October 28, 1991, morning.
Tokyo, Akasaka, Fuji Bank Akasaka Branch.
Shimamura twirled the key to the seal cabinet twice between his fingers and put it back into his suit's inner pocket.
There were still ten minutes until opening.
Two rollover documents were already neatly placed on his desk, with the depositor column filled out for Chiyoda Kosan, leaving only for their president, Nishioka, to come and stamp them.
According to past practice, Nishioka would arrive at ten o'clock with people from Sankyo Finance, sit in the small meeting room on the second floor for twenty minutes, the old certificate of deposit would be collected, the new one issued, the date pushed back by half a year, and all three parties would return home without anyone asking a single extra question.
For over a year, he had handled the same matter more than a dozen times, so familiar that he could do it with his eyes closed without making a mistake.
This time would be no exception either.
At nine o'clock sharp, the rolling shutter on the first floor rose.
At nine-five, the counter's internal line rang.
"Deputy Manager Shimamura, there are two guests holding time deposit certificates from our branch, requesting to process a matured redemption."
Shimamura's hand holding the receiver tightened slightly.
Redemption?
Chiyoda Kosan's certificates of deposit had always been rolled over; when had they ever been redeemed?
"Which company is the depositor?"
"Chiyoda Kosan, but the people who came are not from Chiyoda Kosan. The other party presented pledge transfer documents, saying that the current pledgee is them."
"Where are they from?"
"Saionji."
Shimamura's brain went numb with a buzz.
Saionji?
How could it be Saionji?
The certificate of deposit was clearly held in pledge by Sankyo, and Kuwata, that old man, was timid to the extreme, having even sent people to the branch to inquire twice last month. How could he have transferred things to someone else without a sound?
He hurriedly hung up the phone and walked downstairs with hasty footsteps.
Walking to the corner of the stairs, he stopped, took a deep breath, straightened his tie, and then pushed open the door into the business hall.
Two people were sitting in front of the counter.
The older one wore a dark gray suit, with a black briefcase on his knees, and both hands pressed flatly on the bag.
The young man beside him wore glasses, with several documents spread out on the counter in front of him. At the very top were two certificates of deposit encased in transparent file bags, ten billion each.
Shimamura recognized the numbers of those two certificates of deposit at a glance.
He had issued them with his own hands. Last autumn, right in that office on the second floor, he had filled in the amount stroke by stroke, stamped the branch manager's seal, and handed them directly to Nishioka.
His hand trembled slightly, but he then withdrew it behind his back without a trace, and naturally came to sit behind the counter.
"Mr. Saionji, it is a pleasure to have you here."
He put on his most standard smile, received the business card handed over by the other party with both hands, and said with some difficulty:
"It's just that for a redemption of such a large amount, our branch needs to confirm with the depositor first and then apply to the headquarters for fund allocation. This morning, I'm afraid..."
"As for the depositor, there is no need to confirm."
The young lawyer turned a document over, his fingers pressing on the seal of the final page.
"This is the Pledge Establishment Commitment issued by your branch, stamped with your branch manager's seal. It is written very clearly: on the maturity date, your bank will directly pay the deposit to the pledgee."
"Sankyo Finance's loan claims against Chiyoda Kosan, along with the accompanying pledge rights, were transferred to Saionji Industrial altogether on October 23. The claim transfer notice was already sent to Chiyoda Kosan this morning via content-certified mail."
Shimamura looked at that seal, his throat feeling a bit dry.
The seal was real, and he had drafted the commitment letter himself. Even that line of text was specially added by him back then to put Sankyo at ease.
It's over.
Once this commitment letter was laid out, the branch didn't even have an excuse to stall.
If they didn't pay, they had to explain clearly why not. But there wasn't even twenty billion in the account; what could he use to pay?
"Of course, of course, there are no procedural problems."
He took out a handkerchief to wipe his brow, his tone awkward.
"It's just that fund scheduling takes time. Today might be too late, could I trouble the two of you tomorrow..."
