When the Law Can't Deliver Justice / We Just Wanted to Play a Little Prank

If Jiang Hang wanted to, he had plenty of ways to get those prisoners to honestly tell the truth.

After all, he was never like Conan or Heiji Hattori, anime protagonists who put "procedure" and "logic" in their life creed.

If we were to describe them, placed in the nine-square grid of factions, Conan Heiji Hattori would be considered members of the Lawful Good or Neutral Good factions. For the sake of the truth and the justice in their hearts, they are willing to risk their lives.

Jiang Hang, on the other hand, should belong to the chaotic good camp.

He appears to be no different from a neutral and kind person in ordinary times. If others need help and he is able to help, he will take the initiative to lend a helping hand. In the eyes of most of the people he has helped, he is a kind and compassionate good person.

But that's only because those things didn't touch his own moral principles and bottom line, plus he could get rewards from his own system for doing good deeds.

When conventional laws and regulations clash with his ideas, he is more inclined to act according to his own thoughts rather than considering whether doing so violates those so-called rules and regulations.

For example, when he realized the identity of the real culprit in this case and understood what the murderer was planning to do next, as an advisor to the Jiang Hang Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department and a famous detective, he should have taken the initiative to stop the murderer's actions.

But Jiang Hang did not do that.

It took half an hour to get from Higashishiri Precinct to Meiji no Mori Park, and then almost twenty minutes to get from Meiji no Mori Park to Sōji Munetaro's house. That round trip took an hour, which was the time Jiang Hang left for the real culprit who wanted to avenge his father.

"Officer Sakata, this is your last chance to avenge your father. You should know that from the moment you dialed the police yourself downstairs at Okazaki Sumie's house, you had no way out."

Chapter 385: Chapter 381: When the Law Fails to Bring Justice

Miyano Shiho's research was very detailed.

Yusuke Sakata, or more accurately, Yusuke Inaba, is the biological son of Inaba Tetsuji, the notorious driving instructor who died in a car accident 20 years ago due to drunk driving.

After his father died from drunk driving, public opinion put immense pressure on the Inaba family and young Yusuke Inaba.

Eventually, his mother took him back to her parents' home and changed her son's surname, Inaba, to her own family's surname, Sakata.

For the past twenty years, Yusuke Sakata has probably lived in the shadow of that incident, and his becoming a policeman was likely to investigate his father's car accident.

If Jiang Hang wasn't mistaken, he probably discovered Numabuchi Ki'ichirō's whereabouts by chance recently and learned the truth about his father's death from him, which made him determined to avenge his father.

As an excellent police officer, Yusuke Sakata was well aware of police investigative techniques. Once he made up his mind, killing someone silently without leaving any clues was not a difficult task for him.

Of the six people who caused his father's death in that training class, probably only Sōji Munetaro, who is now an Osaka senator, is someone he can't easily get close to.

How could he possibly get in touch with Sōji Munetaro, the politician who usually hates the police?

It's simply a matter of making the other person a potential victim or perpetrator in this case, so that he can legitimately approach them as a police officer and find an opportunity to attack Sōji Munetaro.

So he found a way to take on the task of entertaining Jiang Hang, and then deliberately drove a police car to the place where he killed Jiang Hang Kazuto Noasu and set a trap, thus involving Jiang Hang and Heiji Hattori in the case.

Then he took out a news article from six years ago to show the connection between the first victim Hidetoshi Nagao, and the third victim Kazuto Noasu, through Sōji Munetaro.

If there was anything unexpected, it was probably that Heiji Hattori noticed Okazaki Sumie's strange behavior at the scene.

Or rather, Heiji Hattori's discovery of Okazaki Sumie's strangeness was probably all within his expectations; what truly disrupted his plans was Jiang Hang's unpredictable behavior.

Jiang Hang's simple "keep the call going" ensured Okazaki Sumie's safety until she met them, rendering all of Yusuke Sakata's previous preparations futile.

Furthermore, since Okazaki Sumie directly recounted what happened back then over the phone, Yusuke Sakata must have known at that moment that he needed to accelerate his revenge plan.

