Sometime after the day that had been so noisy with Ruby’s worries.
My sibling and I迎ed the final summer vacation of our middle school life.
Once the break ended and second semester began, we would have to start the full-fledged journey toward high school entrance exams.
For me, it was all a boring and tedious process I had already gone through once in my past life, but for Ruby, everything was happening for the first time, so she couldn’t help being clumsy.
And yet, even while carrying worries of her own about her dreams, wasn’t it inevitable that her first high school entrance process would still feel exciting and make her heart flutter?
"Heheh...."
"Nee-san! Why do you keep smiling~? Did you secretly fart~?"
"I didn’t fart! Mm, hehehe... It’s a secret from Ame-!"
"...Eeeh~?"
"Big sis, laaaugh! Laugh! Kya-ha-ha!"
Even while playing with Ame and Amber, she kept smiling with the corners of her mouth lifting on their own, as if she could hardly restrain herself.
She planned to teach my cute and lovable little sister while also discussing high school entrance exams with our parents.
My guess was that Ruby’s worries would probably be resolved soon enough.
Like me, she had been a child with a clear dream even in her past life.
< Filming for [The Bird That Flies Through the Sky] resumes... Production says "No change to broadcast schedule, will air as planned." >
< Director Gotanda Taishi deep in thought... considering additional security personnel for the set >
< [Today’s Today Pick!] "Security guards standing outside the filming line, hawk eyes guarding safety" >
After the set attack incident, my mother and father had resumed filming the latter half that had been put on hold.
Fortunately, since they were both masters of shooting in one take, Director Gotanda and the other cast members didn’t seem to feel much pressure either.
There wasn’t much filming left for the latter half anyway, and since the latter half of the script was practically just a bloodless, tearless revenge drama for the father, Mother seemed much more relaxed as she resumed the remaining shoot.
"Heheh...★ During the extra shoot, the director and Dad will be together... kyaaa~ I think you kids still shouldn’t know that yet! Kyaa! Kyaa~!"
"Huh?"
"Mm."
"Hoho~"
What exactly was she so eager to brag about to our still-underage twins and to Miyako, who was holding Hina?
My eternal favorite, my precious mother, covered her flushed face with both hands and stamped her feet in excitement.
Judging from Mother’s unfiltered, honest reaction, it didn’t seem like she and Father would be doing anything that would run afoul of the ratings board—nothing so blatant as that—but it did sound like they’d discussed shooting at least a little of the "tip of the iceberg."
Well, that level of mild content was perfectly acceptable to Ruby and me, given our abundant experience as [actors]...
"Waaah- Mama! I’m curious~! You made me so curious about what you’re filming with Papa~!"
Before that, though, the premise itself was already impossible.
Yes.
In my past life and in this one.
This child remained, as always, pure as a snowfield without a single speck of dust...
"Kyaaa-★ Maybe it’s still too early for Ruby~! Hm? Right. Since you’re in third year of middle school... maybe now would be a good time to start some mother-daughter [girls’ talk]..."
"N-no, that won’t do!"
I committed the unforgivable sin of leaping up from my chair and shouting to stop Mother’s grand plan!
Please don’t casually plant the worry that it might still be too early for Ruby, Mother?!
But then.
After barely managing to rein in my mother, who was as impossible to predict as a ping-pong ball thrown by a child, Ruby’s red eyes sparkled with innocence and curiosity as she asked:
"Eh? Why not? Do you know what it is, big brother?"
"...Ugh?! Th-that is—Ruby, you’re still too young for that... I-I’ll tell you later..."
"Eeeh?! Big brother, why is your face suddenly—"
"Oh?"
As soon as I allowed that unexpectedly fatal question, cold sweat poured down my heated ears and cheeks without delay.
The two of them stared at my face, which was now stained with embarrassment and fluster.
Ruby, thankfully, didn’t notice, but Miyako smiled with crescent-moon eyes and cast me a glance—
"Hehe."
—while covering her mouth with a strange little laugh.
"Eh? Your face is super red, Aqua? Are you hot?"
Instead, under Mother’s pure gaze as she tilted her head and asked that,
"I-I suddenly stood up, so... y-yes... it’s hot... very..."
I could no longer hold out.
I ended up collapsing back into my chair.
-
< North Korea test-fires a ballistic missile early this morning... Chief Cabinet Secretary says, "Strongly protest Pyongyang for undermining regional peace and security" >
< Ceremony marking the founding of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan held in Chiyoda Ward today... Metropolitan Police Department says "No concern for citizen safety" >
< U.N. Security Council urgently convened over North Korean ballistic missile launch, with China and Russia’s lukewarm stance threatening to derail proceedings >
< White House resumes talks on raising defense costs for U.S. forces in Japan? Controversy reignites ahead of high-level Japan-U.S. military talks >
< Younger faction within the ruling party questions Prime Minister Kitagawa’s pro-Korea stance... gap between public opinion and politics remains >
"......"
