[The characters, places, organizations, events, and so forth that appear in this work have no relation whatsoever to reality and are fictional creations born of the author’s imagination.]
――――――――――
One day in July of 1979.
In Development Room 2 at [Nyamco] headquarters, located in Ota-ku, Tokyo, Japan, thick despair and hollow sighs were crossing back and forth.
The cheerful atmosphere of the team members huddled together, placing pixels in friendly spirits until just moments ago, froze over in an instant the moment an employee from the legal team burst in.
“We’re in serious trouble!”
“Hm? Natanabe, what is it?”
“Team Leader Iwatani... we’re too late. Please look at this!”
At the very front of the stack of documents Natanabe handed over was a bizarre title.
[Visual Work: Predator in the Maze]
“Predator in the Maze? What is this? What on earth happened?”
“Huff, huff... the back page. Look at the back page and you’ll understand. I’m telling you, this is really serious.”
“Hm. Let’s see... a yellow character eating dots in a maze—screen composition!?”
The hand with which Iwatani held the paper began to tremble faintly.
“Yes. They’ve filed the very concept of ‘a screen composition in which this yellow character eats dots in a maze’ within Japan as an artistic work. On top of that, they’ve already completed filing procedures across the board, from design rights for the character design and trademark rights, all the way to profit businesses like dolls and toys!”
“What? We’ve only just finished planning and haven’t even completed the basic dot work yet... There was already a company making a game like this? Can there really be such a cruel coincidence...?”
Iwatani let out a hollow sigh, but Natanabe did not stop there and added the worst news of all.
“The report from the U.S. branch is even more absurd. They say some of the filings have already been fully registered in the United States. Whether they have some ridiculous connection inside the United States Patent and Trademark Office, procedures that normally take at least a year even when fast were pushed through at an abnormal speed.”
“Hoo... Is there truly no way for us to avoid this?”
Iwatani Tou, the sole planner of Pakupaku, looked at Natanabe with a desperate expression, unable to believe that his first ambitious project had been broken before it had even begun.
“We don’t even have a completed planning document yet, so it would be difficult for us to claim prior use rights. They’re an American company, and their web of rights is so tightly woven... If we make anything even slightly similar, the moment we set foot on American soil, we’ll be branded copycats and hit with astronomical lawsuits.”
“Ha... Does the president know about this too?”
“Not yet. I thought it was only proper to tell you first, Team Leader.”
“I’ll report it to him myself. Haa...”
Iwatani Tou moved with footsteps as heavy as a thousand pounds and knocked on the door of the president’s office. When his eyes met those of Nakamura Masai, the head of [Nyamco], who seemed to have just finished a phone call and was setting down the receiver, Iwatani lowered his head like a criminal and held out the report.
“President... Natanabe from the legal team went to file for trademark rights and encountered shocking news. They say the same planning content has already been secured first. They even say the U.S. side has perfectly completed the registration procedures.”
“You mean Pakupaku? Let me see those documents.”
Nakamura Masai snorted as if the situation was ridiculous and took the documents. But as he turned the pages one by one, his seasoned face gradually turned deathly pale.
“Impossible! No, does this make any sense by common standards? Did they plant listening devices in our company’s development room or something?”
“As you can see, these filings were already completed in the middle of last month. That was when we had only just begun to form the outlines of the plan... so it’s difficult to see it as an internal information leak. They were simply absurdly fast, and they really had been developing it.”
“Is there no way to make it while cleverly avoiding this?”
“According to the legal team’s opinion, that American company has erected barriers of rights in every direction, so even a slight resemblance would make it difficult to escape the yoke of litigation. Even if we force it through, we may have to give up the enormous American market entirely.”
Unable to contain his rage, President Nakamura slammed his desk. After breathing roughly for a moment, he soon returned to the eyes of a cold-hearted manager and made his decision.
“Hoo... The Pakupaku project is to be completely scrapped as of this moment. Have the Pakupaku team prepare a new proposal at once. Well, it isn’t entirely bad. What would our losses have been like if we had found this out after making more than half the game? Consider it warding off bad luck and submit another proposal immediately, Iwatani-kun.”
.
.
.
Henry, on June 23, who had no way of knowing about this butterfly effect, calmly continued his creation—written as creation and read as copying—then rose from his stiff body and stretched.
‘[Aston Marin] actually seems prettier in its current design than in the future.’
Looking at the automobile design he had just completed, one that would be released by the future [Aston Marin], Henry tilted his head. Technically, it was certainly an advanced design, but when he thought of it by the standards of the future, it seemed somewhat lacking in distinctiveness. Rather, the clunky yet sharp-edged design unique to 1979 felt more appealing.
‘Is that enough for cars? Hm, come to think of it, I had a dinner appointment with Donald Reagan tonight. Haa, he’s going to become president anyway, so making a connection in advance is the best move, but what am I supposed to talk about with him? Hm... huh?! Wait a second.’
Henry’s eyes flashed open as he stopped stretching.
‘Why have I been acting all this time as if I’m bound to the future timeline? History is bound to change the moment I intervene anyway, so while I’m at it, should I try overturning the board on a global scale? I don’t think changing history a bit is going to get in the way of my making money.’
The moment his thoughts were sorted out, Henry picked up the phone without hesitation and dialed a number.
“Ah, Gilberto. It’s nothing else, but has the structure of our think tank advisory team taken shape to some extent?”
