I’ll Take On The Modern World—And Dominate It—Relying On No One But Myself.

Entrepreneurship.

“What is it?”

“I want to start a company—and I want you to be its representative.”

“What!?”

“By the way, you can keep your current job. Delta Five allows side gigs, right?”

“Yeah, that’s fine.”

“Actually… I’ve been thinking about quitting my job.”

“Why?”

“As Hiiragi Shouta, I didn’t really have many options. It was the employment ice age, after all.”

That era was known as the “Employment Ice Age.”
Following the burst of the economic bubble, the job market had become brutally competitive.

On top of that, Axis Staff—the company Hiiragi worked at—had a strict no-side-jobs policy. Had that rule not existed, he might have stayed with the company longer.

“And… I’ve realized I’m just not cut out to be a salaryman.”

It seemed Hiiragi had given up on the corporate life entirely.

“Wait—I quit my job in the future!?”

Kagetaka was stunned by the unexpected spoiler.

“I won’t say it outright, but when I was you—when I was Isurugi Kagetaka—I quit and started my own company.”

“Even if you tell me now, that future probably won’t match mine exactly, right…?”

“True. Sorry about that… for changing your life.”

“Nah, this path sounds a lot more exciting.”

“Glad to hear you say that.”

“But why does it have to be me who starts the company? Can’t you do it?”

“As I said earlier, I want to stay out of the spotlight as much as possible in this life as Hiiragi Shouta. Family’s one thing, but if someone who knows me as Shouta finds out, things could get… complicated.”

“Yeah, that makes sense.”

“I’ve already run into someone who might’ve been a classmate from middle school.”

“No way.”

“I was lucky someone helped me out at the time, but I’m not eager for a repeat of that.”

“Starting a company is fine, but I don’t know the first thing about it.”

“I know that. I’ll handle all the paperwork—just help out with the things I legally can’t do through a proxy.”

“Alright.”

“Also… and this is the tough part… I need you to put up the initial capital. I’ll invest as well, but if I contribute more than Isurugi, then I’ll effectively control the company…”

Hiiragi told Kagetaka the amount they would need.

“Whoa, that’s more than I expected…”

“Yeah, just a bit longer and the Companies Act will be revised—you’ll be able to incorporate with as little as one yen.”

Both Kagetaka and Hiiragi weren’t big spenders, so they had a decent amount of savings.

“I did consider asking someone else to invest, but decided against it. Know why?”

“No idea.”

“Corporations are required to hold shareholder meetings. If someone else invests, they gain a say in the business.”

“Ahh… yeah, that could be problematic. There are things we can only talk about between us.”

“Exactly.”

When the Companies Act was later revised to allow LLCs (Limited Liability Companies), shareholder meetings were no longer required. Hiiragi hadn’t told Kagetaka this—he was too impatient to wait for the revision.

“One more thing… we’ll need to decide something important before registering the company.”

“Hmm? Oh—I know! The company name!”

“Right. It’s your company on paper, so you can decide.”

“That’s kind of sudden…”

Kagetaka paused to think.

“You know how some companies are named after both founders? Like Procter & Gamble or Hewlett-Packard…”

“Don’t put my name in it.”

“I get it. But maybe just a single character wouldn’t hurt?”

Kagetaka began jotting down names on the back of a flyer.

IshiHiiragi, KageShou, DouHiiragi, KageDou…

Outside the window, dawn had broken. Without realizing it, they’d pulled an all-nighter.

“What a day… I never imagined this when I was eating that simmered root stew.”