Kaede watched intently as the two signed their documents. She was waiting for Madison’s pen to leave paper. It seemed the mint haired woman had brought entirely too much paper, generally she brings enough to make several edits before generating a final document, sans the handwritten edits. In this case, the draft was the final document. The moment Ms. Richter finished signing her own copy of the document, the signature appeared on Xiaomin and Kaede’s version. The accountant stood as soon as her copy included both signatures and held it out in front of her.
”As of now, the contract’s complete, it wont let you make additional edits. Typically I would take a moment to incorporate edits fully into the document and remove anything struck out, but this document appears to need no cleaning up. As I always say, an organized contract is easier to reference.” Kaede spoke with a casual, almost playful, tone she’d not used until this point. She closed her eyes and placed a hand above and below the contract; Kaede focused her will into paper, and then into the words upon it. The air around her darkened, it snapped back to normal when she softy spoke a single word
”Apply.” With that word the all three documents turned glossy, a line of light, almost like reflected glare, passed down the page. It highlighted the text as it passed, as if to confirm their place in space and time. In reality this was just a spell checker. When it finally reached the bottom, the gloss vanished.
The accountant nodded to her two companions and gently placed her copy of the contract into her briefcase.
”I’ll file this copy with my others, you two are free to do as you like with yours, store them, burn them, use them to clean up a mess, it won't affect the contract. If you ever need a new copy, I can make one.” The mint haired woman spoke with confidence, continuing her casual tone. She paused and put a finger to her mouth before speaking again.
”I may have mentioned this before, but it won't hurt to repeat myself here. You can write what you want on the contract from here on, but no edits will take effect without myself and the other signatory approving it. Also, remember this is just a piece of paper, it doesn’t need to exist to be in effect."Kaede picked up her briefcase and pointed her finger to the ceiling at shoulder height and drew a circle, signaling the guard it was time to pack up. She followed her superior and near-peer to the vehicle. Her face was suddenly stricken with worry.
Oh no… My stuff is in the back, Greene shouldn’t have it out, I know Ms. Richter’s under contract now, but. I’m thinking too much into this. It doesn’t matter now. She’s going to see it at the manor anyway. The mint haired woman climbed into the back of the limo after Lady Liu and Ms. Richter, as her window seat also held her stuff. Once sat, she removed both of har oversized pistols, dropped their magazines and removed the round from the chamber. Then she popped that round back into the magazine, slid it back into the pistol and seated both of them back into their holsters.
A tray of sake was prepared and placed out for the group, traditionally this would be done at a table with food and a lot more, but this should due, here in fiore. Kaede approved. She picked up a glass to toast with the others
”Here’s to a fulfilling, and profitable relationship for all of us. Cheers." The accountant, used to this stuff, downed the whole tiny cup and exhaled happily. This was some decent sake. She poured herself another cup and offered more to the others, knowing full well that her superior Lady Liu turn it down. She didn’t wait long for their replies before downing her second cup and refilling any who offered theirs.
”Hey Ms. Ri- Madison, Lady Liu will probably tell you more about her at some point, but I’ll go now." She spoke a little louder than she had up to this point, her hand motions a little exaggerated.
”You know my name, it’s not uncommon in Midi, it won’t tell you much about me. You see, before I was sent to Fiore to support Lady Liu here, I was an accountant for the Family in Midi, THE Family.” Kaede sighed and downed another cup of sake offering refills again. The warm feeling it gave really helped shed the cold from outside.
”Aside from my dad’s passing when I was a kid, and Mother remarrying a Kahoshi, I’ve had a pretty simple life as an accountant. My step father’s alright, he’s always been too busy running the family business to pay much attention to me, except my contracts, he used those from time to time.” The alcohol now fully kicking in, she decided to pull her jacket off and lean back in her seat. Exposing her very much over sized pistols, one flat black, one brushed nickel, both engraved with snakes.
”If you ask me, the best thing he ever did was give me a sister, Suzume is so precious! Y-You wanna see a picture? I shwear, if anyone touches her…” The woman blushed at the thought of her sister. Though it could have been the sake.
”He decided it was in the family's best interest to strand me in this place, and get this… no no, no, I can’t talk about that because, you know. Shhh, it’s between us. HE sent me here to help Lady Liu, and it’s in ALL of our best interests, to make sure she succeeds.” She gestured erratically while trying to get a point across no one likely knew, finally, she tapped at the air during the final statement to emphasize the point, what point was she making though? It didn’t matter.
The mint haired woman reached for her second briefcase, but was stopped by Greene. He wordlessly took it from her and shook his head no. The jerk also took her cup of sake and downed it himself.
That’s not his! Just who does he think he is taking my stuff and my drink from me!? Her face turned incredulous, Greene just pointed to the briefcase and shook his head again. Kaede decided to relax and let her guard do his job.
”What about you?”1,082 Words
13,179 Total
- wordcount error:
I found an error in the word count, post 5 accidentally subtracted 535 words from the thread in the total, the real total is 13,714 up to this point.