Kasuga Nana wants Kasuga Osamu to look into the Merenaen Trading Consortium. She doesn't have any leads yet, but suspects that something is awry.
A number of shipments have been coming in on ships that are registered to front companies of theirs. Imperial law prevents them from doing business outside of the licensed ports, so they officially transfer shipments to domestic merchants all the time. It's technically illegal, but nobody cares because it makes the Tortoise's job easier. The problem is that, ironically, nothing is wrong. The shipments always arrive on time. They're carrying exactly what the manifests state. When inspected by customs officials everything bears the proper tax stamps. When overtures have been made to "lose" a few crates or carry a little extra cargo, the crews have proven remarkably incorruptible. Nothing functions this smoothly.
After speaking to Aloisio Silva and arranging an official inspection Kasuga Osamu carefully went over the MTC warehouse, but was unable to find anything out of the ordinary.