Surprisingly, the subsequent negotiations went smoother and smoother.
Large-scale conflicts between the three groups needed to be restrained, especially preventing local faction disputes from dragging in ordinary merchants, corporate employees, and unrelated personnel.
If irreconcilable conflicts truly arose between both parties, they should first report the news back to headquarters and have their respective designated liaisons sit down to handle it.
Satsuki had no interest in the three groups' territories, nor was she prepared to distribute casinos, bars, and adult entertainment shops for them.
This remark relaxed the atmosphere at the main table considerably.
Watanabe Yoshinori even said with a smile:
"On my way here, I was wondering if Miss Saionji was even going to assign us which streets in Kobe belong to whom."
Satsuki laughed when she heard this.
"Mr. Watanabe still thinks too highly of me." She chuckled, took a sip of tea, and continued, "I cannot even finish handling my own affairs every day. If two bars in Tokyo fighting over customers in the future also needs to be sent to the Saionji Main Residence, I suppose I will just have to lock my front door first."
A round of laughter that nauseated Washio followed around them.
Hoshino shook his head and said, "You can rest assured about this. If we really sent such matters to your place, the three of us would not need our faces anymore."
"That is good."
Satsuki turned to the next page.
"There is also the matter regarding Saionji."
The laughter in the room slowly died down.
"This point is very simple."
Satsuki looked at the three men.
"None of the three groups are to accept violent commissions targeting members of the Saionji Family, group executives, and personnel explicitly under Saionji's protection. If anyone underneath receives a similar request, report it directly back to headquarters."
Listening to this, Watanabe Yoshinori glanced towards Dojima Gen.
"Does Miss Saionji still worry that someone would dare take on this kind of job?"
"Of course I hope not."
Following his gaze, Satsuki also glanced at Dojima Gen, the smile on her face becoming a bit more pronounced.
"However, making things clear beforehand is always more convenient than arguing about who did not know the rules after something actually happens."
"That is true."
Watanabe Yoshinori pushed the document forward a bit.
"Yamaguchi-gumi agrees."
Hoshino followed suit, and Yuhiro Inagawa had no objections either.
This point was discussed even faster than the previous ones.
Sitting in the crowd and watching Dojima Gen standing there, Washio felt that this clause was somewhat redundant.
Who would dare touch Saionji Satsuki?
How many years had it been since the incident with the Black Dragon Society?
Saionji's banks, companies, political connections, and The Club—which many large corporate presidents could not even squeeze into—were all laid out right there.
As long as they still had a shred of the desire to live, probably no one would proactively reach out their hands toward this girl.
Therefore, this girl was extremely safe—Washio used to think so too.
It is just that now he suddenly discovered that the things he could lose were slowly disappearing.
At twenty-one past eight, the agreement finally turned to the last few pages.
This section was also what Watanabe Yoshinori, Hoshino, and Yuhiro Inagawa actually discussed the longest.
Satsuki left a way out for the three groups.
For companies truly operating in a normal manner, as long as organizational activities, personnel, and funds were separated, Saionji would not proactively demand banks to cut off loans because of the operators' past backgrounds, nor would she demand cooperative enterprises to suspend normal business.
The same applied to those who wanted to quit the yakuza.
After quitting, as long as they no longer relied on their original moniker to do things, no longer collected money for the organization, and no longer accepted funds provided by the organization, then whether they opened a restaurant, did transportation, or established a construction company in the future, Saionji would treat them as ordinary operators.
Watanabe Yoshinori flipped through those pages again, his finger pausing on an item concerning "complete severance."
"There is another practical issue."
He looked up at Satsuki.
"What if the company was initially funded by the organization? People can quit, but that initial startup capital cannot just be treated as if it never existed."
"Then settle the accounts clearly."
Satsuki replied very cleanly.
What should be returned to the organization should be returned, and shares that should be bought out should be bought out at normal prices. As long as the money could be explained clearly in the end, and the organization no longer continued to hold shares, pay dividends, or interfere with company operations through this money, she would not chase after that earliest funding.
After hearing this, Watanabe Yoshinori lowered his head to glance at the document and nodded slightly.
Hoshino immediately asked:
"What about the people? If a former member truly quits, but still has brothers, uncles, and nephews remaining in the organization, surely for the sake of severance, they cannot just disown their relatives, right?"
Hearing this, Satsuki smiled.
"Mr. Hoshino, I have no interest in managing other people's family affairs."
The few people around the table also revealed smiles.
"Kinship is not a problem to begin with," Satsuki continued. "As long as that person no longer does things for the organization, and the company's money and business are truly separated, whoever his older brother or uncle is, Saionji will not use these matters to make things difficult for a normally operating company."
"Then I can rest assured."
Hoshino leaned back slightly, his expression noticeably relaxing a few degrees.
What Yuhiro Inagawa was considering was another matter.
"Miss Saionji may not pursue it, but the banks may not necessarily think so."
He raised his hand to touch the document in front of him.
