The banquet shifted into the buffet and networking session.
With several massive donations finalized, the atmosphere in the hall returned to the clinking of glasses and a show of prosperity.
Behind the first floor and off to the side, Vice President Kagawa pushed open the heavy wooden door of the restroom.
The restroom was brightly lit, and its marble countertops were polished like mirrors.
Kagawa hurried to the sink and gripped the cold marble surface tightly with both hands.
He looked at himself in the mirror.
His usually perfect hair was now a mess, his face was pale, and his forehead was covered in fine beads of sweat.
He turned on the faucet, cupped cold water in his hands, and splashed it frantically onto his face.
Droplets dripped from his chin and splashed into the ceramic basin.
His body was trembling uncontrollably.
7.5 billion yen.
As Vice President of Fuji Bank, he had no authority to publicly promise 7.5 billion yen for a joint fund without a formal vote from the head office's board of directors.
But in that situation, he had no grounds to refuse.
He felt trapped between two fatal choices.
Agreeing to Tsutsumi Yoshiaki only delayed the time of his downfall.
Tomorrow morning, he would have to return to the Fuji Bank head office.
If he could not produce the massive sum he had promised without approval, the board would liquidate him without mercy, dismiss him, and the internal compliance department would bring breach of trust charges against him.
He would lose everything he had spent half his life building in the financial world and face imprisonment.
What could he do now?
What options did he have left?
Kagawa grabbed a paper towel and wiped the water from his face haphazardly.
"Ding."
The restroom door was pushed open from the outside.
Managing Director Endo stepped into the room.
He wore a crisp, dark bespoke suit, and his gold-rimmed glasses shimmered under the overhead lights.
Endo walked to the sink next to Kagawa, turned on the faucet without hurry, and washed his hands.
"Vice President Kagawa, you don't look well," Endo said as he turned off the water and pulled a paper towel from the wall dispenser to dry carefully between his fingers.
"Back there, Chairman Tsutsumi's joint announcement certainly stole the show.
Tomorrow morning's headlines will surely reserve a prominent spot for you."
Kagawa snapped his head around and stared intently at Endo.
"Managing Director Endo.
The Saionji Family certainly has a large appetite," Kagawa said, his voice raspy.
Endo threw the paper towel into the trash.
He turned to face Kagawa and kept his tone level.
"In this hall, everyone is struggling for survival.
Chairman Tsutsumi needs capital, and you need to save face.
These are perfectly understandable choices."
Endo stepped aside and gestured toward the end of the hallway.
"However, the internal audit at Fuji Bank's head office is known for its severity.
To ensure you do not face a difficult inquiry tomorrow morning, the Saionji Family has prepared a small bit of dignity for you."
Endo tilted his head slightly, and his smile looked like a mask.
"I wonder if you would be interested in stepping into a private meeting room to take a look?"
Kagawa's eye twitched.
The other man was waiting for him to take the bait, but he had nowhere left to retreat.
He crumpled the paper towel, threw it in the trash, and followed Endo out of the restroom.
As the two rounded the corner of the foyer, the guests chatting with wine glasses grew fewer.
After passing through a double wooden door guarded by two black-clad agents from the S.A. Security Department, the melodious symphony and noise of the foyer were left entirely behind.
He followed Endo to the very end of the corridor.
The heavy soundproof door of a private meeting room was pushed open.
The lights inside were dimmed low.
Endo sat on a leather sofa.
He opened his black briefcase and pulled out a thin slip of paper.
Endo slid the paper across the coffee table toward Kagawa.
Kagawa looked down, and his gaze landed on the paper.
It was a bearer cashier's check with a Citibank seal.
In the amount column, a long string of numbers was clearly printed.
The amount was exactly 7.5 billion yen.
Kagawa's breath hitched.
This money exactly covered the amount he had promised without authorization in the hall.
"Vice President Kagawa," Endo said as he adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses, his tone calm.
"When you return to the head office tomorrow morning, you can report to the board that you used your overseas financial connections to secure an anonymous trust fund, and that fund paid this donation on your behalf."
Endo sat with his hands crossed over his knees.
"You did not use a single cent of the bank's liquidity, and you still won prestige for the head office in front of the Prime Minister.
This will be a glorious mark on your resume."
Kagawa stared at the cashier's check, and his fingers slowly tightened at his side.
"And the price?"
He looked up, and his gaze was wary.
"You have already siphoned off most of the semiconductor debt.
Fuji Bank's current books have no more high-quality underlying assets left for you to strip."
Endo took out a very thin memorandum and placed it next to the check.
"The Saionji Family does not need assets right now.
What we want is information."
Endo's fingertip tapped the terms of the memorandum, and his voice turned cold.
"This agreement requires you to provide a copy of the actual loan ratings for all core companies of the Fuyo Group within Fuji Bank, as well as the original drafts of the bad debt details hidden in the off-balance-sheet Tobashi Accounts, to a designated mailbox every month."
