He was never impatient. He enjoyed the process.
Like a hunter who, having carefully laid all his traps, sits leisurely at his camp and waits with patience.
He wanted to see which unsuspecting, beautiful prey the compass of fate would point him toward this time.
"Sir."
A cool, pleasant voice came from behind him, carrying the faintest, barely perceptible note of fear at having intruded on her master's thoughts.
Saeko Busujima knelt on the carpet, dressed in an immaculate miko outfit. The snow-white hakue, the crimson hibakama, untainted by a speck of dust.
"Saeko... is sir's most loyal instrument." She spoke softly. "As long as it is sir's command, Saeko's everything... can be offered up."
"A fine resolve."
Seiji Fujiwara released his hand, satisfied.
He liked seeing her like this, shamed to the limit yet forcing herself into a posture of obedience.
At that moment, the black encrypted terminal in the corner of the study chimed with a crisp notification.
The screen lit up, showing a new email.
The sender was a mid-level officer at one of the unremarkable financial firms under his command.
The subject line was ordinary enough: Request for Disposition Instructions Regarding a Routine Bad Debt.
But beside the subject, his direct superior had added a tag, marked in red text: Low priority, but recommended for personal review.
Seiji's interest was piqued.
He raised a hand and tapped lightly in the air at the interface floating before him.
The email's contents were projected as a screen of light, suspended in midair.
Saeko also lifted her head, curious, but her gaze dared linger only at the edge of the screen. She would not pry into her master's business.
The report was formatted respectfully. It opened with a disposition plan for a corporate loan.
The debtor, the "Shirogane family," had lost their factory in a fire. Husband and wife both dead, leaving behind a substantial debt and compensation liabilities.
A textbook bad debt. Nothing special about it.
Seiji's eyes swept through it quickly, then clicked straight into the attached debtor background file.
"...Eldest son, Miyuki Shirogane, attends Advanced Nurturing High School, fully closed-off boarding system. Currently unreachable."
"...Sole remaining family member is the daughter, Kei Shirogane. Currently enrolled in the Junior High Division of the private Shuchiin Academy."
At this, Seiji's eyes stopped.
His gaze fell to the end of the report. There, the sender had specifically bolded a note titled "Personal Observation."
"...The girl in question (Kei Shirogane) is well-mannered and pleasing in appearance, refined and lovely. Considering our company's debt-collection conduct may cause her 'unnecessary distress,' this subordinate has suspended all routine collection procedures. As to how to handle this matter, I hereby submit it upward and humbly await the president's decision."
Below the text were several attached photographs.
The photos were taken at close range, very clear.
The first was of a street after school. A girl in the Shuchiin Junior High uniform walking alone beneath the setting sun.
The line of her profile was clean and beautiful, her eyes holding a stubbornness and coolness that didn't belong to her age.
In another photo, the girl stood before the discount shelf of a convenience store, seemingly calculating something carefully.
Her brow slightly furrowed, her expression focused.
...
Seiji looked at that delicate, stubborn face in the photographs. The smile at the corner of his mouth slowly broadened.
"Blooming Peach Blossoms..."
He murmured to himself, with a trace of dawning amusement.
"So this is the form it takes. Interesting."
Seiji didn't reply to the email.
He shut off the screen of light and dialed the encrypted line of that mid-level officer's direct superior.
The call connected almost the instant it rang.
"President!" An infinitely respectful voice came through the receiver, edged with something like trepidation.
"That report on the Shirogane family. I've read it." Seiji's voice was flat, betraying neither pleasure nor displeasure. "The man who wrote it. What's his name?"
The other end fell silent for a second, as if rapidly searching his memory.
"It's Tanaka, Ken Tanaka. Assistant to the chief of the Third Credit Department..."
"Good." Seiji cut him off. "Make him vice president of the newly established subsidiary. See to it personally."
"...Eh?"
The man on the other end audibly caught his breath, as if his brain hadn't quite caught up.
An assistant to a department chief, promoted directly to vice president of a subsidiary?
That was a rocket-ride of a promotion. A leap of five or six levels.
After the brief shock came an exhilaration he couldn't suppress.
"Yes! Yes! Understood! Thank you for the promotion, President! I'll see to it at once! That kid Tanaka... what incredible luck!"
Seiji paid no mind to the man's incoherent gratitude. His tone remained calm.
"Also. About Kei Shirogane..."
...
...
The courtyard at lunchtime. The wind was light.
