"So you're the buyer? I expected a naïve Japanese man, not a foreigner."
"I expected… well, I guess I expected someone as suspicious looking as you to be the seller."
The seller was a tall middle-aged man, but he was built strong and had light stubble growing on his chin. At a glance, I knew this guy was Yakuza.
"I ain't that suspicious."
"You're Yakuza. I can tell at a glance, dude."
Kinda hard to hide that aura when he looks just like the gangsters popular in old Yakuza movies of my original world.
"Nah, I'm not like that anymore. I'm done with that life. Left it behind. Just tryna get rid of some loose ends."
The man huffed and grunted, like he was frustrated about something, but he was telling the truth, based on my detection magics. This building probably had some ties with the Yakuza in the past and this guy is trying to get rid of it.
"Oh, really? So, does that mean this building has ties with the Yakuza? I don't know if I'm comfortable with buying now…"
On the surface, I had a nervous look to my face, but underneath I was totally snickering to myself, wanting to get a steep discount.
"If you want a discount, look somewhere else. I'm already selling this place at a loss. Your acting isn't gonna fool me."
Smart dude.
"Aw, that's too bad. So, this place really has no ties to Yakuza?"
I didn't mind, but it would save me a few minutes if I didn't have to deal with any gang-related stuff right off the bat. The middle-aged man shook his head.
"As I said, I'm done with that life. This building was something I came into ownership of while it was being built, and now that the people I was involved with have all gone away somewhere, this building is just sitting here, empty. It's all clean."
Nothing but the truth escaped his breath. That's great. One less headache to deal with. "If you say so. Get the papers ready and let's head inside."
"That easy? You trust just anyone at face value, foreigner?"
"It's Johnathan Vasco. Or rather, Vasco Johnathan. Just call me Vasco. And, I know when someone is lying."
"…If you say so, Vasco-san. By the way, I'm Satoru Kentaro."
Soon, we sat down in an empty office on the top floor of the building with a bunch of legal papers associated with property and deeds, building history, and blueprints. I didn't really have much experience with stuff like that, so I basically let my 'Management' skill take over for the legal stuff.
"…Okay. I'll put a down payment for 10% of the total, and pay monthly installments for 24 months, until I pay the amount agreed to in full."
It definitely wasn't the typical way to buy a building, but it's what the owner and buyer agreed to, so it wasn't any trouble, legally. Kentaro and I stood up and shook hands.
"Thanks. I appreciate you lifting this place out of my hands. Now I can focus on setting things right…"
He mumbled that last sentence, but I still caught it. It seems he has very personal reasons to have quit being a Yakuza. Nothing to do with me, though. I wish him luck.
"No problem."
As he went to leave, Kentaro suddenly turned around and asked me a question.
"You don't have to answer, but I'm curious… What are you gonna do with this place?"
I smiled, his question having ignited my excitement. "What am I going to do? Isn't that obvious? I'm gonna make the greatest multimedia corporation this world has ever seen!"
My exclamation echoed throughout the empty building, but the only reaction I got from Kentaro was an awkward cough.
"I see… Good luck with that, Vasco-san."
Aaaand he's gone.
Now that I was alone, I went straight to work. I didn't want to wait and hire contractors for interior work, so I just snapped my fingers in each room, using magic to add furnishings and equipment for my first project.
I made the interior style a slick ultra-corporate design, akin to the Arasaka style seen in Cyberpunk.
"Arasaka Corporation is a nice name… in the game they were immoral, super-corporate imperial oligarchs, but here? They're just a company focused on bringing the best in entertainment."
I'll name it, Arasaka Entertainment. It isn't unique in the slightest, and neither will most of my creations, but who cares? This world desperately needs good anime and games.
Once I finished furnishing the entire building, I looked at my work with satisfaction. Most of the offices on the lower floors were empty, only filled with desks and lounges with TVs. To start with, the only floor with proper equipment was the penthouse studio.
When I eventually get proper workers, I'll have those offices properly outfitted, but for now, I'll start with the easiest way to get my business on the map.
"Streaming."
