IGTL Chapter 54

Chapter 54 – No, That’s a Ponzi Scheme (Investment Fraud)!

“Ishida. Just what do you think you’re doing!?”

“M-My deepest apologies.”

That was the very first thing President Nishiki said the moment he returned from lunch.

Right now, I was bearing the full brunt of his fury over the accounting department collapsing into total dysfunction, and over Department Heads Fukuda and Kobayashi resigning.

Shinozaki, the Planning Department Head who had gone to lunch with the president, was also sitting on the sofa with a look that said, Yikes…

“The temporary workers abandoned their duties? The accounting department staff are gone? Both sales department heads resigned? Don’t be ridiculous!”

I genuinely wished it were a joke.

There was no one left at all in accounting, and all finance and accounting operations had come to a complete halt.

As a listed company required to make timely disclosures to the Tokyo Stock Exchange, we were completely finished.

The fact that payments would stop was a problem too. That would turn into an issue of trust with our business partners.

“Still, this is quite a predicament. We’ve been sued by Takahashi from the former accounting department, there’s no one left in accounting, and now the two sales department heads have resigned as well. For this many problems to erupt one after another…”

“Shinozaki is absolutely right. Really, this is no joke at all. So then, what are we going to do now, Ishida?”

“Huh? What are we going to do, exactly…?”

“There is no ‘exactly’ about it! This is why you’re no good! You’re the Director of Administration, aren’t you? General Affairs and Accounting both fall under your supervision!”

“E-Even if you say that…”

“Then what exactly do you intend to do? Are you planning to keep this company running with no accounting department at all? If you can do that, I have no objection whatsoever. Well? Say something, Ishida.”

Cornered by President Nishiki’s absurd demand, I desperately racked my brains.

What should I do? What should I do…?

How could I get through this crisis without letting my evaluation drop even a little!?

Judging by President Nishiki’s tone, if I failed to produce a solution here, this power-harassing tyrant of a manager would absolutely lower my evaluation.

“…Well, Ishida? Staying silent won’t solve anything, will it?”

I kept thinking, refusing to give in to President Nishiki’s relentless prodding, and then inspiration struck.

It was a flash of brilliance born from thinking through the problem under his nonstop pressure.

The intellectual power of a man who had graduated from a famous university.

My devilish insight earned a standing ovation inside my own head.

“…Let’s bring Makihara, the Factory Manager and former Accounting Department Head whom we transferred to the Kanagawa Factory five years ago, back to headquarters.”

“Hm? Makihara?”

“Yes. Exactly.”

That was right. Five years ago, Makihara, now the Kanagawa Factory Manager, had been transferred there after President Nishiki told him, “After two years, I’ll bring you back to headquarters with executive status.” He had been the former Accounting Department Head.

President Nishiki seemed to have forgotten that entirely, but Makihara, whose family home was in Nishi-Kasai, grumbled every time there was a branch managers’ meeting that he wanted to return to Tokyo headquarters.

This was an emergency. If he wanted to come back, then I would graciously let him.

President Nishiki smiled at my devilishly brilliant idea as well.

“…Come to think of it, Makihara was the former Accounting Department Head, wasn’t he? I had intended to bring him back to headquarters when the opportunity arose, and the Accounting Department Head position is vacant too. Very well. Summon Makihara at once.”

“Yes, sir!”

That took care of filling the Accounting Department Head seat.

Now for the rest…

“And under Makihara, I would like to place Edano from the Administration Department, who used to belong to Accounting.”

“Oh, Edano? That sounds fine to me. If I remember correctly, Edano used to be in the accounting department. If he’s a former accounting man, there should be no problem.”

“Yes. I’ve already filed a complaint with the staffing agency as well, so replacement personnel should arrive soon. I’ll personally support Makihara too. How does that sound?”

“Mm. Do that. I shall contact Makihara myself.”

With that, President Nishiki reached for his smartphone.

“…Ah, Makihara? This is Nishiki. Are you doing well? Mm. Mm. Good, good. Now then, to the main matter. We’ve decided to return you to headquarters as Accounting Department Head, so come to headquarters immediately. What? Handover? That sort of thing can be thought about after you get here. You’re always saying you want to return to headquarters, aren’t you…? What are you dissatisfied with? Just do as I say. I’ll be waiting.”

After saying only what he wanted to say, President Nishiki ended the call on the spot.

As expected of President Nishiki.

To tell Makihara, the Factory Manager stationed at Kanagawa, that handover could wait and he should show his face at headquarters immediately… what magnificent patchwork.

A truly splendid patchwork personnel reshuffle.

There was a gaping hole in accounting, and he was stuffing a factory manager into it by force to plug it shut.

I had proposed the idea, but his execution was so bold it was almost admirable.

Of course, I did not mean that as praise.

Still, it had been eight years since the previous president stepped down, and the company had run under the Nishiki regime ever since.

Executive compensation kept rising year after year, while sales kept sliding in the opposite direction.

That said, it probably wouldn’t matter.

And even if it did, all that mattered was that this company held together until I reached retirement.

Judging by how President Nishiki kept pulling money out of the company for himself, he probably felt the same way.

As expected of a hired president who had originally come here on secondment eight years ago.

“Well then, Ishida. Tonight we’ll celebrate Makihara’s appointment as Accounting Department Head. Reserve some suitable restaurant.”

That way of always finding one excuse or another to eat on the company’s dime.

No matter how many times I said it, it truly was classic President Nishiki.

Still, if I pointed that out, it was obvious he would explode in rage, so naturally I said nothing.

