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Epilogue | And The Road Opened Up Again | Remake our Life!
Part 1
A week has passed since the shocking announcement.
Since then, the 2nd Development Department has seen a number of staff resignations.
The reason, of course, was clear. The new B-Craft game was to be made in almost the same arrangement as the game they had been making not so long ago. It was their main objective to participate in its production.
"It sounds like some of them simply got sick of the place and resigned."
Kuroda says somewhat sadly.
"Actually, it would be nice if we could all be transferred together, but that would raise issues. It's difficult, this kind of thing."
In fact, it was decided to create a new production company that would be 100% funded by B-Craft, since B-Craft itself was not willing to do the production.
"But I'm really glad. Both MysClo and Grape have been decided and we will make do with both of them. I'm not sure there's a better way to settle this."
"Right, un."
I think Kuroda is right, it was the best possible outcome.
Originally, we had proposed only a new work by the staff of MysClo, but in further communication, it became clear that there was room for Grape to proceed at the same time, so we pushed for it, and the budget was approved as well.
It is still a one-person project for Sakurai-san, but she may be able to increase the number of staff if things progress in a concrete manner.
"So, when is Kuroda going over there?"
"I guess I still have a little more work to do on the rest of the stuff. I think all the other guys need to finalize where they're going, and then we'll see. I'll have to take care of that stuff since the manager's not here."
Kawasegawa, too, seems to have finally regained some softness in her expression. She must not have felt at ease for a while now.
"Has she calmed down a bit?"
"Yeah, she is finally ready to start working on the next job."
I remember seeing her yesterday.
A new office was prepared for her by B-Craft. She will work there as the head of the new "1st Development Department".
With the staff still sparse, I went out to take a look.
"Ara? Is it okay for you to be here? You're still an employee there, right?"
Kawasegawa said in surprise when she saw my face.
"I've already submitted my resignation, and it's kind of a grace period right now, so it's all good. But can I talk to you for a minute?"
Kawasegawa nodded, "Okay," and got up from her seat.
We went out to the rooftop break area. Unlike a high-rise building like Succeedsoft's, the new office was a small three-story commercial building with about two-thirds the space. Although it had been renovated, it was inevitably cheaper than the old cutting-edge office.
"But I feel at ease here. I can see everyone's face and do my job properly."
Kawasegawa seemed to like the place completely, and the oldness of the place did not seem to be a problem at all.
"Hey, Kawasegawa. I want to apologize ... again."
"Apologize? For what?"
She looked at me questioningly, and I bowed my head,
"The original issue was that I had stirred things up a lot. If I hadn't done anything, you could have been in Succeed this whole time, but it's my fault that it didn't happen."
Indeed, the development environment for MysClo has improved dramatically. The situation of Kawasegawa, which had always been interrupted by the Board of Directors, has also improved.
However, that is only an improvement of the environment from our point of view. Succeed is a big company in terms of corporate stability, while this company, which is funded by B-Craft, is essentially a subsidiary company. If there is any major problem, the main company will cut us off without mercy.
I was the one who created the situation that forced the entire development department to go here. If it weren't for my interference, I'm sure she would have been able to spend her life more peacefully.
I apologized to her for that.
"Right, come to think of it, I've had a bad experience because of you."
"Yeah, so, you know, my apolog——"
Kawasegawa unexpectedly grabbed my head, which was still lowered, and quickly returned it to its original position.
"Eh...?"
"There's no one here right now, is there."
I didn't even have time to reply, "Why".
The next moment, Kawasegawa's body hugged mine closely. It was just the opposite of how I had embraced her on the night of the announcement of the development freeze.
"K-Kawasegawa......?"
A hand went around my back. She stroked me affectionately, and I felt like I was going crazy just thinking about it.
"I always said I had a favor to ask you, didn't I."
"Yeah, you said it."
From the moment I joined Succeedsoft, she had been talking about what she wanted to ask me to do, and about another important promise she had made me.
Keep liking the game.
I have only recently realized that this is the exact opposite of what that executive director had in mind.
"While I was at that company, I kept thinking about how I could take the production to the next level. I met you, a person who can take action, and I began to think that it might be possible."
"Someone who might do something for you, huh?"
"Yes," Kawasegawa nodded.
"But things were getting worse and worse. It was getting harder and harder for you to move, and I felt like I had reached the end of the road. So on the day of the development freeze, it was really hard and sad, but there was a part of me that felt relieved."
