Chapter 152: The Clown's Final Curtain Call

Akiwara Yuto lowered his head, looked at the document in his hand, and couldn't help but weigh the pros and cons.

According to this document, he would not need to issue any statement of understanding; instead, he would accept interviews with media arranged by Mantansha and push the main responsibility onto Takei Kohei and Kihara Daigo.

Following this, Mantansha would also take corresponding measures, holding a press conference to apologize and pointing out that it was due to management's negligence that Kihara Daigo and the other, who held discriminatory political intentions against the Burakumin, took such erroneous actions.

They would also announce corresponding disciplinary actions for the two at the press conference.

At the same time, Mantansha would arrange for extensive media coverage to shift all responsibility onto Kihara Daigo and Takei Kohei.

In this way, Mantansha could successfully "sacrifice the rook to save the king," shifting the public's impression of this incident from "Mantansha as a whole discriminates against the Burakumin" to "Mantansha's lax management led to some employees discriminating against the Burakumin."

And by disciplining these "responsible parties," Mantansha could establish an image of "turning over a new leaf."

As for the Burakumin political groups, they would have even less to complain about. After all, Kihara Daigo, as a department head, could be considered high-level management, and disciplinary action against him could, to a certain extent, represent a victory for the Burakumin in defending their own rights and interests.

Besides this, Mantansha had even proactively contacted some of the political group leaders, promising to provide certain political contributions.

Under such an arrangement, Mantansha, the Burakumin, and Akiwara Yuto could all get the results they wanted.

Akiwara Yuto picked up his coffee, took a sip, and then nodded at Seto Tamae, who was sitting opposite him, indicating that he accepted the proposal from this Executive Director Furukawa.

As a capital giant, while public opinion attacks certainly had a significant impact on Mantansha, it could not be called a level of damage that would break its bones or tendons. Continuing to tangle with them further was undoubtedly an irrational decision.

No matter how one looked at it, this farce had lasted too long, and it was time for him to let it come to an end.

As for himself, it was time to return to the normal process of writing and publishing books...

Two days later at 10: 0 AM, Chiyoda Ward, Akiwara Yuto's home.

Akiwara Yuto and Asano Aiko sat kneeling on the tatami in the living room, watching the lit television screen together, their thoughts elsewhere.

On the television screen, a press conference was being held.

Sitting on the dais of this press conference were the president of Mantansha, the vice president, and several other high-level executives.

After the press conference began, the president first gave a speech regarding the series of recent events, then stated that Mantansha absolutely did not hold any discrimination against any social group.

Immediately following this, they expounded on the pre-arranged viewpoint: this series of events was caused by the personal actions and values of individual employees, which Mantansha absolutely did not endorse.

And for those employees who took such erroneous actions, Mantansha would absolutely punish them severely and would never show leniency.

After finishing all of this, amidst the continuously flashing lights, everyone on the dais, including the president, stood up, then bowed deeply at a 90-degree angle to the many reporters in the audience, expressing their apologies for everything that had happened previously.

Seeing all this, Akiwara Yuto couldn't help but feel a bit emotional; truthfully, only half a year had passed since the series of entanglements between him and Mantansha, but in these six months, he had exhausted a great deal of his heart and energy.

Even some of his original plans had been delayed because of it.

Unexpectedly, everything had come to an abrupt stop now.

As for what remained, it was time to properly plan what to write next.

While he was thinking, the phone rang. Akiwara Yuto stood up and walked to the entryway to pick up the receiver. After listening for 10 minutes, he ended the call.

He walked back to the living room and said to Asano Aiko, who was still watching the TV screen: "Asano, Seto-sensei just called and informed me of the results of Mantansha's handling of Kihara Daigo and Takei Kohei."

Hearing these words, Asano Aiko turned her head and looked at Akiwara Yuto in surprise.

Akiwara Yuto continued: "Kihara Daigo voluntarily resigned from his position as department head at Mantansha, but considering the impact on internal staff, Mantansha still arranged a job for him, which is to be in charge of warehousing and shipping at a printing plant in Hokkaido; as for Takei Kohei, Mantansha transferred him to the Shikoku region and arranged for him to be a subordinate of Kikuchi Tai, responsible for text proofreading."

He paused, shook his head, and said: "If nothing goes wrong, they will never be able to return to Tokyo in this lifetime."

This outcome left Akiwara Yuto slightly surprised, but it was also within his expectations.

After all, although Kihara Daigo and Takei Kohei were the root cause of everything, in the matter of the Burakumin, the two of them had indeed taken the fall for Mantansha.

Firing them directly and cutting ties, in case the two of them ran outside and started shouting things, would have had significant hidden dangers.

If one of them even committed suicide due to having no source of income, Mantansha would have fallen into even greater trouble.

However, in Akiwara Yuto's view, this outcome was already enough.

For people with status and standing, the cruelest thing is to deprive them of all their rights.

And Kihara Daigo and Takei Kohei could originally be considered people with a certain amount of status.

One was a department head at Mantansha and had a certain standing in the publishing industry; the other was a deputy editor-in-chief and was expected to become an editor-in-chief.

According to Mantansha's handling, both of them were exiled to a remote corner of Japan, even falling to the point of only being able to earn an average wage through manual labor; besides this, their original interpersonal relationships would likely choose to cut ties with them.

After all, this society is very realistic; once the two lost their original positions, they also lost the utility value that could maintain their standing in their social circles.

Even their own relatives and friends might choose to sever ties...

Akiwara Yuto sighed and didn't say anything more. For a long time, he had wanted to carry out "revenge" against these two.

But when everything he wanted happened, he felt as if something was missing in his own heart.

Upon hearing Akiwara Yuto's words, Asano Aiko stood up subconsciously, her feelings very complex.

She clenched her fists, not knowing what to say for a moment.

During this period, she sometimes couldn't even sleep at night, constantly worrying about whether Mantansha would take any other retaliatory actions.

But today's press conference, and the results for Takei and the other that Akiwara Yuto had told her about, proved that she didn't need to worry anymore.

After all, everything was over.

She looked up at Akiwara Yuto, changing her usual expression to reveal a very bright smile.

"Akiwara, can you accompany me out to clear my head?"

The moment he saw Asano's smile, Akiwara Yuto was stunned, but he quickly reacted and responded with a smile.

"Of course!"