Legal Matters (Rei no Kaado)

[mugenginga]

Manako turned her head towards the room. Things had gotten quiet... generally yelling would happen by the time Kousei dropped the other shoe. She glanced over what she had typed before pulling the paper out of the typewriter. After a moment of hesitation, she lifted up the edge of the coat covering the monitor. Kousei wouldn't have killed the boy... of course not. There was a look on his face that she couldn't help but compare to how she heard people who were ready to take their life had... what had Kousei said to the poor boy...?

[Firebreath Fishslap]

"So I suppose it wouldn't matter to you if your friend Atem had a run in with the police over stealing that necklace?" Kousei continued on, still smirking. "Or perhaps if he had an unfortunate accident with a gang?" There was no real reason for Kousei to say that other than the possibility that Manako was listening. He even raised his voice slightly as he said that.

Atsuro's eyes widened and he shot to his feet. He slammed his hands down on the desk, and the force actually caused a couple sheets of paper to fly off. “There’s no way in hell I’d let you do that!”

Kousei crossed his hands in front of him. His voice was a touch mocking. "Oh, is that so? I'm quite curious as to how you'd stop me. No judge on the whole Island will touch me, and I'm sure whatever army you may have had in the past has abandoned you. Why else would you wish so badly to die? You could always kill me, but... oh, that would get you noticed, wouldn't it? Someone would see you killing me. And there's no way to leave this office but through the front door..."

Atsuro froze again. Kousei could tell that whatever facade the boy had thrown up before was gone. These were all genuine reactions. He pulled a paper from his desk and placed it and a pen in front of Atsuro. "Please sign your name and a number I can reach you at here. I will contact you when I am ready for you to come in to speak with Bakura."

Beaten, Atsuro picked up the pen and began to write his name on the paper. He swore to himself in his head. The worst part was, he didn't doubt that Kousei would do everything he'd threatened. Dammit.

Kousei picked up his phone and pressed the button for Manako's inside line. The way he had it set up meant Manako would hear his voice through a speaker even if she didn't pick up the phone. "Majime-san, Kihara-san will be right out."

[mugenginga]

Manako had dropped the coat back down. Given the boy's reaction, it would be over soon. She picked up the piece of paper she'd just finished typing and pulled back, punching a rather long series of numbers into a safe tucked into the desk. It opened and she placed the paper inside. It was nothing incriminatory. Kousei kept that stuff in his office, and even she didn't know how to access it. When the phone rang she nearly hit her head on the top of the desk in surprise.

Without forgetting to close the safe, she got up and picked up the phone. She hadn't even gotten her mouth open to resopnd when Kousei began to speak. She gave a nod and hung up the phone, which would give a click on Kousei's end. He'd known she'd heard him. She pulled the coat off the computer and hit a few keys, returning it to the display it had shown before, before walking over and putting the coat back where it belonged. By the time Atsuro got out, she'd already be typing on another sheet of paper.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Atsuro glowered at the paper. He'd written his name in both kanji and furigana, the latter at Kousei's insistence. Of course he'd want to keep this as official seeming as possible. He'd ended up writing Souji's cell phone number down, which probably wouldn't make Souji very happy, but Yuugi didn't have a home phone, and Atsuro didn't even own a cell phone anymore.

He finished the last digit in Souji's phone number and placed the pen on the desk before standing up. Kousei said nothing, and let Atsuro slowly walk out. When the boy stepped through the doorway, he appeared very worn. He passed by Manako's desk without saying a word, and headed out the door.

Kousei stepped out of the room after Atsuro exited. "That went quite well, wouldn't you agree, Majime-san?"

[mugenginga]

Manako had kept her eyes fixed on the typewriter as Atsuro walked out. It took effort on her part to not watch the exhausted seeming boy walk out with sympathy. She'd seen it on the screen before she'd shut off the video feed. She closed her eyes and seemed relieved after she heard the door click shut, but she seemed startled as Kousei came out of the office.

"He is just a boy, Hikaru-san..." Manako said, looking at the door sadly.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Kousei gave a light smirk at Manako's words. Really, it was a drop from how much he'd been smirking inside his office. He turned toward his secretary with a rather amused look on his face.

"And you're a fool if you think that changes anything," Kousei said. "I would think you would understand that after working with me for so many years."

[mugenginga]

Manako didn't respond. Yes, of course that was true. She was quite sure the man to her side would steal the candy from a baby if he found an advantage to it. He kept his hands clean of murder, but did everything but. She looked over at him, her face composed again.

"I assume I'm doing the usual with the video file?" she asked.

This of course meant burning it before wiping all traces of it from the computer. This was more than your standard deletion. While she was no hacker, she had the skills to wipe it completely from the hard drive... which was far more than a standard deletion. The computer would never know it had even been there.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Kousei nodded. He turned around, and without looking toward Manako, said, "I have a few phone calls to make. Please only interrupt if it's urgent this time."

He continued on into his office and closed the door behind him.