Kawasegawa took one deep breath.
"I don't have to make games anymore."
"............"
Had Kawasegawa been cornered to this extent?
Even though she cherished the game so much and the project called MysClo.
I noticed that Kawasegawa's words sounded a little tearful. But of course, I pretended not to notice.
" I have learned that a leader, no matter how hard things get, has to be willing to go through to the end. So, now that you have helped me this much, I will not cry anymore. I will fight. That's what...I wanted to say."
The hand that was put behind my back felt strong.
"Thank you, Hashiba...... Please continue to work with me."
"Me too."
Something hot was welling up in me too, and I was desperate to hold it back.
I honestly don't know if I was able to repay her in the best way possible for everything. It is of course possible that there could have been a better move and I didn't get it due to my lack of ability.
But if she is now thanking me like this, I thought that I had fulfilled my first promise a little.
"Well, things have been a little too messy of late."
Saying that, she pouted in dissatisfaction.
"S-Sorry."
Kawasegawa Eiko has thus moved to a new stage. She has escaped from the executive director that had tied her down, and this time she should be able to make her game in a better way.
"I see. So Kawasegawa is safe now."
Hearing my report (I didn't reveal the part where I was hugged, of course), Kuroda nodded his head repeatedly, as if relieved.
"Kawasegawa looks strong at first glance, but in reality she's very sensitive and gets into a lot of trouble, and she's actually not suited to be a leader."
Kuroda said something unexpected.
No, I was vaguely aware of that, too. She lacked the necessary thickheadedness to play a leadership role. I think she often tried to see everything with too much resolution and got exhausted by it.
"That's why, the truth is... I think it would be a good fit for someone like Hashiba to be the leader and have her be the assistant."
"My assistant? What a waste."
I never thought about it, but maybe such an alternate world line existed. That is, if I had chosen the same art college as hers when choosing a university.
Perhaps it was the image of me leading the team as a leader, and Kawasegawa providing perfect support while complaining about it.
"Areh.........?"
I was surprised at how well the image fit together, more so than I had expected.
"Hihi, it's not so bad, is it? I may look like this, but I'm more skilled than anyone else at judging the right people for the job."
I smiled wryly back at Kuroda, who chuckled.
A small misunderstanding can change everything drastically. If you try to move on and pretend that you did not see the strain that was created in this way, the strain will naturally become bigger.
I thought that the series of things that happened at Succeedsoft must be an extension of that. Before the executive director, the system and thinking are old, and there is a gap between the people working inside and the people working outside. Trying to fill it with mentality causes stress.
(I guess I'll have to see that in my new workplace.)
"Well, I don't think the executive director is going to back down quietly on this, and we have a lot of work to do."
Says Kuroda with a serious look on his face.
"I bet."
I, too, did not think everything was settled with this.
Now that his reputation has been destroyed in front of so many people, the executive director will surely plan to seek revenge, and I am sure that he will do so in a very nasty way.
(I guess I'd better brace myself.)
I should also talk to Kawasegawa. Although, she probably doesn't want to hear that name again.
"By the way, is the new president coming next week? Has Hashiba met them yet?"
"No, not yet, I've only heard that she's a woman."
I don't know what kind of person she is, but it seems to me that I should check her beforehand, the Executive Director too. Well, maybe she already knows about that.
With a mixture of anxiety and anticipation, I solemnly prepared myself for my new office.
Part 2 (POV Executive Director Matsuhira Koh)
The screen display in front of me shows the results of a social networking search. Since the day of that announcement, there has been so much excitement about Beechcraft's new work that not a day goes by without people talking about it.
"Everyone is so free, they just talk about a game every day."
Mystic Clockwork's mass staff transfer became a hot story in the game industry that had just been out of the news, and it was trending every day.
Moreover, perhaps because of the media measures they had taken, Succeedsoft was being criticized due to the frozen development of MysClo, and we had no choice but to watch and pretend not to notice.
We could take retaliatory measures. For those who were still with Succeed at the time of the Itoru announcement, we have made some preliminary considerations, such as having them write a statement forbidding them from transferring to other companies in the same industry, and demanding compensation by making them take responsibility for the earlier development freeze.
But,
"They were very well prepared for that."