After all, once the car accident from 20 years ago is investigated, and the family relationships of Inaba Tetsuji, who died back then, Yusuke Sakata's identity cannot be hidden for long.

So when Jiang Hang Heiji Hattori walked up to Okazaki Sumie's apartment, Yusuke Sakata vented his frustration in the car.

What Yusuke Sakata never expected was that Jiang Hang, with his Eagle Eye, after suspecting from Miyano Shiho that there were members of the Black Organization involved in the case, casually put Yusuke Sakata, who had a slight possibility of being an undercover agent for the Black Organization, on his radar.

When Jiang Hang was scanning the Okazaki Sumie's house with Eagle Eye, he immediately spotted Yusuke Sakata looked unusual in the car, thanks to Eagle Eye's wall-penetrating function.

Afterwards, Jiang Hang discovered everything Eagle Eye, including Yusuke Sakata's decision to use another phone to call the police and tell them the whereabouts of Numabuchi Ki'ichirō.

However, at that time, Jiang Hang was unaware of Yusuke Sakata's motive for murder.

He was just going to watch from the sidelines and arrest Yusuke Sakata on the spot when he was about to make his move.

It wasn't until he returned to the Higashishiri Precinct and saw the 20-year-old photo, looking at Yusuke Sakata in the photo who had the same hairstyle as Inaba Tetsuji and whose appearance was also five or six parts similar, that Jiang Hang connected these clues and made more than one deduction.

Asking Miyano Shiho help was simply to add an extra layer of insurance to this hypothesis.

The reason Jiang Hang Shizuka Sakaki and the others was that his attitude changed after he guessed the reason why Yusuke Sakata the murder.

The hatred for the murderer of one's father is irreconcilable, and it is only natural for a son to avenge his father.

If Conan or Heiji Hattori were here, they would definitely stop Yusuke Sakata and make him give up his revenge plans.

But if you really ask them to come up with any way to Inaba Tetsuji, they probably don't have any ideas.

After all, this is no longer something that can be resolved by law.

Inaba Tetsuji's death was 20 years ago.

The police officers who wrote the case file back then and determined that Inaba Tetsuji caused the car accident due to drunk driving may have retired or been promoted by now.

Whether they are willing to lose face for the sake of this so-called "justice" is another matter.

Even if Numabuchi Ki'ichirō were to confess to the police now about the crimes he committed back then, the councilor, Koji, would not confess so easily for the sake of his political career. And the others who took Sōji Munetaro's hush money do not seem willing to confess everything to the police for the sake of so-called "justice".

Even Okazaki Sumie's first reaction upon seeing the police was to run away. It was only after realizing that her life was indeed threatened that she recklessly confessed what happened back then.

Given Sōji Munetaro's current financial resources, if Yusuke Sakata wanted to pursue procedural justice, he could easily hire a few good lawyers and shift all the blame for the crimes committed back then onto Numabuchi Ki'ichirō, without suffering any substantial harm himself.

In the style of Conan or Heiji Hattori, in the end they would probably just use their fathers' social status to forcefully overpower Sōji Munetaro outside the courtroom, and ruining his reputation would be the best outcome.

But this was clearly not the outcome that Yusuke Sakata wanted, and Jiang Hang himself did not like this compromise.

Sherlock Holmes once said: When the law fails to bring justice to the parties involved, private revenge becomes justified and even noble from that moment on.

Jiang Hang's thought was that if Yusuke Sakata was already prepared to take on everything, then he had no reason to stop Yusuke Sakata's revenge.

Clearly, when Yusuke Sakata made the emergency call to the police, hoping to temporarily divert the Osaka police's attention from the car accident 20 years ago to Numabuchi Ki'ichirō, thus giving him time to carry out his final revenge, he had already made such preparations.

With a somewhat serious mood, Jiang Hang parked the car near the residence of Sōji Munetaro and entered the mansion where Sōji Munetaro lived as the sky gradually darkened.

Chapter 386: Chapter 382: We just wanted to play a little prank.

The time was a little earlier than usual, at the Higashijiri Police Station.

Sitting in the police station's break room Okazaki Sumie felt utterly exhausted.

