After being elected as the governor of Tokyo, he will debut as a band!

Aoyama didn't believe that Hiroi Kikuri would dare to fight with law enforcement officers. Since she mentioned "we," it meant that there were other people arrested together. The real perpetrator of the "assaulting a police officer" crime should be someone else, while Hiroi Kikuri was just a scapegoat.

Furthermore, if Hiroi Kikuri had indeed committed the "assault on a police officer" act, the police station or the police department would not have allowed her to make such a call for help so easily; at most, they would have helped her contact a lawyer.

"Yes, yes, I drank too much last night and slept until four in the afternoon. After waking up, I ate the remaining half bag of squid strips, but I wasn't satisfied. So I thought I'd find a small bar by the sea, get some fresh seafood, and drink while looking at the ocean. That's when I took the intercity train to Kawasaki... and I happened to run into one of my drinking buddies at the train station..."

"You want to eat seafood and see the sea, is it really necessary to go all the way to Kawasaki? Can't you go to Minato Ward, Koto, Shinagawa, or Ota?"

"Hey! How could you upper-class people understand the pain of us poor people! The four wards you just mentioned are all under Tokyo's jurisdiction, and seafood prices are extremely high. Kawasaki Ward, although it's right next to Ota, is Yokohama's little brother, so prices are much lower... Speaking of which, Yoshishin-san, can't you find a way to make prices in Tokyo as low as in Kanagawa Prefecture?"

“That’s not difficult,” Aoyama sneered. “If nothing unexpected happens, the Shigure Party members will win a majority of seats in the next Kanagawa Prefectural Assembly election. I’ll talk to them at the party meeting and suggest that they raise the consumption tax in Kanagawa Prefecture.”

"Wait, wait a minute! Brother Yizhen, if you do this, the residents of Kanagawa Prefecture will gossip about you and curse you behind your back."

Kikumi Hiroi, on the other end of the phone, was taken aback.

"It's okay, I'll just say that it was a female bassist named Hiroi Kikuri, who is 158 cm tall and likes to wear braids and drink Oni-slayer sake who suggested that I do this."

"Don't make me share your bad reputation!"

Hiroi Kikuri was going crazy over there.

Because Aoyama spoke in a very serious tone, and because she was a little drunk and confused, she actually took his words seriously for a moment.

"Okay, enough of the jokes... You just said you ran into a former drinking buddy? So, the assault on the police officer was done by your drinking buddy?"

If that's really the case, Hiroi Kikuri shouldn't have been detained... To handle this, Aoyama Muto doesn't need to intervene at all. He could have found Machiko Mayuzumi, the junior lawyer under Komikado Hosuke, or Keisuke Itokogiri, who is currently working at the Kanagawa Prefectural Police Headquarters. They should all be able to resolve this.

However, getting Hiroi's drinking buddy, who actually assaulted the police officer, out of jail would be a bit more complicated, though it should be manageable if Kensuke Komikado were to handle it personally. But why bother? Hiroi Kikuri is just a drinking buddy, not her mother. Is it really worth going to such lengths to save her? Letting her spend a few days in jail and learn her lesson would be better.

"Uh, it wasn't my friend who did it... The one who actually pushed the police officer was my friend's fan, a seventeen-year-old girl."

As it turned out, things were not as simple as Aoyama had imagined.

“Hmm? That’s not right,” Aoyama, having practiced law for several years, immediately grasped the crux of the problem. “In law enforcement practice, it’s very difficult for minors to commit assault against police officers; at most, it’s interference with law enforcement. In such cases, the police wouldn’t arrest them. The normal procedure is to treat the minor…”

The adult was given a verbal reprimand, and the minor's parents were notified; the adult was only liable for civil damages.

"The problem is that this child refused to give her parents' contact information no matter what. When the police used technical means to investigate her identity, she was so scared that she almost cried. Then my friend saw this and immediately jumped out and said that the child pushed the police officer because she had instigated the child. She told the police to just take her away and not to make things difficult for a minor who had just arrived from out of town!"

After saying this, Hiroi Kikuri exclaimed, "My friend really spoils her fans. If it were me, I definitely wouldn't be able to take on such a baseless accusation like she did. At most, I would just plead for the child when the guardian came to scold her."

Igomachi Music Awards: 086 She really goes all out when something happens!

Japanese society has a severe discrimination against criminals. People with criminal records, especially those suspected of violent crimes, face difficulties in education and employment, and may also be subject to social exclusion and unspoken rules.

Even discrimination against family members of criminals is seen as 'justified'. In his novel "The Letter," Keigo Higashino describes the phenomenon of "criminal family members being condemned by society," and there are even instances where the media and public opinion force criminal family members to publicly apologize—even if the court finds them to be unrelated to the crime.

