When the ward door was pushed open from the outside, Satsuki had already had someone crank up the head of her bed.
Shuichi's footsteps when walking in were originally very fast, but after truly seeing his daughter on the hospital bed, he paused for a moment by the door instead.
This was the first time he had truly seen Satsuki since receiving the news.
As he rushed all the way here, the trauma team had already reported the examination results very clearly.
No gunshot wounds, stable vital signs, no life-threatening internal bleeding found for the time being, and no obvious abnormalities in the intracranial examination.
Just now in the outside hallway, he was even the one who personally told the others these results.
But a report was ultimately just a report.
Until now, seeing Satsuki actually sitting there, able to raise her head to look at him, and able to flash a smile just like usual, those cold medical conclusions finally felt real.
Her complexion was still very pale, and her right cheek was patched with a newly changed dressing, but several small wounds on her forehead had already been treated.
The loose hospital gown covered most of her body, and only the back of her hand exposed outside the quilt still retained the infusion needle.
"Father."
Seeing him standing at the doorway all along, Satsuki raised her left hand and beckoned toward the bedside.
"What are you doing standing over there?"
This single sentence finally brought Shuichi back to his senses.
He walked over briskly, stopped beside the hospital bed, first lowered his head to glance at the dressing on the side of Satsuki's face, and then looked with heartache at her arm exposed outside the quilt.
"Why are you already sitting up?"
"I was a bit tired from lying down."
Satsuki said with a slight smile.
"The doctor said the bed could be cranked up a little higher, it is not like they told me to get out of bed for a walk."
Shuichi completely ignored the second half of her sentence.
"Is your head still dizzy? The doctor just said you have a mild concussion."
"A little bit."
"What about your chest? Did not they say there was impact trauma during the car crash?"
"It hurts a little when I take a deep breath."
After finishing, seeing Shuichi's brows noticeably furrow tightly again, Satsuki could not help but add:
"It really is just a little."
"I hardly dare believe anything you say right now."
Shuichi reached out and touched the edge of the bed, but as if not knowing where to start checking, he could only let his gaze fall back onto her face.
"Even the doctors would not dare say you have fully recovered, and now look at you, waking up and immediately starting to tell me you are fine."
"It was not that serious to begin with."
Satsuki chuckled.
Shuichi looked at her.
Stared at by him for a few seconds, Satsuki had to rein in her smile a bit and honestly explained:
"I was checked again just now. My head is fine, the chest injuries are mainly from the impact and the seatbelt, and no bleeding was found in my abdomen. The wound on my face looks quite obvious, but the doctor said it will not affect anything."
She subconsciously raised her hand, wanting to touch her right cheek, but stopped her fingers just as they were about to touch the dressing.
"The rest is just recovering."
"So Father does not need to keep looking at me with that kind of gaze."
Shuichi did not answer.
He looked Satsuki up and down once more.
Ever since receiving the call, many images had flashed through his mind.
Some came from the descriptions of the trauma team, some came from the on-site conditions sent back by Dojima and the others, and even more were completely imagined by himself on the way to the hospital.
Hand grenades.
Automatic weapons.
Purposeful collisions.
A second wave of gunmen.
The more he heard of each item, the less he dared to imagine what the person actually lying inside the treatment area would look like.
Fortunately, Satsuki was right in front of him now.
Able to speak, able to smile, and even finding him too nervous.
This should have allowed Shuichi to completely relax.
But once his gaze fell onto that dressing, he would recall the things he had just heard all over again.
"This is also called being fine?"
Shuichi finally spoke, his voice a bit lower than before.
Following his line of sight, Satsuki quickly understood what he was looking at.
"Compared to what they originally intended to do, it certainly counts as being fine."
She paused here, and the expression that had still carried a hint of a smile faded away as well.
"However, being fine this time does not mean every time in the future will be fine."
Shuichi's gaze froze.
The ward was very quiet.
Apart from the occasional electronic sound emitted by the monitoring equipment, there was only the very soft rustle of the air conditioning blowing air.
Satsuki lowered her head, looking at her hand that still retained scrapes.
After quite a while, she raised her head again.
