The next day, when Kamiyā Yuu returned to the company, news that he had been attacked by an unidentified man at the novel signing and sales event had already spread throughout the entire company.
While producing anime, Kamiyā Yuu frequently moved back and forth between different production departments. Although he was both the company president and a director, he rarely put on airs, so there were quite a few employees who were familiar with him. Nearly all of them came over to ask how he was doing.
Especially when he had first arrived at the company that morning, a huge crowd of employees from other floors had rushed over to surround him and excitedly ask what had happened. Quite a few female employees had their eyes shining as they reached out and felt up Kamiyā Yuu's arms, wanting to see whether he had secretly been hiding a muscular side as well.
Good at drawing = constantly using his hands = strong arms.
Logically speaking, there did not seem to be anything wrong with that reasoning.
At noon, Akiyama Gojō arrived with several senior executives from Chiyo Bookstore to personally apologize. The executives' solemn expressions made it look as though they were only one step away from actually kneeling.
The culture of kneeling in apology was hardly uncommon in District 11. Generally, if the mistake committed was not too severe, a ninety-degree bow in apology was practically mandatory. A ninety-degree bow was also more or less District 11's standard public gesture of apology.
If the mistake crossed a certain threshold, however, kneeling became the most direct and effective method of apologizing. In his previous world, Kamiyā Yuu had even seen a District 11 educational program explaining the proper way to kneel and apologize. The most formal version involved sitting in seiza on the floor, placing both hands in front of the body in the shape of an inverted V, then bending forward until the forehead touched the backs of the hands.
The responsibility for this security incident lay with the security arrangements. Moreover, Kamiyā Yuu had personally been forced to intervene because their security personnel had failed to do their job—at least, that was how it looked.
If Kamiyā Yuu had not personally taken action, then even if one of the security guards had died, the matter probably still would not have escalated to the point where Chiyo Bookstore's senior executives came to apologize in person.
Kamiyā Yuu accepted their apology. After exchanging a few polite words, the matter was considered settled.
They had not brought any apology gift. Or rather, the seriousness of the incident had already gone beyond something that could be addressed with a gift, so anything they brought would have been inappropriate.
That did not mean they lacked sincerity, however.
District 11 attached enormous importance to etiquette. Since such a major blunder had occurred, the fact that no further compensation was explicitly offered meant Chiyo Bookstore now owed Kamiyā Yuu a favor. If he ever encountered a situation where he needed their help in the future, they certainly could not stand by and do nothing.
As for the attacker's identity, the police had already investigated it within a single day.
He was an unemployed man from Kagoshima, Kyushu, District 11. A week before the attack, he had disappeared from his hometown. His parents had filed a simple missing-person report a few days earlier, but had not continued following up on the matter.
As Kamiyā Yuu had expected, the man's social identity was that of a "disgusting NEET." Once the media learned this, they seized on that identity and continued sensationalizing it.
After all, "otaku shut-ins and NEETs are disgusting" was practically politically correct in District 11.
...
Beep, beep, beep~
The desk phone used for work began ringing.
Kamiyā Yuu had already been driven nearly insane by all the interruptions that morning. If this call turned out to be yet another person calling to offer condolences, he was definitely going to lose his temper.
—Am I even going to get any actual work done today...
Kamiyā Yuu, who had been seriously drawing storyboards for 'Fate/zero', glanced at the desk phone and helplessly stopped what he was doing.
Not long after picking up the receiver, he heard Kamiyā Sora's calm report.
"Yuu, a reporter from TV Tokyo wants to interview you."
Kamiyā Yuu knew that this incident would inevitably attract media attention, so he had rejected every interview request because he was too busy with animation production.
Since Kamiyā Sora was still calling him about this one, there had to be a reason.
The reporter requesting the interview was from TV Tokyo, which was also the television station that worked most closely with Yosuganosora Animation Studio.
