Chapter 431

Inside the hospital room.

Equipment Section Chief! Superintendent rank! This is a position with rich perks and prominent status, usually seen as one of the stepping stones to higher levels; career-track officers have always scrambled for it, and only this special period has left it vacant!

The hospital room fell instantly silent, everyone's gazes focusing on Kashiwagi Jin.

Kashiwagi Jin's heart gave a violent leap!

Equipment Section Chief? Promotion to Superintendent?

This temptation was by no means small, but alarm bells instantly rang in his head!

The Equipment Section is far from frontline investigation, far from the spotlight! And once transferred out of Investigation Division 1, wouldn't his "Heroic Lone Wolf" and "Legendary Detective" halos greatly lose their luster? More importantly... if he ever needs to "reconstruct" the details of obtaining evidence later, wouldn't it be even easier to expose himself in a completely unfamiliar department? He needs to stay in a familiar environment, using new "merits" to solidify this myth!

And, Kashiwagi Jin always felt something was a bit strange. I've clearly established world-shaking merit, proven my absolutely deserving ability, so why would Headquarters transfer me back to desk duty? Wouldn't promoting me to Management Officer of Investigation Division 1 Third Section allow my abilities to be better utilized?

He absolutely refused to go to desk duty! Never! Desk duty is all slackers and nepotism hires!

I want to continue field work! Otherwise how will I tell Hayakawa Nanami my case-solving stories in the future?

"Director General!" Kashiwagi Jin's face instantly showed "panic" and "unease"; he struggled to get out of bed: "Th-this... this absolutely cannot be! The Equipment Section bears heavy responsibility, I... my qualifications are still shallow, I fear I cannot shoulder this great task! And... and my battlefield is on the frontline of investigation! I... I beg to be allowed to remain in Investigation Division 1, to contribute my mite to fighting crime!"

His words were earnest, even carrying a trace of "viewing fame and wealth as floating clouds" "loftiness."

Watanabe Director and Uchimura Department Manager exchanged a glance; the appreciation in Uchimura Department Manager's eyes deepened (he didn't know the ins and outs, truly believing this was planned by Kashiwagi Jin).

Kashiwagi-kun... greatness without words!

Director General Watanabe, I'm not opposing you, but the man just established such great merit, and you're transferring him to desk duty — isn't that a bit too harsh on him?

But this guy really is a live wire; Uchimura Department Manager also has no confidence in controlling him.

After thinking it over, Uchimura Department Manager mused: "Kashiwagi-kun is too modest. However, since your heart is set on the frontline... how about this: Life Safety Division Management Officer (also Superintendent rank)? This post can utilize your coordination abilities, won't completely detach you from frontline guidance work, and the pressure is relatively smaller — just right for you to recuperate and recover."

"Although continuing in Investigation Division 1 isn't bad either, but in the Life Safety Division, for you Kashiwagi, the sky is even wider!"

Life Safety Division Management Officer? Superintendent rank! This is likewise an important promotion.

Kashiwagi Jin's heart pounded wildly again, but the fear in his heart deepened even more!

The Life Safety Division mostly handles theft, fraud, juvenile delinquency, etc., which severely clashes with his "heroic battle against violent groups" image! And a Management Officer requires massive administrative coordination work; he's afraid he can't handle it, and it would even more easily expose his capability shortcomings!

He still has some self-awareness, knowing he's not good at interpersonal relationships; he even recalls whether he really made merit? Yes he did! Whether he really sent an accurate distress message? Yes he sent it!

He still needs to ask Meisa's side again; it should be her doing... right?

This time, what appeared on Kashiwagi Jin's face was no longer "panic," but deep "guilt" — this time with several parts truth.

He lowered his head, voice carrying grief: "Department Manager! Director General! Section Chief! I... I am unworthy of acceptance! This operation, though luckily successful, but... but I personally blundered and was captured, caused trouble for the Metropolitan Police Department, worried all you superiors — this itself is my dereliction of duty! I... I am unworthy of accepting promotion! Please allow me to remain in Investigation Division 1, as an ordinary detective, to atone with merit and make up for my faults! Use more actual actions to prove myself!"

Kashiwagi Jin's words, combined with his battered body and "grief-stricken" expression, the effect was simply explosive!

Watanabe Director was moved! Uchimura Department Manager also drew a deep breath! Even the ever-calm Sugishita Section Chief's eyes revealed strong admiration!

