日本語 101
Japanese 101

Baka 馬鹿 means Stupid / Idiot 
Chan ちゃん means little one, an honorific usually reserved for children or people who are close friends or family members
San さん means Mr, Mrs, A universally to address people out of respect 
Aniki 兄貴 means Elder Brother
Urusai 煩い means Irritating
 

 

Stepping into the once familiar interview room of the Yokohama Police Department brought back memories to him; Kindaichi Hajime would have thought that his days inside an interview room of something of the past, but sadly no.

He would have declined the request if Detective Akechi or Inspector Kenmochi asked of him, but how could he reject her, the young profiler, when she looked at him and said, “You are the only one I can think of who will be able to achieve what I have in mind.”

That rare display of trust and faith she has for him made him very proud and happy. If he is, to be honest with himself, he would have thought of that as an achievement, to be able to be the one person, Aoyama Sho could trust to do what she has in mind. So happy that he did not realize that Aoyama Sho has set him up for this, a return to the much-dreaded aspect of his job, interviewing perp.

“I am a profiler and my job is to analyse criminals, not interviewing one,” Aoyama Sho was firm in her stance that she did not want to be in the interview room with him, “Besides, it is always better to observe them on the sly, the amount of information they reveal about themselves unknowingly is amazing.”

‘Right?! How beautifully worded…’ Kindaichi Hajime merely furrowed his brow when he thought about her reasoning, as logically as she made them sounded, he has that feeling that she was only trying to escape from the fate of questioning a perp.

Sighing softly, he stepped into the interview reluctantly much to the glee of Aoyama Sho, “I am so going to let you back for this, Sho-chan!” Kindaichi Hajime promised himself.

“So when the old can’t crack it, they send it the young one instead?” Daitoshi Hiroshi, the young heir and CEO of the Daitoshi Trading smirked unkindly at the entrance of Kindaichi Hajime.

Kindaichi Hajime studied the young man sat in front of him quietly and was quite surprised to note that for someone who has been kept up for interviewing for the past 27 hours, Daitoshi still looked quite fresh and alert unlike the usual angry and stressed criminals he has met before.

“He is unaffected by the stress of being questioned, the bright and the overconfident look in his eyes tells us that he knew we have nothing on him. But this will change, we will get him for the crimes he has committed,” Aoyama’s voice was transmitted via the Bluetooth earpiece he was asked to wear before entering the room, “We need to break that arrogance to get somewhere. The element of surprise would be the most ideal way to catch him off guard, Kindai-baka!”

Kindaichi almost smiled at the sound of her voice, it still amazed him how Aoyama Sho could read his expressions and thoughts so well that she knew exactly what was going on in his mind.

‘The element of surprise’, Kindaichi thought briefly to himself smiling, thinking of all the props in his bag which Aoyama Sho has so kindly provided him. It almost seems like a game for the young profiler even though they were supposed to crack a case instead.

Putting his bag on the table, Kindaichi Hajime took a seat opposite Daitoshi and offered him a friendly smile, “My name is Kindaichi Hajime and I am here to share some news about your brother with you.”

“Kindaichi?” Daitoshi looked surprised at the mention of his name initially and questioned in surprise. “That legendary Mei Tantei?"

Daitoshi Hiroshi was surprised because according to hearsay, their last heard of the famous detective was that he is away on some tour around Japan and could not be found easily.

"So you are the police's answer to solving this series of suicides, isn't it? You must be the one who put those damned police on my trail! What are you trying to prove? To pin all the unresolved cases on me and make me to be some crazy serial murderer? What do you know about my brother?” Daitoshi worked out the reasons for his sudden arrestment in his mind and was angry how the appearance of Kindaichi Hajime had turned everything around.

“What makes you think we have no evidence? You won’t be here if we have no evidence to prove, the fact that you are still here means that we know something which you don’t,” Kindaichi smirked back at Daitoshi with a knowing smile, “As far as I know, we have at least 2 witnesses on the scene of the crime who saw someone else with the victim before she jumped from the building.”

Daitoshi blinked when the fact of witnesses was presented to him, it was the first time he learned of this little fact, “So? You can’t prove my involvement, can you? I was at home during the time of the crime.”

“Good one, Kindai-baka. He is getting nervous as the side of his lips tightened in response when you mentioned having witnesses. The way his eyes blinked continuously within the same second, showed that he was taken aback by your information. Not to mention the way his fingers are drumming about on the edge of the table also proved that he is afraid,” Aoyama shared her observations with Kindaichi through the earpiece.

“Why so nervous, my friend?” Kindaichi Hajime grinned at the information Aoyama has provided as he glanced at Daitoshi Hiroshi in mock curiosity, “Your fingers drumming restlessly on the table is giving you away.”

“No,” Daitoshi growled and forced his fingers to grip the edge of the table instead, “What could your witnesses have on me, I was nowhere nearby the Negishi Grandstand? My parents can tell you that I was at home during the whole night!”

“Did I mention Negishi Grandstand?” Kindaichi smiled but his eyes were cold and sharp, “I was referring to the recent news of a 15 years old school girl who jumped from the fifth floor of her school.”

“Sneaky, Kindai-baka!” Aoyama Sho laughed over their connection, “The nervousness has gotten the better of him and he is slipping out facts defensively.”

“Well, that damned police told me,” caught by surprised, Daitoshi blinked twice and shot back with the reflex that even surprised Kindaichi and Aoyama.

“Hmmm, he is definitely a businessman at work. The way he reacted to the sudden situation and has the ability to change his words within seconds has shown that he is a quick thinker. But it also showed that he is able to lie easily,” Aoyama narrowed her eyes to observe the heir carefully, "Be careful Kindai-Baka."

