After being elected as the governor of Tokyo, he will debut as a band!

As a typical "company with poor business practices" that was reported in the newspaper, this company faced three heavy pressures at the same time: official penalties, union intervention, and a collapse of its reputation. Within just a few days, it fell into a situation of broken capital chain. Partners stopped fulfilling contracts for legitimate reasons, banks refused to continue lending, and suppliers came to the company in groups to demand payment. Any one of these three hurdles would be enough to kill a small or medium-sized enterprise. If all three came at the same time, the company would not be far from bankruptcy.

Because of the union's presence, the boss couldn't run away with the money, so he had to grit his teeth and keep borrowing from Peter to pay Paul, and soon he was on the verge of bankruptcy.

Noda Kazumi, who had taken two days off to spend time with his wife and daughter before heading to the Philippines, was stunned when he returned to work.

What's going on? I've only been away from work for two days, how did the company become like this?

It wasn't until a colleague he was on good terms with showed him the news on his phone that he realized the matter was related to him.

"This doesn't make sense. I haven't seen any reporters or editors from Asahi Shimbun recently. How could they know so much about what happened to me?"

"Maybe you were out drinking one day and said something drunk that some famous reporter overheard."

His colleagues speculated that way.

"That possibility isn't very high. There are at least 80,000 to 100,000 office workers in Tokyo who get blamed by their bosses, exiled, or demoted. Compared to those who are truly unlucky, my little story is hardly newsworthy and shouldn't take up so much newspaper space."

"I don't know about that, but Team Leader Noda, you're about to be sent to the Philippines, and you still think you're not unlucky enough? I really don't know if you're really that arrogant or just being polite... But speaking of which, with the company in such a state now, the matter of sending you to the Philippines is probably over."

"But the company is on the verge of bankruptcy, and compared to losing my job, going on a business trip to the Philippines is more acceptable."

Noda Kazuzo sighed.

The attitude of Japanese people towards resigning is different from that of most foreigners. Many of them are unwilling to resign even if they suffer severe workplace bullying and unfair treatment.

Losing your job due to your former company's bankruptcy is no better than resigning or being laid off; it will also become an obstacle in your subsequent job search.

"It would be great if someone could take over our company."

His colleague muttered something, then shook his head and went back to his workstation.

Noda Kazuzo sat in his seat for a few seconds, then wanted to go to the smoking room outside for a smoke, but he was stopped by someone as soon as he reached the door of the corridor.

"Team Leader Noda, the president requests your presence."

Noda responded and went to the door of the president's office. After hesitating for a moment, he pushed the door open and went in.

The company president, who was only a few years older than him, had much whiter hair than when he had seen him two days ago, and it seemed that the company's recent troubles had been causing him great distress.

It's worth mentioning that the president was sitting somewhat awkwardly on a single sofa, while a middle-aged man with a huge afro was sitting in a very imposing manner on a wide double sofa.

The man had a wild appearance, sharp eyes, and the air of a yakuza...

Could it be someone from an underground bank? Has the president finally resorted to such desperate measures?

Noda Kazuzo couldn't help but feel a little worried for the company president.

Although he hated the president to the core just two days ago, they had worked together for more than ten years, and now seeing the other party about to fall into the abyss of loan sharks, he still felt a little sorry for him.

But after seeing the muscular physique of the man with the afro that was clearly visible even through his suit, Noda Kazuzo immediately abandoned the idea of ​​meddling.

"President, is there something you need from me?"

he asked.

The president looked up at him for a second, his eyes filled with a complex mix of emotions including surprise, envy, regret, and confusion. Then he suddenly stood up and bowed ninety degrees to Noda and Mitsu.

"Um, Team Leader Noda, the company's management made an unfair decision regarding you before! Please, for the sake of the years the company has nurtured you, let the company off this time?"

"President, what are you doing..."

Noda was startled by the president's action, but as a middle-aged man with rich social experience, he quickly realized that the president had mistakenly thought he knew some important figure from the Asazuki Shimbun.

If the president had genuinely admitted his mistake, Noda could have forgiven him. However, the president's statement that "the company's management made an unfair decision" clearly indicated an attempt to shift blame, so Noda had no choice but to remain silent.

When the president saw that Noda remained silent, and then noticed that the man with the afro was only staring at the ashtray on the coffee table and showed no interest in his apology, he looked dejected.

"Team Leader Noda, this Mr. Suzumiya Hyakubi will be the new president of the company. From now on, you will follow his instructions."

Make way for me: Yokohama Concert 032

As Noda Kazusagi emerged from the president's office, he realized that he...

They stumbled upon a windfall.

Although the company went bankrupt, someone was willing to acquire it and retain more than 80% of the original employees.

This means that Noda Kazuzo and most of his colleagues no longer need to worry about unemployment.

Furthermore, the new president, Mr. Suzumiya Hyakubi, said, "Mr. Noda has extensive experience in product manufacturing, so this part of the work in the new company will be entrusted to you. Please get production back to normal as soon as possible." He then directly appointed Mr. Noda as the head of the production department.