Perfect person throughout ages! Achievement without dwelling! Viewing fame and wealth as dust!

Heart set on the frontline! Courage to self-blame! Willingness to contribute!

Watanabe Director heavily patted Kashiwagi Jin's shoulder (causing Kashiwagi to grimace in pain), voice resonant, full of emotion, thinking that in this era such pure people are indeed rare; even if Uesugi Muneyuki hadn't spoken, he would protect him too: "Good! Good! Good one, Kashiwagi-kun! Good 'atoning with merit'! This awareness, this responsibility, this red heart for the police cause — should be a model for our entire department! A perfect person throughout ages is nothing more than this!"

And he indeed doesn't seek promotion or material gain; such a person is hard to corrupt, many things can be safely left for him to gnaw on.

Watanabe Eiji indeed hadn't anticipated Uchimura Department Manager would propose the Life Safety Division promotion; since that's the case, Otsuka Station Chief needn't be mentioned either.

Uchimura Department Manager also nodded: "Kashiwagi, your request, we grant it! Investigation Division 1 needs a backbone like you! Recover well from your injuries; the Metropolitan Police Department's future belongs to elites like you!"

Sugishita Section Chief also rarely showed an approving smile: "Kashiwagi, Division 1 will always be your backing. Rest easy and recover; wait for your return."

The three bigwigs left the hospital room, filled with emotion and infinite expectations for the "police world's jewel."

Left behind, Kashiwagi Jin lay on the hospital bed, trembling slightly all over with excitement, his face full of post-calamity relief and a twisted, immense sense of satisfaction.

He successfully kept his "hero" halo, remained in the most dazzling position under the spotlight! As for that bit of "guilt"? By now it had long been replaced by the self-absorption of "I really am a genius," "I'm too great."

He refused the Equipment Section Chief post, refused the Life Safety Division Management Officer promotion, insisted on staying in his original position as a Superintendent subsection chief — looking at it this way, he doesn't count as unworthily accepting, right?

Superintendent General Watanabe Eiji, Criminal Investigation Department Chief Uchimura Kanji, and Investigation Division 1 Chief Sugishita Ukyo walked out of the hospital room. Watanabe Director and Uchimura Department Manager still wore expressions of emotion and expectation for the "perfect person throughout ages" Kashiwagi Jin, quietly discussing follow-up publicity and commendation matters.

However, walking slightly behind, Investigation Division 1 Chief Sugishita Ukyo — in those trademark eyes, calm like precision instruments — a hard-to-detect flicker of doubt passed. He slightly furrowed his brow, pushed up his rimless glasses on his nose bridge.

Something's off.

The operational details Kashiwagi Jin described have multiple vague points and logical breaks.

"Cleverly transmitted information"? Under strict guard and torture, by what method? How to ensure not being discovered?

The source of the distress signal and the process of obtaining the evidence location are even more glossed over, unable to withstand scrutiny.

And, the Equipment Section Chief promotion and Life Safety Division Management Officer promotion also appear inexplicable; Investigation Division 1 is originally the Metropolitan Police Department's ace department, everyone racks their brains trying to get in, so how come after establishing a great merit Headquarters actually wants to transfer him out?

Feels like something's off somewhere.

And Kashiwagi Jin's refusal also appears overly lofty, overly deliberate; that forced calm with a hint of unease... just feels noteworthy.

Sugishita Ukyo's thoughts turned like precision gears; Kashiwagi Jin's performance, rather than "perfect person," is more like someone... dizzy with massive honor, yet desperately wanting to stay at the center of the spotlight, afraid the halo will fade. He instinctively sniffed a trace of discordant scent.

Strange... Sugishita Ukyo glanced at the conversing Watanabe Eiji and Uchimura Kanji, knowing he wasn't of Eiji's faction, he definitely couldn't get the real story from them.

So Sugishita Ukyo feigned wanting to verify something, excused himself to Watanabe Director and Uchimura Department Manager saying he needed to use the toilet and they should go ahead, unobtrusively circled around, and returned toward the hospital room's location.

Just a bit, let's test the waters.

……………………

Seeing the police world's three bigwigs arrive, enormous fear like ice water poured over her head instantly pulled Kashiwagi Misa back from helplessness toward her husband to cruel reality!