The expression on her face had completely sunk.
Shuichi rarely saw his daughter like this.
When Satsuki was truly angered normally, she would often smile instead.
The more she found someone an eyesore, the prettier her smile would sometimes look on her face, and by the time the other party finally realized something was wrong, Saionji's intended arrangements were usually already half-completed.
But now she did not even have the mood to maintain that hint of a smile.
"Satsuki..."
Watching with heartache, Shuichi raised his hand as if to say something, but then put it back down.
Satsuki's lips were tightly pursed, her gaze fell on a certain point beside the bed, and her right hand resting on the quilt slowly tightened without her realizing it.
It was not until the scraped area was pulled into a sharp pain that she noticed how much strength she had been using and slowly relaxed her hand.
The pain instead cleared her mind.
She was extremely angry.
Ever since confirming that the grenade did not belong to Washio's original arrangements at all, that fire in her chest had never truly subsided.
The other party was truly prepared to kill her.
Someone had prepared automatic weapons in advance, hired professional gunmen, used the yakuza as a front to block the way, and calculated the gaps that would appear after the motorcade was scattered.
Just a fraction more, and she probably would not have had the chance to sit here and talk to her father now.
Thinking of this, Satsuki's clenched hand moved once more.
She desperately wanted to know who that American was right now.
Wanted to know who was sitting in which office in the United States, deciding across the Pacific Ocean that she should die.
There was even such a brief moment when the thoughts popping up in her mind could hardly be called rational.
"Find him."
"Return everything that happened to her tonight back to him doubled, piece by piece."
But this thought only lingered for a moment before Satsuki forcibly suppressed it.
The more it reached this kind of moment, the clearer she knew that anger had no way of helping her find the person.
On the contrary, as long as she rushed to lock onto a certain enemy because of this fire, all subsequent investigations would start searching for evidence around that answer.
What the person truly hiding behind the scenes most wished to see was probably Saionji flying into a rage and thrashing about blindly after being provoked.
Therefore, she had to stay calm.
"Find the person first."
"Then settle the accounts."
Satsuki slowly exhaled a breath, her originally tense fingers also loosening bit by bit.
When she looked at Shuichi again, the anger on her face had been suppressed once more, leaving only a calmness that even Shuichi found unfamiliar.
"And..."
She paused.
Her voice was not loud, but she spoke very clearly.
"I will definitely make those people pay the price."
Satsuki looked at Shuichi.
"No matter who turns out to be investigated in the end."
Looking at his somewhat haggard daughter, Shuichi silently reached out his hand and gently covered the back of Satsuki's hand.
Satsuki lowered her head to take a look.
Her father's palm was very warm.
She quieted down for a few seconds, then turned her hand over to grip Shuichi's hand, the expression on her face finally softening a bit more.
"However, getting revenge requires finding the person first."
Satsuki leaned back against the pillow, her tone gradually returning to how she usually handled matters.
"Washio is definitely not the person who planned this matter; at most, he was just pushed to the front by someone to act as a knife."
She paused for a moment and added:
"Still, we have to catch him back."
Shuichi looked at her.
A trace of a smile finally reappeared on Satsuki's face.
Only that smile could not be considered gentle no matter how one looked at it.
"Remember to catch him alive."
"If he thinks that dying after things are exposed can end it, he is thinking far too cheaply of it."
Shuichi nodded.
"Indeed, he will soon regret why he was ever born."
The door of the ward was gently knocked on right at this moment.
"Come in."
After receiving permission, a member of the trauma team walked in.
The person was holding several folders in their arms that were obviously unrelated to medical records, with a gray kraft paper bag pressed right on top.
Because the innermost special treatment unit was currently in a sealed state, outside secretaries and corporate personnel could not casually enter or exit for the time being.
Everything that needed to be sent inside had to first undergo security checks and then be handed over by medical personnel.
"Eldest Miss."
That doctor placed the items onto the small table beside the bed.
"The materials you requested just now have been delivered."
"Thank you for your hard work."
The doctor glanced at those somewhat exaggeratedly thick folders, and then glanced at Satsuki leaning against the bed.
