Chapter 151: Enemy, Opponent (Patreon)

Since Toyokawa Sakiko and the others had already decided what road they wanted to walk, Saitou Kyoko wasn't about to force them. Compared with the average agency in the industry, Ichigo Pro had a good deal more conscience.

Not to mention that Toyokawa Sakiko's and Wakaba Mutsumi's backgrounds were far too particular.

One of them was the young lady of the Togawa Group; the other was the daughter of the comedian Wakaba.

And the only one left, the seemingly harmless Misumi Hatsune, was clearly no simple case either.

All things considered, losing an online band with this much potential would be a genuine shame for Ichigo Pro — but they weren't the sort to cling and pester.

And besides all that—

"Where's Yuji-kun?"

Watching Toyokawa Sakiko and the others file back into Ichigo Pro's practice room, Saitou Kyoko glanced around and finally asked the question aloud.

Right. Where was Minami Yuji? Today of all days, the day SOUTH had climbed to the top — how was the man in charge, the one who deserved most of the credit, not here?

Where had he gone?

"He really did it..."

Togawa Mizuho looked over the documents and figures in her hands, her golden eyes full of astonishment.

She raised her head and looked at Minami Yuji across from her.

He was cradling a teacup in one hand, savoring the Toyokawa Family's finest black tea, his manners so polished and his movements so precise that for a moment Togawa Mizuho felt he was the one with pure Toyokawa blood.

"..."

Togawa Mizuho lifted her own cup, took a shallow sip, and lowered her head again.

In her hands were five million yen and the record of SOUTH's popularity as it stood today. Honestly, though she paid little attention to the industry, she understood that with Minami Yuji's fame, five million yen and fifty thousand followers for SOUTH amounted to nothing at all for the boy sitting across from her.

But that was precisely the point.

This time, Togawa Miki had bound Minami Yuji with every restriction she could think of.

He wasn't allowed to interfere with the band directly, and still less to use his own popularity to promote Toyokawa Sakiko and the others.

Even the uproar later on about him arranging their music had only blown up because her own daughter had not a scrap of common sense and had leaked her own information to the public.

And yet, under conditions that extreme,

Minami Yuji had still fulfilled their demands brilliantly and proved the worth of Toyokawa Sakiko and her bandmates — earning the enormous sum of five million yen.

For the Toyokawa Family, money like that was nothing.

But even a child raised and drilled by the Toyokawa Family would find it all but impossible to earn five million yen at the age of nine.

"Impressive." Togawa Mizuho set her cup down with a sigh of admiration.

She looked at Minami Yuji.

She thought of how her daughter had changed these past weeks.

The old Toyokawa Sakiko had looked elegant and strong, but in truth she fixated on things, cornered herself, went to extremes at the slightest provocation... and the difference now was unmistakable.

No wonder Grandmother wanted this boy so badly.

There really was something about him — an uncanny magic all his own.

But—

"I'm very sorry, Yuji-kun. You've brought proof of everything Sakiko and the others achieved this past month, but unfortunately, Grandmother Miki isn't receiving guests today."

Togawa Mizuho gave her apology gracefully.

Then she added, quickly,

"I can guarantee on my own standing that these results are more than enough. Grandmother Miki will acknowledge what you've accomplished, so there's no need to—"

"It isn't that she doesn't want to see guests. She can't see them. Isn't that right?"

Cut off mid-sentence, Togawa Mizuho felt her golden eyes contract sharply.

But she was a woman of the Toyokawa Family, through and through.

The stunned look held for only an instant before she had herself back in hand.

"I'm afraid I don't quite follow you, Yuji-kun."

Her beautiful, mature face wore the composure particular to the Toyokawa Family as she said it, with a trace of puzzlement layered on top.

As though she genuinely had no idea what Minami Yuji was talking about.

What she hadn't expected was that he wouldn't argue with the act at all.

He simply set his teacup down as she had.

Those black eyes, sharp in a way no child's eyes should be, fixed on her and stayed there.

