pjbooks Chapter 258 Gorgeous Skin
Chapter 258 Gorgeous Skin
Mid-June.
Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo.
Tokyo's rainy season is always long and humid, like an unbreakable beaded curtain, shrouding this bustling commercial street with the highest land prices in all of Japan.
Inside a high-class restaurant hidden deep in Ginza, with an extremely understated exterior.
The air inside was dry and slightly warm. In the brass stove in the corner, top-grade binchotan charcoal burned silently, dark red sparks flickering faintly at the edge of the ash, emitting a very faint woody aroma.
Watanabe Yoshinori, the fifth head of the Yamaguchi-gumi and the overlord of the Kansai yakuza, sat upright on a thick rush tatami mat.
He wore a meticulously tailored, dark Italian-style suit with subtle patterns, and a gold Patek Philippe watch on his wrist. Outwardly, he was indistinguishable from the other zaibatsu executives who frequented the Marunouchi office building.
Sitting opposite him was Hoshino, the core leader of the Sumiyoshi-kai, the largest yakuza organization in the Kanto region.
Hoshino was also dressed in a suit and tie. He leaned forward slightly and picked up the purple clay teapot with perfect precision. The scalding tea flowed in a perfect arc as he respectfully poured hot tea into the celadon teacup in front of Watanabe Yoshinobu.
The emerald green tea swirls in the cup, sending up a wisp of steam carrying the delicate fragrance of jade dew.
"Mr. Watanabe, please have some tea."
Hoshino put down the teapot, placed his hands flat on his knees, and bowed slightly.
Watanabe Yoshinobu picked up his teacup and gently blew away the floating tea leaves. He didn't rush to taste the tea; his gaze passed over the rising steam and landed on Hoshino's humble face.
"Brother Hoshino, the rain these past few days has been really annoying."
Watanabe's voice was deep and heavy with a Kansai accent.
"President Nakauchi Isamu of the Daiei Group called me personally a few days ago." He placed his teacup back on the coaster steadily. "Daiei has recently taken a liking to several bankrupt shops in the Kanto region that are slated for renovation. I heard that several of your financial consulting firms happen to be handling some historical debt disputes in those shops."
Hoshino's eyelids twitched very slightly. He remained seated, listening quietly.
"Everyone's in business. Harmony brings wealth." Watanabe Yoshizawa tapped his fingers lightly on the edge of the low rosewood table. "Brother Nakauchi is willing to contribute 500 million yen to the Kansai headquarters account as a token of appreciation for our brothers in Kanto. We hope your organization can do us a favor and allow the people in the shops to vacate so that Daiei's construction team can move in."
Five hundred million yen in cash.
In the traditional rules of the underworld, this amount of money is considered an extremely high price to buy the face of leaving the scene.
Watanabe Yoshinobu personally accepted this commission, not merely to maintain his so-called friendship with Zhong Neigong.
Following the issuance of the Ministry of Finance's "Total Credit Regulation," the credit gates in the Kansai region were also sealed shut. The numerous shell companies and real estate investment firms established by the Yamaguchi-gumi's front lines are facing a frenzy of loan withdrawals from major banks. The organization's entire working capital pool is visibly drying up.
This 500 million yen in cash is also a lifeline for the Yamaguchi-gumi at this moment, urgently needed to fill the short-term interest gap.
A brief silence fell over the tea room.
Occasionally, the charcoal fire in the stove would emit a very faint crackling sound.
Hoshino looked up and met Watanabe Yoshino's gaze. His face still wore that respectful smile befitting a junior, but a hint of coldness shone deep in his eyes.
"Mr. Watanabe."
Hoshino's voice was very calm, with just the right amount of apology.
"President Nakauchi of the Daiei Group is indeed a highly respected senior figure in the yakuza world. Since you personally stepped forward to make this request, the Kanto region should immediately give way to this path."
Hoshino swallowed hard.
"But... I'm really sorry."
He bent down deeply, his hands pressed tightly against his thighs.
"Brothers in Kanto... this time we can't back down."
Watanabe Yoshinobu's fingers, which were tapping the table, froze in mid-air. He narrowed his eyes slightly, staring at the local Kanto tyrant bowing and apologizing before him.
"Isn't 500 million yen enough to satisfy the brothers' appetites?" Watanabe's tone turned cold.
Hoshino did not immediately speak up in defense. He remained bowed deeply, but turned his head slightly and whispered an instruction to the outside of the closed shoji door.
"Bring it in."
