Chapter 17: Learning To Recognize Forests and Trees

The arbitration, the next day, went much as Yamada described it. He brought a wheelchair and insisted on wheeling me in. I recognized several people seated at the table: the hospital administrator, my head physician, one of my nurses. There was no one on my side of the table except myself, Honda and Yamada.

Yamada allowed the hospital's attorney to present their side first. Simply put, I arrived, announced who I was, insisted on immediate care and volunteered to pay all costs. The hospital rendered all services necessary and only services necessary and should collect its rightful recompense. As to my bout with meningitis, that could hardly be considered their fault.

Honda had some trouble not speaking out and was asked to leave the room.

"Magistrate," Yamada started when it was our turn. "Did you know that at 42°C the human brain sustains permanent brain damage?"

"Yes." The Arbitrator nodded.

"According to the school nurse, Kaiba-san's temperature was 40.5°C when the ambulance took him away. That was confirmed by the ambulance driver. Kaiba-san was delusional at the time of his admittance." Yamada handed several sheets of paper to the Arbitrator. "He was not able to admit himself. In addition, not only was there no parent to speak for my client, but in fact, my client is an abandoned child and this negligent, greedy institution did nothing to protect him."

I heard the nurse grumble something under her breath; as I recalled, she was particularly unfriendly while I was under her care. My doctor sighed deeply and frowned.

Yamada went on, explaining how my Father inexplicably removed himself from my life and left my welfare in my own inexperienced and unprotected hands. He led me through questions about my difficulties of hunting for a job for the first time – although he avoided asking if I obtained one – and of the quality of my first apartment.

"Kabia-san, are you well?" Yamada asked gently. "Do you need to take a break?"

I would have laughed, but it would have ruined his act. "I am fine for now. I will let you know when it is too much."

"Fine. Kaiba-san, I realize that this is difficult for you, but what is your normal employment?" He emphasized the word 'normal'.

"Normally, I am the CEO of KaibaGames Corporation." But my life has been far from normal for quite sometime.

"And in that occupation, what was your annual income?"

"Annual?" Frankly, I never thought about it annually. I always considered each individual contract. I did some calculations, adding all of last year's deals, plus the stock dividends and my bonus. "130 million yen. Approximately." The whole room gasped.

"And what do you do with that money?"

That was easy. "A portion goes to my personal living expenses and some to a fund for my brother, but 80% of it goes back into KaibaGames."

"Two questions. First, yours is a for profit corporation and yet you run it as if you were a non-profit. Why is that?"

"KG employs, at my last check, 5,181 people worldwide and gaming is a volatile industry. KaibaGames has a very generous fully-funded benefit package for all employees. This includes a one-year salary severance package if we downsize. Should we fail, I do not wish my employees to bear the brunt of it." My Father and I had argued about those benefits. But my HR survey showed that long-term benefits retained more employees than high salaries. High retention reduced corporate espionage – a serious problem in my industry – and increased loyalty.

Of course, only a fraction of the profits went to HR; most of the funds went to R&D but there was no need to discuss the specific division of reinvestment now.

"I see." Yamada looked at the magistrate and then back at me. "And my second question. Why do you have a fund for your brother? Surely your Father is responsible for him."

"He is, of course. But my brother is my only biological family. And while I certainly honor my Father deeply, I feel it is my responsibility to ensure that he will never want for anything."

He looked at the magistrate again. "He cares for his brother. He supports his workers. Kaiba-san, in your state of health, are you currently working for KaibaGames?"

"Currently? No." It was a true, if misleading, statement.

"How much income have you lost while you were ill?"

I almost answered 'none' but Yamada had asked 'while' not 'because'. "It is difficult to say because so much of what I do is in the decisions I make. But, last year, in this same time period, my income was roughly 32 million. Of which 80% was returned to the employees." In one form or another.

We took a break, and then Honda returned to the room. He was questioned at length and in detail about my behavior and abilities before and after my illness. He was asked about my status as an 'abandoned child'.

