“I think I see.” I threw up my arms halfway, nodding. “Might I recommend a cold shower? It seems like this has gotten you all fired up.”
It seemed like Juri still wanted to say something, but I ignored her and left the room.
The hotel was a ten-minute walk from my condo. Turning over my conversation with Juri in my mind, I walked down the nighttime streets. I’d had quite a bit to drink since early in the evening, but I wasn’t feeling the least bit intoxicated. Talking with her had been just that stimulating.
Katsutoshi Katsuragi’s household being so troubled was a surprise. I was undecided on how I might use the fact, but knowing about it didn’t hurt. There might come a time when it would serve as a trump card. The funk I’d been in only several hours ago had vanished without a trace.
The next day when I arrived at work, Kozuka called me in. When I went to his office, he was right in the middle of talking to Tomoya Sugimoto. Sugimoto generally did work that had to do with concerts and anything related to music. He was a year younger than me, but accomplished in his own way. I recalled that he would be my replacement for the Nissei Automobile job.
“I was just in the middle of telling Sugimoto about yesterday’s matter,” Kozuka said, looking at me.
Sugimoto must have felt awkward meeting my eyes and dropped his gaze to the surface of the president’s desk.
“Are you telling me to debrief him on the job?”
“No, there’s no need for that. We need to start over from scratch anyway. If we don’t, our partners won’t consent.” He meant Katsutoshi Katsuragi wouldn’t. “Did you already tell the staff about how the automobile park was canceled?”
“No, I was just about to.”
“Right.” Kozuka looked like he was in thought.
“Was there anything else?”
“Yes. Actually, I’ve been thinking a lot since then, but it’s still going to be hard to remake a new team from scratch now. I might change part of it, but swapping out the whole crew is physically impossible, isn’t it?”
I realized what he wanted to say. “You’re saying that you’re going to leave the team as is. And just swapping out the team leader.”
“Well, that’s how it is. Anyway, we don’t have time. Nissei also consented to that.”
How convenient. I swallowed my words and nodded.
“In addition to that, I have a meeting with Nissei this afternoon. I want you to attend.”
“Me? What for?” I’d donned a forced smile. “I thought I was useless to them.”
“Don’t whine. They want to explain it properly from their end. You can leave after Sugimoto’s introduction.”
They were saying the prior supervisor should attend the announcement of the new supervisor. I couldn’t recall ever being humiliated as badly as that.
Juri’s face suddenly floated into my mind. That’s when I thought of something.
“Mr. Katsuragi won’t come anyway, right?”
“No, you’ll probably see him.”
“Are you sure?” I tilted my head to the side. “I don’t think he’ll be able to attend.”
“Why are you saying this? I just got confirmation. The person clearly said that Executive Vice President Katsuragi would be there.”
“Just now?”
“That’s right. Is there something the matter with that?”
“No…”
Did he have the composure to sit in a meeting when his daughter had run away from home? Or did Katsutoshi Katsuragi not know that Juri had gone missing? That was hard to believe. If anyone noticed, they’d tell her father right away.
“I understand. I’ll attend. I’ll take a very thorough look at Mr. Katsuragi’s face.”
“Don’t you make any trouble. All you have to do is be quiet until it’s over,” Kozuka warned, pointing at my chest.
Nissei Automobile’s Tokyo headquarters were in Shinjuku. After going through a few overblown formalities, we were led to the conference room. They were already waiting.
We received the gist of the explanation about redoing the plan from their fat promotions manager. It was gentler than what Kozuka had said yesterday, but it was the same difference in that they’d knocked my ideas.
Katsutoshi Katsuragi wasn’t there. They said he was late, but he probably wouldn’t come. There was no way he could come. He might have been filing a missing person report with the police right around then.
The promotions manager shifted to how they would proceed. Concept, needs, IT—he threw out words that decent ad men would be ashamed to string together. I became bored. Sugimoto’s introduction was over, so I’d leave when the timing was right.
It happened after I’d already bitten down on several yawns. Without a knock, the door opened. A broad-shouldered man wearing a dark suit came in. The promotions manager broke off.
After surveying the room with keen eyes, the man went to the head of the table.
There was no mistaking he was Katsutoshi Katsuragi.
“What, why did you stop?” He threw a dissatisfied look at the promotions manager.
The manager tried to hurry and resume, but apparently having forgotten where he was, he just looked flustered for a moment. In other words, he was that intimidated.
“Is that Mr. Katsuragi?” I asked Kozuka, who was next to me, in a whisper. Kozuka just nodded slightly with his chin.
The promotions manager eventually got back his rhythm and reprised his tedious lecturing. Not bothering to listen, I stared, out of the corners of my eyes, at the face of the EVP who had casually dissed my abilities. Katsutoshi Katsuragi also seemed uninterested in what the manager had to say. I couldn’t tell if it was because the fellow wasn’t saying much, or for some other reason—namely, that his daughter was missing.
The manager finished, and when another person from the Nissei Automobile side tried to stand up next, Katsuragi raised his hand, saying, Hold it. As everyone watched, he opened his mouth without standing up.
