IGTL Chapter 70

Chapter 70 – Dear Shithead Brother, Get Your Ass to Work. No, Seriously. ⑤

After finishing my date with Fukuda Miki, I had returned to my family home.

I lay down on the sofa bed in my room and grinned.

“Man, today was the best day ever.”

The distance between me and my fiancée, Fukuda Miki, had grown even closer, and when I was driven by guilt and confessed that I was unemployed, she accepted that too. She even said she would support me.

It was unfortunate that I couldn’t spend a passionate night with Miki-chan, but that was something to look forward to after marriage.

Everything was smooth sailing. My life was shining fiercely right now.

“Well then, guess I’ll sleep for today.”

It was currently 11 PM. Time for bed.

When I reached for the remote to turn off the lights in my room, I noticed a job advertisement had been placed there.

“Hm? What’s this… Haha, I see. This was Dad, wasn’t it?”

Whenever I met Dad or Mom, they were always nagging me, “Work, work.” So annoying.

I could live just fine without working, you know.

From now on, I was going to become Miki-chan’s full-time househusband, so there shouldn’t be any problem if I didn’t work.

Still, this job ad… It was all real estate investment and construction-type jobs.

Earning money by wearing yourself down was just stupid.

Mom said, “You’re twenty-seven, and your highest level of education is high school. No one will hire you!”

Too bad.

I was going to be permanently employed under Miki-chan, so please don’t worry. Educational background had nothing to do with marriage.

As long as you had a good face, you could get hired. That was my motto.

…Hah, how stupid.

I crumpled up the job advertisement, tossed it into the trash can, turned off the room lights, and pulled the blanket over myself.

“What should I go buy tomorrow…? Fwaaah…”

And then I fell into a deep sleep.

The next day, at 7 AM.

“…U-Um?”

When I woke up in the morning, I was…

Wh-What was this?

I was sitting formally in front of the table, writing a resume.

Wh-What was going on? What the hell was this!?

Huh, my voice wouldn’t come out. My body wouldn’t move freely either…

Why…?

After finishing about ten resumes, I took out the ID photos I had kept in the drawer and pasted them onto the resumes.

Then, after pasting the ID photos, I picked up the job advertisement I had thrown into the trash can and began calling the companies one after another.

“Excuse me. My name is Takahashi, and I’m calling after seeing your job advertisement. I would like to apply for the position. May I speak with the person in charge? Ah, yes. I would very much like to take an interview… Huh? Right now? Ah, yes. That’s no problem. I’ll head over immediately. Yes. Excuse me.”

Then, after ending the call, I cut and tidied my messy hair, changed into the recruit suit Dad had bought for me, and headed to the interview.

Of course, in my heart, I was desperately trying to stop myself, but my body would not listen to me at all.

As I trembled with indescribable fear, I ran into Mom inside the house.

“Oh my, how unusual. What’s with that outfit? What brought this on?”

“I’ve caused you a lot of trouble, Mom. I thought I’d make a fresh start.”

I held out the crumpled job advertisement to Mom and smiled.

While I stood there stunned inside, Mom collapsed to her knees and began crying.

“U-Uuuh…”

“Wh-What’s wrong?”

My voice came out as though I were concerned for Mom, completely unrelated to my own will.

What in the world had happened to me?

“Y-You’ve become normal… You finally opened your eyes. After you repeated years over and over, got expelled from university, piled up several million yen in debt, and came home, I thought this child was finished… I even thought we should die together before you committed a crime, but I’m so glad…”

You old hag!?

That was what you were thinking!?

That was terrifying!?

“…I had been sharpening the kitchen knife so we could go together anytime, but your father stopped me each time… I was already at my limit, so I’m truly… truly glad…”

Please!

Shut up already!?

Everything you’ve been saying has been terrifying!!

Actually, what!?

Was I in such a tightrope-walking situation!?

Had she really been that cornered!?

I had to… I had to get out of the house fast…

I felt a very real danger to my life.

“I’ve caused you a lot of hardship until now, Mom. From now on, I’ll do my best to live an independent life properly…”

“Yoichi…”

G-Good. Me!

Well said, me!!

Since my mouth was moving on its own and my body was already completely out of control, just this once, good job! I’ll praise you for it!

I didn’t want to die yet.

Do your best and get through this situation, me!

“Well then, I have an interview now. If I pass the interview and get a job, I’ll gradually repay my debts to make up for all the trouble I caused.”

“R-Really?”

W-Wait a minute!

Wasn’t that going too far!?

Marriage costs money, you know?

I think maybe I don’t have to repay the debt, me!

“Of course. I caused you so much hardship, after all. I plan to put half of my monthly salary toward repaying the debt. With interest, of course.”

“Y-Yoichi…”

N-Nooooo!

Stoooop!

I won’t be able to live like that!

The married life I’m about to begin will turn from rosy to gray!

“Well then, I’ll do my best at the interview.”

“Y-Yoichiiii! What really happened to you!? You’ve become so admirable!”

Y-Yoichiiii!

I mean, that’s me, but what really happened to me!?

Give me a break. Seriously!

You’re not that kind of guy!

Why are you smiling!?

This wasn’t funny at all. Why was half my salary going toward debt repayment!?

The person I was paying back wasn’t even a loan shark!?

Don’t say things like that with my body on your own!

And even if I was repaying debt, there were better ways to do it, like paying back one-tenth of my salary!

If I used half my salary for repayment, I wouldn’t be able to do anything!

