Chapter 535

Fuji TV President Kameyama Chihiro and FNS Production Bureau Director Abiru Kazuhiko gathered around the document bag sent from the Izu Peninsula, marked top secret.

Inside lay multiple photos edited from on-site recordings, along with the original raw footage from that time.

An extremely brief but clear shot captured, beside host Tei Reiji, the appearance of deceased anchor Hironaka Mariko, her expression as she guided Tei Reiji — her stern look and familiar bearing identical to the station's archival footage.

Kameyama Chihiro recognized Hironaka Mariko almost instantly!

It's her! It's her! Absolutely her!

He couldn't possibly be mistaken!

And Abiru Kazuhiko also saw the scene in the footage.

The wide-angle lens in the old villa's corridor captured a figure with a watermelon-head hairstyle flashing past while making a funny face; its silhouette and signature movements were exactly the same as Miyahara Toru when he was alive.

This guy who died in the Odaiba Building — is he still haunting us like this?

Damn it, is our Odaiba Building some kind of passage between this world and the next?

How many times has it been haunted now?

After that, they saw the subsequent footage and separated audio: the bizarre figure from Village Flower Palace emitting a sound absolutely impossible for human vocal cords; the shots of Hironaka Mariko and Miyahara Toru; and the Disney Snow Woman Legend reappearing among the applauding crowd during Uesugi Muneyuki's comedy routine.

"Ghost ghost ghost ghost ghost~ There really are ghosts?" Kameyama the President finally grew afraid: "Hirai wasn't making it up? I thought it was just a show effect!"

"I thought so too... This Hironaka, this Miyahara... Our station never did anything wrong by them, did we? When will it end? They're trying to..."

Are they really dead?

Are they trying to destroy Fuji TV? Destroy Hand of God?

With this kind of stuff recorded, how can the program go on? The tapes will be completely sealed away; such a high budget, such a precious time slot... all our efforts up to now will be completely wasted, and if this episode of Hand of God dares to air a blank, the complaint letters our station receives will come packed in wooden crates!

Holy crap!

But immediately after, the two men locked eyes, each seeing in the other's eyes a wild joy bursting forth after the disbelief!

"Hmm?" Abiru Kazuhiko tentatively stretched his neck forward.

"Aha!" Kameyama Chihiro nodded firmly.

"Oh ho?" Bureau Chief Abiru probed further.

"Hey hey~" President Kameyama affirmed further.

"This... this is..." Abiru Kazuhiko's voice trembled with excitement.

"Real! It's actually real!!" Kameyama Chihiro slammed the table, so excited he nearly jumped out of his chair; he braced his hands on the desk surface, leaned his body forward, eyes flashing with the light of someone who'd struck a gold mine, "Not special effects! Not acting! It's the real thing (genuine article)!!"

"President! This is... an unprecedented exclusive bombshell! National Actress, Tokyo University genius scholar, deceased celebrity ghosts appearing... every element is there!" Abiru was so excited his speech became incoherent, even slamming his own thigh hard; the two men nearly hugged each other and rolled on the floor celebrating like manga characters.

The two middle-aged old men even kissed each other hard on the mouth.

All fear, all worry, vanished in an instant before the temptation of absolute ratings. They realized this was not a disaster at all, but rather a heaven-sent opportunity for Fuji TV to crush all competitors and create a ratings myth!

Suppress it? Seal the tapes?

Suppress my ass! Seal my balls!

"Suppress it? No! We'll air it! Air it with massive promotion!" President Kameyama made the decision instantly, his face glowing with a gambler's flush, "Immediately form a Special Project Team! Integrate all materials — yes, everything filmed, everything heard, all of it! Edit it into... a three-hour special!"

"The title will be... 'Hand of God - Izu Scream: Real Captured Supernatural Moments!'" Abiru immediately added, his professional instinct instantly devising the marketing strategy: "We'll blur the focus, not directly admit it, but use all the 'evidence' to guide the audience to discover and discuss it themselves!"

"Right, right, right! Uesugi and Bai Chuan were already the biggest ratings draws! Now with Hironaka and Miyahara lending their names, Snow Maiden cameo, plus Miyawaki and Hirate's effects, this is simply, simply even more intense than that night at Odaiba!" President Kameyama jumped around the office like a rabbit in wild joy, spreading his arms, praising the sun!

Hironaka! It's been three years, are you still protecting Fuji TV?

Miyahara! Fuji TV thanks you for your contribution!

Uesugi Muneyuki, you're simply this station's designated God of Fortune! You're my, Kameyama Chihiro's, real dad!

"Hahahahaha!"

"Hahahahaha ah hahahahahahaha!"

In the evening sun, the two men in the president's office embraced tightly.

This year's NHK Red and White Song Festival ratings championship is in danger again!

Sure enough, a proposal personally drafted and personally deployed by President Kameyama was immediately issued.

