Tokyo: Rabbit Police and Her Evil Partner

Chapter 541 The Sucker President

As the saying goes, "He who takes a bribe is bound to be obliging," and "He who eats a meal is bound to be obliging." After returning from Hokkaido, Gen Tamako didn't want to owe her family anything anymore, especially the Kujo family, otherwise she would feel a strong sense of indebtedness.

It's fine for Fushimi to spend her money, but spending her family's money is a different matter. This puts a lot of pressure on her, making her feel caught in the middle.

Genji criticized the matter sternly, dragged Fushimi Shika to the bank, and transferred ten million yen back to his grandfather. Now there is only ten million yen left in the bank card, and he still can't pay the balance.

Ultimately, she had always felt that the house was unaffordable, and if Fushimi Shika hadn't suddenly offered a deposit of ten million yen, she wouldn't have signed the contract at all.

Seeing Minamoto no Tamako's worried expression, Fushimi Shika realized that it wasn't appropriate for him to live off the Kujo family, mainly because Minamoto no Tamako's moral standards were too high, unlike his own.

Countless people would rather become defaulters and end up on the blacklist for money. Now that there's an opportunity to ask for money without batting an eye, and the other party is someone you don't have a good relationship with but is eager to give you money, generally speaking, you'd rather not refuse it.

In the past, Fushimi Shika would never have given the money back.

But seeing that Yuan Yuzi looked worried about money, he still transferred back the ten million he had embezzled.

It's not good to keep living off your mother's family. What if the Kujo family produces another scoundrel like Kujo Hikaru? Should he kill him or not?

Kujo Mutsumi probably had this plan in mind: to pull him into a community of shared interests, let him enjoy the benefits, and bind him together with money and privileges, so that he would unknowingly become a dog of the Kujo family.

This is similar to a family relationship where parents have overwhelming power over their children. Parents have the right to demand that their children do all sorts of things and to insult their children's dignity, or to use excuses such as "I work hard to earn money to support you" to exert moral pressure. The main reason for this is the unequal economic conditions between the two parties.

Parents are the source of income for the family, and children are "attached" to the family until they are independent. Once children are financially independent and their income exceeds that of their parents, the coercion they felt in childhood will disappear, and they will have the right to say "no" to their parents and completely break free from their parents' control.

To live an independent life, you must first be financially independent.

As they left the bank, Fushimi Shika patted Minamoto no Tamako on the shoulder and comforted her, "Don't worry, it's just money. There are plenty of ways to make money."

Gentama thought differently. She felt that it was dangerous for spending to be out of sync with income: "Maybe we should just forget about it. This house is just too expensive..."

"It's okay, I'll figure something out."

Fushimi Shika had never focused on making money before, but now that he's under financial pressure, he plans to seriously try to earn some extra money to make ends meet.

You need to earn at least ten million within a week to pay the remaining balance on the house.

Yuan Yuzi said, "You said it yourself, there's no time to cash out in stocks within a week, and there aren't that many stocks that suddenly go up... If you ask me, let's ask the agent to refund the deposit and find a cheaper place to live."

As Fushimi Shika stood beside her on the platform waiting for the train, he casually replied, "If the final payment isn't made according to the contract, 25% of the deposit will be deducted, which is 2.5 million yen."

Upon hearing this, Minamoto no Tamako was heartbroken. Two and a half million yen was equivalent to a small one-bedroom apartment, but she hadn't paid the final payment yet. The apartment had just vanished like that. She immediately regretted it, wishing she had stopped Fushimi from signing the contract back then.

It's too late to say anything now.

"Then what should we do? How do you plan to make money?" Yuan Yuzi asked.

Fushimi Shika hesitated, unsure whether to speak up. Any method that could make a fortune in a week was undoubtedly some kind of shady business. Seeing his strange expression, Minamoto Tamako asked suspiciously, "You're not planning to make money through dishonest means, are you?"

"How can you call it 'black money'?"

Before Fushimi Shika could finish speaking, the train roared into the station. The two boarded the train and, finding seats available, sat together. He continued, "There are several ways to earn ten million, the simplest being foreign exchange arbitrage."

"What?" Gen Tamako didn't quite understand this kind of thing.

“Currently, there is a difference of 0.1 to 0.3 yen in the USD/JPY exchange rate between the New York and Tokyo foreign exchange markets. For example, if the exchange rate is 130.00 in New York and 130.25 in Tokyo, you can buy USD at 130.25 in Tokyo and sell USD at 130.00 in New York at the same time. By locking in exchange rate risk through USD and JPY futures contracts on TIFFE, the profit from a single arbitrage transaction is 25000 yen per USD 100 million,” Fushimi Shika said.