"It's no trouble, we can wait."
The older one spoke, his tone very polite.
"Today will do, we'll wait here."
After saying this, he shifted his briefcase onto his knees and sat down on the bench in the hall. The lawyer also packed up the documents and sat next to him, with an air of not leaving unless they got the money.
Shimamura stared at the two people for a few seconds, barely maintaining the smile on his face.
"Since that is the case, please wait a moment, gentlemen. I will go and check on the status of the fund allocation again."
After speaking, he stood up and bowed slightly to the two of them.
The older man merely nodded, and the lawyer beside him said nothing more, taking out a document from his bag and lowering his head to flip through it.
Shimamura turned around and walked toward the stairwell.
For the first few steps, he deliberately slowed his pace. After rounding the counter and leaving the sight of the guests in the business hall, his steps quickened immediately.
He practically hurried all the way to the second floor, pushed open the office door, and closed it tightly behind him.
The next second, he had already grabbed the phone on the desk and dialed Nishioka's number.
It rang a dozen times, with no answer.
He called Chiyoda Kosan's office again; the female clerk who answered said the president went out early in the morning, and she didn't know where he went.
Shimamura slammed the receiver back onto the desk phone heavily.
Nishioka wasn't answering the phone.
He dialed it again, the ringing continued until it automatically disconnected, still with no answer.
"Bastard..."
Shimamura cursed in a low voice.
Could this bastard have already run away?
He paced back and forth twice in the office, then couldn't help walking over to the window, parting the blinds with two fingers.
Looking down from the second floor, he could just see that row of benches against the wall in the business hall.
Shimamura looked for a couple of seconds before realizing that one person was missing.
The older man was gone, leaving only the young lawyer still sitting in his original position with the folder resting on his knees, lowering his head to flip through something.
It seemed the other party had no intention of wasting time here together.
Shimamura stared at the lawyer for a few seconds, then slowly lowered the blinds.
Ten-twenty.
Ten-forty.
In between, he called Chiyoda Kosan twice more, and each time the female clerk in the office said the president had not returned yet and she didn't know where he went.
Until the hour hand on the wall was about to reach eleven, the phone on the desk finally rang.
Shimamura grabbed the receiver almost the moment the first ring sounded.
"Hello?"
"Shimamura-kun, I just heard."
Nishioka's voice was urgent and shrill, with the sound of cars driving by coming from the phone from time to time.
"How could Sankyo sell? That old coot Kuwata didn't mention a single word to me!"
"I'd like to ask you the same thing!"
Shimamura still couldn't completely suppress his anger.
"Right now, Saionji's people are sitting downstairs, holding two matured certificates of deposit demanding twenty billion. You know the branch's accounts, what can I use to pay them?"
The other end of the line went quiet for a moment.
"How much can you scrape together right now?"
"What?"
"Redeem these two first."
Nishioka said quickly.
"No matter what method is used, as long as we get through today first, we can talk about the rest later."
Shimamura almost thought he misheard.
"Twenty billion?"
He tightened his grip on the receiver.
"Where the fuck do you expect me to scrape together twenty billion!"
Nishioka didn't speak.
There were only a few rapid breaths left in the phone, along with the honking of car horns in the distance.
After a few seconds, his voice suddenly lowered.
"Shimamura-kun."
"The certificates of deposit were issued by you."
Shimamura's expression changed bit by bit.
"When it truly reaches that step, don't expect me to take the fall for you."
"Nishioka, you—"
The phone had already hung up.
Shimamura stood there holding the receiver.
Busy signals rang into his ears one after another.
Making his expression grow uglier and uglier.
Issuing...
What a joke!!!
Were these certificates of deposit something he thought up all by himself?!
When they first decided to do this, Nishioka was clearly present.
Chiyoda Kosan wanted money, Sankyo wanted a guarantee, everyone sat together to set the procedures item by item—who was responsible for issuing the certificate, who was responsible for taking it for financing, and where the money ultimately flowed, everyone knew it clearly in their hearts.
