Kaneyama Tech Co., Ltd. was a metalworking company with its head office based in Adachi City. It had been founded 4 years ago by Kaneo Kaneyama (25 years old), who was both the company’s current company president as well as its representative director. The company had ¥60 billion in sales and ¥2 billion in stockholders’ equity, and there were 280 employees on its payroll. It was highly regarded as a prominent up-and-coming start-up company, but its scale was already sufficient to earn it a seat at the table with all the big corporations, albeit only at the far end. After a rather sharp change in management policies two years ago, it had seen growth on the level of not only a carp swimming against an upstream current, but up a vertical waterfall. It was whispered in many circles that it might not be long before it made the final jump to transform into a full-blown dragon.
With a focus on the extraction, refining, and processing of rare metals from deep sea rare earth, Kaneyama Tech was fast becoming a major player when it came to the production of high-strength and highly anti-corrosive metals as well as incredibly detailed parts manufacturing. Additionally, it also had a rather sizable presence in the methane hydrate market. While its capability of taking care of every step of the production chain—from raw material procuring to parts manufacturing—within the company itself enabled it to greatly reduce operational costs, it was also conspicuous for its overspending on unnecessary production lines and maintenance costs due to the persistent lack of manpower it suffered as a result of its rapid growth and expansion.
As if all that was not enough, Kaneyama Tech was also employing previously unheard-of technology to create artificial diamonds much larger than what had been achieved previously. Though low in quantity, each piece was snapped up by aficionados at sky high prices as soon as it hit the market, contributing in no small way to Kaneyama Tech’s overall revenue.
By gradually yet steadily absorbing and buying out unprofitable small town factories and the various patents they owned that were related to rare metals, the company was continuously securing highly skilled workers. Add to that the very humane working conditions in the company, high salaries, thorough welfare benefits, and its permanently open door for new recruits throughout the year, and there was much that fueled expectations of the company’s continued growth.
At the same time, Kaneyama Tech was both a target of jealousy from its competitors as well as a target of suspicion. Exactly how was the company procuring the methane hydrate and deep sea rare earth that were the foundation to its abrupt growth? With existent technologies, pulling up these resources from the bottom of the ocean would cost way too much, to the point it would be impossible to turn a profit doing so. It was a complete mystery where the trucks that regularly carried in shipments of rare earth came from.
The company’s sharp advancement in detailed production was also another point that drew suspicion. Previously, Kaneyama Tech had been steadily acquiring processing know-how while working on their enormous stock of rare metals, but in the past few months it had displayed incredible improvements in product quality and production volume.
The overall change seemed so bizarre and abrupt that it was almost comparable to when Japan did away with its isolationist policy and Western craftsmen were teaching Japanese craftsmen their advanced knowledge and techniques.
For all those reasons, Kaneyama Tech was the hottest topic within its industry, as well as a target of both curiosity and envy. And within its storage warehouse lay the PSI drives that Baba had supposedly smuggled out and scattered throughout the streets of Tokyo (she had not actually). Naturally, all of the PSI drives were packaged in such a way that it was impossible to tell what they were.
Today, Kaburagi-san and I were visiting the head office, having been called out by the company president regarding those packages. It was perfect timing, so we intended to retrieve them while we were there.
I had the honor of chauffeuring Her Ducal Highness Kaburagi of Marineford in her luxury car. After parking the car, I got out and circled around back to open the door for her, even putting a footstool in place for her to step onto while exiting the car. Then I offered my hand to escort her into the building.
Her Ducal Highness’ raiment of the day was a long-sleeved furisode kimono with a deep blue color scheme and traditional Japanese geta sandals. Of course, her entire coordinated outfit was tailor made. Kaburagi-san looks absolutely gorgeous in whatever she wears.