Chapter 237 - 237: The White Tower

Ginza, 8-chome.

The ryotei Kanetanaka lay hidden inside a wooden building built in the Edo style.

Tsushima Kagami and Kobayashi Tomoaki followed the okami's small, quick steps down the stone path.

Every few paces stood a stone lantern, its light pooling over moss and shadow until the night itself seemed to blur and drift.

"This place really is tucked away," Tsushima Kagami murmured, keeping close to Kobayashi Tomoaki's side.

"Ha ha."

"All the high-end ryotei in Ginza are like this."

"Kagami-kun had better get used to this sort of entertaining, and soon."

Kobayashi Tomoaki had come in a dark gray suit today, a briefcase tucked under one arm, his hair deliberately styled.

He looked considerably sharper than usual.

Less like an editor-in-chief at Shinchosha these days and more like Tsushima Kagami's agent.

"The harder a place is to find, the more sincerity it shows," Kobayashi Tomoaki said, turning his head to glance at him and dropping his voice. "The man who invited you tonight is Tanabe Takashi, chief of Fuji TV's First Production Division."

This was a man with real power inside Fuji TV.

He had handled national institutions like From the Northern Country and Under One Roof.

In the industry he went by the nickname "the Demon of Social Realism." Back when he was still a producer, he had specialized in subjects that pressed on society's sore spots.

Tsushima Kagami's step faltered slightly.

From the Northern Country. Under One Roof...

Those titles had been household names in his previous life.

He hadn't expected Fuji TV in this world to have the same glorious history.

"So he's looking for me because..."

"You'll know once you meet him."

Kobayashi Tomoaki stopped in front of a black wooden door, turned, and straightened Tsushima Kagami's tie for him.

This was the formal outfit he'd made Tsushima Kagami go home from the manga cafe to change into.

Normally it didn't matter, since he and the professors were all familiar faces, but tonight's invitation came from a division chief at Fuji TV.

Some measure of etiquette was called for.

"Tsushima-sensei, you're an Akutagawa Prize winner now. No need to be nervous."

"Do I look like the type who gets nervous easily?"

Kobayashi Tomoaki thought back over everything Tsushima Kagami had done so far. No, he really wasn't.

Kobayashi Tomoaki smiled. The okami knelt to one side and slid the door open, and the two of them went in together.

The moment the door opened, the smell of tatami, hinoki cypress and faint incense rolled over them.

Tsushima Kagami saw a man of about fifty already seated inside.

He sat cross-legged on a cushion, leafing through a paperback.

He wore a haori of deep navy blue.

His hair was streaked with gray but thick, and silver-framed glasses sat on the bridge of his nose.

He looked less like a television executive than a university professor.

Hearing the door, he raised his head. His gaze passed over Kobayashi Tomoaki and settled on Tsushima Kagami.

"Oh!"

Tanabe Takashi set the paperback down and rose to his feet.

He looked at Kobayashi Tomoaki and asked with a smile, "Mr. Kobayashi, this must be Tsushima-sensei?"

"That's right. This is our great literary talent at Shinchosha, Tsushima-sensei." Kobayashi Tomoaki glanced at Tsushima Kagami beside him with no small amount of pride.

"Tsushima-sensei!"

The man's voice was far more resonant than Tsushima Kagami had expected.

"Welcome, welcome! I'm the chief of Fuji TV's First Production Division."

"Tanabe is my name. It's a pleasure to meet you. I hope you'll look kindly on me."

As he spoke, he offered a business card with both hands.

Then he bowed deeply.

The angle of his bow was perfectly judged.

Respectful, yet not so much as to put anyone under pressure.

"Chief Tanabe. How do you do."

Tsushima Kagami accepted the card, then produced the card he had prepared in advance.

He bowed slightly and held it out with both hands.

It was the first time Tsushima Kagami had experienced Japan's business-card ritual quite this formally.

As for how it felt to him.

He kept fighting the urge to press his palms together.

And say: DOMO, Tanabe=SAN, Tsushima Kagami DESU! Iyaaa - !

"I'm Tsushima Kagami. My pen name is Master of Dassai-ya."

"A pleasure to meet you. I hope you'll look kindly on me."

"Likewise, likewise."

Tanabe Takashi came around and clasped Tsushima Kagami's hand in both of his.

