Last night-

After Yoshida-san left and the both of us walked towards our hotel room it dawned on us that we just had one room and is sharing it together. Hence, both Ueno and I will be sleeping together today. I could see her face as red as a tomato as she look at the large single bed. Why wasn't this on our minds when we book the room? Wait a minute. Didn't mom book the room for us? Darn it. What is she trying to pull?

"A..Alex..there's only one bed!"

I could only nod as I see the problem. Well, thank god for the couch. I didn't say anything and simply took one of the pillows from the bed and went to the couch and slept. 

"Goodnight Ueno, see you tomorrow"

 

......

"What do you think that's gonna happen? I'm an adult. As if I would get flustered around about this. I'm too tired to think about this. Mm...zzzz"

 

I can see Ueno-san just standing there silently dumbfounded as she saw me stroll and brush her off. She shrugged her shoulders and didn't care about it either as she plop down and sleep on the bed alone drifting into sleep but still aware.

" Alex, you won't come up here during the night right? We haven't slept with each other since...kindergarten"

Alex shifted his body to the side from the sofa to face her towards the large bed on the opposite side, grinning

"Do you...want me to sleep up there?"

She's fidgeting under the cover of the blanket as if to contemplate it and turn towards the other side so she couldn't face me. I could only roll my eyes at this, Alex just can't stop teasing her like his but then again, he's too tired to even care about all of this right now, I shake my head and went to sleep...too tired to even think

---

" Hey Alex, are you still up? Alex?"

nothing came and then suddenly a snoring sound came from the sofa..a slight snore not too loud, just a little snuff. Lights out. 

 

Ueno felt annoyed at being ignored like that, What sort of boy wouldn't care when his beautiful childhood friend sleeps in the same room as him? Is this how he views himself? is that why he created that Yuuji character? Now that she thinks about it. Yuuji seems awfully similar to Alex in a way.

Then again, Ueno-san started to see more and more of Alex in that Yuuji character, the way he swooshes in and saves the girl, A part of her wanted to be swept off her feet one day, just a little, minus all the guns and killing within the game story, she read the early draft. The boy had a tragic backstory. It's not just Yuuji, every supporting character has some trauma behind them.

Said problems are generally some kind of psychological trauma or another type of darker past that in the end results in the person being unable to fit into society anymore. The school was created in a prison-like structure too, there are many details in the concept art that Alex made earlier, he seems to love introducing crumbs and bits of pieces around his art, fleshing out the lore itself.

Then again, there's one character that irks her to no end. This JB character, reminded her too much of that Ice Queen Aya Gozen. A little prick to the heart when things were mentioned about that woman. The fact that this is a standard Harem game, whatever Alex means by that? What's the standard of a Harem game? She doesn't get it. Are there more of these games out there? she didn't think that she saw any. Sometimes, Alex can say some of the weirdest things.

Back to the JB character. She's such a harlot! That woman JB already had sex with Yuuji when he was still a child!

Sleep is taking over her mind now. She's just too angry to too sleepy. She couldn't tell the difference anymore. Sleep will probably fix everything.

---

 

Yoshida was walking back home to his apartment nearby. The studio to his home is within walking distance. Japan's nightlife isn't something he tends to indulge in like the rest of his colleagues, He went back to the studio after leaving Alex Kenichi and his friend back at the Izakaya.

Something shook him today, Something stirs inside him as he looks upon the sky in envy at the amount of talent that boy has.

"If something doesn't exist..just create it? Who does that?"

If Alex could hear him say that, He would say that the quote comes from him in an alternative world timeline, although much older as well and in charge of the biggest and most Popular MMO in the world. That very same words would strike during an interview with the No Clip crew.

But something stirred within him alright, Yoshida-san wanted to believe that he too could just do that as well. If something doesn't exist..then just create it. And to him, Yoshida wanted to create a game that the players will enjoy, put the game first and create a wonderful story.

The man went home with a new goal in mind.

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---

Meanwhile, at the top of the Jamp Office,  Maya Gozen is fuming and angry after many attempts she tried to stop the rise of the Anteiku app.

"What do you mean Sakaki failed? That Anteiku boy is debuting on Comiket? can't the Tokyo Mayor do something? Anything ?! Can't the committee stop him from entering?! What do I pay you for!"

The woman tosses the landline phone as it cracked and fizzles into the ground. That woman was Maya Gozen, Her anger knows no bounds when someone royally pisses her off and derails her mission

"Damn kid, I severely underestimate his abilities to think outside the box"

Maya strode away in her penthouse apartment in Tokyo as she left with her bodyguards. It's time to take matters into her own hand as she is now headed toward the Comiket committee to change things. She tried to calm down and took one of her secondary phones and make a call before she head there.

