Chapter 57: Kiuchi’s Number One Fan!

“This is a rare sight.
I can’t believe you’re the one asking me out for a drink.”

Totsuka Mei walked into a street-side yakitori shop and, with a single glance, spotted her old classmate and friend, Asano Kumiko, sitting alone at an empty table by the window.

Totsuka Mei sat down beside Asano Kumiko.

“Ever since you became a police officer, I haven’t been able to get you to come out for a drink, no matter how many times I’ve asked.
How come you have time to ask me out for a drink in the middle of the day today?
Are you not on duty?”

A waiter brought two glasses of beer and a plate of freshly grilled chicken skewers to their table.

“I took the day off, so I have time.”

Asano Kumiko took a sip of beer and said dejectedly.

“What’s wrong?” Totsuka Mei could tell her friend was not in a good state.
“Weren’t you very happy when we talked on the phone before?
Did something happen all of a sudden?”

“Sigh… it’s all over now, so it doesn’t need to be kept secret anymore.”
Asano Kumiko was feeling down and desperately needed someone to talk to.
“Our police station had a chance to deal a heavy blow to the Yamagami-gumi this week.
Well… I’m not saying we could have uprooted them, but we could have at least put a large number of their top brass in prison.
But alas…”

Alas, it had been clubbed over the head by a certain someone right from the start.

Totsuka Mei’s expression was a bit peculiar.
She thought of how a certain young lady of the Yamagami-gumi in her class had attended school as usual yesterday, and she understood that the Urawa police’s operation had likely failed.

Totsuka Mei knew that Asano Kumiko held a deep prejudice against the yakuza.
Asano Kumiko’s father had been a yakuza and had died in a gang fight.
In short, such a father had cast a huge shadow over Asano Kumiko’s teenage years.
It was with this aversion to her father that Asano Kumiko was determined to become a police officer.

“Well, it’s work,” Totsuka Mei comforted her.
“No job is ever completely smooth.
It’s normal to encounter difficulties.
There’s no need to be so anxious.”

“I’ve been on the job for so long and still have nothing to show for it.
How can I not be anxious…”

Asano Kumiko grumbled.
In fact, there was another reason for her depression that she couldn’t bring herself to say.

That was, after officially joining Investigation Section One of the Urawa Police Station, Asano Kumiko gradually discovered that the job of a police officer was not what she had imagined.

Asano Kumiko had once believed that the police should be “partners of justice,” who, upon their appearance, should uncover all the truth and throw one evil yakuza after another into prison.
However, after working for a period of time, she found that, first of all, Investigation Section One often didn’t care what the truth was, and secondly, the officers of Investigation Section One did not harbor a deep-seated hatred for the yakuza.
Sometimes, they would even drink and brag with them.

Asano Kumiko had once asked a senior officer why they didn’t continue to investigate deeper when they knew that the person they had caught was just a scapegoat thrown out by the yakuza.

That senior officer had looked at Asano Kumiko strangely and said, “We can’t just investigate everything, can we? What if we actually find something?”

Asano Kumiko didn’t understand what her senior meant at the time, but it had indeed cast a shadow over her beliefs.

Thump!

The window glass by their table suddenly made a sound.

The two looked up and saw two men applying glue to the windowpane.
Behind them was a flamboyant promotional vehicle.
Once the glue was applied, they slapped what looked like a poster crookedly onto the glass with a splat.

The originally clean and transparent window instantly looked as ugly as if it had a plaster on it.

After putting up the poster, the two men entered the yakitori shop and began distributing flyers to the customers and staff.
“Here, take a look, take a look…”

“I don’t want one…” a customer tried to refuse the flyer.

“You idiot, are you disrespecting our Yamagami… disrespecting Mayor Kiuchi?” one of the men handing out flyers barked with a practiced trill.

‘Yamagami-gumi!’

Asano Kumiko’s heart skipped a beat.

‘What is the Yamagami-gumi up to now?’

Asano Kumiko also took a flyer, only to find that its content had absolutely nothing to do with the yakuza.
Instead, it was a promotional leaflet publicizing the current mayor, Kiuchi Shigezawa’s, ten major political achievements and his ten future administrative policies.
The title of the leaflet was written in exaggerated, eye-catching artistic font: “Vote for Him!”

“Want a free health check-up?”

“Vote for Mayor Kiuchi!”

“Want to live in a new house?”

“Vote for Mayor Kiuchi!”

“Want a better environment?”

“Vote for Mayor Kiuchi!”

‘The mayor, the Yamagami-gumi…’

Asano Kumiko was stunned.

“Are they starting the campaign already?
Isn’t the election next year?” the owner of the yakitori shop asked strangely, looking at the flyer.

“What’s it to you?
Just vote for Mayor Kiuchi!” the yakuza handing out flyers said impatiently.

“Fine, fine, fine…” the shop owner said perfunctorily, just wanting to get rid of these two plagues as quickly as possible.

But the yakuza didn’t want to leave just yet, because they hadn’t finished reciting the lines they had been given.

Although it was embarrassing, the two yakuza stood in a line, raised their hands, and shouted:

“Mayor Kiuchi is the savior of Urawa!”

“Mayor Kiuchi is the only sun!”

“…”

The shop owner watched the two yakuza perform with a dark expression.

“Kiuchi Shigezawa sure can brag,” a customer finally couldn’t take it anymore and complained, holding the flyer.
“The XX Line hasn’t even opened, and he has the nerve to list it as one of his own political achievements.”

“Yeah, I remember he promised to open it during his term, but it’s still a mess.”

“And this one, the Isetan department store was clearly his predecessor’s achievement.
How dare he count it as his own?”

“Half of these ten achievements are just boasts, right?”

“More than half, almost all of them are lies!
Either exaggerated or completely non-existent!”

“Kiuchi Shigezawa is so shameless. The sun? Seriously?”

“…”

“How dare you disrespect Lord Kiuchi!” The yakuza’s eyes widened, and he was about to get angry.
“You bastards!”

“Hey, hey, hey…” the shop owner quickly stepped in between them and mediated.
“It’s normal for everyone to have different political views.
They’re not intentionally targeting Mayor Kiuchi.
I, for one, I’m a staunch supporter of Mayor Kiuchi!”

“Hmph,” the yakuza seemed to give the owner some face upon hearing his support for Kiuchi Shigezawa.
Before leaving, he threw out a final line, “Remember this, all of you.
Vote for Mayor Kiuchi.
Don’t be ungrateful!”

After the yakuza left, Totsuka Mei said in disbelief, “How did the mayor get mixed up with the yakuza?”

“Who knows?” The owner took out some cleaning tools from behind the counter.
As he went out to clean the poster, he said unluckily, “Maybe the yakuza have been their dogs all along.”

‘The mayor, the Yamagami-gumi…’

“We can’t just investigate everything, can we? What if we actually find something?”

Asano Kumiko suddenly felt like she understood that sentence a little better.

“Damn it!” The owner scraped for a long time, looking at the residual glue that wouldn’t come off the glass, and cursed in anger.
“They used super glue!
Don’t they have any public decency?
And they want me to vote for a guy like that!”