September 30, 1988, 3:30 PM.
Bunkyo Ward, Tokyo. Seika Academy, high school division courtyard.
The air was thick with the scent of golden osmanthus.
This was a greenhouse, sealed off from the world. The fever outside — the Recruit scandal, the Special Investigation Department, the cabinet trembling on its last legs — didn't seem to reach here.
But if you listened closely, the clink of porcelain cups against saucers was just a beat faster than usual.
At the main round table by the window, Satsuki held a small silver spoon and stirred the amber liquid in her cup.
She hadn't tied her hair up today. Her long black hair fell over her shoulders, the ends curling slightly. Everything about her radiated a reassuring, water-like calm.
"Today's black tea seems a bit more astringent."
She said it softly. Her voice wasn't loud, but it made the girls at the surrounding tables who'd been whispering fall silent instantly.
Ezaki Mariko, who used to sit on Satsuki's left and loved to make her diamond bracelets jingle, hadn't been to school in a full week.
Her seat was empty. Only a velvet chair stood there alone, like a silent warning.
In the corner of the lounge, several girls who used to crowd around Mariko, competing to fill out subscription forms, now kept their heads down. They mechanically put expensive macarons into their mouths. Their eyes were shadowed. Even thick makeup couldn't hide how haggard they were. Their fathers were being summoned by the Special Investigation Department. Their home phones had been disconnected. Those once-promised "dozens-of-times returns" had become nooses around their necks.
"Saionji-sama."
Yoshino Ayako lifted the teapot to refill Satsuki's cup. Her movements were more deferential than ever — almost reverent.
"My father specifically told me last night that I must thank you no matter what."
Ayako lowered her voice. Her eyes flicked toward the trembling "losers" in the corner, and a trace of lingering fear showed.
"Thanks to that 'casual chat' you had on the phone that night, hinting to watch for compliance risks… the branch blocked the bridge loan to APEX at the last moment and cleared all the associated guarantee business. Now head office is liquidating bad debt, and a lot of branch managers are being held accountable, but my father…"
She took a breath. Her hands trembled slightly.
"Only my father, because of his 'keen risk awareness,' wasn't punished. He was added to the candidate list for the next Managing Director."
Isokawa Reiko, sitting on the other side, closed the book in her hands.
This daughter of a political family, usually carefree, now looked at Satsuki with deep awe.
"It's the same on my grandfather's side."
Reiko gazed at the falling osmanthus outside the window. Her fingers unconsciously stroked the edge of the page.
"With the Takeshita Faction's earthquake, a lot of Diet members from the uncle generation were implicated. When that deputy mayor was arrested, he didn't even have time to put his shoes on. But because Grandpa listened to that advice about 'don't be greedy for small gains,' he returned all the stocks in advance."
"Now, Grandpa's become one of the few clean 'elders' left in the faction. Those empty positions are being reshuffled."
Reiko turned to look at Satsuki. Her expression was complex.
"They all say the Saionji Family has 'heavenly eyes.' Satsuki, you saw it coming long ago, didn't you?"
Satsuki didn't answer.
She just extended a slender finger, picked up a freshly baked cookie, and took a small bite.
"Such things… who knows?"
Satsuki swallowed and dabbed the corner of her mouth with a napkin.
"I just feel that things obtained too easily are often not very clean. You know, the Saionji Family motto has always been to be cautious."
She raised her eyes. Her clear black-and-white gaze rested gently on the two girls in front of her.
"It was your own choice to trust me. In this greedy era, that trust is the most precious thing."
Ayako and Reiko exchanged a glance and both lowered their heads.
They understood. This was 'dignity' Satsuki was giving them. It was also silent acceptance. It meant Satsuki had tacitly allowed the families behind them to move closer to the Saionji Family.
The Saionji Family's power wasn't something anyone could join. If you didn't have the head of the house's approval — though both Ayako and Reiko knew it was actually Satsuki's approval — you wouldn't even have a door to knock on to offer money.
"Alright."
Satsuki stood and smoothed her skirt, though it had no wrinkles.
"Let's end today's reading club here. I need to make a trip to the old school building."
She picked up her school bag and walked toward the door.
Everywhere she passed, whispering girls fell silent and respectfully made way. Their gazes followed that slender figure until she disappeared at the end of the corridor.
---
Old school building, third floor.
Social Observation Club activity room.
The setting sun bled orange-red through the dust-covered windows, dyeing the cluttered room full of old books. The air was thick with the smell of solder.
Suzuki Amy sat at a workbench in the corner.
She wasn't wearing that expensive S-Collection coat. She had on a slightly oversized blue work smock, sleeves rolled up to her elbows. In her hand was a soldering iron. She was happily soldering a green circuit board.
At her feet were piles of electronic scrap: coils from old radios, shells from Famicom controllers, even a few Motorola pager motherboards from who-knows-where.