“But will you be all right? If you put half your salary toward repayment, your other payments…”

Y-Yeah, exactly, old hag!

That’s right!

Convince this overly understanding version of me more strongly!

However, my wish did not reach her.

“…I’ll be fine. I’ve already had more than enough fun until now. I also have a fiancée, so there’s no problem. If I don’t have enough for living expenses, I can just take on a part-time job.”

“Y-Yoichi… To think you had that much resolve…”

Y-Yoichiiii!

Wait a minute!

What’s going to happen to my life!?

From what I was hearing, all I could imagine was that from now on, I would earn a salary doing physical labor, only for half of it to be taken by my parents!

And if I didn’t have enough living expenses, I would take on a part-time job!?

Spare me!

“Well then, I’m going to the interview.”

“Yes, do your best!”

After saying that and leaving the house, I headed to the interview location.

“Good. You’re hired, so you’ll start working today.”

“Yes! I look forward to working with you!”

Y-You’re kidding, right!?

What kind of interview was this!?

What did it mean to tell someone they were hired right after meeting them!?

Actually, what was really going to happen from now on!?

I got hired before I could regain control of my body!?

“Now then, we’ll have you watch an employee training video. After that, it’ll be practical training. We’ll drill you thoroughly through OJT*, so be prepared.” (TN: On-the-Job Training)

“Yes!”

From that day on, my hellish days began.

A salary that did not change no matter how hard I worked.

Remittances to my parents, or rather, debt repayments, that were sent on their own, regardless of my will.

I was crushed beneath each day as though not working were a sin, and I could not get my hands on any free time at all. I seriously couldn’t laugh. My mind felt like it was about to undergo semantic satiation.

And I still had my wedding ahead of me…

Sensing that my suffering would continue for a long time yet, I looked up at the sky in my heart.

◇◆◇

Going back just a little in time, around when Takahashi Kakeru’s older brother, Yoichi, began working, Director Ishida, the head of the Administration Division, was reporting the results of the hearings with each branch and sales office manager in a conference room at Amazing Corporation.

“Um, as a result of conducting interviews with the branch managers of each branch and sales office, we discovered that approximately one billion yen in funds had flowed from branches and sales offices nationwide to subcontractors whose business was supposed to have been terminated. A-And…”

“…And what?”

As I hesitated over whether to report the interviews as they were, President Nishiki said that in a bad mood.

Of course he did. As a result of the nationwide hearings at the branches and sales offices, every single branch had gone against President Nishiki’s decision.

Naturally, that was not all…

“Y-Yes. …A-Also, approximately one billion yen in inventory falsification was discovered at the Wakayama Factory. As for the circumstances behind the falsification, when we interviewed the factory manager and the employees working on-site, um… how should I put this… It seems they were afraid of President Nishiki and could not bring themselves to say anything… All of the employees working at the site were aware of the falsification…”

President Nishiki’s power harassment was nothing new.

Whenever a problem occurred, he would immediately convene a disciplinary committee and demote employees or cut their pay.

This falsification was done to disguise inventory assets. In other words, fictitious recording of inventory assets.

There were two ways to overstate profits: overstate sales or understate costs. The method they used was to overstate inventory, thereby overstating profits by that amount.

Why had President Nishiki’s power harassment led to inventory falsification…?

It was because several years ago, President Nishiki had judged that a certain product would sell and invested in the factory under the name of mass production. The investment failed, the products were left behind as inventory at the factory, and they became obsolete. In other words, products that already wouldn’t sell had rusted and become unsellable.

Naturally, there were no takers for products that would not sell.

The products mass-produced due to President Nishiki’s management decision were rejected by the sales department, which said, “Who could sell such an outdated thing?” As a result, they stagnated inside the Wakayama Factory.

They tried to report the current situation to President Nishiki, but the factory manager at the time was timid and useless.

The stagnant products were stored inside the factory, but before anyone knew it, they were covered in rust…

However, if they reported that products with less value than garbage had been scrapped, President Nishiki would become furious.

If President Nishiki became furious, what action he would take was obvious.

With nearly one-hundred-percent accuracy, it would lead to pay cuts or demotions.

Even though they had made the products because President Nishiki’s judgment, the company’s judgment, had told them to do so.

That was precisely why the Wakayama Factory gradually scrapped the rust-covered products that had become unsellable, while treating them on the books as if they were still semi-finished goods… In other words, they processed them as if they were products still in the middle of manufacturing.

And as a result of continuing to hide things that existed on the books but not in reality, the burden was now appearing in the form of fictitious recording of inventory assets.

“…So what? Are you saying I’m the one at fault, Ishida?”

“N-No, sir! The ones at fault are one hundred percent the factory manager and employees of the Wakayama Factory.”

“Exactly, aren’t they? This report reads as if I’m the one at fault, though. They hid it because they were scared of me? The products rusted? Don’t make me laugh!”

President Nishiki slammed the table with all his strength.

“Besides, do all of you understand? One billion in private diversion and one billion in falsification. This is a tremendous problem! An act worthy of death ten thousand times over. You think so too, don’t you, Ishida?”

“Y-Yes. You are absolutely right, President.”

“Then you say that too. You’ve been silent this whole time, and I’m the one speaking for everything!”

“M-My apologies.”

“This isn’t a matter solved by apologies!”

If handled poorly, this could become a situation that led to delisting.

“Call the people involved immediately! Bring them here!”

“Y-Yes. I’ll summon them immediately!”

After replying, I left the president’s office and called the branches and sales offices across the country, as well as the factory manager of the Wakayama Factory.