Reborn in Tokyo: From Heiress to Global Tycoon

Chapter 298 The Noose

The banquet then transitioned into a refreshment session for free conversation.

With the completion of several large donations, the atmosphere in the hall returned to its previous state of superficial prosperity, filled with clinking glasses and toasts.

The side and rear of the first floor.

Deputy Bank Manager Kagawa pushed open the heavy wooden door to the washroom.

The bathroom was brightly lit, and the marble countertop was as smooth as a mirror. Kagawa strode to the sink, gripping the cold marble countertop tightly with both hands.

He looked at himself in the mirror. His once meticulously combed hair was now somewhat disheveled, his face was pale, and his forehead was covered with fine beads of sweat.

He turned on the tap, scooped up the icy tap water, and frantically splashed it on his face. Water droplets dripped down his chin and splashed into the ceramic sink.

His body was trembling slightly, uncontrollably.

7.5 billion yen.

As the vice president of Fuji Bank, he had no right to publicly agree to invest 7.5 billion yen to establish some kind of joint fund without a formal vote from the head office's board of directors. But given the circumstances, he had no position to refuse.

In the end, both advancing and retreating lead to death.

By agreeing to Yoshiaki's request, he was merely delaying his own death...

He must return to Fuji Bank headquarters first thing tomorrow morning. If he cannot come up with the enormous sum of money he made in violation of his authority to cover up the hole, he will face ruthless liquidation and dismissal from the board of directors, as well as charges of breach of trust brought by the internal compliance department.

He will lose everything he has worked hard for in the financial world for half his life and face imprisonment.

What to do... what to do now...

Kagawa grabbed a paper towel from the side and haphazardly wiped the water off his face.

"bite."

The bathroom door was pushed open from the outside.

Executive Director Endo stepped into the room. He was wearing a sharp, dark, custom-tailored suit, and the gold-rimmed glasses on his nose gleamed under the overhead light.

Endo walked to the sink next to him, slowly turned on the faucet, and washed his hands.

"Vice President Kagawa, you don't look too good." Endo turned off the water, pulled a tissue from the wall-mounted box, and carefully wiped his fingers. "Just now outside, Chairman Tsutsumi's joint statement stole the show. Tomorrow morning, all the major media outlets will definitely have a prominent spot for you on their front pages."

Kagawa suddenly turned his head and stared intently at Endo.

"Executive Director Endo. The Saionji family... what a huge appetite they have." Kagawa gritted his teeth, his voice hoarse.

Endo tossed the tissue he had used to wipe his hands into the trash can. He turned to look at Kagawa, his tone calm.

"In this hall, everyone is struggling to survive. Chairman Tsutsumi needs funds, and you need to maintain your dignity. These are all understandable choices."

Endo turned to the side, made a gesture of invitation, and pointed to the end of the corridor.

"However, the internal audit of the Fuji Bank headquarters board of directors is known for its rigor. In order to avoid you, Vice President, facing overly difficult questioning tomorrow morning, the Saionji family has prepared a little bit of 'decency' for you."

Endo raised his head slightly, his smile like a mask.

"Would you be interested in taking a look inside the private meeting room?"

Kagawa's eye twitched slightly.

The other party was waiting for him to take the bait, but he had nowhere left to retreat.

He crumpled the paper towel into a ball, threw it into the trash can, and followed Endo out of the restroom.

As the two turned the corner of the lobby, the number of guests chatting and drinking gradually dwindled. After passing through a double wooden door guarded by two black-clad special agents from the SA Security Department, the melodious symphony and noise of the lobby were completely left behind.

He followed Endo to the deepest part of the corridor.

The heavy, soundproof door to a private meeting room was pushed open.

The indoor lighting was dimmed.

Endo settled down on the leather sofa. He opened his black briefcase and pulled out a thin piece of paper.

Following the coffee table, Endo pushed the piece of paper flat in front of Kagawa.

Kagawa lowered his head, his gaze falling on the paper.

It was a bearer cash check bearing the Citibank seal. The denomination was clearly printed with a long string of numbers—a full seven billion yen.

Kagawa's breathing became slightly labored. This money would just fill the financial hole he had made by overstepping his authority in the lobby.

"Vice President Kagawa," Endo said, adjusting his gold-rimmed glasses, his tone calm, "when you return to headquarters tomorrow morning, you can report to the board that you used your overseas financial connections to secure an anonymous trust fund, which then paid this donation on your behalf."

Endo placed his hands on his knees, crossed over his own.

"You did not use a single penny of the bank's working capital, but instead won a good reputation for the head office in front of the Prime Minister. This will be an extremely glorious achievement in your resume."

Kagawa stared at the cash promissory note, his fingers slowly tightening at his side.

"So, what's the price?"

He looked up, his gaze wary.

"You've already withdrawn most of your semiconductor debt. Fuji Bank's current balance sheet doesn't have any extra high-quality underlying assets for you to divest."

Endo took out a very thin memo and placed it next to the promissory note.

"The Saionji family doesn't need assets right now. What we need is information."

Endo tapped his fingertip on the terms of the memorandum, his voice turning cold.

