"Then make them shut up!"
Kengo Yamamoto cut him off roughly, his face contorted with menace. "Activate the highest-level PR contingency plan immediately! Buy out the front pages of every mainstream media outlet! Tell everyone that email is a fake! It's a scheme by people with ulterior motives! It's a despicable commercial attack from our competitors! Did you hear me?!"
"Yes! Yes! I understand!"
Hanging up the call, Kengo Yamamoto sank heavily back into his chair, that arrogant, contemptuous sneer still on his face.
In his eyes, this was nothing more than a small accident.
In this world, there was nothing money and power couldn't solve.
The truth?
The truth was written by the victors.
So long as he could control public opinion, then the real could be made false.
...
In Seiji Fujiwara's office.
Fuyumi Irisu watched everything before her with a blank expression.
On one screen were the rumor-debunking articles concocted by "Abundant Future's" PR team, beginning to flood every major news website:
Beware! Mystery Email May Be a New Form of Online Fraud!
Experts Warn: Do Not Trust So-Called "Folk Miracle Cures."
On another screen was the live broadcast of the emergency press conference Kengo Yamamoto had just convened.
In the picture, Kengo Yamamoto stood in his suit and expensive tie, righteously denouncing this "vile act of disrupting social order and trifling with human lives" before countless camera flashes.
His performance was perfect.
In the eyes of ordinary people who didn't know the truth, he came across as an upright entrepreneur full of social responsibility.
But in Fuyumi Irisu's eyes, he was no different from a clown putting on a strenuous performance on a stage.
An indescribable emotion, a mixture of awe and fear, ran rampant through her already numbed heart.
She glanced at the Seiji Fujiwara beside her, who had remained calm from start to finish.
He merely sat there, moving his fingers, and had the entire Japanese media, the medical world, and even commercial sharks like Kengo Yamamoto playing in the palm of his hand.
This power that treated the world as a chessboard and all living beings as pieces...
It made her understand the enormous gap between herself and him.
Like the unbridgeable gap between an ant and a human.
Just then, she saw the corner of Seiji Fujiwara's mouth curve into a faint smile.
Looking at Kengo Yamamoto's impassioned face on the screen, Seiji Fujiwara extended a finger and dragged the compressed file labeled "Evidence" into the timed email set to "send in two hours."
The recipients, again, were everyone.
"Alright," he said softly, as if to himself. "Now, let the bullet fly a little longer."
...
...
Less than an hour after Kengo Yamamoto held his press conference and righteously denounced the "scam,"
a higher-tier emergency press conference, jointly held by Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare and the University of Tokyo Medical Faculty, was convened to everyone's surprise.
The star of the press conference was the very titan of virology who had earlier announced that research had hit a dead end and driven countless people to despair: Professor Suzuki.
Now, all the haggard exhaustion of the past few days had vanished from him, and he was positively radiant.
"Members of the press!"
Professor Suzuki's voice rang clearly throughout the venue through the microphone, and through countless livestream cameras, throughout all of Japan.
"Here, on behalf of the Japan Virology Research Center, I have an exciting piece of good news to announce to the people of our nation!"
He paused, then dropped his bombshell in a tone that brooked no argument:
"That anonymous treatment plan for the Kamiyama Flu circulating online... after an all-night joint verification by our team and the expert panel of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, we confirm..."
"The plan is genuine and effective! One hundred percent effective!"
The entire arena of public opinion exploded in an instant.
The major media outlets that had been spreading the "scam theory" only moments ago felt as though they had each been slapped hard across the face. Every editor was struck dumb.
And the ordinary citizens who had suffered through the torment of panic erupted in earth-shaking cheers!
"Thank god! There's hope!"
"I knew it was real! Thank you to this unknown hero!"
"That bastard Kengo Yamamoto is still calling it a scam! Abundant Future can go to hell!"
The direction of the wind online underwent a stunning hundred-and-eighty-degree reversal in that instant.
The "righteous entrepreneur" image Kengo Yamamoto had just constructed crumbled in a heartbeat.
His "scam theory," in the face of the authoritative endorsement from a titan like Professor Suzuki, had been reduced to a self-deceiving joke.
The phones at "Abundant Future's" PR department were instantly buried by furious citizens and demanding media.
Kengo Yamamoto sat in his office, staring blankly at Professor Suzuki's emotional, flushed face on the television, and for the first time, felt that things were slipping out of his control.
"How could this... how is it possible..." he muttered. The arrogance on his face was beginning to fade for the first time. "A pack of useless trash, can't even tell true from false..."
But this was only the beginning.
...