That's why after the East City triad disbanded, East Mountain Holdings was established to absorb these former triad members... because if these people were left alone in society, they would not be able to find jobs. Even if they could not resurrect as a new triad group, they would still create other social problems.

Given this social reality, it is understandable that a minor, out of fear and self-esteem, would rather die than let his parents know that he has been arrested and reprimanded by the police.

But Hiroi Kikuri's drinking buddy, in order to protect his fan's self-esteem, took the blame for "assaulting a police officer" upon himself, completely disregarding the consequences of his criminal record...

What is the relationship between her and her underage fan? The fact that she'd willingly take the blame for the other person suggests it's not a purely platonic fan-idol relationship, right?

Aoyama speculated in his mind.

But it's not always the case... Maybe their profession doesn't care about having a criminal record, like gangsters, debt collection agencies, or boxers.

What does your friend do for a living?

Qingshan asked.

"Her name is Momoka Kawahara. She used to play in a band like me, but she recently left the band... and is currently busking on the street."

Kikuri Hiroi replied.

"Oh...street performer."

It's true that having a criminal record doesn't matter. As long as you sing well or play the piano well, passersby might give you a tip or buy your CD. They won't check your criminal record before they pay you.

"That's alright, I'll find someone to release you, it shouldn't take more than half an hour."

"What about my friend?"

"Hey, he's just a street performer. Spending a few days in detention won't cause any major problems."

"But she's innocent!"

Hiroi Kikuri's voice sounded somewhat indignant. "We were busking at the station entrance and got into a little argument with a local street performer. When the police arrived, they saw that we were both drunk and not street performers they knew, so they assumed we were at fault. Then they were going to take us to the kōbanri to sober up. Just then, Kawaharaki's fan came over and saw the police grabbing her arm, so she rushed over and pushed the police away."

Right?

How much strength can a seventeen-year-old girl have? Even if she uses all her strength, she can only push someone to the point of staggering.

If Momoka Kawahara's fan really only pushed the police officer, then it probably doesn't even count as obstructing official business; at most, it would just be a verbal warning.

Things are definitely not as simple as Hiroi Kikuri said.

Thinking this, Aoyama asked again, "Was it really just one push and no further action?"

“Really…” Hiroi Kikuri said with certainty, then paused for a few seconds before adding in a rather awkward voice, “When that kid rushed over, he was holding a guitar in his arms. As he was pushing, he tripped and accidentally threw the guitar he was holding out of his arms… and it hit the policeman in the face.”

"..."

Qingshan fell silent.

Good, good, good, it's like a mouse pulling a wooden shovel—the big one is yet to come.

Is that how you talk?

You didn't just "push" someone! You practically smashed your guitar into their face!

An electric guitar weighs between 2.5 and 4 kilograms, while the mace, the king of armor-piercing weapons in the cold weapon world, has a weight of about 2 kilograms... In other words, if the force is appropriate, it is not impossible for an electric guitar thrown out of the ground to break a person's nose.

A broken nose constitutes a minor injury, which would most likely result in imprisonment... Even without a broken nose, the police, being biased towards their own people, would likely arrange a maximum of twenty days of detention for you, which is not unreasonable.

If it's just a minor accidentally injuring a police officer, it's not that complicated. After all, if it's an accidental injury and there are no major consequences, and the person didn't have malicious intent and showed remorse, they generally won't pursue the matter.

But when Momoka Kawara readily agreed, it was she who instructed the minor to do such a thing... and things were about to take a turn for the worse.

"Let me ask first... is that unlucky policeman who got hit in the face by a guitar alright?"

Aoyama asked a crucial question first.

"He should be fine... I saw him come back from the hospital after getting a check-up. He didn't have any bandages or plasters on his head, but his face was a bit dark."

There wasn't even any gauze or bandages, so it probably doesn't even qualify as a minor injury... Moreover, the two police officers were indeed unfair in handling the dispute. If things were balanced out, their faults could be offset.

“I understand the general situation. It shouldn’t be a big problem for you and Ms. Kawaraki Momoka to leave the office, but I have one condition.”

Upon hearing that Aoyama had agreed to her request, Hiroi Kikuri was immediately invigorated.

"You agreed? That's great! Name your price! I'd even lick Yizhen's entire body if you wanted me to!"

“…You’re dreaming,” Qingshan said speechlessly. “Listen carefully, my condition is that you are not allowed to drink alcohol for the next week.”

"What? This...this request is far too vicious! It's even harder for me to accept than being forced to run naked in the street."

"If you don't agree, that's fine. The Kawasaki City detention center, although not as good as the detention centers in Tokyo, is still quite good. You can stay there for two days and consider it as cultivating healthy living habits."

"Damn it, Yizhen-ge, you devil! I promise, I promise..."