The world is still noisy, still a battlefield smeared with every kind of conflict.
They don’t even bother to think of a way to resolve the conflict, and always just fight because of political reasons, insisting they’re right, so as a citizen listening to the news, it’s nothing but a headache.
I always voted, but I constantly felt how difficult it was for the people’s will to be properly reflected, even after a century had passed.
That was ultimately why I had lived in my past life with so little interest in the news.
If it wasn’t news about [Mother], then it was always just these headache-inducing stories, and my desire to watch TV vanished completely.
After duty, headaches from fatigue were common, so during those brief moments of rest I wanted to enjoy some peace of mind.
If it hadn’t been for my parents, I would have grown up with almost no interest in anything—not even news, let alone which channel started baseball and when.
Honestly, a local introduction program aired by a regional station in Gunma Prefecture would be more useful.
"Ah."
Since I was thinking about it, maybe I should watch a compilation of legendary [B Komachi] stage videos on YouTube.
"Big brother! What are you doing~?!"
"......"
To Ruby, who invaded at just the right moment and opened the door, I silently turned my smartphone around to show her what I had been reverently watching.
And then.
"P-put the volume up a little more."
"Okay."
Before long, Ruby and I were watching YouTube on the laptop in a reverent posture on the bed.
This was...
The posture of a fan toward their unwavering [favorite]!
-
< U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Thomas says, "Inflation figures are optimistic... a year-end rate hike is unlikely..." Nasdaq surges on the good news >
< Bitcoin hits an intraday all-time high of 90 million dollars for the first time... eyeing the dream of 100 million dollars? >
< Becoming Japan’s "Black Vanguard"? "RIKA Asset Management JP" overtakes Softcore JP Bank to become the nation’s largest asset manager... >
< [Weekly Tokyo Morning Column] The ruler of the RIKA Holdings Group, "Jason Rossos"—who exactly is he? >
< [JP Economy Editorial] "Jason Rossos’s RIKA Capital Partners, the invisible hand behind corporate empires like STMC, MBidia, NetPlus, Google, and Kesla" >
< [Financial Tokyo INFO] The blue-eyed devil swallowing Japan’s business world? The owner of golden eyes who predicts the future of the global economy? 30 INFO points on the prodigal son who turned his back on his family, "Jason Rossos" >
< Suspicious moves by RIKA Holdings? Rumors of a PMC security company acquisition send related stocks soaring >
< Increasing its grip on the entertainment industry? RIKA Capital Partners buys up a huge stake in KONY Music Label >
The owner of [golden eyes] who predicts the future of the global economy... huh.
It’s an enviable ability, if nothing else.
"......"
That was my first impression after selecting "Jason Rossos" as the topic for my middle school final summer vacation assignment, the "character essay," and then looking up materials on him.
In my past life, I had no particular interest in wealth management like stocks or real estate investing.
To be honest, the income I earned as a doctor was already quite high compared to other professions.
Aside from the money I spent on my hobby of stanning my [favorite], I wasn’t especially fond of other forms of leisure spending.
And even basic common-sense wealth management like savings accounts and time deposits was enough for me to grow my assets without much trouble, so I told myself I simply didn’t care...
But to be honest, I’ll say it now.
It was true that, beyond savings and deposits, wealth management tools like stocks and real estate still felt difficult and complicated, and because of the huge risk of "future uncertainty," I didn’t want to try them lightly.
I did know people who had successfully grown their money through stocks, real estate, or venture investments and bragged about it.
There were even acquaintances at drinking parties who would introduce me to investments, saying they’d make me rich, and who would subtly puff themselves up while doing so.
Even so, I only said I’d think about it and never actually tried.
It would be a lie to say I had no regrets.
But more than regret over the money itself... it was more like... "If I knew I’d be living a second life like this, I should’ve at least tried something big once."
Calling that "greed for money" might be a little strange....
Anyway... in this life, my parents had given me a stock account with 100,000 yen in capital as part of my financial education and told me to try investing in stocks.
Even so, it was still not easy to judge a company’s value and predict future uncertainty in order to invest.
So I simply chose the safe route, buying stocks in big corporations that anyone would recognize by name and following the charts and indices.
If you were handling astronomical sums worth tens or hundreds of billions of dollars a day... and trying to manipulate not the "surface" of the vast ocean called the "global economy," but its even deeper "deep currents," wouldn’t every day be hell from stress?
