Chapter 169 - Name and Reality 92 {120 Solo} (288–290: Oshima's Sudden Change of Heart)
"To begin with, you were recently indicted for the Kyoritsu Hospital shooting incident on the grounds that you ordered the murder of three people. If you are found guilty in that case, even if the execution is not actually carried out considering your age, it is almost certain you will receive a death sentence. Therefore, no matter what you say about the Sada Minoru murder, it won't make much of a difference to you anymore."
Nishida continued speaking and observed Oshima's state, but Oshima kept his eyes downcast and showed no noticeable reaction, whether intentionally or unconsciously. While thinking internally that this was troublesome, cases where criminals honestly admit their guilt are rare, and since he couldn't be the first to give up, he had no choice but to keep pushing unilaterally.
"Onodera-san! Think carefully about how many people have met an unfortunate end since the murder of Sada Minoru in '87! Your self-preservation caused this unprecedented incident where a Member of Parliament is involved in murder! You are not just a citizen; you are on the side of the powerful. You should not only take responsibility for this incident but also bear more responsibility for explaining it than an ordinary criminal. If you're a man, shouldn't you cleanly admit your crimes and try to cooperate in uncovering the truth? Don't you have any pride as a famous politician?"
Even as he lined up words to stimulate the opponent's pride, Oshima said nothing, and only the sound of somewhat heavy breathing could be felt from him.
However, even if no visible signs could be clearly captured, it was a fact that neither Nishida nor Yoshimura believed that Oshima Kaiji, also known as Onodera Michitoshi, was a born villain without a shred of conscience. Or rather, born villains certainly do exist, but the reality was that they weren't as many as one might think... no, rather, as many as people said. Of course, there is the difference that an overwhelming number of criminals carry backgrounds that are different from the "ordinary" people found everywhere...
At the root of Oshima's clearly mistaken path, there must have first been the threat from Isaka Daikichi just before his election. And after he climbed to the top, it was also certain that Isaka's subsequent scheme, utilizing Sada's threat against Isaka, brought about the series of tragedies.
On the other hand, the opinion that murder cannot be justified by that level of threat is an all too correct argument. However, generally speaking, even among people of the so-called "decent" sort, Nishida knew well from his experience as a detective that it wasn't so impossible for them to stray from the path over something small. Once they start falling, they often can't be stopped. This is something one might not understand until they become the party involved.
In this way, time passed as the two detectives took turns pressing him, and the afternoon, following lunch, was about to end without achieving any results. Then, Nishida checked his watch and, as a last resort, placed a certain item in a plastic bag before the cunning and powerful man.
"Do you recognize this? Onodera-san."
Oshima, who had been sitting with his arms crossed and eyes closed, heard that voice, opened one eye slightly, and after visually identifying the object, opened the other eye as well. Then he looked at the plastic bag, moved his face away a bit perhaps due to presbyopia, then suddenly moved his face closer, grabbed the plastic bag, and questioned as if shouting.
"Where on earth did you get this!"
Nishida and Yoshimura were rather surprised by the reaction, which was more intense than they had expected, but they immediately regained their composure... or rather, in order to search for the reason for that reaction,
"You know a person named Koshiba-san, who served as a Tokyo Metropolitan Assemblyman for many years, don't you?"
Yoshimura confirmed immediately.
"Of course I do! Does that mean... Koshiba-san had this?"
To the still-excited Oshima, Nishida informed him,
"That's right. Though it was sent to us seven years ago, less than a month after the Kitami Kyoritsu Hospital incident occurred."
"I see... Koshiba-san had it..."
Once Oshima said that, his previous excitement rapidly subsided, and he remained silent.
What Nishida had sent from the Kitami District Headquarters was that piece of cloth (T/N: 'hagire') sent by Koshiba at the end of November '95. It had been entrusted to Koshiba by Onodera's stepmother, Tada Sakura, before her death. At that time, it was recorded in the letter from Koshiba that she had said something like, "If my stepson strays from the path, give him this." Nishida had thought about how he could use this history and had now placed it before Oshima's eyes.
The cloth was stained with blood, with several small white triangular patterns dyed onto an indigo base. In Nishida's estimation, it was likely part of the clothing Kuwano Kinya had been wearing at the time of the Yubetsu Mine Accident. He also thought that Oshima, as Onodera, might have taken it to Tokyo as a memento of his cousin who died in the explosion at Ponto-hama in Yubetsu. However, while the flow of it being entrusted to Koshiba was one thing, why Sakura had kept it until then remained a mystery.