After saying this, tears streamed down Hiroi Kikuri's face.

After hanging up the phone, Aoyama initially wanted to call Keisuke Itokogiri to ask him to mediate, but when he looked up, he saw the two bodyguards in the front seat staring at him with piercing eyes, as if to say, "I can help, ask me now!" So he could only ask:

"Mori, Megure, do you have any connections at the Kanagawa Prefectural Police or the Kawasaki City Police Department?"

"Yes, yes, yes! My dad is the chief of the Kanagawa Prefectural Police Headquarters! I'll call him and ask him to help."

Release them immediately!

"Wait, Mori, is it really necessary to bother the Chief of Police for such a small matter? My cousin is the Chief of Police of Kawasaki City. You can ask him to handle this!"

Isogachi Music Awards: 087 Could these two be the daughters of the Superintendent General of Police?

An hour later, the battle took place in Okawa-cho, Kawasaki-ku, Kawasaki City.

Because it was already late at night, most of the police officers had already gone off duty. The police station was not a police department or police headquarters, and it did not have functional departments such as the Criminal Investigation Department or the Organized Crime Countermeasures Department that might work around the clock when things got busy. Therefore, there were very few people left in the police station. Including the two who had just returned from arresting people, there were only five people.

"Brother Xishan, you must be tired from your fieldwork. Is your nose okay?"

"Thank goodness, most of the impact from that guitar was absorbed by my forehead. My nose didn't take much of the force, just a few scrapes."

Inside the office, two policemen, one fat and one thin, were talking.

The fat guy was probably in his forties, close to fifty. He was the highest-ranking police officer in Okawa-cho besides the station chief, but even so, he was just a patrol chief. He was not even as good as those greenhorns who entered the police force through the professional group exam. Those greenhorns started as police inspectors.

However, this is the reality for most Japanese police officers. They spend half their lives patrolling, and only in middle age can they manage to become a patrol chief. If they're lucky, they might even become a police inspector before retirement...

But they are also the ones who are truly on the front lines. Although the dangers they face are not as high as those faced by criminal police and special police officers in the Criminal Investigation Department and the Organized Crime Countermeasures Department, they are not particularly low either. Not to mention, they often encounter a bunch of messy situations where it is impossible to tell who is right and who is wrong.

For example, this minor security incident tonight—

Two groups of street musicians got into a verbal altercation. One group consisted of local musicians from Kawasaki, while the other group had come from Tokyo to have some fun and maybe put on a show to earn some money for drinks.

However, Tokyo has been doing a great job supporting street performers in the past two months. While the street musicians in Kawasaki are envious, they have also developed a strong sense of crisis and xenophobia. They get a bit PTSD when they see artists from Tokyo performing in their territory. In addition, since Momoka Kawahara and Kikuri Hiroi are both girls and were drunk, several local street musicians in Kawasaki started making outrageous remarks and then started pushing and shoving each other.

Then, during the shoving, Momoka Kawaharaki came up and vomited all over the person who had pushed her. Momoka Kawaharaki's alcohol tolerance was only slightly better than average, so how could she sit at the same table as a heavy drinker like Kikuri Hiroi who drank alcohol like water? So when Hiroi drank to his heart's content, Momoka Kawaharaki was destined to vomit later.

The person who was vomited on couldn't hold back on the spot and almost fainted from anger—bards can't use fel magic in their duels!

After this incident, the local Kawasaki musicians dared not engage in close combat with Momoka Kawahara and Kikuri Hiroi, but they were unwilling to be outmaneuvered, so they called the police.

When the police arrived and listened to the explanations from the parties involved and passersby, they were quite perplexed. Although the musician from Kawasaki had started the fight, it was just a shoving match, which wouldn't have caused any injury or property damage. However, Momoka Kawahara's vomiting not only soiled the clothes of the unfortunate guy she had been fighting with, but also got into the electric guitar she was carrying. The vomit blocked the bridge and the data cable port at the bottom of the guitar, making for a truly gruesome scene.

Therefore, the patrol officers ultimately chose to side with the local Kawasaki musicians. After all, street performers are a profession that Kyoto police and patrol officers deal with, and although the two officers who responded to the call were not exactly friends with them, they knew them to some extent.

However, the patrol officers did not initially intend to arrest Momoka Kawahara and Kikuri Hiroi. They simply conducted a routine questioning and then asked the two to pay for the other party's losses—the clothes the unfortunate man was wearing and the cost of repairing his electric guitar.

The amount of money wasn't much to begin with, but a few local musicians in Kawasaki thought that since Tokyo was supporting street performers and the two of you were willing to travel all the way to Kawasaki for drinks, you must be well-off. So they asked for a little more than you should have.