He looked him up and down, admiration written plainly across his face.

"You're even younger than I imagined."

"I've read your No Longer Human, and The Setting Sun as well."

"Honestly, that line in The Setting Sun - 'I feigned precocity, and people whispered that I was precocious.'"

"When I read it, a chill went straight down my spine."

Tsushima Kagami blinked.

Tanabe Takashi went on, the words coming fast.

"I wrote novels myself when I was young. The unpublished kind, of course."

"Then I joined the network, worked my way up from assistant director to production division chief."

"Thirty years gone by. My pen rusted through long ago."

"But your books made me feel that somebody out there had said the things I'd buried at the bottom of myself."

Tsushima Kagami hadn't expected this famously busy division chief to open by talking about his novels at length.

Kobayashi Tomoaki coughed lightly beside them.

"Chief Tanabe, why don't we sit down first."

"Yes, yes, of course, let's sit."

Tanabe Takashi released Tsushima Kagami's hand and waved them both to their places.

Tsushima Kagami sat cross-legged on the cushion across from Tanabe.

He noticed that the paperback Tanabe had been reading was No Longer Human.

Sticky notes bristled from between the pages, every one of them covered in dense handwriting.

So it hadn't been mere flattery.

The chief of Fuji TV's First Production Division really had read his book.

"Chief Tanabe."

Tsushima Kagami came straight to the point.

"Mr. Kobayashi tells me you have a project you'd like to discuss with me?"

"Ah, yes."

Tanabe Takashi poured Tsushima Kagami a cup of sake himself and pushed it over.

Kobayashi Tomoaki waved a lazy hand from the side and swapped it for a glass of juice.

Tanabe Takashi caught on and smiled apologetically.

Then he filled Kobayashi Tomoaki's cup as well and continued.

"I won't hide it from you. This year marks Fuji TV's fortieth anniversary."

"The higher-ups have handed down an ultimatum. We're to produce a drama worthy of the anniversary."

"And it has to be social realism."

"It needs depth. It needs teeth. It needs to get the whole country talking."

He lifted his own cup and drained it in one go.

"The trouble is..."

Tanabe Takashi's expression turned delicate, as though he were weighing his words.

"Things haven't been going well inside our Programming Division these past few years."

He put it euphemistically, but Tsushima Kagami could hear what lay underneath.

Ratings across the television industry had been sliding for years.

"Every network is cutting budgets and dissolving departments. Fuji TV is no exception."

"Of the writing teams under the Programming Division, some were disbanded and the rest merged."

"The people left are mostly playing it safe. The scripts they turn in are steady and even. You can't find a serious flaw in them, but you can't find a spark either."

Tsushima Kagami and Kobayashi Tomoaki listened quietly without interrupting.

"In the end I had to go outside and commission some well-known screenwriters."

"Some of them wrote something. I wasn't satisfied."

"Some are still dragging their feet."

"Some flat-out refused. They said social realism is hard to write, that they're afraid of stepping over the line."

"Go too deep and the audience won't watch. Not deep enough and the public tears you apart."

The more Tanabe Takashi said, the more helpless he sounded. He poured himself another cup and knocked it back.

"Tsushima-sensei, at this point I'm a desperate man calling in any doctor I can find."

"Since I've already commissioned other screenwriters, one more request won't hurt."

Then it hit him how rude that had sounded, and he hurried to explain.

"Of course, I don't mean you're the desperate part of it."

"What I mean is..."

"I understand."

Tsushima Kagami smiled.

"Chief Tanabe, I'm a novelist, but a screenwriter and a novelist aren't quite the same animal, are they?"

"A novel can move people through the power of the prose itself."

"A drama needs shot composition, dialogue, pacing, structure."

"Those are exactly what I lack."

"So are you sure you've come to the right man?"

Tanabe Takashi didn't answer at once.

He set down his cup and drew a folder out of the briefcase beside him.

He opened it and pushed it across to Tsushima Kagami.

Inside were several sheets of printed paper covered in scrawled handwriting.

It was a draft proposal Tanabe Takashi had written himself.

"Tsushima-sensei."

Tanabe Takashi's voice dropped low.

"Have you seen From the Northern Country?"

"I have."

"Then you'll know that the writer of that drama was my teacher."

