Past eleven at night, the thoroughly hammered trio of Raizen Kurosaki, Shidou Arisugawa, and Retsu Kurogiri were sent on their way.
After that, Yuta settled the bill, propped up the equally wasted Rika, and walked out of the pub.
A late-night breeze hit them outside, and Yuta couldn't help but shiver.
"Rika, where do you live?" he asked, looking down at her.
Rika slowly lifted her head. Her eyes were glassy and unfocused. She opened her mouth, and it took a while before any sound came out. "Huh?"
"I'm asking where you live."
"My home? My home is in... Aomori."
"I mean where your apartment is."
"Apartment? Oh..."
Rika wobbled her head around, then slowly raised one hand and pointed in a vague direction. "Over there."
"Where exactly?"
"There! Right there!"
"No, just tell me how to get there."
"Oh, first you go like this, this, this, and then you go like that, that, that."
"???"
Yuta was completely lost.
How was he supposed to know what "this" meant or where "that" was? This girl was going to be the death of him.
"You still don't get it? Are you stupid or something?" Rika added.
Yuta: "..."
Rika: "Hey, why are you touching me?"
"I'm not touching you. I'm holding you up so you don't fall over."
"Get off me! Don't touch me! I wanna go home!"
Rika stumbled out of his grasp and started making a scene in the middle of the street, mumbling to herself the whole time.
"Tokyo! I'm going to Tokyo!"
"So what if I want to make anime? I love making anime!"
"I haven't stolen anything or hurt anyone, so what right do you have to tell me no?"
Halfway through her ranting, she broke down crying.
Yuta was caught off guard. He stepped forward to try to take her arm, but Rika whipped around and nearly threw up all over him. She had mentioned earlier that her drunk behavior wasn't great, and he hadn't thought much of it at the time. Now he had a front-row seat to just how bad it really was.
He took a deep breath, pulled out his phone, and tried to think of someone he could call to come pick her up, but he couldn't think of anyone.
In the end, he took Rika to a nearby hotel, got her a room, made sure she was settled in, and then finally went home to shower and go to sleep.
The next morning at ten, Yuta showed up at the office right on time.
But when he looked around, Rika was nowhere to be seen.
He pulled out his phone to give her a call, but her call came through first.
He picked up. "Rika, you alright?"
"I'm... I'm fine." Rika's voice came through the speaker.
That was what she said, but her voice and tone were both a little strange. She sounded awkward and fidgety, nothing like her usual self.
Yuta noticed but didn't think much of it. He just said, "If you're fine, then hurry up and get to the office... actually, forget it. You earned your keep last night, so take the day off."
"Okay, thanks, President." Rika's tone finally went back to normal.
Yuta hummed in acknowledgment and was about to hang up when Rika suddenly blurted out, "President."
"What now?" Yuta frowned slightly.
"Um... well..."
Rika was acting squirmy again. She hemmed and hawed for a while before finally getting the words out. "President, did you take my clothes off last night?"
"What are you talking about?" Yuta was confused.
"It's just..."
Rika sounded like she found it hard to say, but she pushed through anyway. "When I woke up this morning, I was lying in the hotel bed completely naked, so I was wondering if maybe..."
"I dropped you off at the hotel last night and went straight home."
"So I took them off myself?"
"Who else would have?"
"You're sure it wasn't you, President...?"
"Rika!"
"Yes!"
"Get your butt to the office right now. I promise I won't strangle you."
"..."
Rika sounded like she almost jumped out of her skin and hung up immediately.
Yuta put his phone away and muttered, "I can't deal with this. Next time I definitely need to bring another person along."
Either way, as long as Rika was fine, that was what mattered. He gave the relevant people at the office a heads-up, then got back to work.
Before long, his phone rang again.
He checked the screen. Raizen Kurosaki.
He answered without missing a beat. "Raizen, when are you coming over? I've already got your desk set up."
"Shido, you played me!" Raizen had apparently remembered what happened last night.
"Played you? What do you mean? You're the one who said you wanted to jump ship to Starfall last night. I've got a voice recording and a signed, thumbprinted note to prove it," Yuta said with perfect innocence.
"I..." Raizen couldn't figure out how to argue back, so he just said bluntly, "A recording and a signed note don't mean anything. Your company just got dragged through the mud online. There's no way I'm coming over there."
"So what if we got dragged? Once we actually put this anime out, you think the internet won't turn on Genma instead? And think about it. Arcane picked up our pitch at Starfall but passed on Lumen's. Why do you think that is?" Yuta said, oozing confidence.
"Well..."
"You'll understand once you come over to Starfall. So hurry it up, I'm waiting for you. Oh, and by the way, Shidou and Retsu already agreed. They said they're putting in their resignations this week and coming over to join us." Yuta lied through his teeth without blinking.
"They already agreed? No way! I just talked to them on the phone and neither of them said anything about it," Raizen said in disbelief.
Yuta paused for just a second, then recovered smoothly. "You were obviously mad when you called them. Of course they didn't bring it up. They were going to wait a couple days for you to cool off and then tell you."
"You...!" Raizen sounded like he was about to explode.
"Look, just come on over already. This is seriously a once-in-a-lifetime shot at making it big. Your buddy isn't going to steer you wrong," Yuta added.
Raizen went quiet. After a long pause, he finally said, "Let me think about it."
Then he hung up.
Yuta wasn't worried. He picked up his phone and dialed the next two numbers.
"Shidou, when are you coming over? I've already got your desk set up."
"Our new anime is going to be huge. This is a real chance to make a name for yourself, so come on over. Your buddy would never steer you wrong."
"Other people are begging me to let them join Starfall and I'm turning them down."
"Raizen and Retsu already said yes. What are you waiting for?"
...
"Retsu, when are you coming over? I've already got your desk set up."
"Raizen and Shidou already said yes. You're the only one left."
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