Tokyo: Rabbit Police and Her Evil Partner

Chapter 409: Hiring All of Japan's Top Detectives to Solve the Heavenly Punishment Case!

Gentamako eagerly awaited hearing some secrets to enduring hardship, such as "prick yourself with a needle every time you feel like smoking," "slap yourself for every cigarette you buy," "slap yourself when you have a craving"... using aversion therapy to completely break free from the temptation of nicotine.

However, she never expected that Kazama Takusai would offer such a mystical method for quitting smoking.

"Hypnosis is all a scam, isn't it?" Gen Tamako didn't believe it, thinking there must be something fake about it.

"At least I quit." Kazama Takusai shrugged. It was a fact that he had quit smoking, and the effect was undeniable, so there was no need to lie.

"Didn't take your medicine?" Mori Muya was a little tempted.

“No.” Kazama Takusai sat down in the chair opposite the coffee table and shrugged. “Just insert the cassette tape into the tape recorder every night before bed and let it play automatically.”

"Really? Is it that amazing?" Mori Muya picked up the cassette tape from the ground. She was thinking of taking it home to try it out. After all, it was free and had no side effects.

“Really,” Kazama Takusai continued, “the effect is excellent.”

"Is one cassette tape all you need?" Moriki Yalan had already claimed it as her own.

"These are tapes for quitting smoking, and there are others. The whole set has 24 tapes... You won't need the others." Kazama Takusai didn't say what the other tapes were for.

"Eh...can I take it home and try it out?" Moriki Yalan asked.

“Okay, remember to return it to me when you’re done,” Kazama Takusai instructed. “Oh right, you can’t listen to the whole tape while you’re sober, or it will become invalid.”

"What's the principle behind this?" Yuan Yuzi asked curiously.

"I don't know." Kazama Takusai didn't care how the tape worked.

"It's possible that the audio is used to subconsciously exert psychological suggestion. Once the instructions are received in a conscious state, the effect of the psychological suggestion is not as strong." After saying that, Fushimi Shika took another puff of his cigarette.

His psychological counseling skills are at level 7, and he knows a little about it.

Minamoto Tamako regretted her decision; she should have agreed to let Fushimi try it out. Now that the tape had been picked up by Yaran-nee, who was the first to express her desire to try it, Kazama-senpai readily agreed. Tamako couldn't very well steal it from her, so she could only watch helplessly as the magical tape was taken away by Yaran-nee.

"Let's not talk about my smoking," Fushimi Shika tried to change the subject. "Didn't I call you here to discuss what to do with that money? Have you come to any conclusions yet?"

This has stumped Genji.

She wanted to donate the money to the orphanage, but Moriki Aya had dealt with the orphanage and claimed that Sakura was lucky to meet Fushimi Shika, while the other unlucky children had a miserable life... Even if the orphanage had income, the children wouldn't get a penny; most of it was divided up by the management.

So she suggested donating the money to an infrastructure company. Watanabe Shun was amused again, saying that instead of donating the money to yakuza groups, he should give it to him to help prostitutes... Ninety percent of construction companies in Japan have ties to yakuza groups.

Minamoto Tamako proposed hospitals, transportation, and schools, but all her suggestions were rejected. Everyone present was a civil servant, yet they were also among the least trusting of Japan's welfare system.

"So what should we do with this money?"

Yuan Yuzi was at her wit's end. Nothing worked. What should she do?
Watanabe Shun had a sudden inspiration and slapped his thigh, saying, "Why don't we use this money as a reward!"

"What's the bounty?" Yuan Yuzi was taken aback.

"Aren't you still investigating the origin of that cassette tape? And the Heavenly Punishment case and such? You could use this money to offer a reward..."

Before Watanabe Shun could finish speaking, Fushimi Shika pinched his mouth shut and turned to Minamoto Tamako, saying, "Don't listen to him, it's a terrible idea..."

"Yeah, right!" Gen Tamako, popsicle in her mouth, slapped her forehead, completely ignoring Fushimi Shika: "Why didn't I think of this great idea!"

Fushimi Shika was about to dissuade her, but Minamoto Tamako had already started to let her thoughts wander, saying to herself, "I can offer a reward for clues, and I can also hire a famous detective... no, I mean hire all the famous detectives, and invite detectives from all over Japan to solve the mystery of the divine punishment!!"

As Minamoto no Tamako spoke, she became increasingly excited, even accidentally biting off a piece of her popsicle. Fushimi Shika reacted quickly, catching it for her. Unconcerned, she climbed onto the sofa, stood on the cushions, and shouted, "And I, as the initiator of this mystery-solving challenge, will give away a multi-million dollar prize and successfully join the ranks of famous detectives!! Wahahahahahaha!!"

"Calm down..."

Fushimi Shika tugged at her, but there was no reaction, so he blew a puff of secondhand smoke at her.

Genji's senses were heightened, and she coughed repeatedly, waving her hands to clear the smoke, finally snapping out of her daydream. She couldn't take it anymore and demanded that Fushimi Shika put out his cigarette, or she would cancel the stamp collection. During this time, Shika's stamp collection had been stagnant due to his smoking; the original plan was to collect enough stamps in a week, but two months had passed, and he still only had twelve.

Fushimi Shika took a deep drag, finished the last bit of his cigarette, and then stubbed it out: "Don't let my appearance fool you, I'm actually not addicted to cigarettes..."

