Tokyo: Rabbit Police and Her Evil Partner

Chapter 377 I Killed Them

Attorney Kikuta discussed the matter with his client for over forty minutes, then signaled that the conversation was over and the police could continue the interrogation.

"I killed the person."

Fujiwara Homare leaned back in his chair, placed his hands on the table, and confessed directly.

"Eh?"

Yuan Yuzi wondered, what was going on? Had her intuition been wrong? Was this case really just a simple crime of passion?

She quickly pressed for details, demanding to know the specifics of the murder, but Fujiwara Homare remained silent, refusing to recount the details.

Attorney Kikuta stated that the suspect has already confessed and is showing sincerity. Furthermore, he had communicated with the prosecution beforehand, pleaded guilty and accepted punishment, so the case can be closed at any time, and the court can make a quick ruling after the case is transferred to the prosecution.

Yuan Yuzi sensed something was wrong. What kind of lawyer would be in such a hurry to send their client to prison?

At least try and struggle a little, right? You just plead guilty so easily? You're planning to close the case like that? What's the point of having a lawyer like you then!

Seeing that her eyebrows were raised again, Fushimi Shika quickly whispered in her ear, "This is a plea bargain. The lawyer and the prosecution agree in advance to exchange the suspect's guilty plea for a lighter sentence... If the details of the crime are not explained during the interrogation, the prosecution has more room to maneuver."

"Huh? That's so mean?"

Minamoto Tamako was amazed. She had seen classic movies about plea bargaining, but she never expected that prosecutors would exploit such legal loopholes in real life.

"What's wrong with that? The criminals were punished, the courts had less workload, the prosecutors got better performance, and the lawyers gained a good reputation... This isn't a win-win situation, it's a win-win-win-win!" Fushimi Shika felt it necessary to explain as a former professional.

"What about the victims? What will their families think?" Yuan Yuzi immediately spotted the problem: "How lenient is this 'light punishment' exactly?"

“That depends on his family background and conscience,” Fushimi Shika lowered his voice even further. “If it were me, I could probably help negotiate a charge of manslaughter, with a fine of up to 50 yen or other penalties—there's a charge, a fine, and compensation. If the criminal sincerely repents, bail is the same…”

"Not going to jail?!" Yuan Yuzi exclaimed, her eyes wide.

"Keep your voice down! It's just a hypothetical situation, you know what I mean?" Fushimi Shika was annoyed. They were just whispering to each other, why did he have to make such a fuss?
Yuan Yuzi thought to herself, "Even hypothetical scenarios won't work! A life for a life—how can this be treated so lightly? Besides the victim's family, who has the right to forgive the murderer?"

She slammed her hand on the table, demanding that Fujiwara Homare tell the truth and explain the entire incident clearly. Otherwise, she would not close the case easily and would investigate it thoroughly!

Fujiwara Homare remained silent, as if he were mute, as if everything that happened in the interrogation room had nothing to do with him.

Attorney Kikuta wiped his sweat again and said with an awkward smile, "Well, Mr. Fujiwara is in a bad mood, so how about I speak for him? In the end, Mr. Fujiwara can sign the statement after he has reviewed it."

Upon hearing this, Minamoto no Tamako thought it was acceptable, as it was better than Fujiwara no Homare remaining silent and waiting in vain, so she reluctantly agreed.

Attorney Kikuta cleared his throat, opened his notebook, and began his statement:

"Here's what happened: around 11 p.m. last night, Mr. Fujiwara took a sleeping pill, but due to his neurasthenia, he couldn't fall asleep and had to get up to clear his head..."

Minamoto Tamako was about to say she was lying, but Fushimi Shika stopped her in advance, saying that the matter of the sleeping pills on Neko Island was unimportant, and it was normal for Fujiwara Homare not to want to talk about it, and that she should not interrupt the lawyer's statement.

