The Hostile Bid
7:30 a.m. The Rank A Exclusive Lounge, Tōto Commerce Academy.
“We are being completely underestimated.”
Saionji Reika’s voice preserved its customary elegance on the surface, but beneath it lay an anger cold as ice. Around her had gathered the principal members of the Saionji faction — all scions of financial dynasties or political families, an aristocracy born to privilege.
“Reika-sama, need we take such crude methods seriously?”
The speaker was Tadokoro Shinichirō, the son of an oil magnate. Among the Rank A students he boasted the highest LVT balance after Reika herself.
“Crude?” Reika’s blue eyes glinted sharply. “You call crude a method that dropped the entire market twelve-point-six percent in a single day?”
Reika rose and looked down at the school grounds from the lounge’s vast window. The morning light made her golden hair blaze, framing her like a goddess. Yet her expression held something unmistakably human — a complex emotion in which fear and excitement were mingled together.
“He broke ‘order’ while keeping to the ‘rules,’” Reika went on. “This is no frontal assault. It is the technique of a hostile TOB — a Tender Offer Bid — in corporate acquisition.”
Tadokoro wore a look of confusion. “TOB?”
“A public tender offer — the purchase of outstanding shares.” Reika turned. “I analyzed his strategy. Phase One: ‘forced disclosure’ — he made Satō Masato ‘aware’ of his true position. Phase Two: ‘psychological pressure’ — by staging a beautiful parting, he bought the market’s sympathy. And Phase Three: ‘triggering the chain reaction’ — using one breakup as the starting point, he stoked anxiety across the market as a whole.”
At Reika’s explanation the students around her drew a collective breath.
“In other words, he has taken the ‘love market’ and treated it as a ‘financial market,’ applying the techniques of securities trading directly,” Reika said, and for the first time her voice held something close to admiration. “From Rank E, to affect the entire academy in a single day — this is the work of a genius.”
“Then, how should we respond, Reika-sama?”
Reika smiled. That smile was nothing like the perfect social smile she had always worn before; it radiated a dangerous beauty, something feral.
“A counter-acquisition.”
＊
8:45 a.m. Classroom E-7, Rank E.
Tenga coolly observed the classroom atmosphere, which had clearly changed from the day before. The gaze the Rank E students turned on him was transformed. The pity and indifference of yesterday were gone; in their place swirled a complex emotion of awe, expectation, and a certain measure of fear.
“Tenga-san…” Mizuno Haruka ventured nervously. “About yesterday, was it really…?”
“What are you expecting?” Tenga’s question was the same one he had put to Yuki the day before. “A miracle? A revolution? Or mere entertainment?”
The classroom fell silent. Thirty Rank E students were fixed by Tenga’s golden eyes, and not one of them could answer.
Just then the school’s public address speakers crackled to life.
“Attention, all students. At 1:00 p.m. today, the student council will hold an Emergency Love Market Countermeasure Conference in the main auditorium. Representatives of all ranks are required to attend.”
When the announcement ended, the classroom erupted.
“An emergency conference?” “So yesterday really did become a problem.” “Tenga-san, are you going to be all right?”
Tenga rose and went to the blackboard. He picked up the chalk and, in a fluid motion, began writing a new set of formulae.
【Defensive Strategies in a Hostile Acquisition】
Poison Pill (Defensive Provisions):
- Establishing conditions unfavorable to the acquirer
- Deliberately inflating acquisition costs
- Diluting existing shareholders’ rights
White Knight:
- A rescue acquisition by a friendly third party
- Presenting more favorable terms
- Expelling the hostile acquirer
Crown Jewel:
- Selling the most valuable assets
- Reducing the target’s attractiveness to the acquirer
- Used as a last resort
When Tenga turned around, all thirty students were staring at the board in bewilderment.
“Saionji Reika will launch a ‘counter-acquisition’ against me,” Tenga said, his voice as flat as a weather report being read aloud. “Her method will most likely exploit ‘information warfare’ and the difference in financial resources.”
Haruka raised her hand. “Does that mean… that Tenga-san will lose?”
“In financial resources, certainly,” Tenga answered at once. “The total assets of the Saionji family are approximately 200 billion yen. My entire worldly wealth is this battered wristwatch.”
The expressions on the students’ faces darkened.
“However,” said Tenga, a thin smile appearing at the corner of his mouth, “in the world of investment there is a concept called ‘leverage.’”
Tenga turned to the board again.
【The Leverage Effect】 Investment Amount × Leverage Multiple = Effective Investment Power
Examples: 10,000 yen × 100× leverage = 1,000,000 yen of investment power 10,000 yen × 1,000× leverage = 10,000,000 yen of investment power
“In the world of finance, even a small sum, if the right leverage is applied, can fight on equal terms with a vast one,” Tenga’s golden eyes gleamed. “And the greatest source of leverage in the love market is ‘asymmetry of information.’”
Just then, the classroom door opened quietly.
In stepped a girl Tenga had never seen before.
Chestnut-brown long hair, warm brown eyes, an average build of average height. Not especially beautiful, not especially conspicuous. To judge by her uniform, she was a Rank B student. But her presence was strange — there was something about her, like sunlight in spring, that put one at ease.
