Ida Akhiro was currently the manager of the ZAGE Store Manabu Branch. However, he was not merely an ordinary store manager. Within ZAGE, he was also one of the higher-ranking people in the marketing division, serving under Shinsuke Yamaguchi, one of ZAGE's most trusted executives.
By now, Ida was already in his late thirties. He had worked at ZAGE since 1991, making him one of the company's earliest employees. He had seen ZAGE when it was still small, fragile, and uncertain. He had seen the company before the world knew its name, before the massive stores, before the giant headquarters, before the industry-shaking launches, and before people began treating ZAGE like an unstoppable monster.
Back then, ZAGE was just a young company with a strange dream.
And at the center of that dream was Zaboru Renkonan, a teenager.
In 1991, when Ida first joined ZAGE, he was not completely sure if staying there was the right choice. The company was still tiny, its future was unclear, and its boss was a seventeen-year-old boy. To most people, that alone was a terrifying warning sign. A teenager as a company leader sounded like a joke, or worse, a disaster waiting to happen.
But Ida did not see it that way.
Unlike many others, Ida did not look at Zaboru and think, "This is risky because he is young."
Instead, he thought, "This is impressive because he is already doing what most grown men never even dare to attempt."
At seventeen years old, Zaboru had already built a game company. He was already hiring employees, negotiating, planning products, speaking with developers, and carrying himself with the confidence of someone who seemed to be looking ten years ahead of everyone else. Ida found that strange. Not childish strange, but terrifyingly promising strange.
That was why, when the first major crisis came, Ida's decision became clear.
At that time, many ZAGE employees were approached by Sonaya.
Sonaya was still new to the video game industry, but the company itself was already a worldwide corporation. It had money, influence, name value, offices, connections, and the kind of corporate stability that ZAGE could not even pretend to have in 1991.
Their offer was almost ridiculous.
Three times the raw salary.
Better benefits.
A more stable career path.
A company name that could impress families, relatives, and future employers.
For many of ZAGE's early employees, it was not even a difficult decision. Some of Ida's own friends accepted immediately. They looked at ZAGE and saw a small company led by a teenager. Then they looked at Sonaya and saw status, money, and safety.
Ida understood them.
He really did.
If he were a normal person, maybe he would have accepted too.
But Ida Akhiro was a slightly weird man.
He had a habit of seeing things from the side. He did not always look directly at what everyone else was looking at. While others saw Sonaya's money, Ida saw something else. He saw that Sonaya needed to steal employees from ZAGE. He saw that ZAGE, despite being small, was already being watched by giants. He saw that a seventeen-year-old boy had somehow made a worldwide company nervous enough to interfere.
To Ida, that was not a sign of weakness.
That was proof of potential.
So when Sonaya's recruiter gave him the offer, Ida listened politely. He nodded, looked at the documents, and understood very clearly that the offer could change his life.
Then he simply said, "Not interested. ZAGE will become big anyway."
That sentence eventually reached Shinsuke Yamaguchi.
From that moment on, Shinsuke remembered him.
And slowly, Ida became close to him.
As ZAGE rose, Ida's faith was rewarded far beyond what even he had expected. His salary improved. His benefits improved. His work-life balance became better. His role became more important. He was given opportunities, trust, and responsibilities. He even met the woman who would become his wife while working at ZAGE.
She was his coworker.
Their relationship started quietly, then naturally became something deeper. When they finally married, ZAGE gave them one week of honeymoon vacation, fully supported by the company. At the time, that was almost insane. For Ida, it was not only a benefit. It was proof that ZAGE was not the same as other companies.
ZAGE was strange.
But in a good way.
And because ZAGE had treated him well, Ida became deeply loyal to it.
Recently, Ida had been assigned as the manager of the Manabu Branch while still handling several marketing-related responsibilities. It was unusual for someone of his position to manage a normal-sized store branch, but Ida had accepted it happily. In fact, he liked it. Working in headquarters was important, but working in a store allowed him to see the customers directly. He could see children laughing, parents hesitating, teenagers arguing over games, and families creating memories around something ZAGE had built.
That gave him a different kind of satisfaction.
Ida especially loved helping people.
Sometimes, when he saw a family that clearly could not afford a console, he would create what he jokingly called a "bullshit lottery." He would suddenly announce that the family had become the lucky winner of a store event, give them a console and games, then quietly pay for everything using his own money later so the branch's numbers would not be affected.
It was not company policy.
