There is such a thing as <i>too much</i> forward planning. Yoshifumi Mayoko was sitting in her office staring at a wall, the hard work of three months. She'd got everything down pat, perfectly aligned and balanced. Every step was known to completion. Every stage was set within her mind. The schedule was absolute, pristine, practically a divine presence upon this Earth.
"Miss Yoshifumi, our supplies will be a day late."
Down came the wall of planning and it was back to the drawing board. She let out a weary sigh. She always told herself, don't do that. Don't overplan in advance. Don't set out the next year of your life before you even know what you're going to be doing.
The entire reason she was even at this job was because she knew it was important for The Plan. Except...
She had forgotten it! Mayoko could not remember why she had taken on this job. Just that it had been part of some vital plan for the future, and yet here she was still stuck in it without any idea what it would lead to. It was important. Hence the capitalisation: The Plan was The Plan.
“I’ll.. make some calls.” Mayoko said, reaching for the phone with the same tone one might walk to the executioner's block. She was going to have to call a dozen people in order to arrange a hotfix for the supplies being delayed. Again. Then right as she was pressing the last digit, her phone rang and she accidentally wound up answering it.
<i>"Hey mom! I got another hot date tonight, so don't wait up for me!"</i>
"Wait, who are you dating this time? He hung up already!"
Ohhh! That son of hers! She didn't know how he did it, but pretty girls followed him around like lost puppies! If that boy wasn't careful he'd make her a grandmother before long, and that simply wouldn't do! She was too young and pretty to be a grannie!
“Your son being a playboy again Miss Yoshifumi?” The junor Office Lady who had delivered her the bad news said. Sounding far more amused than she should. "Honestly, you should get an electronic tag for him. Anyway, your three o clock is downstairs."
Right. Her three o clock. That was her... Massage therapist. Yeah, that's right. Her shoulders were a bit stiff, she was definitely in need of a shoulder rub. The agency said they were sending a new agent over, so thank goodness for that.
Alas, she had it wrong. That was actually her four o clock. Her three o clock was actually an interview with a potential new temp, an assistant who was supposed to help with the company website.
<hr>
It was the strangest thing. For some reason ever since he had entered this building everyone had been avoiding him! Was it something he'd done? Perhaps they thought he was rude or uncouth! Aha! In which case, he should introduce himself!
"Hello there, my name is Kenshiro Hinokuchi!" he yelled at the top of his voice at the next person he met. "It's a pleasure to meet you!" He seized the man's hand and shook it with all the vigor he could muster. "I look forward to working with you in the future!"
"... I'm the janitor, sir..." the man said, sounding a trifle fearful. No, that was surely his imagination going into overdrive. After all, surely everybody here was filled with as much <b>passion</b> for a career as he was! He had just graduated from Tokyo U and was ready to join the great work force to bring a better tomorrow to Japan!
"Yes, and you're doing a splendid job!" Kenshiro bawled, startling an office worker walking by with a stack of papers. "This floor is so clean that I could eat my lunch from it! In fact, I'll do that right now!"
"Sir please don't, that's still extremely unhygienic, even if there weren't still microbes you'd wind up eating detergent."
Aha! Good thinking, that man! Of course, of course. It was folly for him to stride blind into the domain of another's career, it's clear to him that a janitor would obviously know a great deal about cleanliness. A lesson well taken, well taught, well learned.
"Mister Hinokuchi?" a voice called out. A wry voice, as if stifling amusement. "If you're done harassing our staff, Mrs Mayoko will see you now."
"Thank you, kind hearted assistant!" Kenshiro said, leaping to his feet and, in a single bound, crossing the room to shake her hand. "When I look into your eyes, I can feel such passion for your work. It is, in truth, a contagious and virtuous feeling-”
“Are… are you trying to hit on me?” She said, looking a little confused.
“What? What kind of man would assault a woman!?” He said without pause. "Point me to the scoundrel, and I shall teach him manners!"
"Oh, I sincerely hope you get hired," the assistant said. "Wait here, she'll be with you shortly."
So indeed, wait he would. Kenshiro saw a seat at the table, but he could not bring himself to sit down. He paced around the room like a caged animal. This was it. The first step of his illustrious career. He'd looked up to this company for years! The charity work they did! The products they released were extremely high quality! Everyone had something they produced in their home even if they didn't necessarily realise it!
This hot blooded young man was full of ideas, burning with passion and desperate to show what he could really do. Why, he even had an idea for a new product that was perfectly in line with what they did. An automatic -
"Hello, terribly sorry that I'm a little late," said the most beautiful woman he'd ever met in his life. No! Such thoughts were sinful! "You have no idea how glad I am to see you right now."
