Conan: Chief of Rice Flower's Science Points

Chapter 389 The seal is lifted
After discovering that Kunikida's phone had no signal, Shiraishi immediately realized that something had changed. He then contacted the Okuho Police Station to search for properties in Okuho Town owned by Jun Sakurai and his parents, and learned the location of the villa.

Then Shiraishi and his men rushed over...

Although it wasn't certain when we set off that Kunikida was also here, this is at least a possible location!

Given that Murano Hikaru is "unreachable," protecting Sakurai Jun first is the right thing to do.

As it turned out, Shiraishi arrived at just the right time...

……

Kunikida and his men escorted Murano into a police car, while Sakurai Jun had already been untied and helped up by Gen.

However, Shiraishi then said, "Mr. Sakurai must be quite frightened. Let him rest for a while before heading back to give his statement."

Hearing Shiraishi say this, Gen also understood that the chief must have something to say to Sakurai, and it was not appropriate for other people to be present, so he called the patrol officers who were still collecting evidence in the villa to leave together.

“This place is nice, and it was even purchased in your uncle’s name. We almost couldn’t find it either. It’s definitely a good place to hide.” Bai Shi first made a pointed compliment.

Sakurai felt that this was somewhat mocking him for "hiding his head and revealing his tail".

"This isn't about hiding, it's about fighting," Sakurai said, pouring himself a glass of water to calm his nerves.

"fighting?"

“As a judge, being threatened is commonplace. This isn’t the first time in my thirty years that I’ve faced the risk of violence.” Although he had just been taken hostage, Sakurai remained relatively calm and even said righteously, “However, as a judge, I cannot yield. I must uphold justice in the trial!”

"Justice? Speaking of this... Judge Sakurai, although Prosecutor Matsui and Attorney Kobayashi have passed away, I hope you can..." Shiraishi brought up the matter directly without leaving any room for negotiation when they were alone.

However, Sakurai interrupted excitedly, "That's enough!"

Sakurai immediately looked at Shiraishi without backing down and said, "I've seen far more liars than you have. We only discussed this in advance in private so that we could have a more perfect judgment and not let any criminal go free because of some trivial details. If you want to report this, I have nothing to say."

"Does the price of 'not letting any criminal go free' mean tacitly admitting that someone will be wrongly accused?" Shiraishi retorted without backing down.

“I didn’t say that,” Sakurai said impatiently, then stood up somewhat agitatedly. Although he still looked up at Shiraishi, he met his gaze and said, “If a trial requires perfect evidence, countless people will escape punishment! And…”

"Most people don't understand cases or the law. When bad things happen, they hope that someone will be punished. Justice is about responding to the public's expectation of fairness. This is also to let the public see that evildoers will be punished, and to guide the public's behavior!"

"In other words, my 'design' with Matsui and Kobayashi is in line with justice if we want to thoroughly investigate all heinous cases!"

Shiraishi remained unmoved by Sakurai Jun's outrageous remarks. After he finished speaking, he said, "Now you want to blame the people's incompetence again? Then why did you secretly sit in three seats to discuss things? Why did you rush away after seeing me and Attorney Eri Kisaki?"
“I am indeed very curious: which would have a greater impact on the public, seeing ‘the case not being solved or the suspect being acquitted due to insufficient evidence’ or seeing ‘judges, prosecutors, and lawyers secretly discussing things behind the scenes’?”

Upon hearing this, Sakurai's lips twitched as he said, "I said... if you want to make this public, of course I can't stop you... I've thought about taking responsibility from the very beginning."

If it were anyone else, Sakurai might consider silencing him, and even Director Fukano would be happy to speak with the officers who knew the truth, but...

If it were Shiraishi Kuro, Sakurai himself couldn't think of any way to prevent him from revealing this.

"Take responsibility?" Shiraishi said, looking at Sakurai carefully, which made Sakurai feel awkward.

Bai Shi then spoke again: "If we simply follow the rules of the court and the principles of the judge to make a judgment, even if we make a mistake due to our lack of ability, it is merely a dereliction of duty. At most, we would be dismissed. Whether a good person is wronged or a bad person escapes, it is essentially a matter of 'rules' that the whole society needs to bear together."

