Chapter 117
Because of this commotion, Hagiwara Kenji contacted the local police station, saying they would leave first and any questions could be directed to the Metropolitan Police.
Then they drove all the way back to Tokyo, ending this brief hot spring trip.
Hagiwara Kenji and Matsuda Jinpei had only soaked for less than 10 minutes... They relaxed, but not completely, and even worked overtime. Now they had to go back to the Metropolitan Police to explain face-to-face with Chief Odagiri. This vacation was absolutely ridiculous.
Matsuda Jinpei even complained shamelessly in front of Usuha Izuki: "We shouldn't bring Samukawa next time. I feel like he has an accident-prone constitution—there are always cases around him. He never stopped even when we were at the Police Academy."
Usuha Izuki said mysteriously: "I seem to recall that you two never stopped when you were at the Police Academy either..."
Matsuda Jinpei: "...Hagi, why do you tell him everything."
Hagiwara Kenji coughed: "There's nothing that can't be said. Everyone's the same... Let's not talk about it anymore. We still have to see Chief Odagiri. Jinpei, you wait downstairs."
So Hagiwara Kenji brought Usuha Izuki to meet the superior they should have only met after the holidays ended and paperwork was completed—Metropolitan Police Criminal Investigation Department Division One Chief, Odagiri Toshiro.
This man was also a strong candidate for Criminal Investigation Department Director and might be promoted to Director in a few years.
He was said to have a rigorous personality and be somewhat stern. Considering that he had insisted on recruiting Samukawa Shinryu into Division One against opposition, Usuha Izuki felt this superior's suspicion values probably wouldn't be easy to farm.
Soon, the two entered the chief's office.
When they entered, Chief Odagiri was on the phone: "Mm, don't worry about the rest, just go with the mainstream narrative... Right..."
After giving a few instructions, Chief Odagiri hung up and looked Usuha Izuki up and down, falling into an eerie silence before commenting somewhat emotionally: "...No wonder the criminal mistook you and said such things to the reporters."
Hagiwara Kenji was a bit nervous: "Chief, Samukawa he..."
Chief Odagiri raised a hand, stopping Hagiwara Kenji's explanation: "I understand. Since I specifically requested Samukawa-kun for our Division One, I was prepared for this—besides, some rumors have indeed gone too far. Samukawa-kun is only responsible for solving cases. Without Samukawa-kun, those people would still commit crimes. How can we blame Samukawa-kun?"
Usuha Izuki: "..." There's no need to be so righteous...
Hagiwara Kenji was moved. This was a rare person who immediately expressed trust in Samukawa Shinryu: "Worthy of being the chief—this is truly 'don't use those you doubt, don't doubt those you use.'"
Chief Odagiri coughed dryly after being praised: "..."
—Well, he would still have some doubts. After all, with Samukawa Shinryu looking like this, even though he'd made so much mental preparation and even spent half a day getting used to the photos, seeing him suddenly was still a bit... cough cough... from questioning to understanding...
Usuha Izuki couldn't stand this warm, TV drama-like atmosphere and decisively chose a topic that couldn't stay warm: "What did the criminal say to the reporters?"
Chief Odagiri said lightly: "Something about police entrapment, police providing criminal plans, and such."
The system got excited: [My god, if we could farm suspicion values from all of Japan, forget living to 99—you could probably buy everything in the store and still have enough left over!]
Usuha Izuki was unexpectedly cautious: [Don't say things that sound like flags... Generally speaking, such good fortune falling from the sky will definitely encounter setbacks.]
Hagiwara Kenji's expression was also serious, very worried: "If the reporters report this..."
Chief Odagiri said calmly: "Don't worry, I've already spoken with the press club. They'll control public opinion properly."
"...Hm?" Usuha Izuki's heart sank.
Hagiwara Kenji showed a look of understanding: "It actually requires the press club to step in?"
Usuha Izuki frowned: "What's the press club?"
Chief Odagiri said lightly: "They control public opinion."
Japan's media composition was very simple. News agencies, NHK television, the five major newspapers and the television stations run by these five major newspapers basically controlled most of Japan's media.
As for the notorious "press club"—though called a civilian organization, their offices were actually in government buildings, and disobedient journalists would be blacklisted.
Mainstream media was basically under government control, so with advance preparation, they could guide public opinion to make people not pay too much attention to reports from independent media and the remaining disobedient media.
Having never paid attention to this before, Usuha Izuki felt like the suspicion values he'd gained were flying away: "...The instructor used to worry that rejecting my school admission would sound bad in public opinion if I committed crimes."
"If it only involved the Police Academy, there's no need to control public opinion. No matter how big the fuss, it wouldn't matter much." Chief Odagiri explained. "But this situation is different—it could seriously affect police reputation, so the press club must step in."
Understanding that his gained suspicion values had flown away, Usuha Izuki sighed melancholically.
Chief Odagiri keenly sensed something: "...Why do I feel like you seem disappointed?"
Does this guy really want to smear the Japanese police's reputation?!
No, how could he think such things about his future subordinate? It must be that he'd heard too many outrageous rumors summarized by the reporters and been influenced...
Hagiwara Kenji quickly explained for Usuha Izuki: "He's probably just uncomfortable with how strict Japan's opinion control actually is! After all, he used to live in very remote places and had some rather beautiful fantasies about these things, thinking public opinion was very free."
