Tokyo: Are you even a proper lawyer?

Stepping out of the sukiyaki restaurant, a biting cold wind blew in my face.

Although it was only late autumn, the wind in Tokyo at night already carried a razor-sharp chill, stinging the face.

The trees lining the street rustled in the wind, their withered yellow leaves swirling and falling, carpeting the sidewalk with a thin layer.

As the world lines converged, a familiar warm current surged through my body once again.

The feeling was subtle; it wasn't a dramatic change, but rather a gradual, subtle strengthening.

It's as if some dormant potential has been quietly awakened, flowing deep within the blood.

The fatigue accumulated from working all afternoon quietly dissipated, replaced by a clear and energetic state.

"Mr. Akiyama..."

Saionji Ki, who had been silently following along, hesitated before speaking.

He had his hands in his coat pockets, his shoulders slightly hunched, as if trying to ward off the chill of the night wind.

After walking a distance, he finally couldn't help but ask.

"Do you really know... that Mr. Ueno?"

The Saionji family used to be quite prestigious, and he had heard about the significance behind the surname "Ueno".

While it may be somewhat impolite to think this way, it is unbelievable that Masashi Akiyama would have any interaction with that important person.

Masashi Akiyama shook his head calmly. The cold wind ruffled the stray hairs on his forehead, casting dappled shadows under the streetlights.

"I don't know her. I was lying to her."

"Then you still..."

"It's alright." Masashi Akiyama's voice sounded calm in the wind. "Since I dared to do this, I must be confident."

"But..." Saionji Ki still found it unbelievable, her brow furrowed. "This is far too risky. If the other party insists on compensation, or insists on speaking with Mr. Ueno, the lie will be exposed immediately. Then..."

He didn't finish his sentence, but the meaning was clear...

"It's alright, brother."

Rin Saionji stepped forward, gently tugged at her brother's sleeve, and shook her head at him.

The hoodie's hood swayed slightly in the wind, revealing a small part of a pale face.

"You must trust Mr. Akiyama."

"I'm not..."

Saionji Ki wanted to explain, but when she met her sister's amber eyes, which were exceptionally bright in the night, she shut up in frustration.

He raised his hands in a gesture of surrender.

"Alright, alright, it's my brother's fault. Of course I believe Mr. Akiyama."

"By reasoning."

Masashi Akiyama suddenly spoke.

He stopped and turned to the Saionji siblings. The dim light from the streetlights shone down from above, sculpting his face into a striking silhouette of light and shadow.

"From the moment they sat down, people kept complimenting the girl I had 'offended.' If you listened carefully, you could hear someone mentioning that her father was a 'government councilor.'"

He paused, then continued, "Judging from their fawning manner, you can tell that they are definitely not a low-level civil servant family barely making ends meet on a fixed salary."

The Saionji siblings nodded thoughtfully.

"From her clothing, appearance, and the way she gathers everyone around her to flatter her, we can infer that she has an extremely insecure yet extremely arrogant personality. Combined with her family background, it can be basically confirmed that she grew up in a long-term repressive environment, and her parents must have been extremely strict in their discipline."

Masashi Akiyama gave a short laugh, which quickly dissipated in the night breeze.

"There's no need to guess. Most of our country's parliamentarians are just putting on a show of 'vanity projects,' talking about serving the country and the people, but behind the scenes..."

He paused, then stopped talking. "It's not surprising that a child raised in that kind of family would have such a distorted personality. Conversely, she would be extremely afraid of criticism from her elders."

He spread his hands, palms up, as if displaying some kind of invisible evidence.

"I only exploited this small psychological loophole."

"Incredible..."

Looking at Masashi Akiyama's expressionless face as always, Kiyoshi Saionji suddenly realized that she had made a huge misjudgment of the lawyer's personality.

But he did not have any thoughts of backing down or distancing himself from it.

On the contrary, only someone like that could help him reclaim everything from that meticulously planned scam.

"I understand." Saionji Ki nods deeply, his tone solemn. "I'm sorry for questioning you, Mr. Akiyama."