“We’re aware that we’re troubling you through this upcoming project change. However, please understand that we aren’t here to host some festival. We do require innovation, but I don’t intend to gamble with luck. The name of the game we’re playing here is none other than business. It requires scrupulous planning and bold action. Since it’s a game, we’re playing to win. We can’t treat it as a joke just because it’s a game. In this world, games where you have to put everything on the line are as numerous as the stars. Please, think of this one as such. And I’m fairly confident when it comes to games. Being confident, I’ve concluded that our game plan needs overhauling—that’s our situation.”
He had just about said that we were pawns that needed to move however he wished. No, that was all he wanted to say. Although his tone was calm and gentle, his voice was equipped with a force that resonated throughout the room. I felt everyone’s postures stiffen compared to a few minutes ago.
I ended up sitting in until the end. In that time, I continued to secretly observe Katsutoshi Katsuragi, but I sensed nothing absent-minded about him. When his subordinates or Kozuka spoke, the man’s expression looked incurious at first glance, but the sharp light in the back of his eyes never dwindled. Well, he’s certainly not just anybody, I admitted.
My sense of humiliation and fighting spirit mixed and swirled as though they’d been put in a blender. A game? That served me just fine. So he styled himself a master? But when it came to games, I was no slouch, either. We could decide who was the true master. He was going to send me packing and not even play me? Katsutoshi Katsuragi, take me on, I kept willing at him. But he didn’t seem to receive the signal.
After the meeting, Kozuka rushed over to Katsuragi’s side, greeted him, and tried to introduce me. But without even looking in my direction, Katsuragi cheerlessly waved his hand and turned his back to us.
“We’ll skip the superfluous stuff. No point in my meeting an outsider to all this.”
With those words, he immediately started walking away.
>
Speechless, Kozuka and I watched the major-corporation EVP’s back. I could almost sense the looks of pity that the others present were casting at me.
As I gritted my teeth to bear my humiliation, Kozuka patted my shoulder twice.
That evening, I was dining with a woman named Maki at an Italian restaurant in Akasaka. Maki was an aspiring model. But she’d probably only done a few real modeling jobs. The types of gigs that came to her were things like being a campaign girl or an event companion. I was also aware she worked at a hostess club a few nights a week to pay her bills. Up until now, I’d never invited her out myself. The one who called was always her. I wasn’t stupid enough to think she’d fallen in love with me. I was probably just an important connection to her.
But tonight I was the one who’d called. I didn’t feel like going home without blowing a little steam first. After dinner, we’d go drinking somewhere, and depending on the flow of the conversation, I might try to get her into bed. Having a physical relationship could cause some hassles down along the line, but I thought it was better than spending the night with my own emotions.
By the time our fish came out, one bottle of white wine had been emptied. I ordered the same thing. If a meat dish came out, I could also order red wine then.
“Aren’t you fast,” Maki said as she clumsily brought her food to her mouth. She was on a diet and consciously over-chewed. I was a little annoyed, but I couldn’t ruin the mood.
“Maybe it’s because I’m feeling high. And when I get nervous, I get thirsty.” I tilted my glass.
“Why are you feeling high?”
“It’s because you met with me. I invited you suddenly, so I was sure you’d refuse.”
“Don’t say that. You’re such a sweet talker.” She pretended to laugh it off, but her eyes said that she didn’t mind one bit.
“When I’m just straightforward, I’m not taken seriously. It’s really hard to praise a woman in Japan. But I’m really nervous. It’s a bit of a mystery to me, too.”
Huh, she tilted her head.
“First off, meeting a woman face to face like this over a meal is something I haven’t done in a while. Another thing, up until now I hadn’t ever contacted you. I wonder if it’s from the guilt of breaking that commandment.”
“Now that you mention it, you’re right. Why today? Was it on some whim?”
“I don’t blame you for thinking so, the way I invited you, but I’d tried a number of times. But no matter what I couldn’t make the call. But then tonight, I suddenly found the courage.”
Mere white lies.
“Did something happen at work?” Maki peered into my face.
“No, not really.” I lifted my glass. I wasn’t in the mood to tell her in detail about my affairs. That wasn’t the role she served.
Packing the passable meal and wine into my stomach, I offered information I thought Maki would find interesting and presented related anecdotes, interspersing light jokes in between. I was fully aware that a young woman wouldn’t feel satisfied just hearing her partner hold forth, so after that I switched over to listening. Her talk was juvenile, worked up to nothing, and moreover hadn’t a hint of structure, so I could barely keep from falling asleep at how boring it was. Still, biting down on my yawns, I nodded along like I’d never heard anything so captivating before. She probably thought that just for tonight she’d become an able conversationalist.
It was like a game between men and women, too, after all. But if your opponent wasn’t good, the game wasn’t any fun. On that note, tonight’s playmate left me wanting. Looking at Maki’s happy face, I wondered if I should have invited out the other woman. Being an office lady, she’d probably have been on guard about a sudden invitation, and I’d have had to make full use of various techniques to make it work. What to talk about at the table would have posed a challenge as well. But if you were going to date a woman, it was better when you had to focus a little.