The wooden door was silently pulled open. A young assistant in a black suit strode into the tea room, carrying a heavy black briefcase. He knelt beside Hoshino, unzipped the briefcase, took out a thick stack of documents, respectfully placed them on the low table, and then quickly withdrew.
Hoshino stretched out his hands and pushed the stack of documents in front of Watanabe Yoshinobu.
"Mr. Watanabe, please take a look at this."
Watanabe Yoshino lowered his eyes slightly.
The top document was prominently stamped with the bright red seal of "Tokyo Shinkin Bank". The bold black text was extremely glaring – "Notice of Compulsory Seizure and Account Freezing".
Hoshino's chest rose and fell slightly, and his voice was very low.
"At eight o'clock this morning, we were at the largest front-end real estate company in Shinjuku Ward. People from Credit Suisse, accompanied by court enforcement officers, directly sealed it off. The 3 billion yen in cash that the organization had invested there, along with the resettlement allowances for hundreds of brothers, instantly turned into a bunch of dead numbers."
He pointed to the stack of notices, which numbered in the dozens.
"These are all collection letters that were delivered to our branches and finance company desks by representatives from major banks in the Kanto region this morning. Yesterday afternoon, the branch manager was drinking bottles of foreign liquor worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in our establishments and patting his chest to guarantee that there would be no problem with the funds. This morning, he turned his back on us and brought the police to lock up our basic accounts."
Hoshino slowly straightened up.
"Mr. Watanabe, this has nothing to do with appetite. It's a question of survival."
Hoshino took a deep breath. To get through this ordeal, he had no choice but to reopen old wounds.
"After the Ministry of Finance issued the 'Total Regulations,' it cut off far more than just the real estate developers on the surface. Those high-ranking city banks are frantically withdrawing loans from 'settlement banks' (housing finance companies) in order to meet the audit targets set by Kasumigaseki."
"The funding hole at the residential real estate company couldn't be filled, so the fire spread directly underground. Those finance section chiefs who used to beg us for loans at drinking parties to boost our performance are now, with lawyers and debt collectors, blocking the doors of private finance companies all over the Kanto region every day. They're holding contracts, forcing us to immediately settle all the bridge loans and principal and interest that had snowballed up. They're even threatening to use their connections with the Metropolitan Police Department to seize our core assets."
Hoshino stared directly at Watanabe, his eyes bloodshot.
"In recent years, the organization has been using the funds to acquire land and engage in usury. The entire operation at the bottom has been maintained by borrowing short-term loans from real estate agents for long-term investments. Now that the upstream supply lines have stopped, the downstream financial chain has been completely broken."
"Once the housing agency initiates legal proceedings to freeze the accounts, dozens of shell companies in the Kanto region that operate under the guise of financial consulting will enter bankruptcy liquidation next week."
"If it really comes to that, thousands of brotherhoods will lose their legal cover, and we won't even have the cash to pay our men's resettlement allowances."
Hoshino's lips curled into an extremely bitter, miserable smile.
"Does Daiei's president, Nakauchi, think he can buy face with a 500 million yen 'tea money'? Mr. Watanabe, this 500 million yen isn't even enough to cover the late payment penalties due next week for several of our core companies. If we withdraw from those shops now for this little bit of money, thousands of our employees will be driven to jump into Tokyo Bay tomorrow because they can't pay their debts."
"At that time, the organization will cease to exist."
"Since the Darong Group is so eager to expand, and since they dared to take over this batch of toxic land..."
Hoshino slowly clenched his fists on his knees.
"They must pay the original price, including interest, 100% of those billions of dollars in 'relocation settlement fees (immediate return of materials)'."
"We won't walk out of that door for even a single yen less."
Outside the teahouse, raindrops pounded against the wooden window frame, making a continuous pattering sound.
Watanabe Yoshino looked at Hoshino's face, which was filled with determination.
He quietly picked up the celadon teacup in front of him, his fingertips gently stroking the cool rim of the cup.
They were facing a desperate situation, and so were we.
The Ministry of Finance's loan cutoff order is also tightly gripping the Kansai headquarters' neck. The outstanding debts from its subsidiaries that have been delivered to his desk these past few days are equally alarming. Everyone is struggling in this same avalanche.
At the critical juncture of bankruptcy liquidation, the face of a senior figure in the underworld is not enough to buy a mere ten thousand yen in a bank account. If he were in Hoshino's seat, facing a five hundred million yen "tea money" offer, he would absolutely refuse in the same way.
He drank the slightly cooled tea in one gulp.