Kagawa's eyes widened, and thick red veins appeared in them.
He looked at Endo's calm face, and his stomach cramped uncontrollably.
The true ledgers of those Tobashi Accounts were the highest-level commercial secrets of the entire Fuyo Group.
Once he personally copied and handed over the first one, it would legally be an irrefutable breach of trust.
Once this leverage fell into their hands, he would lose all ways of escape and spend the rest of his life as a puppet insider at the Saionji Family's mercy.
"What do you want these secrets for?" Kagawa's Adam's apple bobbed with difficulty, and his voice trembled with extreme fear.
"Do you plan to blackmail the head office board with these bad debts?
Or do you want to short the Fuyo Group in the secondary market?"
He stood up abruptly, and his voice was a low, suppressed growl.
"Handing over these drafts is the same as putting my life in your hands!
If this is exposed, the entire financial world will destroy me!"
Endo sat steadily on the sofa, and his posture did not change.
"Vice President Kagawa."
Endo's gaze met the other man's eyes directly.
"In the hall outside, the Prime Minister and the entire Japanese media are still waiting for Fuji Bank's 7.5 billion yen check to be cashed.
If you walk out empty-handed now, you will face the fury of the board and charges of breach of trust tomorrow morning."
Endo glanced at the check.
"You will spend the rest of your life in prison, and your family will bear a disgraced name in Tokyo."
Kagawa stood frozen in place.
Seeing Kagawa's pale face, Endo reached into his inner suit pocket and took out a fountain pen.
He uncapped it, turned it around, and held it out to Kagawa.
"Risk always coexists with reward, Mr. Kagawa."
Endo's tone softened.
"The environment is changing.
Those old executives on the board who falsify records and cover up bad debts will eventually be weeded out by the market in the coming storm."
"When the day comes for Fuji Bank to undergo cleaning and restructuring..."
Endo paused.
"This century-old bank will ultimately need a new President who understands the rules and has made outstanding contributions to stabilize the situation.
The Saionji Family has always been generous, and we would be very happy to support you on that path."
Kagawa's legs lost their strength, and he slumped back onto the sofa.
He gasped for breath.
The notes of the symphony outside faintly penetrated the soundproof door and pounded against his eardrums like a countdown.
He looked at the contract on the coffee table that would sell his soul, then at the check that could provide an immediate escape.
Outside was an unsolvable dead end.
Before him was a path to avoid prison and possibly advance further.
He had no choice and no way to refuse.
Kagawa reached out his trembling right hand and took the fountain pen from Endo.
His wrist trembled slightly from humiliation, fear, and an ambition that had awakened at some unknown moment, and the tip of the pen left a tiny ink blot on the paper.
The iridium pen tip glided across the paper fibers.
With a faint scratching sound, he personally accepted the noose handed to him by the Saionji Family.
The heavy soundproof door of the second-floor VIP monitoring room pushed inward.
Managing Director Endo walked into the room and pushed the door shut behind him.
Behind the large matte black main console, Satsuki sat upright in a leather swivel chair.
The room's light source was kept very low to prevent screen glare.
Her gaze had been fixed on the matrix of monitoring screens on the wall, but at the slight click of the door lock, she turned her head slightly.
"Three minutes later than I expected," Satsuki said casually as she watched Endo approach.
"Does Vice President Kagawa still harbor some unrealistic loyalty to Fuji Bank?"
Endo strode to the main console and opened the black briefcase he was carrying.
"Loyalty is often very fragile in the face of a desperate fight for survival."
"I think he just needed a little more time to find a respectable excuse for his betrayal."
Endo pulled a slightly wrinkled memorandum from it and handed it to Satsuki with both hands.
Satsuki took the memorandum.
It was Fuji Bank's "Underlying Debt Divestment Memorandum."
In the final signature column, Vice President Kagawa's handwriting was slightly messy due to fear, and next to it was a clear red official seal that gave Fuji Bank's legal validity.
"Starting next month, Fuji Bank's internal 'List of Hidden Non-Performing Loans' will be delivered to the designated mailbox on time."
Satsuki's gaze lingered on Kagawa's signature for two seconds.
"He made a smart decision."
Satsuki placed the document back on the desk.
"Managing Director Endo, how much longer do you think Fuji Bank can hold out with those fake ledgers?"
Endo's gaze fell on the memorandum.
"They rely heavily on book profits from cross-shareholding between companies to meet the Basel Accord's 8% core capital adequacy ratio.
With the market continuing to slide, the loss of those profits is an objective fact.
But exactly how much loss they have hidden off-balance sheet is something the outside world cannot accurately calculate."
"That is why we need Kagawa to provide first-hand internal information."
Satsuki leaned back against the leather swivel chair.
"No matter how well official financial reports are dressed up, they cannot hide the entity's financial bleeding.
