ZAGE Tower, 51st floor.
Zaboru was still seated in front of one of the large workstations inside his private workshop, fingers moving quickly across the keyboard while several different windows remained open across his monitors. Tomorrow would be the final major ZEPS 4 showcase, the proper trailer and launch presentation that would finally reveal the remaining information everyone had spent weeks demanding. Most preparations had already been completed by the dedicated teams below, but Zaboru still had several things he wanted to review personally.
He had always been like that. Even when thousands of employees were perfectly capable of handling a launch without him hovering over every detail, there were certain things he simply preferred to inspect himself. The 51st floor was one of the few places inside ZAGE Tower where he could work without constant interruption, functioning partly as his personal workshop, partly as a development room, and partly as the place where unfinished ideas somehow accumulated around him. Hardware components rested along one wall, several prototype controllers were arranged across another table, and folders from different internal teams sat beside handwritten notes that probably made sense only to Zaboru.
He was adjusting one of the final presentation sequences when the special telephone beside his desk suddenly rang. Zaboru immediately glanced toward it. That line was different from the normal office phones because it connected directly to Yumi Ichijou, his secretary, and she rarely used it unless something genuinely needed his attention or someone unexpected had arrived.
He picked it up. "Yes, Yumi-san? What's wrong?" Yumi answered from the other end, "Boss, there's someone here asking to meet you." Zaboru's brow rose slightly because most scheduled meetings had already been cleared ahead of the ZEPS 4 preparations. "Hmm? And who is that?" There was a short pause before Yumi replied, "It's Hikaru Kurata, Boss." Zaboru immediately stopped typing. "Hikaru Kurata?" That was unexpected enough to make him lean back in his chair. Hikaru was not someone who casually appeared at ZAGE Tower without warning. If he wanted to discuss business, he normally called first, and if something more sensitive needed to be discussed, the two of them could easily arrange a private meeting elsewhere.
The fact that Hikaru had physically come to the tower immediately made Zaboru curious. He chuckled. "Why the hell did he come here instead of calling me?" Yumi naturally had no answer to that, so Zaboru simply added, "Alright. Bring him to my official office on the 50th floor. I'll meet him there." Yumi replied, "Understood, Boss."
Zaboru saved his work, stood up, stretched his arms once, and headed downstairs. His official office on the 50th floor was considerably more presentable than the workshop above. It was still comfortable rather than excessively formal, but at least visitors would not need to step around unfinished hardware prototypes and random stacks of development notes. Not long afterward, the doors opened and Yumi entered with Hikaru Kurata, and Zaboru immediately noticed that Hikaru was carrying something. He smiled and walked forward. "Heh, long time no see, Hikaru-san." Hikaru returned the smile and shook his hand. "It has been a while, Zaboru."
Zaboru gestured toward the seating area. "Sit, sit. So, what do you want to drink? Coffee? Tea? Something stronger?" Hikaru had barely sat down before sighing and looking at him with a tired expression. "Stop the formalities, Zaboru. They don't suit you." Zaboru froze for half a second, then grinned. "Well, I had to try, heheheh." Hikaru shook his head. "I've known you long enough to know when you're pretending." Zaboru laughed. "Damn. My respectable businessman failed again." Hikaru replied flatly, "It was never convincing."
Zaboru dropped into the seat across from him. "Fine then. No formalities. But seriously, what made you come all the way here, Hikaru-san?" Instead of answering immediately, Hikaru placed what he had been carrying onto the table and opened it. Inside were donuts. Zaboru's eyes lit up instantly. "Damn, now you know me well." Before Hikaru could say anything else, Zaboru had already reached for one and taken a bite without even pretending to be polite, immediately proving Hikaru's earlier point. "I'm hungry."