Sunlight filtered through Shuchiin Academy's signature clock tower, casting mottled shadows across the neatly trimmed lawn.
Kei Shirogane held her textbooks in her arms, about to head back to the classroom.
She always walked a little faster than other people, head down, as if everything around her had nothing to do with her.
"Um... Shirogane-san!"
A boy's voice called out, stopping her.
The voice was visibly nervous, the tail end almost cracking, like a spring forced straight.
"Yes?" Kei halted and turned around.
A boy from the next class over. She vaguely recognized him, thought she'd seen him a few times in P.E.
Right now, the boy's face was flushed deep red. His hands gripped the hem of his uniform tightly, his gaze flicking helplessly between her face and the tips of his own shoes.
A short distance behind him, several other boys were craning their necks, letting out muffled snickers and words of encouragement, like a flock of noisy sparrows.
Kei understood immediately what was about to happen.
Her heart didn't stir in the slightest. She simply watched him quietly, waiting.
Her clear eyes held neither anticipation nor annoyance. Just the calm surface of a lake.
Watched like this, the boy grew even more nervous.
He drew a deep breath, and as if summoning the courage of his lifetime, suddenly bowed to her, the angle so deep he might have buried his head in his chest.
"I... I've liked you for a long time! Please... please go out with me!"
He shouted it loud, with the desperation of someone burning his boats.
The air around them seemed to freeze for an instant. A few passing students stopped, looking over curiously, whispering.
"That's Tanaka-kun from Class C, isn't it? Brave of him."
"Shirogane-san is the junior high division's famous ice-cold beauty. Feels like it'll fail..."
"But she really is cute, though. Her skin's so fair..."
These murmurs buzzed in Kei's ears like tiny mosquitoes.
There was still nothing on her face.
Neither the joy of being confessed to, nor any flustered discomfort at the surrounding crowd.
She returned the boy's gesture with a standard, polite bow of her own.
"I'm very sorry."
Kei's voice was calm and clear, neither too loud nor too soft, pitched just so the boy in front of her could hear.
"Right now... I haven't considered romance at all. I'm truly sorry."
The boy's shoulders sagged, as if all the strength had been drained from him.
He mumbled something like, "It's, it's fine, sorry to bother you," and then, hemmed in by his companions' mix of consolation and ridicule, fled the scene in disgrace.
The crowd dispersed quickly. The courtyard returned to normal.
The calm on Kei's face quietly vanished the instant she turned away.
She kept her head down and continued toward the school building, her steps a little quicker than before.
Bitterness welled up from the bottom of her heart like a rising tide, drowning her throat.
Romance?
Kei's eyes dropped to the white indoor shoes on her feet.
The shoes had been washed clean, but on the side near the toe, there was still a small patch of yellowing that couldn't be scrubbed away, worn in from long use.
Next month's food expenses still had no source.
The bank's overdue notices had stuffed that mailbox, which should have been thrown out long ago, like falling snow.
And that astronomical debt...
And her brother, far away at Advanced Nurturing High School, from whom there had been no word.
Kei bit down hard on her lip, forcing the stinging that was about to rise to her eyes back down.
She couldn't cry.
At least, not here.
She had to be strong.
Until her brother came home, that house could only be guarded by her, alone.
Romance was a luxury that belonged to the carefree girls who lived in the sunlight.
She had long since lost the right to that luxury.
...
The road home was one Kei had walked countless times.
The setting sun stretched her shadow long across the quiet street.
"Kei-chan, Kei-chan!"
A familiar voice came from the general store beside her.
Kei looked over. It was Auntie Suzuki, who ran the shop.
She was waving at her, an expression both secretive and worried on her face.
"Good afternoon, Auntie." Kei stopped and greeted her politely.
Auntie Suzuki walked quickly to her side, pulled her into the shadow of the eaves, and then glanced warily around.
She lowered her voice and leaned in close to Kei's ear.
"Kei-chan, you'd better be careful these days."
"Hm?"
"I've seen them several times now," the auntie's expression was grave. "Strange men in black suits, always hanging around our neighborhood. They don't look like anything good. They don't buy anything either. Just stand there, like they're staking the place out."
Kei's heart sank.
Men in black suits...
"They've also... been asking me about your family." Auntie Suzuki added, her tone full of concern. "Asked whether you live alone, what time you usually come home, things like that. I didn't dare say anything. Just told them I didn't know."
A chill crawled up Kei's spine.
The debt collectors... had finally come knocking?
