Tokyo: Rabbit Officer and Her Evil Partner-Chapter 766 - 466: The Press Conference in the Apartment

Chapter 766: Chapter 466: The Press Conference in the Apartment

The elite man opened his notebook, gestured for the photographer to follow, and then began his introduction: "I assume Officer Yuan knows we are here regarding the Yakai murder case. Now, I would like to ask you about..."

"Eh?" Minamoto Tamako was taken aback again, her ahoge swayed, and she asked with wide eyes: "Aren’t you here to interview me?"

After a brief moment of bewilderment, she came to a very reasonable conclusion—that she had become famous. She was finally going to become a famous detective and police chief. Just after being promoted, she was gaining attention from all walks of life, truly a rising star in the criminal police. Which police officer in the Police Department had received such an honor?

As for why she became famous, there could be so many reasons. Minamoto Tamako felt that she had solved quite a few cases so far. The reason she hadn’t caught attention before was mainly because she was just a small patrol police. Now, as a criminal police officer, shouldn’t her previous cases be brought to light and mentioned?

Unfortunately, after the elite man explained, Minamoto Tamako realized that this group wasn’t here for those major cases. They were here for the very ordinary Yakai Mutsumi murder case, which didn’t have much to talk about.

What is there to say about it?

Minamoto Tamako couldn’t understand. Even if she solved this case, it couldn’t showcase her abilities!

Could it be as Chief Kikuchi said, that seemingly ordinary cases actually have hidden mysteries that require full attention and seriousness?

The elite man didn’t wait for Minamoto Tamako to think further and started the formal questioning. His questions were relatively normal, at least related to the Yakai Mutsumi murder case, unlike the female reporter who asked completely unrelated questions:

"What is Detective Gen’s view on Yakai Mutsumi’s long-term domestic violence experience? Was this factor considered in the sentencing?"

Minamoto Tamako wanted to answer but saw Taira Sakurako furiously scribbling something important behind her, so she restrained herself and stammered procrastinatingly: "Uh... this... I mean... that..."

After a moment, Taira Sakurako finally raised her board: "Not within the scope of investigation, but truthfully recorded in the closure report. Sentencing advice and consideration are the duties of the prosecutor and the judge."

Minamoto Tamako imitated Fushimi Roku, glancing secretly and reading with sideways eyes: "This is not within my scope of investigation, but I truthfully recorded it in the closure report. Sentencing advice and consideration are the prosecutor’s and judge’s duties."

"Is that so..." The elite man was slightly surprised, not expecting Minamoto Tamako, who seemed so foolish, to give such a comprehensive answer without leaving any handle.

Taking advantage of Minamoto Tamako not continuing to name names, he asked another question: "Then do you personally think the judge’s discretion was reasonable?"

Minamoto Tamako actually thought it was reasonable, given that two people were confronting each other with knives, and Kuroda Kotaro acted first. As a weaker party, retaliating was natural—this argument applies to an elderly person, a child, or even a frail man.

Since the police or prosecutors didn’t have evidence to overturn her testimony, of course, her testimony was valid. This is a basic presumption of innocence.

If the scenario changed to Kuroda Kotaro and an elderly person holding knives against each other, and the elderly person claimed Kuroda Kotaro acted first, their testimony would still be valid unless proven lying; similarly, with a child, even a deceitful one, they still enjoy the presumption of innocence.

Besides, sentencing a suspended sentence is already considered a rather heavy penalty.

Japan’s national conditions stipulate that ordinary manslaughter cases do not involve imprisonment—yes, not even jail. It’s just a fine of up to 500,000 yen.

Yakai Mutsumi was sentenced to three years mainly due to the ’knife confrontation’ act. She made a plea bargain with the prosecutor, waiving the 500,000-yen fine for a three-year suspended sentence, which can be considered very reasonable.

But others didn’t think so.

Before Minamoto Tamako could speak, and Taira Sakurako was done writing, a female reporter interrupted: "Completely unreasonable! Clearly self-defense; why a three-year suspended sentence?"

