008

The victim's name was Ishida Miyuki, a rather timid girl who had just graduated college this year and had already landed her dream job with how qualified and perfect she was to work at a flowet shop.

I surfed through the documents I was handed this morning while sitting inside the office space that I was provided even though there was only a few cabinet files, a chair, and a table present inside of it.

But I liked it this way, I prioritized comfort and efficiency above stylish and cluttered furniture.

The files I was given held the necessary demographic profile of the victim in question, from their physical assets all the way to their history that I could use in figuring out possible suspects.

But I didn't need these files to get a grasp on who the victim was. After all, I had just met her last night.

To think that meek, innocent girl would be reduced to nothing but a cold, lifeless corpse was something out of a cliche mystery novel. It felt as if the world had chosen her specifically rather than someone I don't know.

That was a terrible thought, even if they were someone I didn't know. A crime is still a crime, and a life is still a life, I was getting nowhere with that mindset.

What made things even worse was the arrested suspect for the case. It was none other than my idiotic best friend Katsuo.

"Detective, the suspect has been brought to the interrogation room as you requested."

"Thank you, I'll go on ahead and interrogate the suspect." I thanked the guard and walked past him without looking back.

As a detective, I took an oath to look at my cases in an objective way, but it was hard to do that when the suspect was none other than your only friend.

"Mr. Okami, it's a pleasure to meet you." I greeted Katsuo in a formal manner. It was my way of doing things in life.

Separate work from personal life. Nothing more, nothing less.

"Tomodachi! Thank goodness it's you, I swear I'm innocent. I didn't do anything!" Katsuo tried to tackle me with a hug but winced in pain as the handcuffs attached to the metal table pulled on his wrists.

"Mr. Okami, please calm down." I sighed.

There was no way this idiot was capable of murdering someone. He couldn't even figure out simple things like how handcuffs worked.

"We have reasons to suspect you're tied to the homicide case of Miss. Ishida Miyuki, anything you'll say can and will be used in court against you."

"I know dude, the cop already told me that earlier this morning."

Crap.

"Moving on, based on your testimony. You say you were sound asleep when the crime happened?" I didn't hide the fact I was displeased at him.

If only he hadn't banged the girl, then I could have slept comfortably in his home, and he wouldn't be in this mess.

"Yeah!"

"Can you please explain to me in detail your alibi"

I pulled out a pen and paper from the pockets of my coat, and the police chief provided me a trench coat per my request.

This wasn't a personal taste. It was highly necessary for the success of my job. Yes, necessary.

"Oh come on, dude, you know I would never kill someone!"

"Mr. Okami, please give me your statement so we can figure out if you actually did it or not." I shook my head in exasperation. If it weren't for the fact I needed to do this, then I wouldn't have wasted time here.

"W-Well... After I and I left you and Akibara-san last night at what I think was...7? "

"Precisely at 6:47 pm, continue." I started making a flowchart of events that could have happened based on his testimonies.

Even though I haven't been to the actual scene of the crime, the reports indicate that  it was 4:00 am when the body was discovered by one Sato Hitsuji.

"We spent maybe an hour or two going around tasting different kinds of food? After that we went singing at a nearby karaoke bar."

"I see. Do you remember what time you left the karaoke bar?"

"It was... 11:30? I think?"

"I see. Please continue explaining in detail what you did next."

"After that, we arrived at her place. She was pretty drunk last night, so she was pretty assertive. She even pushed me down against her bed, Tomodachi!" He explained and slammed his fist against the table.

"I tell you that woman was a treasure, she looked so meek and innocent but she was a beast at bed Raku! She performed all sorts of techniques at me, and all I could see was her gyrating as—"

"Too much information, you can skip that part, Mr. Okami." I cut him off by clearing my throat and averted my gaze towards the police officer who was guarding us that also had a red face.

This idiot didn't have a fucking stopper on his mouth, how much did you already give to the police??

"But I was getting to the best part!"

"Mr. Okami."

"A-ah.. right, well after that I passed out in bed. Then I woke up, the police was already pushing me against the ground."

I see, it seems he was a suspect because he was found sleeping at the scene of the crime.

"Reports say they found the murder weapon at the palm of his hands Mr. Detective."

"Hmm? The murder weapon?"

"Yes, it was a rusty knife that the victim keeps inside their kitchen. "

"Did you guys do it in the kitchen? Mr. Okami?"

"Yep, I told the police I didn't stab her or anything but I did penetrate her pus—"

"Thank you for statements Mr. Okami, rest assured if you are innocent then we will get to the bottom of this."

I stood up and made my way to the door, but before I stepped outside I made sure to shoot a glare at his direction.

"And next time, don't leave your friends. We don't know what could happen now don't we"

"Y-Yes."

Satisfied on how apologetic he looked, walked out of the interrogation room and placed a cigarette on my mouth. I wasn't one to smoke but it always looked nice for a detective to smoke a cigar while on the case.

"Ugh, smoking just doesn't satisfy me" I shook my head at the awful taste but continued to smoke it.

My next destination was the victim's house and to my surprise it was at the very same apartment where Akibara-san lived.

"So that's how the two knew each other." I whispered beneath my breath and copped out the outline of Akibara-san's spare key inside the pockets of my pants.

"It's even directly below her room, what kind of coincidence is this?" I clicked my tongue and pushed through the already opened gates.

There were police officers gathered around the apartment with yellow police tape stopping citizens from going near the exact scene or the crime.

"Najisai-san!" I heard Akibara-san's voice and instinctively looked up at the red-haired woman who looked like she was about to fall from the floor above.

"I don't think you should try to recreate the scene of an apple falling on Newton's head. I won't survive if the apple is heavy like you."

"Ugh, even at this situation you're being rude?"

"What do you want? I'm kind of in the middle my job here." I sighed and walked up to her, stopping the nearby police officers from running up the stairs and forcing her back.

"Is it true?"

"Yes, Ishida Miyuki was murdered earlier this morning." I nodded and placed a hand below my chin.

"Akibara-san, I'll stay at your place tonight again if that's alright."

"Eh? Did you really make my couch your new home? That was a joke you know!"

For the love of god, why is she thinking that.

"We'll talk more about this later, Akibara-san. I need to do my job." I nodded to the police officer who immediately dashed up the stairs to reel Akibara-san back to safety.

"Please make sure that apartment room number 7 isn't wired or anything, I'll be interrogating Ms. Akibara for more information regarding the victim." I whispered to one of the police officers and ducked under the yellow tape.

Standing in front of the door, I tried to shake off the feeling of familiarity and began to steel myself as I opened the case.

It wasn't gonna solve itself after all.