Isn't it very scientific to use the Death Note to kill people?

On May 17th at 6:15 PM, [the individual dined at Iroha Sushi Restaurant in Beikacho. During the meal, due to intoxication, the individual repeatedly made loud noises. After being stopped by the staff, the individual became enraged, escalating the situation by deliberately picking a fight, and ultimately violently assaulting the staff before leaving the restaurant.]

He died from a gunshot wound at 23:50 PM that night.

One of the most interesting aspects of Death Note is that, aside from directly stating that the deceased died from simple causes of death such as cardiac arrest or coincidentally dying from a meteorite impact, it always tries to make relatively complex causes of death seem more plausible.

—Iroha Sushi restaurant has more than one employee, Kenjiro Wakita.

Lin Jiashu did not name the thugs who beat him up, and the thugs probably wouldn't easily provoke other dangerous individuals who could pull out guns to retaliate against them—Rum was practically the only one who fit that description.

A classic example of reversing cause and effect.

It was just a little prank.

Lin Jiashu chuckled softly.

The feeling of being able to control other people's lives at will simply by writing is indeed wonderful...

He put away his notebook and pen, slowly started the car, and drove into the traffic of Tokyo's night.

However, shortly after the car started moving, the car's Bluetooth beeped with a call notification, and the name displayed on the screen was—Eri Kisaki.

Lin Jiashu pressed the answer button.

"Little Tree, are you outside right now?"

Eri Kisaki's voice came through the receiver, carrying a subtle, complex emotion, and seemed somewhat hesitant.

"Yes, I just drove out and am on my way back now." Lin Jiashu's tone was natural and concerned. "Aunt Yingli, is there anything I can help you with?"

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone.

"Well, I just wanted to talk to you a little, but there's no rush... let's talk about it when you get back."

On the other end of the phone, Eri Kisaki tried to keep her tone calm and relaxed. She chuckled and said...

"Ok."

Lin Jiashu hung up the phone.

Chapter 72: Pregnancy Test

later

Lin Jiashu rang the doorbell of Fei Yingli's apartment.

The door opened quickly.

Eri Kisaki, with her long hair tied up and wearing casual clothes, stood in the entryway, a slight smile appearing on her mature face.

"Come in, little tree."

"Sorry to bother you."

Lin Jiashu changed into indoor slippers.

He walked to the sofa in the living room and sat down. Eri Kisaki brought two cups of tea from the kitchen and placed them in front of him, but she inadvertently smelled a faint tobacco scent on him.

Little Tree... never smokes.

It was just a faint smell of smoke, but for some reason, Eri Kisaki magnified it in her mind. She sat down and cautiously asked, "Kizuki, you... smell like smoke? Is something bothering you?"

Lin Jiashu picked up his teacup, the rising steam blurring his handsome features. He smiled and said in a relaxed tone, "Well, nothing's bothering me. I just went to a bar and someone nearby had just finished smoking."

"bar?"

Hearing this answer only made Eri Kisaki more concerned.

After all, she knew that Lin Jiashu rarely drank alcohol. This made her unable to help but connect this incident with what happened yesterday—Xiaoshu, who plunged a knife into the neck of a thug, turning a vibrant life into a corpse.

This is precisely why Eri Kisaki wanted to talk to Yoshiki Hayashi.

As a lawyer, she has handled many criminal cases and has also come across some cases of manslaughter.

—When an ordinary person accidentally kills someone without being psychologically prepared or in a premeditated state, the feeling at that moment is full of "abnormal" emotions.

That was a moment of utter rupture with the fundamental values ​​of public order and good morals that had shaped him as a person—putting a knife into the neck of a fellow human being, even though it was to protect her and was self-defense. But the sticky, viscous feeling of ending a life with one's own hands might become a nightmare for him.

Just thinking about that possibility made Eri's heart clench.

"Why did you go drinking? And you even drove back... If you get arrested for drunk driving, I can't help you with that kind of case." She tried to keep her tone as light as possible.

"...Is there really no way?" Lin Jiashu laughed.

"For a lawyer to win a case, the defendant must have a valid argument to some extent. So, Xiaoshu, were you really driving under the influence just now?"

"No, actually I didn't drink. I just chatted with someone over there."

"..."

Meeting his clear and serene eyes, Eri Kisaki said nothing more.

But who goes to a bar without drinking...

She felt this way to some extent, but didn't say it aloud. However, seeing the worry in his eyes, her voice became even softer: "Xiaoshu, about yesterday... thank you. If it weren't for you, I really don't know what would have happened."

"..."

Lin Jiashu looked at her, but had not yet responded.

Steam rose from the water glass.

Eri Kisaki's gentle tone carried a sense of comfort as she said this, "So please don't feel guilty. Everyone knows that everything you did was to protect me, and it was out of necessity. After all, if it weren't for you, I might have..."

She didn't finish her sentence, but the relief of surviving the ordeal was clearly conveyed.

“I know, Aunt Eri.”

Lin Jiashu nodded.