The stressful life she's been living these past few days has certainly been a bit of a struggle for her.

First, the news of Hidetoshi Nagao's murder made her a little concerned.

At that time, she didn't think much about it. She just assumed that Hidetoshi Nagao had offended some people he couldn't afford to offend and had been dealt with. So she just sighed in her heart and didn't take it too seriously.

It wasn't until two or three days later, when news reports surfaced about the murder of Tayo Nishiguchi, that she realized something seemed amiss.

Then, around noon today, she received a mysterious phone call asking her to meet her "old friend" again.

Because it was daytime, and the place the voice on the phone was directing her to was a public place, she hesitated for a moment before driving there anyway.

As soon as she arrived there, she saw the gruesome death of Kazuto Noasu.

Suddenly, memories of 20 years ago flooded her mind. First, there was the annoying face of Numabuchi Ki'ichirō, who threatened her not to tell anyone. Then there was Sōji Munetaro, that fierce-looking guy, who offered her money and told her to obediently forget about it.

So she fled back to her home.

But the threatening message that the mysterious killer sent her immediately shattered her mental defenses.

The phone call from Yusuke Sakata was the last straw that broke the camel's back. After hearing the other party reveal his identity on the phone, Okazaki Sumie even felt a sense of relief.

In this situation, faced with a secret from 20 years ago on one side and one's own life on the other, any normal person would choose the latter without hesitation.

So she confessed everything that had happened in the past, and then went back to the police station with Jiang Hang and his group and was placed under their protection.

At this point, Okazaki Sumie thought she was safe.

After all, no matter how skilled the murderer is, it's impossible for him to barge into the police station in broad daylight and attack her.

She had only been at the police station for less than half an hour when Officer Sakata, who had driven her there and seemed vaguely familiar, suddenly appeared before her. He said that Sōji Munetaro unwilling to meet with the police and that she needed to come over and confront him in person.

Although Okazaki Sumie was reluctant to leave the safe police station, according to Officer Sakata, there were still three or four police officers outside Sōji Munetaro's house, and no matter who the murderer was, it was impossible for them to do anything to her there.

After hearing Yusuke Sakata promise to guarantee her safety, Okazaki Sumie hesitated for a while before reluctantly agreeing.

She was then taken to the entrance of Sōji Munetaro's mansion.

And just as Officer Sakata said, Sōji Munetaro secretary refuse to meet with the police under the pretext of preparing meeting materials, eventually let Okazaki Sumie and Sakata Yusuke into his house after learning of Okazaki Sumie's arrival. Perhaps worried that Okazaki Sumie might say something outside his house that would damage his image, he still put on a sour face and let Okazaki Sumie and Yusuke Sakata into his house.

Several other police officers originally wanted to go in with them, but after Officer Sakata said something to them, they stayed at the entrance of Sōji Munetaro's residence and did not go in with them.

After Okazaki Sumie and Yusuke Sakata were taken to a study, Sōji Munetaro called his secretary and security personnel out and told them not to approach the study unless necessary.

Before Okazaki Sumie could even exchange a word with this "old friend" she hadn't seen in over a decade after everyone else had left, Sōji Munetaro, Okazaki Sumie a member of the Osaka Diet, launched his attack on her.

"Are you talking nonsense to the police? Let me tell you, we didn't cause that car accident. At most, we just got the instructor drunk. He got into the accident entirely because of his own actions, and it had nothing to do with us!"

"I only told you not to talk about what happened back then to avoid getting into trouble for myself!"

While speaking, Sōji Munetaro barely glanced at Yusuke Sakata, who was standing next to him.

Given his current status, he really doesn't need to care too much about an ordinary police officer.

If you want him to be nicer, then at least someone standing here should be a police inspector.

When Okazaki Sumie heard Sōji Munetaro's question, she gritted her teeth, thinking about her current situation, and expressed her dissatisfaction to the Osaka Prefectural Assemblyman.

"Now Nagao, Nishiguchi, and Noyasu are all dead, and we still don't know who killed them, but the police suspect Numabuchi."

"You don't need to be afraid of the swamp abyss while you're living here, but I received two threatening phone calls this afternoon, and I even witnessed the gruesome death of Noyasu. If I don't tell the police what happened back then, I'll be next to die!"