Other male reporters turned their heads, signaling her to be quiet.

But the elite man, being a mere facade, appeared to have quality, but was actually arrogantly intolerant, raged: "What nonsense are you spouting? The case clearly stated that they were exchanging knife blows, and Yakai Mutsumi intentionally stabbed someone to death, how can that be self-defense? Does that mean if I intentionally stab you now, it counts as self-defense too?"

The reasoning certainly wasn’t right, but the female reporter caught on to the flaw and directed the camera at the elite man, claiming that he was an extremist and escalated to saying all men have violent tendencies, hence the disagreement with the verdict.

Her viewpoint was simple: All men who disagree with self-defense are violent maniacs!

The majority of the reporters present were male, because frontline reporting is more about physical strength—can’t run, can’t grab, which means failure—thus female reporters usually do proofreading or editing in the second tier.

Male reporters constantly rebuffed her, telling her to get out quickly, while the female reporter, with her female shooter, shot around, claiming that male reporters publicly engaged in malicious competition and exclusion of females...

The scene immediately turned chaotic, and with reporters being very sensitive to public opinion, they stood to grab microphones, questioning the female reporter over her nonsense.

Minamoto Tamako’s attempts to calm them were ineffective, the interview transformed, and the focus of the debate became the verdict.

Having no choice, she could only have the building manager call security to kick all the reporters out. The reporters stopped dwelling on the interview and started quarrelling amongst themselves, leading patrol police to intervene, leaving with unchecked anger after being advised.

The home finally quieted down, with Minamoto Tamako texting Fushimi Roku while cleaning up the room. She shared her interview experience and her confusion about ’why this case garnered so much attention.’

Fushimi Roku was busy at the moment, having no time to check messages.

He was hustling everywhere with his simple PPT, either in meetings or handling procedures. His phone was set to silent mode to avoid disrupting the rhythm with sudden alerts during meetings.

For three consecutive days, he hadn’t been home and hadn’t watched newspapers or news, just like a few days ago with Minamoto Tamako, who had no idea how bad the media opinion had become.

Those interviewed journalists returned and wrote reports overnight.

The female reporter and other male reporters stirred up the situation, claiming they voiced for women and believed the verdict tremendously unreasonable, tagging those supporting its reasonability as ’violence maniacs’, ’domestic abusers’, ’sexists’... basically negative labels;

Generally, such idiotic statements are directly ignored, as most people aren’t simple-minded, understanding the world isn’t black and white.

But some journalists couldn’t let it go, and from a serious perspective started attacking other newspapers, claiming those female journalists lacked professional ethics while explaining why the verdict was reasonable.

One or two got excited, saying women were better off as editors and proofreaders, unfit for journalism, and it happened that their newspaper was entirely composed of straight men, and it got published like that. This was originally to criticize those female journalists, but it turned into a gender discrimination and workplace bullying issue.

Thereafter, the argument escalated, with male reporters equally starting a void targeting, claiming those supporting self-defense as ’dimwits’, ’high school dropout trash’, ’low cultured incompetent women’...

Minamoto Tamako read newspapers daily, and as she watched the media bicker every day, she felt more perplexed.

Even she herself got insulted because she wore pajamas for the interview, hardly looking like a criminal police, more like a female middle school student, leading newspapers to question the Police Department’s competence in hiring such a subpar detective, implicitly insinuating that the Police Chief used gender advantages to get her daughter in through the back door...

Amidst rampant public opinion and economic downturn, Fushimi Roku quietly profiteered from the national crisis, flipping domestic enterprise capital to abroad.

The process was surprisingly smooth, he barely exerted any effort, except having to do lots of persuasion while discussing prices.

Within less than a week, the money arrived, and he and the Inakawa Association made a clean profit of two billion. After dividing the profits, Fushimi Roku paid taxes for Inakawa and himself, making the money legit and compliant.

Sazaki Gen laughed so much his eyes turned into slits, believing that the most correct decision in his life was bringing Fushimi Roku into the Inakawa Association.

"Let’s collaborate more in the future, Roku-san."