"Big Brother."
When this title actually came out of Kenjirō's mouth, it was much easier than he had imagined.
Shuichi was standing beside the car.
Not having seen each other for six years, he had indeed thought about what attitude to adopt when facing this younger brother.
Being too close seemed to make it seem as though all those things in the past had never happened; being too cold did not look like the proper way to specially drive over to pick up a blood younger brother who had left home for six years.
Therefore, all the way here, he had even thought it through: he would first see what Kenjirō had become nowadays, and then decide whether to give this guy a pleasant expression or not.
As a result, the moment they met, Kenjirō called out "Big Brother" first.
Those postures Shuichi had prepared suddenly became somewhat difficult to maintain.
He smiled.
"You still recognize me."
Kenjirō was stunned for a moment, then also smiled.
"In another few years, it probably would not be so certain."
Shuichi instinctively touched his temples.
There were indeed quite a few more white hairs there.
"It seems that after staying outside for a few years, I do not know how much other skills have grown, but your mouth is still the same as before."
After hearing this, Kenjirō unexpectedly did not immediately snap back like he used to in the past.
He only looked at Shuichi touching his temples, and the smile in his eyes deepened a bit more.
Even he himself was somewhat surprised by this.
Six years ago, if Shuichi had evaluated him like this, he would have nine times out of ten immediately demanded an explanation of what "do not know how much other skills have grown" meant.
On what grounds did he not know?
He had managed factories, done business, and had hundreds of people under his command; could it be that he truly fell short of this big brother in everything?
At that time, he wanted to compete in almost everything.
He wanted to compete in position, in ability, and in the daring to do business.
Even when the two of them sat together in front of their father, he vaguely cared about whose words carried more weight.
Shuichi probably had also gotten used to this.
Every time the two brothers spoke no more than a few sentences, they would always end up arguing over some matter.
Both felt they were right, and neither was willing to stop first.
But now, Kenjirō suddenly discovered that he completely lacked that kind of impulse anymore.
When Shuichi said his mouth was still the same, listening to it, he only found it amusing.
As for how much his skills had actually grown in these six years, he would just wait for an opportunity to let Big Brother see for himself.
There seemed to be no need to rush to prove it either.
Shuichi likewise perceived it.
He was originally waiting for Kenjirō to retort and had even prepared his next sentence.
As a result, after waiting for a few seconds, the person in front of him still just smiled and looked at him.
Shuichi, on the contrary, felt somewhat unaccustomed to it.
"What?"
"What do you mean 'what'?"
"Nothing."
Shuichi glanced at him twice more.
Strange.
This guy was not this easy to talk to in the past.
The two of them stood beside the car like this, and unexpectedly chatted more relaxedly than during any meeting in that final period six years ago.
This was somewhat unexpected even to themselves.
Looking at Kenjirō, with the remnants of a smile still lingering at the corners of his mouth, he finally just reached out and pulled open the car door.
"Get in the car."
Kenjirō stood in place and glanced at him.
"Where to?"
"Hongo."
After getting in, Shuichi added another sentence.
"Satsuki is waiting for you."
The expression on Kenjirō's face shifted slightly.
As expected.
He lifted his old canvas bag and squeezed into the back seat, placing the bag by his feet.
The driver closed the car door for the two of them, and the damp alleys of Minami-Senju were instantly shut outside the car window.
The Toyota Century slowly started moving.
The narrow residential area was quickly left behind, and the car drove onto Meiji-dori.
Having just rained, the signs and streetlights along the roadside reflected on the wet asphalt road, being crushed over and over again by passing tires.
The car was very quiet.
Kenjirō sat on the right, and Shuichi sat on the left.
With only less than half a meter separating the two of them, it was even harder to speak than when standing in the alley just now.
Shuichi looked at the old jacket on his younger brother.
The clothes were washed very clean, and the cuffs were worn to a whitish hue.
His hands were also completely different from his memories; the knuckles were much thicker, and several obvious calluses were left on the web of his hands.
He recalled Kenjirō from six years ago, who wore custom-made suits, meticulously groomed his hair every day, and even complained that the oil smell in the workshop was too heavy when going down to the factory, and could not help looking at him for a bit longer.
Kenjirō noticed it.
"What?"
"Seeing how much of your old self is left."
"That probably leaves very little."
Kenjirō raised his hand and looked at his own palm as well.
"These hands could not even hold a bag of cement steady before."
Shuichi's gaze fell onto his waist.
"Does your waist still hurt?"
Kenjirō turned his head.
"How do you know?"
Shuichi paused for a moment.
"You got hurt once at the construction site and took half a month off."
"..."
The car fell quiet again.
Kenjirō looked at Shuichi for a few seconds, then lowered his head again, looking at the bulging canvas bag by his feet.