"Eh..." Minamoto Tamako thought to herself, "Is there really such a good thing in the world? Isn't this free money?" She couldn't help but ask, "Then where did the 0.25 difference go?"

Fushimi Shika fell silent.

With a bad feeling, Gen Tamako couldn't help but ask, "Could it be that they're exploiting the country again?"

Fushimi Shika turned his head to pick his earwax: "The foreign exchange law will be introduced in a few months. If we don't hurry up and do this job, it will be a crime later..."

Yuan Yuzi immediately grabbed his arm and shook it, loudly warning him not to have such wicked thoughts!
Fushimi Shika shook his head back and forth, then suddenly a brilliant idea struck him, and he said, "I've got it! There are other ways to make money! Indeed, opportunities are everywhere in the 1990s!"

"What?" Yuan Yuzi was taken aback.

Fushimi Shika then said something she had never heard of before: "Just in time for the economic bubble to burst, bad debts are being bought up at a discount, so they can probably make a lot of money."

Genji asked, "What is that for?"

Fushimi Shika explained, "For example, a construction company in Shinagawa Ward, Tokyo, is facing a broken cash flow and is eager to transfer its office building receivables with a face value of 500 million yen, which are three months overdue. Upon checking the Legal Affairs Bureau's real estate register, it is found that the property is valued at 800 million yen, and there are no other priority claims..."

“In this situation, the ‘cash acquisition + debt assumption’ model can be used to lower the price, and an agreement can be reached at around 2.5 million yen. Then, the debt can be quickly transferred to a foreign asset management company for 3.5 million yen, and after deducting transaction costs, a net profit of 9500 million yen can be made.”

Yuan Yuzi didn't know much about foreign investment. Her first impression was that the country was calling for foreign investment in construction and so on. She thought it was a good thing. Selling domestic non-performing assets to foreign investors would be the same as making money for the country, right?
Is there really such a perfect thing in the world?
Yuan Yuzi wasn't stupid. After thinking it over carefully, she couldn't help but ask, "The idea is good, but where did you get the hundreds of millions of yen in capital?"

Fushimi Shika hooked her arm around her shoulder, smiled, and said, "Investing with your own money is the dumbest thing you can do. Isn't there a ready-made sucker out there?"

"Huh? Who is it?" Yuan Yuzi asked warily. "Is it looking for my grandfather again?"

Fushimi Shika frowned: "What are you saying! Listen to what you're saying! I have my own career, okay? Don't treat me like some kind of gigolo!"

"Private Marseille..." Gen Tamako subconsciously apologized, but then felt something was off: "Could it be that she's looking for my mother? She couldn't possibly come up with hundreds of millions of yen all at once..."

"Hmph, you underestimate the power of the Superintendent General of Police." Fushimi Shika paused. "You guessed wrong. I don't plan to look for her."

He stopped beating around the bush, pulled a business card from his wallet, and handed it to Minamoto no Tamako: "Have you forgotten? Mr. Satake's invitation... I'm an advisor to a financial company now."

Gen Tamako remembered that she had asked Kazama-senpai to take care of the company. They hadn't checked on it recently, and she didn't know if the new company was going well.

In front of her, Fushimi Shika called Kazama Takusai to ask him how the company was doing lately.

Kazama Takusai replied, "It's strange. There are always yakuza members coming to give us money, but it's not much, just enough to cover employee expenses..." Fushimi Shika was startled and quickly asked, "Employee expenses? What employee expenses? Aren't you the only one in the company?"

The money sent by the Inagawa Association was all his salary! It was just a money laundering process!

It's not much, but every little bit helps! It's a high salary of several million yen! I hope Kazama Takusai doesn't spend that money.
Kazama Takusai said in a matter-of-fact tone, "I can't keep track of money, so I hired an accountant."

"Oh, so it's just an accountant..." Fushimi Shika breathed a slight sigh of relief.

How much money could an accountant possibly spend? It was just a false alarm.

"And me," Kazama Takusai said, "because I was dismissed for misconduct, I don't receive insurance, compensation, or severance pay, and I'm not old enough to receive a pension, so I also need a salary. Although I'm very free, I can't work for free, can I?"

"That's true." Fushimi Shika gripped his phone tighter. "So, how much salary do you pay yourself?"

"Two hundred thousand yen a month is very fair. I'm the one who manages everything, and I even have to help you take care of Hirako occasionally," Kazama Takusai said matter-of-factly.

This price is indeed fair; that's about the same monthly salary for an average employee.

Fushimi Shika thought to himself, "No wonder this guy never complained about taking care of Hirako. It turns out he's been taking a paycheck from my pocket all along."

"Okay, so besides you and the accountant, there's no one else, right?" Fushimi Shika was already starting to get annoyed.

