The section chief has a way of making up for Friday: go to KaibaCorp and introduce yourself. No appointment, no department name, no contact. Joey takes twenty business cards with him. The receptionist is unfailingly polite, and one card ends up in a tray beside her desk. On the way out, a display by the exit is advertising a tournament.
This is a translation of an original work on Pixiv.
Original Title: 02 名刺
Original Author: 葉人(@Hathor_yuki)
Personal site: https://prideshipping.sakura.ne.jp
Everyone who isn't out on site lines up in the office and listens to the section chief read out the week's schedule.
Deliveries in the East District, quotations due next week, then the stocktake at the end of the month. I open my notebook and write them in beside the dates. In the Saturday spaces too, of course.
"And, about last Friday."
The section chief looked up from his paper.
"We heard from Mr. Ando."
Friday. Mr. Ando. That means the tatami room.
"Wheeler."
"Yes."
"Do you remember what you said to him?"
I remember. Two beers, then it switched to sake, we talked about the outlook for this term, we talked about the new KaibaCorp product, and from there we moved on to a second place. The outside air was cold.
"…What about it?"
"The East District. Word is you told him we could get in as a first-tier."
I didn't say that, I thought.
I thought it, but my mouth didn't move.
"He was laughing about it. Said it's good to be young, plenty of drive. But that's Omiya's call to make. It isn't ours."
"Sorry."
"Well. It was drinks."
The section chief said that and turned over the paper in his hand. The others already have the faces of people listening for the next item. Nobody's looking at me.
I was looking at the toes of my own shoes.
Maybe I said it, maybe I didn't. I've got no way to check.
I can't ask Mr. Ando. And I can't tell the section chief that I don't remember.
I didn't say it, and we moved on to a second place. I remember that. I haven't lost to drink.
After midday the section chief called me in.
It's not much of an office. Just a small space partitioned off, with a desk, a cabinet, and two chairs for visitors. I stayed standing. He didn't tell me to sit.
"I've been thinking about how to make up for Friday."
"Right."
"KC."
That building is visible outside the window. From this office it's wedged between utility poles with only the top part showing.
"Go over and introduce yourself in person."
"…To KC, sir?"
"The East District is tied to KC's redevelopment plan. The idea is to get our name in front of them directly, not through Omiya. Introduction and apology, both."
"The appointment?"
"If we could get one we'd have got one long ago."
The section chief leaned back in his chair.
"Wheeler. You were in the same year as President Kaiba, weren't you."
"Same year, yeah, but."
"In sales you use that kind of thing."
Is that how it is, I thought.
That's probably how it is. Sales is connections, they told me when I joined. I've seen the senior guys land jobs off contacts from their old workplaces. Use what you can use, is what I've been taught.
Only, I didn't know whether what's between me and Kaiba could be called a connection.
If it could be called anything, it'd probably be a different word. What it'd be, I don't know either.
"Go tomorrow. Have you got enough business cards?"
"I've got them."
"Take twenty."
Back at my desk, I opened my card case. Checked how many I had, added some from the refill box, made it twenty.
Twenty. Twenty with nobody I'm planning to give them to.
The next day.
Tuesday, ten o'clock.
I stood in front of the KaibaCorp head office building.
Looking up from directly underneath, it's so big my neck starts hurting and I can't see the whole building anyway, so I stopped partway. I look at this every day. From the office window, from the station platform, from the outside stairs of my apartment. It's got bigger since I was in high school.
It was the first time I'd been inside.
The automatic doors are doubled. Once you're through the first one, air comes out — some system for blowing the dust off you, apparently. When the second one opened, the sound changed. The ceiling is high. And still, voices don't echo.
The lobby runs about forty metres deep. The floor is stone, in slabs so large you can't see the joints. I wondered what one of them costs. Having wondered it, I realised what I was thinking about, and it put me off a bit.
The job's been showing since I walked in.