What if there were someone for whom that stress acted like a kind of pleasure center, making every day happy?
That person would probably be [Jason Rossos].
All over the world... like the famous American legendary investor Warren Buffett, who is widely known to the public for the story of how he made 35 billion dollars in one shot with uncanny insight and judgment.
There are many people who have left their names in investment history by standing atop the myth of the industry, backed by genius talent, skill, and luck.
But there probably isn’t anyone like [Jason Rossos], who seemed to dance happily on the tightrope called "risk," as if he could see the future itself and carried out investment activities with delight.
Even before creating the RIKA Group, he had started secretly mining Bitcoin himself, and as if mocking the four halving cycles, he held the world’s largest amount of Bitcoin by far, both individually and corporately...
During the U.S. financial crisis, Jason Rossos also made an astronomical amount of money through various methods such as put options, short selling, and CDS (credit default swap) purchases, as if he had foreseen the situation first.
He had boldly seized a future that countless economists, U.S. economic officials, and even Wall Street’s sharpest analysts failed to see.
Of course, there were certainly geniuses who had foreseen such financial crises in advance and, like Jason Rossos, turned crisis into opportunity and made hundreds of billions of dollars.
But the important thing was what came after that.
The U.S. financial crisis, the Arab Spring, the Greek crisis, the huge collapse of the Chinese stock market, Britain’s Brexit, the rise of nationalism and protectionism, the new Cold War between the U.S. and China, Bitcoin’s quantum leap....
Future energy security and the semiconductor war, and the rise of big tech IT companies and AI technology.
Even the media-content competition among major OTT companies.
Jason Rossos had pushed ahead with aggressive, all-directional investment in all of these areas, as if he truly could see the future, mocking uncertainty and turning it into opportunity—and despite the world’s worries, he succeeded at all of it.
And so, today.
RIKA Asset Management reigns as the world’s number one mega asset manager, managing an astonishing 19 trillion dollars in assets.
"......What is the deal with this American?"
As the semiconductor war between the U.S. and China intensified, the importance of major semiconductor companies also rose dramatically—
and as if he had foreseen that future too, Jason Rossos’s name appeared once again in the economic papers.
Along with famous semiconductor companies around the world such as Inqual in the U.S. and STMC in Taiwan, the names of [RIKA Capital Partners] or specific special purpose companies (SPCs) under the RIKA Group were listed among the major shareholders of domestic and overseas materials, parts, and equipment companies.
And even in the Netherlands, in the only company in the world that produces the lithography equipment essential to semiconductor processes—SALM, a company I, as an ordinary person, had never even heard of—
there was news that [RIKA Capital Partners], founded right after the U.S. financial crisis, had invested 1 billion dollars and secured a stake that made it a major shareholder capable of "substantive management interference," which was honestly frightening.
The names of [RIKA Asset Management] or [RIKA Capital Partners] were openly listed among the major shareholders of major domestic corporate holding companies as well.
Just a few years ago, there had been reports that they had acquired all the shares of a powerful regional bank in Osaka.
And there were also articles saying that the holding company of the large daily newspaper [Kyomiyuri Shimbun], which had a strongly pro-business stance, had effectively been taken over by RIKA Holdings even after excluding the shares of friendly major shareholders.
Some people ask: then what on earth were the regulators doing?
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, there had been a war of hostile M&A by aggressive activist hedge funds against domestic companies.
As a result, companies fought everywhere to defend management control, and the government rushed to prepare countermeasures such as introducing dual-class voting rights for regulation.
But thanks to the meticulous design of the RIKA Group, which seemed to move as if it knew the future, both the management teams in the middle of acquisition negotiations and the government were unable to mount any real response and were left helpless.
If you search economic papers for the afterstories of their acquisitions... his intimidating, mythic career, the enormous self-capital strength of [RIKA Capital Partners] that even rendered a "poison pill" powerless, and the relentless offensive of world-famous M&A consulting groups and giant law firms specializing in economic law—
not to mention the fact that, both when exercising voting rights as a major shareholder and even after mergers and acquisitions, unlike other corporate raiders, they took a moderate approach that stabilized management and prioritized stock price increases. It seems many shareholders were swayed by this so-called carrot-and-stick tactic.
"......"
What was interesting was...
At the educational scholarship foundation that [RIKA Holdings], the parent company of the RIKA Group, had established and invested in Washington, D.C., and at the think tank located in Washington’s political circles—
there were allegations that the children of some major shareholders and influential multi-term politicians and bureaucrats who held large stakes in target companies had incidentally been selected as "special exchange-study scholarship students" linked to universities in the Ivy League.