"It's okay."

Masashi Akiyama waved his hand and looked toward the deserted street in the distance.

Night had fallen, and only a few windows were still lit, like lonely islands floating in the darkness.

"It's getting late, let's call it a day."

…………

When I got back to my private office, it was past 10 p.m.

Masashi Akiyama took out his key and pushed open the creaking wooden door.

The room was pitch black, with only the faint light from the streetlights shining through the window casting blurry shadows on the floor.

He took off his coat and casually hung it on the clothes rack by the door.

I had only been sitting in my office chair for less than two minutes—

"Knock knock knock".

A knock came at the door.

It's urgent and very heavy.

Who could it be so late?

Masashi Akiyama got up and walked to the door.

Through the crack in the door, he could see the pale light of the motion-sensor lights in the hallway outside. He opened the door—

Rieko Uchida was standing outside the door.

She was still wearing the same uniform skirt from the sukiyaki restaurant, with only a thin cardigan casually thrown over it.

She stood at the doorway, her chest heaving, her bangs plastered to her skin with sweat, clearly having run all the way there.

Seeing the door open, she became even more nervous, gripping the straps of her commuter bag tightly with both hands, her knuckles turning white from the force.

"Mr. Akiyama..."

Her voice was broken and intermittent due to panting, and her eyes darted around in a panic.

"Good evening..."

"What's up?"

Masashi Akiyama remained with the door open, his body blocking the crack in the doorway, showing no intention of inviting the other person in.

"Just now at the sukiyaki restaurant..." Rieko Uchida kept her head down the whole time, not daring to look up at Masashi Akiyama's expression.

She took a deep breath, as if summoning all her courage, and quickly finished speaking.

"Thank you so much for being there just now... I know you deliberately provoked Daiki Aoi to help me out of a predicament. I'm sorry I didn't come out to acknowledge you right away, I..."

"Wait a moment."

Masashi Akiyama raised his hand, interrupting her.

He wore a perfectly timed blank expression, his brows furrowed slightly, as if he were genuinely trying to recall.

"Were you there just now...?"

"That guy named Daiki... is he your friend?"

"W-what?"

Rieko Uchida was stunned.

She looked up, her eyes wide, her pupils slightly contracting in the corridor light, as if she couldn't believe what she had just heard.

Masashi Akiyama pinched the bridge of his nose under his glasses with annoyance.

Although he did intend to help Rieko Uchida out of a difficult situation, he really didn't want her to misunderstand his good intentions as some kind of romantic feeling.

In his eyes, Rieko Uchida was like a dodder vine.

It is a parasitic plant that can only survive by clinging to a host.

She will instinctively seek out the "alpha wolf," attach herself to it, draw nourishment from it, and devote all her life force to self-sufficiency.

Once the host no longer meets her expectations or is not "good" enough to her, she will try to break off the branch she is clinging to and find the next big tree to rely on.

As for Masashi Akiyama himself, he is standing at a crossroads in his life.

He hasn't even seen his own future clearly, let alone the burden of another person's life.

Rather than giving the other party unrealistic hope, it's better to cut off that thought completely from the beginning.

"If you knew that was your friend,"

Masashi Akiyama continued, "I can't even hide in time. After all, you know... if I encountered someone like Fukuda again, even I would have a headache."

He finished speaking without giving Rieko Uchida any time to react.

"Smack."

The door closed.

The wooden door closed in front of Rieko Uchida, blocking out the dim light inside the room and also the man's indifferent expression.

The motion-sensor lights in the corridor snapped off, leaving her in the sudden darkness.

Rieko Uchida stood frozen in place.

The gift bag I hurriedly bought at the convenience store was still in my hand, and I hadn't even had a chance to hand it over yet.

The night wind blew in through the window at the end of the corridor, making her thin cardigan cling tightly to her body.

The hem of the uniform skirt was still swaying slightly, stained with undried beer, emitting a faint, fermented, slightly sour smell in the darkness.

Wh-what...

That's a lie...