Hikaru stared at him before allowing a small smile. "I hate to acknowledge it, but I know your habits now." Zaboru chuckled while eating. "See? Our relationship is improving." Hikaru replied, "That might be an exaggeration." Zaboru shook his head. "No, no. Definitely improving." He swallowed before leaning back. "Actually, your life seems better too, Hikaru-san. You're close to your children again, you're not thinking about sabotaging ZAGE every five minutes, and Sonaya is finally moving at its own pace instead of constantly trying to react to whatever we do." Hikaru gave him a dry look, and Zaboru grinned wider. "Honestly, I like that version of you more." Hikaru answered, "You would."
Zaboru's grin became annoyingly proud. "And especially after seeing what ZEPS 4 can do. Heheheh." Hikaru shook his head. "When you released that song mocking X-Box and i-Play, I understood the feeling very well, because you did almost the same thing to us years ago." Zaboru laughed loudly. "Hey, it was still funny back then." Hikaru replied, "It was funnier when you weren't targeting us." Zaboru pointed toward him. "Exactly! Now you understand."
Hikaru sighed. "Unfortunately, yes." For a moment both men simply sat there, the atmosphere surprisingly comfortable considering their history. Years earlier, a meeting between them would have been filled with suspicion, aggression, hidden motives, and enough tension to make everyone around them uncomfortable. Now the rivalry still existed, but it had changed. They could joke about old attacks, openly discuss competition, and even admire each other's work without pretending they were anything other than rivals.
Zaboru reached for another donut. "Still, Hikaru-san, you didn't come here just to remind me about old promotional wars, right? Or did you finally reconsider releasing Sonaya games on ZEPS?" Hikaru's eyes narrowed slightly, but Zaboru continued before he could answer. "Seriously, the offer is still open. Port your good GameStation 32, Titan Drive, and Mugen Game Box titles to ZEPS 3 or ZEPS 4, and we'll give you a very reasonable deal. You already know the audience is there. You'd make a ridiculous amount of money." Hikaru sighed because the offer genuinely was tempting, and that was exactly what made it so annoying. Zaboru was not trying to trap him with some predatory contract. The deal he had offered Sonaya was actually favorable.
If Sonaya took several successful games, converted them properly, and re-released them across the ZEPS ecosystem, the potential revenue would be enormous. ZEPS already had a gigantic installed user base, and ZEPS 4 was about to expand that ecosystem even further. Financially, it made perfect sense. Strategically, however, there was a much larger problem: if Sonaya gradually moved its strongest software onto ZEPS and became dependent on ZAGE's audience, the incentive to continue producing its own hardware could slowly disappear. Eventually, Sonaya might simply become another software publisher. Hikaru had absolutely no intention of allowing that.
"Like I've already told you," Hikaru said, "I don't want that. Sonaya will release another console after ZEPS 4." Zaboru's expression immediately shifted into a knowing grin. "You know me very well." Hikaru frowned slightly. "What is that supposed to mean?" Zaboru answered immediately, "You want to study ZEPS 4 first."
Hikaru did not respond, which only made Zaboru point at him with the half-eaten donut. "That's exactly it. You're waiting until you see the final machine, the launch reception, what developers like and dislike, what features players actually use, what mistakes we make, and then Sonaya builds its next machine with that information." Hikaru leaned back and chuckled. "And if I say you're wrong?"
Zaboru took another bite before replying, "Unlike Microsoft and Apple, you know how ZAGE works, Hikaru-san. You don't underestimate what our console is capable of." Hikaru looked at him for several seconds before finally shaking his head. "Fine. Yes. We intend to study it." Zaboru grinned. "I knew it." Hikaru immediately added, "Don't look so proud. Any competent company would do the same thing." Zaboru shrugged. "True."
He took another bite and continued, "Honestly, I don't mind. If that's what you want to do, then do it. But I'll warn you now, ZEPS 4 isn't an easy machine to understand completely. There are design decisions in there that took years to solve, and my father had a huge role in making them possible." Hikaru's expression changed slightly at the mention of Zanichi. "Zanichi…" He leaned back further and stared toward the ceiling for a moment. "I still can't believe that man used to work inside Sonaya's hardware department."