Specifically, V-Tubing and Virtual Idols.
I got it all figured out, thanks to my magic and imagination. Using my all-powerful magic, I studied computer components and made hardware that could run the custom software I wrote which allowed perfect body and facial tracking without the need for a morph suit and real-time language translation for the international viewers.
With the large filming area set up, I turn on the camera and step in front of it. On the large projected display in front of me, I saw my custom anime avatar look back at me, copying all of my movements perfectly and without any lag or jittering at all.
While in real life, I looked like a handsome westerner with light brown eyes and stylish black hair; on the screen I looked different.
Gray hair, messily slicked back, blue eyes, a slightly rugged yet elegantly handsome face, and narrowed eyes that made him look slightly annoyed covered by yellow circular sunglasses. He wore a techwear-styled red trench coat with black pants tucked into knee-high combat boots. The right arm was replaced with a cybernetic red arm and in that arm, a blue translucent tablet was held. Lastly, on his hip, he wore a holster with an excessively large silver revolver tucked into it.
Basically, I made my avatar after Vash the Stampede.
"Great. It works perfectly."
I mess around a little, doing dances and interacting with my avatar by removing the glasses and revolver. Even when there's nothing in my hand in real life to track, the software easily simulated the gun being waved around and fired with realistic sound effects.
"Cool, cool— time for the hard part…"
Capturing my first victim— I mean, scouting for my first Idol. Preferably, I need to get a female for the first couple of Idols, because both men and women like cute anime girls… Then, I can slowly wean in some male idols, maybe…
To be honest, I've been surrounded by nothing but men for the majority of my time as a Hero in another world, and I'm kinda tired of it. Maybe I'll just make it a female-only Idol Agency? The males I hire can just work on animation and video games.
"I'll think about it once I get there."
The first step of scouting for talent is, of course, actually going out to look for them. The best place is clearly the high school and university areas.
I step out of my building and onto the streets. I feel my luck surging…! Today, I will find my first Idol…!
"Oh!"
"Kyah!"
The first step I took, I managed to accidentally knocked down a young girl on her butt.
"Sorry, Miss! I wasn't looking at where I was going." Bent down and stretched out my hand to her.
She looked up and I was immediately struck by her cuteness. Indeed, she is a cute young woman with a short brown bob cut, big brown eyes, and small plump, and rosy lips.
The only thing that concerned me was her distraught expression and a phone in her hands. Tears were on the verge of running down her cheeks and my first instinct was to find whoever dared to make this cute girl sad.
"Are you alright…?"
I put my hand on her shoulder and stealthily use magic to calm her down ever so slightly. She quickly rubbed her eyes, ridding them of tears, and stood up.
"I'm sorry, Sir, I didn't notice you… I'm fine, thank you. Sorry…!"
I could tell her emotions were a mess and she was gonna do something stupid in the very near future. I don't study time magic for nothing.
"Wait. You look like you're having a lot of trouble. I'm not the type of guy to let a crying girl in need go."
That's not just me saying that to be cool. I genuinely hate it when innocent girls cry. Call me a womanizer for all I care.
"It's…! It's nothing, I've got it under con—control!"
"Oh, please. Anyone can tell you need all the help you can get. Unfortunately, Japan lacks people with the backbone to reach out to a stranger in need. I will help you, whatever you need."
The woman tried to break free, but I held on gently. Even when bystanders looked at me oddly, they did nothing. Soon the young woman broke down in tears and I helped her sit down on the curb and patted her back.
"*sniff* Sorry… I'm just… I don't know what else to do anymore…!"
I could feel the stress that had built up in her over the course of several years. She's been shouldering something heavy for sure.
"As I said earlier, I can help."
The woman just shook her head adamantly. "No, I can't get an innocent person involved with me… I— I made up my mind a long time ago… Excuse me…"
She promptly stood up and quickly walked away. Whatever it was she decided, it was stupid and an impulsive decision for sure, so it was a lie when she claimed she 'made up her mind'. If she's not gonna all wow me to help, then I'll just help anyway.
