Chapter 494: , Uesugi Wins the Lawsuit

PS: I spent a lot of time writing the outline for Volume 5 today, so let's just combine chapters 4 and 5 into a 4,500-word big chapter for now!

Uesugi Muneyuki is starting to understand what the so-called "new god" that Hyakuso mentioned actually is.

The so-called "old gods" represent the fundamental laws of the world's origin and the chaotic force of disorder.

Meanwhile, the new gods represent order, logic, and rationality.

Doesn't the new god sound more impressive and high-class?

But actually, it's not like that at all. To put it simply, let's take an example: compared to the Earth today, which period during the Hadean eon was more suitable for human habitation?

Without a doubt, it's the Earth today.

But which had greater endurance—the Earth during the Hadean eon or the Earth today?

Without a doubt, it was the Hadean eon Earth, when the planet underwent terrifying ultra-fast rotation, constant massive volcanic eruptions, endless lightning storms, extreme heat with no oxygen, pure destructive force that purified everything with fire, howling winds obeying commands, foolish followers of false order—let blood and shadow forge a covenant. The old gods represent supernatural legal power, but the last old god used his own supernatural legal power to suppress magic and mysticism, ultimately bestowing order, rationality, and logic upon humanity.

From this perspective, he was truly great—his sudden appearance marked the arrival of the human era and the end of the old gods' age.

Uesugi Muneyuki sighed, thinking this answer wasn't bad. The inner world is growing weaker, and new gods are harder to birth—this means I won't shift from urban literature to becoming an emperor battling the Three Pure Ones, a single thought making flowers bloom and ruling eternity, two powerful beings fighting to the edge of the universe, the Great Way worn away.

No wonder Murahana Sumire doesn't want to leave the inner world—because to her, the outside world is uncomfortable, even somewhat "toxic," so she hides deep within the inner world, or waits for the gate of Takamagahara to open, or waits for the world to return to chaos. Her hostility toward humans is now understandable.

And as for myself, to some extent, can I traverse both worlds?

Uesugi Muneyuki calculated in his mind—unfortunately, there are only three problems.

When he finally came out, Emurina was waiting at the door, since today required fieldwork, and she wore a standard suit jacket and trousers. Seeing Uesugi Muneyuki finally emerge, the tall beauty rushed over excitedly, her body violently trembling—like the earth shaking and mountains moving, destroying heaven and earth.

"Muneyuki, are you alright?" Emurina's lovely face lit up with joy: "Can we go back now?"

Today counted as fieldwork for the two of us—no need to return to the police headquarters. The tall beauty naturally had other plans; she wanted to take Uesugi Muneyuki to train in martial arts, and... hehehe.

"Just wait a moment." Uesugi Muneyuki saw Emurina's expression and knew she was calculating something, so he could only pinch her palm slightly, signaling her not to rush: "We still need to see someone."

"Mmm~ Why so many things?" Emurina pouted.

The two waited a while longer at the hospital, when Nishimura Asahi Law Office's Kokuei Lawyer arrived, greeted Uesugi Muneyuki, signaled to wait a moment, then entered Professor Zaizen's hospital room.

After a while, Kokuei Lawyer came back out, hesitated briefly, then tossed the appeal letter Professor Zaizen had given him into the trash, gave a wry smile, shook his head, and thought: This time, my winning streak is going to end.

The deceased cannot serve as plaintiffs, nor as defendants. When Professor Zaizen passed away, judicial proceedings automatically ceased, so continuing this lawsuit would have no meaning whatsoever.

We lawyers won't engage in meaningless acts—thus, this appeal application only needs to be delayed until Professor Zaizen's death, and then the matter ends here.

What Kokuei Lawyer didn't know was that Uesugi Muneyuki had witnessed this entire scene, and he remained silent in his heart.

Death is ultimately the fairest thing.

The profession of lawyer is the quintessential embodiment of lawful evil—its existence lies in exploiting every loophole, twisting every interpretation, seeking every basis to achieve its goals. Like bureaucrats, it is a monster born from humanity under extreme order, emerging from within the law itself.

Many say merchants are also products of lawful evil, but that's not true—the essence of merchants should be attributed to "absolute neutrality." This profession's trait lies in "needing basic order, craving a certain amount of chaos." Only with basic order can merchants secure their interests; only by craving some chaos can they profit.

A standard merchant only wants to make money. If an entity has a single purpose, and pursues it regardless of good or evil, order or chaos, with only one goal, then it can be understood as absolutely neutral.

Another typical example is a starving farmer, whose every action aims to feed his family. If conditions are normal, he might take odd jobs, farm, hunt, fish, gather fruit, or scavenge for scraps—but if none of these fill his stomach, he doesn't mind stealing, robbing, or attacking fallen warriors. His sole goal is to eat his fill.