Moriki Arashi couldn't stand it anymore and felt that Fushimi Shika needed the cassette tape more than she did: "Then why don't you use it first..."

“No, no, no,” Fushimi Shika waved his hand, “You go first.”

Moriki Aya put down the tape immediately, saying that she has no children at home and will not let others inhale secondhand smoke, and that it would be fine to quit smoking after a while.

Fushimi Shika continued to argue, starting to discredit Kazama Takusai, claiming that he must have exaggerated the effects of the tape, and that the tape might not work for everyone... to put it another way, hypnosis itself is unreliable and is a pseudoscience.

"Why don't you try it and you'll see?" Kazama Takusai said.

Fushimi Shika isn't incapable of quitting; he has an extremely strong will, so quitting smoking shouldn't be difficult for him. He simply doesn't want to quit.

Life is short, and he only has this one little quirk, yet it's being forcibly taken away from him, so it's inevitable that he'll feel resentful.

"Why are we talking about quitting smoking again? What are you all doing here? Did you come all this way to hold a denunciation meeting at my house?" Fushimi Shika tried to change the subject again: "Also, Tamako, didn't you say you felt guilty about spending this money? Didn't you say you were going to use it for charity? Why are you spending it on yourself?"

"I'm just doing good deeds!"

Gen Tamako said it was perfectly natural, that the money was perfect for investigating the case, that it was like using a small amount of ill-gotten money to do a good deed, and that she could also make friends with a great detective in Japan, killing two birds with one stone!
"No, no, no, detectives these days are very unreliable."

Fushimi Shika shook his head repeatedly, then began to denigrate the entire detective industry: "They're all slackers, their daily work is either helping with surveillance and catching mistresses, or doing some dirty work as corporate spies... You need to understand, famous detectives only exist in detective novels!"

"Impossible!" Yuan Yuzi exclaimed, waving her little hands as if possessed by Cao Cao, "Absolutely impossible!"

She knew all about famous Japanese detectives like the back of her hand, listing their life stories one by one. For example, Hiratsuka Hachibei, a famous private detective in Japan, was known as the "Father of Japanese Private Detectives"; another example was Fujii Shigeta, a well-known detective in the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, who had outstanding achievements in criminal investigation and was known for his rigorous work attitude and excellent logical reasoning ability...

There are also Takeshi Shiota, Hirokazu Yamamoto, Seicho Matsumoto... Although the last one is a mystery novelist, Tamako Minamoto believes that he is also good at unraveling mysteries to find the truth!
Fushimi Shika was at his wits' end. No matter how much he pleaded, he couldn't dissuade Minamoto Tamako from her idea. He could only turn around and glare at Watanabe Shun, thinking that he should have let that jinx die on Cat Island.

The latter, not understanding what was going on, thought that Fushimi Shika was inviting him to drink with his eyes, and immediately blinked to indicate his agreement.

Things should be done sooner rather than later, so Yuan Yuzi jumped off the sand to send off the guests.

Everyone got up to say goodbye. Kazama Takusai left the cassette tape behind and told Fushimi Shika to remember to return it after he finished using it. It seemed that he valued the cassette tape very much.

Fushimi Shika gave a perfunctory "uh-huh" and closed the door behind him. After seeing Kazama and the others off, he turned back and asked, "Are you really going to put up some kind of bounty?"

"Yeah! Don't you think it's great?"

Yuan Yuzi took out two sheets of paper, leaned over the coffee table, and began writing. She planned to first have the newspaper publish an advertisement appealing to the public for clues related to the 'divine punishment,' promising a generous reward if the information was confirmed!

Momoyasaki works at the Criminal News, but Tamako doesn't plan to ask her for help because she remembers that Fushimi-kun revealed that he has five potential girlfriends, one of whom is Momoyasaki... Ever since Yui Kujo urged him to get married, the boyfriend/girlfriend test has automatically become invalid.

Come to think of it, if you count the days, the time limit they agreed on for pretending to be boyfriend and girlfriend has already passed.

But Minamoto no Tamako deliberately avoided mentioning this matter and usually avoided anything related to boyfriends and girlfriends. Under the guise of pretending to be a couple, she pretended to be dating Fushimi-kun, and she felt a dark pleasure in it.

“Well,” Fushimi Shika tried to point out the downsides, “if you put a bounty on it, you have to take the time to figure out if the information is valuable… Right now we have to go to work, and we have to take Sakura to school in the morning and evening, so where do we have the time to put up a bounty?”

“Isn’t Kazama-senpai quite free? He doesn’t have a job and usually just drinks. It’s perfect to give this task to him so that his life can be more fulfilling and meaningful.”

Yuan Yuzi became even more excited, feeling that this matter was extremely meritorious.

Fushimi Shika was at her wit's end: "Then hiring a detective or something..."

"I'll take care of this myself! No problem, I can find the time!"

Gen Tamako was in high spirits. She had already begun to fantasize about a dimly lit living room in a Western-style villa, where all of Japan's top detectives were gathered around a long table, and she sat at the end of the table, a cigarette dangling from her lips, her fingers interlaced, looking up as she recounted the divine punishment murder case from a year ago...

Wow! Just thinking about it makes me feel so cool!
(End of this chapter)