Chapter Text
Hiden Aruto rushed to the building of his new company, he had been alerted to an emergency from Izu. He figured it was Amatsu, once again trying his hardest to undermine them. Not that Aruto wasn’t expecting, or prepared for it. Still, it was annoying. The older man had achieved his victory, what more was there to gain? Arutp sighed, opening the door, and seeing Izu waiting for him by his desk. “I got over here as fast as I could, what is the problem, Izu?” The Humagear blinked her eyes for a moment, before gesturing towards Aruto’s laptop. “Unusual activity within our business account. Someone is making donations to the company.”
“EH?!” Bolting over to the laptop, Aruto checked himself. Sure enough, two large deposits in USD were placed in the account. He felt faint, so collapsing in his chair, he rattled his brain as to exactly who did this. He was on good terms with Fuwa, but he didn’t have this kind of money laying around. Perhaps Yaiba snuck it? Doubtful. There was no way Amatsu allowed her to have access to company funds.
The sound of the door opening broke Aruto from his intense thinking. This would have to wait, helping the Humagears along with their humans was vastly more important. Aruto stood up to address the customer, but was intrigued to see someone he didn’t immediately recognize.
“Oh, welcome. Did you have some business with a shutdown Humagear?”
The woman, dressed mostly in white aside from a purplish pink top, smiled. “Not necessarily. I just wished to personally confirm you and your company received my donations.” Aruto almost jumped back in surprise, “YOU?!” The woman nodded, offering her hand for a handshake, “My name is Adelphia Dagmar, pleased to meet you.” Aruto returned the handshake, still in a bit of shock, “Hiden Aruto….I don’t know what to say, about the money. It’s incredibly generous. It’ll help us a lot, getting the Humagears restored.” Adelphia glanced around the small room, smiling, “That was my hope. I also purchased some stocks for your new business as well, I’m sure that’ll catch the attention of a certain individual.” She smirked, taking her phone as it dinged with a new text message.
“You mean...Amatsu?”
“Correct. He and I have some...past business to attend to. Now that I see you are all set, I’ll be leaving to give him a surprise meeting.” This time the mysterious woman bowed, waved, and then exited. Aruto was still a loss for words. What had just happened? Donations and stocks? He wasn’t going to turn down the help, but he was utterly confused as to why. What was this woman’s stake in all of this?
Aruto sighed, returning to his desk knowing there were more pressing matters at the moment. For now.
~~~~
After leaving, Adelphia checked her phone, a message from Yaiba Yua within the notifications. She opened it, smiling as she read it to herself, “Excellent.” She quite enjoyed surprises, Gai, not so much. So this was about to become interesting. Lighting up a cigarette, she took the time to enjoy her walk over to the HIDEN building, knowing Amatsu would be perched there instead of his usual home. You don’t just leave newly claimed territory after all. The only person who knew of her eventual arrival would be Yaiba, who Adelphia acknowledged was taking a great risk. Despite Amatsu’s reserved facade, there was a deep anger boiling. Adelphia was all too familiar with, yet unlike so many others, she dug at it more than feared it.
Putting out her cigarette, she paused at the entrance of HIDEN. It was very Korenosuke, and she guessed that it surely annoyed Gai in some way. She made her way into the lobby, making a point to completely ignore the receptionist. Adelphia wanted to get to Amatsu’s office before he was alerted to her presence. No need for spoilers. Thanks to her inside contact, Adelphia was able to navigate the various floors, knowing even without the help, the CEO office would be top floor. She only stopped when another woman was clearly waiting for her in the hallway.
“Let me guess, Yaiba?.”
“Yes.”
Adelphia straightened herself up a bit, it had been years since her and Gai had seen each other after all. First impressions were important. Making him squirm was most important, however.
“He’s not expecting you. Word hasn’t reached him yet, helps that most here are still nervous around him.” Adelphia caught Yua’s eye, “Including you?” There wasn’t a response, but Adelphia knew the answer. And she didn’t like it. As she walked passed, she gently placed her hand on Yaiba’s shoulder. “You don’t have to be in there for this, I want him to focus on me and me alone.” Yaiba nodded, hurrying away from a soon to be disaster area.
