Conan: I'm a zaibatsu in Tokyo

Zheng Yi stood in front of the exhibits.

“I have a solid drum in my art museum.” Zheng Yi’s voice was very soft, his tone so calm that it was as if he were simply stating a very ordinary fact.

"When it was auctioned in London, a small Middle Eastern royal family wanted to take it."

Seeing that no one responded, he turned his head slightly to look at Hongye.

"And then?" Hongye asked.

"And then?" Zheng Yi's lips curled into a smile. "Then that drum ended up in my art museum."

His voice remained low, his pace unhurried, and every word was clearly uttered in the quiet exhibition hall.

“I said,” Zheng Yi extended a finger and pointed very slowly at the glass case, “I want the royal family to find out whose land they are standing on.”

After he finished speaking, the exhibition hall fell into a deathly silence.

The person in charge felt a chill run down their spine.

This is outrageous!
Mr. Zhengyi is trying to deceive Heaven!

The person in charge felt so weak in the legs that he could hardly stand up.

Although those who offended Zheng Yi before all met with terrible ends, this time it is a member of the royal family, a prince!
Now that Zheng Yi has openly challenged the royal family, is a civil war about to break out?

He had heard that Mr. Zhengyi owned a security company, which was his private armed force, and that its equipment was comparable to that of the military. Unknown armed helicopters had also appeared in Tokyo.

He unified the Tokyo newspapers, enabling him to wage a propaganda war.

Moreover, Mr. Zhengyi's automobile company can immediately switch to producing military products.

The Sumitomo Group's pharmaceutical division can provide Zhengyi with logistical medical support.

The real estate industry has a large number of hardworking employees, who are all excellent recruits.

Zheng Yi is going to start a civil war!
The person in charge felt a sense of suffocation, never expecting to witness such a pivotal historical moment firsthand.

While brainstorming, he cautiously took a step back.

Now that he knows something so important, will he be silenced?

"Ahem." Hongye coughed and said loudly, "Have you been drinking too much?"

Even if you look down on the royal family, you can't say it out loud.

Shiho also tried to salvage the situation for Shoichi, saying, "Private property is inviolable."

An unintentional mistake, an unintentional mistake.

The person in charge nodded quickly and said, "Yes, yes, private property is inviolable, not even royalty."

He quickly wiped the sweat from his brow.

How could it be about starting a civil war? Mr. Zhengyi just wants to protect his private property.

This is a perfectly reasonable demand.

……

"This is insane!"

Inside a quaint little teahouse, a group of people had excited gleams in their eyes.

This is a place where Kyoto journalists often gather.

Inoue had just returned from taking photos at a murder scene, and the smell of blood on him still seemed to linger.

But nobody is interested in ordinary murder cases, because there's a more explosive story here.

"Hey, have you heard? What Sumitomo Shoichi said at the Sen-oku Hakuko Kan..."

A young reporter wearing thick-rimmed glasses lowered his voice, but his eyes were frighteningly bright.

He looked around and mysteriously pulled out a freshly printed internal newsletter from the drawer.

"What?"

Several reporters immediately gathered around.

He said he wanted the royal family to know whose land they were standing on.

The young reporter read the sentence out slowly and deliberately, his voice trembling slightly with excitement.

Zheng Yi's words were a "nuclear bomb" that could ignite public opinion.

“He’s gone mad…he’s gone mad!” An elderly reporter took off his glasses and shook his head in disbelief.

"This is the royal family! The Sumitomo family may be rich, but this is the first time they've dared to openly challenge us like this."

Those conglomerates outwardly show respect to the Imperial Family, especially the Sumitomo Group, which has close ties with the Imperial Family.

"This isn't a challenge, it's a declaration of war!" Another young reporter exclaimed, his face flushed with excitement.

A young man who had just joined the company said, "It seems that it was just Sumitomo Shoichi who said it, and it has nothing to do with the Sumitomo Group. Moreover, he was only targeting a prince, not the entire royal family."

"Are you even a journalist anymore?" A group of people looked at him with disappointment and disbelief.

Not only did you not exaggerate the news, but you even started to be factual.

Pooh!
A guy like you will never be an outstanding employee.

Stared at by a group of seniors, the young man shrank back.

"Fantastic... This is a godsend!" The editor-in-chief in charge of the social section said with a smile, "With Shoichi around, there's no need to worry about newspaper sales. Our colleagues in Tokyo are so lucky."