"Haaaah~ I can't keep my heroic habits in this world, but… I'll do it."
I stood up and followed the young woman from a distance, observing her as she constantly looked at her phone, sighing and stressing about something. Soon, she stopped at a park and basically fell onto the bench with exhaustion. She wiped her tears with one hand and opened her phone with the other.
It was a short ring, the receiver picked up the call instantly. Of course, I listened in with my magic and shook my head, disappointed at the sad reality, one that was very common in the other world I was isekai'd into.
[Ah, Rin-chan~ I heard about your mother from one of my friends~ Have you decided on my offer? I could easily pay off all of the hospital bills and debts you have~!]
It was the snarky, vile voice of a man on the other side of her call. All I could think was 'seriously?' When I heard the context of his words. He's obviously cornering this girl into doing some sort of prostitution, using a sick mother and debts as leverage.
"I can't save everyone like this… I suppose this girl is just lucky."
I didn't want to be a hero again, but if it's within my power, I'll help people. I swear, Spider-Man influenced me way too much when I was younger.
Using one of my many spells, I traced the call and located the vile-sounding man. He was in a high-rise penthouse apartment with some other guys.
"…Okay… Wh-where should I go…?"
I could feel her heart break, her emotions turning cold and hopeless. I saw many people like that in my life. I couldn't save all of them, though.
"Man! I just wanted to chill! Thankfully, this'll be easier than saving a princess from some demon god." I complained as I watched the young woman begin walking towards the high-rise.
I went ahead of her, using invisibility magic and jumping buildings, eventually landing on the helicopter pad on top of the apartment. This guy is rich enough to have a helicopter pad installed, he could definitely help that woman's mother. Obviously, he won't keep that promise.
I enter the inside of the building, still invisible, and observe the vile man and the cronies surrounding him as they sit on a leather couch and smoking cigars and drinking sake. They all had tattoos under their suit shirts, there were guns on the glass table, poker cards, and stacks of ¥10,000 bills.
"Gahaha~! Is she seriously coming? That bitch sure is gullible!"
"For sure, but she does have huge tits! And those thighs!"
"Right?! Those nudes your buddy secretly took while she was at home changing were sooo good! I can't wait to bury my cock in her tight little pussy!"
Crude, perverted, disgusting, reprehensible, appalling, revolting. Numerous words of contempt cooked in my brain as I listened to them. Immediately, I snapped my fingers and removed the pictures of the woman's nudes from the face of the digital world and blocked all communications from leaving this room.
I walked to the front door and tapped the armed guard on his shoulder, forcefully teleporting him back to his home. Undoing my invisibility, I casually walk into the room after purposefully opening the door loudly.
"Oi! What's with all the bangin'?!" The vile man called out.
I strode in, now dressed in a high-quality purple suit and white dress shirt with no tie. I had a smile plastered on my face, but it wasn't out of joy, it was out of pleasure. I always did enjoy beating up Pure Evil, like these 'men'.
"Who the fuck is this foreigner?"
"Is that stupid guard not doing his fucking job?"
I sat on an empty sofa chair and slammed my heels on the table, creating a high-pitched and loud sound without shattering the glass.
"Hello, gentlemen. How's business?"
The man who looked like the leader and his cronies just looked flabbergasted at my casual demeanor. For a moment, they just looked at each other in confusion until one of them took a pistol from the table and aimed it at my head.
"Who the fuck do you think you are?! Walking in here like you own the place! How about you bow your head to Takeda-sama, and maybe he'll forgive you!"
What's with the underling-like behavior? I thought no-name grunts only talked that way in the movies. Not even the people in the Other World where fantasy was the reality did people ever speak like that.
"How does it taste?" I asked, the gun still pointed at my face.
"Huh?!"
"His dick. How's it taste? Cause with the way you're gargling it, it must taste very good to you."
"You fucking bastard! How dare you speak to me like that!"
Again with the low-class villain talk. This is so amusing to experience firsthand. I saw the guy's hand shaking from anger and his trigger finger started to curl in. Before his boss could order him to stop, the pathetic grunt passed the trigger's threshold and discharged his weapon.