"He taught me one thing."

"The best social-realist work doesn't stand up high and pass judgment. It crawls into the character's skin and makes the audience hurt and struggle right along with them!"

He tapped the proposal in the folder.

"What I need now isn't one of those steady, even, sparkless scripts."

"I need a story with flesh and blood, a story with the nerve to write it and the nerve to shoot it, a story that keeps people awake after the credits roll!"

He raised his head and looked at Tsushima Kagami.

"And your The Setting Sun and No Longer Human are exactly that kind of work."

Tsushima Kagami raised his head and looked at Tanabe Takashi.

"Chief Tanabe, you said just now that you'd commissioned other screenwriters as well."

"So what's my role here?"

"Am I competing against them, or..."

"Competing?"

Tanabe Takashi smiled and shook his head.

"I'll be honest. My highest hopes are pinned on you."

"Why?"

"Because you're an outsider."

Tanabe Takashi's tone turned serious as he looked at Tsushima Kagami.

"Those writers in the Programming Division understand television too well."

"So well they've become slaves to formula."

"The freelance screenwriters understand this industry too well too."

"They know where the minefields are, what can't be touched."

"But you..."

He extended a finger and pointed it toward Tsushima Kagami.

"You write pure literature."

"The Akutagawa Prize judges all said your work possesses profound social insight."

"How could a man who can see through society fail to write a good script?"

Tsushima Kagami went still for a moment.

The faith had no basis whatsoever, and yet it was impossible to turn down.

"I see."

Tsushima Kagami nodded.

"I understand what you mean."

At that, Tanabe Takashi smiled.

"And to be honest... there's a bit of private motive behind this commission too."

"Private motive?" Kobayashi Tomoaki put in curiously from the side.

A grin spread across Tanabe Takashi's face, boyish in a way that didn't suit his age at all.

"I just... wanted to meet Tsushima-sensei in person."

"I've been reading your work for a while now, and I've always wanted to sit down and talk with you face to face."

"This anniversary project happened to be the perfect excuse."

Tsushima Kagami and Kobayashi Tomoaki both smiled at that, then raised their cups and clinked them against Tanabe Takashi's.

"I understand now."

Tsushima Kagami set his glass down and tapped the tabletop twice with his fingers.

He had, in fact, written a new story recently.

Not a self-destructive monologue like The Setting Sun or No Longer Human.

Something closer to popular fiction, weighted toward plot and the collisions between characters.

He'd had no particular purpose in writing it.

Only that during the time he spent visiting Shimizu Nayotake's mother in the hospital, he had seen far too much of that subtle imbalance between doctors and patients.

He had seen how rigidly the hierarchy of a hospital's power structure was drawn.

He had seen that the people in white coats, behind the sacred halo of saving lives, carried the same desires, calculations and struggles as anyone else.

It had reminded him of a drama he'd watched in his previous life: The White Tower.

The White Tower was originally a long novel by Yamasaki Toyoko.

It had later been adapted into television dramas several times over, first by TV Asahi and then by Fuji TV.

And of those, Fuji TV's 2003 remake starring Karasawa Toshiaki was the definitive version.

Tsushima Kagami had never actually read the original novel. He had simply taken the 2003 White Tower as he remembered it and rewritten the story in novel form.

It wasn't polished, but the structure was whole.

He'd planned to hand the manuscript to Kobayashi Tomoaki after tonight to look over and revise, and to ask whether Shinchosha might be interested in publishing it.

What he hadn't expected was for Fuji TV to come knocking at exactly this moment.

And to open by asking for a script that was "social realism, with depth, with real-world criticism."

Wasn't that convenient.

Tsushima Kagami lifted his head, his gaze settling on Tanabe Takashi's face.

"Chief Tanabe."

"As it happens, I have a story on hand."

Tanabe went still.

"What?!"

"A novel I finished recently."

As he spoke, Tsushima Kagami bent down, pulled a clear document envelope from the backpack at his feet, and drew out a thick stack of printed manuscript pages.

He laid the envelope on the table and pushed it toward Tanabe Takashi.

"It isn't pure literature. It leans closer to popular fiction."

"The subject happens to be the doctor-patient relationship, set in a university-affiliated hospital."

"The leads are an ambitious surgeon and an internist who clings to his idealism."

