The Tokyo Police Journey Begins with the Ability to See Evil Thoughts

The following day, Kamiya Gen rested in bed.

He had just had his dressing changed, and his shoulder was still aching slightly.

Just then, there was a knock on the door. To Kamiya Gen's surprise, Takeuchi Takayuki came to visit him during his work hours.

However, seeing that he hadn't mentioned anything, Kamiya Gen realized that he had been overthinking things.

"What brings you here?" Kamiya Gen asked politely.

Although he and Takayuki Takeuchi are of the same rank, their ages are different. If they were working in a regular company instead of the police department, he should address Takeuchi as "senpai".

"There's something I need to tell you..." Takeuchi Takayuki seemed a little hesitant.

Kamiya Gen sat up, supporting himself on the bed with both hands, and asked, "Just tell me, why are you being so formal?"

"I was on duty last night when the police station received a call reporting that a child had run away from home and gone missing. I didn't take it seriously at the time, since it hadn't even been 24 hours. I just assigned the case to the officer in charge and didn't do anything myself."

"And then?" Kamiya Gen asked.

He had heard of many cases like this before and didn't think there was anything wrong with Takeuchi Takayuki's actions.

If the police have to send out a large number of people to search for a child every time they hear that someone has run away from home and is suspected of being missing, that would be a huge waste of police resources.

Besides, they've simply passed the buck to the regent.

"I only found out today. The patrols at the border didn't take it seriously at all. They just made a simple record and went back. That's when I found out who the missing person was."

"What does this have to do with me?" Kamiya Gen felt that he was speaking slowly.

Takayuki Takeuchi nodded: "It's that girl who used to keep coming to the police station to see you."

He took a small stack of documents from his briefcase, handed them to Kamiya Gen, and continued,

"This is the result of my subsequent investigation at her school and home; it seems this really isn't just a simple case of running away from home..."

Kamiya Gen frowned as he took the document and quickly examined it.

……

Several hours later, at Shibuya Minami High School.

Kamiya Gen got out of the police car and walked ahead, with Takeuchi Takayuki following beside him.

"I should have arranged for someone to contact you yesterday, or at least called you, but I really didn't know it was this child..."

"No, you did nothing wrong."

Kamiya Gen shook his head and said, "It's my fault. I had thought about coming to her school before, but I forgot about it because I've been in the hospital these past few days. Now it seems it's too late."

"Should I go to the school to find her teacher? But I've been there once and didn't get any useful information."

Takayuki Takeuchi had come in the morning and only learned one thing from that teacher: Yuzuki Miyazawa had been placed on a short-term leave of absence yesterday.

The main issue is that she was involved in a theft, and despite having irrefutable evidence, she refused to admit it.

The teacher could only publicly tell her to go home and reflect on her actions, and to come to school with her parents to apologize when she decides to admit her mistake.

Then came the incident of the father from the Miyazawa family calling the police.

"We need to find her teacher, but the main thing is to bring that guy named Nozaki here," Kamiya Gen said.

He didn't believe Miyazawa would steal anything. Besides, even though that guy was a bit stupid, he wouldn't hide stolen goods in his backpack. Something was definitely wrong with that.

As they talked, the two walked into the school.

It was during class time at school, and the corridors were empty.

Before long, the two found Miyazawa Yuzuki's homeroom teacher—a middle-aged female teacher with a gentle expression, but also a hint of fatigue.

Upon seeing Kamiya Gen and Takeuchi Takayuki, the teacher showed a hint of surprise, then quickly stood up and respectfully said:

"You...why are you here again?"

Takayuki Takeuchi came by once in the morning, and she told him everything she knew.

"Hello teacher, we have a few things we'd like to ask you about."

Kamiya Genji spoke gently, trying to make his tone as friendly as possible, "We're looking for Nozaki, he should be a student in your class, right?"

Upon hearing the name "Nozaki," the teacher's expression became slightly complicated. She sighed softly, shook her head, and said with a hint of helplessness:

"Officer, I'm afraid I can't help you, because Nozaki has never come back to school."

Kamiya Gen and Takeuchi Takayuki exchanged a glance, both seeing surprise in each other's eyes.