And he said nothing.

Roughly three minutes passed.

"..."

Haah— The young, lovely noblewoman finally let out a small sigh.

Just how sharp was this child?

Togawa Mizuho lifted her head and turned to the two maids standing at attention on either side of the door. "You two, go tidy the storeroom. We won't be needing anything here for now."

"Yes, madam."

Both maids were clearly professionally trained. At the order they bowed slightly and left without a moment's hesitation, pulling the wide-open parlor doors shut behind them.

Once their footsteps had faded completely,

Togawa Mizuho turned back to Minami Yuji and lowered her voice.

"Yuji-kun, what I'm about to tell you is known to only a handful of people, even inside the Toyokawa Family. When you've heard it, I'd like your word that you won't let it out."

What she hadn't expected was that after hearing her, Minami Yuji only shook his head, looking faintly exasperated.

"All this cloak-and-dagger business, and it just comes down to the old lady Miki's health getting worse and worse, doesn't it?"

Predictably, that made Togawa Mizuho's eyes go wide.

The voice that was usually as gentle as still water lost every last drop of its gentleness.

"Eh?! How do you kn— ahem. How did you know?"

Halfway through she realized she was reacting far too strongly and hurried her voice back down.

The shock in her eyes didn't fade in the slightest.

From the way he'd been behaving, she had guessed he'd noticed something.

But who could have imagined this?

One sentence out of his mouth, and he'd laid her whole hand bare.

Because it was exactly as he said.

Over the past month, Togawa Miki's health really had been failing.

She knew Minami Yuji was perceptive. But surely not this perceptive?

Faced with her bewilderment, Minami Yuji lowered his head.

He looked at his own palm. Young, soft skin, glossy under the lamplight like milk pudding.

Then he drew his gaze back and spoke.

"Honestly, I had a vague sense of it the last time I came."

It was true. Children, brimming with vitality as they were, could feel death far more keenly than adults.

And Minami Yuji had felt it.

On that last visit, Togawa Miki had seemed in better spirits than when he'd seen her at midyear — well enough to leave her bed for a wheelchair, off the IV drip.

But those dull yellow eyes, losing their luster by degrees, and the figure gazing out at the ruined drifts of fallen leaves in the garden, had given him a strong impression he couldn't ignore: death was closing in on the old woman, slowly, and with no chance of turning back.

The proof was the wager itself — that Togawa Miki had agreed to terms like those at all.

She had set all kinds of conditions, granted, and perhaps Toyokawa Sakiko really had moved her.

But the Togawa Miki of her younger years would never have accepted such a bet.

At the very least she would have torn a couple of pounds of flesh off her opponent first, then used that as leverage to reel him in at her leisure — so that even if he won the wager, he'd look back at the end and find that winning was no different from losing.

That was the style befitting the viper of the Toyokawa Family.

Her spirit had declined so far it was visible to the naked eye.

Minami Yuji laid all of it out.

Togawa Mizuho stayed silent for a long moment before letting out a long breath.

"Everything you've said is correct, Yuji-kun."

It was. Every part of his read was right.

Only then did she tell him what had happened over the past few days.

It had begun three or four days ago. Togawa Miki's condition had taken a sharp turn downward.

Now she couldn't get out of bed at all.

Just as Minami Yuji had said. It wasn't that she didn't want to see guests.

It was that she couldn't.

"Then why not move her to a major hospital for treatment? At home, however skilled the Toyokawa Family physician may be, you can't cook a meal without rice."

Minami Yuji frowned and put the question to her bluntly.

It was a fair point. If her condition had deteriorated that far, why not transfer her? Home care was bound to fall short somewhere.

Togawa Mizuho shook her head and answered with a question of her own.

"Yuji-kun, you know as well as I do that our Toyokawa Family isn't one solid block, don't you?"

"Meaning...?"

Minami Yuji was no fool.

He'd been dealing with the Toyokawa Family for years; of course he understood how complicated Japan's foremost zaibatsu was.

