Bunkyo Ward, Tokyo.
Saionji Main Family Residence, Inner Courtyard.
The shishi-odoshi in the courtyard filled with clear water and slowly tilted downward.
Clack—
The hollow bamboo tube struck the moss-covered stone. The crisp sound rippled through the quiet afternoon.
Saionji Satsuki wore a loose cotton kimono meant for lounging. She leaned comfortably against a cushion on the engawa. Her bare feet were casually crossed, and she could feel the coolness of the early autumn breeze.
In her hand, she held a gray Game Boy handheld console.
"Beep, beep, beep..."
The crisp 8-bit electronic sound effects echoed across the engawa. Satsuki kept her eyes lowered. Her left thumb pressed rapidly on the D-pad to adjust the falling geometric shapes. Her right hand lightly tapped the A button. A long block slid precisely into the deep groove at the bottom.
A pleasant clearing sound followed. The stack of pixel blocks at the bottom of the screen flashed and disappeared. The numbers on the scoreboard jumped upward.
She had been exhausted lately. Someone had dumped a massive mess on her the moment she got off the plane. She felt like her old illness was about to relapse. She was only one step away from fainting from exhaustion again and shocking everyone.
Fortunately, the Saionji Family wasn't entirely composed of incompetent people. With Maki around, she could feel much more at ease about the group's internal affairs.
A figure approached along the wooden corridor.
Managing Director Endo carried a black briefcase. He stopped two steps away from Satsuki. He bowed slightly and placed several newly bound financial reports flat on the red sandalwood low table.
"My lady."
"The internal compliance audit report from the General Control Office for this week has been finalized."
Satsuki pressed the pause button on the handheld. The blocks on the screen froze.
"Has Maki's progress at Saionji Construction been smooth over the past few days?"
She casually set the game console aside on the cushion. She sat up straight and fixed her gaze on the blue-covered document at the top.
"Miss Maki's internal audit at Saionji Construction has yielded significant results," Endo said. His tone was full of admiration. "The people under President Eguchi had originally prepared a thick stack of dual procurement contracts. They were attempting to use inflationary losses to cover up the price difference from the rebar they pocketed."
"Miss Maki directly retrieved the heavy truck weighing data recorded by SIS, the Saionji Information System, at the logistics terminals. She cross-calculated the total physical weight of building materials delivered to the construction sites with the standard density of the high-strength steel listed on the books."
"The density of high-strength steel is an objective physical constant. Faced with the undeniable weight discrepancy, the procurement department managers who tried to use dual contracts to pocket the difference had no room for excuses."
"President Eguchi personally presided over an internal meeting early this morning. He cleared out all involved personnel. At the same time, he submitted a request for a self-imposed one-year salary cut to headquarters. He took responsibility for the failure in internal supervision."
Endo paused for a moment.
"This first cut was made cleanly. At least within Saionji Construction, the trend of damaging core assets for private gain has been effectively curbed. Next, Miss Maki will gradually implement this audit mechanism in other business sectors."
Satsuki flipped open the blue audit report.
Her eyes scanned the physical conversion formulas circled in red ink.
"She did well. Tell her to keep up this pace with the audits."
Satsuki closed the file and set it aside on a corner of the red sandalwood table.
She turned her head and looked at Endo.
"What about the external market situation?"
Endo opened another macro-market briefing. His expression became solemn.
"After the Ministry of Finance's total volume regulation was issued, the credit crunch effect has spread throughout society. A large number of small and medium-sized enterprises have seen their cash flows break.
The market is flooded with bankruptcy liquidation sales. The heads of the M&A teams have been frequently submitting requests lately. They are asking if we should use the cash on our books to acquire the industrial assets being dumped on the market."
Satsuki picked up a cup of barley tea from the low table and took a sip.
"What is your opinion?"
"I suggest we remain silent."
Endo looked at Satsuki.
"The market is indeed full of despair right now. But those business owners eager to sell their assets still harbor unrealistic fantasies about a rebound in land prices. During our tentative contacts, we found that their quotes are still inflated. They even shamelessly try to transfer their old bank debts to us intact."
"If we negotiate now, we'll only get a figure full of premiums. It's far from the point where their psychological defenses collapse."
Satsuki nodded slightly.
"Then we stay put."
"Tell the M&A team to hold onto the cash tightly. Wait patiently for the prey to bleed out its last drop."
After dealing with these heavy data reports, Satsuki leaned back against the cushion.
She glanced at the idle handheld console. Then she turned her gaze toward the shadows of the trees swaying in the breeze in the courtyard. Days of high-pressure planning and numerical deductions had left her feeling a bit weary.
She raised her hand and lightly massaged her brow with her fingertips.
"Endo."
Satsuki lowered her hand. Her gaze fell on a blank spot on the schedule.
"It seems I haven't been to Seika Academy in a long time."
Endo was taken aback for a moment. He glanced at the schedule. Indeed, there were no official arrangements regarding the school.
"Do you need me to notify the S.A. Security Department and arrange a motorcade?"
"Yes, go ahead."
Satsuki stood up and straightened the hem of her kimono.