But besides being genuine alcoholics, Kawaraki Momoka and Hiroi Kikuri were also genuine paupers; where would they get the money? Hiroi Kikuri could borrow money from her friends Iwashita Shima, Shimizu Eliza, and Iji Tomoka, but she was a little embarrassed and had to be prepared to endure Iwashita Shima and Iji Tomoka yelling at her. As for Kawaraki Momoka, since leaving the group, she was practically alone in Tokyo and had nowhere to borrow money—her only acquaintance was a high school student. In this respect, she had more principles than Hiroi Kikuri and was embarrassed to borrow money from a high school student—she was now in a dilemma and even considered taking out an online loan through her phone.

The two patrol officers noticed the couple's predicament, but due to their prejudice against alcoholics, they instinctively assumed the two were trying to renege on the payment... So they resorted to a little trick, threatening the couple with reasons like detention to get them to hand over the money obediently. They even made a move to take the two back to their temporary detention center—

While Japanese police may not be as powerful as their counterparts in some major countries, making it difficult for them to exercise the power of arbitrary temporary detention, that applies to ordinary people. However, it's a different story when dealing with a drunkard. Taking you back to Koban and locking you up to help you sober up is a reasonable and legal procedure.

It was under these circumstances that I Serina, a die-hard fan of Momoka Kawaharaki, ran over and tried to push away the policeman who was grabbing Momoka Kawaharaki's arm, but ended up hitting him in the face with a guitar.

That's good now. The act of interfering with law enforcement is clear enough. There's nothing more to say. Just take all three of them back to Jiaoban for further investigation.

After returning to Jiaofan, a policeman processed the paperwork for the two women, while the woman who had been hit by the guitar went to see a doctor to get her injuries checked.

I just got back from the medical examination and it wasn't anything serious, so I came to the office to get the paperwork done for transferring Kawara Momoka to the detention center tomorrow.

"What are your plans for dealing with them next?"

The chubby police officer took a puff of his cigarette and asked.

"Detain her for fifteen days first... When the warden comes tomorrow, have him sign a document to transfer the brown-haired one to the detention center... As for the pink-haired one, I saw her making a phone call for help just now, so I guess someone will come to bail her out before tomorrow morning, right?"

"What about the child who attacked you? Have you contacted her guardian?"

“No, since the brown-haired woman has taken all the blame, we should just punish her. That way, the person who called the police will be satisfied, and I can also vent my anger… As for the girl,” the thin policeman sighed, “she doesn’t seem like a bad kid. We’ll just give her a verbal warning and leave it at that. We won’t notify her guardian for now. Besides, there’s no point in bullying a child.”

"Oh, by the way, Iguchi, when you went to get your injuries checked just now, I took a peek over at the temporary detention cell. That girl was sitting in the corner crying nonstop... She seems to have a special relationship with the brown-haired guy in the detention cell. Could they be having some kind of improper relationship?"

The chubby police officer has a daughter who is in high school and is a key member of the school's comic club. She especially likes to draw fan comics with the theme of girl bands. She has a carefree personality and always leaves her drawings everywhere. The chubby police officer inevitably sees them, so his understanding of things like oranges and refining is much better than that of his peers.

"Tsuchiya-senpai, don't joke around. What kind of improper relationship could there be between two women? I heard about it on the way back with them. The girl is a fan of the brown-haired woman... But it's strange that such an unknown entertainer would..."

I wonder what methods they used to gain such loyal fans.

As the thin police officer spoke, he uploaded various information to the police system's internal website in preparation for handing over Kawara Momoka to the detention center the next day.

Just then, the phone on the office desk suddenly rang.

Both of them were startled when they heard the phone ring.

This is an internal phone number for the Kawasaki Police Department. It was already late at night, and normally, unless there was a particularly urgent security operation, no one would make this call at this hour.

"Could it be that some major accident has occurred nearby, and the police station needs us to send people over? If that's the case, Iguchi, you should go in our place... After all, you're a young man, participating in more group operations might give you a chance for promotion. Unlike this old guy like me, I can only look forward to retirement."

The chubby police officer said something half-jokingly, then answered the phone.

"Moshi moshi, this is the Okawa-cho office... What? Headquarters?!! Hah, hah..."

In just a couple of sentences, the fat patrolman's face changed, and he subconsciously bent over. While repeatedly saying "Hai," he kept turning his head to look at the thin detective, his face full of disbelief.

About half a minute later, he put down the phone receiver and clutched his heart with his hand.

"What's wrong, Tsuchiya-senpai?" The thin policeman gave him a strange look. "Could it be that the station chief got into trouble and the police station is planning to promote you to the new station chief? Well, Tsuchiya-senpai, you know I've always been on your side. If you really get promoted, remember to take care of me, okay..."