Chapter 3: Saori, Inoshikachō, and the Plaza Accord

The first day after the funeral, Seiko resumed her life as a normal high school student.

In the early morning, she slung her school bag over her shoulder, yawned, and pushed open the door, only to see a beautiful long-haired girl in a JK uniform standing under the cherry blossom tree at her doorstep, waiting for her.
Upon seeing Seiko emerge, the beautiful long-haired girl smiled gently and said, “Good morning.”

“Good morning, Saori.”
Seiko yawned, responding vaguely.
The girl before her was Murakami Saori, Murakami Eishi’s daughter, a super honor student who excelled not only in academics but also in seemingly trivial things like flower arrangement, kendo, and home economics.
Seiko, for her part, still hadn’t figured out how one even determined “good” or “bad” in flower arrangement.

“Did you forget to tie your hair?”
Saori pointed to her own head, asking with a smile.

“Hmm,” Seiko scratched her head; she usually tied her hair into a ponytail, “Aiko took my hair tie. I really don’t want to use her brightly colored ones.”

“Here.” Saori magically produced a black hair tie from somewhere.

“Oh, you have a spare.”
Seiko took the hair tie, casually handed her school bag to Saori, and then tied her ponytail.
The two walked shoulder to shoulder, leisurely heading to school.

On the street, pedestrians in business attire hurried past them, each seemingly with their pants on fire.
Oh, if they’re only just going to work at this time, their pants probably are on fire.

Urawa was a city very close to Tokyo.

About a decade later, it would merge with Omiya City and Yono City to form Saitama City, becoming part of the Tokyo metropolitan area, but not yet.

Currently, housing prices here were still very cheap, and commuting was still convenient, so many office workers worked in Tokyo during the day and returned to Urawa for the night.
It was like some people in later generations working in Shanghai but living in Taicang.

However, even if Urawa was close to Tokyo, commuting would take at least an hour.
Office workers leaving Urawa at this hour were most likely going to be late today.

“Has Aiko already gone to school?”
Saori casually chatted with Seiko.

“Mm, the driver took her.”
The Urawa Municipal High School that Seiko and Saori attended was relatively close to the Yamagami household, while the private elementary school Aiko attended was farther away, so Aiko usually left earlier than her sister in the mornings.

As they passed a crosswalk, three robust voices suddenly rang out beside them: “Big Sis!”
Seiko nearly jumped.

She turned around to see three figures: one tall and one short, one fat and one thin.
These three were named Nakagawa Shuta, Baba Yoshiteru, and Nishida Jun.

Nakagawa Shuta was short and plump, like a meatball.
Baba Yoshiteru was tall and thin, like a bamboo stick.
Nishida Jun was of medium height, wore round-rimmed glasses, and had a delicate, even somewhat feminine, appearance.
Seiko secretly nicknamed them the “Inoshikachō” trio in her mind.

“Why are you here?”

“Of course, to pick up Boss for school!”
The “Inoshikachō” trio were Seiko’s underlings, at least they considered themselves Seiko’s underlings.
The “Boar” and “Deer” had once been—and still were—delinquents.
One time, when they cornered “Butterfly” in an alley to extort homework answers, Seiko beat them up.

Actually, if they had chosen to ignore Seiko, who was just passing by, instead of warning her to mind her own business, Seiko wouldn’t have beaten them.
In front of a gang like the Yamagami family, two delinquents who didn’t want to do their homework weren’t even considered air pollution.

Who knew that after that beating, the three perpetrators and victim actually ended up together?
Without asking for Seiko’s opinion, the three of them unilaterally pledged allegiance to Seiko as their boss and dubbed themselves the “Seiko Corps.”
Seiko had no idea what they were thinking.
Seiko could only assume it was the unique, peculiar thought process of chuunibyou teenagers.

“My house is so close to school, do you really need to pick me up?” Seiko shook her head helplessly, then raised her hand, pointing to the newsstand across the street. “Never mind. Go buy me a newspaper.”

“Yes!”
The three immediately ran through the red light to the newsstand across the street.
They spent a long time picking and choosing, finally buying a newspaper for Seiko.
Seiko took the newspaper, and a quick glance at the headline made her heart skip a beat—”Big Shock: Seiko Suspected of Romance…”
Big shock! I’m in love?
Seiko looked more closely, realizing the protagonist was Matsuda Seiko.
Matsuda Seiko was also one of Japan’s top idols of the 1980s.
A revelation of a romance certainly warranted a “big shock.”
Moreover, Matsuda Seiko’s rumored partner this time was Kanda Masaki, a popular male star twelve years her senior.

What was particularly damaging about this tabloid was that it included a photo of Matsuda Seiko, with a caption below: “Not in this life, but if there’s a next, I want to be with Hiromi Go forever.”
These words were spoken by Matsuda Seiko at a breakup press conference just over a month ago.
In her second year after debut, Matsuda Seiko had fallen in love with another top male idol, Hiromi Go, almost to the point of marriage.

When they broke up, they even held a breakup press conference, where Matsuda Seiko cried heartbrokenly, uttering the words above.

As a result, how long had it been, and that so-devoted you is in love again?
This Seiko (the protagonist) knew that that Seiko’s (Matsuda Seiko’s) rumors were true, and by the timeline, Matsuda Seiko and Kanda Masaki were already engaged.
They would be married in, at most, another month.

In other words, Matsuda Seiko broke up with her previous partner and then had a flash marriage with her next within three months.
‘We both have the same name, Seiko, so why are you so fast?’
Seiko silently grumbled in her heart, then rolled up the tabloid and smacked it on “Boar’s” head: “Baka yarō, what kind of newspaper did you buy me?!”

“Eh? I thought Big Sis didn’t like this kind of newspaper?” “Boar” was stunned by the hit.
Earlier, when the three were arguing in front of the newsstand about which newspaper to buy, he was the one who strongly advocated buying this kind of newspaper popular among girls.

“Go buy me the Asahi Shimbun, kora yarō!”
Seiko tapped each of the trio on the head.

“Hai!”
The three again ran through the red light, rushing back with a copy of the Asahi Shimbun.

Since coming to this world, reading the newspaper daily had become Seiko’s habit.
She watched with detached interest as the world’s wheels advanced along the trajectory of her memory, anticipating that moment.
Sometimes she felt like a terrorist, staring intently at a constantly changing countdown, waiting for the bomb to explode.

Only, the bomb wasn’t placed by Seiko, and she wouldn’t feel any guilt.

“Big Sis actually likes reading the news?” “Butterfly” asked curiously, seeing Seiko take the Asahi Shimbun and immediately flip through it.

“In this era, Yakuza also need to understand politics.”
Seiko looked at a news headline titled “U.S. Senate Lists Japan as ‘Unfair Trading Nation’,” and seemingly mumbled her reply.
Listing Japan as an “unfair trading nation” was a warning signal from the United States.
According to the historical trajectory, in the next few months, the United States would continue to verbally attack and pressure Japan, all in order to force Japan to the negotiating table.
Until September of this year, the five countries—the United States, Japan, West Germany, France, and the United Kingdom—would sign an agreement at the Plaza Hotel on 59th Street in New York, jointly resolving the US balance of payments imbalance.
Historically known as: The Plaza Accord.

“Moreover, a new era is coming.”
The Inoshikachō trio didn’t understand, but still looked at their boss with solemn respect.