Conan: I'm a zaibatsu in Tokyo

The news of the prince's death was announced very hastily, with the official statement containing only a few words: Prince Takeda died peacefully at home after a "sudden illness" despite all efforts to save him.

In order to maintain the last vestige of dignity for the royal family, all the truth was kept secret, and even the princess was simply imprisoned at home.

However, this kind of news cannot be suppressed.

Rumors about the prince's cause of death had already spread in Tokyo's upscale clubs and private clubs.

The prince's death has become a topic of unspoken conversation among people.

"Died of illness? Hmph, that nonsense only fools the ignorant masses." A senior member of parliament with old ties to the Imperial Household Agency lowered his voice during a private card game.

"I heard that the prince was strangled to death, and the wounds on his neck were so deep that the bone was visible."

"Strangled to death?" The person next to him gasped. "Was that a burglary?"

"A robber?" the senator sneered. "What kind of robber would dare to strangle a prince?"

"You mean..." The atmosphere at the card table froze instantly.

They also knew that a bandit dared to lay a hand on the prince.

That robber has seized many companies and murdered many people through force and robbery.

"Besides him, who else has the guts and the means?" The man looked around and lowered his voice even further. "I just didn't expect his power to have reached this level. He killed a prince and the royal family dared not make a fuss for the sake of face. I even heard that the princess was locked up at home and not allowed to go out."

"That's really exaggerated?"

Not only did he kill the prince, but he also imprisoned the princess. Zheng Yi is too ruthless.

And the royal family actually accepted it.

The congressman whispered, "They can't find any evidence, can they? With Zheng Yi's power in Japan, as long as they can't find any evidence, who can do anything to him?"

Even if we find evidence, we might not be able to handle it, let alone if we can't find any evidence.

"I never imagined that Kyoto had degenerated to such an extent."

I thought only the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department had completely become Shoichi's lackey, but I didn't expect Kyoto to be the same.

There were also rumors in Osaka that it had long since fallen, and that the Hattori family's son was serving as a lackey for Shoichi on the front lines.

"I really don't know what the world will become."

Even a prince has been murdered, and the killer has gone unpunished. He even feels he can foresee the prime minister being murdered and the killer being acquitted.

The discussions on the streets and alleys continued, and the more curious people were about the truth, the more Zhengyi was pushed onto a pedestal.

He became a legend.

A terrifying being who could easily wipe out even royal princes, yet remain unscathed himself.

……

Saburo Sumitomo stood by the railing, an unlit cigarette between his fingers.

Zheng Yi, on the other hand, leaned casually against the pillar behind him with his hands in his pockets.

Saburo Sumitomo turned around and said to Shoichi, "Since we've already done it, we've done it."

His tone was calm, without blame or anger.

The person has already been killed, so there's no point in cursing Zheng Yi anymore.

Besides, didn't they fail to find any evidence?

Zheng Yi raised an eyebrow: "What are you talking about? I don't understand."

Saburo Sumitomo ignored his feigned ignorance and continued, "Listen, Shoichi. No matter who asks you, whether it's a policeman, a reporter, or an investigator from the Imperial Family, you absolutely cannot admit it."

Shoichi looked at Sumitomo Saburo, who was standing close by, with a clear innocence in his eyes.

Zheng Yi said softly, "I really didn't do it. Why should I admit it?"

Saburo Sumitomo paused for a moment, his brows furrowing slightly, as if trying to determine the truth of the statement.

Zheng Yi shrugged, looking completely calm: "I was watching an opera at the theater when the incident happened. There were hundreds of eyewitnesses. Besides, I had absolutely no interest in that perverted prince. Killing him? That would have dirtied my hands."

Saburo Sumitomo stared at him for a long time, trying to find a flaw in his expression. However, Shoichi's eyes were clear and unwavering, like those of a truly innocent person.

Finally, Saburo Sumitomo withdrew his gaze, relit the cigarette, took a deep drag, and exhaled a cloud of smoke.

"very good."

With his back to Zheng Yi, his voice turned cold and hard again: "When others ask you, you say the same thing. Exactly the same."

"You're making me give a statement, I really didn't do anything," Zheng Yi said.

Saburo Sumitomo nodded in satisfaction.

Yes, that's it. Even he couldn't see the flaw in Zheng Yi's expression. It seems he can get away with it.

