The once-steaming Sukiyaki hotpot had now grown cold. The chaotic audio from the television, broadcasting live the collapse of the Mikage Corporation, was the only sound echoing through the penthouse.
The three of them stood silently before the glass wall, their eyes reflecting the flashing red lights of dozens of police cars surrounding the financial conglomerate's headquarters in the distance. Unspoken, an invisible pressure had just crashed down upon the atmosphere that had barely enjoyed a few hours of fragile peace.
Yume was the first to break the silence. She pivoted and walked briskly toward her massive corkboard, her eyes hardening with intense strain.
"This isn't a natural crisis, and it's certainly not the Nostra gang's modus operandi," Yume said, her voice turning cold. "A massive corporation that manipulates almost the entire city collapses in such a short time over a few trivial scandals? Ridiculous!"
"A completely hidden figure is manipulating this," Kairi said in a low voice, his eyes never leaving the TV screen. "Can you see any clues about them?"
Yume shook her head, her finger pressing tightly against an old photo of Takeru—the patriarch of the Mikage family.
"The sight of The Echo shows me that in every previous loop, this corporation has always operated with great stability and has never collapsed," Yume stated, frankly sharing this information with Kairi and Ginji.
Kairi fell silent for a beat, his mind rapidly stringing the information together before reaching a conclusion:
"The one who caused this is definitely a Time Breaker. Based on the fact that the Mikage Corporation only fell in this loop and not in any previous ones, there are three possibilities."
He raised a finger, analyzing sharply:
"First, the fact that Mikage didn't collapse in previous loops but stumbled in this one is very likely because, in a previous loop or recently, they accidentally offended a Time Breaker."
"Second, taking down a massive corporation like Mikage is extremely difficult, especially in a short amount of time. It's highly possible that they didn't execute this plan in the previous loop because they hadn't finished preparing their resources."
At this point, Kairi's gaze darkened, his voice becoming suffocatingly tight:
"Finally, and also the most concerning: it's very possible that this is someone who just recently acquired a Time Breaker's powers and has started to exact their revenge. Combined with the data that the most recently usurped Time Breaker position belonged to Kyouya, if this scenario is true, it is incredibly dangerous. It took them a mere five months to completely annihilate a giant corporation like Mikage."
Without hesitating for another second, Kairi immediately returned to the mini-server rack in the east corner of the living room. His fingers flew across the keyboard so fast they became a blur. Series of command codes ran vertically down the three bezel-less monitors. He was hacking straight into Mikage's leaked black data system right after the court issued the sealing order.
"What value does a surface-level financial group have to a Time Breaker?" Kairi muttered, his eyes reflecting bands of green binary code. "Let's see what the hidden part of your iceberg is concealing..."
It took only fifteen minutes to bypass the crumbling firewalls of a dying empire. Kairi hit the Enter key one last time. A heavily intertwined network chart appeared, blinking in a radiant red light.
"So that's it," Kairi gave a faint smirk, unable to hide his astonishment. "The massive financial conglomerate, the skyscrapers... they are all just a front. Look at this, Mikage's true power doesn't lie in the stock market; it lies in this underground octopus-like network."
Yume and Ginji approached the screen.
"Money laundering," Ginji narrowed his eyes at the astronomical figures rotating through ghost accounts. "A massive washing machine for the underworld."
"Exactly," Kairi tapped his finger on the desk. "Mikage controls the largest dirty money laundering system in the city. From smuggling and casinos to weapons—any black money that needs to be legitimized has to flow through this network. The hidden mastermind isn't destroying Mikage out of sheer vengeance. He wants to snatch the 'umbilical cord' of the underworld. Once he seizes this cash flow system, he'll have enough resources to recruit mercenaries, manipulate power, and crush any other Time Breaker he wants."
"Damn it, is that mysterious bastard planning to take over this entire city?" Ginji cursed. He lit a cigarette, took a long drag, and blew the smoke up toward the ceiling.
His gaze swept across the map of Mikage's money laundering hubs displayed on the screen. Kairi was rapidly scrolling through the shell companies and transit points like banks, seaports, and charity funds... but most of them had already declared bankruptcy or were merely worthless front companies.
Suddenly, the cigarette on Ginji's lips froze. He leaned forward, his rough finger pointing directly at a blinking red dot at the bottom corner of the map.
"Wait a minute... This address..." Ginji's eyes widened. "The Southside Casino?"
"You know this place?" Yume glanced at him.
Ginji slowly turned his head, staring at the mountain of crisp green 10,000 Yen banknotes he had dumped onto the dining table earlier. He slapped his forehead.
"Of course I know it! I just crawled out of there last night! No wonder..." Ginji walked over to the table, picked up a stack of cash, and quickly flipped through the serial numbers. "I didn't notice it earlier. Look, cash at casinos is usually a mix of old and new, brought in by all sorts of patrons. But this stack... the serial numbers are consecutive, freshly bundled from the bank. Furthermore, the house was playing recklessly last night, throwing money away carelessly as if they wanted to disperse their cash as fast as possible."
