The Amazing Dr Subaru

When Anh met Kente again, she was surprised to see him now in dry well fitting cloths. But for now he rendezvoused with Ann in the cafeteria who was fighting her own body to eat a bowl of miso soup in an empty cafeteria. 

"You ready?"

"Yeah, how'd you get ready so fast, did my fish help you find a tailor."

"I have my own network in Saito."
In addition to his fish tank mission, Kente took advantage of his due diligence by ordering a "pro tempore" office stocked with shirts, meals, and other necessities for the VP of compliance. This was always sent thrice: once to the regional director, once to purchasing, and once through a backchannel employee as a bonus. To the lack of Kente's shock it was only the corporate mercenary office that was actually supplied. Kente would flag this as part of his report when it was time for heads to roll. 

The manager attempted to undercut him.

“You need an intelligence briefing,” the manager said. “Yes, of course. We have just the figure for you. I believe you’ll find her quite satisfactory.”

Mushima introduced a woman named Ito Saeko (25). She had pale skin and light features, but what likely caught Kente’s attention was her fairly small chin and long nose.

Kente smiled and bowed to her as she bowed in return. Kente would later mark this in his Missy Gold star as "Strike Two" against Mushima. As this indicated they not only pigeonholed his suite arrangements, but had done their basic homework on him. Kente had not been in a relationship for several years, but there had been one notable exception. He had dated his hometown girlfriend when he lived in Osaka. She had fairly unconventional features—attractive, but not of a supermodel type. In particular, in now ten-year-old photographs, she had a smaller chin and a long nose.

Later, while attending the Wharton School of Business, Kente had dated a woman of Polish ancestry from Chicago, Theodora Kaczynski, who had a similar long nose and small chin. While most of his history had been scrubbed, these "canaries" were left open so as to provide Kente with a gauge of regional desperation. The fact that they had put this together suggested they had researched his preferences and were attempting to account for them. 

"Ms Saeko how long have you been an engineer?"

“Oh, I’ve been in the engineering department of Saito South East for several years now, and have been attached to most major projects,” the copywriter and technical translator wearing an 'engineer' badge said. 

“That wasn't my question.” 

She blushed, while Kente turned to the manager who seemed even now to inch himself away from his own candidate. 

“I already have someone in mind,” Kente said. “I’ve already contacted them.”

"You've contacted my employees?"

"I've contacted Saito Corp Employees. You serve at Aichi's behest. Don't forget that."

Anh caught a glance from Kente and immediately abandoned the facade of trying to eat. tossing the soup in the bin while keeping a few candy bars in her pocket for later. She gave a rushed bow to her supervisor before following Kente to the elevator.

As a precaution, Kente and Missy regularly review Saito regional employees for potential "sleeper cells." Kente never came to any Saito location without a pre-established list contacts, useful assets, bribable assets, and potential scapegoats. 

"So you already have been talking to someone here?" Anh asked, trying not to show her concern.

"Standard procedure Anh, Saito doesn't like to interfere, but it likes to be ready."

He always maintained regular contact with at least two to three people across Saito’s regional offices, due in no small part to the assistance of his Gold Star 30 assistant, Missy. 

"So does that mean you already have tabs on me."

Kente gave an evasive nod, though admittedly neither Kente nor Missy anticipated the walking Black Swan Event that was Anh Tran.

Kente consistently favored a particular type of collaborator: the disgruntled IT worker. They had been a staple in his arsenal for years, even before he became Vice President of Compliance, back when he worked for Saito Corporation on projects he did not like to discuss from the early 1990s. Tech workers had always been his most reliable sources. They were uncouth, blunt, and often disliked by other engineers and staff for those reasons, but they were always listening and always holding a grudge, which made them valuable. 

The glass elevator showing the fires and lights of Saigon eventually abandoned the open pretense as the elevator shaft closed itself off from the outside world.