Just as Professor Suzuki's press conference ended and Kengo Yamamoto was scrambling to direct his subordinates through crisis PR,
the second timed email Seiji Fujiwara had set arrived punctually in the inboxes of every media outlet.
The subject line of this email was even more explosive, even more shocking:
[The Truth About the Kamiyama Flu: A Filthy Commercial Conspiracy Orchestrated by 'Abundant Future']
If the first email was a bomb, then this second email was an unmatched hydrogen bomb that detonated the entire arsenal of public opinion!
The attachments contained no complex scientific data, only piece after piece of clear, ironclad evidence that anyone could understand!
The virus development logs from a secret biological lab under "Abundant Future," documenting in clear detail how the virus had been step by step designed and manufactured!
The encrypted communications between Kengo Yamamoto and the company's senior executives, in which they discussed in detail how to use this man-made disaster to destroy the Irisu Family's medical industry and use the opportunity to promote their so-called new drug!
A long, shocking list of bank transfers, recording how "Abundant Future" had used money to buy off select media outlets and local officials to safeguard their plan!
Every piece of evidence was like a razor-sharp dagger plunged viciously into the heart of "Abundant Future"!
The shift in news direction could no longer be described as a sudden turn.
It was an outright avalanche!
Every media outlet went mad!
With an almost bloodthirsty excitement, they slapped these scoops capable of shocking the entire nation onto the front pages of their websites under the most eye-catching, most sensational headlines!
Traitors to the Nation! Abundant Future Confirmed as Creators of the Kamiyama Virus!
Depraved! The Monstrous Crimes of Kengo Yamamoto Exposed!
A Demonic Conspiracy That Sacrificed Lives for Money!
In just a few minutes, Kengo Yamamoto's name went from that of a "successful entrepreneur" to that of a depraved traitor whom every man wished to put to death.
His phone began to ring frantically once more.
This time, the callers were no longer subordinates he could berate at will, but the politicians and officials who had once called him brother and shared in his profits.
"Yamamoto! You bastard! Are you trying to drag us all down with you?!"
"Our cooperation ends here! Don't ever contact me again!"
"The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department is already on its way. You're on your own!"
One cold call after another, each desperate to sever ties, came down on Kengo Yamamoto like buckets of ice water poured from head to toe.
The color drained completely from his face in an instant.
He began to truly waver, and to panic.
The money and power he had been so proud of were rendered worthless before this mountain of irrefutable evidence.
...
The final straw that broke him came from "within."
Just as he was being bombarded by countless phone calls and pacing his office in frantic circles like a headless fly, an encrypted video call from American headquarters connected.
On the screen appeared a face he knew all too well: the global CEO of "Abundant Future," a white-haired old man long known for his cold and iron-fisted methods.
"Mr... Mr. Yamamoto..." Kengo Yamamoto's voice carried, for the first time, the tremor of fawning fear. "Please, let me explain..."
"Shut up, Yamamoto."
The CEO's voice was icy, without a trace of feeling.
"You've disappointed me. A small, regional operation, and you've managed to turn it into this."
"No! That's not it! Someone is framing me! It's Fujiwara..."
"I don't care about the process." The CEO cut him off coldly. "I only look at results. And the result right now is that you, and the Japan division, have become a liability for the group."
He paused, then spoke calmly in the tone of pronouncing a death sentence:
"To protect the overall interests of the group, the headquarters board has unanimously decided that, from this second on, you are expelled from the group."
"All operations of the Japan division will be taken over fully by Mr. Masao Takahashi."
"At the same time, the group will issue a public statement strongly condemning your 'individual criminal acts,' and stating its full cooperation with the Japanese police investigation."
"No... no..."
The expression on Kengo Yamamoto's face froze completely.
He had been abandoned.
"Also," the CEO said with a cold smile, "those 'less than clean' funds in your personal accounts will also be voluntarily submitted to the prosecutors as part of the 'evidence.' Goodbye, Yamamoto-kun."
The video call was cut off cleanly.
Kengo Yamamoto stood frozen in place, listening to the sirens outside his window growing louder as they approached, watching as dozens of police officers came charging into the building.
...
...
Kengo Yamamoto's clown act had come to an end in the most undignified manner possible.
Yet the enormous waves stirred up by this judgment were far from settling.
When the certification of an authoritative institution and the criminal evidence against "Abundant Future" were laid out side by side, the whole of Japanese society boiled over.
The crisis was lifted!
The chief culprit had been brought to justice!
The gloom that had weighed on people's hearts for weeks was swept away in one stroke, replaced by the wild joy of having survived calamity and the satisfaction of seeing justice served.
Countless citizens spontaneously took to the streets to celebrate this hard-won victory.
