Kaiba Corp, then the rest of the world must be overrun packs of idiot toddlers.
'Oh well,' Seto though, debating if he should save his breath and return to his office.
'No, they ask for it, so I might as well enjoy it,' Seto sneered as he sought out his next victim.