Chapter 56: Nohara Classroom Established!
However, while some people were still in secret rooms, painting a false future for a wedding dress that didn’t belong to them, the new week’s sun in Tokyo had already spread a golden carpet.
Tokyo Television Station Production Bureau Headquarters Building.
The nameplate for Suzuki’s classroom was quietly removed overnight.
In its place was a brand new metal nameplate—【 Hiroshi Nohara, Special Production Team 】.
This nameplate was like a newly awarded medal.
Silently yet unmistakably, it announced the arrival of a new era to the entire building.
Many passing staff members of the Production Bureau cast glances.
Each of them wore an expression of amazement.
After all, for an intern at the Tokyo Television Station Production Bureau who had been there for less than two months to be directly promoted to Fourth-Class Director was unprecedented in the history of the Tokyo Television Station Production Bureau.
But then again, considering the extraordinary ratings of “Urban Legends” produced by Hiroshi Nohara, from its first season to its second.
It was enough to prove his prowess.
Therefore, all those present, even those just passing by, showed respect in their eyes when facing the classroom that had been renamed after Hiroshi Nohara.
Simply for his innovative creation of the ‘Urban Legends genre’, it was enough to leave a significant mark in animation history.
This is genius!
…
However, at this moment, Hiroshi Nohara, along with Hoshi Minamimura, Roji Hase, and Yō Kitagawa, who joined his classroom,
and Ichiro Hashishita, who was reportedly going to another classroom.
were all gathered on the Shinkansen platform.
“Section Chief Suzuki… no, I should call you Director Suzuki now.”
Ichiro Hashishita stood on the platform, looking at Kiyoto Suzuki, who was about to board the Shinkansen to Kanto Television Station. Suzuki’s face, always etched with composure and weariness, now bore a complex emotion.
Regardless of his choices, and despite any jealousy he might have felt, Ichiro Hashishita still held great respect for Kiyoto Suzuki.
Therefore, he decided that before the matter was revealed,
he would personally see Suzuki Kiyoto off.
“It’s all just a name,” Kiyoto Suzuki smiled. He patted Ichiro Hashishita’s shoulder, then looked at the young people behind him, whose eyes were a bit red.
His gaze finally settled on Hiroshi Nohara, who had been standing quietly the entire time.
“From now on, this place will be left to you.”
He paused, and for the first time, his always-cloudy eyes revealed a sense of expectation and gratification befitting an elder: “Nohara-kun, do your best. Don’t let those guys who look down on our ‘Kanto Faction’ underestimate us!”
“Yes!” Hiroshi Nohara bowed slightly, his voice calm yet carrying an irrefutable power.
Everything was understood without words.
Kiyoto Suzuki offered a few more words of encouragement to everyone present.
The train whistled.
The Shinkansen slowly pulled away from the platform.
That receding figure took with it an era belonging to Kiyoto Suzuki, but it also completely raised the curtain on a legend named Hiroshi Nohara.
…
Then everyone returned to the newly renovated office.
“Section Chief Nohara!”
Hoshi Minamimura held back for a long time, but finally couldn’t resist, and with a tone of probing, excitement, and teasing, he called out the title.
“Pfft.” Yō Kitagawa next to him couldn’t help but laugh, her bright eyes curving into two beautiful crescent moons: “Hoshi Minamimura, you scoundrel! Why are you calling Section Chief Nohara so hesitantly! Can’t you be more straightforward?”
Roji Hase also joined in the teasing: “That’s right, that’s right! Section Chief Nohara! Please take good care of us in the future!”
“Section Chief?”
Hiroshi Nohara smiled upon hearing this.
He leaned back in his brand new office chair, and in his mind, incongruously, appeared an image from another world—
A middle-aged man in the Futaba Trading Company, desperately worried about monthly performance, sighing over a thirty-two-year mortgage, getting drunk to entertain clients, and then being chased and beaten by his wife when he returned home.
That man, it seemed… was also named Hiroshi Nohara.
His final position, it seemed… was also Section Chief of the sales department.
“Fate is truly interesting.”
Hiroshi Nohara chuckled inwardly.
But looking at the familiar young faces before him, he gently waved his hand, a look of youthful ease on his face: “If there are outsiders, call me that. If not, just call me Hiroshi, it sounds more friendly.”
His lighthearted and humorous words instantly dissolved the subtle distance that had arisen from the change in position.
Of course, everyone knew.
Hiroshi Nohara could say such things.
But.
They, as his subordinates, absolutely could not.
However, Hiroshi Nohara was, after all, a soul who had come from Huaxia in his previous life and did not have such a strong sense of class in essence.
At least, his concept of hierarchy was not as strong as that of traditional Japanese people.
Everyone felt at ease talking.
However, amidst this joyful atmosphere, the brand-new desk phone on Hiroshi Nohara’s desk, symbolizing his new identity, suddenly rang shrilly.
However, amidst this cheerful atmosphere, the new desk phone on Hiroshi Nohara’s desk, symbolizing his new identity, suddenly rang shrilly.
“Ring ring—”
Hiroshi Nohara raised an eyebrow and answered the call: “Hello, this is the Hiroshi Production Team.”
“Hiroshi… Hiroshi-kun?” From the other end of the phone came a familiar, slightly soft and shy female voice.
It was Misae.
The corners of Hiroshi Nohara’s mouth curved upwards unconsciously, and his voice instantly became much gentler: “It’s me, Misae. What’s wrong? Missing me?”
“N-no way!” Misae’s voice on the other end immediately rose, like a startled kitten, with a touch of cute exasperation: “I… I have something important to tell you!”
“Oh? What important matter?” Hiroshi Nohara thought of Misae’s frantic writhing a few days ago and instinctively pursed his lips.
“Well… it’s just…” Misae’s voice lowered again, with the hesitation and unease of a little girl reporting something to her parents: “My parents… they… they said that this weekend, they and some relatives are coming to Tokyo for a trip, and to see me…”
Hiroshi Nohara was slightly taken aback.
His father-in-law and mother-in-law were coming?
Hiss hiss hiss!
Hiroshi Nohara took a sharp intake of breath.
This was much more troublesome than dealing with a cunning old fox like Toshihide Takada—relatively speaking, of course.
“And then?” He asked knowingly, with a hint of teasing in his tone.
“And then…” Misae’s voice on the other end fell silent for a long time, so long that Hiroshi Nohara could almost imagine her face blushing to the point of bleeding and her small hands twisting together out of nervousness.
Finally, in a voice as faint as a mosquito’s, almost inaudible, she mustered her courage and said: “And then… they said… they want… want to meet you…”
“Meet me?” Hiroshi Nohara feigned surprise. “Meet me for what? Could it be that the agricultural cooperative in Kumamoto Prefecture has finally discovered my hidden amazing farming talent and wants to hire me as a technical consultant?”
“Oh, Hiroshi-kun! You’re so mean!”
Misae was finally angered by his flippancy and let out a charmingly coquettish complaint over the phone: “Are you coming or not! I… I told them you are my… my boyfriend, my… fiancé!”
By the end, her voice was on the verge of tears, a complex mix of pride and grievance.
Especially with Hiroshi Nohara’s recent great success.
Misae Nohara’s heart was trembling.
“Hahaha, alright, alright, I’ll come, of course I’ll come.” Hiroshi Nohara stopped teasing her, his laughter filled with indulgence and tenderness.
He glanced at the calendar on the wall, his mind already made up.
Dealing with the demons and monsters of the television station was just a beginner’s village quest.
Now, the real S-rank dungeon—”Meeting the Father-in-Law and Mother-in-Law”—was about to begin.
“Don’t worry, Misae.”
