Aya Gozens- POV

"She did what?" 

Her father sighed as he slumped back from across the phone, Aya could feel the weight on his father's shoulders dropping down hard 

"She sold the company after it was transferred to her"

Aya clenched her first and shouted " Can't we stop her?! Why would you do this?! "

Aya couldn't contain her emotions, she wanted to lash out and threw her phone away as she can't believe her father would do that after what she said. He sold the Asa Shinbun away to that bitch sister of hers! even when she said she will sell it for scrap!

"I warned you about her Dad, and yet you still-"

Her father could only sigh and said

 " I promised her the company back when I promised her mother, besides...the era of newspapers is ending, I see a brighter future for the internet. It's fine, it's just business, and with that...I've squared off my obligation."

The both of them didn't talk for a while since both of them feel that this was inevitable, Aya knew how her sister felt about everything, so can't say she cared, but perhaps with this, Dad can finally see what kind of daughter her sister really is, and then Aya started first, and said:

" How are you feeling dad?" 

Her dad wanted to reply back, he was frankly surprised that Aya was willing to call her dad 

"I'm...fine. The Asa Shinbun was my pride and joy but it isn't something I should worry about, Your old man is fine, this Kuso Oyaji of yours still got a few strings here and there, I could try creating an online newspaper hub, free and independent news, maybe one of those things called a podcast or something"

Aya could only smile half-heartedly, she knew how much that company means to him. She grew up with that company as well, going to school and stopping by the factory to see his father on the way back. It was among her childhood memories. Now that factory is going to be sold away to someone.

" Aya listen, I heard your boy got into some trouble lately. Need any help?"

Aya wondered where his old man heard of this

" Who told you that?"

She can't help but ask when her father knew something she just found out an hour ago. Alex's booth was destroyed and dismantled, he was barred from entering as well due to the committee's intervention.

 Something shady is happening but Aya couldn't make a complaint in time, Comiket will start in two days.

"Yes, one of my acquaintances told me he lost a booth at the Comiket, Ya need any help? I could probably pull in some favors for that"

Aya can't help but raise her eyebrow in alert, Her father is making a deal with her but

"What's the catch old man?"

The old man on the other side of the phone just laugh and said

 " No catch... since this is probably partly my fault anyway, I could arrange for your boy Alex to share a booth with a friend of mine"

Aya can't help but ask due to her curiosity

" Out with it old man, who's this friend of yours?"

Aya could feel the sly old man smiling behind the phone 

"Eh..just a subsidiary under Kadoketawa, Ever heard of ASCII media works? recently this company was bought by a certain friend of mine and he wanted the small publishing company to participate and debut their magazines yeah? what better way than to debut at a crowd full of manga enthusiast!"

Aya could see what his old man was suggesting 

" So...you want us to collaboration with ASCII media works?"

"That's my gal! I knew you would catch on quickly! Where did I ever go wrong with that sister of yours?" chimes in the old man with a distraught voice and disappointment in him.

"Focus dad, So how do I get in touch with them?"

She said, but her father laughed it out and said 

" I think, with what happened? my friend will approach your little boy first, they are probably discussing the details right now, He's at the booth"

Aya didn't know if he wanted to curse his dad or smooch him right now.

" Did you anticipate this?"  

Her old man could only cough and said

"No baby gal, Just something we old folks talk about when young un's like you guys move the world, Hiroshi, my friend who's launching the Dengeki Magazine thought he could put out a digital version of his magazine up on your boy's Anteiku network for quite some time now"

Aya could see how this would benefit them.

"Okay, so what can I do?"

The old man just hum and said

"Hmm, that's...tough. It depends on what your boy is saying, either way, I don't think you should diverge from your original plan, just make sure whatever it is you're doing, Check up on him later. see what he wants to do maybe? My advice? stick to the plan and just go with the flow from here on, If you're done with Sapporo, why not head over to Tokyo early? the boy could probably use your help"

That was really sound advice, Part of Aya felt grateful that her dad decided to help her after all even when the initial news was quite grim in nature. 

"Alright, There's nothing more to do here, I'll head out to Tokyo as soon as possible, Are you sure you're alright Dad?"

The old man seems to be grumbling something 

" I ain't dead yet, just bugger off and do your thing baby gal. leave your Oyaji alone to his alcohol and misery, go on now. You got a boy who needs you now"

Aya just nodded and her Ice Queen Persona came out

" You seem to be forgetting one thing old man"

Her old man just laught and said

 "Oh yeah? What's that babygal? "

 

"My boss will devour him. Your friend won't come out of this alive .Alright then Father, good day"

She immediately closes her phone and strides away to take a cab, meanwhile, on the other side of the City, the old man was just staring at the phone and laughing out loud. He's truly entered retirement now. Whatever his kids wanted to do, was out of his hands. That daughter actually called him Father...