“Excuse me,” the girl said with a polite bow. “My name is Shironami Riko. I’ve come because I have something to say to Kurose Tenga-san.”
The classroom murmured. A Rank B student visiting a Rank E classroom was an extreme irregularity.
Tenga looked at Riko. In that instant, something odd happened. What entered his mind was neither economic theory nor market analysis. Only a groundless conviction: I must not hurt this person.
“What…” Tenga’s voice carried, just barely, a shade of warmth beyond its usual flat tone. “…have you come here wanting?”
Riko met Tenga’s gaze steadily and answered.
“I’ve come to tell you to stop.”
The room went still.
“Stop?” Tenga tilted his head.
“Please stop treating people’s love as a ‘commodity.’” Riko’s voice was quiet, but it carried an unmistakable will. “Yesterday, Satō-kun and Tanaka-san broke up. Perhaps, as things turned out, neither of them was badly hurt. But…”
Riko took a step forward.
“What you did deprived them both of their ‘right to choose.’”
Tenga’s brow moved almost imperceptibly. “The right to choose?”
“Yes,” Riko nodded. “It’s natural for love to have parts that aren’t rational. Sometimes people make the wrong choice, get hurt, have regrets. But all of that is part of ‘love.’”
Riko’s brown eyes held Tenga’s golden ones.
“You certainly produced an efficient, rational result. But that isn’t ‘love.’ That is ‘optimization.’”
Tenga regarded Riko for several seconds. Then, at length, he spoke.
“Your argument is pure emotionalism.” Tenga’s voice was calm, though a faint agitation could be felt beneath it. “It is statistically proven that an optimized outcome produces greater happiness for the parties involved.”
“Statistics?” A trace of anger entered Riko’s voice. “You believe a human heart can be measured by statistics?”
Riko walked toward the center of the classroom. Her presence was changing the air of the room — like the sound of a living instrument resonating in a space that had been filled with the cold noise of electronic devices.
“I have no intention of denying your theory,” Riko went on. “I agree that love does have an economic dimension. But…”
Riko stood directly before Tenga. The distance between them was no more than a meter.
“The essence of love lies in its ‘irrationality.’ Because there are emotions that cannot be calculated, predicted, or explained — that is precisely why people fall in love.”
Tenga’s expression shifted, faintly.
“You…” Tenga’s voice trembled, just slightly. “Have you come to deny my strategy?”
“No,” Riko shook her head. “I’ve come to understand you.”
At those words, Tenga’s golden eyes opened wide.
“Why would you try so hard to view love as a ‘system’?” Riko’s voice was gentle but held a keen insight. “Did something… happen to you? Something painful?”
Tenga’s face contorted for just an instant. It was an expression of pain — human, and hidden beneath a perfect mask.
But he recovered his composure at once.
“Your question is a red herring,” Tenga said. “Personal motivation and the validity of a theory are separate matters.”
“But they’re not completely unrelated, are they?” Riko smiled. That smile was unlike any Tenga had ever seen. “There must be a reason why you see love as something ‘dangerous.’”
At that moment, the classroom speakers crackled again with a school announcement.
“Transfer student Kurose Tenga-kun, and Shironami Riko-san — please report to the student council room at once. Repeating—”
Riko turned and held out her hand to Tenga.
“Shall we go together?”
Tenga looked at her hand. White, slender fingers, a small palm. A symbol of pure goodwill with no calculation in it, no strategy.
Tenga did not take her hand.
“You are wrong,” Tenga said, rising. “By treating love as a ‘commodity,’ more people can be made happy. This is a question of efficiency.”
A trace of sadness crossed Riko’s expression.
“Is that so…” She withdrew her hand. “But I won’t give up.”
“On what?”
“On teaching you what real love is.” Riko’s voice was full of conviction. “You too, I’m sure, want to love someone not with ‘efficiency’ but with your ‘heart.’”
Tenga said nothing. He only watched Riko’s retreating figure with a complex expression as she left the room.
After Riko had gone, a heavy silence fell over the classroom.
At last Haruka opened her mouth, tentatively. “Tenga-san… what do you think of her?”
Tenga answered, still looking out of the window.
“Dangerous.”
“Dangerous?”
“That woman,” Tenga said, his golden eyes fixed on some distant point. “Has the potential to overturn my ‘strategy’ from its foundations.”
Then Tenga murmured something, so small that no one could hear.
“Which is precisely why… she is fascinating.”
＊
1:00 p.m. The Main Auditorium, Tōto Commerce Academy.
The spectacle of all 1,247 students gathered in one place was breathtaking. The auditorium was charged with tension, like the floor of the United Nations General Assembly.
In the front row sat representatives from each rank. For Rank A: Saionji Reika. For Rank B: Satō Makoto. For Rank C: Takamura Yuki. For Rank E: Kurose Tenga.
On the platform stood the student council officers. In the center was Student Council President Hashimoto Rin. Beside her were Vice President Kamiya Kaito, Secretary Tajima Miho, and Treasurer Yamamoto Ichirō.