Chief Odagiri: "..."
Who are you talking about? Are you sure this is Samukawa Shinryu and not some naive country transfer student from a youth manga?
He looked at Hagiwara Kenji, then at Samukawa Shinryu, unable to match what Hagiwara Kenji said, even slightly questioning his decision to partner Hagiwara Kenji with Samukawa Shinryu.
To avoid that subtle feeling expanding, Chief Odagiri decided on a quick resolution: "Anyway, you don't need to worry about public opinion. Let's talk about what exactly happened this time."
Hagiwara Kenji quickly answered before Usuha Izuki could speak, explaining the incident from his perspective.
Unfortunately, Chief Odagiri wasn't someone who listened to only one side. After hearing Hagiwara Kenji's account, he had Usuha Izuki supplement with additional details.
"How did you answer the criminal so fluently?"
"Very simple." Usuha Izuki said. "The criminal had already made assumptions, thinking I was the 'Master Moriarty' he'd been obsessing over, so with slight guidance, even if something was wrong, he'd convince himself."
Chief Odagiri stared at his face, feeling the effect of the "Black Screen Aura": "...No, this isn't simple..."
He had actually wanted to hear some highly technical operations, because after listening to the recording, he felt that even though Samukawa Shinryu's aura was easily misunderstood, there should have been some operations Samukawa Shinryu didn't record to make the criminal cooperate so well in answering questions. But it turned out to be the criminal's preconceptions... This really couldn't be learned.
Actually, when he finally saw Samukawa Shinryu in person, he had momentarily suspected whether what the criminal said was true... But he quickly felt that if Samukawa Shinryu really wanted to commit perfect crimes, he wouldn't need to micromanage on-site and waste his own vacation, so Samukawa Shinryu must be innocent!
Being generous to contributors, Chief Odagiri said: "Since the media might hype this as a hot topic for the next few days, you two take a few more days off. This also counts as Division One's achievement—I'll remember your contributions."
The system wailed: [How can mere vacation days compensate for my lost suspicion values...]
Usuha Izuki, who didn't believe in windfalls, remained relatively calm: [Things you never had can't really be considered lost. Those reporters already gave quite a few suspicion values. Getting compensation from the chief is already good, though being remembered for contributions isn't really useful—promotion in the Japanese police mainly depends on years of service and whether you're career track... Tsk, combined with that opinion control, Japan really is dark.]
System: [Aren't you upset?]
[Not really? After all, if it were so easy to exploit bugs and farm massive suspicion values, your previous hosts would probably have tried to make big news long ago, and you wouldn't be this inexperienced. Thinking about this, I felt the success rate was very low anyway.]
The system was silent for a moment: [I actually just transferred to being a suspicion value system recently and am not very skilled yet...]
[...I could tell.] Usuha Izuki was soft-hearted rather than hard-hearted. Seeing the system so dejected, he consoled it: [Every cloud has a silver lining. Though this wave of suspicion values is gone, maybe there will be other benefits.]
The system didn't take it seriously, treating it as mere consolation.
But the next morning, the background suspicion value alerts nearly crashed the system.
System in shock: [So many suspicion values! What's happening?!!!]
Usuha Izuki yawned and got out of bed to turn on the TV.
The news was just reporting on that case: [According to the police press conference, police extracted information from the criminal about the existence of a planner called 'Moriarty,' so they disguised themselves as 'Moriarty' to meet with the criminal and successfully obtained criminal evidence—according to the criminal, he had never seen anyone who so perfectly fit the image of criminal consultant Moriarty. Police claim this officer is an excellent undercover agent who has infiltrated yakuza organizations without ever being suspected, which is why he so smoothly gained the criminal's trust...]
System: [This report is very ordinary, so where are all these suspicion values coming from?]
Usuha Izuki blinked and guessed: [The yakuza, probably.]
[Ah...?] The system was very confused.
As Usuha Izuki guessed, the yakuza had indeed been greatly shaken by this news.
He woke up late and saw the noon news. Those disciplined yakuza bosses had all watched the morning news.
Newspapers needn't be mentioned—they completely favored police reports and lacked video, so people just accepted that police had someone quite capable.
But television stations openly used footage from the scene interviews with the agitated criminal at the time. Seeing the criminal so genuinely emotional, looking like he'd been emotionally deceived by the master, gave everyone inexplicable empathy. Combined with the police explanation, high-ranking yakuza all became paranoid, wondering if this seemingly powerful undercover police officer had infiltrated their own organizations.
They knew about Moriarty—the criminal consultant from Sherlock Holmes—but a thousand people had a thousand Hamlets, and also a thousand Moriartys. Some thought this undercover detective might be a scholarly university professor type, others thought he might look very dangerous at first glance, making people instinctively not suspect he was police...
Then rumors spread and changed flavor. Sometimes people thought this person looked like him, sometimes that person, all guessing whether it was that police officer... This way, they generated a huge wave of suspicion values for Usuha Izuki.
However, one person was only angry after watching the news.
"I'm the real 'Moriarty'! How could they mistake someone else?! Damn it, someone finally bought my complete crime guide, but it failed for this reason..."
This self-proclaimed crime consultant, modern Moriarty, was indignant: "Who is that person?! How can he be more Moriarty than me?! I don't accept this! I'm going to write a challenge letter!!!"