"huh...Retirement might not be so bad" the old man smile." 

 

Meanwhile-

 

Alex Kenichi received a message from Aya Gozen, she's coming here with the final push and production work. The backline stuff has been secured, and a message told him to meet with the ASCII media head group under the Kadoketawa group, while the company is a subsidiary of the main parent company, It needed the publicity that transcends JAMPS marketing to put the magazine out there. If Shonen manga was publish by JAMP? then the Bishoujo Market is controlled by the Dengeki group.

And they want a bigger part of the new age of marketing through the internet.

What better way than to debut in a new multi-platform like the Anteiku app and take a slice of the pie from the Dominant Shonen Group?

 Pit the two together? A plan began to form in his mind, Dengeki is launching here in Comiket and they want an exclusive feature in the Anteiku app. What better way to strike back this way?

"There's still the matter with the booth, It's time I start working"

Alex ignored the broken cardboard cutting and decided to go to the stock house downstairs that they rented, since these people wanted to play dirty, Alex won't hold back, He will just have to cheat and beat the world at its interference.

 

 

"System, buy me some design books on Decor and exhibitions from the library and any necessary knowledge in electronics for me to design and create my own booth"

 

Alex flips his phone and typed in Matsutada's number and dial it in, a cheery voice came from the other side

"OHAIYO GOZAIMASU BOSSUN! "

Alex can't help but smile for his overexuberant minion and said "How're things over in Hokkaido? any problems integrating with the locals?"

"Ahh..ano, things are alright here Aniki, There were some mild setbacks with some of the adults but uhh..Kishimoto Ossan helped out and things didn't escalate"

Alex was surprised that Kishimoto-san stepped in

"Ah I see, I called because I wanted to ask you something,"

"Shoot the answer Aniki! Anything to help!"

"Recently some idiots decided to trash our place and-"

"BAKA YAROU! WHO THE FUCK DARES TO MESS WITH YOU ANIKI! Want me to come down there?! Me and the boys will fuc-"

"Calm down, it's being handled right now, I just wanna ask if you know any of the boys here in the Tokyo district looking to earn some money I mean."

There was a silence for a moment from the other side as Matsutada san is recalling something and then said

"Ah, I knew a guy that used to run with the Tokyo in the Saitama Prefect, Ojishiro Benkei used to run with those crew before he was arrested, The uhh successor was this kid we drive along during the summer holiday last year"

"Ojishiro Benkei? Is he someone I should take note of?"

Matsutada seems distressed and said " Ahh no... it's uh complicated, anyway that guy was sent to jail for beating up a teacher, The successor Jeong Suk took up the mantle and run the crew after that. Nice guy, too polite to be running with a crowd, but he knows how to throw a punch and is a really good gearhead"

Alex nodded, he didn't care who it was as long as its available muscle. 

"Ask Jeong Suk if his group wanna run a guerilla advertising campaign here in Tokyo, If there's someone who could take videos, even better, I want this live-streamed on the Anteiku app while he runs the course"

Matsutada seems to be confused " Ano Aniki...w-what are you gonna ask him to do?"

Alex just smile and said " Midnight racing, doing what you do best, your guys will be doing the same at Hokkaido too, get as many people as you can and run the guerilla ad, Do this, and I'll give everyone a free bike"

"Thank you, Aniki! we will definitely make it work! I'll set it up as big as possible!"

Alex ended the call once that one is done and sent the email to Matsutada, he's smart he will know what to do. It isn't exactly hard to run an illegal race after all. But an open illegal race that isn't a race? Alex wonders if he could skirt the law as much as he can within the rules of society here in Japan.

Rules are different here in Japan, lots of unwritten rules, lots of tatamae and honne of intentions and direct implications. The room was emptied and trashed, It seems that those organizers are in it too, he could try to retaliate. but this isn't good ol U.S.A. Suing has no real power here, only connections and interests would work, Politics work differently, social cues work differently, and there are rules to protect those that do things illegally around the world, but it's okay here in Japan, like marrying your cousin...at the age of 13. Totally not lying.

This includes Defamation cases, for example, telling your co-workers that your married boss is cheating is defamation even if it's true. A system that plays in the grey area and upholds the honor even if said honor is tainted. Damages on one such honor can be considered defamation here in Japan, and such cases won't work here if Alex tried to point fingers, a minimum amount of defamation is about 4.4 million yen. that's about 36 thousand dollars. Yeah, no way..screw this shit.