He had a lawyer who was used to dealing with this kind of thing available from the beginning, and he was on the lookout to make sure that no terms were given that could be used against them. Although Beechcraft was covering the costs, I am certain that he was the one who negotiated the arrangements.
"Hashiba Kyouya——huh"
That guy's resume when he joined the company. I take it out of the envelope and look at it again. He looks ordinary, with no particular characteristics.
I must admit that I underestimated him a little. After the development freeze, when I called them up, they were completely brokenhearted and didn't seem to be turning against me. Now I don't know if it was because someone had put him on the spot or because he had enough material to go on the offensive.
"Well, it doesn't matter."
Frankly, I don't care what those guys do at the other company. I should be happy that we got rid of them and this will help clean up my dad's faction.
"But..."
I squeezed the resume I was holding in the palm of my hand.
"I won't forgive you...... I'll show you what happens if you defy me, Hashiba."
It would be boring if he didn't resist at least a little, but there is a certain degree of resistance. Even pets are punished for biting, so he and his friends should be punished accordingly.
Whether they move to another company or flee overseas, there are plenty of ways to do it. It is necessary for them to tremble with fear once again, and hurt them so that they will never think of defying me again.
"I can't afford to lose to anyone."
I say it as if to confirm it to myself. I want to make those idiots and those who believe in them understand the pain of that time.
To do so, I cannot stop at a place like this just yet.
I put down the crumpled resume and pressed the call button on the internal phone.
"The meeting starts at 17:00 today. Gather Corporate Planning, Human Resources, and the sales department heads."
"Understood," a nervous voice replied. He must have sensed something unusual in my tone. Again, I sat deep in my chair and thought about Hashiba.
"I don't like it, those hope-filled eyes."
From the beginning, I sensed something fishy about him apart from his ability. He could do it if he wanted to, but he was wasting his time by sticking to the game industry, and trying to move around based on his feelings instead of taking up the right job. It would be extremely annoying if people like that filled the world.
"That infuriating positive word, I'll use overwhelming force to overrule it and make it go away. Everything and everyone he loves is my enemy."
A smile naturally came to my face. I couldn't wait to see how I was going to destroy this sturdy-looking toy.
"Hashiba Kyouya —— I’ll hurt you so much that you’ll never recover."
Part 3 (POV Ichikawa Mika)
It's a beautiful day today. The air is fresh, which is very nice, but there is inevitably dust in the air, and it's a bit of a difficult day for cleaning.
Also, I've been on the phone a lot since earlier today, and I haven't been able to get very far with the cleaning. I understand that they have a lot of things they want to check, but since I told them everything ahead of time, I think it's time for the people in the office to do something about it.
"Yeah, I'll be in your office next week, so just set it up. Just connect the lines and I'll take care of the rest. Eh, how about greeting the new staff? I'll take care of that, too, so it's okay~ Well then, I count on you."
I hung up the call, put the smartphone away in my pocket, and began sweeping again. It was something I always did as part of my daily routine in front of the apartment I managed.
Even so, they picked up a bargain in an unexpected place.
When my father suddenly said he wanted to bring in outside blood to strengthen development, I wonder "What should I do~?" but they came to us with a project, so I thought "Maybe I'm lucky!". Moreover, the other party is at that Kyouya-san's place.
"Well, the old men on the board of directors were against it, but when I told them I would form a separate company and work on it, they became quiet, that was pretty easy~"
With a hum, I put all the fallen leaves into a bag and tied it tightly. The regular garbage collection area already had several bags of fallen leaves.
"Kyouya-san, I told you I don't believe in fate."
I carried the garbage bags in my hands and put them all together at the collection point.
The courtyard, which had been littered with fallen leaves, was cleaned up and looked new at once.
"If you seize the opportunity yourself, fate will follow you..."
Even the gacha in social games have a 100% chance of appearing if you keep pulling until you get it.
What is important in drawing lottery tickets is not the luck of winning, but how strong your skill is in drawing the lottery. Dad says something good.
"Kyouya-san will be surprised when he meets me at the office. Perhaps I should suddenly call him by his name from behind. Like, Hashiba Kyouya-san......right?"
Somehow, I continue to practice greetings.
"Nice to meet you. My name is Ichikawa Mika, president of the new company, B-Craft Creative. I look forward to working with you, fufu."
I couldn't help but chuckle.
I wonder how I will play with that quick-witted cutie from now on.
The more I thought about it, the more I was looking forward to working next week.
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