Obviously wanting to remind her that it was best not to start dealing with so much work within the first hour of waking up.
But in the end, he only said:
"Please do not read for too long. If you experience dizziness, nausea, or blurred vision, please press the call button immediately."
"Okay."
Satsuki agreed quite readily.
After the doctor walked out, Shuichi reached out and flipped through the topmost cover.
"S.A. Investment — North American Assets and Major Interests Summary"
The date was from this month.
Shuichi lowered his head to glance at the cover, and then looked at Satsuki.
"You had someone send this over right after you woke up?"
"This is a monthly summary that the New York office originally had, I just had them send the latest version in."
Shuichi was silent for a moment, but in the end, he still placed the document on the small table by the hospital bed.
"North America... Has SIS already confirmed that they are Americans?"
"More or less."
Satsuki tapped the cover of the document with her finger.
"Although we still cannot determine which specific faction it is, the person behind the scenes is indeed in North America."
"The American who contacted Washio is a retired CIA operative."
Shuichi raised his head.
"Masato's side just confirmed his identity. After leaving the CIA, this person has been working as a private security and risk consultant, long responsible for Asia affairs in the past, and has left behind quite a few connections in Japan as well."
"The batch of weapons used tonight, several gunmen from all over the world, and the money received by Washio's side—the few tracks that can be traced now all intersect with him in the end."
Satsuki paused slightly.
"However, a person like this would not specially run to Tokyo to plan an assassination just for their own interest. SIS found that he has been active in the United States these past few months, and only arranged matters toward Japan here through several layers of middlemen before the operation began."
"In other words, he is also someone acting on behalf of others."
Shuichi quickly understood her meaning.
"So the person who truly wants to kill you is still in the United States."
"Most likely."
Satsuki nodded gently.
"At least the money, personnel, and orders found so far are all pointing in that direction. Since we cannot find out specifically who it is for the time being, let us first look at whose path Saionji has blocked among the Americans recently."
Satsuki opened to the first page.
"To be able to push things to the extent of tonight, the problem between the other party and Saionji cannot possibly be just ordinary business competition."
Satsuki continued:
"Father, did you know? Palmerston once said a very famous quote in the British Parliament."
"A country has no permanent allies, nor permanent enemies, only permanent interests."
Satsuki's finger slowly moved down along the table of contents on the first page.
"Countries are like this, and companies are actually even simpler."
"Capitalists might hate someone, or they might envy someone."
"But hatred and envy are generally not worth spending so much money to find professional gunmen from all over the world, and then send weapons, vehicles, and intelligence into Tokyo."
Shuichi's expression also turned serious.
"So they do not hate you."
"At least not just hate."
Satsuki nodded.
"Killing me is a very stupid thing."
"The other party must bear the investigation of the Japanese police, the pursuit of the American side, diplomatic risks, and the risk of the entire organization being retaliated against by Saionji after the matter is exposed."
She paused when she said "retaliation."
"A very severe retaliation."
Shuichi's fingers holding the document tightened slightly.
"Since they are still willing to do it under such circumstances, it shows that in their eyes—"
Satsuki stretched out a finger and gently tapped on the document.
"Keeping me alive is more expensive."
Shuichi understood.
They did not need to guess a name right away.
Throw out a question first:
"If Saionji continues to develop, which Americans would suffer losses to the point of being willing to take such a risk?"
The list would naturally become much smaller.
At least theoretically so.
Shuichi turned to the first page.
Then he was silent for a few seconds.
"...Where do we start?"
Satsuki also glanced at the table of contents.
"Money, I suppose."
This was probably the easiest item.
Shuichi turned the document to the financial assets section.
The numbers that first came into view made his brow twitch.
Actually, he knew that Saionji Group was not short of money now.
But knowing was one thing, and re-consolidating all funds from the past few years onto a single sheet was another.
"On the Nikkei side, as of this month, a cumulative profit of fifty-two billion dollars has been realized."
Shuichi slowly finished reading, and glanced back at the expense details.
"The first batch taken by Salomon was seven billion, and the subsequent commission dropped to four percent... How much is actually left in the end?"
