Chapter 113: I Call the Shots in Beika Town |
"I know the killer is one of you three!" Bai Mu declared. "Confess and receive leniency, or resist and face the absolute worst!"
"It is not too late to turn yourselves in!"
"This is police brutality! I'm going to rep—"
Before the man could even finish the word "report," Bai Mu buried a fist deep into his stomach.
If the homicide detectives outside heard the commotion, his Main Quest would undoubtedly end in failure. Therefore, he absolutely could not allow the suspects to raise their voices.
"We live in a society of law—"
Thud! Another heavy blow landed, causing the bespectacled middle-aged man to double over, his back arching like a cooked shrimp.
However, a piece of candy was forcefully jammed past his pried-open teeth. The physical pain rapidly receded, but his sheer terror of the gas-mask-wearing man standing over him was permanently etched into his mind.
Just imagine the kind of scenario where someone would completely conceal their face during an interrogation.
"Let me be brutally honest with you. Even if you walk out of here and file a report, it won't make a single ripple," Bai Mu stated coldly. "Beika Town is my territory. I call the shots here. Even the homicide detectives answer to me. If you do not want to suffer any more physical trauma, then spit out the truth!"
"Japan rarely hands out the death penalty anyway. If you go to prison, you at least get to keep your miserable lives. But if you fall into my hands, the local suicide statistics might just see another sudden spike."
Those ruthless words left the three suspects trembling in absolute horror. Bai Mu possessed terrifying physical strength, effortlessly pinning all three of them down as unmovable as a mountain. Any lingering thoughts of resistance were completely crushed.
Unfortunately, it seemed the killer was not among this trio. Despite the immense psychological and physical pressure Bai Mu applied, none of them confessed to the crime.
Judging by their frantic expressions and involuntary physiological responses, they were telling the truth. There were still eight other suspects left to rule out. After issuing one final, chilling warning, Bai Mu let them go.
Once the suspects scurried away, Bai Mu removed his disguise and resumed his role as a Forensic Doctor.
"Did you manage to get anything out of them, Mr. Ishikawa?" the detective inquired.
"Nothing of value," Bai Mu replied, shaking his head with feigned regret. "Speaking of which, have the remaining suspects been brought in yet? I might have better luck interrogating them."
"The Search Division is out tracking them down right now," the detective explained. "I will notify you the moment they are brought into custody."
That meant they were still on the loose. Realizing he was just wasting time waiting around, Bai Mu decided he might as well head out and hunt them down himself.
"Do not trouble yourselves. To be honest, I doubt more questioning here will yield any useful results anyway."
With those parting words, Bai Mu walked out the front doors of the inn and stepped onto the bustling street.
He navigated his way to the avenue where the local festival was taking place. The police had already established checkpoints and were comparing faces in the crowd against photographs printed from the security footage, searching for the suspects one by one.
So far, they had not managed to locate a single target. The sheer density of the festival crowd made it like finding a needle in a haystack.
Bai Mu quickly located a random passerby and activated Plainclothes Photography, seamlessly copying their outfit before blending directly into the festival throng.
He weaved through the surging sea of people. Thanks to his exceptionally sharp vision, he spotted one of the suspects in no time. Since the festival was held out in the suburbs, there was a dense, gloomy patch of woods conveniently located right next to the venue.
Bai Mu marched straight over and forcefully apprehended the suspect. The sudden aggression startled the surrounding crowd, but Bai Mu smoothly flashed his forensic ID, passing it off as a Police Badge. He loudly announced that he was a plainclothes officer executing an arrest, immediately calming the bystanders and maintaining public order.
After securing his target, he dragged the suspect into the secluded woods for a private interrogation. His methodology remained exactly the same as before. When the man failed to provide any useful information under duress, Bai Mu simply kicked him out and ordered the terrified guy to turn himself over to the police checkpoint.
"Who do you think truly owns Beika Town?"
"You really do not want your life to come to an abrupt end in a ditch where nobody will ever find you, do you?"
"Stuffing someone into a concrete barrel and sinking them to the bottom of Tokyo Bay is not a tactic reserved solely for the yakuza."
By the time he was beating up the fourth suspect, the man finally cracked.
"It is all... it is all that bastard's fault..." A scholarly-looking man with glasses sobbed, kneeling on the damp earth. "If he had not stolen my manuscript... if he had not claimed my hard work as his own, I never would have been pushed to this—"
Before the man could even get halfway through his tragic sob story, Bai Mu abruptly cut him off.
"Save your excuses for the victim's grave."
