Reborn in Tokyo: From Heiress to Global Tycoon

Chapter 289 Saionji Maki

Maki looked at the pile of reports on the table.

She didn't refute it, her gaze fixed on the cover of the report at the top.

Hasegawa Construction Co., Ltd. - Bankruptcy Liquidation and Bad Debt Write-off Details

Looking at the familiar company name, Maki's fingers tightened slightly at the edge of the paper.

This company did indeed go bankrupt.

She opened the write-off form. Lines of unrecoverable financial data overlapped with the debt risk accounting model she had developed at the quarterly asset assessment meeting three months earlier.

That was the real reason she was banished to this basement.

At the time, an external building materials supplier that the branch office had been cooperating with for a long time—Hasegawa Building Materials Co., Ltd.—was on the verge of bankruptcy. In order to maintain the traditional "escort fleet" relationship in the Japanese business world, the president and several senior executives agreed to divert funds from the branch office's accounts to provide the building materials supplier with an interest-free "bridging loan".

They believe that it is a basic principle of business ethics for companies to band together and help each other to overcome difficulties.

Maki remembers how she ignored the frantic winks from those around her and projected a debt risk assessment model onto the conference room screen.

She used precise data on cash flow depletion cycles, down to the single digit, to prove on the spot that the building materials supplier was a complete zombie company.

The core technology is outdated, the management team is bloated, and the debt ratio has reached an irreversible critical point.

Once that so-called "blood transfusion loan" is issued, it will be gone forever, and may even directly cut off the branch's own cash flow.

She offered the most capital-efficient, hard-line advice: refuse a bailout and let the other party go bankrupt. Then, as a creditor, she would apply to the bankruptcy court for asset preservation and seize the prime processing plant and warehouse land under the other party's name at a low price.

She recalled the president's extremely gloomy face at that time.

In the eyes of the elders who were used to "social etiquette" and "getting along with the crowd," her suggestion to take advantage of the crisis of an ally was simply heretical and outrageous.

The president immediately ended the meeting.

After the meeting, the president called her into his office and privately reprimanded her severely for "losing the most basic ethics and teamwork common sense of Japanese companies." Then, using the excuse that female relatives should not interfere too much in actual operations (the president was also a member of the family), he completely stripped her of her auditing authority and threw her into this archive room on the third basement floor.

My thoughts returned to reality.

Maki reached out and flipped to the top of the stack of reports in front of her.

A hint of stubbornness and extreme rejection shone in his eyes.

She strongly rejects this traditional corporate culture that forcibly ignores data patterns and is willing to rot along with rotten wood in order to save face for elders and so-called human relationships.

The operation of capital should be subordinate to efficiency, not to hypocritical banding together for mutual support.

Just like... the young lady.

These parasites are truly despicable... How dare they damage the young lady's property like this? It's simply unforgivable...

But she couldn't neglect her work. Maki picked up her pen and began flipping through the stack of purchase reimbursement forms that her section chief had just tossed aside.

Less than ten minutes later, Maki's fingers, which had been turning the page, stopped.

She pulled out several consecutive steel bar purchase invoices and laid them flat on the table.

My eyes went back and forth between the invoice date and the purchase price twice.

Maki's brows furrowed tightly.

These invoices were issued in May of this year, and the purchased item was high-strength rebar.

Following the issuance of the Ministry of Finance's "Total Volume Regulation," construction work was halted on a large scale, and spot market prices for steel experienced a precipitous drop in May. However, the purchase prices recorded on these invoices remain at the peak levels seen at the end of last year.

The price difference is as high as 30%.

If it were just an occasional order, it could be explained as the purchasing department's delayed response to market conditions, or as a contract that had already been locked in. But in this seemingly random pile of reports, Maki found twelve similar premium purchase orders. The supplier's name on all of them pointed to a shell building materials company that had only recently registered in Chiba Prefecture.

This is clearly not something that can be explained by friction costs alone.

This is an example of someone using dual contracts to blatantly launder a price difference of tens of millions of yen into a private account. Even more fatally, this batch of substandard steel bars, purchased at exorbitant prices, was entirely used in a prime commercial office building project under construction in the Minato Ward. This will directly hollow out the load-bearing walls of the entire project, and if safety and quality issues are exposed during inspection, Saionji Real Estate's reputation will suffer devastating damage.

Maki held the receipts, stood up, and pushed back her chair.

At least, let's try one last time.

The branch office is located on the third floor.

Maki pushed open the door to the finance section chief's office.

Section Chief Takagi was sitting behind his desk reading a newspaper when he looked up and his brows immediately furrowed.

Maki strode to the desk, slammed the invoices down in front of Takagi, and pointed her index finger at the unit price column.

