Tokyo: Rabbit Police and Her Evil Partner

Chapter 16 Bitter Miso Soup
——This guy is really a psychopath.

Amid the contemptuous gazes of the crowd, Nagano Kawai smiled brilliantly, but anyone could see that her smile was fake.

Gen Tamako knew that Kawai's two sentences were directed at her.

Once she turned herself in, her private investigation of Instructor Sakurai would be exposed, and the final result was predictable:

——Three members of the reasoning team were expelled, and Kazuo Ishizuka, who sent the anonymous letter, would also lose his job.

Most importantly, the hit-and-run case sixteen years ago will continue to remain unsolved until the victim is completely forgotten by the world.

No matter what, Gen Yuzi could not accept such an ending.

Her nose felt sore and the tears in her eyes blurred her vision.

On the stage, Instructor Sakurai stripped off Nagano Kawai's uniform in public, saying that she was not fit to be a police officer.

She was wearing a sports bra and sitting on a chair. Even though her body was shivering from the cold, her back remained straight.

Yuan Yuzi gritted her teeth, forced herself to lower her head, and swallowed the words that were about to come out of her throat.

This "interrogation" lasted for two hours until the instructor came to dissuade it and it ended abruptly.

Fushimi Deer was watching from beginning to end.

There were several times when Fushimi Shika felt that Nagano Kawai would betray him. In this way, she could suffer less and protect Minamoto Tamako, which could be said to be the best of both worlds.

But Nagano Kawai said nothing.

When Fushimi Shika was a lawyer, he had seen many tough people, but those people either had their own reasons or were just gritting their teeth to protect their wealth and status.

"Why don't you give me up? Is it to protect Yuan Yuzi? Why bother? This matter was caused by Yuan Yuzi. Doesn't she have any resentment in her heart?"

"Is it because of Ishizuka Kazuo? They haven't even met each other, why don't you turn Ishizuka Kazuo over?"

"Then what is she doing this for? Is it for the so-called "justice"? This is too childish..."

The demon in Fushimi's ear kept chattering, saying that Nagano Kawai was really an idiot. Who would be stupid enough to steal things from the instructor's dormitory? Moreover, it was for a stranger. Was it meaningful to suffer so much? Instructor Sakurai was still her instructor?

The instructor dismissed the group, and the crowd dispersed in twos and threes.

Fushimi Shika saw Gen Tamako. She was standing in the front row, motionless, and had been glanced at several times by the students passing by.

He walked forward quickly, grabbed the corner of Yuan Yuzi's clothes, and whispered, "Let's go."

"Ah."

Yuan Yuzi has a strong nasal voice.

The two of them returned to their dormitories. Fushimi Shika lay on the bed, still tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep.

Of course he wouldn't feel sad for Kawai. After all, he wasn't familiar with Kawai at all. He just vaguely felt that he seemed to have forgotten something.

What exactly did you forget?
Fushimi Lu sat up again. The sky outside the window was hazy blue. He planned to take a walk in the playground.

……

The next morning, the assembly bell rang at 6:30.

The cadets were inspected in the playground as usual. The wooden platform, tables and chairs were all moved away, and Nagano Kawai was nowhere to be seen, as if nothing had happened last night.

This morning's classes include disaster scene drills, water rescue practices, and a criminal law theory class commonly used by patrol police.

During the break, the school broadcast a notice that Nagano Kawai was expelled as expected. The students crowded around the windows of the teaching building and watched her being escorted out of the school by two teachers.

"Well, I guess it will be my turn next." Fushimi Shika felt a sense of grief. Instructor Sakurai would give him 'special guidance' tonight... He would probably be punished too.

In the next five months, Instructor Sakurai will definitely find ways to turn him into a dog.

Fushimi Shika turned his head and looked at Gen Tamaki. The latter no longer pestered him with chatter, but stared out the window in a daze, remaining silent.

His ears felt quiet, or rather too quiet, and he felt a little uncomfortable.

During lunch break, Fushimi Shika was carrying a tray and preparing to go back to the dormitory to eat when he ran into Gen Tamako.

Her only good friend left, and she looked around in confusion, not knowing where to sit and eat.

Fushimi Shika sighed, patted her shoulder, and took the initiative to invite her: "Let's eat together."

"Eh? Um..."

The two found a secluded corner and sat down facing each other.

Yuan Yuzi poked the broccoli with a heavy heart. She was racking her brains to think about how to expose the true face of Instructor Sakurai - a pervert who performed water magic in the office, a murderer who fled the scene of an accident sixteen years ago, and a woman who abused her power for personal gain to teach students, why should she be an instructor in the police academy?
Seeing that she was still not picking up her chopsticks, Fushimi Shika reminded her, "Don't think about it, eat first."

"I'm in no mood to eat," Yuan Yuzi pouted, her eyebrows drooping, looking bitter, and muttered in a low voice: "It was the same last time, I couldn't do anything..."

"Last time?" asked Fushimi Shika.

"It's about her brother getting in a car accident."

Yuan Yuzi stabbed the broccoli bully through with chopsticks, and her thoughts unconsciously drifted back to more than ten years ago.

At that time, she and Kawai were not familiar with each other. They studied in the same elementary school but in different classes.

When Kawai was a child, he played very happily, just like a dark version of Crayon Shin-chan, which gave teachers and parents a headache;

Yuan Yuzi is the opposite. She is very introverted and can't get out of her temper even if you hit her with three sticks. When her deskmate secretly put a frog in her schoolbag, she was so scared that she cried but didn't dare to tell the teacher.

Once, a few boys surrounded her and put gum in her hair. Kawai saw it and had a fight with those boys. She didn't do it to avenge Minako, but because those boys stole her gum.

The next day, Gen Tamako wanted to thank Kawai, but found that Kawai seemed like a different person.

"I remember it very clearly. It was the Obon Festival, and monks were chanting sutras to pray for the souls of the dead. People gathered near the temple, wearing yukata and dancing hand in hand to the rhythm of taiko drums. Kawai sat alone on the threshold of the temple, silently looking at the golden statue of Buddha in the main hall."

"And I can't do anything. I don't even have the courage to step forward and say a few words to comfort her. She must be able to empathize with Mr. Ishizuka, right? They have all lost their most important relatives and silently endured the murderer going unpunished..."

As she spoke, Yuan Yuzi's tears began to fall.

The miso soup in the porcelain bowl rippled and tasted bitter.

……

"Why are you crying?" Fushimi Shika sighed and said, "Kawai is not dead, why are you making it so sad?"

"How can you be so cold-blooded..."

"Besides, she left us some clues."

Fushimi Shika grinned and took a bite of tempura, his teeth grinding against the dough, making a crisp sound like chewing bones. Yuan Yuzi stared at him in a daze. This guy's temperament has changed, and there seems to be something hidden in his eyes, ready to move.

"She gave me a page from her diary."

Fushimi Shika spoke vaguely, like a wolf gnashing its teeth and sucking blood.

(End of this chapter)