"Really the dark tower? Couldn't you use one of the engineers that are more...normal?"
Ann and Kente ascended into what Saito employees referred to as the Dark Tower, the section above the crest and helicopter pad where the advanced labs and data centers were located. This was where Saito Corporation conducted its most advanced projects, designed so that if a cataclysm destroyed the top of the tower, the rest would remain intact. Viewed as a heat or data map, the tower resembled a brain, with power and data flowing into a central pool, this central pool was "The Dark Tower."

The elevator opened to a narrow poorly lit hallways using Incandescent bulbs. Gone were the sleek and metalo-plastic curves and corporate carpet. Static radios played old City-pop and British bands from the 80s. Anh shuddered drawing her coat closer to her, Kente noted this as they walked down the hallways yellowed from paint, lampshades, and cigarettes'. Muffled by the wood panels and drywall at the end of the hall, was the sound of mumbling and kicking against metal. Like a possibly rabid animal they watched from a distance as  a man in a labcoat shouted at a vending machine. The back of his hair formed a greasy mullet and a tool belt slung like a Wild West bandolier.

“Do not speak against me, vending machine, you pathetic rationer of homeland sweets,” he said. “You are under my command.” 

He intoned in sing-song kanji, interspersed with a language neither Kente nor Ann recognized as he waved his employee badge at the bill insert slot.
"Behold, I wear your sigil. This sigil binds you to me, and you will open your reserves. Do you not know, you pathetic melancholic fools within, that I, Subaru, know your secret name? I call upon Hitomi now and command you to release my ten thousand yen.”

He kicked the machine again.

"Dr. Subaru.”

“By the spirits,” Ann turned to Kente, half shocked, half disappointed. “please tell me you’re not talking about him.”

“And who,” the figure called out, as he turned with his whole chest and head, “dares ask of me?”

"Im Kente Watanabe, we spoke before Dr Subaru.

He spun his legs with a flourish that seemed almost practiced, his lab coat twirled as though a whirling dervish.

“You have earned significant favor by acknowledging my true title, Mr Watanabe.”

“And I—ah! What is that foul yandere doing in my presence?” 

“Not today, Subaru,” Ann said flatly.

Kente looked between the cross armed Anh and the angrily pointing Subaru, and asked if the two knew each other.

“Know each other? I have had the displeasure of her acquaintance only through HR complaints, unjustly persecuted by this Vietnamese Harpy.”

"Unjust? You broke into my office!"

“You took a simple man after a seventy-two-hour crunch, a simple engineer, Master Kente, seeking a warm place to rest his weary head, a fluffy carpet, and access to a radiator. And what do I receive for two hours of rest after days of loyal service to the Saito Corporation? A harassment warning. And now Makoto, that imbecile who does not understand the basics of a simple charge and cannot tell the difference between a pan engine and a neat chip, is my supervisor.”

“Just sleep in your own damn office next time,” Ann said.

Subaru looked toward Ann and adjusted the assay tool on his right eye. While many tech workers used the Saito Corp I-Witness Scope for a variety of functions - namely circuit architecture. In his case appeared permanently affixed to his glasses like a makeshift eyepatch. This was a practice that was not uncommon among 20-35 year old Engineering men, such as Subaru Tsunderre_Life_coach182.

“You know nothing of the technical ways,” he said. “You would not say such things. One cannot sleep in a room with open-source robots.”

Kente cleared his throat.

“Ah, yes. I believe we have not spoken, Mr. Watanabe. I believe I am only acquainted with your AI.”

Subaru made a solemn bow toward Kente’s pocket, then addressed Kente directly.

“I see you have come over from Japan and that the old ways of dress code are forgotten.”

Kente took in the untucked shirt, wrinkled slacks from sleeping in, and the tie worn more like a scarf around a popped collar. He chose to ignore the slight.

“I need your assistance in recreating the crime scene,” Kente said.

“Ah, then I have heard of this incident,” Subaru replied. “Congratulations, Ann, on learning to fire a gun that can shoot itself.”

He turned and gestured down the corridor.

“Now, if you’ll follow me to my laboratory.”