Using the drafts he provides monthly, we need to filter out one or two core backbone enterprises within the Fuyo Group that are massive in scale and deeply involved in heavy infrastructure, but whose actual cash flow has long since broken."
Endo looked at the memorandum, and his mind quickly applied a financial attack model.
"By identifying this pivot point, we can establish short positions overseas."
Endo pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses, and his voice was low.
"Then, we can discreetly leak the company's real bad debt data to Western media outlets like the Wall Street Journal.
Once the true financial black hole is exposed, other domestic financial institutions will immediately cut off short-term lending to it to avoid risk.
This will cause the company's cash flow to dry up within days."
"When it is on the brink of bankruptcy, it will surely seek help from Fuji Bank, its main bank."
Satsuki tapped her fingers lightly on the chair's armrest.
"Following the tradition of Zaibatsu sticking together, the head office should approve an emergency bridge loan to keep it alive."
She paused, and a faint smile played at the corners of her mouth.
"At that point, it will be Vice President Kagawa's turn to strike during the head office's executive meeting."
"But, Young Lady," Endo frowned.
"Faced with such a pivotal backbone enterprise, those stubborn old executives on the head office's board will not abandon the rescue just because of a light 'Basel Accord compliance warning' from Kagawa.
They are highly likely to choose to falsify the accounts to cover up this funding."
"What if the price of continuing the rescue is immediate death?"
Satsuki looked directly at Endo.
"Foreign media has already exposed the company's bad debts, and auditors from the Ministry of Finance and the Bank for International Settlements are watching it like hawks.
Kagawa only needs to state a realistic problem to the board.
If they force a capital injection now, it will immediately trigger the 8% capital red line, and Fuji Bank's branches in New York and London will have their licenses revoked tomorrow."
Satsuki's finger drew a light line on the desk.
"After blocking the path to a rescue, Kagawa will use his authority over underlying asset divestment to offer the board an alternative plan."
Endo's pupils contracted slightly as shady accounting operations flashed through his mind.
"Tobashi Account."
Endo finished her thought.
"Correct."
Satsuki nodded slightly.
"Kagawa will propose abandoning the rescue and letting that backbone enterprise go bankrupt.
But the massive non-performing loans generated after the bankruptcy can be transferred off-balance sheet through Tobashi Accounts via shell companies set up overseas or in remote prefectures.
This bad debt will be hidden completely in the shadows, to be slowly digested over ten years."
Endo stood by the main console and silently considered the feasibility of the plan.
"Japanese bank executives are best at procrastinating when faced with a crisis."
Endo's voice slowed down.
"Given the choice between immediately losing international licenses and hiding bad debts off-balance sheet to delay the problem, those board members will certainly choose the latter.
They will cut off the blood supply with a clear conscience and watch the backbone enterprise die."
"The backbone enterprise collapses, and the dominoes begin to fall."
Satsuki looked at Endo.
"The head office board thinks they have perfectly hidden the bad debts in Tobashi Accounts.
But that is only true if Kagawa does not hand over the real monthly Tobashi Account drafts to us."
"Once they have finished transferring all the bad debts, we can take these drafts that are enough to charge the entire board with breach of trust and knock directly on their door, forcing them to sign a restructuring agreement at an extremely deep discount."
"We can then use our status as creditors to sit at the head of the negotiating table.
Using credit lines and extension terms as leverage, we can trade for what we want, like stripping the underlying patents hidden in their labs or carving out control of core production lines."
"Or even further, swallowing them whole is also within consideration."
Endo looked down at the thin sheet of paper on the desk.
He had always thought he was working hard to keep up with the Young Lady's pace.
But in terms of vision, he admitted he had never come close to her.
But at the very least, he had to be of use to her.
He picked up the memorandum and solemnly returned it to the encrypted compartment of his briefcase.
He turned the gears of the combination lock and sealed away this lethal fuse.
"I understand.
I will personally take charge of arranging the implementation of the specific plan."
Endo picked up his briefcase and stood up.
The settlement on the financial battlefield was finalized.
As the actual coordinator of tonight's charity gala, he still needed to ensure the fundraising segment in the first-floor hall concluded smoothly.
Endo turned his gaze to the security monitoring screen matrix that occupied the entire wall and began his routine check of the venue's various locations.
On dozens of split screens, guests in the first-floor hall were clinking glasses, and media flashes were going off frequently.
After quickly scanning the footage of several core main venues, Endo's gaze stopped on a split screen at the edge of the third row.
That area was supposed to be a logistics meal-prep corridor off-limits to guests, but now a discordant figure that should not be there had appeared.
In the footage, Yamada, the contractor in old cloth work clothes, was still huddled in the shadows of the corner.
He held his knees and occasionally poked half his head out to secretly observe the brightly lit front hall.
Satsuki followed his gaze and also looked at that monitoring screen.
Looking at the slightly trembling man on the screen, a faint smile touched Satsuki's lips.
"By the way."
"There is still this little mouse to deal with..."