Tokyo: Rabbit Police and Her Evil Partner

Chapter 570 A good show

Kotaro Kanesaka sat on a bench in the auditorium, surrounded by people on all sides.

The curtains were drawn, the surroundings were dark, and whispers rose and fell.

Kotaro Kanesaka could understand the feelings of others, and he himself was also filled with complicated emotions, unable to help but cross his arms, shake his legs, and look around.

Two days ago, when he received the invitation, his first reaction was that it was just a prank.

It wasn't until he arrived at the Hokkaido Police Academy on a private jet, sat in the newly completed auditorium, and smelled the faint formaldehyde floating in the air, that he truly believed it wasn't a prank.

There really was a couple who invited all of Japan's most famous detectives and writers to their wedding—and the wedding ceremony wasn't about walking down the aisle, reciting toasts, or hosting a dinner for guests, but about solving a murder case.

The detective who finds decisive evidence and whose reasoning is flawless will receive a reward of ten million yen.

That's ten million yen!

After the financial bubble burst, private investigators, unlike writers, often lived hand to mouth, sometimes going hungry. They were lucky to have any work at all, never dreaming of making a fortune.

Now they have ten million in front of them. If they get this ten million, it will be enough for them to buy two nice apartments in Tokyo, and enough for them to retire early and enjoy life.

Kotaro Kanesaka scratched at the label on his suit, unsure of what would happen next, and vaguely worried that something might go wrong at the 'wedding'.

"Hey, stop shaking your leg," someone whispered from behind.

"Sorry." Kensaka Kotaro didn't turn around.

"Huh?" The person behind him seemed a little surprised, reached out and patted his shoulder, tentatively asking, "Kotaro?"

Kotaro Kanesaka turned around, but the light was too dim for him to recognize the person behind him: "Excuse me, you are..."

“I’m Michitaka Tsutsui, don’t you remember? We used to do business together,” the man said.

Kotaro Kanesaka was taken aback. He remembered this guy, or rather, most people in the industry had a deep impression of him.

Because Michitaka Tsutsui is a fraud.

This guy founded a company called "Credit Investigation," which advertises every month and promotes his "famous detective" persona in various print media and on television, making him more famous than other detectives.

Kotaro Kanesaka had dealings with him.

At that time, Kotaro Kanesaka had just retired from the police force and was feeling lost, not knowing what he could do with his life. He spent his days drinking.

Michitaka Tsutsui found him through a headhunter, who claimed he could offer him a job. In reality, it was a exploitative sweatshop where he was responsible for odd jobs and outsourced labor. His wages were meager, he had no insurance, and he often had to work overtime.

He worked there for two or three months, but couldn't take it anymore, so he resigned. He didn't receive any severance pay, and a large portion of his salary was withheld, meaning he was essentially working at a loss.

Later, Kotaro Kanesaka learned that this guy didn't lie to anyone else, but specifically to retired detectives.

Michitaka Tsutsui recruited retired detectives who had lost their purpose in life, and under the pretext of investigations, assigned them to do dirty and tiring work, taking a cut of their earnings. They didn't have to pay compensation after resigning—nominally a detective agency, but in reality a labor dispatch company.

At least half of the detectives present had been fooled by him.

I didn't expect this guy to come too.

Kotaro Kanesaka felt a surge of disgust and immediately turned his head away.

He didn't want to deal with this guy, believing that the reputation of 'detectives' was being ruined by people like him.

But Michitaka Tsutsui wouldn't give up. He continued to pat him on the shoulder and leaned close to his ear to ask, "Hey, Kotaro, do you think this is a good idea?"

"I don't know." Kensaka Kotaro didn't want to talk to him.

"How could I not know? Aren't you a detective? Have some professional ethics!" Tsutsui Michitaka said, pushing and shoving. "For the sake of our past relationship, give me some professional detective judgment..."

"I have no connection with you whatsoever." Kensaka Kotaro slapped his hand away.

Michitaka Tsutsui was incredibly shameless: "Let's not dwell on the past. Tell me your opinion, anything is welcome."

Kotaro Kanesaka was thoroughly annoyed and couldn't get rid of this pesky fly, so he decided to make up some nonsense to fob him off: "That's unreliable. The law doesn't allow the private possession of case evidence, and the Metropolitan Police Department's files can't be leaked either."

"So?" Tsutsui Michitaka asked.

"So this is probably a farce, I suggest you go back early," Kanesaka Kotaro urged.

“Even if it’s a farce, it’s still quite interesting. Just think of it as playing house with a rich young lady, and the person who plays the best will win a prize.” Tsutsui Michitaka rubbed his hands together.

“You can’t give out a ten million dollar bonus for playing house.” Kotaro Kanesaka’s heart sank.