Attorney Kikuta gave Fushimi Shika a grateful look, then continued, "Because he couldn't fall asleep, Mr. Fujiwara called a friend to talk. At that time, his friends were drinking at a bar, and when they learned that Mr. Fujiwara couldn't sleep, they invited him to the bar..."

Yuan Yuzi thought to herself that it was another lie. She had checked the statements and found that it was Fujiwara Homare who invited his cronies to the bar that night. The person who initiated the drinking party last night was clearly Fujiwara Homare himself.

This time, she chose to remain silent, wanting to hear how Attorney Kikuta would explain what happened next.

"It is well known that taking sleeping pills and alcohol together can cause many adverse reactions, such as aggravating central nervous system depression, affecting judgment and coordination... In other words, Mr. Fujiwara was unaware of his own intoxication."

"What happened next is probably well known to the two officers. The deceased, Yoshikawa Rio, saw that Mr. Fujiwara was handsome and generous, so she took the initiative to seduce him, bringing him to a hotel to commit an indecent act..."

"Rio Yoshikawa threatened him with a knife, attempting to force herself on Mr. Fujiwara; Mr. Fujiwara, under the influence of drugs and alcohol, disarmed him and lost consciousness. When he awoke, he discovered that Rio Yoshikawa was already dead."

"The above is the entire process of the incident."

Attorney Kikuta placed his hands on the table like a schoolchild: "Both officers are professionals and should know that killing someone while they are unconscious constitutes manslaughter. Since Mr. Fujiwara has now pleaded guilty and accepted punishment, please do me a favor..."

Genji slammed her hand on the table again, stood up, and shouted angrily, "What a joke! It was clearly Mr. Fujiwara who got her drunk and took her away. How can you turn around and slander her innocence? What 'forced physical relations'... Hmph, how shameless!"

Fushimi Shika sat silently to one side, arms crossed. He turned his face away, giving an expression that said, "It's none of my business."

Attorney Kikuta looked up, still maintaining her awkward business smile: "Officer, you need to provide evidence! How can you prove that Yoshikawa Rio didn't attempt to force my client to have sexual relations?"

Genji retorted, "Then how can you prove that Fujiwara no Homare didn't try to force himself on the deceased?"

"It's very simple. The knife wasn't brought by Mr. Fujiwara."

Attorney Kikuta's logic was very clear: "I asked the hotel beforehand, and they assured me that there were no knives in the room before check-in; the two officers can also question all the eyewitnesses to see if Mr. Fujiwara carried or purchased any knives that night, and I think that's unlikely." "As you both know, Mr. Fujiwara just gave a complete account of what happened, and there is no suspicion of collusion among the other eyewitnesses, which is enough to prove that the murder weapon was brought to the hotel room by the deceased, Rio Yoshikawa."

"Furthermore, whether it is a premeditated crime or a crime of passion, after the crime is committed, the murderer either surrenders, flees the scene, or destroys the evidence—and the hotel staff can testify that Mr. Fujiwara was lying in bed sleeping the whole time, which is enough to show that Mr. Fujiwara was unaware of his own actions when he committed the crime, or that Mr. Fujiwara's mental state was abnormal."

"In conclusion, I think the inference of manslaughter is very reasonable."

After finishing his speech, Attorney Kikuta adjusted his glasses, leaned on the edge of the table, and looked up to ask, "Do the two officers have anything to add?"

Genji was speechless for a moment.

She turned to look at Fushimi Shika, hoping her partner would help her find a loophole, or at least lend a word of support. Unexpectedly, Fushimi Shika leaned back in his chair, nodded, and said, "No, I think that makes sense."

“This…this…but he lied!” Yuan Yuzi was not going to let this go so easily.

"Where did you lie?" Attorney Kikuta retorted.

Gen Tamako was prepared for a debate: "You lied from the start! There's a time lag between taking the sleeping pills and drinking the alcohol; how could the two possibly cause a chemical reaction..."

