Tokyo: Rabbit Officer and Her Evil Partner-Chapter 818 - 495: The Real and Fake Lawyers (Part 2)
"How can this be judged?" Fushimi Roku genuinely couldn’t understand.
"Negligence leading to serious mistake, you know law better than me, you should understand, right?" Sazaki Gen finished eating pickled bamboo shoots and continued slurping noodles noisily.
"I do know law better than you, that’s why I can’t understand it."
Fushimi Roku tightened his grip on his phone: "What kind of negligence is this? Have they questioned the upper management? Have they asked his action leader? Who initiated the surveillance operation, shouldn’t that person bear full responsibility? It’s such a simple principle of dividing responsibilities, why does it become inapplicable in court? What are the judges even doing?!"
"Oh! Now that you mention it, I remember, didn’t Horie Kei kill a judge? It was probably out of misplaced hatred, that’s what the rumors say, but I don’t really know."
Sazaki Gen was just a spectator, he had no interest in this case, commenting casually:
"But ultimately, he brought it upon himself, didn’t he? Who asked him not to report when enforcing the law? I was a criminal police officer too, I know the unspoken rules, you catch people first, then handle the paperwork...but this can’t be done openly, if you’re caught, you have to blame your own bad luck."
Fushimi Roku had heard enough of this kind of talk.
Watanabe Shun was given a suspended sentence for soliciting prostitution, who asked him to bring it upon himself? No one appealed the sentence as too harsh; Moriyama Yasurou was suddenly fired, who asked her to be frequently absent? No one challenged it against labor laws; including Kazama Tatsuya, losing his job with a broken arm and blind eye, who asked him to raise such a daughter? No one cared how Kazama Tatsuya felt...
— ’Flies don’t stick to eggs without cracks, can only blame his bad luck.’
Such a light remark covered up malicious accusations, covered up gender conflicts, covered up unjust judgments.
They did make mistakes, but no one is perfect, so the law must be more just.
Sazaki Gen continued to chatter: "Action reporting is basic knowledge, overstepping authority is a big taboo, the criminal department didn’t wrongly accuse the little patrol police, the special investigation team personnel files really didn’t have his name, he wasn’t even a member of the special investigation team. When it comes down to it, he was like a dog catching mice, meddling, creating a huge mess with good intentions..."
"Enough!" Fushimi Roku shouted softly.
Sazaki Gen’s every word seemed to slap him in the face forcefully, and he instinctively cursed: "The law isn’t a weapon for those bastards!!"
Once he said it, Fushimi Roku was stunned.
He hadn’t expected himself to say something like that.
"When did you become a hothead? Just get married peacefully, enjoy your vacation in Hokkaido, and come back to Tokyo after everything passes... I prepared a wedding gift for you, you can look forward to it." Sazaki Gen shook his head with emotion: "Now society’s atmosphere in Tokyo is really bad, it was better in the old days, in the jianghu it was just fighting and killing, not so much messy stuff."
Fushimi Roku casually said a few perfunctory words and hung up the phone.
He pressed the toilet flush, got up from the stall, and returned to the temporarily set-up dining tent.
Minamoto Tamako had already finished licking her ice cream and was writing and sketching on her notebook.
Fushimi Roku leaned over to observe, and saw the notebook was full of case analysis, and Minamoto Tamako was again going over the whole process of the hall shooting case.
"I think we still need to ask Mr. Ishizuka..."
Minamoto Tamako said, biting the pen: "It’s a pity he has refused to accept prison visits, it would be nice to meet him face to face."
Fushimi Roku reached out to close her notebook and bent down to hug her shoulders: "Leave it to those famous detectives to investigate, we just need to focus on getting married."
"This is part of getting married," Minamoto Tamako pouted: "I want to see how those famous detectives solve the case, but unfortunately, they have to go out and investigate, each with their own partners..."
"You have ice cream on your mouth."
Fushimi Roku pretended not to hear her complaint and wiped the ice cream residue off her lips.
"Did you wash your hands after using the bathroom?" Minamoto Tamako leaned back.
"I did." Fushimi Roku hadn’t actually used the bathroom, he just made a call.
"What’s the brand of the hand dryer?" Minamoto Tamako squinted her eyes.
"The bathroom doesn’t have a hand dryer." Fushimi Roku responded quickly.
"Then what did you use to wipe your hands?" Minamoto Tamako pursued.
"Okay, I didn’t wash my hands." Fushimi Roku realized continuing to argue would never end.
