Doubts

Shiraishi was not entirely certain that he could nail that kid Tsubokura so easily, so he looked through the blog that was unfavorable to him. Then...

After scrolling back more than a dozen posts, Shiraishi suddenly saw two places on the screen "light up"!

It was not the laptop screen itself lighting up, but key highlights produced by the [Evidence Search] ability, visible only to Shiraishi...

The other three merely saw Chief Shiraishi repeatedly click "Previous Post," then suddenly pause and begin studying something closely.

One of the highlighted spots was the ramen in the shared photo, and the other was... the publication date!

[The ramen here is as delicious as ever, and the seasonal limited topping is amazing too.]

"Damn it... those idiots at the Prosecutor's Office kept something like this hidden from us!" Shiraishi openly insulted the prosecution. The other three in the office awkwardly kept quiet.

However, Fuji still asked curiously, "Chief, did you find something?"

"Look at this post..." Shiraishi said, showing it to the three of them.

"What... is there to see?" Akasaka stared at it for quite a while but still found nothing wrong.

"The ramen... has lots of toppings?" Fuji could only make that out.

"Mm, lots of toppings. More importantly... I recognize this ramen. It's the signature King Enma Ramen from Ogura Ramen Shop in neighboring Haido Town."

As he spoke, Shiraishi searched her blog using "Ogura" as the keyword. Sure enough, this blogger had not visited Ogura Ramen Shop for the first time.

Seeing that the three still did not understand, Shiraishi opened another blog post mentioning "Ogura Ramen," one with a photo of the storefront. He turned the laptop toward them and pointed at a notice in the corner of the picture...

"There, see it? It says that since the only ramen chef is the owner himself, the shop is closed every tuesday. Now look at that post from just now... July 19!" As Shiraishi spoke, he showed them the calendar on his phone. It was tuesday!

"She could not possibly have eaten at Ogura Ramen Shop on July 19, so the posting dates on her blog are not reliable," Shiraishi concluded.

To be honest, because Shiraishi's system functions did not directly influence his thinking, he had not immediately spotted the problem when he saw "the ramen in the photo" and "the publication date" light up.

But with such a clear prompt, after giving it some thought, Shiraishi realized the bowl of ramen looked familiar and gradually understood the "contradiction"!

Perhaps some of the other blog posts he had just read contained similar problems, but because they did not form a "point of contradiction" with Shiraishi's memories, they had not been highlighted even with a high-level [Evidence Search] ability. Ogura Ramen had been highlighted because Shiraishi had eaten there several times and knew it was closed on Tuesdays.

"July 19... Ogura Ramen... As expected of the chief..."

Even Akasaka, who never flattered anyone, could not help remarking on it.

Aoki and Fuji were equally stunned. You could react to that immediately?

"Then this is bad... Although it cannot prove that this blogger's entire blog is fake, it..." Aoki adjusted his glasses.

But once there was even one fake entry, the blog alone could not serve as evidence. Unless the blogger clearly remembered that her September 3 post had indeed been photographed that very day, with no false date claimed, only then could she count as a solid eyewitness!

Even so, the credibility of the evidence would decline, and perhaps even...

"I'm afraid that will be difficult. So much time has passed, and this woman is probably a freelancer who spends every day eating, drinking, and having fun. People like that tend to have rather vague memories of dates. If she often posts blogs with mixed-up dates, she probably cannot be sure herself whether it was really that day. With a capable lawyer involved, she most likely will not be able to testify," Fuji analyzed.

That was right. They had to prepare for the worst-case scenario: she might not even count as an eyewitness...

A capable lawyer would use courtroom questioning and follow-up questions to make a witness afraid to say anything uncertain!

Once this woman grew guilty and hesitant under questioning, she would be completely shut down.

"Chief, should we notify the Prosecutor's Office?" Aoki asked Shiraishi.

This witness had a huge weakness. If they caught the prosecution off guard with it...

After a brief hesitation, Shiraishi said, "Not yet. Continue investigating. It would be best if we could completely verify or disprove Tsubokura's alibi!"

Aoki and Akasaka were still somewhat confused, but Fuji seemed to have already understood Shiraishi's intentions.

"While you investigate, be careful not to leak anything about this witness... Right now, not only do we theoretically not know about her, the defense lawyer does not know either. There is a huge loophole here, but... if the prosecution suddenly brings her out, it can at least catch him off guard and buy time for supplementary investigation. There are only thirty hours left until the court session!" Shiraishi explained.

Without this evidence, the other side might win an acquittal directly on friday, leaving them without even time for supplementary investigation!

But with this new evidence, the opposing lawyer would not simply collapse at the first blow. They would certainly still seek time for further investigation.

No matter what, they could not let the court issue a final judgment while the truth remained unclear...

"It is indeed necessary to buy time. After all... Double Jeopardy applies, and the Prosecutor's Office is already under immense public pressure," Fuji said. He had understood the chief's intentions from the beginning.

Double Jeopardy was one of the legal principles Eastern Island Nation had learned from the United States.

For the same crime, once an acquittal had been issued, no appeal filed, and the trial completely concluded, even if important new evidence surfaced later—even if the defendant openly declared himself the culprit... he could not be tried again!

Essentially, the principle had been established to prevent law enforcement officers or wealthy, powerful plaintiffs from abusing their authority and using their superior position to endlessly harass defendants who had been declared innocent.

But by now, even the Western Island Nation where it had originated, along with many of its former dependencies, had successively added exceptions. As long as the case was serious enough and decisive new evidence had been discovered... meeting those two conditions allowed a retrial to be initiated.

However...

The United States and Eastern Island Nation still enforced this principle with absolutely no room for maneuver. No matter the circumstances, once a final acquittal was issued, the defendant would never again be tried for that crime!

Even if Tsubokura later stepped forward and showed everyone footage of himself committing the murder, the Prosecutor's Office and the courts would be powerless to do anything to him.

Therefore, with the truth still unclear, Shiraishi needed a delaying tactic. Otherwise... this case had originally been sent back by the Supreme Court, and given the current public opinion, if the prosecution lost, it would likely abandon an appeal. Then everything would truly be over!

Shiraishi was not determined to convict Tsubokura. After all, he did not know whether Tsubokura was guilty.

He simply did not want Tsubokura to be completely let off before the matter had been investigated clearly...

In the end, it was all Shirai and the Prosecutor's Office's fault. If Shirai had not been in such a hurry to send the case for prosecution, or if the Prosecutor's Office had spotted the loopholes and returned the case for supplementary investigation, they would not be so pressed for time now, nor would they be in such a passive position that they could not even question the suspect or the key witness!

Since the Prosecutor's Office was keeping the "new evidence" under wraps, Shiraishi would pretend not to know about it for now and let those "cannon fodder" buy some time.

Once they had solid evidence afterward, they could either set things right or nail this cunning criminal for good...

After hearing the report, Shiraishi prepared to return to his apartment to rest. Although it was already ten at night, he had no intention of making do with the police station's break room!

The beds were too small and too shabby. Not only would Shiraishi fail to rest well, but he might very well put those miserable dormitory beds permanently "out of service."

Just as Shiraishi used Counter-Surveillance techniques to evade two reporters who had been "lying in wait" for him, he suddenly noticed that someone else—not a reporter—also seemed to be waiting for him...