"Hired Killing: Task Completed"
"Sakurai Chizuru: Sin Cleared"
"Nagono Kawai: Sin Cleared"
"Rewards Being Distributed…"
…
Fushimi Roku didn't have time to count. With a thought, he closed the subtitles before him and reached out to tap Nagono Kawai's face.
"Hey, don't rush to die. I have something very important to ask you."
"Wha… what?"
Kawai lifted her head and coughed up another mouthful of blood. She guessed that her right lung had been punctured, and her breathing came with a sticky rattling sound.
"Should I turn myself in?" Fushimi Roku asked.
"What do you mean?"
"Didn't get it? If I call for help now, you still have a chance to be saved, so I can only choose between surrendering and escaping."
Fushimi Roku pointed at Sakurai Chizuru's corpse, speaking methodically, "Legally, even if this person is about to die, finishing them off counts as intentional homicide, depriving them of a chance to be saved. If this case goes to trial, you might only get a suspended sentence..."
Kawai weakly interrupted:
"Are you reciting a legal case? Is that what I'm asking? What a joke, even if I ask you to surrender, you won't, right?"
Before coming here, she took some stimulants to avoid going soft and not carrying out the task. During the war, Japan mass-produced and used certain chemicals (censored) as military stimulants, which spread among civilians after the war. At this moment, the drugs kept her clear-headed before she died.
"I will go, after all, I am a lawyer..." Fushimi Roku paused, "I used to be."
"Then why are you smiling?" Kawai asked.
"Hmm?"
Why smile...
Fushimi Roku instinctively touched his face, feeling the uneven texture on his fingertips. Only then did he realize he was smiling.
Kawai continued to press, "There were only five bullets in the chamber... Where did the sixth bullet that pierced Instructor Sakurai's head come from?"
She coughed twice, forcing herself to speak, "You brought a bullet with you, right? You had murderous intent long ago..."
Fushimi Roku didn't know how to respond.
He wanted to argue that he brought a bullet only for self-defense; or perhaps explain that he collected it as an artwork... But no matter how he defended, it seemed powerless against the truth.
He could deceive others, but not himself.
Seeing the smile fade from his face, Nagono Kawai suddenly said, "That's great."
"What's so great?" Fushimi Roku asked.
A smile appeared on Kawai's face, "Minamoto Tamako and I had an agreement that if either of us faced an accident, we'd leave a signal at the scene... like a bloody handprint missing the little finger, representing a familiar person committing the crime... But now it's no longer necessary."
"Why?" Fushimi Roku asked.
Kawai didn't answer. Her gaze began to blur, "Before meeting Minamoto Tamako, I often had nightmares. I dreamed of my brother dying right in front of me, standing with Yaksha beside me, saying he'd make me endure the torment of murder..."
"However, after meeting Minamoto Tamako, I dreamed of the Womb of the Earth Bodhisattva. He said that hell wouldn't be empty until he became a Buddha... Do you understand? You must understand, the mortal world's purgatory, where demons and ghosts bring chaos to the innocent, he chose me to sweep away the filth of the world..."
"Minamoto Tamako will definitely become a famous police chief representing law and justice in the future. I believe in her, she will surely become a beacon to look up to."
"On this long road, someone always needs to clear the filth for her. I bear narrow guilt, but you're different, your hatred is purer... Compared to someone like me who's half-baked, you're more suited to be her Defender."
"Don't surrender... I willingly give up being saved..."
Nagono Kawai, already delirious, faced increasingly chaotic hallucinations. She saw her long-dead brother gently hug her shoulders, comforting her for all these years of hardship.
"Go, kill those devils in human skin."
At the moment these words were uttered, Kawai saw a pair of fierce bright eyes and realized she had awakened an incredible monster.
—It's truly great.
…
Fushimi Roku extended a hand to check the pulse, and the young girl's heart had already stopped beating.
What Defender, what clean up the filth of the world, arbitrarily making others bear unwarranted responsibilities... Who would take it seriously!
With someone like Minamoto Tamako, in this era of rampant black market dealings, could even become a famous police chief? Don't make me laugh! He couldn't care less about that guy's future!
Fushimi Roku stood up, stood for a long time, calming the complicated emotions within.
"Now that things have come to this, I can only find a way to cover it up..."
He looked around the scene and organized the current situation in his mind.
It's now 6:11 PM, in forty minutes, the 'voluntary running hour' will begin, and the class monitor will take roll call. It's raining today, so running is canceled, but there's another dormitory roll call at 10:30 PM.
Disregarding the time it takes to walk back to the dorm, he had four hours left to arrange the scene.
Fushimi Roku took a deep breath, telling himself there's nothing to be nervous about, it's not the first time destroying evidence, just do it like before...
The critical evidence at hand includes two points:
— Fingerprints on the gun and bloodstains on the bullet.
The former can be wiped off, but the latter is more troublesome.
After the bullet grazed his ear, a small amount of blood spattered onto the bench. No matter how cleanly he wiped it, it would still react under luminol testing.
Besides, the wound on his ear was too obvious. Once the police compared ballistic trajectories and injuries, there would be no denying it.
Fushimi Roku viewed Minamoto Tamako as a hypothetical adversary. He sat on the bench, simulating various possibilities in his mind. However, the more he rehearsed, the heavier his mood became.
If he tried to recreate the primary crime scene by moving the body, Minamoto Tamako was bound to see through it;
If he tried to hide proof of a third person's existence by creating a locked-room mystery, Minamoto Tamako would undoubtedly discover it...
He dismissed countless possibilities one by one, finally realizing the strength of Minamoto Tamako's deduction skills.
"In that case, there's no choice..."
Fushimi Roku sighed, and with a thought, a personal panel appeared before him.
"Name: Fushimi Roku"
"Age: 23"
"Personal Attributes: Intelligence A, Will A, Endurance A, Strength C, Speed C"
"Personal Skills: Culinary Skills Lv1, Negotiation and Debate Lv7, Logical Integration Lv8, Evidence Forgery Lv6, Tracking Skill Lv1, Lock Opening Skill Lv1, Grapple Skill Lv3"
"Attribute Points Balance: 0"
"Skill Points Balance: 2"
The system-rewarded skill points had subtitle instructions; they could only be used to raise skill levels. To enhance personal attributes, attribute points were required.
Originally, Fushimi Roku planned to allocate points to "Culinary Skills." Later when he got home from work, he could cook a couple of dishes and enjoy a glass of homemade wine. Life would be delightful, wouldn't it?
But given the urgency of the situation, he couldn't afford to be capricious. With a regretful heart, he boosted "Evidence Forgery" from Lv6 to Lv8.
A warm stream surged from his brain, quickly spreading through his body. Fushimi Roku stood up, intertwined his fingers, and stretched them forward and backward, his joints crackling.
"It's time to put pressure on those tax thieves."