Don't look at lawyers through colored lenses—they have always been derivatives of humanity's vast, complex legal order system. As long as rule of law exists, as long as laws exist, lawyers must exist.

"Long wait, Uesugi-san." Kokuei Lawyer didn't realize his act of discarding Professor Zaizen's appeal documents had been seen by Uesugi Muneyuki. He adjusted his wire-rimmed glasses, signaling to move to another place for a detailed discussion.

In a booth at a café somewhere in Bunkyo Ward, Kokuei Lawyer handed a document to Uesugi Muneyuki and Ikeda Emurina: "This is the result after our office negotiated with Bungeishunjū. Uesugi-san, how do you view this? Can you accept these terms?"

"Let me see." Uesugi Muneyuki nodded, took the document, and examined it carefully.

Meanwhile, Emurina leaned forward curiously, wanting to see what it was.

The tall beauty, though not particularly sharp, could at least read. When she saw the text on the document, she couldn't help but exclaim: "What? Out-of-court settlement???"

"Hehe, yes, an out-of-court settlement." Kokuei Lawyer forced a smile, skillfully hiding a hint of contempt in his eyes. Yes, at the beginning of this year, the Saito Asuka housemaid lawsuit finally entered the court hearing phase.

With Uesugi Muneyuki presenting the key gynecological evidence and *Shukan Bunshun* making a furious, embarrassing blunder at a critical moment, this attack against him suffered the most devastating blow—*Shukan Bunshun* now faced dual prosecution from the prosecutor's office and Uesugi Muneyuki.

*Shukan Bunshun* suffered massive losses from this incident—nearly all sponsors terminated contracts, fixed subscriptions dropped by nearly half, they were forced to fire the involved editor-in-chief, editors, and paparazzi, cut nearly half the department, and publicly apologize. Even the parent company, Bungeishunjū, publicly apologized, saying they had "caused trouble for the people," and soon nearly half of the board's senior executives resigned.

The lawsuit entrusted to Uesugi Muneyuki was precisely handled by Kokuei Lawyer of Nishimura Asahi Law Office.

To secure the parties' understanding as quickly as possible, *Shukan Bunshun* offered an out-of-court settlement.

Compensation for Uesugi Muneyuki and Saito Asuka totaling 45 million yen in various damages (after deducting the office's cut, netting 38 million yen), covering all legal and litigation fees, and publishing apologies in the headline section for three consecutive Thursdays, separately addressing Uesugi Muneyuki, Saito Asuka, and Ishihara Makoto, plus privately promising that without ironclad evidence, they would not report on Uesugi Muneyuki's private life again (effectively abandoning any "battle" against him).

All involved paparazzi and editors were to be dismissed, the editor-in-chief to resign,

"Out-of-court settlement? How could that be acceptable???" Emurina gritted her teeth, clenched her fists, furious: "They actually did that? Said such outrageous things? I will never forgive them! I'll make them pay dearly!"

"If we don't accept the out-of-court settlement, then we'd have the first trial, first hearing, second hearing, third hearing—witnesses testifying repeatedly, appearing again and again—then appeal, second trial, witnesses appearing again and again. The case would drag on endlessly, causing immense trouble for the parties and witnesses, not only disrupting your lives but also damaging your public image. Is that really acceptable?" Kokuei Lawyer smiled and said: "Think about Miss Asuka—she has to keep appearing to testify, keeps falling behind on her studies, keeps reliving the past—isn't that also a kind of harm?"

"I———" Emurina was momentarily speechless. The tall beauty thought: Who even understands what you're saying? Uesugi, say something!

Out-of-court settlement, is that it?

Uesugi Muneyuki fell into thought.

Logically, he should try to make *Shukan Bunshun* pay the maximum price.

But the maximum price—hasn't *Shukan Bunshun* and its backers, the Souhou father and son, already paid it?

Souhou Ryohei was crippled, still hospitalized at Tokyo University Affiliated Hospital, suffering from recurring urinary tract infections that tormented this Diet member's son to the point of nearly wanting to commit suicide.

The executive in charge of this matter had his heartbeat stopped directly by Mai, the senior student.

Both parties involved suffered the most brutal retaliation. As for *Shukan Bunshun*, Uesugi Muneyuki really has no strong desire to send the current parties to prison for two or three years—it would be meaningless.

Also, this needs to be mentioned: among the three East Asian nations, Japan differs from South Korea and other countries in one aspect.

Japan lacks a tradition of severely purging political enemies. This country is not like 【deleted】, where every new president comes in and uses every means to send the previous one to prison, nor is it like 【deleted】 and other countries,

where changing leadership requires a comprehensive 【deleted】.