Fuji TV mobilized all promotional channels, blanketing the airwaves with trailers. The trailers deliberately excerpted the most eerie footage and most terrifying audio clips, stamped with sensational slogans like "Full Real Recording," "Inexplicable Moments," "Entertainment World's Forbidden Ghosts."

Soon, Bai Chuan Mai and Uesugi Muneyuki's fame, the event's own mystery, plus this heavyweight bomb of "deceased celebrity ghosts reappearing," instantly detonated the whole society's curiosity.

Related topics online exploded in heat; everyone wanted to know what exactly happened that night.

Meanwhile, NHK headquarters, the executive meeting was filled with low pressure.

Originally the Gunshi Kanbei incident had already dealt NHK a huge blow, and now this happens?

"Shameless! These profit-obsessed guys at Fuji TV! What are they playing at?! Broadcasting real supernatural phenomena as an entertainment program?! Do they have any social conscience left!" An NHK Director flushed red with anger.

"This is a grave disrespect to the deceased! A trampling of broadcast ethics!" Another executive chimed in, smoke practically rising from his head: "This isn't the first time! Our Red and White Song Festival, meticulously prepared for half a year, promoting orthodox culture, yet loses again and again to this... this kind of hocus-pocus superstition! Outrageous!"

"The year before last too, last year too, this year... Ritual Phrase! Is Red and White in danger again?"

"Fuji TV is simply the shame of us broadcasters!"

"Doing this, subscription fees will drop again! Heard some manufacturers have already started producing TVs that specifically block our station's signal!"

"Fuji TV's ratings and ad revenue skyrocketing every quarter? Once Fuji TV's planned Hand of God adaptation of Uesugi's detective drama airs, are they trying to unify Japanese entertainment?"

NHK internally cursed Fuji TV as shameless, bottomless.

"Enough! You gentlemen cry from day to night, night to day — can you scold Kameyama to death? Can you scold up ratings?!" Finally the NHK Chairman jumped up and roared: "No end to this, huh? Fuji TV has that Tei Reiji to designate Uesugi — don't we NHK have anyone?"

"Hurry up and pick people! Pick people!!!"

NHK and the four major TV stations all spent that night in such chaotic uproar.

TV Tokyo: "Tourist Secret Realm Resident Big Surprise! Inside the Treehouse Homestay Hosting 3000 People a Year Turns Out Like This?"

……………………

At the same time, Tokyo, Shinagawa Ward, a certain abandoned factory.

The air was thick with the pungent mix of iron rust, aged machine oil, and damp concrete. The only light came from a few temporarily wired incandescent lamps, their yellow glow swaying uneasily in the howling through-draft, stretching and twisting the young figures gathered around the shabby workbench, casting them on the graffiti-covered walls like restless ghosts.

A boy whose face still retained the outline of youth at twenty sat before a laptop typing, yet his eyes burned with a flame unfitting his age, mingled with despair and fanaticism.

Behind the laptop lay a spread-out map of Shibuya Ward; the boy braced his hands on the desk edge, his joints white from the force of his grip. He was plain-looking, even somewhat handsome, only the cold gaze in his eyes adding a touch of ruthlessness to his young face.

His gaze pinned dead on the spot on the map viciously circled in red pen — the high-end members-only bar "Tsukikami".

"Correct, it's right here, Akimoto Shota often receives entertainment here, highly suspected N Network hideout." — "Hijikata Toshizō"

"The enemy are many, security is tight." — "Saito Hajime"

"Our current strength cannot get inside." — "Itō Kashitarō"

"Akimoto Shota's bodyguards will escort him into that black Maybach." — "Kondō Isami"

"Getting in or out of the car may be our only chance, but... currently no opening has been found." — "Matsudaira Yoshiyuki"

In the encrypted dark web, a group using historical figure codenames was communicating.

"No need to worry, this time we have the support of 'That Esteemed One', he will surely find a way."

The boy typed at the computer, and his online handle was "Okita Sōji".

"'That Esteemed One'? 'Indeed it's That Esteemed One?' 'With That Esteemed One's support there's no need to worry!' 'The Imperial Palace matter was also single-handedly arranged by That Esteemed One, if not for the Special Mission Unit's interference it would certainly have succeeded!'"

Indeed, at the mention of That Esteemed One, all the various codenames grew excited.

"Yes, That Esteemed One, always stands on our side, now, contact terminated, everyone be careful to stay hidden and send codenames regularly, if even one person is absent, immediately go collectively silent!" The boy continued typing: "Restoration Army! Banzai! For the country's future!"

"Restoration Army! Banzai! For the country's future!"

"Restoration Army! Banzai! For the country's future!"

"Restoration Army! Banzai! For the country's future!"

After a string of +1s, the entire channel cut off.

The boy closed the laptop, looked up at the Tokyo summer night sky that might rain, the corner of his mouth hooking a cold arc.

That Esteemed One, is an existence even Uesugi Muneyuki cannot deal with!

(Chapter End)