Chapter 190 - Name and Reality 113 {141 Alone} (335-336 Oshima Kaiji's Last Will 7 - The Bubble Burst)
"For me as well, I have nothing but gratitude now for having the two of you listen to the selfish demands of such a heinous criminal until the end. As I said at the beginning, I believed that the fact you cornered me meant you had grasped my life to some extent. I felt that if it were you, you might properly accept—whether or not you could agree with it—the things I absolutely had to say as a politician... By having you listen, I can accept my punishment without lingering regrets. And while I was talking, I remembered the time I first stood on the street as a candidate during an election campaign to give a speech. To think that strong passion for politics would be revived after being caught by the police at over eighty years old... it's far too late, but I was able to feel a little bit of the worth of having lived as a politician for many years at the very end... and I was able to feel the inseparable bond with Kaito-sensei once again."
Oshima said this and then lost his words for a while.
However, as if to encourage himself, he opened his mouth.
"But there is one thing where even I was able to follow the path Kaito-sensei walked. That is not making a relative my successor. Among my daughters, there are those with husbands who are bureaucrats, but I had firmly decided in my heart that I must not hand over my power base to a relative. Conversely, that led to me being unable to name a successor until this age and continuing to be active as a legislator in a sluggish manner."
He reminisced.
"Have there been no successor candidates until now?"
When Yoshimura asked—
"In fact, Nakagawa, who is familiar with the local area, was the top candidate recently. He originally came to me aspiring to be a Representative. However, six years ago when I strongly considered retiring, he flatly refused my offer. He didn't state the reason clearly, but thinking about it now, if I consider that he deeply understood the weight of what he had committed for my sake in his own way... well, it makes sense... I made him complicit in murder and at the same time cut off his dream as a politician."
He answered.
"On that point, you even tried to escape successfully by blaming it on that Nakagawa-san, so without question, you are just a villain!"
At this moment, Nishida could only speak coldly. In response, Oshima—
"I have no words to return to that. I had been refusing the resolution to recommend my resignation from the House of Representatives, but now that things have come to this, I intend to resign immediately. I will tell my secretary."
He could only say that.
While silence dominated the interrogation room, Yoshimura—
"I don't know if it will be tomorrow or the day after, but a full-scale creation of a deposition will begin from now on. Not only us, but other investigators will also be listening to you, so please speak everything just as you did today. I believe that is the minimum responsibility toward the people who died... And as a substitute for Kuwano Kinya-san, whom you revered, please apologize to him in heaven for unfortunately not being able to live decently. I think the one most saddened is Kuwano-san, also known as Kinya-chan. After all, he entrusted the rest of his 'life' to you..."
He told him. Yoshimura usually doesn't read the room, but rather, because he did read the atmosphere, he likely dared to say it himself.
"If I had died in the explosion instead of Kinya-chan back then, it might have been better, but now that it's come to this, I truly feel sorry toward him as well."
And Oshima was at a loss for words beyond that. However, Nishida—
"However, the 'last will as a politician' that you wanted to convey to us at the end... in my own personal interpretation at this moment, I think it's your words, but at the same time, it's likely what would have come out of Kuwano Kinya's mouth if he were still alive in this world. And that's exactly why you, who were 'entrusted,' couldn't help but say it even if your audience was only two people, isn't that right?"
When he asked, Oshima nodded silently.
"I thought so."
Nishida said this and continued—
"To be honest, as I said earlier, it's true that there are things I don't understand, but on the other hand, from now on, I might encounter things that bring your words to mind. At those times, I'd like to use them as a hint for a way of thinking."
He told him. Oshima smiled, but there was no further expression of emotion.
And finally, Nishida began to notice his surroundings and realized it had become dark outside. Looking at his wristwatch, it was already past 5:00 PM. Instinctively—
"Is it evening already..."
He let out along with his fatigue, and—
"Since I'm this tired, you must be tired too. It's a good stopping point, so let's call it a day."
He told him. Oshima nodded silently, so Nishida called the prison officer of the detention center and instructed him to take Oshima back to his cell.
This time, Oshima stood up from his chair all at once with a briskness that didn't seem like an eighty-year-old man, and was about to leave the interrogation room led by the prison officer. However, he suddenly stopped, so the prison officer looked back, and Nishida and the others also turned their gaze toward Oshima.
"Yoshimura-kun, you said earlier, 'Fools learn from experience, while the wise learn from history,' didn't you?"
At the sudden prompt, Yoshimura—
"Huh? Oh, yeah..."
He gave a rather clumsy reply. But regardless of that—
"I didn't point it out properly in the flow of the conversation earlier, but while those words are undoubtedly suggestive, I don't think they are an accurate maxim. Especially when you consider the true intent of the speaker who originated those words... Besides, even when I think about it myself, I think it's somewhat biased, and to begin with, that 'true intent' itself might be wrong if you're not careful. At any rate, think carefully for yourself whether it is appropriate. That is the most necessary and important thing."
