Kenjiro was taken aback for a moment, then sat up even straighter than before.
Satsuki took the cue and continued.
"Uncle, to tell you the truth."
"Cold chain and food distribution are inherently among the family's most crucial development directions moving forward. In the future, convenience stores, hotels, S-Farm, and central kitchens will all rely on this network to connect."
She raised a finger and tapped lightly on that S-Logistics report.
"You can't truly understand this kind of thing just by sitting in an office looking at numbers."
"That is why you were sent to the cold storage, distribution centers, and central kitchens back then—so you could see the entire system from top to bottom. How the warehouses operate, how the drivers make their runs, how the stores receive goods, and how the central kitchens deliver items down the line..."
At this point, Satsuki paused with deliberate gravity.
"Looking at it now, the results are even better than I originally anticipated."
"I see..."
Kenjiro nodded slowly.
The small swell of satisfaction he had felt upon receiving Satsuki's personal validation instantly expanded another notch.
Satsuki, without batting an eye, picked up her dessert.
As if six years ago, there truly had been a densely written "Long-Term Development Plan for Saionji Kenjiro," clearly laying out every stop he should visit and everything he should learn in advance.
In reality...
Who had chosen that job at the Chiba distribution center again?
Satsuki thought back carefully.
It seemed to have been Father.
As for why that place had been chosen—
It seemed purely because Shuichi felt Uncle had stayed at his previous company a bit too long.
If he stayed any longer, his supervisor was about to officially promote him to Section Chief.
A promotion, naturally, came with a raise.
With a raise, the punishment wouldn't be as effective.
How could he not let his foolish little brother feel pain?
So Shuichi had waved his hand.
Switch him to another one.
Who knew that after hopping from one to another, it had actually crafted a complete resume at the grassroots level for him.
Judging by the outcome...
Mm.
Father did a splendid job.
Without the slightest burden on her conscience, Satsuki took the credit for herself.
Sure enough, Kenjiro wore an expression that said, "I knew it."
"No wonder."
He looked down at the documents.
"Back then, I was wondering why I was sent to those exact places of all things."
Satsuki nodded solemnly.
"As long as Uncle understands the family's painstaking intentions, that is what matters."
"I understand, of course I understand."
Having said that, Kenjiro even felt a bit bashful.
Looking back at all the hardships he had endured over the past six years, their very flavor seemed to have transformed.
Others were driven out to haul cement.
For him, that was called grooming from the grassroots.
Others worked night shifts in warehouses.
For him, that was called familiarizing oneself with inventory management.
Others ran all night following trucks, shivering so hard the next day they could barely hold chopsticks.
For him, that was studying the modern cold chain system.
Thinking of it this way...
The family truly had painstaking, profound intentions.
No, it was Satsuki who had painstaking, profound intentions.
"All right."
Satsuki put the last bite of chestnut cake into her mouth.
"Since Uncle is so capable, please continue your report."
The touch of smugness on Kenjiro's face vanished as well.
He reopened the folder.
"We were just talking about Sanyo."
"The first round of due diligence is complete. Endo reviewed it once after returning and has not requested additional investigations for now."
"Additionally, FamilyMart's logistics and fresh food systems are now unified under the group's distribution, and the integration of procurement and warehousing over at Ryohin Keikaku is also underway..."
Only the sound of Kenjiro turning pages remained in the room once again.
While listening, Satsuki picked up another small dish of fruit next to her.
This time, it was pear sliced into small bite-sized pieces.
She speared a piece with a small fork and brought it leisurely to her mouth.
Overall, her uncle had done even better over this past month or so than she had expected.
The matters she had left behind before departing for the United States were mostly settled.
In several projects requiring cross-company cooperation, there had been no instances of shunting responsibility back and forth, nor piling everything onto the Head of the Family's desk to wait for her return to make the call.
Of course, minor issues remained.
Two procurement requests had been sat on by Kenjiro for too long, sparking quite a few complaints from below.
The personnel transfers on the Odaiba side were also somewhat conservative; certain positions could have been integrated much earlier.
But none of these were major issues.
At least for his first time truly shouldering coordination across the entire group—
Outstanding.
Splendidly outstanding, in fact.
This cheap uncle of hers really was quite useful...
Satsuki speared another piece of pear.
"...Regarding Fuji Bank, the internal materials Kagawa sent over last week have also been compiled."
Hearing the words "Fuji Bank," she merely gave an absentminded hum of acknowledgment, but just as her fork was nearing her lips, her movement suddenly slowed.
