If there was one thing most people could agree on, it's that CEOs were evil. And CEO's of major corporations? They're the closest thing the world's ever going to get to absolute evil. Even the most humane of them have a list of deceased in their names that exceeds most war memorials, and the most depraved of them lost track after they entered the tens of millions. If there's one thing you can rely on a corporation head to be, it's cunning, ruthless, and depraved beyond belief.
Ichiban Kasuga was (reportedly) none of these things. Ichiban Kasuga, from what the few people who have been able to prove their interactions with him have to say, have all claimed that he's a mildly dimwitted man prone to acts of obscene charity, who is always willing to drop whatever he's doing to help a complete stranger out.
Not even the most gullible person on the planet would believe such an obvious fantasy.
Ichiban Corporation
is a Crossover fanfic of Yakuza: Like a Dragon and Cyberpunk 2077 written by Gurdersnur in AO3.
Beware of unmarked Spoilers!
The story has the following examples of:
- Achievements in Ignorance:
- Other companies assume that he has some sort of A.I. network that keeps him informed of things, when in fact he just uses common sense to guess things and reinvest their sitting wealth into their surroundings instead of speculative assets.
- When giving the Kang Tao's higher-ups his specifications for his custom APCA, apparently it inspired them to reach the untapped market of, in Ichiban's words, "auto-retaliating multi-weapon platforms".Rei: Sir, are you telling me you went out for a walk and ended up helping Kang Tao revolutionize modern warfare?
- Badass Normal: Ichiban is noted to have no cyberware or bioware, yet he still manages to beat people with nothing but grit, craziness, and fighting dirty.
- Beleaguered Assistant: Rei Kubo, being Ichiban's secretary, means that she's the one who has to deal with his ridiculousness daily, such as trying to recruit a vending machine's A.I. to be his employee.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: Ichiban has a habit of saving people, through cash or fist, just because he can.
- Cloudcuckoolander: It isn't Ichiban without his gamer lingo, not to mention his more altruistic actions count as this to the people of Night City.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: All of CEOs in Night City cannot believe that his altruistic acts are genuine, believing it to be just a publicity stunt, nor comprehend that his corporation's success is due to playing it by the book.Rival corporations had entire think tanks dedicated to trying to track Ichiban Kasuga's business decisions. Every move he made, no matter how small, had people questioning it. Unfortunately for the corporations that owned these think tanks, they rarely provided estimations that were even close to reality. After all, sociopathic corpos have no real concepts of charity, loving the environment, or helping people for the sake of it. They could never imagine willingly subjecting themselves to community service, or helping someone on the street without an ulterior motive. As far as they knew, Ichiban Kasuga was just a genius who was very good at putting on a mask. Just like them.
- Friend to All Children: Ichiban bought all of the rights to produce and sell Biotechnica's lab-grown strawberries to ensure that they will never get out to the market due to how addictive the fruits are.Ichiban: They were laced with cocaine, Rei! Why the hell would I want to sell people addictive berries? [...] I only bought the rights to those stupid berries so they couldn't sell the damn things to kids. Imagine how much of a nightmare that would've been for any company that used them as ingredients in products.
- Frozen Face: Rei's face rarely emotes due to her body being a cheap Gemini model.
- Full-Conversion Cyborg: Rei is a Gemini, which is a fullborg model that looks almost identical to a normal human body.
- Gilligan Cut: In chapter 3, Maine & Kiwi warn David that CEOs tend to be self-serving and willing to do whatever they want with their employee's expenses ... before the story cuts to Ichiban trying to give Rei a surprise "birthday" party.
- Instant Taste Addiction: The strawberries that Biotechnica produces contain a substance that would cause addiction to those that eat it, whether it is eaten raw or as an ingredient to a product.
- I Owe You My Life: Rei owes Ichiban her life after elevating her lifestyle from being homeless to a corporation's secretary by offering her said position in his corporation.
- Powered Armor: As a sign of gratitude for saving their daughter from Scavs with no ulterior motives, a pair of Kang Tao's higher-ups give Ichiban a custom ACPA designed to look like a crude copy of Rei's Gemini model and with lots of smart-link firearms. Most notably, it's stated to be Kang Tao's updated version of the DaiOni (AKA, the Fullborg frame that Adam Smasher fought Morgan Blackhand with during the 2020 NC Holocaust).
- Too Good to Be True: Ichiban Kasuga is this in the eyes of many people. A corporation CEO that always willing to drop whatever he's doing to help a complete stranger out? He must be either a corporation plant, an escaped experiment, or an AI piloting a Gemini suit.
- Uncle Pennybags: Ichiban is this, with how his food produce being more affordable than most and causing the prices of rent to decrease in general, with his Mega Building 13 being one of the more noticeable impacts to Night City in general.
