In the office, Seiji Fujiwara listened to the busy tone on the line, a smile of expectation appearing on his face.
He waved a hand at Fuyumi Irisu. "Good. Now, all that's left is to sit back and watch the show. Log his outburst just now, and Eru Chitanda's reaction, into the report."
"Yes, Boss." Fuyumi recorded it on her tablet, her face expressionless.
That night, on Seiji's instructions, Fuyumi placed another call to Eru Chitanda. This time, she did not bring up business cooperation again.
"Eru... are you, all right?" On the call, her voice carried a weariness she was deliberately suppressing.
"Senpai... I..." Eru's voice was full of helplessness, on the verge of tears. "I don't know what to do anymore... The pesticide didn't work, my father's methods didn't work, the fields... the fields are almost completely gone... Mr. Sasaki and the others are already preparing to withdraw..."
"Hold on." Fuyumi's voice was soft, but it carried a strange note of powerlessness.
She glanced at Seiji, who was watching all of this at his ease, then said into the phone, "...Some things were beyond our understanding from the very start. Eru, you need to be prepared... for anything."
"Prepared for what? Senpai, do you know something? That call this afternoon... can your technology really do it?" Eru pressed sharply.
"I don't know." Fuyumi denied it at once, her voice dropping lower without her meaning to. "I'm just... worried about you. Take care of yourself."
She didn't dare say anything more. The cold gaze from beside her was suffocating.
She could only hang up in haste.
From her senpai's strange words, Eru picked up on a deeper unease. She felt that her senpai Irisu seemed to know something but couldn't say it openly. This unknown fear was even more unsettling than the pest disaster itself.
...
Meanwhile, in Seiji Fujiwara's office.
His intelligence network had long since determined that this pest's genes had been engineered with complete resistance to every known chemical.
Its auditory system had also been modified to be abnormally sensitive. This was yet another "masterpiece" from Abundant Future.
He watched the live feed coming back from the drones. The density of the swarm was still climbing. He issued his orders to Fuyumi at his side.
"Pass the word along. Begin acquisitions of all stocks tied to Kamiyama agriculture, with priority on companies on the verge of bankruptcy. Remember, push the price down to the absolute minimum. Also, have our biotech company stand by to receive a major project."
Fuyumi lowered her head in acknowledgment, then began operating on her tablet with practiced ease. She had completely sunk into the role of "secretary," efficient and indifferent.
... ...
After exhausting every analytical method and trying every backup plan, the Ministry of Agriculture officials formally declared themselves at a loss. Sasaki held a brief press conference. Facing the national media, he bowed deeply.
"We are deeply sorry. We... have failed." His face was ashen. "We are categorizing this incident as an 'unmanageable national-level ecological disaster,' and we have already advised the government to immediately seal off the Kamiyama Region to prevent the disaster from spreading."
The reporters below erupted at once with questions, like a pack of madmen.
"Mr. Sasaki! Does this mean the government has abandoned Kamiyama agriculture?"
"Why did your EX-7 fail completely?"
"There are rumors that this was a man-made terrorist attack. Could you confirm whether that's true?"
Sasaki was rendered speechless. Under the escort of his security personnel, he could only beat a hasty retreat from the Chitanda residence by car.
Their departure took with it every last hope offered by "science."
Eru's father watched the officials leaving in disgrace, then looked again at his family's rice paddies, gnawed bare like wasteland. Not even the stalks could be seen anymore.
The old man, stubborn for a lifetime, finally suffered a mental collapse. He slumped down on the cracked dirt of the field path, both hands clutching at the soil, his eyes empty.
He muttered to himself, "It's over... the Chitanda Family is finished... I have failed our ancestors..."
Eru stepped forward to help him up, but he shoved her away.
"Don't touch me! It's all my fault! I was too stubborn! I have ruined the Chitanda Family!" The old man wailed like a child.
All his pride and dignity were buried alongside those withered rice plants.
Late that night, in the Chitanda Family's study, which housed countless precious ancient texts.
Eru sat there alone.
She was surrounded by piles of yellowing old books. They contained all the wisdom the Chitanda Family had accumulated over centuries for dealing with every kind of natural disaster. She had spent the entire afternoon and evening turning through every record, from the Essentials of Ancient Agriculture to the Illustrated Records of Strange Insects.
She had even tried dripping the juices of various pest-repelling plants from the old books onto the insects in her glass jar. Without exception, none of it had any effect.
She replayed everything that had happened over the past two days. From the officials' confidence, to her father's stubbornness, to her senpai's call that had seemed to want to say something and then stop.
In the dead silence, that phone call her father had condemned as a "scam" lit up uncontrollably in her mind.
