Tokyo: Rabbit Officer and Her Evil Partner

Fushimi Rokushin was deeply moved; he hadn't expected that his casual nonsense would actually be taken seriously by Taira Sakurako... If only it continued like this, no matter what he said, Sakurako would obediently comply, and wouldn't his status at home rise sharply?

Indeed, his first reaction was not to confess, but to think that there was great benefit in continuing to conceal it.

In normal times, Fushimi Roku wouldn't dare to even dream of the stars in the sky; he struggled just to get hold of the TV remote.

Before Fushimi Roku got poisoned, almost every evening they would fight over who got control of the TV remote.

Minamoto Tamako liked to reason things out, so she couldn't win against Fushimi Roku; but Taira Sakurako didn't care for reasoning and often sat in front of the TV pretending her autism was acting up, holding onto the remote and ignoring everyone, which was why Minamoto Tamako supported her going out to play alone.

An Angel suddenly appeared and loudly condemned Fushimi Roku, claiming that as an elder brother, he shouldn't be hiding things from his sister, making his concerned sister cry was a grave sin!

Demon Kawai also popped up, hands on her hips, saying: "So what? This girl didn't know how to cry before! We are using aversion therapy to help cure her autism; Sakurako ought to be thankful!"

Upon hearing this, Fushimi Roku suddenly realized something.

— This guy might be pretending.

When Yukimura Aoi died, Taira Sakurako didn't shed a tear; and now, he hadn't even died yet, and she's about to cry?

Fushimi Roku was suspicious, but it wouldn't be appropriate to speak openly. He glanced sideways, examining her for a moment, not finding anything, because Taira Sakurako was wearing a mask, so he couldn't see her facial expression.

"Ahem, where did this lousy rock come from?" Fushimi Roku tested.

"It's a meteorite from the Yamato series in Antarctica," Taira Sakurako who had done her homework, introduced seriously: "Since 1969, research teams have been conducting meteorite collection activities in Antarctica, recovering large quantities of Yamato series meteorites, and this is a fragment of one of them..."

Fushimi Roku interrupted: "Aren't they stored in the National Polar Research Institute in Ibaraki Prefecture Tsukuba City?"

"..."

Taira Sakurako was silent for a moment, the crying tone from earlier disappeared, replaced by particular calmness: "How do you know that?"

"Read it in an encyclopedia, Tamako bought lots of useless encyclopedias... this kind of stuff isn't important," Fushimi Roku waved his hand and said: "You must have been duped, there aren't any red meteorite fragments in Tokyo; how much did you spend buying it?"

"It's from a museum," Sakurako persisted: "You can't buy them outside."

"Did you steal it?" Fushimi Roku asked back.

"I picked it up." Sakurako retorted.

"Oh~"

Fushimi Roku naturally knew what 'picking' things up in a museum meant; he said earnestly: "Don't use such clumsy heart-winning tactics next time, alright? Your act didn't come off convincing at all."

"What went wrong?" Sakurako didn't know where she had given herself away.

"You're not such an emotional person, nor are you childish." Fushimi Roku laid back on the sofa, indifferent, saying: "You know very well that stars can't cure my illness, but you steal a meteorite... isn't it just to move me?"

"Indeed, it is."

Sakurako admitted, that was exactly her plan. The reason she spoke with a crying tone was simply because she happened to be wearing a mask, a spur of the moment thing.

She paused for a moment and continued: "But I really do hope you don't die, sending the meteorite is hoping you'll cheer up... you've been too lazy recently, I feel like you're either wanting not to live or just deceiving others."

"I appreciate the sentiment."

Fushimi Roku waved his hand, signaling Sakurako to step back; he was afraid that if they continued talking, he would expose his own lie... after all, Sakurako was already doubting he was lying.

"Is that all?" Sakurako was very dissatisfied with Fushimi Roku's reaction.

"What else? Do you want me to kneel down and thank you?" Fushimi Roku took another sip of soda.

"At least give me some assurance? Or tell me straight, do you want to live?" Sakurako pressed further.

"What if I say I don't want to live?" Fushimi Roku casually took the meteorite out of the cookie box, played with it for a while, and thought it felt like a lump of red dog poop... the kind that's been dried out.

Sakurako became silent again.

This time she truly didn't speak, stood foolishly beside Fushimi Roku for a while, then turned straight around to prepare to return to her room.

Seeing things were not looking good, Fushimi Roku felt Sakurako might genuinely be getting emotional, hurriedly grabbing her and said: "Just joking! Who doesn't want to live?"

"Then why are you being lazy?"

Sakurako glared sideways through her mask, glanced at the TV silently condemning why Fushimi Roku still had the mood to watch TV.

"Balance work and rest." Fushimi Roku blurted out.

Sakurako narrowed her eyes; she finally detected the crux of the issue.

Fushimi Roku clutched the remote firmly, lying on the sofa unmoving like some old guy, recalling all the times Minamoto Tamako was on the verge of getting angry, Fushimi Roku would use his nearing end as a topic, making Tamako swallow her anger, she watched from the side feeling it was utterly shrewd.

Once she began to suspect, Sakurako immediately recalled many details, one of the most important being pushing Fushimi Roku to the bank to withdraw money... If she remembered correctly, at that time, the ghost claw mark on Fushimi Roku seemed to have faded a bit.

— Probably the ghost claw mark was drawn by himself, sweating in the hot weather washed off the ink, hence it faded when sunbathing!

Thinking of Fushimi Roku's character, she felt this guy was very likely lying, all just to occupy the moral high ground, doing as he pleased under the guise of 'the dead should be prioritized.'

"Let me see the ghost claw mark on you." Sakurako suddenly said.