Chapter 43 Consultant

Komikado had secured another victory, successfully pointing out the true culprit.

However, the twists and turns of the case—specifically the fact that Tsubokura's charge of intentional homicide was not dismissed, but reduced to "attempted"—considerably lessened the pressure on the police.

Naturally, Komikado would persist in arguing that the prosecution's charges were improper, haggling the offense down to mere "intentional assault."

At the Tokyo High Court, Komikado walked away full of smug satisfaction, while Mayu looked somewhat crestfallen.

Though it technically counted as a win, the reality of the situation left Mayu, who had previously trusted her client implicitly, deeply embarrassed.

Despite winning, Komikado had his exclusive informant intentionally create chaos outside to lure away the reporters before making a leisurely exit. Komikado had no interest in drumming up publicity for himself; such things offered no tangible benefit to securing a victory.

"I can't believe... Tsubokura was actually lying to me until the very end," Mayu muttered, still harboring lingering resentment.

"What are you going on about? Plaintiffs, defendants—it's completely normal for them to be full of lies. As a lawyer, you don't need to waste time worrying about that!" Komikado took a pragmatic view.

"Huh? Aren't lawyers supposed to uphold fairness and justice..." Mayu clearly wasn't accustomed to such cynicism.

"Are you the lead actress in some morning drama? You are merely a lawyer, nothing more. Your sole job is to win the case for your client... Not to mention, if you had told me those things earlier, Mr. Tsubokura could have been released by now!" Komikado lectured her directly.

"You..." Mayu was boiling with anger, but seemingly recalling something else, she changed tack and asked, "Even though you say that, deep down... you still hope for fairness and justice, don't you?"

"Huh? Incredible! Do you possess some sort of supernatural ability to perceive things invisible to normal humans?" Komikado retorted with unvarnished sarcasm.

"But... you protected Superintendent Shiraishi earlier, didn't you? That proves you also..." Mayu tried to bring up evidence, recalling one of the few decent things she had actually seen Komikado do.

Komikado was so infuriated he laughed out loud. Before he could reply, his phone rang.

"Hello... Yes, exactly. Wonderful... That is truly a wise choice! The Suzuki Group will certainly not regret today's decision... Right away, I'll go sign the contract... Hahaha... You're too kind, just a small favor!" Komikado spoke into the phone, beaming from ear to ear.

After hanging up, Komikado deliberately brandished his phone and said to Mayu, "If tossing a few kind words someone's way can land me a special legal advisory contract with the Suzuki Group, please, by all means, let me know!"

Mayu: ???

Indeed, the reason Komikado lent Shiraishi a helping hand was simple...

Although it was merely an external legal advisory role, it came with a hefty monthly retainer, and best of all... it was practically free money!

After all, a corporate giant like the Suzuki Group possessed its own massive legal department; why would they ever need to consult an outside legal advisor?

Komikado would gladly sign as many such contracts as they were willing to offer!

As for whatever connection existed between the Suzuki Group and Shiraishi, Komikado couldn't care less.

***

Meanwhile, Shiraishi also received a call from Iwata.

"I've seen Shirai's transfer order. It's basically confirmed that he's reporting back to the General Affairs Department's Public Relations Division at the Metropolitan Police Department, along with three other transfer orders..." Iwata spoke in a strictly professional tone.

Still, Shiraishi expressed his gratitude: "As expected of Iwata... Thanks a lot for your help. I'll treat you to drinks tonight."

"Oh? You're a different man now that you've been promoted!" Iwata teased deliberately.

In the past, Shiraishi had been rather frugal. As a mere inspector, and with a considerable portion of his money donated to orphanages, he wasn't exactly hard-pressed, but he had always lived paycheck to paycheck.

"Well, naturally. With my rank and administrative salary combined—now that I actually sit down and calculate it—I suppose I'm quite the high earner," Shiraishi joked lightly.

Well, having received a double promotion recently, his salary now sat comfortably above that of Iwata, who was a Superintendent and a Precinct Division Chief.

After exchanging a few more casual remarks, the two returned to the main topic—the three incoming personnel from the Haido Precinct!

Shirai, the current Criminal Investigation Division Chief, was definitely being transferred out. Shiraishi hadn't accepted his resignation outright, instead enlisting Iwata's help to secure him a "sinecure."

In essence, it was sending him off to pasture to quietly collect his pension.

Furthermore, Shiraishi seized the opportunity to transfer out two detectives from Haiyutani's team.

