Tokyo: Rabbit Officer and Her Evil Partner

Fushimi Roku promptly corrected his view, but before he finished speaking, the window shattered with a bang, glass fragments scattering everywhere!

Fushimi Roku quickly embraced Minamoto Tamako, shielding her with his body from the shards of glass.

A moment later, the living room fell into a still silence. Minamoto Tamako snapped back to reality, hurriedly checking Fushimi Roku's back for any injuries.

"It's okay, there's no bleeding."

Fushimi Roku waved his hand and turned his head, noticing a stone on the living room floor. Someone had smashed his window with that stone.

Fushimi Roku strode to the window and looked down, but the perpetrator was nowhere to be seen.

Minamoto Tamako picked up the stone, which was wrapped in paper. She peeled off the paper, smoothing it out to reveal several lines written in red paint:

"Die, vampire!"

"You're the murderer!"

"Parasite of society!"

...

Fushimi Roku snatched the paper, crumpling it into a ball, and said, "Don't mind it, it's probably just some kids playing a prank."

Minamoto Tamako wanted to pretend she hadn't seen it, but she couldn't. She felt the malice of society pressing down on her, leaving her at a loss.

"I... I need to rest."

Whenever Minamoto Tamako was upset, she liked to shut herself away. She ran back to her room, closed the door, and buried herself under the covers, processing her emotions alone.

Fushimi Roku followed her in, pulling her out of bed, and took Taira Sakurako along, temporarily leaving the apartment to stay in a hotel to prevent the same thing from happening again.

They left the task of moving to Goto Shunsuke. That's the life of an employee—having to help their boss move during off-hours, with no overtime pay—after finishing up at the office, Kazama Tatsuya even marked him absent for work.

After Minamoto Tamako fell asleep late at night, Fushimi Roku quietly got up and called out Watanabe Shun and others for a drink. He intended to talk about the troubles of the day but unexpectedly found that Watanabe Shun had been arrested for soliciting prostitution.

This time Kazama Tatsuya couldn't cover for him, so he had to ask for Fushimi Roku's help. The latter rushed to the Nakagawara Police Station, asked his colleague on the night shift, and figured out the situation, finding it inexplicably bizarre.

"And then?" Fushimi Roku couldn't help but ask, "After tearing the plastic bag, how does it lead to an arrest for prostitution?"

"Kawasaki and Okada got sprayed with that stuff and were furious. They wanted to prank-revenge, so they took Watanabe Shun back to the station, locked him up for the night, without any records or charges."

"He was supposed to be released the next day, but unexpectedly, the next morning, the Sunshine Morning News reported that the Shinjuku Police Station was sheltering wrongdoers, ignoring reports without investigating, with a picture of Watanabe Shun standing at the hotel entrance."

"The newspaper comments were all negative, saying things like public officials discriminating against women, or knowing the law and breaking it. Some questioned police coercing hostesses into sexual acts, suggesting possible rape implications..."

"Recently, the topic of equal rights has been quite the buzz, so it also ties into issues of unequal rights between men and women, like 'Why is it only male public officials soliciting?', 'Why only men indulge in post-drink visits to bubble baths?', 'The Police Department should be run by women'... "

"The trouble escalated, and the chief didn't dare to release him casually, so they symbolically sent two people to the establishment to ask around, and the hostess identified Watanabe Shun. There were bank transactions as evidence, making the situation difficult to handle."

Fushimi Roku furrowed his brow and said, "This is obviously a setup, isn't it?"

The on-duty criminal police shrugged, "Flies don't target seamless eggs. No one forced Watanabe to solicit, right? Just his bad luck."

"What's the chief's attitude?" Fushimi Roku pressed on.

"What I just said was exactly what the chief said," the on-duty officer flipped through a magazine, "the case files have been passed on; he'll likely face disciplinary action."

Fushimi Roku sighed; without evidence, it was fine, but now there was evidence, and Watanabe Shun was sure to lose his job. He used a small privilege to visit Watanabe Shun in detention, asking if he had offended anyone or noticed anything unusual recently.

Watanabe Shun was clueless, feeling completely defeated without understanding how his luck had turned so bad.

