Chapter 117
Because of this mess, Kenji Hagiwara contacted the local police station and said that they would be leaving soon and that any questions should be directed to the Metropolitan Police Department.
Then they drove all the way back to Tokyo, ending their short hot spring trip.
Kenji Hagiwara and Jinpei Matsuda only soaked for less than 10 minutes in total... They relaxed, but not completely. They even had to work overtime and now have to go back to the Metropolitan Police Department to explain to Chief Odagiri in person. This vacation was really ridiculous.
Matsuda Jinpei even heartlessly complained to Usui Saiki's face: "Let's not bring Kankawa next time. It feels like he's a walking accident magnet. There's always a case around him. He was never quiet when he was in police academy."
Bo Yezaki said quietly, "I seem to have heard that you guys weren't exactly quiet even when you were at the police academy..."
Matsuda Jinpei: "...Hagi, why do you tell him everything?"
Kenji Hagiwara coughed: "There's nothing I can't say, we're all the same... Anyway, we still have to go see Section Chief Odagiri. Jinpei, you wait downstairs."
So Kenji Hagiwara took Saiki Usui to see their superior, Toshiro Odagiri, who was supposed to be seen after their vacation ended and the formalities were completed.
This person is still a strong candidate for Minister of Criminal Justice, and may be promoted to minister in a few years.
It is said that he has a strict personality and is somewhat stern. Considering that the other party insisted on recruiting Kanakawa Shinryu into the First Investigation Division despite the opposition, Usaba Saiki felt that this superior's suspicion level might not be easy to raise.
Soon, the two entered the section chief's office.
When they went in, Section Chief Odagiri was on the phone: "Yeah, don't worry about the rest, just follow this mainstream approach...right..."
After giving a few instructions, Section Chief Odagiri hung up the phone, looked Usui Yasaki up and down, paused strangely for a moment, and then sighed slightly: "...No wonder the criminal misunderstood you and said those things to the reporter."
Kenji Hagiwara was a little nervous: "Section Chief, Kagawa, he..."
Section Chief Odagiri raised a hand to stop Kenji Hagiwara's explanation: "I understand. Since I specifically asked Kankawa to come to our First Investigation Division, I was prepared for this. Besides, some of the rumors are really a bit excessive. Kankawa is only responsible for solving cases. Without Kankawa, those people would still commit crimes. How can you blame Kankawa?"
Bo Yezhai: "..." There's no need to be so righteous...
Kenji Hagiwara was moved; this was a rare instance of someone expressing trust in Shinryu Kagawa right from the start: "As expected of the section chief, this is what it means to not use someone you doubt and to trust someone you use."
Section Chief Odagiri coughed awkwardly after being praised: "..."
—Well, he would still have some doubts. After all, seeing Han Chuan Shenliu like this, even after all the mental preparation he had done and even spending a long time getting used to looking at the photos, was still a bit... cough cough... from doubt to understanding...
Unable to bear the overly sentimental atmosphere, which resembled a TV drama, Usoppei Kijima resolutely chose a less sentimental topic: "What did the prisoners say to the reporters?"
Section Chief Odagiri casually remarked, "They said it was like the police were stinging people, or that the police were providing criminal plans or something like that."
The system exclaimed excitedly: "My god, if you could raise the suspicion level of every single Japanese person, you wouldn't just live to 99, you could probably buy everything in the shop and still have enough to last!"
Usakabe Saiki was surprisingly cautious: "Don't say things that sound like a flag... Generally speaking, things that seem like a windfall are bound to have some twists and turns."
Kenji Hagiwara's expression was also very serious and worried: "What if the reporters report this..."
Section Chief Odagiri calmly replied, "Don't worry, I've already spoken to the press club, and they'll handle the public opinion."
“…Hmm?” Bo Yezaki’s heart skipped a beat.
Kenji Hagiwara looked enlightened: "Did it really come to the point where the press club had to get involved?"
Bo Yezai frowned: "What is a press club?"
Section Chief Odagiri casually remarked, "It's for controlling public opinion."
Japan's media structure is very homogeneous. News agencies, NHK television, the five major newspapers, and the television stations operated by these five newspapers basically control most of Japan's media.
As for the infamous "Press Club"—although it is a non-governmental organization, its offices are actually located in government buildings, and disobedient journalists are blacklisted.
Mainstream media are mostly under government control, so if preparations are made in advance, public opinion can be guided so that people don't pay too much attention to the reports of freelance journalists and the remaining disobedient media.
Usoba Saiki, who had never paid attention to this before, was quite disappointed after hearing the explanation: "...The instructor was worried that if he refused to admit me, the public opinion would be bad if I committed a crime."
“If it only involves the police academy, there’s no need to control public opinion; no matter how big the commotion gets, it won’t amount to much,” Chief Odagiri explained. “But this situation is different; it could seriously damage the reputation of the police, so we have to get the press club involved.”
Realizing he couldn't garner enough suspicion from all of Japan, Usui sighed.
Section Chief Odagiri keenly sensed something: "...Why do you seem so disappointed?"
Does this guy really want to smear the reputation of the Japanese police?!
No, how could he think of his future subordinate like that? He must have been influenced by the outrageous rumors summarized by the reporters...
Kenji Hagiwara quickly explained for Saiki Usui: "He might just be a little unaccustomed to the fact that Japan's control over public opinion is so strict! After all, he used to live in a very remote place, and he had some idealistic fantasies about these things, thinking that public opinion was very free."
Section Chief Odagiri: "..."
Who are you talking about? Are you sure it's Hanakawa Shinryu, not some simple country transfer student from a shonen manga?