“Ah Jun also took on a part-time job as a security guard. There are gangsters coming and going every day. How can he manage without on-duty criminal police officers protecting him? It’s not easy to do business these days. Gangs often come to collect protection money,” Kazama Takusai said.

Fushimi Shika remained silent for a moment, then finally asked in a nonchalant tone, "Just tell me straight, how much can you save in a month?"

“There’s nothing left,” Kazama Takusai said, puzzled. “Rent and utilities cost money, and there’s no other source of income, so where would we get extra money?”

"Good! Good! Good!"

Fushimi Shika said "good" three times, never expecting that he would let Kazama Takusai and Watanabe Shun take advantage of him without realizing it.

Then, he thought about it again. Kazama Takusai and Watanabe Shun had taken the money, so they were essentially his people and had become a community of interests.

He would need help making money later.

Oh well, I'll just treat it like raising a dog.

Fushimi Shika repeatedly prepared himself mentally, telling Kazama Takusai to go to the company first, and he would be there in a while. He would start working today; how could he just collect a salary every day without doing any work?

"What do you mean you haven't been working? Watering the plants and wiping your desk every day is hard work too." Kazama Takusai said indignantly, "But you, the nominal president, why don't you ever think of ways to generate revenue? If you don't make money, how can the company operate? Even if it's a non-profit company, it can't operate on charity alone, can it?"

"..."

Fushimi Shika gritted his teeth: "Fine, I'll take you guys to make money in a bit."

He slammed down the phone angrily. Yuan Yuzi noticed his expression and asked, "What's wrong? What happened?"

"Nothing's wrong, I'm fine," Fushimi Shika chuckled dismissively.

He personally escorted Minamoto Tamako home and put a videotape of a TV drama on her. It was a highly-rated mystery drama, with a whole season lasting about eight hours, all to prevent Minamoto Tamako from watching the news on TV.

The past two days have seen a huge uproar in Tokyo. The boxing match between men and women has finally begun, and no one in society can avoid it. Since everyone is either male or female, there is no neutral side in this battle.

Fushimi Shika didn't care about the matter; he only hoped that Minamoto no Tamako wouldn't be affected by such trivialities. Just in case, he secretly instructed Hiraoko to keep an eye on things.

After finishing his errands, Fushimi Shika rushed to the office building in Ikebukuro.

Kazama Takusai rented two offices here. At present, it is still unknown what this nominally non-profit company does. It has basically been transformed by Watanabe Shun into a gathering place for drinking and playing cards.

The accountant was also a man, and with three grown men gathered together, you can imagine what the office would look like.

When Fushimi Shika entered, Kazama Takusai was still tidying up. There were cup noodle boxes everywhere on the table, the ashtray was full of cigarettes, and the coffee table drawer was half open, filled with scattered playing cards.

Only the desk against the wall was clean, with lush green plants on it, showing that Kazama Takusai really works diligently every day, responsible for wiping the desk and watering the plants...

Nonsence!

What kind of job is this?!
Fushimi Shika was quite displeased, and entered with a long face.

When the accountant heard that the elusive president was coming, she quickly put on a suit, sat at the other desk, and pretended to be organizing reports, looking very busy.

Kazama Takusai went downstairs to throw out the trash, while Fushimi Shika asked the accountant a few questions alone, which was a kind of simple interview.

The accountant's name is Goto Shunsuke. He graduated from XX University. His resume is neither good nor bad. He had almost no work experience after graduation. At the time, the economic bubble was in full swing, and he was rejected everywhere he looked for a job. In the end, he was picked up by Kazama Takusai.

To be honest, Goto Shunsuke cherished this job. Many of his classmates were unemployed, constantly running around. Without a job, they couldn't rent a place to live, and without a place to stay, they couldn't find temporary work. As a result, many of them were getting worse off, and quite a few were even sleeping under bridge piers...

He was able to find such an easy job not because of his ability, but simply because he was lucky that day and ran into Kazama Takusai and Watanabe Shun while drinking.

The president is back now, and he looks terrifying. The company might go bankrupt...

Previously, Goto Shunsuke felt that this company had no income at all and he didn't know how it operated, so it was probably on the verge of bankruptcy.

If Airbus is a company that launders money for organized crime, why would it hire a complete stranger as an accountant?

So Goto Shunsuke concluded that the company president was a sucker, and that the president might be working for the yakuza every day, earning some shady income, which was the source of the yakuza's monthly donations. He invested that money in the company, wanting to benefit society, and he was indeed a good person, but he didn't seem to be very bright.

Please, please don't let it be bad news!

Goto Shunsuke prayed silently.

(End of this chapter)