Those words, "Infrasonic Ecological Intervention Technology," were like the only faint pinpoint of starlight in the dark.
That man, the heir to the Fujiwara conglomerate, seemed to be the only one who held the "answer." Even Senpai Irisu was working for him, and seemed to know what was going on.
To save her family from the brink of collapse, to soothe her near-mad father.
A thought formed in Eru's mind.
No, it was not a thought. It was a decision.
She rose from the floor. Her purple eyes, which had been clouded with confusion all this time, lit up once more with a steady, determined light.
"To get that answer, I have to... go and see him."
She took out her phone and found that unfamiliar number. It was the call her senpai had placed that afternoon.
She knew this phone call would change her destiny entirely.
Eru drew a deep breath, her finger hovering over the dial button for a long time. She could hear her own heart hammering in her chest.
At last, she closed her eyes and pressed it, resolute.
...
Elsewhere.
Ministry of Agriculture official Sasaki was on the road back to Tokyo. He received a call from his superior. On the line, his superior's tone was unusually grave.
"Sasaki, I don't care where you are right now. Turn around immediately and head back to Kamiyama."
"We just got word that the Fujiwara conglomerate appears to be interested in intervening in the Kamiyama pest disaster. Did you have any contact with them earlier? Did you offend them somehow?"
Sasaki recalled how, that afternoon, the Chitanda Patriarch had crudely rejected that proposal of cooperation. Cold sweat instantly broke out across his back, soaking his shirt through.
The Fujiwara conglomerate.
A behemoth so vast that even the government had to show it considerable deference.
He answered at once in his most respectful tone. "Yes, Minister! We did make contact! It was our oversight! It was the Chitanda Patriarch who... no, it was my own attitude that was the problem!"
"Please be at ease. We will return to Kamiyama immediately. Unconditionally, one hundred percent, we will fully cooperate with every action the Fujiwara conglomerate takes. I will personally call upon them to apologize!"
In the face of absolute power, a pragmatic bureaucrat knows how to make the most correct choice.
...
In the tea room, Eru knelt facing her father.
Her father's mind was somewhat in a daze.
In a calm tone, Eru told him plainly that she wanted to make contact with the Fujiwara conglomerate, the very people he had called "swindlers."
"Father, we have no way out anymore."
The patriarch had lost all his pride and all his strength. He looked at his daughter. Her eyes were unusually firm, with even a hint of resolve he had never seen in her before.
He was silent for a long while before asking hoarsely, "Do you think... that kind of person... can really do it? What will they want? Money? We have no money left in this house."
"I don't know." Eru shook her head, but her gaze was unshakably firm. "But I'm curious. And this is our last chance. As for the price... whatever it is, it would be better than watching the work of a hundred years be destroyed in a single day."
Her father looked at her, looked at this daughter he had always tried to keep safe under his wing.
It was as if she had grown up overnight.
He was silent for a long time. In the end, he only waved a weary hand and chose to acquiesce.
"Go on then..." His voice was old and rasping, full of soul-broken resignation. "As long as the land can be saved... do whatever you have to do..."
...
In Seiji Fujiwara's penthouse suite.
Fuyumi Irisu looked at her phone screen. The caller ID read Eru Chitanda. She didn't pick up immediately. Instead, she looked up at Seiji.
A smile curled at the corner of his mouth. He gave her a nod.
"Take it. Say what I taught you to say," he instructed. "Remember, make her feel your 'helplessness' and that you have 'no choice in this.'"
Only then did Fuyumi answer.
Over the line, in her usual calm tone, Eru asked the question. "Senpai Irisu, could you give me Mr. Fujiwara's contact information? There are some things I would like to ask him about in person."
Fuyumi's hand around the phone tightened sharply.
In an instant, she understood what was about to happen. It was as if she could see another version of herself, standing at the edge of a cliff, about to leap into the same abyss.
Silence.
A suffocating silence that lasted several seconds.
Seiji watched her reaction with interest, savoring the struggle inside her.
In the end, Fuyumi spoke. Her voice was just as calm, calm to the point of being cold.
"I can't give you his private number," she answered. "But he is, at this moment, in my... office. If you want to see him, I can send you the address."
"The office?" There was a trace of puzzlement in Eru's voice. "Senpai, you're still at the office this late? Are you... are you all right? Your voice sounded very tired this afternoon."
Fuyumi glanced around at the lavish decor of the suite, then at the man on the sofa, taking it all in at his leisure.
She lied calmly.
"Yes, working overtime. The project is urgent. I'm fine. I'll send you the address shortly."
After she hung up, she gazed at the city lights outside the window. An indescribable sorrow settled over her. She was a "kindred spirit" and an "accomplice."
She knew that the moment she sent that address, she and this pure-hearted underclassman could never go back to what they had been.