It was not a marketing campaign.
It was just Ida being Ida.
He knew very well that he could not save everyone. He knew he could not give consoles to every struggling family. But when someone was right in front of him, when a child was trying to smile while hiding disappointment, when a parent looked like they were blaming themselves for being unable to buy happiness for their own child, Ida found it very difficult to do nothing.
After all, he understood poverty.
He understood the kind of childhood where wanting something too loudly felt selfish.
So today, when he saw Yuta and his parents, Ida acted almost without thinking.
He created another "special lottery."
He gave the boy a ZEPS 3 and ten games.
And as always, he was planning to pay for it later.
Meanwhile, Zaboru had seen everything.
He knew exactly who Ida Akhiro was.
At first, Zaboru only watched from a distance, still wearing his plain disguise. But after the family left the store, he slowly approached the counter where Ida was standing.
"Excuse me," Zaboru said in a calm voice. "Are you the manager?"
Ida turned toward him with a polite smile. "Yes, I am. Is there something I can help you with, sir?"
Zaboru looked around briefly, making sure no customers were paying too much attention. Then he gave a small chuckle, lifted one finger to his lips, and whispered, "Sshh."
Ida blinked.
Then Zaboru quietly removed his glasses and adjusted the wig slightly, revealing just enough of his face.
Ida's smile froze.
His entire body went stiff.
For a second, he looked as if his soul had left his body.
"B-Boss…?"
Zaboru smiled casually. "I want to talk to the manager."
Ida's face immediately turned pale.
Zaboru Renkonan was in his store.
Not in headquarters.
Not in a meeting room.
Not during an official inspection.
He was standing in the Manabu Branch, wearing a disguise, after personally watching Ida create a fake lottery using his own money.
Ida quickly looked left and right, then lowered his voice in panic. "Please come this way."
He guided Zaboru toward the manager's office with the speed of a man escorting a bomb before anyone noticed it was ticking.
Once they entered the small office, Ida closed the door carefully. The room was modest, with a desk, a few documents, a shelf of marketing materials, and several store performance reports stacked neatly near the wall. Compared to Zaboru's usual office, it was almost laughably ordinary.
Ida scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "Umm… boss, why are you here?"
Zaboru sat down casually and leaned back. "I just wanted to see what this branch was doing."
Ida blinked. "This branch?"
"Yeah," Zaboru said. "This isn't one of the big ZAGE Stores, right? It's not a flagship branch. It's not a major event location. It's just a normal neighborhood store. That's why I got curious. Sometimes, normal branches show the real face of the company better than the big ones."
Ida did not know how to respond immediately.
Zaboru smiled faintly. "Though I didn't expect to find you giving away consoles from your own pocket."
Ida's expression became complicated.
He sighed and sat down across from Zaboru. "So you saw that."
"I saw everything."
"Ah…" Ida rubbed his face. "Well, I can explain."
"You don't look like someone who did something bad."
"I don't think it's bad," Ida said honestly. "But I also know it's not exactly proper procedure."
Zaboru chuckled. "That's one way to say it."
Ida leaned back and looked up at the ceiling for a moment. His usual cheerful expression softened. "I just wanted to help them. That's all. I saw the kid's face. I saw the father's face too. It reminded me of things."
Zaboru did not interrupt him.
Ida continued, "Back when I was a kid, it was hard to be happy, boss. Not because I didn't want to be happy, but because happiness always had a price. Toys had a price. Snacks had a price. School trips had a price. Even asking for something had a price because you could see your parents' faces change when they couldn't afford it."
His voice became quieter.
"When you grow up like that, you learn to say, 'I don't need it,' even when you really want it."
Zaboru's eyes lowered slightly.
Ida gave a small smile. "That boy did the same thing earlier. He wanted the console so badly, but the moment he noticed his parents feeling bad, he pretended he was fine. Kids like that… they notice more than adults think."
For a moment, the office became quiet.
Zaboru slowly nodded. "You're a kind person, Ida."
Ida laughed awkwardly. "I don't know about that."
"You are," Zaboru said firmly. "And you seem to love ZAGE a lot."
Ida looked at him.
Zaboru smiled. "I still remember what you said to Sonaya back then."
Ida's eyes widened slightly, then he grinned. "Ah, that story reached you too?"
"Of course it did."
Ida scratched his cheek, looking a little embarrassed but also proud. "I'm just good at predicting things, boss! Hahaha!"
