The Sticky Situation
Taira Kokoro lay in the bathtub, lazily enjoying her bath with a languid expression. She had poured in a generous amount of bath nutrients packed with ingredients that slowed skin aging while keeping it moist and firm. This was only a tiny fraction of the maintenance she performed on herself.
Even if she became the owner of the Taira Group, what was the point if she turned into a withered old hag? That was why Taira Kokoro took her anti-aging procedures extremely seriously. She conducted every possible experiment through Taira Cosmetics and applied the results to herself, allowing her to look like she was in her early thirties despite being in her early fifties.
Even so, Taira Kokoro was never satisfied. She received blood transfusions from young women once a week and even employed mystical techniques. She spared no effort to preserve her youth. Currently, she was searching for the Juangua fruit that Nagumo Sian, president of Taira Food, had consumed to maintain the face and body of a woman in her twenties.
In truth, if she could obtain that fruit, most of her current research would become unnecessary. But since she had yet to acquire it, she could never skip her research and maintenance routines. That was why this particular time of day was sacred—something no one could interrupt except for Taira Danjo, the supreme chairman of the Taira Group. It was the time she needed to focus entirely on absorbing the nutrients filling the tub.
But then a phone rang, cracking the peace that had never been disturbed before.
Taira Kokoro frowned and glanced at her smartphone. Taira Ryuta. Her cheeky nephew. The boy who had immediately started calling her “Kokoro-san” the moment she said she hated being called “Aunt.” While Ichiro’s sons and Jiro’s sons all treated her with impeccable politeness, this was a refreshing change. It had been a very long time since anyone young had called her Kokoro-san. Usually she only heard “President” or “Director.”
Taira Kokoro allowed a faint smile to cross her lips and answered the call.
The job involving Minamoto had apparently gone smoothly after she lent him a bit of help. For him to succeed so quickly showed considerable ability. If used well, he might make an excellent long-term piece… But the word “however” that Taira Ryuta had just uttered bothered her. That was why he had called her directly.
Taira Ryuta paused for a moment before continuing.
“What?”
Taira Kokoro’s voice naturally rose. Sawayanagi Amika was pretty, but lacked any special appeal, so she was only a B-grade celebrity managed by one of Taira Entertainment’s agencies. Murakata Keiji, on the other hand, was a handsome actor with genuine talent who had recently become the most talked-about young star among the younger generation.
Whether Sawayanagi Amika fell into ruin or not was no great concern to Taira Kokoro, but Murakata Keiji was different. He was currently filming several commercials. If this incident came to light, it would cause massive problems for his agency. She knew the boy’s private life was a complete mess, which was why he practically lived at the TERT where secrecy was guaranteed. It seemed this time he had caused trouble outside.
Taira Ryuta sounded somewhat reluctant to answer her question. Taira Kokoro was annoyed that he kept pausing mid-sentence, but there was nothing she could do about it. He was the only one who could explain the current situation to her.
At Taira Ryuta’s explanation, Taira Kokoro pressed a hand to her forehead. She felt dizzy. How on earth could such a situation even occur…?
After ending the call, Taira Kokoro irritably dialed her secretary, Mori Sota.
Taira Kokoro ended up yelling at the innocent Mori Sota.
###
Now that the job was finished, it was time to report. After calling Taira Kokoro first, I contacted Taira Danjo’s secretary, Fumimoto Takayuki. He told me it was already late, so I should sleep for the night and come to the main house in the morning to report in person. I headed straight back to the Human Resources Development Center and cooled my battle-heated body inside Yukiko’s.
I poured a thick load of hot semen into the ever-gentle Yukiko, buried my face in her breasts, and fell asleep. When I woke up, I felt incredibly refreshed.
I got up before the housekeeper arrived, took a shower, and prepared to head to the main house. I had already told Yukiko in advance that I would go to the main house early, so I could leave without saying anything else.
When I stepped outside, the weather was already extremely hot even though it was early morning. It seemed real summer was about to begin in earnest. With heat like this, I should probably start using the vacation days I had saved up and enjoy a proper summer break.
But planning a summer vacation wasn’t easy. There were quite a few people I needed to take care of. If I didn’t plan carefully, schedules would clash and everything would fall apart.