She knows her husband too well! Faced with this dreamt-of sky-high merit falling on his head, her husband has already been lifted up and accepted it all on the spot, but he himself actually didn't participate — the more he speaks the more chaotic, the more he says the more mistakes! Once this is discovered, Kashiwagi Jin will be ruined! She, Kashiwagi Misa, as a knowing party and participant (even possibly suspected as an accomplice), and that dirty deal with Uesugi Muneyuki... everything will be exposed! That is the true hell!

The husband is hopeless; he's still intoxicated in his hero dream. The only one who can now seal the source, has the capacity to know, and whom she can influence — is one person: Uesugi Muneyuki! The true mastermind behind all this! And, Watanabe Minami is Watanabe Director's daughter, Uesugi Muneyuki's fiancée; he and Watanabe Director are like father and son, able to greatly influence Watanabe Eiji's decisions!

Hearing Uesugi Muneyuki's call, Kashiwagi Misa could no longer care about anything else; she must immediately appease Uesugi Muneyuki! Him calling her surely means he wants to negotiate terms!

I agree, I agree to anything!

She didn't even dare speak a word to her husband immersed in self-satisfaction; hearing Uesugi Muneyuki call her, Kashiwagi's wife grabbed her handbag and rushed out of the hospital room like a gust of wind.

High heels struck a rapid, frantic rhythm on the smooth hallway floor.

Kashiwagi Misa anxiously followed behind Uesugi Muneyuki, finally stopping near the elevator hall leading to the underground parking lot, facing that figure leaning by the window, leisurely chewing gum — Uesugi Muneyuki. He seemed to be waiting for Kashiwagi's wife to speak first, yet also seemed to simply be appreciating the madam's beauty, the corner of his mouth holding a faint, barely-there, everything-in-control smile: "Madam? I called you, mainly about your husband... he..."

"Uesugi!!!" Kashiwagi Misa practically lunged at him, breathing rapidly, her meticulously maintained ice-queen facade utterly collapsing. That stunning mixed-blood face was filled with panic, helplessness, and deep fear. Her haughty, cold eyes brimmed with tears, yet she stubbornly refused to let them fall, adding a touch of heartbreaking sorrow: "You, what are you going to do now?"

"What am I going to do?" Uesugi Muneyuki slowly blew a bubble with his gum, leisurely sizing up the distraught beauty before him. The graceful curves beneath her Chanel suit skirt were trembling slightly. The despair in her eyes was even worse than at Ginza Hanacho. He understood perfectly — she had already realized that Kashiwagi Jin's bragging would eventually blow up, and she had sensed a greater crisis.

"Oh? Mrs. Kashiwagi?" Uesugi's voice carried a hint of amusement: "I came to find you just to say, regarding your husband bragging everywhere..."

Misa shuddered all over at his pointed words, a strong sense of humiliation surging up again, but right now she had no leisure to care about that. She suddenly grabbed Uesugi's arm, her fingers icy cold and gripping hard, as if clutching a final lifeline. Her voice carried a sobbing tone, mournful and plaintive: "Uesugi-san! Please! I beg you!"

Tears finally spilled over, leaving crystalline tracks on her pale cheeks: "I, I did everything exactly as you said! I... I really tried my best! Uesugi-san, you promised me! You promised me! You promised that as long as I cooperated with your demands, you would protect me!"

"Hah? You're right, didn't I already protect you?" Uesugi Muneyuki froze for a moment. He said softly: "In this case, although you're at the storm's center and the Equipment Management Department Head, I can guarantee you'll be fine. Afterward, you'll be transferred to the Police Affairs Department Personnel Division..."

"I know, I know, but... I'm talking about Jin!"

She tilted her head up, gazing at Uesugi with shame and sorrow, abandoning all dignity and pride, like someone about to drown:

"I know... I know my request is shameless... I know I owe you... but... but please help me one more time! The last time! Jin, he loves showing off and saving face too much. If he keeps going like this, he'll definitely slip up! Please seal everyone's mouths, let this 'hero's' lie... continue on!"

The ice-mountain mixed-blood beauty wife's voice was shattered, filled with cornered despair: "As long... as long as you can do it... I... I'm willing to accept any condition of yours! Any!"

Uesugi Muneyuki: "?"

Madam, what on earth is going on with you?

I didn't even blackmail you! How did you become this proactive?

(Chapter End)