"This agreement requires you to submit a copy of the actual loan ratings of all core enterprises of the Furong Group within Fuji Bank, as well as a copy of the bad debt details hidden in the off-balance-sheet 'enclave accounts,' to the designated mailbox every month thereafter."

Kagawa's eyes widened suddenly, and thick red blood vessels appeared in the depths of his eyes.

He looked at Endo's calm face, and his stomach involuntarily spasmed. The true accounts of those enclave accounts were the highest-level trade secrets of the entire Furong Group. As long as he personally made the first copy and handed it over, he would legally constitute an indisputable breach of trust.

Once this weakness falls into the hands of the other party, he will completely lose all his options and will spend the rest of his life as a puppet and inside manipulator at the mercy of the Saionji family.

"What do you want these secrets for..." Kagawa's Adam's apple bobbed with difficulty, his voice trembling with extreme fear. "To blackmail the head office board with these bad debts? Or to short-sell Furong Group on the secondary market?"

He suddenly stood up and growled in a suppressed voice.

"Handing over these drafts is tantamount to handing my life over to you! If exposed, I will be purged by the entire financial industry!"

Endo sat comfortably on the sofa, his posture unchanged.

"Vice President Kagawa."

Endo looked directly into the other person's eyes.

"In the lobby outside, the Prime Minister and the entire Japanese media are still waiting for Fuji Bank's 7.5 billion yen check to be cashed. If you walk out empty-handed now, you will face the wrath of the head office board and charges of breach of trust tomorrow morning."

Endo glanced at the promissory note.

"You will spend the rest of your life in prison, and your family will be stigmatized in Tokyo."

Kagawa stood frozen in place.

Endo looked at Kagawa's pale face and then reached into the inside pocket of his suit and took out a pen.

He uncapped the pen, turned it around, and handed it to Kagawa.

"Risk always goes hand in hand with reward. Mr. Kagawa."

Endo's tone softened.

"The environment is changing. Those old executives on the head office board who engage in fraud and cover up bad debts will sooner or later be eliminated by the market in the future storms."

"When Fuji Bank undergoes a purge and restructuring..."

Endo paused for a moment.

"This century-old bank ultimately needs a new head manager who understands the rules and has made outstanding contributions to stabilize the situation. The Saionji family has always been generous, and we are very happy to provide you with support along this path."

Kagawa's legs lost their support, and he slumped back onto the sofa.

He was breathing heavily.

The faint notes of the symphony outside pierced through the soundproof door, striking his eardrums one after another, like some kind of countdown.

He looked at the contract on the coffee table that sold his soul, and then at the promissory note that would allow him to get away immediately.

The situation outside was a hopeless dead end. Before them lay a path to survival, one that offered not only escape from imprisonment but also the possibility of advancement.

He had no choice and could not refuse.

Kagawa extended his trembling right hand and took the pen that Endo handed him.

His wrist trembled slightly from humiliation and fear, as well as an ambition that had been awakened at some unknown time, and the pen tip left a tiny ink dot on the paper.

"Shh shh shh".

The iridium pen nib glided across the paper fibers. With a faint scraping sound, he personally accepted the noose handed to him by the Saionji family.

……

The heavy, soundproof door to the VIP monitoring room on the second floor was pushed inward.

Executive Director Endo walked into the room and pushed the door shut behind him.

Behind the large, matte black control panel, Satsuki sat upright in a leather swivel chair. To prevent screen glare, the room's lighting was kept very low.

Her gaze had been fixed on the surveillance screen matrix on the wall, but upon hearing the soft click of the door lock closing, she turned her head slightly.

"Three minutes later than I expected." Satsuki said casually, watching Endo approach. "Vice President Kagawa seems to still harbor some unrealistic loyalty to Fuji Bank?"

Endo strode to the control panel and opened the black briefcase he carried with him.

"Loyalty is often very fragile in the face of desperate survival situations."

"I think... he just needs more time to find a respectable excuse for his betrayal."

Endo pulled out a slightly crumpled memo from the pile and handed it to Satsuki with both hands.

Satsuki took the memorandum.

That was Fuji Bank's "Memorandum on the Stripping of Underlying Debts." In the final signature section, Vice President Kagawa's handwriting was slightly messy due to fear, and next to it was a clear red seal symbolizing the legal validity of Fuji Bank.

"Starting next month, Fuji Bank's internal 'Non-Performing Loans (NPL) anonymous list' will be sent to the designated mailbox on time."

Satsuki's gaze lingered on Kagawa's signature for two seconds.

"He made a smart decision."

Satsuki put the file back on the desktop.

"Executive Director Endo, how long do you think Fuji Bank can survive on those falsified ledgers?"

Endo's gaze fell on the memo.

"They rely heavily on unrealized gains from cross-shareholdings between companies to meet the Basel 8% core capital adequacy ratio. The continued market downturn has caused these unrealized gains to evaporate, which is an objective fact. However, it is impossible for outsiders to accurately calculate how much loss they are concealing off-balance-sheet."

"Therefore, we need Kagawa to provide us with firsthand inside information."

