June 21, 1991, Friday, 4:57 PM.
It was very quiet in the study of the Saionji Main Residence.
Satsuki had already changed out of the clothes she wore to the hospital in the morning, now wearing only a loose, light-colored cardigan.
Her long hair was brushed again and tied loosely behind her head.
There was much more official business on the desk than usual.
Ever since Endo was hospitalized, the work that originally needed to be delivered directly to his hands had been temporarily split up.
Most of the documents delivered this afternoon were matters that required Satsuki's personal confirmation.
She turned a page of the vehicle procurement list and reached out to pick up half of a tonkatsu sandwich from the porcelain plate beside her.
The bread was already a bit cold.
Satsuki took a bite and frowned.
"Chizuru."
Chizuru, who was organizing the file bags nearby, immediately raised her head.
"Yes."
"How long has this been sitting here?"
Chizuru glanced at the sandwich in her hand.
"It was sent from the kitchen ten minutes ago."
Satsuki looked down, her tone somewhat displeased.
"But it is already cold."
"Apologies."
Chizuru lowered her head and stretched out her hand.
"It was Chizuru's failure to remind you in time; I will have the kitchen prepare a fresh one."
As Satsuki was speaking, her gaze fell once again on the documents by the desk that she had already flipped through for the most part.
She probably knew why this sandwich had gone cold.
"Never mind."
Satsuki avoided Chizuru's outstretched hand and took another bite.
"Do not put the kitchen through trouble over half a sandwich."
Only then did Chizuru pull back her hand.
"Yes."
Satsuki slowly finished the remaining half and picked up the iced tea beside her to take a sip.
Since yesterday, matters had hardly stopped.
On the morning of the 20th, Endo suddenly fell ill.
Following that were the hospital, the reallocation of internal work within the group, and an uncle who had not truly set foot in the Saionji Family for six years.
Last night, she spent a long time confirming whether Kenjiro had truly changed and whether he could be taken back into the Saionji.
Early this morning, she took him to the hospital.
Now Kenjiro had already gone to familiarize himself with the situation within the group as arranged.
As for how far he could go, there was no need to rush for the time being.
She had plenty of things to show him slowly.
Satsuki picked up the procurement documents in front of her again.
In fact, over the past two days, she had also been waiting for another matter.
According to the trajectory of original history, around June 20th, Japan's securities industry should have exploded with a scandal sufficient to truly shake the credit of the entire industry.
She remembered this matter very clearly, and had judged it to be the best timing for Saionji to enter the securities industry.
Therefore, long ago, Satsuki had already had people start preparing.
Money, legal affairs, settlement channels, corporate client lists, and several securities companies that were not too large in scale but possessed fairly complete licenses had all been listed within the scope of observation in advance.
Just waiting for that crack to truly appear.
It is just that yesterday she was busy with Endo and Kenjiro, and today she went to the hospital again; the things that should have been arranged in advance on the securities side were already arranged, so naturally Satsuki would not constantly guard the phone waiting for a piece of news.
Only now did she notice——
June 20th had already passed, but nothing had happened.
At this moment, a black phone by the desk rang.
Chizuru walked over and picked it up.
"Saionji Main Residence."
She listened for a moment and quickly turned around.
"Eldest Miss, the Securities Preparation Team."
Satsuki glanced at the desk calendar by the desk.
Right on time.
"Give it to me."
Chizuru handed over the receiver.
"Eldest Miss."
The person on the other end of the phone had obviously been waiting for a long time.
"The market has already closed today."
"Mm."
Satsuki leaned back against her chair.
"Still no movement from Nomura?"
"Yes."
The other person replied very quickly.
"The Corporate Sales Department is still operating normally today. The few clients scheduled for observation have not shown any obvious account withdrawals or re-inquiries, and no abnormalities have been found on the settlement end either."
"Our three teams are still staying in Tokyo, and the weekends for the legal and settlement personnel have also been cleared out according to the original plan."
Speaking up to this point, the other person paused slightly.
"It is just that today is already Friday."
Of course Satsuki understood his meaning.
The original plan was that as soon as the storm around June 20th appeared, everyone would immediately start taking action.
Yet now time had passed, and Nomura was still the same as usual.
If they continued to wait according to the original plan, these people would have to guard through the entire weekend in front of news that they did not know when it would arrive.
"So you are asking whether you should withdraw?"
"Yes."
"Or continue to keep an eye on Nomura alone?"