Naturally, he had hoped that the various pieces of evidence Takeshita secured in Osaka this time would serve as a trigger to break Oshima, but for determining Oshima's involvement, the fact that Oshima only appeared as hearsay in the conversation was weak. In fact, Oshima had been resisting using that. So, he had shown the prepared cloth here. He thought there was no chance of winning by simply "appealing to emotion," but it was a card he had played out of desperation.
However, after that, Oshima remained silent and did not respond properly to Nishida and Yoshimura's questioning, and that day's interrogation ended in failure.
"As I thought, he wasn't so soft as to break with just that..."
In the car moving from the Sapporo Detention Branch to the Prefectural Police Headquarters, Yoshimura, who was driving, spoke to Nishida with a look that clearly said "this is trouble," or perhaps it was a soliloquy; it was hard to tell.
"I think his heart was definitely moved a bit, but the fact is that even being shown something like that now wasn't enough to change anything... I also bet on a glimmer of hope, but the wholesaler didn't want to sell (T/N: 'sou wa tonya ga oroshite kurenakatta', an idiom meaning things didn't go as planned)."
Nishida also replied in a tone of almost giving up.
"Well, on our end, in the worst-case scenario, we'll probably deal with it as solicitation of aiding and abetting murder regarding the reward hand-off at Kitami Station, but if we can't go with joint principal in murder, it's really a shame for Akiko-san too."
Yoshimura looked regretful, mentioning the name of Sada Minoru's widow.
If one were to say Yoshimura was attached to Akiko, it might be disrespectful to him as a full-grown adult at the time, but since one could see he harbored emotions close to that, it wasn't strange that he felt that way even more strongly than Nishida. To begin with, Nishida, like Yoshimura, was full of the feeling of being sorry toward Sada's bereaved family.
"Given the wall of time and the dead, maybe we should be grateful just to have come this far... We have to be satisfied just with likely being able to nab Takigawa."
Nishida said as if to convince himself, and closed his eyes in the passenger seat while biting his lip.
The next day, Thursday, October 10th. As scheduled, the arrest of Takigawa Kousuke, the head of the Aoi-ikka, in connection with the first murder involving Motohashi, was carried out, centered around the Osaka Prefectural Police Organized Crime Department. Naturally, it was an arrest drama captured firmly by the cameras of various media outlets who had been notified, but as expected of the arrest of a don of the yakuza world, there was a scuffle between the subordinates and the police, mainly from the Organized Crime Department, and there was chaos with over 20 people arrested for obstruction of official duties.
That said, Takigawa himself at least pretended to be composed as he climbed into a police van and was taken to the detention center at the Prefectural Police Headquarters. Nishida and Yoshimura also watched the television footage in the northern land while turning their thoughts toward the future.
And on Friday, October 11th, Oshima Kaiji, also known as Onodera Michitoshi... no, to be precise, the name on the arrest warrant was "Tadokoro Yasuo," was re-arrested on suspicion of the murder of Sada Minoru.
Shortly after 10:00 AM on Saturday, October 12th, Nishida, who was at home preparing for the late shift starting in the afternoon, suddenly received a call from Kusaka, who had been at the Sapporo Detention Branch since morning. He said Oshima Kaiji had something he wanted to talk about with Nishida and Yoshimura, with conditions. Naturally, dropping everything, Nishida immediately headed to the Sapporo Detention Branch in his own car.
Arriving at the detention center in about 30 minutes, as he rushed up the stairs toward the interrogation room, a detective named Hirose from the First Investigation Division of the Prefectural Police Headquarters, whom he passed, spoke to him.
"Yoshimura-san is already standing by."
Nishida asked in passing,
"And Oshima?"
As he asked while out of breath, Hirose replied,
"He should have returned to his cell once."
So he stopped rushing and headed slowly toward the interrogation room.
Before entering the interrogation room, he went to the back waiting room first and greeted Baba, the Section 1 Head of the Prefectural Police Headquarters, who had already arrived.
"I don't know what it is, but he specifically requested the two of you. I wonder what conditions he'll set and what he'll spill (T/N: 'gero shite kureru')."
He didn't show much of a sign of being expectant. Looking at Yoshimura's back through the one-way mirror, even from just that, Nishida could somehow tell he was restless.
"But since he went out of his way to call us, shouldn't it be something close to a confession?"
When Nishida said that, Baba replied in a somewhat displeased tone, as if telling him not to make him say it again.