He put down his teacup, turned his head, and looked through the half-open shoji door at the expensive plants in the courtyard that had been battered and broken by the wind and rain.
"These past few years have felt like a dream to everyone."
Watanabe Yoshinobu's voice carried a deep weariness and self-mockery.
"Buttoning up the shirt collar tightly and changing into several suits tailored by British tailors, thinking that would cover up the tattoos underneath... Going to the greens in Karuizawa, chatting and laughing with those bank directors who are usually arrogant and haughty, swinging their clubs. Drinking hundreds of thousands of yen bottles of foreign liquor in private rooms in Ginza, casually signing a name, and billions of yen are transferred."
He looked down at the dazzling Patek Philippe on his wrist.
"Looking at all those countless zeros in the account... we almost started to believe it ourselves. We really thought that by putting on expensive shoes, the mud on our feet would be completely washed away, and we would become some kind of respected upper-class tycoon."
Watanabe Yoshinobu took off his watch and casually tossed it onto the low rosewood table.
"Those bureaucrats in the Ministry of Finance, with just a few strokes of their pens, have completely stripped away this glamorous facade."
Watanabe Yoshizawa looked at the gold watch on the table, his voice turning cold. "Once the banks cut off our supplies, we... will still have no choice but to obediently roll back into the dark sewers and fight with rats for scraps."
Hoshino listened to the Kansai overlord's lament and nodded in deep agreement.
"Yes... those good days of getting billions from banks by signing two contracts and reselling a few plots of land are completely over."
Hoshino straightened his back. The slight humility he had shown after apologizing vanished, and the ruthlessness of a local tyrant from the Kanto region returned to him.
"Mr. Watanabe. What's coming is an economic winter that can freeze even bones." Hoshino looked directly at him. "Since the banks aren't feeding us, in order to survive, we'll have no choice but to take off those cumbersome suits and go back to doing dirty work that can't be seen in the light."
He leaned forward slightly and lowered his voice.
"Tokyo is full of unfortunate people going bankrupt because of loan defaults. Those zaibatsu bosses are eager to liquidate their unfinished shops to cash out... This is like easy money delivered to their doorstep."
"Let's just find a few of our men, lay out some tattered straw mats in those bankrupt, empty shops, forge a rental agreement from a few years ago, and move in." Hoshino's lips curled into a bloodthirsty smile. "Anyway, Japanese law tends to protect 'vulnerable tenants.' Those high-and-mighty zaibatsu want to kick us out? Fine, they'll pay a hefty 'relocation settlement fee.' If they don't pay... then let them take the court's mediation order and wait for three to five years. They're much more short of time than we are right now."
Watanabe Yoshino listened quietly, his eyes flickering slightly.
Hoshino stared at Watanabe, knowing that his efforts had been effective, and then quickly added fuel to the fire.
"Speaking of which... the fact that President Zhong Neigong could take out 500 million yen in cash to ask you for face without batting an eye precisely shows that Daiei's cash flow is currently very tight. They urgently need to open new stores to generate a lot of revenue to cover up their losses."
"Darong Group is now... like a fat pig that's running around in the snow and bleeding profusely."
Hoshino lowered his voice slightly.
"Mr. Watanabe, our brothers in Kansai are short on cash right now. Why don't you take this opportunity... to return that 500 million yen 'tea money' to him? Instead, leverage your guild's territorial advantage in Kansai and take a big, bloody bite out of that fat pig, Daiei?"
Watanabe Yoshiyuki quietly looked at the expensive gold watch on the table.
The tea room was silent for a few seconds.
He stretched out his rough right hand and picked up the Patek Philippe watch that he had just carelessly discarded.
The cold, solid gold watch strap pressed against his warm wrist. He slowly and deliberately fastened the clasp.
"Click".
A faint metallic clanging sound echoed in the quiet tea room.
Five hundred million yen for tea is a paltry sum compared to a fat pig bleeding profusely. The so-called "brotherhood face" bestowed by Zhong Neigong simply cannot fill the stomachs of the thousands of brothers under his command.
Watanabe Yoshino raised his head. In the depths of his slightly cloudy old eyes, the hesitation that had been there before had completely disappeared, replaced by a greed that was exactly the same as Hoshino's.
"Brother Hoshino."
Watanabe Yoshizawa picked up the empty teacup in front of him, raised it slightly towards the local Kanto tyrant opposite him, and a dangerous smile appeared on his lips.
"Since the winter snow is so heavy, the brothers in Kansai should naturally go out and find some food."