"...I only pointed the finger at him to the police back then," Komura Shuji stammered, swallowing hard. "I just wanted to mess with him a little. I never imagined things would spiral this far out of control."
He lifted his head, his eyes darting toward Inspector Samezaki for a fleeting second before snapping back down to the floor.
"Kuroki-senpai and I belong to the same boxing gym. He's always looked out for me."
As he uttered those last few words, his voice dwindled to a barely audible whisper.
"Yesterday afternoon," Komura continued, his back hunched as if trying to physically shrink into his chair, "I was heading home and passed by that park. I happened to see Jotaro Matsuda walking by. I didn't think much of it at the time."
"Then this morning, I went out for my morning run. I passed the park again and saw police tape everywhere. They said a body had been found."
"I was curious, so I asked around..." Komura stopped abruptly, licking his parched, cracked lips.
Inspector Samezaki tapped his knuckles impatiently against the table. The sharp sound made Komura flinch. He quickly scrambled to continue.
"When I heard the victim was also a boxer and that the time of death was yesterday afternoon, I thought..."
Komura looked up, a flicker of shame crossing his face. "I thought if I told the police about seeing Jotaro Matsuda there yesterday, and they started investigating him... it might be enough to distract him or throw him off his game."
His shoulders slumped forward, defeated.
"That way, Kuroki-senpai would have an easy win in today's finals."
"I never expected the police to actually believe he was the murderer..."
Komura's expression was a complex knot of guilt and reluctant admiration. "And I never expected that even with all that, Jotaro Matsuda would still win the match."
Recalling their earlier conversation in the car, Inspector Samezaki narrowed his eyes. "Does Takeshi Kuroki know about this?"
"This was all my own doing," Komura shook his head vigorously. "Kuroki-senpai doesn't know a thing."
"Is everything you've said the truth?" Samezaki pressed one last time. "If we find out you're lying again—"
"I'm telling the truth this time! I swear!" Komura promised desperately. "If a single word is a lie, I... I'll take full legal responsibility!"
Inside the observation room, Inspector Megure punched the wall in a fit of rage.
"That bastard! Because of his petty selfishness, he not only misled the police, but he nearly destroyed twenty years of Jotaro Matsuda's hard work!"
It's more than just twenty years of hard work, Hayashi Shuichi thought grimly.
He vaguely remembered the original timeline. In that world, although Jotaro Matsuda was eventually cleared of suspicion, the arrest caused him to miss his finals.
The trauma of the incident convinced Jotaro that he was cursed with bad luck no matter what he did. He didn't just quit boxing; he fell into a deep depression and turned into a chronic alcoholic.
That transformation had a devastating impact on the young Jinpei Matsuda. It sowed the seeds of his deep-seated hatred for the police.
Fortunately, Jinpei hadn't strayed into delinquency. Instead, he had chosen to become a police officer himself. His sole motivation back then was to climb to the very top of the Metropolitan Police Department—to become the Superintendent General just so he could personally thrash those "useless, incompetent cops."
"Inspector Megure," Shuichi said, recalling his earlier discovery. "Have Inspector Samezaki ask him if he saw anyone covered in machine oil near the park yesterday afternoon."
Megure nodded and quickly relayed the message to Samezaki via the earpiece.
Upon hearing the question, Komura Shuji nodded without a moment's hesitation. "I did! I saw him!"
"Are you sure?" Samezaki's brow furrowed suspiciously. "Think carefully before you answer."
"I'm positive!" Komura sat up straight, gesturing with his hands. "Yesterday afternoon, right after I saw Jotaro Matsuda..."
His nose wrinkled, as if the memory of the scent was still fresh.
"I brushed past a man who was slightly taller than me. The smell of machine oil on him was so strong, it left a deep impression."
"Inspector," Shuichi cut in, grabbing the microphone, his voice rising with urgency. "Ask him what the man looked like!"
Inside the interrogation room, Samezaki repeated Shuichi's question.
Komura strained to recall the details. "I remember he seemed very flustered at the time. After we passed each other, because that oil smell was so pungent, I actually turned back to look at him."
At this, a small, involuntary smirk touched his lips.
"I happened to catch him tripping over his own feet. He nearly fell flat on his face."
"As for his face... he had a round face, quite a bit of stubble on his cheeks, and very small eyes."
Based on Komura Shuji's description, Inspector Samezaki had a sketch artist draft a composite of the suspect. From there, the task moved to screening the victim's social circle and conducting a canvass of the neighborhood—standard police work that Shuichi didn't need to worry about.
Instead, he and Jotaro Matsuda were driven back to the izakaya in Inspector Megure's patrol car.
The moment they stepped through the door and Jinpei Matsuda saw his father, the boy let out a cry of joy. He ran forward and threw himself into Jotaro's arms.
"Dad! I knew it! I knew you couldn't be a murderer!"
"Shuichi-niisan, is the case solved?" Chihaya Hagiwara asked as she walked over.
"Mr. Matsuda is officially cleared of suspicion, and the police have a solid lead on the real culprit, though they haven't caught him yet," Shuichi explained. He then looked at Jotaro. "Until the killer is in custody, Mr. Matsuda, I'll have to ask you not to leave Tokyo."
"Why?" Kenji Hagiwara asked, peeking out from behind his older sister. "Didn't you already prove that Uncle Matsuda isn't the killer?"
"Mr. Matsuda also saw the suspect arguing with the victim," Shuichi clarified. "Once the police catch him, they'll likely need him to make a formal identification."
"So Dad went from being a suspect to a witness?" Jinpei asked, looking up with a wide, innocent face.
"That's about right." Shuichi smiled, reaching out to ruffle the boy's messy, curly hair.
"Shuichi-niisan," Kenji Hagiwara suddenly tugged on Shuichi's sleeve. "Reiko-san said you're a consultant for the First Investigation Division. Are you a policeman too?"
"Strictly speaking, no," Shuichi thought for a moment before answering.
"If all policemen were like you, Shuichi-niisan, that would be great," Jinpei said, his small fists clenched tight. "If they were, Dad would never have been wrongly accused in the first place!"
"If that's how you feel, why don't you become a policeman yourself in the future?" Shuichi said, patting the boy's shoulder gently. "The more good cops there are, the fewer 'clueless' ones there will be to go around."
"Shuichi-niisan is right!" Jinpei nodded vigorously. "It's settled. I'm going to be a policeman when I grow up. Kenji, what about you?"
"Me?" Kenji blinked, taken aback. "What's this got to do with me?"
"We're best friends, aren't we?" Jinpei grabbed his friend's wrist with a grip so tight Kenji winced. "If I'm becoming a cop, you're coming with me!"
Unable to win against Jinpei's stubbornness, Kenji could only nod in helpless resignation.
However, a mischievous grin soon spread across the boy's face. "Fine, Jinpei. But remember, you promised—if Shuichi-niisan cleared your dad's name, you'd stop trying to compete with him for Onee-san's attention, right?"
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