"Not necessarily. Neither the bride nor the groom seem to be short of money. You're still too narrow-minded and haven't seen high society. The rich don't treat money like money. They casually throw away tens of millions for fun; it's just commonplace for them."

Michitaka Tsutsui slicked back his slicked-back hair; he liked to consider himself an upper-class person.

Kotaro Kanesaka thought this guy would cause trouble and was about to say something when the lights in the auditorium suddenly came on.

A row of spotlights shone on the stage. Without any prompting, everyone instinctively held their breath and looked up, their eyes focused on the man and woman on the stage.

The man looked young, no more than twenty-five or twenty-six, tall, wearing a black trench coat and leaning on a cane, like a model walking out of a fashion show.
The girl was far too young, seemingly only seventeen or eighteen years old, but she pretended to be mature, wearing a Sherlock Holmes-style cape, a brown beret, and holding a pipe in her small hands.

There was a microphone between the two of them. The girl stepped forward and said in a low voice:

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

"I'm sure you've all heard my name on your way here. Let me formally introduce myself. My name is Minamoto no Tamako, and I welcome you all to my wedding."

"Everyone must be wondering why we would solve a murder case at a wedding? Why invite strangers instead of friends and family?"

"It's a little embarrassing to admit, but my dream is to become a famous detective and police inspector. I once vowed to prioritize my career and not date or get married until I became a famous detective and police inspector..."

"Until I met him."

Genjiro turned to the side and gestured with her small hand to the man beside her. The man stepped forward and said briefly into the microphone, "I am Fushimi Shika, her fiancé."

Minamoto no Tamako blushed slightly, clearly not expecting Fushimi Shika to say that.

She momentarily forgot her prepared lines, coughing several times before stealing a glance at the prompt written on her pipe. Only then did she regain her composure and continue:
"I'm still not famous, but I'm getting married to the person I love."

"If nothing unexpected happens, I'll probably have to quit my job after getting married and become a full-time housewife, so this is my last chance to investigate..."

Fushimi Shika was somewhat surprised: "You're going to resign after the marriage? Is that so?"

Another unexpected situation. Yuan Yuzi panicked slightly and whispered, "I don't want to end up like Mom, arguing every day because of work... This is something I secretly decided... No..."

She said a couple of sentences before realizing she hadn't covered the microphone, and the whole church could hear her 'whispering'.

"No, no, this... uh..."

Yuan Yuzi's face grew increasingly red. She was facing away from the spotlights and couldn't see the faces of the audience, but she could vaguely feel countless eyes staring at her, which made her more and more nervous. She glanced at her pipe several times in a row.

Fushimi Shika took the microphone and finished her lines for her: "This is our last chance to resolve our inner conflicts, so please do your best to investigate the truth behind the murder."

The auditorium was quiet for a moment, then scattered applause broke out.

In the script that Minamoto Tamako imagined, the audience should have erupted in applause, supporting a bride who was chasing her dreams to fulfill her final wish...

Damn it, it's all Lu Jun's fault for interrupting!
Minamoto no Tamako blamed Fushimi Shika for her poor performance in the speech.

She secretly stared at Fushimi Shika with an unhappy look, her little mouth involuntarily pouting.

Fushimi Shika pretended not to see, took off the microphone, and went straight to the speech: "If you have any other questions, you can raise your hand to ask."

As soon as he finished speaking, a whole row of hands were raised in the audience.

Yuan Yuzi was startled. She thought she had done a good job of explaining and that everyone should know that she was there to solve the murder case. Why did so many people have questions?
"Sir, please ask." Fushimi Shika randomly pointed at someone.

The backstage spotlights shifted, focusing on a middle-aged man in the audience. He stood up, took the microphone from the Kujo family's maid, and asked, "My name is Aoshimahara, and I'm a detective..."

“It’s not important, just ask the question,” Fushimi Shika interrupted.

Gen Tamako turned her head, tugged at his sleeve, and whispered a criticism: "How can you talk to a guest like that? It's very impolite!"

"What guests? They are the contestants, we are the organizers. Aren't the people who pay the money the bosses?" Fushimi Shika retorted, covering the microphone.

But the sound still leaked out in a muffled way.

Minamoto no Tamako felt that this was not the time to argue. Clutching her pipe, she secretly harbored her anger, planning to settle scores with Fushimi Shika after she stepped down from the stage.

Qingdao Yuan, being quite perceptive, smiled and said, "It's alright, the groom is right, we are all contestants."

He paused, then cut to the chase: "As a participant, I'd like to ask, how many cases will be investigated next, and are these cases all true?"

