Chapter 68: The Witch of Osaka

Seiko registered and established an asset management company in the Cayman Islands.

There were many benefits to incorporating in the Cayman Islands.

First, it was tax-free, exempt from interest tax and value-added tax, requiring only an annual fee.

Second, the shareholder and director registers were not publicly disclosed.

Of course, for Seiko, another advantage was that the Cayman Islands had no restrictions on company directors and executives.

Anyone of any nationality or age could hold a position, whereas in Japan, one had to be at least twenty years old to register a company.

Crime of Passion had finished its theatrical run a month ago.

The final box office was close to the estimates, a little over 1.6 billion yen.

Another month passed before the five hundred million yen in dividends arrived.

After the money arrived, Seiko did not rush to repay her debt to Fuji Bank.

Instead, she used the procurement contract for Mother signed with Saitama Television to borrow another two hundred million yen from Fuji Bank.

In total, she had seven hundred million yen, all of which she loaned to the Muddy Waters Company.

Muddy Waters then borrowed another 1.3 billion yen from Urawa Construction under its corporate name, bringing the total startup capital to two billion yen.

Osaka, Chuo Ward, Egawa Restaurant.

“I thought we were going to a securities firm.”

In the noisy restaurant, Saori picked up a yakitori skewer from the plate in front of her, took a bite, and said.

“I’ve arranged to meet a stockbroker from Chubu Securities here.”

As a minor unable to order beer, Seiko took a sip of sparkling water and said.

Chubu Securities was one of Japan’s top ten securities firms—at least, it was before the bubble economy burst—with its headquarters right here in Osaka.

“Why did we have to come all the way to Osaka to find Chubu Securities?”

Saori asked, puzzled, “There are tons of securities firms in Tokyo. Couldn’t we have just picked any one of them?”

“I didn’t come to Osaka specifically for Chubu Securities. I came for her.”

Seiko pointed to a woman at the bar not far away, who was drinking and laughing with the other patrons.

‘That woman… her face is quite nice, but she’s a bit overweight, has her hair in a high bun, and wears red nail polish.’

‘She looks to be in her late forties… a bit too old, isn’t she? I don’t think I can get behind this.’

‘Seiko-chan, if you’re looking to try something new, why not try Sakura? Sakura is very pretty, you know. I’ve even checked for you; she’s still a virgin.’

Seiko rolled her eyes. “What on earth goes through your head all day? That woman is Onoue Nui, known as the ‘Witch.’ It’s said she has special powers to predict the results of horse races and stock market trends.”

Onoue Nui was the most absurd legend of Japan’s bubble economy era.

After coincidentally guessing the results of a few horse races, she began to claim she possessed “spiritual inspiration.”

Such a claim, which would normally be dismissed as a joke, was actually taken seriously during the bubble era.

Executives from Japan’s major securities firms traveled great distances to seek her guidance.

Banks opened their vaults to her, lending her money freely.

Onoue Nui enshrined a toad god in her restaurant, and when she held her weekly “séances,” the elites and powerful figures of the financial world would kneel and fill her establishment, waiting for a stock name to fall from her lips.

Any stock named by Onoue Nui would often hit its upper limit the very next day, creating a feedback loop of “Onoue’s prediction -> institutional buying -> stock price surge -> more followers jumping in.”

This artificially created “brute-force rally” turned her into a national idol, and she was even called the “barometer of the Japanese economy.”

At her peak, the funds Onoue Nui “controlled” through her toad god oracles reached a scale of 1.2 trillion yen (equivalent to about 70 billion RMB at the time), making her the world’s largest individual investor.

“That impressive? For real?” Saori asked, half in doubt.

“Who knows?”

In reality, Seiko knew that Onoue Nui was just a hostess with no formal education who had relied on the patronage of a client she met while working to open her restaurant.

She had even run several restaurants into bankruptcy.

Seiko glanced around the shop but saw no toad statue.

The restaurant wasn’t particularly luxurious either, which meant Onoue Nui hadn’t made her fortune from “channeling spirits” just yet.

However, listening to the slightly drunk Onoue Nui pontificate about horse racing and stocks—no matter which stock the patrons asked her about, she could offer some opinion—Seiko knew she hadn’t come to the wrong place.