"Maybe it's just bad luck," he resigned himself, "Sigh, I should've listened to the boss, he did warn that the atmosphere's been off lately..."

Fushimi Roku was suddenly enlightened by his words; he vaguely realized something, and without saying much to Watanabe Shun, he quickly left the station, taking a taxi to the establishment.

It was around one or two in the morning, the peak hours for the business. Fushimi Roku waited for over an hour to get his turn with Ellie-chan.

He entered the bathroom without changing clothes, getting straight to the point: "Today, you pointed out a policeman. Who told you to do that?"

Ellie-chan wore a professional smile, "I'm not quite sure what you're talking about, sir..."

Fushimi Roku pulled out his wallet from his pocket, "No matter how much that person is paying, I'll offer triple if you tell me the truth."

Ellie-chan glanced at it but stayed silent until Fushimi Roku produced a black card. Her expression shifted into one of caution, "Transfer the money first."

"That's not possible, but I can pay cash in advance," Fushimi Roku said, placing a wad of cash by the bathtub, "Once you've spoken the truth, I'll pay the rest."

Ellie-chan hardly hesitated and confessed, "It's a journalist named Natsume Sawa who told me to watch out for guests who make outside transactions recently. If there are any public officials, I was to notify him."

"Him? The journalist is a man?" Fushimi Roku asked.

"Yes," Ellie-chan nodded and retorted, "How could there be female guests in such a place?"

"That's true..." Fushimi Roku finally realized that not only were women taking action, but quite a few men were also joining the fray to cash in on the trend.

The male journalist wasn't specifically targeting Watanabe Shun; he merely had the hostess watch out for public officials. Watanabe Shun just happened to be there and happened to blabber about being a public official... It was indeed just his misfortune.

Pursuing this further wouldn't change anything, and beating up the male journalist wouldn't solve the problem.

Fushimi Roku paid the balance and left the establishment, noticing he was being followed. He pretended not to care, ducked into an alley, and when his tail caught up, he grabbed the person's neck: "Why are you following me?"

The stalker was a woman with a camera, dressed casually, looking anxious. At first, she didn't confess, but when Fushimi Roku threatened to take her to the station, she admitted she was a reporter for the Sunshine Morning News, spying on Minamoto Tamako with binoculars.

Currently, Minamoto Tamako was a walking headline, with journalists from several newspapers tailing her.

The reporter had good luck. She intended to follow Fushimi Roku, lost track of him a few times on the way, and just happened to catch Fushimi Roku entering the establishment...

Listening to this, Fushimi Roku tore the camera off her, opened the film, and indeed found pictures of himself.

Had he not been vigilant, he would've been on the papers the next day as 'Senior Criminal Police Caught Cheating at Midnight' or 'Police Detective Addicted to Establishments Sneaks in at Midnight'...

Fushimi Roku took out his lighter and burned the film. The reporter seethed silently, planning to write a scathing article denouncing Fushimi Roku's misconduct.

"The hostility in society is truly getting heavier these days," he remarked casually while stamping out the embers.

The reporter retrieved her camera, feeling a bit more assured, and couldn't help but say, "If you were a good person, you wouldn't be worried about this."

Fushimi Roku chuckled. He walked out of the alley, back to the brightly lit street with his back to the woman, stretching and surveying the bustling neon street:

"Why would I worry about it? This is precisely the purpose of my existence!"

The reporter didn't understand. She wanted to ask more, but Fushimi Roku had already walked far.

...

No matter if people hate each other, the world continues to turn just the same.

After some time, Fushimi Roku and Minamoto Tamako moved into a new home, and the media shifted their attention elsewhere, leaving them in peace.

The issue of extreme gender antagonism rose and fell like a tide, seemingly unchanged, yet as if everything had changed.

However, during this wave, many became victims. For instance, Watanabe Shun, who lost his job and was sentenced to a year of suspended imprisonment due to media-influenced judgment.

Before Watanabe Shun could appeal, the presiding judge passed away.

This time, it wasn't Fushimi Roku's doing; he had nothing to do with it. On the night of the incident, he was at home with Minamoto Tamako; the two had taken time off work and were enjoying life on Fushimi Roku's earnings.

However, there remained a bloody message at the scene.

Again, it read "Heavenly Punishment."