Tokyo: From Lawless Madpolice to Minister
Chapter 152 - 148: The Absent-Minded Fujimoto Ryosuke, The Trio

Chapter 152: Chapter 148: The Absent-Minded Fujimoto Ryosuke, The Trio

July 1, Wednesday.

The morning news reported on a farce that unfolded in the courtroom yesterday, sparking widespread national discussion.

Most were angry because everyone feared being subjected to the same treatment as Noda, coerced under torture.

Especially since many had already been through it.

Legislators also spoke up, calling for a thorough investigation.

It was all a big tumultuous mess.

It had rained heavily last night, and the weather remained overcast and gloomy in the morning, with a light drizzle falling, the numerous raindrops hitting the puddles on the ground and creating ripples, like water about to boil.

At the entrance to Police Headquarters, there was a small pothole that, when driven over, caused vehicles to bounce and water to splash. Inside one such vehicle, Aoyama Xiu Xin cursed in expletives before finding a parking spot.

An umbrella was first extended out to open, whoosh, keeping all the rain aspiring to invade his royal person at bay, and then he followed, stepping out. At this moment, he only hated that his position was too low, lacking a secretary or driver to hold an umbrella for him.

Of course, this realization wasn’t entirely for personal comfort, but because with a higher position he would be able to hold the umbrella for all citizens, to shield them from the wind and rain!

"Splat~Splat~Splat~"

With each step, his leather shoes caused splashes.

"Liang Yi."

Aoyama Xiu Xin recognized the back of Fujimoto Ryosuke ahead and called out, but received no response.

"Liang Yi?"

He raised his voice and called out again.

It was only then that Fujimoto Ryosuke snapped out of his daze and turned around to bow to Aoyama Xiu Xin, "Police Chief Aoyama, good morning."

"Liang Yi, you seem distracted, didn’t sleep well?" Aoyama Xiu Xin noticed the redness and swelling around his eyes and his lack of energy.

It looked as though he had suffered a blow.

Fujimoto Ryosuke pressed his lips together and managed a strained smile, "Had a few drinks with friends last night."

"Appropriate relaxation is necessary, but don’t let it interfere with work." Aoyama Xiu Xin could tell he wasn’t telling the truth, but didn’t press him further, simply patted his shoulder with a word of advice before walking past him.

Who doesn’t have their little secrets, after all?

Fujimoto Ryosuke stood in place, his expression vacant as he reminisced about the events of the previous night.

It was raining heavily at the time, in the early hours of the morning.

He drove through the storm to Saitama Prefecture.

Clad in a raincoat, he wore a comical clown mask bought on the roadside and used the keys given to him by Asai Youki to sneak into a villa.

He smothered a woman with an exceptionally good figure and beautiful face in her sleep with a pillow; she struggled violently, flailing her hands and making muffled noises until she finally ceased all signs of life.

Fujimoto Ryosuke had killed before, but those were criminals shot dead during arrests; this was his first time killing an ordinary citizen, who might be bad or good, but was ultimately innocent.

After the murder, he felt so weak that he staggered backward and sat down on the floor, knocking over some items on the nightstand. When he lowered his head to catch his breath, he froze on the spot as if struck by lightning.

Scattered on the floor were hospital maternity test reports and some pregnancy medicines; the woman he had killed was four months pregnant.

One death, two lives lost.

Fujimoto Ryosuke knew he’d never been a good person; he would do anything for his career, but he still had a conscience. Just killing an innocent person had already put a great deal of psychological pressure on him.

And when he learned he had killed a pregnant woman, he completely fell apart.

Not bothering to clean up the scene, he stumbled back to his car and called Asai Youki to ask why he hadn’t been told the woman was pregnant.

Asai Youki didn’t answer, only said that in a few days he would be promoted to Assistant Police Chief, the first non-career individual to achieve this rank at the age of 30 and instructed him to arrange the scene before leaving.

After hanging up, Fujimoto Ryosuke cried for a long time in the car; the tears on his face flowed incessantly, like the rain outside. There was none of the excitement about the promotion he had imagined, only fear and guilt.