"So, it really is like this."
"What?"
"Big Brother."
Kenjirō raised his head, and the expression on his face was somewhat different from when he first got into the car.
"Those jobs were arranged by you guys, right?"
Shuichi had originally been waiting for these words.
Today, besides taking his younger brother back, coming to Minami-Senju in person was also because of a matter he had been thinking about in his heart.
Indeed, most of those past jobs had passed through his hands.
At first, it was just the construction site.
Later, feeling that Kenjirō had suffered enough and that it was inappropriate to give money directly, he had the person in charge of debt management swap him for a relatively stable job.
Afterwards, occasionally seeing the reports sent back regarding Kenjirō, he felt that this guy seemed to have truly changed a bit.
Thus, after the warehouse came delivery.
After delivery, he was transferred to other places.
Satsuki knew about Shuichi arranging jobs for Kenjirō.
With her current control over Saionji, it was very difficult to truly keep such matters hidden from her.
Shuichi had proactively brought it up a few times, and Satsuki had not stopped him either, only requesting not to clear Kenjirō's debts for him, nor letting him acquire funds again through the main family's connections.
Other than that, she had always maintained tacit approval.
Shuichi had originally been somewhat worried that upon knowing, his younger brother would feel this was his charity.
Now it seemed this favor could just be shifted onto Satsuki.
Those old accounts between the brothers had dragged on for six years.
The old accounts between uncle and nephew should likewise come to an end.
"Do you really think these things could be hidden from Satsuki?"
Shuichi did not answer directly, only smilingly glanced at him.
"You were transferred through so many places under Saionji; if she were truly unwilling, did you think I could keep stuffing you in?"
Kenjirō leaned back against the seat.
An expression of "as expected" slowly appeared on his face.
"I knew it."
Shuichi was very satisfied with this reaction.
"So the things in the past—"
"I understand everything."
Kenjirō suddenly interrupted him.
Shuichi was startled for a moment.
The second half of the sentence he had prepared was choked back.
"What do you understand?"
Kenjirō looked at his elder brother.
That expression even made Shuichi feel somewhat strange.
If Kenjirō had worn this kind of expression six years ago, it usually meant he felt he had discovered some money-making opportunity again, eager to grab everyone's money right away.
But now it was different.
There was still a bit of that pride belonging to Kenjirō within it, but it lacked the impatience of wanting the whole world to believe him immediately from the past.
"At the very beginning, I only figured out the meaning of those jobs."
Kenjirō reached out, lifted the canvas bag by his feet, and placed it on his knees.
The zipper was not fully closed, revealing a worn copy of "Corporate Financial Analysis" inside.
"Construction site, warehouse, delivery, store outlets, cold storage, central kitchen, and that machinery plant afterwards."
"In the past, I always felt these places just happened to be short of people."
"Only later did I realize that these coincidences were simply too numerous."
Shuichi nodded.
This part was indeed arranged by him.
Just as he was about to admit it, Kenjirō continued speaking.
"But some time ago, I figured out another matter."
"If it was just to make me do manual labor down below, there was no need at all to drive me out of Saionji."
"Everything has to start from six years ago."
The smile on Shuichi's face paused for a moment.
"Six years ago?"
"When I was driven out of Saionji."
Kenjirō spoke very calmly.
Shuichi, however, frowned.
This had already exceeded the scope of what he was originally prepared to discuss.
"Kenjirō, that matter..."
"Listen to me finish first."
Kenjirō raised his hand to stop him.
This action made Shuichi trance for a fleeting moment.
In the past when the brothers argued about business, Kenjirō also liked to do this.
Only when he did so in the past, it was mostly because he was not prepared to listen to others speak at all.
Now as he stopped, looking at the retreating streets outside the window, his expression was earnest, looking as if he were reorganizing matters he had thought through many times.
"In 1985, I went bankrupt."
"After 1986, land prices in Tokyo began to skyrocket."
"In 1987, stocks, houses, memberships, calligraphy and paintings—just about anything dared to rise. By the end of 1989, the Nikkei was nearing 39,000 points."
"During those years, I stood on the sidelines watching the whole time."
Kenjirō chuckled.
"Speaking of which, it is very embarrassing."
"If I still had money back then, I definitely would have jumped in."
Shuichi looked toward him.
Kenjirō did not evade this matter.
"Do you think I could have held back?"
"Others bought houses and earned millions a month, and stocks could rise with eyes closed. Those company employees who got drunk in izakayas dared to take their bonuses to subscribe for golf memberships."
"If I were still Saionji Kenjiro back then, even if you stripped me of all my positions and only let me sit at home collecting a living allowance, I would still find a way to get money."
Saying this, he glanced at Shuichi.