“Yes. Understood. Then, if you’ll excuse me.”

With that, I left the president’s office and returned to my desk.

Honestly, dealing with President Nishiki was as exhausting as ever.

The moment I sat down, I heard a strange crack! from behind me.

“Hm?”

When I turned toward the sound, I saw the household shrine falling from above.

“Waaaah!?”

I dodged on instinct, and the shrine came crashing down together with the board it had been sitting on, smashing apart.

The fall of a household shrine was an omen of bad news.

Shivering at the sense that something terrible was about to happen, I hugged myself.

◇◆◇

After arriving at the Drowsing Inn, I opened the menu to return to the real world for a while and tapped the log out button.

“Whew…”

It was already eight in the evening.

So it was this late already…

Lately, time had been feeling like it passed way too fast.

After washing up in the room’s shower and drying myself with a bath towel, I got dressed and dove straight onto the bed.

If I was going to sleep, the real world was still way better than the world of DW.

This Simmons bed felt amazing.

I turned off the room lights, buried my head in the pillow, pulled the blanket up over my head, and closed my eyes.

A lot had happened today too.

Thinking that, I let myself drift off to sleep.

The next morning, after finishing breakfast at the restaurant, I was enjoying a relaxed coffee break at a nearby café with no particular destination in mind.

Freshly brewed coffee was good stuff.

Sitting in a café drinking coffee while watching office workers head off to their jobs in the morning made me feel, just for a second, like some upper-class gentleman.

Even the fact that the menu wrote ‘coffee’ using the fancy kanji ‘珈琲’ made it feel weirdly high-class.

As I sipped my coffee, glancing at the TV section of the Nikkei newspaper, I heard a voice from beside me.

“Huh? Wait, could it be… Takahashi?”

“Hm?”

I looked away from the TV listings and turned toward the voice, only to find a well-dressed man in a suit standing there, someone who looked vaguely familiar.

Hmm.

I seriously couldn’t remember him at all.

Who the hell was this guy?

While I was thinking that, the man plopped himself into the seat across from me without asking.

“Takahashi, it really is you! It’s me, man, me. Kudo.”

“Kudo? Ah…”

Now that he mentioned it, there had been a guy like that back in high school.

If I remembered right, after graduation he’d gone on to a two-year vocational school, repeated two years, and then gotten expelled.

Yeah, that kind of impressively disastrous résumé tended to stick in your memory.

“Man, it’s been forever! So what are you doing these days, Takahashi?”

“Me? I’m…”

Saying I’m unemployed felt a little awkward in that atmosphere.

Then Kudo kept grinning and carried the conversation forward on his own.

“Just kidding, just kidding! I heard from a friend that you work for a listed company now, right? Man, that’s awesome, a listed company! It just sounds cool, you know?”

Wow.

That might have been the first time in my life I’d ever heard someone say, “You work for a listed company? Nice, that’s so cool,” with genuine positivity.

It really wasn’t that great.

Listed companies were a total mixed bag, so you really shouldn’t lump them together with the handful of elite blue-chip firms.

Don’t go dreaming about listed companies, man.

They’ll squeeze every last drop of you in the name of job satisfaction.

“…Yeah, I guess. More importantly, you’ve got a pretty nice suit on.”

Me, I only own suits that cost less than 10,000 yen each.

I didn’t see the point in buying expensive suits, and as for watches, a smartphone was more than enough.

Unable to match his aggressively upbeat energy, I gave him a vague response while sipping my coffee.

For some reason, Kudo took that the wrong way, leaned forward, and launched into an even more animated explanation.

“Right? Actually, this is an Armamaani suit, and this here is a Rolexx watch. Both of them cost me a lot.”

“Riiight. I see…”

I honestly could not have cared less.

More importantly, what the hell was Armamaani?

And what brand was Rolexx supposed to be??

Were they some kind of fake overseas luxury brands or something?

And when he said he paid a lot for them, what did that mean?

Wait.

Had this idiot actually gotten scammed??

While I was thinking that, Kudo had already become too talkative to stop.

“That’s not even the best part! Actually, just between us… I’m investing in something with seriously incredible returns right now…”

The moment he said that, Kudo suddenly lowered his voice.

“Oh? So you’re investing? That’s pretty impressive…”

Me, I’d bought company stock and gotten completely wrecked for it.

The president had recommended it, so I bought it, but every single year the stock price just kept dropping lower and lower.

And since I’d been in accounting and involved in earnings announcements, I couldn’t even time a sale properly.

Still, this guy was weirdly passionate.

I was only half-listening while drinking my coffee, and yet his enthusiasm still showed no sign of cooling down.

“That’s right! And the principal’s guaranteed, plus I get a huge dividend of over 30% every month! Isn’t that insane!? You make your money back in four months!”

No, that is a Ponzi schemeeeee!!

Guaranteed principal plus massive dividends?

That was just straight-up investment fraud!

Seriously?

Was this guy trying to rope me in?

Or had he already been roped in himself??

Also, what happened to just between us?

You’re saying all this out loud!

“Actually, I borrowed two million yen from a consumer finance lender and invested it, and it’s seriously amazing! Honestly, I don’t really want to tell people about it, but apparently if I introduce someone, my monthly dividend goes up another 2% per person. So if you’re interested, let me introduce you too, Takahashi!”

No, seriously, what the hell was wrong with this guy.

He borrowed two million yen from a consumer lender to invest?

That was an absolute worst-case move as far as investing went.

Was his brain okay??

That thought crossed my mind for a moment.