Chapter 414: – Wherever This Goes |
A public relations disaster for the VTuber industry.
That was the mildest way to put it. If John had to go in more detail, he'd call it almost an apocalyptic disaster for a fledgling company.
A talent driven to extreme measures after bullying from management and gaslighting from other talents. A company that exploited their talents through legal loopholes while squeezing every last drop of profit from them.
If it wasn't for the fact that Project MirAIs were the pioneers in the field and put on such a strong front and positive attitude, it would have been ruinous.
John scrolled through his emails and then let out a sigh. "Trust a single greedy person to ruin it for everyone else."
Human nature didn't change regardless of the world, timespan, or history, it seemed.
Fortunately, John was in a position to fix everything.
It was late in the evening, but John was still stuck in Myth Inc. HQ working on paperwork and business plans.
He would have loved to be able to spend time at home congratulating his lovely wife and cute daughter on their first day at school, but this was a time-sensitive situation.
But anyway...
John glanced at his stock portfolio and hummed. "They're still holding out, huh?"
He was pumping Variant Hue's stock to induce the founder to sell, but it seemed like he was a stubborn guy. That, or greedy.
Some other tech bros had hopped on the bandwagon scooping up shares too, so it was impossible for John to get a majority through proper means.
Well. If he REALLY wanted to get them, he could. But while he was doing a hostile takeover, he would rather not do a HOSTILE takeover just yet.
As a result, John was left with 25% of Variant Hue's shares. 51% was held by the CEO, and the other 24% was split among various other people.
Like Golden Orca.
Oil money was oil money, after all.
But anyway...
John read the email that was just sent back by Hiroyuki and Co.
There was a lot of legal arguments and formalities, but to cut straight to the point, they wanted his help.
The plan was to drag that CEO into the open and pop open the can of worms of how corrupt the organization was at the core. And to do that, they needed discovery.
Unfortunately, Japan didn't have discovery, so they needed to have the case brought up in U.S. court.
Now, John wasn't quite an expert on law... at least, not legal law.
Laws of existence, yes, laws of man an civilization, not quite.
But he knew enough that it'd be a tough case.
After all, despite everything, Variant Hue's CEO had enough money to flaunt owning a yacht and float a money sink of a company.
Well, that last part was mostly through squeezing certain people dry, but the point still remained.
The talent behind Meryl Kodomo wanted to take Variant Hue for all they were worth, and Hiroyuki and Co. were willing to do it pro bono out of principle.
But they'd still be massively outgunned.
Thus the letter.
John tapped his fingers on his desk and hummed. "This is going to be a bit tricky."
It would be easy to explode this powder keg of a situation. And from how discussion was even starting to spread to some of the girls' chats, it was a big deal.
The problem was that it could easily spin as Myth Inc. trying to crush its competitors if they did things out of order.
Not to mention that the CEO of Variant Hue was involved in some of the political groups here. If he threw a fit, things could get messy.
...Of course, that was normally.
In a world where John didn't exist, that guy would live free from consequences and just brush everything under the rug as a negligible blip in their fiscal year.
Unfortunately for him, John DID exist.
"Alright." John forwarded the email to their in-house counsel, Fae and Co. along with some instructions to cooperate and show copyright infringement by Variant Hue.
"That should take care of the formalities... The hardest part then should be the logistics."
A civil trial wouldn't do much. After all, money wasn't an issue for the guy.
Yet.
John would fix that soon, but that was the last step.
The ideal would be a criminal trial, but there were a lot of leaps of logic to make that possible...
Wait.
...Wasn't there an initiative recently for a rework of the Japanese legal and trial system due to the yakuza corruption?
John paused and did a quick search on his computer. And then he laughed.
"Alright. This will work. And this will be GLORIOUS."
[Japan implements the 'Initial Trial' system to speed up the backlog of cases.]
A new three-day inquisitive trial system will be implemented. Current attorneys are scrambling to adjust, particularly in regards to 'open court proceeding' which mandates the option of public proceedings to the world at large...
There were a lot of details, but to sum it up, it was exactly like the legal system in Ace Att- er, Best Lawyer.