He looked at Kenji Hagiwara, then at Shinryu Samikawa, and couldn't quite connect what Kenji Hagiwara had said. He even had some doubts about his idea of pairing Kenji Hagiwara with Shinryu Samikawa.
To prevent that subtle feeling from escalating, Section Chief Odagiri decided to act quickly: "Anyway, you don't need to worry about public opinion. Let's talk about what exactly happened this time."
Kenji Hagiwara promptly answered before Saiki Usui could speak, explaining the incident from his own perspective.
Unfortunately, Section Chief Odagiri was not one to listen to only one side of the story. After listening to Kenji Hagiwara's explanation, he asked Saiki Usui to add some more details.
"How did you manage to converse so fluently with the prisoner?"
“It’s very simple,” said Bo Yezai. “The prisoner has already formed a preconceived notion that I am the ‘Master Moriarty’ he has been longing for, so with just a little guidance, even if there is something wrong, he will convince himself.”
Section Chief Odagiri stared at his face, feeling the effects of the "aura of darkness": "...No, this is not simple..."
He actually wanted to hear about some technically advanced techniques, because after listening to the recording, he felt that even if Hanchuan Shenliu's demeanor was somewhat misleading, it was probably because Hanchuan Shenliu himself hadn't recorded the techniques used to make the prisoner so cooperative in answering questions, and the prisoner had formed a preconceived notion... This was something that really couldn't be learned.
Actually, when he finally saw Hanchuan Shenliu in person, he had a slight doubt, thinking that maybe what the criminal said was true... But he quickly realized that if Hanchuan Shenliu really wanted to commit the perfect crime, there was no need for him to be there to micromanage, and he wasted his vacation, so Hanchuan Shenliu must be innocent!
Section Chief Odagiri was very generous to his contributors: "The media might be hyping this up these next few days, so you two should take a few more days off. This is also part of the First Investigation Division's achievements, and I will remember your contributions."
The system wept bitterly: "How can a mere holiday outweigh the loss of my trust points..."
Despite not believing in free lunches, Usakabe Saiki reacted relatively calmly: "What you haven't actually obtained isn't really a loss. Those reporters have already raised a lot of suspicion. It's good enough that the section chief is offering any compensation at all. Even if he remembers my contribution, it's useless. Japanese police officers get promoted mainly based on years of service and whether they're in a professional group… tsk, with that media control, Japan is truly dark."
System: [Aren't you upset?]
"Not bad? After all, if it were that easy to exploit bugs and generate a lot of suspicion, your previous host would probably have been planning something big already. You wouldn't be so inexperienced. Thinking about all this, I think the success rate is very low."
The system paused for a moment: [I actually only recently switched to the Suspicion System, so I'm not very familiar with it yet...]
"[...I see.]" Seeing the system's disappointment, Bo Yezaki, who was more responsive to gentle persuasion than force, offered some words of comfort: "Every cloud has a silver lining. Although this wave of suspicion has been wiped out, there might be other benefits."
The system didn't take it too seriously, treating it merely as a word of comfort.
The next morning, the suspicious activity in the backend almost crashed the system.
The system was alarmed: [So many suspicion values! What's going on?!]
Usoya Saiki yawned, got out of bed, and turned on the TV.
The news was reporting on that case: [According to a police press conference, the police extracted information from the criminals, learning of the existence of a mastermind named 'Moriarty.' They then impersonated 'Moriarty' to meet with the criminals and successfully obtained incriminating evidence. The criminals stated that they had never seen anyone so perfectly embody the image of the crime consultant Moriarty. The police claimed that this officer was an exceptionally skilled undercover agent who had infiltrated the yakuza organization without ever being suspected, which explained how easily he gained the criminals' trust…]
System: [This report is quite ordinary, so why...]
Usakabe Saiki blinked, guessing: [The Yakuza are probably contributing to my suspicion level.]
Just as Usaku Saiki had guessed, the Yakuza were indeed shaken up by this news.
He woke up late, and the news he saw was already the midday news; those self-disciplined yakuza bosses all watched the morning news.
I won't go into detail about the newspapers, as they all leaned towards the police's reporting and lacked video footage. As a result, people just accepted that the police had someone who seemed quite capable.
However, the TV station made no attempt to conceal the use of footage from the on-site interview with the agitated prisoner. Seeing the prisoner's genuine emotions, as if he had been emotionally deceived by the master, made everyone feel a strange sense of identification. Upon seeing the police's explanation, the high-ranking members of the yakuza suddenly became uneasy, worrying that this seemingly incredibly capable undercover police officer might have infiltrated their organization.
They know Moriarty, he's the crime consultant in Sherlock Holmes, but everyone has their own interpretation of Hamlet and Moriarty. Some people might think this undercover detective is a refined, cultured university professor, while others might think he looks extremely dangerous, making it easy to believe he's a police officer...
Then the rumors started to go wrong, with people looking at one person's image and another's, all wondering if it was the policeman... This inadvertently contributed a huge amount of suspicion to Usakabe Saiki.
However, one person, after seeing the news, only felt angry.
"I'm 'Moriarty'! How could you mistake me for someone else?! Damn it, someone finally bought my complete crime guide, and it's all going to fail because of this kind of excuse..."
The man, who called himself a crime consultant and a modern-day Moriarty, was indignant: "Who is that person?! How can he be more Moriarty than me?! I refuse to accept this! I don't believe he can ruin my plans every time?!"
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Good night or good morning everyone
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The Japanese media is indeed heavily controlled; many press conferences are pre-arranged, and it's only through the efforts of conscientious journalists who expose the shady dealings...
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Hagiwara: That's not what he meant. He just has romanticized notions about these things...
Section Chief: Who are you talking about...?
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