Tokyo: Rabbit Police and Her Evil Partner

Chapter 473 Top Lawyer
While Fushimi Shika was holding a family meeting, Minamoto Tamako died twice more, and the second layer of the dream was worse than she had imagined.

After helping the little deer escape from the attic, a door appeared in front of her. She didn't rush in, but first called Fushimi Shika, chatted for a few words, and then pushed the door open and entered.

This time, Minamoto no Tamako is no longer a cat, because the cat is dead.

According to Da Luzi, the cat was killed by the woman in front of him.

In the second layer of the dream, Xiaoluzi has grown up and is now twenty-four years old. He studied law in college for four years, then spent a year interning and a year taking the bar exam, and in the process obtained his lawyer's license, becoming a practicing lawyer at a very young age.

In Yuan Yuzi's mind, lawyers are an elite profession, just like gold buttons in Japan. Lawyers are all extremely arrogant and will sue you until you are bankrupt at the drop of a hat. Even the underworld dares not offend them. The social status of lawyers in Europe and America is even higher, especially big law firms and big lawyers, whose annual salary is often tens of millions of dollars. They only handle one case a year and can be said to be the elite of high society.

However, the legal profession at the University of Tokyo seems to be different.

They are like invisible people, only active on short videos, filming some flirtatious dances, discussing some hot cases, or giving legal advice via live broadcast... Ordinary people will never come into contact with them in their entire lives unless they commit a crime or care about legal issues.

It's no exaggeration to say that before 2015, the University of Tokyo had not produced any truly outstanding criminal defense lawyers. For example, in the famous O.J. Simpson case in the United States, the criminal defense lawyer argued for his acquittal, something that would have been unimaginable at the University of Tokyo.

In first-tier cities, newly hired salaried lawyers earn approximately 8000 to 15000 yuan per month. As their work experience and professional skills improve, their income gradually increases. In second-tier cities, salaries are halved. Lawyers in third-tier cities are mostly commission-based lawyers or self-employed lawyers who run their own offices. They typically have no base salary or a very low base salary, and their income depends entirely on the number of cases they handle.

Newly hired commission-based lawyers may have very unstable incomes if they don't have a stable source of cases, and may even struggle to make ends meet.

Xiao Luzi is a commission-based lawyer. The law firm he works for is very unscrupulous. His base salary is only 800 yuan a month. If he wants to increase his income, he has to actively look for cases to take on.

Although he was poor at that time, there is no doubt that he lived a fulfilling life, because since 2015, the era of truly outstanding criminal defense lawyers from the University of Tokyo has arrived.

The field of criminal defense was fiercely competitive in those days, even spilling over into the courtroom. Various schools of thought emerged within this profession, such as the "hard-line fighters," the "corrupt officials," the "collusionists," and the "formalists," among others.

Of course, the criminal defense lawyer referred to here is not Fushimi Shika himself.

In just two years of practice, he handled four cases involving criminal defense lawyers who were arrested for practicing law, which instilled in him a deep respect for the law.

In this incredibly realistic dream, there are no twisted humanoid monsters or incredibly strong female owners. Everyone speaks peacefully, and if an employer throws a tantrum, they are escorted out by security guards.

Where does the danger come from?
Right now, Yuan Yuzi was hiding in a toilet stall in her studio apartment, covering her mouth and barely daring to breathe. The sound of chopping meat echoed from the kitchen, and a strong, pungent smell of blood filled the living room. She opened the door a crack and could see a trail of blood on the living room floor tiles.

This is the third person.

She stayed in the second layer of the dream for about ten days, spending most of the time hiding in Fushimi Shika's house... According to her observation, every three days, Fushimi Shika would bring a corpse home and destroy the evidence.

That's right, the danger comes from "Young Fushimi Shika" himself on the second floor.

He killed his employer, dismembered him, dissolved the bones with chemicals such as drain cleaner, and finally buried the solution in the deep mountains.

Just like the famous movie "American Psycho", by day Fushimi Shika is a well-mannered lawyer who is young and successful, taking on and winning many cases; by night, he becomes a serial killer who kills all the people he hates.

His mood value is always black. No matter how much money he makes or what good things happen to him, even if he's laughing, his mood value remains stagnant, black, without any fluctuation.

Minamoto no Tamako had been following him, but she was exposed twice and was killed by Fushimi-kun.