Its internal makeup was an intricate tangle.

The two principal blocs were the purebloods, who stood for the Toyokawa Family's legitimate line, and the head-of-house faction, which quietly backed Toyokawa Sadaharu and Toyokawa Kiyotsugu and held that ability came before all else.

Both spoke as though they served the pure bloodline, or as though they supported Toyokawa Sadaharu.

In reality, each was only chasing its own interests. Neither side was thinking about the Toyokawa Family at all.

The sole reason the two factions currently coexisted in peace — no mudslinging, no tripping each other up — was that Togawa Mizuho and Toyokawa Kiyotsugu, the second generation of the pureblood line, kept the relationship with the head-of-house faction intact.

So what about the true believers in the Toyokawa bloodline?

The answer was obvious.

The only person who could mediate with them, or hold them down outright, was Togawa Miki, who had ruled since the Showa era.

Her presence was the reason.

Because of her, the ones who shouted about pure Toyokawa blood while scheming for their own gain minded their manners.

You could put it plainly: the balance in the Toyokawa Family rested almost entirely on Togawa Miki.

Only while a healthy Togawa Miki remained would those two great factions refrain from swarming like termites over the family's holdings, clawing at each other for power.

And if Togawa Miki were gone?

The already fragile balance would fall apart in an instant.

So no matter what,

Togawa Mizuho could not let a single word about Togawa Miki's condition reach the outside.

At minimum, before Togawa Miki passed, she had to work in secret with Toyokawa Sadaharu and Toyokawa Kiyotsugu to put every contingency in place.

That way,

when the day came, the time bombs would all be defused by the arrangements she'd made in advance.

Listening to her, Minami Yuji finally understood what "Togawa Mizuho died suddenly of illness" in the original story had actually meant.

Once Togawa Miki was gone, every mess in the Toyokawa Family — the pureblood faction most of all — would land on Mizuho's shoulders in a single stroke.

A workload that ballooned overnight.

Factions sabotaging one another.

Anyone buried under that much wreckage would be worn down to nothing.

Togawa Mizuho may have been trained by Togawa Miki herself.

But she was not Togawa Miki.

With years of pressure from both factions bearing down on her, it was entirely natural that she'd work herself sick and die without warning.

And at her funeral, Toyokawa Kiyotsugu, eyes brimming with tears, saying that Sakiko should just do whatever she wanted and leave the rest to her father... that was probably why.

As a husband, he blamed himself bitterly for failing to protect his wife, and so he'd said it — meaning to shoulder everything Togawa Mizuho had carried.

And beyond any doubt, he failed.

The clash between the pureblood faction and the head-of-house faction of father-in-law and son-in-law came anyway; it was unavoidable.

And with Togawa Mizuho, his pureblood backing, gone, Toyokawa Kiyotsugu was shoved out by Toyokawa Sadaharu to take the fall.

The plot of the original work unrolled before Minami Yuji all at once, and every piece of it lined up.

As for what Togawa Mizuho had just told him...

"Grandmother Miki approved all of it."

That was how Togawa Mizuho put it.

It was true.

Hiding her condition, laying the groundwork in advance for what would follow her death so the Toyokawa Family would keep running — every bit of it, Togawa Mizuho had carried out only after obtaining Togawa Miki's permission.

"...That's the old lady Miki for you."

After a long silence, Minami Yuji said it with genuine feeling.

It might have been the first time he'd praised anyone so sincerely.

Because Togawa Miki really was a remarkable woman.

Even as her body failed by the day.

Even bedridden, unable to stand.

She was still exactly herself — turning the information gap around her own illness into a weapon, having Togawa Mizuho set the pieces early to head off the chaos ahead.

For that terrifying force of will alone, calling her worthy of the Togawa Miki name was no exaggeration at all.

And his admiration seemed to catch Togawa Mizuho off guard.

The shift on her face drew Minami Yuji's attention, naturally enough.

He glanced over, puzzled.