I saw in slow motion, the bullet turn in a spiral as it inched towards my forehead. Oh, how I missed guns. I need to get my hands on some as soon as I buy a home in Texas.
Thinking about it, I've always wanted to be the President… Maybe one day. For now, I'll focus on making an Entertainment Empire.
As the bullet reached the micro hairs on my forehead, it disintegrated into nothingness. From outside my perspective, it simply looked like the grunt shot a blank at me, and nothing happened.
"You fucking idiot! He's a foreigner, you can't just shoot him!" The boss man seems to have some intelligence. It would indeed cost a lot of money to cover up the death of a foreigner, especially when the foreigner is from an Allied country.
"Man, you hire some dumb people, Takeda."
All of the men, who looked to the idiot who discharged his gun at me, turned their attention to me. They assumed I was just killed, so now they look even more dumb.
"How the—"
"It's simple. You just missed. Or maybe there were no rounds in the gun in the first place?"
I open my closed fists and let the 9mm handgun rounds fall to the floor, like a magic trick. Well, it wasn't a trick, but it was sure as hell magic.
"As entertaining as that was… it gets old really quickly. Or maybe I'm just fed up with being a Hero, I just want to get this shit over with and get to my business."
"Wh-what are you mumbling about?!"
Now, they sounded on edge. They don't know how I pulled the rounds from the gun, and that ignorance is making them scared.
"Just know that you are lucky. You won't have to suffer since I'm not in the mood."
I stood up and the little shit who shot at me raised his gun again, like that was gonna do anything to me. Since I'm lazy, I simply snapped my fingers and all of the men were ignited in blue flames.
They couldn't even scream as the oxygen in their lungs was burned up and used to fuel the soul flames. I watched as they fell to the floor and twisted in agony for a moment, before their body turned into nothingness. Not even a speck of ash was left.
"That takes care of that."
I pick up another gun from the table and inspect it. It's a 9mm MP-443 Russian pistol. It's pretty standard for a Japanese Yakuza to get Russian weapons. It's easier to smuggle than American or European ones.
"I still prefer American and Western European guns."
For a while, I messed with the guns on the table, using my magic to block sounds and shoot at the mirrors and at the bar across the room.
"Oh, she's here."
I threw the gun across the room and wiped my handprints off of it before standing up and walking to the front door.
"Hello~"
With a cheerful greeting, I smiled at the young woman in front of me, only for her to be utterly confused.
"Y-you…? You're that man from earlier?"
"Oh, you remember me? Gosh, you're making me all bashful~"
I turned around and beckoned her inside, grabbing a bottle of whiskey and two cups with ice that I magically made.
"Well? Aren't you coming inside?"
The woman timidly took her first step inside the penthouse apartment and looked around. She saw the guns on the floor with casings all around, which seemed to scare and surprise her.
"Oh, don't worry about that. Those men were very rude and shot the place up like crazy when I made a harmless joke."
I set one glass of whiskey down on the table and waved her over. Probably too frightened to do anything else, she stiffly turned heels and sat across from me, cupping the glass of alcohol in her hands.
"You don't have to be nervous. I just politely showed those men that what they were doing was wrong, and they just left to go turn themselves in to the police!"
It's definitely a lie, she could tell. There were guns and bullet holes and casings everywhere. It looked more like there was a shootout between those men and me, and I came out on top.
Still, the young woman didn't respond and even started shaking. I sighed, thinking that I could have just handled things differently. My habits from the Other World are still strong… I'll have to get used to the normalcy here.
"Hey, what's your name?"
It took a bit, but, with a shaky voice, she answered. "I— My n-name is Inoue Rina…"
"Rina… Look at me."
As if possessed, Rina looked into my eyes and collapsed. I caught her before she could fall to the floor and carried her in my arms. Looking at her peaceful sleeping face… she's quite the beauty.
"I wonder what happened to get her to fall this low? If this were my old Earth, she'd be an Idol or Streamer and have enough money to afford her mother's hospital fees…"
Oh…? A streamer, huh? That's actually not a bad idea.