Hanzawa is determined to resist the government’s demand that the big banks write off 50 billion yen in Teikoku Airways debt. Hanzawa and his team instead craft a restructuring plan that prioritizes saving employee jobs. But the government is unsympathetic and tells him to scrap his plan and start over. Hanzawa bridles at the rebuff, but even Teikoku executives themselves are deadlocked over the restructuring plan. Meanwhile, Kurosaki, Hanzawa’s nemesis on the Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission, discovers a serious financial oversight on the bank’s part.

Hanzawa gets a look at the government task force’s draft restructuring plan. He is surprised to see that Teikoku Airway’s money-losing flight to Ise-Shima has been taken off the list of routes to be abolished. Then he realizes that Minobe, a powerful ruling-party politician who represents Ise-Shima, was responsible for building the local airport! Convinced that Minobe is the key to everything, Hanzawa tries to find a way to thwart the government’s plan, but in the process he uncovers the dark underbelly of Tokyo Chuo.