Her mobile phone ringed, it was a call from her Main Investor, She picked up the call and said

" I am handling it," she said with a high angry tone

" Clearly something went wrong in Japan, you're underestimating your competitors," the voice on the phone said

"That boy is not my competitor! He came out of nowhere! Japan is done. Finished." said Maya as her anger subsided, she needs to get control of her emotions now. she then said " We can make a similar app to compete, it won't be a problem"

" That app of his is Open source, there are other apps that tried to copy him but with no Product, I don't doubt that the huge library of comics within JAMP could perhaps compete with him, but his implementation is multifaceted, it will take us months before we could even create an even playing field with the infrastructure he did"

the man from the phone voices his concern languidly but it somehow pisses Maya off more.

" What do you mean? Are you saying that I can't do what he did?"

" Not to the same success, not without the momentum he had with Anteiku no unless you have a rapid following like him, Keep an eye out, I believe the boy is planning the finale in Comiket, not that it matters. As you say...Japan is finished Maya, Pack up and head to South Korea"

"NO! I can still do more here, We can still get the -" before she was rudely interrupted by the man

"Japan is still trying to recover from the war, Their economy exists in a bubble, Whatever exists in Japan, stays in japan in their little bubble. Our target is globalization, We have tried and the medium has failed. Pull out now. Greener pasture exists elsewhere. Are you perhaps focusing on the boy too much because of his father?"

"No, I'm not. That man couldn't see the bigger picture. He didn't want to commit to the cause" said Maya

" Wrap up this incident and pull out, the less noise we make the better, we don't want a repeat of what happened ten years ago now would you?" said the man on the phone threateningly. 

"I..fine, at least let me wrap up this incident with the Ariake Committee and take the bulk of our IP over"

"Do it quickly before they suspect anything suspicious, no more screw-ups now. Send the IP and pull it out of Japan as soon as possible. The Kakao Publications will take over these formats into the mainstream audience"

The call ended and Maya was left conflicted now. There's still one more thing to do before she leaves Japan. She made one more call before she enters the lift. a brief one but something she should have done yesterday.

" Get me the Ariake Committee, If the Comiket Committee won't budge, Pressure them from another side, Arrange a place for the JAMP side of things, we will have a booth there as well"

She closes her phone and walks out. There's much to be done for JAMP since this day, it will be her last day here in Japan after all.

 

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---

The next few days are relatively mundane and productive. work was done steadily towards creating the game they need to showcase on Comicket and many other Fan related merchandise was created on the Anteiku store. Something Aya would probably create, nothing too crazy, just some stickers and keychains, easy to order and make and ship by tomorrow. At least it's some merchandise. Currently? he had none. Alex will probably need to think of a way to monetize his stuff with other things such as toys exclusivity and figurines. When in Japan? do what the Japanese do. Gacha and figurines are part of that culture after all.

The game is almost finished and he left most of the editing and final work to Yoshida-san since he is the Director of the game. Any significant changes he made are okay with Alex, The man knows what he is doing, and Alex trusts him to make the best game to be showcased on the final day, which is about 2 more days. he could see the crown starting to gather around Tokyo, feels quite lively suddenly, even though the hotel is packed these days. The pilgrims are coming here to Tokyo to come to the convention after all.

Alex was finishing up his latest work as he flurried through the work with a new art style he's trying to perfect, something of a mix and match between Asian and American comic style, broad brush strokes but retaining the aloofness of 80s superhero comics. While it may not be one of his original works, he did include one of his original characters from his universe in order to merge with the incoming ideas he had when he will eventually buy off either Marvel or DC in this Universe.

those definitely exist, but the comic studios aren't exactly as big as it is in his world, much of the story still revolves around war propaganda and uncle sam recruiting soldiers against Russia for the cold war. America is still at war in some aspects of its society. Something Alex wouldn't dive in yet, he's too busy trying to create his own stronghold here in the heart of Akihabara. The lack of otaku culture and maid cafes is quite apparent when walking down the streets of this iconic city, to see what it could be, and to see what it currently is quite saddening. While some aspects of the otaku culture do bleed over, it isn't overtly too prominent in business and branding.

As he finished up his drawings while Ueno was still sleeping, he took another sip of coffee he made at 7 am in the morning and send the rest of the file to Aya.

