Chapter 27: Chapter 25 – Hostile takeover.

Aya Gozen was in the redlight district here in Sapporo. She didn't intend to come here at all, and to be fair, this is the first time she entered the red light district on her own despite being at the ripe age of 25. Aya Gozen doesn't have many friends, no scratch that. She doesn't have any friends at all, for all she had before this was work and more work. She was a career woman, a certified otaku girl who fangirls about manga, mostly Tochigi works, and many other romance novelists till one day she decided she wanted to be in the industry herself despite her Fathers protest back then. It was the same for her elder sister, it was the same for her too. 

She didn't know that by following an 18-year-old high school boy, she would follow him here in the middle of the night into the redlight district here in Susukino, what is Alex Kenichi thinking going here in the middle of the night! why is he following that man? or is that man actually leading him somewhere? they entered some sort of gambling establishment. The two of them entered from the back door. Aya Gozen could only follow them to the front desk of the area. It was a small gambling establishment. there were people playing pachinko from the front and many other little arcadey stuff she's not familiar with.

" A pachinko parlor? what is Alex sensei doing here?"

It was perplexing, it was the day they would announce that Kyoto Ghoul won first place in the Competition, she was about to break the good news even if she didn't get the exclusive contract with JAMP magazine, but instead, the kid got out of his home and came here? Something doesn't add up. What is a newbie mangaka doing out here? She would like to get to the back, but there are some scary-looking people guarding the backdoor. She went back out and took a peek towards the back? she tried to sneak in but saw two big men simply taken down by Alex in a single punch. She was shocked!

How could someone like Alex take down those two big giant men? it doesn't seem possible! He's just a high school kid! even if..if..he has a really nice body that one time -

"Ahem! this is not the time to be thinking about that Aya!"

"Moshi Moshi- Alex desu~"

Before she could get inside, someone from behind pulled her away, it was one of the former colleagues who works nearby, and one of her avid followers as well, miss Ayumi, She is also her former editor when she used to be a novelist, Ayumi pulled her out without a second thought as she covered Aya's mouth and immediately escape from that area,  The two of them were fleeing the scene when Aya decided to stop running and pushed Ayumi away 

" Stop it! What are you doing?! Ayumi? what are you doing here?"

"Ahahaha...It's you Aya, W...what are you doing here? don't you know where this is? You really shouldn't be here.."

"Huh? I thought I saw and heard someone I knew and-"

Ayumi was flustered as she looked around the area as if she was looking for someone as if someone is watching. she put her finger to her mouth as a sign to keep her silence

" Shh! This is Susukino!  Keep your voice down!"

..........

 Matsutada kept silent and is still shaking in fear nonstop he feared this young high school kid, there was a certain air of superiority emanating from him, it was the Baki fighting style emanating from its raw power, but he doesn't know that Even Alex doesn't know how far this martial arts would take him, he just knew how to take down his opponent by instinct.

Alex was holding the phone while he look upon a sigil of a Naruto and the Uzumaki clan symbol on the Yakuza crest plate. Somehow he knew that the Yakuza is related to him, their Oyabun shares the same name, It's mostly only a hunch right now, but looking around the office, He is sure...This Oyabun he's talking to right now? know the Author of that series. He wanted to know why JAMP magazine decided to give the Axe on the series.

A voice came from the other side of the phone as Alex picked it up. 

" Where is Ryusei...who are you?"

Alex pondered for a moment and simply said his pen name instead

" Must we do this again? I said my name was Alex"

" Alex...who?" 

the voice from the other side said with indignity towards an inferior person, Alex could tell that the person on the other line was getting angry.

"Just Alex, Ryusei is not available now, He's not available ever at least for today. I took him out,"

there was a small pause from the other side, 

" Why are you doing this?"

"Are you related to Kishimoto san? "

"....How did you know that name? You will regret this"

" I know because the same thing is happening to me, I just want to meet him"

"...My men will find you"

This isn't working, The yakuza much like the underworld and gangs even in his old world will only respond in a show of force. He needs to prove to him that he can take him on easily. Alex would do it sooner or later. Might as well start tonight. 

" I guess I'm not coming back for dinner then"

" Mr. Yakuza man, I don't want anything from you, not really. This is just a courtesy visit, I know that I won't be able to change your mind, so please...by all means send your men. Send your best men, After that...we may talk"

" My men will eliminate you, try not to flee the place..."

Alex could only shrug at the threat he has gotten himself in.

" Whatever, your men's is gonna get a whole load of hurting today"

Du du du*

Alex put down the phone gently and hang up. There was nothing else to say. That Matsutada was simply shaking as he tries to say something,

" Y..you..do you have any idea what you just did?!"