He thought his career prospects had come to a standstill and that his family was on the verge of falling apart, but unexpectedly, things took a turn for the better, and he inexplicably ushered in a second spring in his career.

In response, Noda Kazuzo could only feel grateful to the reporter who included him in the story.

As for the president, since the company's value has been reduced after debt liquidation, he cannot gain much wealth from this acquisition; at most, he will only have a few million yen for retirement.

But it's better than being heavily in debt and ending up with an unfortunate old age.

……

A week later, at a cargo warehouse in Yokohama Port.

Several temporary workers are setting up a makeshift performance stage.

The goods stored in this freight warehouse were just shipped out two days ago, and the next batch of goods will not be delivered for another three days. Therefore, it was temporarily rented by a local entertainment company to hold a small concert.

The warehouse is large enough to accommodate more than a thousand spectators.

Sickhack is one of the main bands performing at this concert. In addition, SIDEROS, a girl band that also performs at the Shinjuku Fold Concert Hall, was also invited. There was also a girl band that debuted as idols and was arranged by their agency to perform here for training.

In short, today's concert had a very high female audience, and it was a bit awkward for Aoyama, a tall and strong man, to be mixed in with them.

If it weren't for the fact that it didn't fit the setting of the book, Aoyama would definitely have advised the organizers to invite another male band.

But rock music is about saying "no" to the established perceptions of mainstream society. If you think about it that way, the rock elements in SICKHACK seem to have increased.

Aoyama discovered through the intelligence gathered by Suzumiya Hyakubi that the executives of the Neon Essence Group had been frequently active at the Yokohama Port dock recently, so he came here in advance to investigate. However, after circling the dock for a while without finding anything, he returned to the warehouse.

The concert was still a while away, but the band members who were supposed to go on stage had already started arriving one after another.

The members of SIDEROS and SICKHACK were quite familiar with each other and gathered together, while the idol band quietly distanced themselves from them.

Because Aoyama felt that SIDEROS's captain, Otsuki Yuuko, had some inexplicable hostility towards him, and since the other group was all women, he went to sit backstage by himself.

Leaving aside SICKHACK, whether it's SIDEROS or that idol band, the members are all young and beautiful girls. Although the members of SICKHACK are a bit older, they are all beauties.

However, from the perspective of the audience, independent bands and idol bands are clearly distinct, as if there is a chasm between the two.

Especially that drunkard on the SICKHACK side who was still drinking heavily with a bottle close to the show, and that foreigner waving a wooden sword around... I really hope the good kids on the idol band side won't be led astray by them.

However, it was clear that someone was more worried about this than Aoyama. The manager from the idol group looked at Hiroi and Eliza with a wary gaze, like a police officer looking at a black person.

Soon, staff members came forward and invited the performers to the stage for rehearsal.

Because Kikuri Hiroi's condition was somewhat abnormal, giving the organizers a feeling that she was unreliable, and because this woman was notorious in the rock scene, the organizers were also worried that letting her go on stage first would cause the equipment to break down prematurely, so the idol band went on stage first.

This is a rock band consisting of five female high school students. Their music style is mainly symphonic metal, but leans more towards classical.

It's worth mentioning that this band includes a violinist, which is quite rare in today's world where effects pedals are ubiquitous.

When the band's manager saw Aoyama sitting alone backstage, he assumed he was SIDEROS' manager and chatted with him briefly during the band's rehearsal.

Aoyama then learned that the band debuted under the name Morfonica (Butterfly Group) and that all members came from the prestigious Tsukimori Girls' Academy.

The manager felt that their performance was a bit too "serious" and "steady," resulting in the band lacking a "metallic" feel. That's why he arranged this performance for them, to see if they could learn something from SICKHACK, a band known in the industry for its rock-and-roll style.

"This is the first time I've met SICKHACK's Hiroi-sensei in person. How should I put it? He's even more... charismatic than I imagined. I hope today's performance goes well."

The agent sounded quite worried.

Taking care of five high school girls from prestigious families at the same time is no easy task.

"SICKHACK's performance is scheduled for last, so it shouldn't affect your performance."

The organizers knew what kind of person Kikuri Hiroi was, so they wisely put them in the last place in the performance order. However, with SH's appeal, putting them last would still be enough to keep the atmosphere in check.

However, in terms of popularity, Butterfly Group is stronger than SH. But after all, they have a short time since their debut and their seniority is still a bit lacking, and Japan pays special attention to seniority.

Speaking of which, SICKHACK was able to perform here thanks to the help of Kazuzo Noda. His company and the property owner of this warehouse have been partners for many years. Before being reported by the neon purification group, he was responsible for maintaining the relationship between the two parties. When he heard that SICKHACK was looking for a venue to hold a concert, he volunteered to contact this place.