“Today, as we face an emergency, I have called this full-school assembly,” President Hashimoto’s voice rang through the auditorium via the microphone. “The investigation committee will now report on the abnormal market fluctuation that occurred yesterday.”
Vice President Kamiya took the platform.
“Yesterday afternoon, between three and four o’clock, the Love Value Index recorded a sudden drop of twelve-point-six percent. This is the largest single-day swing in the history of our academy.”
The market data from the previous day was displayed on the large screen.
“The investigation found that the starting point of this fluctuation was the dissolution of the couple comprising Satō Masato-kun and Tanaka Misaki-san. However, the scale of its impact is beyond what a normal breakup can explain.”
Vice President Kamiya’s gaze moved to Tenga.
“We therefore wish today to question those involved. First, Kurose Tenga-kun.”
Tenga stood. The eyes of all 1,247 students were directed at him at once, but Tenga’s expression did not flicker.
“Do you have any knowledge of yesterday’s market fluctuation?” Vice President Kamiya asked.
“Yes,” Tenga’s answer was brief. “I engineered it.”
The auditorium murmured. The students were unsettled by an answer far too direct.
“What do you mean by ‘engineered’?”
“I advised Satō Masato-kun to settle his relationship at the appropriate moment,” Tenga said, with the calm of a man making an academic presentation. “As a result, the losses to both parties were minimized.”
President Hashimoto rose. “But as a result, the market as a whole was thrown into confusion. What is your view on that?”
“A temporary corrective phase,” Tenga answered at once. “An inefficient allocation of resources was simply being corrected. In the long run, it will contribute to the market’s overall health.”
At that moment, from the front row, Saionji Reika rose to her feet.
“I have a question.” Reika’s voice preserved its usual elegance while carrying a challenging undertone.
President Hashimoto gave permission.
“Kurose-kun.” Reika turned and fixed Tenga with her gaze. “Your actions are certainly not ‘technically’ in violation of any rule. But how do you regard them ‘ethically’?”
The eyes of Tenga and Reika crossed. The auditorium was wrapped in a tension as though the very air had become charged.
“Ethics?” Tenga answered with a question of his own. “Isn’t what you call ethics merely a pretext for protecting vested interests?”
The auditorium fell silent. A Rank E student had directly challenged the Rank A valedictorian.
Reika’s blue eyes glinted dangerously.
“How very amusing.” Reika’s voice dropped slightly. “Then let me ask: do you truly believe it is right to demand ‘efficiency’ of love?”
“Love?” A cold smile appeared at Tenga’s mouth. “What you call ‘love’ is merely the product of chemical reactions and social conditioning. By quantifying and optimizing it, more people can be made happy.”
“Then,” Reika took a step forward. “Have you yourself ever felt ‘love’?”
At that question, Tenga’s expression shifted, faintly.
The air of the auditorium grew heavier still. All 1,247 students watched the exchange between the two with bated breath.
“My personal experience has nothing to do with the validity of a theory,” Tenga answered. Yet a faint agitation was audible in his voice.
“It does,” Reika said, her voice taking on the ring of triumph. “Do you believe someone who has never known love has the right to speak about it?”
Just then, a voice rose from the back of the auditorium.
“Please wait.”
Everyone turned. There stood Shironami Riko. Only the air immediately around her seemed of a different quality, radiating a strange sense of calm.
“Riko-san?” President Hashimoto was puzzled.
Riko came forward. As she walked, the expressions on the students she passed softened — it was visible.
“Saionji-san,” Riko addressed Reika. “I think your question is somewhat unfair.”
Reika’s eyebrow lifted slightly.
“Saying someone has ‘never known love’ is a prejudice,” Riko went on. “Love takes a different form for each person. Kurose-san may indeed be approaching love as a ‘system.’ But that, too, is one way of reaching out toward it.”
Riko turned toward Tenga.
“And Kurose-san.” Riko’s brown eyes held Tenga’s golden ones. “Your theory is certainly rational. But the human heart is not necessarily rational. Doesn’t acknowledging that much also count as a kind of ‘efficiency’?”
Tenga was looking at Riko. In that instant, every calculation in his head stopped.
“Who…” Tenga’s voice trembled, just slightly. “Who are you?”
Riko smiled.
“Just a girl who believes in love.”
At that moment, an emergency bulletin appeared on the large screen in the auditorium.
【BREAKING NEWS】 New Anomaly in Tōto Commerce Academy Love Market — Abnormal fluctuations in multiple major stocks via unidentified large-volume transactions — Market insiders “bewildered by unprecedented trading patterns”
And the figures displayed on screen were beyond belief.
Saionji Reika LVT Balance：8,956 → 12,847 (+43.4%) Kurose Tenga LVT Balance：-127 → 3,492 (+2,745.7%) Shironami Riko LVT Balance：2,156 → ERROR: #DIV/0!
The auditorium erupted.
A system error? Or—
Tenga was staring at Riko. For the first time, something human — genuine bewilderment — dwelt in his eyes.
“Your existence…” Tenga murmured. “Has no theoretical explanation.”
Riko smiled.
“That is the essence of love.”
＊ ＊ ＊