"Perhaps looking for banks I knew before."
"Perhaps mortgaging the belongings of my wife."
"If worst came to worst, I could still borrow using the Saionji surname."
Shuichi's brows slowly knitted together.
He knew his younger brother was right.
Kenjirō six years ago had just lost the Osaka factory due to a high-stakes gamble, yet what he said from his mouth was still "next time I will definitely turn it around."
If he had really been given a breather back then...
"And then?"
"Then when the bubble burst, I would go bankrupt once more."
Kenjirō answered very crisply.
"Only this time, it probably would have been even more miserable."
"Because the first time I could still tell myself it was the Plaza Accord, the sudden appreciation of the yen, and bad luck."
"If I were to lose in Tokyo's bubble once more, I probably would not even have this little bit left now."
Shuichi fell silent.
The car passed near Ueno.
An overpass swept past outside the car window.
Seeing that shadow, Kenjirō suddenly chuckled.
"Yet precisely before the bubble began, I lost everything."
"The house was gone, the car was gone, credit was gone, and even the Saionji surname was gone."
"During those years when everyone else was at their most frantic, even loan sharks were somewhat unwilling to lend money to me."
"Do you know how much I hated this matter back then?"
Shuichi did not answer.
"Now, however, I would like to thank that credit record."
Kenjirō gently tapped the book on his knees with his fingers.
"Without it, I probably would have long gone along with those people to buy real estate."
"So you think..."
Shuichi finally somewhat understood what he wanted to say.
But that conclusion was too outrageous, preventing him from immediately continuing.
Kenjirō turned his head.
"Satsuki knew everything long ago."
"..."
"She knew that bubble would come, and she knew I could not stop it."
Shuichi looked at his younger brother.
After quite a while, he slowly spoke.
"Kenjirō, are you thinking a bit..."
"Too much?"
Kenjirō laughed.
"Big Brother, I thought so at first too."
"But connect the events before and after and look at them."
"Why did she insist on making me bear the debts of the Osaka factory myself?"
"Why completely cut off the possibility of me using the main family's credit?"
"Why, after driving me out, did she forbid me from actually starving to death?"
Shuichi was slightly startled.
This last sentence was already extremely close to the boundaries Satsuki had set back then.
Kenjirō noticed his expression.
The trace of uncertainty originally in his heart instantly diminished by half again.
As expected.
This time, he could at least see through a part of Satsuki.
"Big Brother, did you guys set a few rules back then?"
Shuichi hesitated for a moment.
"It does not really count as rules."
"Satsuki only said not to pay back your debts, nor to let you finance again in the name of the main family."
"As for the rest..."
He looked at Kenjirō.
"You are ultimately my younger brother."
After these words fell, Kenjirō was quiet for a while.
Six years ago, he probably dreamed of hearing Shuichi say this sentence.
Now that he truly heard it, his chest did not have that surging emotion as he had imagined.
It just suddenly felt as though some things that had always been stuck in his heart in the past had loosened up.
He raised his hand and rubbed his nose.
"I know."
"Know what?"
"Big Brother, you were only responsible for execution."
The corner of Shuichi's eye twitched slightly.
"What do you mean I was only responsible for execution?"
Kenjirō ignored his dissatisfaction.
He had completely entered his own deduction.
"Not paying my debts is cutting off the principal for me to continue gambling."
"Not letting me finance in Saionji's name is cutting off external funds."
"Not being able to return to the main family is equivalent to completely cutting off my past network of connections, identity, and life."
"Yet you could not let me actually fail to survive."
"So you would give me jobs."
Kenjirō spoke item by item, even speeding up his pace a bit compared to just now.
"And these jobs could not be too good either."
"If they were too good, I would not cherish them."
"Giving me a Section Chief position, I would only continue to feel that others looked down on me, thinking all day long that I used to be an Executive Director."
"Therefore, the first stop had to be the absolute bottom."
Shuichi opened his mouth.
He very much wanted to tell his younger brother that the first construction site job was purely because the contractor at the time happened to be short of temporary workers, and Kenjirō did not have any skills, so there indeed were not many places he could be arranged into.
But with the words at the tip of his tongue, he stopped again.
Could it really be Satsuki's arrangement? Even I thought it was "just a coincidence"?
Kenjirō had already continued.
"First letting me know how workers do physical labor."
"Then going to the warehouse to look at inventory."
"Then going to delivery to look at transportation."
"Going to store outlets to look at customers."
"Cold chain, catering, machinery plant..."
Kenjirō patted the book on his knees, his eyes growing brighter and brighter.
"In the past, sitting in the office, I only saw what they looked like when they finally turned into numbers."
"She drove me out of the office and stuffed me back into those numbers to walk through them all over again."