Off Air ~Yes, No, Or Maybe Half?~ Chapter 5 Part2

Part 2: Imitation Gold

Translator Note: This side story takes place around the end of Volume 2.

Nishikido headed to the lounge area for news cameramen and checked the memo from the camera desk. There were two camera crews covering an emergency bomb squad response. The bomb squad would finish their work rendering safe an explosive device that day, but one of the crews would remain on site for continuing news coverage. People could take a taxi over if there was no room in the news van. A location was chosen for tomorrow night's interview about an expiration date scandal with K Seafoods, and a crew would head over to Araki at 1 pm for an overnight stay… As for his own schedule, Nishikido was a.s.signed to cover an incident for the daytime news. Someone had strung fishing line between some trees at a park, and an elderly man had come across it on his bicycle in the early morning, fell, and hurt himself. The reporter would be… Minagawa from the announcer department. s.h.i.t, it was that loud, annoying brat, wasn't he? They would be teaming up for the first time, and Nishikido wasn't looking forward to it. It was gonna be a real pain in the a.s.s, he could tell.

Just as Nishikido started to head to the smoking room for a cigarette, he ran into Kunieda walking towards him in the hallway.

"Nishikido-san, good morning."

"Hey."

Kunieda held up a paper gift bag. "Um, I received a box of sweets from Narayamkun from Nagano Asahi as a thank-you for the live report that we did together. I was thinking of bringing them to the camera desk."

"You can leave them on a table somewhere. People will help themselves to it."

"I will do that. It seems that he is able to do his TV job normally now."

"Heh. Well, it doesn't change that he's still useless."

"He has his whole career in front of him."

Kunieda gently covered for him, but who knew what he actually thought. There was too much of a difference between the two of them even after accounting for their ages—Narayama could never compare to him no matter how hard he tried or how many chances he was given. Anyway, there was no rule saying he couldn't do his job if he wasn't spectacular at it. Nishikido had seen plenty of lackl.u.s.ter announcers over the course of his career, and Narayama was another drop in the bucket.

"Hey, what's that Minagawa kid like, Kunieda?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"Gonna cover a live report with him today. He's on The News with you, right?"

"…I believe it would be better to see for yourself rather than asking me. You'll understand in about 30 seconds once you meet him," Kunieda replied with a vague smile. He wasn't the type to put on airs, so why was he dancing around the question?

Nishikido was smoking a cigarette in the smoking room when the door opened and he saw a face that would never usually show itself in this place.

"Nishikido-san, long time no see."

There were 3 or 4 other people smoking in the room, but when they saw Asou, they immediately put out their cigarettes and excused themselves. Asou hadn't said a word to them, but it was ridiculous to yield their right to smoke in the few places where it was allowed. Nishikido blew a puff of smoke at him, clearly declaring that he didn't give a d.a.m.n about the guy's throat.

"What do you want?"

"It looked like Kunieda was in your care in Nagano, and I wanted to say thank you very much."

"What the h.e.l.l are you saying when you were obviously toying with the kid?"

"If he had folded at that little objection, then the smart thing to do would be to call off the report. The public airwaves aren't for after-school playtime."

"Heh." Nishikido lit up another cigarette.

"Besides, I got to see Kunieda push back for the first time since he's been here. That honors student who completes all his a.s.signments with nothing short of 's. It was all worth it."

"And I hate how you look down at everyone like they're p.a.w.ns for your own amus.e.m.e.nt," Nishikido spat out along with a lungful of smoke. "You and s.h.i.tara both—you trying to crush him until he flames out from all the work you pushed on him? His workload's been crazy. You think you're giving him an endurance test or something?"

"Now this is a rare sight," Asou laughed, not afraid in the least. "I could never imagine you caring enough to step in for one of our youngsters here."

"It's not like that. I could say the same for you. You go around like no announcers are worth a d.a.m.n except you, but here you are playing mentor. So you finally feel like shaping a successor for yourself, huh?"

"Why do you think it's even necessary to have a successor for me?"

Nishikido could see a shimmer of heat rising off of Asou's shoulders, but the temperature in the narrow, closed room plummeted between them. Well, maybe both things were just him imagining things. In any case, he realized all over again how he hated the guy.

"Probably 'cause there's only one genius in a generation," Nishikido answered.

"I've never thought of it like that. Talent is largely unfair, bestowed by chance on people who never wanted it in the first place."

"Oh, really."

"Just like it did for you."

Nishikido's eyes widened at the surprising response to his halfhearted reply. "The h.e.l.l?"

"You might think of yourself as a dried-up cameraman who can only get work in the news, but what you think is far from the truth. To put it very simply, your camera skills are so far beyond genius that nothing else compares. Now matter how mundane a subject is, once you train your camera on it, you transform it into something special, Nishikido-san."

"You're creeping me out."

"Speaking of which, I clearly remember said person rejecting all the prizes he was awarded, saying that he didn't want any of that 'c.r.a.p' in his words and skipping out on the award ceremonies…"

"Shut the h.e.l.l up!"

Nishikido supported himself and his family on other people's misfortunes, and it didn't sit well with him to get showered with praise for sticking his nose into those misfortunes. However, he didn't feel the need to disclose any of those mushy details to this d.a.m.n b.a.s.t.a.r.d. Irritated, he raised his voice so loud that he scared a number of staff people who were walking by beyond the gla.s.s door. But Asou just gave a cool and calm "Sorry for bothering you on your break" and turned around to leave.

"Um, Asou-san, are you all right? What just happened…?"

"It's fine, it's nothing."

Great, now there'll be rumors going around saying that I threatened the treasure of Asahi TV. Heh.

Kunieda was spot on with his words when he said he'd understand in about 30 seconds.

"Nishikido-san, were you really with a foreign mercenary force?"

Were there really idiots who would ask a question like this after introducing himself? Nishikido ignored him and climbed into the news van.

"Is it true that you have 7 bullet hole wounds in your chest?"

Ignore.

"Do you really have the names of all your fallen comrades tattooed all over your body?"

Ignore.

"Do you really know a hundred different ways to kill someone with your bare hands?"

"Shut the h.e.l.l up, will you!? I don't even know 10!"

"Awww, man, but I wanted you to teach me all 100 of them." Minagawa looked sincerely disappointed.

"Who the h.e.l.l's spreading this stupid s.h.i.t!?"

"Huh? I feel like everyone's saying it at the network."

"You're the only one who ridiculous enough to ask the guy to his face…" the director mumbled from the front pa.s.senger seat. What the h.e.l.l was the announcer department teaching their staff?

"Hey, I gotta get to the bottom of things. I'm part of the news department too, you know?"

"Hey, brat, yammer all you want, but you better have all the materials for today's report in your head. I'm gonna deck you if you drag your feet at the site."

"Oh, didn't I just give my name? It's Minagawa, remember~?"

Nishikido ignored him, crossed his arms, and hardened his eyes. He didn't know why, but apparently it made his face was so stern-looking that most people were too scared to talk to him any longer.

"Nishikido-san, are you listening? h.e.l.lo, I'm Minagawa Tatsuki."

…But there were exceptions sometimes.

"Good evening, I'm Takigawa Christel. Good evening, I'm Kouda Charmine."1

That's a pretty old name. How does he know of her?

"Hi, I'm Goku!"