"The two go from working together to standing against each other, and behind them is the corruption and rigidity of the entire medical system."

"If you're interested, take it back with you and read it."

"If you think you can use it once you've finished, we can talk about the next step."

Kobayashi Tomoaki sat frozen beside them as though he'd been struck by lightning.

His eyes were locked on that envelope, his mouth slightly open.

As if he wanted to say something but had no idea where to begin.

A hundred thoughts churned through his head at once.

Kagami-kun had written another novel?

And not pure literature this time, but popular fiction?

Was he planning to take the Naoki Prize too?

Tanabe Takashi accepted the envelope with both hands, his eyes full of surprise and something like delight.

He undid the flap, slid out the top page, and let his gaze fall on the title.

The White Tower.

A nameless pressure came off the page and hit him in the face.

Tanabe Takashi's eyes lingered on the title for two seconds, then began moving down the page.

Kobayashi Tomoaki abandoned all pretense of manners and leaned over to look. Together the two of them turned to the first page.

From the moment the name "Zaizen Goro" appeared, neither of them could look away again.

Nothing was left in the room but the whisper of turning paper.

Tsushima Kagami picked up his glass and sipped his juice in small swallows.

The two of them reached the middle of the first chapter, where Professor Azuma Teizo leads the entire medical staff in a formation down the ward on rounds.

At every bed, the junior doctors had to recite the patient's condition like schoolboys reciting a lesson.

The professor nodded now and then, snorted coldly now and then, and the whole scene was as tense as a military drill.

Tanabe Takashi's finger stopped on the page.

"This part is beautifully done."

"That sense of pressure..."

Tanabe Takashi looked up at Tsushima Kagami.

"A professor leading every doctor and nurse in the department on rounds. That kind of force, that clear division of high and low, that suffocating order..."

There was something close to disbelief in his admiration.

"How did you write that feeling?"

Tsushima Kagami smiled.

"A friend's mother was hospitalized recently. I saw a fair amount while visiting."

"When the doctor made rounds, a whole crowd of residents and nurses trailed behind him."

"That kind of presence doesn't need anyone to speak. It can silence an entire corridor."

Tanabe Takashi and Kobayashi Tomoaki both smiled in knowing agreement.

"Those professors really are that arrogant."

Tanabe Takashi had closed the manuscript, but his fingers stayed wedged in the page he'd been reading, as though he couldn't bear to let go.

There was laughter in his eyes as he looked at Tsushima Kagami.

"This isn't simply about doctors and patients, is it?"

"What do you think?" Tsushima Kagami countered with a smile of his own.

"By the time I got to that ward-rounds passage, I could already feel this was about more than a hospital."

"It's a miniature of Japanese society as a whole."

"Rank and deference, seniority over merit, empty formality, the arrogance of power..."

Tanabe Takashi spoke faster and faster, an excitement in his voice he couldn't hold down.

"Tsushima-sensei, this story of yours - it turns into a power struggle later on, doesn't it?"

"The professor's retirement, the fight over his successor, a medical accident, falsified research..."

Tsushima Kagami smiled faintly.

The Demon of Social Realism indeed.

A few pages of the opening, and he'd guessed most of the novel's skeleton.

"Chief Tanabe."

Tsushima Kagami didn't answer directly.

"You won't finish a novel in one sitting."

"And this isn't a good place to read. Take it home, read it through carefully, and then decide."

"If you need it, I can also supply a proper storyboard script."

"I imagine your deadline is coming up fast."

"A drama doesn't strictly need a storyboard script, of course."

"But having one would speed the production along considerably."

The air in the room went quiet.

Tanabe Takashi stared at him wide-eyed, and Kobayashi Tomoaki froze too.

"A storyboard script?"

Tanabe Takashi's voice climbed half a register.

"Tsushima-sensei, didn't you just tell me that was exactly what you lacked?"

"I've studied it a little, actually," Tsushima Kagami said modestly.

It was then that it struck Kobayashi Tomoaki: Tsushima Kagami was a manga artist as well.

Drawing panel layouts was his specialty.

So being able to write a storyboard script wasn't such an impossible thing after all.

"Hold on a moment."

Tanabe Takashi raised a hand.

"Let me catch my breath."

He set the manuscript down, picked up his cup and swallowed a long gulp.

