Finding solutions

To make sure we did not miss each other, and to represent professionalism, Megumi called beforehand to reserve a table. Furthermore, she made sure we arrived at the café 30 minutes prior to the agreed time and prepared her files. I understood her sentiment, and wished for everything to go well too, but we were meeting someone from a rock band…
To pass time, we ordered our drinks a bit early. A short while later, I saw Saji enter. Looking around for us, shock ran through him upon discovering us. ‘I understand. Expecting to see an old acquaintance, but instead running into a sharply dressed secretary and a bodyguard.’ Compared to his casual attire, complete with bleached short hair, it was a stark contrast. Seemingly insecure, he made his way to us.
“Pleased to make your acquaintance. My name is Miyamoto Megumi. I work as a manager for Bragidion Corp. and will be the intermediary for today.”
Caught off-guard by a completely serious introduction, I tried to ease the situation and make it more comfortable for him. “Saji, you can relax. That is just the way she is.”
“What do you mean by that?” Seemed like she took it as an offense.
“She is just serious because it concerns her friends. You can be yourself.” As he took a seat, I gazed over the other customers who quickly avert their eyes. ‘Of course we would draw attention.’
After giving his order to a waitress that passed by, he resumed our conversation. “Right. My name is Ogura Saji, bassist of the Silver Crows. Sorry for the delayed response, I was just surprised by the situation, as I had expected just Shuuichi to show up.” He scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. “So you called me here for?”
I wanted to give him an answer, but Megumi signaled for me to wait. Letting her take the lead, she gave a detailed overview of our situation. Saji listened to us calmly, and took in the information. This proved to give him enough time to cool down and assume a more business-like manner. In between his drink came too, so taking sips from it further reduced his nerves.

“While I would be really grateful for this offer, I can’t decide something like this on my own.” He gave a reasonable reply.
However, Megumi was prepared for that. “We weren’t expecting an answer of you right now. We simply wished to know if your group would have any interest in this deal.”
“Naturally, we do! It would finally be the chance we have been looking for.” His eyes shone with passion.
Megumi, used to see this expression by the people close to her, showed a faint smile. “We are glad to hear that. In that case, please contact me once you have found a date that works for your group, and I shall organize a meeting with the managers on our end.”
I wanted to throw in some fun, hoping to ease the situation a bit. “That’s the one where you have to be formal.”
I knew he would be, as he usually took on the more official side of his band’s business.
“Really, thank you very much. Shuuichi, for giving us this chance. And Miss Miyamoto, for organizing this.”
Megumi just shook her head. “As I mentioned before, it hinges on how your talk with the management goes.”
“Don’t worry about that, we will work that out. Trust us.” Saji slammed his fist into his palm, exuding confidence.
“I really hope so.”
“And thank you for agreeing so quickly.”
“What are you talking about? As I already said, this might be the chance we have been looking for.”

“From that, I take it things have been going steady?” I asked about his situation. I had followed their development for a view years, as they frequented Master’s bar. But since I stopped working there, contact broke down.
“Pretty much. Steady, but no improvement. We got a good following by now, and tickets sell out. But… we kind of needed… something, for a breakthrough.”
Megumi joined the banter. “Then, why not join a label?”
“Yes, I guess we have to do that.” He pondered for a minute. “You see, my buddies and I played in a band during high school, all fun and stuff. We loved the feeling we got on stage. The hype, the freedom. That is what we longed for. So, when we got out of school, and into jobs, it was… suffocating. Not talking against companies in general, but… it just didn't fit us.
So, we agreed to meet up on a weekend. Just, to try things out, play for ourselves. And, we felt our old connection. Thinking about, what if… Naturally, it wouldn’t work out, is what we told ourselves. Still, we wanted to give it a chance. So we can say, hey, at least we tried. And we went ahead with it. Starting in a small club that had an open day. It went great, so we decided to head to the next one. And then one more. People seemed to like us, our music.
And then, as we stood on stage again, we decided to give it a shot. For real this time. We quit our jobs, and started working on our music full time. Doing something like this didn’t scare us, but our families. None of our parents were happy about it. So we promised ourselves, to become big enough to put them at ease. Which was actually really hard. But we kept moving forward, up to this point.”
He took a short break, and looked at us. We have been quietly listening along.
“Sorry, didn't want to dump you with my life story, it just happened.” We, or at least, I, hadn’t said anything, because we felt the emotions behind his story, and his conviction.