Fuji Bank.
Kagawa.
And that bomb at Akasaka Branch, suppressed by her own hand for over a year.
Satsuki blinked, her gaze drifting past the coffee table to settle on the courtyard outside, which was already tinged with the colors of autumn.
It was already October.
At this point in time...
A certain memory in her mind that she hadn't deliberately revisited in a long time suddenly aligned with today's date.
According to the original trajectory, that matter with Fuji Bank should have blown up long ago.
It was only in this life, because Kagawa had kept a lid on it according to her wishes, that the situation at Akasaka Branch had been dragged out until now.
The fork in Satsuki's hand finally paused midair.
Wait a moment.
If it had already reached this time, then the conditions she had been waiting for all along...
She raised her head.
"Wait."
Kenjiro's reporting came to an abrupt halt.
Satsuki placed the fork back onto the dish, sitting up slightly straighter.
"Don't skip past the Fuji Bank section yet."
"Walk me through everything Kagawa sent over this time from the beginning."
Kenjiro glanced at her.
His heart stirred.
Is this... a surprise inspection?
In the memo Satsuki had left behind earlier, Fuji Bank occupied only a tiny fraction.
With so much going on in the group lately, he had only planned to mention it in passing according to its relative priority.
Being suddenly stopped now...
She was most likely checking whether he had kept these long-term projects in mind as well.
Fortunately, he had prepared.
Kenjiro bent down and precisely pulled out a dark blue folder from the bottom-most stack of documents.
Seeing his movement, Satsuki's brow twitched slightly.
Quite thoroughly prepared.
"I had someone reorganize the materials Kagawa sent over these past few months."
Kenjiro opened the folder.
"Over at Akasaka Branch, there hasn't been any formal head-office investigation yet."
"The exemption Kagawa granted previously remains in effect."
"However, the situation has begun to shift recently."
Satsuki said nothing.
Kenjiro pushed a summary sheet forward.
"The scale of that initial batch of anomalous certificates of deposit has far exceeded the original five billion."
"Furthermore, the funds have circulated through several layers of external institutions."
"Some collateral relationships have begun to overlap."
"Kagawa believes that if this develops any further, it will be very difficult to completely cover up solely within Akasaka Branch."
He pulled out another document.
"Here is the continuous transaction record of the Tobashi Accounts."
"According to the requirement you set before, it has long exceeded six months."
"Comparing the earlier and later figures, the growth trend is conspicuous."
"As for the Cayman route, the financial personnel in New York and Tokyo have essentially reconciled it."
Satsuki, who had been leaning back on the sofa, sat up straighter inch by inch.
Kenjiro noticed.
He became even more meticulous in his explanation.
"There is one more point."
"Kagawa specifically noted on the final page."
"'Fuji Bank has recently reopened discussions internally regarding branch risk inspection protocols. Although Akasaka Branch is still within his sphere of control for now, if the head office truly expands cross-inspections before the end of the year, shielding Akasaka single-handedly will become increasingly conspicuous.'"
"So he wants to know—"
Kenjiro looked at Satsuki.
"'Should we keep holding it down?'"
Silence fell over the room.
Satsuki looked down at the summary sheets Kenjiro had just spread out.
The matter of Akasaka Branch was something she naturally remembered.
The reason she had Kagawa keep the lid on it in the first place was that the landmine was not yet big enough.
Initially, the fraudulent certificates of deposit exposed were only five billion yen, the data provided by the Tobashi Accounts was sparse, and regarding which companies many of the funds passed through and where they ultimately went, only fragmented traces could be seen.
Exposing it back then would at most blow up Akasaka Branch and incidentally embarrass Fuji Bank for a while.
Satsuki obviously wanted far more than that.
That was why she had been waiting.
But now, what Kenjiro laid before her was completely different from a year ago.
The continuous records left by the Tobashi Accounts had long passed six months, several funding trails that had been fragmented were now pieced together, and even for funds channeled out of Tokyo through overseas companies and back into Japan, corresponding traces could be identified for most of them.
And Akasaka Branch itself had grown from those initial few audacious, illicit transactions into a black hole increasingly impossible to patch.
Satsuki's finger slowly moved down a column of numbers on the chart.
Over these past few years, Kagawa had done even better than she anticipated.
He hadn't clamped the lid down too tightly, nor had he let things slip entirely out of control.