With her own hand, she had pushed Eru toward the abyss.
Seiji rose. He came up behind her, took the phone from her hand, and looked at her faintly trembling shoulders.
He spoke softly into her ear. "Well done. Now, go prepare a cup of black tea for our new guest."
... ...
In Seiji Fujiwara's study.
He was not reading any ancient text. He was simply leafing idly through the latest issue of a financial magazine.
Eru Chitanda walked in quietly.
She wore a plain, refined kimono, looking like a student come to consult her teacher about a problem. She bowed deeply, her form picture-perfect and graceful.
"Mr. Fujiwara."
Seiji closed the magazine and looked up.
He didn't go in circles. He cut straight to the point. His tone was that of pure business negotiation.
"I can help you. I can let you see with your own eyes the 'answer' you want to know, and resolve your family's crisis."
He paused, leaning forward slightly, his gaze pressing down on her.
"But my technology does not come free. My time is even more valuable."
He stood and walked over to her. He reached out and lightly took hold of her small chin, forcing her face up so that she had to meet his eyes.
"Tonight, let me see exactly how much you, and the centuries of heritage of your Chitanda Family, are worth."
The words were direct and crude, with no attempt at concealment.
Eru's body went rigid. A flicker of resistance and disgust passed clearly across her eyes.
Her instinct was to step back, but his grip held her firmly in place.
But within only a few seconds, the resistance in her eyes vanished.
What replaced it was a calm acceptance. For the family, she had to make this sacrifice.
Eru closed her eyes and drew a deep breath.
When she opened them again, those purple eyes held nothing but calm.
She gave up her resistance and let Seiji keep his grip on her chin.
"I am in your hands." Eru bowed deeply once more.
With his grip on her, the gesture became somewhat awkward and humiliating.
Her voice remained steady, with not a trace of a ripple in it.
At that moment, there was a soft knock at the study door.
Fuyumi Irisu walked in carrying a tray. On it sat two cups of black tea.
Her eyes did not stray. Her movements were practiced, as if she had done this hundreds of times. She seemed not to see the scene of Seiji holding Eru's chin at all.
She placed one cup on the table at his hand. Then, holding the other, she walked over to Eru.
"Miss Chitanda, your tea." Her voice held no ripple either.
Eru looked up at her senpai standing in front of her.
She looked at that ice-cold mask of a face, then noticed the silk blouse on her body. It didn't look like office attire. It looked more like loungewear. And on Fuyumi's neck, she saw a faint, suggestive red mark.
In an instant, she understood.
So it had not been overtime work.
It had already been...
She had assumed all along that her senpai was working for the Fujiwara conglomerate, but she had never imagined it was this kind of "work."
Eru opened her mouth, wanting to ask something, but not a single word would come out.
Seiji released his hand. He looked on with satisfaction at this dramatic scene. This was exactly what he had wanted, for Eru to see with her own eyes how the senpai she respected was reduced to serving here in such a degrading way.
He spoke to Eru. "Irisu understood a certain truth before you did. To obtain something, you must give up something else. She is a clever girl, and she made the most rational choice. Now, it's your turn."
He turned and gave the order to Fuyumi. "Irisu, tell your underclassman how you feel right now."
The hand holding the tray gave an almost imperceptible tremor before steadying again. Her head was lowered, her gaze fixed on the floor as she spoke in a hollow voice. "This is... the optimal solution."
"The optimal solution..." Eru murmured the words, her gaze growing emptier still.
Seiji stepped over to her. He brushed his fingers gently across her cheek, feeling the slight tremor of her skin.
He smiled. "That's right. The optimal solution. Now, your senpai will stay right here and watch with her own eyes as you make your choice. Let me see whether your curiosity, like hers, will lead you to give up everything."
Eru looked at the empty gaze in her senpai's eyes, then at the smile on Seiji's face, the smile of a man who controlled everything.
She knew there was no way back for her now.
... ...
The door of the study closed soundlessly behind Eru Chitanda.
She heard the lock engage automatically.
A soft click, not loud at all, yet it struck her heart like a heavy hammer.
"Irisu," Seiji called.
"Yes, Boss." Fuyumi gave a slight bow.
Seiji's tone was light, as if he were giving instructions on some trifling matter. "Take her and have her change into something more 'suited for activity.' And while you're at it, explain the 'rules' here to her."
"Yes." Fuyumi walked over to Eru. She gave a slight bow, her form impeccable. "Miss Chitanda, please come with me."
Eru looked at this senpai whom she had once held in such deep respect. The stinging pain of betrayal welled up in her chest again.
She couldn't help asking, "Senpai Irisu, you knew... you knew this was wrong."
Fuyumi was silent for a moment.
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