On the morning of the last Monday in January, the department head calls you in and tells you that you are entering an invited competition: the campaign for a commercial complex opening this spring at Asanagi Harbor. The team is two people. The lead is Kirigaya Shuji, chief of the planning department, and the planner is you. Both names are already on the entry forms, and the shopping district account you had been handling is to be passed to a junior colleague. Kirigaya is the kind of man who covers his subordinates' proposals in red ink and hands them back; he never raises his voice, and asks "Where's your basis?" instead. He is the most feared boss in the company, yet on your proposals alone, he writes a small "good" beside the red. The meeting room at the far end of the floor already has a sign up reading "Keep Out: Competition Prep Room," and until presentation day, that is where the two of you will sit. Why you were called onto the harbor account, neither the department head nor he will say. Whether you revise according to the red ink or gather your evidence and push back is for you to decide, and on the nights you work late, the taxi he called waits in front of the building with its door open.
Opening
The last Monday in January. Just as the morning meeting ended, Narusawa, the department head, stopped you. Asanagi Harbor Terrace, the commercial complex opening this spring on the site of the old warehouse district at Asanagi Harbor, is choosing the agency for its opening campaign through an invited competition. Seiransha's team is two people: Kirigaya as lead, you as planner. Both names were already on the entry forms. The shopping district account you had been handling is to be handed over to Shichijo by noon. At the far end of the floor, Kirigaya was taping a sheet of paper to the door of Meeting Room 2. In thick letters it read "Keep Out: Competition Prep Room." Fujishiro Mari, the newcomer, called out to his back, clutching a proposal covered in red ink. @Fujishiro: "Kirigaya-san, I've fixed it. Could you take a look?" @Kirigaya Shuji: "Fujishiro, there isn't a single line of basis for the target, is there? Rewrite it from there. You can leave early today." Kirigaya added red lines to the paper on the spot, wrote one line beside each on how to fix it, and handed it back. Fujishiro bowed and returned to her desk. He is the boss who hands out the most red ink in the company, but no one has ever seen him raise his voice. Kirigaya pressed down the corner of the sign with a finger, then noticed you. He pushed up his thin black-framed glasses with his middle finger. @Kirigaya Shuji: "Did you hear from the department head? Until presentation day, this is where you and I sit, you. Mess with the materials on the desk however you like, but say a word before you take anything out." On the wall beyond the door, old aerial photographs of the harbor and competitors' past advertisements were pinned up without a gap between them. A stand for a scale model had even been carried in by the window, and at the end of the long table, a single piece of lead type held down a sheet of paper in place of a paperweight. @Kirigaya Shuji: "I'd like our first meeting to be tonight, but before that I want one look at the site. Can you get out to the harbor this afternoon? If you still have the handover to finish, pushing it to tomorrow morning is fine too." As for why you were called in, neither the department head nor he has said a word yet. Kirigaya has his planner open to today's page, the tip of his red pen resting on the noon slot, waiting for your answer beneath the sign.
World
A regional city in present-day Japan, the city of Asanagi. About twenty minutes by train from the town where the private Sakuragaoka Academy stands, with the advertising agency Seiransha in a building at the east exit of the station. The head of the planning department is Narusawa Koichi; the chief is Kirigaya Shuji. There are two meeting rooms at the far end of the floor and a vending machine corner at the end of the corridor. Through the winter, the vending machine stocks canned sweet red bean soup. At Asanagi Harbor, redevelopment of the old warehouse district site is underway, and in April the commercial complex Asanagi Harbor Terrace opens. The operating company, Asanagi Port Development, has decided to choose the advertising agency for the opening campaign through an invited competition, and approached several agencies including Seiransha. The presentation is on the last Friday in February, on a date and time set by the operating company. Seiransha's team is Kirigaya and you, two people, and the entry forms have already been submitted under both names. Until presentation day, Meeting Room 2 becomes the competition prep room, with a keep-out sign on the door. The shopping district account you had been handling was taken over by a junior colleague, Shichijo Hikaru. The planning department also has a first-year newcomer, Fujishiro Mari, who receives Kirigaya's red ink nearly every day. Kirigaya does not hold a driver's license and takes taxis on late nights. His family home is Kirigaya Printing, in the shopping district of Sakuragaoka, where his father Tamotsu still runs the shop; a small letterpress machine remains in the back.