The woman already showed the makings of the Witch.

When Onoue Nui was sufficiently drunk, Seiko also called out loudly:

“Will Japan Airlines fall soon?”

“It will fall!”

The intoxicated Onoue Nui answered loudly out of instinct.

“You see,” Seiko said to Saori with a smile, “the Witch has given me her sign. JAL will fall.”

Saori covered her mouth, unable to stop laughing. “She’s so drunk, she’d agree with anything you ask her.”

After saying that, Saori played along with Seiko and loudly reinforced the point:

“Will Japan Airlines really fall?”

Onoue Nui, still drunk, responded again: “It will fall!”

“Mhm!” Saori smiled and nodded gravely. “Now everyone has heard it. The Witch did indeed say so.”

“Good evening,” a young man in a suit with a Chubu Securities name tag on his chest and carrying a heavy briefcase scanned the restaurant.

He finally approached Seiko and Saori’s table hesitantly.

“I am Sachi Ken’ichi, a stockbroker from Chubu Securities. Are you the representatives from the Muddy Waters Company?”

The internet was not yet widespread in this era, so buying and selling stocks wasn’t so convenient.

Investors who wanted to trade stocks generally had two options.

One was to go to the stock exchange in person and fill out a paper order form, which some particularly enthusiastic traders who monitored the market all day would do.

The other was for the investor to call their stockbroker at a securities firm and give a verbal trade order, for example, “Buy 1,000 shares.” The broker would record the order and transmit it to the exchange through an internal system.

There’s a scene in the movie The Wolf of Wall Street where, during the climax at the main character’s company, a large group of people are excitedly shouting into their phones—that’s them buying and selling securities.

Seiko had no interest in squatting at the stock exchange all day, so she naturally chose the second option. “Hello, I am the manager of the Muddy Waters Company, Yamagami Seiko.”

“Hello, hello,” Sachi Ken’ichi bowed hurriedly. “I didn’t expect the manager of the Muddy Waters Company to be so young and accomplished. Please forgive my rudeness.”

Sachi Ken’ichi sat down opposite Seiko and Saori, took out a large stack of documents, and began to introduce Chubu Securities’ brokerage services. “Our firm can provide clients with a customized database, allowing you to check real-time valuations, the company’s past market performance, and we also provide buy and sell recommendations…”

Seiko glanced at the documents. They were all standardized contracts, not much different from any other securities firm, so she signed the brokerage agreement.

Sachi Ken’ichi was still a rookie at the company.

He hadn’t expected this deal to be so easy.

He was stunned for a moment before taking the contract. After a brief hesitation, he asked, “Do you need any investment advice? I can tell you about the recent market trends.”

A stockbroker’s job was not only to execute trades for clients but also to provide them with investment advice.

“No, thank you,” Seiko said, pointing towards the bar. “I’ve already consulted with Ms. Onoue. She said Japan Airlines is going to fall soon, so please help me buy a short position on JAL.”

“Huh?”

The rookie stockbroker Sachi Ken’ichi looked at Seiko, then looked at Onoue Nui, who had already passed out drunk on the bar.

Sachi Ken’ichi had seen Onoue Nui before.

This was Chuo Ward, where Osaka’s financial firms were concentrated, including Chubu Securities.

Since it wasn’t far from his office, Sachi Ken’ichi would occasionally come to the Egawa Restaurant for a drink and had heard that the proprietress enjoyed discussing stocks and horse racing.

But would anyone really take a restaurant owner as their investment advisor?

Asking her how to make delicious yakitori would obviously be a more reliable line of questioning than stocks!

“Well…” Sachi Ken’ichi tried to salvage the situation. “Miss Yamagami, I think you should be more cautious. From what I know, Japan Airlines has been performing very well recently. It’s been rising all year…”

“But… Ms. Onoue said it will fall. You’d better not be lying to me!”

Seiko blinked her eyes, playing the part of a naive little girl who knew nothing of the world, had no head for investing, and could only blindly trust in authority.

Seeing this, Sachi Ken’ichi felt that as her newly signed broker, he had an even greater responsibility to save Seiko from herself.