"Isn't your Father his legal guardian, Honda-san?"

"No sir. He's living with us because he lost his place while he was in the hospital."

"So he's renting from you?"

"No." Honda shrugged. "I mean, technically, he's homeless. He's just staying with us."

"Would you look at this document?" Yamada handed Honda a piece of paper. "Would you please tell us what that is?"

"I think it's the admissions form for the hospital."

"Is that Kaiba-san's handwriting?"

"No," he chuckled. "Some of it's mine, some of it is Kawai-san's. We had to just guess at a lot of stuff."

"So Kawai-san is his legal guardian?"

"No, she's his boyfriend's mother." There were a few raised eyebrows but the arbitrator was not one of them. "We called her because she knows a lot about hospitals."

"I see. So you two completed the form and Kaiba-san signed it. That is Kaiba-san's signature, is it not?"

"Uh, no. We, uh, ok ... see we thought he was going to die and –"

"Relax, Honda-san. You won't be penalized. This is not a courtroom; we are simply uncovering the facts. Are you saying that Kaiba-san did not sign this admittance form?"

"Uh, yeah."

"And the signature that appears on the bottom of this form is not that of his legal guardian?"

"Uh, yeah. I mean, no, it's not."

"So Kaiba-san was never legally admitted to this institution and was treated – badly – without his consent." Yamada took the form from Honda and handed it to the Arbitrator. "Thank you, Honda-san. You have been very helpful."

There was more talking after that, but nothing more to be said. I pleaded exhaustion after another hour of drivel and Honda and I left to allow Yamada free reign on his victims.

Once we were in a cab, I called Mokuba. "When you get this message, I need to know the stock position of the Big Five. I'm aiming for the 31st." I hung up and looked at Honda. "Shall we go to Kame Game Shop?"

He looked confused. "I thought you were tired?"

"Tired of procedure, yes. Yamada didn't need us for the rest of it. I dare say he was enjoying himself."

"Oh good." He said with just a touch of sarcasm. "I was afraid it was just me. Hey, did you really make 32 million last year?"

"At least. Of course, that's not my personal net worth."

"Well, yeah! I kind of figured that."

"We were only discussing KaibaGames. Personally, it's closer to two billion with my KaibaCorp stock and bonuses factored in."

He opened his mouth and then closed it. The cab driver laughed uproariously.

"You got him good with that one!" the man chortled.

Honda continued to stare at me in shock the whole drive to the store. When the driver pulled away, Honda stopped me before I could enter the store. "Two billion yen. Two? With a 'B'?"

"Yes."

"Wait, you – personally, not the company –"

"I can't access any of it right now, you realize."

"Yeah, ok, whatever, but when this thing between you and your Dad is over, next year, you have two billion sitting in the bank."

I wasn't about to stand there and teach a corporate finance class. "Not in cash, but effectively, yes."

"But you didn't have gas money!"

"Ah! Yes. The week we met, I was slumming. I had no funds immediately available except my allowance."

"Your allowance?"

"A hold over; an early concession from my Father. When he first adopted us, he told the press that we would be raised like any other children – that we would have chores and get an allowance and so on. Being on the KaibaCorp board of directors has been one of my 'chores' since I was 13. It's one of Mokuba's as well. I receive 2,000 yen a week for that and mowing the Kaiba Manor lawn."

"You mow the lawn?" That idea seemed to shock him as much as anything else.

"Certainly not!" I chuckled. "I have a service come in once a week. It's automatically withdrawn from my account."

"So you were living here, on 2,000 yen a week, doing what?"

"Nothing."

"Doing ... what?"

"Nothing. I was on vacation."

"You came here on vacation? Not, like, Rome or Hawaii or something?"

"I went someplace where no one knew me, where no one would think to look for me and tried to be as invisible as possible." He nodded but he still looked confused. "It was actually the best vacation of my life. Would you care to know why?"