"So unhygienic!" Minamoto Tamako quickly broke free, wiped her mouth with a napkin, muttering complaints, her cowlick expressing disdain.
Fushimi Roku sat down beside her, looking shameless, he suddenly asked: "By the way, I don’t think I’ve ever asked before...what do you think about the law?"
"The law is a weapon to protect justice."
Minamoto Tamako answered casually, after wiping her mouth, she seemed puzzled: "Why are you asking this all of a sudden?"
"Oh, I was just thinking about what to do if we actually catch the real culprit of Heavenly Punishment." Fushimi Roku leaned in to Tamako’s ear and whispered: "You better think it through, if we hand it over to the law, that person may not be sentenced to death. With good behavior in prison, they might get out in ten or twenty years."
Before Minamoto Tamako could respond, he continued: "So many innocent people died because of Heavenly Punishment; think about Kawai, she could have had a great life, yet the person who killed her doesn’t have to pay with their life, not only living but potentially starting a new life..."
"Is handing it over to the law really a good choice?"
...
Minamoto Tamako was silent for a moment, sizing up Fushimi Roku: "Are you done talking?"
Fushimi Roku saw her look and her words for the first time, and for the first time he felt guilty.
In the past, he always made the decisions, talking Minamoto Tamako into things like tricking a fool.
But once it involved a matter of principle, Minamoto Tamako suddenly became clear-headed.
"If everyone thought like that, then what would lawyers be for?" Minamoto Tamako questioned: "Weren’t you a lawyer before, did you think this way too?"
This question stumped Fushimi Roku.
"Definitely not, right? When you first became a lawyer, you must have hoped the law would be more just?" Minamoto Tamako stood up, went to the ice cream machine, scooped a ball of ice cream, and handed it to Fushimi Roku: "Don’t get too angry, lest you get overwhelmed by rage, have an ice cream to cool off."
Fushimi Roku took the ice cream, licked it, and the vanilla strawberry mix was delicious.
"I know you’re still grumbling about what happened to Kawai, and Yukimura Aoi’s situation, back then you were so angry you even fired a shot..." Minamoto Tamako paused, patting Fushimi Roku’s shoulder, urging him: "But we can’t become like those bad people."
Fushimi Roku nodded, focusing on eating the ice cream ball, pretending nothing happened, shifting the topic to talk about what to eat at the wedding banquet.
...
Meanwhile, Kensaka Takataro and Mori Na had changed into new clothes and were sitting in the designated visiting room at Hokkaido Prison.
"Is this really okay?" Mori Na was so nervous she was shaking, constantly covering her eyebrows with her hand: "Can I let my bangs down? It feels weird having my forehead exposed..."
The sportswear she originally wore was gone, replaced with a business suit long skirt and black stockings, her hair tied up in the back, making her look like a smart professional assistant.
The only flaw was her dot eyebrows, which looked like Shiba Inu’s eyebrows, adding a comedic touch to her face.
"Trust me, just stay like this." Kensaka Takataro said.
He too had changed into a suit, crossing his legs on a chair, a fake lawyer badge pinned to his chest, casually placing a briefcase on the desk, pretending to organize files.
Yes, he was impersonating a lawyer to visit Ishizuka Yoshio in prison.
According to Article 39 of the Criminal Procedure Law, even if a prisoner refuses, a lawyer still has the right to request a meeting to ensure the right to defense.
But this provision only applies to unsentenced detainees, so Kensaka Takataro also forged a pursuit document, claiming Ishizuka Yoshio was involved in another murder case— as the prosecuting lawyer, he has the right to interview the relevant suspect.
To expedite the process, Kensaka Takataro also spent a little money, greasing the wheels, and was able to sit here waiting for the meeting.
"But, isn’t forgery a crime?" Mori Na felt like she had boarded a pirate ship.
"If it’s not in effect, it’s not a crime, I didn’t submit it to a court, it has no legal effect," Kensaka Takataro was quite familiar with legal grey areas: "We’re just pretending to be lawyers, not pretending to be police officers or civil servants, so it’s not a big issue, at most, it’s fraud."
Mori Na still wanted to say a few more words, but the isolation door on the other side of the visiting glass suddenly opened.
A prison guard brought in a middle-aged man in a prisoner’s uniform, gesturing for the man to sit on the chair.
The two sides were separated by soundproof glass and could only communicate through the phone hanging on the wall.
The broadcast sounded, announcing the start of the meeting: "You have thirty minutes of time."