There are plenty of people, but all of them are walking fast, and nobody's stopping or standing around talking.
There are three reception seats straight ahead, with women in uniform sitting at them. I went to the one on the end.
"Thank you for your continued business. I'm Wheeler of Minami Setsubi, second-tier under Omiya Setsubi Kogyo."
I held out a card. The receptionist took it with both hands and returned the same greeting.
"Which department is your appointment with today?"
"Uh…"
Only now did I notice I didn't know the department name.
Nobody told me which department handles the redevelopment plan. The section chief didn't say either. It's probably got a name like urban development, or business promotion, but I couldn't see a guess getting me through.
"I've come to introduce myself regarding the East District redevelopment."
"Do you know the name of the person handling it?"
"No."
"Forgive me. You don't have an appointment?"
"I don't."
Her expression didn't change. She didn't look troubled, and her smile didn't stiffen.
"I'm very sorry. We are not able to put through visitors without a booking."
"Um, then, could you put me through to the head of the company, or…"
"All of our contact points are handled through the prescribed procedure. For enquiries regarding business, please use this form."
I was handed a sheet of paper printed with a URL and a QR code.
"Thank you for visiting."
She was polite. From start to finish, I was never once handled carelessly.
My card was placed in a small tray beside the reception desk. There were a few others already in it.
When I got outside, it felt like the sun had come up a little.
There's a plaza in front of the building, with benches lined up. I sat down on one for now. I'd have to phone the office, but what was I supposed to report?
I checked the clock. It was still 10:20.
Might as well do what I can, so I look at the sheet. The URL for this form is the kind anyone can fill in. Just a general enquiry window, the sort that's up on the website. Even without me going, the section chief could have sent it from his computer.
I went because I was told to go.
What was needed was the fact of having gone. That's what I understood there. For Omiya, there needs to be a report that says we sent Wheeler over. That's all.
When I looked up there was a staff entrance on the side of the building. People going in and out. The doors open with a card hung round the neck. The ones going in and the ones coming out, all of them walk fast.
How many thousands work here?
And at the very top of it, there's him.
That much I know. Everyone in this town knows it, and he's famous worldwide, so I figured a fair number of people know it. You see him on the news, you see him in ads, you see him on magazine covers at the convenience store.
I was in the same year as him, in the same classroom.
Not just that. We were two of the four left at the end of that tournament, on the same ship.
I remember when I went into the sea, too. An anchor on the end of a chain, me shackled to Yugi, and down I went. I thrashed, my breath started running out, and then a key came down through the water.
I know who dropped it.
A man I sat in the same classroom with, rode the same ship with, climbed the same tower with — and I've got no way to meet him.
I don't know his phone number, don't know his email. Yugi might have some line to him.
But there's no way I can ask Yugi.
I don't know what I'd even say. Am I going to tell him I'm stuck at work so put me through to Kaiba? Sales or not, you don't say that to a friend. And on top of that, I've turned down three invitations to the Sunday thing, and now I'm supposed to ask him that out of nowhere?
I got up from the bench and cut across the plaza.
There was a large digital display standing beside the exit. A KaibaCorp product advertisement was running on it. Solid Vision footage, and around it a white dragon spread its wings inside the screen, vanished, and the display switched to the next thing.
An announcement for a Magic & Wizards tournament.
Hosted by KC, open entry, scheduled for the month after next. Venue, the stadium inside Kaiba Land. Prize money, and the newest-model Duel Disk as an additional prize.
I watched it to the end.
I waited for it to come round again and checked the details.
KC is the host. It isn't out of the question that KC's president shows up at this tournament.
There's every chance he doesn't, of course. He's the type who enters. And even if he does come, I've no idea when or where he'd be. Still — I don't know, but the odds of him being there are better than getting turned away at a reception desk.
At the very least, I can get in there.
I got out my phone and took a photo.
Then I phoned the office and reported that I'd been turned away at reception. The section chief said, well, that figures.
