CHAPTER 430: CHAPTER 329: HONESTY

The tape started to spin, a hiss of static noise arose.

At first, Mr. Yoshikawa showed disdain, sneering and turning his face away. Until his daughter’s voice came from the recorder, he was suddenly stunned, his body involuntarily leaning forward, as if wanting to press his ears to the recorder to listen closely.

"I can’t... I can’t do it."

"I believe you..."

"Don’t be like this, I, I’m lying... I’m the one who killed the person... You can hate me, as long as you hate me it’s fine..."

"It doesn’t matter anymore."

"How can it not matter? Don’t you want revenge for Ryosuke?"

"Will revenge bring him back to life? I just want to see him one more time..."

The words become increasingly subdued, indistinct, but without needing Minamoto Tamako to explain, Mr. Yoshikawa could also figure out what had really happened at that time.

His tightly wound muscles suddenly relaxed, his whole body seemed to have had its spine pulled out, slumping back against the chair, eyes blankly staring ahead.

After a dozen seconds, the tape finished playing.

Technically, the recording should end here.

However, the tape deck automatically flipped and played the B-side; a female voice, pinched to carefully mimic Yoshikawa Ritsuo, echoed: "Cough, cough... I suddenly remember, I have some last words to confess..."

Fushimi Roku immediately guessed why Minamoto Tamako took a detour to the recording studio; he really hadn’t anticipated that Minamoto Tamako would do such a thing.

Minamoto Tamako was extremely guilty, bent over, bowed her head, hands clasping her fingers, pretending not to care, occasionally lifting her head to stealthily glance at Mr. Fu Jian and Mr. Yoshikawa.

"I’m really sorry, Dad, Mom, please don’t harbor resentment because of my death..."

"Um... also, Fujiwara Homare didn’t intentionally want to kill me, I can’t persuade you not to blame him, but just hope you give the living another chance..."

"Oh right, I’m still alive..."

"I’m Yoshikawa Ritsuo, now I’m going to die."

"Goodbye."

...

The interrogation room fell silent.

After a while, a low sobbing sound arose.

Mr. Yoshikawa gritted his teeth, turbid tears flowed down the wrinkles on his face. He shakily stretched out both hands, cradling the tape recorder as if holding his own daughter.

He forced a smile and said: "So that’s how it is, such a willful child... causing you so much trouble..."

Minamoto Tamako patted Mr. Yoshikawa’s shoulder, gently comforted him a few words, and took the tape away. She still needed the tape for investigation, to understand its origin, and to prevent others from discovering the forgery on the B-side.

Everything that needed to be done was done, Minamoto Tamako took her leave and departed.

It was undeniable that Mr. Yoshikawa deliberately hurt someone in court; she couldn’t undermine the fairness of the law and could only provide comfort as much as possible outside of the legal boundaries.

After doing these things, Minamoto Tamako’s mood lightened a bit. She took a ride home, lay on the sofa, gazing blankly and dazed, looking like a dementia patient, but her mind was actually constantly reviewing the case’s start and finish.

Taking advantage of the time before Taira Sakurako returned from school, Fushimi Roku planned to enjoy a few rounds of games; he turned on the game console, picked up the controller, sat next to Minamoto Tamako, and casually said: "Doesn’t what you did count as forgery?"

"What?" Minamoto Tamako snapped back to reality.

"The last testament of Yoshikawa Ritsuo was clearly recorded by you, right?" Fushimi Roku didn’t even bother to criticize how bad her imitation was, and only Mr. Yoshikawa chose not to expose it; otherwise, Minamoto Tamako would be arrested in no time.

"Ah, um, that..."

Minamoto Tamako squirmed, leaning on the armrest, and said: "I didn’t present it to the court, nor did I use it as evidence, just let Mr. Yoshikawa listen for a while... not considered forgery."

"Then what is it?" Fushimi Roku rapidly maneuvered the controller, pretending not to care.

"A benevolent lie."

"But you previously said that benevolent lies can also lead to bad consequences, that honesty is the most important thing in being human."

"Indeed, but when I talk about being honest, I mean being candid," murmured Minamoto Tamako, with her cheek resting on her arm: "How could Mr. Yoshikawa not recognize his daughter’s voice? How could I not distinguish Grandpa’s handwriting? How could Kawai’s soul attach to a doll?"

She flipped over, staring at the ceiling: "You should understand, shouldn’t you? The difference between candid goodwill and embellished self-interest, even if they appear the same, they are ultimately different."

Fushimi Roku scratched his foot, remained silent.

Minamoto Tamako suddenly sat up, not knowing what came over her, she pushed against Fushimi Roku’s shoulder and said, "Sometimes I think you’re candid, but other times I feel you’re embellishing self-interest... Speaking of which, I don’t seem to have heard much about your past."

"Because my past is not worth mentioning," Fushimi Roku swayed back and forth, yet still managed to keep his gameplay intact: "You haven’t spoken much about it either."

"Fine!"

Minamoto Tamako slapped her thigh, stared at Fushimi Roku’s side profile, and said seriously: "Then I’ll tell you about my past now, share all twenty-two years of my life with you."

"All of it?" Fushimi Roku raised his eyebrows, pressing pause on the game.

"All of it!" Minamoto Tamako nodded: "And you need to share too!"

"Never mind." Fushimi Roku went back to his game.

"You’re at it again! You’re always like this! I guess you never really were honest with me!" Minamoto Tamako was very angry, still in her biological cycle, prone to emotions due to various triggering factors.

The series of events stemming from Yoshikawa Ritsuo’s sacrifice for her boyfriend heightened her inner unease. After reviewing, she thought about various doubts in the past, always feeling that Fushimi Roku was hiding many things from her.

"The past isn’t important, the future is," Fushimi Roku casually deflected: "We’ll still be good partners in the future!"

Who wants to always be a partner with you!

Minamoto Tamako had this bizarre thought jump out from her mind, fueling her anger further; she questioned: "No past, how can there be future?"

Upon hearing this, Fushimi Roku continued to use psychological issues as an excuse, expressing he didn’t want to discuss past matters now, claiming reflections only worsened his psychological trauma.

Minamoto Tamako squinted and asked Fushimi Roku to show the diagnosis report.

Fushimi Roku shrugged: "Don’t know where it’s disappeared to, I get annoyed seeing the report, probably tossed it into the trash can..."

"I tidy up the trash cans; I sort the trash every day, and never saw the diagnosis report."

Minamoto Tamako thought this guy indeed was deceiving again, how she once even thought he had excessive mental stress, only to find it was all an excuse for being lazy!

She actually stupidly believed it!

Seeing Minamoto Tamako’s anger level maxed, Fushimi Roku felt a headache coming on. When pressured, he wanted to smoke, so he subconsciously took out a cigarette pack from his pocket, planning to relax right in front of Minamoto Tamako.

"I said no smoking! Secondhand smoke is harmful too, what if Sakurako comes back and smells the smoke?" Minamoto Tamako lunged forward, snatching the cigarette pack: "You didn’t use to have a smoking habit, why suddenly now?"

Fushimi Roku argued he had no craving for smoking, but Minamoto Tamako countered why smoke if there’s no craving? Fushimi Roku couldn’t answer, indicating it was just to relax. Minamoto Tamako still felt suspicious, clearly, Mr. Fu Jian hadn’t needed this way to relax before, what’s going on today?

Upon hearing this, the words of Director Shintani suddenly echoed in Fushimi Roku’s ears:

——’Certain things, the longer you drag them on, the worse they get.’