Would you like to come up for a while?

Oyamacho, Itabashi Ward, located directly north of Ikebukuro. This is where Yuko Shimizu lives.

Compared to the bustling, noisy streets of Ikebukuro, Oyamacho—neighboring the Tobu Line—is actually much better suited for living. It offers a complete range of amenities, and thanks to lower apartment rents and a smaller population, it possesses an indescribable sense of relaxation.

The only downside is its distance from the city center.

Haruno Tsukasa settled the bill, booked a designated driver via a mobile app, and after some persistent pestering, managed to extract Yuko Shimizu’s address. Only then did he begin his journey back.

The sky was gradually dimming. The distant horizon was stained with a crimson sunset, pressed down by thick, overlapping layers of clouds that looked as though they would soon swallow the light entirely.

He turned his head to look at Yuko Shimizu beside him. She had returned to the drowsy state she had been in while sitting at the bar. However, unlike before, because they were both seated in the back, Yuko’s body tilted toward him involuntarily, her head resting lightly on his shoulder.

Beyond the intimate, couple-like way she leaned against him, her legs—covered in a thin layer of sheer stockings—were also tucked toward him, her knees pressing against his thighs. With it being the peak of the evening rush hour, the occasional braking by the driver caused the car to jolt, leading to friction between their bodies. Even though he was wearing suit trousers and didn't feel much physically, the visual impact was significant.

It made Haruno Tsukasa raise an eyebrow slightly.

Haruno knew deep down that the malice held by these women wasn't necessarily stubborn, and much of it was driven by impulse; fixating on a single point would be like using a magnifying glass to exaggerate someone’s shortcomings. Regardless, he still hadn't figured out the specific nature of Auntie Shimizu's troubles, and his preconceived "gold-digger" plan had made no progress.

Thinking of this, Haruno fell into deep contemplation. The first time he cast his line, it was a success; Hoshino Ruka had taken the bait willingly. It was only due to Saika Suzumiya’s interference that things had stalled. Hoshino hadn't made any attempt to contact him over the last two days, so it seemed there was no suspense left there.

Shun Komatsubara’s party was an opportunity, but he couldn't pin all his hopes on that. Relying on others was never as good as relying on oneself, and the unknown was never as good as the known. He had to exert effort both online and offline.

"Sir, we have arrived."

Just as Haruno was deep in thought, breathing in the scent of alcohol mixed with an inexplicable perfume, the car came to a steady stop. The balding middle-aged driver in the front seat turned half his body to offer a soft reminder.

"Sorry for the trouble," Haruno said, snapping out of his reverie.

"Don't mention it," the driver replied with a polite smile toward the rearview mirror before unbuckling his seatbelt and stepping out.

Seeming to realize they had arrived, Yuko Shimizu, who had appeared to be fast asleep, woke up right on cue. She stepped out of the car, steadied herself while clutching her forehead, and looked around as if just waking from a dream.

"Do you want to come up for a bit?"

"Would that be appropriate?"

"You child, I was just being polite. I didn't expect you to actually intend to come up!"

"Then I shall take my leave."

"Don't go yet." Seeing that he couldn't take a joke, Yuko sighed, rubbing her forehead with a look of helpless resignation. "Come on up. You wanted to know about my situation, didn't you? You look like you won't be able to finish your 'mission' without figuring it out. If you want to listen, come up and sit for a while before you go."

"In that case..."

Just as both were tacitly avoiding mention of the intimacy in the car and preparing to head upstairs, a voice cut in from diagonally behind them.

"Yuko!"

The moment the voice rang out, Haruno clearly saw Yuko’s expression undergo a sudden change. Her drunken, sleepy look vanished instantly, and a look of distinct disgust and resistance emerged in her clearing eyes.

Haruno followed the sound and saw a middle-aged man in a sharp suit and silver-rimmed glasses standing not far away, looking toward them with a smile. He appeared to be in his forties, with a silver Lexus parked nearby. His black leather shoes were polished to a shine, and his shirt cuffs and collar were perfectly pressed; he looked exactly like one of the business elites seen on television.

Haruno guessed his identity immediately, especially since the man’s gaze was locked onto Yuko, and the latter’s face betrayed such obvious loathing. The man also glanced at Haruno a few times, his brows knitting slightly in a display of wariness.

"Hirumasa-san, I have already told you: please do not come to my home to harass me." Yuko’s drunkenness seemed to have disappeared completely. She looked at the approaching man with a deadpan expression, her tone icy.

