“The president’s university, is it Todai or Keio?”
“Somewhere you haven’t heard of, Suzuki-san.”
Normally, if a student-started company got this big, they’d quit university. But since he has the ability of an item box and became a proxy for the two alien vice presidents just to keep attending, he must be a diehard case. Whether he’s stubborn or just pathologically shy, I can’t really tell, but that aspect is also part of why I think he’s a trustworthy person.
Tonbo-kun is probably someone who can’t let go of anything. He takes on everything, but has the extraordinary ability to somehow handle it all, and the luck and humanity to recruit people to support him.
I really am lucky. If I stay under him, I’ll probably never end up being left behind and alone again.
The strategy driven by Tonbo-kun to improve Kawashima General Traders’ bad public image, which has been the subject of much talk around town, also had a positive impact on the Asteroid Department. In fact, you could say the Asteroid Department benefited the most from that strategy.
While the company was scrambling to deal with things like hair growth medicine, tooth growth medicine, and card games, Kawashima Asteroid was truly riding the tailwind.
“Chief, you have a magazine interview at 3 pm after this.”
“Yes, yes.”
“Chief, from the self-defense force public relations…”
“Pass that to Kuwajima-san.”
“Chief, a space-related VTuber wants an interview, can I accept it?”
“What are Vtubers?”
“Well, they operate avatars, like anime-style bodies, and do live streams and such.”
“So it’s like the talking turtle from MouseLand?”
“Yeah, something like that.”
“Well, if it seems okay based on the guidelines, maybe Kaneki could take it on.”
At any rate, after Tonbo started the Dokken thing, Kawashima was praised by overseas celebrities and gained more public attention, and everything started going well. Last year around New Year’s, there were rumors about them working with the military to make missiles, but in no time they were treated as an up-and-coming space development company.
The space goods prepared by the vice president were indeed incredibly potent, but they certainly worked. The Kawashima Asteroid crew took this as an opportunity to actively solidify their new image.
However, in the midst of those days, the image strategy went a bit too well…and caused some awkwardness. Yes, it was about Dokken, which had taken over sales from Double Neck. It became incredibly popular and had a huge positive impact on the company. But there was still some lingering resentment over the director Iida publicly dismissing Tonbo, who had brought the Dokken cards to the meeting.
To be frank, Tonbo did do something bad as an organization member, so Iida’s admonition was only natural if you think about it normally. There’s no need to dwell on it…but we adventurers knew well that a president’s role can’t be judged solely by whether their actions were good or bad for the organization. Sometimes they need to take risks and produce results.
So when voices within the company started saying “Can’t we allow employees to buy the Dokken cards too?”, those of us attending the company-wide meeting were a bit puzzled. At the slightly upscale bar Abukuma had brought me to by taxi, she consulted me about it.
“So, Kaneki? can’t you say something to Tonbo “
“I could, but if he can’t stomach it, that could be bad, you know?”
“I guess Tonbo is still mad?”
“…No, Tonbo definitely isn’t mad.”
I stated definitively. Tonbo is an easygoing, frank guy by nature. Considering Kawashima Trading’s origins…probably, no, definitely, he’s an impulsive person who acts on whims. And to be blunt, he’s probably used to being admonished. So in his mind, he’s probably already processed it as his own fault.
“The one who might be mad is the vice president.”
“Eh? …Ah, yeah, that’s possible…”
That’s right, in this case, the scary one is the vice president backing Tonbo. From the outside, she may seem to have the same role as Director Iida in restraining Tonbo…but the vice president is closer to him than Iida. We can’t say for sure she doesn’t harbor some resentment toward Iida for voicing harsh opinions to Tonbo.
“To be honest, I could probably go and it wouldn’t be a problem…but you know, I was on Tonbo’s side at the meeting, right? If I’m the one bringing up the unpleasant topic, the vice president would probably prefer it come from Director Iida or Director Abukuma, right?”
“Ah, yeah, I suppose so…then I’ll go…”
“What about Iida?”
“Iida is…she’s actually quite concerned about this, so pushing her further on it could lead to her talking about responsibility and such…but her role is definitely still needed going forward.”
“Well, since we were in the same party, I can understand that.”
“Can’t be helped. I’ll go see them tomorrow…”
“I want to buy Dokken cards too…I’m rooting for you.”
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT gadgetizedpanda.net
However, it seems the worries were for naught, as the conversation went smoothly and Dokken was soon added to the Kawashima app. Those of us within the company, myself included, gratefully spent points to get the cards…but I heard later that Dokken also had many adventurer fans, and quite a few people spent their points on it rather than the convenient goods.
According to Kuwajima, there were also surprisingly many anime fans in the Self-Defense Forces. After Dokken was added to the app, the number of personnel diving into dungeons on their days off increased dramatically.
The first theme for Dokken was space. Naturally, that meant Kawashima’s spaceships would be featured as cards. The Kawashima-One card, the resource mining spacecraft we’re developing, had pretty good stats…and was quite popular in the game as well as the manga series based on it.
As a result, the morning children’s program covered the Kawashima-One. For some reason, since I was considered knowledgeable on the subject and presentable enough, I ended up being brought on as the spokesperson for the show.
And on the day of the broadcast…in front of the TV crew that had come to Kawashima Asteroid, I stood there grinning while holding a model of the Kawashima-One.
[Today we have Mr. Kaneki from Kawashima Asteroid to talk to us!]
“Hi there, I’m Kaneki.”
[Let’s jump right into the questions if that’s okay?]
“Please, ask me anything.”
[First, a question from Miyo in Aichi! What’s so amazing about the Kawashima-One?]
“The Kawashima-One flies using a new method called gravity control, unlike other spaceships. It’s a completely new way of flying that doesn’t require burning fuel during launch, so it’s environmentally friendly too.”
As I said that, I held up my index finger toward the camera. There was probably more I could have elaborated on, but for a children’s program, a simple, crowd-pleasing explanation was safer.
[Gravity control sounds amazing! Next, a question from Ui in Fukuoka! How many people can ride the Kawashima-One?]
“The Kawashima-One can carry up to four people, but there are no plans for anyone to actually ride in it for now.”
[What a waste! If there are open seats, let me on! Next, from Koji in Saitama! What is the Kawashima-One’s purpose?]
“It’s going to the moon for this Christmas, but after that the plan is to go beyond Mars, catch an asteroid, and bring it back.”
[Wow! Does everyone know what an asteroid is?]
Well, that’s the kind of program it was. I tried to keep it simple and safe, but it seems the TV station staff took quite a liking to me. Whenever anything involving the Kawashima-One came up, I ended up getting called in and put through a lot until the planned Christmas launch.
Kuwajima punched my shoulder for the unreasonable reason of “My daughter says you’re cool!”…and Suzuki suggested “You did well on camera, so maybe we should make you the PR manager?”
I’m not sure if it was because of that popularity, but on the day of the Kawashima-One launch, I was put in charge of live commentary for the streaming broadcast on TubeStreamer.
“Alright, I’m off! Watch the stream and cheer me on!”
After Director Abukuma’s words and the three cheers seeing me off, the car I was driving headed for the launch site.
“Well, I wonder how it’ll go?”
“Either way, I think it’ll just take off and land normally. We’re making it directly from the blueprints brought by the aliens, so it’ll roll just fine once made.”
“I wish I could be as carefree about it…”
“Want me to take over the live commentary tomorrow?”
“No, it’s fine.”
Abukuma closed her somewhat baggy eyes as she said that. She’s delicate, so she’s probably not getting much sleep.
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