The other side of the phone added another sentence.
Satsuki did not answer immediately.
She picked up her fountain pen and wrote the two characters "Nomura" on the blank memo note on the desk.
According to the trajectory in her memory, someone should have poked out those 16 billion yen yesterday.
Yet the matter did not happen.
This was no longer a matter of being a few hours late.
At least one link that she originally thought would not change had already shifted.
As early as May 28th, the matter had actually revealed its first corner.
Someone used a large amount of Tokyu Corporation stocks as collateral to obtain tens of billions of yen in financing from a major securities-affiliated financial company.
By June 18th, the media exposed the matter of sokaiya obtaining cash from major securities firms like Nomura.
The relationships between securities companies, boryokudan, and sokaiya, which were originally hidden behind the business halls, had begun to be dragged into the sunlight layer by layer.
However, what Satsuki was truly waiting for was the knife that followed.
Loss compensation patching.
In the original history, on June 20th, Nomura's loss compensation of about 16 billion yen was exposed by the media; on June 21st, Nikko Securities' self-declared amount of about 19 billion yen in its filings was also reported to actually consist mostly of loss compensation.
In real history, these events erupted consecutively during this period.
That was truly what would make a large number of corporate clients sit unable to remain calm.
After all, boryokudan were far away from most enterprises.
So were sokaiya.
The president of a company engaged in manufacturing, transportation, or retail could curse a few times upon seeing those news reports, and could also have the legal department strengthen inspections.
But loss compensation was different.
Because many large enterprises themselves were clients of major securities firms.
They would begin to doubt:
How much of the returns they had seen over these years actually came from true investment capabilities.
And how much of competitors' brilliant securities management results came from brokerages privately bearing losses.
More importantly——
If this kind of thing could be done for billions, over 10 billion, how much was actually hidden in the accounts of those brokerages?
Once trust cracked from here, money would naturally start moving along with it.
Satsuki never intended to swallow Nomura right now.
The sheer size of Nomura Securities was right there.
For Saionji to want to swallow it in one bite at this time was somewhat unrealistic.
What she was waiting for were the things that fell off from it.
Clients, talent.
And securities entrances that would suddenly become cheap after the panic.
S.A. Investment was already capable of completing quite complex investments and derivatives transactions overseas, and Saionji Finance was similarly capable of buying debt rights, arranging financing, and restructuring companies domestically.
Yet when Japanese enterprises truly conducted domestic securities transactions, corporate brokerage, underwriting, and account management, they still had to go through other people's counters.
When the group's scale was not this large before, using anyone was the same.
Now it was becoming increasingly inconvenient.
Doors controlled by others ultimately belonged to others.
Therefore, a few months ago, Satsuki had people quietly screen a batch of mid-sized securities companies.
Some had good business outlets.
Some had relatively complete corporate departments.
Some management teams had already begun lacking money due to the bursting of the bubble.
Which one to choose could be looked at slowly.
She originally prepared to wait until Nomura's matter exploded before picking from the market.
The problem now was that the gun was already set up, but the target that should have appeared was late.
"Eldest Miss?"
The person on the phone was still waiting.
Satsuki brought the receiver close to her ear again.
"Have today's newspapers all been confirmed?"
"Yes, all nationwide financial newspapers and major evening papers have been confirmed."
"What about inside Nomura?"
"Currently, there is no obvious change."
The sound of turning pages came from the other side.
"This afternoon, the Corporate Sales Department is still normally arranging visits for next week. Among the six key clients we are observing, not a single one temporarily requested to re-confirm their accounts."
"The people originally scheduled to stand by for the weekend..."
He paused slightly.
"Should they continue to stay?"
Satsuki fell silent.
Her gaze fell back onto that desk calendar.
History had indeed changed because of her arrival, which was probably the so-called 'butterfly effect.'
This kind of thing had happened before too.
December 29, 1989.
According to the course of original history, the original Nikkei average high point should have stopped at 38,915.87.
Yet the position where this world finally stopped was 39,890 points.
There was a difference of nearly a thousand points.
That time, Satsuki was not too surprised.
The Nikkei was pushed up by the entire market together.
Saionji's early withdrawal from real estate, establishing short positions overseas, the fund choices of The Club members, the judgments made by Seibu, Sumitomo, and other enterprises due to these changes...
Every sum of money added and every transaction lost over the six years would ultimately leave a trace on the index.