The executives who raised the allegations and the shareholders with friendly stakes filed complaints with the police and injunction requests with the court, but neither the management nor the investigative authorities could produce evidence or investigative results to substantiate the claims, and the court also dismissed the injunction request, so the merger and acquisition apparently proceeded as planned at the general meeting.
Moreover, while searching for articles to use in the essay...
< Jason Rossos: "Investment for conflict? Investment for harmony is my motto." >
< "The end of activist investing is the destiny of our era. We must find the answer in symbiotic investment that respects corporate management rights..." >
< "My goal is for management and shareholders to grow the company’s value and create value together" RIKA Investment’s Jason Rossos on his investment philosophy >
He even smiled a generous, beaming smile in the photos and praised the idea of harmony in interviews with the press, while also engaging in media play by saying he respected the "entrepreneurial and artisan spirit" of domestic corporate executives and the rights of shareholders.
Who would truly take that American’s benevolence at face value? But when someone of that caliber did media play to this extent, it seemed shareholders had no choice but to hand over their liver and gallbladder alike.
"Record-high sales... can they reclaim the stolen throne of memory semiconductors...?"
Before I knew it, various article headlines caught my eye.
Jason Rossos’s signature boldness played a decisive role in acquiring the semiconductor division of the electronics company Koshiba, which had been reeling from financial trouble after the nuclear power plant accident that occurred during the 2011 major earthquake.
The reason Kiox, which had once ranked third in NAND flash memory semiconductor market share, was able to rise again was also thanks to Jason Rossos’s astronomical investment—and as a result, reports kept coming out that, after a successful merger with the American semiconductor giant Eastern Digital Memory, in which RIKA Capital Partners was a major shareholder, a memory semiconductor empire spanning Japan and the United States had been completed.
Even then, he had personally handled interviews with that same generous smile.
"..."
His father, the legendary hedge fund figure 『Jeff Rossos』, said to be the ruler of the [Rossos family], was already a once-in-a-generation genius widely known as the protagonist of the so-called "shorting the British pound hedge" alongside his partner, Stipe Miller, and others.
And now the youngest son of the Rossos family was surpassing even his brothers and father, building a myth of his own and carving his name into history.
So... was golden eyes also a talent you had to inherit?
But more than golden eyes... the most important thing was probably that genius financial-engineering brain capable of designing a roadmap so thorough not a single drop could leak through.
Jason Rossos. Looking at the wiki and internet articles listing all of his movements, it really did feel like the path of someone who had pierced through every future and walked it already....
It even made me feel a kind of fear, as if I were looking at a "time traveler" who had returned from the past.
Maybe this person was also living a second life like us?
Hmm....
But still...
< Toshiro Battery, stock price soars on patent filing related to electrolyte batteries! >
"Hee! Kaoru! I told you, didn’t I? I said something amazing like a new technology would get developed here and then boom, it’d shoot up—★ Yay~!"
"Kyaaa~ Mama-♥"
"Mom! Amazing! Our mom is the best!"
"No way... how..."
Watching Mother’s astonishing way of investing in stocks, Jason Rossos’s absurd achievements... somehow didn’t seem impossible after all.
Unlike her son, Mother was the type to take risks and make aggressive investments, trusting her own intuition and insight—what you might call an "intuition investor."
That meant she lost money often too, but buying cheap stocks in promising venture companies or solid listed small and mid-cap firms and then catching huge favorable developments... it sounds easy to say, but in reality the odds of success are absurdly low....
How on earth does she do that...?
Jason Rossos is amazing, but I think Mother is even more amazing!
As expected... my [favorite]!
"Mom’s intuition... I really can’t keep up with it, can I?"
"...Same here."
"Hah-hah...."
Watching Mother dance on tiptoe hand in hand with Ruby and Ame, I remembered how Father and I had no choice but to let out awkward, hollow laughter and admiration.
As I stared blankly at the monitor, another interesting memory flashed through my mind, and I muttered to myself.
"Come to think of it...."
I had once heard a rather subtle story from Miyako.
About fifteen years ago. For Mother, who was pregnant with Ruby and me, and to persuade President Ichigo, who was the legal guardian at the time.
Father had come to the house alone, dropped to his knees, and shown President Ichigo the portfolio of every stock he had invested in.
At the time, President Ichigo and Miyako had carefully examined the portfolio of domestic and overseas stocks Father had invested in afterward, and they had been puzzled to see that he had bought an enormous amount of shares, from familiar major corporations to foreign companies they had never even heard of.
And then Miyako’s memory, which had gradually faded with time, became clear again when the names of the foreign companies she had seen in that portfolio began appearing in the news and newspapers.
