By the time they left the embassy, it was already four in the afternoon.
The black Nissan President sedan drove along the slopes of Akasaka.
Shuichi leaned back in the rear seat, took off his hat, and rubbed his temples tiredly.
Satsuki sat beside him, holding that copy of Out of Control she hadn't finished reading yet.
"Father, you've worked hard."
"Mm." Shuichi sighed. "That feeling of being scrutinized is truly unpleasant."
He turned his head, looking out at the bustling streets of Tokyo. By the roadside, a news program about "Japan Number One" was playing in an electronics store window. The host was passionately declaring that Japan was about to buy up the entire United States.
"Satsuki."
Shuichi's voice was somewhat low.
"Is it really okay for us to do this? Tying ourselves so tightly to the Americans... If those right-wingers or the zaibatsu at home find out, I'm afraid they'll label the Saionji Family as traitors."
"Does this count as being a comprador?"
"Comprador?"
Satsuki closed the book and gave a light chuckle.
She reached out, pointing at the buildings under construction outside the window.
"Father, what do you think the Americans want? They want markets, they want control, and they want to turn Japan into their ATM."
"And what did we give them? We gave them orders, and we gave them a channel into Japan."
"On the surface, we are indeed helping the Americans."
Satsuki's gaze gradually grew deep and profound, like a bottomless ancient well.
"But, Father."
"What Cisco sells us is equipment — dead iron boxes. But the 'Saionji Information System' we build using that equipment is alive."
"The wider the network spreads, the deeper our foundations become."
"When the day comes that all of Japan's data runs on our network, all bank transfers pass through our nodes, and all logistics follow our commands..."
Satsuki turned her head to look at her father.
"At that time, who will be controlling whom?"
Listening to his daughter's words, Shuichi felt a chill run down his spine, followed by a sense of clear realization. He looked at his daughter's youthful yet ambitious face.
"Borrowing a boat to head out to sea, then burning the bridge after crossing... is that what you intend to do?"
"This is merely a tactic."
Satsuki shook her head, her gaze passing over her father's shoulder to look at the sky outside the car window, fragmented by skyscrapers.
"Father, do you know why no matter how strong Japan's economy is, we still have to bow our heads before Ambassador Mansfield?"
Shuichi fell silent.
This was a pain in the hearts of all Japanese elites.
"Because we are 'crippled.'"
Satsuki's voice was very soft, yet every word cut like a knife.
"No command over our military, no autonomy in diplomacy. On this island nation, even if we buy up every building in the world, there is still an invisible chain around our necks. The other end of that chain is held by Washington."
"As long as that chain remains, Japan can only ever be America's 'ATM' and 'breakwater.'"
"To break free from that chain, money alone is not enough."
Satsuki extended her right hand, closing it into a loose fist on her knee.
"To truly sit at the poker table as equals with the Americans, we need chips. Chips so large that the Americans have no choice but to be wary of us, no choice but to win us over."
"Chips?" Shuichi frowned. "Are there any chips bigger than the yen?"
"There are."
Satsuki raised her hand and pointed toward the west.
That was the direction of the setting sun, and the direction of that vast continent.
"The other side of the sea."
Shuichi followed her finger, his eyes full of doubt.
"You mean... that poor neighbor who is still riding bicycles?"
"Poor?"
Satsuki smiled.
"Father, in our factories in Shanghai, the workers there will work tirelessly for a monthly salary of just a few thousand yen. The officials there will lower themselves further than the dust just to attract investment."
"What you see is only poverty."
"But what I see is desire. It is the immense desire of a billion people wanting to change their fate, a desire powerful enough to set the world ablaze."
Satsuki turned around, looking Shuichi directly in the eye.
"Father, let's make a bet."
"What bet?"
"A bet on national destiny."
Satsuki held up one finger.
"I bet that country will wake up within the next twenty years. It will become the world's factory, the largest market, and... the only behemoth capable of contending with the United States."
"And for Japan, if we don't want to slowly wither away after the bubble bursts, the only way to survive is to become the bridge connecting that behemoth to the world."
"Right now, we use American technology to arm ourselves."
"In the future, we will use the resources we accumulate on that continent to negotiate with the Americans."
"This is the ultimate realm of 'the fox borrowing the tiger's might.'"
"We will borrow the Americans' momentum to suppress the domestic bureaucrats, and we will also borrow the momentum of that awakening dragon to snip the dog leash in the Americans' hands."
A dead silence filled the car.
There was only the low hum of the engine.
Shuichi stared blankly at his daughter. He felt his throat go dry and his heart pound violently.
This had already exceeded the scope of a businessman's thinking.
This was a player standing above the long river of history, setting a board that spanned a century.
In this game, America was a pawn, Japan was a pawn, and even that vast, still-sleeping neighbor was part of her plan.
Using the whole world as a chessboard.
"Satsuki..."
Shuichi's voice trembled slightly.
"What if... what if you lose the bet? What if that country stays asleep forever?"
"Then we've only lost a few factories."
Satsuki shrugged and spoke easily.
"But if I win."
A glint of golden light flashed in her eyes.
"The Saionji Family will become the 'Gatekeepers' of the new Asia."
"At that time, even if the President of the United States meets you, he'll have to bow first."
The car drove through an intersection.
The red light turned on.
At the Akasaka crossroads, on a giant billboard, the NTT slogan was flashing with blinding light.
And deep underground, in that invisible fiber-optic network, the data streams of Saionji Information System were spreading silently, like a latent virus.
Shuichi looked at his daughter's profile and let out a long breath.
He put his hat back on, concealing the sharp light in his eyes.
"Fine."
"Then it's a bet."
"If we're going to be compradores, we might as well be the world's greatest. We'll play the giants on both sides of the Pacific in the palm of our hands."
The light turned green.
The sedan accelerated, merging into the rolling traffic, heading toward Bunkyo Ward.
The true war had only just begun.