"What if someone goes out and starts a company themselves, but the banks check their past connections and still refuse to lend money?"
"That would be the bank's own decision."
Satsuki looked at him, her tone still peaceful.
"I can tell banks not to additionally blacklist anyone because of Saionji's attitude, but I cannot guarantee credit for someone who has just quit, nor can I demand banks to lend money knowing full well there is a risk."
She paused slightly.
"Whether he can make the bank believe he is already a normal operator depends on himself."
Hearing this, Yuhiro Inagawa nodded instead.
"That makes sense."
In the time that followed, the three men asked many details surrounding funds, shareholding, personnel withdrawal, and company operations.
The three men asked about these contents for a long time.
How funds would be divided.
How past shares would be calculated.
How long after quitting would it be considered a true severance.
If a former organizational member merely held a normal stake in a company, how it should be determined.
Chizuru recorded them one by one beside them, and Satsuki occasionally asked her to rewrite one of the sentences to avoid future disputes due to vague wording.
Sitting in the back, Washio became more and more silent the more he listened.
When hacking down sokaiya, jiage, and violent debt collection earlier, the three of them combined had not talked for this long.
Now that it was the turn of legitimate companies, they demanded every single clause to be asked clearly.
Because these were the things they were truly prepared to leave behind.
The three largest organizations in Japan's underworld seemed to be turning into a large corporation in the true sense of the word.
Watanabe Yoshinori had things he could leave behind.
Hoshino did too.
Yuhiro Inagawa did as well.
Senior cadres a bit further down perhaps had them too.
They could peel away the organization's business bit by bit, leave the clean companies behind, and then let the young people in their families go to work wearing suits in the future.
What about Washio?
He lowered his head and glanced at his hands.
Fifty-three years old.
His knuckles were thick, and there were old injuries left from his youth on the web of his hands.
He also had a company, and the business license was real.
Its name was Toei Shoji.
But many people present knew very well what that company actually did.
After stripping away the organizational identity, what was left of Toei Shoji?
Nothing more than a few desks, two telephones, and three people who knew how to do bookkeeping.
And a bunch of connections that ordinary companies would absolutely never write into their business scope.
Washio felt like he was sitting on a ship pulling away from the shore.
The people at the very top of the cabin had already found lifeboats.
What they were discussing now was who would go down first, how many boxes they could bring, and how to prove after landing that they had nothing to do with the original ship anymore.
As for what to do with those people down in the engine room, it seemed no one really cared.
He thought of Abe again.
He thought of Ono.
He also thought of Matsuda, who had followed him for more than twenty years.
These people had all taken beatings for the organization when they were young, and when some went to prison for the organization, they did not say an extra word.
Now the times had changed, and the people at the top were prepared to tell them that all those things they were once most needed to do were strictly forbidden starting from the end of September.
What would they eat after that?
Go move goods at convenience stores?
A fifty-year-old man, with full-back tattoos and a criminal record.
Which convenience store would want him?
They would even be discriminated against just going to a public bathhouse.
Washio's teeth slowly clenched tightly.
Yet the atmosphere over at the main table was getting better and better.
The questions that needed to be asked had been asked, and the wording of the final sections had been adjusted almost completely.
Watanabe Yoshinori even made a joke, saying that if someone underneath really wanted to open a ramen shop in the future, at least they would not have to worry about Saionji Bank running over the next day to investigate three generations of their ancestors.
Satsuki answered with a smile:
"As long as the ramen is delicious, I might even go support their business."
Several people laughed.
Washio also twitched the corner of his mouth along with them.
He did not want the people beside him to notice any problems.
But his right hand under the table had already clenched into a fist bit by bit.
A few days ago.
That old office with drawn curtains.
The man who had never told him his name sat opposite him, pouring him a drink while asking a very simple question.
"Mr. Washio, how do you think the people under you will survive three months from now?"
Washio had a cold face at that time.
"We have our own ways."
The other person smiled.
"Of course you can say that."
"But what about your president?"
Washio's expression sank instantly.
Yet the man continued as if he had not seen it:
"The people at the very top have long since prepared. They have companies, buildings, and people to manage money for them. No matter how strict the Organized Crime Countermeasures Act is, it is very hard to make them go hungry tomorrow."
"The ones who will truly be cleared out are you lot."
Washio told him to shut up.
The other person actually stopped.
After a while, that man poured himself another glass of wine.
"As long as those zaibatsu suffer a loss once, they will stop."
He said.
"Saionji is the same."
"Everyone thinks Saionji is terrifying because no one has ever dared to touch it."
"Banks fear cutting off relations, companies fear being surrounded and suppressed, politicians fear their positions, and even the big shots above you fear losing everything they have accumulated over decades all at once."
"But what if someone lets that little girl know that a piece of paper cannot control matters on the street?"
Washio asked back then:
"Do you want me to kill her?"
The man laughed out loud.
"Who said anything about killing?"
"Let her suffer a loss once."