【Back then... when your dad told us to buy those, I should’ve sold everything I had and bought them....】
She regretted stopping President Ichigo from investing in stocks, and I had a hard time comforting Miyako as she gulped down beer with a face that looked like a sad cat about to cry.
Anyway...
"Then maybe Father is... also the owner of golden eyes?"
Like Jason Rossos, did my father also possess golden eyes that could see through the future?
If so, that would explain why the stocks he bought seemed to overlap like a patchwork.
With a snort, I scratched my head lightly.
"That’s enough material. Let’s get started...."
......
Ah... a second-life summer vacation assignment.
I really don’t want to do it.
-
< Rising star Katayose Yura to join Kamiki Kaoru under the same roof? Transfer rumors to "Stani-On" agency >
< [Exclusive] Katayose Yura in talks for an exclusive contract with "Stani-On"... the rapidly expanding "Stani-On" >
This was good news.
News that a new fellow [actor] had joined Father’s agency set the media ablaze overnight.
『Katayose Yura』.
She was also an actress who left a personal impression on me. The reason was simple.
First of all.
"Uwaaa-★ She’s shining, shining...!"
When Mother watched a drama with us, she saw Katayose Yura’s acting and said that she was "shining," meaning she had excellent acting skill as an actress...
Correction.
To be honest, I didn’t even know who she was before that, but I learned about her because she was an actress Mother paid attention to and followed.
At a glance, she was the textbook example of a popular actress: of course talented, but also highly well-liked by the public.
It was rare for Mother to take this much interest in a single actress, so that alone made her memorable.
And second.
It was somewhat related to the first reason above, too....
< 《Let’s Pray to the May Sky!》 Lead actress 『Katayose Yura』’s candid interview! >
〔Q. Is it true that the reason you dreamed of becoming an actress was because of Kamiki Kaoru’s brilliant performance in 「My Sea」?〕
When the MC asked that question to her, as she appeared on an entertainment show for drama promotion....
Mother noticed that Katayose Yura didn’t answer right away, but instead blushed.
Back in the day, Mother had even gotten jealous over the cameo shoot with Yoshikawa Yuriko, and seeing that scene, she remained silent, which felt like a very ominous sign to me.
And my intuition, having accepted that sign, was exactly right.
〔Yes.... Pff—my frie, friend and I were having a pajama party at home then, and my friend brought a DVD...〕
〔Eh—wait, you were a minor then, right?〕
〔Wait. Wait. Wait. Hey! There are tacit "methods" for all of this, you amateur! Don’t be rude to the actress, you brat!〕
〔Ah, sorry.〕
At the MC duo’s tsukkomi, Katayose Yura, her face completely red, waved her hands while covering her smile.
Anyway, to summarize briefly...
〔In 「My Sea」... there’s a scene where Kamiki-san... like this, holds a cigarette in his right hand, smokes it, then puts it in his mouth and fixes his hair with both bloodied hands. He looks in the mirror.
But at that moment, his eyes—really, they felt empty like a real person... so empty that I could clearly feel there was nothing inside him—〕
〔That emotion struck you like lightning.〕
〔I know, I know. That’s Kamiki-san’s emotional acting that pulls the viewer in like that.〕
The person who had led Katayose Yura onto the path of acting was none other than Father.
And, naturally, just as countless male celebrities had always picked Mother as their undisputed number one ideal type for over ten years...
Katayose Yura also picked Father as the undisputed number one ideal type among countless female celebrities.
Mother cut Katayose Yura’s existing favorability score by about fifty points, but fortunately... she seemed to remember her well in a good light because she sincerely praised Father’s acting and thanked him for being the trigger that made her dream of becoming an actress.
Of course.
"Mm~! So you’ve become family with Katayose-san? She’s pretty and cute, and she really likes Kaoru, so I remembered her too! Kaoru, congratulations~★"
"Huh? Haha... well, is that really something I should be congratulated for? If anything, it’s Rintaro-nii who should be congratulated."
Even with Mother’s starlit smile as she placed rolled omelet on white rice,
Father only tilted his head, took a bite of the rolled omelet Mother had given him, and didn’t say anything else.
At Father’s indifferent reaction, Mother’s starlit eyes briefly flashed with a strange light, and after that she never brought up Katayose Yura again.
"Mm. This salmon steak is really delicious. It’s cooked so well, it tastes amazing."
"Fufufu~ Thank you, Kaoru~♥"
I know it, of course.
That even that was one of Father’s desperate evasion maneuvers, honed over sixteen years.
Ruby and I met eyes again—
and sincerely cheered for Father’s life-risking evasive maneuver to end safely.
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