New Clues

"Chief," Akasaka said excitedly, clearly having made a discovery.

"Patrol Officer Fuji is here too? How's it going?" Shiraishi looked at Fujisato Seiko, puzzled.

Fujisato Seiko, the fourth SR in the entire Beika Police Station!

[Fujisato Seiko (Beika Police Station Koban Patrol Officer):
Age: 26.
Overall Rating: SR.
Mind: Justice (65), Principle (66), Gentleness (33), Subjectivity (71), Passion (60), Resilience (75).
Body: Health, Persistence.
Skills: Deduction (SR), Evidence Collection (SR), Interrogation (R), Combat (R)...
Potential: Huge, leaning towards frontline Detective.]

Therefore, after seeing her stats, Shiraishi immediately looked at her resume—why was an SR working as a patrol officer in a koban? Looking at this skill distribution, it didn't seem like the police station had "poor judgment of talent."

After all, abilities like [Deduction] and [Evidence Collection] require frequent fieldwork to hone.

As expected, Shiraishi discovered that Fujisato Seiko had only been transferred to the koban in the last two months; before that, she was the ace of the Criminal Affairs Division!

And the reason for the job transfer...

Workplace bullying?

Looking at her [Justice] and [Principle], Shiraishi felt this was unlikely, so he confirmed with Chief Ebihara. Only then did he learn...

Fujisato Seiko had proactively requested the transfer to the koban. The real reason was that many veteran officers knew it was to investigate a case related to her close friend.

Although it was officially documented as "workplace bullying," and she did indeed beat up Yamada before the transfer...

Otherwise, for a case involving a friend, she should have "avoided suspicion" from the start, let alone be specifically transferred to the relevant koban for this case.

Therefore, the old Chief hadn't specifically mentioned it to Shiraishi at first, and Shiraishi hadn't brought up transferring her back or anything similar later...

After all, the "Body" stat in her profile seemed to indicate "sound physical and mental health," and Fuji's entry had the descriptor [Persistence], showing her mental state was already somewhat unstable. At times like this, it was better to let things flow than to block them...

However, seeing Fujisato Seiko arrive with Akasaka, seemingly to report something, Shiraishi was still a bit surprised.

"We specifically asked Patrol Officer Fuji for help before. This lead is also thanks to her..." Akasaka quickly explained when he saw Shiraishi.

In the afternoon, Akasaka and Tosaka were responsible for going to Beika Park, hoping to confirm Tsubokura's alibi.

The two of them searched through all available surveillance footage, but none covered the small plaza where the coffee cart was located. The surveillance cameras along the roadside also didn't capture Tsubokura entering or exiting—this didn't prove he wasn't there, only that he wasn't captured on camera, as surveillance doesn't cover every possible route.

So, they had to question the previous witness again, the employee at the coffee cart.

However...

"Considering the severe criticism we're facing from the public right now, if we question him, we might be photographed by reporters and cause more rumors, so we asked Patrol Officer Fuji to handle the questioning..." Akasaka explained at this point.

Akasaka and Tosaka had rather intimidating auras, so much so that they wouldn't seem out of place in a "Special Organized Crime Countermeasures" unit. Approaching a "witness who was previously suspected of being misled by the police" at this time would easily lead to criticism.

So, Akasaka found Fujisato Seiko, who was off duty, to help. Akasaka was certainly aware of Fuji's abilities, and judging by her appearance, she didn't look like a "she-devil" at all...

Fuji readily agreed, pretending to be an ordinary person, even a "fan of the witness who stood up for the wrongly accused boy," and went to confirm with the "young man at the coffee cart"...

"Ah! You're the young man from the coffee cart who testified for the boy who was wronged!"

"What exactly happened back then? I'm so curious!"

"You're amazing, to remember something from so long ago..."

"Was it stressful to testify in court?"

"I see, keep up the good work..."

"Gag..." Fuji suddenly retched in the Chief's office.

"Huh? What's wrong?" Shiraishi looked over, puzzled—your health status doesn't list "early pregnancy"!

"Cough, cough, it's nothing... I just felt a bit sick remembering the previous questioning." Fuji felt a wave of nausea as she recalled the things she had said while coaxing the otaku employee.

Fuji then explained, "As expected, that jackal of a lawyer hinted at it... That idiot employee thought this case was getting a lot of attention, with many people attending the hearings... including his estranged wife and daughter, who were also invited by that lawyer to attend. So, subjectively, the witness had a hero complex!"

"In such a situation, he would tend to solidify uncertain memories and lean towards giving testimony that the public would be happier to hear."

Fuji paused, then added, "However... I don't believe his testimony was entirely fabricated."

Although the last sentence was just Fuji's subjective assessment, Shiraishi still nodded.

Given Komikado's personality, he wouldn't dare to completely fabricate testimony.

The witness's memories hadn't changed; it was just that the police had initially told him, "If you're unsure, don't say it," whereas now Komikado, using public opinion, was making him "state it as if it were certain."

"This shouldn't be the only discovery, right?" Shiraishi then looked at Akasaka and the laptop computer in his arms.

"That's right... there's this too! But it doesn't quite match our investigation direction, this..." Akasaka said, looking a bit embarrassed.

It seemed they had instead found evidence detrimental to Tsubokura!

"No matter, let me take a look..." Shiraishi opened the notebook and found that the screen displayed a blog belonging to someone.

"This is..." Shiraishi didn't immediately understand why.

"This is a blog that Gen and Yamada found while looking for witnesses for an alibi. Chief, look here... On September 3rd, this blog stated that the blogger was at the plaza in Beika Park at that time, and... they even bought this!" Akasaka said, gesturing for the Chief to scroll down.

Yamada quite enjoyed browsing the internet, so they thought of searching for accounts that had posted blog content near the crime scene around the time of the incident, and they actually found something.

As expected, in the photo below, there was also a "Signature Iced Latte"—exactly the coffee from that coffee cart, and it matched the category Tsubokura had previously stated, as well as the only record retrieved from the cash register!

If this blogger truly ordered a "Signature Iced Latte" there on the afternoon of September 3rd, then it would prove Tsubokura's alibi was fake—because at that time, the coffee cart had only sold one coffee.

Moreover, this blogger was clearly a lady who enjoyed sharing her life, and the small hand visible in the photo was definitely not Tsubokura's...

"Did you find out who the blogger is?" Shiraishi immediately asked.

"Yes, in the earlier posts, her personal information was shared, but..." Akasaka said helplessly at this point, "When we went to find her, she said... the Prosecutor's Office had already asked her to testify in court, and told her to refuse any questioning if she met any police officers."

Without an "Arrest Warrant," she could indeed refuse to cooperate, and she wasn't a criminal, nor did the Emergency Arrest apply to her. Furthermore... this instruction to "not cooperate" came from the Prosecution, so trying to scare her wouldn't work!

"Huh?" Aoki heard this and looked at the blog a few more times, then exchanged a glance with the Chief.

They both realized that it seemed Miki had found and given the witness to the Prosecution, and that witness was this Blogger Lady!

"If this blog is indeed real, then Tsubokura's alibi can be confirmed as invalid," Fuji said, her expression also a bit confused—combining this with what she had previously confirmed with the coffee shop staff, she felt something was off.

At this moment, Shiraishi suddenly said, "Let me see..." With that, Shiraishi began to browse through the Blogger Lady's blog content.