He had already felt their competence and temperament were unsuited for police work, and their particularly poor performance during Shirai's improper interrogation—including perjury and attempted cover-ups—gave Shiraishi the perfect excuse to clear them out.

As for the vacant position of Criminal Investigation Division Chief, Haiyutani was currently serving a period of closed-door self-reflection and was entirely out of the running. Akasaka and Aoki... were still lacking in experience, so rather than forcibly pushing forward his own people, Shiraishi applied for a reassignment from the Metropolitan Police Department.

Although the official appointment hadn't been publicly announced yet, Iwata naturally had his own channels and already knew the candidates.

Hearing Iwata's introduction, Shiraishi froze: "Huh? They're transferring someone from the Public Relations Division to be my Criminal Investigation Division Chief?"

So the price of sending Shirai off to the PR division to retire was getting a Division Chief dumped on me from that very same PR division?

At this rate, I might as well have tried promoting Aoki or Akasaka!

"I was puzzled at first too, but hearing it was a direct order from 'above,' I decided to dig into it... Don't let the fact that Inspector Kunikida is currently in the General Affairs Public Relations Division fool you. I checked his personnel transfer records: six years ago, he was the Section Chief of First Investigation Division's Unit Six. He was transferred to PR because of a certain case," Iwata explained reliably.

Clearly, Iwata had been bewildered at first and had gone out of his way to investigate what was going on for Shiraishi's sake.

"The First Investigation Division? Six years ago..." Shiraishi calculated internally. That would have been right around when he first joined the force, which explained why he didn't recognize the name. He then confirmed, "A certain case?"

"Yes, a homicide. In the end, the defendant never confessed, but was convicted based on clear evidence... Although the file doesn't spell it out, I later checked the case records and found that the culprit committed suicide in prison shortly afterward. Moreover... Unit Six had previously applied to the Public Prosecutor's Office for a supplementary investigation, but was rejected. Inspector Kunikida offered to resign voluntarily after that, but was instead retained and transferred to General Affairs," Iwata explained, keeping some details deliberately vague.

However, Shiraishi caught his drift immediately.

This bore a striking resemblance to what had just happened at the Haido Precinct!

Iwata had also asked around among the veterans of the First Investigation Division, and Kunikida had indeed been a "hardliner" back then—until his hardline stance caused trouble!

The difference was that Shirai had been exposed by others for improper interrogation, whereas Kunikida had discovered flaws in a case himself, only to have his request for a reinvestigation blocked—judging by the Prosecutor's Office's attitude this time around, it was easy to guess what had happened six years ago!

Ultimately, the case was never officially classified as a miscarriage of justice; rather, the already-sentenced culprit had simply committed suicide in prison.

Yet Kunikida could not accept that outcome. His subsequent resignation was rejected, leading him to "repose" in the General Affairs Public Relations Division.

Seen in this light, Shiraishi could finally understand why "above" had transferred him here!

A Section Chief from the First Investigation Division was undeniably frontline elite material, and letting one waste away for six years was already a massive extravagance. Now that the Shirai incident had broken out, and Shiraishi was looking to overhaul the Criminal Investigation Division and emphasize procedural compliance, dispatching Kunikida there made perfect sense. After all, the current Kunikida would care about nothing more than "investigative procedural compliance."

"The other two detectives are also quite good, meeting your criteria. They're both young—one is a promising rookie, and the other was also transferred down from the First Investigation Division," Iwata added, having vetted them for him.

"Transferred down from the First Investigation Division? There isn't some catch to this one too, is there?" Shiraishi's antenna immediately went up.

While the First Investigation Division was the elite core of the Metropolitan Police Department, "getting transferred down" usually implied there were problems. Shiraishi wasn't running a recycling center for damaged goods!

"It's not really a flaw. This fellow, Komure, participated in cracking several major high-profile cases while he was in the First Investigation Division, it's just that..." Iwata lowered his voice slightly, "Word is, after his fiancée dumped him, his head hasn't quite been screwed on right. So they gave him a fresh environment to clear his head. He should still be useful!"

That was the kind of juicy gossip Iwata dug up on his own! It certainly wouldn't appear in any official personnel file...

"So he's basically a heartbroken simp..." Shiraishi curled his lip.

As for the "promising rookie," Shiraishi didn't bother asking further. Since they were a "rookie," Iwata naturally wouldn't have much to tell...