Kenshiro did his best to look at her face, just her face. If he had to guess she was around a decade older than him? Only a guess though, because only some very slight laugh lines around here eyes were the only hint of any aging. She was slightly taller than him, though Kenshiro knew he was on the short end of men. Her dark brown hair was cut into a bob, and her… red? Amber? Eyes looked him over. She was not exactly skinny, but seemed… curvy? Yes. What body fat was there just seemed to fill her out, rather then spoil her figure.
How was she so beautiful? And why did she look familiar?
<hr>
It was strange but it almost felt like the closer she got to the room the worse her shoulders felt. This massage therapist could not have arrived at a better time - or for that matter been more delicious. It was strange to think but he was exactly her type - though if she were honest she was about fifteen or so years too old for him.
"Hello!" the young man said, snapping to attention. "It - it is a pleasure to meet you!" He bowed quite deeply. This made his spiky hair and sideburns shake a little, which was rather cute.
"Let's start with my shoulders, they've been killing me all day."
Yoshifumi sat down in the chair with her back to the yummy treat. My, my. They really have outdone themselves with this new therapist. Much better than the massive bald man from Sweden who they usually hired.
"Y-yes, right away!" the massage therapist said. His hands slapped down onto Yoshifumi's shoulders and - Bliss. Paradise. This was nirvana upon the Earth, the ultimate experience, and whatever they were paying him could not possibly be enough. "S-So! I have heard that the company is about to have a new release?"
"Hrm? Oh yes, it's due this coming Friday," Yoshifumi absently said. Normally she'd be quite careful about discussing upcoming releases, but this one had already been announced to the public. It had meant to release on Monday but an unexpected delay happened and they had to change it two months ago. "We're really excited. It's bound to revolutionise - "
By sheer coincidence and not because wUIe're setting up a running gag, he happened to find an especially wound up muscle and had her mewling like a kitten.
"I'm quite excited for the chance to work here. Ah! Your back really is quite stiff. This will not do, I shall conquer this stiffness with my elbows!"
His elbows were like a legendary weapon being used against a rampaging evil dragon.
"You're hiiiiired..." she slurred, having to brace herself against the table to have some semblance of dignity. This wasn't working out as well for her as she thought it was. "Definitely want you coming in from now on instead of the old guy!"
“Amazing! It’s been my dream to work here for years Ma’am!”
H-Huh? What a strange thing for a massage therapist to say in the middle of a session. Of course, it wouldn't be for another hour that she'd realise her mistake. By which time, her new employee had already left.
<hr>
Later that night Yoshifumi arrived home in usual fashion. Opening the front door. Collapsing inside. Crawling to the couch. Planting herself face down. Reflecting on her mistakes over the day. Try to remind herself of the positive things she'd done. Realise her son was out on a date with some random girl and that she'd have to make dinner herself. Feel a strange hunger in the pit of her stomach and that nagging feeling she was forgetting something. Try to remember what The Plan was. Give up on that. Then work up the will to actually make dinner, and go from there.
Trick was... today something was different. Her shoulders were hurting her again.
"Maybe I should get that Kenshiro guy to come and give me a massage," she mumbled into a cushion. Kenshiro. It was strange but when she thought about him this throbbing pain in her shoulders got worse. That was important somehow. Though, hold on. If it was coming back like this even after a massage then maybe there was something worse going on there?
She slipped off the couch and started taking off her top, then walked over to the mirror by the front door. "Did I maybe bruise them or something?" she asked aloud. Yoshifumi dumped her blouse to the floor. "Let's see if anything looks off."
As a matter of fact there was one thing that was off. It took the form of - would you believe - a pair of large wings with black feathers that suddenly sprouted out of her back for absolutely no apparent reason. Her face went pale. What the hell -
"Oh that's right I'm a succubus," she said, pounding her fist into her open palm. "I was supposed to seduce some idiot future hero called Kenshiro, wound up arriving fifteen years too early so I started working for the company he was going to one day work for so that I could one day seduce him and <i>I had him massaging my back while we were alone I could have had him there and then!</i>"
And so you can see once again that there really can be such a thing as too much planning in advance. Get too far ahead of yourself, and you could forget where you were going by the time that you get there. On the plus side she'd at least managed to hire him on, and by the time of his first performance review she'd be sure to reward him for his hard work.
- And her son returns home with his date right about then.
- Meanwhile Kenshiro is being a hotblooded shounen protagonist at random people.
- The next day, 'training' begins.
- It turns out the sardonic secretary is a younger succubus on the same mission.
- Something else
Something you could have as opinion nr 5, before 'something else', is a variant of nr 4 but that the sardonic secretary is an agent of "heaven", monster hunters or similar. There to stop Yoshifumi from whatever they think she's planing, or maybe the secretary don't know about Yoshifumi and is there to assist Kenshiro to realise his future destiny.
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