"There are four cases in total: the 'Auditorium Shooting Case,' the 'Apartment Massacre Case,' the 'Snowfield Punishment Case,' and the 'Wild Mountain Female Corpse Case.'"

Fushimi Shika only found out yesterday that when Minamoto Tamako was doing logistical filing, she discovered Miyazaki Yuko's files.

The body was so badly decomposed that wild animals had carried away all the bones, making identification impossible. The detective in charge of the case didn't take it seriously, quickly snapped a few photos, and filed it away.

If it weren't for Minamoto no Tamako noticing the photos of the scene, this case would probably have remained unsolved in the archives, becoming a cold case that no one would bother with.

At the time, Minamoto no Tamako was very busy, so she forgot to tell Fushimi Shika about it.

Later, she took some time to go to the site alone, but found nothing except the words "divine punishment" carved on the rock.

Minamoto Tamako felt ashamed that she, as a detective, hadn't found any clues, so she kept it to herself and didn't tell Fushimi Shika, hoping to make a breakthrough one day so she could show off.

Unfortunately, what she ultimately got was a wedding.

Now, Fushimi Shika continued, "That's right, all four cases actually happened. One of the victims was our close friend."

"So you gathered so many people to find out the truth in order to get revenge?" Qingdao Yuan asked.

Fushimi Shika turned to look at Minamoto Tamako, who paused for a moment, then grabbed the other microphone and said, "No, no. I don't hate the murderer; I just want the truth."

"Okay, then regarding the details of the case..."

Fushimi Shika interrupted, "After the conference, the staff will distribute copies of the case information to everyone and will do their best to reconstruct the scene for your deduction."

Qingdao Yuan nodded: "Okay, I've finished asking my questions."

After he sat down, Fushimi Shika continued, "Any other questions?"

Half the number of people raised their hands, so Fushimi Shika randomly called on someone. This time, a young woman stood up. She was a rising star mystery novelist who wasn't actually good at investigating murder cases; she was just interested in it.

"Excuse me, can the events that happened here be used as material for a novel?" the female writer asked.

“No problem,” Gen Tamako answered quickly. “All murder cases, all clues, and all reasoning processes can be used as material for novels… but names and places need to be omitted to avoid causing trouble for the victims’ families.”

"Okay, thank you for your reply." The female writer bowed, looking somewhat excited.

Fushimi Shika looked around again: "Any other questions?"

This time, only a handful of people raised their hands.

Fushimi Shika simply ignored him and said directly, "Ask the staff if you have any questions. If the staff can't answer them, then ask us... That's all, meeting adjourned."

He clapped his hands and announced:
"Gentlemen, pay attention! The first murder case is about to begin!"

The spotlights went out simultaneously, staff cleared the microphones, and quickly restored the podium. The red curtain was slowly drawn back, and the outside world was surprisingly bright, dim and hazy, as if time had reversed to six o'clock in the afternoon.

A torrential downpour was falling from the sky, and bursts of thunder came from the hidden speakers, taking everyone back to that rainy night three years ago.

Clang.

The door is open.

A woman in a trench coat walked in carrying a suitcase.

Fushimi Shika somehow found his way outside and followed the woman in the trench coat.

"Go inside," the woman in the trench coat said, stepping aside.

Fushimi Shika walked in, as if reciting lines: "Didn't you say you were going to give me special guidance? What are you doing here?"

The atmosphere at the beginning was a bit strange, and the audience couldn't help but turn around to see the bride's reaction. Unfortunately, Minamoto no Tamako wasn't there, and they were somewhat disappointed, only able to continue watching this murder drama from the sidelines.

"Use polite language when you speak." The woman in the trench coat took out her keys and locked the door.

"Yes, Instructor."

“I don’t like beating around the bush, so I’ll get straight to the point: you’re one of Kawai’s accomplices, aren’t you?” The woman in the trench coat, carrying a suitcase, walked through rows of benches and stood on the platform, looking up at the police badge relief.

“I’m not familiar with her,” Fushimi Shika said.

“You went to see her last night and took something from her underwear,” the woman in the trench coat said, taking a roll of film from her coat pocket and gently placing it on the podium. “It was all photographed; there’s no point in denying it.”

She turned her head and pressed, "Don't you feel ashamed of this police uniform for doing such despicable things?"

Fushimi Shika remained silent. The woman in the trench coat placed the suitcase on the lectern and said, "A student like you who shows no remorse must be given the most severe punishment..."

The two were acting out their roles meticulously. The woman in the trench coat was stepping on the groom, seemingly about to engage in public BDSM. Just when everyone thought they were about to witness something exciting, another girl in a shirt suddenly burst out from behind the curtain and pointed a gun at the woman in the trench coat.

From this point on, the play suddenly stops having dialogue.

(End of this chapter)