"Was it after she was taken to the barbarian camp?" Kamiya Gen asked.

Out of respect for privacy, the police did not disclose Nozaki's condition to the school at the time.

But if the teacher asked the other students, she could at least find out why she hadn't come to class for several days.

The teacher nodded and slowly said:

"After she got into trouble last time and was taken to the authorities, about two or three days later, her parents came to the school and helped her withdraw from school. We didn't ask for the specific reasons, after all, that child... you know, there's no point in asking."

Kamiya Gen remained silent for a moment, feeling somewhat irritated, before speaking:

"By the way, teacher, you said that Miyazawa Yuzuki was accused of stealing something. Could you tell us who accused her? And what was the stolen item?"

The teacher nodded and said, "The one who accused her is another girl in our class named Yuki Oda. The stolen item was a necklace, which I heard was very valuable."

"Yuki Oda?"

Kamiya Gen silently repeated the name to himself. He had never heard of this girl before, nor had he ever seen her. Holding a pen and paper, he said...

"Could you tell us more about Yuki Oda? For example, her family background, her usual performance at school, her relationship with Yuzuki Miyazawa, and why she accused Yuzuki Miyazawa of stealing her necklace?"

The teacher pondered for a moment and then slowly said, "Yuki Oda is a girl who receives a lot of attention in our class. Her family is well-off and she dresses quite nicely at school."

"However, she has a rather flamboyant personality and is somewhat willful. She doesn't like to follow school rules, has a low attendance rate in class, and often asks for leave or skips class. She is also always accompanied by a few girls, and her classmates have mixed opinions about her."

The teacher paused, maintaining an objective tone without offering any further judgment.

"If you want to know more, perhaps you can call her over and ask her yourself. After all, as a teacher, I can only talk about the surface situation I have observed."

"As for her relationship with Miyazawa Yuzuki, it wasn't very good; in fact, it could even be described as somewhat conflicted."

The teacher paused, then continued,

"The accusation that Miyazawa Yuzuki stole her necklace came yesterday morning. Oda Yuki said that she was wearing the necklace when she came to school yesterday morning. Later, during PE class, she took off the necklace and put it in her schoolbag. When she returned to the classroom after PE class, she found that the necklace was gone."

"She was very anxious at the time and searched everywhere. Later, for some reason, she suspected that Miyazawa Yuzuki had stolen her necklace. She said that Miyazawa Yuzuki had held a grudge against her because they had argued before, so she deliberately stole her necklace to get revenge on her."

"After that, she told me about it, so I gathered Miyazawa Yuzuki, Oda Yuki, and a few other classmates to investigate the matter together. Unexpectedly, we ended up finding the necklace in Miyazawa Yuzuki's schoolbag."

"Miyazawa Yuzuki kept saying that she did not steal it, and that someone deliberately put the necklace in her bag to frame her, but Oda Yuki insisted that Miyazawa Yuzuki stole it and even produced some 'evidence'."

"Someone said they saw Miyazawa Yuzuki sneak back into the classroom during gym class, and that Miyazawa Yuzuki had a previous conflict with her, so they had enough motive to steal her necklace."

"Although I felt there was something wrong at the time, the evidence was right in front of me, and Miyazawa refused to admit it. For a while, I didn't know what to do, so I could only let Miyazawa Yuzuki go home first and let her think it over."

After the teacher finished speaking, she sighed softly, her tone tinged with helplessness.

"Now that I think about it, Miyazawa, although a bit willful, wouldn't stole something, especially not something that happened when he had a conflict with Oda Yuki. He blatantly stole her necklace. That's just not logical."

After listening to his teacher's explanation, Kamiya Gen had already formed a general judgment in his mind.

Actually, this is probably the teacher's self-justifying statement.

How could an adult like her not see what was going on?

Ultimately, they just wanted to settle things peacefully, but Miyazawa refused to admit it, and that's how it ended up like this.

The two of them said that Miyazawa Yuzuki should go home first.

However, according to the information provided by Takeuchi Takayuki, Miyazawa's father knew that it was "bringing the parents back to the school to apologize," which was completely different.

Why do I only encounter teachers like this? Is there not a single good one among them?