Sizzle—
A wisp of blue smoke rose.
Amy pushed up the thick glasses on her nose and looked with satisfaction at the solder joint she'd just finished.
This wasn't some high-tech product. She was just trying to mod a Famicom controller into a wireless signal transmitter. Current tech was still immature, latency was awful, but the process of 'creating' gave her immense peace.
Only here, among these cold components, could she forget the suffocating atmosphere at school lately.
Click.
The door was pushed open gently.
Amy jumped. Her hand shook and the soldering iron almost burned her finger.
She looked up in panic and saw Satsuki standing in the doorway.
Backlit, the setting sun edged her silhouette in gold, making her look like an angel who'd wandered into the mortal world by mistake.
"Satsuki-chan?"
Amy hurriedly set down her tools and scrambled to pull off the dust-covered work smock.
"Sorry! I didn't know you were coming… It's too messy here, full of dust…"
"It's alright."
Satsuki closed the door, shutting out the sound of wind in the corridor.
She walked straight to the workbench, not minding the scratches and burn marks on the table. She reached out with her fair hand and picked up the controller Amy had taken apart.
"What are you making?"
"Ah, that…" Amy scratched her head, embarrassed. "I wanted to see if I could use radio waves to transmit control signals. Like a TV remote, but a bit more complex…"
As she spoke, her voice got smaller and smaller.
Because she saw Satsuki's eyes.
Those eyes didn't have the usual encouraging smile. Nor did they have appreciation for the tech.
They were a pool of bottomless calm — calm that made her heart race with unease.
Amy's heart skipped a beat.
These days, the atmosphere at school was too strange. Mariko had vanished, and the way many people looked at her had changed. Though no one dared bully her — after all, she was close to Saionji Satsuki — that sense of loneliness, of 'only I am being excluded,' was like an invisible membrane separating her from the world.
She didn't understand stocks. She didn't understand politics. She didn't understand why Mariko, who was so arrogant yesterday, had become a taboo today.
"Satsuki-chan…"
Amy finally couldn't hold it anymore. She set down what she was holding. Her hands gripped the hem of her dirty work smock tightly.
"Um… Is Ezaki-san not coming anymore?"
"And that 'list' everyone's talking about, what exactly is it? Why is everyone so afraid?"
Satsuki put the circuit board down.
Tap.
The plastic shell hitting the table was very light.
"That is a game for adults. Those who lose must leave the stage."
Satsuki turned, leaning her back against the workbench, looking at the sun about to sink below the horizon.
"Amy, are you afraid?"
Satsuki's voice was gentle, as if asking about the weather.
"Because you don't understand what Ayako and Reiko are talking about. Because you feel like a fool who can only smile along while they talk about deals worth hundreds of millions of yen and the names of big shots."
"Because you feel like an outsider."
Amy's body shuddered violently.
She'd been seen through.
That deep-rooted inferiority of a nouveau riche daughter had been dug up by Satsuki and laid out in the sunlight, unreserved.
"Really… nothing gets past Satsuki-chan…" "I…" Amy lowered her head, tears welling up. "I want to help too… but my family just runs a factory. I don't understand that complicated finance, and I don't know how to deal with those big shots. I only know… I only know how to tinker with this scrap metal."
"Scrap metal?"
Satsuki chuckled softly.
She walked up to Amy, reached out, and gently lifted Amy's chin, forcing her to meet her eyes.
Satsuki's fingers were cool, but the touch was exceptionally gentle.
"Look at me, Amy."
"You don't need to understand those things. Ayako understands money because she's a banker's daughter. Reiko understands power because she's a politician's granddaughter. But they're both just 'inheritors.'"
"Their world is old. It's built on favors, connections, and the unspoken rules of the Showa era. That world is rotting, just like Ezaki Mariko's family."
Satsuki's fingers brushed across Amy's cheek, tucking a stray lock of hair behind her ear. Her voice became incredibly seductive, like she was reciting an ancient spell.
"But you are different."
She grabbed Amy's hand and pressed it onto the disassembled circuit board.
The rough solder joints pricked Amy's palm.
"What you hold in your hand is the 'future.'"
"In this coming new era, victory won't be decided by land and stocks, but by who can build faster machines and who can make information flow like water."
"The talent you have is a treasure Ayako and Reiko will never understand in their entire lives."
Amy stared blankly at Satsuki. Her eyes flickered with confusion, but also hope.
"But…"
"But right now, you aren't strong enough."
Satsuki let go of her hand. Her tone carried a hint of regret.
She picked up the Radio Technology magazine from the workbench and flipped a few pages.
"What are you doing? Playing house here?"
"Applying the principles of a TV remote to a game controller? This kind of cleverness is interesting, but…"
Satsuki shook her head. Her eyes showed undisguised expectation that made Amy's heart skip.