In the hospitals, those despairing patients and their families, upon hearing that an effective drug had been found, embraced one another and wept. The entire Kamiyama Region was steeped in an ocean of joy.
And amid the revelry, an enormous, mysterious question began to ferment in everyone's hearts:
Who exactly was the mysterious figure who, with just two anonymous emails, had turned the tide and sat in judgment over a great evil?
Online, speculation about this "anonymous one" reached an unprecedented fever pitch.
"It must have been the work of a legendary top-tier hacker collective! The technique is downright miraculous!"
"No, no, no, my guess is some reclusive scientific genius! How else could anyone produce a solution that transcends the era?"
"What if... what if it's some higher-dimensional being, sending us humans a warning?"
All sorts of theories sprang up endlessly, until at last one name spread on its own across the internet and won the recognition of the vast majority:
"Kira."
Not the "killer" associated with slaughter, but a brand-new codename that stood for "Judge" and "Savior."
In the hearts of the people, this mysterious "Kira" was no longer a mere person, but a symbol, a totem.
He represented a god-like power capable of piercing through every lie and every shadow.
They didn't know "Kira's" true identity, but that did nothing to dampen the near-fanatical worship and awe they felt for him.
...
"Abundant Future" Corporation, President's office.
Masao Takahashi, a refined-looking middle-aged man wearing gold-rimmed glasses, was calmly watching the disgraceful footage of Kengo Yamamoto's arrest on the screen.
There was no anger or sympathy on his face, only calm focus.
"Interesting."
Masao Takahashi turned off the news and leaned back into his soft leather chair, contemplatively reviewing the situation.
"Just two emails, in less than three hours, and a division built up over many years has been completely destroyed, while the 'faith' of the entire nation's citizens has been gathered as a bonus..."
He spoke to himself, the eyes behind his lenses glinting with a dangerous and excited light.
"This methodology... it's like a precise surgical operation. Clean, efficient, leaving no traces."
In the midst of his thoughts.
A capable-looking female secretary in a professional suit respectfully placed a document on his desk.
"President, we mobilized our top-clearance intelligence network, but... we cannot trace the origin of those two emails at all. The other party's technology is exceptional."
"As I expected." Masao Takahashi was not surprised.
He picked up another document on the desk, this one detailing a series of unusual, large-scale capital deployments by the Fujiwara conglomerate in the medical and logistics industries in recent times.
"That fool Yamamoto only saw the Irisu Family in front of him. He never noticed that, behind him, a true shark had been quietly drawing closer all along."
The corners of Masao Takahashi's mouth curled into a cold smile.
He was not as shortsighted and arrogant as Kengo Yamamoto.
He was well aware that what lay behind this incident was certainly no so-called "mysterious hacker."
This was undoubtedly the work of a giant of equal stature, perhaps even greater.
And the Fujiwara conglomerate was the prime suspect.
"An opponent who plays outside the rules, who likes to sweep the board with his own methods..."
In Masao Takahashi's eyes, there was no fear at all. Instead, a flame called "fighting spirit" began to burn.
"Seiji Fujiwara, is it? It seems the struggle ahead is going to be a great deal more interesting."
He ordered his subordinates to immediately launch a thorough investigation into every piece of information about this mysterious young man of the Fujiwara conglomerate.
In his eyes, Kengo Yamamoto's crushing defeat was not an ending at all, but the opening of a war on a higher level.
...
In Seiji Fujiwara's office.
Fuyumi Irisu had witnessed every moment of this heart-stopping war of public opinion.
From the dispatch of the first email, to Kengo Yamamoto's clown performance, to the killing blow of the second email, and finally to the earth-shaking reversal of public sentiment...
It was as if she had been watching a grand film personally directed by Seiji Fujiwara, with the whole of Japan as its stage.
And she was the sole audience.
When she saw Kengo Yamamoto's despairing, twisted face on the television, her heart trembled beyond her control.
The treatment plan that Seiji Fujiwara had earlier given her, to him, may have truly been nothing more than something he could complete in passing.
Like a university student casually solving a primary schooler's math problem. Easy, offhand, hardly worth mentioning.
Yet she and her family had wagered all their dignity and their entire future on that "math problem."
This insurmountable, vast disparity gave rise in her to an even colder sense of helplessness.
The girl looked at the Seiji Fujiwara beside her, whose face had remained calm from beginning to end, as though he had merely done some trivial thing, and a tempest raged in her heart.
Her own life, it seemed, had been irrevocably bound to his.
Fuyumi Irisu thought bitterly.
Not as a "subject of a transaction."
But as a thing already branded, an inescapable "possession."
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