Chapter 34 - Fumio The Agent

The next day.

Shinagawa City. 9AM

"Ikigai Music…" Fumio reads the metallic plate embedded at the wall of a four-story building which looks to have been constructed sometime in the past five years.

"Looks smaller than the shop's building." He notes, a bit disappointed at the aesthetics of the building of the music company. He compares it to some of those buildings he passes by that does not interest him or even notice on his way to work.

"Good morning, sir. May I help you?" The security guard at the reception asks as soon as Fumio steps in the building.

Fumio notices the guard's eyes scanning him and his clothes and he can only hide his amusement. He is currently wearing a three-piece suit; one of the many sets of suits and tuxedos which Red gave him.

Just like the kimonos he received as gifts from Red, Red also put seals on the suits and tuxedos which includes automatic cleaning, automatic straightening, and disguise illusion.

Fumio wanted to refuse the gifts he figures are worth millions of yen because of their material and mysterious attributes, but Red insisted on giving them to him, claiming that they were simply products of his practice on seals.

That resulted to Fumio having the luxury of wearing a different set of expensive clothes in different days of the week if he wanted to.

"I've been sent to meet with Mr. Egusa." Fumio says to the security guard.

"Shigeo-san?" The security guard tilts his head in skepticism before picking up the phone in front of him and dialing it.

-

"If it isn't Fumio-san. It's good to see you!" Shigeo greets as soon as Fumio is let in by his secretary.

He is sincerely pleased to see Fumio, although he does not know why.

"Good morning, Shigeo-san. I thought your office would be a bit fancier than this." Fumio says as he looks around, a bit disappointed by the bare office containing nothing but the office desk, Shigeo's computer, and two leather couches facing each other.

"Ah… It's fancy enough for me. But I guess I can spice the place up a bit." Shigeo takes the criticism in grace as he gestures Fumio to the leather couch.

"Anyways, how long has it been since we last saw each other? If I didn't see you in some of my visits to Kichirou-san, I would have thought that he fired you."

"Well, I've been rather busy these past few two months." Fumio explains as he sits. "Oooh... I take it back. This couch feels fancy."

In the first few months of his "absence" in the shop, he was almost always in the shop during the day and during the visits of Musume46 and Shigeo in the shop, but he simply could not be bothered showing himself as he was too focused on completing the 16 poses.

Upon completing the 16 poses, he got his own apartment. The apartment is in the same building where his shared apartment was, so he can keep being neighbors with Red. That privacy allowed him to do his strength training at home, therefore making him spend more time at home than in the shop in the past two and a half months.

"Kotone-san did say you were assigned other duties by Kichirou-san." Shigeo inquires subtly as he joins Fumio.

"Ah. Well. You can say that." Fumio can only vaguely explain. "The only difference is that I work in the background doing … indirect responsibilities."

"Hmmm… Well, it seems like those responsibilities are tough?" Shigeo asks, feeling Fumio's emotions.

"They were." Fumio can only bitterly chuckle.

Suddenly he realizes something. Shigeo guessing his emotions reminds him of Red's theory that Red once talked about in passing, regarding Shigeo's superioris ability.

He then raises his guard up a bit.

"Ah. I'm sorry Shigeo-san for this sudden visit. I must be suspicious?" He gives Shigeo a knowing smirk.

Shigeo, feeling Fumio's emotions, "I'm sorry.", immediately retrieves his ability.

"What brings you here, Fumio-san?" He can only deflect his embarrassment at getting caught.

"Oh. Boss wanted me to pass this to you. It's about a favor or something." Fumio takes out one of the two flash drives he got from Red, and hands it to Shigeo.

Shigeo's interest is piqued and he takes the flash drive, walks back to his computer, and plugs it in.

Fumio then joins Shigeo, knowing that Shigeo will need him.

"It's password protected." Shigeo says as he fails to open the contents of a PDF file in the flash drive.

"Let me." Fumio then quickly types in the password and the contents of the file is revealed.

"…" The two, seeing the contents for the first time, are speechless and Shigeo can only absentmindedly scroll through the file.

"T-this… Boss made a manga?" Fumio is the first one to get his words back.

"I thought he wasn't being serious but this… This looks amazing." Shigeo appreciates the unique and charming art style of the manga. "'What if the world did not have superioris?' He once asked me."

"Wait. You knew about this? Even I didn't know." Fumio asks, dropping the formality in his words out of surprise.

"Yes. I once told him that I have a friend in Nerima who owns a publishing firm. I guess he remembered it because when I asked him if there's something I could do for him to get his next songs, he asked me to pitch and negotiate his book to my friend on his behalf." Shigeo explains.

"I thought it'd be a novel or some massage textbook… But a manga. I guess Kichirou-san is a man of many talents." He laments.

"Wait a minute. Did he copyright this?" Fumio instinctively wants to protect Red's work.

"I think he did. There's a copyright logo at the first page." Shigeo scrolls back up and shows it to Fumio.

"That's a relief." Fumio sighs, then quickly gets over one of Red's talents he just discovered.

"Anyways. Boss' next songs are here, by the way." He then pulls out the other flash drive that Red gave him.

The next moment however, he is taken aback by Shigeo eyeing the flash drive hungrily.

"B-but… He said I should at least leave here with a proof that you are at to fulfill that favor. Or else, these flash drives will be leaving with me." Fumio jumps back at a speed Shigeo did not expect.

"No need to be so jumpy, Fumio-san." Shigeo chuckles as he becomes self-conscious of his body language.