Kazuhiro had suggested we go to some island together during his summer transfer window while his next club was being decided. I needed to make time for that. Kiyohira had gone to Aokigahara a few days ago and hadn’t been in contact since, so tracking him down and taking him along could be fun too.
I also had to take care of Han Yukyung, Aris, and Yukiko. When I asked each of them, Han Yukyung said she would make the travel plans herself and only asked me to clear my schedule. Aris wanted me to go with her to her family home in America, and Yukiko and I had already decided on the shooting range and the beach we had talked about before.
All I had to do was coordinate so the schedules didn’t overlap. With the PMC acquisition added on top, arranging everything had become quite complicated, but I figured it would work out somehow.
While thinking about various plans for the summer vacation, I soon arrived at the main house. This time, I definitely needed to secure a close aide to serve as a puppet president for Taira Danjo’s old man. Only then could I properly set up my summer plans.
It was only around 6:30 in the morning, so the entire estate felt strangely quiet. I was guided to Taira Danjo’s office.
When I entered, the old man was reading the morning newspaper.
“Is there an interesting article?”
“Heh heh, the way the world turns itself is interesting enough. Every single piece of information is money, boy.”
“You can look at it this way, right?”
I shook my smartphone in my hand toward Taira Danjo. What era was this that he was still reading paper newspapers? Come to think of it, this might be the first time I had seen a physical newspaper since my reincarnation. It was fascinating that paper newspapers still existed in 2053.
“Newspaper companies are massive information organizations. You might be seeing it for the first time, but paper newspapers contain high-quality information. There’s no risk of being hacked, either.”
Ah! So in this era, paper newspapers had become like premium information journals that recorded high-class intel. It seemed they had survived the threat of extinction by going upscale.
“I see. Then I should subscribe as well.”
“Heh heh heh. Even if you subscribe to a paper newspaper, you’ll receive something different from mine. This paper is only published for the upper echelons of the Taira Group.”
Was this old man teasing me? Bragging about something so good while saying I couldn’t have it was a little irritating. Still, even without newspapers, there were plenty of ways to obtain information, so it wasn’t a big deal.
“Enough about newspapers. Let’s eat first. Follow me.”
I followed Taira Danjo to the dining room. Taira Shizuku was already seated there. I greeted her.
“Good morning, Grandmother.”
“Oh my, is that you, Ryuta? This man! If Ryuta was coming, you should have told me he was coming! Why didn’t you say anything?”
Watching Taira Shizuku welcome me and immediately begin scolding Taira Danjo for not telling her I was coming, I cheered inwardly. That’s right, scold him more!
“Hmph! It was only decided last night that Ryuta would come. You were already asleep, so I couldn’t tell you.”
“Is that so? Well, let’s eat first.”
Breakfast was a clean, light meal that wouldn’t burden the stomach. I ate four full bowls until Taira Shizuku was satisfied before I was finally allowed to leave the table.
Rubbing my swollen belly, I followed Taira Danjo to the conference room. Fumimoto Takayuki was already seated inside. That man really was diligent, coming so early in the morning.
“Good morning, Fumimoto-san.”
“Good morning, Chairman, Young Master.”
“Ahem…”
We exchanged greetings and took our seats. At Taira Danjo’s command to begin my report, I recounted everything that had happened the previous day.
“…And that’s how it went.”
“Hmm. Even though you anticipated the opponent’s counterattack, what was the reason the plan still failed?”
Was this the post-mission feedback? It seemed Taira Danjo intended to go over the plan point by point.
“I didn’t know about the radio jamming device. If I had known such a thing existed, I would have prepared a different trap.”
“If you want to become the owner of a PMC in the future, it is important to know exactly what equipment the enemy possesses.”
“I will keep that in mind.”
He wasn’t wrong. If I had known about the radio jammer, I would have used different equipment. As the saying went, knowledge truly was power.
“Was the plan sloppy? Or did you think that even if the plan failed, you could handle it yourself and therefore became complacent?”
“I consider my own abilities as resources too. I believed those resources should be saved for the final moment. It wasn’t complacency. Please consider it simply that the plan was still immature.”
“Understood. Since it succeeded anyway… well done.”
And with that, the retaliatory shooting incident mission was officially closed. Now it was time to talk about the PMC acquisition.