Staff led Tsutsumi Yoshiaki and his entourage slowly forward through the exhibition hall.
The Ohashi Motors showroom was not receiving any other guests this afternoon, and several sales representatives who usually managed different areas had also been temporarily transferred here.
The vehicles along the way had already been neatly arranged beforehand, with concise model descriptions placed beside the car doors, and for some models requiring special introduction, even the engine hoods were already open.
"As you can see, these few cars are considered very outstanding choices currently in terms of both performance and safety."
The accompanying sales representative walked slightly ahead and to the side of Tsutsumi Yoshiaki, stopping from time to time to introduce the cars.
"The interior configurations are also very complete. If they are usually used mainly for commuting within Tokyo, or travelling back and forth to places like Hakone and Karuizawa, they are all very suitable."
Tsutsumi Yoshiaki listened all the way, nodding occasionally.
He did not have any particularly clear purchasing goal today.
People from Cornes had called a few days ago, saying that a batch of new cars had recently arrived, and several of them should relatively match his needs.
Since he happened to have no other important arrangements this afternoon, he dropped by to take a look.
For Tsutsumi Yoshiaki, something like a car naturally did not count as a consumption that required careful weighing of prices.
What he truly cared about was whether it was comfortable to sit in, whether it drove well when he occasionally wanted to drive it himself, and whether this kind of car would appear overly frivolous when it showed up at Seibu's hotels, golf courses, or other occasions.
After walking past a few cars, Tsutsumi Yoshiaki's footsteps suddenly stopped.
He turned his head to look to the left.
That was a dark four-door sedan whose body looked heavier than the models beside it.
The front fascia still maintained Bentley's consistent look, only that the wheels and body stance obviously had a bit more of a vibe that did not belong to traditional luxury sedans.
Tsutsumi Yoshiaki looked for a few seconds and raised a hand to point.
"This is a Bentley Turbo R, right?"
"Ah, yes."
The sales representative immediately stopped along with him.
"This is a very popular model of ours right now."
As he spoke, he walked over to the side of the car and gestured toward the vehicle's side.
"One of the biggest differences between the Turbo R and traditional Bentley models is that the chassis has been specially reinforced."
"The suspension setting is also more skewed toward driving performance, so even though the body size and weight are not small, the handling feel is much more agile."
Tsutsumi Yoshiaki walked half a circle around the front of the car.
He was obviously not hearing about this car for the first time.
The sales representative was still continuing to introduce the power and interior configurations, but he had already reached out to touch the roof of the car lightly and asked casually,
"I remember this car's high-speed stability is very good, right?"
The sales representative paused for a moment.
Tsutsumi Yoshiaki looked at the car in front of him and added,
"With such a high self-weight, when driven fast, it should be much more stable than ordinary sedans."
"Indeed."
Just as the sales representative was about to answer, a young voice came from beside them first.
"It is especially great to drive on the highway, oh, super stable."
Tsutsumi Yoshiaki raised an eyebrow.
He was still looking at the car and paid no attention at all to where the voice came from, assuming that another staff member from Cornes had also tagged along.
"As expected."
He took a step back and re-examined the entire car.
That voice naturally continued.
"The suspension is a bit stiffer than a regular Rolls-Royce, and when turning, the body does not sway nearly as violently."
After a slight pause, the other party added another sentence:
"The Saionji Family has one too."
"Oh?"
Tsutsumi Yoshiaki gained a bit of interest this time.
"So Saionji bought one as well."
He nodded.
"Since they bought it too, that at least shows this car is indeed not bad."
"Mhm."
That voice sounded quite happy.
"It is also very comfortable to sit in, and running long distances will not be too tiring."
"That is not bad."
Tsutsumi Yoshiaki glanced at the back seat again.
"Some cars are nice to drive, but sitting in the back instead—"
Halfway through his sentence, he suddenly stopped.
The person who was accompanying him and introducing the vehicles just now...
was a guy, right?
Tsutsumi Yoshiaki did not turn his head immediately.
His brow slowly furrowed, and instead, his mind replayed those few sentences from just now.
A young woman's voice.
Knowing which model the Saionji Family had.
Also knowing how that car drove and whether it was comfortable to sit in.
Most importantly—
Why did this voice sound more and more familiar the more he thought about it?
The expression on Tsutsumi Yoshiaki's face gradually turned strange bit by bit.
Shimada, standing nearby, had obviously discovered something long ago, but at this moment he was staring straight ahead at the Turbo R, as if he had suddenly developed an extremely intense interest in the tires.
The sales representative had also closed his mouth.
Even the few people who were originally following behind had somewhat unnatural expressions.
Tsutsumi Yoshiaki finally turned his head slowly.
Not far away, a dark blue Rolls-Royce was parked.
The driver's seat window had already been rolled down.
Satsuki was sitting inside, her hands crossed and resting on the door, her body leaning almost entirely over, exposing only her upper body from behind the open window.
She did not know how long she had been watching there.
The moment their gazes met, the smile on Satsuki's face instantly became even more obvious.
"Good afternoon, Uncle Tsutsumi."
She raised one hand and waved at him happily.
Tsutsumi Yoshiaki stood in place and looked at her for quite a while.
"Little girl?"
"Mhm."
"..."
Tsutsumi Yoshiaki glanced again at the car she was sitting in, then looked around at his subordinates who had obviously discovered her long ago yet stubbornly none of them had reminded him.
"...How did you get in?"
Hearing these words, Satsuki finally sat up straight.
The car door was pushed open by her from the inside.
After the girl, who had just been leaning on the car window looking like she was watching the fun, planted her feet and stood firm, she merely casually tidied her coat and hair, and her whole person recovered back into that Saionji eldest miss who left people with hardly any flaws to pick on regarding her etiquette.