For her, it was a terrible experience, just like the dream she had experienced in Miyazaki Yuuko's clinic.

Fortunately, it was just a dream. Fushimi-kun did not put his ideas into practice, as Minamoto no Tamako could tell from his crude methods of committing the crime. In reality, Fushimi-kun would never have had the chance to kill a second person. He would have been exposed for murder as soon as he killed the first person because of the wildly spinning electricity meter.

This also suggests that Fushimi's mental state has deteriorated to an extreme degree, and he may very well kill those who 'believe they are guilty,' without any psychological burden whatsoever.

If this continues unchecked, Fushimi-kun in real life might become like Senhime-nee, killing people indiscriminately in the name of justice!
Minamoto no Tamako couldn't stand idly by, but she didn't know what to do. Now, if she got close to Fushimi Shika, she would be killed. She could only follow him like a madwoman, spying on Fushimi-kun's mentally ill daily life.

In order to find out Fushimi Shika's preferences, she sneaked into his bachelor apartment while he was at work and went through his personal belongings... Unexpectedly, she ran into him dragging a corpse home, and she had no choice but to hide in the bathroom to avoid the limelight.

What to do? What to do? What to do?
What if he goes into the toilet to get drain cleaner later?
Yuan Yuzi was so anxious that she paced back and forth, taking deep breaths and forcing herself to calm down.

Alright, Tamako, it's nothing serious, it's just the loss of some memories...

The comforting words had no effect; instead, Yuan Yuzi became even more panicked. She was afraid that she would lose herself in the second layer of the dream, her memories fragmented, and eventually become a walking corpse—the thought alone was terrifying.

Never mind, let's run!

With a heavy heart, Minamoto no Tamako opened the bathroom door and, while the young man Fushimi Shika was chopping meat in the kitchen, tiptoed through the living room, intending to run out through the front door.

As the doorknob drew closer, Gen Tamako's heart leaped into her throat. She tiptoed and slowly reached for the doorknob, about to open it, when a cold, questioning voice suddenly came from behind her:
"How did you get in?"

Minamoto Tamako felt as if her blood vessels had frozen, and her muscles stiffened from the stress. She swallowed hard, slowly turned around, and looked at the young man, Fushimi Shika—still an unfamiliar face, but rather handsome; after all, the genes of a wealthy family are never bad.

"The door...the door isn't locked..." Yuan Yuzi said, forcing herself to speak.

Each time she dies, her dreams are refreshed, which is why the young man Fushimi Shika is seeing her for the first time.

The young man, Fushimi Shika, was wearing a white shirt and apron. He was holding a cleaver, which was dripping blood. His face was expressionless as he spoke, which sent chills down one's spine.

"I'm sorry."

Fushimi Shika, wielding a cleaver, approached step by step, the oppressive aura emanating from him making it hard for Minamoto Tamako to breathe. Only then did she realize that her seemingly cheeky partner actually harbored a terrifying monster within. "Wait, wait—"

Yuan Yuzi hastily retreated, leaning against the door. In a moment of quick thinking, she shouted, "I...I'm here to ask for a case!"

Upon hearing this, Fushimi Shikamaru paused, a suspicious look on his face. He looked Genji Tamako up and down and asked, "What case?"

There was no case at all. She noticed Fushimi Shika's almost pathological seriousness about her work, so she decided to try anything and made up a story on the spot.

One lie leads to countless more to cover it up.

Given that Fushimi Shika was still holding a knife, Minamoto Tamako could only blush and sweat profusely as she began to fabricate a story: "It's...it's a hit-and-run case..."

"Oh?" Fushimi Shika seemed intrigued. He took a handkerchief from his apron pocket, wiped the blood off the cleaver, and asked, "Are you a family member of the victim?"

"Yes, it is."

Minamoto no Tamako is not good at lying, but fortunately, the Fushimi Shika in front of her is not the normal Fushimi Shika. He is the "Fushimi Shika - Evil Personality" version, who is not so careful at all, or rather, he doesn't care at all whether Minamoto no Tamako is lying or not.

"Ah, I was just killing a chicken, and there's blood everywhere in the house. Please forgive me." Fushimi Shika took off his apron, went to the bathroom to get a mop, cleaned up the bloodstains on the floor, and instantly switched to work mode, putting on a suit jacket and making a cup of tea for Minamoto Tamako: "Please sit down and tell me what happened in detail."