He smoked one cigarette after another until he had none left and then went back into the villa to stage the scene as a robbery homicide. Being a police officer, he knew how to make it look perfect.

Then he returned home to spend a sleepless night.

As soon as it was light, he came straight to Police Headquarters for work.

Call it feigned guilt if you will, but Fujimoto Ryosuke made a note of the woman’s name, Iihara Aiko.

And some other basic information, planning to offer some compensation to her family. It’s said to be compensation, but it’s more like buying peace of mind for himself.

He didn’t know why Asai Youki had him kill a pregnant woman, but he knew the pregnant woman definitely wasn’t Asai Youki’s. Whose was she?

Aoyama Xiu Xin, naturally, could not guess the real reason behind Fujimoto Ryosuke’s distraction. At that moment, he was in his office calling Suzuki Daohiro.

"Vice Minister Suzuki, I’m calling to assure you that you needn’t worry about Miss Junko. Last night, I happened to run into her. We had a chat and managed to turn enmity into friendship. For now, I’ve arranged for her to stay in a hotel, and when the time is right, I’ll persuade her to come home and apologize to you."

"Police Chief Aoyama and Junko have already made peace?" Suzuki Daohiro asked in disbelief.

His daughter had left the car he bought for her at home.

And wasn’t answering her phone.

He said he wasn’t worried, but that was obviously false.

The call from Aoyama Xiu Xin was a relief.

But he was oscillantly suspicious, his own daughter had actually made up with the culprit responsible for ruining her and Asano Hirofumi’s reputations? It had only been one night!

At the same time, he felt a chill in his heart. Junko was able to forgive Aoyama Xiu Xin, an outsider, but not him, her father.

"Yes, Miss Junko is just too naive and was deceived by Asano Hirofumi," he rattled of officiously. "I analyzed Asano’s cunning nature for her in detail, and she mostly believed me. It’s just that her affection for Asano was genuine, so she can’t accept what you did."

Aoyama Xiu Xin sighed. "Ah, to think that Police Chief Aoyama would see through my act." Suzuki Daohiro sighed before saying, "Then I’d like to ask Police Chief Aoyama to take care of my daughter, especially with the pressure she’s under after this morning’s news broadcast."

"Don’t worry, Vice Minister Suzuki, I will take good care of her, and I’ll also help smooth things over between you and your daughter," Aoyama Xiu Xin smiled and then spoke in a serious tone, "Regarding this morning’s news, I actually see it this way: Miss Junko was just being overzealous and was exploited. The person with true ill intent is only Asano Hirofumi, what do you think?"

Since he had promised to help Suzuki Junko out of her predicament and restore her position, he naturally wouldn’t let those ignorant troublemakers tarnish her name after catching a bit of news.

All the blame lay with Asano Hirofumi; after all, the dead can’t defend themselves and make the perfect scapegoats.

"I agree with Police Chief Aoyama’s deduction. Asano Hirofumi is indeed scheming, using my daughter’s innocence for his own purposes. Thankfully, Police Chief Aoyama did not let him succeed," Suzuki Daohiro naturally understood Aoyama Xiu Xin’s intention to extricate his daughter from the scandal, so he had no reason not to cooperate.

As Deputy Chief of Tokyo District Court, as long as the "victim" Aoyama Xiu Xin didn’t hold a grudge, he had plenty of ways and means to help his daughter get through the internal investigation.

"Knock knock knock!" The knocking on the door echoed.

Aoyama Xiu Xin looked up and then said, "Vice Minister Suzuki, I have work, so I’ll have to leave it here. I hope you have a pleasant day."

In the future, the Head of Tokyo District Prosecution Special Investigation Department and the Deputy Director would both fall in his camp. He had backers in the National Public Security Committee and connections in the Police Headquarters through the Asakai family; progressing was only a matter of time.

To enter politics, just relying on the Police Headquarters as a base was sufficient, but to go further and with greater ease, he needed to transform the entire Japanese judicial sphere into his base. Controlling jurisprudence meant controlling the interpretation of legal provisions—a sharp blade indeed.

The one piece of the puzzle currently missing was the court, and into Aoyama Xiu Xin’s mind flashed the image of that beautiful female judge.