"Go straight back to the crime scene and turn yourself in like a good citizen. If you dare breathe a single word about what transpired in these woods..." Bai Mu let out a chilling sneer. "Remember, we are the police. Digging into your social circles and personal connections is the easiest thing in the world. You would not want your innocent friends and family to suffer the consequences of your loose lips, would you?"
The killer froze, his sobs hitching in his throat. Overcome with utter humiliation and terror, he stammered, "I... I understand."
Bai Mu allowed the man to stumble out of the woods. After leaving the festival grounds himself, he dropped the disguise and reverted to his Forensic Doctor persona. He casually grabbed a pair of tweezers and some random vial of unidentifiable liquid from a police cruiser's forensics kit before heading back up to the crime scene.
Misty Rain Traveler immediately asked, "How did it go?"
Bai Mu flashed her an 'OK' hand gesture. He then fully leaned back into his role, pretending to closely examine the corpse while subtly tampering with the evidence.
Right on cue, the classic Sleeping Kogoro segment triggered. "The true murderer is not currently inside this hotel!"
"The culprit is actually an outsider! Someone who appears to have a rock-solid alibi, but in reality, they utilized a clever misdirection trick!"
"The killer is none other than—"
But before the grand reveal could even be completed, the killer voluntarily stumbled into the room, already completely subdued.
"It was me... I am the one who killed Narita."
The murderer dropped heavily to his knees to begin his dramatic confession. Right on cue, the triumphant background music finally began to play.
"He plagiarized my life's work! He even won an award with it! I just could not stomach the injustice."
The killer promptly confessed exactly where he had discarded the firearm. Once the murder weapon was recovered by the police, the evidence was completely ironclad. Thus, another murder case was flawlessly resolved.
"Why... why in the world did you suddenly decide to turn yourself in?" Sleeping Kogoro voiced his confusion. His tone sounded incredibly stifled and deeply frustrated, as if he were suffering from severe conversational constipation.
"Because I finally realized the severe error of my ways," the murderer replied, his head bowed low in utter defeat. "I should have used proper legal channels to settle our personal grievances, instead of resorting to senseless violence."
"I am... I am so sorry... I promise, I will be an upstanding, law-abiding citizen from now on..."
"I will never dare to commit a crime ever again..."
"Sob... sob..."
This fully grown adult male had been scared out of his wits, reduced to a weeping mess with tears and snot flowing freely down his face.
Everyone else in the room, Misty Rain Traveler included, was utterly bewildered by this display. Only Bai Mu knew the absolute truth: this guy had simply been frightened out of his mind. It was only when a person experienced genuine, life-threatening danger and overwhelming physical violence that they truly understood the definition of 'helplessness'.
He had easily extinguished a human life with a firearm purely out of hatred, yet beneath that temporary bravado lay a pathetically fragile core. The moment he was faced with a genuine threat to his own life, his mind completely buckled under the crushing weight of fear and pressure.
["???"'s Attention towards you has increased. Current Attention: 50%.]
The mysterious attention metric had risen once more, finally hitting the fifty percent mark.
The killer was promptly shoved into the back of a police cruiser. After routinely hauling the victim's corpse back and tossing it into the morgue freezer, Bai Mu and Misty Rain Traveler officially concluded their work for the day.
Having operated in this world for three days now, Bai Mu roughly understood the mechanics at play. Beika Town generated exactly one murder case per day. The exact time the crime occurred was always randomized, but the moment the case was successfully closed, he and Misty Rain Traveler were granted completely free time for the rest of the day.
By the time they finally made it back to their apartment building, it was already 1:00 AM.
During the elevator ride up, Bai Mu briefed Misty Rain Traveler on his brutal interrogation methodology.
"Holy crap, that actually worked?!" she exclaimed in utter astonishment.
"My Attention meter hit fifty percent just now," Bai Mu noted. "What about yours? Still stagnant?"
"Actually, mine jumped up too," Misty Rain Traveler replied with a grin. "Maybe it is because I successfully stalled the investigation for you, but my Attention has now risen to thirty percent."
"At this rate, if we completely derail the procedural flow of another two or three cases, our Attention will cap out at a hundred percent," Bai Mu analyzed. "However, keep in mind that the system permanently banned police dogs after our first stunt. For the next case, they might assign several officers like Endo to constantly monitor our every move. The difficulty is only going to escalate from here."
"Well, the carriage will find a way through the mountains. I completely trust your judgment, boss," Misty Rain Traveler said with profound admiration.
She pulled out her keys and unlocked the front door to their apartment.
But the very moment the door swung inward, she froze solid. A towering man dressed entirely in black was standing in the shadows just behind the doorway. He casually raised a pistol, aiming the dark, hollow muzzle directly at her forehead.
"Traitors to the Organization have only one path awaiting them—death."