The man, however, seemed accustomed to this. Hirumasa Sheng adjusted his glasses and stepped closer, his tone filled with concern. "Drinking again?"

He acted like a husband waiting for his wife to return from a social engagement. He pulled two oral doses from a bag marked with a pharmacy logo and reminded her with a gentle smile: "I knew you’d be drinking, so I prepared some hangover medicine. Drink these two first."

"Do I look like I’ve had too much?" Yuko didn't even glance at him. She refused to play along, retorting coldly.

"Better safe than sorry," Hirumasa Sheng added with a chuckle.

Yuko showed him no respect at all. Even with passersby glancing over curiously, she didn't care if Hirumasa Sheng would be embarrassed. Seeing that she wouldn't take the medicine, he didn't continue to embarrass himself. He lowered his hand as if nothing had happened, and after a brief, awkward silence, he shifted his gaze to Haruno, who had been playing the role of a bystander.

"Come to think of it, who is this..."

"My nephew," Yuko said flatly.

A strange look flashed in Hirumasa Sheng’s eyes, but it vanished as quickly as it appeared. He resumed his demeanor of a successful, composed man, smiled at Haruno, and said, "Oh, a nephew? No wonder you look so much like Yuko. Quite a handsome young man."

After the pleasantries, he followed custom and pulled out a high-end business card, handing it toward Haruno. "I am Hirumasa Sheng, currently serving in the Supervisory Bureau of the Financial Services Agency. I am a good friend of your Aunt Yuko. Since you are her nephew, you are my nephew as well. If you run into any trouble in Tokyo, feel free to call me. If there is anything I can do to help, I certainly will."

Haruno raised an eyebrow. The Financial Services Agency was no ordinary institution. As the department that took over regulatory functions from the former Ministry of Finance, it was immensely powerful. Since the bubble economy crisis, the FSA had been established to oversee the banking, securities, insurance, and non-financial sectors. To put it simply, it was the supreme authority of the nation's finance.

Connecting this to what his mother had said about Auntie Shimizu being an entrepreneur, it was inevitable that she would deal with loans—meaning banks. The FSA held immense sway over banks.

Haruno could roughly guess the situation, though he wasn't sure of the man's exact rank. Moreover, the man was a national civil servant. Had this been before Haruno obtained the "Malice List," even if he truly wanted to help, a mere local civil servant would have been powerless to assist. But now... at the very least, he had the confidence to refuse.

"That won't be necessary," Haruno said with a smile, not reaching for the card.

Hirumasa Sheng’s face betrayed a look of shock. He clearly hadn't expected the boy to refuse his card, which was incredibly rude in Japan. However, his refined surface manners suppressed his inner irritation. "Haha, indeed, no card needed. After all, you can always reach me through Yuko."

"Hirumasa-san, are you done? I need to go home and rest. If there is nothing else, we are going up."

"There is nothing pressing, just that I was thinking about your situation and wanted to discuss how to resolve it. Dragging it out is no good. I don't know how you’ve considered my last proposal?"

"I have never considered it."

"Never considered it? Don't let your temper dictate things right now; your situation is quite urgent."

Yuko waved her hand, having no desire to listen further. Her tone turned sarcastic. "So, I have to sell my body to exchange it for my career?"

"That is not what I meant..."

"And don't think I don't know: if it weren't for you pulling strings behind the scenes, Section Chief Kondo of the Dai-ichi Kangyo Bank would never have rejected my loan. Trying to force me to be with you using these tactics—your methods are truly both despicable and nauseating."

"Yuko, I think you have misunderstood. Loan qualifications are reviewed by professional bank staff. What I told you before was out of kindness, not a transaction—I was merely expressing my feelings for you."

"Then take your kindness and get lost."

"Yuko..."

"Get lost!"

The last veneer of civility was torn away. Even with his practiced composure, Hirumasa Sheng finally lost his cool. He glared at Yuko with dark, brooding eyes and said in a low voice, "I hope you don't regret this."

Yuko ignored him entirely and walked into the apartment building. Haruno followed, noticing that the middle-aged man glanced at him one last time, his expression dark and terrifying, before he remained silent.

Yuko’s apartment was not large, and it was slightly more cluttered than his own. Things were tossed about—a purple lace bra on the sofa, a few pairs of black stockings, and a professional pencil skirt draped over a chair. Otherwise, it wasn't dirty, just lived in with a lack of order.

