[Investigation Record 02: The Personnel Purge]
This was the real killing blow.
One month ago, a man named Yoshihisa Tanaka had parachuted into the Production Bureau as a "Special Advisor." He had never produced a single hit show. His only qualification: he was the current station president's son-in-law.
The title said "advisor." In practice, Tanaka had inserted himself into three of Doi's core projects.
"So Doi's been hung out to dry."
Jin closed the report and gazed at the brightly lit building across the street. Something like pity flickered behind his eyes. "Doesn't matter how talented you are, does it?"
"A network with roots that deep can afford to lose a star producer."
"And won't think twice about it."
The boss had seen through all of it from the start.
...
...
Late that night.
A private booth in the café inside Genesis Entertainment's headquarters.
Jin pushed open the door.
"Boss."
His voice was low. "You were right."
"Oh?" Seiji looked up with a smile. "Which part?"
"All of it."
Jin drew a long breath, studying the young man before him with an unreadable expression. "The factional infighting at TBS. The station president's son-in-law dropping in from nowhere. Even the specific details of Doi's reform proposal getting killed."
"The intelligence you provided was... alarmingly precise."
It's like you were one of the players inside TBS yourself.
That thought, Jin kept behind his teeth.
When he'd first reviewed the intel, a chill had crawled straight down his spine.
Too accurate. Every detail, surgically exact.
How many eyes did the boss have planted inside TBS? Or was someone in the network's upper ranks feeding him information directly?
Too many possibilities. Jin didn't try to untangle them. Didn't want to.
"Sit down, Kurosawa."
Seiji gestured to the chair opposite, a faint smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "No need to look so shaken. In this world, wherever there are cracks, light bleeds through. I'm simply better than most at spotting it."
"Yes, sir."
Jin sat, though his shoulders never loosened.
"Based on the investigation, Doi's situation is worse than we anticipated."
He opened the report and pointed to several pages flagged with red ink.
"This is the TBS reform plan he submitted three months ago. The core proposal was dismantling the traditional producer-centric hierarchy and replacing it with flexible project teams. It could have been a lifeline for the network. Upper management stamped it 'too radical' and shelved it."
"And then there's this."
Jin turned to the next page, his expression softening with something close to pity. "One month ago, the station president's son-in-law, Yoshihisa Tanaka, parachuted into the Production Bureau. 'Advisor' in name. In practice, he's been cutting the ground out from under Doi. He's not just meddling in core projects. He's been quietly courting the young directors on Doi's own team. As of now, Doi's been completely hollowed out. A title with nothing underneath it."
Seiji nodded and took a sip of his coffee.
"So, Kurosawa. Still think poaching him is impossible?"
Jin was quiet for a moment.
Then he shook his head. A hunter's gleam passed through his eyes.
"No. Right now, Doi is a drowning man. Put enough weight on our side of the scale, and he'll tip toward us on his own."
"Good."
Seiji set down his cup.
"Offer him the position of Production Bureau Chief. If he's willing to come, he starts immediately. Full authority over Genesis Entertainment's Production Bureau."
"Understood."
Jin rose and bowed deeply.
"I'll go now."
...
...
Two hours later.
TBS Building, fifteenth floor.
Deputy Bureau Chief's office.
The clock read 2:00 AM.
The entire floor was dark and silent. Only this one office still had its light on.
Doi sat behind a desk buried in paperwork, an empty pen in his hand, tracing absent circles on a scrap of paper. His eyes were threaded with red, his face caught between defiance and fury.
In front of him lay a freshly issued notice.
[Re: Restructuring of the Weekend Variety Spectacular Production Team]
[In light of the program's reformatting needs, current Executive Producer Doi is hereby reassigned to an advisory role. Special Advisor Yoshihisa Tanaka will concurrently assume the position of Executive Producer, overseeing all aspects of the reformat.]
A power grab.
Naked, brazen, without even a fig leaf to cover it.
"Hah..."
A dry, scraped laugh ground its way out of Doi's throat.
He thought of running into Tanaka in the corridor that afternoon. The smug grin on the younger man's face. "Doi-senpai, you've worked so hard all these years. Time to take a breather, don't you think? Leave the heavy lifting to us younger folks."
Take a breather?
Was that what marginalization sounded like when it wore a smile?
Doi snatched the notice off the desk, ready to tear it to shreds. His hands got halfway up before the strength drained out of them, and they dropped back to his sides.
What good would tearing it do?
The station president had signed it personally.
In a network steeped in bureaucratic hierarchy, the president's word was law. Doi had talent. He had seniority. But in the face of real power, he was still just a well-paid employee.
"This is the place I gave twenty years of my life to..."
He stared out the window into the darkness and felt a cold he'd never known before.