Without substantial evidence, Zheng Yi is innocent.

Saburo Sumitomo asked, "Does the Princess have any dirt on you?"

“I wasn’t involved in her assassination attempt on the prince, so what leverage could she possibly have against me?” Zheng Yi asked.

Saburo Sumitomo frowned and said, "Alright, now it's just the two of us, you don't need to keep pretending. The princess is now saying that you instigated her to kill someone."

Zheng Yi curled his lip and said nonchalantly, "She just wants to reduce her sentence. Many prisoners who have been arrested say that they were bewitched and manipulated by me."

Saburo Sumitomo raised an eyebrow.

That means she doesn't have any leverage over you.

Since there's no evidence against her, there's no need to get rid of her. After all, killing the princess right after the prince's death is practically a blatant threat.

Although there isn't much difference between now and when it's explicitly stated, it's still a thin veil of pretense.

Sumitomo Saburo suddenly sighed.

He looked at Zheng Yi and said, "The situation outside is too complicated and too tragic."

Zheng Yi looked at him strangely and asked, "What are you suddenly reminiscing about?"

"It's nothing, I just feel like I've been in prison for too long and I'm having trouble adapting to society," Sumitomo Saburo said.

Now everyone outside is fighting with real weapons, which he, this old-fashioned guy, really can't understand or adapt to; it's completely different from his way of doing things.

He couldn't offer Zheng Yi any fighting experience; on the contrary, Zheng Yi's fighting experience over the past year was probably more than he had in his entire life.

“I’m going back to prison,” Sumitomo Saburo said. “If there’s anything you can’t handle, just contact your uncle.”

……

In the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department's Criminal Investigation Division office area, although the daily patrol instructions were still being broadcast on a loop, everyone's hands were frozen in mid-air, their eyes darting around, tacitly avoiding the big news that had just spread throughout Tokyo.

Prince Takeda is dead.

"Died of illness? Who would believe that..."

"Shh! Are you out of your mind? Didn't you see the expressions on their faces? They're like they've been poisoned."

"I heard that before the prince died, he made a threat, saying that Young Master Zhengyi should 'take care' of him. And what happened? His body had barely cooled when Young Master Zhengyi didn't even sneeze." "Was that prince crazy? Daring to threaten Zhengyi?"

"Who knows? That's just what everyone's saying."

Although there was much discussion about it in private, no one dared to make a sound.

The entire Metropolitan Police Department was shrouded in an eerie and oppressive atmosphere.

After all, this place has always been jokingly referred to by people within the police force as "Zhengyi's backyard".

No one knew whether the person sitting in that tightly closed director's office was the Superintendent General of Police or a plantation agent placed by Zheng Yi.

If any of his complaints were to reach the ears of that young master of the Sumitomo family, forget about a promotion; he might even lose his badge on the spot.

Just then, Miwako Sato received a phone call.

On the other end of the phone was a high-ranking official from the Metropolitan Police Department, his voice terrifyingly deep: "Officer Sato, come to my office alone."

Sato's heart tightened.

She took a deep breath and pushed open the heavy door.

In the office, the usually imposing executive was facing away from the door, looking at a map of Tokyo on the wall.

"Sir." Sato subconsciously took a half step back.

“I know you’ve been investigating Zheng Yi.”

A flicker of panic crossed Sato's eyes.

Although her investigation into Zheng Yi's affairs wasn't exactly secretive, being directly called out by high-ranking police officers still made her very uneasy.

She instinctively reached for her service pistol, seeking a sense of security. After all, she knew who was human and who was treacherous in the police station.

"You don't need to worry, Zheng Yi and I have no connection whatsoever."

The senior official sighed and pushed the envelope forward: "I know you have guts. All the video recordings of the days he was under surveillance by the Kyoto police are in here."

He pointed to the black envelope, inside which lay a CD.

“Although the Kyoto police have no way to deal with Zhengyi, the data is still there. I checked, and the contents of this disc have not been backed up, nor have there been any signs of remote deletion.” The high-ranking official’s voice was extremely low.

“Zhengyi instigated the princess to commit murder under full surveillance. I don’t expect you to do anything to him, Sato. I just hope you can see how he did it.”

This is quite outrageous.

Because they not only wanted to incite the prince to kill the princess, but also to incite the princess to fiercely resist.