Opening the door as quietly as possible, Adelphia made her way up the bright white stairs, emerging front in center before Amatsu Gai. His eyes widened and nostrils flared.
He said nothing.
~~~~
Aruto was still nervous. He felt something intense was about to happen in regards to the woman he met. So nervous in fact he had contacted Fuwa to see if the former A.I.M.S officer could dig up some information. Surprisingly, Fuwa agreed, once he had the full details. He didn’t like it either. That was hours ago, so as Aruto waited he decided to get the both of them food. He knew Fuwa could work quickly and Aruto appreciated that. Feeding the other man was the most he could as a thank you.
As he set up the food, Fuwa burst into the office, “You’re not going to believe what I found!” Within his arms were stacks of files and paperwork. He dumped them on another table, finally seeing the take out meal. “You got us lunch?” Aruto blushed a little bit, “Yea it was the least I could do, you helping me and all. We can eat while you go over everything with me?” Fuwa nodded, grabbing a file as well as some food. Sitting down, he gave Aruto a look, “I hope you’re ready for this…” Opening the file, he removed several papers. “I had to go old school in my digging, apparently this Adelphia Dagmar has known Amatsu since the 90s. Went to school together while he was in America. Possibly met there. Because well, she’s a CEO herself. Though she doesn’t really broadcast it.”
“What’s her company do?”
“Looks like pharmaceuticals and genetics.”
Aruto sighed, “Well, that explains all the money she has. But, why donate to me?”
Fuwa glanced over the paper he was holding, chewing on a bite of hamburger, “Uh...she and Amatsu dated. Almost got married in fact….”
“EXCUSE ME?! There is no way that man could actually care and love another person.”
“I thought the same thing, but I found some articles about them. Apparently they both were like royalty over in America. Entertainment media and news were all in their business despite them just being CEOs. I even watched some interviews. I know Amatsu is a good actor, but they genuinely seemed happy. It was incredibly odd to see him like that.”
“So wait, is she helping me to get back at him?”
Fuwa gulped down some drink, “That’s the best guess I have. What better way to piss off your rich CEO ex-fiance than support his competition? Haven’t met her yet, but I already kinda like her.”
“Do you have those interviews? I’d like to watch them. I need to see this for myself.” Fuwa nodded, grabbing his phone and texting the links to Aruto’s phone. “Oh, also, your grandfather knew her. Which makes sense if he was close with Amatsu, he’d be close with his girlfriend.”
Aruto heard Fuwa, but was too focused on the video he was watching. Sure enough, it was Amatsu and the woman he met. Had to have been filmed sometime in the late 90s. Both Amatsu and Adelphis pretty much looked the same as present day, but what caught him off was Gai’s demeanor. Fuwa wasn’t kidding, he seemed different. It was so bizarre. Genuine smiles, holding Adelphia’s hand, actually cracking jokes. He was an entirely different person, what had happened?
~~~~
“What? No hello? Haven’t you missed me, Gai?”
The man didn’t move, merely sat at his desk, eyeing the woman in front of him. But, she could sense it, that anger, reaching a boiling point. So, she took a seat, now she just had to play the waiting game. She’d get a response soon enough. Amatsu Gai couldn’t stay silent for long, it wasn't in his nature.
He inhaled a deep breath, eyes narrowed, “You have a lot of nerve. After all this time…”
“Me? It was you who felt the need to simply go off the deep end for simply being told no.”
He jolted up from his chair, “You and him were both against me!”
Adelphia didn’t flinch despite his voice raising, she only returned a small frown, “I loved you. Enough to not stand by your side while you went on this personal vendetta against Hiden. And since you missed your chance with Korenosuke you’re hellbent to go after his grandson. Did you really think I’d support something like that?”
Gai collected himself, sitting back down, “Why are you here then?”
“Just letting you know I’m around. Giving you the heads up so to speak. I’m sure you’ve already seen the assistance I’ve provided to HIDEN Manufacturing.”
“I have. You can do what you want. It won’t change the outcome.” He turned in his chair, back now to her. Adelphia sighed, taking out a piece of paper. “If you want to get in touch with me, here’s my number. It was actually nice seeing you.”
She left without another word and as Amatsu heard the door close, he flung everything off his desk. Pulling out his phone, he dialed a number.
“YAIBA, GET UP HERE, NOW!”