In short, what I sought from women wasn’t their bodies but a stimulating, sophisticated game. Sex was nothing but a reward for victory.
It wasn’t just romance, I was like that about everything. I saw it all as a game, and victory granted me joy. Sports, of course, but my studies, too, I’d approached that way. Good or bad test scores meant nothing but winning or losing. College entrance exams were the epitome of that. If I earned a big run there, victory in the ultimate game, life, would be in my hands. I faced my entrance exams with that belief and successfully got into the college of my choice. Even in the job market, I did everything conceivable and got into the company I wanted. I thanked my planning for everything.
In my life so far, I hadn’t lost a whole lot of matches. Even without Katsutoshi Katsuragi telling me, work was indeed a game for me. Nissei Automobile’s campaign, too. And I had believed that the automobile park plan was certain to wrest victory, and still did now.
He was fairly confident when it came to games?
Then we had to play. We had to find out once and for all who the true master was.
But what could I do? My opponent had robbed me of my chance to fight. Sadly, there was no way for me to challenge him to a match.
“What’s wrong?” Maki looked at me, puzzled. I had been in thought and missed her story, it seemed.
“No, nothing. I think I’ve had too much wine.” I smiled and scooped a mouthful of my sherbet dessert.
After leaving the restaurant, I tried asking her if she wanted to drink some more. Without hesitating one bit, Maki consented. I hailed a cab.
“But I feel relieved. Because you seem to be doing fine,” Maki said after the taxi started moving.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, because…” After pausing and choosing her words, she opened her mouth again. “I was worried you were depressed. Or if you weren’t depressed, that you were in a bad mood…”
“Well, that’s weird. Why would I be depressed or in a bad mood?”
At that, she looked at me awkwardly with upturned eyes. “During the day today, I talked with Jun over the phone. You know her, right? Jun Ueno?”
“Of course I do.” Junko Ueno was an employee of Cyberplan. She was also the reason I had come to know Maki. Apparently they had been friends since high school. “Did she say something?”
“Yeah, she mentioned you and said that you were probably blue.”
“Blue?”
“She said you’d been given an important project but suddenly been let off of it…”
“She said that?”
“Yeah.”
I sighed. Undoubtedly every single employee in the whole company knew that Shunsuke Sakuma had been removed from the Nissei Automobile campaign, and all kinds of rumors were circulating. Among those employees were probably some who were gratified. People whose work I had disparaged or who thought I’d gotten the better of them weren’t hard to find.
“Jun said that letting you off was stupid. That there wasn’t anyone as perfect as you.”
“I’m honored she’d go so far as to say that.” Having someone like Junko Ueno say stuff like that didn’t make me happy at all. In fact, being pitied by her was humiliating.
“I’m not lying. Other than at crime, she said no one could beat you.”
“Huh…”
That caught unexpectedly at something in my heart. I had a feeling like you do just before realizing you’d forgotten some item. Eventually, it took on a clear shape and floated into my mind as an idea.
“Excuse me, please stop here,” I told the driver. “One person will get off here.”
Next to me Maki’s eyes widened. “What’s wrong?”
“Sorry. I remembered something urgent. I’ll make up for this.”
I took two ten-thousand-yen bills out of my wallet, forced them on her, and got out. Maki looked dumbstruck as she watched me from the taxi that had started moving again.
I hailed a replacement. As I got in I said, “To Kayabacho.”
I got off in front of Kayabacho
Polar Hotel and went through the entrance. Bypassing the front desk, I headed to the elevator hall.
When I knocked on the room door, I got no answer from inside. I tried knocking again. Still no response. Just as I was wondering if she’d dared to check out without my consent, the door opened. From a small gap, Juri showed her face.
“Hi,” I said.
“You’re alone, right?”
“Yup.”
She nodded and closed the door, undid the chain, then finally opened the door again.
When I went in, the TV was on. It was a program introducing the current top songs. It seemed Juri had been lying on bed watching it. Snacks that she must have been working through were spread on the bed. On top of the nightstand were an ashtray and a bottle of juice.
“Have you eaten anything proper?”
“I just went to a family restaurant.”
“And the menu?”
“Do you need to pry that much?”
“I’m worried about your health. I need you to be eating nutritious meals.”
“Huh.” Looking at my face, she took a seat on the bed. “Because if you brought a valued customer’s daughter back home and she were emaciated, you’d give a bad impression?”
The girl was as obnoxious as ever. It made me want to put her in her place.
I drew a chair and sat down on it. I took the remote and turned off the TV.
“And? Do you feel like going home now?”
“I told you I wouldn’t. Get off my back.”
“I need to make sure. Because it’s important.”
“It’s important?” She scowled. “How?”
“I’ll explain later. I want to check one more thing. Last night, you told me you wanted me to get you money. Whatever amount you’d rightfully inherit, you even said. Was that a joke?”
“Why would I ever joke about that? I’m not a kid, it’s not like I ran away to see how much my parents care about me.”
“So you’re really serious.” I glared at her.
“I’m telling you I am. How many times are you going to make me say it?” she told me irritatedly.
“Splendid.”
The Name of the Game Is a Kidnapping Page 4