"More than forty-four billion dollars," Satsuki said, "There is still a small portion of positions not completely exited, but it does not matter anymore; those are all small changes of tens of millions."
"Since last year, market depth has been getting worse and worse. Frank has been splitting orders, Salomon handled most of it, and Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Merrill Lynch also took some."
Shuichi's gaze paused on that number for a while.
When the first batch of thirty-five billion dollars completed settlement, he already felt that it was a sum of money so huge it was somewhat distorted.
But turns out that was only the beginning.
Looking at the numbers on the report, for a moment he could not quite describe what he was feeling.
After Japan's bubble burst, Tokyo was flooded every day with news of corporate bankruptcies, asset shrinkage, and bank bad debts.
Yet when the same crisis fell on Saionji, it was gradually turned by Satsuki into US dollars in overseas accounts, treasury bonds, and these investments continuously extending outwards in the United States right before his eyes.
Shuichi suddenly felt that an economic crisis might not be such a bad thing—at least for them, it was so.
"Most of the money that will not be needed in the short term has already gone into US Treasury bonds and money market instruments."
"One of the most important tasks over in New York right now is to decentralize custody, trading, and credit lines, so that such a large asset cannot be pressed entirely into the hands of a single bank or investment bank."
Shuichi nodded.
When money is scarce, one needs to rely on banks.
Once the fund scale grows to a certain extent, it is time for banks to worry about whether this customer will leave.
"So on the Wall Street side, the suspicion is not big?"
"At least most institutions have no reason to want me to die right now." Satsuki pointed at the string of names, "Father should have seen how much commission Saionji gives them every year. As long as we are still continuing to trade, they have no reason to destroy such a client."
"What about Salomon?"
"Even lower. At the time of the first batch settlement, Salomon had already taken seven billion dollars, and they have also been doing the subsequent closing and liquidation business."
"As long as Saionji is still trading in the US market, they still have money to make."
Shuichi made a mark next to the finance column.
"Then let us temporarily rule out Wall Street's suspicion."
Satsuki nodded and turned to the next page.
Technology investment.
What Shuichi saw first was Microsoft.
"Is this the twenty million dollars you bought in 1986?"
"Right. According to recent market prices, it is close to four hundred million dollars."
Shuichi raised his head and glanced at her.
"Almost twenty times?"
"Almost. But Microsoft does not need to be checked closely; back then we just bought shares from the market, and have not interfered in their management these past few years. To Gates, Saionji is at most a major shareholder with a relatively long holding period."
"By the same token, Oracle is the same."
Shuichi continued downwards.
"Five percent of Adobe, plus the Asian agency rights."
"This stake is no longer just shareholding, but the conflict of interest is still not big enough. Someone might not like Saionji taking away a portion of the Asian market's interests, but it is not enough to go to the lengths of tonight for this matter."
Further down was Cisco.
Shuichi paused for a moment when he saw the numbers.
"Cisco has been public for so long, and you have kept this thirty percent all along?"
"Mhm. It is still growing, and there is no need to reduce holdings for now. Moreover, what Saionji gave them back then was not just money."
Toshiba's chip supply, the Japanese market, and the later negotiations through the Office of the United States Trade Representative with Japan's telecommunications procurement system all caused this investment to gradually deviate from the scope of pure shareholding.
Years passed, Cisco had begun to enter the corporate network and communication equipment market, and Saionji remained an important shareholder as well as one of its most reliable channels when entering the Asian market.
Shuichi looked at the business description that followed.
"In this way, some of America's own competitors will indeed be unhappy."
"Japanese equipment enterprises are the same. But looking at it currently, it still belongs to normal industrial competition."
Satsuki made a mark next to Cisco, while Shuichi continued flipping downwards and soon saw Qualcomm.
"Twenty-nine point nine percent preferred stock, veto power over major matters, and fifty-one percent of the Asian joint venture."
He reconfirmed it once.
"The commercialization of Japan and China are both here?"
"And the Asian market that can continue to be negotiated in the future."
Shuichi was silent for a few seconds.
"This stake no longer looks like an ordinary investment."