Kamiyā Yuu considered it briefly before saying, "Mm. Contact Aoi and have her receive them and let them wait in the lounge. I'll be there shortly."
After tidying himself up, he headed to the lounge.
When he arrived, he saw a young female reporter sitting on the sofa. Beside her were several professional cameramen holding filming equipment and making preparations.
The moment the young female reporter saw Kamiyā Yuu enter, she hurriedly stood and bowed apologetically.
"Mr. Kamiyā, I'm terribly sorry for disturbing your work."
Kamiyā Yuu walked over, extended his right hand, and greeted her with a smile.
"Kamiyā Yuu. Though I suppose you already know my name. Things really are rather busy here, so please keep this interview as brief as possible."
The young female reporter extended her right hand and shook his, cautiously introducing herself.
"Kondō Aki. Yes, thank you very much for agreeing to this interview."
After they both sat down, the camera was aimed at Kamiyā Yuu.
The young female reporter gave a signal and formally began the interview.
"Seated before me is animation director Mr. Kamiyā Yuu, who was attacked yesterday by an unidentified man. Our television station has been fortunate enough to secure an interview with Mr. Kamiyā Yuu, so let us hear what he thinks about the incident."
"Mr. Kamiyā Yuu, how did you feel when you were attacked by that unidentified man? At the time, you appeared to be extremely calm."
Kamiyā Yuu nodded.
"Back when I was making anime, I specifically studied some combat techniques to create more exciting fight scenes. As for my psychological reaction, I honestly wasn't particularly afraid. I was mostly shocked that someone really would attack me. Why would he attack me? Had I done something that made someone hate me? Those were the kinds of things I was thinking."
The young female reporter continued, "Information has already spread online that the man who attacked you was a NEET who enjoyed anime. Apparently, his motive for attacking you was that he was dissatisfied with the ending of one of your works."
"The essence of the attack has nothing to do with that man's social status or his hobbies. Someone who can casually decide to take another person's life simply because they were dissatisfied with the ending of a work is nothing more than a criminal who does not value his own life, the lives of others, or even his own family."
The young female reporter pondered briefly before saying, "However, quite a few people believe the man attacked you because of the anime you created."
Kamiyā Yuu decisively shook his head.
"Murders have existed in every era, and motives for murder vary from person to person. If you simply attribute his motive for attacking me to the influence of anime, then you're putting the cart before the horse."
"Besides, a genuine anime otaku probably wouldn't do something this dangerous. Take me as an example. If I committed a crime and ended up in prison, my first thought would be that I'd never get to watch new anime again."
"Someone willing to give up all anime over a momentary impulse would necessarily have a rather extreme personality to begin with. Even without anime's influence, that sort of person might explode one day over some minor conflict with someone else."
The young female reporter looked somewhat surprised, but continued with the questions that had already been prepared.
"Mr. Kamiyā Yuu, you mentioned just now that you've studied combat techniques. If it's convenient, could you tell us what kind you studied?"
"All sorts, though most of it was theoretical. Yesterday's attack was actually the first time I'd ever genuinely used those techniques against another person, so it'd be rather difficult to say what specific fighting style it belonged to."
"It was just a conditioned reflex. I felt that moving that way would let me subdue him, so that's what I did."
"I see. Then thank you very much, Mr. Kamiyā Yuu, for agreeing to our interview."
The casual way he described it left the young female reporter momentarily dumbfounded.
The attacker had been holding a real dagger, after all—a lethal weapon that could easily have killed someone with the slightest mistake.
Kamiyā Yuu truly had not used those combat techniques very much in reality.
The world of consciousness was another matter entirely.
Years upon years of training there had already pushed his practical combat ability to the pinnacle achievable by an ordinary human being. Even if several more attackers like that man had appeared, dealing with them would not have been much of a problem.
The interview ended without incident, and Kamiyā Yuu's answers were equally conventional.
Other than demonstrating that he had perfectly sound values, there was nothing particularly noteworthy about them.