Leaving those words behind, he walked out of the room. His back, fitting for a big-shot politician like Oshima Kaiji, looked larger than when he arrived, combined with his original height. However, the mysterious remark he left for the two of them was not recognized by either of them as having much meaning immediately afterward, and Nishida soon made his way to the waiting room where Section Chief Baba had been monitoring from behind.
"Well, well, good work! You really did a great job! You completely broke that Oshima, so this is a feat, a real feat! A big-shot politician being a murderer—this is undoubtedly an epoch-making event in the history of the police since the Meiji era! We won't do it today, but first thing tomorrow morning, let's request an arrest warrant for conspiracy to commit the murder of Sada Minoru!"
Baba was extremely delighted.
"Thank you. We were also lucky."
Nishida was also happy, but his true feelings came out at the end.
"Don't be so humble! Well, there's tomorrow and beyond, so I can't exactly have a celebratory drink now, but as a member of the Hokkaido Prefectural Police, I'm proud!"
Like a Hokkaido Prefectural Police career man, he emphasized the words "as a member of the Hokkaido Prefectural Police." And before Nishida could sink into sentimentality, Baba gripped Nishida's hand firmly in a handshake and patted his shoulder two or three times, expressing his joy with his whole body. The figure who had previously thrown words like "the sparks will fly over here" at Nishida and the others was no longer there. You could call it a mercenary attitude, but humans are like this. He didn't feel particularly angry.
But Baba immediately—
"Even so, what was with that old man Oshima's attitude! A murderer like him talking about his last will as a politician or whatever, spouting such grand and arrogant things! Listening in the back, I thought about punching him! How did you guys endure listening to that? Where does he get off having the right to say such things! Those 'Sensei' legislators really have some huge misunderstandings!"
He cursed in a rough, commoner's tone, even though he wasn't an Edokko (T/N: a person born and raised in the traditional merchant area of Tokyo).
This explosion of emotion from Baba couldn't be called ethically wrong by any means, and it could be said to be inevitable considering the weight of the crimes Oshima committed. However, it also meant there was a clear divergence between people like Nishida and Yoshimura, who had pursued Oshima for a long period including the flow of the times, and people who were only looking at Oshima's misdeeds that had been brought to light. As Oshima himself had said, for those who had followed the case while also taking into account the "history" Oshima had experienced, what they felt would inevitably be different.
That said, Baba was a superior, though not a direct one, and what he was saying was correct on the surface, so—
"Well, that was the condition for his confession... It would be troublesome if he suddenly became uncooperative during the deposition stage. It couldn't be helped that we had to endure it."
Nishida went along with the conversation to gloss it over.
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Since they had come in early for special duty today and had achieved a brilliant result, the two were allowed by Baba to go home early and boarded a taxi in front of the Sapporo Detention Branch. Originally, they were scheduled to stop by the Hokkaido Prefectural Police Headquarters first and then come here in a government vehicle, but because it was an emergency, they had come directly from home, so Yoshimura had not come in his private car either.
"Then, um, what shall we do? Shall we go to Kanjo-dori-higashi (a station on the Sapporo Municipal Subway Toho Line, the closest to the Sapporo Detention Branch), or..."
"Bus Center-mae (Sapporo Municipal Subway Tozai Line. Among the Tozai Line stations, it is the closest to the Sapporo Detention Branch) would be better, right? Since both of us use the Tozai Line if we're taking the subway."
In response to Nishida's answer when asked by Yoshimura, the young taxi driver—
"Bus Center-mae is fine, then?"
He confirmed in a bored manner.
"Yeah, please."
Nishida also gave a casual response, and the taxi started off smoothly.
Around the point where they turned right from Kanjo-dori to merge onto Route 275, Yoshimura—
"About Oshima's story earlier,"
He began to speak in a relatively normal volume, so Nishida signaled him to "shut up" with just his expression. He didn't think the name Oshima alone would reveal it was about Oshima Kaiji, but given that an outsider like a taxi driver was present and the content of what people who got in from the front of the Sapporo Detention Branch were talking about, he couldn't be careless and assume it wouldn't be noticed at all. Yoshimura also realized immediately and apologized by lightly bowing his head while remaining silent.
"So, about his story, what did you think?"
"About the last will?"
"Yes."
"As for politics and economics, I only grasp them a little through news and newspapers, so I can't say anything definitive. However, even I have memories in recent years of how public opinion wavered and was irresponsible."
Nishida had been looking forward until then, but he turned toward Yoshimura to speak.
"What is it?"
"About the handling of the Bubble."
To Nishida's muttered words, Yoshimura also agreed after a time lag.
"That felt like both public opinion and the media were being armchair quarterbacks."