Tokyo: Rabbit Officer and Her Evil Partner

Minamoto Tamako was eagerly hoping to hear some clever tips on enduring hardships, like 'every time you want to smoke, prick yourself with a needle,' 'buy a cigarette, slap yourself once,' 'when the urge to smoke hits, spank yourself'… using aversion therapy to completely rid herself of nicotine's temptation.

However, she never expected Kazama Tatsuya to provide such a mysterious smoking cessation method.

"Hypnosis is all a scam, isn't it?" Minamoto Tamako was skeptical, feeling there must be some falsehood.

"At least I quit," Kazama Tatsuya shrugged. He had indeed quit smoking, and the effectiveness was confirmed; there was no need to lie.

"No medication?" Moriyama Yasurou felt a bit intrigued.

"None." Kazama Tatsuya sat down on the chair opposite the coffee table, spreading his hands, he said: "Every night before bed, just insert the tape into the tape player and let it play automatically."

"Really? Is it this magical?" Moriyama Yasurou picked up the tape from the floor, inclined to take it home and try it out, since this thing was free and had no side effects on the body.

"Really," Kazama Tatsuya continued to promote: "The effect is very good."

"Just one tape is enough?" Moriyama Yasurou seemed to have already claimed it.

"This is the smoking cessation tape, there are others, a whole set of 24 tapes… the others you don't need." Kazama Tatsuya didn't say what the other tapes were for.

"Eh… can I take it home to try?" Moriyama Yasurou asked.

"Sure, just remember to return it to me after use," Kazama Tatsuya instructed: "Oh, and you can't listen to the entire tape while awake, or it will become ineffective."

"What's the principle behind this?" Minamoto Tamako was very curious.

"No idea." Kazama Tatsuya wasn't concerned with how the tape worked.

"It might be applying psychological suggestions through audio to the subconscious, once the instructions are received in a waking state, the psychological suggestion's effect is not that strong," said Fushimi Roku, taking another puff of his cigarette.

His psychological guidance was at a Level 7 proficiency, so he knew a bit about it.

Minamoto Tamako felt a bit regretful; if she had known she would have agreed and let Mr. Fushimi try it out. Now the tape was picked up by Sister Yasurou, who was the first to express a desire to try it. Senior Kazama agreed, and she couldn't just snatch it away, she could only watch as the magical tape was taken away by Sister Yasurou.

"Don't talk about my smoking," Fushimi Roku attempted to change the subject: "Didn't you all come over to discuss what to do with that money? Have you come to a conclusion yet?"

This stumped Minamoto Tamako.

She wanted to donate the money to a welfare institute, but Moriyama Yasurou, who has dealt with welfare institutions, claimed that Sakurako was lucky to encounter Fushimi Roku, while other less fortunate children live a miserable life… Even if the welfare institutes had income, the children wouldn't see a penny, most of it would be split by the management.

Then she suggested donating the money to a construction company. Watanabe Shun found it amusing, suggesting that instead of giving the money to underworld gangs, he might as well take it to help fallen women… ninety percent of Japan's construction companies are tied up with underworld gangs.

Minamoto Tamako went on to propose hospitals, transportation, schools, etc., but all were rejected. Everyone present was a civil servant, and also the group that least trusted Japan's social security.

"So what should we do with this money?"

Minamoto Tamako was at a loss; this wasn't possible, and that wasn't either, what should be done?

Watanabe Shun had a lightbulb moment and slapped his knee: "Why not use this money as a reward!"

"A reward for what?" Minamoto Tamako was taken aback.

"Aren't you still investigating the origin of that tape? And the Heavenly Punishment case, you could totally use this money for a reward…" Watanabe Shun hadn't finished speaking when Fushimi Roku covered his mouth. He turned his head to Minamoto Tamako and said, "Don't listen to him; it's a bad idea…"

"Right!" Minamoto Tamako, with a popsicle in her mouth, slapped her forehead and completely ignored Fushimi Roku: "Why didn't I think of this great idea!"

Fushimi Roku was about to dissuade her, but Minamoto Tamako had already started brainstorming, talking to herself: "I can use a sum of money to reward clues, and also use money to hire a famous detective… no, hire all famous detectives, invite all of Japan's detectives to solve the mystery of Heavenly Punishment!!"

Minamoto Tamako became more excited as she spoke, accidentally biting off the popsicle. Fushimi Roku quickly caught it for her. But she didn't care, she climbed onto the couch and stood on the couch cushions, raising her arms and shouting: "And I, as the initiator of this challenge, will give out a million-dollar prize and successfully join the ranks of famous detectives!! Wahahahahaha!!"

"Calm down…"

Fushimi Roku gave her a pull, but to no reaction, so he could only blow a puff of secondhand smoke at her.

Minamoto Tamako, with her keen senses, coughed repeatedly, waving her hand to disperse the smoke, finally waking from her daydream.

She couldn't stand it anymore and demanded that Fushimi Roku put out the cigarette, or she would cancel his stamps. During this period, Mr. Lu was struggling with his stamp collection due to smoking; the original plan was to collect them in a week, but now two months had passed, and he still only had twelve stamps.