"Are you a pharmacology expert? Can you determine the specific reaction time between sleeping pills and alcohol? Do you know Mr. Fujiwara's specific metabolic cycle?" Attorney Kikuta pressed relentlessly.

"Uh... putting aside the sleeping pills, it wasn't someone else who invited him to drink that night, it was him who invited others to drink..."

"Is there a difference? Perhaps when the trial begins, Mr. Fujiwara's friends will recant their testimonies and admit that they invited Mr. Fujiwara to go drinking... In court, this matter will not be taken into consideration when sentencing. I am only saying this to save face when reporting to the outside world."

Genji was furious. She braced herself on the table and looked down at Attorney Kikuta: "That person was taken away by Mr. Fujiwara, so there's a difference, isn't there?"

"How do you define the word 'take away'? Did anyone witness Mr. Fujiwara's violence or coercion? Is there any testimony proving that Mr. Fujiwara forced Rio Yoshikawa to leave the bar? Is there any evidence proving that Mr. Fujiwara acted against Rio Yoshikawa's personal will? If not, you can only state the objective fact that 'they left the bar together,' which does not prove a causal relationship between this event and Rio Yoshikawa's death."

Attorney Kikuta remained unmoved. After finishing his questioning, he countered with a question to Minamoto Tamako: "Otherwise, according to your logic, can I also assume that Yoshikawa Rio followed Mr. Fujiwara into the hotel?"

……

Why does this guy talk in a way that's just as annoying as Fushimi-kun used to?
Gen Tama pouted. She was unhappy, but she would still reason with them. To be fair, what Attorney Kikuta said was right, and every sentence made sense, but when put together, it didn't make sense.

"Why are not you talking?"

She turned to look at Fushimi Shika and asked in a low voice, "Aren't you usually very talkative? Why are you so quiet now?"

"What did I say? What do you want me to say?" Fushimi Shika feigned ignorance.

“Look for loopholes! There’s definitely something wrong with this lawyer’s reasoning. We both know when Fujiwara Homare took his medication, and he walked back to the hotel by himself, which means he was sober at the time. How could he have killed someone without realizing it? Besides, wasn’t he going to the bar to pick up girls? How come he became chaste when he got back to the hotel?”

Genji spoke very quickly, rattling off a string of words, basically asking Fushimi Shika to help him find fault.

She had just laid out all the doubts, but for some reason, she just couldn't win the argument with Attorney Kikuta, and she might suffer a crushing defeat in court.

Taking advantage of the situation, Fushimi Shika pouted and said, "If you stamp my seal, I'll say a few words in return."

"This...this is your job!"

“My job? When did I become the chief investigator? Asking you to affix your seal is giving you face, proving that this case was handled under your command... Otherwise, if I just casually open my mouth and take away your credit, then who is responsible for handling this case?” Fushimi Shika said righteously.

After thinking about it carefully, Gen Tamako felt that it made sense, but it sounded just like Kikuta's tone, with a kind of annoying, convincing tone.

But she wasn't Fushimi-kun. She was always broad-minded and wouldn't be stingy. She simply pulled out her notebook, took out the "Justice Execution" stamp, breathed on it, and stamped it with a red seal.

"Is that enough?" Yuan Yuzi said irritably.

"Ok, Ok."

Fushimi Shika nodded with a smile, then looked at Attorney Kikuta. The latter was momentarily stunned, feeling a strange sense of looking in a mirror.

"Ahem, well, let me say something fair..."

Fushimi Shikamaru tapped the table seriously: "Although the murder weapon wasn't brought by Mr. Fujiwara, you can't assume it was brought by the deceased, can you?"

"Who else could it be?" Attorney Kikuta found it a bit baffling.

“This is what you need to prove, and it’s also what we need to investigate,” Fushimi Shika said with an air of righteous indignation, but his words were anything but sensible: “Attorney Kikuta, the court requires evidence!”

(End of this chapter)