Zaboru chuckled. "You rejected three times the salary with just that?"
"Well, it was tempting," Ida admitted. "I'm not going to lie. Three times the salary was insane back then. Some of my friends thought I was stupid. Maybe I was stupid."
"Were you?"
Ida grinned wider. "Nope. I was right."
Zaboru laughed.
Ida continued, "I just thought… if a seventeen-year-old kid could already build something that made Sonaya nervous, then maybe that kid wasn't just a kid. Maybe he was the beginning of something huge."
Zaboru looked at him with a quieter expression.
For someone like Zaboru, who was always thinking years ahead, it was rare to hear how others had seen him in those early days. He remembered being underestimated. He remembered being treated like a strange child playing businessman. But he also remembered people like Ida, people who chose to believe before there was enough proof.
Those people mattered.
More than they probably realized.
Zaboru lowered his head slightly. "Thank you for believing in ZAGE back then."
Ida's expression softened. "Boss…"
"And thank you for making that kid's day today," Zaboru continued. "Honestly, seeing that family hurt a little."
Ida did not laugh this time.
Zaboru looked at the desk. "I know I did what I could. We sold ZEPS 3 on the cheaper side. We pushed the price down as much as possible. But even then, it's still too expensive for some families."
Ida nodded slowly. "That's true."
"I hate that," Zaboru admitted.
Ida looked at him carefully.
Zaboru continued, "Games are supposed to make people happy. Consoles are supposed to bring people together. But no matter how hard we try, there are always families who can only look from the outside. I know it's impossible to solve everything, but still…"
He stopped there.
Ida folded his arms and gave a small sigh. "Boss, there's nothing you can do about everything."
Zaboru looked at him.
"I'm serious," Ida said. "You already made the console cheaper than what most companies would dare to do. You gave developers good royalty systems. You gave employees good pay. You built stores that actually feel welcoming. But poverty? Family struggles? Salary problems? That's outside your scope."
Zaboru stayed silent.
Ida smiled slightly. "We can't carry the whole world, boss. If we try, we'll break our own back."
Ida laugh "It is advice from an old man," Ida said proudly. "Please respect it."
Zaboru laughed.
Ida chuckled too, then continued, "We just do what we can when we can. That's all. You do it your way. I do it my way. Maybe some kid somewhere gets one happy memory because of that. Isn't that enough for one day?"
Zaboru leaned back and looked at Ida for a few seconds.
Then he smiled.
"Yeah," Zaboru said. "Maybe that is enough for one day."
Ida grinned. "See? This old man is useful."
"You're not that old."
"I'm in my late thirties, boss. To kids, I'm ancient."
"To me, you're still young."
"That's because you have the eyes of a demon who thinks ten years is next week."
Zaboru burst out laughing.
The tension in the room finally disappeared.
After that, the two of them talked for a little while. Zaboru asked about the Manabu Branch, customer behavior, game sales, merchandise preferences, and how normal families reacted to the current ZEPS 3 price. Ida answered honestly, sometimes seriously, sometimes with jokes, and sometimes with surprisingly sharp marketing insight.
The more Zaboru listened, the more he understood why Shinsuke trusted Ida.
Ida was not just kind.
He was observant.
He understood people.
Not only customers as numbers, but customers as families, children, workers, students, and dreamers.
That kind of person was rare.
Before leaving, Zaboru stood near the office door and looked back at him.
"Ida."
"Yes, boss?"
"Keep doing what you're doing," Zaboru said. "But next time, report it properly if you want to create a branch lottery. Don't pay for everything alone."
Ida blinked. "Eh?"
Zaboru smiled. "ZAGE can afford a little kindness."
Ida stared at him for a moment.
Then his grin slowly returned.
"Yes, boss."
Zaboru put his disguise back on before stepping out of the manager's office. Once again, he became an ordinary-looking customer. No one in the store noticed him. Children still argued near the shelves. Employees still helped customers. The trial booth still echoed with button clicks and laughter.
Zaboru glanced around one last time.
The Manabu Branch was not a flagship store.
It was not glamorous.
It was not famous.
But today, it showed him something important.
A company did not become great only because of its products, its technology, or its sales numbers. It became great because of the people inside it. People like Ida. People who quietly protected the warmth of the brand without needing applause.
Zaboru left the store with a small smile.
Meanwhile, at another place, far from the warmth of the Manabu Branch, Zanki was meeting with Hikaru Kurata.
To be continued.
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