Kairi zoomed in on the information for the Southside Casino on the screen. "This casino is one of Mikage's largest transit stations. If that Time Breaker is gathering the network, the casino boss there is undoubtedly scrambling to prepare the handover of the entire underground ledger and black money to him."
The atmosphere grew thick. Yume crossed her arms over her chest, her eyes sharp.
"We need to know who is behind this," she said. "If we let him swallow the entire dark money system in the shadows, we could become his prey before we even know it. We must stop him, or at the very least, drag him out into the light."
"The target is the underground ledger storing Mikage's data," Kairi decisively concluded. "It's in the hands of the casino boss. If we get it, we can trace the cash flow and the identity of that hidden figure. But the casino's network is completely closed off; I can't hack it remotely."
"That boss isn't a pushover," Ginji stubbed his cigarette out in the ashtray. "He's extremely paranoid and never shows his face in the main hall. He just holes up in the VIP room, and only interacts with 'whales'—notorious high rollers, the filthy rich, or those with terrifying influence."
He suddenly fell silent, his sly gaze slowly shifting toward Kairi. A gleeful half-smirk crept onto the seasoned gangster's face.
Kairi raised an eyebrow, feeling a slight chill down his spine. "What's with that look?"
"A whale, Kairi. We need a juicy bait to lure that old fox out of his den." Ginji walked over, throwing an arm around Kairi's neck, pointing his other hand at the mountain of cash on the table. "Look at yourself! A bright face, a cold intellectual demeanor, exuding the arrogant aura of newly acquired wealth. You'll infiltrate as a young, itching high roller, throw this pile of cash on the VIP table, and burn it all until that old man's eyes pop out!"
"You want me to gamble?" Kairi sighed, shaking his head in objection. "I only do things I'm certain will succeed; I don't believe in luck. Besides, I don't know how to act like a gambling addict."
"No need to act! Customers like you, who only care about calculating how to maximize their profit, are exactly the most lucrative prey for a casino!" Ginji patted his shoulder heartily, laughing out loud. "Don't worry, I'll go with you. Just play the part of a young master throwing money out the window, and I'll be your seasoned advisor and bodyguard tagging along. We'll turn that VIP room upside down and force the boss to show up in person. When that happens, getting the ledger and digging out info on who's behind all this... leave that to me."
Yume, standing to the side, immediately voiced her objection: "Is it really necessary to go that far, Ginji? You being a gambler is one thing, but Kairi knows nothing about it. This plan is incredibly dangerous if both of you risk stepping into that territory."
She hesitated for a moment before continuing: "I could just ask the investigation unit where I work to retrieve these documents. You two don't need to take such a risk."
Ginji sneered, shaking his head: "You already know that your police force can only touch certain dark corners."
Yume shot back: "I can request an investigation warrant."
Ginji laughed. "Three weeks."
Yume fell silent.
"That's the minimum time to get a search warrant," Ginji continued. "Within those three weeks, all the ledgers will vanish."
Yume justified: "But my method carries less risk. What if your covers are blown during the operation?"
Ginji immediately countered: "Even if you managed to get that information through official channels, it would definitely be forged by then, or the news would have leaked out long ago. By that time, the transfer of power would already be complete, effectively severing all our leads."
Kairi also nodded in agreement: "The fact that the Mikage Corporation was brought down in such a short time proves the person behind it is highly capable. If we have to wait over three weeks to get the information, who knows how far he will have expanded by then."
He continued, his voice firm: "So the pressing matter right now is how to stop this as soon as possible, while quickly uncovering the mastermind's identity."
Hearing Kairi's analysis, Yume remained silent for a moment. As if realizing the limitations of the law compared to the pace of the underworld, she finally yielded.
"Alright fine," Yume exhaled. "While you two attract attention in the VIP room, I will use The Echo to cover the casino's overall movements from afar. If a Time Breaker intervenes, you two must retreat immediately."
Kairi paused, frowning at her. "What? Your Class can monitor movements from a distance? Why didn't you use it before, and why didn't you tell me?"
Yume replied calmly, "I hid it before because I didn't completely trust you guys. But it's different now. Besides, this ability can only scan for causality fluctuations caused by a Time Breaker's powers within a specific area, and maintaining it puts a massive strain on the nervous system."
Kairi looked at Yume, then turned to Ginji, and finally looked back at the mountain of cash scattered across the table. In his head, he was simulating dozens of variables for their upcoming move. The hidden figure had taken the first step, but his group were never the types to sit still and wait for death.
"Alright then," Kairi replied, his eyes sharp as a knife. "If we're going to play, let's play for high stakes."
Ginji let out a loud whistle, looking extremely excited. He stepped back, eyeing Kairi from head to toe, and clicked his tongue.
"But first... Young Master," Ginji winked. "Do you have any really expensive suits? The bouncers at the Southside Casino have eyes as sharp as owls. If you wear these country clothes, you'll be thrown out before you even cross the threshold."
The penthouse sank into silence, but in that night, the gears of the hunt had officially reversed. Tomorrow night, under the glaring red lights of the underground casino, they would step into the enemy's lair to tear apart this veil of mystery.