“I need to stop singing Karaoke.”

“You know the deal Mr Thomas: you sing karaoke at the Velvet Lounge every night or Mr. Masuda here gets his revenge and goes snip, snip.”

Neil looked over at Mr. Masuda, who gave a devious smile that couldn’t have been more devious if he had been wearing a t-shirt with “I am Devious” on it.

“I’ll still be able to do some karaoke, but not as much.”

“And what has come along that is more important than karaoke?”

“The Hyakujuuu Shinkansen!”

Neil saw the Yakuza boss move forward in his chair. He knew Mr Hashimoto was a big baseball fan; no, he knew that Mr Hashimoto was a baseball junkie. Hashimoto had been a fan of the Hyakujuu team since their Mighty Mecha days. It was even thought his name wasn’t Hashimoto, but that he had changed it to pay homage to Shunsen Hashimoto, the Hyakujuu legend.

“The Shinkansen Hyakujuu have offered me their GM job.”

Mr Hashimoto’s eyes widened.

“You may take the job on – – .“

“But!” Mr Masuda interrupted.

Hashimoto gave the young Yakuza a dark stare; Masuda bowed and stepped back.

“You may take the job on two conditions. One: you will still sing at the Velvet Lounge when the team plays at home. Two: you will bring the players along to the club.”

He’d rather the players never frequented the Velvet Lounge, but he knew Hashimoto wouldn’t back down. If he wanted to be the next GM of the Hyakujuu Shinkansen he would have to take the deal.

An email had been sent to all media outlets announcing that the Hyakujuu Shinkansen would be holding a press conference at the main entrance of the ballpark at 2pm on Saturday, weather permitting.

“Ladies and gentlemen of the media, if you could take your seats we’ll start the press conference.”

“My name is Yuji Nakamura; I’m the spokesperson of the Hyakujuu Shinkansen.”

“I would now like to take this opportunity to introduce you to the new Hyakujuu Shinkansen GM, Mr Neil Thomas!”