He'd believed this would be his home until retirement.
And what had it gotten him?
You're obsolete. Then tossed aside like garbage.
The faith he'd built over three decades began to crack.
Then his phone buzzed.
A single vibration against the desktop.
Doi frowned. This was his private number. Only a handful of close friends had it.
Who would call at this hour?
He picked it up and glanced at the screen.
Unknown number.
A beat of hesitation. He answered.
"Hello? Who is this?"
The voice on the other end was low, measured, perfectly controlled.
"Mr. Doi, good evening. Apologies for the late intrusion."
"My name is Jin Kurosawa. I'm the HR Director at Genesis Entertainment."
Genesis Entertainment?
Doi blinked. That upstart internet company the entire network had been calling "the barbarian at the gates"?
"Mr. Kurosawa?"
Wariness sharpened his tone immediately. "It's rather late. What is this about? If it's a licensing deal, please contact our Rights Department."
"No. I'm not here to talk about licensing."
Jin's voice didn't waver. It had the cadence of someone stating a fact already decided. "I'm here to talk about your future."
"My future?"
"Yes. I'll be direct, Mr. Doi. My boss, Seiji Fujiwara, has tremendous respect for your abilities. He'd like to invite you to join Genesis Entertainment as our Production Bureau Chief."
The world went white.
Poaching me?
And not just poaching. They wanted a sitting Deputy Bureau Chief at TBS to jump ship and run their entire production arm?
It was absurd.
"You can't be serious!"
Doi's hand jerked toward the end-call button, his voice turning sharp. "Mr. Kurosawa, I think there's been a misunderstanding. I'm a TBS man. I would never go anywhere else."
It was reflex. Pure instinct. Like so many in this industry, Doi had long internalized the assumption that he'd work at one company until the day he retired.
"Never?"
Jin didn't sound offended. If anything, there was a quiet amusement in his voice.
"Mr. Doi, sometimes it isn't that you don't want to leave. It's that you can't afford to stay. The TBS you're sitting in right now... can you honestly tell me you still belong there?"
Doi's hand trembled.
"Think about the reform proposal they threw in the trash."
"Think about Yoshihisa Tanaka, a man whose only credential is his father-in-law."
"Think about the projects they just ripped out of your hands."
Every sentence landed like a bullet.
"How... how do you know about..."
Doi's voice shook. These were internal matters. Some of them had only just happened. How could an outsider know this much?
"That's not your concern."
Jin's tone remained perfectly level. "Mr. Doi, all I'll say is this: your loyalty means nothing to them. Not a thing. You can stay there and let them bleed you dry, or you can go somewhere else and start living again."
"Genesis Entertainment is young. But we respect talent. We respect creators."
"The boss said it himself. You come aboard, and the Production Bureau is yours. Your call, your rules."
And without waiting for a rebuttal, Jin hung up.
Click.
The dial tone droned in Doi's ear.
He sat there, phone hot against his palm, staring at nothing.
His heart hammered so hard his chest ached.
Was he angry?
Yes. That bastard Kurosawa had the nerve to rip his wounds open like that.
But beneath the anger, something else had caught. A small flame, quiet and treacherous.
The Production Bureau. His call.
For a man who'd spent thirty years shackled by committees and hierarchies and approval stamps, it was the devil's own offer.
His gaze drifted to the notice on his desk. The power grab in black and white.
Then he looked toward the window, toward the distant silhouette of the Genesis Entertainment tower. Its neon logo pulsed against the night sky, vivid and restless, radiating something raw and hungry and alive.
"Genesis Entertainment..."
The words fell from his lips like a confession.
"Am I really going to betray TBS?"
"But if I don't leave, all that's waiting for me here is slow erasure..."
"Tanaka's already drawn his knife. Staying means a dead end."
Two voices warred inside his skull.
One was thirty years of institutional loyalty, the comfort of routine, the pride of a traditional career man.
The other was a creator's ambition, the refusal to be discarded. A hunger suppressed for far too long.
Doi stood and walked to the window.
His own face stared back at him from the glass, torn and haggard.
He knew. Tonight's phone call had already shifted something inside him.
His loyalty was buckling. Swaying on its foundation.
All it would take was one more push.
Even the lightest touch.
And the whole thing would collapse.
...
...
Downstairs, inside the black sedan.
Jin ended the call and let a long stream of smoke curl from his lips.
He replayed Doi's voice in his mind. The tremor. The cracks in the defiance. The man had wavered.
"Even the proudest lion will bow its head for meat when it's starving."
"Especially when the meat smells this good."
A thin smile crossed his face.
"Now we wait for him to bite."
The cigarette burned down to the filter.
Jin started the engine and eased the car into the dark.
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