Alex simply smile and said it rather bluntly

" I know, I just pissed off the Yakuza, isn't that great? hahaha!

Aya Gozen simply barge into the room, Alex wasn't shocked to see her, he knew she was following for quite some time, It was inevitable that she would know about this, but it doesn't matter. Alex has already concluded that she should know this, keeping a secret was never his strong suit, but what he is about to do next does require some amount of secrecy.

There was an extra room on the side, Alex simply smile at Aya as she looked at him with a horrified and confuse face.

"The yakuza?! what did you get yourself into Alex!!"

" Calm down miss Aya, it's nothing really, call it a business opportunity."

" Doing business with the Yakuza is never the right choice! These are dangerous men! What were you hoping to achieve! You're just a high school student!"

Alex could only sneer at what she just said after revealing some rather sensitive information.

" Yes, do tell the young man over there my name, my status as a high school student, why don't you just give him my address while you're at it? Aya...you're smarter than this"

"I'm ...Sorry, But why are you here? What does a high school kid have to do with the Yakuza?"

Alex pondered for a moment and decided to tell her.

"I'm not the first one to be had like this, there are other Mangaka Artist that was thrown away, or canceled and dismissed within the Shuisha brand in JAMP weekly magazine. Me coming to the Yakuza was just a contact point for me to meet with the Oyabun of Sapporo, Kishimoto Saburo"

Aya look at Alex strangely

"Why would you look for the Oyabun of a Yakuza Alex?"

Because he might be related to a certain Mangaka Artist I would like to collaborate with? By the way, have you ever heard of Kishimoto Masashi? I think his manga was called...The Tale of the Nine Tail Beast."

Aya nodded and said

"I wasn't privy to that project since it was directly under Chief Sanomiya's people, I heard his sales volume wasn't so great and was let go, I still don't understand why you are looking for him?"

Aya was certainly confused, she wouldn't understand why I would seek this Yakuza who shares the name with a certain Kishimoto No named Mangaka, That's because she doesn't know the potential of this man, the kind of revolution he would lead in one of the best ninja shonen manga in the industry, shaking the three pillars of the Great Publishers of Japan, putting Shueisha on equal grounds with One piece from Kodansha and Shogakukan Detective Conan.

There's gotta be something that messes this up. And Alex intends to find out.

"It's nothing to worry about, if my hunches were correct, we might land ourselves a gold mine going forwards into Comiket and self-publishing in the future"

"Alex...about that, We could go to JAMP competitors? I'm sure Lilians' company Ciel would love to print your series"

Alex thought for it and decided not to,

" No, their brand ideology is different, My series isn't exactly catered to the Shoujo manga crowd even if I do stylize myself as a shoujo Mangaka artist, but ultimately...Kyoto Ghoul is an action manga, It won't have the crowd we wanted to pull"

"But Alex...we don't have the money or resources with just the two of us"

"Who said anything about it's just about the two of us? Kishimoto-san here will help us, and...I know who to approach next too, Tell me, Is the company Dwango Co filing for bankruptcy? what about Kadokawa Shoten? what happened to them? since you're an Editor in the industry, you must know more than me than what I can glean from the internet.

" Yes, the merger seems to fail, it was supposed to be happening sometime this week, but there seems to be some complication, Are you thinking of publishing under them? Asuka is directly Ciel's competitor, I don't think you want to do that, besides...I heard their company isn't doing too great lately, none of their serialization and projects seems to be trending with the readers, Experts says they might consider bankruptcy too instead of selling it off to their competitors"

You are reading story Reborn a tale of a Mangaka with Cheats at novel35.com

Alex could only think of one thing. Madness. The housing publisher of Newtype and Comp Ace from series like Gundam, Ufotable Legendary Fate stay Night is facing solvency? Not to mention Asuka, the one-shot King in Shoujo's short stories, These legendary subsidiaries is going for bankruptcy? The merger isn't going to happen? Well, one side is, but still, without the Capital, the company won't stand for long. This world is a mess, a really messy pot of cluster fuck, the famous company in his previous world all have issues in this world.

Alex has decided what he wanted to do next. Make the next Kadokawa Shoten under his thumb, since that company isn't going to save itself, might as well gobble it up for him then. The merger won't go through but perhaps something can be salvageable by this.