"Looking at bankruptcy data on paper for too long inevitably gets a bit dull."
She looked at the slowly tilting bamboo shishi-odoshi in the courtyard. Her tone was relaxed.
"The Ministry of Finance's credit crunch order has been in effect for so long. I'd like to take the opportunity to confirm something. I want to see if those high-and-mighty young masters and ladies still have the leisure to discuss Hawaii's sunshine and the latest jewelry."
...
The black Toyota Century sedan came to a smooth stop outside the carved iron gates of Seika Academy's High School Division.
Fujita Tsuyoshi stepped out first. He opened a black umbrella and pulled open the rear door.
Satsuki stepped out of the car and walked onto the school's tree-lined avenue.
It was the lunch break. Many students were originally gathered in small groups at the school gate. The boys were in crisp, custom-made uniforms. The girls carried expensive leather bags and chatted happily. It seemed as though the overall economic downturn hadn't affected them at all.
The black car with the special license plate came to a stop. The figure in the dark long dress entered the school gate.
The surrounding chatter dropped unnaturally within a few seconds.
Several girls who had been standing in the middle of the main road, talking loudly, stopped abruptly upon seeing Satsuki's face. They quickly stepped aside to the edges of the road. They cleared an unobstructed path through the center.
Many students lowered their heads. They deliberately avoided making direct eye contact with Satsuki. A few boys who were about to start horsing around were grabbed by their companions and pulled into the shadows of the roadside trees.
No one spoke loudly. In fact, few dared to let their gaze linger on her for long. Most students only stole a quick glance from the corner of their eyes before quickly looking down or pretending to look elsewhere. They avoided direct eye contact.
Many of their fathers were currently mired in the quagmire of bank credit crunches and high-interest debts. Their fathers were pleading outside the offices of major conglomerates every day for loan extension agreements.
The "truant" young lady walking before them was technically their peer. But she wielded resources that were already in a different dimension. Even if their fathers met her, they would have to be extremely respectful. These students were in no position to act casually. After all, this young lady could truly decide the rise or fall of their families at will.
Furthermore, no one knew what this formidable lady was suddenly doing back at school. She was barely more than a name on the school roster. If she were in a bad mood, it wouldn't be impossible for her to ruin a few families she found annoying.
Satsuki didn't feel any discomfort as the crowd automatically parted. When a few acquaintances came forward to greet her, she returned the greeting with a smile.
She did not slow down. She headed straight through the tree-lined path. But instead of going to the classroom, she followed her memory toward the Rose Society's exclusive salon.
She pushed open the double walnut doors and entered the Rose Society's exclusive salon.
Satsuki looked around. This salon had once been filled with laughter and daily competitions over Hawaii resorts and the latest Patek Philippe watches. Now it appeared empty.
The air inside was somewhat chilly. The small afternoon tea parties that used to be held here were nowhere to be found. More than half of the girls who used to crowd the long sofas, sipping black tea and discussing luxury haute couture slots, were now missing.
Yoshino Ayako was sitting on a nearby chair, flipping through a magazine. Seeing Satsuki enter, she immediately closed the magazine and hurried forward to lead Satsuki to the main seat.
"Lady Satsuki, you haven't been to the salon in a long time." Ayako sat down on a single-seater sofa nearby. She gestured for the attendant to bring freshly brewed Darjeeling black tea.
Satsuki sat down in the single-seater sofa at the main position.
"I've finished dealing with some trivial matters and stopped by on my way. It seems quite deserted here."
Ayako sat on the side sofa. Her hands were folded over her knees.
"No one can laugh anymore." Ayako leaned forward slightly. Her voice dropped lower. "In the past few weeks, students have been withdrawing from school every day."
She glanced at the empty sofa opposite her.
"Do you remember Watanabe from Class B? His father did several large residential projects in Kanto. Last Wednesday, Watanabe suddenly dropped out without even saying goodbye."
Ayako slightly tightened her fists. Unlike Satsuki, she had more or less interacted with these classmates. Seeing them suddenly disappear inevitably gave her a sense of shared sorrow.
"I heard my father say at the bank that the Watanabe family's company had all its bridge loans pulled by the bank. Their capital chain snapped on the spot. To plug the hole, his father borrowed high-interest loans from underground moneylenders."
"Last Tuesday night, debt collectors carrying red paint blocked their front door. To escape those yakuza, the whole family fled Tokyo overnight in an old car. They didn't even have time to sell their house. Now, no one can contact them."
Ayako swallowed hard.
"Everyone is afraid. They don't know if it will be their own family's turn tomorrow."
Note: Not every family is unafraid of the yakuza. Cases like the Saionji Family, which can directly wipe out an entire yakuza organization, are rare exceptions. The Japanese yakuza in 1990 could be described as extremely dangerous.
Satsuki listened quietly to Ayako's description.
The four words "bankruptcy liquidation" on the macro reports were now materialized into families fleeing in the night and doors covered in red paint through these whispered stories.
The brutal social reshuffling brought by this Great Depression was truly stripping away the living space of these sheltered students.