So what is a guy like him to do? 

Cheat obviously. Why play by the rules when you can just break them? Alex consumed the knowledge he bought from the system store library and check on all four sides of the room, there aren't any CCTV cameras here so this is the perfect place to use his powers while the workers he hired upstairs try to do damage control at the booth. 

Using his abilities he sketch out the air and assimilate reality and drew the booth fixture into existence. The amount of points consumed is negligible since its just ordinary items, a stage set, and a large screen LCD, Some grade items like an LCD screen remove a hundred points but some stuff like a block of styrofoam art with the same design concept that was destroyed earlier, all of it emerges almost instantly within the room as motes of light manifested itself into reality and into a tangible item, some with added features.

Everything was done in a few minutes, Brand new fittings were to be installed again on the Convention floor. No witnesses, so nobody needs to know if we really had backup like magic. With this, he immediately removes the current issue, Now to deal with the organizers. Alex typed a few things and uploaded the picture of the broken fixtures and posted it on the dickscord channel in the main Anteiku App and Twatter using an anonymous account.

The social media will run the blitzkrieg while the midnight ad campaign will hit them when they least expected. Alex notified Ueno about the fixture replacement and they can start fixing those items. Ueno was surprised that Alex was prepared for such a contingency and started to inform the Anteiku committee to set up the booth. 

All he needs to do is sit back and watch the events unfold. The workers became excited as the backup items were still intact and they went to work immediately. It seems the boss already anticipated such a thing, everyone was fuming mad since they work hard assembling those fixtures for a whole day, only to be destroyed when they came to work the next day, They will certainly complain about this matter to the organizers. They cannot let this slide.

Later that day, there was a huge backlash on social media, and fans came to rally and more volunteers from the Anteiku fan group came to volunteer to act as a deterrent to anyone trying to mess with the booth. Meanwhile, Alex was approached by a man from the ASCII media counter.

"Well met Alex sensei, I am here to discuss a proposition-"

Alex interrupted the old man and said

"Alright, just send me the file and I'll even feature it on the main page, Your magazine will be on the top page and I'll even bury that Shonen trash with something new, We can hit them both sides from a different genre"

The old man was caught in a moment before he smile and calm himself " The Gozen family certainly struck gold with you, I will have my people send the files right now as we speak"

Alex just nodded as he tap around with his laptop and motioned the old man to sit

" Mr. Hiroshi, Why don't we up the scale just a little bit more?"

The old man nodded and listen carefully "What would you have in mind?"

"Leave the parent company, make a bet with me. If I can...triple the sales of your expected projection, will you come under my banner instead?"

The old man raised his eyes and said "Leave the parent company? while triple profit does sound nice...Kadoketawa has treated me and my family with honor and respect, It would be dishonorable to just switch companies out of loyalty"

Alex simply hummed and  push the laptop to the side for a while and look at the old man seriously and said

"What do you know about the genre Bishoujo?"

The old man knew this by heart, her daughters love this genre, like Sailormoon, the core element of the series is the design to appeal to the male audience as well since Bishoujo is not really a design per se but focuses on the beautiful girl's genre here in Japan.  A general explanation was given to Alex.

"That is what I think the genre is in the current market, while the visual novel market is starting to trend since artists started to dabble into digital art and such medium, I think it has a niche market in this manga industry."

Alex just gave a small laugh and said " Small niche industry huh? hoh boi...you're so wrong there Boomer"

Hiroshi seems to feel that something was amiss, was there more to this genre? 

" Is that so? take a look at this, Tell me if you somewhat understand this"

Several words that came to mind that doesn't seem familiar to the old man, Bishoujo gal games, Gacha girls, Waifu? Exclusive rolls? Pity rolls? Cross genres like Bishoujo/isekai and other terms of the genre he is not familiar with,

 There are pictures and graphs within this proposal on his laptop, While there are terms he is not sure about since it doesn't seem to be some sort of otaku or business term, He did see the value of this proposal, projected earnings on possible trends and shift in animation and technology.

Limitations of concept genre and what it takes to break those molds.

This boy isn't looking at the present, He's already anticipating the future and what this genre can offer, with Projected profits of up to billions of Dollars a month. is this even real? Hiroshi is a seasoned salaryman, he's the current Manager for the Dengeki magazine and wanted more before retirement, but this...This era he's ushering in is so bright. He wanted to see it. 

Hiroshi nodded toward the young mangaka and said...

"I will...retire early and prepare another company to join you, Will that be acceptable?"

Alex smile and said " Welcome to Anteiku Hiroshi-san. Within One year, settle your differences with ASCII media, and then come to me"