Tokyo: I'm really not a killer

Shinomiya Rin hasn't been idle these past few days either.

She had overheard her father saying, "Make arrangements to teach him a lesson. Find someone from outside, someone clean. Money isn't the issue; the key is to make him understand what happens when he wastes my time."

Masakazu Shinomiya didn't explicitly say "assassination," but used the ambiguous term "lesson"... However, given her daughter's understanding of her father, she clearly understood what he meant.

She knew who had ordered the assassin, knew it was futile, knew it might backfire, but she still investigated.

During her break, Shinomiya Rin secretly organized the fragmented information she had gleaned from her near-death infiltration of the Yamakengi office, repeatedly recalling the details of the chase after the convoy that day.

In addition, she tried to find any clues that might be related to the telephone club and the swamp man, even though she knew her father had definitely cleaned up the mess.

The process was tedious and frustrating.

Most of the time, she could only stare blankly at her notebook or be overwhelmed by the complicated daily work of a patrol officer.

Occasionally, she would catch a vague clue, such as overhearing other police officers chatting about "strange suicide cases," and she would immediately perk up her ears, but pursuing it would often come to nothing.

She felt like she was running in a thick fog, unable to see ahead or know where she was going, but stubbornly refusing to stop.

Ugh.

Rin Shinomiya sometimes thinks of Sisyphus from Greek mythology, who, knowing the boulder would roll downhill, still pushed it uphill... Was there any point in doing so?

There's really no way to solve this.

This morning, she went to work on time as usual, dealing with the backlog of reports from yesterday, most of which were trivial matters.

After carefully sorting through the documents, she found a "letter" in the report she had turned herself in.

To be precise, it was a note written on the back of the surrender report:

"Inspector of the Four Palaces, I know who your father is."

"I know how Kuwata Kenkichi died, and I have ample evidence."

"If you want to preserve the Shinomiya family's reputation and Representative Shinomiya's future, come see me. Otherwise, I don't mind ruining Representative Shinomiya's reputation."

"At 8:00 AM on September 23rd, in warehouse A8 on the second basement floor of Sunshine Mall in Minato Ward, I prepared 10 million yen in cash and came alone."

"Don't try anything funny, and don't tell anyone."

Shinomiya Rin was startled and immediately realized this was a blackmail letter. If she wasn't mistaken, it must have been sent by the Swamp Man!

Only Numa knew the secret of Shinomiya Masakazu's hiring of a killer, because Numa was the executor!

She looked surprised and her first thought was to recall the person who filed the report, but she realized that she had been too perfunctory in her work these past few days and had no idea what the person who filed the report looked like... Besides, some of the people who filed the reports were received by Yuan Zhensheng and the director, so it was normal that they hadn't encountered the person who wrote the blackmail letter.

Shinomiya Rin quickly flipped back to the records, wanting to see the information about turning oneself in. Generally, when turning oneself in, the officer would ask the person turning themselves in to leave their contact information and home address...

Name: Beria

"Contact method: Brainwave synchronization"

Home address: Land of Light, M78 Nebula

"Date of surrender: September 20th"

"..."

What is all this about?

Shinomiya Rin flipped the police report back over and stared at the time: 8:00 AM on September 23rd—wasn't that today?!

She looked up at the clock on the wall again; it was 7:30, less than half an hour before the appointed time!

Damn it, it's been three days already, how come she's only seeing this letter now? Could it be because it was assigned to Yuan Zhensheng for processing? That guy had the day off yesterday and the day before, he didn't come to work at all!

Shinomiya Rin immediately sensed something was wrong. She didn't have time to think about it or figure out why the other party didn't send the threatening letter directly to Shinomiya Masakazu but sent it to her instead. She hurriedly told the station chief that she needed to ask for leave, then went to the equipment room to get her sidearm, and sped away in her patrol car.

"Hey, I haven't approved it yet!" the director shouted.

Fortunately, Yuan Zhensheng returned at this time, and with someone to do the shift handover, the director was slightly relieved. He complained to Yuan Zhensheng, "The young lady is so willful, she doesn't respect her superiors at all."

"Yes, Chief, Inspector Shinomiya is always so willful and self-willed." Hara Masaki took the opportunity to sow discord.

After a few words of criticism from the two, Yuan Zhensheng began his work—he got up at six in the morning, spent an hour perfecting the assassination plan, wrote the threatening letter in ten minutes and mixed it into the surrender report that Shinomiya Rin was going to deal with, and incidentally set the clock in the director's office forward by an hour. Then he spent twenty minutes having breakfast and warming up, and prepared everything he needed in advance, putting it in the trunk of the patrol car.

He finished the report of surrendering himself to the police in a very perfunctory manner, which took about ten minutes. Afterwards, he reported to the station chief that he was going out on patrol. The station chief readily agreed and asked him to bring a roll of tape on his way back, as the tape in the office had run out.

"no problem."

Yuan Zhensheng pressed down his police cap with one hand and nodded to the station chief with a smile.

After leaving the office, he took off his uniform, changed his face, and disguised himself as a busy office worker. He hurriedly ran to the Sunshine Mall in the port area and headed to the abandoned warehouse on the second basement floor.

Shinomiya Rin was already waiting there. Hearing footsteps, she jumped in fright, quickly drawing her sidearm and pointing it at the warehouse door: "Who's there?!"

Yuan Zhensheng peeked out and confirmed it was her. He pulled hard on the iron door, slamming it shut with a clang. He locked it with the upper and lower latches and added an extra lock. Then he slipped the prepared note under the door.

Feeling completely bewildered, Shinomiya Rin shouted, "Open the door! Or I'll shoot!"

There was no response from outside; it seemed the people outside had already left.

She cautiously approached and pounded on the door, but there was no response; no one ever came down from this place.

Left with no other choice, she picked up the note, bent over, and read it by the dim light from the crack in the door:

"I was sent by your father."

"Your father asked me to relay these exact words: 'Do you persist in your ridiculous investigation and continue being a troublesome cop, or do you choose to shut up and obediently be your pampered young lady?'"

"Stay quiet inside, don't shoot, don't call for help, or you'll lose your job."

"Once your father has dealt with everything, someone will release you tonight."

……

How could this happen!

Shinomiya Rin looked annoyed, thinking to herself, "I'm so stupid, how could I have fallen for this trick!"

Swamp Man is an employee of her father, so naturally he will listen to her father. Even if she wanted to threaten him, she should have gone directly to her father... She should have thought of this earlier.

It now appears that Swamp Man was completely his father's dog, responsible for handling shady business, including disciplining his own daughter.

She was so angry that she pounded the ground with both hands, but she used too much force and cried out in pain, looking like a defeated dog.

Ughhhhhhh!!

That's outrageous!

……

Meanwhile, Yuan Zhensheng went to the parking lot, opened the trunk of the patrol car, and took out the luggage he had prepared in advance.

He randomly picked a mischievous kid who was scribbling on someone's car by the roadside, gave the kid an Ultraman mask and a toy gun, then squatted down and said with a smile:

"How about Uncle takes you to play cops and robbers?"