"Well, even if that's the case, it's the conditions, the conditions! I hope it's not something troublesome."
When he entered the interrogation room, Yoshimura stood up as if he had been waiting and showed a slightly displeased expression.
"Assistant Section Chief, you're late!"
"Sorry, sorry! Also, I was just talking with Baba-san in the back."
Although he made that excuse,
"Well, that's fine... What does Oshima intend to talk about? I wonder if he'll talk about the case?"
The conversation became similar to the one just before.
"We won't know until Oshima comes and talks."
Since it was a way of saying it that could be taken as dismissive if he wasn't careful, Nishida quickly corrected himself.
"Anyway, I think it's something important."
Then, within a few minutes, Oshima was led into the interrogation room by a prison officer. And before sitting in the chair, he unexpectedly apologized out of the blue.
"I'm sorry for going out of my way to call you."
"Since you said you would tell us something important, it's exactly what we wished for on our end too."
Nishida responded with a makeshift greeting.
The old politician slowly sat in the chair and confirmed,
"Now then, have you already heard that I set conditions for my speaking?"
As both Nishida and Yoshimura nodded silently, Nishida asked directly,
"And, what are those conditions?"
"Those conditions are..."
Oshima repeated it himself and seemed to freeze for a few seconds, then moved his mouth unusually quickly.
"I want you to listen to my final testament as a politician, no matter what."
"A testament as a politician?"
At the unexpected words, the two involuntarily looked at each other.
"That's right. I want you to hear what I, as the politician Oshima Kaiji, will say for the last time—my political testament, so to speak."
He spoke as if to emphasize it.
"In short, Onodera-san! Does the condition we should accept mean it's fine if we just listen silently to what you want to say?"
When Yoshimura confirmed the content of the statement, Oshima's mouth relaxed slightly.
"Yes, simply put, you can think of it that way."
"However, I don't quite understand why you're trying to tell us that..."
Nishida asked again. Certainly, the merit of talking to detectives about politics as a condition for revealing everything was unclear.
"First, my words... Unfortunately, they already lack power as the words of a politician toward general society. In other words, the reality is that no one listens anymore. And regarding my life, I want to convey my thoughts as a politician at the end to you, who probably know me more deeply than my own family through the investigation so far. That's what it is. Also, if you have followed my life, you might understand the true intent of my statements better than other people; I have such a faint hope. And today, I will likely talk about it in more detail, so I think it will be easier to understand. Anyway, as I am now, I cannot help but convey the full extent of these thoughts to someone! So I want you to listen. You might have your own thoughts on it, but that's fine."
Oshima explained the reason using a somewhat difficult phrasing.
"I see. I've understood it somewhat... If it's just that, we'd be glad to. So, in exchange for that, what is it that you will tell us today?"
Nishida, although he had received the explanation, honestly felt strongly, "What is this guy talking about?" but without letting it show, he prioritized the primary objective. In response, Oshima said clearly,
"I will tell you everything about the cases you are pursuing."
Needless to say, they had already considered such a possibility, but being told so bluntly, the two involuntarily caught their breath. Since they had the feeling that things wouldn't go so easily, they were suddenly betrayed in a good way.
"Wa-Wait a minute! Onodera-san! Does that include both the Sada Minoru murder and the Kitami Kyoritsu Hospital incident?"
When Nishida asked hurriedly, Oshima replied even more calmly than the two detectives.
"Yes. I shall allow myself to speak honestly and thoroughly about both."
"That aside, by the way, why this change of heart?"
As if speaking for what Nishida should say, Yoshimura beside him asked with unexpected calmness.
"Even if I remain silent now, it seems there won't be much difference in the result. Although the lawyer said 'don't give up hope,' I could somehow sense that even in our meetings. And above all, it's that cloth you showed me. That was the final deciding factor... That gave my back a final push."
It seemed that Nishida's daring gamble of showing that piece of cloth to Oshima had influenced the opponent's psychology far more than they had thought.
"Is that so... Please wait a moment."
Nishida said that and left the interrogation room alone, going around to the back waiting room where the interrogation room was fully visible through the one-way mirror.
Baba, who was waiting, looked surprised as expected.
"Oi, oi, quite a feat! To think he'd likely spill everything from his side!"
He spoke to Nishida with quite a bit of excitement.
"I'm sorry. I think the talk will be quite long. For today, instead of taking a formal statement, would it be alright to just let him talk through the flow of the incidents so far?"
Nishida asked for permission.