"Amy, haven't you realized it yet?"
Satsuki pointed to the circuit sketches Amy had doodled on the table.
"Aren't the high school courses too easy for you?"
"Don't the physics formulas those teachers write on the blackboard seem boring at a glance? Aren't those math problems your classmates find impenetrable as natural to you as breathing?"
Amy froze.
It was true.
She was always spacing out in class, not because she didn't understand, but because it was too simple.
"You are wasting your time, Amy."
Satsuki sighed. The sound landed on Amy's heart like a feather.
"These hands of yours, which should be creating miracles, are now only being used to make these middle-school-level toys."
"You are squandering your talent on trivialities."
"I… I don't want to waste it…" Amy defended herself flusteredly. "But I'm still in high school, I don't know what else I can do…"
Don't… don't… don't let Satsuki-chan abandon me…
"Then leave this place."
Satsuki's voice suddenly turned firm.
She pulled a thick folder from her schoolbag and set it gently in front of Amy.
"Leave high school and go where you need to go."
Amy opened the folder.
Inside was a detailed document. The header clearly read: .
Below were several recommendation letters, signed by giants in academia.
"Go to Todai?" Amy's voice trembled. "But… I'm only a first-year… and the University of Tokyo doesn't have a grade-skipping system…"
"Those are rules made for ordinary people."
Satsuki leaned close to Amy, their foreheads almost touching.
"But in my world, rules are meant to be broken."
"I've already arranged it for you. In the name of a Saionji Family donation, you can enter Todai's laboratory as a 'special case' and study under the top professors. Although you won't get a degree certificate for now, you can use all the resources there and access the most cutting-edge technology."
"As long as you pass their internal test."
Amy looked at the document, feeling like she was dreaming.
A special case.
This was a door opened only for her.
"Why…" Amy murmured. "Why do so much for me?"
"Because I need you."
Satsuki reached out and gently stroked Amy's cheek. Her eyes were filled with tender possessiveness.
"I want to build an empire, an empire built on technology. But I only have ambition. I don't understand technology."
"I need a pair of eyes to help me see the direction of the future. I need a pair of hands to help me turn those crazy ideas into reality."
"Amy."
Satsuki's voice was low and seductive, like a witch promising the whole world to a lost traveler.
"I don't want you to follow behind me as a sidekick who only does repairs."
"I want you to stand beside me."
"As an irreplaceable partner who can look down upon this world with me."
"How about it? For me, and so you don't let your own talent go to waste, will you go to that higher place?"
Amy looked at Satsuki.
In those deep black eyes, she saw her own reflection.
It was a version of herself that was no longer lowly or lost.
It was a version of herself full of strength and hope.
That was… the self in Satsuki's eyes.
Since Satsuki expected so much, since she'd broken the rules for her… that feeling of being deeply needed and cherished made Amy's heart pound violently.
Yes… Satsuki-chan needs me… I am special…
"I'm willing!"
Amy jerked her head up. For the first time, a flame called "conviction" burned in those eyes always hidden behind glasses.
"I'll go! No matter how hard that test is… I will definitely pass it!"
She gripped Satsuki's hand tightly, as if grasping her entire world.
"I will study technology with all my heart… I will prove I'm qualified to stand by Satsuki-chan's side!"
The air in the room seemed to freeze.
The last rays of sunset streamed through the window onto the two of them, casting long, intertwined shadows.
Satsuki smiled.
It was a satisfied smile from the bottom of her heart.
"Very good."
She took a handkerchief from her pocket and gently wiped a smudge of oil from Amy's face.
"Then start running, Amy."
"Don't make me wait too long."
She patted Amy's shoulder, then straightened up and adjusted her collar.
"I've already arranged a tutor from the prep school. Classes start tomorrow. As for that recommendation letter, once you pass the lab interview, I'll have my father sign it."
"As for this controller…"
Satsuki paused and looked back at the disassembled Famicom controller on the workbench.
"Keep it. Maybe one day, you'll build something even more impressive than that."
The door closed.
Amy was left alone in the classroom.
She held the heavy folder, sitting in the room as it gradually darkened.
Outside, night fell over Tokyo. Countless neon lights lit up, dyeing the sky a hazy purple.
In the distance, in Ginza and Roppongi, the final madness of the Showa era continued.
But Amy was no longer afraid.
Ah… so what if she didn't understand complicated finance? So what if she didn't know how to deal with big shots? As long as Satsuki-chan still needed her, that was enough.
She looked at the documents in her hand, at the rows of complex physics formulas and mathematical models.
They were no longer dull symbols.
They were a ladder.
A ladder leading to Satsuki's side.
She wiped her tears, turned off the soldering iron, switched on the dim desk lamp beside her, and opened the first page of the review materials.