Tokyo: Rabbit Police and Her Evil Partner

Chapter 479 The Death of Liu Daniu

For a fleeting moment, Minamoto no Tamako thought that she should just shoot Fushimi-kun dead; maybe that would wake him up.

Fortunately, she still had her senses. The thought only lingered in her mind for a second. Regardless of whether killing the subconscious projection of Fushimi Shika in the second layer of the dream could wake him up, Minamoto no Tamako's professional ethics and conscience would not allow her to do such a thing.

Besides, Fushimi Shika doesn't know who she is right now, so maybe she can fool her and lower Fushimi Shika's guard for now...

Before Yuan Yuzi could even speak, Liu Daniu stood up abruptly. He hadn't met Attorney Zhou before and assumed this tough guy was sent by the boss. He slammed his fist on the table again and roared, "Today I'm going to show you what I'm made of—"

Before he could finish speaking, there was a soft "plop" sound. Fushimi Shika pulled out a fruit knife from somewhere and stabbed it into Liu Daniu's chin from bottom to top. The blade pierced through Liu Daniu's tongue and went straight into his palate, pressing his head up like a string of candied hawthorns.

Liu Daniu let out a horrifying scream, muffled and mixed with blood. His eyes widened, his face filled with terror, and he struggled to pull out the fruit knife, but Fushimi Shika's hands remained motionless.

He held the knife to Liu Daniu's head, letting the blood flow down the handle, until Liu Daniu gradually lost his voice and his eyes rolled back. Only then did he suddenly pull out the fruit knife, leaving Liu Daniu's body to collapse on the ground.

A strong smell of blood filled the air.

No one spoke in the card room. Yi Zetao and Ma Xiang recognized Fushimi Shika as Lawyer Zhou the moment they saw him, and quickly shrank into a corner, thus escaping a disaster.

The blame lies with Liu Daniu for being too lazy. He always makes excuses when asked to run errands or deliver documents to lawyers. Yet, he dares to be the first to stick his neck out when the other party is hostile. Who else but him should die?

Brother Sun was also stunned. He could tell that this guy was different from the little girl behind him; he was a truly ruthless killer.

Brother Sun had encountered similar people before. They were tired of living and weren't afraid of death. They were like mad dogs, doing whatever they wanted. They not only killed police officers but also dared to kill people from the underworld. They would kill anyone they didn't like, whether they were from the legitimate or criminal world. They were just mentally unstable, and there was no sense of accomplishment in killing them.

If you encounter this kind of person, it's best to stay far away and avoid getting involved with them altogether.

He didn't want to speak, but seeing that his underlings didn't dare to utter a sound, they were ruthless enough, but that didn't mean they weren't afraid of death. When they encountered someone who was truly fearless, they were all a little scared.

Besides, Liu Daniu's body is lying on the ground!
Brother Sun had no choice but to speak up himself. Ignoring Yuan Yuzi, who was holding a gun behind him, he straightened up and asked, "Brother, who are you...?"

"Mr. Sun, you must have a bad memory. I came here specifically to see you."

Fushimi Shika used Liu Daniu's corpse to wipe the fruit knife, then opened his briefcase, adopting a businesslike demeanor, took out the relevant documents, placed them on the table, and said, "You previously entrusted me with a case of intentional injury litigation. My suggestion is to plead guilty and accept punishment, and strive for leniency from the judge..."

Brother Sun swallowed hard, then turned to look at his underling, glaring at him and demanding to know why he had chosen such a lawyer.

The latter knew perfectly well that if this matter wasn't handled properly, he'd be finished. He could only grit his teeth and step forward, blocking Fushimi Shika's path, and speak on behalf of his boss: "We hired you to provide a not-guilty plea. We've heard you're quite skilled in criminal not-guilty plea..."

“No, actually I’m not good at it.” Fushimi Shika placed his hands flat on the table, sitting up straight like a primary school student in class: “I’m only good at matchmaking.”

In his mouth, "Brother Sun" had become "General Manager Sun," but he didn't feel any pride whatsoever; he just felt incredibly uneasy. He obediently sat down opposite Fushimi Shika. His underling helped him set aside the mahjong tiles, carefully took the documents, and retorted, "What does matchmaking have to do with a not-guilty plea...?"

Fushimi Shika adjusted his glasses, looking nothing like someone who had just killed someone. At first glance, he resembled a professional lawyer negotiating with a client: "Mr. Sun may not have much experience with criminal cases..."

The underling interrupted, "Are you kidding me? Brother Sun has killed more people than you've ever eaten salt!"