Fushimi Roku took a deep breath, finished the last bit of his cigarette, and then stubbed it out: "Don't look at me like that, actually, I don't have a smoking addiction..."

Moriyama Yasurou couldn't bear it anymore, thinking Fushimi Roku needed the cassette tape more than she did: "Why don't you use it first..."

"No no no," Fushimi Roku waved his hand: "You use it first."

Moriyama Yasurou put down the cassette tape, stating that she didn't have kids at home, so she wouldn't let others inhale secondhand smoke; she could quit smoking after a while anyway.

Fushimi Roku continued to argue, starting to denounce Kazama Tatsuya, claiming he must have exaggerated the tape's effects, and besides, the tape might not work for everyone... In any case, hypnosis itself is unreliable and a pseudoscience.

"Why don't you try it and find out?" Kazama Tatsuya said.

It's not that Fushimi Roku couldn't quit; after all, his will score was S. Quitting smoking wasn't hard for him; he simply didn't want to quit.

Life is short, and being forced to give up his one little vice inevitably caused some resentment.

"Why are we talking about quitting smoking again? What are you guys here for? Did you come to my house just to hold a criticism meeting?" Fushimi Roku tried once again to change the subject: "And didn't you say spending this money made you feel guilty, Tamako? Didn't you say you wanted to use it for charity? Yet here you are, spending it on yourself."

"I'm doing charity work!"

Minamoto Tamako said with an air of self-assurance, claiming that using the money for investigation purposes was the best use, calling it using ill-gotten gains for justice—plus, she could network with Japan's best detectives, really killing two birds with one stone!

"No no no, today's detectives are unreliable."

Fushimi Roku shook his head repeatedly and began to criticize the entire detective industry: "It's all full of slackers, their daily work is just keeping tabs and catching cheaters, or doing some shady business espionage... You need to understand, famous detectives only exist in detective novels!"

"Impossible!" Minamoto Tamako, like channeling Cao Cao, waved her little hand: "Absolutely impossible!"

She was familiar with Japan's famous detectives and enumerated their life deeds, such as Hiratsuka Hachimaru, a famous private detective in Japan known as the "father of Japanese private detectives"; and then there's Fujii Shouta, a well-known police detective in the Japan Metropolitan Police Department, known for his outstanding achievements in criminal case investigations with his rigorous work attitude and excellent logical reasoning ability...

And then there were Yamada Samurai, Yamamoto Hiroshi, Matsuboto Seisaku... Even though the last one was a mystery novelist, Minamoto Tamako believed he was also good at unraveling mysteries!

Fushimi Roku felt overwhelmed. No matter what he said, he couldn't dissuade Minamoto Tamako from her idea. He could only turn around angrily and glare at Watanabe Shun, thinking that he should've let that doomsayer perish on Cat Island.

The latter was clueless, thinking Fushimi Roku was inviting him for a drink with his eyes, and immediately blinked in agreement.

No time like the present, Minamoto Tamako hopped off the sofa to see the guests out.

Everyone stood up to say goodbye, and Kazama Tatsuya left the tape, reminding Fushimi Roku to return it after use; he seemed highly attached to the tape.

Fushimi Roku responded half-heartedly and shut the door behind them. After seeing off Kazama and the others, he turned around and asked: "Are you really going to offer a bounty?"

"Yeah! Don't you think it's a good idea?"

Minamoto Tamako took out two pieces of stationery and started writing a letter on the coffee table. She planned to have the newspaper publish an advertisement calling on all sectors of society to provide 'Heavenly Punishment' related clues, and if verified to be true, there would be a significant reward!

Yazaki Momo worked in criminal news, but Minamoto Tamako didn't plan to ask Yazaki Momo for help, because she still remembered, Mr. Fu Jian revealed that he had five prospective girlfriends, and one was Yazaki Momo... Since Kujo Yua started pressuring for marriage, the boyfriend and girlfriend evaluation was automatically voided.

Speaking of which, counting the days, the period for their pretend relationship had already passed.

Yet Minamoto Tamako deliberately never mentioned it and usually avoided boyfriend and girlfriend related topics, pretending to date Mr. Fu Jian under the guise of a fake couple, which gave her a dark pleasure.

"Well," Fushimi Roku tried to state the downsides: "If you offer a bounty, you'll have to spend energy sorting out useful information... Now, we have to go to work and still need to drop Sakurako off at school morning and evening, where's the time to handle a bounty?"

"Isn't Senior Kazama very idle? He doesn't have a job, usually just drinking, so why not give this task to him and make his life more fulfilling."

Minamoto Tamako became even more excited, feeling that this task was a great act of kindness.

Fushimi Roku felt a headache coming on: "And hiring detectives or whatever..."

"I'll handle it personally! No worries, I can find the time!"

Minamoto Tamako was enthusiastic, already imagining a scene in a dim Western-style mansion living room, where all of Japan's top detectives gathered around a long table, while she sat at the end, cigarette holder in hand, fingers interlaced, and raised her head to recount the Heavenly Punishment murder case from a year ago...

Wow! Just the thought of it was exhilarating!