"Yeah. How could this dump be the best anything?"

"It was the first and only time in my life that I was responsible for nothing but myself. I was accountable to no one but myself. It was the only time in my life I have actually been free, Honda. Like you. You don't have to worry about the jobs of 5,000 people. You aren't concerned that your Father will fire you. You've never had a final exam and a board meeting on the same day. I got to live like you for almost two months. It was sheer heaven and if I could get away with doing it again, I would leave tomorrow."

"But ... but..."

"But?"

"You're rich. I mean, seriously, mega-rich."

"There is more to it than just money. I can buy almost anything. But everyone owns a part of me. You can't buy anything, but no one owns you."

He thought about it for a minute. Finally he shook his head. "That reeks. What's the point of having all that money if life sucks?" I started to answer and stopped when I realized that I didn't have an answer. "You know, I used to want to be rich. But after meeting you, no offense, but I'll take poor any day." He continued to shake his head as he entered the store.

I made a mental note to create a second fund, one large enough to support Honda and his father. They might not want to be rich, but I would ensure that they were never poor.

As soon as I walked in, Mutuo waved a paper at me. "Kaiba-kun! Morio called! He said to give this to you right away." The message was a list of numbers; I slipped it into my pocket.

"So we are an answering service now?" Pharaoh's voice was soft behind me, but it still sent heat surging through my veins.

I turned to face him ... and burst into laughter.

He was standing in the stockroom doorway and had evidently been cleaning. His gray sweatpants and yellow sweatshirt were both stained and grimy despite an equally dirty full-length apron. His hair – which might have been neatly tied back earlier – stuck out in several directions and hosted at least two cobwebs. The pink rubber gloves only served to highlight the dirt when Pharaoh scratched his chin.

"I'm glad to see you in such high spirits." His droll tone only made the image funnier.

And then a flash went off beside me. Mutou was typing on his cell phone as he walked away. "Grandpa? Do you mind if I post a picture on the website?" He yelled.

Pharaoh started to move after him, but I blocked his path, still chuckling. "I'm sure he would not agree if he thought it would damage the Mutou image."

"I had forgotten how vindictive you could be." He didn't sound upset by the idea.

"I didn't tell him to take the picture."

"You merely allowed it to happen."

"I can't control how you present yourself in public."

"I am no longer ruler of all I survey; I have limited amounts of privacy." He took a pair of steps closer to me. "I've been cleaning the store room. It's quite private in there."

Why was I breathless whenever he was close to me? "Every time I'm near you I feel like I'm being propositioned." The room was cold, the air was hot.

"Am I to blame for that?"

"Perhaps the cause would be a better description."

"Cause and effect?"

I could give in, push Pharaoh against the nearest wall and pound his hips into sand. I desperately wanted to. Five minutes! I couldn't spend five minutes in his presence without wanting to rip his clothes off and ravage him. And I could no longer think of a reason not to. Joey was over.

But, as tempting as Pharaoh was, this was not the place. Nor, looking at all the dirt, was it the time. "Soon, Pharaoh," I breathed, "soon."

I walked home. It's a long walk but I've done it before. I did some homework. It was a struggle to keep my grades up not because the work was difficult, but because I had no desire whatsoever to continue school. I was quickly losing interest in anything other than getting back to my life. Getting back to KaibaGames and getting away from these irrational liabilities.

The phone rang, but I let the answering machine – really, who doesn't have voice mail? – pick it up. "Kaiba? It's me." Honda's voice said. "Ok. I'm just going to presume you're listening because I know you wouldn't just leave again after this weekend. I know you're still upset – don't say you're not 'cause I don't believe you – just I wanted to tell you we're all cool with you and Yami. I mean, not that you needed permission or something. Not that you'd ask if you did. I just mean..."

There was the sound of fumbling and a small squabble. Then Mutou's voice. "Kaiba-kun? What Honda meant to say was that we're on your side."