In this regard, Japan is closer to Europe and America.

For Japan, someone like Hosokawa Morihiro—because he made an "inappropriate" remark, was expelled from the Tokyo Metropolitan LDP and lost his Diet seat, then returned to the countryside to become a cultural artifact collector—this is already nearly the harshest and most cruel retaliation possible.

Another example is our old friend Tanaka Kakuei, involved in the "Lockheed scandal"—he resigned in 1974, was indicted in 1976, found guilty in 1983, appealed, found guilty again in the second trial in 1987, appealed again, and finally found guilty in the final trial in 1995—but by then, Tanaka Kakuei had been dead for over two years, so judicial proceedings terminated.

Thus, there's a saying that this is actually the national system's silent agreement: Tanaka Kakuei, after all, created the "computer and tractor" economic miracle, rendered great service to the state, and is a representative figure of economic boom. If he were imprisoned for corruption, it would damage the nation's image—but the Lockheed case has ironclad evidence, so both sides silently agreed to endlessly appeal and delay proceedings until Tanaka Kakuei died of illness, ending the judicial process—thus preserving the former prime minister's dignity while proving his guilt.

However, the tradition of not overpressing opponents or casually wiping out entire families like in a match-3 game has made Japan's "run learning" less prevalent in East Asia. Japanese people are famously reluctant to go abroad, and they have greater trust in long-term operations and long-term business (something those in foreign trade know well), and the public has higher confidence in long-term investment—most people opening stores, starting companies, or making plans do so with the intention of sustaining them long-term, not thinking of making a quick profit and fleeing, nor worrying that achieving some success will draw unwanted attention.

This is also why Japanese football can get off the ground, because the ultra-long-term plan from thirty years ago can be consistently implemented.

Of course, this kind of behavior also leads to a large amount of administrative redundancy in Japan that cannot be resolved and a large amount of inferior political assets that cannot be liquidated; over time, the National Diet is filled with idlers drawing salaries without doing work, the bureaucratic system is lifeless and dull, enterprises and commercial law are aging and outdated—this is an undeniable problem, therefore (deleted passage) many citizens cheer that it's long overdue to clean house—why aren't these old idlers dead yet! We need more (deleted passage)! Thus, one launch sends these idlers and old fogies flying into the sky!

As for whether this thing is more beneficial than harmful or more harmful than beneficial, please judge for yourselves.

Moreover, if endless appeals and prolonged litigation harm Saito Asuka as well, the girl needs to appear in court frequently, which will affect her studies; although being a minor is still manageable, upon reaching adulthood she loses legal protection and must appear in person, which will bring even more negative effects—for example, if she has a lawsuit on her record, it will affect employment and external evaluation.

Finally, Uesugi Muneyuki's attention is not on this matter either.

"Very well, I agree to an out-of-court settlement." Uesugi Muneyuki thought again and again, finally nodding: "Just follow Weekly Bunshun's request, but not Thursday—it must be Monday."

"Very well." Attorney Kunpei exhaled in relief, a smile appearing on his face.

Thus, eight million yen securely pocketed (commission + lawyer fees)!

Actually, lawyers are not necessarily required to help employers win lawsuits.

What matters is being able to find a way for the employer to accept and receive payment.

This is part of our lawyers' code: if not satisfied, don't play!

Thus, Uesugi Muneyuki and Attorney Kunpei shook hands, also representing Uesugi Muneyuki and Weekly Bunshun formally settling out of court.

The Sakuradamon press conference battle ultimately ended with Uesugi Muneyuki victorious!

The news of Uesugi Muneyuki and Weekly Bunshun's out-of-court settlement quickly reached the ears of National Diet Member Suo Masao.

This member, in a fit of impotent rage, smashed the fax machine in front of him to pieces!

Weekly Bunshun lost only 45 million yen, but I lost my son!

This matter is not over!

Suo Masao's son Suo Ryohei has already been hospitalized for over three months; although he has recovered from the ritual and reconstructed his pelvis, he must use crutches for life and must wear a urine bag for life.

Moreover, Suo Ryohei has also developed severe PTSD and phantom pain, once becoming depressed and wanting to commit suicide, but was stopped.

This son is done.

This has also plunged this National Diet member into an unprecedented crisis—he has no heir!

No one will respect a politician who must walk with a cane and wear a urine bag! Not even himself will respect himself!

He needs a new heir.

Suo Masao remained silent for a long time, but eventually still made a phone call.

Actually, he has more than just Suo Ryohei as a son, but he and his wife indeed have only this one child; his other child was born in his youth from a hostess in Ikebukuro and is now working as a comedian at Yoshimoto Kogyo.

"Call Akira to come see me."