John closed the article and then stood up to stretch. "Well... I've been playing Idolm*sters and Ya*uza, so I guess a new game is a nice change of pace, right?"
Prototype was set without any major projects due. Prodigy was under Kai's management, so John didn't have to worry about them.
Betty had abducted Rory for a few days, so John didn't have to worry about his baby girl...
"Mm. I guess it's overdue to spend time with Little Xuan and Little Wu."
Every detective needed some cute sidekicks, right?
xxx
While John was planning and plotting the downfall of an entire corporation, the Prototype girls were enjoying a fancy dinner in a private Roppongi restaurant.
Rin placed her elbows on the table and then held up her head with her hands, pouting. "Why didn't anyone tell me the Olympics were last year already! I would have tried out!"
Asako rolled her eyes and said, "They were in the summer, Sis. You were busy then, remember?"
"Well... what about the winter Olympics?"
Asako sighed and said, "Those are next year in 2026. And what's with wanting to try out anyway? Did you suddenly get into sports or something?"
Rin shook her head. "No... but I learned that everyone at school is terrible at gym! I bet if I signed up for the Olympics, I'd blow everyone out of the water!"
Asako blinked and then said, "...True. But that'd be cheating."
"Ugh." Rin puffed her cheeks and said, "Why do you and Yuri say the same thing?"
At that time, Alphy giggled. "Well, it would be." She smiled and said, "After Papa's training, you could take on an army of people and still be fine. Doing some competitions would be like playing against babies. That's mean."
Rin sighed. "I guess... But it'd be so cool!"
Asako laughed and said, "Save your energy for the concert."
At that time, a waitress came by with their food and drinks.
For Rin, a giant t-bone steak with carrots and a tall glass of cola.
For Asako, a shrimp alfredo with breadsticks and wine.
And then for Alphy, a whole cheesecake and strawberry milk.
Asako glanced over at Alphy and shook her head. "I still can't believe you ordered that."
Alphy picked up her silverware and smiled. "You can never go wrong with something sweet when you're out with loved ones."
"I guess. But a whole cheesecake..."
Alphy grabbed a spare plate and served herself a piece. After that, she looked at Asako and said, "Well, I like cake! Especially yo- Mmph?!"
Asako covered Alphy's mouth and said, "S-Stop doing that in public!"
Alphy blinked and then giggled.
Rin rolled her eyes and then started slicing up her steak. "I should never have started the Kofi trend..." She stuffed a chunk of the steak in her mouth and viciously chewed it. After swallowing, she pointed at Alphy with her knife and said, "Onee-chan was cuter when you weren't flirting all the time."
Alphy took a bite from her cheesecake and said, "Sorry, Rin. But Asako is too cute when I tease her." She paused and then said, "...But she's getting better at resisting them."
Asako grabbed her glass of wine and said, "Only because you're relentless."
Alphy giggled and then said, "Relentlessly in love with you!"
Asako turned a bright red and took a big sip from her glass of wine.
Alphy giggled again and then said, "Yay! I got you again!"
"Tch." Asako clicked her tongue and then looked back at Rin. "Anyway... Guessing school went fine, Sis?"
"Hm?" Rin looked up and then nodded. "Yeah. Really boring though... Ooh! But I got to do a fun afterschool stream with the Ohana! Working with Mira-chan makes it really easy!"
Asako twirled a bit of her pasta and then hummed. "That means we don't need to use the studio for full 3D streams anymore, I guess?"
"Mmhm!" Rin nodded and said, "After I set up Mira-chan, the voice filters and everything worked automatically!"
Alphy's eyes lit up and then she said, "Oh! Then I can stream with Mama, Meggie, and everyone then, right?"
Asako glanced over at Alphy and said, "I think you should clear that with John first, Alphy."
"Oh. True..." Alphy looked down and said, "I want to introduce the Alfis to everyone though..."
Rin raised her hand and said, "Ooh! I know!" She smiled and said, "Mister John said he wanted to bring us all on a trip, right? We can do like a big collab stream then with everyone!"
Asako took a bite from her alfredo and hummed. "True. Dunno when that'll happen though. John's been pretty busy... I mean, have you seen that thing about the Meryl girl or whatever?" She started twirling another piece of her pasta and said, "Pretty sure that's going to take a bit to get resolved."
