Double Black

ohmygod, they were roommates

Quite unexpectedly, Kunikida Doppo was faced with grave peril.

Yesterday, after his eight hours of a work day, which was mostly spent yelling at his useless co-workers and checking things off his schedule, he was asked to stay back for a little meeting by the President.

Needless to say, that had disrupted his schedule a little bit. But nothing that cannot be adjusted; it was the President's request, after all. And that man was reliable and diligent by all means; he would never dream of disrupting anybody's schedule for something unimportant.

Sure enough, when Kunikida sat down for the meeting in Fukuzawa-san's office, he was presented with a very important task. That of making budget cuts. According to the President, in the last year or so, the Agency had suddenly hired quite a lot of members. 

Since these members were hard-working and honest to their best ability, they absolutely needed to be paid. So, cutting costs to the company cannot be in the form of deducting salary or anything like that. But still, current expenditure was definitely exceeding the fixed budget. Hence, Kunikida was requested to come up with a solution. 

Of course, that was easier said than done. Kunikida definitely had to spend several hours on making such changes, and planning all of this, didn't he? Moreover, if he was to cut costs by reducing the semi-personal expenses of his co-workers, wouldn't that be terribly inconvenient to explain to them?

Despite all the hurdles, he managed to make some changes in the official financial planner, and by the end of his four-hour session of putting his math skills to good use, he finally came up with a satisfactory solution. One that he believed would not raise too many issues with his co-workers.

Now the only thing that was left to do was to get the new plan approved by the President, and then break the news to the rest of the employees. The former was quite easily done. His new financial plan had been great, after all. It was just the second part of his impending duties that seemed to be really, frustrating, for the lack of a better word.

So today morning, before getting started with his many duties for the day, Kunikida decided that it would be best if he conducted the budget meeting with his co-workers first and foremost. Given the nature of his said co-workers, the whole matter of discussing the budget cut was, of course, very casual.

Everyone had at least gathered around Kunikida's desk with their own chairs, when the idealist broke the news for all of them, "Listen up, everyone. So yesterday, Shachou asked me to make some adjustments to the Agency's budget planning."

It was the adults who got the hint first. Yosano stared at him pointedly, baring her metaphorical fangs, "You don't mean to say you're cutting our salary, are you?"

Next to her, Ranpo huffed, "That better not be it. We're making do by the bare minimum wages as it is."

Very nervously, Atsushi offered his opinion, "Um, Kunikida-san. Buying tofu is expensive, so... But if you think that's the best thing for the Agency then-"
(Naturally, this attracted an unimpressed stare from Kyouka.)

Kunikida cut him off, "Your salaries are not being reduced! Listen to me, will you? After looking at the history of our expenses, I have come to the conclusion that the best way to cut costs is by adjusting our housing situation."

It was at this moment that Dazai woke up from his nap. He walked over from his designated couch, yawning, "Hm? What's going on?"

Clearly, Kunikida had decided that he needed to spare his energy today, because he did not yell at his very lazy co-worker. Instead, he just grimaced before explaining, "Budget meting. I was just about to explain the new advised housing plan."