After the weekend passed, it was naturally time to go back to school—but Tetsu Kobayashi didn't have to attend classes anyway.
The teaching style and pace in Japan and America were completely different, and since Kentarō never forced him to study, Tetsu had no desire to go.
On Monday afternoon, Tetsu slept until noon before getting up. After casually eating something, he headed out to wander around. Thinking about it, he didn't really know anyone in Tokyo, so he ended up going to Yōsuke Shimayori's game shop.
The moment they met, Yōsuke immediately recognized Tetsu.
For this young man who had played games with him until they became familiar, Yōsuke felt genuine heartache.
A young man shouldn't be so poor he can't even spare a hundred yen! And he even mooches off a little girl's console!
With both hands shoved in his pockets, Tetsu lazily looked over the decorations at the storefront. Everything looked the same as a few days ago—except for a rolled-up banner.
"Uncle Shimayori, what's that for?"
"You mean this? Here." Yōsuke handed one end of the banner to Tetsu and took the other end himself, walking back a distance.
As the banner unfurled, Tetsu could clearly see the words on it.
"Yōsuke Shimayori 'Kobayashi Puzzle' Tournament… huh?"
Yōsuke nodded solemnly. "You're not seeing things. After you mentioned it the other day, I kept thinking—ah, you young people really react fast. A national tournament might be impossible, and it probably can't become a Tokyo-wide event, but even if it's just around Shibuya…"
He patted his chest. "I'm planning to hold a game competition. The champion gets a game cartridge. The runner-up gets some free trial time and priority to play games in my store. Third place… they'll only get a thousand yen."
For a moment, Tetsu didn't know what to say.
For a game shop owner, even if he had such an idea, the influence would probably not even reach across all of Shinjuku.
To put it bluntly—
The whole tournament might not even find ten participants.
Hands still in his pockets, Tetsu kept his indifferent expression.
"I mean, Uncle Shimayori, haven't you thought this through? Holding a tournament is supposed to at least break even. Like charging an entry fee, or setting requirements—selling goods, selling drinks, something. With this setup, you won't make any money. You might even lose money."
Yōsuke shrugged. "So what? Listen here, young man. SEGA is the best company, and SEGA games are the best games. I can't just sit here watching the Famicom across the street booming with customers. Besides, it's not like I get nothing out of it. At the very least, having all those people come into my store is good enough!"
"You might close down before you get to convert them…"
Tetsu muttered, but didn't continue.
Rationally, he didn't believe anyone would do something so selfless. But emotionally, he had to admit, people like that did exist—regardless of status or wealth.
For example: Hayao Nakayama.
When SEGA was on the brink of collapse in the 1990s, Nakayama left his entire stock holdings and personal assets to the company after his death, helping SEGA stabilize and barely survive into modern times.
You could say that without that enormous sum, SEGA would have ended up like Bandai Namco—merged into another company's structure.
Namco used to be independent, but due to various reasons, Bandai acquired controlling shares, forming "Bandai Namco" as one combined name. Without Nakayama's money, "Bandai SEGA" might have been SEGA's final fate.
Tetsu shook his head, stopped overthinking it, and casually handed two coins to Yōsuke.
"Let me borrow the machine for a bit."
"Do what you want, just don't break it."
Though Yōsuke liked to complain, he was genuinely happy to have someone playing outside the store.
Customers trying out games always helped draw attention, and some of those onlookers would eventually become actual buyers.
After taking the coins, Yōsuke slowly rolled the banner back up.
Tetsu played idly for a while but soon lost interest. He stopped moving the joystick, letting the blocks fall on their own, and turned toward Yōsuke.
"It's not like you have zero influence. If SEGA helped promote this, a lot of people would definitely come. You might not even be able to handle it alone."
Yōsuke shrugged. "Oh, come on. SEGA wouldn't pay attention to a tiny shop like mine. Big companies don't care about me. If such a day ever came, I'd have to beg my regulars to help."
Tetsu muttered quietly to himself.
"Not necessarily."
There were ways—depending on whether a certain someone-who-prefers-to-stay-nameless, Tetsu Kobayashi, would go ask for help.
…
…
At SEGA's Home Console Division, Minoru Tanaka was, as usual, lying over his desk doing crossword puzzles.
But today, besides the crossword sheet, there was also a check on his desk.
Five million yen.
"As expected of the home console division—never taken seriously. Only five million for promotional funds? What can I even do with that? Just airing one commercial on TBS costs at least one million yen!"
Even though there weren't many programs right now, meaning commercials could run longer, five million was still far too little.
Since it wasn't enough anyway—
Tanaka planned to use a million for himself, let the team experiment with the rest, and eventually whatever was left—maybe one or two million—could still get a commercial on TBS. Everyone wins.
Just as he was pondering, the phone rang. After letting it ring a few times, he finally picked up.
"Hello, this is SEGA's Minoru Tanaka… oh? Tetsu? Right now? I have a meeting soon, so it's inconvenient. Tomorrow then. Tomorrow afternoon should work."
After hanging up, Tanaka seemed thoughtful.
He didn't expect the call to be from Tetsu Kobayashi, asking to meet.
But in Tanaka's eyes, it was probably just to ask for money again.
It wasn't like he was actually busy—he was literally playing crossword puzzles. But that didn't mean he had to meet Tetsu.
Tanaka and Kentarō Kobayashi worked in the same company but different departments. Behind the scenes, they belonged to the same faction. To them, Tetsu was just a junior.
And juniors needed to observe proper courtesy.
"Chief, these are last week's sales numbers."
"Mhm, leave them."
Tanaka waved dismissively, waited for the assistant to leave, did a bit more of his crossword, then finally opened the folder.
This report included SG consoles and cartridges shipped to distributors in the Tokyo region—an entire week's worth of numbers.
Of course, these numbers didn't fully represent actual sales, because they showed how many units distributors shipped out, not how many were sold at stores.
For example, if Yōsuke bought 50 cartridges but only sold 30, then 20 were still sitting unsold.
But the distributor's report would still say 50 were shipped out. Whether Yōsuke sold them, ate them, or burned them—none of that mattered to distributors.
Overall—
The data was real but couldn't replace the true sales figures; the reported numbers were always a bit inflated.
Tanaka casually glanced at the report.
"WAH!!"
He yelped, instantly slamming the folder shut.
He must have seen wrong.
He opened it again.
"No way. Real? Fake?"
Scanning quickly, his eyes widened more and more.
SG console sales had risen—over 600 units more than the previous week.
Though sales were still trending downward overall, the decline seemed to be slowing.
Every game cartridge showed increased shipments.
As for Kobayashi Puzzle, which had been on shelves for only a week—
Shipments: 14,000 units.
Tanaka's mind raced.
Even if shipments didn't equal real sales, this still meant around six or seven thousand units had probably sold.
For SG's current user base, selling six or seven thousand copies of a game was phenomenal.
And this was just the Tokyo-area report—nationwide numbers were likely double.
After a long silence, Tanaka snatched up the phone.
"Assistant, get me the Kobayashi residence."
"Hello, this is SEGA's Minoru Tanaka. Tetsu, the higher-ups just notified me—the meeting has been postponed. How about it? Do you have time? If so, come now. I'll be waiting for you in my office!"
Please Support me by becoming my patreon member and get 15+ chapters.
[email protected]/Ajal69
change @ with a
Thank You to Those who joined my Patreon