"I'm gonna call my friend right now. I'll record it if you want and send it to you." He assures Fumio.

"That would be great." Fumio calms down.

<>

"Yes. I promise you brother, it's a very promising work… Uhuh… Let's talk next time, I'll introduce you to the artist or his representative… February 7th? That's this Friday, right?... Okay. I'll meet you then… Bye."

A few minutes later, Shigeo is done talking with his friend over the phone.

"Alright... Wait a second, Fumio." Shigeo then plugs in his phone to the computer, copies the call recording to the flash drive where Red's manga is saved, and unplugs the flash drive.

"Satisfied?" Shigeo says as he hands the flash drive back to Fumio.

"Satisfied." Fumio is content with Shigeo's actions.

"Hope you'll be free on Friday then. I'm guessing Kichirou-san does not want to attend himself? I had to have Miss Konno go to him herself to sign the contract in the girls' songs after all. I can guess that he'll be the same way with signing a publishing deal." Shigeo asks.

"That's probably the case." Fumio nods.

With that, Shigeo finally receives the flash drive containing Red's songs, from Fumio.

Soon, the music playing from Shigeo's computer.

The music however, confuses Fumio.

"Huh… I thought it'd be a song for Musume46…" He says, as the song is in the classic rock genre, sang by a familiar male voice.

His concern however is ignored by Shigeo as Shigeo focuses on listening to the song.

A few minutes later, the song is done and Shigeo sighs deeply.

"Damn… I like this better than the ones he made for Musume46." Fumio meanwhile, already figures out who the song is for.

"The man sounded like the guy from Buck-Tuck. When did boss meet him?" He says, referring to the vocalist of Ikigai Music's only rock band.

"They never met." Shigeo says, confusing Fumio.

"I don't know what audio technology Kichirou-san uses, but this is not Nori. The same thing happened when he sent the demos for Musume46's single. They all sound like they were sung by our girls, but they weren't." Shigeo explains.

"I see…" Fumio nods, already having a theory of how Red did it.

'If he can make piano, saxophone, and guitar sounds out of thin air, how hard could it be for him to mimic voices?'

"Why can't he just release this song himself? It's not like he needs singers. Then he can take all the earnings for himself." He cannot help but say out loud his realization.

"Well, funny as it sounds, he is a rookie songwriter, in our industry at least. He does not have enough works published to be given approval in selling his songs to digital platforms. With our company's name behind his name, he got a shortcut." Shigeo explains.

"And when you said he can take all the buck to himself, he practically is. A majority of the digital sales go to him as he wrote 100 percent of the song, from the lyrics, melody, to each instrument used."

"I see… Then… how do the girls make money?" Fumio asks, a bit disconcerted that his favorite pop group is not making enough money despite their very popular song.

"Oh. We get a larger cut in physical sales. But a majority of their income come from stage and TV performances, gigs and small concerts. Kichirou-san only gets a single digit percent cut from those." Shigeo says.

"Oh…" Fumio is relieved.

"Anyways. I'll listen to the rest of the songs." Shigeo resumes his focus on his computer.

A few minutes pass again and, "Well. I guess boss is making big bucks again. The music just makes me happy and calms my heart." Fumio cannot help but be impressed even further after listening to the rest of Red's new songs.

The songs being in the rock and folk-rock genres being more to his taste, makes him appreciate them more.

"Even if they don't sell well, they're still great songs." Shigeo concurs.

"So these uhhh three songs go to Buck-Tuck then?" Fumio asks.

"Yes." Shigeo simply nods as he plays the songs again.

"Now I get why boss said that…" Fumio now understands one of Red's orders.

"How do you mean?" Shigeo asks in interest.

"Boss said that he wants the same deal with Musume's last single. And that if there are any changes made in his song when you record, he won't give you the license. Whatever that means." Fumio relays.

"Heh… That's not so hard. Now that he proved himself." Shigeo nods, already expecting Red's demands.

"Fumio-san. Kichirou-san won't close down Muscle Masters, won't he?" Suddenly, he asks a worrying thought just crossed his mind.

"Why would he?" Fumio is surprised by the question.

"It's just. He's practically earned almost 100,000,000 yen already from only three songs, in only in two months too. Why would he keep the shop open when he has a better source of income?" Shigeo asks.

"Oh. I think the chances of him doing that are very low." Fumio assures, but inside, he too is worried of such a thing happening. "But that reminds me. Did Miss Konno inform you about the new changes in the shop?" He asks.

"She did. And I think that is a sign that he will focus more on songwriting, and seeing how promising his manga is, he will focus on that too. And the more successful he becomes as a songwriter and as a manga artist, the more his priorities will change leading ultimately to him closing down the shop."

He then takes a deep breath, his tone becoming more worried before continuing to spill his worry.

"The girls have expanded their fanbase, and they are receiving more gigs than ever. That also means they need Kichirou-san's hands more than ever."

"Ah…" Fumio does not know what to feel of Shigeo's concerns. On one hand, he feels bad that Shigeo's worry is unneeded because he figures that the songs and the manga does not consume much of Red's time. On the other hand, he is amused that Red's simple side-projects are causing a man like Shigeo to worry.

"You don't have to worry, Shigeo-san. Believe it or not, this is just boss' side project. And as someone who's been put in charge to important things in the shop by boss, I can assure you that the shop is not closing anytime soon." He can only assure Shigeo.

"That's good to hear." Shigeo buries his worry for now.

"Anyways. This calls for a celebration. Are you free for a cup of coffee, Fumio-san?" He invites Fumio out.

"I can spare some time."