Fushimi Shika countered, "But in the end, they were all resolved as civil disputes, right? Otherwise, Mr. Sun wouldn't be sitting here."

The younger brother genuinely had no idea what happened after the attack, so he turned to look at his boss. Only after Brother Sun nodded did he say, "Then continue—"

"Mr. Sun, can I kill him?" Fushimi Shika interrupted.

These words were too harsh, and the other underlings couldn't ignore them. They all stepped forward and surrounded their brother, ready to support him. Brother Sun couldn't afford to leave his underlings unprotected, otherwise he wouldn't be able to survive in the future. So he leaned back in his chair, put on his boss's airs, and retorted, "If you dare to make a move, I'm afraid things won't end well."

"What do you mean?" Fushimi Shika asked back.

"There are so many of us, each with a knife. Can you handle us?" the henchman threatened.

"Is that what Mr. Sun meant too?" Fushimi Shika slowly zipped up his briefcase.

Brother Sun had a bad feeling for no reason. Cold sweat broke out on his back and goosebumps appeared on his skin. He always had this intuition when he encountered something life-threatening. At this moment, his intuition was particularly strong.

"No, no, let's talk this out. You're the expert on legal matters, so I won't interfere."

After saying that, Brother Sun gave his underling a look, signaling him to shut up, and then asked Fushimi Shika to continue.

Fushimi Shika didn't mind. He opened the case file and the court documents, and continued explaining the differences between civil disputes and criminal cases:

"As far as I know, the standard of proof in civil cases should be much lower than that in criminal cases, but in practice, the opposite is true. Many civil cases have a tight chain of evidence, while many criminal cases have a very low standard of proof and a very low threshold for proof."

"Logically, the standards of proof in civil and criminal cases are different. Criminal cases concern whether a person is convicted, sentenced, and what kind of sentence is handed down. It is the state institution's legitimate exercise of the violence granted by citizens. Such a serious judgment has an extremely low standard of proof."

“The investigators and the public security, procuratorate and judiciary all have a strong subjective mindset of attributing guilt in their investigations. If Mr. Sun wants to appeal to the court and be found not guilty, they will condescendingly assume that you are guilty.”

“For example, when the police were interrogating Mr. Sun, they said, ‘You say you are innocent, then how do you prove your innocence?’ This statement has a strong subjective sense of guilt.”

"Logically, whether Mr. Sun is guilty or not should be determined by the police, not by Mr. Sun proving his innocence."

At this point, Fushimi Shika was about to interject, and Minamoto Tamako wanted to ask, "Why not point this out in court and let the judge make a fair ruling?" Before she could ask, Fushimi Shika gave her the reason:

"For example, the judge Mr. Sun is about to face may very well act as the second prosecutor during the trial... Based on his past habits, the other party will most likely ask, 'You say you are innocent, then why are so many people accusing you of crimes instead of accusing others,' or 'You say you are innocent, then how do you prove your innocence, and why are they accusing you instead of others...'"

Yuan Yuzi understood. She felt the judge was somewhat like her elementary school teacher, who, when students got into a fight, would question the stubborn student: 'It takes two to tango, why did he hit you and not someone else?'

Thinking about this, she finally understood why Fushimi always acted like a lawyer, using the law as a weapon to attack others... Now that she thought about it, it might be because he had suffered too many injustices.

As Brother Sun listened, he sensed that the case was getting difficult. Ignoring the corpse lying on the card table, he couldn't help but ask, "What did the prosecutor say?"

Fushimi Shika pushed up his glasses again: "The prosecutor has quotas. He will only let you plead guilty and accept punishment. As long as you plead guilty and accept punishment, everything will be fine; if you don't plead guilty and accept punishment, then you will be given a heavier sentence."

"How could this happen?" Minamoto no Tamako finally couldn't help but interject.

She had a very devout faith in the law, but she knew nothing about courtroom defense, trial procedures, or negotiations between prosecutors and parties involved.

The only thing I knew was the legal texts I studied with Hira Sakura.

Fushimi Shika didn't mind her interrupting and asked questions, and took the initiative to explain: "On the one hand, the workload and pressure of the court are enormous. Judges have to handle more cases than you can imagine. Secondly, because our criminal law contains a lot of statements that can easily lead public security, procuratorial and judicial personnel to subjectively accuse someone."