The look Tanabe Takashi gave Tsushima Kagami had shifted from admiration into the sort of shock that said, is this kid a monster?

Kobayashi Tomoaki added quietly from the side, "Chief Tanabe, this is precisely why I insist on being his editor."

Tanabe Takashi was silent for a few seconds, then burst out laughing.

The laughter rang through the tatami room and startled the server in the room next door.

"Good! Good! Good!"

Three times he said it, then shot to his feet and bowed deeply to Tsushima Kagami.

"Tsushima-sensei, I'll take this manuscript home and read it with all due respect."

"Meeting you today has been an honor!"

Tsushima Kagami hurried to his feet and returned the bow.

"You're far too kind, Chief Tanabe."

Tanabe Takashi checked his watch and slapped his forehead.

"Oh no, I've talked so long the food's gone cold."

"Come, come, eat first. Three cups as my own penalty!"

Tanabe Takashi took up the sake flask and poured himself three cups in a row.

One swallow each, clean and quick.

"You hold your liquor well, Chief Tanabe," Kobayashi Tomoaki said, clapping with a laugh.

"This is nothing!"

"Come, come, Tsushima-sensei, try this."

"Kanetanaka's signature dish. Grilled kinmedai."

Tsushima Kagami lifted a piece of the fish with his chopsticks. The flesh was snow-white and tender, the skin grilled to a fragrant char, and it melted on his tongue.

"Delicious."

"Right?"

Tanabe Takashi looked thoroughly pleased with him and laughed. "Let me tell you, the owner of this place used to be a director at NHK."

"He opened this ryotei after he retired."

"So every dish here has a story."

"Setup, development, turn, resolution. A climax and an ending."

"Chief Tanabe can't get through three sentences without circling back to the job," Kobayashi Tomoaki teased.

"Naturally. It's the only trade I've had my whole life. I'll be taking it into the coffin with me."

"Oh no, wait, cremation's the thing these days."

The three of them laughed, and the last of the tension drained out of the room.

Cups clinked back and forth and the mood warmed steadily.

Tanabe Takashi was a talker. He went from network gossip to the rumor mill of the literary world.

From stories about Fuji TV's founding forty years ago to the handful of recent dramas whose ratings had begun to recover.

The topics leapt around, but every time they circled back to Tsushima Kagami's work.

"Tsushima-sensei, let me tell you."

Tanabe's face had gone faintly red from the alcohol, and he was speaking louder than before.

"That danchi-zuma of yours - our network wanted to do a special program on it, but the proposal got killed upstairs."

"They said it was too sensitive."

"I was furious at the time."

"So what if it's sensitive?"

"Sensitive subjects are the only ones worth doing!"

"Who watches anything that isn't?"

The corner of Tsushima Kagami's mouth curved as he listened, but he said nothing.

Kobayashi Tomoaki cut in at the right moment.

"Chief Tanabe, you've had too much."

"I have not!"

Tanabe glared at him, then turned back to Tsushima Kagami, his expression turning serious.

"Tsushima-sensei."

"If - and I do mean if."

"If this novel really is adapted into a drama, would you be willing to work on the script yourself?"

"If you're willing to use this story."

"I'll give you everything I can give."

"Storyboard scripts, dialogue, character profiles."

"Whatever I can write, I'll write."

"But there's one condition."

Tsushima Kagami raised a single finger.

"What condition?"

"The core of this story doesn't get changed because it's too sensitive or too sharp."

"If the point is just to shoot a safe medical drama, then this story doesn't need to be shot at all."

"Because there's already far too much of that on the air."

Tanabe Takashi listened, then broke into a grin.

He lifted his cup.

"We're of one mind, you and I."

"You have my word."

"I'll get you an answer as soon as I can."

Tsushima Kagami and Kobayashi Tomoaki raised their cups again.

The cups met lightly in the air with a clear, bright ring.

____

👻🔥Want more? P*treon: Walnut-chan🔥👻

🔥 New history: Zenless Zone Zero: Rewriting Fate in New Eridu — posted on The_Mikudayo

📚 Walnut-chan readers are already 40 chapters ahead, and they're the reason new translations keep coming

Let's reach these milestones together:

🎯 100 Powerstones = +1 free chapter for all readers