Chapter 39: Pachinko and Peace Talks

The bento box was indeed washed clean.
Whether Takahashi Miyū had eaten the dismembered frog, Seiko couldn’t confirm.

Saori was quite curious about it, but Seiko didn’t really care.
She just wanted to warn those high school students who had nothing better to do than to bully others—she never would have thought that her name being “Seiko” could also become a reason for these bored-out-of-their-minds people to bully someone.

Seiko’s goal was achieved.
Takahashi Miyū, the “big sister” of this small bullying group, had suffered a major setback at Seiko’s hands.
The other “Akina faction” fans who had shown signs of ganging up to ostracize her had clearly restrained themselves a lot.

No, it wasn’t just restraint; they all started to walk around Seiko.

Some who were perhaps more guilty didn’t even dare to make eye contact with her.

The next day, in the evening, the homeroom teacher, Totsuka Mei, called Seiko to the office again.

“The person who put the frog in your lunch box yesterday has been found,” Ms. Totsuka said, staring at Seiko with two heavy dark circles under her eyes, getting straight to the point.

“Oh…”

Seiko nodded.

And then, there was nothing.

Ms. Totsuka waited for a long time but didn’t get another word from Seiko.
She couldn’t help but press, “Don’t you want to know who the real culprit is?”

“Not very interested,” Seiko said.

Ms. Totsuka was taken aback.
She took a deep breath before saying, “It wasn’t Takahashi-san who put the frog in your bento.”

“Oh.”

Seiko nodded again.

Ms. Totsuka still didn’t get any more reaction from Seiko and finally became a little exasperated.
“Aren’t you going to say something?”

“What do you want me to say?” Seiko raised her eyebrows slightly, then easily saw through Ms. Totsuka’s thoughts.
“Do you perhaps think I should apologize to Takahashi-san?”

“Shouldn’t you?” Ms. Totsuka gritted her teeth and retorted.
“She wasn’t the one who put the frog in your bento, yet you forced her to eat it.”

Seiko shook her head.
“Ms. Totsuka, you’ve misunderstood one thing.”

“What is it?” Ms. Totsuka asked, puzzled.

“You think I made Takahashi-san eat the frog to retaliate against the culprit.”

“Isn’t that the case?”

“Of course not.
I don’t even know who the culprit is.
I just randomly picked the student who is best at bullying and proved to others that I am better at bullying than her.
That way, it’s enough to make most of the restless ones put away their nasty and stupid little thoughts.”

Seiko explained.

Ms. Totsuka’s mouth hung open, and she was speechless for a long time.

Looking at Ms. Totsuka’s expression, Seiko roughly guessed her thoughts.
“You don’t believe that Takahashi-san is the best at bullying in the class?
If you don’t believe it, you can ask Saori.
She also saw Takahashi-san pin a girl from the next class down in the bathroom and make her lick the toilet.”

Ms. Totsuka’s eyes widened slightly.

“It seems Takahashi-san hasn’t apologized for that incident to this day, has she?” Seiko added.
“Since the school doesn’t require Takahashi-san to apologize for her bullying, then I probably don’t need to apologize either.”

Ms. Totsuka was speechless for a long time.

Seiko waited for a while.
Seeing that Ms. Totsuka didn’t have anything more to say, she took the initiative to leave the office.

As usual, Seiko and Saori did not participate in after-school activities and went home together.

As soon as they got home, Seiko was surprised to see Yamagami Nobuo seeing a guest out.
The guest was a chubby, middle-aged man who looked to be about fifty years old.

“Who is that?” Seiko asked curiously.

“Tanaka Tadashi, the president of a company called Seishin Shoji,” Yamagami Nobuo introduced.

“Seishin Shoji?” Seiko raised her eyebrows slightly.
“Korean?”

Chongjin is the third-largest city in North Korea and one of its most important port and industrial cities.
However, it would need to wait for that “Choi Hyun-class” destroyer that was cut in half to become internationally famous.

When you feel that life is completely hopeless, you might as well think about the technicians at the Chongjin Shipyard.

“To be precise, Zainichi Korean,” Yamagami Nobuo corrected.

“Zainichi Koreans” could be North Korean, South Korean, or even Japanese.
Tanaka Tadashi had already changed to a Japanese surname and might even have Japanese citizenship.
“Zainichi Korean” was indeed a more accurate term.

Mentioning Zainichi Koreans, Seiko frowned slightly, then became even more puzzled.
“What did he come to see us for?”

“Didn’t the Takada-gumi’s pachinko parlor get burned down?
Tanaka Tadashi wants to open two larger pachinko parlors in Urawa, so he came to pay his respects to us first,” Yamagami Nobuo explained.
“However, they say that Seishin Shoji is a legitimate business, not a gang.”

Seiko chuckled lightly.
“A legitimate business would specially come to our Yamagami-gumi to pay its respects?
Just thinking about it doesn’t seem very legitimate.”

Yamagami Nobuo also smiled.

“However, I didn’t expect that there are Korean gangs willing to cooperate with us,” Seiko added.

Hearing this, Yamagami Nobuo’s smile faded.
He pondered for a long time before slowly saying, “The North Koreans and the South Koreans are not on the same path, after all.
What happened back then… I know you might not have a good impression of the South Korean groups, but we don’t need to refuse cooperation with the North Korean groups because of that.”

Seiko tilted her head and glanced at Saori.
Saori, who had been listening on the side, noticed Seiko’s gaze, also tilted her head, and gave a gentle smile.

Seiko withdrew her gaze and shook her head.
“You’ve misunderstood.
I’m not saying we need to refuse cooperation with Seishin Shoji.
I just thought that at least when facing the Japanese, the Zainichi Koreans would stick together.
I didn’t expect the North Korean and South Korean descendants to be so divided.”

“At least in the matter of the pachinko industry, they can’t stick together.
It seems the North Korean descendants want to have it all to themselves,” Yamagami Nobuo said.

“That’s true.”

Seiko nodded.
She knew better than Yamagami Nobuo about the fanaticism of the North Korean descendants in Japan for the pachinko industry.

“Also, there’s one more thing,” Yamagami Nobuo suddenly took out a document and said, “The Takada-gumi wants to have peace talks with us.”

Seiko took the document and glanced at it briefly, discovering that it was a transfer contract for a nightclub, with the signature of the Takada-gumi’s Kumicho, Takada Yamakiyo.

“This is the payment they should have given us long ago, which we exchanged for the drug business,” Yamagami Nobuo explained.
“The location is in Omiya City…”

“Takada Yamakiyo is actually willing to take the initiative to have peace talks with us?”
Seiko still felt surprised as she flipped through the contract.

“Yes,” Yamagami Nobuo said.
“But he has a request.”

“What request?”

“He wants us to help him get his son, Takada Toru, out of the detention center.”