The editor next to him twitched at the corner of his mouth.

My colleagues in Tokyo don't seem to be happy.

They have just been bombed and are currently being kept in captivity by the Zhengyi.

But there was no time to mourn his colleagues in Tokyo; his fingers tapped lightly on the table, as if he could already see the newspaper sales soaring.

"This is a very sensitive matter, should we report it directly?" The young reporter was eager to try.

"Of course we'll report it!" A hint of excitement flashed in the editor-in-chief's eyes.

"We're waiting for the Imperial Family's reaction and the Sumitomo family's follow-up actions. We need to dig out every detail of this drama so that readers all over Japan can see that this is an ongoing event!"

"This is unprecedented big news!" a reporter exclaimed.

Their newspaper is going to make a killing now.

The death of the Kyoto Daily's president dispelled the gloom that had hung over them, replacing it with euphoria.

This level of explosive news is enough to increase the sales of any newspaper several times over, or even more.

They not only want to eat, but they want to eat until their mouths are greasy and their bellies are bursting.

"Thank Zheng Yi, and also thank that prince who is about to fall from grace."

……

Inside Prince Takeda's study.

The attendant bowed his head, while Prince Takeda sat upright on the tatami mat, holding a scroll in his hand, but did not turn the page for a long time.

"That Sumitomo brat..." the prince's voice was deep, "Who does he think he is? The shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate? How dare he claim this land as his own?"

Takeda-miya was thin and pale, with meticulously styled short hair and a neatly trimmed beard, and he always wore a pair of gold-rimmed glasses.

He is the current emperor's cousin and is the most prestigious member of the collateral branches of the imperial family.

Because he was late in the line of succession to the throne, he was not burdened with heavy official duties, and instead had a great deal of time to devote to collecting and studying antiques and works of art. He called himself "Japan's last guardian of aesthetics" and held a deep-seated contempt for the emerging zaibatsu (financial conglomerates).

Originally, the Sumitomo Group was not within his scope of contempt, but the appearance of Masakazu successfully made him start to despise the Sumitomo surname as well.

“How are you going to respond to that guy?” the secretary asked.

“How could I possibly respond to a junior?” Takeda-miya said.

Responding specifically to this kind of guy would be beneath my dignity.

Moreover, if the response is not good, others will laugh at you.

He turned to his secretary and said, "Arrange my itinerary for two days from now. I'm going to the Sen-oku Hakuko Kan Museum."

"Yes."

……

"This is outrageous! It's utterly lawless!"

"This is no longer just arrogance; it's a challenge to the entire social order of Japan!"

"He must be expelled from the family! Otherwise, the Sumitomo family will lose all face!"

Sumitomo Saburo paced angrily around the living room, not content with just cursing Shoichi, and pointed at Sumitomo Taro, saying:

"Look at your nephew! You've spoiled him rotten. There's nothing in Japan he's afraid of anymore!"

"Today he provokes a prince, tomorrow he'll provoke the prime minister, and the day after tomorrow he'll provoke the emperor!"

Sumitomo Taro gently swirled the purple clay teacup in his hand, causing the tea to ripple slightly.

“Shoichi is indeed outrageous.” Sumitomo Taro slowly stood up. “But family matters are paramount, and we are all connected by blood, so we can’t really kick him out of the house.”

After all, the Justice Group is so large that even if the Sumitomo family doesn't acknowledge it, there are plenty of other families that are willing to.

Especially Ooka, Sumitomo Taro always felt that they had wolfish ambitions and were up to a great extent.

“Look, look.” Sumitomo Saburo said helplessly, “Shoichi knew you would think this way, which is why he is so fearless. He has gotten to where he is today because of your indulgence.”

That's how he gradually, step by step, stopped respecting the royal family.

Saburo Sumitomo sat angrily on the sofa, tugged at his tie, and breathed heavily through his nose.

Sumitomo Taro looked down at his younger brother and said, "Shoichi was too impulsive this time. These words shouldn't have come out of his mouth. It would have been better if his attendant had said them."

But now that things have come to this, it's not time to pursue the matter further. It's time for us to help him mitigate some of the negative impact of this incident, so that other conglomerates and the royal family don't think we're too arrogant.

We can't just ignore him because he's family, and then let outsiders bully him.

“I’m not going!” Sumitomo Saburo said. “I’m not going to clean up the mess he made.”

“I will personally visit the Imperial Family,” Sumitomo Taro said. “It was just a few words spoken in the heat of youth; it shouldn’t be taken seriously.”