"But if you act on your own initiative, violate the rules, and subjectively cause a wrongful conviction, then I think that's a different situation, and you'll have to take responsibility for it yourself."

Faced with Shiraishi's relentless pressure, Sakurai broke down, turned around and sat on the sofa, feigning disdain as he said, "Let's talk about this when you can actually prove my judgment wrong!"

However, Shiraishi did not let him off so easily, but continued: "Now there is a prisoner who was sentenced by you using unconventional methods, and he committed suicide in prison. There is also a young man who became a murderer because of this... I will report the results of the reopened investigation truthfully. If this is a wrongful conviction, I hope Judge Sakurai can keep his word and take responsibility!"

After Bai Shi finished speaking, he turned and left.

There were still several patrol officers on duty outside. Shiraishi directly instructed, "Give him another ten minutes to rest, then take him back to the police station to make a statement."

"Yes!"

……

The case of sudden death due to cardiac arrest has now been solved.

Shiraishi did not return to the police station afterward—after all, interrogation work was not something Shiraishi needed to do.

and……

Even though Shiraishi didn't return to the police station, he knew the interrogation was going smoothly.

Shortly after Baishi arrived home, just before the 10 PM deadline for the interrogation, a system notification sounded in Baishi's mind.

[Achieve the "Seal Release SR (Kunikida Seiji)" achievement - Overcome psychological barriers for your SR-rank subordinates, reward 3000 achievement points.]

Three thousand points?
Shiraishi was also taken aback—this was more than he had imagined!

Based on previous experience, the reward for raising an SR-level character should be around 3000 points, and Shiraishi has never raised an SSR-level character. Currently, his only SSR-level character is the least SSR-level narcissistic one...

But then Shiraishi thought about it again and realized that it made sense!
After all, Kunikida was originally an SR-rank character, even one of the stronger SR-rank characters, because he already possessed an SSR-rank skill...

It's just that due to a "mental knot," they can't unleash their full SR-level abilities.

Releasing him from his "seal" and cultivating a new SR-rank character have similar effects, and the difficulty is not exactly simple either.

In addition...

Bai Shi thus officially confirmed that even if the other party was not under his command in the police system, as long as the other party was still recognized as his subordinate in the system, Bai Shi would still be able to obtain the "training points" and other related rewards!

This gives Shiraishi even more motivation to recommend his subordinates, but...

"Wait a minute, won't it be even harder to get a recommendation 'next year'?" Shiraishi muttered under his breath with a strange expression.

After all, no one is retiring this year!

In the eastern island nation, the police force also inevitably has a tradition of "ranking by seniority".

While competition requires ability and merit, seniority and seniority are also important... However, the problem now is that if next year is still "2016", seniority will be improved, but since no one will retire, "seniority" will not change - Shiraishi has already checked this, his years of service have become seven years, and his resume as a superintendent has been accumulated for half a year, so it has not been refreshed.

However, Baishi thought about it again and realized that this might not be a bad thing; accumulating more experience is never a bad thing...

If I had to say something bad, it would be something bad for myself!

Because Shiraishi's body cannot be "refreshed" back...

Shiraishi estimated that it was because his "physical constitution," although currently at Lv.10, already possessed some characteristics that surpassed Lv.10, so he would not be affected by the time reset—being able to realize that time had been reset was probably determined by some characteristics in his "spirit" that surpassed Lv.10.

The good news is that Shiraishi's body can still become stronger, so there's no need to worry about being "refreshed".

The bad news is that Shiraishi's aging process will not be "refreshed"!
……

The next morning, when Shiraishi arrived at the police station, he found Kunikida waiting outside his office.

"Director Shiraishi."

When Kunikida met Shiraishi, he was still somewhat embarrassed—after discovering the clue, he hadn't shared it with the Beika Police Station or Chief Shiraishi...

Of course, it wasn't for any kind of credit. Shiraishi could understand that, since it was a knot in his heart, hence his thought of "I want to solve it myself."

"Come in," Shiraishi said, inviting Kunikida in, though he still kept a stern face.

After that, Kunikida obediently reported the case to Shiraishi...