But she quickly forced herself to stay calm.
This was Tokyo. A society of laws.
What she owed was just a commercial loan from a bank, not from some illegal underground lender.
Following procedure, the most that could happen was a court summons and an asset freeze. They couldn't send gangsters to her door to threaten her.
Her guess was that those people were just staff from some third-party collection agency commissioned by the bank.
Distasteful, but not actually a physical danger.
The thought eased her a little, and she gave Auntie Suzuki a grateful smile.
"Thank you, Auntie Suzuki. I understand. I'll be careful."
"Ah, you child, you're too proud for your own good." Auntie Suzuki sighed and patted her shoulder, pained for her. "If anything comes up, don't shoulder it all alone. You have to tell us neighbors, you understand?"
"Mm."
Kei nodded firmly, said her goodbyes to the auntie, and continued on toward home.
She hadn't really taken the warning to heart.
She just thought she had to find a way to contact her brother as soon as possible.
She had no idea.
The moment her figure turned into the street that led home...
At the corner of the street, a man pretending to make a phone call reported into a miniature microphone.
"Target has entered Sector C."
Across the street, a "driver" wiping down a car casually adjusted the angle of his rearview mirror. In the mirror, Kei's figure was clearly reflected.
"Received. Seal off the Third Street and Fifth Street exits."
On a distant rooftop, a man disguised as an air-conditioning repairman lowered the binoculars in his hands.
"All unrelated personnel in the zone have been cleared. Signal-blocking system activated."
"Confirmed. Teams A and B, move to designated positions."
"Operation begin."
Soundless orders, woven through encrypted channels, formed an invisible net in the air.
The entire block, without Kei's knowledge, had become a cage tailored specifically for her.
Walking down the street, she only felt that today's neighborhood seemed eerily quiet.
At this hour, there were usually children playing along the road, or homemakers from work hurrying past with grocery bags.
But today, not a single soul.
Even the sound of the wind seemed unusually clear.
An illusion?
Kei shook her head and didn't dwell on it. She arrived at the foot of her apartment building.
...
It was a very old two-story building.
Kei climbed the stairs step by step. The wooden steps creaked beneath her feet with their familiar sound.
As always, she fished the keychain from the side pocket of her schoolbag.
The metal clinked, a clear string of small sounds.
Kei deftly found the right key and slid it into the keyhole.
The next second.
Kei's movements froze.
The key... once inserted, turned half a revolution along with the motion of her wrist, meeting no resistance at all.
The lock's cylinder gave a soft click.
The door opened.
This door hadn't been locked at all.
A chill shot up from the base of her spine straight to the crown of her head.
How was that possible?
When she left this morning, she clearly remembered locking the door.
Had someone broken in?
Or could it be...
In her mind, Auntie Suzuki's worried face flashed at once.
Kei's breathing grew rapid. Her hand gripping the doorknob went white at the knuckles from the force.
She stiffly pushed open her own front door.
The living room was unlit, somewhat dim.
But by the lingering glow of the setting sun spilling in from outside, she saw, on her own sofa, the silhouette of a person.
A man.
Not a policeman. Certainly not a thief.
The man wore a finely tailored, expensive-looking suit, his legs crossed, leaning back elegantly in his seat as if he were the master of this house.
Hearing the door open, the man slowly raised his head and looked toward the entrance.
His was a face handsome to the point of unreality.
His gaze was placid, carrying the faintest hint of a smile, like someone watching a child come home late.
Then, he spoke to her.
His voice was gentle, yet brimming with a controlling presence that brooked no question.
"You're back, Kei Shirogane."
Seiji Fujiwara's voice reverberated in the small living room.
Gentle, calm, yet like an invisible silk thread, instantly winding itself around every limb and fiber of Kei's body.
After the initial chill and fright, her heart began to pound wildly. Blood rushed to her head, leaving a buzzing in her ears.
This man...
Kei's gaze locked onto Seiji's face.
She'd seen this face somewhere. Not in real life, but on the covers of the top-tier financial magazines, or in flashing television news reports about the rise of some business empire.
Seiji Fujiwara.
That name was like a key, instantly unlocking every memory in her mind about power, wealth, and... all the darker rumors of the upper class.
Fear pressed in from all sides, like the water pressure of the deep sea.
But the instinct to survive made Kei react.
Her hand shot toward her schoolbag in a flash and yanked out her phone.
Her fingers trembled slightly from tension, but they still pressed the speed-dial precisely.
"110."