No, Ms. Kurokawa seemed alright yesterday.

After mentally grumbling, Kamiya Gen could only ask, "Could you please call Oda Yuki over? She should be in class, right?"

"Please wait a moment, I'll be right there..."

……

A short while later, a girl who looked almost exactly like Kamiya Gen had guessed walked in.

She was wearing a loose-fitting school uniform jacket, zipped up to her chest, with her clothes underneath askew and crooked, looking nothing like a normal student.

She wore many ornaments around her neck and wrists, which were quite eye-catching. However, Kamiya Gen glanced at them and immediately noticed something was amiss—the ornaments had a dull luster and rough details, and most of them were counterfeit goods. It seemed that they were just things she used to put on a show and make a good impression.

Takayuki Takeuchi also noticed this, but unlike Gen Kamiya, his first thought was of his daughter, worrying that she might be just as unreliable as these guys.

As soon as the girl entered, the teacher made an excuse to leave, saying that she had something to do and that she could find him in the multimedia classroom if she needed anything later. It seemed that she did not want to get involved in troublesome matters.

"You're the police? What do you want with me?"

After the teacher left, Yuki Oda spoke up.

Her expression was full of disdain as she spoke, as if the two policemen in front of her were not worthy of her attention.

Suppressing his displeasure, Kamiya Gen asked:

"You're Yuki Oda? We're here to ask you about the details of Miyazawa stealing your necklace."

Upon hearing the name "Miyazawa," Yuki Oda's face instantly darkened, and her tone became even more cutting:

"What else could it be? It's that thief who stole my necklace! The evidence is right there, but she still won't admit it. She's incredibly shameless."

"We understand that the necklace was found in her bag, but she claims that someone deliberately put it there to frame her. What do you think?" Takeuchi Takayuki couldn't help but ask.

"Framed?" Yuki Oda scoffed as if she'd heard the funniest joke. She found a seat, leaned back in her chair, and crossed her arms.

"Who does she think she is, daring me to frame her? She stole my necklace and tried to pin it on someone else, but she's too stupid; the evidence was caught red-handed."

Her voice grew louder and louder, her disdain and impatience undisguised, even tinged with arrogance:

"Why aren't you catching the thief? Why are you asking me all this nonsense? I've already said it was her who stole it. The necklace was found in her bag, and a classmate saw her return to the classroom during PE class. Isn't that clear enough?"

As she spoke, she reached out and tugged at her loose school uniform jacket, making a move to get up and leave. Her impatience was evident on her face, and she completely disregarded Kamiya Gen and Takeuchi Takayuki.

Upon seeing this, Takeuchi Takayuki quickly spoke up to stop him:

"Wait, we still have questions for you, you can't leave."

Yuki Oda stopped, turned around, rolled her eyes dramatically, and spoke in an even more disrespectful tone:

"What are you asking? I've said everything I need to say, don't you understand? I've said it, Miyazawa is a thief. If you don't believe me, go check it out yourselves, don't bother me!"

Suppressing his irritation, Kamiya Gen softened his tone and continued to ask:

"We just want to understand the situation and find her whereabouts. She's missing now. If you know any clues, please tell us the truth. It's very important for us to find her."

"Missing?"

Yuki Oda frowned slightly, then a smug smile appeared on her face.

"It's good that she's missing. Maybe she stole my necklace and ran back to her hometown to hide because she was afraid of being caught. What does it have to do with me? I don't know where she is, and I don't want to know."

Seeing this, Kamiya Gen realized that trying to reason with this guy wouldn't work, so he said:

"When I arrested Nozaki last time, you weren't around, were you?"

"Catch, catch Nozaki?"

Upon hearing this, Yuki Oda paused for a moment.

She had already heard that a young policeman had arrested Nozaki, but now she realized that it was the man standing in front of her.

Remembering what others had told her, Yuki Oda panicked.

Won't... they'll arrest me too?

"I'm pretty sure you're framing Miyazawa, but I don't want to pursue that. I just want to know her whereabouts. If you don't cooperate..."

Kamiya Gen pulled out handcuffs and threatened, "I don't mind taking you back to the police station for questioning right now. You can ask your girlfriends. I'm not one to act on reason."