Zaboru smiled faintly as Hikaru continued, "Even back then, everyone knew he was technically gifted. Extremely gifted, actually. But he never showed anything close to this level of ambition. He would solve something difficult, then disappear somewhere or act like he couldn't be bothered with the next challenge." Zaboru nodded. "That sounds like him." Hikaru replied, "He was irritating." Zaboru immediately added, "That also sounds like him."
Hikaru gave a small laugh. "Sometimes I wonder whether Sonaya completely failed to understand what kind of person we had working for us. His technical ability was obvious, but his motivation was terrible. He never seemed interested in climbing the company hierarchy, managing people, or proving himself to executives. He just wanted to work on whatever interested him and ignore everything else." Zaboru nodded. "Yeah. Father is like that." Hikaru looked toward him more carefully. "But with you, he actually tries." Zaboru's expression softened slightly. "He does."
Hikaru continued, "And to be fair, I can see pieces of both of you in ZEPS 4. The hardware feels unmistakably like Zanichi's work, but the philosophy surrounding it feels like yours. Backward compatibility, digital distribution, the Z-Remote, the social systems, the way you're treating developers—it's not just a machine built around raw performance." Zaboru nodded. "That was always the point." Hikaru looked toward the ceiling briefly before saying, "You really want that thing to become the center of the living room. Zaboru shrugs.
Zaboru leaned forward slightly, resting his elbows against his knees. "But honestly, Hikaru-san, I'm excited to see what Sonaya does next. I'm serious. If you just copy ZEPS 4 badly, I'll make fun of you forever. But if you come up with something genuinely different and good, that's better for everyone." Hikaru nodded slowly. "That is exactly why we are not rushing." Zaboru replied, "Good." Hikaru continued, "We know we cannot beat ZAGE simply by saying, 'Our processor is slightly faster,' or 'Our console has more memory.' If we release another machine, it needs an identity." Zaboru's grin faded into a more approving smile. "Now you're thinking properly." Hikaru immediately gave him a dry look. "Don't sound like my teacher." Zaboru laughed. "I'm younger than you, so that would be embarrassing." Hikaru replied, "It already is." Both men laughed again.
After the laughter settled, Zaboru picked up the last remaining donut from the box and inspected it for a moment before looking back toward Hikaru. "Anyway, you still haven't answered my actual question." Hikaru raised an eyebrow. "Why are you here?" Hikaru replied, "I told you." Zaboru shook his head. "No, you distracted me with donuts." Hikaru smiled. "That worked surprisingly well." Zaboru nodded immediately. "It absolutely did." Hikaru's smile remained as Zaboru continued, "You could've called. You could've sent me a message. You could've asked for a formal meeting next week. Instead you physically came to ZAGE Tower one day before the biggest console presentation we've done in years, carrying donuts." He narrowed his eyes playfully. "That means you want something."
Hikaru did not deny it. For several seconds he remained quiet, fingers tapping lightly against the armrest while Zaboru waited. His expression gradually became more serious than it had been throughout the rest of the conversation. Then he finally smiled. "Well…" Zaboru raised an eyebrow, and Hikaru leaned forward slightly. "I want to call in that favor." Zaboru stopped moving. The playful atmosphere changed immediately because he remembered exactly what Hikaru meant. Some time ago, during one of the more complicated periods between ZAGE and Sonaya, Zaboru had promised Hikaru that if he ever genuinely needed his help with something reasonable, he could ask. At the time, Zaboru had not expected Hikaru to use that favor anytime soon. Hikaru was proud, independent, and normally preferred solving his own problems rather than asking a rival for assistance. The fact that he had personally come to ZAGE Tower to use it meant the request was probably important.
Zaboru slowly leaned back. "Oh?" Hikaru's smile widened slightly. "Yes." Zaboru looked at him for another moment before the corners of his mouth began rising again. "Well then, Hikaru-san…" He folded his arms and leaned comfortably against the chair. "Now you have my attention."
To be continued.
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