Back then, how nicely everyone spoke.
It's just a temporary turnover.
As long as it continues to roll over, there won't be any problems.
Everyone was in the same boat; if something really happened, they would naturally think of a way together.
As a result, now that the certificate of deposit had matured, Nishioka wanted to push all the blame onto him with a single phrase, "It was issued by you"?
Shimamura slammed the receiver back onto the desk phone fiercely.
"Bastard!"
The documents on the desk were shaken slightly crooked.
He yanked open his tie, his chest heaving violently, and reached out to grab the two pre-filled rollover documents on the desk, almost crumpling them directly into a ball.
But as soon as his fingers tightened, his movement slowly came to a halt.
The words on the paper suddenly became exceptionally piercing.
Depositor: Chiyoda Kosan.
Handling officer: himself.
The certificate of deposit: issued by him.
The branch manager's seal went through procedures from him, and the pledge commitment letter was also drafted by him personally.
Even if Nishioka ran away, even if Kuwata turned hostile, even if there were others behind them—
The very first person to be investigated would definitely be him.
Shimamura's hand suddenly loosened.
The two sheets of paper fell back onto the desktop.
That surge of anger just now seemed to be cut off in the middle by something, leaving only a chill.
He stood there unmoving, yet sweat began to constantly bead on his forehead.
If it was truly investigated, to what step would it go?
How many were issued?
Who signed them?
Where did the money go?
Who kept the books?
He instinctively raised his hand to wipe his forehead; his palms were already completely wet.
No.
Things cannot be allowed to continue.
Shimamura paced a couple of steps in the office, then stopped and turned his head to look at the phone on the desk.
That's right.
There was still one person.
He suddenly remembered.
There was still one person who could suppress this matter.
Shimamura strode back to the desk, grabbed the receiver, and because his fingers were trembling, he even pressed the wrong number the first time.
He cursed in a low voice, hung up, and dialed again.
This string of numbers—he had never dialed it using the branch's phone.
The phone rang twice, and someone on the other end answered.
"Hello."
It was a woman.
Shimamura forced himself to sit up straight, keeping his voice as steady as possible.
"I am Shimamura from the Akasaka Branch. Please pass along a message to Executive Tanimoto; something has happened on my end."
The other party didn't ask much.
"Please wait a moment."
The call was transferred through.
Shimamura held the receiver, listening to the very faint static on the other end of the line.
After about a minute, that familiar voice finally sounded.
"What is it?"
"Executive Tanimoto, here at Akasaka..."
Shimamura lowered his voice, telling the situation downstairs in the shortest possible words. The other side fell silent for a few seconds.
"Delay them. Stall until three o'clock in the afternoon; once the counter closes, ask them to come back tomorrow. I will contact Chiyoda Kosan."
"Also, this matter must not be reported to any department at the headquarters."
The phone hung up.
Shimamura let out a long breath and collapsed into the chair.
Fortunately, the executive was still there.
As long as the executive suppressed it, no one from headquarters would come to investigate.
As long as the executive was still there, stalling through today meant they could figure out another way tomorrow.
Just as he put the receiver back, the door was knocked on. The branch manager poked half his body in, holding a newly filled-out report form in his hand.
"Shimamura-kun, that redemption matter downstairs, I have already reported it up."
Shimamura was stunned, abruptly raising his head.
"Re... reported to whom?"
The branch manager clearly hadn't noticed his expression, placing the report form on his desk with a hint of complaint in his tone.
"The notice just issued by headquarters last week states that any enterprise on the risk observation list with large abnormal transactions must first be reported to the Risk Management Department. Failing to report it will result in accountability."
He tapped the report form on the desk.
"Chiyoda Kosan is on the list; I can't possibly gamble with my own position."
Risk Management Department.
Shimamura stared at that report form, the color on his face draining away bit by bit.
Who oversaw the Risk Management Department—no one throughout the entire bank did not know.