Gen Tamako sat down at the coffee table, picked up her teacup, took a sip, and calmed down a little; at least she wasn't as flustered as before.

"Yes...it's like this, the person who was hit was my younger brother..."

Yuan Yuzi paused, then spoke more fluently: "That day we were arguing on the side of the road. I was angry with my younger brother over something trivial, so I pushed him. He fell on the zebra crossing, and unexpectedly a car ran over him while running a red light..."

Fushimi Shika took out a black notebook and started scribbling notes, nodding occasionally as she asked, "And then? Did you call the police?"

“No, I was terrified at the time because the driver ran over me repeatedly… I still feel resentful about it now,” said Yuan Yuzi, holding her teacup.

"Still holding a grudge?" Fushimi Shika frowned. "Has it been a long time?"

Yuan Yuzi wanted to say yes, but as soon as she opened her mouth, she suddenly remembered her character in the dream—she was a seven or eight-year-old girl, and when she looked in the mirror, she had an unfamiliar face, so it was impossible for her to have a younger brother who had been in a car accident ten years ago.

"I... I'm not very good at Chinese studies..." she could only continue to make things up.

"Sinology?" Fushimi Shika asked doubtfully, "Are you a foreigner?"

"I guess so..." Genji Yuko changed the subject: "Ah, the tea you brewed is delicious, what kind of tea is it?"

Fushimi Shika put down his pen, placed the notebook on the coffee table, crossed his legs, rested one hand on the sofa, and looked at Minamoto no Tamako with a scrutinizing gaze, saying, "Little girl, you're not lying to me, are you?"

"No, no! There really is such a case!" Gen Tamako said very seriously.

She wasn't lying; in reality, this case did happen ten years ago, only the victim wasn't her brother.

"Is this so..."

Fushimi Shika tapped his fingers on the armrest and suddenly changed the subject: "Actually, it wasn't a wise choice for you to hire me to handle this case."

"Why, why?" Gen Tamako asked, a strange curiosity creeping in.

Fushimi Shika said unhurriedly, "The last case I took was a real estate economic dispute. The client was an entrepreneur who was rich and well-connected in our city... Recently, housing prices have been driven up and down, and the pressure on real estate development is huge. Everyone wants to make money as soon as possible. After all, a single property can generate billions in profit. If you delay for even a day, you will lose millions."

"The client has targets, the company has performance goals, and the construction team is under pressure. The construction site operates in two shifts, day and night. Two groups of workers take turns working during the day and night, all to improve construction efficiency."

"I won't even mention whether this building project was built with shoddy materials, a substandard construction, or a pre-sale fraud. I don't know any of that. I'm just a lawyer representing the project. All I know is that a company with a market value of tens of billions of dollars is actually owing a migrant worker's wages."

"To be precise, it was about unpaid wages to a group of migrant workers. However, one of them was particularly ruthless and kidnapped the boss's son, which led to a murder case."

"After I took over the project, the real estate company said it wasn't their responsibility and that the construction company should settle the wages. So I went to the construction company, but they said the client wouldn't pay until the project was completed. To take on this project, the construction company's cash flow was already stretched to the limit, and they could only wait for the real estate company to settle the accounts after the project was completed before the company would have money to pay the workers..."

"Don't you think it's weird?"

“A regular worker earns two or three hundred yuan a day, while carpenters, scaffolders, concrete workers, and bricklayers earn three or four hundred yuan a day. Apart from crane operators, there are basically no workers who earn more than five hundred yuan a day… I’ve calculated that the construction company owes about 210,000 yuan in back wages, and the kidnapper is owed about 30,000 yuan in back wages.”

"When the company boss asked me to take this case, he took me out to dinner. The bill came to exactly 30,000 yuan, and just one bottle of wine cost 28,000 yuan."

Fushimi Shika spread his hands and asked, "Where did the money go?"

Genjiro couldn't answer, and Fushimi Shika didn't expect an eight-year-old to be able to answer either. He answered his own question, "To figure this out, I kidnapped the businessman, cut off pieces of his flesh, and asked him where all his money went..."

"Before that, there was a female client who was using her phone while driving. She asked me to take on a hit-and-run case, so I tied her up and brought her back. I smashed her body inch by inch with a hammer and asked her why she was using her phone..."

Fushimi Shika looked up, leaned back on the sofa, and sighed:

"There are simply too many people I want to kill."

(End of this chapter)