“Yes, Boss. We still haven’t selected a prominent figure to represent the team, but we have secured lines not only among academics and professors connected to the existing family network, but also across several universities.”
“Oh, good! Then can we start operating the agenda team for now too?”
“The only thing missing is an administrator to stand at the front. The team members are already filled with first-rate talent. Within New York, our family’s connections alone are more than enough to overwhelm, and although our influence is still weak in other states, it’s enough to redirect the current of public opinion to a certain extent.”
“Good. Then let’s make a debut stage for the advisory team. The goal is one thing. To derail the U.S.-China trade relations agreement scheduled for July 7. The tone should emphasize ‘China’s potential danger.’ For example, let’s go with provocative messages like, ‘Do we intend to raise a second Japan with our own hands?’ or ‘We handed semiconductors and Detroit over to Japan. Will Garter now offer America itself to Beijing?’”
“Shall we use the Garter administration’s impatience for diplomatic achievements as the point of attack?”
At Gilberto’s question, Henry took a sip of coffee and nodded.
“Well, that’s good too. He’s a president crawling along the floor in approval ratings anyway, isn’t he? On top of that, as far as I know, this agreement contains nothing at all about protection for technological intellectual property rights. That country barely even has the concept of patents. If we fall for the sweet temptation of a large market and simply leave alone a socialist state with a population of one billion? Will they really just keep buying American goods forever? I guarantee it. If we allow them to develop properly, China will become a far more horrifying threat than the Soviet Union in the future. I can see that future clearly.”
‘If we don’t cut off the bud here and now, they’ll fucking climb all over us later. Since I’ve become an American anyway, I might as well be patriotic.’
Recalling the memories of his previous life, Henry continued speaking.
“A population of one billion, powerful centralized socialism, and an environment where intellectual property rights are treated as pocket change. If they use market access as bait to force technology transfers on top of that? Do you think corporations won’t go in? And after they suck up that technology? I find that vague socialist show of theirs, all that black cat, white cat nonsense, truly repulsive.”
“...Hearing you say it, Boss, it certainly could become a major problem for America.”
“Even now, the Rust Belt has been wrecked because of the price competitiveness of Japanese cars. But if a labor force of one billion people, cheaper than the price of a hamburger, comes pouring out, what will happen to our American workers? We’d need at least an overwhelming technological advantage to endure it, but what if even that technology is offered up after being hooked by the bait of entering the Chinese market? It’s horrifying just to think about. Moreover, when they put pressure on foreign companies within their own country, they are a socialist state where the state openly steps forward. We need to discipline them properly from the beginning.”
After pausing briefly for breath, Henry poured out the essence of China as seen from the perspective of 2026 in the language of 1979.
“India has a large population too, but because of ethnic and religious conflicts, it can’t be controlled. This place is different. The land is vast, the massive Han ethnicity is at the center, and a single word from the Party comes before the power of religion. And the one coming this time is a cunning bastard who intends to use socialism where it benefits him and capitalism where it’s needed. It means that what America can do, they can do too, and coercion that America cannot exercise because of the law, they can exercise.”
Henry looked at the drawing on the calendar and drove in the wedge.
“Japan, at least, won’t copy [Dazney]’s animations wholesale. But China is a country that would make the exact same thing and go one step further, insisting that Maki Mouse is their own original character. If the government prints in textbooks that ‘Maki Mouse is a legacy of the Qing dynasty’ and educates people that way, will the citizens who learn it really acknowledge the truth? To begin with, it’s a country that doesn’t even have a press to keep that in check.”
Henry moved his lips for a moment, wondering if he had any more venom to spew, and fell into thought. He had scraped together and spat out memories of the twenty-first century without a filter, but one corner of his chest still felt uneasy. Soon, he cleared his voice to wrap up the conversation.
“It seems Garter wants to build some diplomatic achievement by offering the one-sided tribute known as most-favored-nation status, but no matter how I look at it, it feels suspicious. Borrow the mouths of economists or people in related industries and weave the points I mentioned into a negative argument. Put columns in newspapers, or hurriedly create some respectable organization like the Future World Economic Research Institute and distribute a report. Ah, and make sure security is thorough so our tail doesn’t get caught. They may be feeble now, but they’re still a massive country in the end. Becoming the enemy of a state will only create annoying problems.”
“Yes, Boss. I’ll handle it swiftly. With an impact this large, even before the agenda team steps forward in earnest, if we simply leak it to the newspapers, they’ll bite at each other calling it a scoop. Though the thought of Henry Kissinger, who’s pushing this in the shadows, does concern me... I’ll proceed quickly so that no one notices. At the very latest, you’ll see it in the news headlines by the middle of next week!”
“Good. I trust you.”
After hanging up the phone and sinking deep into his chair, Henry looked back for a moment. As he had been speaking, he had gotten so heated that he wondered if he had rambled too much, as if slamming on the accelerator.
‘No, considering how much those Chinks got on my nerves in the twenty-first century, I’m supposed to watch that happen again? I can’t let that slide.’
Henry took up the pen on his desk again. Then he pulled a clean sheet of paper from the drawer and began writing, one character at a time, the draft of the China threat theory that, if things had gone as they originally should have, would only appear twenty or thirty years later to shake America and be discussed for ages in world history—the “1979 China Threat Theory.”
[What poses a greater threat than a socialist state is, precisely, an “ambiguous” socialist state....]