Compared to the hedgehog-like defensive state she had assumed upon sobering up, Yuko’s demeanor was much softer now that she was home. She fell into silence. Seeming to notice her private belongings scattered on the sofa and chair, she kicked off her shoes and, barefoot, hurried over to gather them up with her back to him.

"It’s a bit messy, please wait a moment."

After saying this, she didn't turn back to look at Haruno’s expression and busied herself with tidying up. Haruno helped as well, though he didn't touch any of her personal items. He simply cleared the trash from the coffee table and straightened the rest of the items, avoiding any inappropriate actions.

Once everything was tidy, Yuko stood in front of the refrigerator and turned her head to offer a forced smile. "Tsukasa-kun, I’ve embarrassed myself in front of you."

"It’s alright. You encounter such people and situations everywhere. A female colleague at our ward office was once subjected to 'quid pro quo' harassment by her superior," Haruno said, using a pre-prepared line to offer comfort.

"Really..." Yuko didn't seem surprised by his empathy; she just sighed.

After all, such practices were rampant in the workplace, especially for women. In Japan, it could be said that any female subordinate without a background who wanted to climb the ladder would inevitably face various forms of harassment—and even then, it was often less effective than simply being a man.

"Are you still going to drink?" Haruno asked with surprise, seeing her pull two bottles of shochu from the fridge.

"I’ve always been fond of a drink." Mentioning alcohol seemed to restore some of Yuko’s energy, and the suffocating atmosphere from earlier dissipated slightly. She raised her ice-filled glass and smiled at him. "Want some?"

"No, thank you," Haruno refused decisively.

"Just a little."

"I really shouldn't."

"Do your aunt a favor."

"Drinking like this is bad for your health..."

"Even better if I break down. Once a person is dead, they have no more troubles, right?" Yuko didn't care whether he agreed or not; she brought over two glasses filled with ice.

Haruno was speechless, but eventually, under her insistent, informal urging, he began to drink.

He learned more information. Perhaps because he had been there when she encountered the source of her troubles, Yuko was much more forthcoming than before. She answered every question, allowing him to understand the gist of the situation.

The man named Hirumasa Sheng did indeed work at the Financial Services Agency, though he wasn't the head or deputy head, but an assistant to a section chief. Even so, it was a high-ranking position. As a national civil servant, the FSA held significant administrative weight and reported only to the Cabinet.

As Haruno had suspected, Yuko was being squeezed regarding her bank loans. She ran a small precision machinery company and had purchased several patents in recent years, intending to produce and test potential machines to be acquired by larger, related companies. Truth be told, this was a form of speculation, but she had actually managed to acquire a few decent patents. She had attracted the attention of a company with her production manuals, and if she could successfully mass-produce the items, they were willing to pay a hefty price for the acquisition. Yuko was stuck at the step of securing a loan to purchase the machinery for production.

If the patents couldn't be mass-produced, there was no guarantee of success, but if she couldn't even get past the first step of raising capital, her earlier investments would all go down the drain. As for why she was being harassed—men simply enjoyed holding that kind of power.

When Yuko found it difficult to process her loan, she had met Hirumasa Sheng through a classmate. However, things did not go as smoothly as she had hoped. Instead, after a long wait, even though the formal procedures were passed, he used special tactics to block her, all for the sake of "that."

Originally, Yuko hadn't taken it seriously, but after hitting walls repeatedly and realizing that some things were truly worthless in the face of power, she had completely lost heart, turning to alcohol to numb herself.

Yuko talked the whole time, and Haruno listened intently. Learning to listen was an art, and it was a way to quickly gain someone’s trust. After Yuko finished speaking and they sat in silence for two minutes, she suddenly asked, "Tsukasa-kun, you don't have a girlfriend yet, do you?"

"Not at the moment," Haruno replied, stunned for a moment.

Yuko met his puzzled gaze, resting her chin on her hand—her face flushed again after an hour—and said with a knowing, teasing smile, "I thought so. If you didn't have a girlfriend, why would you keep staring at my feet?"

"..."

"Did I guess wrong? Was it the stockings?"

"Perhaps..."

"I hear you young people seem to like that sort of thing. Some even like to collect them unwashed. If you have that hobby, Auntie can give you those pairs I just put away."

"I have no such interest."

"You had better not have such bad ideas."