He simply shielded Akasaka Branch time and time again from inspections that might prematurely expose the problem, lulling the perpetrators inside into thinking their scheme remained safe, allowing them to keep going.
Looking back now, the pieces that had been missing in the beginning seemed almost entirely laid out on the table.
Satsuki's gaze gradually settled on the final page.
So it has already reached this stage.
She leaned back into the sofa, but didn't touch the dessert beside her again.
"Did Kagawa mention this time when the head office might reinspect Akasaka?"
Kenjiro immediately flipped to another page.
"No specific date."
"However, he assesses that after the recent round of branch risk rating adjustments, the head office may reschedule cross-inspections."
"Moreover, this time he isn't certain he can exclude Akasaka Branch as he did before."
Satsuki nodded gently.
That fits.
Dragged out until now, this landmine has grown large enough.
If suppressed any longer, the gains might not increase by much, while risking that Fuji Bank's own people notice the abnormality first.
Previously, she had been waiting for it to mature.
What needed to be considered next was when to hand over the fuse.
After Kenjiro finished reporting, he waited for quite a while without hearing a response.
He looked up.
The person who had been curled up on the sofa eating dessert was now sitting completely upright.
The small dish of pears had been set aside.
Satsuki held the document, her gaze lingering on one of the pages without turning it for a long time.
"Satsuki?"
Kenjiro ventured a call.
Only then did Satsuki snap back to reality.
"Hmm?"
She glanced up at him, then leaned back once more.
The sudden tension from moments ago dissipated somewhat.
"It's nothing."
Satsuki closed the document.
Yet she didn't hand it back to Kenjiro.
"Regarding Fuji Bank, don't make any moves for now."
Kenjiro nodded.
"Understood."
"However, starting today, raise the classification level of information related to Fuji Bank."
Satsuki raised a finger.
"Whatever Kagawa sends over is no longer to be mixed into standard financial relationship reports."
"Compile it separately."
"Akasaka Branch, Tobashi Accounts, external collateral institutions, as well as internal personnel and inspection schedules at the head office—I want to see all of it."
Kenjiro's expression turned serious as well.
"Understood."
"Furthermore."
Satsuki thought for a moment.
"Pay close attention to news from Kagawa's end in the near future."
"Particularly messages he delivers on his own initiative."
She paused, tapping her fingertip lightly against the folder's cover.
"Something will likely happen soon."
Kenjiro's gaze focused sharply.
"Soon?"
"Mm."
Satsuki picked up the dish of pears again and leaned back into the sofa as before.
"Just wait."
She speared a piece of pear.
"Some things aren't good to let grow for too long."
Kenjiro did not press further.
"I understand."
He lowered his head and jotted down a few more lines in his memo.
Fuji Bank.
Isolate.
Kagawa priority.
Then he drew a heavy line across the very top.
He had read through all those materials just now as well.
Tobashi Accounts, Akasaka Branch, head office inspections, and that string of ever-growing anomalous numbers.
He knew there was a problem inside.
And he knew the Saionji family had planted something inside Fuji Bank long ago.
But prior to just now, he had merely treated it as a financial project requiring long-term monitoring.
Satsuki, however, had listened for only a few minutes.
Without even requesting additional files.
And had already judged—
That something would happen very soon.
Kenjiro looked down at the lines he had just written.
It seems I am still far from where I need to be...
Six years ago, he couldn't even understand a single contract.
Today, at least he could sit here, coordinating dozens of companies on behalf of the entire Saionji family, even ferreting out hidden truths beneath what appeared to be glossy operational reports.
But once truly seated in Satsuki's position, what needed to be seen clearly went far beyond that.
When to keep waiting.
When to stop.
When a matter suppressed for a year suddenly reached the inflection point to move forward.
When it came to such judgment, he still had a long way to go.
Kenjiro clicked the cap back onto his fountain pen.
That slight prickle of smugness born from Satsuki's praise quieted down considerably as well.
I still need to keep learning.
He thought to himself in silence.
Having endured six whole years.
Now that he had finally returned to the Saionji family with great difficulty, could he afford to stop here?
Kenjiro opened the next document.
"Then I will continue."
"Mm."
Satsuki took a bite of pear.
"Go ahead."
The wind outside blew through the courtyard, and a few leaves just beginning to yellow drifted down from the branches, swirling down beside the stone lantern.
The rustle of turning pages soon sounded through the room once more.
That dark blue Fuji Bank folder was kept by Satsuki separately, right beside her hand.