Although theoretically Kunikida's current superior is the new director of the Tsukishima Police Station, and the person in charge of the case, or rather the investigation headquarters, is Matsumoto Kiyonaga, Kunikida still came to report to Shiraishi at this time.

After listening to the report, Shiraishi simply nodded, then asked to confirm, "Are you confident?"

"Huh?" Kunikida was taken aback at first, but then he understood and nodded, "Yes, I'm going to Beika Prison after that."

Kunikida clearly understood that Chief Shiraishi was asking about the "serial murder case from six years ago"—after all, the current case had already been solved, and there was nothing more to say.

Kunikida already had a plan in mind, and seeing that Kunikida seemed very confident, Shiraishi didn't say anything more.

Actually, if Kunikida needs help, Shiraishi can provide it, after all...

Shiraishi has many acquaintances in Beika Prison!

However, since Kunikida seemed capable of handling things on his own, Shiraishi didn't interfere.

When Shiraishi saw Kunikida, he had already noticed...

His [Trial Mission] is still ongoing!
Shiraishi estimates that Kunikida's "trial mission" also includes the subsequent "reversal of the verdict"—indeed, only by completing this step and personally correcting the previous mistakes can Kunikida's inner conflict be completely resolved.

and……

Having completed the first half, Kunikida's previous "hindrance" had disappeared, and his Principle attribute dropped from an exaggerated 98 points to 80 points!
The "principle" dropped 18 points overnight; one would think that the person had already turned evil.

However, the situation is different when it comes to Kunikida...

Even the "principle" of 80 points is the highest among Shiraishi's students, and it is somewhat too high and cumbersome.

This is clearly not a case of turning evil.

The original 98 points were not normal at all. The [Heart] stats normally fluctuate around 40, 50, or 60, which is considered normal for an average person. Even 90 points or single digits are not normal. Shiraishi had only ever seen Kunikida with a score over 90 before. Munakata's "Principle 29" and "Justice 87" were already extremely high values...

Kunikida's "principle" retreat now means that he has at least returned to normal.

No longer clinging to principles out of fear...

This is why he can be considered to have "removed the seal".

At the same time, Shiraishi was also looking forward to it. This [Trial Mission] had already achieved this effect after only half of it was completed. Would it directly promote him to SSR after the second half was completed?

Based on previous patterns, Shiraishi estimates that the reward for raising an SSR should be 10000 points.

If you train seven or eight of them, you can basically raise your [Constitution] to Lv11. If you train seventeen or eighteen of them, your [Spirit] can also reach Lv11!

Aside from Kunikida, the closest "10000 points" that Shiraishi could see was narcissism...

Judging from Kunikida's situation, if we can get that narcissistic guy back to normal, we'll likely reward him with 10000 points.

only……

Kunikida was at least involved in the case, so Shiraishi could still help. As for Narcissistic, he was dumped by his fiancée, so there was nothing Shiraishi could do about it.

……

After Kunikida left, Shiraishi continued his stamping business. Because there were always cases in Beika Town, and Shiraishi was always paying attention to them, the chief's regular duties were always piling up.

By the afternoon, Shiraishi hadn't heard any new news about the murders. The investigation into the "500 million yen heist" was proceeding as planned—after taking Shiraishi's advice, both of Kobe Miwako's potential suspects were already in debt…

Although the statute of limitations is about to expire, the two people who have already ordered the "Dongcheng Club Small Set Meal" probably won't live to see that day!
Of course, Miwako Kobe is not a demon.

The "Dongcheng Club mini-set meal" and such are actually fake...

Kobe set up a loan business department, developed an app, and hired some "professionals" in Kamurocho. It can be said that Kobe Miwako specially created it for the two of them!

It's intimidating, but nothing will actually happen...

Just when Shiraishi thought that the day would pass peacefully, Munakata arrived again!
"Section Chief Munakata, why does the Criminal Investigation Division always have something going on before you get off work..." Shiraishi rolled his eyes.

"Perhaps the case is calling for you, Chief... It's not that I have anything to do this time, it's Detective Amagi, he made some discoveries in Chiyoda..." Munakata said matter-of-factly.

(End of this chapter)