Okazaki Sumie has truly given up all hope. She pointed at Sōji Munetaro's nose and started yelling, "Don't you want to admit what happened back then?"

"After we got Coach Inaba drunk, I saw you, along with Nagao and Noyasu, carry the already drunk coach into the car. God knows what you did next that led to that accident back then!"

"After that, Nagao and Noya became your secretary and driver, respectively. When you fired them, you probably gave them a large sum of money as well. I've heard Nishiguchi mention this several times. If you didn't have something to hide, why would you do that!"

As she continued, Okazaki Sumie couldn't stop talking. Taking advantage of Yusuke Sakata was a policeman with real weapons, she blurted out some of the speculations she had heard from Heiji Hattori and Jiang Hang.

"Was it that after Numabuchi fled back to Osaka, he tried to blackmail you using what happened back then, but you refused? And you were worried that what happened back then would be exposed and affect your career, so you planned all of this to kill us all!"

Upon hearing Okazaki Sumie's revelation, Sōji Munetaro sneered, completely disregarding Okazaki Sumie's words.

"I haven't seen that guy Numabuchi for 20 years, and given his current status as a wanted criminal, he has no chance of coming up to me and talking to me."

"Even if we take a step back and assume that I didn't do anything shady back then, how could I possibly be blackmailed by that kind of murderer?"

At this point, he finally glanced at Yusuke Sakata next to Okazaki Sumie: "You're the police who brought Okazaki here, right? You didn't suspect me because of the ridiculous things she told you about 20 years ago, did you?"

Sōji Munetaro snorted heavily, "You police officers are getting more and more useless these days. You get so much funding every year, but in the end, you still haven't caught Numabuchi. You even treat me like the murderer."

"Don't say I didn't give you a chance. You police suspect me now, so show me the evidence."

"If you can't produce it, don't blame me for suing your police station for defaming my reputation!"

Faced with Sōji Munetaro's domineering attitude, Okazaki Sumie looked pleadingly at Officer Sakata beside her, hoping he could suppress Sōji Munetaro's arrogance.

And Officer Sakata certainly did not disappoint her.

After a brief silence, Officer Sakata spoke up, "Councilor Goji, what you just said does indeed not quite match what I've been investigating recently."

"I found out that the night before the car accident 20 years ago, the six of you conspired to see the coach make a fool of himself, so you teamed up to get him drunk."

"Then you guys lifted the coach into the car, drove it to a remote area, and then drained all the brake fluid, which ultimately led to the accident."

"After that, Councilor Goji used your family connections to classify the car accident as drunk driving and shift all the blame onto Coach Inaba. You also gave each of the five people who knew about it a hush money payment to keep them from mentioning it again... I think I'm right, Councilor Goji?"

After Yusuke Sakata clearly recounted what happened that night 20 years ago, a rare look of surprise appeared on Sōji Munetaro's face.

"You're talking nonsense! Where did you hear such a thing? This is absolutely slander!"

After all, Okazaki Sumie and Tayo Nishiguchi only participated in the first half of the plan, which was to get Inaba Tetsuji drunk and then find a way to prank him. The four men were the ones who actually participated in the second half of the plan.

But Nagao and Noyasu are already dead, and the remaining one Numabuchi Ki'ichirō, is now a wanted criminal by the police. There is no way he could tell this to the young policeman in front of him.

Could it be that those guys didn't listen to him and secretly told Okazaki Sumie what happened back then?

No, that's not right!

Judging from Okazaki Sumie's current reaction, this should be the first time she has fully learned the truth about what happened back then.

So where did this policeman find out about this?

Only now did Sōji Munetaro truly begin to seriously examine Yusuke Sakata, the young policeman.

It was fine if he hadn't noticed it before, but the more he looked at Yusuke Sakata, the easier it was for him to match a certain figure in his mind.

That figure was so familiar that even after 20 years, Sōji Munetaro could still vaguely remember the other person's appearance.

His eyes widened, and he exclaimed in surprise, "Coach Inaba... Coach Inaba?!"