Satsuki leaned back against the leather swivel chair.

"No matter how well the official financial reports are embellished, they cannot hide the bleeding of the real economy. Based on the drafts he provides every month, we need to select one or two core backbone enterprises within the Furong Group that are large in scale, deeply involved in heavy infrastructure, but whose actual cash flow has long been cut off."

As Endo looked at the memo, his mind quickly processed the financial attack model.

"Once we find this leverage point, we can establish a short position overseas." Endo adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses, his voice slightly deep. "Then, we'll secretly transmit the company's true bad debt data to Western media outlets like the Wall Street Journal. Once the real financial black hole is exposed, other domestic financial institutions will immediately cut off short-term lending to it to avoid risk. This will cause the company's cash flow to dry up within days."

"When it's on the verge of bankruptcy, it will definitely ask Fuji Bank, its main bank, for help." Satsuki tapped her fingers lightly on the armrest of her chair. "According to the usual practice of zaibatsu sticking together, the head office should approve an emergency bridge loan to keep it afloat."

She paused for a moment, a faint smile playing on her lips.

"At this point, it was Vice President Kagawa's turn to make trouble at the head office senior management meeting."

“But Miss,” Endo frowned, “the head office’s board of directors, those stubborn old executives, won’t give up on the rescue just because Kagawa gave a casual ‘Basel compliance warning.’ They will most likely choose to forcibly falsify accounts to cover up this funding.”

"What if the price of continuing the rescue is immediate death?"

Satsuki stared directly at Endo.

"Foreign media have already exposed the company's bad debts, and auditors from the Ministry of Finance and the Bank for International Settlements are keeping a close eye on it. Kagawa only needs to present a real problem to the board of directors at the meeting: if he forcibly injects capital now, it will immediately trigger the 8% capital red line, and Fuji Bank's branches in New York and London will have their licenses revoked tomorrow."

Satsuki's finger lightly drew a line on the table.

"After blocking the rescue route, Kagawa will use his authority over the divestiture of underlying assets to provide the board with an alternative 'escape plan'."

Endo's pupils contracted slightly as images of those shady accounting practices flashed through his mind.

"Enclave account," Endo added.

"Yes." Satsuki nodded slightly. "Kagawa proposed abandoning the bailout and letting that core company go bankrupt. But the massive amount of bad debts generated after the company's bankruptcy can be transferred off-balance sheet by Fuji Bank through shell companies set up overseas or in remote prefectures using 'enclave accounts.' This bad debt can be completely hidden in the dark and digested slowly over ten years."

Endo stood beside the control panel, silently considering the feasibility of the plan.

"Japanese bank executives are best at delaying problems when facing a crisis," Endo's voice softened. "Faced with the choice between 'immediately losing their international licenses' and 'hiding bad debts off the balance sheet and slowly delaying them,' those board members would definitely choose the latter. They would comfortably cut off the lifeline and watch their core companies die."

"The core enterprises collapsed, and the dominoes began to fall."

Satsuki looked at Endo.

"The head office board thought it had perfectly hidden the bad debts in the enclave account. But that was on the condition that Kagawa did not provide us with the actual monthly records of the enclave account."

"Once they've transferred all their bad debts, we can use these records—enough to indict them all for breach of trust—to knock on their board's door and force them to sign a restructuring agreement at an extremely low discount."

"We can then leverage our status as creditors to sit at the head of the negotiating table. We can use credit lines and extension terms as bargaining chips to exchange for what we want—such as stripping them of the underlying patents they hide in their labs, or cutting control of their core production lines."

"Even going further... annexing them is also within the scope of consideration."

Endo looked down at the thin sheet of paper on the table.

He always believed that he was trying his best to catch up with the young lady. However, in terms of vision, he admitted that he had never, and had never even come close to, the young lady.

...But at least, I should be able to help the young lady.

He picked up the memo and solemnly put it back into the encrypted compartment of his briefcase. He turned the gears of the combination lock, sealing this deadly fuse.

"I understand. I will personally take charge of arranging the implementation of the specific plan."

Endo picked up his briefcase and stood up.

The financial battle has concluded. As the actual coordinator of tonight's charity gala, he also needs to ensure the smooth conclusion of the fundraising session in the lobby on the first floor.

Endo turned his gaze to the security monitoring screen matrix that occupied the entire wall and began his routine check on the situation in various parts of the venue.

On dozens of split screens, guests in the lobby on the first floor were clinking glasses and exchanging toasts, while media flashes went off frequently.

After quickly scanning the screens of several main venues, Endo's gaze settled on a split screen at the edge of the third row.

That area, which should have been a restricted area for guests to enter, now had an incongruous figure that shouldn't have been there.

In the scene, the foreman Yamada, dressed in old work clothes, is still huddled in the shadows of a corner. He hugs his knees, occasionally peeking out half his head to secretly observe the brightly lit front hall.

Satsuki followed his gaze and looked at the surveillance screen as well.

Looking at the slightly trembling man on the screen, Satsuki's lips curled into a faint smile.

"Oh, right."

"There's still this little mouse we haven't dealt with..."