CHAPTER 429: CHAPTER 328: NICOTINE CRAVING

After the court session ended, Fujiwara Homare was urgently taken to the hospital. He wasn’t seriously injured, but both his palms now had puncture wounds — Mr. Yoshikawa’s first attempt failed, and when he pulled out and stabbed again, Fujiwara blocked it with his other hand — in a certain sense, Fujiwara Homare could now cosplay a certain popular historical figure, as if attaining immortality.

Director Fujiwara paid Lawyer Kikuta a large final payment. Although both of them were fully aware of who really came up with the debate points and who organized the logical chain, they chose not to address the elephant in the room, maintaining silent acknowledgment.

Mr. Yoshikawa was detained for attempted murder in the courtroom, an act of considerable severity, and he is likely to receive a severe penalty. Director Fujiwara does not intend to pursue it further; as long as his son is not dead or in prison, and the palm wound is the extent of it, then it perhaps serves him right. He had long been admonished repeatedly, not to drink excessively, not to frequent pleasure districts, and not to flirt around, but Fujiwara Homare just would not listen.

Now, he only hopes that Fujiwara Homare will learn a lesson from this.

Mrs. Yoshikawa first lost her daughter, and now she has to lose her husband as well. Minamoto Tamako couldn’t even imagine how hard it must be for them. Standing in the courtroom, waiting for the police to enter, emergency personnel lifted the stretcher, people came and went, and the noise transitioned to silence. Even after the session dispersed, the courtroom remained as it was.

Solemn and dignified, standing in silent vigil.

By the time the sun rises tomorrow and the judges, who have worked overtime throughout the night, enter through these doors yawning, who knows who might suffer injustice or unfairness here, pleading for the final justice.

Minamoto Tamako’s mind was a mess and when she came to her senses, Fushimi Roku was no longer at the gallery seats.

She took out her pink flip phone, intending to call Fushimi Roku. But once she opened the door, she found Fushimi Roku crouching with his back to her on the curb outside the courthouse.

"Why didn’t you call me when you came out..."

Minamoto Tamako was saying, as she hurried over, noticing a wisp of smoke rising from Fushimi Roku’s head, and she exclaimed in surprise, "Why are you on fire?"

Fushimi Roku turned his head subconsciously, holding a cigarette between two fingers, and exhaled a stream of white smoke from his nostrils, looking baffled, "What’s on fire?"

Minamoto Tamako’s eyes widened, her expression akin to a cat spotting a mouse, or a dog seeing poop. She dashed over swiftly, snatching the cigarette from Fushimi Roku’s hand, and loudly questioned while pinching the cigarette between her fingers, "How could you smoke?!"

"I’m already an adult, why can’t I smoke?" Fushimi Roku retrieved the cigarette from her hand and placed it back in his mouth, "Which man doesn’t smoke?"

"My dad doesn’t smoke!" Minamoto Tamako clapped her hands quickly to snuff out the cigarette’s ember, ignoring the heat, causing the end of the cigarette in Fushimi Roku’s mouth to crumple.

"Your dad didn’t outlive your mom..."

Realizing the inappropriateness of his words, Fushimi Roku swallowed the latter half of the comment, and instead said, "Kazama and Watanabe smoke too, why don’t you say anything about them?"

"That’s different!" Minamoto Tamako was visibly upset.

"How’s it different?" Fushimi Roku replied.

"It’s just different! I can’t control others, but..." Minamoto Tamako stuttered, unable to say the words, "but you can’t."

Seeing her flustered appearance, Fushimi Roku’s irritable mood improved slightly. He casually spit out half of the cigarette and turned around with a grin, "But what?"

"Nothing, nothing..."

"Why can’t you control others, am I not considered someone else?" Fushimi Roku tilted his head like an elementary school student, chasing Minamoto Tamako’s averted face.

Minamoto Tamako was also in an extremely bad mood. She didn’t want to joke around with Fushimi Roku. This was a very serious matter; cigarettes are a major cause of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which gradually decreases lung function, leading to symptoms like breathing difficulties — she didn’t want Mr. Fu Jian to become a useless person gasping for air after just a few steps!

Moreover, smoking greatly increases the risk of lung cancer, and over 90% of lung cancer cases are related to smoking. She didn’t want Mr. Fu Jian to die young, suffer from cancer due to smoking, end up in a hospital bed, wailing and bald from chemotherapy, and eventually die in pain.

Furthermore, the court session had just ended, and both plaintiff and defendant were in dire straits. As a law enforcement officer, how could she remain unfazed, how could she have the heart to laugh and joke?

Minamoto Tamako immediately sanctioned Fushimi Roku’s stamp and requested that Fushimi Roku accompany her to visit Fujiwara Homare and Mr. Yoshikawa, and to hand over the recording, revealing the truth to them.

"What’s the point of doing this?" Fushimi Roku knocked on his cigarette pack and took out another cigarette.

"The Yoshikawa couple have the right to know the truth!" Minamoto Tamako said seriously, quickly snatching the cigarette from his mouth.

"And then what? To make them even more upset?" Fushimi Roku went ahead and took out another cigarette.

"Being sad is better than harboring hatred!" Minamoto Tamako simply took away the pack of cigarettes, saying seriously, "A well-intentioned lie can also lead to negative outcomes, just as my mom said it’s most important to be honest!"

"Why are you telling me this? Go tell Lawyer Kikuta! I think he’s really bad, distorting facts with smooth talk in court, focusing only on getting the client off, completely ignoring the truth, clearly lacking in honesty..."

Fushimi Roku enumerated Lawyer Kikuta’s crimes and criticized the ethical standards of Japanese lawyers harshly.

"Don’t say that, Lawyer Kikuta... is just upholding the rights of his clients." Minamoto Tamako, though reluctant, had grown a lot and understood many things: "He didn’t break the law, so he didn’t do anything wrong."

Fushimi Roku was stunned, not having expected such a response from Minamoto Tamako.

"Let’s go, no dawdling."

Minamoto Tamako urgently wanted to resolve the Yoshikawa couple’s knot in their heart. She knew that sometimes the truth is like a sharp blade, and as long as it cuts away the rotten flesh of hatred, the pain is worth it — she didn’t want this meaningless hatred to continue any longer.

Fushimi Roku reluctantly got up, paid the taxi driver a hefty parking fee, then took the car with Minamoto Tamako to the detention center, detouring to a recording studio on the way. Mr. Yoshikawa had just gone in, and they arrived shortly after, requesting the local police station’s consent as criminal police officers to conduct an interrogation in another jurisdiction.

In honor of Chief Kujo, no one in the police station dared to refuse.

Two criminal police officers brought Mr. Yoshikawa into the interrogation room and borrowed a tape recorder as requested by Minamoto Tamako, placing it on the table.

"This is not a formal interrogation; no records, no legal effect, just a chat..."

Minamoto Tamako finished speaking and suddenly realized that she seemed to have heard Senior Kazama and Mr. Fu Jian say the same thing before. To this day, she could now skillfully say these lines, without even a mental hitch.

"Nothing you say is useful," Mr. Yoshikawa’s expression was dark as water, showing no remorse. The weapon he brought was tempered glass, the murder attempt premeditated: "I’m a first-time offender; the most I’ll get is twenty years... When I get out, I will take his life."

"Uh, indeed, maybe we... have no right to persuade you to forgive, but..."

Minamoto Tamako, sitting across from him, appeared somewhat awkward, swallowed a bit and continued, "I hope you can listen to her last wishes."

After saying that, she inserted the disk into the tape recorder and pressed the tape button.