The other company also knew that Noda Kazuzo had recently been promoted to department head, and was happy to do him this favor.

Noda is here today too. He's helping the entertainment company set up a temporary stage. After all, he's been a production team leader for over ten years, so he can handle this kind of work.

"But we can't let our guard down. No one can be sure that Hiroi won't smash a few speakers or something while he's drunk."

Aoyama longed to hear SIDEROS' music end, so he got up and prepared to go on stage to participate in SICKHACK's rehearsal.

"Your statement is a bit of an exaggeration... Eh? A mask?"

"Hmm, the Peking Opera mask of Yuchi Gong, are you interested in this?"

"Um, what I mean is, you weren't SIDEROS's manager before..."

“Yes, I’m a new member of SICKHACK. You can call me Hack.”

When Ijichi Seika heard that Hiroi Kikuri had given Aoyama the name "Ijichi Yoshima," she angrily revoked Hiroi's right to freeload at the Ijichi family's house. Hiroi had no choice but to beg Aoyama to give him another pseudonym.

Aoyama borrowed the name of Jim Hack, the protagonist of a TV series he had watched in his previous life, "Yes, Minister".

"H-Mr. Hack, I was really rude just now."

The manager of the Butterfly Group thought about how she had just talked about their captain in front of the other members.

I felt a little embarrassed.

"It's alright. Rather, it's quite polite of you to use such cautious words to describe Hiroi."

This uses the timeline of the Maigou & AM storyline, where the Butterfly Group has already debuted.

Make way for me: 033 Friendly exchange

Having received prior instructions from their manager, the entire Butterfly group positioned themselves directly in front of the stage when SICKHACK took the stage, wanting to watch the performance from the best angle and see if they could learn anything to make themselves more "metal."

When Aoyama took the stage, Kurata Mashiro, the lead vocalist of the Butterfly Band, couldn't help but brighten up, muttering to herself in slight surprise:

"That person has a butterfly on their face..."

The mask of Yuchi Gong has wavy color blocks that resemble butterfly wings and dotted blocks that resemble antennae. Doesn't it look like a butterfly is perched on it?

"That teacher was just wearing a mask, but this pattern... is it a Peking Opera mask?"

Guitarist Touko Kiritani recognized "Butterfly" at a glance; after all, her family owns a kimono shop, so she has that level of cultural literacy.

"Is it just a face mask?"

Kurata Mashiro was somewhat disappointed.

"Hmm, let me see..." Kirito took out his phone and showed a picture on Yahoo that matched the mask pattern of Aoyama. "The black part looks a lot like a butterfly."

"Black? It's clearly a blue butterfly..."

Kurata Mashiro muttered something under his breath.

"what?"

"No, it's nothing... But the performances by the seniors seem quite promising..."

"Oh?" x4

Although they didn't know what Kurata Mashiro had sensed, the members of the Butterfly Group immediately became much more focused on their studies, trusting in their own songstress's intuition.

……

SickHack today features a dual drummer lineup, and the song they're using was written by Aoyama Kazuya four years ago when he was still a so-called "human rights" lawyer.

However, since Aoyama Mukashi didn't know how to play bass at that time, there was no bass part in the song. So Hiroi Kikuri spent a week adding the bass part to the original song, and the composer credits were changed to include both of their names.

Since Aoyama is best known for his drumming, the drummer plays a more significant role in this song, creating a strong sense of rhythm and weight. It features extensive fast-paced playing, impactful bass drum bass, and jazz-style percussion. Compared to SH's previous psychedelic rock tracks, it has a stronger metal feel. However, the refreshing and pleasant vocals of Hiroi Kikuri and Shimizu Eliza are interspersed throughout, preventing the song from being as deafening as most metal tracks.

After the rehearsal, the concert organizers will begin selling tickets.

Because the Butterfly Troupe was involved in this performance, and the venue was relatively remote with low visitor traffic, online ticketing was implemented. 90% of the tickets were sold through the ticketing website, while offline sales accounted for only 10% of the total.

However, thanks to Kazuzo Noda's enthusiastic praise of SickHack in front of the warehouse owner's manager, the company also helped with a small-scale local promotion for a few days. As a result, offline ticket sales were very popular, and more than 100 offline tickets were sold out in just over an hour.

Most of the ticket buyers were company employees and dockworkers working in the Yokohama port area. Among them were many rock music enthusiasts who were not averse to their idol bands.

After all, they were a group of energetic young and middle-aged men. Even if they didn't understand symphonic music and youth campus songs, they wouldn't refuse to take a second look at the beautiful young girls.

Of course, the most important thing is that the ticket price is cheap. After all, the rent for warehouses in Yokohama Port is incomparable to that of places like Kamurocho where every inch of land is precious. The warehouse owner gave them a friendly price because of Noda Kazuzo. The Butterfly Troupe came with the aim of learning performance experience, so their appearance fee was not high.

While everyone was busily buying tickets, the three bands stayed in the rest area chatting.