He watched the video many times, but gained nothing from it and had no idea how Zhengyi had managed to do it.

No wonder the Kyoto police were helpless. Only the princess kept saying that it was Masakazu who had bewitched her, and that she hadn't originally intended to kill him.

Sato finally reached out and grasped the cold envelope.

A senior police officer said, "Remember, you are the only one who can know about the video. You must not let anyone else see it."

"Yes." Sato nodded and looked at the envelope in his hand.

The senior official continued, "This was a good opportunity. Zheng Yi was too confident. He managed to incite others to commit crimes while being completely monitored."

Although the Kyoto police didn't find anything suspicious, that's due to Kyoto's incompetence. I hope you can find something useful.

Zheng Yi's subtle and persuasive methods are too powerful. Even if people know how he manipulated people, they may not be able to convict him.

But at least it can prevent things from happening again when Zheng Yi makes a move, and at least ensure that those high-ranking officials won't be killed by Zheng Yi in a muddled way.

"Sir, what are you doing...?"

“I know.” The senior official turned around and said in a low voice, “It’s dangerous, but not everyone is afraid of Shoichi’s power. Go, Sato, don’t let him think that this Metropolitan Police Department is really his private domain.”

The higher-up banged on the table, clearly furious.

He actually knew that there weren't many people in the police station who were considered "righteous," but they were very well hidden.

She always subtly helps Zheng Yi clear his name when he's up to something, without revealing her own presence.

Back then, Inspector Megure was practically a lackey of Shoichi.

But as time went on, it became clear that Inspector Megure was merely used to draw attention, while the real henchmen remained hidden.

The police station's reputation was completely ruined by those few bad apples.

Sato gripped the envelope tightly, turned, and left the office.

The moment the door closed, she heard a very soft, helpless sigh coming from inside.

Sato pushed open the heavy door to the Metropolitan Police Department office, and the suppressed whispers from the corridor rushed towards him.

She subconsciously shoved the envelope containing the CD deeper into her coat pocket.

"Sato!" Takagi strode over from the corner of the corridor, his brow furrowed, his gaze sweeping over her tense face. "I saw you go in just now; you didn't look well. Did the section chief give you another lecture?"

Sato quickly adjusted his expression, forced a slightly tired smile, and waved his hand, saying, "It's nothing serious, it's just that there have been a lot of cases lately, and I've been a little absent-minded. I got a couple of comments about my work attitude not being serious."

Takagi breathed a sigh of relief, but still sounded worried. He lowered his voice and said, "Don't push yourself too hard. Things are tense lately, especially..."

He paused, glanced around warily, and then leaned close to her ear and whispered, "I know you have thoughts about Zheng Yi, but it's better to restrain yourself for now."

Given that such a major incident just occurred, he might be more sensitive about police surveillance and investigations by others.

Sato nodded, patted Takagi's shoulder casually, and laughed, "Don't worry, I know what I'm doing. Come on, I'll treat you to ramen tomorrow night as an apology, okay?"

"Okay!"

After exchanging a few more pleasantries, Sato made an excuse to leave and hurriedly departed from the Metropolitan Police Department.

Instead of going straight home, she bought a bento box at a convenience store and walked around two streets before finally getting home.

The door was closed, the curtains were drawn, and the world finally quieted down.

Sato pulled the black envelope from his pocket, his fingertips trembling slightly with excitement and nervousness.

She inserted the CD into the computer's CD drive, the screen lit up, and the monitoring screen window slowly opened.

The footage shows Zheng Yi's daily life in his hotel room, backstage at the theater, and strolling on the street.

There was no murder weapon, no conspiracy, only a lazy man yawning, eating dessert, casually chatting with people, and flirting with two girls.

"Zhengyi, what exactly did you do?"

Sato muttered to himself, moved the mouse pointer over the progress bar, and clicked pause.

Instead of starting from the beginning, she skipped directly to the time before and after Zheng Yi's last phone call with the prince.

Playback frame by frame.

The images flashed by frame by frame, and Zheng Yi's expressions, eyes, and even the slightest movements of his fingers were magnified and analyzed by her.

She knew that Zheng Yi's crimes never relied on violence, but on the weaknesses of people's hearts, information gaps, and absolute control over the situation.

Opportunities to observe Zheng Yi committing crimes like this are rare; she must watch it frame by frame. (End of Chapter)