It was only natural for macro numbers to shift.
Yet by comparison, she used to feel that specific events far away from Saionji should be much more stable.
Now it seemed that things might be just the opposite.
When a report was published depended on very few people.
A reporter got the materials a day late.
An editor waited for one more confirmation.
Someone willing to speak temporarily changed their itinerary that day.
Even a small matter completely unrelated to securities six years ago, as long as it ultimately changed the position of one of those people, the matter that originally happened on the 20th could become the 22nd or 23rd.
The matter itself would not disappear because of this.
Those funds that had already been patched out, and the accounts had already been left behind; these were all 'causes.'
As long as all this still existed, sooner or later someone would dig up the 'result' of the scandal.
What changed was only the sequence.
Thinking of this, Satsuki picked up the fountain pen she had just put down.
"Do not withdraw."
The other side of the phone obviously paused.
"Understood."
"In addition, change the original arrangement."
"Please speak."
"Do not just keep an eye on Nomura anymore."
This time, the other person was silent for even longer.
Satsuki flipped over the document that had been stained with ink blots and wrote four names on the blank space on the back.
Nomura, Nikko, Daiwa, Yamaichi.
"Raise all four to the same priority."
"Leave two of the client groups originally assigned to Nomura, and split up the other group. Also, go through the corporate business data of Nikko, Daiwa, and Yamaichi for the past two years again."
The sound of recording came quickly from the phone.
"What about the launch time?"
"Cancel the fixed date."
"From now on, only look at the matter itself."
Satsuki gently tapped the pen tip against the two characters "Nomura."
"Whichever company first has an issue sufficient to make corporate clients reconsider account security, we will move on that company first."
"Loss compensation, benefit provision, high-level resignation, Ministry of Finance officially intervening—any of these events appearing counts."
"What about Nomura's original plan?"
"Keep it as it is."
Satsuki leaned against the chair back and looked out the window.
The June sun had not yet set.
The trees in the courtyard were illuminated brightly, the sound of cicadas had not yet reached its loudest time, and only a few birds were flying back and forth near the eaves.
"What I am waiting for is this fire."
"Which building it burns from first is not that important."
The other side of the phone quickly agreed.
The call ended.
Chizuru took the receiver and placed it back onto the base.
She had listened nearby for a long time and probably sensed that Satsuki had just modified an arrangement prepared for a long time, yet she did not ask much.
She simply picked up the schedule book by the desk again.
"Then do the original arrangements for tonight need to be pushed back?"
Satsuki had originally been thinking about the problem with a serious expression, but she froze for a moment upon hearing this.
"Tonight?"
Was there any important agenda tonight?
"At seven o'clock, the Western cuisine chef booked previously will come over."
Chizuru softly reminded.
"After looking at the menu a few days ago, you said you wanted to try the goose meat he makes."
Satsuki was still thinking about matters on the securities side, but hearing the two words "goose meat," her expression noticeably paused.
That is right.
She remembered.
A few days ago, when the Main Residence readjusted the dinner menu, she happened to see a goose meat dish that the chef had made before.
The duck skin in the photo was roasted very thin, with a hint of a pretty charred edge, and the sauce used her favorite sweet and sour flavor.
At that time, with almost no hesitation, she had people book today, just to celebrate Saionji officially entering the securities industry——
Although plans could not keep up with changes, celebrating a bit beforehand was also fine.
Satsuki lowered her head to look at the already empty porcelain plate.
She already regretted eating that sandwich just now; her stomach was truly uncooperative.
In her mind, the photo on that menu untimely floated up.
The skin should be crispy.
The meat cannot be too old.
If the sauce really was sweet and sour like in the photo...
Satsuki's throat moved slightly.
The person who was seriously deducing securities plans just a moment ago swallowed a mouthful of saliva quite spinelessly.
Realizing it herself, she immediately picked up the iced tea beside her and took a sip, nonchalantly suppressing that little reaction.
"No need to cancel."
Chizuru bowed slightly.
"Yes."
She stealthily glanced at Satsuki, whose mind was obviously no longer on work.
Satsuki, on the other hand, looked back at the telephone on the desk.
Nomura would not disappear just because she ate a meal.
Those funds that had already been patched out, and the accounts had already been left behind; these were all 'causes.'
There was still a whole team guarding over in Tokyo.
Thinking of this, the last little thought in her mind of "should I continue keeping an eye on it" also dissipated.
Eating was still a bit more important.