"For example, what does 'knowingly' mean, what does 'should have known' mean, what does 'know' mean, what does 'aggravated circumstances' mean, what does 'a huge amount' mean, what does 'serious circumstances' mean, what does 'aggravating circumstances' mean... Criminal law is full of vague expressions, which allows investigators to integrate their subjective investigative thinking with their own, logically consistent approach."

"Therefore, due to the numerous vague descriptions in criminal cases, coupled with the strong investigative mindset of law enforcement personnel, many cases in the current criminal law now rely on 'whether there was knowledge' as the basis for prosecution."

"For example, in cases of 'concealment,' 'facilitating false information,' and 'contract fraud,' almost all intentional crimes rely primarily on confessions to determine whether the perpetrator was aware of the situation."

"A statement is all that's needed."

"What if there's no confession? Mr. Sun, you've been through this before, haven't you? Torture or coercion to extract a confession. Only if the police get a confession can they possibly grant you bail."

"Even if the case is handled incorrectly, it doesn't matter, because there is a panacea system called the guilty plea agreement. As long as Mr. Sun signs the guilty plea agreement, everything will be easy to handle, the case will basically be irreversible, which is equivalent to rendering the lawyer useless."

As Sun listened, he felt something was off. He felt that the lawyer was trying to get him to sign a plea agreement so that he could be sent to prison.

He scratched the tattoo on his arm and couldn't help but ask, "Does this count as intentional assault? Can't I just use my statement to get away with it? Can't I recant my statement later?"

Fushimi Shika shook his head and explained, "As I just mentioned, the criminal law contains many vague, catch-all offenses, such as 'picking quarrels and provoking trouble,' 'endangering public safety by dangerous means,' 'extortion,' 'negligent homicide,' 'major liability accident,' and so on... There's bound to be one that suits Mr. Sun."

"This leads to very unsatisfactory results in both substantive and procedural law."

"When scholars conduct empirical research, the data is completely fabricated. Whether the conclusions drawn can guide practice is highly questionable."

"So Mr. Sun shouldn't expect the investigators to adhere to procedural justice. Things like inducing confessions, making false statements, or getting the parties involved to change their testimonies are all unimportant. As long as Mr. Sun pleads guilty and accepts punishment, the case can be resolved."

Brother Sun knew a little about the law; having been in this line of work for so long, he naturally knew where the boundaries lay and couldn't possibly be ignorant of the law. Hearing this, he couldn't help but ask, "Isn't a confession alone insufficient as evidence for a conviction?"

If he's convicted so hastily and without any clear explanation, wouldn't he have to spend several years in jail? By the time he gets out, it'll be too late!
“That’s not how it works in practice,” Fushimi Shika said expressionlessly.

Minamoto Tamako felt her illusions about the law shattered. Fushimi Shika had never talked to her about this before. Her small hand holding the gun felt a little heavy. If the justice symbolized by the court was no longer pure, then the mission she carried would become a joke.

She couldn't help but interrupt, asking further:

"Aren't the principles of legality in criminal law, presumption of innocence, favoring the defendant when there is doubt, innocence before a verdict is declared, and prioritizing procedural justice when procedural justice conflicts with substantive justice...?"

Sun had noticed that she had interrupted twice and suspected that the kid knew the lawyer, but he didn't want to say it outright. Besides, he was also concerned about the issue. If the judiciary was so brutal, what room did he have to intervene?
Unfortunately, Fushimi Shika ruthlessly shattered their last glimmer of hope: "It's just empty talk."

Brother Sun panicked a little: "Then what should I do about this case..." Before he could finish speaking, he suddenly remembered what Attorney Zhou had just said about "being good at making connections," and thinking about Attorney Zhou's renowned success rate, he immediately understood what he meant. He tentatively asked, "Is what you mean by making connections what I think it is?"

"Yes." Fushimi Shika did not shy away from the question at all.

"I didn't expect Attorney Zhou to be so capable. I was wrong before, I neglected him," Brother Sun said with a beaming smile. "Come on, let's go for a drink? Little Liu's matter isn't a big problem. Everyone around here keeps their mouths shut, they won't tell anyone..."

"No."

Fushimi Shika's tone remained completely calm: "As I just said, I'm here to suggest that you plead guilty and accept the punishment of the law honestly."

"Huh?" Brother Sun was taken aback: "Why?"

“If you don’t sign, I’ll have no choice but to kill you,” Fushimi Shika said, pulling out the fruit knife again and wiping it with a glasses cloth. “I gave Mr. Cao the same option before, but he refused.”

Upon hearing this, Genji suddenly understood.

She finally understood what Fushimi Shika was doing.

(End of this chapter)