"Section Chief Takagi. The average market price for rebar in May was 42,000 yen per ton. However, the settlement price for this batch of purchase orders is as high as 55,000 yen. All twelve consecutive invoices point to the same shell company in Chiba Prefecture as the supplier."

Maki stared into Takagi's eyes, speaking very quickly.

"Where did this 60 million yen price difference go? And where is the physical quality inspection report for this batch of steel?"

"I understand that some 'friction costs' are necessary, but that's on the premise of not harming the company's interests. Your current actions are creating structural safety hazards for the commercial office building projects in the port area, which will cause huge damage to the company's reputation!"

After Section Chief Takagi saw the invoices, his face instantly darkened.

He suddenly stood up and swung his large hand forcefully.

"Splash!"

Several invoices were roughly swept onto the carpet.

Takagi walked around the desk and stood in front of Maki. He looked down at Maki, his suppressed voice revealing undisguised malice.

"Saionji Maki, you don't seem to have realized your situation yet."

Takagi extended his finger and tapped Maki's shoulder twice.

"You're just a marginalized member of the collateral branch, stripped of your auditing authority long ago. What right do you have to point fingers here?"

He gave a cold laugh.

"Headquarters has instructed us to audit the accounts. The branch office is currently facing financial pressure, and each department needs some flexibility to weather this winter. The president has already signed off on these accounts."

Takagi lowered his voice and issued a final warning.

"If you dare to rummage through these shady drafts again, the family will immediately marginalize you even further away. At that point, you won't even be able to keep your desk in this basement. An abandoned warehouse in Hokkaido will be your final resting place."

Maki stood still.

She looked at the section chief's face, which was contorted with anger, and then at the receipts scattered on the wool carpet.

"……I see."

She slowly squatted down.

He picked up the scattered invoices one by one and arranged them neatly.

Faced with this thoroughly corrupt workplace ecosystem, a rusty machine built on personal connections and corruption, her prized actuarial skills and logical deductions seemed utterly worthless.

A deep sense of powerlessness and frustration enveloped her.

Holding the receipts, she turned and walked out of the section chief's office.

She descended the slightly chilly stairs, step by step. From the bright second floor, she returned to the musty, damp third basement level.

Maki pushed open the door to the archives room.

The interior remained dark. She stopped, her heart filled with confusion and helplessness.

In this situation, if it were that young lady, what would she do? Would she directly seek external help, bringing the Special Investigation Department to seal off the building, or would she use more sophisticated financial means to weed out these parasites?

She didn't know, because she was Saionji Maki, not Saionji Satsuki.

Maki slowly raised her head, her gaze falling on her narrow desk.

Breathing froze for a moment.

A figure wearing a dark black fitted long dress was standing quietly in front of her workstation.

The figure held the draft paper she had just used to deduce her cross-border strangulation strategy. In the dim light of the incandescent bulb, she quietly examined the parabolic curves and calculation formulas on it.

Although she had only caught a glimpse of him from afar at the family's annual festival gatherings in the past, Maki would never mistake that figure for someone else.

That is the highest symbol of the will of the entire Saionji Group.

Maki's mind went blank for a moment. She never expected that the head of the family would appear without warning in the basement of this marginalized building.

Hearing the noise at the door, the figure turned around.

It's her. It really is her, Saionji Satsuki.

Those clear, black and white eyes stared silently at Maki, whose face was filled with astonishment.

Satsuki gently shook the draft paper in her hand. The paper made a crisp rustling sound.

"The logic is very rigorous. It combines the inflation transmission mechanism with the rental default rate of commercial real estate perfectly. It even takes into account the market absorption capacity vacuum after the issuance of the Ministry of Finance's 'Total Regulation'."

Satsuki looked at Maki and didn't hold back her praise for the data analysis on paper.

"You've managed to completely reconstruct the combined strangulation scheme between S-Food and the real estate department using only a few incomplete and discarded reports and bits of gossip. Your numerical intuition is remarkable."

She carefully placed the draft paper back on her desk.

"Saionji Maki. Twenty-four years old. Graduated from the Faculty of Economics, Kyoto University. She obtained both Certified Public Accountant and Actuary qualifications while still in school."

"You were supposed to be making a difference in the core audit department. But because you used data to expose the executives' attempts to use company funds to prolong the zombie company's operations during the budget meeting, you were stripped of your audit authority and relegated to this archives room."

Maki's fingers trembled slightly as she held the invoice.

That young lady kept looking at me...

Am I someone who is being watched?

Maki struggled to say something, but the words got stuck in her throat.

Satsuki quietly watched Maki, whose face was full of astonishment.

She looked at the girl from the collateral branch of the family who was heavily suppressed within the family, yet possessed extremely high data talent and pure capitalist rationality.

Satsuki's lips curled slightly upward, revealing a gentle smile.

"Saionji Maki".

"Are you willing to work for me?"