"Thanks to this call from Police Chief Aoyama, I’ve had a good start to the day, and it will definitely be pleasant," Suzuki Daohiro laughed heartily in response.

He admired Aoyama Xiu Xin greatly, pity that he had been claimed by the Asakai family; his foolish daughter had no chance for such a catch.

After hanging up the phone, Aoyama Xiu Xin said, "Come in."

Yoshikai Youzai entered the room, holding a file.

"Chief, we found it. There’s a trio at the industrial high school—two boys and a girl. According to classmates and teachers, the three were inseparable. The girl in the group went to study in neighboring China in early 1991."

As he spoke, he handed over the file he carried.

Aoyama Xiu Xin took it and began to leaf through it.

Fujiwara Otarou, male, 18 years old, a senior at Industrial High School, lived in Tokyo Central District, Shinfutomachi Nidome, with a full-time homemaker mother and a financial company section chief father, known for being lively, optimistic, and mischievous—unable to sit still and fond of pranking classmates.

Takahashi Yokoo, male, 18 years old, a senior at Industrial High School, lived in Tokyo Shinjuku District, Wakamatsu-cho First District, mother deceased and father a factory worker for an electronics manufacturer, quiet and aloof in nature.

The girl who went abroad to study was Heize Xunyi, now 19 years old, the eldest of the trio, living in Chiyoda District, Neixing Town, 3rd District; mother was a lawyer at an obscure law firm, and her father was...

"A policeman?" Aoyama Xiu Xin couldn’t help but exclaim.

Yoshikai Youzai nodded, "Yes, he’s the head of Shinten Police Station, Senior Director Heize Yonghe."

That was intriguing. Assuming these three were the serial killers, did Senior Director Heize Yonghe send his daughter abroad to study in her crucial third year of high school because he sensed something?

After all, he was a policeman, and it’d be perfectly normal for him to notice if his daughter was killing people outside.

"Find a way to get fingerprints and blood samples from Takahashi Yokoo and Fujiwara Otarou for a comparison, and do so without raising any suspicion," Aoyama Xiu Xin told Yoshikai Youzai.

Previously, they had tested 100,000 people, but because these individuals were students, they were overlooked. However, villains come in all ages, and they could wield a knife just as well as any adult.

The reason to avoid startling the suspects was that if it’s indeed confirmed they were the killers, Aoyama Xiu Xin wanted to bring the mastermind, Heize Xunyi, back to the country to close the case perfectly.

Yoshikai Youzai bowed earnestly and replied, "Yes, sir!"

"Yoshikai, if this case is solved, you will be credited with a great contribution," Aoyama Xiu Xin encouraged.

Yoshikai Youzai had a taste for this type of praise, standing straight and slightly excited as he responded, "It’s all thanks to the opportunities you’ve given me, Chief. I’m just conducting the investigation step by step under your guidance."

Being a key player in solving such a significant case would be a shining achievement in his career.

"Enough with the modesty, get going," Aoyama Xiu Xin waved him off, watching Yoshikai Youzai leave, and suddenly thought of Ashida Shuichi, who had given him a big hand.

If Senior Masheng knew he had actually followed through on his speculative clues to crack the case, would he regret not agreeing to Aoyama’s offer to collaborate on the investigation?

He essentially had made a wedding dress for another.

"Ding-a-ling~ Ding-a-ling~"

The telephone rang, interrupting his thoughts.

"Moshi moshi, this is Aoyama Xiu Xin."

"Mr. Aoyama, this is Kikumura Yakuo. I won’t go on with the thanks—you just say the word whenever you need something," Kikumura Yakuo said with a serious tone.

Clearly, he had seen the morning’s news and knew that Aoyama Xiu Xin had nearly taken a fall for helping him out.

But Aoyama Xiu Xin had never mentioned the difficulty of that to him, which moved him profoundly.

"You’re too polite, Minister Kikumura. As long as I’ve promised to do something, no matter how many difficulties there may be, I will see it to completion," Aoyama Xiu Xin stated evenly.

He really did get the job done after taking the money.

That reputation had to be established.

The more people who came to him, the more he could expand his own network and influence.