He gave her a light smile. "Don't worry, I've never regretted what I've done. No matter what, Aunt Eri's safety and my own safety are always the top priorities."

“That’s right…”

Eri nodded gently.

This topic is actually a bit heavy.

So after this, the two fell silent for a moment. After a while, Lin Jiashu seemed to remember something and asked casually, "By the way, Aunt Eri, about the memory card in that camera..."

Eri Kisaki immediately chimed in, her tone calm yet tinged with barely perceptible tension: "I brought it back. The contents... I've completely deleted them, so you don't need to worry."

Lin Jiashu nodded and didn't ask any further questions: "That's good."

The atmosphere fell silent again.

In a slightly awkward silence, the two of them tacitly chose to remain silent.

—Even though it's not mentioned at all, what happened won't disappear; it's like an invisible barrier standing between the two of them.

Now the two of them are deliberately avoiding it, neither of them touching on it, as if they feel that as long as they don't mention it, the matter can eventually be forgotten.

"Inspector Megure just called to say that there is still no trace of Marume Asahi... He is worried that the other party might seek revenge after hiding, and told me to be careful... Koki, you also need to be more vigilant lately."

"Didn't the police find anything?"

"Well, they say they found the car he was driving, but he himself seems to have vanished into thin air... The investigation in the surrounding area has yielded absolutely no results."

Eri Kisaki frowned slightly.

The other side has probably been submerged in Tokyo Bay by now...

Thinking about this in his heart, Lin Jiashu nodded seriously on the surface.

“I understand, I will be careful… Aunt Eri, you too, if all else fails, you can apply for police protection.”

"……Um."

The atmosphere fell silent again.

After finishing his tea, seeing that it was almost time, Lin Jiashu got up to say goodbye.

Eri Kisaki also got up and saw him to the entrance.

In the bright light in front of the door, looking at the incredibly handsome profile of Hayashi Yoshiki so close to her, and watching him reach out to open the door, for some reason, only now did Eri Kisaki feel a strange sense of reality—it felt as if a huge rock was pressing on her heart, so heavy that she could hardly breathe.

An indescribable mix of embarrassment, shame, and a complex sense of awkwardness quietly spread.

The little tree must have been awake at the time, right?

She couldn't help but think.

After all, his actions when the kidnapper came over were so smooth... He was probably using a knife to cut the ropes to untie himself without anyone noticing.

In other words, he was conscious at the time.

He could clearly feel what he had done to him... he had just been enduring it...

This realization left Eri Kisaki somewhat disoriented, gripped by an indescribable sense of embarrassment and a deeper level of confusion.

She tried to maintain a calm facade.

"Be careful on the road, little tree."

She tried her best to make her voice sound normal.

"Okay, Aunt Yingli, you should get some rest too."

Hayashi Yoshiki maintained his perfect demeanor, smiled as he said goodbye, and turned to leave Eri Kisaki's apartment.

He really does look like he's completely unaffected.

Eri Kisaki couldn't help but feel that...

She seemed relieved about it.

The door closed gently, separating the inside from the outside into two worlds.

The beautiful woman leaned against the door, slowly closing her eyes, the light from the entryway casting complex shadows on her face.

As Lin Jiashu turned around, the gentle smile on his face faded slightly.

Some things, once they happen, are gone forever. Even if no one mentions them again, they have already changed the course of certain things.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Let's find some time to meet.

This is a text message I just received on my phone.

Hayashi Yoshiki did not reply. He pushed open the door of his Kindaichi Office. Before the clear sound of the wind chimes had completely faded, he heard the conversation coming from inside.

"Ah, Mr. Lin, you've arrived."

Nanatsuki Koshimizu, who was organizing files, looked up and gave a refreshing smile.

Amuro Tooru, who was sitting on the guest sofa reading a newspaper, put down his newspaper, turned around and teased, "Hey, Boss. Although you don't usually take on many cases yourself, every time you do, it's big news that makes the front page of the social section."

He was clearly referring to the incident two days ago in which Lin Jiashu acted in "legitimate self-defense".

Lin Jiashu sat down on the sofa and smiled as well: "After all, in order to maintain the firm's reputation and vitality, we can only occasionally go to great lengths to create some buzz."

"If you really want to boost your firm's business, why don't you just announce that you're starting to take on new cases? I guarantee the doorstep will be overwhelmed with customers."

"That won't do. Now that I'm the boss, only when I see you two so busy that you can't even touch the ground can I truly appreciate my value and leisure as the boss."

"Mr. Lin's words are so typical of a capitalist..."

Koshimizu Nanatsuki couldn't help but laugh and complain, but her hands didn't stop organizing the documents.

"So I'm not considered one yet?"

Lin Jiashu was surprised.

Amuro Tooru got up and walked to the water bar, picked up the freshly boiled coffee pot and poured it into three cups.

Lin Jiashu then picked up his phone.

Vermouth's text message...

He raised his eyebrows.

Lin Jiashu: "Sure, I should have time recently."

Send it out, then turn off the phone screen.