Tokyo: Are you even a proper lawyer?

Kobayashi Kosuke's confession was abruptly cut off, as if choked by an invisible hand. He finally realized what he had just said in front of everyone.

In an instant, cold sweat soaked through his shirt, and his body began to tremble uncontrollably.

A deathly silence fell over the courtroom for several seconds, followed by an uncontrollable uproar!

Reporters frantically pressed their shutters, and a tidal wave of exclamations, curses, and incredulous discussions erupted from the gallery.

Kosuke Kobayashi's unfinished sentence, and the enormous amount of information it revealed, are enough on their own.

This is enough to completely pull Kobayashi Kosuke down from his moral high ground, exposing his hideous face as an insider, a coerced person, and possibly even an accomplice.

"Dr. Kobayashi," Masashi Akiyama's voice pierced through the noisy crowd and clearly reached Kosuke Kobayashi's ears.

"Can your words just now be interpreted as your admission that you know the truth behind the attack on Nurse Junko Imai and that it was not a simple patient disorderly disturbance, but rather a targeted persecution? You admit that someone intended to silence Nurse Imai? You admit that the controlled substances you obtained before the incident were used for illegal purposes? You admit that you took advantage of the time when intern nurse Miyuki Nagai was present at the scene to try to frame her for the crime?"

Kobayashi Kosuke opened his mouth, making a hoarse sound from his throat.

He slumped into the witness stand, clutching his head in his hands, in a state of semi-realistic collapse.

"Objection!!! Your Honor!" The prosecution attorney's face was ashen, but his professional instincts kicked in, and he reacted quickly. "The witness is emotionally unstable, and the credibility of his testimony is questionable! I request a recess to conduct a psychological evaluation of the witness!"

"objection!!!"

Masashi Akiyama immediately stated, "Dr. Kobayashi's statement was made while he was conscious, a direct response to our questioning, and an expression of his true intentions. It should be accepted as evidence! This directly relates to the core of this case: who the real culprit is, and whether there is a larger criminal network! I request the court to continue the trial and summon new witnesses, such as the director of the Shiodome Sanatorium and representatives of the immediate family members of the three deceased patients, for cross-examination!"

The situation is reversed instantly!

Masashi Akiyama's questioning not only shook the foundation of the prosecution's charges, but also steered the case in a more far-reaching direction.

After an emergency consultation with the jury members, the judge decided to adopt some of Masashi Akiyama's opinions, given the emergence of significant new circumstances that could affect the nature of the case, and announced a half-hour recess to allow the prosecution, defense, and court to prepare for the subsequent trial proceedings.

At the same time, bailiffs stepped forward and took the almost exhausted Kobayashi Kosuke away from the courtroom, and brought Nagai Miyuki, whose mental state was gradually stabilizing under the care of doctors and nurses, back to the defendant's dock.

During the recess, the entire legal community and those following the case were abuzz with excitement.

After the court session resumed, the situation took a sharp turn for the worse.

Faced with Masashi Akiyama's rigorous logical questioning and the pressure from the court, the hospital director and several representatives of special patients' families, who were summoned, were now thrust into the spotlight, and their defenses began to crack.

After Masashi Akiyama presented the evidence provided by Maki Suzuki regarding Kosuke Kobayashi's unusual bank statements, his clandestine financial dealings with the hospital director, and some evidence of special care fees paid by the families of special patients.

The so-called nursing home lie can no longer be sustained.

Beneath the white tower of Shiodome Sanatorium, there truly exists a rotting root system.

But at its core, it is not the vice president or a certain director that Kobayashi Kosuke has been trying to lure Akiyama Masashi into investigating, but the president himself.

He, along with Kosuke Kobayashi and a few close confidants, formed a secret chain of interests.

They take advantage of the closed nature of sanatoriums and the ambiguity in the diagnosis of mental illness to admit wealthy young people who have gotten into trouble and need to lay low, or special individuals who have committed crimes but have been temporarily exonerated through mental evaluation.

These people are ostensibly receiving treatment here, but in reality, they are using this opportunity to evade legal sanctions or punishment from their families.

Their families, in turn, pay exorbitant fees for special care and hush money.

As part of their privileges, these special patients can do almost anything they want in the hospital, and bullying vulnerable patients, harassing, and even assaulting nurses has become their daily pastime.

The hospital turned a blind eye, or even tacitly condoned it. Doctors like Kosuke Kobayashi were responsible for using medication to appease potential rebels and using their professional status to cover up their behavior as being caused by their illness.

Junko Imai, beautiful, gentle, and compassionate, unfortunately became their new prey.

Kosuke Kobayashi, the lover she deeply loved and trusted, had long been lured by the dean into indulging in the vanity and convenience brought by power and illicit income.

He knew all of this and even tacitly approved of their harassment and probing of Junko.

He may have struggled when the riots that day escalated from probing into a premeditated mass attack.

Ultimately, under pressure from the dean and weighing his own interests, he chose to cover up his depravity by being late, and then used drugs and lies to appease Junko afterwards, using the excuse that they were patients to numb her resistance, and even threatened her to keep silent by saying that making a big fuss would be bad for both of them.

He thought that Junko would eventually give in, like the nurses who had been bullied before and chose to swallow their anger or leave after receiving money.

He thought that as long as he controlled her emotions with drugs and tied her down with a romantic relationship, he could cover up the whole thing.

But he underestimated Junko Imai.

After experiencing the double blow of hellish humiliation and betrayal by her lover, Junko did indeed break down and fell into deep despair.

The medication and Kobayashi Kosuke's false reassurances temporarily numbed her.

However, what kept her from completely collapsing, besides her remaining self-esteem, was her concern for her junior, Nagai Miyuki, who always looked at her with timid yet affectionate eyes.

When she overheard the conversation between the dean and Kobayashi Kosuke, and heard that they had set their sights on Nagai Miyuki as their next target, the string of reason in her heart snapped completely.

Do not!

We must never let Miyuki experience the hell she went through.

This thought, like the last spark in the darkness, ignited the long-cooled ashes in her heart.

The thought of revenge was clearer than ever before in her heart.

She knew the dark side of this hospital better than anyone else, knew about those so-called special patients, and was even more aware of the loopholes in drug management.

A bold and crazy plan took shape in her mind.

She took advantage of Kobayashi Kosuke's lingering guilt and desire for comfort, feigning acceptance of his treatment suggestions and even displaying dependence on him.