Before we could answer, another voice did so for us. “Well, passion and dreams are something you need, boy.” At a table further back, a man got up from his seat, and walked towards us. “I hope you don’t mind too much that I listened in.”
When he was in front of us, Megumi rose from her seat and bowed to him.
“May I ask, how you got here, sir?” Her tone was formal. ‘So I guess that is a higher up in the company?’ It most likely was. But he still seemed suspicious, so I kept my focus on him, while scanning for other people around. Never could be too careful.
“You should know we wouldn’t just abandon one of our bands like that. We were still looking for alternatives, when I got a call informing me that you might have found a possible solution.”
“But, we haven’t reported yet due to uncertainties.” He motioned for her to seat, and took the last empty seat at the table for himself.
“The manager from one of our bands that is in a bad situation running around to grab paperwork, filling in a short leave of absence gathers attention. I had someone follow the trail back to the event manager, who then proceeded to give us the details. But more importantly, back to you, boy.” The man turned his gaze Saji. “Do you have what it takes to make this work?”
“Yes! We can guarantee you a successful concert.” As a member of a rock band, he had always the ability to assert his will.
Nonetheless, the next question threw him for a loop. “And then what?”
“Huh?”
The man elaborated. “As you have realized, at some point, it gets hard going on your own. You might succeed this time, but how will you going forward? What is your future plan? This is a one-off chance. It will not happen again in the future. So, what do you plan to do? Still refuse to work for a company?”
Saji had no way to answer any of this, so he remained silent.
“So, let me give you a chance. I will be present during your talks. Do well, and impress me with the concert and I will give and your band a favorable deal when you decide to join us.”
This pompous talk made Saji suspicious. “And who might you be, to have the power to decide all of these things like this?”
The man acted along. “How rude of me. Here, my card. I am Iwagaki Tetsuya, division head of the musical devision of Bragidion Corp.” And that confirmed it for me: all of our devision heads are weirdos like this. Why else would he be in a café, at this time of the day. He could have delegated it to someone else, but no. At least this guy wears a suit, unlike the boss. “What I decide, happens. This is how it works. Naturally, I also take full responsibility for everything that happens under my authority. Do you know how I got there, boy?”
“No, sir.” The status of the person in front of him intimidated Saji.

“Gambling.” ‘…What kind of answer is that?!’ “Everything in this business is a gamble. Whether a band succeeds or not. Whether we make a right decision or not. Whether we decide to do something or not. Even your entire life might be a gamble, with safer and riskier choices. I bet all my life, and won every time I did. That’s how I got here, boy.
And you, you have the courage needed for this. Quiting your job for music was a huge gamble, but it payed off. Now, whether or not to join us, you can see it as a gamble too.”
By this point, I was really happy that he had at least the sensibility to not speak in a loud voice. If others heard this, it would be a disaster. ‘I am blessed to not be part of the PR team. They have to be working overtime with guys like him in our company.’
“So, what will it be?”
Saji looked at the man, and then at the card in his hand. After closing his eyes for a few seconds, he looked at the man, vigor burning in his eyes. I saw this happen a few times before, when he and his friends found inspiration for a new song. And occasionally in a drunken brawl.
“You are on.”
“Good. Contact my secretary for a meeting with your band. Miyamoto, please prepare your band for the concert in a changed venue.”
Megumi looked like she wanted to question it for a moment, but then remembered who she was talking to. “Yes.”
“Good.” He nodded satisfied. Then, he turned his head to me. “Security?”
I guessed he meant me. “Yes.”
“Assist her in this matter.”
“…” Technically, he couldn’t give me orders, since he belonged to a different division. Heck, in emergency cases, he would need to follow mine. However, I wanted to help out and make this work, so…
“Don’t worry about responsibilities. I’ll tell Goldberg I gave the order.”
Apparently I took to long to answer, so he assumed I needed more of a push. “Yes.”
“Good. Everything played out perfectly again. Another gamble ending in my favor.” Smiling confidently to himself, he got up, left money on the table, and left the café. It was enough money to pay for all of us. Despite being able to write it off as business expenses.