"What is it?"

"Nothing. I'm just a little surprised. It isn't really my place to say this, but..."

Togawa Mizuho held up her fingers and pinched a small gap between them.

"Yuji-kun, aren't you and Grandmother on... um... slightly poor terms?"

She wasn't making it up.

She'd watched it happen every single time he came.

He always turned up slouching and flippant, wearing the face of someone who'd be delighted if Togawa Miki dropped dead tomorrow.

For him to produce this sort of regret now was a swing too jarring for her to take at face value.

"...Who told you I want the old lady dead?"

Minami Yuji's mouth twitched at her question.

Granted, he hated the Toyokawa Family's heavy-handedness, and he had no love for Togawa Miki's habit of thinking three moves ahead of every step she took.

But...

He lowered his head.

Minami Yuji looked at the reddish-brown film of tea clinging to the inside of his cup.

"That doesn't mean I don't admire her," he said.

He was an outsider in the end — but even an outsider could see how much Togawa Miki had given to the Toyokawa Family.

It was true that he gave the impression of being at daggers drawn with her.

But rather than call it hatred...

"Call it two people who recognize each other for what they are."

Minami Yuji sighed.

At the end of the day, there was no blood feud between him and Togawa Miki.

The worst of it was that she kept steering every conversation around to making him an adopted son-in-law. That, and nothing more.

And now she was ill, entering the final stretch of her life.

He obviously couldn't carry on the way he had before — the least he could do was hold his tongue.

So—

"I won't bother the old lady today. But I've got one small condition of my own, and I'd like Mizuho to agree to it."

"A condition...?" Togawa Mizuho blinked. "What condition?"

Minami Yuji looked at her and told her.

"It's this—"

Knock, knock, knock.

A soft rapping came from outside the door.

At Togawa Miki's faint nod of approval, the doctor beside her hurried to open it and show Togawa Mizuho in.

"Lady Mizuho, Lady Miki still needs her rest."

"I know. I'll say a few words to Grandmother and come straight out."

Togawa Mizuho answered the doctor's reminder with a word, then softened her footsteps and came to Togawa Miki's bedside.

Her lower lip tightened between her teeth.

The same signature vermilion room.

The same old woman lying in the bed.

The only difference was the long IV line and the sharp needle sunk into her skin.

For reasons she couldn't name, Togawa Mizuho suddenly wanted to cry.

The woman before her had worn herself out for the Toyokawa Family for most of a lifetime, watching with her own eyes as it rose to power. And now, because of that same family, even reduced to this state she was denied any peace.

There wasn't even anyone at her side to talk to.

So...

Togawa Mizuho steadied herself.

There were things she had to deliver, no matter what.

Without an instant's hesitation, she leaned close to Togawa Miki's ear.

Word by word, she told her that Minami Yuji had won the wager, and what he had asked for in return.

Under her watchful gaze,

those clouded, lightless yellow eyes seemed to brighten for a moment.

And then,

the old woman who had ruled the Toyokawa Family for decades wore an expression Togawa Mizuho had never anticipated.

No surprise at all that Minami Yuji had made good on the wager. Not a trace of regret, either.

She only closed her eyes, a satisfied smile at the corner of her mouth, and murmured a single line.

"I knew he could do it."

Why was Togawa Miki satisfied?

And why was she smiling?

Togawa Mizuho couldn't make sense of it.

She was the one who had lost the wager, after all.

Shouldn't a moment like this feel like defeat?

Togawa Mizuho didn't understand.

But then Minami Yuji's words came back to her.

Call it two people who recognize each other for what they are.

Perhaps it was exactly as he'd said.

Not enemies.

Simply rivals.

And now, looking at Togawa Miki with her eyes closed and her face at peace, Togawa Mizuho bowed her head.

Not only for Togawa Miki, but for the Toyokawa Family she had struggled all her life to hold together.

Softly, she offered the blessing of a junior to an elder.

"Good night, Grandmother Miki."