“I’ve seen the transcripts of previous interviews, there was no mention of the location, they were only confronting him with the various deaths. The way his facial muscle stiffen when he replied and how he turned slightly away from you, is a sign of discomfort in facing you. Also, the way he is turning toward the door hints that he felt trapped by you and is hoping to escape. In short, you got him, he is in fear of you, Kindai-baka.”

“You lied,” Kindaichi echoed Aoyama’s comment instantly and proceeded to take out a report from his bag, “Did you know that the way you are inching away from me and avoiding my eyes is tell-tale signs of lying?”

Daitoshi swallowed hard and forced his eyes to meet Kindaichi’s, “Who says that I am lying?”

“Unfortunately for you, our profiler has been watching you for quite some time, everything you have done so far since I have entered this room is carefully analysed by our profiler. Like what our profiler has once said, ‘humans are interesting because for every lie they tried to utter, their body gestures will protest in silence,’ and that’s how we can see through your lies because we know where to spot your body’s protest.”

Daitoshi Hiroshi snorted in disbelief at Kindaichi, “You’re making that up to try to scare me when you could not get anything out of me.”

“Ah, a non-believer eh? Well, I can prove you wrong with just one report and you will be amazed just how much information our profiler is able to outline about you.”

Just as he spoke, Kindaichi Hajime took out the profiling report Aoyama has provided to the Yokohama police and threw it just centimetres away from Daitoshi lightly, “See for yourself, Daitoshi!”

Staring ahead at the report Kindaichi has offered to him, Daitoshi read the heading title out aloud in disbelief, “Scientific Taskforce Criminal Profiling Analysis Report on the case of Negishi Grandstand School Teacher Heartbreak Serial Murderer version 2. Scientific Taskforce? What is that nonsense?”

“The S.T. is your worst and the last enemy ever,” Noting his defensive tone, Kindaichi decided to up the game by provoking him further, “It was through the combined effort of S.T., we managed to identify and establish the link between the 13 deaths starting from Summer 2008, through the analysing of all deaths between then till now. You thought your acts were perfect, but unfortunately, it was only child play to the geniuses in S.T.. Do you really think that by spreading out your murder attempts, we will see them as nothing more than innocent suicides? According to our profiler, the probability of all those school teachers’ death being a coincidence is only a mere 3.33 percentage, which translated into impossible. In the words of our profiler, 'the more murders you have committed, the easier it is for us to find you.' This is the power of criminology statistics, a branch of the criminology profiling.”

Daitoshi paled as he read the content of the report but he refused to answer Kindaichi.

"Indeed, the perfect crime is often those one-off act which we could not collect enough data to analyse, but when the act becomes a series of actions, no matter how perfect it seems in the beginning, a pattern is formed and how the perp can be revealed by studying that pattern of crime," Aoyama Sho nodded in agreement of what Kindaichi had said and explained further upon seeing the confused look in Inspector Kenmochi's eyes.

Detective Akechi and Inspector Kenmochi could only stare wordlessly at Aoyama Sho and Kindaichi Hajime. They have no idea whether the two young people have realised it yet, but both Yokohama police officers have noticed that they are growing a habit of finishing off each other words and thoughts without any probing at all. Considering the short period of time they have met, it was truly remarkable. 

“And do you know what is so scary about having S.T. investigating you? All their reports, from medical, psychology, chemistry to physical science are certified by top experts. This means that whatever presented in their report can and will be considered as hard evidence in the eyes of the laws. I believe you have just witnessed for yourself how detailed and accurate their profiling expert is,” Unaware of the amazing glaze of Detective Akechi and Inspector Kenmochi, Kindaichi Hajime continued his method to pressure the perp into losing his cool. 

Kindaichi allowed a moment of silence for his threats to sink in for Daitoshi and was rewarded with a glimpse of Daitoshi’s panic in his eyes, 'I've him there!'       

 “Wow~ I never knew that Kindai-baka you think so highly of us? But can we go straight in for the kill? The wild look in his eyes seems to suggest instability, he won’t take it too well if you continue to try to wind him up further. He is not one for slip-ups but he will react somehow and that somehow is not desirable... So, don't force it... Talk about his brother instead, the mention of his brother should cause some change in emotion for him...” Kindaichi could hear Aoyama’s smirk through her teasing and smile at her timely advice.

Once again, Kindaichi was not surprised that Aoyama saw through his method and was right about Daitoshi’s high intense anxiety level, as he observed Daitoshi’s wide eyes look.

 “Are you surprised about finding the part on your brother’s suicide in this report as well? Our profiler seems to think that the deaths of those girls are merely rituals for you to remember your brother, Hikaru. An elder brother whose cause of death which also happened to suicide.”

Daitoshi Hiroshi stared straight unblinkingly at Kindaichi wordlessly but Kindaichi could see that his words have affected the heir as his fists were clenched tightly at his words.

“Let’s pretend that our profiler was right about it…” Kindaichi started his questioning but had to choke back a laugh as he heard a growling sound coming from his earpiece; he could tell that Aoyama Sho was definitely unimpressed with his opening sentence.

"Eh… Was it worth it? Committing those acts and murdering those women?” Kindaichi asked softly, “What made you choose to remember your beloved brother in such a tragic manner and to torture yourself with the guilt and pain? Surely this is not what your brother wanted of you?”

Daitoshi swallowed hard as he let out a long breath and declared, “I have enough of this nonsense, and I want to see my lawyer now!”

"He is cracking," Aoyama Sho smirked at the request for a lawyer, "he wants to get out of here, Kindai-Baka. Time to deliver your blow!"

Leaning forward to stare straight into Daitoshi’s eyes, Kindaichi chose that moment to deliver a heavy blow to him, “You are linked to at least 13 deaths, and you think we are going to let you see your lawyer? I