"I hope she's having no trouble with the convention. Knowing the world is targeting me, it feels like the calm before the storm and something will soon happen, I better check out for any problems"

Alex went to wake Ueno up after an hour and they both went down to have a quick breakfast. the cafe was packed with people, all those people staying at the hotel here are getting ready to enter the Ariake center tomorrow. Ueno-san looked at the crowd in awe as she has never seen so many people converge in Japan like this, She too hasn't traveled outside of Hokkaido, just like Alex, but Alex here is used to the crowd considering that his past life, he used to be at the Sandiego Comicon often, promoting his own comics and the Marvel lineup.

"There's soo many people here Alex, I'm kinda worried about the next two days,"

said Ueno as she stuffed another crepe we bought outside after leaving the hotel's cafe. Strolling around the walk side as she looked at the rest of the people. in awe. Alex just smile and walk along with her, today there are heading towards the Convention center to see if their booth is up and running, and to see the rest of the Anteiku volunteers from the Tokyo branch.

A notice from his phone altered him of something,

 It was Masashi Kishimoto, his comic was released on the app on Anteiku, the first volume is out as a sample. This is not the only comic, his other comic, Sapporo Revengers is out and a Poster of My Hero Academia taking pre-orders on the convention stand. It seems Aya has received his docket from this morning. That woman certainly works fast, faster than he or anyone at Marvel could ever do. His respect for her work ethic was raised tremendously. Japanese really take their work culture seriously.

He also noticed other works, Mostly Indie, and fanworks that will be released on Comiket as a print, Something he wanted to monopolize later on but wanted to test it out on the Anteiku app right now, he had a few indie Japanese comic artists and some famous doujin artist to post their work freely on Anteiku and collect their profits. Not a lot, but just a few to get the numbers trickling, it paid off immensely. The number of hits received from overseas and locally is tremendous. Getting those freelance translators as a platform to scanlate future works has made this far more accessible to more people.

While some artist isn't that happy with sharing some of the profit with these scanlators, the bulk of the cash the artist receive and the amount of free advertising and publicity helps with the social media trends such as Twatter. Discord blew up again as many of these series are introduced on the app just two days before Comiket.

Hopefully, Alex is able to mitigate any future problem in case the effort he would make on Comicket is quite lackluster. The rest of the series will be announced, after all, the Future series he had stored on his PC was a surprise.

 

That was when Alex met the first problem when he and Ueno arrived at the scene.

Their booth. It's not there.  When Ueno and Alex arrive at the Ariake Sports Centre their booth and number were gone. He could have sworn this was the right location and number too,  Booth number 22. Aya even screenshotted the location and the number. So where is it right now? a few days ago the booth was still here with posters and the artwork sample he made.

Ueno went to see if their Podium was set up but there wasn't anything there at all. What was going on? Alex quickly calls Aya to sort things out.

"Aya it's me, Something's wrong with the center. Our booth is missing"

On the other side of the phone, a surprise voice came when Aya said

 " You mean our Display and booth didn't arrive? I thought I send the pictures to you. Wait..you're there aren't you?"

"Yeah, I'm here with Ueno just to check up on the place, our volunteers are surprised too, this is a recent thing"

Aya seems to be scrounging for something as she muttered something he couldn't understand on the phone

"Right, I'll call you back, let me check. In the meantime Alex, since you're there. Check with the Ariake Committee about the booth, I suspect that someone is pulling something foul here, I'll get to the bottom of this"

So Alex kept looking around for the booth with his friend Ueno and after about 45 minutes he found the Ariake Committee.  They got a call at 4 in the morning that they had to pick up the leftovers from the booth. They organized a booth space inside one of the halls and threw our fixtures out, saying it was a call from Management. The reason the management stated was Risk and safety issues. Alex was not amused by this and asked where are the fixtures. The committee doesn't seem to know since they aren't from the same team from yesterday.

Before Alex could react to that, Ueno screamed his name

"AHHH! look, Alex! "

All of that hard work and they just threw it out. Alex was furious. His fixture was found in the trashcan. He found his fixture at the far end of the Sports Centre. All of that artwork poster and stuff that was printed and sent was stuffed in the Garbage Bin lying there broken and destroyed. This was clearly something deliberate.

It’s time to have honest conversations with our exhibitor and sponsor companies. Alex needs to educate them that their reputation is on the line by meddling unnecessarily like this. And more importantly, their competitors are maximizing their lack of participation and gaining an advantage since he also found out that JAMP is now occupying his booth space.

"That's..."

Alex looked at how Ueno was reacting when he suddenly finds that JAMP is taking his booth spot and putting their own over at the center of the building. The intention was clear. JAMP wants to shut him down.