" I'm setting up a new company then, this company will assimilate itself and self publish into a singular format magazine much like Kadokawa and Dwango Co's been doing, except...this is merely a plea bargain, instead of a magazine format, we will directly compete with all of them in a new genre I myself create, and hopefully a few more heavy hitters if Kishimoto san is on board"

"Huh? that will be hard Alex"

"Wait, I wasn't finished- We debut in Comiket, and then with sufficient hype and social media, I would like to sell the Idea, an Idea that would allow us to be shareholders of Kadokawa Shoten, I want a piece of it"

Aya could only stare in amazement at what he said, He wanted to own shares of a public traded company of one of Japan's Media companies...with an Idea?

" What...sort of Idea are you proposing?"

Alex could only smile smugly and said

" Wait for the rest of the conditions to fill, and I'll tell you all about it, Without Kishimot0-san, this will be a lot harder for us, It would be great if I can persuade him to join us"

The meeting was over and Alex walked out with Aya outside, they still have a yakuza to deal with as the unconscious Ryusei lay wasted and out cold on the very expensive carpet he had in his office.

Alex laid back on the sofa putting up his legs on the table like he doesn't care. a huge grin showing on the front of his face, for the first time in a long time he felt rather free since coming to this new world, the constrictive nature and confusion he felt when he came here, that soft but constrictive feeling of the unknown and simple progression of the world guiding him, it simply unshackled him, untangled his mind and allowed him to truly think instead of just following the flow of the world, It feels liberating.

The system did something, it was simple yet so significant. it releases him from fate's will. his mind was free his soul was free, he was free to think and freely truly do what he wanted, unshackled and unbound by the rules and laws of this world, at least he felt like it. And that is enough to make everything feel so much better.

" I could get used to this..."

Alex looked toward Matsutada as he pondered what to do next. Aya fidgeted around nervously trying to rectify a situation she has no control over it. Alex simply gestured the young scared man to come toward him, Matsutada walked towards him slowly and nervously, this young guy wasn't what he expected him to be, he was so...wild and dangerous. Are all high schoolers this dangerous these days? Nah. it's just this damn kid.

" Hey you, Matsutada right? how would you like to earn a lot of money and get out of this shitty Yakuza business, be your own boss, own your own shop with your own man..do your own thing..."

Alex leaned in closer for dramatic effect,

" For the right price of course...work for me, and Sapporo? will be ours for the taking"

Matsuda looked at the dangerous glint in that young man's eyes, his smile showed a dangerous charismatic smile that was unlike any Oyabun he ever met, this guy was the genuine article, the real Bossun, a true Aniki he could follow around, a true dragon among men. 

"S..sure thing Aniki! C..can I call you Aniki?!"

Alex simply nodded

"That's the spirit! hahaha! now let's deal with these damn Yakuza hahaha! get this shithead out of our town!"

Matsutada had gotten even more excited! kicking the curb to the yakuza! finally!

" Ooouu!! Aniki!! w..wait, chotto matte, how are we gonna do that Aniki?"

Aya who overheard everything became even more delirious

"Alex!! what are you trying to do now?! you're going to get yourself killed! I thought this was just a business transaction with that Kishimoto-san!"

"Alex simply ignored what she said and said this

" Come on Editor san, just trust me. I got this, oh wait... not me, But Anteiku got this"

"Alex? what do you mean Anteiku..eh? you mean from Kyoto Ghoul?"

Matsutada overheard the conversation about Anteiku and pondered where have he heard of that before, wait, Kyoto Ghoul? isn't that the series he just read that won the JAMP tournament? it hasn't even been serialized yet, but he read the first book posted online, It was pretty good. Anteiku was a group of ghouls, it was also an organization of ghouls of the 20th ward. It provided aid for ghouls in need, managed the feeding grounds of those in the 20th ward, and collected food for others by searching for the bodies of humans who committed suicide. what does that gotta do with this?

" Anteiku is real, it's already among us, and they listen to me"

Matsutada scrunched his face a little, is this kid mad? he's crazy, isn't he? what does he mean by that? that ghouls are real? that organization is real?  Aya simply shrugged her head

"Alex...that's just your fan club, what does it get to do with...this?"

" I am Tochigi am i not? then it will be fine."

Matsutada face turns to shock

" A..Aniki!! You're THE Tochigi?! the guy that made Kyoto Ghoul?! HOOO!! you're a super famous sensei then!"

Alex smiled and said

" You want an Autograph Matsu-chan? sure thing, right after we handle the problem of an incoming yakuza attack any minute now I reckon"

 

"COME OUT ALEX !! TIME TO DIE BAKA YAROU!'

Aya and Matsutada simply screamed and shrieked at the sudden shouting of a grown man loud enough to be heard from inside here. Alex simply smile and said

"It's showtime!"

 

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