Once he was out of earshot, I dared to speak. “Megumi, are all the higher ups so… eccentric?”
She shook her head. “I haven’t met many of them, but from what I heard, no. It is just your fortune to meet all of the peculiar ones.”
“Heh, I wouldn’t mind.” Saji still looked fired up. “Working under someone like him is ten times better than working under a regular corporate boss.”
“If you say so.”
“Sorry to leave you two like this, but I really wanna tell the others as quickly as possible. Shuuichi, thank you for giving us this chance. Miss Miyamoto, thank you for taking care of this so quickly. We’ll see each other again. But for now, bye!”
He got up and left too.
“Well, at least he will fit right in. What’s up?” Megumi looked like she would groan.
“I have the feeling, that this will spell more work for me. But…” She now got the same determination in her eyes as Saji. “If it will allow me to make things better for Asumi and the others, I will take it all on.”
“…If you don’t mind me asking, why are you so passionate about supporting her.” She looked at me a bit surprised. “If it is too personal, you don’t need to force yourself.”
“No, it’s fine. But not now, another time would be better. We got work to do.” One of the rare moments, where her usual cool facade fades into a great smile.
“Yeah.”
We settled the bill, and headed out, making our way back to the office.

Upon arrival, we were met with people waiting for us. Megumi messaged them on our way back to meet up. But not only the idol band members and Takeshi were there. Hanekawa was present too, meaning she had gotten a message too. Which wasn’t that surprising after seeing her reaction this morning.
In a break room, we then laid out the gist of what had happened. The clouded expressions gave rise to happiness. A few hours prior, what may have ended in uncertainty or worse, was now replaced with something everyone had hoped for in the beginning.
“Oh, thank you thank you thank you.” And apparently, it merited thanking me.
“Really, I didn’t really do much. Just called someone I knew. Megumi did most of the work, and then Mister Iwagaki basically sealed the deal.”
But they didn’t back down “Still, without you, it wouldn’t have happened.”
“By the way, how did you know the band?” Thankfully, Hanekawa seemed to have noticed me wanting to change the subject, and threw me a lifeline.
“I might have mentioned it before, but during high school, I worked part time in the kitchen of a bar-slash-restaurant.”
“Is that even allowed?”
“There are certain regulations that have to be followed, but yes, I worked there legally. Sometimes, I would also head out of the kitchen, if a guest wanted to ask something about the food. Saji and his crew were regulars, at some point we met, got along, and started chatting from time to time.”
“And you got on a good enough relationship that warrants him heading over when you call him.”
“Well, that was more good luck than anything else.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure.”
“Huh?” Takeshi, who had stayed silent until now, threw me this curve-ball.
“Getting along with people is good and fine, but being able to make them trust you without spending much time with them isn’t something anyone can do.” Was that a compliment? I would have liked to ask further, since it seemed like he had some personal history there, but this was neither the time nor the place.
“Say, Shuuichi, do you think we could meet them?” Asumi asked me.
“Probably yes. They need to come here anyway for talks, so maybe after that.”
“Can we ask you to do that. I’d like to thank them, too.” Megumi joined in.
“Plus, meeting other musicians can be good inspiration. Isn’t that so?” Haru declared cheerfully, accompanied by Shizuka’s nodding.
Asumi brought everyone together. “Okay, we have our first problem solved. Now we just need to do our best to make the concert a success!”
““Yeah!””
Despite being the same words from before this day, the tone and emotion behind them had completely changed.
‘Well, I did my part. From here on out, I will try to support as best as I can.’ I felt Takeshi glance at me, but didn’t make much of it. Thinking back, it had been a sign for what was to come.