“I will tell them that Zheng Yi has been under too much pressure lately and has become somewhat mentally unstable, and is currently receiving treatment. Doesn’t he have that certificate of mental abnormality?”

As for the Metropolitan Police Department... you can make the arrangements there. And the political circles are also in your hands.”

Seeing that Sumitomo Saburo still didn't make a move, Sumitomo Taro stood in front of him, just staring at him without saying a word.

Unable to withstand the pressure, Sumitomo Saburo snorted and stood up.

“Handle this matter properly,” Sumitomo Taro said. “If you don’t take any action, other families are willing to help you.”

Zheng Yi may be a troublesome guy, but the Justice Group is not.

He's a real gem.

"It's over...it's all over..."

Seeing that Sumitomo Taro was still protecting Shoichi, Sumitomo Saburo muttered to himself, staring blankly at the ceiling: "This house will be destroyed by him sooner or later."

"Shut up!" Sumitomo Taro snapped, unable to contain his anger any longer.

"If you have nothing else to do, go back to your prison and stay away from here."

……

In the conference room on the top floor of the Kyoto Prefectural Police Headquarters building.

At this moment, those sitting around are the most powerful people in the Japanese police force.

High-ranking officials of the Metropolitan Police Department and key personnel of the Ministry of Public Security.

There was no tea on the table, only a freshly printed document with the title:
Emergency assessment regarding Shoichi Sumitomo's inappropriate remarks at the Sen-oku Hakukokan Museum.

"This is utter nonsense!"

The first to break the silence was a police inspector in a sharp suit, who slammed his pen on the table with a loud "crack".

He is a high-ranking official in the Metropolitan Police Department's Criminal Investigation Division, and has always considered maintaining social order as his duty.

"Shoichi Sumitomo is playing with fire! What is the Imperial Family? It is the symbol of the Japanese national spirit! How dare he, a son of a zaibatsu, openly challenge the authority of the Imperial Family just because he has a little money? This is challenging the bottom line of the entire country!"

Ayanokoji Fumimaro of the First Investigation Division pressed down on the chipmunk's head and shoved it back into his jacket pocket.

"You're focusing on the wrong thing. Now is not the time to discuss who is right and who is wrong, but to assess the potential impact of this incident."

Ayanokoji said, "The Sumitomo family controls the economic lifeline of Japan, and Shoichi has created the Justice Group. One word from him is enough to shake Japan."

While the royal family lacks real power, it wields immense influence among the people. A clash between these two forces would inevitably trigger social unrest.

A senior official from the Criminal Investigation Department said, "This matter cannot be allowed to escalate. I have already sent someone to speak with the media."

Although the Kyoto Shimbun wanted to exploit the situation, they wouldn't dare go too far as long as we put pressure on them.

“But we absolutely cannot let Zheng Yi get away with this.” A high-ranking official from the Criminal Investigation Department said menacingly.

But nobody paid any attention to him.

This is the Kyoto Prefectural Police Headquarters; how could they possibly do anything to Masakazu?

Moreover, those things are not something they need to worry about; someone else will handle them.

The department head said, "Prince Takeda will be visiting the Izumiya Hakukokan Museum the day after tomorrow, and we must protect Sumitomo Shoichi."

"Protect Sumitomo Shoichi?"

“Yes.” The minister said, “Shoichi Sumitomo’s personal safety is threatened, and the Sumitomo family has requested that we provide him with 24-hour close protection.”

It's nominally for protection, but in reality, it's for surveillance.

This kept his every move under police control, preventing him from having a direct conflict with the royal family.

Moreover, if even after all this, the prince still died, then it can't be blamed on Zheng Yi's machinations.

The department head said, "Actually, as soon as Shoichi said those words, Mr. Sumitomo Saburo called the nearby police to protect Sumitomo Shoichi."

"This..." The group looked at each other in bewilderment.

The department head then turned to Inspector Ayanokoji and said, "After the meeting, take your men over there and take over Sumitomo Shoichi's security duties."

"Uh, yes!" Ayanokouji stood up.

The minister nodded.

Ayanokouji is exceptionally capable, meticulous in his demeanor, and calm in his personality. Moreover, he comes from a family of officials, which makes it easy for him to communicate with a wealthy scion like Masakazu.

The meeting concluded, and the attendees gradually departed, each bearing a solemn expression. (End of Chapter)