Alphy sipped on her strawberry milk and then nodded. "Mm... Papa does have a lot to do recently. He didn't even get a chance to visit us at our concert..." She sighed, but then cheered up. "Well, at least I have more cute cousins to play with!"
Rin tilted her head. "Cousins?"
Alphy nodded. "Mmhm! Papa's big brother just moved here with his family! We're going to have a big family reunion soon to celebrate!"
Asako munched on a shrimp and then said, "Just how big IS your family, Alphy?"
Alphy hummed. "Well, there's Auntie Zhaojun, Auntie Xuannu, Auntie Daji, Auntie Jenny, Uncle Titor, Auntie Amadeus... Now there's Uncle Gray, Auntie Eliza, and Auntie Artemis..." She paused, counting on her fingers. "Um... Uncle Titor and Auntie Amadeus are having a baby, so there's one. Uncle Gray has a son and a daughter, so two from there... Oh! I forgot about Grampa Yudi! So..." Alphy's eyes started spinning. "U-Um... Do I count Little Xuan and Little Wu too? And then there's Meggie, Betty, Rory... Um..."
Asako sighed. "Never mind."
Rin took a swig from her soda and then said, "I almost forgot, but did we ever decide on when to play the VR game together? Since it's been a while, there should be less people bothering us, right?"
Asako hummed and said, "I guess we could make it a weekend thing? You have school now, so we can't do it on a weekday."
Rin huffed and said, "We totally could!"
"I'd rather not get yelled at by your mom, Sis."
"Oh." Rin paused and then laughed. "Right..." She rubbed her arm and said, "I don't want to get put on time out again..."
Alphy finished her slice of cheesecake and moved to grab another. As she did, she said, "Why don't we try what Papa did?"
Rin tilted her head. "Hm? What did Mister John do?"
Alphy took a bite of her cheesecake and then said, "Papa doesn't stream much, but when he does stream, he likes doing... Um, I think they're speed sprints?"
Asako shook her head and said, "It's a speedrun, Alphy."
"Right!" Alphy nodded. "A speedrun!" She smiled and said, "Since we don't have much time, we can just beat the game fast, right?"
Rin hummed. "That's a good point. And the game *did* look pretty easy..."
Asako blinked and said, "You think that speedrunning a game where we actually have to move around and fight is going to be easy?"
Rin nodded. "Mmhm! I mean, I've beaten a bear before! Can't be much harder, right?"
Asako paused and then frowned. "...Actually... Hm." She rubbed her chin and said, "The Ki-sama HAVE been saying I'm too girly recently. If we speedrun the game, they won't be able to say anything about it."
"Right?!" Rin nodded and said, "So we're doing it?"
"Might as well." Asako shrugged and twirled some more noodles on her fork. "I'm running out of ideas for streams anyway."
Rin frowned and said, "Can't you just do some late-night driving zatsudan or something, Aneue?"
Asako ate the noodles and then pointed her fork at Rin. "You see, that's a great idea. But Mister John said that it's a bad influence on the kids... and he also said something about tempting fate."
Alphy nodded. "Papa's right." She frowned and said, "Riding around at night will attract devilish beings to you."
Asako paused. "I highly doubt that... but considering all the other weird stuff going on in the world, I'll be careful." She sighed. "Anyway..." She looked at Rin and said, "Made any friends at school, Sis?"
Rin huffed. "Everyone's boring. I mean, Riri is there, so we hang out. But Chi-chan is acting like a Gyaru, and Suzu-chan got drafted as the student council president, so we can't even hang out. Plus, guys keep coming to try and talk to us when we're trying to just chat, and then the girls in class don't like us very much. I mean, the teachers are nice, I guess? But then they keep calling on me and-"
Asako shared a look with Alphy.
Alphy giggled.
Rin paused and said, "What's so funny?"
Asako smiled. "Nothing, Sis. You were saying?"
"...Hmph. Anyway, the only interesting thing that happened today was that I bumped into this guy who got lost using a navigator app in the school. Seriously, how terrible with directions do you have to be? It's just a straight walk from the gate to the front doors..."