"Let her know that Tokyo cannot run entirely according to her own thoughts just because she sits in a study signing a few documents."
"As long as that agreement is proven unable to be upheld, people within the organization will naturally demand to renegotiate."
There was another sentence that Washio had remembered until today.
"The three presidents are not truly willing in their hearts to be manipulated by a little girl; they just feel that the cost of rebellion is too high right now."
"As long as you prove to them that Saionji can also bleed, they should instead thank you."
Washio still did not promise anything that day.
But now, watching Hoshino joke and chat with Satsuki, he suddenly felt that the stuff pent up in his chest all night had finally found a vent.
So this was what they called "injuring the muscles and bones."
For Hoshino and the others, it meant having a few fewer troublesome businesses.
For Washio, it meant stripping away all the skills he had relied on to survive for the past thirty-six years, and then making him figure out how to live on his own.
At forty-seven past eight.
Chizuru reorganized the final version of the agreement into four identical copies and placed them on the table respectively.
The room gradually grew quiet.
Watanabe Yoshinori picked up his pen first and signed his name on the Yamaguchi-gumi side.
Hoshino took it and signed at the position of Sumiyoshi-kai.
Yuhiro Inagawa confirmed the additional clause concerning Susumu Ishii one last time and also wrote down his name.
Seals were pressed onto the paper one after another.
Washio stared at those somewhat glaring red seals, his gaze turning cold little by little.
After all three copies were signed, the documents were sent in front of Satsuki.
Satsuki gripped her fountain pen and wrote her name on the Saionji side.
Saionji Satsuki.
After the final seal was stamped down, this meeting lasting over an hour was considered over.
Watanabe Yoshinori looked to be in a very good mood.
"That way, at least a lot of misunderstandings can be avoided in the future."
"I think so too."
Satsuki handed the fountain pen back to Chizuru.
"The environment has changed now. Continuing to do things according to the ways of ten or twenty years ago may not necessarily be a good thing for you all either. Making the boundaries clear today will save everyone trouble in the future."
Hoshino said with a smile:
"Those young people underneath really need to be disciplined. Money has been too easy to make these past few years, and many people no longer know what things should be touched and what things should not be touched."
Yuhiro Inagawa brought up Ishii again.
"I will send people over to Ishii's side again. Rest assured, Miss Saionji, his personal affairs will no longer drag the association into it."
"Then I will have to trouble Mr. Inagawa."
Satsuki stood up.
"I have disturbed you all for so long tonight, I will take my leave first."
The three men stood up following her almost simultaneously.
All the peripheral cadres also stood up one after another.
Dojima Gen had already walked to the door, confirming the corridor situation with the security personnel outside. When Satsuki was ready to leave, he returned to her side and rear, maintaining a distance where he could reach out and touch her at any time.
Watanabe Yoshinori bowed slightly toward Satsuki.
"Miss Saionji, take care."
Hoshino and Yuhiro Inagawa also saluted along.
Washio stood in the third row, bending deeply along with the people around him.
More than twenty men, mostly tall and large, found it hard to completely hide the aura left behind by decades of hanging out on the streets, even while wearing formal suits.
Right now, they lowered their heads in unison.
Seeing off an eighteen-year-old girl as she left.
Washio looked at the tatami, maintaining the same posture as the people around him.
He heard Satsuki say goodbye to the few men, and also heard Dojima Gen's footsteps passing from ahead.
When the footsteps reached near the door, Washio slowly raised his eyes.
He only raised them a little.
Just enough to look over the bent shoulders of the people in front and see Satsuki's profile.
Satsuki had already walked to the door, seemingly still listening to Watanabe Yoshinori's final polite remark.
A faint smile hung on her face, and her expression was almost identical to when she entered the room over an hour ago—relaxed, calm, showing not a shred of tension amidst a group of high-level gangsters.
Washio stared at her for a few seconds.
He wanted to remember this face clearly.
It was this girl.
Sitting there, with a pen and a piece of paper, she completely destroyed everything they had relied on to make a living for decades.
She did not even need to pretend to look very tough.
Those three big figures at the table, whose single word in the past could make countless people terrified, would voluntarily send the agreement down for her and then have people like them responsible for execution.
Beautiful.
Washio gazed at that face.
Truly beautiful.
A malicious thought suddenly popped up in his heart.
When real violence arrived in front of her, could this pretty face still maintain that calm look?
Satsuki had already turned around and walked out of the room.
Dojima Gen followed her out.
The room door slowly closed.
Washio also lowered his head again, resuming his standing posture along with the people around him.
People around were already starting to talk, some praising that the trouble was finally resolved today, and others preparing to follow their president to another room to continue discussing how to convey things after returning.
No one noticed Washio glance toward the side door.
Standing there was a very ordinary middle-aged man.
Ever since the meeting began, he had been mixed in among the people responsible for running errands and passing messages, neither approaching the main table nor talking much with others.
Their gazes met.
Washio did not make a sound.
His lips only moved slightly—
"Begin the action."