She walked over this way unhurriedly.
The people accompanying Tsutsumi Yoshiaki finally found an opportunity to leave at this moment.
Shimada first signalled to the few people nearby, and the Cornes sales representative retreated a few steps very tactfully.
In just a short moment, the group of people originally surrounding Tsutsumi Yoshiaki dispersed nearby, leaving the space in the middle for the two of them.
Watching them leave so decisively, Tsutsumi Yoshiaki suddenly developed a somewhat bad premonition in his heart.
Sure enough.
Satsuki had only just walked up before the expression on her face changed.
"Sigh..."
She let out a soft sigh.
"Uncle Tsutsumi's people are fiercely ruthless."
Tsutsumi Yoshiaki's eyelids twitched.
Satsuki lowered her head, looking extremely aggrieved.
"It was so hard for me to come out to play today, thinking of buying a few cars along the way, but as a result, I was stopped right at the entrance."
She raised her eyes.
"Saying something about the place being completely booked out today and not allowing me in."
"You tell me."
"I just wanted to buy a car, why is it so difficult?"
"Stop, stop, stop, stop."
Tsutsumi Yoshiaki's head started aching from listening, and he quickly raised his hand to interrupt her.
He suddenly somewhat regretted why he had let Shimada and those people walk away so fast just now.
At least when those few people were still standing here, this little girl would have given him some face as Japan's richest man.
"How was I supposed to know you would suddenly run over here today?"
"Besides, have not you already come in?"
Tsutsumi Yoshiaki glanced around the surroundings with annoyance.
"Right now in all of Tokyo, how many people would actually dare to block you outside the door?"
Satsuki had originally prepared to continue acting.
Seeing his headache-ridden expression, she finally could not hold it in.
"Pfft—"
She hurriedly blocked her mouth with her hand, but her shoulders still gently moved as she laughed.
"Uncle Tsutsumi."
"Hm?"
"Right now you instantly do not look like the 'richest man in the world' at all."
Tsutsumi Yoshiaki's expression instantly turned even uglier.
"Is not this all your fault?"
He glared at Satsuki.
"Who pulls this kind of stunt right when they meet?"
Satsuki laughed for quite a while before standing properly again.
Tsutsumi Yoshiaki looked at her, originally intending to say a couple more words, but his gaze unconsciously lingered on Satsuki for a while longer.
Today's Satsuki was very different from usual.
There were no formal suits, nor those clothes that looked like they were prepared for meetings or banquets.
She was only wearing a dark blue coat, a white top, and jeans.
Her long hair was also simply tidied up, making her look no matter how one saw it much more like an ordinary college student hanging out with classmates on the weekend.
Especially her face.
The news had described it very seriously.
Over the past few months, he had also heard about the situation that night from quite a few channels.
Explosions, car crashes, automatic weapons, foreign gunmen, and Satsuki being directly sent into Saionji Hospital by helicopter.
But now that she was truly standing before his eyes, it was hard to find many traces of injuries anymore, at least from her appearance.
Tsutsumi Yoshiaki looked her up and down and let out a light snort.
"It seems you really could not die."
The smile on Satsuki's face instantly collapsed a bit.
"Is that your very first sentence when you see a wounded person?"
Tsutsumi Yoshiaki retorted, "What part of you looks like a wounded person?"
Satsuki opened her mouth.
She looked down at herself, then raised her hand to touch her right cheek.
"Right here."
She actually leaned a bit closer toward Tsutsumi Yoshiaki.
"This place actually left a scar, you know."
Tsutsumi Yoshiaki had no choice but to look over along the position she pointed at.
A very faint trace could indeed still be seen near her cheekbone, but had Satsuki not pointed it out herself, he would not even have noticed it just now.
"Does this even count as a scar?"
Satsuki nodded very seriously.
Tsutsumi Yoshiaki looked for two seconds.
"If you had told me two days later, I probably would not even have been able to find it."
"..."
Satsuki curled her lips and stood straight again.
"You have completely zero empathy, you black-hearted capitalist."
Tsutsumi Yoshiaki casually replied, "If I had no empathy, on June 28th I should have gone to negotiate with people on how to take back the station operating rights."
Satsuki was slightly stunned.
Afterwards, the corners of her mouth curled up lightly.
She certainly knew what this sentence meant.
The two of them were quiet for a moment.
The sense of ease brought by the joke just now was still there, but the expression on Tsutsumi Yoshiaki's face gradually restrained itself a bit.
"However..."
He glanced around the surroundings, and his voice also lowered.
"I had people look into it later."
Satsuki raised her head.
Tsutsumi Yoshiaki looked at her.
"Regarding your incident this time, the American side is indeed not clean."
The smile on Satsuki's face faded away.
"Mhm."
The two of them very naturally continued walking forward along the exhibition hall.
"The things I was able to find out are not much. Someone found people from the American side, and also mobilised things that originally should not have flowed into Japan."
He paused here for a moment.
"Any further inside, it becomes very difficult for my people to touch."
Satsuki did not feel surprised.
After all, Tsutsumi Yoshiaki was not in the intelligence business.
Being able to have people trace this much by himself was already enough to show that he had indeed investigated seriously.
Satsuki said, "I investigated a bit deeper on my side."
She put both hands behind her back, walking while looking at the vehicles passing by the side.
"Mainly those people in the U.S. national security system who are relatively tough on Japan, as well as a portion of traditional defence contractors. Further out in the periphery, some nationalist forces also got mixed in."
"The relationships are very messy."
Satsuki thought about it slightly.
"Right now there is no way to simply say which family was behind it from start to finish."
Tsutsumi Yoshiaki was silent for a moment.
"Then what are you planning to do?"